Matching Items (261)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Communication
- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Modernity has become a goal for every nation in this time of a globalized and connected world. Nevertheless, in the 21st century, modernity is inherently reflexive as nations have the sources and technologies to adopt their own identity and act upon it. Global media is a mirror of their national identity and social structure. Thus, this dissertation sets the scope to explore how global news media frames national identity in the context of reflexive modernity.This study examines the ways that global online news channels frame the Saudi transition to modernization, epitomizing Saudi Vision 2030. Guided by framing theory, this study explores how global online news channels (i.e., Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera, RT, BBC, and CNN) have positioned the Saudi identity (i.e., avowal and ascription) and framed the structure of the Saudi identity (i.e., indulgence, restraint, certainty, uncertainty, thriving governance, and doomed governance). The study utilized a mixed-method content analysis of news articles (N = 584) that include paragraphs (N = 7846) from three years, April 25, 2016, to April 25, 2019.
The study results indicated that global online news channels framed the Saudi cultural identity and political identity heterogeneously, but the Saudi economic identity was framed homogenously. The study’s findings revealed that the English online news channels positioned the Saudi cultural identity different from the Arabic online news channels. The Study also found that Al Jazeera-Arabic framed the Saudi national identity across all contexts differently compared to Al Arabiya-Arabic. The study also showed that uncertainty and restraint were used to frame the Saudi cultural and political identity, while human rights issues were the central theme for the framing process. The study concluded that, in reflexive modernity, global online news channels frame the national identity through three cues: Deviation (glocalization), Domination (interpretive community), and Hybridization (humanization).
This study contributes to the literature on framing by providing a new measurable and replicable model—the national identity frame model. The study advances the literature on media framing by providing conceptual and operational definitions to bridge the gap between the micro and macro levels in the context of modernization and global identities.
ContributorsSahly, Abdulsamad H (Author) / Silcock, B. William (Thesis advisor) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Gallab, Abdullahi (Committee member) / Kwon, K. Hazel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This thesis explores the dialogue surrounding the perceptions of the 2020 election among "theDonald.win" forum site users. More specifically, I examined the representations that arose from the comments posted by users concerning the current state of elections in America. What emerged from the representations was a plethora of conspiracy talk. The preexisting literature establishes a catalog of explanations and contributions as to why conspiracy talk is prominent. Explanations for conspiracy talk in the literature ranged from fandom to paranoia in America. This thesis identifies and analyzes the themes, representations, and emotions that are organically created by theDonald.win forum users, with a special focus on conspiracy talk. The uniqueness of this thesis though is its use of the theory of hyperreality, a theory proposed by Jean Baudrillard, to understand users' social realities. By analyzing the comments collected by the users of the site, I construct a vivid representation of the reality within which commentators reside.
ContributorsMartinez, Tyler (Author) / Nadesan, Majia (Thesis advisor) / Kassing, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Cayetano, Catalina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
“Community” is a concept invoked by scholars, activists, organizers, and institutions with little reflection or understanding about how community forms. Communication scholarship, specifically rhetorical scholarship, ties community to citizenship and discourses about policy. This study develops an alternative understanding of community formation by examining KDIF, a low-power FM community radio station in South Phoenix. KDIF operates in geographic and cultural spaces that face histories and narratives of marginalization and neglect, and currently face issues of gentrification and exploitation. The station provides a platform for local artists, DJs, and residents to spread their messages and cultivate a sense of belonging between groups and people that have struggled to form common bonds or coalitions. Using the methodology of participatory critical rhetoric and informed by literatures of sonic rhetoric, sound studies, social movements, and rhetorical studies, this study examines how KDIF creates belonging through sound and sonics, how an understanding of community as “organic” limits and affords cultural expression, and how KDIF uses epideictic rather than deliberative discourses that provide an alternative to belonging as citizenship. The analysis of KDIF’s work builds an argument that KDIF forms community by connecting South Phoenix residents to narratives and affects of belonging while resisting dominant affects and narratives of “not belonging” that surround South Phoenix. In this context, “community” articulates and narrates the affective experiences that come with a loss and recovery of belonging, and the invocation of community allow for marginalized groups to declare a sense of worth by circulating affects and experiences of belonging.
ContributorsDerk, Ian Kenna (Author) / Hess, Aaron (Thesis advisor) / Hawk, Byron (Committee member) / Cheong, Pauline (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Since its implementation in 1966, the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) has greatly informed preservation practice in the United States. As a primary text for the professionalization of the field of preservation, it not only acts as a law, but establishes an ideological framework that informs practices which impact public memory in the US by determining what places remain, how they are transformed (or not), and whose stories they tell. The objective of this study is to explore the communicative dimensions of the NHPA to better understand how its rhetoric informs practice, and thus, informs public memory in the US. This study employs a meta-method of crystallization which engages a range of analysis methods. First, I conducted a close rhetorical analysis of the NHPA’s text which provided insight into ideologies within the law, opportunities for practice, and limitations on practice through the law’s definitive conceptualization of public memory. Next, I completed a qualitative case study of a preservation organization. I participated in extended field observation, conducted interviews with organizational staff, and engaged in walking methods in the city. The analysis offered insight into local discourses (everyday talk) which built into Discourses (ideologies) and demonstrated how the NHPA informs d/Discourses of preservation, even when it is not required. Although local practice was informed by the NHPA, the analysis also revealed methods for challenging and resisting the NHPA. Finally, I engaged in arts-based methods to examine how National Register listings (products of the NHPA) provide aesthetic and narrative precedents for determining ‘significance’ and worth in preservation practice. Through a poetic exhibition entitled Mythed Places, I artistically analyzed the NRHP, arguing that by giving historic sites the quality of myths, the NHPA attempts to arrest multiple unfolding narratives of places in service of a national myth.
This project demonstrates that the NHPA communicatively constructs US preservation practice through its ambiguity, implied morality, and formation of a mythic national community. Although the current structure requires preservationists, even those not legally bound to the NHPA, to work within its framework, this study showcases ways to disrupt the discursive boundaries and practice preservation more critically.
ContributorsWheeler, Ashley (Author) / Brouwer, Daniel C (Thesis advisor) / Zanin, Alaina C (Committee member) / McHugh, Kevin E (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Change in the workplace is a constant. This is even more true due to changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The changes have altered work locations, the modes of communication used, and how meetings are held, conversations, and trainings. It has become evident that, with these pandemic-caused changes, communication skills, the ability to empathize, and the opportunity to connect with one another are more desirable than ever before. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to examine how, and to what extent, participation in professional development workshops developed and refined the participants’ communication skills, collaboration skills, communication self-efficacy, and collaboration self-efficacy, and generated an environment that fostered positive connections. The study was guided by five theoretical frameworks, including the work of Wenger (1998), Tuckman (1965), Bandura (1977), Goleman (1995), and Luthans et al. (2007). This action research study utilized a mixed-method research approach in which both qualitative and quantitative instruments were used to gather data. Study participants were staff members in New College. The innovation was conducted over the length of the semester and involved participation in a series of professional development workshops. Quantitative data indicated a positive change in the dependent variables between a retrospective pre-innovation assessment and a post-innovation assessment. The qualitative data allowed for a descriptive story to be told and also provided a way to understand the numerical data. Discussion focused on describing the complementarity of the data, explaining outcomes relative to the theoretical frameworks, and noting limitations, implications for practice and future research, and lessons learned.
ContributorsSchulte, Jennifer (Author) / Giorgis, Cyndi (Thesis advisor) / Buss, Ray R. (Committee member) / Preach, Deborah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This qualitative study explores communication privacy management processes around disclosing a child’s Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV) status within a pediatric healthcare relationship. The pediatric healthcare relationship is a triadic one composed of providers, parents, and patients. The literature from the fields of medicine, psychology and communication was used to explore disclosing HIV status by seropositive positive adults to others and by providers and parents to HIV positive children. Data for this study was collected from a hospital-based clinic using a 3-part protocol that included transcripts and information from a 6 member focus group interview, 42 patient medical charts, and two parent interviews. Datum was analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicate that both providers and parents consider these adolescent behavioral indicators that disclosure is necessary: question-asking about medications and the need for medical appointments, the initiation of dating and sexual behavior, cognitive maturity, and chronological age. Providers and parents negotiate when and how the disclosure will occur and the providers perceptions of the permeability of the family privacy boundaries influence the negotiations. An adolescent’s failure to properly adhere to the medication regimen and the initiation of and engagement in sexual behavior are catalysts for immediate disclosure. Finally, a clinical tool is proposed to assist providers and parents in their negotiations around disclosing the child’s HIV status.
ContributorsCampbell, Anna Marie N/A (Author) / Alberts, Janet (Thesis advisor) / Mongeau, Paul A. (Committee member) / Berkel, Cady (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This qualitative study examined how culture and community are created in the popular sports video game, NBA 2K. Sports video games are some of the most popular video games, but there has been lack of critical scholarship into these games. By engaging two popular cultural theories, the circuit of culture and the fields of cultural production, this study critically examined how culture shapes online communities in sports video games.By employing a variety of ethnographic methods including thick descriptions of cultural artifacts, an intake questionnaire, interviews with 17 NBA 2K players, and in-game participant observation, this study established cultural patterns, insider language, and other elements of culture within the NBA 2K community. The researcher learned to play NBA 2K, critically examined both physical and virtual cultural artifacts, conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with game players, and participated in NBA 2K with study participants to contextualize their experiences.
This study established NBA 2K as having some of the most advanced functions of any sports video games, including sophisticated multi-user domains (MUDs) and complex avatar (MyPLAYER) creation. NBA 2K offers a unique opportunity to create diverse MyPLAYER representations, setting the bar for sports video games to include people from varied physical identities. Though the game has made strides to include WNBA athletes, the lack of gendered options for the MyPLAYER feature reinforces misogynistic and hegemonic power structures that
are common in both sports culture and gaming culture.
ContributorsForbes, Allison (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Kishonna (Committee member) / Reed, Sada (Committee member) / Silcock, Burton (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Over the last four centuries, Black women have been overwhelmingly understood, imagined, and defined through a Eurocentric and oppressive lens. The Eurocentric or white lens places pseudo-characteristics on Black women that inaccurately describe them. The qualities ascribed to Black women are rooted in racial ideologies that benefit and progress the interest of White supremacy. This history has placed Black women in tension with institutionalized medicine, discouraging them from seeking or using healthcare resources. Without trust in a system positioned to heal, treat, and prevent health ailments, Black women cannot dialogue with those that are a part of that system. Paulo Freire argues that "dialogue is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world (Freire, 2000, p. 90)." By centering Black women and their voices, I envision (re)naming the world. Understanding how Black women from Lincoln County, Mississippi describe their health and bodies sheds light on their daily experiences that facilitate self-care, womanhood, and identity. This dissertation covers three related studies that are addressing: 1) how Black women from Mississippi see their bodies outside of deficit health, 2) how Black women’s sisterhood has been a collective effort to build womanhood and health, and how societal stereotypes can interfere or damage the progress of sisterhood, and 3) the importance of allowing for Black women’s ways of knowing to create liberatory data collection methods that represent who they are and their truth. I examine these dynamics using a mixed-methods approach including community-based participatory research and rapid ethnographic assessment sampling techniques (e.g., working with a community advisor), semi-structured interviews, Sister-girl Talks (focus groups), participant observation, and autoethnography. The results of the three-study mixed methods dissertation has both theoretical and practical implications for understanding the vital role that Black women need to play bring healing to their health in both healthcare settings (e.g., clinics) and healthcare planning (health evaluation programs and interventions.
ContributorsMitchell, Charlayne (Author) / Slade, Alexandra (Thesis advisor) / SturtzSreetharan, Cindi (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Olga I (Committee member) / Ore, Ersula J (Committee member) / Wutich, Amber (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Personal training is a growing industry as individuals across the U.S. face increasing levels of physical and psychological health issues. Hiring a certified personal trainer (CPT) presents an opportunity to not only become healthier, but also to grow one’s knowledge and abilities; researchers refer to this process as self-expansion. This research sought to specify a path model of the self-expansion process clients experience while training with their CPT. Secondly, this research described clients’ self-reported disclosure patterns with their CPT. Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and ResearchMatch, the study sampled N = 392 U.S. residents who reported training with a CPT. Results from the path analysis indicated poor global fit; however, local fit supported several statistically significant paths. Clients’ level of internal motivation was positively associated with their self-disclosure, self-expansion, and self-pruning. Clients’ self-disclosure was positively associated with perceived closeness with their CPT. Contrary to prediction, clients’ perceived closeness was negatively associated with perceived support from their CPT. However, clients’ perceived closeness and perceived levels of support were both positively associated with their reported levels of self-expansion. Regarding clients’ disclosures, results indicated that clients primarily discuss physical training, diet and nutrition, and health concerns. Thematic analysis of self-reported disclosure examples revealed discussion topics including body dysmorphia, loss and grief, mental health, personal relationships, physical health, professionalism, support seeking, trainer sharing, and trust. Theoretical implications for the self-expansion model include support for additional variables in the self-expansion process, including motivation, self-disclosure, perceived support, and self-pruning. Additionally, practical recommendations for CPTs include an awareness of the type of relationship that clients may desire, as closeness may inhibit perceptions of support with training. Further, CPTs should be aware of the disclosures they may encounter, as clients may share intimate information and seek social support. As such, training programs should include sections on active listening and empathy and require CPTs to be knowledgeable of community resources in the event of a disclosure that presents a serious health risk to the client. Additional research is necessary, particularly to investigate closeness in the self-expansion process, as it did not function as expected within service and professional relationships.
ContributorsShufford, Kevin Nelson (Author) / Adame, Bradley (Thesis advisor) / Randall, Ashley K (Thesis advisor) / Mongeau, Paul (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of leadership communication incultivating compassion at work. To do so, this study utilizes positive deviance case selection and qualitative, semi-structured interviews to explore employees’ experiences with highly compassionate leaders. These interviews allow insight into employees’ perspectives on expressing suffering at work and experiences of compassionate communication from leaders. The findings of this study extend current understandings of compassion at work by highlighting the role of uncertainty to express suffering in limiting compassion, uncovering leadership communication behaviors that cultivate compassion, and illustrating dynamics that leaders navigate when reacting compassionately. Specifically, this study extends compassion theory by (1) demonstrating that uncertainty related to emotional disclosure limits employees’ sharing of personal suffering, which shapes and limits compassion processes, (2) illustrating that individuals holding traditionally marginalized or minoritized identities face additional uncertainty related to expressing pain and suffering, (3) highlighting a relational orientation that emphasizes personal well-being as enabling the compassion processes, (4) outlining anticipatory compassion as a specific discursive move that conveys care and opens space to express specific pains and suffering, and (5) empirically illustrating three dialectical tensions that punctuate the dynamic interactions between leaders and employees when relating and (re)acting compassionately.
ContributorsTietsort, Cristopher John (Author) / Adame, Elissa A (Thesis advisor) / Tracy, Sarah J (Thesis advisor) / Alberts, Jess A (Committee member) / Craig, Jennifer D (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021