MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser

In 1996, the first collegiate South Asian A Cappella Group, Penn Masala, was founded at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last twenty-two years, nearly fifty such groups have been founded at colleges and universities across the United States. These ensembles blend western popular music with South Asian music, namely Bollywood film songs. Membership in these groups typically involves participants with South Asian ethnic backgrounds as well as participants from various other ethnic backgrounds. This thesis explores the ramifications and outcomes between the multifaceted essence of South Asian A Cappella and the multifaceted ethnicities of its members, showing how identities are blended, reinvented, and performed in both musical and social settings. This research ultimately culminates in a discussion of the balance between ethnicity and nationality and how music is a perfect stage to perform such internal diversity. It also comments on agency within music, questions what is considered fusion, and discusses the way competition assigns value to performance in inconsistent ways.

Committee: Jennifer Johnstone PhD (Advisor); Eve McPherson PhD (Committee Member); Susan Roxburgh PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Ethnic Studies; Music

Master of Applied Communication Theory and Methodology, Cleveland State University, 2018, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

With the rise of technology it becomes important to measure and analyze the communication patterns that are emerging from these changes. Technologies open up different communication patterns for individuals to use (Tomas & Carlson 2015; Walther, 1996; Wei & Leung, 1999). Thus, this study develops the “ASOHIO” perspective, which incorporates a range of new and old communication patterns, online communication, offline communication, synchronous communication, asynchronous communication, interpersonal communication, and hyperpersonal communication. This work also looks to extend the hyperpersonal model greatly by developing an actual multi-item scale to measure the construct at the individual level. Walther's (1996) basic description of hyperpersonal communication breaks down that there are a lack of non-verbal cues, a sense of strategic communication, and computer-mediated communication. This study takes things a step further, with a breakdown of the components of hyperpersonal taking into account current technologies, as well as using Goffman's “presentation of everyday self“ and “interaction ritual” to help define what hyperpersonal could really mean in the current hybrid communication environment.

Committee: Kimberly Neuendorf Dr. (Committee Chair); Guowei Jian Dr. (Committee Member); Leo Jeffres Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, Journalism (Communication)

This qualitative study explores the impact of new media, specifically social media and campaign websites with greater direct user participation and involvement. With the historic election of the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the candidacy of the first Republican woman nominated for vice-president, Sarah Palin, the 2008 presidential and vice-presidential campaigns remain important for study. "Political Campaigning 2.0" analyzes campaign and user-generated web content covering a wide array of new media: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, and campaign websites. The study is based on Erving Goffman's theories of Framing and Impression Management and complemented with James Grunig's Situational Theory of Publics. In contrast to other studies, this research includes the issue of age and explores the intersectionality of race, gender, and age. It uses a multi-method approach, combining textual analysis with in-depth interviews, focus groups, and self-reports made up of 66 Ohio University undergraduate student participants. Findings reveal that a majority of web users interpreted and represented the Democratic candidates in the same way as the campaign framed them, indicating convergent and successful representation in terms of race, gender, and age. The Obama-Biden campaign was able to take advantage of Obama's race as a historic milestone and Biden's age as a sign of experience. In contrast, most web users interpreted and represented Republican candidates differently than intended by the McCain-Palin campaign, indicating a divergence in framing. A majority of users framed McCain as old, rather than experienced, and Palin as inexperienced, rather than a "maverick." The McCain-Palin campaign worked to represent Palin as a candidate who would appeal to women, but her representation in terms of gender did not resonate with a majority of web users. Emphasizing the importance of new media technology, this study shows how the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Advisor); Joseph Bernt (Committee Member); Duncan Brown (Committee Member); DeLysa Burnier (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2009, Communication Studies (Communication)

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 wrot (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laura W. Black Ph.D. (Advisor); B. Scott Titsworth Ph.D. (Advisor); Jennifer Bute Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jennifer Chabot Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2005, Communication Theory and Process (Communication)

The goal of this research is to reveal the connections, contradictions, tensions, and paradoxes inherent in the narratives of breast cancer created by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the National Breast Cancer Coalition by exploring three research questions: Q1: How do the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the National Breast Cancer Coalition perform a narrative of breast cancer at their respective events? Q2: How are these performed narratives shaped by the cultural and historical context of breast cancer awareness in the United States? Q3: How do these performed narratives shape current breast cancer awareness in the United States. In addressing these questions, the historical and cultural roots of breast cancer campaigns in the US are addressed, as well as current narrative health communications scholarship. The organizational stories are told through ethnographic thick descriptions and analyzed using Goffman's Frame Analysis to reveal narrative structure, cultural and historical themes, and speculate about the future of breast cancer awareness efforts in the US. This study serves as a record of events, a model of culturally and historically based narrative research, and a demonstration of how narrative theories can extend beyond the scope of a single author and explain collective authorship as well. Reframing narrative scholarship in this way expands on current theories and offers a new perspective for analyzing the ways that we communicate about health-based narratives.

Committee: Nagesh Rao (Advisor) Subjects: Speech Communication

Bachelor of Arts, Miami University, 2007, College of Arts and Sciences - Anthropology

Since 2004, the networking site Facebook.com has become an integral part of college students' lives. Drawing on Goffman's Performance of Self in Everyday Life and symbolic interactionalism, this paper considers how Facebook is used by users' to construct or perform their identity. This study was conducted by interviewing six college students and two recent college graduates and observing their Facebook profiles. While people construct identities in all parts of their lives, this performance is particularly evident on Facebook since the norms of use and interpretation are still being developed for this community. This manifests itself in debates over Facebook etiquette, risks and user rules. One Facebook, specific props for identity performance includes the profile, group membership, and photos. Facebook users attempt to manage the impression others receive of them by guessing what their interpretation of their performance will be. The structure of Facebook limits the ways people can construct identities and so some users have to creatively modify their performance.

Committee: Mark Peterson (Advisor) Subjects: Anthropology, Cultural

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2007, English/Literature

Through this project, I argue that it is time to take Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to a more complex level based on ethics and recognition. I first discuss ways in which the text has already been studied, such as in terms of tolerance or empathy, and then discuss how and why it should be taken further. Throughout my argument, I use Emmanuel Levinas' theory of ethics to demonstrate ways in which characters in Lee's text moved beyond mere tolerance or ethics. By using Erving Goffman's Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity as well as Emmanuel Levinas' theory of ethics, scholars can begin to look at this book in new ways. When read through a new lens, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird has the potential to contribute more to literary study than simply a lesson of tolerance; instead, it can be interpreted as having new implications for the study of ethics and recognition.

Committee: Ellen Berry (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, American