Matching Items (10)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Mass Communication
- Creators: Gilpin, Dawn
Description
This dissertation sought to understand how leaders in a public-private strategic alliance collaboratively address complex community problems. The study responded to the gap in academic research of leadership and public relations in alliances to solve complex social issues, as well as the scant scholarly attention to alliance leaders' communications with stakeholders. Its findings corresponded to framing theory, stakeholder theory, SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) theory, complexity theory, and the subtopic of complex leadership -- all through the lens of public relations. This investigation culminated in the introduction of the C.A.L.L. to Action Model of Community Engagement, which demonstrates the confluence of factors that were integral to the alliance's success in eliminating chronic homelessness among veterans in Maricopa County, Arizona -- Communication, Alliance, Leadership, and Leverage. This qualitative case study used the method of elite or in-depth interviews and grounded theory to investigate the factors present in a community engagement that achieved its purpose. It served as a foundation for future inquiry and contributions to the base of knowledge, including 1) additional qualitative case studies of homeless alliances in other communities or of other social issues addressed by a similar public-private alliance; 2) quantitative methods, such as a survey of the participants in this alliance to provide triangulation of the results and establish a platform for generalization of the results to a larger population.
ContributorsSweeter, Janice Martha (Author) / Matera, Frances (Thesis advisor) / Godfrey, Donald G. (Committee member) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Shockley, Gordon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
In the delivery of a public service, meeting the needs of its users through cocreation has generated considerable research. Service users are encouraged to engage with public services through dialogue, sustained interaction, and equal partnership, wherein the role of the user changes from passive to active. As the relationship between service provider and service user evolves, researchers have sought to explain how resources, time, accessibility, and bandwidth may affect such relationships, specifically concerning the economically disadvantaged. While many researchers have focused on the logistical barriers that inhibit cocreation among the economically disadvantaged presented by such factors as cost and transportation, limited research has examined the relationship between the service provider and economically disadvantaged service user. Combining previous research, this study examines what economically disadvantaged service users actually do when they cocreate value with a public service by conducting 12 in-depth interviews with participants of SNAP-Ed, nutrition education for persons eligible for government assistance. The study's findings suggest that cocreation exists through relational characteristics of collaboration, isolation, acceptance, connection, and guidance that help in the development and maintenance of relationships, and that a relationship between service provider and user could be further typified by equality. This finding suggests that equality is an independent construct not necessary in the process of cocreation--a departure from previous research--but rather a way to approach the service provider/user relationship. This study is intended as a step toward examining cocreation through the development of organization-public relationships.
ContributorsCandello, Elizabeth J (Author) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Thesis advisor) / Matera, Fran (Committee member) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Perez, Adriana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The focus of education in the classroom traditionally is one of fact memorization and recall. The teaching process of linear knowledge progression is not always in tune with the way that the human brain actually processes, conceptualizes, and comprehends concepts and information. In an introductory engineering class, focused on materials engineering and its related concepts, a system of lecture interventions has been put in place to increase concept comprehension by supplementing lecture units with various activities, from additional worksheets, explicit concept discussions, and most recently, YouTube videos showcasing specific concepts and situations. In an attempt to correct the lack of actual concept comprehension, these interventions seek to interact with the human mind in a way that capitalizes on its ability to process and interpret non-linear knowledge and information.
Using a concept test given prior to the lecture unit, and after, the difference in scores is used to recognize if the concepts presented have actually been comprehended. Used specifically in a lecture unit on solubility and solutions, the concept test tested student’s knowledge of supersaturated, saturated, and unsaturated solutions. With a visual identification and a written explanation, the student’s ability to identify and explain the three solutions was tested.
In order to determine the cause of the change in score from pre- to post-test, an analysis of the change in scores and the effects of question type and solution type was conducted. The significant results are as follows:
The change in score from pre- to post-test was found to be significant, with the only difference between the two tests being the lecture unit and intervention
From pre- to post-test, solution type had a significant effect on the score, with the unsaturated solution being the most easily recognized and explained solution type
Students that felt that the YouTube videos greatly increased their concept comprehension, on average, performed better than their counterparts and also saw a greater increase their score from pre- to post-test
Using a concept test given prior to the lecture unit, and after, the difference in scores is used to recognize if the concepts presented have actually been comprehended. Used specifically in a lecture unit on solubility and solutions, the concept test tested student’s knowledge of supersaturated, saturated, and unsaturated solutions. With a visual identification and a written explanation, the student’s ability to identify and explain the three solutions was tested.
In order to determine the cause of the change in score from pre- to post-test, an analysis of the change in scores and the effects of question type and solution type was conducted. The significant results are as follows:
The change in score from pre- to post-test was found to be significant, with the only difference between the two tests being the lecture unit and intervention
From pre- to post-test, solution type had a significant effect on the score, with the unsaturated solution being the most easily recognized and explained solution type
Students that felt that the YouTube videos greatly increased their concept comprehension, on average, performed better than their counterparts and also saw a greater increase their score from pre- to post-test
ContributorsLinich, Christopher Graham (Author) / Krause, Stephen (Thesis director) / Middleton, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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
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
Description
Scholars have identified that journalists have a strong occupational identity, leading to ideological conceptions of the rules of the field. However, while journalists are often the first to embrace technological change, they often do so in different ways than most people. With the arrival of digital technologies, journalists are often faced with practices that run contrary to long-established ideology, and they often carry traditional practices over to new media. Using the theoretical lens of Giddens’s structuration theory, this research identifies traditional journalism structures that encourage or discourage journalists to interact with their followers on the social network Twitter. Using constant comparative analysis to interpret 23 interviews with contemporary journalists, this study identified multiple dualities between the use of Twitter and traditional newsgathering. It also recognized a cognitive dissonance among journalists who use Twitter. Though they can see advantages to using the platform to engage with followers, particularly other journalists and members of their audience, journalists do not seek out Twitter interaction and often avoid or resist it. Finally, this dissertation suggests three walls that block journalists from engaging in the Internet’s facilitation of personal connectivity, engagement, and a true community forum with followers. Although a wall of objectivity has somewhat been broached by Twitter use, walls of storytelling and routine and traditional news values continue to hold strong.
ContributorsJohnson, Richard G., 1981- (Author) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Thesis advisor) / Silcock, Bill (Committee member) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Daer, Alice (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The premise of the embodied cognition hypothesis is that cognitive processes require emotion, sensory, and motor systems in the brain, rather than using arbitrary symbols divorced from sensorimotor systems. The hypothesis explains many of the mechanisms of mental simulation or imagination and how they facilitate comprehension of concepts. Some forms of embodied processing can be measured using electroencephalography (EEG), in a particular waveform known as the mu rhythm (8-13 Hz) in the sensorimotor cortex of the brain. Power in the mu band is suppressed (or de-synchronized) when an individual performs an action, as well as when the individual imagines performing the action, thus mu suppression measures embodied imagination. An important question however is whether the sensorimotor cortex involvement while reading, as measured by mu suppression, is part of the comprehension of what is read or if it is arises after comprehension has taken place. To answer this question, participants first took the Gates-MacGinitie reading comprehension test. Then, mu-suppression was measured while participants read experimental materials. The degree of mu-suppression while reading verbs correlated .45 with their score on the Gates-MacGinitie test. This correlation strongly suggests that the sensorimotor system involvement while reading action sentences is part of the comprehension process rather than being an aftereffect.
ContributorsMarino, Annette Webb (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Over the past 60 years or so, audience researchers have strived to investigate the impact of structural and motivational factors on audiences’ television viewing behaviors. With the popularity of streaming services, the way people consume and discuss media content has been fundamentally transformed. However, the academic understanding of whether factors traditionally found to impact television viewing behaviors continue to do so in the streaming age remains limited. Building on both agent-based and structural theories in television audience research, this study employed a mixed-method approach that combines data collected via in-depth interviews with that from screenshots captured with a browser extension to revisit the roles of structural and motivational factors in participants’ Netflix viewing. The study’s results underscore that, even in a high-choice media environment, structural factors (e.g., audience availability, content availability and exclusivity) and traditional viewing motivations (i.e. for relaxation and enjoyment) remain critical in determining participants’ viewing practices. Specifically, the platforms and devices that people use to watch television may differ from those used in the network era, but why they watch, when they watch, and what they watch are still determined by the motivational and structural factors identified in traditional television audience research. In addition, the results showed that newer structural factors such as program scores on recommendation sites have less of an impact on participants’ viewing decisions. Habits, which are commonly overlooked in audience research, played an important role in influencing when, how, and what participants watched on Netflix. Further, despite having access to almost unlimited viewing options, many participants still tended to watch programs that they were familiar with or had watched before. The findings highlighted that, even in today’s fragmented media environment, participants’ Netflix viewing practices were repetitive and deeply embedded in the structured routines of their daily lives. The study advances television audience scholarship by providing fresh insights about the traditional and emerging factors in determining viewers’ streaming behaviors. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.
ContributorsShao, Chun (Author) / Barrett, Marianne (Thesis advisor) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Kwon, K. Hazel (Committee member) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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
During uncertain situations such as a crisis or risk scenario, journalists experience challenges in filtering, verifying, and curating information and adapting to the new work conditions. Utilizing Sensemaking Theory, this qualitative study aims to understand how journalists construct reporting decisions on uncertain scientific topics, given the potential impact of these stories on the public’s understanding and acceptance of science. The study focuses on Kuwaiti journalists’ handling of science and health information during the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID‐19). The research adopts a narrative approach, conducting in-depth interviews with science reporters and managing editors from digital news outlets in Kuwait. Thematic analysis of the data indicates that journalists’ handling of COVID-19 uncertain science news was mainly influenced by interests, emotions, external pressures, personal stances, and organizational alignment rather than a thorough evaluation of claims. This suggests a lack of expertise and competence in effectively evaluating and interpreting science news.
The study identifies six primary sensemaking approaches used by science journalists and reveals the implicit connotations that underlie Kuwaiti journalists’ roles, which are heavily influenced by their professional, social, and cultural realities. The findings suggest that journalists’ perceptions of their surrounding environment, including their country’s level of scientific contribution, public interest in science, and the overall state of journalism, are important dimensions influencing their perception of their role. Additionally, the study adds to the body of research on gatekeeping by highlighting the influence of sensemaking on journalists’ resistance and compliance with a gate and how this may sometimes lead to overlooking a gate’s presence.
Moreover, the study contributes to understanding journalists’ news values and value prioritization during uncertain times. It emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between sensemaking and news values, where values serve as both selection and sensemaking devices. The findings also shed light on how journalists justify their control over uncertain information dissemination, using uncertainty, audience perception, and social responsibility to legitimize their actions and deflect criticism. The insights gained from this study have significant implications for journalistic practices, ethics, and responsibilities in the context of uncertainty and health crises.
ContributorsAlshehab, Ahmad Sh (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis advisor) / Silcock, B. William (Committee member) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Committee member) / Ebrahim, Husain (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023