The Rhetoric of the Regional Image: Interpreting the Visual Products of Regional Planning investigates the manner in which visual conventions and visual contexts of regional visioning scenarios affect their interpretation by urban and regional planners, who use visual communication to meet the technical and rhetorical demands of their professional practice. The research assesses Central Florida‘s ―How Shall We Grow?‖ regional land use scenario using focus groups and interviews with planning professionals, a corresponding survey of community values, and rhetorical analysis to explore the ―How Shall We Grow?‖ scenario as persuasive communication. The Rhetoric of the Regional Image proposes specific recommendations for technologybased visual communication and scenario development in urban and regional planning practice, while contributing to literature in technical communication and rhetoric by examining planners‘ professional communication within their discourse community

Online collaborations are more prevalent in society due to electronic communication allowing students and professionals to communicate with each other, without needing to spend time or money traveling. The lack of visual cues in electronic communication means writing styles primarily set the tone of a message. A group member‟s gender can affect his or her writing style and what he or she assumes about the message. The differing writing styles and potential gender bias can cause misunderstandings, which delay projects and sometimes lead to ostracizing a group member. The gender composition of an online collaboration, therefore, can have a positive or negative effect on a project. This study helps technical communicators understand how to manage online collaborations effectively to produce a successful project. The study explains how the effects of gender composition on a project are influenced by electronic communication, gender roles, and online collaborations. Society-imposed gender roles include differing writing styles for each gender causing gender bias in both writing and reading electronic messages. Group members, monitors, and project managers must take care in managing online collaborations due to the differences in each gender‟s communication style, and differences in gender roles and expectations for multinational online collaborations. The study shows mixed-gender collaborations have increased chances of misunderstandings because of the differing communication styles of each gender compared to same-gender collaborations. However, the advantages of mixed-gender collaborations outweigh the disadvantages due to the variety of ideas, motivations, and expectations. Technical communicators understanding how all the major topics relate together to influence a iv collaboration are better able to manage an online collaboration and reduce the chances of misunderstandings to create a successful project.

This thesis explores why instructors should use narrative intentionally and effectively with reflection to better understand adult students' perceptions of experiential learning activities in technical communication. The frequent use of narrative in technical discourse reminds us that the tone of technical texts is often appropriately informal, personable, and reflective. A closer analysis of narratives provides instructors with valuable opportunities to learn more about the motivations for and barriers to learning for adult students and to better understand how these students situate themselves in larger social and cultural narratives. Narrative serves many purposes in technical communication. Not only does narrative add a human element to technical discourse, but it also invites interrogation and inquiry into the technical communicator's decision-making process. For these reasons, narrative is commonly paired with reflection exercises in experiential learning programs as a way for students to make sense of their learning experiences. If instructors can capture the essence of how adult students make sense of their learning experiences, they can determine if experiential learning is an effective pedagogical approach to teaching technical communication to adult students. Using examples of ongoing, initial and summative, and alternative reflection exercises, I illustrate how narrative can be used to facilitate the learning process in adult students and gain access to these students' perceptions of experiential learning activities in technical communication.

Natural resource decisions require consideration at many levels, ranging from how one invertebrate will be affected by a nearby road, to how an entire watershed will be transformed by a massive clearcut. Considerations reach farther than just the local ecological community-human communities, economies, and future impacts on the communities and economies must also be considered. Integral to decision-making is having the correct information, which best comes from effective communication. Because scientific results are frequently used in natural resource decision-making, communicating science effectively is particularly important. In the context of natural resource decision-making, this study examines how Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) scientists in the Pacific Northwest view communication actions for disseminating scientific research results. Secondary survey data were used with over 150 surveys returned for an 82% response rate. Perspectives on the importance of communication were analyzed with data illustrating socio-demographic information and theoretical scientific attitudes. The results support the proposition that many scientists find more participatory, holistic communication actions involving the extended peer community to be very important. Certain variables, including age, theoretical attitude, and organization of employment, significantly affect the degree of importance reported by the scientists and can be used to predict responses for specific areas of communication. / Graduation date: 2004

Clustering is the process in which data is differentiated, classified according to some criteria. As a result of partitioning process, data is grouped into clusters for specific purpose. In a social network, clustering of people is one of the most popular problems. Therefore, we mainly concentrated on finding an efficient algorithm for this problem. In our study, data is made up of two types of entities (e.g., people, groups vs. political issues, religious beliefs) and distinct from most previous works, signed weighted bipartite graphs are used to model relations among them. For the partitioning criterion, we use the strength of the opinions between the entities. Our main intention is to partition the data into k-clusters so that entities within clusters represent strong relationship. One such example from a political domain is the opinion of people on issues. Using the signed weights on the edges, these bipartite graphs can be partitioned into two or more clusters. In political domain, a cluster represents strong relationship among a group of people and a group of issues. After partitioning, each cluster in the result set contains like-minded people and advocated issues. Our work introduces a general mechanism for k-way partitioning of signed bipartite graphs. One of the great advantages of our thesis is that it does not require any preliminary information about the structure of the input dataset. The idea has been illustrated on real and randomly generated data and promising results have been shown.

The primary purpose of this study is to develop a methodology that can be used to assess IS effectiveness in the Turkish Army. This study starts with the review of the information system effectiveness and assessment paradigms. Afterwards, influences of the characteristics of the Turkish Army on IS effectiveness assessment techniques are investigated. Observations and interviews are determined as the favorable data collection techniques. A user perceived effectiveness assessment instrument for semi-structured interviews is developed. Then a case study is applied to assess IS effectiveness in one of the units of the Turkish Army. At the end of the thesis, a qualitative assessment methodology based on maturity and key determinants of a successful IS are proposed for the Turkish Army.

Master's paper (MSLS)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001. / Also available in PDF via the World Wide Web.

Master's paper (M.S.I.S.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003. / "January 2003." Bibliography: p. 32-33. Also available in PDF via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A. Agricultural Management (Agricultural Extension)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The aim of the study was to investigate the perceptions of AEPs towards ICT tools to understand why AEPs are not using the ICT tools for their work as expected by the department of agriculture. The data was collected from AEPs by means of selfadministered, semi-structured questionnaire in the Tshebela and Mankweng service centres of Polokwane Local Agricultural Office. The findings firstly, indicate that less than half of the respondents are unaware of the advantages of the ICT tools for their work. This means more than half of the respondents are aware of the advantages of using ICT tools for their extension work. Secondly, the results show that less than half of respondents are aware of the disadvantage of the ICT tools for their extension work. This also implies that more than half of the respondents are not aware of any disadvantages of the tools for their extension work. Furthermore, with regard to the research question about the prominence of four ICT tools used together, the findings indicate that respondents believe that the combined use of four ICT tools (laptop, smart phone, smart pen technology and ESO) is helping them to achieve their extension career goals compared with the use of smart phone and laptop only. The hypothesis test of the influence of selected variables on the number of ICT tools used by AEPs show that the socio-economic characteristics of AEPs such as age, lower income, lack of training in the use of laptop (compatibility), and relative advantages issues such as awareness of disadvantages of the ICT tools have a negative influence on the number of ICT tools used as expected. The test also shows that the other variables such as sex, education, ESO training, SPT training, Smartphone training, unawareness of advantages and prominence positively correlate with the dependent variable. These positive relationships notwithstanding, the test indicates that only training received in the use of smart phone makes a significant contribution to the number of ICT tools used by AEPs. There is evidence from the study findings to suggest that most AEPs are aware of the advantages compared with the disadvantages of ICT tools for their extension work. Furthermore, the positive views expressed by AEPs about the prominence of the use of the four ICT tools together in helping them to achieve their extension career goals over the use of two tools shows that AEPs are motivated to use these four tools together. The department of agriculture should invest more in training AEPs in the use of the four ICT tools because they influence their use. AEPs however, highlighted challenges which hinder their use of the four ICT tools together and which need to be addressed by the department of agriculture to ensure that the four tools are used together. These include access to internet, non-supply of some of the tools by the employer, non-replacement of damaged ICT tools, inconvenient reimbursement structure which requires AEPs to use their own money upfront to purchase data bundle. Keywords: Information Communication Technology, Agricultural Extension Practitioners, awareness of disadvantages, unawareness of advantages, prominence.

Thesis (M. A.) --University of Limpopo, 2021 / This is an exploratory study conducted to assess the effectiveness of the digital migration in South Africa. This study focused on two areas of domicile, which embarked on the process of migrating in Limpopo Province i.e. Shayandima Village in Thohoyandou and Rapotokwane Village in Bela-Bela. The theories that were used to guide the study were the diffusion of innovations theory, political economic theory and media policy theory. These theories were employed to assist in assessing the process, the effectiveness and the importance of Digital Migration. The results for this study are revealed that 85% of respondents asserted that digital broadcasting is very effective and easy to use compared to the analog broadcasting systems, as it shows clear pictures, quality sound and access to more television channels. This help television viewers to get quality television programs. It was interesting to note that respondents mentioned that they did not regret migrating from analog to digital broadcasting because of the benefits and impact that the Set Top Boxes Set (STB)s have on their televisions. The findings reveal that the STBs are effective and affordable and enable to watch more television channels. There is also a need for the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies to ensure that every household in South Africa migrates to digital broadcasting system