Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2022, Journalism (Communication)

As journalism increasingly shifts to the digital space, social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook are offering new potentials to present news. Exciting and lively storytelling is particularly in demand to capture the recipient's interest and immerse them into the story. With its specific features, Snapchat Discover provides a suitable platform for digital storytelling. Using a qualitative content analysis, the news stories of two German and two U.S. media outlets on Snapchat were examined over a period of three months, considering both long-established as well as new formats, produced exclusively for Snapchat. The results show that the media outlets examined each take their own unique storytelling approaches on Snapchat. They range from intensive storytelling to short breaking-news or even infotainment. The media outlets rely on both traditional storytelling methods and new multimedia opportunities for their news. However, it turns out that the newer formats on Snapchat are somewhat more experimental and exploit the possibilities of the platform more than the long-established ones.

Committee: Alexander Godulla (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Hendrickson (Committee Member); Rosanna Planer (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2018, Journalism (Communication)

The Thesis entitled “Digital Long-Forms: A Qualitative and International Approach to Evaluate the Efficiency of Production Processes of Digital Long-Forms” is rooted in the field of online journalism. Based on the assumption that digital long-forms represent a major unique feature of online journalism, the production processes of this relatively new format are analyzed. By conducting a qualitative content analysis of ten guided interviews of American and German producers of digital storytelling, new findings concerning the different production phases, strategic and narrative objectives of production and problems of production are generated. Results show that there is room for improvement in terms of the efficiency of production; there is not yet a developed status quo, neither in terms of the roles and professions of the producers, nor in the nature of the stories, nor in the resources used. Despite those heterogeneous strategic approaches, a general consent on both a four-step-procedure (idea pitch, conceptualization, field work, editing) and a journalistically informing and elucidating narrative prevail. The major problems consist in collaborating and communicating with multiple departments. Overall, the producers themselves evaluated their production processes as efficient and worthwhile.

Committee: Jatin Srivastava Dr. (Committee Member); Alexander Godulla Prof. (Committee Chair); Johannes Gerstner Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, American Culture Studies

Forum-based role-playing games are a rich, yet barely researched subset of textbased digital gaming. They are a form of storytelling where narratives are created through acts of play by multiple people in an online space, combining collaboration and improvisation. This dissertation acts as a pilot study for exploring these games in their full complexity at the intersection of play, narrative, and fandom. Building on theories of interactivity, digital storytelling, and fan fiction studies, it highlights forum games' most unique features, and proves that they are is in no way liminal or secondary to more popular forms of role-playing. The research is based on data drawn from a large sample of forums of various genres. One hundred sites were explored through close textual analysis in order to outline their most common features. The second phase of the project consisted of nine months of participant observation on select forums, in order to gain a better understanding of how their rules and practices influence the emergent narratives. Participants from various sites contributed their own interpretations of forum gaming through a series of ethnographic interviews. This did not only allow agency to the observed communities to voice their thoughts and explain their practices, but also spoke directly to the key research question of why people are drawn to forum gaming. The main drawing power of forum games is their focus on creative, collaborative writing. Players interested in writing with others in a playful setting, and engaging with their favorite popular culture texts through composition, are drawn to these sites because of the narrative freedom they offer compared to other gaming platforms. In addition, their narratives born from play are consciously, intentionally, and enthusiastically multimodal. Multimodality offers a wide range of creative opportunities for telling stories in a digital space, and it also has connections to older, oral forms of (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kristine Blair Dr. (Committee Co-Chair); Radhika Gajjala Dr. (Committee Co-Chair); Jeremy Wallach Dr. (Committee Member); Lisa Gruenhagen Dr. (Other) Subjects: Composition

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2015, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

In our current age of media ubiquity and evolving technologies it's no secret that people all over the world are taking up new skill-sets and utilizing digital tools to tell stories and express themselves. Scholars in rhetoric and composition (Selfe, et al. 2012; Halbritter, 2013; Sheridan, Ridolfo & Michel, 2012) have been studying the ways digital media has allowed for rhetorical openings through the use of new media, and continue to debate how such composing affects writers both inside and outside of academic spheres. This dissertation research looks at a specific digital storytelling project, titled Hollow, to understand how residents in a small, Appalachian community are using digital tools and spaces to speak back to stereotypes and effect change in their community. These findings provide researchers and pedagogues in rhetoric and composition with a more thorough, contextualized portrait of how people are taking up and manipulating digital tools and spaces to understand their identity as citizens of a particular community and to better comprehend how they are using their new-found literacy practices to enact tangible changes in their community. Insights gained from such research can better inform us about the potential of digital tools and spaces, and how we might foster similar applications elsewhere in hopes to engage and understand the literate practices of those inside and outside of our classrooms.

Committee: Kristine Blair Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sue Carter-Wood Ph.D. (Committee Member); Bonnie Berger Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Multimedia Communications

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

We know that when children feel a sense-of-relation within local natural environments, they are more prone to feel concern for them, while nurturing well-being and resilience in themselves and in lands/waters they inhabit. Positive environmental behaviors often follow into adulthood. Our human capacities for creating sustainable solutions in response to growing repercussions of global warming and climate change may grow if more children feel a sense of belonging in the wild natural world. As educators, if we listen to and learn from students' voices about how they engage in nature, we can create pedagogical experiences directly relevant to their lives. Activities that relate to learners' lives inspire motivation, curiosity, and furthers understanding. Behaviors supporting environmental stewardship, environmental justice, and participation in citizen science and phenology are more probable when children feel concern for ecological landscapes. Internationally, some educators are free to encourage a sense-of -relation by bringing students into natural places. Yet, there are many educators who are constrained from doing so by strict local, state, and national education policies and accountability measures. Overcoming restrictions requires creative, relevant, and enjoyable learner-centered opportunities. Research shows that virtual nature experiences can provide for beneficial connections with(in) nature for children and adults. It is best to bring children outside. When this is not possible, a sense of wonder may be encouraged in the classroom. Our exploratory collaborative digital landscape-lore project makes this possible. We expand awareness about how we, educators, and children alike, are engaged within the landscapes and waterscapes significant to us. The term landscape-lore articulates the primacy of the places we find meaningful. Our intercultural investigations took place in collaborative public schools in colonized landscapes. New Hampshire and New Zealand, k (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Jordan PhD (Committee Chair); Jean Kayira PhD (Committee Member); Robert Taylor PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Ecology; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Psychology; Educational Theory; Environmental Education; Environmental Justice; Environmental Studies; Folklore; Geography; Literacy; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Native American Studies; Physical Geography; Sustainability

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2023, Education

My research inquiry is centered on the larger project of building a transformational, empowerment model of worker voice in workplaces. The purpose of my research is to explore/illuminate the question, “How can I use workers' stories to center and advance collaborative worker voice on the job through peer-driven training initiatives?” I frame this general research inquiry around two key questions: (a) How do I create authentic spaces for workers' stories to emerge from the heart? (b) How do I use workers' stories to create the environment needed for workers to become peer teachers/leaders of their own training initiatives? This study's intended audience is any practitioner who seeks to center workers' experiences/stories as the fulcrum for transformational workplace change. My research method is Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN). SPN is a sustained exploration of one's own narrative experiences of dealing with a particular question, problem, or dynamic that has broader social significance. It entails analyzing that experience through the lens of relevant research and theory. I have chosen a hybrid video/written format for my SPN, to create a first-person storytelling experience for the viewer/reader that replicates my methodology with workers at their worksites. The video segments of this dissertation can be found at http://debmoy.weebly.com/. My findings document the key elements needed to be an effective change agent supporting organic leadership in organizations through workers' stories. My dissertation can influence the effectiveness of California Transit Works (CTW), the statewide consortium bringing my approach to scale nationally. My dissertation can bring academic recognition to key roles that third-party neutrals, or “intermediaries,” can play in building worker voice empowerment within labor/management partnerships. Finally, I hope this dissertation inspires and guides workers and change agents to take an holistic view of what it means to have our own voic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Brookfield Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Michael Raffanti Ed.D. (Committee Member); Laura Dresser Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Labor Relations; Organizational Behavior; Transportation; Vocational Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2023, English: Composition and Rhetoric

In this dissertation, I articulate and reclaim African rhetorical traditions and apply an African rhetorical lens for examining how contemporary Ga communities can use digital communications to further cultural practices. I examine ancient Egyptian African rhetorical traditions, exploring the theories and practices of Maat so as to articulate themes and characteristics of African rhetoric. I focus on African rhetoric from Ancient Egypt and then highlight some of its practices in contemporary Ghana, including Akan and Ga rhetoric. This dissertation centers and attempts a practice of rhetoric to a local/Indigenous people, The Gas of Ghana, whose cultural and linguistic survival might depend on how they use the Internet and digital technologies to share and celebrate their rhetorics. The Gas, Indigenous to Greater Accra, the capital city of Ghana, have a rich culture similar to the Akans. However, their dwindling population, cycles of poverty, lack of education, and exclusion of their language (Ga) education in the teaching curriculum by successive governments have all contributed to a near-loss of a rich Indigenous cultural heritage. Drawing from interviews with cultural preservationists in Ghana and Ga leaders, I examine how the Gas have used and could use the internet to engage in rhetorical acts of survivance. Some of the research questions shaping this study are: (1) How might minority Indigenous peoples (specifically in this study the Gas of Ghana) use the digital to assert their cultural practices and achieve visibility and survivance? And (2) In what ways can we Africans contribute to the cultural design and decolonizing of our material and digital rhetorics? I apply a combination of local methodological frameworks to understand how local research works with Indigenous communities. These include Indigenous concepts like Sankofa, which means return to the past and fetch from it, Ga samai (symbols), decoloniality, Indigenous storytelling. Finally, I close my diss (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Heidi McKee (Advisor) Subjects: Rhetoric; Technical Communication

Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2022, Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study is to examine learning differences between student-created instruction and teacher-created instruction. This study utilized a two-group quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest to examine the effectiveness of student-created CAPs in comparison to teacher-created CAPs to increase undergraduate students' knowledge of FBA's. Results determined that the average correct score of Group 1 (student-created CAPs) was higher than the average of Group 2 (teacher-created CAPs) at posttest. No significant differences were noted between groups from pre to posttest, however, knowledge of FBA did increase for both groups post intervention. The results of this study suggest that educators can empower students to have choice in their learning tools. Future research should examine students of various grade levels to assist in generalizing differences between student-created instruction versus teacher-created instruction to enhance learning.

Committee: Sarah Watt (Committee Chair); Jason Abbitt (Committee Member); Kevin Bush (Committee Member); Darrel Davis (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Psychology; Special Education

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, Design

This thesis examines the theoretical framework surrounding my animated short film, Embrace, as well as how that context informed the creative development of the project itself. Embrace was created as an autoethnographic narrative, deeply rooted in my own experiences with my asexuality and developed with the audience of the asexual community and their empowerment in mind. In order for the story to achieve the greatest emotional impact, I wanted to explore the use of 2D animation in visualizing the intangible, emotional journey common to many asexual individuals. While I will discuss a variety of points throughout this thesis documentation, the three cornerstone areas of research backing my work are autoethnographic narrative, animation (specifically 2D animation), and asexuality. I will explore their definitions, history, and applications, particularly in regards to my own animated work. The second half of the paper walks the reader through the steps of the animation pipeline during Embrace's development, simultaneously elaborating upon my process, decision-making, design justifications, and overall journey from inception to presentation. My conclusions focus on a self-perceived evaluation of this complex process and the effectiveness of Embrace in offering support and empowerment to the asexual community through autoethnographically-informed animation.

Committee: Kyoung Swearingen (Advisor); Mary Anne Beecher (Committee Member); Candace Stout (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Film Studies; Fine Arts

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines youth engagement with financial news and its capacity to boost financial literacy levels through interactive content. An experiment is conducted in which university students (N=125) read one of four stories from the Wall Street Journal and then answer questions about their experience. Results show that participants exposed to interactive stories were more likely to say they learned something new about business, finance, or economics from the story; were more likely to say they would read financial news again in the future; were more likely to say they enjoyed the format of the content; and were more likely to have deeper engagement levels with the content. Results also seem to reveal a perception bias: while most participants said they do not enjoy financial news content and find it boring, irrelevant, and/or difficult to understand, a majority of participants also reported having a positive experience reading their assigned story, interactive or not.

Committee: Victoria LaPoe PhD (Committee Chair); Nerissa Young (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Finance; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Mass Communication (Communication)

Pasolini en Medellin (PEM) and the PD Narrative Project (PDNP) are two initiatives that work to contest the stigmas of violence and illness through digital storytelling. This dissertation analyzes PEM and PDNP from a visual social semiotics approach to explicate how the use of digital storytelling can renew the semiotic resources of people dwelling in existential crisis, offering possibilities for critique and contestation of stigmas that have been imposed upon them. Visual social semiotics provides a theoretical foundation and a methodological framework for exploring the ongoing process of semiosis that characterizes media research, to explicate how the multimodality of digital storytelling contributes to semiotic invention and semiotic change by developing new semiotic resources (or new ways of using existing semiotic resources). The results show that PEM and the PDNP create new communication spaces in which participants can find a way to re-visit, re-interpret and re-inscribe their own experiences, demonstrating that PEM and the PDNP are compelling sites for understanding how the use of digital storytelling can contribute to re-establish the right to narrate on marginalized communities.

Committee: Jenny Nelson dr (Advisor); Brian Plow (Committee Member); Devika Chawla dr (Committee Member); Risa Withson dr (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2018, Design

This thesis examines the role of space in the structure of narrative and its portrayal in computer animation. The ways in which space tells, expands and acts are presented and discussed through three computer-animated films (Perhaps, Dashes, and Dear, Home) created by the writer. Through Perhaps, Dashes and Dear, Home, the writer explores aesthetic experiences that focus on sensory perceptions of the viewer and their movement around a computer-animated work, crafted from the designer's personal experiences. By analyzing and examining animated story-making and story-telling in these films, the author foregrounds space as both a narrative subject and a structuring component. The spatial context in which the production and reception of a computer animation take place expands our awareness of computer animation outside the limits of computers and display monitors, highlighting an active participation of the designer and the viewer within the digital space, the physical world, and the narrative space.

Committee: Maria Palazzi (Advisor); Kyoung Swearingen (Committee Member); Scott Swearingen (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

BA, Oberlin College, 2015, Environmental Studies

"Performance and Resilience: Performance, Storytelling, and Resilience Building in Post-Katrina New Orleans" uses a mixed method approach to investigate the role of digital storytelling and contemporary performing arts in building community and environmental resilience. Through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and scholarship from the fields of performance studies and environmental studies, this piece focuses on post-disaster landscapes, particularly post-Katrina New Orleans, to investigate the impact of storytelling platforms and performance spaces in retaining social and cultural memory.

Committee: Janet Fiskio (Advisor); Victoria Fortuna (Committee Member); Phyllis Gorfain (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Justice; Environmental Studies; Performing Arts

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Leadership and Change

As Indigenous peoples, we have a responsibility to our global community to share our collective truths and experiences, but we also deserve the respect to not be objectified, essentialized, and reified. Today, we are in a period of continual Native resurgence as many of us (re)member our prayers, songs, languages, histories, teachings, everyday stories and our deepest wisdom and understanding as Indigenous peoples--we are all “living breath” and we are “all related.” For eight years, Carmella Rodriguez and I have been nDigiStorytelling across the United States and have co-created over 1,200 digital stories with over 80 tribes for Native survivance, healing, hope, and liberation. By the making and sharing of nDigiStories, our training and consulting company called nDigiDreams is Healing Our Communities One Story at a Time.® This dissertation is a phenomenological study about nDigiStorytelling in an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) community in Northern Michigan; it explores two four-day digital storytelling workshops during November 2013 and May 2014. Using an emergent research design called “Three Sisters,” I combine Indigenous methodologies, community-based participatory research, and portraiture to explore the “lived experiences” of our nDigiStorytellers who are thriving and flourishing in their families and communities and who are widely sharing their nDigiStories to help others. An Indigenous approach to digital storytelling is much needed and provides a new avenue for understanding how we can use nDigiStorytelling and our visceral bodies to release ourselves from traumatic experiences and how we can utilize technology and media-making for healing ourselves and others. The electronic version of this Dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/ and OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd This dissertation is accompanied by a PDF that contains links to 24 media files on the nDigiStoryMaking YouTube Channel that are referenced in th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carolyn Kenny Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Member); Luana Ross Ph.D. (Committee Member); Daniel Hart M.F.A. (Committee Member); Jo-Ann Archibald Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Multimedia Communications; Native American Studies; Native Americans; Native Studies; Public Health

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Leadership and Change

Indigenous peoples have always shared collective truths and knowledge through oral storytelling. Just as we were born, stories are born too, through our sacred “living breath.” We live in a time where stories travel far, beyond our imaginable dreams, and can have an influence on anyone who hears them. In the present-day, we have an opportunity to combine personal stories with digital technology in order to share one of our greatest gifts with each other--our experience and wisdom. For eight years, Brenda K. Manuelito and I have been traveling across Indian Country helping our Indigenous relatives create nDigiStories for Native survivance, healing, hope, and liberation. Together with our nDigiStorytellers, we are Healing Our Communities One Story at a Time®. This dissertation is a phenomenological study about the “story-sharing” of nDigiStories. It tells the story about the journey of digital stories created from an Indigenized digital storytelling process called nDigiStorytelling with an Ojibwa (Anishinaabe) community in Michigan. I explored a bricolage of methodologies from an “Indigenist” perspective, community-based participatory research, performance ethnography, and relational autoethnography. This study shows how combining an Indigenous approach to technology and media-making with deeply-held beliefs and ceremony can revitalize Indigenous people and strengthen community relationships. The electronic version of this Dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/ and OhioLink ETD Center, http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd. This dissertation is accompanied by a PDF document that contains links to 45 media files on the nDigiStorySharing YouTube Channel that are referenced in this document.

Committee: Carolyn Kenny Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Member); Luana Ross Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dan Hart M.F.A. (Committee Member); Jo-Ann Archibald Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Multimedia Communications; Native American Studies; Native Americans; Native Studies; Public Health

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, EDU Teaching and Learning

This dissertation is a study of “non-college bound” student's perceptions of their educational experiences at one rural high school, as investigated through their narrative engagements, namely their class assignments, conversational interviews, and the creation of a digital story (Lambert, 2009). Using a theoretical framework of critical multiculturalism (May & Sleeter, 2010), and narrative inquiry as my methodology (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), I examine the student's stories as meaningful contributions to current knowledge about issues in education such as the relevance of standardized curriculum, college access and readiness, and educational inequity. Analyzing the narrative engagements of three students in particular - Greg, Claire and Alexa - revealed the complex and complicated ways in which students reflected on who they are, how they see themselves, and how they view their future aspirations. For all three of these students, their narratives relate to both their current day selves and their future selves and touch on the journeys that they must take to get to one from the other. For Greg, formal education is seen as irrelevant. For Claire, college is unnecessary, though training for her trade is essential and something she is planning to pursue. For Alexa, college and a 2-year medical licensure is her selected route to “become everything I ever wanted to be.” Collectively, my analysis of data exposes the ways in which some students are not fully encouraged to pursue their driving passions (e.g., racecar driving, cosmetology) as they participate in academic opportunities (e.g., preparing to attend college), and I conclude that educators—to include teachers, teacher educators, researchers and school administrators—should reflect on how meaning is assigned to activities (that get labeled as academic and/or social activities) by re-evaluating the goals and purposes of education for students like Greg, Claire, Alexa, and their peers. In this work, th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Valerie Kinloch PhD (Advisor); Candace Stout PhD (Committee Member); Cynthia Selfe PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education