Mass Communication Commons^™

The Prospector, July 22, 2014, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: Volunteers Work with Immigrants at Local Shelter

The Prospector, July 15, 2014, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: Voiceless and Undocumented

The Accidental Motivator: Florida's Medicinal Marijuana Ballot Initiative's Impact On The Youth Vote, Robert Winsler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine single-issue voting in the youth population, specifically involving the upcoming medical marijuana ballot initiative to be voted on in Florida November, 2014. Single-issue voting is becoming a more prevalent trend in American politics. The young voter demographic has historically showed the lowest percentage of voter turnout thus giving it the highest potential to influence the outcome of an election if more voters showed up to the polls. This study sought to understand if a single issue such as medical marijuana could be that motivation to go vote. Data was gathered through conducting …

The Prospector, July 8, 2014, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: Call for Action

Ua68/8 History Alumni Newsletter, Wku History

WKU Administration Documents

WKU History alumni newsletter reporting on activities of the department, faculty, staff and students.

Ua77/1 Wku Spirit, Wku Alumni Relations

WKU Administration Documents

WKU's alumni magazine. Contents:

• Ransdell, Gary. President’s Letter
• Downing University Center
• All 4 WKU Nominees Recognized by Goldwater Scholarship Program
• Michael McClellan Named Diplomat-in-Residence at WKU
• WKU Meteorology Major Awarded Internship with NASA Program – Victoria Hampton
• WKU Youth in Government Chapter Honored at National Assembly
• WKU Ties for 2^nd in Overall Hearst Competition
• WKU Earns Tree Campus USA Recognition for 4^th Straight Year
• WKU Forensics Team Sweeps Major Championships
• 2013 Talisman Wins Gold Crown
• Record 6 WKU Students Awarded Critical Language Scholarships
• Gift Supports Nursing & Honors Life of Bowling Green Nurse – Helen Turner
• Farhad Ashrafzadeh …

Playing On The Periphery: Metagaming And Transgressive Play, Patrick S. Love

Open Access Theses

Gaming and play exist in connection to forces outside of the game systems themselves. Together, all these intersecting forces make up a meta game that informs and enables variance in play as well as creates barriers to entering play. This thesis fleshes out the framework of a metagame and shows how players can take a metagame perspective to transform, transcend, or even transgress barriers. This thesis discusses sources of metagaming and encompasses examples from video and traditional games.

Selling "Kawaii" In Advertising: Testing Cross-Cultural Perceptions Of Kawaii Appeals, Tao Deng

Master's Theses (2009 -)

"Kawaii" (cute) culture has become a major global consumer culture. Advertisers in Asia have adopted kawaii appeals to attract attention and promote product images. From a cultural value perspective, this literature review proposes that culture not only affects ad content and appeal, but also influences consumer attitude and ad effects. While kawaii appeals are culturally specified, the effects of those appeals across distinct cultures might be systemically predictable. Today, the concept of kawaii and its effects still remains vague to Western academia. This thesis provides a deeper understanding of kawaii examining the rich origin of kawaii culture in Japan and …

"Warning: This Is A Must Read": Participation And Disruption In Social Artifacts And Spaces, Angela M. Harrison Eng

English Theses & Dissertations

As I show in three separate case studies, content, technology, and participant relationships are key components in the design of social artifacts and spaces. One study highlights the invention and evolution of content across multiple spaces. The second shows content used as leverage for authority. The last case study examines the relationship between content and technological interfaces and how disruption may not always be successful.

All of these components make up what I refer to as disruption. Disruption describes participant acts that are executed to change existing power-based structures of information sharing. Using the insights gained from this research, I …

Visual Propaganda And Extremism In The Online Environment, Cori E. Dauber, Carol K. Winkler

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

Visual images have been a central component of propaganda for as long as propaganda has been produced. But recent developments in communication and information technologies have given terrorist and extremist groups options and abilities they never would have been able to come close to even 5 or 10 years ago. There are terrorist groups who, with very little initial investment, are making videos that are coming so close to the quality of BBC or CNN broadcasts that the difference is meaningless, and with access to the web they have instantaneous access to a global audience. Given the broad social science …

Revisiting The Spiral Of Silence In A Social Media Environment: Egypt’S 2014 Presidential Election As A Case Study, Heba T. Saleh Elshahed

Theses and Dissertations

With the advent of the Internet and anonymous features of online media, users have established novel platforms to voice their opinion freely without fear of negative feedback. This thesis explores the application of a long-standing public opinion theory– the spiral of silence by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann–within the prevalent Social Networking Sites (SNS), particularly Facebook. When applying spiral of silence to online mediated environment, it seems intuitive that the lack of verbal cues and anonymity offered would serve to undermine the fear of isolation and restlessness that results in unwillingness to express minority views. This research contributes to understanding how the spiral …

The Prospector, June 24, 2014, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: Better Business Ballpark

The Prospector, June 17, 2014, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: El Paso Needs to Become Bike-Friendly

The Prospector, June 10, 2014, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: SGA President Sworn In

Cal Poly Open House: An Application Of Communication Principles, Jillian Syftestad

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

How Not To Get Lost In The Shuffle: Producing The Most Effective And Eye-Catching Press Release, Erica Derrico

Journalism

The following study investigates how to produce the most effective and eye-catching press release on a national level for Summit Outdoor Supply (S.O.S). Winter quarter of 2014, my partner and I worked on a local campaign for S.O.S., using traditional text-based press releases to get media coverage. Although we did see some success with the traditional press release, there were often times our releases would get lost in the shuffle of the many releases that media outlets received each day. My goal with this project is to learn how to produce a press release that will get noticed out of …

Blogging In The Fashion Industry: A Descriptive Study Of The Use Of The Two-Step Flow Communications Theory By Professional And Citizen Bloggers To Become Opinion Leaders, Mia Alexandra Mendola

Journalism

This study analyzes the differences between professional and citizen bloggers in the fashion industry, and their use of the two-step flow communications theory and certain tactics to become opinion leaders in the industry. With the rise of blogging as a popular medium for consumption of fashion news, thousands of bloggers have begun blogs hoping to become part of the fashion industry. With this rise comes bloggers with different levels of expertise and experience. With this comes a blurring of lines between a professional blogger with credible knowledge of the fashion industry, and a citizen blogger with no formal training or …

Brave: A Feminist Perspective On The Disney Princess Movie, Danielle Morrison

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

How Can An Outdoor Company’S Public Relations Campaign Be Taken From The Local To National Level?, Devon Swanson

Journalism

The following study researches the most effective way for the outdoor startup company, Summit Outdoor Supply (S.O.S.), to take an already established local public relations campaign to the national level. This study will investigate what factors have helped other campaigns succeed for outdoor companies and what changes should be made to see S.O.S. reach that success. My goal for this project is to educate outdoor companies on how to use the most effective communication channels to reach their target audiences. The data, to support these recommendations, will come from my own experience working with a startup company paired with the …

Manufacturing News: Exploring How Public Relations Content Is Presented As News From An Agenda-Setting Perspective, Katharine R. Gore

Journalism

This study, conducted in San Luis Obispo, California, analyzes and investigates the relationship between public relations professionals and journalists, the role of public relations in news and how often content developed by the public relations industry is later portrayed as news.

Public relations-developed content has a growing presence in news. This is due, in part to the fact that more people work in the public relations industry than do in journalism fields. There is also a symbiotic relationship between the two industries, which is confirmed by existing studies and scholarly texts.

An effort was made by the author to track …