A review of current integrated marketing communication (IMC) literature indicates that IMC has swept the globe. IMC has become the normative marketing practice for organizations to promote their goods and services, as well as an increasingly popular area of academic study. At the same time, literature shows inconsistency in IMC's professional practice and academic instruction. An increasing number of IMC theorists suggest that “true” IMC involves reorienting an organization to become consumer-focused and responsive at every level. This broader vision for IMC points to the discipline's communicative underpinnings. It is dialogic, other-oriented and interpretive in nature, yet most organizations and academics that claim to practice and teach IMC treat it as a “simple managerial task”—mere tactical coordination of marketing elements (Schultz and Patti 75). This dissertation supplements current literature to establish IMC's rhetorical and philosophical roots and provides a perspective about how organizations can achieve greater communicative understanding with their stakeholders by considering IMC from a humanities and constructive hermeneutic standpoint. By understanding the discipline as humanistic and situated in lived practices, rhetorical and philosophical acumen becomes the missing link between tactical implementation and IMC's full potential. This praxis-oriented approach moves IMC beyond the limitations of the social sciences and into the philosophy of communication to offer better insight into how IMC is an interpretive encounter that demands attentiveness to and communicative engagement with the other. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD; / Dissertation;

Many studies have been devoted to investigating the process by which individuals make dispositional attributions about the people that they encounter. Typically, individuals are more likely to seek future interactions with target individuals if those target individuals have a positive or rewarding disposition. Interactions with target individuals possessing negative or punishing dispositions reduce the likelihood that target individual will be selected for future interactions. An initial false positive trait ascription will be self-correcting with future interactions. An initial false negative trait label will likely remain stable if future interactions are not forced. The importance of quick accurate disposition identification carries important evolutionary implications as well as normal-life implications. Results from an experiment support the ability of subjects to accurately identify the true trait of target individuals with limited dispositional information. / by Robert P. Shuhi. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Communication scholars are in disagreement over the presence of online public speaking courses in higher education. Despite limited research on the Online Public Speaking model, it is quickly replacing the traditional public speaking model in American colleges and universities. This study used Burkean Cluster-Agon Analysis to uncover core concepts from four contemporary public speaking textbooks used in various classroom models (traditional, online and hybrid). Concepts were then compared with traditional core concepts of early speech communication to determine if technology has influenced contemporary core concepts. Results determined that contemporary core concepts from three of the four public speaking textbooks reflected traditional core concepts of early speech communication. The fourth textbook revealed similar contemporary core concepts with expanded definitions to technologically mediated speech situations. / by Shaundi C. Newbolt. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

This thesis proposes that feminist social and political theory adopt the epistemology inherent in Jurgen Habermas's communicative ethics in order to more coherently work toward the goal of freeing individuals from social oppression. This thesis first examines the fundamental differences that exist between the particular claims for knowledge made by the three major schools of feminist theory; the empirical feminists, the standpoint feminists, and those allied with postmodernism. After illuminating the specifics of these feminist claims, the conception of knowledge central to Habermas's thought is explored and shown to be split into three distinct realms; the objective, the social, and the subjective. It is shown that the three realms of Habermas's knowledge account for the underlying claims of the differing groups of feminist theory, and provide a basis for reconciling the differences between them. Habermas's objective realm of knowledge corresponds to the concerns of empirically oriented feminists. A need for an accurate description of the events and conditions of the actual world is shared by both, as is a trust in the human potential for grasping these objects and events accurately. Standpoint feminism's concern for interpersonal relations, accounting for the context of an individual's or group's existence, is reflected in the type of knowledge that Habermas considers social in nature. Habermas's conception of our capacity for social knowledge, which guides our actions with other human beings, is shown to be dependent upon both social existence and communication. Finally, Habermas acknowledges the human potential for critical knowledge to explain the individual's ability to differentiate herself from the group, a task which a postmodern feminism demands to avoid essentializing any aspect of women. If feminist theory is able to move beyond the entrenched differences that it now finds itself locked within, perhaps then it will be able to continue with the project shared with Habermas, that of providing a meaningful emancipation for human beings.

Feminist theory is a vast area of discourse and, while the differences between the many tendencies are extremely interesting, it is beyond the scope of this thesis to engage in such an inquiry. I have chosen to conduct a critique of Habermas's theory of communicative action from a perspective informed for the most part by postmodern/poststructural feminism. I hope that my reasons for working within such a framework will become evident in the following chapters but, in my view, a postmodern/poststructural feminist perspective sharpens the critique of Habermas's theory precisely because it stands in such contrast to it. For the purposes of this thesis, my critique will focus upon Habermas's most recent work - The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume I: Reason and the Rationalization of Society (1984), and Volume II: The Critique of Functionalist Reason (1987). Other works by Habermas will not be specifically addressed although references will be made to them as necessary to clarify his positions on various issues. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This research addresses the question of whether individuals or groups induce deeper message processing of persuasive messages. An interaction between group entitativity and whether the group is an ingroup or an outgroup is predicted, where ingroups low on entitativity and outgroups high on entitativity are expected to induce deeper message processing. Entitativity measures the extent an aggregate of people is seen as a group (D. T. Campbell, 1958). Previous research shows contradictory results. S. G. Harkins and R. E. Petty (1987) have shown that high entitativity causes more message focus than low entitativity. R. J. Rydell and A. R. McConnell (2005) have shown that low entitativity causes more message focus than high entitativity. Hypotheses were not supported by the data. Post hoc analyses suggest that motivation to process persons and messages was greatest in the high entitativity ingroup condition. Predictions were revised by adding motivation as a variable. / by Karoly I. Balazs. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Eu jogo, tu jogas e nós? Nós jogamos ou somos jogados? Eu me comunico? Tu te comunicas comigo? Nós nos comunicamos enquanto jogamos? Talvez a resposta rasa a qual somos induzidos a pensar seja: \"Sim! e como nos comunicamos.\" De forma mais elaborada, a ideia da pesquisa em questão é: qual a sinergia que ocorre entre o jogar e o comunicar, considerando que o comunicar não é algo que emula a comunicação, que promove o êxodo para o virtual, que coloca o jogador enquanto objeto de jogo tal como um peão. Comunicar é algo que sente, que frui, que nos atravessa, que permeia a nossa sensibilidade e imbrica aquilo que somos com aquilo que passamos a ser. Por isso, a proposta aqui é a de buscar apreensão do fenômeno que o jogo promove, considerando a Nova Teoria da Comunicação, O Princípio da Razão durante, o metáporo e demais terminologias desenvolvidas por Ciro Marcondes Filho e o Grupo FiloCom. Abordar o jogar pelo suporte do videogame para buscar o sutil, o ponto de equilíbrio do lúdico interativo na comunicação, que não nos mantém a mesma pessoa ao terminarmos de jogar. O jogo proposto como objeto de estudo, Minecraft, trata de um fenômeno, pois não só coloca o jogador como um produtor de conteúdo audiovisual mas permite que os usuários transformem e traduzam a realidade para eles. A questão, contudo é: será que os usuários traduzem os blocos que manipulam, que lhes é informado e supostamente comunicado em realidade? O objetivo aqui é o de compreender o jogo por este olhar, buscando as contribuições teóricas do ponto de vista do Princípio da Razão Durante (viés Comunicacional, Tecnológico e Sistêmico) e práticas (Reflexão, Criação, Apreensão e Popularização do conhecimento). / I play, you play, and what about us? Do we play or are we played? Do I communicate myself? Do you communicate with me? Do we communicate while we play? Perhaps the shallow answer we are led to think is, \"Yes! and how we communicate. \" More elaborately, the idea of the research in question is the synergy that occurs between playing and communicating, considering that communication is not something that emulates communication, which promotes a escape to the virtual, which places the player as an object like a pawn. Communicating is something that one feels, that flows naturally, that permeates our sensitivity and connects what we are with what we become. Therefore, this proposal involves studying the phenomenon that the game promotes, considering the New Theory of Communication, The Principle of Reason During, the metapore and other terminologies developed by Ciro Marcondes Filho and the FiloCom Group. The best approach to playing the game is through the support of the video game in order to seek the subtle, the point of balance of interactive playful communication, which somehow changes us when we finish playing. The game is proposed as an object of study. Minecraft, deals with a phenomenon, as it not only places the player as an audiovisual content producer but allows users to transform and translate reality into them. The question, however, is: do users translate the blocks they manipulate, which are informed and supposedly communicated in reality? The objective here is to understand the game through this lens, seeking the theoretical contributions from the point of view of the Principle of Reason During (Communication, Technological and Systemic bias) and practices (Reflection, Creation, Seizure and Popularization of knowledge).

In response to assertions championing the absence of meaning and significance in language originating from Jacques Derrida's linguistic concepts of deconstruction, George Steiner and John Sheriff provide analyses of language that assert the opposite. Through an emphasis on subjectivities and subjective experience in the world, both find meaning to be bonded to subjective volition and the connectivities between subjects and language systems. For Steiner, this emphasis comes in the form of asserting the presence of others and the responsibilities we have to them, while Sheriff depicts how the semiotics of Charles Peirce make meaning-making subjective and communal. I argue, therefore, that in contrast to conceptions of language that challenge the presence of meaning in language, a structure of language as conceived through Charles Peirce's semiotics and George Steiner's vision of language asserts a dependability of language and the presence of meaning based on principles of connection and communion. / by Elliot Shaw. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

A common criticism of U.S. citizens today, whether as voters or students or workers, is that they are "lazy and apathetic". It is important to explore the validity of this criticism. This thesis begins with the premise that there are two prerequisites for citizenship in a democracy: (1) that citizens be willing to participate and (2) that citizens are able to participate. The purpose of this research is to examine a particular set of perspectives regarding social conditions which consistently impact the two aforementioned prerequisites. This examination addresses social conditions that undermine a person's ability to participate meaningfully and it addresses perspectives on alternative social conditions which support personal action. Included in this set of perspectives are relevant concepts and ideas derived from Socrates, John Locke, Karl Marx, Anthony Giddens, and Michael Lerner. These prominent thinkers provide likely, but not exclusive examples of how certain themes commonly emerge regarding social conditions and their relationship to communication. Each of these sources, in different ways and to different degrees, demonstrates how social conditions commonly encourage ideology that can undermine personal action. Additionally, each theorist indicates the need for dialogue and critical thinking to penetrate these social conditions and ideologies, thus providing the keys to encouraging personal action. Once established, the potential for dialogue and critical thinking is discussed with regard to several important social arenas and systems of American culture: mass media, education, the workplace, and government. The true test of whether or not Americans are willing to participate depends upon the nature and extent of their ability to participate. As the promotion of dialogue and critical thinking is necessary to assure the second, an exploration of these capacities is necessary to begin assessing the first.

Jurgen Habermas is a second-generation social philosopher of the Frankfurt school, the birthplace of critical theory. He suggests that modernity is a project of substituting rationality for religion. In his analysis, such a succession is the result of a process of social evolution, in which each developmental stage has its basic concepts and modes of understanding subjective, objective, and social worlds. For him, the salient feature of rationality consists of differentiation between various validity claims of truth, truthfulness, and sincerity which are indistinguishable in religious language. The rationalization of religion, hence, progresses in terms of a differentiation between validity claims, a decentration of human understanding, the disenchantment of the world, and the linguistification of the sacred. Habermas proposes a universal pragmatics in which two modes of language use are separated: instrumental-strategic, and communicative. He thinks that the failure of the enlightenment movement to replace religion with reason stems from its preoccupation with instrumental reason and language use, dispensing with communicative rationality; and the remedy lies in communicative rationality. / Critically analyzing Habermas' theory of communicative action, this study examines Habermas' basic idea of substituting communicative rationality for religion in the light of his critique of Max Weber and of instrumental reason. Ontological, epistemological, methodological, and conceptual presuppositions in his argument are discussed and evaluated.