Department: Communication Studies (Communication) ![[clear]](close-x.png "Remove this limiter")
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1.
Acquah, Shirley A.
Physician-Patient Communication in Ghana: Multilingualism, Interpreters, and Self-Disclosure.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2011, Ohio University
► In this dissertation, I explored the communicative relationship between illiterate patients and…
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▼ In this dissertation, I explored the communicative relationship between illiterate patients and physicians at a health care facility in Ghana. Drawing on constructivist grounded theory methods, I provide a substantive explanation of issues pertaining to multilingualism, use of interpreters, and patient self-disclosure. A total of 11 patients and 25 physicians participated in this study. I gathered data through observations, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Four major findings emerged from this study. First, results revealed that, although English is the lingua franca in Ghana, interactions in health care settings, especially with illiterate patients occur in indigenous dialects. Unfortunately, not all medical terminologies have indigenous dialect equivalents, and if they existed, participants did not know them, thus, creating comprehension difficulties during clinical interactions. Second, due to a huge linguistic diversity, language barriers are a common occurrence. Consequently, interpreters frequently help with clinical interactions. However, the non-existence of professional medical interpreting services, demand that patients and their physicians have to depend on relatives, friends, health workers, or ad hoc individuals whose inadequate translation skills are likely to compromise health outcomes. Third, patients are less likely to disclose pertinent health information due to the fear of reprimand from their physician, or lack of privacy in the consulting room. Fourth, the needs of patients, such as relational aspect of care, were unmet because physicians experienced frustrations with heavy patient case loads, time constraints, and patients' disengagement behaviors. Implications from this study include the need to (1) review indigenous dialects, work to provide terminologies for health related topics, and make those available to patients and physicians, (2) identify indigenous dialects for which interpreters will be required, and establish a policy framework for the provision of professional medical interpreting services at health care facilities, (3) educate physicians on how to better dialogue and relate with their patients to ensure that patients feel comfortable disclosing various health information, (4) incorporate communication skills courses in medical school curricula, (5) encourage patients to ask questions or seek clarification during medical interactions, and (6) incorporate scheduled clinical appointments to ease physician work-load and enhance patient care.
Advisors/Committee Members: Beck, Christina.
Subjects: Communication; Health Care; Language
Keywords: Indigenous dialects; limited vocabulary; interpreters; self-disclosure; illiterate patients; physicians
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2.
Blankson, Herbert K.
A Three Cultures Model Approach to Understanding Organizational Communication: A Case Study of Multicultural Organizations.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2011, Ohio University
► Organizational members exist in circumstances that fundamentally shape norms for acceptable behavior.…
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▼ Organizational members exist in circumstances that fundamentally shape norms for acceptable behavior. At the same time, the Three Cultures Model developed by Gardenswartz, Rowe, Digh, and Bennett (2003) reminds us that an individual’s national culture and personal culture work in conjunction with organizational culture to influence communication style. In the case of multicultural organizations (MCOs), the cultural differences that exist among organizational members can certainly be sites for creativity and learning, but they can also be sources for misunderstanding and the emergence/exacerbation of conflict. Unfortunately, the tendency within the extant literature is to emphasize one element of culture (adopting a macro level perspective focusing on the culture of the organization or the national cultures of the employees or, alternatively, adopting a micro level perspective focusing on the personal cultures of individual employees) rather than appreciating how organizational culture, national culture, and personal culture work together in influencing behavior and sense-making (Weick, 1995). This research seeks to address a gap in current research by employing the Three Cultures Model in a case study examination of communication and conflict styles within a multicultural organization. The case study approach was adopted due, in part; to the advantage that such an approach has in providing an opportunity to understand the perceptions and actions of individuals in context. In this research, I focus in particular on the role that culture (organizational culture, national culture, personal culture) plays in the meanings that organizational members construct to explain each other's behaviors and reactions in situations they define as involving conflict. Findings of the study supported the need for scholars and practitioners to adopt a holistic approach (three cultures model) when studying intercultural related issues in organizations.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hale, Claudia L.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Multicultural Organizations; Cultural Value Dimensions; Intercultural Conflict; Three Cultures Model
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3.
Broeckelman-Post, Melissa A.
Building a Culture of Academic Integrity: The Role of Communication in Creating and Changing Understandings and Enactments of Academic Integrity.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2009, Ohio University
► This dissertation is a longitudinal (four year) applied research investigation of academic…
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▼ This dissertation is a longitudinal (four year) applied research investigation of academic integrity at Ohio University that begins shortly before allegations of plagiarized masters' theses became widely publicized and chronicles our efforts across the university to curb academic dishonesty and develop a culture of academic integrity. This project utilized surveys, focus groups, interviews, archival evidence, and ethnographic experience from my time spent working with the Russ College as the Academic Integrity Advisor and on the OU Academic Integrity Committee.Drawing on the work of dialogic, pragmatic, and critical theorists, my primary concern through this project was to understand how academic integrity (and deviations from it) are communicatively constructed and enacted. The findings of this study are organized around a series of practical and theoretical research questions. The findings show that academic dishonesty is thought of as being comprised of four dimensions or types: Academic Misconduct, Copying Sentences, Library Misconduct, and Collaboration. There are significant differences among undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty in the perceived seriousness each types of academic dishonesty and changes in perceived seriousness over time. Qualitatively-derived understandings showed differences in the way that academic integrity is defined and that academic integrity is conceptualized much more complexly than described in previous research. Self-reported engagement in academic dishonesty dropped sharply during the second year, but subsequently increased. While situational factors seem to contribute most directly to decisions to engage in academic dishonesty, classroom and institutional factors influence situational contexts. Situational factors include time pressure, cost-benefit analysis, and knowledge. Classroom factors include course size, perceived course relevance, course difficulty, assignment type, and perceived instructor caring. Institutional factors include institutional priorities, resources, stories with in the institution, and culture. I conclude by arguing that students, faculty, and academic institutions have a shared responsibility to enact academic integrity, which should begin with a pursuit of learning and development. Academic integrity is a socially constructed, evolving construct and that the ways that we define and enact academic integrity have ethical and practical consequences, particularly with regard to the potential collective intellectual capital that society will have to solve real problems.
Advisors/Committee Members: Scott, Titsworth.
Subjects: Communication; Higher education
Keywords: academic integrity; academic dishonesty; plagiarism; cheating; Ohio University; higher education
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4.
Carmack, Heather J.
How to Say I'm Sorry: A Study of the Veterans Administration Hospital Association's Apology and Disclosure Program.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2008, Ohio University
► Medical mistakes are the "hidden epidemic" of medical care. The number of…
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▼ Medical mistakes are the "hidden epidemic" of medical care. The number of medical mistakes continues to rise, but patients, medical providers, and hospitals remain silent about mistakes. I join the scholarly and practical discussion about medical mistakes through a case study of the Veterans Administration Hospital Association's Apology and Disclosure Program. This program, created 21 years ago at the VAMC in Lexington, Kentucky, was the first program in the country to remove the secrecy and silence surrounding medical mistake experiences. At the VAMC, physicians openly disclose bad outcomes and potential mistakes to patients, and the hospital issues an apology and offers compensation when a mistake does happen. In this dissertation, I provide the first in-depth communicative analysis of the program and offer an interpretation of how multiple medical and hospital stakeholders make sense of organizational policies and external exigencies that enable and constrain the practice of medicine. Using narrative and structuration frameworks, I employ three methodologies to collect discourse related to the VAMC program and medical mistakes: in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. The results are encapsulated in five themes which include discussions of issues related to the bureaucratic organizational structuring of hospital policy, narrative expressions of mistakes, the discursive and material consequences of mistakes, the emotional redemptive journey through mistakes, and the question of ethical action in health care. Woven throughout these five major themes are issues of co-ownership of mistake experiences, control and authority, and ideological and ontological questioning about the role of professionalism in medicine. The results of the data collection and interpretation are used to answer four research questions. Ultimately, I argue that the VAMC disclosure and apology program attempts to re-envision medical mistake narratives, providing multiple stakeholders new scripts through which to interact with patients and practice medicine. The analysis attempts to enlarge the societal scripts about medical mistakes and the cultural practice of medicine. I underscore the complexity of practicing "socially responsible" medicine in the face of inevitable mistakes, managed care, and the bureaucratic organizing of medicine. Theoretical and practical implications for the VAMC program, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are also discussed.
Advisors/Committee Members: Harter, Lynn M.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: medical mistakes; health communication; apology; patient safety
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5.
Carson, Evelyn D.
The Importance of Relational Communication for Effecting Social Change in HIV/AIDS Prevention Messages: A Content Analysis of HIV/AIDS Public Service Announcements.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2010, Ohio University
► Since 1987, the government has produced public service announcements (PSAs) to provide…
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▼ Since 1987, the government has produced public service announcements (PSAs) to provide information and education to the public about the nature of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). By 2005, PSAs produced by the government continued, but now include nongovernmental organizations (NGO) that also produce PSAs to help fight HIV/AIDS through ongoing public education. Contained in the government/NGO PSAs is information that explains modes of how HIV/AIDS is contracted (e.g., unprotected sex, needle exchanges during drug use) and strategies to prevent infection of HIV (Gunn-Brooks, Boyer, & Hein, 1988; Kim, Stanton, Li, Dickersin, & Galbraith, 1997; Stanton, Kim, Galbraith, & Parrott, 1996). A content analysis of public service announcements by government and nongovernment organizations was conducted to ascertain the targeted audience, the communication strategies that are portrayed (i.e., identification, identity, face, dialectics, and sexuality) and a comprehensive analytical framework grounded in interpersonal communication theory, principally relational communication theory, based on general systems theory and cybernetics, which treats communication as processual and interactional rather than linear and individual (Beck, 1997). The findings revealed that females are represented as dominant figures in HIV/AIDS PSAs; however, females are still underrepresented compared to males. Next, the findings showed that females have expanded discussions of issues (i.e., HIV testing) and how females are represented, such as experts. Nevertheless, the portrayal of females as qualified or trustworthy had decreased in HIV/AIDS PSAs. Verbal and nonverbal interpersonal communication strategies are incorporated in HIV/AIDS PSAs. This illuminated relational communication strategies of identification, identity, facework and sexuality embedded in HIV/AIDS PSAs. Implications of this study offer practitioners valuable tools to understand and implement relational communication during the inception and creation of HIV/AIDS PSAs.
Advisors/Committee Members: Beck, Christina.
Subjects: Communication; Gender; Health education; Marketing; Mass media; Personal relationships; Public health; Social research; Womens studies
Keywords: Relational Communication; Health Communication; Social Constructivism; HIV/AIDS PSAs; Effecting Social Change; Health Education; Sexuality; Gender
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6.
Cole, Courtney E.
Organizing After Conflict: Narrative and Postcolonial Perspectives on Transitional Justice in Sierra Leone and the Liberian Diaspora.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2011, Ohio University
► This dissertation addresses issues at the intersection of transitional justice and organizational…
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▼ This dissertation addresses issues at the intersection of transitional justice and organizational communication by examining the TRCL Diaspora Project, which engaged Liberians displaced in that country's civil war, and Fambul Tok, a community-based reconciliation program in Sierra Leone. In particular, I consider how these transitional justice processes are narratively constituted and their role in facilitating narrative sensemaking about their work; how these transitional justice practices engage and respond to the various scales at which mass violence occurs, how they transcend the local/global division in the practice and study of transitional justice; and how nonprofit organizations in developing and developed contexts negotiate collaborative partnerships that organize transitional justice processes to build peace and promote reconciliation. To engage these issues, I examine transitional justice processes in post-war Sierra Leone and the Liberian diaspora using qualitative methods of ethnography, interviewing and document analysis. In my analysis, drawing on narrative theorizing, I demonstrate the utility of personal narrative in providing reflexive insight into the research process and the salience of approaching transitional justice processes narratively. Using postcolonial theorizing, I demonstrate the importance of scale in responding to mass violence, as well as attention to how issues of location, voice, and agency are negotiated in nonprofit partnerships joining organizations in the developing and developed world. This research contributes to the study and practice of transitional justice, as well as efforts to develop and extend organizational communication to international contexts, nonprofit partnerships, and alternative organizational forms.
Advisors/Committee Members: Black, Laura.
Subjects: African Studies; Communication; Peace Studies
Keywords: organizational communication; narrative; postcolonial; transitional justice; African studies
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7.
Deardorff, Karen Sickels.
Catalytic Innovations in Appalachia Ohio Health Care: The Storying of Health Care in a Mobile Clinic.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2009, Ohio University
► In this study I explored the storying of health in the midst…
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▼ In this study I explored the storying of health in the midst of Appalachian women living in poverty. The patients who use the free medical services offered by the Ohio University College of Medicine’s Community Health Programs (CHP) have tainted and damaged identities from the stigma and stereotypes associated with living in poverty. They are marginalized and rendered virtually (in)visible—the skeletons in the poverty closet of the United States. The CHP advances an alternative script of health care by breaking down the barriers (lack of money/resources, fear, stigma, pride, flexibility, mobility, and health legacies) which prevent or impede their patients from accessing the free and reduced health care they so desperately need. Through this alternative script of care, CHP staff members challenge the status quo of traditional biomedical care and they work to narrow the chasm of visible (in)visibility their patients straddle daily. By drawing on feminist and narrative sensibilities, I provide a rich ethnographic account of how a counter-narrative of medicine—an alternative web of relations among characters who are living out plots that differ from hegemonic ones—can disrupt the dominant scripts so often taken for granted as natural and fixed, in this case scripts that accompany the biomedical model. Collectively, these insights contribute new knowledge to the body of work in health communication by exploring the standpoints of those who have been rendered invisible through the hegemonic discourses and practices associated with traditional biomedical care. Three methodologies were used to collect discourse related to the Community Health Program, poverty, and the storied nature of health and healing. These methodologies were: Informal and in-depth interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. The results are encompassed in three themes which include discussions of how narrative activity works to foster healing and empowerment, how the storied nature of health care is shaped by the mobile nature of the health clinics, and what role counter-narratives play in challenging the traditional biomedical and dominant scripts. Practical implications for the CHP, limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed.
Advisors/Committee Members: Harter, Lynn M.
Subjects: Communication; Health care; Social research; Womens studies
Keywords: Narrative theory; poverty; health care; counternarratives; Appalachia
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8.
DeGroot, Jocelyn M.
Reconnecting with the Dead via Facebook: Examining Transcorporeal Communication as a Way to Maintain Relationships.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2009, Ohio University
► The purpose of this study was to examine the grief-related communication on…
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▼ The purpose of this study was to examine the grief-related communication on Facebook memorial group walls. Three research questions guided the study as I sought to explore general characteristics of messages posted, how people regarded their own participation in the groups, and characteristics of Transcorporeal Communication (TcC), the communication between the living and the deceased.To respond to the research questions, I used grounded theory methods and asynchronous online interviews. I also utilized several of Goffman’s notions of human behavior to provide a more thorough analysis of the communication in the groups. In the pilot study, I used grounded theory methods to examine messages directed to the deceased on 10 memorial group walls. Analysis of a second set of walls challenged and tested the initial themes discerned in the pilot study. This resulted in the identification of 12 message themes. In addition to writing messages to the deceased, people wrote to other group members, utilizing task and relational messages as well as identity statements. People who did not know the deceased, the Emotional Rubberneckers, also wrote on the walls. To explore people’s participation in the groups, I conducted online, asynchronous interviews with five people who wrote regularly on Facebook memorial group walls. Interviewees indicated that their relationship and communication with the deceased remained similar to the relationship and communication that they had with the deceased before he or she died. Wall analysis and interviews revealed that people posted messages to multiple audiences: the self, the deceased, group members and “lurkers.” Due to the numerous audiences, the wall posts served various functions. These overarching objectives included grieving, maintaining relational continuity, giving or receiving social support, and Rubbernecking. Analysis of the walls and interviews also indicated that individuals utilized a unique form of communication, TcC, as they wrote messages to the deceased. This act raised theoretical questions about the nature of the communication. I posited a model of TcC and its components, including continued bonds, the deceased’s presence, and the inner representation of the deceased. The study concludes with a discussion of its limitations and suggestions for future research.
Advisors/Committee Members: Black, Laura W.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Facebook; death; grief; transcorporeal communication; grounded theory; Goffman; relational continuity; interpersonal communication; grieving
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9.
Dowd, Megan M.
The Secrets of Infidelity.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2012, Ohio University
► This dissertation examines secrecy and information seeking within the experience of infidelity…
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▼ This dissertation examines secrecy and information seeking within the experience of infidelity in romantic relationships. Infidelity, or a violation of a contract (stated or unstated) regarding emotion and/or sexual exclusivity, is a relatively pervasive phenomenon in both dating and married relationships. Infidelity is frequently marked by secrecy, deception, and discovery. This dissertation employed the Investment Model, the Revelation Risk Model, Theory of Motivated Information Management, and Awareness Contexts to further understand how people in varying roles (i.e., rover, partner, lover) experience infidelity. Participants were recruited from various cities throughout the U.S., with different backgrounds and experiences with infidelity. Namely, participants who had experience as either the person who engaged in infidelity, the committed partner to the person who engaged in infidelity, or the person who was the third-party lover were invited to complete a survey. Each survey was unique to the aforementioned experience, though many questions were common among the surveys. This dissertation employed a concurrent nested mixed method design, with the intent of expansion in order to achieve greater breadth and depth. Quantitative data was analyzed using various statistical procedures. Qualitative data was transformed using content analysis and subsequently analyzed using nonparametric statistical tests. Results support the various components of the Investment Model; specifically, as commitment to the partner decreases, commitment to the lover increases. Moreover, people who are more satisfied in their primary relationship are more likely to reveal the existence of a secondary relationship. Many participants reported that a crisis of some kind would facilitate disclosure of their infidelity, though a majority of participants indicated a friend as being the ultimate confidante. Furthermore, partners noted that suspicion was often triggered by the rover's withdrawal, which subsequently led to the partner's engagement in espionage-type behaviors. Finally, partners reported the desire to find the rover guilty of infidelity (i.e., once the partners began information seeking tactics). This study introduces multiple voices in the experience of infidelity. The transformation of motivation, awareness, relational scripts, and a proposed process of infidelity are considered in the discussion. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are also presented.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hale, Claudia.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: infidelity; secrets; information seeking
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10.
Dunn, Jennifer C.
Legal Prostitution as Sex Work: Discourses of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2009, Ohio University
► Historical, cultural, and media discourses of prostitution characterize prostitutes as victims in…
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▼ Historical, cultural, and media discourses of prostitution characterize prostitutes as victims in need of saving or deviants in need of punishment and restraint. HBO’s reality television series Cathouse takes place at a legal brothel in Nevada and shows a very different view of prostitution. Using methods of rhetorical criticism, I demonstrate how the media, form, and content of this show interact to construct a narrative of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch as a “typical American business,” in which the prostitutes are “sex workers” who are empowered by their work and provide a service to the community. This narrative stands in stark contrast to dominant discourses of prostitution, which begs the question: How does this representation of legal prostitution compare with the lived experiences of the women who work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch? To examine this question, I employ ethnographic methods of participant observation and in-depth interviewing. I interviewed 9 women and conducted observations over a 5-week period in November and December 2007. I used qualitative thematic analysis to examine these discourses. I suggest that these women both invoke and resist dominant discourses of prostitution in the ways they live and make sense of their lives. Additionally, I argue that these women’s narratives are influenced by the organizational narrative of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch as reflected in Cathouse and in daily life at the Ranch. My use of rhetorical and qualitative investigative practices in conjunction with one another demonstrates how they can make useful partners when conducting research that compares representation with lived experiences. Additionally, recognition that the lived experiences of these sex workers do not simply rehearse dominant discourses lends support to my contention that a counter-narrative of prostitution has been constructed in Cathouse and at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. Additionally, I show that the relationship between how prostitution is theorized and how it is lived are often in conflict in the context of this legal brothel.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rawlins, William K.
Subjects: Communication; Gender; Mass media; Womens studies
Keywords: sex work; prostitution; rhetorical criticism; television; reality TV; popular culture; feminism and prostitution
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11.
Flaherty, Elizabeth.
Reconstructing Sexuality and Identity through Dialogue: The Muntada's Actions for Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2008, Ohio University
► This interpretive study examines the Muntada organization and its participants from both…
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▼ This interpretive study examines the Muntada organization and its participants from both a broad feminist perspective and a participatory research stance. My results are based upon 7 ½ weeks of field research conducted in Israel, divided between among Haifa, a seaside port city which also served as the site of Muntada's organizational office and training center, as well as other northern cities and small Palestinian-Israeli Arab communities. The research design includes a basket of ethnographic tools such as indepth interviews, participant observation, and participatory sketching workshops involving a total of 50 respondents and over 100 hours of observation. My findings are 4 based upon the interactions and narratives I co-constructed with current members of the Muntada, professionals and community members participating in Muntada activities, and outside individuals addressing issues of sexuality and sexual health within the Palestinian-Israeli Arab community. My findings illuminate how the Muntada's approach to sexuality and sexual health education provides an opportunity to examine the role of dialogue and identity (re)construction in social change processes. In addition, my findings suggest that such an approach to sexual health promotes individual growth and change for participants as well as the overall well-being of the larger Palestinian-Israeli Arab community. This research also addresses the important role that words and language, more specifically the Arabic language, play within the (re)identification process of individuals within the larger community, and how these linguistic elements are intertwined with themes of power, politics, and social change. This dissertation provides an introduction to understanding some of the complex and potentially painful processes that undergird a participatory approach to sexual health education.
Advisors/Committee Members: Singhal, Arvind.
Subjects: Communication; Education; Health
Keywords: sexual health education; Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel; dialogue; transformative pedagogy; identity construction; The Muntada; sexuality
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12.
Fournier, William H.
Communication Satisfaction, Interactional Justice, and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Staff Perceptions in a University Environment.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2008, Ohio University
► This study measured the perceptions of extra-role behaviors that contribute to the…
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▼ This study measured the perceptions of extra-role behaviors that contribute to the success of an organization (organizational citizenship behaviors), the perceptions of fairness in the superior/subordinate relationship (interactional justice), and communication satisfaction of 549 Ohio University administrators and staff. Results indicate that 81.4% of respondents participated in citizenship-type behaviors, 64.1% perceived their supervisor/subordinate relationships to be fair (Just), and 24.4% were Satisfied with regard to their organization's communication practices. Regression analysis supported previous research, which established a positive relationship among interactional justice, communication satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors.
Advisors/Committee Members: James, Anita C.
Subjects: Behaviorial sciences; Business community; Communication; Management
Keywords: Organizational Citizenship Behavior; Interactional Justice; Communication Satisfaction
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13.
Gerbensky Kerber, Anne E.
Organizing for Health: A Poststructural Feminist and Narrative Analysis of a School Health Committee.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2011, Ohio University
► Public health policies profoundly shape individuals' embodied sense of self as well…
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▼ Public health policies profoundly shape individuals' embodied sense of self as well as the organization of resources by discursively constructing identities, knowledge, power and risk. For health and organizational communication scholars, understanding how policy discourses are developed, legitimized, and implemented are salient concerns. I engage these issues through a case study of the Deerfield Local School District's School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC). Formed in response to federal policy mandates, the SHAC's mission is to improve the district’s health environment. Specifically, I investigated how the committee communicatively organized resources for health amidst local exigencies and material conditions. I employed interpretive research strategies including participant-observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis to collect discourse from SHAC members and stakeholders. Additionally, I gathered insights from students served by the Deerfield SHAC using participatory sketching. I analyzed the data using poststructural feminist and narrative theories. My interpretation of the discourses centered around five themes: participants' definitions of health, the paradoxes of committee membership, members' narrative sense-making of resistance and power, the absence of particular stakeholders' voices in SHAC narratives, and narrative challenges for sustainable organizing. My analysis of the SHAC's discourse highlighted how members legitimized the committee’s organizing practices by framing parents from a deficit-oriented perspective, and shifting attention away from social determinants of health. I describe how assumptions about stakeholders’ values and health literacy were further invoked in narratives that naturalized the exclusion of specific voices, such as parents and children, from the SHAC. Then, I narrate the tensions between symbolic-material concerns that emerged from SHAC meetings and conversations with members about the committee's practices. Finally, I outline practical implications for the SHAC and describe the study's limitations and areas for future research.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bute, Jennifer.
Subjects: Communication; Education; Health
Keywords: health communication; organizational communication; school health; public health policy
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14.
Greiner, Karen P.
Exploring Dialogic Social Change.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2010, Ohio University
► This dissertation explores a model of social change which I have labeled…
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▼ This dissertation explores a model of social change which I have labeled "dialogic." Each of the three cases I have chosen for this study has been included because I believe that the design of each intervention departs significantly and creatively from traditional, less Other-oriented, social change efforts. Dialogic social change begins with the assumption that human beings cannot be developed, modernized, or empowered by external parties. Instead, this conception of change is guided by the assumption that individuals are autonomous, trustworthy beings who are capable of deciding when to engage with new ideas and opportunities for action. First, I analyze the strategic communication of the "Billionaires for Bush," a group of playful and ironic protesters, most active in New York City preceding the 2004 U.S. Presidential election. In this case I focus on the ability of the Billionaires to creatively inspire and invite civic participation, which resulted in the self-organization of more than 70 "spin off" Billionaires for Bush chapters. The second case I examine is "Scenarios from Africa," an HIV/AIDS-related communication process in Senegal centered on a script writing contest for young people implemented voluntarily by a vast network of community based organizations. I discuss how the contest promotes youth agency in Senegal, allowing contest participants to shift from their traditional role as targets of information campaigns to instead become creators of HIV prevention content. Finally, I present the "invitational" Cultura Ciudadana (civic culture) communication strategy employed by Antanas Mockus, the former mayor of Bogotá Colombia. In the Bogotá case I explore how the Mockus administration creatively promoted civic education and participation by, for example, distributing soccer referee-type cards to encourage citizens to replace violence and aggression with playful symbols when communicating with fellow citizens. Each of the cases involves a communication strategy designed to invite and inspire action, and each case is rooted in the notion that the Other should be respected and is a capable and potentially creative being. I aspire to affect practice by illustrating the process and outcome of three different social change interventions and by suggesting that the dialogic design of these interventions explains their generative potential - their ability to make action possible.
Advisors/Committee Members: Chawla, Devika.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Dialogue; social change; invitation; communication; Senegal; Colombia; design
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15.
Han, Min Wha.
Rhetoricity of History and Narrativity of Life: A Life History Approach to the First-Generation Koreans in Japan.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2009, Ohio University
► The purpose of this dissertation is to explore, record, and analyze the…
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▼ The purpose of this dissertation is to explore, record, and analyze the traces of colonial and postcolonial conditions through various standpoints of Korean diasporic communities in Japan. My approach is to reveal life course narratives of the first-generation Koreans in Japan. As a third-generation Zainichi Korean whose familial history witnesses, yet has overlooked, the colonial root as an origin of displacement, I employ a self-reflexive stance and an insider's (yet only in a partial form) perspective to history writing. Specifically, in this dissertation, I ask: 1) what would be some shared life course experiences of first generation Koreans in Japan as the population whose lives are conditioned by the colonial displacement, and how are they narrated by them?; and 2) how would the first generation Koreans' stories of their displacement explain their material and sociopolitical circumstances that were uniquely conditioned by the colonial history and diasporic experiences? Chapters approach these research questions in multiple ways - with my autobiographical reflections, with a historical literature review, with a discussion of rhetorical history, narrative as well as postcolonial theories, and with actual stories collected through field work. The stories of the interviewed first generation Zainichi Koreans are divided, yet acknowledging the interconnectedness, into two versions - "Big and Small" based on the intensity and duration of life story interviews. The Big stories, about which I aim to narrate the participants' holistic life history, have revealed the three 'relationshipss' 1) the past relationship between colonial rulers and subjects; 2) the present relationship between postcolonial subjects and the society; and 3) the power relation between popularly acknowledged memory and oppressed ones. The 'Small' stories, which are context-based and conversational narrations of the participants' life experiences, have emotionally spoken to what I call the six ‘then and now' problems. The challenges they have faced in daily lives in Japan have been expressed in such thematic terms as: name, education, work, poverty, illiteracy, and kurou, or hardship. The Big and Small stories, collectively speak to the continuity of the colonial experiences among the first generation Koreans in Japan: Experienced migration to Japan, witnessed the transition from the old Korea to the divided one, and transformed (or resisted doing so) their positionality/s from the “Japanese subjects” to the permanent “foreigners” cum “citizens” in Japan. Through the lenses of rhetorical history perspective, I argue for an importance of a critical perspective on the part of a researcher in the process of text-making in history writing.
Advisors/Committee Members: McKerrow, Raymie.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Zainichi Koreans; Koreans in Japan; Rhetorical history; Life history; Narrative
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16.
Heiss, Sarah N.
Sugar-Coating Risks: An Analysis of Sweetener Trade Associations‘ Discursive Contributions to Public Negotiations of Risk.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2011, Ohio University
► Trade associations blur the boundaries established between research and education, as well…
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▼ Trade associations blur the boundaries established between research and education, as well as, advertising and advocacy. Recently, their hybrid roles as commercial and health promoters have been met with mixed reviews. While this hybridization has the potential to serve multiple stakeholder‘s goals by promoting healthful eating and strong consumer bases for industry groups (Wansink & Peters, 2007), Ludwig and Nestle (2008) argued that "irreconcilable conflict" between private commercial and public health interests would likely keep organizations from adequately promoting health. Given their potential to impact consumer health, it is important to examine how trade associations contribute to public understandings of food risks. Informed by a social construction of risk framework and Beck‘s (1992) theory of risk society, I analyze the discursive contributions of trade associations representing the sweetener industry. Specifically, I use close-textual analysis to identify and critique reoccurring and forceful rhetorical patterns within and across the online discourses produced by trade associations representing high fructose corn syrup (the Corn Refiners Association), sugar (the Sugar Association), and low-calorie sweeteners (the Calorie Control Council). My findings suggest that these trade associations provided a symbolic repertoire for identifying, making sense of, and managing risks. I argue that the trade associations used strategic maneuvering, including fallacious reasoning, defining tactics, ambiguity, and framing, to highlight the health benefits of their products and diminish the risks. A focus on health, specifically the relationship between caloric intake and obesity, reflected healthism (Crawford, 1984) and nutirtionism (Pollan, 2008). However, the trade associations broadened the scope of discussion about sweetener risks by highlighting the importance of the natural, taste, and consumer demand to consumption decisions. I conclude by discussing the theoretical, practical, and ethical contributions of my findings. I argue that while there is much to gain from having trade associations promote public health, their messages were skewed toward corporate interests and served to undermine public health decisions. I advise scholars to keep a close eye on the discursive activities of these trade associations and suggest future analyses of health literacy and descriptions of "best practices" for professionals.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bates, Benjamin.
Subjects: Communication; Health; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Public Health; Public Health Education
Keywords: Health Communication; Food Politics; Trade Associations; Marketing; Public Health; Rhetoric
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17.
Keen, Daniel E. Rossi.
Hope in America: Lyotard and Rorty, Dobson and Obama, and the Struggle to Maintain Hope in Postmodern Times.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2008, Ohio University
► This dissertation is a reflection on the status of hope in postmodern…
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▼ This dissertation is a reflection on the status of hope in postmodern America. Emerging from the assumption that postmodern critiques of objective knowledge have significantly challenged the vitality of many American's hopes, and seeking, in part, to address this problem, I here make two broad arguments. First, I argue that postmodern challenges to objective truth need not signal the demise of hope. Second, I argue that the very same conditions which give rise to postmodern critiques of objective knowledge likewise provide exciting possibilities for reinvigorating hope in our current climate.In Chapter 1, I offer an extended reflection upon the changing status of hope as demonstrated by my own historic pilgrimage. In chapter 2, I consider in detail Jean-François Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition as well as various works by Richard Rorty. Relying heavily upon insight from these two theorists, I identify what I refer to as paralogic communication, a type of communication that depends upon narrative legitimation and that relies heavily upon the possibility of perpetually redescribing the world. As I explain, paralogic communication, both for Lyotard and Rorty, offers a way of sustaining hope while simultaneously rejecting objective truth. In Chapters 3 and 4, I examine various communicative artifacts by two different individuals: James Dobson and Barack Obama. Simply put, the goal here is to show that Dobson, particularly through his treatment of homosexuality and his vision for the American family, fails to enact paralogic communication as a way of describing a future, hopeful America. Even so, Dobson continues to engender hope within those who are convinced by his appeals. Obama, on the other hand, represents an exemplar of the employment of paralogy within our current, postmodern context. As I argue, such a vision of paralogy emerges from Obama's reliance upon America's self-description as codified in the Declaration of Independence and simultaneously illuminates the theme of hope at the center of his presidential campaign. Moreover, I argue that such paralogic communication helps to make sense of the considerable support that Obama has garnered in recent months. Taken together, I argue, the combined testimony of Lyotard, Rorty, Dobson, and Obama (a) bring into focus some of the greatest philosophical, communicative, and social challenges facing America today and yet nevertheless (b) point toward numerous possible articulations of hope in postmodern America.
Advisors/Committee Members: Shepherd, Gregory J.
Subjects: Communication; Gender; Philosophy; Political science; Religion; Rhetoric; Theology
Keywords: hope; postmodernity; religious rhetoric; James Dobson; Focus on the Family; Richard Rorty; Jean-François Lyotard; Barack Obama; paralogy; paralogic communication; metanarrative; rhetoric; religious communication; political communication
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18.
Krittayapong, Jirah.
Robin Hood in the Land of the Free?: An Ethnographic Study of Undocumented Immigrants from Thailand in the U.S.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2012, Ohio University
► This dissertation explores the experiences of undocumented Thai immigrants in the United…
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▼ This dissertation explores the experiences of undocumented Thai immigrants in the United States, focusing on the identity shift experiences of those who have “fallen” from their high social ranking after migration. Undocumented Thai immigrants, who are usually referred to by Thai people as “Robin Hoods,” differ from undocumented immigrants from other countries to the extent that most of these individuals come from a higher socio-economic level. Yet they have “fallen” from their high social ranking after migration since they cannot maintain a social status comparable to what they held back home. Using ethnography and in-depth interviews as research methodologies, I intensively examined these individuals' experiences in terms of their identity shifts, the interplay between pre- and post-migration identities, and how these individuals communicatively negotiated and performed their identities within new cultural environment. The study results indicate that after they chose to diminish their socio-economic status to live illegally in the U.S., these undocumented Thai immigrants were caught in a liminal state where a sense of belonging was difficult to find. These individuals struggled to maintain their dignity and self-esteem. They had to negotiate their identities and find effective communication strategies to help them become a part of their groups while trying to survive in this foreign country. This study also suggests that there are many factors that influence people's sense of self and how they interact with others. Illegal status, in fact, should not be viewed as the most important factor that affects every immigrant's sense of self after they immigrate to other countries. Each group of undocumented immigrants is unique and should not be treated as a unitary whole. Their cultural backgrounds in general and social backgrounds in particular, as is the case of Thai Robin Hoods, make undocumented immigrants from each country unique in terms of how they view themselves, as well as how they communicate about their “selves” in social relation contexts.
Advisors/Committee Members: Chawla, Devika.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: identity; immigrants; ethnography
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19.
Kuznekoff, Jeffrey H.
The Online Presentation of Self: Re-examining Goffman's Presentation of Self Across Contemporary CMC Contexts.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2012, Ohio University
► The focus of this dissertation is the examination of Goffman’s presentation of…
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▼ The focus of this dissertation is the examination of Goffman’s presentation of self as it takes place in contemporary online contexts. Past research has thoroughly examined Goffman’s notion of self-presentation or impression management. Indeed, the field of communication, as well as other scholarly fields, holds Goffman’s work as a major theoretical framework that continues to guide modern scholarly inquiry. For example, scholars have used his theoretical framework to help explain self-presentation as it unfolds in computer-mediated communication (CMC) contexts. That said, this research has typically used older forms of CMC that are no longer widely used. In order to examine online impression management, this dissertation reviews prior scholarly work, beyond Goffman, to lay the groundwork for focused study of online self- presentation. Scholars from psychology have developed a series of impression management strategies that can be used to engage in impression management. In particular, when engaging in impression management people can enact different levels of five strategies: self-promotion, ingratiation, exemplification, intimidation, and supplication. Using a measure of these impression management strategies, this study assessed how frequently people engage in these strategies in both face-to-face and CMC interactions. In addition, the current study provides a justification for using a series of independent variables that past research has identified as influencing communication in online contexts: perceived importance, expectation of future interaction, anonymity, and social presence. These variables have not, collectively, been used to study online impression management. Using an online survey, this study recruited participants from three online contexts to complete measures that tap into the dependent and independent variables. A total of 195 people participated in data collection. Results indicate that face-to-face impression management strategies differ from those used in CMC contexts. In addition, online impression management does vary based on CMC context. Regression analysis indicates that perceived importance, anonymity and expectation of future interaction each served as significant predictors of online impression management strategies and can account for substantial variance in many of the strategies. Future studies should use these variables when examining online impression management and/or CMC.
Advisors/Committee Members: Black, Laura.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Impression Management; Computer-mediated Communication; Presentation of Self; Online Presentation of Self
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20.
Lev, Eimi.
Googling While Expecting: Internet Use by Israeli Women during Pregnancy.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2009, Ohio University
► More and more pregnant women in industrialized countries are turning to the…
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▼ More and more pregnant women in industrialized countries are turning to the internet as their primary source of information about pregnancy (Romano, 2007). This study explores the use of the internet by Israeli pregnant women. Guided by the Uses and Gratifications Perspective as the theoretical framework, this study employs a qualitative approach, using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 50 Israeli pregnant women. The interviews serve as a basis for obtaining a deeper understanding of Israeli women’s online needs, communicative practices, and perceived challenges associated with internet use during pregnancy.The findings of this study indicate perceived advantages and challenges of using the internet for pregnancy-related purposes. This study underscores the prominence of various informational needs fulfilled by the internet and sheds light on pregnancy related issues motivating Israeli pregnant women to go online. These issues include: information on prenatal tests, information on fetal development, information related to the physical symptoms involved with pregnancy, information about nutrition during pregnancy, and information focused on health care providers’ recommendations. Additionally, the findings of this study illuminate the significant role of online pregnancy support forums as a venue for obtaining emotional and social support for Israeli pregnant women. As for the role of internet within doctor-patient interaction, this study does not simply celebrate internet use as an empowering activity for patients; the study also calls attention to possible negative implications of this practice for doctor-patient interaction and emphasizes the complexity of communicating internet use during interactions with health care providers. This dissertation contributes to Uses and Gratifications research in the context of internet use, research on doctor-patient interaction in light of the internet, and research on online health information seeking. In addition to its theoretical implications, this study offers practical suggestions for health care providers, website content writers, and Israeli pregnant women who utilize the internet for pregnancy-related purposes.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bates, Benjamin.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Pregnancy; Internet; Israel; Health Information Seeking; Online support; Uses and Gratifications
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21.
Li, Li.
Student Misbehaviors and Teacher Techniques in Online Classrooms: Instrument Development and Validation.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2012, Ohio University
► In an attempt to better understand communication dimensions of classroom management, an…
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▼ In an attempt to better understand communication dimensions of classroom management, an extensive amount of literature in communication has explored compliance-gaining strategies used by teachers (e.g., Kearney, Plax, Richmond, & McCroskey, 1985; McCroskey & Richmond, 1983; Richmond & McCroskey, 1984). The purpose of this project was to partially replicate and extend that line of research to an online context. Specifically, the current program of research included three studies that developed a scale of students' online misbehaviors (the SOMs scale), a scale of online teacher alteration techniques (the OBATs scale), and then explored relationships between those scales and various classroom communication processes and outcomes. The pilot study inductively developed initial typologies for the two scales. The second study further refined the SOMs scale by employing both an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis. Four factors were established: Seeking Unallowed Assistance, Internet Slacking, Aggressiveness, and Lack of Communication. No meaningful factor structure was detected from the OBATs scale, which was consistent to the BATs and BAMs scale. Reliability and validity were established for both scales. Subsequently, the main study assessed teachers' and students' different perceptions of SOMs and OBATs, the impact of demographics on these perceptions, and the influence of SOMs and OBATs to students' learning. Results indicated students and teachers perceived SOMs and OBATs differently; certain demographics (e.g., prior online classes, student age, class size, and enrollment status) influenced perceptions of uses and severity of SOMs as well as uses and effectiveness of OBATs; finally selective OBATs influenced students' learning whereas SOMs did so minimally in students' perception.
Advisors/Committee Members: Titsworth, Scott.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: student online misbehavior; teacher technique; online class; scale development
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22.
Mao, Yuping.
Does Culture Matter? Relating Intercultural Communication Sensitivity to Conflict Management Styles, Technology Use, and Organizational Communication Satisfaction in Multinationals in China.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2010, Ohio University
► Communication is very complex in multinational companies due to the diverse body…
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▼ Communication is very complex in multinational companies due to the diverse body of employees with different social, cultural, and educational backgrounds. Organizational communication among employees in China branches of multinational companies remains largely unexplored in previous literature. Taking an Asiacentric approach, this study examines the relationships among intercultural sensitivity, organizational communication satisfaction, organizational conflict management, and use of technologies in China branches of multinational companies. This study also compares the organizational communication experiences of Chinese employees with overseas experience and those without overseas experience. An online survey was conducted with Chinese employees of multinational companies. Comparisons were made between those with some degree of overseas living experience and those without any overseas living experience. The survey included the Intercultural Communication Sensitivity Scale (ISS) (Chen & Starosta, 2000), a revised version of the Technology Usage Scale (TUS) (Scott & Timmerman, 2005), the Organizational Communication Conflict Instrument (OCCI) (Putnam & Wilson, 1982), and the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) (Downs & Hazen, 1977).The following pairs of variables were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlations: intercultural sensitivity and organizational communication satisfaction, intercultural sensitivity and conflict management styles, intercultural sensitivity and use of technologies, organizational communication satisfaction and conflict management styles, organizational communication satisfaction and use of technologies, conflict management styles and use of technologies. Significant correlations were found in the above six pairs of variables and their factors. Overall no significant differences between Chinese employees with overseas experience and those without overseas experience were found in the following key variables: intercultural sensitivity, conflict management styles, organizational communication satisfaction level, and use of technology in organizational communication. Although minor differences existed between those two groups of participants, in general, the two groups revealed similar organizational communication behavior. This study is one of very few extant studies that focus on organizational communication in the Chinese context. This study enriches the literature on Asian organizational communication studies, and contributes to the development of the Asiacentric approach. The correlations among the variables identified by this study build the empirical foundation for future research to further develop communication models that include those variables and which will have significant theoretical and practical implications.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hale, Claudia.
Subjects: Communication; Organizational behavior
Keywords: Chinese employee; intercultural sensitivity; conflict management; organizational communication satisfaction; technology use; multinationals
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23.
Mazer, Joseph P.
Student Interest in Teaching and Learning: Conceptualizing and Testing a Process Model of Teacher Communication, Student Emotional and Cognitive Interest, and Engagement.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2010, Ohio University
► This dissertation examines the role of teacher communication, student interest, and student…
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▼ This dissertation examines the role of teacher communication, student interest, and student engagement in the teaching and process and contributes to prior theory and research in several ways. First, this study unites two teacher behaviors into a concise model of teaching and learning. Research has indicated that teacher immediacy and teacher clarity can have an important influence on student learning. This study considers the combined influence of these variables on student outcomes. Second, this dissertation examines the role of student interest in the instructional context. In particular, this dissertation explores how communication on the part of teachers can influence emotional interest and cognitive interest on the part of students. Guided by emotional interest theory, cognitive interest theory, and the tenets of an operational model, this dissertation informs how teacher communication behaviors influence student interest and how interest impacts student engagement and learning.
Advisors/Committee Members: Graham, Elizabeth E.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: student interest; student engagement; teacher immediacy; teacher clarity; instructional communication; student learning
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24.
Mercado Thornton, Rebecca.
Constituting Women's Experiences in Appalachian Ohio: A Life History Project.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2012, Ohio University
► Drawing from the critical works of Edward Said and the narrative perspective…
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▼ Drawing from the critical works of Edward Said and the narrative perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin, I explored how women, native to Appalachian Ohio, narrated their lived experiences across different moments in their life course. Their interview discourses, juxtaposed with my ethnographic field notes, provided me with rich accounts of lives lived in a space that has been historically, economically, socially, and politically encroached upon by the now diminished coal mining industry in the region. I found that many of my co-participants' lives share an intricate relationship with the local economy. Specifically, I discussed conceptual information that contributes to our understanding of home, identity, and the body. I provided an exploration of self-stories of women in this Appalachian Ohio context to show how larger political, social, and economic shifts infringe upon our everyday lives.
Advisors/Committee Members: Chawla, Devika.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Appalachia, Women, Home, Body Identity
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25.
Meyer, Kevin R.
Student Classroom Engagement: Rethinking Participation Grades and Student Silence.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2009, Ohio University
► Student classroom engagement and communication are more complicated than is often assumed.…
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▼ Student classroom engagement and communication are more complicated than is often assumed. Student silence can be a major concern for instructors who want students to orally participate in class, or who believe that oral participation is necessary for learning. As a result, instructors frequently use participation grades to compel students to speak. At the same time, instructors fail to recognize silent forms of classroom engagement; yet, contemporary communication theory would recognize silence as a form of communicative engagement. Classroom silence is an active form of communicative engagement that signifies more than the mere absence of speech. Few studies to date have explored this topic by including the perspective of students. Importantly, the failure to include student perspectives has tended to neglect an examination of the reasons why some students remain silent in the classroom or the other ways in which they engage with the course content. The present study explored engaged classroom interaction by examining undergraduate and graduate students’ perceptions of student silence and participation grades.
Advisors/Committee Members: Titsworth, Scott.
Subjects: Communication; Education
Keywords: Silence; Participation Grades; Engagement; Engagement Styles; Classroom Interaction; Class Discussion; Students; Instructional Communication; Teaching; Instructors
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26.
Mumba, Mumba.
A Phenomenological Study of how College Students Communicate about Anal Sex and its Implications for Health.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2010, Ohio University
► This study explored how heterosexual anal sex (HAS) was discussed among college…
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▼ This study explored how heterosexual anal sex (HAS) was discussed among college students. A qualitative method which utilized Moustakas' (1994) transcendental phenomenology was employed. The study followed four steps: epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation and synthesis. Semi-structured in-depth interviews and diary methods were used for data collection. Thirty self-identified heterosexual college students participated. Theoretically, Foucault's (1990, 1977) notions of sexuality and power and Sandra Petronio's (2002) Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM) concepts of disclosure and privacy were used to examine talk about sexuality. At a macro level, participants' sexual choices were influenced by institutional socio-cultural values (sex education, religion and some family values) which were in tension with participants' personal values of sex. Participants resisted institutional socio-cultural values because they promoted an abstinence-only approach to sexuality. At the micro level, findings related to participant communication indicated that their communication was shaped by discomfort for anal sex. Participants used the Unmentionable IT to refer to anal sex in their descriptions of anal sex. They also acknowledged how sex and anal sex was concealed in euphemisms. Participants' ways of communicating about anal sex indicated that disclosures of anal sex occurred among participants who engaged in anal sex and those who did not. There seemed to be tensions of disclosure and concealment related to anal sex information in peer relationships. Stigma served as a disciplinary mechanism of control that enhanced this tension. In intimate sexual situations this tension was absent because participants engaged in open communication. Additionally, participants' meanings of anal sex signified that it enhanced male pleasure compared to females'. Some participants resisted anal sex for mutual sexual practices. Participants recognized infectious and non-infectious (tears, bleeding and dysfunctional anal area) risks of anal sex. However, some claimed that anal sex could be pleasurable. Participants suggested open communication, consent and information as ways of reducing risks. This study demonstrated that participants encountered sexuality in dialectical ways. The study underscored the need to include sexual health promotion activities that address risks of anal sexuality. Open communication should encourage sensitive and non-judgmental programs in supportive peer groups. Additionally, anonymous peer programs may foster communication to avoid stigma.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bates, Benjamin.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Communication, Heterosexual Anal Sex, College Students, Disclosure
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27.
Nande, Kaustubh S.
Boundary Spanning Work: An Interpretive Analysis of Tensions in Public Relations Workplaces.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2010, Ohio University
► The goal of this dissertation is to advance our understanding of tensions…
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▼ The goal of this dissertation is to advance our understanding of tensions and contradictions experienced in public relations work - a type of boundary spanning work that involves a high amount of information gathering and representation activities. Based on the analysis of 41 in-depth interviews with public relations professionals in the United States this research investigated the type of tensions and contradictions they experienced, how they negotiated with such tensions and contradictions, and what type of communicative strategies they used to deal with these tensions and contradictions. This research makes several theoretical and practical contributions to extant literature on boundary spanning and workplace tensions across disciplines. First, grounded in social constructionist thought this study presents a new definition of boundary spanning that emphasizes its discursive nature. Second, through a tension-centered perspective on organizations, use of structuration theory, and sensemaking processes, findings revealed that public relations professionals experienced four primary tensions and contradictions that revolved around work relationships with journalists, clients, supervisors, and colleagues. The tensions identified were: tangible-intangible, creative-controlling, secretive-trustworthy, and serving-servitude. Third, public relations professionals in this research understood these tensions, contradictions, and their work through metaphors of family and games. Fourth, public relations professionals used avoidance and reframing as strategies in navigating through tensions and contradictions. Fifth, the tension-centered perspective unearthed connections between the use of emotions, relationships, and experiences of work-family conflict in public relations work. Thus, this is the first systematic study that takes a tension-centered constitutive view of communication to the study of boundary spanning work in the public relations context and significantly advances our understanding of boundary spanning work from an interpretive standpoint by contributing to literature in organizational communication, public relations, and management. This study recommends better management of client-agency and employee-agency relationships that focus on clarifying expectations, implementing training programs, and instituting policies on work-family balance. For future research, this study suggests broadening the context of boundary spanning to a different cultural setting, and extending the scope of investigating tensions and contradictions to other boundary spanning roles. This study also recommends using a combination of interview and ethnography for a richer and complementary analysis of boundary spanning work roles.
Advisors/Committee Members: Modaff, Daniel.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: Communication; Public Relations; Boundary Spanning; Work; Tensions; Contradictions; Dialectics; Structuration; Sensemaking
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28.
Nikoi, Ephraim Kotey.
Liminal Selves: The Negotiation of Organizational Identification by Grant-funded Employees in Nonprofit Organizations.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2010, Ohio University
► This dissertation adds to this body of research on organizational identification and…
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▼ This dissertation adds to this body of research on organizational identification and nonprofit organizations by focusing on grant-funded employees in the nonprofit sector. It argues that grant-funded employees are liminal workers by virtue of the nature of their employment, philosophical differences and the organizational structures. This liminality experienced by this group of workers in the nonprofit sector influences their identification processes. It contends that in the midst of multiple identification targets, the most significant factor in fostering organizational identification among grant-funded employees in this study is the passion to help alleviate poverty and the desire to transcend themselves. The study conceptually frames what it means to be a grant-funded employee in a nonprofit organization and the most potent factors in fostering organizational identification among liminal workers.
Advisors/Committee Members: Black, Laura.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: liminality; grant-funded; organizational identification; nonprofit organizations
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29.
Norander, Stephanie N.
Peaceful Alternatives: Women's Transnational Organizing In Post-Conflict Areas.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2008, Ohio University
► In this dissertation, I provide an in-depth qualitative study of the struggles…
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▼ In this dissertation, I provide an in-depth qualitative study of the struggles and triumphs of organizing for peace at Kvinna till Kvinna (Woman to Woman), an overtly feminist women's international non-governmental organization (NGO). A fundamental lived problem motivates my research: how to translate feminist ideologies into the practices of building alliances with women across national, ethnic, cultural, and religious boundaries. In particular, I investigate how Kvinna till Kvinna, a Swedish organization, develops and maintains partnerships with women's organizations in the Balkan region. Through extensive analysis, I show how Kvinna till Kvinna is able to foster partnerships that are based principles of empowerment despite obvious power imbalances. Their unique approach to peacebuilding and reconstruction work involves a dialogic approach to partnerships, extensive networking activities, negotiating access to crucial resources, and openness to alternative conceptions of what it means to contribute to and sustain peaceful society. To situate the analysis of Kvinna till Kvinna, I first build a framework that addresses metatheoretical issues that cut across organizing for social change, global feminisms, and pragmatisms. Specifically, I show how a critical ethic of care can be used to pull together common threads that are woven into social change, poststructural and postcolonial feminisms, and pragmatist thinking. I then move to explaining how this study is situated within communication literature on feminist organizational communication and alternative organizing and argue that this research fills an important gap in the literature on transnational feminist organizing. The results of this study are organized into seven themes that include different facets of Kvinna till Kvinna's work including partnership relationships, networking, organizational structure, and specific ways that a feminist ideology enables creativity, care, and imagination to thrive. Also discussed throughout are contradictions inherent in feminist organizing and how they are negotiated through an emphasis on constant reflection about issues of power and positionality. I articulate these interpretations by weaving among participant voices, organizational discourses, and my own theoretical sensibilities. Finally, I discuss theoretical and practical implications of the results of my work with Kvinna till Kvinna. In doing so, I revisit some of the long-standing tensions surrounding feminist and bureaucratic forms of organizing to further the argument that bureaucratic structures can be appropriated in unique ways that serve feminist missions and goals. At the same time, demands from external stakeholders can be constraining, but need not be disabling. I also explain how my work opens up space for re-envisioning ethical frames for organizing and how reclaiming an ethic of care is a viable alternative for understanding organizing that is motivated by social change causes. Ultimately, I argue that Kvinna till Kvinna fosters feminist principles in both its ideologies and practices by providing space for women to collectively participate in change. This segues into the practical implications of this study that make the case taking seriously feminist organizations as models at both the policy and local grassroots levels.
Advisors/Committee Members: Harter, Lynn M.
Subjects: Communication
Keywords: organizational communication; post-conflict; feminism; women's organizations; nongovernmental organization; Balkans
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30.
Patterson, Spencer D.
Putting on White Coats: Professional Socialization of Medical Students Through Narrative Pedagogy in Standardized Patient Labs.
Degree: PhD, Communication Studies (Communication), 2012, Ohio University
► Medical school is a formative time when future physicians learn what it…
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▼ Medical school is a formative time when future physicians learn what it means to care for patients and how to practice medicine in complex health systems. As students progress through school, they encounter significant challenges, risks, and expectations. Guided by a narrative perspective, I explore one experiential component of the professional education of medical students in the U.S.—standardized patient labs. Standardized patients are hired by medical schools to follow scripts and act as patients with various ailments and health problems. Medical students interact with standardized patients to practice diagnostic skills and prepare for clinical interactions beyond medical school. In this dissertation, I observe and analyze ways that standardized patient interactions prepare students for the narrative nature of clinical work. I also identify and interpret value sets that are maintained and disrupted through standardized patient interactions. I outline a rationale for the project in Chapter One by exploring contemporary challenges facing the health care industry and medical educators. In Chapter Two, I illustrate the theoretical importance of the project by situating the project within scholarly literature on the narrative nature of medicine and the experience of uncertainty in medicine. I detail my inquiry practices in Chapter Three, a research design that crystallized data gathered through multiple methods including observations, in-depth interviews, and the collection of documents. Chapters Four and Five offer complementary analytic representations of the SP lab at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OUHCOM). To begin, I take readers through a creative narrative vignette representing a typical and realistic medical student encounter in a SP lab. This story offers readers an ethnographic glimpse of the communication processes composing this pedagogy. Then, in Chapter Five, I present a traditional thematic representation developed through a constant comparative analysis of the data. Across both chapters, I position the SP labs as narrative-based pedagogies that prepare students for the narrative nature of clinical work in inescapably uncertain circumstances. Finally, in Chapter Six, I re-visit my initial research questions in light of the knowledge claims offered in Chapters Four and Five. I discuss theoretical and practical implications of my interpretations as well as recommendations for future directions.
Advisors/Committee Members: Harter, Lynn.
Subjects: Communication; Medical Ethics
Keywords: narrative; narrative medicine; health communication; medical education; standardized patient; simulated patient; professional socialization; narrative pedagogy
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