Thesis--PlanB (Ed. Spec.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, School of Education, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-273). Also available in electronic format on the World Wide Web. Access restricted to users affiliated with the licensed institutions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, School of Education, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 505-533). Also available in electronic format on the World Wide Web. Access restricted to users affiliated with the licensed institutions.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1989. / Bibliography: leaves 140-153.

<p> My dissertation focuses on the articulation of the concepts of precarity&mdash;i.e., temporary, affective, creative, immaterial and insecure labor&mdash;and community in an overheating system. My site of inquiry is homelessness broadly, but more specifically the labor of panhandling and the identity of &ldquo;the panhandler.&rdquo; I recognize that primary theorizations of precarity have located it as a problem of labor and economy. Others have looked at it from the sociological domain. My work looks at precarity as diffuse across social, political, and communal systems, but primarily as an effect of the problem of overheating as it manifests at varying levels of scale. Narrowing the global vision of such instability and insecurity to a local landscape&mdash;to streets, corners, traffic, the people who occupy infrastructural liminal zones and whose lives are precariously bound to the forces of speed and heat&mdash;reveals the critical nature of elemental metaphors. That is to say, if we might accept the thesis that we are in an epoch in which speed and time subsumes space and place, and if speed is another way of talking about heat, about intensities, then communication in the over-sped, overheated system is in dire straights. Precarity, I argue, is not causally linked to the breakdown in economy or the breakdown in affiliative bonds or networks&mdash;it does not precede or presage these shutdowns. Rather it <i>is</i> the shutdown. Precarity may now be viewed as the management and organization of social, political, affective, and communal bonds around economic and affiliative insecurities. I use ethnographic data from institutional meetings, and conversations with the key stakeholders at varying levels of scale, as well as textual analyses of local policies, news coverage, and public responses to those texts in order to understand how precarious communicative conditions affect the structuration of community and politics.</p>

<p> Social networking sites are expanding the horizons of awareness campaigns by creating avenues for mass diffusion. The Ice Bucket Challenge, an ALS awareness campaign, diffused globally on social media platforms. The purpose of this research is to investigate the public perception of the Ice Bucket Challenge and its name calling strategy. The name calling strategy identified individuals by name and publicly nominated them on social media to participate in the campaign. This study investigates psychological reactance in the unique context of an interactive social media-based campaign. It seems that the name calling strategy was not perceived as a threat to freedom because it was communicated through close personal relationships on social networking sites. While the name calling strategy seems to have been a powerful propellant for diffusing the Ice Bucket Challenge, it also had an excluding effect. Nearly half of those did not participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge (46.1%) reported that they would have participated if they had been nominated.</p>

NASA has recently directed the United States into the largest global partnership in U.S. history — the development of an International Space Station. In order to collaborate successfully in this unique setting, participants must develop a strong sense of teamwork, camaraderie, and partnership. Previous research indicates a variety of factors, such as differences in cultural background and environmental factors, that may affect the ability to develop these successful relationships. This study analyzes cultural variance and disclosure dynamics between Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts.

<p> Social media has changed the way fans identify with professional athletes and it has created a tangible relationship for fans through internet messages. Social media messages creates synergy where information is constantly moving among fans, athletes and media outlets. Celebrities often deal with controversy and many use image repair in order to make amends within the public. LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010, announcing his decision on national television. James left his hometown for the Miami Heat, causing damage to his image, essentially breaking up with his hometown team for the entire nation to see. In 2014, James had yet another decision to make on where the play professional basketball. This time, James took a different approach and avoided a public spectacle, announcing his decision on social media, using multiple social media platforms. James used image repair messages in order to make amends and redeem his image. Findings suggest that fans were supportive of his decision. The use of domain analysis and image repair theory prove that social media can shape public opinion by using social media in strategic ways.</p>

<p> College football has become an enormous aspect of American culture. The effects have permeated into the growing realm of social media, particularly Facebook. College football budgets and the salaries of the head coaches are higher than ever before, and they are only getting larger. Further research is necessary to study how public relations practitioners in college athletic departments can understand the link between social media and college football coaches. This study qualitatively analyzes the Facebook pages of the most dominant college football conference, the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The study analyzes if Facebook fans for each SEC football program view the head coaches as heroes, as well as gauge the scope and existence of Facebook fan comments that favorably or unfavorably reference the head coach. A qualitative content analysis of SEC football Facebook fan comments during the peak competition month of November answers these questions. This study shows that certain fans in the SEC, do indeed, view their head coach as a hero. The study also demonstrates the themes, particularly fan revolt against a losing head coach and the importance of rivalry games as it relates to positive and negative fan comments about the SEC head coaches. The effect of this study on the field of public relations is also discussed.</p>

The present study aimed at advancing our understanding of the effects that racially stereotypical media discourse has on White voters' responses to African American candidates in mixed-race elections. In particular, a causal model was proposed where the racial stereotypicality of news messages was predicted to interact with the race of political candidates and White news consumers' racial identification in affecting perceptions of candidates' leadership prototypicality. In turn, the prototypicality ratings were hypothesized to positively predict expectations of policy performance, candidate affect, and electoral support. In particular, it was predicted that White individuals exposed to racially stereotypical crime news would view African American candidates in unrelated stories as less leader-prototypical than White candidates and this effect was expected be stronger than among Whites exposed to non-stereotypical crime news or no crime news at all. This relationship was also predicted to increase as a function of White participants' racial ingroup identification.The findings from two experimental investigations offered limited support for the mediated model. The independent variables had weak and qualified effects on the prototypicality ratings. In addition, most of these effects worked in favor of, rather than to the disadvantage of the African American candidate. However, as hypothesized, prototypicality was a consistent predictor of electoral support, candidate affect, and, less so, policy performance expectations. Overall, these findings suggest that race matters in mass mediated political processes, both as a contextual factor and as a characteristic of electoral contenders.