Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons^™

Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication, Daniel L. Foster, Ashley D. Garcia

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Drawing objects and concepts, such as cats, trees, love, democracy, and family, is probably the last activity students expect to do in a communication course. Although this sounds like an introductory art activity, creating visual representations provides a nuanced understanding of the encoding and decoding processes. Encoding and decoding are the most hidden and often the most unfamiliar and complex fundamental components of communication for students to comprehend. By engaging in this activity, students translate their decoding process into drawings, which serve as personal artifacts representative of their encoding and decoding. Students come to better conceptualize this cognitive process with …

“Party In The Communication Classroom”: Exploring Communication Competence To Raise Social Awareness, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity demonstrates communication competence and allows students to observe, assess, and ultimately utilize the model of communication competence to engage with other people successfully. To understand how to engage in communication competence, students must recognize that appropriateness and effectiveness are crucial aspects of their communication. Through the communication competence model, students examine how to achieve effectiveness in their communication by setting goals for specific contexts; they also consider to what extent their goals are achievable given the particular situation. Using a 2014 MTV Video Music Award example, students can analyze why Miley Cyrus allowed a homeless man to accept …

Introducing Public Speaking Self-Concept (Pssc): A Novel, Qualitatively-Derived Communication Anxiety And Competence Variable, Karla M. Hunter, Joshua N. Westwick

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Despite numerous quantitative assessments of teaching interventions that have helped mitigate public speaking anxiety (PSA), this common barrier to public speaking persists. In addition, quantitative measures may not be appropriate for all instructional goals, especially with students from across a variety of cultures. To enrich educators’ capacity to help diverse bodies of students overcome the challenges presented by PSA, this qualitative study asked students to “Please describe yourself as a public speaker” at the beginning and the end of a freshman-level, general education public speaking class. Thematic analysis identified a two-dimensional pattern within student responses (N = 51) (a …

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.

Discourse: The Journal Of The Scasd, Volume 8 (2023), The Speech Communication Association Of South Dakota

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.

Medical Tourism & Communication, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

Medical tourism (MT), sometimes referred to as health tourism or medical travel, involves both the treatment of illness and the facilitation of wellness, with travel. Medical tourism is a multifaceted and multiphase process involving many agents and actors that requires careful planning and execution. The coordinated process involves the biomedical, transportation, tourism, and leisure industries. From the communication perspective, the process can be viewed as a 5-stage model consisting of the: (a) orientation, (b) preparation, (c) experiential and treatment, (d) convalescence, and (e) reflection phases. Medical tourism is uniquely situated in a nexus of academic literature related to communication, business …

Cognitive Engagement During Group Learning Activities In Chemistry Courses: An Analysis Of Student Discourse, Safaa Youssef El-Mansy

Dissertations and Theses

As educators, our goal is to help our students be successful, but in order to accomplish this, we need to understand what factors contribute to student success. One factor, small-group active learning, has been correlated to improved academic outcomes; however, the magnitude of this improvement can vary across different courses, different types of group work, and even across courses that use the same group work structure. Therefore, it is important to understand what aspects of group work contribute to its effectiveness. The work presented in this dissertation investigated one specific aspect: students’ cognitive engagement. This was done by analyzing the …

Intersections Of Health And Religion: Experiences And Perceptions Of Muslim Refugee Women In The Us Regarding Communication With Healthcare Providers, Sumaira Abrar

Communication ETDs

Delivering healthcare to Muslim refugee patients in a healthcare environment necessitates a profound understanding of their cultural and religious beliefs. The healthcare provider faces intricate hurdles in facilitating effective communication due to the diverse social, cultural, migration, and religious backgrounds within this population. Moreover, bridging the healthcare communication gap often involves grappling with gender-specific expectations aligned with how patients perceive healthcare delivery. To effectively navigate these challenges and enhance patient-provider communication, it is essential for providers to comprehend cultural norms, be well-versed in religious values and restrictions, and grasp the significance of self-care practices and connections to traditional and cultural …

Student And Faculty Perceptions Of The Impact Of Masks On Student Learning And Communication In The Classroom, Beau Shine, Kelly L. Brown, Christopher Felts, Trinnity Mitchell

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, facemask requirements while indoors were implemented in colleges and universities, both in the United States and beyond. Empirical evidence has shown that such mandates improved the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and administrators. However, the impacts of such precautions on student learning and communication have to date gone largely unexplored. The current study surveyed students and faculty at one regional midwestern institution to assess their perceptions on the impact of masks on student learning and communication in the classroom. Findings are included, followed by a discussion of their implications.

Walking The Walk: Ex-Prisoners, Lived Experience, And The Delivery Of Restorative Justice, Allely Albert

Articles

Although the role of prisoners and ex-prisoners has recently received significant attention in restorative justice research, the literature typically treats them as the ‘offending’ party within restorative justice processes. This article instead focuses on ex-prisoners as facilitators of restorative justice, highlighting their ability to lead such programmes. Using a case study from Northern Ireland, the article examines the way that experiences of incarceration have directly influenced practitioners’ skills and their ability to uphold restorative justice principles. It is contended that qualities developed and honed in the prison environment ultimately translate to unique characteristics that can improve the restorative process. As …

Mapuche Women's Cooperative And Sustainable Development, Peter Kent

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

This study looks at a Mapuche cooperative (Chol-Chol) in southern Chile. The review focuses on how this woman owned and run enterprise overcomes primarily culturally ingrained indigenous biases, and how these women deal with a dominant Euro-centric culture that refuses to acknowledge them both as a distinct group within Chile and as capable and contributing members of the Chilean economy.

The study follows two specific members of the cooperative. One is the Executive Director of the organization, charged with oversight of the cooperative members, from financial accountability to negotiations, within the group and outside of the group with local municipal …

Discursive Struggles Reflected In The Communication Of Conservative Christian Parents And Their Adult Children With Differing Religious Beliefs And Values, Braedon G. Worman

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nearly half of American adults no longer believe in their childhood faiths (Pew Research Center, 2015). The steady decline of Christianity could have considerable impacts on family life (Pew Research Center, 2022). From a postmodern critical perspective and guided by Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0, the researcher sought to discern how conservative Christian parents and their adult children with differing religious beliefs and values communicated when they discussed these differences, as well as to identify the discourses that informed and were reflected in their talk and illustrate how these discourses interplayed and animated the meaning of participants’ Christian family identities. The …

An Analysis Of Communication For Foster Parents: Interpersonal, Small Group, And Public Speaking Skills Necessary For Foster Parenting, Kaitlyn Randall

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Communication is a core aspect of what foster parents do every day. However, communication research focusing on foster parents is limited. Foster parents should understand interpersonal communication, small group communication, and public speaking. Understanding the basic principles of these communication disciplines will help foster parents succeed in their role. Interpersonal communication creates relationships between the foster parent and child through inclusion, control, and affection. Small group communication aspects of group roles, meeting facilitation, and conflict management are used in interactions with caseworkers. The public speaking skills of preparation and practice are used during court proceedings, orientations, and support groups. Providing …

Places For Young People To Influence Decision-Making: Developing Means For Democracy Education In Finland, Anna Suorsa

Democracy & Education

This study examines young people's (ages 13–18) perceptions of their own opportunities to influence the development of their own environment through an experiment aimed at developing civic democracy in Finland in 2020–2021. The purpose of the experiment was to try out new ways of participating and influencing meaningfully for young people at school, to encourage young people to bring up grievances, and to support them in finding solutions that end up in decision-making. The experiment involved young people from different educational institutions (secondary school, upper secondary school, and vocational schools), teachers, and local decision-makers. Data was gathered with ethnographic methods …

Outbreak Communication: Exploring The Relationships Between Health Information Seeking Behaviors, Vested Interests, And Covid-19 Knowledge In U.S. Midwest Populations, Alicia Mason, Josh Compton, Elizabeth Spencer, Kaitlin Barnett

Faculty Submissions

On February 15, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director, General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated at a Munich Security Conference, “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic,” (Zarocostas, 2020, p. 676). The term ‘infodemic’ refers to the onslaught of both accurate and inaccurate health information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of an ‘infodemic’ was quickly integrated into mass media, popular culture (i.e., documentaries, podcasts), and eventually scholarly literature. In response to COVID-19, health communication scholars have centered on understanding specific messaging strategies such as the use of fear appeals (Stolow et al., 2020), nature of advertising …

How Risk Perceptions And Level Of Trust Of Information Influence Individuals’ Health Services Usage, Wan-Lin Chang

Research Symposium

Background: When facing health-related issues, decision-making is not an easy thing. Some people look for advice from health care professionals, and some people trust their family members' and friends’ experiences more. Previous studies in health communication have suggested differences across various demographic groups in information seeking access and skills, including variables related to the knowledge gap assumption and individuals' risk perceptions.

Methods: Multiple linear regression and logistic regression are used to examine how individuals’ health risk perceptions influence their health service usage by analyzing the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5 Cycle 4. HINTS conducts national surveys to monitor …

Connecting With The Outside World: Psychosocially Supportive Aspects Of Operational Communication Between Isolated Crews In Space And Mission Control On The Ground, Dennis J. Frederiksen

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

Radio-based communication between crew members in space and mission control centers on the ground has the operational purpose of supporting the safe and effective execution of missions in space. Space-to-ground communication also, however, constitutes one of the relatively few interpersonal relationships astronauts have during missions and in addition to its operational purpose, this communication can support astronauts’ wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to identify psychosocially supportive aspects of operational space-to-ground communication between astronauts in space and spacecraft communicators on the ground. Through qualitative analysis of authentic mission communication, this paper identifies two supportive aspects and develops a terminology …

Relational Effects Of Romantic Partner’S Perceived Parasocial Romantic Attachment With Pornography, Jessica Journeay, Megan A. Vendemia, Rebecca (Riva) Tukachinsky Forster

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

An online experiment investigated heterosexual women’s responses to their romantic partners’ pornography use. Specifically, we examined how a perceived parasocial (i.e., entirely fanciful, one-sided) versus social (i.e., reciprocal) interaction with a porn actress, as well as a perceived parasocial romantic attachment to a porn actress, may pose a relational threat to one’s actual romantic relationship. Results revealed that perceptions of infidelity and jealousy were dampened by women’s belief that their romantic partner had a weak (vs. stronger) parasocial romantic attachment to and parasocial (vs. social) interaction with a porn actress. These findings advance our understanding of the effects of pornography …

Police Officers’ Perspectives On The Death Of George Floyd By Minneapolis Police Officers: A Descriptive Study, Janet Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On May 25, 2020, four Minneapolis police officers reported to the location where an African American man had been accused of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill in a convenience store. After being taken outside of the store, the man, George Floyd, was eventually placed in the back of a police patrol car, after he was handcuffed. Saying he was claustrophobic and resisting arrest, Mr. Floyd was removed from the patrol car, and placed on the ground on his stomach. One of the patrol officers, the most senior officer present, and a field training officer, placed his knee on …

Healthcare Providers’ Perceptions Of Deaf-Hearing Interpreter Teams: Impact Of Interpreting Approaches, Julayne Feilbach

Journal of Interpretation

This study explores the perceptions and preferences of healthcare providers who work with Deaf Interpreter-Hearing Interpreter (DI-HI) teams. Healthcare providers depend on interpreters' ability to bridge the communication and cultural gap to assess and treat patients accurately. Although there have been studies on healthcare providers’ perceptions of interpreters to date, none of the research explores the impact of healthcare providers’ perceptions on their experiences with DI-HI teams. To address this, interviews with nine healthcare practitioners were conducted. As part of the interview, participants were shown a video of two interpreting samples to illustrate different approaches to interpreting. Data were analyzed …