Filtering by
- All Subjects: Communication
- Creators: Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
- Resource Type: Text
Collectively, these studies evince a positive relationship between physical and online safety in macro-level actuality and individual-level perception. Among individuals, objective indicators of community safety—as measured by zip code crime data—were a positive reflection of perceptions of physical safety; these perceptions, in turn, mapped onto perceived online safety. The generalization between perceived physical threat and online threat was stronger after being exposed to self-protection threat manipulations, possibly underscoring the more dire nature of threats to bodily safety than those to valuable resources. Most notably, experimental findings suggest that it is not the physical that informs the digital, but rather the opposite: Online threats blur more readily into physical domains, possibly speaking to the concern that dangers specific to the digital world will bleed into the physical one. This generalization of threat may function as a strategy to prepare oneself for future dangers wherever they might appear; and indeed, perceived threat in either world positively influenced desires to act on recommended safety practices. Taken together, this research suggests that in the realm of threat perception, the boundaries between physical and digital are less rigid than may have been previously believed.
As a case study, this dissertation examines positions of both the U.S. and China in the South and East China Seas over five years. Methodologically, this dissertation demonstrates the benefit of content analysis to identify local narratives and both stabilizing and destabilizing events contained in thousands of news articles over a five-year period. Additionally, the use of time series and a Markov analysis both demonstrate usefulness in forecasting. Theoretically, TNC displays the usefulness of narrative theory to forecast both actions driven by narrative and common interpretations after events.
Practically, this dissertation demonstrates that current efforts in the U.S. and China have not resulted in an increased understanding of the other country. Neither media giant demonstrates the capacity to be critical of their own national identity and preferred interpretation of world affairs. In short, the battle for the hearts and minds of foreign persons should be challenged.
Travel Vignettes from London, Dublin, and Edinburgh is comprised of a series of vignettes based on the travelogues of a month-long trip to the UK. The vignettes are narrative nonfiction and born out of the observations, interactions, and conversations with local residents, resulting in what’s classified as “creative ethnography,” or the translation of cultural field notes into a creative medium. Each vignette focuses on a specific location and narrate the environmental and cultural features as experienced by the author. The critical introduction to the collection defines creative ethnography and discusses its value over traditional ethnography (and other forms of social research) to a contemporary/GenZ audience. The author also discusses how this form of cultural preservation has impacted/shaped their perceptions of travel and how it informs their creative/professional/academic future.