Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Defining The Importance Of Mental Preparedness For Risk Communication And Residents Well-Prepared For Wildfire, Christine Eriksen, Timothy Prior

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Building on a recognised information-to-action gap in wildfire risk communication, this paper examines what being physically and mentally 'well prepared' actually means to wildfire agency staff and volunteers in charge of disseminating risk information. Using the results of an open-ended survey conducted in southeast Australia, we examine how a set of preparedness messages is interpreted. The paper demonstrates that the concept of wildfire preparedness is ambiguous, and that being 'well prepared' is a complex mix of practical and mental preparedness measures. Many of the individual interpretations of preparedness messages are found to not align with the official outlined intent. In …

Decentralised Task Allocation Under Space, Time And Communication Constraints For Disaster Domain, Xing Su, Minjie Zhang, Quan Bai

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The coordination of dynamic task allocation based on available resources is very challenging in disaster domains under time, space and communication constraints. In addition, it is also very hard or even impossible to achieve tasks allocation by using a centralised manner with the global knowledge of the working environment. This paper presents a novel decentralised coordination approach for dynamic task allocation by considering space, time and communication constraints in a disaster domain, and workloads and priorities of different tasks. In this approach, a group formation mechanism is proposed to help agents with limited communication range to achieve effective task allocation …

Monitoring Policy And Actions On Food Environments: Rationale And Outline Of The Informas Policy Engagement And Communication Strategies, H Brinsden, T Lobstein, J Landon, V Kraak, G Sacks, S Kumanyika, Boyd A. Swinburn, S Barquera, Sharon Friel, C Hawkes, Bridget Kelly, M L'Abbe, A Lee, J Ma, J Macmullen, S Mohan, C Monteiro, Bruce Neal, M Rayner, D Sanders, W Snowdon, S Vandevijvere, C Walker

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) proposes to collect performance indicators on food policies, actions and environments related to obesity and non-communicable diseases. This paper reviews existing communications strategies used for performance indicators and proposes the approach to be taken for INFORMAS. Twenty-seven scoring and rating tools were identified in various fields of public health including alcohol, tobacco, physical activity, infant feeding and food environments. These were compared based on the types of indicators used and how they were quantified, scoring methods, presentation and the communication and reporting strategies used. There are …

Affective Learning Profiles In Compulsory High School Physical Education: An Instructional Communication Perspective, Collin Webster, Diana Mindrila, Glenn Weaver

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Affective learning is a major focus of the national K-12 physical education (PE) content standards (National Association for Sport and Physical Education [NASPE, 2004]). Understanding how students might fit into different affective learning subgroups would help extend affective learning theory in PE and suggest possible intervention strategies for teachers wanting to increase students' affective learning. The present study used cluster analysis (CA) and latent profile analysis (LPA) to develop a two-level affective learning-based typology of high school students in compulsory PE from an instructional communication perspective. The optimal classification system had ten clusters and four latent profiles. A comparison of …

Cheap Talk With Two Audiences: An Experiment, Mikhail Drugov, Roberto Hérnan-Gonzalez, Praveen Kujal, Marta Troya Martinez

ESI Working Papers

In this paper we experimentally test strategic information transmission between one informed and two uninformed agents in a cheap-talk game. We find evidence of the "disciplining" effect of public communication as compared to private; however, it is much weaker than predicted by the theory. Adding a second receiver naturally increases the complexity of strategic thinking when communication is public. Using the level-k model, we exploit the within subject design to show how individuals decrease their level-k in public communication. Surprisingly, we find that individuals become more sophisticated when they communicate privately with two receivers rather than one.

Leadership Development For Pro-Environmental Behavior Utilizing Peer To Peer Communication And Learning: An Academic Pilot Project, Mark Wayne Carrera Ma

All Student Scholarship

There is a cultural perception that the onus of responsibility for shark conservation falls on the shoulders of environmental and scientific communities’ leaders. Given the diminutive size of these two communities when compared to the vastness of American society, responsibilities should be shared by leaders of educational organizations who can communicate with greater populations. The general public must be encouraged to act pro-environmentally for effective shark conservation to ever take place in the world.

The Personal, Political, And The Virtual? Redefining Female Success And Empowerment In A Post-Feminist Landscape, Linda Elizabeth Chardon

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Volatile Congregations : Crisis Sensemaking In A Southern Baptist Church, Brandon Douglas Bannon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to test the assertion that Sensemaking Theory is an appropriate lens to understand church crisis by highlighting the role of communication as a central aspect of the sensemaking process. In addition, through the application of Sensemaking Theory, the secondary goal was to assist congregations as they try to avoid the negative consequences of church splits. The analysis utilized in the current study was specifically selected to develop a history of participant interpretation within a church in order to determine how members made sense of the crisis. To that end, this study followed the …

Planning A Reading And Discussion Series In An Academic Library, Rebecca Arzola

Publications and Research

Planning a reading series for an academic library takes an initial investment of time, energy and attention to detail. When you consider all the elements involved with planning and executing a reading, the initial investment of time and effort to devise a smoothly run event series is well worth the results. It can be as creative a venture as you have time for. Do what is comfortable for you

Communication Of Emotion In Music, Jesse Paul Huhnerkoch

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The communication of emotion in music has been shown to be dependent on musical structure and emotional prompting with lyrical messages. This study seeks a new approach to researching the communication of emotion in music by creating musical samples that are based upon the sound wave frequency parameters of emotive speaking. An electronic survey containing six different emotive musical samples was conducted to gather listener interpretations of the intended emotional quality. Further research is needed to properly distinguish the parameters of emotive frequencies in order to provide for exposure of the functionalities of this phenomenon.

Communicating, Collaborating, And Coordinating To Revitalize New Jersey Neighborhoods, Lois W. Greco

The Foundation Review

· Since 2003, the New Jersey public and private funding community has been organizing and implementing a shared, cross-sector approach to revitalizing the state's low-income neighborhoods that incorporates residents and stakeholders, encourages private investment, leverages corporate resources, and produces measurable results.

· The approach has been shaped by the programmatic alignment of the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation's Neighborhood Grants Program and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs' Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit program (NRTC) with technical assistance from the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.

· The combined programs have supported initiatives in 26 neighborhoods, funded by $16 …

Media Literacy, David Kamerer

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Polygamy Is Creepy, Wrong, And Sick! (However, I Find It Fascinating) : Parasocial Comparison, Parasocial Processing, Parasocial Contact Hypothesis, And Polygamy, Thomas Phillip Madison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined tolerance of polygamists as a result of exposure to television programming. Specifically, it looked at how audiences form attitudes toward the practice of polygamy and its participants in light of viewing its portrayals in popular television entertainment. Using historical research, semi-structured interviews, surveys of viewers and students, and an experiment, I explored the issue of tolerance among different types of Americans. The findings in these studies demonstrate that Americans never cared for polygamy and continue to find little appeal for its practice. Yet, we are captivated by television shows that focus on polygamy. Part of our habit …

Rethinking The Classroom: One Department’S Attempt To Connect Student Learning And National Events, John A. Mcarthur

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Communication programs have a rich anecdotal history of connecting student learning to real-world experience. Yet, the same programs, including ours, often privilege classroom-based instruction and instructor-led experiential learning over other types of experiences. When community organizers announced a national mega-event for our city, faculty in our communication department knew that we wanted to use it as a learning experience. We brainstormed ideas, most of which were classroom- and semester-based concepts typical of traditional topics courses. But, one of our faculty members suggested that we think outside of the concept of classroom. What resulted was a unique experience unlike any we …

The Role Of Acculturation On Bosnian Refugee Adult Child Mate Selection, Emina Herovic

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Forced by the atrocities of war from their native country, Bosnian families came to United States seeking refuge and a new life. Immigrating to a new country, however, involves the process of acculturation which can dilute many native practices. Like many refugees that immigrated, Bosnians sought to adapt to the American way of life, while keeping their traditional ethnic customs, practices, and religion (Val & Iain-Walker, 2003). Many Bosnian refugee parents worked to keep the Bosnian practices prevalent in their first and second generation Bosnian American children. By doing so, Bosnian parents imbedded into their children the original customs, practices, …

Exploring Motivation Through Athlete Communication, Tye G. Davis

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the communication ecology of athlete motivation. Furthermore, gender differences in communication ecologies were evaluated, as were variations in communication tendencies for highly and lowly motivated athletes. Findings suggest that teammates and parents are strong motivators for athletes. Mass media were associated with athlete motivation while social media were not. Gender differences were found with males reporting being more motivated by mass media than females, while females were more strongly motivated by their parents and friends. There were significant differences found in the communication ecologies of highly motivated athletes compared to less motivated athletes. Athletes who were …

Extended Communication Efforts Involved With College Long-Distance Relationships, Michael W. Firmin, Ruth L. Firmin, Kailee Lorenzen-Merical

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present phenomenological, qualitative research study involved in-depth interviews of all 16 female, sophomore students involved in respective distance relationships at a private, selective, comprehensive, Midwest university. Among other results found in the study, the present article focuses on communication dynamics involved with the relationships. Results showed key communication constructs to involve learning to communicate in a distance milieu, interpreting the tone of their boyfriend’s voice, compensating for their lack of contexts, working harder at communication, and committing themselves to the extra efforts involved with good communication. Generally, the women were content with their relationships. We interpret the findings to …

Masada Performances : The Contested Indentities Of Touristic Spaces, Ariel Gratch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Masada, a Herodian fortress and the site of an ancient struggle between Jews and Romans that culminated in a mass suicide by 960 Jews, is a symbolically important site for the country of Israel and for the Jewish people. Previous research on Masada has focused on how the story about the site, told through popular culture, in history books, and at the site, has been used to create and maintain a national Israeli and, more broadly, Jewish identity. Masada is the second most visited site in Israel, attracting over 800,000 people each year, and the number of visitors to the …

Citizens United, The Marketplace, And Influence, Corin Shanti La Pointe-Aitchison

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the rationale used by the Supreme Court in the 2010 case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The majority opinion and dissent were dissected and scrutinized for any weaknesses. After careful review and comparison with First Amendment theories and scholarly articles, it was found that the majority opinion and final decision were poorly reasoned and created a dangerous political communication landscape and a weakened Marketplace of Ideas.

Chairs Mentoring Faculty Colleagues, Jeff Kerssen-Griep

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Many academics struggle to manage the changes that come with suddenly being responsible for chairing a group of peers. As in skilled classroom instruction, leading an academic unit invokes specific structural, strategic, tactical, and interpersonal abilities. New chairs often quickly have to add ways of thinking and acting that are beyond the precise expertise that got them to that point in the first place. With our focus on understanding process, communication scholars may be better equipped than some others to understand this role shift’s dynamics, but often we struggle as mightily as our chemist or engineering or nursing peers to …

You Can't Put Old Wine In New Bottles: The Effect Of Newcomers On Coordination In Groups, Matthew Mccarter, Roman M. Sheremeta

Business Faculty Articles and Research

A common finding in social sciences is that member change hinders group functioning and performance. However, questions remain as to why member change negatively affects group performance and what are some ways to alleviate the negative effects of member change on performance? To answer these questions we conduct an experiment in which we investigate the effect of newcomers on a group's ability to coordinate efficiently. Participants play a coordination game in a four-person group for the first part of the experiment, and then two members of the group are replaced with new participants, and the newly formed group plays the …

Cultural Differences And Switching Of In-Group Sharing Behavior Between An American (Facebook) And A Chinese (Renren) Social Networking Site, Lin Qiu, Han Lin, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Prior research has documented cultural dimensions that broadly characterize between-culture variations in Western and East Asian societies and that bicultural individuals can flexibly change their behaviors in response to different cultural contexts. In this article, we studied cultural differences and behavioral switching in the context of the fast emerging, naturally occurring online social networking, using both self-report measures and content analyses of online activities on two highly popular platforms, Facebook and Renren (the “Facebook of China”). Results showed that while Renren and Facebook are two technically similar platforms, the Renren culture is perceived as more collectivistic than the Facebook culture. …

Cheap, Easy, Or Connected: The Conditions For Creating Group Coordination, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Daniel Rodriguez, Nicholas Weller

Faculty Scholarship

In both legal and political settings there has been a push toward adopting institutions that encourage consensus. The key feature of these institutions is that they bring interested parties together to communicate with each other. Existing research about the success or failure of particular institutions is ambiguous. Therefore, we turn our attention to understanding the general conditions when consensus is achievable, and we test experimentally three crucial factors that affect a group's ability to achieve consensus: (1) the difficulty of the problem, (2) the costs of communication, and (3) the structure of communication. Using multiple experimental approaches, we find that …

Weekly Column, Patricia Lamberti

Patricia Lamberti

The Implications Of Viral Media & Advocacy: Kony 2012, Cassandra Bopp

Honors Projects in Communication

This research paper analyzes the video “Kony 2012” as an example of advocacy film making and viral media. By analyzing critical sources, I draw conclusions as to why this video became the most viral video of all time and how other advocacy groups can use this phenomenon to learn about viral advocacy media. Using data from LexisNexis Academic, I track the popularity of “Kony 2012” via different forms of media (blogs, news articles, etc.) and compare my data to prior research conducted on social media sites. Ultimately, I will find that several key characteristics can be pinpointed as the primary …

Black Students' Classroom Silence In Predominantly White Institutions Of Higher Education, Mahajoy A. Laufer

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative study explored Black students' silence in classrooms at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education in the northeast United States. Fifteen student interviews revealed that teaching material centered on European-American culture and history influenced their silence. Participants perceived devaluing of people of color in course material and perceived that professors used and allowed racist language and opinions to pervade the classroom. Students negotiated the tension of having discordant views from the mainstream and at times, between other students of the same racial and cultural group. They often elected to speak out against perceived discrimination and remained silent in …

Breaking The Silence : Uncovering The Gendered Communication Patterns Before, During, And After Instances Of Sexual Assault At Nescac Colleges, Carolyn A. Curtis

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Sexual assault is a pervasive problem that many college women face. This study explores the gendered communication patterns employed by men and women prior to, during, and after instances of heterosexual sexual assault on New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) college campuses. It was hypothesized that gender plays a role in instances of sexual assault in that norms of masculinity and femininity influence the communication employed by men and women, with women's voices being silenced, muted, and ignored and men's voices being assertive and dominant. Nine mental health and sexual assault professionals, from eight different colleges, were interviewed to …

Is The Daily Show Bad For Democracy? An Analysis Of Cynicism And Its Significance, Evan Bartlett

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

In recent years, satirical news programs like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have emerged as an important development in contemporary American society, culture, and politics. Critics have argued that The Daily Show has a negative impact on the political attitudes of American citizens by making them cynical about government and the political process as a whole. As a result of these attitudes, they argue, citizens are less apt to participate in politics and, in turn, this behavior is detrimental to American democracy. The purpose of this research project is to explore the debate over whether or not The Daily …

The Cowl - V.77 - N.12 - Dec 6, 2012

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 77 - No. 12 - December 6, 2012. 32 pages.

Moving Toward Leadership: A Case Study Of Latina Adolescents And Effective Communication, Isela Estrada

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

The problem addressed in this study is the need for Latina adolescents to develop effective communication and leadership skills that will support their success in U.S. culture and society. This thesis is a case study of two Mexican-American adolescents who participated in a twelve-session leadership program at a dance studio. The goal of the study was to test the effectiveness of Rena Kornblum’s (2002) Disarming the Playground curriculum as a social skills program to improve leadership, effective communication skills, and group cohesion. This study included video footage of the adolescents engaging in movement-based role-play scenarios, which was examined using qualitative …