Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Communication

Perceived character depth is a concept relevant for understanding and predicting audience responses to narrative media, yet it has been largely unexplored in the field of media psychology. Through a careful review of diverse literatures, the current work offers a formal conceptualization of character depth as the extent to which a character's textual exposition evokes a detailed and multi-faceted mental conception of a character's psyche, behavior, and experience. After devising a series of items to measure character depth, this work then presents a series of experimental studies designed to test various aspects of validity of the proposed measurement scale and to test a causal path model of the relationship between character depth and processes specified by affective disposition theory (see Zillmann, 2000). Study 1 uses a known-groups approach and confirmatory factor analysis to test the predictive validity and measurement model of a 20-item proposed perceived character depth scale. Selective item retention results in a 6-item scale with excellent model fit. Studies 2 and 3 lend additional support to the validity of this 6-item scale's measurement model through tests of the scale in two different narrative contexts, both of which result in excellent model fit. Across Studies 1-3, evidence emerges of the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale in relation to other character perception variables. Study 4 applies this new measure in a 2 X 3 between-subjects experimental design that manipulates both character depth and character moral behavior independently. Results show that character depth impacts disposition formation and anticipatory responses above and beyond audience reactions to moral behavior. This finding has important theoretical implications for affective disposition theory (Zillmann, 2000), indicating that perceived character depth may serve as an additional predictor of disposition formation not specified in the original theory. Future research d (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Matthew Grizzard (Advisor); Emily Moyer-Guse (Advisor); Nicholas Matthews (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Psychology

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2017, English

The inspiration for this manuscript came originally from my travel to Half Moon Bay: a surprisingly intimate community nestled in the San Francisco Bay Area. What ultimately emerged was a story about a boy's coming of age with some things I myself witnessed at that age: broken friendships and promises, a slow dissolution of who I was, and who my family was. While much of Birch's story is his on, it is also mine, and all ours. What most compelled me to write this though, was how trauma during our teenage years can haunt us into our adulthood. Such is the case with Birch, and the occasion for him telling this story, many years after the fact.

Committee: Joseph Bates Dr. (Committee Chair); Cathy Wagner Dr. (Committee Member); Brian Roley Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Mathematical Sciences, The Ohio State University, 2014, Mathematics

This paper is an educational approach to group characters through examples which introduces the beginner algebraist to representations and characters of finite groups. My hope is that this exploration might help the advanced undergraduate student discover some of the foundational tools of Character Theory. The prerequisite material for this paper includes some elementary Abstract and Linear Algebra. The basic groups used in the examples are intended to excited a student into exploration of groups they understand from their undergraduate studies. Throughout the section of examples there are exercises used to check understanding and give the reader opportunity to explore further. After taking a course in Abstract Algebra one might find that groups are not concrete objects. Groups model actions, rotations, reflections, movements, and permutations. Group representations turn these abstract sets of objects into sets of n X n matrices with real or complex entries, which can be easily handled by a computer for any number of calculations.

Committee: James Cogdell Dr. (Advisor); Warren Sinnott Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mathematics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, English

Many late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British novels utilize laughter as a social corrective, but this same laughter hides other messages about women's roles. As the genre's popularity widened, writers used novels to express opinions that would be eschewed in other, more established and serious genres. My dissertation argues that humor contributes to narrative meaning; as readers laugh at “minor” characters, their laughter discourages specific behaviors, yet it also masks characters' important functions within narrative structure. Each chapter examines one type of humor—irony, parody, satire, and wit—along with a secondary female archetype: the matriarch, the old maid, the monster, and the mentor. Traditionally, the importance of laughter has been minimized, and the role of minor characters understudied. My project seeks to redress this imbalance through focusing on humor, secondary characterization, and plot.

Committee: Clare Simmons PhD (Advisor); Leslie Tannenbaum PhD (Committee Member); Jill Galvan PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2012, Popular Culture

In the fragmented post-network era of television, networks are looking for any advantage in attracting audiences. One way networks try to draw attention is through branding. Branding helps networks stand out among the hundreds of other choices, but can also link all of a network's programming under one carefully-crafted theme. When viewers access a network's content from numerous devices, it is crucial that each experience evokes similar images, styles and themes. It is my assertion that cable giant USA Network has succeeded with its branding campaign like no other contemporary television network. By combining a programming formula of blue skies, cool cases and pretty faces with thematically-connected branding under the “Characters Welcome” label, USA Network and its structurally formulaic programs are activated into a new genre of television. This activation from formula into genre is accomplished narratively, thematically and aesthetically within the programs themselves, but is primarily driven by the commodification of those narratives, themes and aesthetics through an overarching branding campaign (television spots, on-screen chyrons, print ads, web sites, Tweets, various other intertextual directives) that promises diverting, but not mindless, fare. The brand emphasizes escapism and inclusivity through sunshine-drenched imagery and a laid-back, summertime ideology. Using Jason Mittell suggestion television genres exist as “cultural categories” created through discourse, this thesis discusses how USA Network exists as a generic category shaped by branding and how critics and audiences embrace and acknowledge that generic category.

Committee: Dr. Jeff Brown (Committee Chair); Dr. Kristen Rudisill (Committee Member); Dr. Marilyn Motz (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; African Studies; American Studies; Art Criticism; Cinematography; Communication; Film Studies; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1964, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Popular Culture

This thesis explores the representation of anthropomorphic car characters in films using three examples of notable films featuring such characters: the American animated comedy Cars (2006), the American horror adaptation Christine (1983), and the French body horror film Titane (2021). Using a combination of theoretical frameworks that include Marxist, feminist, queer, and postmodern approaches, these readings investigate how each film's portrayal of anthropomorphic cars reflects the relationship between cars and humans. Each chapter explores an in-depth reading of one of the films and investigates how the film reflects both optimistically and pessimistically on the convergence of cars and humans. Such a convergence manifests in the incorporation of cars into everyday life and work for many people, but it also involves cultural associations between cars and humans, like ways in which cars come to stand for individual human traits. As each reading demonstrates, this can create situations where exciting new, boundary-crossing possibilities manifest, but it can also allow for oppressive forces to limit the human body to strict, hegemonic standards. This thesis further argues that these three films also contain strategies for pushing against this limiting mode of convergence through interpersonal connection and the embracing of queer possibilities.

Committee: Jeffrey Brown Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Heath Diehl Ph.D. (Committee Member); Becca Cragin Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1966, English

Committee: Alma J. Payne (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1966, English

Committee: Frederick Eckman (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1966, English

Committee: James R. Bashore (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1966, English

Committee: Paul E. Parnell (Advisor) Subjects: British and Irish Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1963, English

Committee: J. Robert Bashore (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1963, English

Committee: Frederick Eckman (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1962, English

Committee: Frederick W. Eckman (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1962, English

Committee: Howard O. Brogan (Advisor) Subjects: British and Irish Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1962, English

Committee: Alma J. Payne (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1961, English

Committee: Frederick Eckman (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1961, English

Committee: Morris Golden (Advisor) Subjects: British and Irish Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1960, Theatre

Committee: Norbert F. O'Donell (Advisor) Subjects: Theater