Much work has been done over the past two decades exploring and creating many collaborative, cross-sector environments between arts, computer sciences and research that have supported the production of art, including: new media labs; co- working spaces; media focused gallery spaces; electronic art festivals; and the Internet itself. Less research has been done into the possibilities that exist in collaborations between the arts and commercial digital industries. The combination of two distinct and powerful hierarchical systems has forced a revision of current working practice within each field. This research interrogates the impact of collaborations between the arts and commercial digital industries, and identifies the impact of those collaborations upon curatorial and artistic modes of practice, with a particular focus on production. It identifies some of the inherent value systems, and describes a range of collaborative modes of artistic production that sit along a spectrum of power balances between the arts and commercial digital industry sectors, from Brand Marketing to Artist Practice as Business. The areas of difference in roles and working practices identified through both case studies and curatorial projects include factors such as: Value and Money, Time and Capacity, Crediting and Intellectual Property, and Roles and Working Practices. The curatorial projects include Dear Angel a commission of participatory art which uses both digital and other media, a NESTA Digital R&D for the Arts proposal, and for Thinking Digital Arts, a commission of an artwork by an artist/creative technologist partnership, and a digital (art) hack production workshop. How the curatorial role works in the interface between the arts and commercial digital industries is analysed. The patterns of difference and the power balances identified in the research aim to be useful to other practitioners.

This research arises from my practice as a professional artist and my concern with issues of language and communication, particularly, the investigation of ways that arouse emotion and rational thought at once through language. Visual Poetry is a form of expression, which provokes both, and I saw the potential to expand its underlining principles further with the emergence of new technologies. With the digital medium, the main elements of visual and sound poetry: image, sound and text, can now be incorporated into the same piece of work. The aim of this study is to explore new digital communicative systems that interweave visual, oral and semantic elements of language, to produce new media languages where the pre-linguistic and linguistic maintain their symbiotic identities. This study examines theoretical and artistic concerns emerging from the area in-between, which is created by interlacing image, sound and text in the same artwork. It addresses the following series of questions: How to transfer the main concepts from Visual Poetry to Digital Art? How does computer technology transform image, sound and text to create new media languages? What is the role of the author, reader, writer, producer in these new interactive textualities of image, sound and text? How has this affected the new conventions of reading, looking, producing, using and thinking? What does the digital add to the interactivelexts of Visual Poetry? What new meanings and processes of thinking, understanding and interpretation are appearing? In which way do new technologies enhance the collaborative nature of practice? This investigation brings knowledge from other disciplines into the art field and it explores different serniotic models such as the linguistic the visual and the aural. It blurs the barriers between the visual and the linguistic: between different art forms such as fine art, visual poetry and sound art/poetry in a new digital and technological arena. It questions the conventions applied to these critical areas with the aid of the new tools and critical concepts available through digital technology. This study challenges the viewer/listener/user with an interface of signs from different languages and serniotic systems: the visual (still and moving images), the audible and the linguistic, to participate and explore the multiple possibilities within a work. This investigation seeks to contribute to a new body of knowledge in the development of the areas of Visual Poetry, Digital Art and the new genre of Electronic Poetry, by creating new, innovative, digital artworks for which, as a new form of expression, critical and analytical conventions are still in the process of development.

For second language teachers and theorists alike, there is a need to understand the processes involved in the second language learner's pursuit of comprehension during the act of reading in the target language. This study seeks to provide insights into issues such as how second language readers approach the task in terms of how they use resources in the form of comprehension aids, how and if readers at different levels of instructed second language experience differ in their use of resources, and what advantages computer tracking confers on the analysis of data concerning reading behavior. Specifically, it addresses the problem of determining what comprehension aids second language readers actually use when reading an authentic text on computer and the role that the readers' level of instructed second language experience plays in their choice of aids. Additionally, it focuses on the core problem of how to gain access to the reading process. To this end the study utilizes the constructs put forward in the top-down, bottom-up, and interactive processing metaphors and the linguistic threshold hypothesis to address four questions: 1) Given several comprehension aids as resources, a) what resources will second language readers use when reading a text on computer? b) with what frequency will they use them? 2) What role does level of instructed second language experience play in strategy choice? 3) What advantage(s) does the tracking of reading behavior confer on data analysis in second language text processing? 4) What implications do these findings suggest for future studies of text processing and comprehension? The dependent variable in the study is the number of times that comprehension aids are consulted, and the independent variable is the level of instructed second language experience of the various participants. In this way it focuses on issues of concern, not only to second language teachers, but to language learners as well. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2005. / December 10, 2004. / Second Language Reading, Second Language Acquisition, Spanish, Computer Tracking, Reading Strategies / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth Platt, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gretchen Sunderman, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Carolyn Piazza, Outside Committee Member; Brenda Cappuccio, Committee Member.

Over the past 25 years, the relationship between professional sports leagues and broadcast networks has employed a traditional rights fee model. This model involves a guaranteed upfront payment from the networks to the leagues. Over the past decade, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and the National Hockey League have each utilized multiple networks as their television outlet. In 2002, NBC became the first of the four major networks to not be affiliated with any of the four leagues after claiming they lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to skyrocketing rights fees. NBC is now attempting a revenue sharing model with the Arena Football League in an effort to control their expenses. Wolfe, Meenaghan, and O'Sullivan's (1998) network theory concepts of power, dependency, and relationship provide the foundation of this study. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the alternative revenue sharing model, and how the model could alter Wolfe et al.'s (1998) network theory concepts between broadcast networks and professional sports leagues. A qualitative case study approach was utilized to interpret data collected through interviews with four participants who have expert knowledge of the sports broadcasting industry. The major findings reveal that the revenue sharing model is an effective model for broadcast networks and professional sports leagues, and the revenue sharing model impacts the concepts of power, dependency, and relationship between the networks and the leagues. This study answers research questions relating to network theory, as well as future implications for the relationship between television and sport. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management, and Physical Education in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2005. / March 15, 2005. / sport media, network broadcasting / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey James, Professor Directing Thesis; Arthur Raney, Committee Member; Aubrey Kent, Committee Member.

This research examines the impact of computer-mediated communication, distributed communication, and knowledge of prior baseline behavior on an individual's propensity to believe what is being communicated. This study is focused on the impact of technology and individual experience on a person's ability to make veracity judgments. Contributions from this study include a greater awareness of the added susceptibility to deception when using computer-mediated communication. This study found that higher deception detection accuracy rates could be achieved if individuals had prior baseline knowledge of their partner's nominal behavior. This study also showed that more detection confidence can come from knowledge of a person's prior baseline behavior, being proximally located, the type of communication media used, and perceived relational closeness. Subjects with a high level of confidence in their ability to detect truthful/deceptive behavior were more reliant on the truth bias to make veracity judgments. Findings also show that self-report measures used to operationalize truth bias were good indicators of detection accuracy. This finding would seem to indicate that individuals are generally good judges of truthfulness/deceptiveness when they utilize a heuristic of truthfulness. However, this study did find systematic error when individuals relied on their assumption of truthfulness. Thus, consistent with other cognitive biases, a truthful heuristic does generally result in correct decisions, but also introduces some systematic error. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2003. / June 24, 2003. / Computer-Mediated Communication / Includes bibliographical references. / Joey F. George, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles J. Kacmar, Professor Directing Dissertation; Katherine M. Chudoba, Committee Member; G. Stacy Sirmans, Outside Committee Member.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is one of the most widely utilized communication techniques in the business world. Although widely used, little is known about the effectiveness of communicating affective information, emotion in particular, through CMC. Most CMC research has investigated communication of cognitive information, however, only a few studies partially incorporate affects in their analyses. As a result, a primary objective of this dissertation is to investigate the following research questions: (1) Can CMC transfer affective information? (2) To what extent does CMC transfer affective information? Integrating relevant literature from psychology as well as communication research, this dissertation proposes a conceptual model based on a modified version of Brunswik's lens model. The research model and hypotheses were developed to guide the empirical tests of cue utilization, i.e, detecting a message sender's emotional intentions from email messages. A total of 225 student subjects participated in a 2 x 3 x 3 (with control groups) laboratory experiment. The results indicate that affective information can be transferred through CMC. In particular, message receivers were able to detect the sender's emotion by (1) associating the message content with positive or negative emotions, (2) using emotion cues such as emotion words, linguistic markers, and paralinguistic cues, and (3) combining these two techniques. The results further indicate that message receivers indicated a higher degree of senders' emotions when the number of emotion cues in the message increased. The results from this study provide some useful information for practitioners as well as for researchers. For practitioners, this study suggests that communicating emotions through electronic media requires careful selections of emotion cues that will be included in the message. For researchers, this study presents a research model that may be used as a foundation for future research in this area. Directions for future research include further examinations of variables that may affect the CMC of emotions. The current study can also be extended to investigate the CMC of emotions across different types of subjects, communication technology, and time frames. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2004. / June 18, 2004. / Lens Model, Emotions, Computer-Mediated Communication, Experiments / Includes bibliographical references. / David B. Paradice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Martin. G. Fennema, Outside Committee Member; Joey F. George, Committee Member; Michael H. Dickey, Committee Member.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 30, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-91).

In this thesis, I define 'Playculture' as a primary portal through which 'everyday life' is experienced in the US and the UK. I then argue that online 'cultural structures' have begun, more and more frequently and for a variety of reasons, to take the form of games - games that are destabilised by female participants. 'Feminist' methods of various kinds, 'intervention disruption', and iterative game design are all modes and methodologies I have chosen to apply to the creation of the practical parts of the research. Examples discussed at length in these pages illustrate the tensions between everyday popular culture and interventionist working practices, highlighting a process informed by feminist scholarship of marginalised groups. I argue that specific and identifiable historical play patterns and larger technological developments have been linked to gaming practices. If play has become an integral part of everyday life, then the history of 'banal' play - especially domestic play -- takes on new importance. Paper playhouses of the 19th Century reinforced the notion that the house was implicitly known as a gendered space, and I interrogate gender and play and girls' subversive resistance in this space. I argue that it is both possible and useful to identify three main types of subversion in operation by women players: reskinning, un-playing, and re-writing. I use these types of subversion to design artist's computer games as practical work in [rootings] and [domestic], and in the design of a larger collaborative work RAPUNSEL. I conclude the thesis by utilising my selected methodologies for a final feminist intervention and subversion, through a case study of the design and creation of the practical work [six. circles], which demonstrates how one might rework game goals and creating artists' games as a form of social activism. I end with a summary of the significance of this body of research as well as a summary arguement outlining the potential contributions of this study to future researchers, scholars and practitioners.

This thesis is based on a two-year ethnography, conducted in a special school, on how young people with physical disabilities use the internet. The thesis focuses on four key areas identified during the research. Firstly, the thesis highlights the embodied rhythms or pace and journeys or wayfaring that characterise how young people move in and between digital media and that are not captured by studies focusing on typologies of internet use. Secondly, the thesis discusses how young people with physical disabilities struggle to overcome stigma and exclusion in their online relationships, as rather than facilitate disembodied communication(s), digital media is increasingly saturated with normative visuality. Thirdly, the thesis discusses how young people with physical disabilities use of digital media is regulated by their teachers and parents, often limiting their use of this medium. Finally, the thesis explores how the young people enact disability in different contexts including the special school, mainstream colleges and the home, and what this tells us about these institutional contexts. In addition to participant observation the fieldwork also involved in-depth interviews with a small cohort of young people with physical disabilities and video diaries produced by participants that showcased how they use the internet in the home. Interviews were also carried out with some school staff from the special school as well as parents of participants. Home visits enabled observation of how participants use the internet in domestic settings, and some participants were followed to their mainstream colleges as they progressed into further education, or attended placements during the two-year period. A concern addressed in the thesis is how inequalities are reproduced and embedded in young people with physical disabilities habitual use of the internet. At the same time, the study found that these young people used the internet much in the same way as their able-bodied peers, for example, to play games, socialise and post images to garner approval. Video diaries revealed significant differences in the rhythms and journeys underpinning the way in which the young people used digital media, articulating contextual and habitual factors and the level of their disability. Furthermore, these young people used the internet to find, build and maintain social relationships online, to explore their sexuality and to engage in self-promotion on social networking sites. However, when online they also encountered various obstacles and struggled to overcome bodily stigma and exclusion within the visual and narrowly normative presentation of the self-online. School teachers and parents were found to adhere to regulatory policies and advice on how to mediate young people s access and use to digital media. This study found the regulatory practices (monitoring, blocking, filtering content) restricted how young people with physical disabilities could access and use digital media in the home and at school. For some participants their gender and ethnicity was found to intersect with their disability making them subject to substantial regulatory practices in the home. Moreover, the students who were more able-bodied found ways to evade the regulatory practices encountered in the school and at home. Finally, the study also found that the special school created a protective environment that fosters an inclusive space, where students with different abilities can prosper. In contrast however, their transition to mainstream colleges reveal that when they are expected to practice and adjust their disability to the normative practices in place for able-bodied students, they become hindered in their ability to feel included and perform academically.

This dissertation addresses a lack of knowledge about chat reference and location-based questions and the implications of this lack of knowledge on chat reference consortia. Chat reference and location-based questions refers to the question-negotiation process in the chat mode of responding to users' location-based questions. In one statewide chat reference consortium, Ask a Librarian, users are able to pose questions to any information provider from 103 participating information agencies. In turn, any agency's information provider is able to respond to questions from any user. This situation creates a scenario whereby in order to respond to a location-based question, an information provider must determine the location or locations in the question to formulate a correct response. Additionally, because local information providers are closer in proximity and more familiar with a location or locations within his or her same county, he or she may provide a higher correct response fill rate to location-based questions than a non-local information providers. This study's methodology utilizes content analysis, quantitative analysis, focus groups, and unobtrusive testing to address research questions that explore the types of location-based questions, the question-negotiation process in the chat mode of responding to these questions, and the correct response fill rate of consortium information providers. Practical recommendations from this study include populating the consortium's knowledge base with local knowledge, especially information about participating information agencies. Findings indicate that chat consortia may overcome the potential weakness of location-based questions (i.e., referral, incorrect response) if participating information agencies improve their online dissemination of local knowledge related to frequently asked location-based questions. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Library and Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2010. / February 24, 2010. / Chat reference consortia, Evaluation, Virtual reference, Digital reference / Includes bibliographical references. / Charles R. McClure, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lisa Jordan, University Representative; Gary Burnett, Committee Member; Ebrahim Randeree, Committee Member.