Statistical data on community colleges confirms how vast the community college institution is: Serving 46% of all undergraduates in the country, or 12.4 million students. A large body of literature exists on the specifics of social reproduction in four-year universities; as well as the specifics of social reproduction in racially and economically segregated high schools. However, there exists a blind spot in this literature when it comes to social reproduction at the community college. Through conducting interviews with students, faculty and staff at three local community colleges, this ethnographic study explores this theoretical and empirical blind spot by using a critical cultural studies perspective on social reproduction, asking questions around community college students’ experiences on three levels: students themselves, the institutional level through administration and governance; and, lastly, the communication strategy of the community college. Community colleges largely serve working class students, immigrants and older learners. They are the embodiment of the classic American dream that social mobility is possible through a democratic and public education system that allows anyone to ‘work their way up.’ On the other hand, they can work to funnel students too quickly into vocational tracks that foreclose the possibility of a higher-prestige, and higher-earning, bachelor’s degree. Community colleges straddle this tension between upward social mobility and class reproduction, as well as institutional tensions produced by needing to adapt to pervasive neoliberal logic. Student interviews highlight the ways their educational experiences are shaped by these tensions, given the community college’s unique structural education within higher education, and how these tensions can work to foreclose or open their future education possibilities. This thesis also explores the following themes: the community college’s positioning relative to public state schools and elite private schools; community college governance; workforce changes among faculty and staff and it’s effect on students; political implications of the community college education model; and, more broadly, understanding the place of public education in a wider neoliberal sociopolitical context.

Appalachian people have faced stereotyping of their culture and region in popular culture, news media, and art for generations. For more than 150 years, images of the region have been extracted by outside media makers and disseminated widely, solidifying the “hillbilly” stereotype in the national lexicon. This study focuses on such images in reality television shows about Appalachia, and seeks to determine whether or not those images, and the proliferation of them, has an impact on the ways in which Appalachian people understand and accept their own culture.

The Internet has infiltrated our daily lives in many ways. Social networking on the Internet is a great example of how the Internet has expanded interpersonal communication. Many individuals have made social networking sites, like FaceBook and Twitter, an essential part of their lives and use these platforms to communicate daily. Until recently, young people have been the primary participants in this fast-growing phenomenon, and older adults' participation in the Internet, specifically social networking sites, has lagged far behind. However, in recent years, there has been a noteworthy increase in the number of older adult participants. The increase in older adult participation in social networking sites is important because it seems to signify a decrease in the Internet usage gap called the "digital divide", and because there is strong evidence older adults may greatly benefit from social networking activity. The aging of the Baby Boomers has resulted in significant growth in the senior age group, reinforcing the timely importance of considering the older adults' "digital divide". This study uses a phenomenological approach to explore the experience of older adult users of social networking sites to determine the reasons why more older adults are now making social networking sites part of their lives. The study revealed both negative and positive influences on this choice that include: early negative personal experiences with technology, positive family influences, an increasing prevalence of technology, and technology's transition from complexity of use to ease of use. Although some resulting attitudes of older adults are negative, such as a need to control the role of social media in their life, online social networking plays a positive role in their lives. The probing, detailed nature of this phenomenological study clarifies influences and offers new perspectives, implying that research could benefit from a broader and deeper inspection. Research should consider, as related to the use of technology by older adults, a closer look at the effectiveness of training, potential gender differences in the choice to use technology, and the consequences of negative technological experiences.

Through the examination of a satirical Facebook page called Hope that Helps (HTH) this study filled a gap in communication research on humor and resistance within online communities. The qualitative content analysis of the HTH page showcased satire’s role in acts of resistance. Using jokes, impersonation, and ridicule HTH resisted large corporations, government institutions, messages from public figures, and entitled American consumers. HTH also used humor to resist social constructs including Whiteness, transphobia, and American nationalism. Along with page creators, HTH followers were active participants in the humor and resistance acts on the page. HTH served as a space for page followers to express support, give suggestions, and vent about their own difficulties in customer service roles. Prescriptions for communication researchers interested in the intersection between humor and resistance in online environments are discussed.

In this thesis, I examine how claims regarding the environmental and health impacts of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” are constructed by industry advocates who promote the practice and environmental and social justice groups who reject it. More specifically, I examine the cultural underpinnings of the debate over fracking, and the prominence of gender as a central framing device in that debate. While the controversy over fracking is often presented as scientific or technical in nature, I maintain that it is as much a culture war as it is a science war. I demonstrate this by showing how both pro-fracking and anti-fracking groups mobilize cultural symbols and identities—motherhood, environmentalism, family farming, family values, individualism, and patriotism among them—in order to persuade the public and advocate for their positions. I contend that engagement with the cultural and ideological dimensions of those debates, including their gendered dimensions, is as important as engagement with its scientific and technical dimensions. Ultimately, I argue that a greater focus on gender contributes to our understanding of environmental risk more broadly, and to the field of environmental sociology as a whole. As such, gender deserves more scholarly attention within the field than it is currently receiving.

This study notes similarities and differences between the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (U.K.). Study findings suggest that while at first glance the United Kingdom and the United States may seem similar in many ways, the differences between these countries are great, making each one unique.

Examines Chuck Palahniuk's novel Invisible monsters using the theories of Jean Baudrillard as a lens through which to better understand Palahniuk's commentary on the effects mass media have on human subjectivity in the terminal state.

This thesis explores the politics of representing the assemblage of ancient manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls to popular audiences in Israel, the occupied West Bank, and the United States. I demonstrate that these objects of national heritage are circulated along transnational routes to maintain the legitimacy of nationalist discourse abroad. Three sites—the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Qumran National Park in the West Bank, and a travelling exhibit presented at the Boston Museum of Science—are examined for textual narrative, spatial arrangement, and visitor behavior. Analysis of these observations illuminates two recurring motifs common to all three sites: the restoration of an ancient ethno-national landscape (“land of Israel”) in the contemporary landscape of Palestine/Israel and the important legacy of ancient Jewish society in contemporary Israel and “the West.” These motifs and the way they are presented through a framing of cultural heritage can be associated with a larger nationalist discourse maintained by Israeli state authorities and mainstream media that perpetuates a linking of western liberal and Zionist ideologies. I contend that the transnational circulation of this nationalist heritage narrative works to legitimize—at a global scale—an ongoing Israeli program of occupation and settlement in Palestinian territory subsumed under the biblical/Zionist frame of the “land of Israel.” While making preliminary suggestions toward critical interventions, I also suggest that the analysis of transnational encounters with nationalist heritage merits deeper ethnographic investigation towards understanding its impact on individuals’ political (in)action towards the Israel/Palestine conflict.

In 1951-58 American colleges and universities will graduate approximately two hundred thousand students, of which approximately three hundred will be graduated in Stockton, California--and will present them face to face with their prospective employers. Technically most of these students will be well qualified for their respective positions. The chemist will be qualified for further research; the doctor will be qualified to practice medicine; and the lawyer will be ready to defend his first client. But, with these technical skills mastered how will he present himself? His first interview with the employer usually tells the full story. Is his voice what it should be to take him to the top of his chosen profession? Is the pitch, the intensity, the quality, and the rhythm well integrated into the speech pattern? Does the articulation, the vocabulary, and the organization of subject matter need further work? Does he stutter? Is he hard of hearing? Does he have some personal adjustment which will hinder him in his quest for a job? For some, speech is a definite asset; but for others it becomes the sole disqualifying factor. Statement of the Problem. It was the purpose of this study (1) to find the relative extent to which certain aspects of speech influence the selection of employees; (2) to show the relation between the speech aspects studied in this work and the number of employee positions covered by the study; and (3) to present some employer attitudes with regard to speech in industry.

For this project I analyze the film Bronson, focusing on its connection to the contemporary masculinity crisis discourse or the belief that traditional notions of masculinity are in peril due to changing gender norms and women's social progress. I argue Bronson privileges a narrow, violent conception of masculinity through its presentation of violence and domination over other men. I use Ernest Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory to analyze how the film makes sense of the real life events it is based on in a way that appeals to the contemporary masculinity crisis discourse. I argue that Bronson is a notable representation of masculinity because it recounts the life of an infamous criminal in a fashion that frames his actions as a resistance to effeminate men. The film's treatment of masculinity is problematic because it advances a restrictive notion of masculinity that involves violent, destructive behavior.