Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Prairie dogs were once abundant across the plains and grasslands of the Western half of the United States. Four of the five subspecies are found in the United States and have lost 98% of their historical abundance since 1870 due to extermination campaigns, habitat loss, and plague. This species is threatened by extinction and already extirpated across most of its range and yet given very little federal or state protection, except for the Utah prairie dog. This leaves most conservation efforts to grassroots and non-profit conservation organizations. This paper looks at the framework used by conservation organizations within conservation campaigns to communicate the need for prairie dog conservation efforts. Thirty-six organizations were found and six frames were identified. The most common frames emphasized prairie dogs’ role as a keystone species and addressed concerns surrounding cattle ranching and prairie dogs and plague transmission. Other frames were used occasionally and showcase underutilization of a wider variety of targeted frames. This paper is the first of its kind to analyze how prairie dog conservation is being communicated through framing theory. This field is under-researched and has the potential to grow and be helpful to future campaigns as they develop communication strategies and create partnerships with other like-minded organizations.

While people are scrolling through their various social media apps, they encounter messaging that does not necessarily promote good mental health. Rather, images, posts, and videos often make a mockery of those with mental health problems, leaving the viewers to believe that mental health problems often lead to dangerousness, criminality, and unpredictability. It then is essential that social media messaging about mental health, and its stigmas are analyzed and solutions to promote better mental health messages on these platforms are implemented because they affect everyone. Anti-stigma campaigns may be useful in bringing awareness to mental health and its stigmas, so two anti-stigma campaigns, Stamp Out Stigma and StigmaFree, were analyzed in this study. To understand the types of messages people are receiving about mental health and its stigmas from anti-stigma organizations on social media platforms, three research questions were developed. A thematic analysis was conducted that included 205 posts from 2021 that came from the campaigns' Facebook and Twitter accounts. Several themes emerged for each research question as well as multiple limitations for this study. Ultimately, social media messaging about mental health and its stigmas must continue to be researched.