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open access

No Escape from Modality: Impact of Video vs. Text on Perceived Credibility and Engagement with Misinformation

Description: Misinformation remains pervasive in digital platforms, shaping how individuals receive news online. Prior work suggests that credibility perceptions of misinformation can differ based on the modality of the misinformation message. Informed by the MAIN model, this quantitative study conducted two separate 2 (Modality: video or text) x 2 (Social endorsement cues: high vs. low) between-subject experiments to assess the influence of message modality and social endorsement cues on misinformation cre… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Tran, Jacinta T
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Guåhan: A (De)Colonial Borderland

Description: Answering the call to decenter whiteness and coloniality within communication studies (#RhetoricSoWhite), this project attempts to reclaim space for indigenous knowledge and to serve decolonial struggles. Written as a project of love for my fellow indigenous scholars and peoples, I expand upon Tiara Na'puti's conceptualization of "Indigeneity as Analytic" and chart how indigenous Pacific Island decolonial resistance operates through a paradigm of decolonial futurity. By recognizing Guåhan (Guam… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Torre, Joaquin Vincent, Jr.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

"It's like the only safe place on earth for kids like me!": Youth Queer World Making at Camp Half-Blood

Description: Queer youth enactments of agency, resistance, and worldmaking have been under researched in rhetorical studies. Investigating how queer world making for youth takes place at a space entitled Camp Half-Blood, a live action role playing (LARP) fantasy camp for ages 8-18, this study contends that queer youth at Camp Half-Blood utilize Burke's equipment for living, disidentifications, queer relationality, and queer hope as embodiments that create queer lifeworlds and mobilize queer campers toward q… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Stueve, Madison Nicole
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Exploring the Narrative and Family Identity Constructions of Adult Children with Visible Disabilities

Description: Using communicated narrative sense-making model and discourse-dependence, the present study examined the retrospective narratives parents told their adult children with visible disabilities in order for them to make sense of their disabilities in their families and to build personal identity. Eleven participants ages 18 to 30 with visible disabilities participated in the study and told retrospective narratives while also relying on internal boundary management strategies to communicate in the f… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Lyssy, Kendal
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

This is Your Brain on Football: Making Sense of Parents' Decision to Allow Their Child to Play Tackle Football

Description: Parents make decisions on behalf of their children on a daily basis. Some parents in the United States face the unique decision of whether or not to allow football participation for their child at a very young age. Using sensemaking theory, I examined how parents assessed the risks involved in making the decision to allow their child to play tackle football. I interviewed 24 participants in the form of 12 parental couples who had children playing middle school football and coded their response… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Boneau, Rebecca Dunnan
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

On Viewing Press Releases of the Texas State AFL-CIO as Rhetorical Genre

Description: Previous scholarship on labor rhetoric has concentrated on the impact of declining union membership and contemporary activist strategies on the part of unions. The press release is a common form of communication that organized labor employs in order to reach its publics. This study explores the press releases of the Texas State AFL-CIO to determine to what extent this level of labor discourse meets the criteria of a rhetorical genre. This study employs the methodology for generic criticism laid… more
Date: May 1992
Creator: Welborn, Ronny D.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Homeless Abjection and the Uncanny “Place” of the National Imagination

Description: This project examines the effects of the homeless body and the threat of homelessness on constructing a national imaginary that relies on the trope of locatability for recognition as a citizen-subject. The thesis argues that homelessness, the oft-figured specter of public space, functions as bodies that are “pushed out” as citizen-subjects due to their inability maintain both discursive and material location. I argue that figures of “home” rely on the ever-present threat of dislocation to maint… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Sloss, Eric J.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Rhetorical Analysis of Major Oil Companies' Advertisements in 1990 : A Semiotic Approach

Description: This study demonstrates how discourse is used to construct popular myths. This study analyzes magazine advertisements used by businesses in overcoming the rhetorical problem posed by a public opinion that blamed them for environmental problems. This study shows how businesses used advertisements to construct a popular myth that businesses were doing their part in overcoming the environmental crisis.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Barton, Mica Waggoner
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Differences in the Media Constructions of the Narratives of Male and Female Political Candidates

Description: This study views the media as a powerful agent which constructs the narratives of political candidates. In order to determine whether the media constructs the narratives of male and female political candidates differently, newspaper articles were analyzed for two 1994 Congressional races, each involving a male and a female candidate (Thurman versus Garlits and Byrne versus Davis). The first research question posed the following question: Does the media devote more coverage to male or female can… more
Date: May 1998
Creator: Paschal, Lori L. (Lori Lynne)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Enacting Racism: Clarence Thomas, George Bush, and the Construction of Social Reality

Description: This study analyzes the confirmation hearings discourse of Clarence Thomas and George Bush. Language constructs social reality. The United States has a history of racism and this history manifests itself in our language. The discourse of Clarence Thomas and George Bush created a social reality that equated opposition to Thomas' confirmation with racism using rhetorical strategies that included metaphor and narrative construction.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Ramsey, Evelyn Michele Eaton
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Faculty Identification: Effects on Culture in a Metropolitan Research University

Description: This utilized identification theory to determine if faculty identify with the university and recognize its mission. The study also explored how faculty differentiate between a traditional university and a metropolitan research university. Finally, the study explored whether the faculty consider the University of North Texas to be a Metropolitan Research University. UNT full-time faculty members (N=224) completed questionnaires to indicate their identification with the university and their recog… more
Date: May 1999
Creator: Gray, Marlene E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Purification Rhetoric: A Generic Analysis of Draft Card, Flag, and Cross Burning Cases

Description: This thesis assesses three United States Supreme Court opinions, engaging in an inductive approach to generic criticism, in an attempt to discover whether or not there are similarities and/or differences in these decisions. This study focuses on draft card, flag, and cross burning cases argued before the Court in order to discover the potential genre's characteristics.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Pollard, Donald Kent
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

"Where Do We Go From Here?" Teaching a Generation of Nclb Students in College Classrooms

Description: Since the passing of No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, the United States' secondary education system has undergone significant changes. In this study, I discuss the ways in which the law has encouraged the normalization of standardized testing and aim to answer two primary research questions. RQ1: What do college students and their instructors identify as the key challenges that arise as students educated under NCLB begin college coursework, and how does each group address these challenges? RQ… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Lovoll, Andrea K.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Connecting the Circuit: Analyzing Jurors' Cognitive Gaps and Damage Awards in Patent Infringement Trials

Description: Patent litigation is notorious for the technicality of evidence and the rhetoric of experts. Citizens selected to serve on the jury have no specialized training and have rarely been exposed to the technology or the patent process. This study provides insight into the field of jury decision-making in complex patent cases by analyzing the cognitive gaps and the tactics used by jurors to minimize them. Additionally, the study examines the justifications for the damage awards jurors provide. Th… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Drescher, L. Hailey
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

This Isn't About Me: Communication Privacy Management Theory and Public Confession

Description: Individuals at the DFW Church publicly confess intensely personal information, such as drug and alcohol addiction, spousal and child abuse, stripping, and sexual abuse. Using communication privacy management theory (CPM), I examined the way individuals at the DFW Church manage their private information, how they make disclosure decisions, and how they manage boundaries around their private information. I interviewed 13 individuals who participated in public confession, and coded their respons… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Brittain, Kära Ann Caskey
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Adoptive Parenthood: an Exploratory Study of the Influence of Pre-adoption Communication Satisfaction on Post-adoption Family Adjustment and Coping

Description: There are over a million adopted children in the United States, which makes up over 2% of the population. in spite of the fact that the majority of children are adopted into loving and caring homes, early life trauma puts them at higher risk for developing behavioral and emotional problems than non-adopted children. Due to these issues, many adoptive parents encounter post-adoption stress. This stress is often linked to minimal education regarding short- and long-term challenges associated w… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Seebeck, Lara N.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Relationships Among Whistle-blowing, Retaliation, and Identity: a Narrative Analysis

Description: Existing whistle-blower research has found that retaliation affects the whistle-blowing process. However, there is little literature focusing on the personal and emotional effects that retaliation can have on the whistle-blower’s life. Furthermore, while whistle-blowing has been studied in various organizational contexts, both public and private, virtually no research exists on whistle-blowing in the context of the public school system. This study examines the effects of the whistle-blowing… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Gravley, Dianne Yvonne
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Teaching Past the Test: a Pedagogy of Critical Pragmatism

Description: Existent scholarship in communication studies has failed to adequately address the particular pedagogical context of current public secondary education within the United States. While communication studies has produced a great deal of scholarship centered within the framework of critical pedagogy, these efforts fail to offer public high school teachers in the U.S. a tenable alternative to standardized constructs of educational communication. This thesis addresses the need for a workable, critic… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Jordan, Jason
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Diversity Revealed: Photovoice Methodology as a Means for Understanding How Teens Construct Diversity

Description: Through the partnership of standpoint theory and photovoice method, the present study looked at how teenagers, attending a multicultural education camp, define diversity, as well as what the participants considered to be the benefits and limitations of diversity. Standpoint theory gives the theoretical perspective to understand the marginalized voice of teenagers, while photovoice provides the tools to better capture and understand their marginalized voice. This study was situated in a profess… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Rodriguez, Stuti Mehta
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

"The Long Goodbye": Uncertainty Management in Alzheimer's Caregivers

Description: Caregivers for individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) shoulder a remarkably complex burden as compared to other caregivers of elderly individuals. For long distance caregivers, geographical separation further compounds the problems experienced by AD caregivers, as they are isolated from family members and support networks. Both on-site and long-distance AD caregivers experience uncertainty; the findings from this study illustrate how AD caregivers manage the uncertainty of the dise… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Shaunfield, Sara
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Re-Branding Palliative Care: Assessing Effects of a Name Change on Physician Communicative Processes During Referrals

Description: Although provision of palliative care on the United States is growing, referrals to the service are often late or non-existent. The simultaneous care model provides a blueprint for the most progressive form of palliative care, which is palliation and disease-oriented treatments delivered concurrently. Research indicates the existence of a widespread misconception that associates palliative care with imminent death, and some organizations have chosen to re-brand their palliative care services to… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Burt, Stephanie
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

"He's a Human, You're a Mermaid": Narrative Performance in Disney's The Little Mermaid

Description: Disney animation represents a powerful source of economic and cultural production. However, following the death of Walt Disney, the animation division found itself struggling to survive. It was not until the 1989 release of the hugely successful animated film The Little Mermaid that Disney would reclaim its domination among children's cultural producers. Additionally, The Little Mermaid inaugurated a shift in Disney's portrayals of gender as the company replaced the docile passive princess char… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Polanco, Raquel
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Speaking up: Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to Bystander Intervention in Racism

Description: Because racism remains a significant issue in society, and many victims of racism do not speak up for themselves when faced with racism, it is important to explore how witnesses to racist events may react and intervene upon observing racism toward others. Thus, the current study explored how participants (bystanders) reacted verbally to racist comments made by a confederate during a partner activity, as well as how participants discussed their reactions in post-interviews. Forty college student… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Hall, Camille Ashley
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Grounds-Based and Grounds-Free Voluntarily Child Free Couples: Privacy Management and Reactions of Social Network Members

Description: Voluntarily child free (VCF) individuals face stigmatization in a pronatalist society that labels those who do not want children as deviant. Because of this stigmatization, VCF couples face privacy issues as they choose to reveal or conceal their family planning decision and face a variety of reactions from social network members. Therefore, communication privacy management and communication accommodation theory was use to examine this phenomenon. Prior research found two different types of VCF… more
Date: May 2009
Creator: Regehr, Kelly A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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