Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Media and Communication

While scholars from a wide range of disciplines have analyzed thematic development, iconography, narrative, characterization, and animation style of Japanese anime, the music of anime programs is largely ignored or trivialized. This dissertation fills the gap in critical intercultural communication and media studies research by examining original anime soundtracks and their roles as narrative devices. Anime is explored as a site of global cultural resistance, while maintaining articulations of gender and cultural ideals in their stories and reflected in the lyrics of their theme songs. Employing critical intercultural communication, critical media studies, Affect Theory, with textual analysis and rhetorical criticism, this dissertation analyzes how music is intrinsic to the narrative and an expression of cultural values in anime. Analysis focuses on Hibike! Euphonium (2015-present) by Tatsuya Ishihara and Naoko Yamada, from the studio of Kyoto Animation, a slice-of-life drama involving the coming-of-age stories of high schoolers in a competitive concert band, and Vivi -Furoraito Aizu Songu- (2021) by Tappei Nagatsuki and Eiji Umehara, produced by Wit Studio, which follows an autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AI) programmed to entertain humans with her voice, and who discovers her humanity through music while trying to save the world from destruction. Each anime illustrates how musical scores, lyrics, and instrumentation are incorporated into narratives of gender, agency, culture, and humanity. The dissertation also analyzes compositional style, structure, instrumentation, and lyrics encoded with hegemonic messages and constructions of gendered, raced, and cultural distinctions. It provides a critical analysis of how music is used as a narrative tool in media and communication studies involving anime and how the rhetorical messages encoded in texts, via lyrics and instrumentation, are forms of intercultural communication of Japanese anime viewed by a Western aud (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2024, Business

Personality psychology is well established in business and organization theory and praxis, so it would seem to require no introduction. Whereas personality psychology is established in these areas, there is benefit from interrogating how it has been situated. A textual analysis of the introduction section of the top 50 most-relevant, academic papers identified using the keywords personality and business provided a basis for generating insights and implications as to how personality psychology has been “introduced” within business contexts, as examined academically. This mixed-methods, textual analysis produced words of merit, bigrams of merit, and AFINN-based sentiment scores. Among the results, the words stress and conflict, and the bi-grams of unintended consequences and whistle blowing stood out as topics of focus. The results suggest no statistically significant difference in sentiment between articles frequently referencing the business-related terms and those frequently referencing students, with each group having a slightly positive, average sentiment. Combining the bigrams and words of merit with the sentiment analysis facilitated the identification of common themes that informed understanding and suggested action. These insights and implications suggest a need for further collaboration in this area with a focus on enacting positive change to organizational practices.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, Media and Communication

Since the Islamic State's formation its prominence has soared, particularly in the area of communication where it has garnered a reputation for great skill with propaganda and social media. ISIS propaganda is an integral part of the narrative; however, the focus on propaganda and communication also reveals biases on the part of the United States. This study examines 50 Washington Post articles as a case study research questions dealing with war reporting and propaganda. In addition, it analyzes via both content and text the frequency of propaganda-related messages in the Post, while exploring the line between "pure information" and propaganda. The current events are informed by historical events from World War II through the two Gulf Wars. Ultimately, the results, which reveal some biases on the part of the Post in regards to the ISIS communication-related content, emphasize the need for awareness and active readership in an always political world, full of information.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2015, American Culture Studies

This project analyzes how contemporary US cultural and legislative texts shape US society's impression of undocumented (im)migrants and whether they fit socially constructed definitions of what it means to “be American” or part of the US national imaginary. I argue that (im)migrant-themed cultural texts, alongside legal policies, participate in racial formation projects that use racial logic to implicitly mark (im)migrants as outsiders while actively employing ideologies rooted in gender, economics, and nationality to rationalize (im)migrants' exclusion or inclusion from the US nation-state. I examine the tactics anti- and pro-(im)migrant camps utilize in suppressing the role of race—particularly the rhetorical strategies that focus on class, nation, and gender as rationale for (im)migrants' inclusion or exclusion—in order to expose the similar strategies governing contemporary US (im)migration thought and practice. This framework challenges dichotomous thinking and instead focuses on gray areas. Through close readings of political and cultural texts focused on undocumented (im)migration (including documentaries, narrative fiction, and photography), this project homes in on the gray areas between seemingly pro- and anti-(im)migrant discourses. I contend (im)migration-themed political and popular rhetoric frequently selects a specific identity marker (e.g. gender or socio-economic status—never race) and depicts it as the single factor influencing US border monitoring and defense. In order to demonstrate this argument, I place legal texts in conversation with cultural texts. Taken together, political and cultural texts show the emergent strategies for discussing undocumented (im)migration without directly discussing race or racial inequalities, as the texts deny or have purportedly resolved racial inequalities.

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2014, Journalism (Communication)

This content analysis of ABC Network Nightly News stories from 1968 through 2012 of the Christmas holiday shopping season documents specific social, cultural, and economic indicators. A critical studies approach to this research allows the examination of the social ecology where journalistic norms, news sources, business imperatives and cultural phenomena converge. Overall, the results show a 300 percent increase in the number of Christmas-related stories that aired during the first year and the final year of the study. This work contributes to the critical taxonomy of television journalism's relationship with America's commercial culture.

MA, Kent State University, 2013, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

Many communications scholars study political communication using frame analysis. There is, however, a lack of research into how frames are used in political communication to transmit meaning about economic class and inequality in American discourse. America long has been perceived as a land where opportunity is available to all. That notion is being challenged by an increasing disparity between the resources and opportunities that are available to a large percentage of Americans and what are available to a privileged few. Some journalists and economists call this the Great Divide between the 1 percent and the 99 percent most recently popularized by the Occupy Wall Street movement and protests. The presidential debates and the media coverage that followed the public outcry provided a rich source of elite frames that communicated meaning about class in America during the presidential election of 2012. This research explores the elite frame contest that surrounded the issues of class and the responsibilities of living in a shared economy. Its findings confirm the existence of a two-class structure, an emerging class struggle between the two, and the ideologies that drive the conflict.

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2011, College-Conservatory of Music: Voice

John Haribson's choice of literary material for his vocal repertoire has been diverse, ranging from classic poets such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Emily Dickinson, and Thomas Hardy to modern and even ancient writers, such as Elizabeth Bishop, William Carlos Williams, Czeslaw Milosz, and translations of the fifteenth-century Hindu poet Mirabai. At the same time, Harbison has been drawn to certain poets several times, including Eugenio Montale, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, and the art historian Michael Fried. Despite the fact that Fried is a lesser-known poet, Harbison has been drawn to set his verse repeatedly. Simple Daylight, however, is the only vocal work of Harbison that relies solely on Fried's texts. This thesis explores the reasons why Harbison was inspired to set Fried's poems so many times. In the program note for Simple Daylight, Harbison wrote that his ordering of Fried's poems made “a sequence closer in tone to a Bach cantata text than to a nineteenth-century song cycle” and evoked “a sub-cutaneous narrative very favorable for musical purposes, but no doubt unintended by the poet.” This statement begs the question of how the ordering of the texts made the piece more akin to a Bach cantata than a nineteenth-century song cycle. At first glance, Simple Daylight seems to fit the definition of a song cycle. Harbison himself asserted that the ordering of the poems suggested a “sub-cutaneous narrative”—a thread that drew the pieces into a whole. Might Harbison have employed other cyclic devices as well, such as common musical motives or a reprise of music within the work? In order to answer these questions, I analyzed Simple Daylight to discover why Haribson believed that the piece was textually more akin to a Bach cantata than a song cycle. This analysis involved researching the primary characteristics of Bach's cantata texts and comparing these to the texts of Simple Daylight. Then I examined the musical treatment of the poetry, and, through t (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2011, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines the coverage over time of organic farming in Farm Journal, Successful Farming, and Progressive Farmer, three magazines devoted to professional farming. The purpose is to better understand how industry-specific publications, such as farming magazines, adapt to industry issues that begin with controversy but eventually are adopted into culture as acceptable practices. The study first uses quantitative content analysis to determine what, if any, changes have occurred over time in how much the issue of “organic farming” has been covered in the mainstream agricultural press. Then, a qualitative textual analysis of selected articles from the sample was conducted to further consider the ways mainstream agriculture magazines may influence attitudes and understanding of changes within the industry. This thesis concluded that over time the three magazines under study portrayed organic farming differently and also differed in the amount of coverage they devoted to the topic.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2011, Media and Communication

This study examines women's performance of gender, ethnicity, and race in a “How-to & Style” YouTube community. Studying visual communities like YouTube helps us understand culturally constituted discourses as well as meaning-making practices of everyday life. Today, users actively participate and create content online, such as blogs and YouTube videos. Through textual and visual analysis, I examine a specific community of women who participate in the Beauty tips section under “How-to & Style” category on YouTube. I look at these women's YouTube profiles, videos, and comments from their subscribers in order to reveal a deeper sense of what meaning users derive through creating videos on YouTube. I ask the following question: How do women in the YouTube Beauty community perform their identity (gender, ethnicity, and race) and ‘difference' in their videos? In order to textually and visually analyze YouTube, I look at YouTube videos produced by a community of ordinary women. After analyzing the videos and the dialogues, three themes have emerged in this project: a sense of belonging and connectedness, identity performance at the interface, and globalized fashion cultures. Underrepresented women go to YouTube to relate to others who are like them, which gives them a sense of belonging and connects them to millions of others who are craving the same connection. Through video blogs, these women perform their gender, race, and ethnicity. Finally, through creating fashion and makeup tutorials according to their different facial features and differences, I see the formation of a globalized fashion culture.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2005, Popular Culture

This thesis is a study of the emerging subgenre of category romance novels that depict interracial relationships, specifically relationships between black women and white men. Employing textual analysis of twenty-six novels published from 1995-2005, by romance publishers such as Harlequin, Silhouette, and Genesis Press, and situating them as category romance novels targeted towards a black female audience and written by black female authors, this study argues that these novels constitute a new subgenre, and that the conventions and themes that are common to these novels conceptualize racial difference as the most salient issue in the depiction of interracial romantic relationships, while simultaneously arguing that romantic love is fundamentally apolitical.

Master of Technical and Scientific Communication, Miami University, 2013, English

In today's changing media landscape, communities are using multiple platforms to communicate with its residents to encourage recycling participation. This study looks at the way communities are keeping up with the changes and finding new ways to communicate with residents about recycling. The study includes rhetorical and textual analysis of each community's Web sites, social media and traditional media sources.

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

Within the context of the Progressive era, this dissertation offers an in-depth analysis of the state of intercollegiate athletics around the turn of the twentieth century, the transformations it underwent, and the media's role in that process. The National Collegiate Athletic Association was founded in 1906-in the middle of the Progressive era-after a public outcry for football reform came in 1905, a year that produced eighteen deaths and one hundred forty-nine reported injuries. Using framing theory and the concept of collective memory, this study seeks to explore the coverage of college athletics by popular mass circulation magazines from 1896 to 1916 and the coverage of the National Collegiate Athletic Association by the New York Times and the evening edition of the New York World from 1906 to 1916. Four media frames were found in popular magazines from 1896 to 1916 focusing on college athletics, including Call for Reform, Muscular Christianity, Evils of College Athletics, and Methods in Strategy. The most dominant frame, "Call for Reform," emphasized the constant debate occurring within the pages of these magazines as to whether the benefits of competitive college athletics outweighed their possible evils. The primary examples were commercialism, professionalism, football rule changes, and alumni issues. The "muscular Christianity" frame reiterated the importance and benefits of college athletics as a key to defining men as men worthwhile, stressing a martial mentality. Even though primarily focused on manhood, examples of this frame applied to women's athletics as well, and it was the only one to highlight women's athletics. To combat the tendency of educators and sporting advocates to oversell the benefits of college athletics, popular magazines published articles noting the "evils of college athletics," namely the win-at-any-cost mentality and the hero culture surrounding popular athletes. The most common example of this frame focused on the shift i (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Media and Communication

Generations of women in the Evangelical Church have embodied narratives passed from mother to daughter, from church leadership, and through their religious communities. These narratives, including those of women's subservience and deserving of suffering endured from spouses, church leaders, and others, have origins in the earliest days of church history. In this thesis I examine how such narratives are embedded in books on pubertal guidance targeted to mothers and daughters in Evangelical Christian communities. Building on Fish's work on interpretive communities, Gramsci's conceptualization of hegemony, Foucault theorizing on power, and an interdisciplinary literature on the interaction between religion, culture, and politics, I interrogate themes of puberty, sexual function, gender roles, consent, and gender-based violence addressed in books on pubertal guidance, and how these books contribute to or reinforce evangelical Christian doctrinal narratives on gender and sexuality. Through a methodological approach using grounded theory, narrative inquiry, autoethnography, and textual analysis, findings indicate Evangelical Christian culture creates an interpretive community which drives only acceptable interpretation of religious texts (primarily the Bible), gender norms, and patriarchal power dynamics. Themes emerging from the texts analyzed, including Complementarianism, submission, purity, modesty, inadequacy, and silencing, have deep consequences not only for women and girls in Evangelical Christian communities, but for society at large as the legislative push for adherence to Evangelical Christian doctrinal ideologies work to remove access to basic human rights for people who do not adhere them. Misinformation, incomplete information, and hegemonic narratives serve to perpetuate gender inequality and have broad effects on women's and girls' mental, emotional, and physical health. In light of the most recent intrusions by Christian Nationalists into the legislative (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

The origination and application of a textual analysis of identity, identity formation, and perception of the self and the individual is, as a part of a specific time and space, something that is sociological in nature. The anthropological links between fiction and its sociological aspects highlight symbols of identity and interactions between the self, the other, and the individual. The end goal of this project's articulated theoretical model is to contribute to readings and analysis of the self and identity in different, othered spaces. This project works towards locating patterns and understanding that make the text and its underlying archetypal and mythological structures work so well with contemporary readers. It is grounded in the serious nature of contemporary storytelling as a part of the self, individual identity, and its place in society and culture. There is no shortage of specific work in literary analysis that relies on aspects of the hero's journey, the archetypes, and identity. This theoretical model of analysis adapts myth and C.G. Jung to incorporate much of this material into something cohesive and applicable to contemporary genre fiction. Because of this, this project necessitates the introduction of a definition of myth that situates contemporary genre texts as uniquely anthropological artifacts and as items worth analyzing and containing content capable of explicating overarching themes of the individual, the self, and the other in relation to identity formation in opposition. This new and adapted terminology from both myth and Jung assists in reorganizing a vocabulary that allows the analysis to delve into discussions on the creative representation of self, other, gender, sexual identity, the mind and body, transhumanism, and trans(inter)national identity, as well as help highlight how these representations are internalized or externalized by those who read these works of contemporary genre fiction and how these representations and internalizati (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2021, Journalism (Communication)

This study evaluates the popular Nigerian-based women's magazines, Today's Woman, Genevieve, and Exquisite, to uncover how the editorial content of these publications represent Nigerian femininity and womanhood, using social representations theory, originally coined by Serge Moscovici in 1961, as a theoretical framework. This study also evaluates how the representations of women featured in the editorial content of these magazines align with the theory of africana womanism. By conducting a qualitative textual analysis of 60 articles, this study found that Nigerian women are most frequently and significantly represented by their jobs/careers, the condition of their bodies, their self-esteem/self-sufficiency, the opinions of others, and their life challenges. This construction of Nigerian femininity and womanhood supported the following tenets of africana womanism: ambition, role flexibility, recognition, strength, black female sisterhood, respect, wholeness, adaptable, self-definition, and male compatibility.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Media and Communication

Matrimonial advertisements are popular in India for people who seek spouses through marriages arranged either by the prospective bride or groom themselves, or their family. Earlier, such arrangements were made mostly by family elders. Today, many of those offline networks have moved onto the online space, with a number of matrimonial websites offering help to spouse seekers. The role of such websites is to enable match seekers create profiles online and seek matches, based on particular search algorithms. There are various filters to narrow search options: one such filter is skin tone. This study analyzes skin tone determinant—specifically the usage of the term fair—on two matrimonial websites. It explores the ways in which agency is handled by prospective brides on Shaadi.com and Bharat Matrimony.com. Research question is how autonomy is mobilized by women today when dealing with colorism in online matrimonial ads. Following grounded theory, the study deciphers whether there are changes to how matrimonial ads are worded in online spaces, or whether caste and race continue to be reinforced through covert colorism. Using cyber ethnography and textual analysis, the study analyzes 30 advertisements across two websites. In-depth interviews are also conducted with four women who underwent a similar process during their wedding. Data analysis arrived at five emergent themes: Continued hegemonic control/covert colorism; Fair as beautiful; Privileging work and independence; Power over content creation; Traditional/cultural values reinforced. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and a feminist perspective as theoretical foundations, findings indicated the digital space perpetuates colorism. Although overt presentation of skin complexion as a critical attribute has significantly reduced, such reduction is overt. Consistent with CRT, the concept of fair as beautiful remains salient; it is just more covert. The demand for a fair-skinned spouse was low; yet, skin tone w (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2018, Educational Leadership

Educational policy at state level is complex and can easily lack coherence as multiple regulations and guidance documents affect the same area of practice. This research addresses the layering of policies that influence state action regarding least restrictive environment in Ohio's electronic charter schools. In this study, I conduct a close textual analysis of least restrictive environment, taking an historiographic approach to describe the policy contexts of this term from its origin in federal legislation through its development in case law and policy guidance. I further analyze the current enforcement mechanisms for least restrictive environment at state level, contending that a) the layered policies that govern least restrictive environment and Ohio e-schools do not align, b) these policies may be irreconcilable, and c) the current practice of policy implementation on the issue represents an abdication of state responsibility for educational governance, including policy enforcement and reporting to the public. Without such oversight, parents cannot make informed decisions about their children's special education placements. The study begins to develop a critical inquiry based on the policy analysis, and asserts that solving this problematic policy situation would require an approach both comprehensive, to reflect the purpose of least restrictive environment, and targeted, to address the use of fully online curricula for students with disabilities.

MA, Kent State University, 2017, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

Because of the popularity of sports blogs that create content tailored to the fan perspective, sportswriters now have to compete with a multitude of online-only outlets for readers. These individualized blogs – many of which are owned by legitimate digital media organizations – provide fans the ability to read coverage through the lens of other like-minded individuals in a community dedicated to a specific team, whether at the professional or collegiate level. While the public still views sportswriters as working for a newspaper's “toy department” for their tendency to produce overly positive fluff pieces about the team on their beat, they have generally remained objective in their reporting during this transitional news dissemination period. But since part of the job requires the ability to maintain professional relationships with sources, they are sometimes fearful of being too harsh of those they cover. Fan bloggers, on the other hand, are typically not credentialed media members, enabling them – in theory – to frame their articles any way they chose without fearing the same repercussions. Therefore, to examine the partiality of hometown newspapers and niche sports blogs, a textual analysis of college football game stories written by sportswriters and Sports Beat (SB) Nation bloggers was conducted. The results indicate that sportswriters and SB Nation bloggers portray opposing players, the hometown coach, and games that the hometown team won by a significant margin in a similar manner. However, it was also found that sportswriters are more critical in their coverage of losses. As a result, this finding suggests that the “toy department” moniker is not fully applicable to the sports journalism profession when it is compared to blogging.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

This project is situated in scholarship surrounding the rescue, recovery, and (re)inscription of historical women rhetors, particularly those within religious spaces. It places a lens on the rhetorical practices of two religious women: Jessie Penn-Lewis and Margaret E. Barber. I argue that it is important to investigate these women, for doing so reveals not only an area that has not received extensive critical attention, but also informs how scholars look at pedagogy, particularly in religious spaces. The project and methods are grounded in feminist research practices. This project is historical in nature and will thus draw upon feminist historical and archival research methods as my primary methods of investigation. Further, this project is framed as two case studies, which examine closely through textual analysis surviving work produced by these women to begin to extend our knowledge of pedagogical and rhetorical practices in religious spaces. The heuristic used to investigate these texts and women bring forward key themes for study and application such as: how space is used, whether rhetorical or physical; what kind of tools can be used or appropriated for teaching practices; how texts and women circulate and under what conditions and intentions. Finally, I argue for their inclusion within the rhetorical canon as well as rewriting histories of women's rhetoric; for their work is not only worthy of recognition from the past but more importantly for future scholarship that acknowledges the ways in which institutions of power are still over girls and women. This dissertation points further to the need to research literate practices of “ordinary” people and the barriers of public and private still existing today.

Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2017, Journalism

The conflict in Northern Ireland, called the Troubles, which devastated the country from the late 60s until the late 90s when the Belfast Agreement, was signed, was an early case proceeding a string of conflicts that would come to be defined as counterterrorist fights. This study, however, seeks to circumvent that narrative and reevaluate the conflict through the lens of its colonial background. The researcher will incorporate anthropological and political theory to explain the legal mechanisms of discrimination, as defined by John Comaroff, and the systematic silencing of political dissent, largely orchestrated by the British state. Accepting those frameworks, the researcher will conduct a textual analysis of the compilation of posters that were circulated during the conflict, which were compiled into a collection titled “Troubled Images,” housed in Belfast's Linen Hall Library. The first section of this study will include an outline of the project. This research will question why so much republican speech, in posters and otherwise was labelled propaganda and will determine what legitimate political messages and grievances can be interpreted from that "propaganda." The narrative created by those posters is, this author argues, entirely different from the narrative constructed by the British state, which was driven by counter terrorist rhetoric, and media censorship that labelled many legitimate political dissenters as terrorists.