Browsing by Subject "New media"
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Item Active citizen participation online : a typology for evaluating online civic participation projects(2011-12) Hennigan, Sean Christopher; Stein, Laura Lynn, 1965-; Doty, PhilipCommunications scholars recognize two related trends in twenty-first century politics: the rise of information and communications technologies promising major changes in civic participation and a growing disconnection between citizens and their governments. The coexistence of these trends raises some interesting questions about the role of ICTs for enabling new forms of civic participation. How can new technologies better enable civic participation? This report proposes a typology for evaluating online civic participation projects that allows researchers to analyze the goals, designs, and outcomes of particular projects. The typology also incorporates Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of citizen participation in order to enumerate the relationships between the project’s goals and its outcomes and to provide a flexible model for understanding the democratic conceptualizations manifested in particular projects. The report analyzes three online civic participation projects, highlighting their innovations and discussion their levels of citizen participation. The analyses suggest that a project’s goals, designs and outcomes are related to, and inform, its desired and realized levels of citizen participation. The review also suggests clarifications to Arnstein’s ladder for future use in understanding online civic participation. The report’s evaluative typology can aid in the interpretation of past online civic participation projects and guide the conceptualization and implementation of future projects in order to facilitate the development of more direct connections between citizens and governments and more open and transparent democratic governance structures.Item Artaud's "Daughters" : "Plague," "Double," and "Cruelty" as feminist performance practices of transformation(2012-05) Barfield, Heather Leigh; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L., 1955-; Canning, Charlotte; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L., 1955-; Bonin-Rodriguez, Paul; Strong, Pauline; Stone, AllucquereThe purpose of this study was to identify Artaudian criteria contained in three different performance practices including (1) a television performance, (2) a live performance, and (3) a workshop performance. These included, respectively, (1) an episode from The X-Files television series; (2) MetamorphoSex, a live ritual performance with performance artist Annie Sprinkle; and (3) Rachel Rosenthal’s DbD Experience Workshop. Core criteria of Artaudian Theater of Cruelty were established through analyses of the relevant literature. These criteria were then coupled with characteristics of French feminist theory and a “shamanistic” perspective to create a theoretical-analytic tool with Artaudian criteria as its centerpiece. Also, performance analysis, experiential and experimental reflexive-subjectivity, and performative poetics were techniques applied for analytic purposes. Analyses identified a range of Artaudian criteria and feminist and “shamanistic” characteristics in the three performances; these included radical and performative poetics, embodied states of ecstasy and transformation, and non-reliance on written texts and scripts in performance practices. Among other things, analyses of different performance practices indicates that identified Artaudian performances, as a whole, tend to hinge upon performing “in the extreme” and may inadvertently serve to reinscribe race and imperialist hegemonies through an exaggeration of performing “whiteness in the extreme.” Additionally, women performing “in the extreme” are often unfairly characterized as heightened and exaggerated examples of “womanness.” Masked behind themes of women’s empowerment are cultural and performative archetypes of woman as “goddess,” “monster,” or heartless “cyborg.” Implications of these findings are discussed as well as the creation of public spaces where groups of people gather for an “extreme” performative event that, through dramatic spectacle and purpose, unites them with a particular theme or focus. It is argued that such spaces have the potential to catalyze endeavors seeking transformation and, in particular, transform the social lives of the participants.Item The consumer media experience in innovative media : the impact of media novelty and presence on consumer evaluations(2011-08) Yim, Yi-Cheon; Drumwright, Minette E.; Cicchirillo, Vincent J.; Emmer, Edmund T.; Williams, Jerome D.; Till, Brian D.The purpose of the study was to provide a comprehensive framework that explains how consumer experiences within new, innovative media affect advertising effectiveness. Several concerns about previous advertising models motivated this study. For instance, advertising models traditionally have focused on message recipients’ characteristics and information processes, ignoring the significant role of media in understanding advertising effectiveness. In addition, recently developed advertising models dealing with the impact of media have been narrowly applied to a specific medium, the Internet, and have focused largely on interactivity. The proposed model and our findings highlighted the prominent roles of media novelty and presence in enhancing advertising effectiveness in an innovative, new medium that emphasizes vividness, stereoscopic 3-D. The novelty effect, created by the newness of the medium, had the power to attract viewers’ attention and the increased attention enhanced their sense of presence, the experience of being plunged into a new virtual world that advertisers constructed. The findings demonstrated that these sequential relationships can result in positive measures of advertising effectiveness, such as improved product knowledge and increased enjoyment, and ultimately more favorable attitudes toward the ad. Also our findings revealed that an irritation, such as cybersickness resulting from the stereoscopic 3-D, can hinder ad viewers’ communication processes and reduce their attention to the ad and their enjoyment of it. The model predicted that user characteristics, such as innovativeness, curiosity, and previous experience with the medium, would affect the process, but no effects were found. The current research provided advertising practitioners and researchers with opportunities to consider the significant role of media, especially innovative media, in assessing overall advertising effectiveness. For managers, it highlighted the potential of stereoscopic 3-D technology as an emerging advertising vehicle. Given the rapid changes in the media environment, it is increasingly important to understand the important roles that media play in advertising effectiveness.Item Consumer psychology in a virtual store : the impact of automatic priming and assimilation/contrast effect on shoppers’ perceptions and behaviors(2012-08) Yoo, Seung Chul 1976-; Drumwright, Minette E.; Close, Angeline G; Williams, Jerome D; Peña, Jorge F; Atkinson, Lucy; Falbo, ToniThe goal of this dissertation is to understand unconscious effects in a 3D virtual store by examining how environmental cues in a store prime consumers and change their perceptions and behaviors automatically. By replicating and extending Bargh’s (1996) priming study, it was hypothesized and confirmed that age stereotypical avatars activate stereotype related concepts and influence shoppers’ walking speed as well as their choice of a product in a 3D virtual store setting. Further, the study proved that priming through elderly avatars can positively affect participants’ intentions to donate and to volunteer for a charity organization. The results supported the predictions of an automatic priming effect and an assimilation/contrast effect with important qualifications related to preexisting prejudices. The findings of this dissertation provide directions for future research and practical insights for online retailers and marketers of nonprofit organizations that will help them design and use virtual environments to maximize marketing outcomes.Item How fast is too fast? : examining the impact of speed-driven journalism on news production and audience reception(2014-08) Lee, Angela Min-Chia; Coleman, RenitaNew media technology is altering many aspects of mass communication processes. One of the most profound changes, especially in the newspaper industry, lies in the rise of speed-driven journalism, with growing emphasis on what is new or happening now. With more newspapers adopting this speed-driven news practice, the nature of its impact on journalists and audiences necessitates empirical examination, and this dissertation seeks to contribute to the professional and academic literature from a two-part, mixed method approach. Through interviews with journalists, study 1 sought to understand journalists' view of how speed-driven journalism affects their professional norms, routines and output, and how social media factors into the speed-driven online media landscape. The interviewees were also asked to discuss their view on how speed-driven journalism affects news audiences in terms of news credibility, news use, and paying intent. Based on findings from study 1, an experiment on news audiences was conducted in study 2 to assess the impact of speed-driven journalism on news credibility, future use, paying intent, readability and selective scanning. Key findings from both studies include: (1) Whereas most interviewees in study 1 believed that speed harms news credibility but boosts news use, the experiment in study 2 revealed that speed neither harms news credibility nor promotes future use. (2) Speed-driven journalism has no effect on selective scanning or audiences' paying intent. (3) In terms of readability, news stories presented in the live blog-like format are deemed harder to follow when compared to those presented in the traditional format. This dissertation advances the hierarchy of influence model by uncovering the effect of perceptual disconnect on speed-driven news practices at the social institutions level. That is, journalists are wrong at times in their assessment of how audiences engage with and are affected by new media technology, but nonetheless proceed to produce news and content based upon their mistaken judgment.Item I'm from everywhere : articulations of queer identity in online spaces(2010-05) Hill, Erica Ruth; Mallapragada, Madhavi; Fuller, JenniferThis thesis is an exploration of the various ways in which queer identity has been subsumed within an urban sensibility by mainstream culture, and how mediated articulations of queerness have subsequently been impacted. Highlighting the influence of late capitalism within the creation of a categorical “queer” identity, this work connects the history of the gentrified gayborhood to televisual and filmic representations of urban and rural queers. Interrogating legacy media representations opens up a conversation about how new media articulations of queerness might operate in the digital age. Examinations of popular queer websites, Downelink, GLEE and I’m From Driftwood illustrate the reification of common LGBTQ identity tropes, as well as highlight the spaces where queer affect theory might perform a critical intervention in how new media scholars might approach future research of online sources.Item Incidental exposure to news: limiting fragmentation in the new media environment(2009-08) Lee, Jae Kook; McCombs, Maxwell E.Recent changes in the media environment have generated serious debates about whether these changes will foster or hamper the proper functioning of democracy. Along this line, the tendency toward audience fragmentation has arisen as one of the main concerns that might undermine a healthy democracy. People are not likely to discuss common social problems and understand each other in fragmented society, much less agree on methods to solve them. This dissertation investigates whether the environmental changes result in the audience fragmentation. This study first clarifies conceptual and operational definition of fragmentation. It is conceptualized as division of the general public into small groups not communicating with each other, and operationalized as existence of a common agenda by means of incidental news exposure facilitated by structural factors of online communication, an exemplar of the new information environment. Data from several different methods are employed to investigate effects of new media on fragmentation: a content analysis, a survey, and a laboratory experiment. The results provide evidence supporting that the public still can share experiences by learning a common agenda from the media on the Internet, the medium considered an icon of the new media environment. Findings of the content analysis found significant positive correlations between news agenda of different media outlets, indicating that there is a common agenda in the media. Environmental factors of the media environment rather than individual differences in political predispositions have strong influence on people’s incidental news exposure, a key route to acquire a common agenda. A series of analyses based on the survey found that overall frequency of Internet use significantly predicted individuals’ reports of incidental news exposure online, whereas there was no significant relationship between political predispositions and incidental exposure. It also appears that certain online activities such as getting entertainment/sports information significantly predicted the incidental news exposure. The incidental news exposure was found to have actual effects on people’s learning of a common agenda and recognition/recall of information carried by stimulus messages in the experiment. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of communication research and media/democracy.Item "It won't get better until we make it better" : the politics of self-representation, resistance and empowerment in the queer youth response to the It Gets Better Project(2011-05) Harding, Ashton Lee; Moore, Lisa L. (Lisa Lynne); Pritchard, EricWith the ultimate goal of illustrating the ways that queer youth employ change and act as agents of self-representation, this project examines the relationship between the It Gets Better Project, a queer adult project focused upon ‘bettering‘ the lives of their younger generation, and the Make it Better Project created in response by queer youth. This thesis addresses the following questions: How do adult conceptualizations of queer youth as vulnerable victims operate within discourses that employ queer youth as agents of change? In what ways do queer youth grapple with such conceptualizations? Furthermore, how might queer youth actively resist adult narratives of risk, vulnerability, and surveillance? Seeking to not only examine the ways in which queer youth negotiate adult narratives of adolescent risk and vulnerability, this project is organized to highlight the ways in which queer youth understand and experience their own representational and performative narratives, particularly when performed in response to adult narratives. In examination of the “It Gets Better: Dan and Terry” (2010a) and “It Gets Better: President Barack Obama” (2010c) vlogs of the It Gets Better Project, this thesis seeks to uncover the ways that assimilationist goals of inclusion, tolerance, and equality impact the intelligibility of queer youth. As a means for which to explore the possible resistance employed to counter such silencing mechanisms, the examination turns to three youth-produced vlogs of the Make it Better Project. An additional intent of the focus on the “LGBTQ Youth Speak Out”, “Make it Better Project” and “Make it Better Project - You Can Make it Better Now!” vlogs is to construct a space to analyze the complex and fluid dynamics of queer youth communities. With focus given to the various mechanisms employed by the adult and youth performers of these particular vlog-narratives, this project constructs an interdisciplinary framework of new social movement theory, new online media studies, queer theory, quare (queer of color) studies, feminist sociolinguistics, and critical youth studies as a means to position queer youth voices at the forefront of discussion. With the goal of continuing research that represents queer youth as agents of their own experiences, bodies, lives, and identities, it is my hope that the framework provided by this examination will inspire future work that highlights and centers the voices of queer youth.Item The new curators : bloggers, fans and classic cinema on Tumblr(2014-05) Cain, Bailey Knickerbocker; Frick, CarolineThis study examines the role of social media in maintaining interest in classic cinema in today’s media culture. Ethnographic analyses and case studies were performed within a robust classic cinema fan network on the social media blogging site Tumblr. The practices of these bloggers and their online platform are framed against the traditional structure of the curator and museum, indicating that they serve many of the cultural functions attributed to these institutions. This study further demonstrates that these Tumblr networks serve as a resource for young people to discover, share, and create communities relating to classic cinema. Due to the networking capabilities of Tumblr’s youth-oriented platform, these fan activities reach a broad range of individuals, exposing them to scenes and actors from classic cinema, stimulating interest in and acceptance of the cinematic framework of classic films. This content visibility and distribution potentially draws those outside the community into the extant fan network. These communities and practices represent previously unexplored methods by which classic cinema appreciation may develop and thrive within the fast-paced media culture of the 21st century.Item New media communication in education(2012-06) Livingston, Kat; Bichard, Shannon; Baake, Ken; Stoker, KevinResearch and teaching are the crossroads at which higher education exists. Great scholar-researchers in the field understand that new media communication in education is a very fluid area of study, rich with opportunities to glean context and insight in every interaction. This project evaluates the learning processes and experiences that took place in my pursuit of a Master of Science in the interdisciplinary studies of new media communication in education. The research included in this portfolio is a reflection of my growth and development as a professional scholar. The content provides an assessment of the academic work I completed, and a means for self-examination and exploration. The papers within this portfolio draw attention to research and literature related to different elements within the realm of Mass Communications, Educational Instructional Technology, Technical Communication and Rhetoric, and Educational Psychology. The content, research, and subject matter seek to explore various concepts and challenges within these four areas of study. Additionally, this research provides a bridge of understanding in regards to the role of new media communication in education, and analyzes the relationship and connectedness of new media and instructional learning. In the study and exploration of these areas of interest, I was able to gain great focus on a research agenda that concentrates on generating research pertaining to the psychological effects of new media on teachers and students, and how these areas work together to better pedagogy and instruction in education. In analyzing the various issues surrounding Mass Communications, Educational Instructional Technology, Technical Communication and Rhetoric, and Educational Psychology, I was able to develop a greater understanding of the world and a foundation upon which my interest in higher education is built.Item New media’s support of knowledge building and 21st century skills development in high school curricula(2014-05) Jansen, Barbara A.; Immroth, Barbara FrolingThere is a growing consensus that the character of pedagogy must shift from one of teacher- and textbook-directed instruction to one of student-centered learning. This transition stems from the need to maintain the United States’ competitive edge in the world market and prepare young people for a society that is more socially, economically, and politically complex. Progressive educators advocate for a “learning reform” facilitated by digital media, and the skills and competencies that young people develop through using participatory media in an informal setting. This study examined how the use of new media can support subject-area knowledge building and 21st century skills development in nine classrooms in an independent high school. A constructivist grounded theory approach guided the collection and analysis of empirical data. This process took the form of semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, classroom observations, and an examination of course-related documents. A symbolic interactionist perspective framed the data analysis. The study examined wiki use, blogging, microblogging, and document sharing in six high school subject areas: ninth grade History, Latin II, Advanced Placement Art History, twelfth grade English, Anatomy and Physiology, and Environmental Science. Conceptual categories derived from the findings suggest that the use of specific new media tools support subject-area knowledge building, both explicit and tacit. This occurs by promoting participation among all students, which helps students broaden their perspectives through universal access to their peers’ thinking. Findings also suggest that the integration and use of these specific new media tools support the development of certain 21st century cognitive and interpersonal skills. The findings from this study support two substantive theories: 1) The use of new media support knowledge building and skills development through increased participation, leading to broadening students’ perspectives about subject-area content, and 2) as students engage in knowledge building activities, specific features of new media support the development of specific 21st century skills within the cognitive and interpersonal domains. The results of this study provide educators with a set of guidelines to consider as they integrate new media into subject-area curricula, and offer an agenda for further research on a local and national level.Item The re-mediation of the archive : situating new media in moving image archives(2010-05) Jannise, Stephen Tatum; Frick, Caroline; Winget, MeganThis thesis outlines the changing landscape of moving image archives in light of the emergence of new media. Whereas, in the twentieth century, these archives were once responsible for the preservation of endangered films and television programs, I argue that, in the twenty-first century, moving image archives will redefine their value to society not through preservation but through the decisions they make, which will affect not simply the intellectual community but the culture at large. The ways in which moving image archives situate new media materials and extend cooperation between institutions will determine, in large part, the discourse surrounding moving images throughout the upcoming century.Item Stories that weave, type that zooms, things that fade away(2003) Molloy, Ryan Benjamin; Olsen, Daniel M., 1963-I do not deny that I am fascinated by type that zooms across the screen, animated characters, fast paced video games, mouse-overs that make objects dance, and images that appear and disappear. It is not just me. The allure and the appeal of the moving image is making the visual language of motion commonplace, whether on-line, in television advertisements, or in movie-title sequences. From this initial attraction, my work delves into two areas of personal interest. The first is story telling: what is the relationship between traditional narratives and the visual language of new media? The digital narratives are the manifestation of a working methodology that questions the result of combining labyrinthine structures, algorithmic controlled objects, video games, three-dimensional spaces, film, and motion for the sake of motion. The second is the transforming translation of the visual language of new media into printed formats. Motion and interactivity dramatically change the way narratives are communicated; multiplicity and malleability become fundamental elements of writing in an inherently static medium. Reading becomes necessarily both spatial and participatory.Item Tackling the establishment with technology : a study of sports media cases(2013-12) Cox, Courtney, active 2013; Jensen, Robert, 1958-In today’s new media landscape, who tells the story and how it is told has changed from the traditional journalistic rituals of the past. This study examines four cases within sports media that challenge the sports media complex, a complicated partnership between sports organizations and personalities and the outlets that cover them. This research focuses on the impact of technological advances in communication on this institutionalized connection between media and sport and finds that while there are several factors that have affected the strength of the sports media complex, new media continue to serve as a catalyst in the erosion of the relationship between legacy media and sports’ governing bodies.Item "Textual glory holes" : genre and community in fan kink memes(2010-05) Wall, Mary Amanda, 1985-; Moore, Lisa L. (Lisa Lynne); Cvetkovich, Ann“Textual Glory Holes” examines a particular online fan community called a kink meme, in which fans exchange sexually-charged fanfiction as gifts. In this essay, I argue that, not only does the genre of fanfiction help to create and sustain the concept of kink, but that kink as a category is an interpellation of, experimentation with, and performance of the eroticism of genre in fanfiction. Furthermore, the kink meme community constitutes itself by performing this fannish erotics for each other in fiction and in sexualized feedback, resulting in a community that embraces the pleasures of this performance but sometimes distances itself from the power and political implications of the performance. Moments when fans do not distance themselves from this erotics of genre—one of unearthing and understanding diverse and diffuse pleasures—hold the potential to become what Audre Lorde calls “creative energy empowered,” a shared pleasure that can “lessen the threat of difference.”Item Visual music : an ethnography of an experimental art in Los Angeles(2010-05) Cardoso, Leonardo de; Erlmann, Veit; Seeman, SoniaThis report focuses on social networks surrounding visual music, a sub-field of audiovisual experimental art in which hearing and seeing intersect, often through the music-oriented manipulation of abstract imagery and audio-visual synchronization. The discussion evolves from my fieldwork in Los Angeles, where I interacted with artists, archivists, publishers, institutions, software developers, and scholars. Taking into account Howard Becker's notion of art world, Pierre Bourdieu's ideas of cultural and economic capitals, and Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, I try to understand how these groups have been trying to establish visual music-networks. Although elements of visual music have been present in various media and artistic trends (color organs, abstract films, VJing-DJing, etc.), the field's history and premises are still little known, in part because the very term 'visual music' is a contested one. Due to its entertainment/cultural industries, Los Angeles is a place where multiple processes of high tech differentiation coexist; since the 1930s the city's technocultural environment (from film production to academic programs on computer animation) has lured artists interested in visual music. Not surprisingly, the city holds the only two institutions directly related to visual music in the country. I navigate through this field by considering some intersections between science, art, and technology.