Communication Commons^™

Impact Of Instagram Flyers In Higher Education: Within Resident Assistant Program Attendance Marketing, Mary J. Mcdonald

Liberal Studies (MA) Final Essays

This exploratory pilot study examines whether posting Instagram digital flyers affects Resident Assistant (RA) program attendance in the higher-education Housing and Residence Life (HRL) context. Instagram has emerged as a dominant channel of communication among Generation Z (1997-2012). As a result, higher education institutions have increasingly used social media to prompt student engagement and foster belonging, in hopes of strengthening retention. Using a quasi-experimental matched comparison design, attendance data from the 2024 academic year without Instagram flyers were compared to the 2025 academic year with Instagram flyers. The independent variable was the implementation of Instagram digital flyers, and the dependent …

The Transforming Image | Wintersession 2026 Syllabus, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

This studio course engages the contemporary digital moving (and sounding) image as a medium undergoing rapid development. Advancing the exploratory ethos of early video art, participants will probe new possibilities for experimentation against the contemporary backdrop of ubiquitous access to smartphones and production capabilities as well as the proliferation of tools for digital signal manipulation, media recycling, and image sequencing.

Coursework will center on a variety of hands-on creative exercises that challenge predominant conceptions of the moving image and engage with medium-specific approaches including video installation, desktop performance, generative cinematics, recycling media, realtime audio-visual performance, and notions of digital materiality. …

The Transforming Image | Class 1.1, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

The Transforming Image | Class 1.2, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

The Transforming Image | Class 1.3, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

The Transforming Image | Class 3.2, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

Digital Diplomacy And Activism: Sustaining Institutional Legacy Through State-Proxy Discursive Competition In The Aftermath Of The Usaid 2025 Suspension, Maryam Alaa Elprince

Capstone and Graduation Projects

This study examines how the 2025 suspension of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) transformed the arena of U.S. foreign-aid diplomacy by eliminating the agency’s operational capacity and erasing its digital presence, thereby redistributing discursive authority across a fragmented communicative field. The research aims to determine how diplomacy adapts when a bilateral institution central to American soft power is dismantled through top-down decision, and whether discursive power exercised online can extend institutional relevance and legitimacy beyond structural collapse. Using an interpretivist qualitative design that combines digital-forensic reconstruction, document-based content analysis, and elite interviews  with top ranking officials, the …

What Is Hate Speech? A Proposal For An Ordinary And Legal Definition, Hannah Van Dijcke

SJD Dissertations

The term “hate speech” has been stretched in legal and public debates to cover speech ranging from insults to Holocaust denial. This definitional stretching has consequences beyond mere conceptual confusion: it risks obscuring the profound harm that hate speech does, and it facilitates the term’s misuse.

In this dissertation, I aim to precisely define hate speech and its harm, both in an ordinary (colloquial or non-legal) sense and in a legal sense. To do so, I examine real-world examples of speech widely understood to express hate, including texts from the context of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, and conduct …

Factors Affecting Diet Selection In Sheep Fed Endophyte-Infected Toxic Fescue, Jordan Thomas, Ronelson Stinfil, Kenneth P. Coffey, Christine C. Nieman, Derico Setyabrata, Shawna Weimer

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.) S.J. Darbyshire) infected with toxin‑producing fungi can induce fescue toxicosis in grazing ruminants, reducing performance and altering forage intake. Chemical compounds in red clover (Trifolium pratense), such as biochanin A, have been proposed to mitigate these effects by improving palatability and blood vessel relaxation. This study examined whether the inclusion of ground red clover (GRC), either alone or in combination with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and polyethylene glycol (PEG), affected voluntary diet selection in lambs offered toxic fescue. Thirty‑three lambs were housed individually and assigned randomly to one of four diets: (1) toxic …

The Effects Of Inadequate Training On Knowledge Management Systems: Retention Crisis Of Captains In The United States Army, Lexis R. Grudzinski

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the relationship between the United States Army’s communication strategy in knowledge management for officers and the desires of captains to continue serving beyond their service obligation. Amidst the current retention crisis (Winkie, 2023) at the captain rank, blame often falls on factors outside of the Army’s control. This research, however, seeks to investigate a factor within the Army’s control and offer workable solutions.

For this research, we will use the common definition of knowledge management (KM): the process of creating, capturing, and organizing knowledge within an organization in a way that improves efficiency. KM includes both explicit …

The Power Of A Picture: Building Visual Depictions Of The Eppm Bolstering Sunscreen Application Motivation, Ansley M. George

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates visual depictions of efficacy skin cancer health risk messages. Using Witte's Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) and existing literature on fear appeals and visual persuasion as a theoretical framework, the study aims to explore how self and response efficacy imagery impacts individuals' perceptions of health risk messages in the context of skin cancer prevention when emphasizing specific principles of design. Formative research was employed via qualitative photo sorts and participants were exposed to an assortment of images depicting efficacy in the context of skin cancer prevention where they discussed why they felt they were or were not …

Legal Professional Identity Development: An Exploration Of The Social And Emotional Processes By Which Law Students Transition From Novices To Professionals, David Hall Abney Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This dissertation seeks to heed the call for expansion of instructional communication research (ICR) beyond the undergraduate classroom and undergraduate learning objectives by exploring older learners and higher-order affective learning objectives. Legal professional identity development (LPID) is a discipline-specific type of higher-order affective learning that is conceptualized as a continuous nonlinear process that begins in law school and extends throughout a lawyer’s career, involving the internalization of the legal profession’s core values and norms and their integration with an evolving identity. Using a pragmatic ICR approach and a mixed-methods design, Phase 1 employed individual interviews and focus groups to investigate …

“We Do Things A Little Different Exactly As You'd Expect Here...": Egocentric Network Structures As Predictors Of Organizational Culture Type, Ray Celeste S. Tanner

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This dissertation examines organizational culture as an outcome of communication structures by integrating the Competing Values Framework (CVF) with egocentric network analysis. Although CVF is one of the most widely used frameworks for diagnosing organizational culture and predicting organizational effectiveness, prior research has overwhelmingly treated culture as an independent variable. Responding to calls for greater attention to the antecedents of culture, this study reconceptualizes organizational culture as a dependent variable and investigates how individuals’ perceived communication networks predict perceptions of CVF culture types. Using egocentric network data collected from employees across a diverse range of organizations and industries, this study …

Can Love Bloom On A Battlefield: An Analysis Of Queer Militaristic Fanfiction, Brandon Bost

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

It is noted that readers and fans hold unique and valid interpretations of texts, interpretations that become expressed in fan works like fan art, memes, or the subject of this study, fanfiction. This study performs textual analysis on queer fanfiction in Metal Gear Solid and Code Geass fandoms. It examines the unique relationship militarism holds with intimacy, and how intimacy intersects with violence and control in unique ways in these fan texts. Within these fanfics, militarism can serve as a barrier to intimacy, forcing relationships to adapt to militaristic structures within these fan interpretations.

Exploring The Relationship Between Self-Esteem And Communication Among Equestrians In Facebook Groups, Jenna Young

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

People’s interpersonal relationships and social groups are connected to their self-esteem. Equestrians, a social group unified around riding or working with horses, form identities based on their involvement in the equine industry, whether that be recreationally or professionally. Equestrians’ subjective views of self-esteem may be related to their overall well-being. Theories related to self-esteem and identity indicate that communication within social relationships, like within the equine industry, may impact an individuals’ sense of self-worth. Facebook groups have increased in popularity in the equine industry due to the ease of communication between equestrians. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between self-esteem …

Conflict Management In Heterosexual Romantic Relationships: A Cognitive Dissonance Perspective, Benjamin Grissom

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This paper examines how cognitive dissonance corresponds with conflict management strategies in heterosexual romantic relationships from the perspective of romantic partners. The paper synthesizes current findings on how conflicting beliefs and attitudes impact partners' approaches to handling disagreements. Patterns are identified in how cognitive dissonance co-occurs with competition, avoidance, accommodation, compromise, and collaboration. Findings suggest that the discomfort arising from holding conflicting cognitions corresponds to their conflict management approaches depending on the degree of discomfort. Additionally, relationship length is examined as a moderator of the connection between cognitive dissonance and conflict management. Understanding these perceptions can provide insights into enhancing …

Students As Information Responders – Extending Our Understanding Of Students At A Pwi, Anyiah S. Chambers

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

As school shootings continue to rise across the United States, understanding how students respond to and share information during crises has become a critical concern for higher education institutions. While prior research has examined the role of students as first information responders (FIRs) during emergencies, few studies have investigated how these processes unfold among Black and non-Black students at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). This mixed methods study is a replication and extension of Omilion-Hodges and Edwards (2021), examining how undergraduate Black and non-Black students at PWIs evaluate, construct, and disseminate crisis-related messages, particularly during active-shooter events. Grounded in channel specification …

Hot Topic Of The Cold War: Analyzing The Bomb In American Media During The Late Twentieth Century, Ryan Lambert

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores nuclear war–related media (i.e., media involving “the Bomb”) from the late twentieth century, beginning in the early 1950s and ending in the late 1990s, although media from the 2000s and beyond are briefly touched on. Unlike other studies of nuclear war narratives, this analysis intends to explore this media through a rhetorical framework of an “eroding” society, and the “erosion” concepts of the 50s–70s paved the way for cumulative “erosion” storylines in the 80s (the height of the Cold War), and then “restoration” storylines in the 90s (after the end of the Cold War). This framework is …

Flirting Motivations Across Communication Media: Face-To-Face Versus Online Context, Charles Afful Maccarthy

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study examined whether individuals' motivations for flirting differ across communication contexts, specifically face-to-face and online interactions. Drawing on Henningsen’s (2004) six flirting motivations – relational, sexual, fun, esteem, instrumental, and exploring – and Walther’s (1996) Hyperpersonal Model, this research tested whether flirting motivations influence the choice of communication medium. Using a quantitative mixed-design approach, 103 participants were randomly assigned to reflect on either a face-to-face or online (social media) flirting experience and completed a structured questionnaire measuring the six motivations. Data were analyzed using a 2 (communication medium: face-to-face versus online) x 6 (motivation type) mixed ANOVA. Results revealed …

A Delphi Study: Communication Practices For Expert Elementary Administrators During Day-To-Day Crises On Elementary School Campuses, Anthony Michael Langford

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the communication practices expert elementary school administrators consider the most effective for informing their district office, staff, students, parents, and the community during day-to-day crises. The study also evaluated the effectiveness of these identified practices and determined the best methods for implementing the top three practices in each area. Methodology: This Delphi study focused on three areas of research: (a) the practices expert elementary administrators use to communicate during day-to-day crises, (b) the way expert elementary administrators rate the effectiveness of those practices, and (c) the methods expert elementary administrators …