Immersive media provides new avenues for preserving and sharing traditional folktales. To keep up with modern generations and continue to cultivate an interest in the arts as well as different cultures, this researcher argues that storytellers need to keep on adapting by conveying stories in new ways. Virtual Reality (VR) offers an interesting medium to present and preserve folktales. The goal of this study is to evaluate the user and learner experience of an immersive digital media application design using a think aloud protocol, surveys, and tests to document what worked and what did not in the design, including if any informal learning was achieved. To study the design, the investigator re-created a scene of a folktale using immersive technology. For the study, one scene from the new narrative was selected to investigate. The narrative is based on the story type, ATU 480: The Kind and the Unkind Girls, a wonder tale type in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) Index, which is a catalog of folktale types used in folklore studies. For this pilot study, 26 participants, primarily Games and Interactive Media (GaIM) students at the University of Central Florida, were gathered. The prototype entitled "The Daughter," was mainly influenced by a Romanian version of the tale and made for the Oculus Quest VR headset. The surveys and tests showed that learning was perceived as well as achieved and that users did feel a sense of immersion, presence, etc., but low audio issues plagued some users. The practical implications of VR storytelling include the potential for discourse about new service strategies and design guidelines, inspired by an iterative design, as embodiment and an increased sense of immersion may aid in digital storytelling. This study also continues the conversation on preserving digital folktales and the role that authenticity plays.

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Livestreaming experienced a big leap in viewership over the past few years. Included in the livestreaming entertainment field is the emergence of streamers using VTuber models rather than using their face. VTubers are face-tracking avatars that have been becoming more popular as streamers decide how much of their own privacy they would like to protect while streaming. Following the popularity boom, researchers have become interested in the specific communication phenomena in the livestreaming context. Specifically, practitioners and academics are interested in how live streamers can affect audience perception and potentially make a career out of eliciting positive reactions and creating connections with their audiences. To better understand this phenomenon, this study investigated the effect of visual representation of a streamer on the audience perception of the streamer through an online experiment using three group between-subjects comparisons. Specifically, three short videos in which a female streamer plays Minecraft were developed that have the identical streaming context but with different visual representation of a streamer (No Face, VTuber, and Face). Data were collected from 413 undergraduate students at a large university. Primary finding indicates that visual representation of a streamer has significant impact on the perceived social presence of the streamer. Specifically, VTubers incites significantly less social presence in the dimension of social richness compared to the other conditions. However, the visual representation does not have any notable effect on interpersonal attraction, perceived credibility and parasocial interactions. Collectively, the study contributes to the limited research on VTubers and audience perception in the English-speaking academic field as well as the growing literature on streamers.

A multitude of societal issues associated with the development of technology have emerged over the years including, but not limited to: insufficient personnel for maintenance; a lack of accessibility; the spread of harmful tools; and bias and discrimination against marginalized groups. I propose that a systems perspective is necessary to identify potential leverage points in technology production systems to influence them towards increased social good and evaluate their effectiveness for intervention. Toward this end, I conducted a mixed-methods study of a widely-adopted approach in tech production, free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) development. A survey was distributed to elicit responses from FLOSS project contributors to characterize their perceptions of diversity and corporate involvement as they relate to participation decisions and information gathering activities in online platforms. To complement this, an analysis of data from FLOSS projects on GitHub was completed to model participation dynamics. Survey results indicate that contributors attend to information that is used to infer group diversity and information about corporate decision making related to FLOSS systems. Furthermore, the influence of this information on participation decisions varies on the basis of economic needs and sociopolitical beliefs. Analyses of eighteen project ecosystems, with over 9,000 contributors, reveal that projects with no to some corporate involvement generally have broader contributor and user bases than those that are owned by a company. Taken together, these findings suggest that the internal practices of companies involved in FLOSS can be perceived as opaque and controlling which is detrimental to both the expansion of a project's contributor base and for increasing diversity across FLOSS ecosystems. This research highlights the need to differentiate projects on the basis of corporate involvement and community ethos to design appropriate interventions. A set of recommendations and research propositions are offered to improve inclusivity, equity, and sustainability in tech development.

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Panoramic 360-degree documentary videos continue to saturate the visual landscape. As practitioners' experiment with a new genre, understanding meaning and making awaits the academic and marketplace landscape. The new media journey of 360-degree documentary storytelling is ripe for media archaeologist to explore. New media scholar Lev Manovich (2016) believes "we are witnessing the new emergence of a cultural metalanguage, something that will be at least as significant as the printed word and cinema before it" (p. 49) Considering the meta- development of this new media genre, my dissertation seeks to discuss the historical roots of the panoramic image, define 360-degree Cinematic Virtual Reality (CVR) documentary video, establish production distinctions between 360-degree CVR and two-dimensional documentary video, and reveal the spatial cognitive abilities of 360-degree documentary video. The purpose of this dissertation study is to establish a media archaeological context of the 360-degree image and reveals the development of new cinematic code variations between 360 CVR modalities and two-dimensional documentary form. The theoretical framework developed within this study will inform current and future 360-degree documentary narrative engagement practices. Secondly, this project seeks to evaluate spatial cognition levels when viewing a Frank Lloyd Wright walking tour through 360 CVR modalities and examine the influence this has on narrative engagement comparative to traditional two-dimensional documentary form.

Transmedia journalism is a growing way to get news stories to readers with the new technology of social media platforms. This study, through surveys and a blog, measured information retention/cognition and preference of the interactive platform(s) and the print platform to see which type of transmedia journalism is preferred more to readers and easier for readers to retain more information. The sample was 31 Digital media undergraduate and graduate students concurrently enrolled in the University of Central Florida's Nicholson School of Communication and Media in the Games & Interactive Media program. All participants received at least one story platform consisting of a transmedia journalism story assigned as an interactive novel, interactive infographic or interactive game with questions measuring the enjoyment and information retention/cognition of these different immersive platforms. Participants completed a Qualtrics questionnaire with Likert and multiple-choice questions for preference, retention/cognition, and enjoyment, and an open-ended question describing their experience with the story platform. The primary data were transcribed and coded for analysis. Descriptive codes identified positive and negative comments. Pattern codes identified participant preference, content knowledge, and preference patterns. The Likert questions used in this study provided quantitative data for participant preference of the platform. The open-ended question used in this study provided insight into what the participants were thinking about their interactions with the platform and gave insight into the participant decision process reported in the Likert questions. Analyses of this study revealed most participants preferred interactive platforms. This study also resulted in an undeterminable data collection regarding information retention/cognition; however, the qualitative responses were quite revealing. This study suggested interactive infographics and interactive novels as a way to present news stories in transmedia journalism. While some aspects of the interactive game platform may be problematic- i.e. aesthetics- interactive platforms seems to be leading transmedia journalism in the right direction.

Emergent narrative, a phenomenon of unexpected contextual stories arising through play, has been researched in the field of game studies since 1999. However, that discussion largely lies in the realm of theoretical stories which are generated by either the system or the player. The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen our understanding of emergent narrative by examining real-world examples of the phenomenon. Four hundred player posts were gathered from forums relating to the video game Skyrim (a large, open world fantasy roleplaying game) and analyzed using a mixed-method framework which is informed by digital ethnography, fan studies, and game studies. Using a cluster sampling method, the posts were divided into categories based on theme. This work outlines the historical trajectory of the term emergent narrative and proposes that player created emergent narratives are novel as they capitalize on random events during play in order to create stories which are both contextual and surprising. Each chapter explores a different kind of storytelling in one hundred of the posts, showcasing the diverse subjects that players explore. This work demonstrates that upon reflection, players are not passive recipients of information from games. By participating in these online activities, players become cocreators of their own stories. This work expands our understanding of players, interactive systems, and narrative by arguing that the act of play is collaborative rather than receptive.

Karst terrains are landscapes with a distinctive hydrology and set of landforms that arise from a combination of high bedrock solubility and well-developed secondary (fracture) porosity. Karst areas are easily polluted due to the rapid transport of unfiltered percolating water through the systems. While many individuals are able to identify karst landforms such as sinkholes and caves, an understanding of the interconnectedness of the surface and subsurface in karst landscapes, as well as the vulnerability of karst areas to degradation, is often limited. Show caves, which are caves made accessible to visitation by humans through built infrastructure, can serve as an excellent venue through which to educate large quantities of people about the importance of these landscapes and sensitivities of them to degradation. Using Carter Caves State Park as a case study site, this study revealed that mobile eye-tracking technology can be used to develop cave tours that are both educational and entertaining by identifying greatest visitor interest at stops and along tour routes (i.e., where a visitors’ gaze falls throughout the tours).