Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to gain traction and is increasingly reshaping the media and marketing communications field. While significant research has been conducted on the impact of AI in other fields, there is little empirical evidence on how AI is affecting the customer journey. The present study explored both organizations’ current use of AI tools and how customer perceptions about AI affect AI usage and adoption through the lens of diffusion of innovation theory. The research was conducted using mixed-method qualitative research. In-depth interviews and a case study content analysis were conducted to collect and analyze the data. The results suggest that consumer perceptions about AI impact levels of adoption when AI is recognized, but there appears to be cognitive dissonance regarding what constitutes AI and complicit acceptance of some of its benefits. Companies in different geographical locations have different levels of AI adoption along the diffusion of innovation stages.

Apprehension negatively impacts student learning. As online and hybrid communication courses continue to be offered it is important to expand and update research regarding the following constructs: communication apprehension, receiver apprehension, writing apprehension, and computer apprehension. This study examines correlations between and among these constructs, differences by gender and course format, and changes between pre- and posttest results. Students enrolled in traditional and online sections of a basic communication course completed pre- and posttests consisting of a demographic survey, the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension, the Receiver Apprehension Test, the Writing Apprehension Test, and the Computer and Web Attitude Scale. Results suggest positive and negative correlations between and among various constructs, differences in apprehension levels based on gender and format, and various changes between pre- and posttests. Research on expression-based apprehension is important to improve pedagogical practices and encourage the development of communication skills regardless of course format.

Social applications such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have driven the public growth of Web 2.0. Universities and colleges are using social media to reach student prospects, keep contact with current students and alumni, and provide a mechanism for group collaboration and interaction in the classroom. Higher education institutions are influenced by current social media trends, and figuring out how to effectively interact with various constituencies within the social media environment can be challenging. In this study, a group of higher education students were surveyed about their social media practices and preferences with a focus on education-related activities. The goal of the research was to determine what aspects of social media use were most effective in reaching the student constituency based on social media usage patterns. The results led to significant observations that aid in the development of social media tactics to reach university and college students.

In an age when people make and maintain relationships in online environments, creating and sustaining impressions online becomes equally important. For a better understanding of social networking sites usage, the present study examines the influence of gender, personality, and selfesteem on social media presentation. The goal of this study is to investigate individuals‘ expressions through social media in order to determine if they reflect the author‘s gender, personality, and levels of self-esteem. Quantitative analysis was used in this study through survey and SPSS content analysis. The researcher found that neuroticism was related to selfpresentation, and agreeableness is related to Facebook friends. Personality traits were generally shown to be a stronger predictor of self-presentation on social media than gender or self-esteem, because the big five personality traits correspond well with functions of social media.

Past research has shown that dialogic communication has essential characteristics that foster two-way communication between organizations and their stakeholders. This study investigates how public relations firms incorporate the principles of dialogic communication on their websites. The top and bottom 50 websites from the Holmes report on Top 250 Global PR agency rankings were content analyzed. Kent and Taylor’s (1998, 2003) five principles of dialogic communication were applied to find out if public relations firms incorporate the principle of dialogic communication effectively on their websites, provide relevant information for stakeholders and prospective clients, and if there are differences between PR rankings in terms of website usability and the dialogic loop. Findings reveal that bottom 50 PR websites are not as dialogic as the top 50 PR websites. In addition, the study revealed that both top and bottom to a considerable extent incorporated the principles of dialogic communication.

This research study examined what the motivations and consequences of self-disclosure on Instagram were as well as its correlation with Impression Management Theory. The research used a 37 question survey which was distributed on social media, through the Department of Media and Communication at ETSU as well as a public speaking class. There were 232 participants in this study who were 18 or older and used Instagram. Research found that individuals’ self disclose using levels of relationship management, showing off, information sharing and habitual behavior. Future research includes the opportunity to incorporate a sample of participants across different cultures to analyze the differences in self-disclosure styles on Instagram.

"My name is..." // "...اسمي" is a photo series that aims to depoliticize the highly politicized identity of the Arab, female refugee. Due to the growing number of refugees being forced out of their homes and displaced all around the globe, their collective existence has turned into a number. The world only sees one image when they think of an Arab refugee; the suffering, hopeless body of an Arab, struggling to cross borders. The world is not exposed to the real experiences of these individuals, and their stories remain untold. With this project, I aim to share these stories. Female refugees have unique experiences as women, and as mothers. They hold specific responsibilities within the displaced family and community as a whole. Each of them carry different narratives, different hopes and dreams. Combining their stories alongside the photos will help humanize them and show a side to them that the mainstream media fails to show, a side that doesn’t drastically differ from the experiences of people all over the world, no matter where they are from.

Organizational-public relations discourse is changing given the advent of social media, and corporate statements are evaluated under different criteria in the digital age. Grounding Budweiser’s response to controversy over their 2017 Super Bowl advertisement in terms of consumer expectations for corporate social responsibility provides a new perspective for approaching Bostdorff and Vibbert’s (1994) conceptualization of values advocacy. This study recognizes the power of the rhetorical stakeholder, a discursively created public, and demands re-evaluation of the values common to society from a co-creational OPR perspective. Conceptualizing dialectic values advocacy outlines the changing values among contemporary, common stakeholders as well as the means for communicating these values superficially to promote unanimity among publics and organizations. Previously successful universal values like unity and patriotism have since been replaced with sensationalism and discord; formally engendering these values through ambiguous controversy allows an organization to strategically construct audience perceptions of reputation.

The expansion of YouTube into the mainstream media and its place as the second most-used website in the world makes it a prime place for health information seeking. However, content can be created and uploaded by anyone and thus, the threat of misinformation on YouTube is high. Medical researchers have established that videos created by health professionals on YouTube promote accurate information whereas videos by non-professionals promote generally inaccurate or misleading information. Yet, videos created by non-professionals have more views and higher relevance rankings on YouTube. To begin to understand this phenomenon, a descriptive study is used to lay a foundation for this area of health communication This study focused on the ostomy community of non-professional content creators on YouTube to. The goal of this study was to thoroughly describe the innate features of the videos using media richness theory, and to describe social support and illness narrative using the framework of social presence theory. The results from the study provide deep description into this particular community of non-professional health influencers and make way for a new line of research in the communication of health information.

Objective: To determine which website characteristics are preferred by orthodontists, adult patients, and parents of patients. Materials and Methods: 1,000 active members of the American Association of Orthodontists and 750 active orthodontic patients/parents were sampled. Participants rated the importance of website characteristics, indicated presence of those characteristics on the current website, and ranked sample website images. Preferences were compared between orthodontist and the patient/parent group using t-tests and sample websites were compared using ANOVA models and Tukey’s adjusted post-hoc tests. Significance level was set at 0.05. Results: 11 of the 16 website features showed significant differences between patients/parents and orthodontists. Participants preferred sample websites with images of people, information at the top of the page, and an ‘about the doctor’ page with a greater amount of information. Conclusion: This study showed significant differences in preferences between orthodontists and patients/parents, by gender, and between adult patients and parents of adolescent patients.