Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2005, Journalism (Communication)

If a magazine's achievements can be measured in part by whom and how many it infuriated in the shortest amount of time, then surely Scanlan's Monthly deserves to be honored. The brainchild of former Ramparts editor Warren Hinckle and former New York Times law reporter Sidney Zion, Scanlan's printed only eight issues in 1970 and 1971. But during its short lifetime the magazine drew the attention and often the ire of business, labor, law enforcement, and government leaders including Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon. In the midst of such special attention, Scanlan's managed to print some of the most provocative muckraking journalism of its time. Scanlan's published the first examples of Hunter S. Thompson's now-celebrated Gonzo journalism; and two years before anyone outside of Washington, D.C., had heard of Watergate, Scanlan's called for President Nixon's impeachment. Scanlan's' 2019; eighth issue, dedicated to the subject of guerilla violence in the U.S., was subjected to a nationwide boycott by printing unions, and was then seized by Montreal police after it was printed in Quebec. The issue, which turned out to be Scanlan's' last, finally appeared in January 1971 after a three-month delay. Scanlan's' insistence on taking on and not backing down from power doomed it to an early death, and its brushes with the U.S. government demonstrate the extent of the Nixon administration's war on the dissident press. Scanlan's is a sobering lesson on how government power can be wielded to harass, and in some cases silence, the press.

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Design

As technology evolves, media changes, and the existing paradigms fail to describe the emerging platforms. When a new form emerges, it can be seen as a blend of the existing narrative philosophies. Today emerging narrative platforms, like VR and portable media apps, have qualities of interactive media (games), literature, and video, but lack a coherent overarching structure. Through an abstraction of J. L. Austin's performative formula from “Speech Act Theory”, the designer's intended psychological effect of narrative devices become more clearly understood, judged, applied, and translated across different platforms. This paper documents an applied project, Tuba-Goose, that engages linguistic structures defined by Austin with visual design choices to create a digital storybook using animation, interaction, and text.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, English

In this project I construct a democratic model of new media composing education and production that uses nostalgia (a community, tradition, and emotion-focused lens) to uncover design lessons within a diverse set of techno-composing milieus: the hipster craft movement, the new capitalist workplace, debates in the field of composition studies, and several client-designer interactions. In doing so, I argue that because communities value diverse technological pasts, so, too, do they inevitably imagine diverse ideal futures. Sadly, citizens and students who value technological futures beyond efficient high-tech profusion are historically labeled technophobic and/or illiterate. Through such a dismissal, scholars of technology--from ER doctors to new media composition instructors--miss out on a wide array of design assets and possible futures that could make the world a better place. To counter this anemic thinking, I develop a cross-cultural rhetoric of technology, which uses nostalgia to identify, mediate, and design from techno-logical "contact zones" (see Pratt; Pfaffenberger; Selfe and Selfe; Canagarajah), spaces where different communities with different understandings, values, goals, and literacies surrounding writing technologies interact and clash in systems of uneven power. In doing so, I call for the expansion of definitions of technological literacy in new media composition; I argue for teaching composing students to mediate technological conflicts; and I illustrate how composers can learn from the contextualized memories of their audiences in order to create more inclusive, creative, and profitable texts.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Music History

This dissertation examines the social contexts for music livestreams, in order to lay the groundwork for future studies of both livestreaming as a whole and individual case studies. No frameworks currently exist for analyzing music livestreams. Although the technologies of livestreaming have been evolving over the past few decades, there have been no organized or successful attempts to standardize the ways we understand and study this fast-growing medium for music performance. Chapter 1 provides basic definitions of livestreaming, and then emphasizes the framework of liveness, arguing that although livestreaming technologies developed relatively recently, the practice of transmitting and receiving live music has been developing since the late-nineteenth century. I examine livestreaming as a continuation of broadcast media wrapped up with conceptions of liveness that have been constantly transforming over the long twentieth century. Chapter 2 connects livestreaming with the social media platforms that have emerged in the past two decades. I also position livestreaming within discussions and anxieties surrounding attention and distraction in the context of digital media. In Chapter 3 the discussion of attention extends into the realm of joint attention, and the ways livestreaming engages our attentive capacities in groups to facilitate specific modalities of participation—observational, reactive, and generative. Finally, the conclusion pulls these frameworks together to demonstrate their use in an analysis of music livestreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the patterns of behavior and audience engagement, conceptions of liveness during the pandemic, and the effects of these factors on the social aspects of live music.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, American Culture Studies

In 2020, people across the world began to live nearly all their lives online thanks to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Social media allowed people in quarantine and isolation to safely interact no matter where in the world they were. For some, however, this way of online existence had been happening for years. Fans of all sorts of media texts and media objects had flocked to digital realms for years as a way of finding others who felt the same way they did. Some fans choose to use their social media platform of choice to put forward a digital fan identity that fore fronted their role as a fan rather than any aspect of their offline identity. This work looks at the ways that specific social media platforms can impact the ways that fan communities form and how these communities can have impact on the sociopolitical views that users are exposed to. Using the sociopolitical touchstone of the Black Lives Matter movement in May and June 2020, this project utilizes a mixed-methods analysis of digital conversations across Twitter, TikTok,and Instagram. In comparing the three platforms it becomes clear that the unique affordances of each platform combine with unique dynamics of each fan group to privilege the voices and beliefs of socially acceptable fans. It also becomes clear that the distinctive affordances of each platform have the ability to shape offline interactions and sociopolitical ideals in different ways. We can see here just a glimpse into how the online can shape the offline in ways that have growing implications for our understanding of the social and political world.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation explores the role of African media in shaping Africa's image through both the analysis of newspapers over the course of the 2014 Ebola crisis and an exploration of African films. This methodology redeploys aspects of Africa's (in)visibility in global politics and discourse on representation in geopolitics. Placing African film and media organizations at the center of analysis in this study is vital, as they add diversity of voices to the conversation about Africa's image in the media. The dissertation looks at how Africa is framed as perpetually “in crisis.” Specifically, the research engages analysis of African film and media depictions under the premise of crises to advance Africa's visual culture and representation. I am interested in exploring how coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in The Inquirer, a major English newspaper in Liberia, compares with that in the New York Times coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Likewise, I explore how African cinema frames and represents crisis through three films – Xala (Ousmane Sembene, 1975); Pumzi (Wanuri Kahiu, 2009); and Les Saignantes (Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 2005). I argue that African films speak to the possibility of positive anticipated outcomes ignored by western scholars, and, therefore, possess the agency to decolonize minds. For instance, Pumzi and Les Saignantes offer an outlook on Africa's challenges and possibilities through newly imagined futures. Precisely, the selected films first address Africa's crisis in relation to the political, economic, and environmental struggle as well as gender discourses and, second, offer a prescription of development and progress. How do African filmmakers and media personnel, through their various creative works, reconstruct Africa's global identity? Finally, I advance that this research gives voice to how Africa frames crisis. This dissertation interrogates an unbalanced global power structure that has been typically Eurocentric. Taking an opposing pos (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Contemporary Music

The saxophone is relatively young compared to other instruments of the band and orchestra. Because the instrument is less constricted by traditional repertoire, composers looking to push the boundaries of concert music eagerly write for the saxophone, and saxophonists willingly experiment with new combinations of performance media. An exponential increase of works written for saxophone and multimedia has occurred since the 1960s. This increase in multimedia works for saxophone has paralleled a digital media revolution, manifested through advancements in recording, interactive media, and communication technologies. This document examines the synthesis of saxophone performance and the digital media revolution, elaborating upon existing repertoire for saxophone and digital media in a non-comprehensive manner, with emphasis placed upon electroacoustic works for saxophone and video. Possibilities for multimedia performance are rapidly expanding within the saxophone's repertoire. A poignant example, Matthew Burtner's meta-saxophone project combines motion tracking, accelerometers, and other technologies with the physical saxophone, creating a cyborg instrument. In this situation, Burtner is an auteur, acting simultaneously as the composer, performer, technologist, and sometimes visual artist, all while using the saxophone as the crux of expression. Other composers and artists take a collaborative approach while using saxophone and digital media. These combinations of saxophone and digital media create a new and exciting medium in concert performance. Yet, the combination of live performance and digital medium lacks scholarly analysis. While existing research provides valuable analysis from a performer's perspective, further examination of the interactions between mediums can reveal new potential and meaning. The introduction of elements of media theory and analysis to saxophone repertoire, using specific repertoire as micro-case-studies, will widen the artistic underst (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2019, Honors

The thesis, Ministry in the Digital Age: The Use of New Media to Promote Fruitful Youth Ministry in the 21st Century, seeks to answer the question: what social media practices used by Catholic youth ministers most effectively promote fruitful youth ministry? It begins by exploring two issues foundational to the question itself: the Church's relationship with media throughout history and the nature and goals of fruitful youth ministry. Then it investigates the use of social media in Catholic youth ministry today by reviewing recent literature on this topic and by analyzing survey responses of regional youth ministers to determine the social media practices that they perceive most effective for their youth ministry. Finally, through a critical evaluation of these personal and published resources in light of the two foundational issues noted above, this study draws conclusions about the diverse ways that social media is employed by Catholic youth ministers today and especially about the most effective practices for using these new forms of media. Youth ministers from the Diocese of Cleveland were surveyed regarding their use of new media to achieve the goals of youth ministry outlined. After combining the survey results with a review of recent literature surrounding the topics of youth ministry and new media, the following conclusions on best practices with new media and youth ministry were apparent. Over half of youth ministers surveyed see social media as a tool for fulfilling the goal of relational ministry. Through social media the youth ministers are engaging in a ministry of presence, providing a reminder that the Faith is important beyond the walls of the Church. The two most effective new media platforms for reaching teens are Texting and Instagram. While not the only methods, they were shown to be the most effective. With a read rate of 99%, texting provides an immediacy not found in the other platforms. The opportunity to respond to texts also make (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Science of Media Arts and Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2018, Media Arts and Studies

INFINITE JEST 2 takes a look at the world of media in 2024. Film available for academic purposes at: https://youtu.be/t1iBihSzgL4 Live show available for academic purposes at: https://youtu.be/k8PPxO_Io9c

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

This dissertation explores the relationship between citizen journalism and political outcomes (political literacy and political participation) and their potential impacts on the Malaysian political arena. In the course of exploration this study examined the positive attitudes towards citizen journalism and political literacy, the association between political knowledge and political participation, and the correlation between positive attitudes towards citizen journalism and political engagement among students at four different Malaysian universities in 2016. The four campuses involved in this research were 1) Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, 2) Taylor's University College in Selangor, 3) Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in Kuching and 4) Curtin University Sarawak in Miri. This research employed a mixed method approach to answering the research questions – a survey of students from the four Malaysian education institutions and in-depth interviews with eight informants. I received 393 responses to the survey. To investigate the potential impacts of citizen journalism and political participation on Malaysian politics I selected for interviews eight informants, among them were news editors, public figures, and activists. The fieldwork for this research was carried out in Malaysia and the United Kingdom from April, 2016, to October, 2016. The results revealed a negative correlation between positive attitudes towards citizen journalism and political literacy. Other potential reasons found for low political literacy among Malaysians included low media literacy and social factors such as age, types of university attended, locality, race, and religion. I also discovered a negative correlation between political literacy and political engagement among respondents – respondents with lower political literacy were more likely to participate in politically related activities. Research outcomes revealed that respondents who showed positive attitudes towards citizen journalism h (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2017, English

This thesis argues for studying social media as a cultural and contextual practice, caught up in networks of actors that constitute and construct a given context and that influence compositions before, during, and after creation. Ultimately, the author proposes a heuristic that helps researchers break down or revise measures to better accommodate the ways in which social media is being used; recognize social media as influenced by actors that both constitute and construct a cultural context; acknowledge expanded notions of kairos and rhetorical success; and engage ethically and reciprocally with community partners. Such an approach allows researchers, teachers, and practitioners to not only better accommodate the affordances and constraints of individual research sites, but also to better understand social media practices so that we can better navigate complex contexts and create content that accommodates the differing needs of various situations and audiences, teaching our students to do the same.

Bachelor of Science of Media Arts and Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2017, Media Arts and Studies

MOLOCH is a game about internal struggles between passive content consent and critical views in systems where digging deeper can lead to darker truths. A top-down 3D game with simple directional movement puzzles, MOLOCH places us behind a desk as a shift manager in a dystopian company. Throughout the game, the player will be confronted with the binary of efficiency vs morality. The game encourages us to increasingly hurry our managed workers, but is the company's goal and corporate approval worth the amoral work we force? Are we ok with the system's tactics aimed at keeping us complacent? MOLOCH takes inspiration from Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis and from the German Expressionism art movement at-large. Increasing anxiety over the networked world's discordant relationships between humanity and the physical world and the rise of social inauthenticity and near endemic individual alienation highlight the intentions of MOLOCH (Klaas, 2016). Adapting a rich history of prior art is critical to the tonal and thematic success of MOLOCH. David Freeman, designer and writer, states that one of the keys to creating a rich world is through adding history (Freeman, 2003). Adding backstory to MOLOCH through ancillary materials, and injecting the sentiments of Metropolis facilitates a rich history. The precise adaptation necessary for analytical success spans visual and audial assets as well; without proper signifiers the tone of the game will be lost due to a lack of thematic cohesion. This aspect will be accomplished through continual examination and inspiration of prior art.

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2016, Journalism (Communication)

This study aims to understand if the process of habit formation differs between traditional news media consumption and online news media consumption and how the implications for the uses and gratification theory is evolving, as a result. Seven respondents who access news from the web were interviewed, were asked to describe their consumption behaviors in terms of frequency, mode, time, duration and environment of access. The study observed a shift in the way modern day people consume news due to the increase in modes of access. The results of the study indicate that habit formation is now based on RSS feed-based platforms that both give users a wider sense of control over their content, and allow them to maintain an affinity for a platform, while still consuming their preferred content.

Master of Applied Communication Theory and Methodology, Cleveland State University, 2014, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

This paper is designed to explore how online readers process information when online news articles have majority cues. These majority cues are conceptualized as a specific type of heuristic cue and this study discovered complex interaction effects of this heuristic cue. Heuristic and Systematic Model (HSM) and Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) successfully predict how these interaction effects work when these models work together. MANOVA and ANOVA analyses report significant interaction effects among heuristic cues, involvement, and argument quality on readers attitudes (attitude toward information and author's credibility) that supporting both Hypothesis 1 and 2. Specifically, in regard a Hypothesis 1, when argument quality is strong the heuristic cue increases the attitude toward information and author's credibility more positively when the information is about a low-involvement product. On the other hand, the heuristic cue decreases attitude toward information and author's credibility more negatively when the information is about a high-involvement product. Regarding a Hypothesis 2, when the heuristic cue is low, the strong argument quality increases the attitude toward information and author's credibility more positively when the information is about a high-involvement product. On the other hand, the strong argument quality decreases the attitude toward information and author's credibility more negatively when the information is about a low-involvement product. In summary, the explanations of both HSM and ELM are supported only when people use their cognitive resources efficiently. On the other hand, theories of Maximization of Cognitive Efficiency (MCE) and affordances explain when people need to use cognitive resources inefficiently. That is because humans are naturally moderate their information processing in the dynamic manner that maximizes their cognitive efficiency to interpret the given information and environment efficiently and in a timely manne (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Interdisciplinary Programs

New Media, New Maternities: Representations of Maternal Femininity in Postfeminist Popular Culture argues that new media facilitate the construction of new maternities in popular culture through the privileging of visuality as the primary way to celebrate and/or regulate maternal bodies; through the veneration of self-surveillence, self-discipline, and the willing subjection of oneself to feedback as the primary form of gendered citizenship and participation in these spaces; and through the processes of normativity and normalization fed by user-generated comments and feedback. Young women increasingly rely on new media in order to comply with postfeminist demands, and these technologies are also spaces where fantasies are built and anxieties are fueled, and these two elements frequently merge at the intersection of normative femininity and maternity. Postfeminism describes the ways the liberal feminism has been recognized by social institutions and mainstream culture as commonsense. It also explains the ways the feminist language of choice and empowerment has been co-opted and re-defined for a new generation of young women who find their power through (hetero)sexuality, consumption, and decisions to push marriage and motherhood to the backburner. In recent decades, normative femininity has been represented in postfeminist media through the predominant archetype of the "single girl"--the young, white, educated, heterosexual, middle class girl who prioritizes career success, consumption, romance and sex without too much commitment, and body projects ranging from fashion to diets to online profiles. The "single girl" has also been the primary subject of feminist critiques of postfeminist media culture because this archetype emphasizes postfeminism's obsession with normative bodies and its dismissal of the experiences of women of color, queer women, and working class women. I intervene in existing scholarship to argue that the "single girl" cannot be understood with (open full item for complete abstract)

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)

MDes, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Design

This thesis explores the sustainability of media by using a scenario model. It focuses on current practices within traditional and new media to determine how sustainable each of these is in terms of the economic, social, and ecological aspects that constitute sustainability. Chapter One, an overview, defines traditional and new media, traditional and new media designers, sustainability, and describes the scenario model. Chapters Two through Five discuss the sustainability of a representative technology for each quadrant of the scenario model. These chapters all use a standard format and vocabulary for comparison and for highlighting potential trends within each quadrant. Chapter Six analyzes the two previously discussed traditional and new media. Comparisons between the current and potential sustainability trends of each technology are covered. The research concludes that sustainable growth requires evolving guidelines and ongoing educational development, to enable businesses and consumers to make increasingly sustainable choices.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, English

American Cinematic Novels and their Media Environments, 1925-2000 shows that a famous group of twentieth-century American novels asserted their cultural relevance through their responses to transitional moments in Hollywood film history. I select five well-known novels that engage with different transitional moments, including Hollywood's transition to sound cinema and its response to New Hollywood: The Great Gatsby, The Day of the Locust, Lolita, Gravity's Rainbow, and Underworld. By using narrative theory to analyze the content and form of such cinematic novels and by attending to the evolution of Hollywood cinema itself, I reveal the synergistic relations between film history, media history, and narrative techniques. Because I also grant considerable attention to how the larger “media environment” (including such forms as radio, television, video recorders, and the internet) afforded routes of exchange between cinema and the novel, my dissertation takes a new approach to the task of combining American media history with literary criticism and film history. Based on this evidence, I also intervene in recent debates about the fate of the American novel in new media environments. I argue that even if aggregate sales of print novels continue to fall in the future, influential American novelists will win both readers and cultural prestige by shaping our understanding of new media environments and the novel's evolving positions in them.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, English

Challenging composition's tendency to focus exclusively on alphabetic literacy, numerous composition scholars have called for a turn to teaching students to produce texts that explicitly blend words, images, and sounds. In calling for this multimodal turn, compositionists have argued that multimodal texts are becoming increasingly central in workplace and civic realms and that students are increasingly arriving in our classrooms with strong visual / multimodal literacies. In making these persuasive arguments for the need to move beyond alphabetic literacy in composition, scholars have understandably emphasized composition's historical lack of engagement with visual and multimodal textual production. I contend, however, that if we look closely at expressivist, cognitivist, and social composition theories of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, we can uncover a rich heritage of compositionists engaging issues of multimodality. In recovering composition's multimodal heritage, I ultimately seek to elucidate the unique disciplinary perspective that compositionists bring to multimodality as well as to articulate ways in which teaching multimodal composing can contribute to the development of students' alphabetic writing skills. In the conclusion of the dissertation, I offer five macro-principles (culled from a blend of past expressivist, cognitive, and social approaches) that can productively inform our contemporary attempts to integrate multimodal composing into our courses, our curricular/institutional structures, and our scholarly work: 1) Alphabetic writing entails a profoundly multimodal process; 2) Some rhetorical and composing process theories can transfer across modalities; 3) Multimodal composing need not necessarily be digital; 4) Disability offers insights into multimodal composing pedagogy; 5) Analysis and production are interconnected activities.

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2012, Journalism (Communication)

Blogs, as a new technology have influenced the journalism industry as well as journalists. It changed one-way communication to many-to-many communication. The content on journalists' personal blogs largely depends on why journalists start blogs. The motivation can be condensed into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Journalists may apply their professional work experiences and judgments while writing the posts either for the purposes of informing the audience or releasing the pressure from work. By applying Uses and Gratification Theory, Diffusion of Innovation Theory and TAM and related theories, this study aims to analyze the motivations for journalists starting personal blogs and tests the relationship between journalists' attitudes, perceived usefulness and actual behavior. In addition, the study also analyzes the content of journalists' blogs. The study can lead to further examination of the structure for journalists' attitudes, perceived usefulness and actual behavior and help us understand how a journalist's blog is able to contribute to society.