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Description
Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airport security has become an increasingly invasive, cumbersome, and expensive process. Fraught with tension and discomfort, "airport security" is a dirty phrase in the popular imagination, synonymous with long lines, unimpressive employees, and indignity.

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airport security has become an increasingly invasive, cumbersome, and expensive process. Fraught with tension and discomfort, "airport security" is a dirty phrase in the popular imagination, synonymous with long lines, unimpressive employees, and indignity. In fact, the TSA and its employees have featured as topic and punch line of news and popular culture stories. This image complicates the TSA's mission to ensure the nation's air travel safety and the ways that its officers interact with passengers. Every day, nearly two million people fly domestically in the United States. Each passenger must interact with many of the approximately 50,000 agents in airports. How employees and travelers make sense of interactions in airport security contexts can have significant implications for individual wellbeing, personal and professional relationships, and organizational policies and practices. Furthermore, the meaning making of travelers and employees is complexly connected to broad social discourses and issues of identity. In this study, I focus on the communication implications of identity and emotional performances in airport security in light of discourses at macro, meso, and micro levels. Using discourse tracing (LeGreco & Tracy, 2009), I construct the historical and discursive landscape of airport security, and via participant observation and various types of interviews, demonstrate how officers and passengers develop and perform identity, and the resulting interactional consequences. My analysis suggests that passengers and Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) perform three main types of identities in airport security contexts--what I call Stereotypical, Ideal, and Mindful--which reflect different types and levels of discourse. Identity performances are intricately related to emotional processes and occur dynamically, in relation to the identity and emotional performances of others. Theoretical implications direct attention to the ways that identity and emotional performances structure interactions, cause burdensome emotion management, and present organizational actors with tension, contradiction, and paradox to manage. Practical implications suggest consideration of passenger and TSO emotional wellbeing, policy framing, passenger agency, and preferred identities. Methodologically, this dissertation offers insight into discourse tracing and challenges of embodied "undercover" research in public spaces.
ContributorsRedden, Shawna Malvini (Author) / Tracy, Sarah J. (Thesis advisor) / Corley, Kevin (Committee member) / Alberts, Janet (Committee member) / Trethewey, Angela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
This project focuses on techniques contemporary American poets use in their work. Ten different poetry collections are analyzed for dominant writing styles and techniques, which I then apply to my own poems, concentrating on modeling that particular poet. I then reflect on those poems through an evaluation of my writing

This project focuses on techniques contemporary American poets use in their work. Ten different poetry collections are analyzed for dominant writing styles and techniques, which I then apply to my own poems, concentrating on modeling that particular poet. I then reflect on those poems through an evaluation of my writing process, how those techniques were implemented, and how they affected the poem. In addition to these reviews and reflections, I also wrote three articles about the literary community and what I've learned from my interactions in that community. All these materials are organized into a website, which shows the connections between the different writings via links and menus. Creating this website brings all the materials together to demonstrate my growth as a poet, writer, and designer. This heavy focus on poetry and analysis has helped sharpen my critical thinking skills and has better prepared me for a career in design and journalism.
Created2015-05
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Description
This study examines the nature of emotion work in a nonprofit organization through qualitative inquiry. The mission of the organization is to provide houses of hospitality and ongoing support to help pregnant and parenting women in need reach their goals, and welcomes them into a community filled with love and

This study examines the nature of emotion work in a nonprofit organization through qualitative inquiry. The mission of the organization is to provide houses of hospitality and ongoing support to help pregnant and parenting women in need reach their goals, and welcomes them into a community filled with love and dignity. Field observations and participant interviews were analyzed alongside organizational documents to determine if participants were experiencing emotional labor and the ways in which they are compensated for this labor. By extending the concepts of emotional labor to jobs and volunteer positions that do not receive significant financial compensation, the findings suggest that emotional labor is not always performed for a wage. Further, volunteers of nonprofit organizations may find compensation through the fulfillment of personal motivations, unrelated to financial gain.
ContributorsJohnson, Allyse Marie (Author) / Adame, Bradley (Thesis director) / Ramella, Kelly (Committee member) / Bisel, Ryan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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Description
With beauty magazines becoming a prevalent source of information and inspiration for girls and young adults, this creative project analyzed Seventeen Magazine in an attempt to understand its implications. Shortly after its debut, the publication shifted its focus from career and goal-oriented topics to those of fashion and romance. In

With beauty magazines becoming a prevalent source of information and inspiration for girls and young adults, this creative project analyzed Seventeen Magazine in an attempt to understand its implications. Shortly after its debut, the publication shifted its focus from career and goal-oriented topics to those of fashion and romance. In an effort to construct a visual critique of the segments produced by Seventeen and receive audience response, an interactive installation was created and opened to the public. This paper explains the method used and includes a discussion of audience opinion.
ContributorsFuller, Darcy Shannon (Author) / Linde, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Stewart, Karen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
ABSTRACT

This study sought to inform the curriculum of crew resource management (CRM) for multi-pilot flight deck operations. The CRM curriculum requires continued reexamination to ensure safe flight in the changing demographic of flight decks in the US. The study calls attention to the CRM curriculum’s insufficient inclusion of robust training

ABSTRACT

This study sought to inform the curriculum of crew resource management (CRM) for multi-pilot flight deck operations. The CRM curriculum requires continued reexamination to ensure safe flight in the changing demographic of flight decks in the US. The study calls attention to the CRM curriculum’s insufficient inclusion of robust training components to address intercultural communication skills and conflict management strategies.

Utilizing a phenomenological approach, the study examined the communicative experiences of African American female military and airline transport pilots on the flight deck and within the aviation industry. Co-cultural theory was used as a theoretical framework to investigate these co-researcher’s (pilots) experiences. A parallel goal of the investigation was to better understand raced and gendered communication as they occur in this specific context—the flight deck of US airlines and military aircraft.

The researcher conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews and shadowed two co-researchers (pilots) for a period of days and built a relationship with them over the course of one year. Eight years of preparation working in the airline industry situated the researcher for this study. The researcher collected stories and interviews during this time immersed in industry. The data collected offers initial insights into the experiences of non-dominant group members in this unique organizational environment.

The study’s findings are reported in the form of a creative
arrative nonfiction essay. This effort was twofold: (1) the narrative served to generate a record of experiences for continued examination and future research and (2) created useful data and information sets accessible to expert and non-expert audiences alike.

The data supports rationalization as a co-cultural communication strategy, a recent expansion of the theory. Data also suggests that another strategy—strategic alliance building—may be useful in expanding the scope of co-cultural theory. The proposed assertive assimilation orientation identifies the intentional construct of alliances and warrants further investigation.
ContributorsZirulnik, Michael L. (Author) / Alberts, Janet (Thesis advisor) / Broome, Benjamin (Thesis advisor) / Gutkind, Lee (Committee member) / Orbe, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
This dissertation investigated positive intergroup contact and communication in the experiences of fans at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Guided by concepts from Intergroup Contact Theory (ICT), formerly Allport’s (1954) Contact Hypothesis, I asked fans to identify and discuss factors that were relevant to their experiences

This dissertation investigated positive intergroup contact and communication in the experiences of fans at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Guided by concepts from Intergroup Contact Theory (ICT), formerly Allport’s (1954) Contact Hypothesis, I asked fans to identify and discuss factors that were relevant to their experiences at the event. These factors are reported in previous literature to foster positive intergroup relations. The fan participants also provided detailed, experience-based rationales for why and how the factors supported each other and created individual models of their experiences of ICT at the Olympics. The study relied on participant-centered, in-depth qualitative interviews using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) software. Based on an integration of ICT, communication theories, social capital concepts, and calls from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and mega-sporting event industry, the dissertation sought to answer four research questions. It started with a broad approach to the array of previous scholars’ ICT factors in order to identify what factors were present and relevant in fans’ experiences. It also sought to understand why and how the factors worked together by analyzing the ways factors related to and supported each other in Olympic fans’ experiences and producing a composite meta-structure of the factors’ relationships. Additionally, through thematic analysis, the research explored where and when in fans’ experiences the factors emerged and were active. Finally, the study identified the functions that each ICT factor served in fostering positive intergroup contact and communication and offered suggestions for practitioners and organizers of intergroup contexts. The study aimed to make theoretical contributions by addressing gaps and calls in ICT literature, as well as practical contributions by providing insight about how to organize intergroup contexts to foster positive contact and communication. In addition to addressing its research questions, the study provided a comprehensive list of previous scholars’ ICT factors, a preliminary, tentative model of ICT for ideal intergroup contexts adapted from Pettigrew’s (1998) model of group membership transformation for problematic contexts, and promising future directions given the unique, ideal, and unexplored features of the Olympics.
ContributorsBrenneman, Luke (Author) / Alberts, Janet (Thesis advisor) / Broome, Benjamin (Thesis advisor) / Chatziefstathiou, Dikaia (Committee member) / Martin, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
This project examines how civil communication can be beneficial in organizations and the work place. It examines how conflict, power differences, and incivility contribute to uncivil atmospheres and applies a framework of civil communication to address the issues. The analysis is based upon a third party's published description of an

This project examines how civil communication can be beneficial in organizations and the work place. It examines how conflict, power differences, and incivility contribute to uncivil atmospheres and applies a framework of civil communication to address the issues. The analysis is based upon a third party's published description of an organizational narrative sample and the civil communication framework of civil listening, civil speech and civil actions are then applied. The goal of this project is to determine the relationships between communication and productivity, conflict and productivity as well as if civil communication can address conflict and organizational productivity.
ContributorsWilson, Jenna Marie (Author) / Linde, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Alberts, Jess (Committee member) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description

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

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.

ContributorsSpies, Nicole (Author) / Dombrowski, Rosemarie (Thesis director) / Ciancio, Kai (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2023-05
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Description
For fifty years, inquiry has attempted to capture how groups of people experience microaggression phenomena through multiple methodological and analytic applications grounded in psychology-influenced frameworks. Yet, despite theoretical advancements, the phenomenon has met criticisms trivializing its existence, falsifiability, and social significance. Unpacking possible interactive factors of a microaggressive moment invites

For fifty years, inquiry has attempted to capture how groups of people experience microaggression phenomena through multiple methodological and analytic applications grounded in psychology-influenced frameworks. Yet, despite theoretical advancements, the phenomenon has met criticisms trivializing its existence, falsifiability, and social significance. Unpacking possible interactive factors of a microaggressive moment invites a revisitation of the known and unknown pragmatic conditions that may produce and influence its discomforting situational “content.” This study employs an intentional, game-theoretic methodology based on brief, publicly-recorded, everyday conversation segments. Conversation segments of social interactions provide a means to conduct a mathematically-solid, computationally-tractable analysis of explaining what is happening during encounters where disability microaggressions are likely the result of partial (non)cooperation between communicators. Such analysis extends the microaggression research program (MRP) by: (1) proposing theoretical consequences for conversational repair phenomena, algorithmic programming, and experimental designs in negotiation research; and (2) outlining practical approaches for preventing microaggressions with new communication pedagogy, anti-oppression/de-escalation training programs, and calculable, focus-oriented psychotherapy. It concludes with an invitation for scholars to “be” in ambiguity so that they may speculate possible trajectories for the study of microaggressions as a communicative phenomenon.
ContributorsReutlinger, Corey Jon (Author) / de la Garza, Sarah Amira (Thesis advisor) / Alberts, Janet (Committee member) / Lanchier, Nicolas (Committee member) / Cherney, James L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
An art installation that mixed the knowledge gained from both the science and artistic sides of communication via the High Downs School of Communication. The goal of the installation was to have visitors reflect on their own social media experiences by viewing the experiences of others that were included in

An art installation that mixed the knowledge gained from both the science and artistic sides of communication via the High Downs School of Communication. The goal of the installation was to have visitors reflect on their own social media experiences by viewing the experiences of others that were included in the installation.
ContributorsMurphy, Sydney (Author) / Linde, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Adame, Bradley (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2024-05