This study critically examines facets of student identity and youth activism in the context of evolving notions of citizenship and democracy in a globalized world. I conducted this study to research the nature of the divide that exists between civic engagement programs at higher education institutions that have committed to educating students for active citizenship, and the civic practices and activism that characterize student engagement outside the confines of higher education institutions. I argue that there is a dialectic between the subjective component of the civic agency of students and the dormant notion of citizenship promoted through institutional civic engagement programs. Through focus group research involving students, I critically analyzed the evolving identity of youth through their communication, civic practices and meaning- making. Along-side, I conducted a case study of Project Pericles, a national civic engagement initiative within higher education to research whether and how this relatively new initiative has engaged with evolving notions citizenship and democracy, and specifically how global citizenship is addressed and incorporated within the initiative. By illuminating aspects of student identity that inform their civic participation in current times and revealing how a new civic engagement institutional program is communicating and shaping civic practices on campuses across the nation, the study makes recommendations for how best to bridge the divide between the two sides with the goal of shaping the democratic character of our society through empowered students and effective pedagogies and practices within institutions.

<p> This research study examines the dynamics of student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication motives within asynchronous discussion forums. The objective is to determine the interpersonal mediated communication motives and communicator style of students enrolled in fully asynchronous community college courses with the intention to supplement, enhance, and refine the existing research in online education through the application of relevant theories and methods from the field of communication studies. Specifically, the study seeks to determine students' communication motives for consensus-building and agonistic oriented purposes. A mixed methods approach has been utilized through the implementation of a 5-point Likert scale survey, comprised of forty questions, which was provided towards the end of a traditional 16 week semester to 125 students enrolled in five fully asynchronous courses. In an attempt to discover whether students respond to their classmates' asynchronous discussion forum posts for consensus-building motives or for purposes of engaging in agonistic confrontations, a discourse analysis of various forum responses was performed after completion of the asynchronous courses. Previous studies of community building within asynchronous contexts and interpersonal communication motives research suggest that students enrolled in fully asynchronous courses will engage in student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication for the purpose of pleasure, affection, inclusion, control, companionship, habit, receiving information, participation and functional purposes. Through the implementation of the 5-point Likert-scale survey, I discovered six interpersonal mediated communication motives (inclusion, participation, affection, receiving information, functional and pleasure) of student-to-student responses within fully asynchronous discussion forums and four communicator styles (friendly, attentive, communicator image and impression leaving). The findings from the discourse analysis overwhelmingly revealed that the student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication motive for responding to discussion forum posts was most frequently correlated with the students' rationale for consensus-building as opposed to exhibiting a rationale for agonistic pluralism.</p><p> <b>Key words:</b> interpersonal mediated communication motives, communicator styles, asynchronous discussion forums, higher education, consensus-building, agonistic confrontation.</p><p>

<p> The primary purpose of this study was the exploration of social media utility as a crisis communication practice on three selected university campuses. The overarching research question for this study was &ldquo;How and what social media technologies are selected, planned for, implemented, and monitored in crisis management in selected universities?&rdquo;. This study examines how these institutions used social media during crisis, pinpoints the emergent themes, analyzes the engagement between the selected universities and their social media audience, and analyzes the effectiveness of social media during campus crisis situations.</p><p> The findings of this study include the documentation of institutional practices that contribute to successful social media crisis communication integration. These elements ultimately coalesce into the identification of a series of best practices that can help inform the field and contribute to the establishment of best practices for social media use during campus crisis situations. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p> There has been a decline in public good will toward institutions of higher education for nearly four decades. Resultantly, the public, media, and politicians call for greater transparency. It would be beneficial for institutions of higher education to utilize strategic means to communicate their stories, successes and brand directly to various publics. A critical, albeit often an overlooked public, are the employees of the university. They can serve as ambassadors for the university interacting with outside publics. In this capacity, not only do employees need to know information about their organization to function well at their positions, they also need to understand the strategic direction of the organization. Strategic communication of this nature can be accomplished with them via internal communication, and that falls under the domain of the public relations entity on campus.</p><p> This study seeks to examine how senior level public relations practitioners in higher education develop and carry out their internal communication responsibilities to employees. Understanding was sought regarding the practitioners&rsquo; beliefs and practices regarding: (a) public relations as a strategic management function; (b) the role of relationship management within public relations; and (c) whether symmetrical communication is used for cultivating relationships while maintaining a feedback mechanism to adjust public relations strategies based on publics and environment.</p><p> This study also looked at common and unique elements of practice, how higher education public relations practitioners define best practices, and whether they coordinate internal communication with other entities within their college or university and analyzes some demographic data regarding the career paths and education of the practitioners. It concludes that, while the participants in the study were operating with direct reporting to the president of their respective universities, and that all participants demonstrated working in a strategic capacity, none had documented communication processes with respect to internal audiences, and few had formal methods in place to evaluate the success of their efforts. In addition, none had well-formulated and strategic processes in place with respect to whether symmetrical communication is used for cultivating relationships while maintaining a feedback mechanism to adjust public relations strategies based on publics and environment.</p><p>

<p> Educators, education administrators, parents, guardians, and policy makers are concerned with the use of Internet streaming video, both inside and outside the classroom. Since clearly defined sources and informed regulation of Internet information including streaming video are absent, students need to make credible evaluations of information. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in perceived credibility among college students from the viewing of videos. The data were gathered when the participants watched three different video genres depicting the same historical event. The participants answered the same questionnaire after watching each video. This study used a mixed method explanatory sequential design where the quantitative phase informed the qualitative phase, in a design framed using Fogg's Prominence-Interpretation Theory. Two quantitative research questions were addressed: (1) Are there significant differences in the credibility scores among participants receiving the information across three video genres? and (2) Is there a significant relationship between reported time spent watching Internet streaming video and perceived credibility of information for each participant across three streaming video genres? A non-parametric Friedman Test was used in order to answer research question 1. The results indicated a statistically significant difference in perceived credibility, <i>p</i> &lt; .001. A post-hoc test revealed there were significant perceived credibility differences between CBS News and <i>Apollo 13</i> and NASA and <i>Apollo 13.</i> The difference between CBS News and NASA was not found to be significant. In order to answer research question 2 a non-parametric correlation test was applied using Spearman's rho. The results were significant, <i> p</i> = .030. On the other hand, the effect size was small, .20. After the quantitative data analysis, two focus groups were created. Focus Group One was made up of younger participants (mean age = 18.5) and Focus Group Two of older participants (mean age = 36.5). Six focus group questions emerged from the quantitative data analysis. The focus group responses were sorted out into sub-themes using a six-step process. The data revealed the focus group participants' defined credibility as <i>a trusted source/expert </i> and <i>straight, factual information.</i> Both groups emphasized the importance of evaluating video credibility in order to <i> avert being manipulated</i> and <i>to be aware of biases.</i> The qualitative data analysis, to some extent, mirrored the quantitative data analysis. The difference between the CBS News footage and the NASA clip was not found to be statistically significant. Similarly, the focus group participants were "torn between" the CBS News footage and the NASA clip as being most credible. The <i>Apollo 13</i> clip received no responses for being most credible. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> credibility, digital generation, younger generation, older generation, streaming video.</p>

<p> This dissertation explores the ways that instructors at a community college perceive instructor-student rapport in online and face-to-face classes. While instructor-student rapport has been shown to play an important role in student retention and success (Benson, Cohen, &amp; Buskist, 2005; Granitz, Koernig, &amp; Harich, 2009; Murphy &amp; Rodriguez-Manzanares, 2012), it has only recently been examined in the context of online education, and generally only from the student&rsquo;s perspective and not from the point of view of faculty. This study utilized grounded theory methods to create a theory of online instructor rapport building to improve best practices in both online and face-to-face classrooms. Interviews with 22 instructors at a large community college indicated that online rapport-building is often more time-consuming and difficult than face-to-face rapport-building, with autonomy, media richness, and uncertainty reduction, all playing a role in establishing rapport between instructors and their students. Using the collected data, I built on Joseph Walther&rsquo;s Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT) by placing it in the context of higher education, and created a Theory of Instructor-Student Rapport Online (TISRO) to explain what makes rapport feel strong, weak, or non-existent, from the perspective of instructors.</p><p>

<p> Increased citizen participation is a vital element in the concept of political efficacy. The feeling that an individual has towards political action has an impact on the political process in stimulating citizen participation and influencing public opinion. This thesis relies on an analytical survey of University of Louisiana at Lafayette students to examine potential relationships of the social networking site Facebook with college students&rsquo; trust in government, interpersonal trust, Facebook usage, and political efficacy. </p><p> Many scholars have concentrated research on social networking. Agenda melding involves a process by which people can personally engage in the democratic process through personal selection of any number of agendas to create their individual networked communities. With the advancement in technology of interactive media providing immediate access for college students through their agenda melded individual communities, this study found the social networking site of Facebook significantly related to college students&rsquo; political efficacy. Significant relationships involving trust, Facebook usage, and political efficacy were found to exist among this young demographic that previous literature indicated is the least politically effective. Further research is needed in agenda melding as Facebook provides an avenue for college students to influence political attitudes, public opinion, and democratic participation through their individual networked agenda melded communities. Further research is needed in agenda melding as algorithms may bypass the personal selection process that an individual uses to create his or her valued reference communities. Facebook&rsquo;s news algorithm engine may have introduced a new concept of agenda melding, one that may be void of a Facebook user&rsquo;s intention. </p><p>