This study examined efficiency of the Safeer by gathering and analyzing the perception of 131 Saudi students from Bowling Green, KY. The purpose of the study was to ensure that the system is able to perform its function as the bridge between different institutions and Saudi students studying in the US who require assistance in processing their academic requirements. A self-administered survey using five scale points was employed. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics at 95% confidence level. The result confirmed the hypothesis that the use of the Safeer program provides quality service delivery within SACM, which in turn benefits Saudi’s students in the USA by making and facilitating their requests faster. Findings show that students found the Safeer software interface easy to use. The overall impact of Safeer to SACM in serving the student community from Saudi Arabia is generally positive. It made SACM more responsive, convenient, and accessible. However, some students demonstrated concerns about the loading speed, security of personal data, and other issues. Safeer not only made SACM’s services more accessible to students, it also provided a more current and technologically relevant option for the users and contributed to the organization’s goal of bridging culture, geography and technology while providing quality service to Saudi Students from all over the US.

Social networking sites (SNSs) are an increasingly popular channel for communication among college students. Often students disclose more freely via social networking sites than they would in other situations. These disclosures commonly include information about engaging in risky health behaviors (e.g., binge drinking). Study 1 examined students’ impression management goals and self-presentation tactics specifically related to self-disclosures of drinking behavior on SNSs. Findings suggest that students use differing self-presentation tactics across various SNSs in order to achieve their impression management goals and to avoid consequences associated with disclosing about risky health behaviors to certain audiences. Study 2 sought to develop and measure SNS communication about alcohol related activities (SNCAA). It used the theory of normative social behavior as framework for investigating and predicting SNCAA. Additional variables that predict SNCAA were also identified. Findings demonstrate partial fit of the TNSB as a framework for explaining SNCAA. The overarching results of this project suggest a need for interventions aimed at reducing students’ SNCAA as well as increasing their overall knowledge about privacy and safety online.

Since its inception, the video game industry has been both a new medium for art and innovation as well as a major driving force in the advancements of many technologies. The often overlooked video game industry has turned from a hobby to a multi-billion dollar industry in its short, forty year life. People of all ages and genders across the world are playing video games at a higher clip than ever before. With so many new gamers and emerging technologies, it is an exciting time for the industry. The landscape is constantly changing and successful business models of the past will need to find ways to adapt if they wish to remain successful in the growing industry. Looking at how past trends and technological innovations have driven the industry gives understanding and insight into where it is at today and where it will go in the future. Video games have become an interactive art medium which inspires users to explore and create. The digitalization of games and their extreme popularity reflect our instinctive desire to seek out game-playing for its fun, cooperative, and competitive nature.

The newest generation, raised and immersed in today's hyper-consumer culture, has learned to define the self within a neoliberal and capitalist framework in which self-branding and ascribing to hegemonic principles appears imperative to one’s personal success.

The popular Social Networking Site, Facebook, offers its users the ability tocommunicate with others from all over the globe. Individuals can create a virtual identity for themselves enabling members to call, message, and locate others in a matter of seconds. The number of Facebook users appears to increase; yet, the number of members who die daily is not normally accounted. Facebook now permits the memorialization ofthe deceased’s profile. This allows members to continue commenting, sharing photos and videos, and visiting the deceased’s Facebook page. This trend led to the central question of this study, “What benefits, if any, are individuals receiving by utilizing Facebook status updates in order to cope with loss?” A gap in the literature exists pertaining to the creation of status updates for adults (25-64 years old) who have lost an immediate family member within the past year, as other studies have focused on adolescents’ and college students’ grieving processes on Facebook. As the principal investigator, I looked for what may or may not be different for individuals using Facebook status updates to cope after the loss of a loved one. I did so by interviewing seven participants, transcribing digital voice recordings, and using a grounded theory methodology to code and search for themes and patterns within the data. Participants were recruited using fliers, word of mouth, and emails sent to members of Nova Southeastern University. Findings from this study led to the discovery of the theory Social Grief after participants shared they received support, validation, and closure by using Facebook status updates to cope with the loss of an immediate family member.

Currently, southern Louisiana faces extreme land loss that could reach an alarming rate of about one football sized swath of land every hour. The combined effect of land subsidence and predicted sea level rise threaten the culture and livelihood of the residents living in this region. As the most vulnerable coastal population in Louisiana, the communities of south Terrebonne Parish are called to adapt by accommodating, protecting, or retreating from the impacts of climate change. For effective preparation planning, the state of Louisiana needs to 1) understand the adaptation preferences and responses of these residents and 2) involve these vulnerable communities in adaptation related decision making. The study uses a survey-based methodology to analyze current adaptation preferences. Findings suggest that protection is the preferred adaptation response. The present study additionally uses participatory techniques to develop a land loss awareness mobile application to illustrate the importance and benefits of community collaboration.

In many instances, television news is the primary outlet through which people gain knowledge on climate change. Both the perceived threat of climate change and American news media have grown politically divided since the 1980s. I make the argument that American news media influences the partisan divide over climate change. In addition to the political landscape of news media, focus on political events and figures in climate coverage further contributes to a partisan divide. Supporting these claims are research displaying how climate change news is processed in a partisan manner and a selection of three case study periods in which climate change coverage spiked among MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News in the last twenty years (2000-2019). I collected news footage from all three case studies using the online database archive.org. Using this footage, an accompanying documentary short was produced that focused on the Paris Climate Accord Withdrawal in 2017. Presented in the documentary and the three case study periods, Fox News held a consistently hands-off and dismissive tone towards climate change, while MSNBC and CNN implemented climate science into coverage while advocating for collective climate action. I report that media is selected and processed via partisanship among viewers; these case studies illustrate the ways in which news media drives the political divide on climate change. I conclude by offering some future ways climate coverage can be more unifying, such as more emphasis on the economic benefits of “a green economy” in news coverage.

Developmental disabilities (DEVDIS) such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental delay (DD), and learning disabilities, affect 14% of US youth, who also experience higher rates of obesity, approximately 19%, than youth without these conditions. Screen time is a risk factor for obesity, though it is not well-studied among youth with developmental disabilities. Youth with developmental disabilities experience challenges with learning, have underdeveloped social skills, and problematic behaviors. These predispositions can often result in peer rejection. The resulting social isolation may make these youth particularly vulnerable to engaging in solitary activities such as screen time. The objectives of this dissertation were to compare screen time rates among youth with developmental disabilities to typically developing youth and to examine the associations between social and family engagement with screen time among youth with developmental disabilities. Data from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), a national cross-sectional study that assesses the physical and emotional health of US children (N = 91,642), were used. Youth 6-17 years, with ADHD (n = 7,024), ASD (n = 1,200), DD (n = 3,276), LD (n = 7,482), and without special health care needs (n = 44,461) were studied. Unadjusted analyses found that children with DEVDIS engage in higher rates of screen time than youth without special health care needs. For youth with DEVDIS who were medicated for their ADHD, these associations attenuated. Thus ADHD symptoms, a common comorbidity across developmental disabilities, drove associations between the other developmental disabilities and screen time. Across all developmental disability groups, television in the bedroom was a significant screen time risk factor in both children and adolescents. Among children with ADHD, additional screen time risk factors included lack of caregiver knowledge of the child’s friends and any social engagement outside of the household. Among adolescents with ADHD, additional screen time risk factors included lower frequency that caregiver attends adolescent’s events and sport social engagement. Findings of this dissertation elucidate modifiable screen time risk factors that could potentially be adapted to decrease screen time among youth with developmental disabilities.

This applied dissertation was designed to analyze the effects of social networking for educational purposes on the academic achievement of regular and special education students in the secondary school setting. The effect of social networking on student learning has not been determined. There is a limited amount of research on how and to what extent teachers use social networking within the parameters of instruction. There is even less research distinguishing the effects of social networking on the academic achievement on regular and special education students. The student participants engaged in discussion forums as their primary social networking experience. Of the 155 participants, 94 were enrolled in a class that required participation in asynchronous discussion forum, and 61 were enrolled in a class with more traditional instruction devoid of social networking. The treatment consisted of 12 discussion prompts created by the teacher in the Blackboard course management system. The analysis of student test data showed no significant difference in mean scores attributable to social networking when educational status was ignored. When educational status was not ignored, however, the significant difference of mean scores between all regular education and all special education students was found to be highly unlikely to have been due to chance. This study also found that there was an interaction between educational status and social networking. The infusion of educational social networking helped narrow the achievement gap between regular and special education students.

With the widespread use of the Internet, grief has been extended in its representation. Specifically, social networking sites, like MySpace, have turned grief presentation from private expressions into public displays of mourning. This study utilizes the theoretical foundations of the grief presentation process of Kübler-Ross' (1969) five categories of bereavement (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) to determine whether the grief presentation process is present in an online setting. In this study, the researcher conducted an empirical investigation of 4,931 comments, resulting in 22,263 bereavement themes outlined by Kübler-Ross, which were condensed into 2,288 time-point comparisons posted to 140 MySpace profiles of users who have passed-on. Results revealed noteworthy practices surrounding grief presentation on the MySpace profiles of the deceased. Specifically, bereaved commenters post a significantly greater number of bereavement narratives in the first three months post-mortem as opposed to months four through six. Additionally, race and sex of the deceased, as well as sex of the bereaved, did not prove to be mitigating factors in online grief presentation. Moreover, across observed races and sexes, the bereavement category of acceptance was found most often, followed by depression, denial, anger, and bargaining. Findings suggest that post-mortem commenting behavior blends current memorializing practices while also extending the space for communication and grief presentation. Additional implications for understanding grief communication on MySpace and future directions for research conclude this study.