Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre and Dance / Timothy R. Steffensmeier / Social Identity Theory has long held that group affiliation plays a predominant role in how we interact with others and the types of communication strategies that we deploy. Traditional scholarship on Computer Mediated Communication maintains an excessively interpersonal focus, detracting from its ability to theorize intergroup communication and conflict. This research study, conducted at the Internet bulletin board Americanwx.com, investigates the role that group identity plays in the everyday discourse of online message boards. In an ethnographic study spanning the course of 8 months and thousands of exchanges, research found that the structure of message boards themselves is implicated in the formation and maintenance of groups, and that once formed, groups tend to act in a manner that is consistent with Social Identity Theory.

People tend to draw their own conclusions about similarities and differences between who they are and the “other.” Having perceptions of being similar to the in-group and being different from the out-group “satisfies psychological needs” (Robbins & Krueger, 2005). Based on this social perception, individuals show communication variations as a way of expressing their identities (Giles 1973). This study implements quantitative and qualitative methods in order to examine the attitude of native speakers (NSs), as well as the potential impact of these attitudes on their communication with non-native speakers (NNSs). The potential impact of NSs’ interactions on NNSs’ interactions was also analyzed. First, this study elicits NSs’ attitudes by implementing the matched-guise technique (adopted from Lindemann’s work, 2000). Then, NSs and NNSs’ interaction variations were analyzed through the implementation of the map task model. The result reveals that (a) there is no consistent alignment between NSs’ attitudes and their interaction variations and that, (b) NNSs’ interaction variation was dynamic and affected by NSs’ interactions.

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In an investigation of whether Goffman’s (1963) concept of the stigma of race is still relevant in understanding current social attitudes in 21st century America, this dissertation examines the link between Goffman’s (1963) concept of the stigma of race and research focused primarily on racism and prejudice. Six research questions examined different aspects of social attitudes among Americans: their view of people of other races, judgments toward those of minority racial groups, intergroup communication between people from different racial backgrounds, the influence of the media and other information sources, and the extent of the relationship between stigma and racism. The research included a between-subjects experimental design, Implicit Association Tests, and racism measures, including the social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, old-fashioned and modern racism, and blatant dehumanization scales, along with the stigma dimensions developed by Bresnahan and Zhuang (2011). Based on the findings, this study proposed new racial stigma dimensions to study the stigma of race. This study contributes to the theoretical and practical understanding around issues of stigma and race in the United States, has practical suggestions that may help guide the way to dismantle the forces that perpetuate the stigma of race, and provides encouragement to continue to seek a pathway to better intergroup communication, acceptance of diverse groups, and social equity. / Media & Communication

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Approximately 15% of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses that shared different racial or ethnic backgrounds from one another. Socha and Diggs (1999) began to examine race as both an outcome of family communication as well as a factor that influences children's communication development in families because of the social pressure multiethnic families endure to fit a nuclear family model. This study utilized dyadic interviews of eleven multiethnic parent couples (N = 22 individuals; 11 dyads) in order to gain a deeper understanding of Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems. Communication in families plays a foundational role in many aspects of society and socialization of the young. However, slim research has addressed how communication in families affects the understandings of ethnicity and the formation of social identities as a social construction (see Hecht, Collier, & Ribeau, 1993; Socha & Diggs, 1999; Socha, Sanchez-Hucles, Bromley, & Kelly, 1995). Researchers in the social sciences, especially in communication, must recognize that the sanctuary of the home may be generating the keys to understanding problems concerning social identity formation and diversity. Thus, there is a need for communication research at the crossroads of ethnicity, family, and identity. This dissertation highlights family factors that may influence Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic children’s social identities as well as family communication within Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems. This study explicates multiethnic families through the lens of communication accommodation theory (CAT; Giles, 1973), social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), and self-categorization theory (SCT; Turner, 1985; Turner, 1987), explicitly overviewing the intersection of interpersonal and intergroup communication (Giles, 2012). This study provides insights to both theoretical expansion and practical application within Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems. Ultimately, this study addresses questions such as: a) How do Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems communicate surrounding topics of race and ethnicity, b) How do Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic families discuss components of social identity (e.g., ethnic identification for multiethnic children), and c) What challenges are unique to Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems?