Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Communication

Previous research on interactivity has focused on active engagement with a source and feature-based aspects of online platforms. This study seeks to clarify how merely viewing the interactions of others can meaningfully influence impressions of the source. Specifically, this study explores responsiveness and tailoring as key facets of interactivity. The results indicate that viewing specific types of interactions impact perceptions of interactivity. In addition, there is a significant indirect effect of the source providing responses to existing messages, through participants' perceptions that they could receive a response, on attitudes toward the source and behavioral intention. There is also a significant indirect effect of the source providing tailored responses to existing messages, through participants' perceptions that they could receive a tailored response, on assessment of quality of future interactions with the source, attitudes toward the source, and behavioral intention. The implications of this study's results for interactivity, interactivity perceptions, and further research are discussed.

Committee: David DeAndrea Ph.D. (Advisor); Roselyn Lee-Won Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Communication

People often utilize video games as laboratories for experiential experimentation (Jansz, 2005). Dating simulators, an increasingly popular type of simulative game, are environments well-suited to engaging with self-concepts related to romantic experience. Horror dating simulators, a hybrid subgenre of dating simulators and horror video games, are environments in which the player engages with these themes in a purposefully frightful context. In Study 1 (n = 18), I conducted qualitative interviews to gain insight into user motivations for exposure to fear evoking narratives with central themes of romance. In Study 2 (n = 643), I investigated relationships between narrative, aesthetic presentation, and anticipated outcomes of exposure as they pertain to media genre schema. This includes investigation of how these factors impact users' affective forecasting with horror, dating simulator, and horror dating simulator video games. Implications for media research and schema literature are discussed.

Committee: Teresa Lynch (Advisor); Matthew Grizzard (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Educational Studies

Students' value for mathematics often declines, especially in the middle school years. Value, however, and expectations of success are predictors of performance and achievement in mathematics. To improve performance, we need to influence students' beliefs about the value of mathematics and their expectations that they can be successful. Digital mathematics curriculum that incorporates authenticity, interactivity, and ease of use may influence utility value beliefs and expectations, which may lead to higher application knowledge. For this study, a quantitative research methodology was employed. Surveys were used to determine students' perceptions of digital curriculum, their utility value beliefs about mathematics and their expectations of success in mathematics along with post-test measures to determine students' mathematical performance. Using path analysis, this study found that authentic and easy to use curriculum is related to students' utility value and expectations of success, and that higher expectations of success predict higher performance on assessments of application knowledge. This study makes a contribution to the literature by highlighting the importance of utility value and expectancies interventions through the use of digital curriculum.

Committee: Kui Xie (Advisor); Azita Manouchehri (Committee Member); Minjung Kim (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Education; Educational Psychology; Educational Technology; Mathematics Education

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, Communication

This study used semi-structured interviews to examine how players chose to customize their avatars in social video games. Thematic coding of 28 interviews revealed the common threads with which players create and maintain or update their avatars over time in many different game worlds. The effects of different toolsets that players use to construct these avatars is examined, along with the special role that players assign to the gender of their avatars. The behavioral effects of avatars are briefly explored, along with the way players regard the relationship between themselves and their avatars.

Committee: Teresa Lynch Dr. (Committee Member); Jesse Fox Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Communication

BA, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

"Dazed and Confused and Triumphant" is often the experience of both readers and writers of ergodic literature, whose struggle to understand it becomes a meaningful accomplishment after they do. Ergodic literature, as defined by its founder Espen Aarseth in his book 'Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature', is literature in which "nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text". "Nontrivial effort" encompasses anything beyond reading a text from front to back, such as nonlinearity, space subversion, and multiple endings to choose from. In this thesis, I use the syllabus of a Fall 2012 NEOMFA Craft & Theory course to design the hypothetical 16 week class "Dazed and Confused and Triumphant" as a way to teach myself ergodic literature and grow as an experimental writer. The syllabus requires students to read and experience a comprehensive list of ergodic literature all throughout time (ex: the 'I Ching', the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' series, and the video game 'Undertale'), write weekly essays analyzing ergodic techniques in these readings, and create original ergodic literature based on what they've learned. All of these assignments and more are completed and included in this thesis. The thesis itself is arguably ergodic in its creation, format, and puzzle for its readers to solve.

Committee: Lauren Vachon MFA (Advisor); Carol Robinson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Molly Merryman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Suzy D'Enbeau Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Fine Arts; Language Arts; Literature; Web Studies

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

MS, Kent State University, 2020, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Several researchers have conducted studies investigating the challenges faced by people living with disabilities when they participate in tourism activities. Some of these barriers have been removed due to the implementation of the Americans with Disability Act. However informational challenges still exist even with the popularity of technology. Smart tourism has gained a lot of attention in recent times due to its potential to provide useful information that can remove the informational barriers that still exits. This research explores the characteristics of smart tourism platforms that are most important to people living with mobility challenges. In order to achieve this objective, this study adopted a qualitative approach. The researcher collected information from participants using in depth interviews. Five participants with mobility challenges were interviewed. Prior to the interview, participants downloaded the Disney experience app which has smart tourism features. Participants were encouraged to familiarize themselves with the app before the interview. Data collected were analyzed using the five-step approach for analyzing qualitative data designed by O'Connor and Gibson (2003). Direct quotations were also used to support finding. The results of the study revealed that information quality, personalization, and interactivity were the most important features to people living with mobility challenges when they used smart tourism platforms like that of Disney. Hospitality and tourism organizations therefore need to provide specific information about accessibility and desist from using the umbrella term “ADA accessible.” Also, personalization and interactivity must not be taken for granted.

Committee: Seon Jeong Lee (Advisor); Kiwon Lee (Committee Member); Aviad Israeli (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences

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

This MFA thesis explores the threshold of phenomenological perception, audience attention and the mystery of imaginary worlds I perceive between microscopic and macroscopic dimensions. In the BioArt projects and digital immersive environments I present in this thesis, I have found the potential to explore real and imaginary landscapes. This exploration further expands, adding new physical and virtual layers to my work that activate the audience. My work incorporates the synthesis of projection mapping, biological living systems and interactive multimedia. It is the vehicle I use to contemplate the impermanence of time and the illusion of reality.

Committee: Ken Rinaldo (Advisor); Amy Youngs (Committee Member); Alex Oliszewski (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; Biology; Computer Science; Dance; Environmental Studies; Fine Arts; Music; Plant Biology; Pollen; Spirituality

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2018, Art History (Fine Arts)

This research's intention is to define and classify what art games are and how these three particular games rely on the audience to activate the artworks, thus making the audience's interactions essential to complete the artworks. Technology has always impacted the art world and shaped the media that artists experiment with and use. Today, there are many artists who use games as their method for conveying their ideas and messages. This paper will examine how three artists use gaming structures to critique historical and social topics through the audience's interactions with the artworks' gaming structures. The three case studies about Pippin Barr's The Artist is Present, Tale of Tales' The Path and Wafaa Bilal's performance Domestic Tension will examine how these artworks exemplify and use the elements of the particular genre of games, art games. Through looking at research done on digital space and the case studies this paper will address how these artworks create a shift from the focus of the artwork being on the creator or artist to how the interactions and performance of the audience complete the works.

Committee: Jennie Klein (Advisor); Mark Franz (Committee Member); Lee Marion (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2017, Journalism (Communication)

The Web 2.0 era increasingly relies on submissions of content from non-professionals and interaction between the masses. Community newspapers work within a changing media market and one where the audience moves to digital consumption while economics greatly favor print. This study seeks to examine how community newspaper websites choose to engage in gatekeeping as it relates to user-generated content. It also seeks to learn the manner in which those who operate these sites interact with the public. This dissertation uses two content analyses to separately gauge the publication of UGC and interaction on community newspaper websites. Furthermore, the researcher seeks through survey to learn the attitudes of those who operate community newspaper websites toward both the publication of UGC and where they believed it was important to interact with the public. The study suggests there may be no easy answers in terms of technology for getting the public to contribute UGC. Simply making multiple requests for contributions, providing numerous manners for the public to submit, or even offering a special location on the web for all submitted content does not seem enough to convince the public to contribute more content. However, this dissertation indicated direct interaction does appear to increase the number of comments a site receives and the attitudes of managers UGC and interactivity also may influence public actions in terms of participation.

Committee: Hans Meyer Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Media and Communication

This study is the first study that compared the predicting strength of the effect of the micro factor (interactivity of product review use experiences) and macro factors (social inequality and culture) on consumers' trust in online retailers. It examines the predictor of online trust by information asymmetry theory, reciprocity, in-group favoritism and out-group derogation, and social presence. Consumers of the two largest e-commerce sites in the United States and China, Amazon and Tmall, are compared. The results show the interactivity of product use experience is the strongest predictor of consumers' trust in online retailers compared to social inequality and culture. The interactivity is positively related to consumers' trust in famous brands, third-party retailers, and fulfilled third-party retailers of both Amazon and Tmall. In contrast, social inequality is negatively related to consumers' trust in famous brands, third-party retailers, and fulfilled third-party retailers of both Amazon and Tmall. Individualism is positively related to trust in third-party retailers while collectivism is positively related to trust in third-party retailers fulfilled by Amazon or Tmall. Power distance exerts a positive impact on trust in famous brands only. Collectivism plays a more critical role in predicting trust in fulfilled online retailers in Chinese sample than in the U.S. sample. The relationship of trust in online retailers and consumers' actual online purchases is different across countries. Trust in online retailers is an important direct predictor of online purchase diversity and indirect predictor of the amount of money spent online in both the U.S. and China. And it is a direct predictor of online purchase frequency in the U.S., but an indirect predictor of purchase frequency in China. Trust in online retailers is positively related to the amount of money spent on Amazon/Tmall indirectly by affecting shopping frequency on Amazon/Tmall.

Committee: Louisa Ha Professor (Advisor); Gi Woong Yun Associate Professor (Committee Member); Lisa Hanasono Associate Professor (Committee Member); Philip Titus Associate Professor (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative; Information Technology; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Social Research

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, The Ohio State University, 2016, Communication

Abstract As consumers are becoming increasingly jaded toward traditional advertising methods, creators of persuasive messages are turning to new ways to make their appeals. Interactive technology allows the means to give users control over the persuasive message, message source, or product. When users are given control, a host of psychological benefits work in tandem to reduce resistance to being persuaded and ultimately increase favorable attitudes towards the advertised product. These studies assess the means by which customizing a persuasive source or message can change attitudes towards an advertised product. Using the theory of interactive media effects (TIME) and the entertainment overcoming resistance model (EORM) as theoretical foundations, an explanatory model, the customization reactance reduction model (CRRM), was created to assess the role of customization in reducing resistance to persuasive appeals. Three studies were conducted to establish the means by which allowing users to customize can improve their attitudes toward a product and to give support for the CRRM. Study 1 allowed users to create the avatar for a salesperson who would give them a persuasive pitch in a virtual environment. These users liked the product in the pitch better than those who could only watch an avatar customization video and had no direct control over the source's appearance. It was also established that the customization process increases intrinsic motivation, which ultimately increase favorable attitudes toward the product. Study 2 expanded on Study 1 by requiring participants to use a pre-selected avatar (zero choices), choose from one of four possible avatars (single choice) or create a new avatar (multiple choices) designed to represent the source of a persuasive message. This test was conducted in a two-dimensional, text-based environment. Study 2 found that although there were no direct effects between customization condition and product as shown in Study 1, incr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jesse Fox Ph.D. (Advisor); Brad Bushman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Emily Moyer-Guse Ph.D. (Committee Member); Nancy Rhodes Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

With more country population urbanized, the current transportation model of Shanghai will soon collapse. To ultimately resolve this crisis, measures must be taken to reduce the demands of congregational travel, which is the cause of modern rush hours. Relatedly, Internet emerged to be a tangible tool in relieving the pressure on public transit. With the fast expansion in telecommunication and distant working, by 2030, Internet should have pervaded into all major professions allowing the most of works to be done at home. At that point, the Shanghainese are living in the era of WORK@HOME, when work and live are eventually merged and the rush hour congestions have already become history. In the same logic, the traditional transit centers must be methodically reformed to meet the trends and demands of the new life patterns. After all, this thesis is an integrated architectural discourse of urban transportation premised on a revolutionary implementation of WORK@HOME. The redesign of the Xinzhuang Station is a venturous prototype that aims to inspire a comprehensive reconceptualization of the riding experience, commercial opportunities, and communal ecology.

Committee: Udo Greinacher M.Arch. (Committee Chair); Vincent Sansalone M.Arch. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Art

Before my graduate studies began I had already established myself as an artist of the remix, with dozens of albums and hundreds of performances worldwide. This was always in the context of a band: works were musical and usually performative. This changed during my graduate studies as I explored ways to remix my practice of remixing. Some works were musical but not exclusively performative, such as the Fruit Looper. Then musicality faded in later works such as the sonified Pillow Fight and ultimately went silent for the video-only installation Bird/Wings. Yet while the use of music and performance ebbed, the remix flowed: the flexibility of this strategy enabled the expansion of my artistic practice from one of remixing music to one of remixing sight, sound, interface, context, and even my dreams, culminating in my thesis exhibition installation Birdless / Wingless.

Committee: Kenneth Rinaldo (Committee Chair); Todd Slaughter (Committee Member); Marc Ainger (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Technology

Master of Applied Communication Theory and Methodology, Cleveland State University, 2015, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

It has been over ten years since Green and Brock's (2000) initial study of transportation theory; however, there is no research up to date on examining and comparing newly emerging, interactive video game narrative to written texts and films. Drawing upon Green and Jenkins's (2014) newest conceptual work of interactive narrative, this study examined how interactive narrative brings difference in degree of transportation and character identification. Specifically, a quasi-experiment was conducted to compare how the 40 participants responded to either interactive or traditional narratives. The results of the experiment demonstrated that experience taking and need for cognition were significant predictor of transportation and character identification; it was also found that valence was significant predictor of character identification. No difference were found between interactive narrative and traditional narrative on transportation; however, difference between interactive narrative and traditional narrative on character identification was near significant, along with finding significant correlation between transportation and character identification. These findings suggest that character identification could be more important when audiences process interactive narrative. This study is the initial attempt to test Green and Jenkins's (2014) conceptual work of interactive narrative and transportation especially in video game context. The findings of this study could contribute to previous video game studies, in which the concept of `interactivity' was rarely defined in terms of narrative structure.

Committee: Cheryl Bracken PhD (Committee Chair); Richard Perloff PhD (Committee Member); Robert Whitbred PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

Upon release from prison many former inmates become recidivist. They can break parole and/or commit another crime and be reincarcerated based on poor access to stable housing and work due to stigma and availability of proper environments, as well as a lack of suitable work programs and/or housing. The formerly incarcerated also suffer many psychological problems such as feelings of a lack of control and the loss of their independent pre prison identities. Many halfway houses that provide these services have unstable atmospheres or can't provide support for the former criminals seeking jobs. Proposed is a facility in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati that will incorporate housing with a commercial aspect to be staffed by residents. The commercial facility will provide a community asset that is currently lacking in the area, comprising of a fresh market grocery store that directly engages the community with the center. The center will also providing for the housing of the former inmates in residences designed to help ease their transition back into society at large, refraining from dehumanizing aspects such as communal bedrooms and non privacy. Elements of personalization and interactivity will allow residents to exert a control and ownership over their environment, allowing them to reclaim their independent identities lost in prison. The building designed will showcase a manner in which architecture and architectural interventions can be used to help a community and disenfranchised individuals reclaim their identities and help create dialogue and reduce stigma with existing residents. This project will hopefully spark interest in the idea that architecture can be part of the process of combating larger social problems.

Committee: Aarati Kanekar Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Michael McInturf M.Arch. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2014, Communication

The purpose of this study was threefold. First, it sought to conceptually compare two constructs that have numerous similarities, social presence and mediated immediacy. Second, it attempted to empirically test the relationship between those constructs after determining that the conceptual similarities suggested an overlapping relationship. Third, the study sought to determine if aspects of the communicative message, such as the type of target or level of interactivity, influenced how socially present or immediate an individual perceived that message to be. Confirmatory factor analyses, independent groups t-tests, and ANCOVAs were utilized to test the research questions that were posed. The results indicated no uniform effect of target or interactivity on ratings of social presence and mediated immediacy. Additionally, the confirmatory factor analysis pointed toward the independent relationship proposed in existing research as the best model. Limitations such as poor measurement scales and group characteristics could have influenced these findings. Thus, more research attempting to identify the relationship between social presence and mediated immediacy is warranted.

Committee: David DeAndrea (Advisor); R. Lance Holbert (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

Today's fast-paced urban society is marked by busy schedules and repetitive routines, with most people being unaware of the affects they have on their surroundings, and how the built environment, in turn, affects them. Spaces that we occupy on a reoccurring basis, such as public transit hubs, tend to fade into the background as the user disengages from their environment and becomes more inwardly focused. These spaces, intended for public use, are only about passing through, rather than truly creating a sense of place. Despite this increasing isolation, it is natural for humans to identify themselves as being part of a community. This thesis will examine how designers can extract the psychological attributes of community organization and implement them as direct drivers in the design process. A building design for a community engagement center and public transit hub will be produced on an urban site, presented in models and drawings, and documented in a critical essay that discusses the increasing need for spaces that engage community members directly through active participation in the creation of their environment, and increase building use through flexibility of program. As a result, urban dwellers will become active members in their environment by participating in the design process of their spaces. The ability for users to leave their mark on the spaces in which they inhabit will result in a greater sense of ownership for the community.

Committee: Michael McInturf MARCH (Committee Chair); Patricia Kucker MARCH (Committee Chair) Subjects: Architecture

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

This thesis explores the psychological and architectural relationships between video gaming and architecture as they both relate to the senses in order to design an educational facility for video game development. Gestalt psychology has many theories of sensual perception, such as visual organization theories that can directly enhance or influence architectural content. Alternately, a “rejection” of Gestalt is explored to engage users in a conflicting experience. A design metaphor of space generation using the senses as a structural space-defining material is investigated along with exploring video game spatial structures in architecture. Sensual perception, spatial formation using the senses, and other design investigations of the interaction between architecture and video gaming are explored for design. Furthermore, this thesis also explores some of the other aspects of the overlap of architecture and video gaming, such as formal elements of the video game medium like spatial structures, imagery, and interactivity.

Committee: Michael McInturf (Advisor) Subjects: