Master of Arts / Department of Speech, Theatre, and Dance / Charles J. Griffin / The primary purpose of the Supreme Court is to interpret the constitution. The Court determines whether acts in society are Constitutional. Because of this responsibility, the Court itself is an institution that influences and is influenced by ideology and rhetoric. Because society’s ideology changes due to humans conversing with one another, so does the law. Given this context, America’s First Amendment provides an abundant body of artifacts where the law and rhetorical ideology overlap. One particular right granted in the First Amendment is the freedom to speak. This right granted by the Constitution is titled the free speech clause. This clause has been a subject of debate throughout American history. Furthermore, this right has been defined, re-defined, and shaped to fit certain particular interests in society. The Supreme Court last year made a recent landmark decision that concerns freedom of speech and campaign finance. This study will examine Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission in order to investigate the rhetorical strategies and ideological influences embedded within the decision. The methodological tool of McGee’s proposed ideograph will be used in order to answer the following research question: What role does ideology, concerning free speech, play in the Citizens United v. FEC? From the given analysis, two ideographs emerged, <Marketplace of ideas> and <Corruption>. These two ideographs provided the basis to articulate an ideological framework by which scholars can understand the Supreme Court and answer the following research question. Furthermore, the analysis of this decision assisted this study to explain possible implications and conclusions from the ruling in Citizens United.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Nancy Muturi / Background: With the growing concern of obesity in the United States, food, as the main source of energy and nutrition has become an issue of research interest. Though the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) requires nutrition information to be made available for customers in order to guide their dietary choices and intake, obesity rate has increased significantly in the past 20 years. This study examined how nutrition literacy affects college-age population’s reading nutrition labels, and how motivation of label reading associated with predictors of the label reading behavior. Method: An online, self-administered questionnaire was conducted among a randomized sample of 171 students from a Mid-Western university. The questionnaire was structured with key variables derived from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM); such as attitude to make food choices based on reading nutrition labels. Levels of nutrition literacy were measured by questions derived from a nutrition labels survey. Data analysis was conducted with Pearson’s correlation and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Majority of the college student respondents in this study had adequate nutrition literacy. Though no significance was revealed from the correlation between nutrition literacy and the dependent variables due to the limit variance in nutrition literacy data, this study found that individual’s motivation to read nutrition label and attitude towards reading nutrition label are positively related. Results also showed that individuals with higher motivation to read nutrition labels have better perceived behavioral control of reading nutrition labels. Conclusion: Participants in this study, as an emerging adulthood population with college-level education, revealed adequate nutrition literacy in general. It can also be concluded that improvement in attitude towards certain behavior relates to development in motivation and perception-based involvement.

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies / Sarah Riforgiate / New technology has changed how people do business. With rapid development of technology, it has been difficult for businesses and organizations to successfully implement technology advancements. This problem has spurred research in the area of technology acceptance. The Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989) is a dominant theory used to explain technology use. Although many researchers have copied, expanded, and altered this model through quantitative research, making it robust, this study will further the model by using qualitative methods to explore how members understand and classify technology use. This study adds to the existing knowledge of computer-mediated communication and technology acceptance by exploring information technology use within a volunteer or not-for-profit organization (NPO). In order to offer a unique perspective to exploring how organizational members understand and adopt new technology, this study employs qualitative methodology to a topic traditionally explored through quantitative surveys and measurements. Research questions specifically consider why organizational members accept or reject new technology and how organizational membership affects technology acceptance. Using the third iteration of the technology acceptance model (TAM 3), data confirm perceived usefulness and perceived ease as determinants of technology acceptance. The influencing factors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were also confirmed. Two new influencing factors of perceived usefulness emerged in this study: appropriateness and information overload. Also, insight into the role of age and technology adoption calls into question stereotypical misconceptions of technology use and acceptance. Overall, this study confirms and expands on research in the area of technology acceptance.

Master of Arts / Communications Studies, Theatre and Dance / Charles J. Griffin / This study examines the therapeutic nature of veterans’ reunions through a qualitative analysis of interviews and participant observation of the 2010 Delta Raiders of Vietnam Association biannual reunion. Eight Vietnam veterans who served in the 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), Company D during Vietnam were interviewed, as well as three wives of these veterans. The following research question directed the study: What communicative functions do veterans’ reunions serve? By examining the quality of social support and the rationality (probability and fidelity) of the narratives that these veterans provide one another, this study seeks to understand why Vietnam veterans continue meeting for reunions, what in particular is so strong about the Delta Raider reunions, and how personal narratives communicatively function within a veteran’s reunion context. Results show that the veterans’ reunions primarily serve to rebuild narrative probability for the veterans, as well as construct boundaries for narrative fidelity to work within. Additionally, veterans’ reunions provide therapeutic relief, forming a second family through renewed company pride, and revealing tension between shared veteran experience and family communication.

Master of Science / Department of Communication Studies / William Schenck-Hamlin / Although some literature exists to describe the difference between Millennials and other generations in the workplace, I have developed my own ten steps that will help match what Millennials want from their bosses and workplace with what the company needs from them based on the research available and my own personal experience in a a workplace that did not cater to Millennials.

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre, and Dance / Timothy R. Steffensmeier / Geographical borders represent a clash of cultures. Those inhabiting or moving through borderlands struggle to maintain a sense of place and, in turn, an understanding of cultural collective memory. This project strives to understand how the visual and discursive elements that constitute the U.S.-Mexico border function rhetorically to communicate difference and establish place. By utilizing a social semiotics perspective, I analyzed visual rhetoric of the U.S.-Mexico border in the form of photographs and maps produced in both the United States and Mexico. Additionally, a theory of cultural memory was used to explore the confluence of events and rhetorical phenomena that shape the U.S.-Mexico border, and allow the U.S.-Mexico border to shape the rhetoric of the countries it divides. I argued that borders are inherently rhetorical and the intersection of visual elements, culture, place and memory make borders important to understand from an anthropological, and geographical perspective, as well as a rhetorical one. This project holds political and social implications for the relationship between the United States and Mexico, and reveals key findings regarding how cultural identity is negotiated in fragmented places like borderlands.

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre & Dance / LeAnn Brazeal / President George W. Bush's September 20, 2001 televised address to a Joint Session of Congress stands in history as his Administration's first deliberate official rhetorical response to the events of 9/11 and the first instance of the "Bush Doctrine." Although 9/11 has become an increasing topic of scholarly review and this speech is the first presidential policy response, few have explored Bush's choice of metaphors in this speech. Metaphors are a powerful tool of rhetoric, especially in political rhetoric, because metaphors are uniquely adept at simplifying complex topics, and a study of metaphor can reveal a speaker's underlying worldview and beliefs. Through metaphorical analysis, this study identifies nine clusters of metaphor in Bush's September 20, 2001 address: FORCE/WAR, BODY, FEAR, LIGHT/DARK, NEAR/FAR, UNITY, FAITH/FATE, GOOD/EVIL and SAVAGE. This study contrasts metaphor clusters to "prophetic dualism," a worldview that defines foreign policy within the context of a specific set of moral beliefs, and concludes that the artifact meets all tenets of prophetic dualism as well as the core characteristics of presidential crisis rhetoric and civil religion (although the artifact does not meet all characteristics of presidential war rhetoric). The study closes with a discussion of practical, rhetorical and methodological implications that may be useful to scholars of rhetoric and political science, including suggestions for future research of prophetic dualism and presidential war rhetoric.

Spoken language conveys two forms of information: transactional (content, what is said) and interactional (how it is said). The transactional message shared during spoken communication has been studied extensively in different listening conditions and in people of all ages using standardized tests of speech intelligibility. However, research into interactional aspects of speech has been more limited. One specific aspect of interactional communication that warrants further investigation is the communication of emotion in speech, also called affective prosody. A series of experiments examined how younger and older adults produce affective prosody, recognize emotion in speech, and understand emotional speech in noise. The emotional valence and arousal properties of target words from an existing speech intelligibility test were rated by younger and older adults. New stimuli based on those words were recorded by a younger female and an older female using affective prosody to portray seven emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, pleasant surprise, sadness, neutral). Similar to previous studies, the acoustical parameter that best differentiated the emotions was fundamental frequency (F0). Specifically, discriminant analysis indicated that emotional category membership was best predicted by the mean and range of F0. Overall, recognition of emotion and intelligibility were high. While older listeners made more recognition errors and had poorer intelligibility overall, their patterns of responding did not differ significantly from those of the younger listeners on either measure. Of note, angry and sad emotions were recognized with the highest degree of accuracy, but intelligibility was highest for items spoken to portray fear or pleasant surprise. These results may suggest that there is a complementarity between the acoustic cues used to recognize emotions (how words are said) and those used to understand words (what is said). Alternatively, the effect of emotion on intelligibility may be modulated primarily by attentional rather than acoustical factors, with higher performance associated with alerting emotions.

Spoken language conveys two forms of information: transactional (content, what is said) and interactional (how it is said). The transactional message shared during spoken communication has been studied extensively in different listening conditions and in people of all ages using standardized tests of speech intelligibility. However, research into interactional aspects of speech has been more limited. One specific aspect of interactional communication that warrants further investigation is the communication of emotion in speech, also called affective prosody. A series of experiments examined how younger and older adults produce affective prosody, recognize emotion in speech, and understand emotional speech in noise. The emotional valence and arousal properties of target words from an existing speech intelligibility test were rated by younger and older adults. New stimuli based on those words were recorded by a younger female and an older female using affective prosody to portray seven emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, pleasant surprise, sadness, neutral). Similar to previous studies, the acoustical parameter that best differentiated the emotions was fundamental frequency (F0). Specifically, discriminant analysis indicated that emotional category membership was best predicted by the mean and range of F0. Overall, recognition of emotion and intelligibility were high. While older listeners made more recognition errors and had poorer intelligibility overall, their patterns of responding did not differ significantly from those of the younger listeners on either measure. Of note, angry and sad emotions were recognized with the highest degree of accuracy, but intelligibility was highest for items spoken to portray fear or pleasant surprise. These results may suggest that there is a complementarity between the acoustic cues used to recognize emotions (how words are said) and those used to understand words (what is said). Alternatively, the effect of emotion on intelligibility may be modulated primarily by attentional rather than acoustical factors, with higher performance associated with alerting emotions.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Todd F. Simon / In the United States, the number of college-age students (19-24) who volunteer is rising rapidly. However, most of the research in regard to sustaining volunteers with nonprofits is targeted to the whole population, especially older adults. This research employed the first sample survey of college volunteers for the study of a public relations theory. The findings showed that theories developed for older adults may also apply to young adults and could provide insights about youth relationships. While using organization-public relationship model as the theoretical background, the results suggest that Access, Networking, and Assurance are important public relations strategies for nonprofits maintaining college volunteers. Nonprofits should try to cultivate a sense of commitment with college volunteers, which could greatly increase their volunteer intentions in the future. In addition, as suggested by the previous research, this study collected the data in regard to college volunteers' parents' social-economic status, and has found that parental involvement with nonprofits has a great impact on their children's volunteer behaviors in the future.