Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 29
Description
Television is currently in a changing state. There is no longer a singular broadcast format for series to follow. Streaming websites such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime now release series in their entirety; this is known as a full-season release (FSR). Viewers are now able to act independently and determine the pace they wish to watch a new FSR series. This not only affects how fans engage in social television discussions on social media, but also changes the previously proposed viewer engagement model. Whereas previous research suggests that fans follow a static linear engagement model consisting of pre-communication, parallel communication, and post communication phases, fans are now able to move freely through viewer engagement phases. This creates a new type of engagement model: The Atomized Engagement Model. As fans move freely through the atomized engagement phases, they choose social media platforms to engage in fandom discussion. Research suggests that although there are distinct types of posts that occur in relation to social television discussions, the platforms used have a direct effect on the content and length of the post.
ContributorsPouls, Samantha Rae (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Barrett, Marianne (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis study was to examine whether the "war on cancer" metaphor influences cancer perception and treatment decision. A total of 249 undergraduates (152 females) from a large southwestern university participated in an online survey experiment and were either randomly assigned to the control condition (N=123) or to the war prime condition (N=126). Participants in the control condition did not receive the metaphor manipulation while participants in the war prime condition received the subtle "war on cancer" metaphor prime. After the prime was given, participants read a scenario, answered questions related to the situation, and responded to demographic questions. The results suggested that, compared to participants in the no-prime condition, participants exposed to the war metaphor were more likely to (a) view melanoma as an acute disease, (b) choose chemotherapy over molecular tests, and (c) prefer more aggressive treatment. These findings illustrated the unintended consequences of the "war on cancer" slogan. The results were encouraging and in the predicted direction, but the effect size was small. The discussion section described possible future directions for research.
ContributorsShangraw, Ann Mariah (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This paper aims to assess potential similarities and differences in the way that public relations professionals approach ethics in Spain and The United States. The approach taken for this study was first a thematic analysis of industry-accepted codes of ethics. These were the PRSA Code of Ethics from the United States and the ADECEC and Dircom codes of ethics from Spain. Although the codes provide a basis for a basic analysis, it is hard to say how public relations professionals implement ethical practices in their work solely based on codes of ethics. To further study the ethics in practice, interviews with public relations professionals from a 2012 trip to Madrid were transcribed and analyzed for key themes. To assess ethics in practice in the United States, public relations blog posts related to ethics were analyzed for key themes. The history of public relations in Spain is much shorter than in the United States The histories of the and cultural differences may be the cause of some of the differences in ethics.
ContributorsLurie, Hannah Jessica (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Matera, Fran (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The amount of connection one has, whether it is digitally or in-person can have an overall affect on a person's business, their being, and their interaction- these interactions are considered social capital. The main premise of social capital is that social networks have value. This means that the collective value of which people know will affect their inclination to do things for each other. In this case, social capital is not about the warm feeling one gets when someone does something for them, it refers to the information flow and mutual aid that bonds people who are interested in the same things. With technology at an all time high, these connections are made infinitely possible through social media. This project uses Cuisine of Arizona, a regional restaurant guide, to exemplify how strategies of social capital can be used via social media in order to build trustworthy and valuable connections and build a larger audience for the brand. Research on the benefits of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for social media marketing was conducted and was then adapted to benefit the Cuisine of Arizona restaurant guide. A social media calendar was implemented for organizational purposes and the social media sites were updated to keep their look current. Research on how business websites keep their audience was conducted as well. The current Cuisine of Arizona website was outdated, but still useful. A mock-up website was created on Wix.com to give the website a new look and bring in new interactive features, like the online flipbook version of the restaurant guide and a dynamic homepage, but still gave the audience the same useful information as the old site. The mock-up website was also mobile optimized for use on smartphones and tablets. The three social media methods were chosen because of their capabilities to interact with one another. For example, Instagram posts can be shared on both Facebook and Twitter, resulting in more unique viewers for each site. If the website's content is shared on any of these sites, it will build a larger audience for the Cuisine of Arizona website as well. If used carefully, the proposed social media plan will draw a larger audience to the entire Cuisine of Arizona brand and in turn, build trust and credibility among its audience.
ContributorsGuillen, Alejandra (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Bovio, Sonia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Advertising persuades people to change some part of their life. Whether it is promoting one presidential candidate, or buying one kind of ketchup over another. Advertising expands in how it's presented based on societal changes socially, economically and technologically. AMC network's critically acclaimed show, Mad Men, revolves around the personal lives of ad executives during the golden age of advertising, the 1960's. Everything that's compelling has change. In the show, character developments, change within the industry, and various social events impact the advertising work that is done throughout the show. By examining the clients and ads produced in Mad Men, and the process in which they were produced, to the actual process and actual ads that ran in the 1960's, will give a sense of how accurate or inaccurate the show is. By creating modern ads for these clients and products, obstacles that are encountered based on the current industry and social state will become visible. Doing this will allow for a comparison of artistic styles from the past and now, observing what design elements may have changed or stayed put.
ContributorsDemano, Gian-Franco Alcantara (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Roschke, Kristy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The backlash surrounding sexual violence in the media (social and traditional) demonstrates support for the fight against sexual violence, and, according to statistics, ASU is home to large populations of some of the most high-risk groups. As a place of higher education, ASU recognizes that a proactive approach to sexual misconduct, educating at-risk publics, is as necessary as spreading awareness of the problem. It also acknowledges the healing power of the arts. Acts of sexual violence target the human body and performance arts, like dance, focus on control over body movements. Additionally, art in general is proven to improve one's physical, mental and emotional well-being. Even though the stigma of being a victim of sexual assault has been lessened by people sharing their stories through social and traditional media, sexual assault is traumatizing for the victim. This can lead victims to be hesitant to report or talk about their past trauma, and creates a barrier to discussion of sexual violence on campus. Thus, the goal of CounterAct is to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual misconduct on campus and throughout American culture. Recognizing the factors that contribute to sexual assault in addition to healing through creative action can change rape culture to respect culture on campus and in the surrounding community.
ContributorsSanderson, Alena Brook (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Miller, Nina (Committee member) / Templeton, Eleanor (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This study examined the brand personality types and social media practices of six college athletic Twitter accounts. Specifically, this study investigated whether certain brand personalities corresponded with specific social media practices on Twitter. The author conducted a content analysis of each school's tweets to measure brand personality and scraped data in order to collect social media practice information. Results suggest that brand personality and social media practices are distinct. Extraversion was the most common personality type among all schools. In addition, schools that tweeted less frequently than others exhibited more brand personality and used more visual media.
ContributorsDave, Simran Sangita (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Reed, Sada (Committee member) / Pucci, Jessica (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This study looked at the Women's March's use of social media to communicate their organization's mission. Data was collected from their official Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. Facebook posts were collected manually, Twitter data was collected with a Google Sheets add-on and Instagram was collected by Picodash. All the posts were shifted through multiple times to identify the key narratives of the Women's March. These narratives were then compared to the stated "Unity Principles" of the organization to see if they aligned with what the Women's March attempted to fight for. The five narratives were "everyone should have access to affordable health care," "women should have access to positions of power and be respected," "immigrants should be welcomed within the United States," "society will be stronger if it addresses issues intersectionally," and "everyone should be safe in the world and treated as equals." Analysis showed that each of these narratives reflected the "Unity Principles" in some form. While certain narratives were related to more principles than others, it does not diminish the importance of each message.
ContributorsLuckey, Alessandra Noel (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The media often portrays professional basketball players as narcissistic, entitled and selfish, but are these portrayals accurate? After all, basketball is a team sport and team sport research indicates that players are more altruistic and selfless. This study proposes a way to assess narcissism and altruism through observable behaviors from all the active players in the NBA.
ContributorsPappas, Carissa Anne (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Mae, Lynda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
This study looked at college-age students' ability to comprehend and retain information learned from news articles depending on what platform they read from. Fifteen participants read three local New York Times articles on each of the platforms provided: iPad, laptop, and paper. They took one test immediately after to test comprehension and another two weeks later to test their retention. Participants were also asked if they found the articles interesting, enjoyable, clear, etc. Results showed that participants' views on each format had little, if any, affect on their number of correct responses. The most consistent results on the participants' perceptions of the formats came from the laptop and paper, whereas the iPad received a bimodal pattern of responses. Participants were also asked to share their news habits while taking the test by selecting how frequently they gain news from various sources such as social media or television. These habits also seemed to have very little effect on their scores.
ContributorsKillin, Jamie Faye (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Russomanno, Joseph (Committee member) / Dodge, Nancie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-05