Dissertations and Theses - Communication
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Tumblr as Platform Architecture, User Experience, and Interaction Artifacts
(2018-07-26)This study of the digital social media platform Tumblr.com that adopts three distinct perspectives in explicating the affordances and constraints that the platform and account holders co-create in patterns of every-day ... -
When A Nobody Becomes A Somebody: Understanding Beauty Bloggers in Thailand
(2018-04-04)This dissertation explores the rise of microcelebrity beauty bloggers in Thailand. It considers beauty blogging as one instance of a larger global phenomenon. The phenomenon includes new types of non-professional cultural ... -
Virtual Space for the Public: Social Media Discussions on the Chinese Two-child Policy
(2017-11-20)China’s newly implemented two-child policy has profoundly affected every family in China as well as its population structure and economic development. It also created much heated discussion among Chinese citizens on social ... -
Old Bridge as a Symbol of Multiculturalism: Global Discourse and Local Narratives in Mostar
(2017-11-28)This ethnographic study explores contested meanings attached to Old Bridge in Mostar, a unique, divided public space and also a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Heritage Site where ... -
Weirdness Takes Work: Using Cultural Capitals to Understand How Freeform Radio DJs Choose Music
(2017-12-01)Despite the wide variety of music available, most listeners tend to consume only a small fraction of it. While studies of musical taste and consumption have noted this problem, there is little (if any) work on musical ... -
Chinese Cyber Nationalism: The 2012 Diaoyu Islands Dispute on Sina Weibo
(2017-11-22)The dissertation examined the dynamics of the 2012 Diaoyu Islands dispute on Sina Weibo across three layers: users, content, and role of platform. At the user layer, the research identifies the prominent users as elite ... -
A Networked Family: How Fans Talk About The Bachelor on Twitter
(2017-11-17)This thesis aimed to research the topic of reality TV, specifically The Bachelor. It discussed how fans perceive and discuss reality TV on Twitter, with methodological interest in qualitatively assessing framing, public ... -
Going Abroad, Staying Connected: Contemporary Media Technology and the Study Abroad Experience
(2017-10-20)The role of study abroad programs in U.S. colleges and universities has grown significantly in recent decades. As the number of student participants in these programs continue to increase, so have questions regarding the ... -
The Privacy of Others
(2017-08-08)Much of the previous work on privacy has centered on the discloser-based behaviors of users and corresponding relational implications of privacy. This dissertation flips the view of privacy and explores information acquisition ... -
Examination of Ehealth Literacy and Health Information Technology Among Persons with Brain Injury
(2017-04-14)The use of online information portals for health information-seeking continues to increase. Particular interest is in the use of these technologies for persons with chronic illnesses, such as brain injury. However, despite ... -
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 ...
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