Dissertations and Theses - Communication
Browse by
Recent Submissions
-
Framing Spaces, Asserting Values: Developing the Global City
(2016-11-21)Achieving global city status has become an apparent priority for city leaders worldwide. Many embrace the global city ideal as a frame for urban development. In arguments for development that align with the global city ... -
Myth, Math and the Money: Media Framing of the U.S. Gender Wage Gap debate from 1980-2014
(2016-11-29)This study seeks to ascertain the possible correlational role media framing plays in public discourse, public opinion, and policy formation related to the contemporary U.S. gender wage gap issue. I consider the linkages ... -
See/Hear: Seeking the Urban ‘Authentic’ in Chicago’s Pilsen, A “Mexican Neighborhood without the Mexicans”
(2016-11-16)As an effect of the globalized economy, the production of urban space in post-industrial cities is catalyzed by its consumptive opportunities rather than by its industrialized labor capacity. These consumptive opportunities ... -
Homosexuality and Premarital Sex Taboos: A Textual Analysis of Six Bollywood Films
(2016-10-19)Indian society has always been steeped in conventions and traditions. Various forces, among them Bollywood in recent times, have helped in scripting changes in society, in the way people react to old ways and embrace the ... -
Exploring Locavores' Perceptions of Place and Mobility
(2016-10-18)As conscious consumerism rises in popularity in wealthy, capitalist nations like the United States, scholars have lamented the lack of similarly widespread support for other, potentially more effective forms of activism. ... -
A Gesture Theory of Communication
(2016-10-18)Framed in a critique of digital and new media studies, this dissertation returns to the roots of the study of communication and interaction in rhetoric, linguistics, semiotics, information theory, and cybernetics to develop ... -
A Landscape of Abstraction: Agriculture in the American Imagination, 1970-Present
(2016-10-18)Over the course of the 20th century, American agriculture became a landscape of abstraction, one in which the human relationship to nature through food production was mediated as much by ideals and images as by machines. ... -
Aspirations and Applications: Analyzing Consumer Card Application Web Sites.
(2016-02-17)The aim of this dissertation is to examine a previously unstudied text – consumer card application web sites, which are aimed at disparate, competing consumer groups. Consumer card application web sites promote prepaid, ... -
Imagining the Voice in the Machine: The Ontology of Digital Social Agents
(2015-10-21)This dissertation explores the ontology of voice-based, digital social agents – such as Apple’s Siri and Google Voice Search – from the perspective of users and non-users. Communication, Human-Machine Communication, ... -
But It's Only a Game: Military-Themed First Person Shooters and Players' Attitudes About War
(2015-10-21)Playing war is big business, and the continued development and sale of military-themed first person shooters provides a substantial portion of revenue for the video game industry. These games provide an immersive experience ... -
Privacy Frames: How the Media Write, Discuss, and Afford Privacy
(2014-10-28)This dissertation explores the conceptual maps that emerge from mainstream media discourses of privacy during different peaks of technological development of the 20th and 21th century. Following the assumptions of frame ... -
Making Ends Meet: Representations of Welfare in MTV's Teen Mom
(2014-10-28)Despite a continuous decline in the rate of teen pregnancy in the United States, American popular culture seems obsessed with young teen mothers. Multiple reality shows purport to document and describe the experiences of ... -
Digital Barbershops: The Politics of African American Oral Culture in Online Blogs
(2014-10-28)For African Americans, the legacy of oral communication within the community is being transferred to online spaces. Blogging provides a platform with features that mirror many of the components of the black barber shop. ... -
The Powerless in Contemporary China: News Representations of Rural Women and Female Migrants
(2014-06-20)China is celebrating the 35th anniversary for economic reform. It is a good time to re-visit political and sociocultural implications of the state's neoliberal globalization. Mil-lions of rural women have migrated to cities. ... -
Blogs on Domestic Violence against Immigrant South Asian Women: A Thematic Analysis
(2013-06-28)The purpose of this study is to do a thematic analysis of blog posts and comments on the topic of domestic violence against South Asian immigrant women in the US, as evidenced in South Asian community blogs. What are the ... -
Authenticity and the Once and Future Self: "Dancing Auschwitz," Collective Memory and New Media
(2013-06-28)People strive to authentically express themselves, but few face this struggle, as contemporary Germans and Jews do, against the ever-present past of the Holocaust. In summer 2010, controversy erupted over “Dancing Auschwitz,” ... -
Taxis, Technology, and Transmigrants: Communication Practices of Chicago's Immigrant Taxi Drivers
(2012-12-13)In this study the notions of community and globalization were explored among immigrant taxi drivers in Chicago and the role of communication technologies in their work and personal lives. Using qualitative methods I found ... -
The Effects of Facebook “Stalking” on Romantic Partners’ Satisfaction, Jealousy, and Insecurity
(2012-12-13)This study, conducted from January to February 2011, is comprised of the responses of 244 undergraduates in the Communication department at a large urban Midwestern university. These respondents completed a 42-item instrument, ...
RSS 1.0