Description: This article discusses the media and communication industry. The media and communication industries are experiencing unprecedented change and evolution in the 21st century. This article examines this process with a case study method by analyzing the traditional and new media sectors using the following criteria: the markets in which they are engaged, the leaders in each of the respective industries, the economic potential of these industries, and their continuing evolution and transforming processes. The article argues that the media and communications industries can no longer be identified in terms of core sectors such as broadcasting or newspapers, but rather to a different structure of activities involving such areas as content, distribution, and search features. Further, the paper posits that new theoretical and methodological tools are needed by scholars to better understand the massive changes and transformation occurring across the media sector. A series of propositions concludes the paper, offering a framework on which to build future research and analysis.

Description: This presentation is part of the faculty lecture series UNT Speaks Out, the Symposium on Well-Being. In this presentation, the author discusses the importance of quality of life to achieve happiness and wellness.

Description: This presentation is part of the faculty lecture series UNT Speaks Out on Unauthorized Immigration. This presentation discusses immigration in the United States, unauthorized immigration, and policies in place on immigration.

Description: This article discusses the discourse variations between usability tests and usability reports. Abstract: While usability evaluation and usability testing has become an important tool in artifact assessment, little is known about what happens to usability data as it moves from usability session to usability report. In this ethnographic case study, the author investigates the variations in the language used by usability participants in user-based usability testing sessions as compared to the language used by novice usability testers in their oral reports of that usability testing session. In these comparative discourse analyses, the author assesses the consistency and continuity of the usability testing data within the purview of the individual testers conducting "do-it-yourself" usability testing. This case study of a limited population suggests that findings in oral usability reports may or may not be substantiated in the evaluations themselves, that explicit or latent biases may affect the presentation of the findings in the report, and that broader investigations, both in terms of populations and methodologies, are warranted.

Description: This book review discusses 'Nexus of Empire: Negotiating Loyalty and Identity in the Revolutionary Borderlands' edited by Gene Allen Smith and Sylvia L. Hilton. The book examines the individuals who inhabited the Gulf of Mexico regions, analyzing the ways in which these people defined and redefined themselves amid a world of competing loyalties.