abstract: Affectionate communication is one way individuals express love and appreciation (Floyd, 2006). Recently, communication scholars have recommended individuals increase their expressions of affection for health benefits (Brezsnyak & Whisman, 2004; Floyd et al., 2009; Floyd & Riforgiate, 2008). However, because communication is limited during military deployment, increasing affectionate communication is difficult for military families to implement. One form of affectionate communication that shows the promise of health benefits for military couples during deployment is affectionate writing. Working from Pennebaker’s written disclosure paradigm and Floyd’s affectionate exchange theory, the purpose of the current study is to identify whether at-home romantic partners of deployed U.S. Navy personnel can reap the benefits of affectionate communication during military deployment. To test a causal relationship between affectionate writing and communication outcomes, specifically relational satisfaction and stress, a four-week experiment was conducted. Eighty female at-home romantic partners of currently deployed U.S. Navy personnel were recruited for the study and randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) an experimental condition in which individuals were instructed to write affectionate letters to their deployed partners for 20 minutes once a week for three weeks, (b) a control condition in which individuals were instructed to write about innocuous or non-emotional topics for 20 minutes once a week for three weeks, or (c) a control condition in which individuals were not given instructions to write for the duration of the study. Individuals who engaged in affectionate writing reported higher levels of relational satisfaction than both the control groups, however, there were no differences in reported stress for the three groups. In fact, stress decreased throughout the duration of the study regardless of the condition in which participants had been placed. Additionally, individuals with secure attachment styles were more satisfied and less stressed than individuals with preoccupied and fearful attachment styles. Finally, individuals who perceived their relationship to be equitable, and to a slightly lesser extent, overbenefitted, during deployment reported higher levels of relational satisfaction. Overall, the findings support and extend affectionate exchange theory. Specifically, the results suggest that individuals can experience distance from their partners and still benefit from affectionate communication via writing; additionally, expressions of affectionate communication need not be reciprocal. Theoretical, methodological, clinical, and pedagogical implications are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2018

Stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS is considered a major barrier to the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Attribution theorists have examined stigmatizing attitudes as a product of causal emotions; to wit, people face greater judgment and stigmatization when their actions are perceived as controllable and less stigmatization when actions are perceived as out of the realms of personal control. The current study examined attribution of causal emotions for three different circumstances of HIV acquisition, which varied in their perceived controllability. The results showed statistically significant differences in participant evaluations of responsibility, blame, and anger. Statistically significant correlations were found between these causal emotions and stigmatizing attitudes. A weak, but statistically significant inverse correlation was found between knowledge about HIV and stigmatizing attitudes. Recommendations for improved stigma reduction campaign design based on the results of the study are proposed.

This dissertation tracks the discourses of prospects for the reunification of Cyprus, with a particular focus on their constructions and meanings as shaped by Cypriots’ understanding and use of space in everyday life. The variety of spatial constructions of these reunification possibilities were identified through in-depth interviews with Cypriots from both communities. I argue that Cypriots’ diverse experiences of space enable and constrain Cypriots’ capacity to articulate a vision of shared space of balanced and harmonious interpersonal, social and inter-communal relationships.

This dissertation argues that a strong ethos of homogenization is pervasive in post-socialist Romanian public discourse. By focusing on highly popular rhetorics that try to define Romanians, I illustrate that the discursive homogenization of the national body relies on rhetorics of national victimization that stigmatize the Balkans and the communist past. I develop my argument by exploring, in Chapter Two, how Romanian national identity has been constructed, historically, as a homogeneous one: particularly in ethnic terms before communism, and in class and gender terms during communism. In Chapter Three, I analyze a cluster of texts - journalistic essays, hip-hop hits, and a television campaign - as they rhetorically construct public identities vis-à-vis the popular music genre of the Manele. I illustrate that the discourse of Balkanism, which scholars of post-socialism have identified as present in other European countries, is also an influential rhetoric constitutive of identities in contemporary Romania. Because the recent past remains a puzzle, galvanizing identity-related anxieties in Romania, Chapters Four and Five turn to landmark texts in the public memory of communism: The Museum of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance and Cristian Mungiu's film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. I argue that the museum articulates political resistance and victimhood to a homogenized national body. I analyze next how Romanian journalists read 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, an award-winning film about women's abortion-related victimization. I argue that the reviewers's gender-blind interpretation of the film indicate that the articulation of political victimhood with the homogenized national body is a strong one in contemporary Romania. I conclude by interrogating about the consequences that a homogenizing public rhetoric of collective victimization have on the democratic affirmation of social pluralism. This study is the first concentrated effort to analyze the limits and possibilities of minority identity, political agency, and democratic politics in Romania, in the face of homogenizing discourses about the past and the present. It enriches rhetorical scholarship with the case study of a post-socialist society and Eastern European areas studies with research on discursive resources available to contemporary Romanians for self- and collective definition.

This dissertation examines the ways in which food media—as publications, broadcasts, and blog postings and discussions with the theme of food—interact with Korean food culture and women’s understanding of their own lives. I analyze these relations within the framework of glocalization, which conceptualizes foreign and local influences as equal elements of change, and thus differs from a concept of globalization which might assume an unequal power relationship between Asia and the West. By analyzing the texts of a cookbook, baking blogs, and a television drama, I explore the relations between foreign and modern influences on traditional Korean food culture and the changing roles of women in the family and society from the 1990s to the 2010s. Through these case studies, I argue that food media reflect and concretize the meaning of traditional or national Korean food culture in its interaction with foreign and modern food cultures, domestic values of Korean women among different generations, and glamorized ideals of class culture and lifestyles. Using food media, Korean women discuss food culture and the lives of women, thereby allowing certain food media to become instructional texts and learning spaces. I argue that both food media and the Korean women who use food media negotiate, redefine, and educate Korean women about traditional and newer food culture, and a set of ideal roles for women.

This project examines the rhetorical work done by the list of names of the dead in discourses of 9/11 memorialization. I argue that the use of the proper names of victims in national memorialization efforts, though often described in popular reports as the symptom of a timeless human impulse, a gesture so obviously appropriate that it requires no explanation, nonetheless does the work of constructing a particular vision of the event it would seem to record transparently. In an effort to understand the kinds of rhetorical force that has been attributed to the names by scholars, the study begins with a brief history of U.S. memorials featuring lists of names. Scholarly commentary about The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and The AIDS Memorial Quilt is central to the history constructed here, though critical readings of memorials to the dead of the Civil War, World War I, and Pearl Harbor are also considered. Turning to the case of 9/11, the study explores the first emergence of the names of victims after the attack, tracing in news reports the figuration of the names as indeterminate signifiers which functioned to ground a short-lived rhetoric of hope. Analysis of this discourse allows for a rethinking of rhetorical concepts including haunting, synecdoche, and the subjunctive. The study then turns to explore the impossible process by which the collected names of the dead were transformed into an ostensibly objective number, a death toll, as part of an effort to resecure the extradiscursive facticity of 9/11's magnitude. The project then turns to consider heated public debates about the way the names of the dead should appear on the World Trade Center memorial, debates which, I argue, by pitting a familial vision of 9/11 against a depersonalized civic perspective served as a safe discursive space for working through difficult questions about the nature of the event and its memory. Finally, the dissertation considers the importance of studying those texts that present themselves as extrarhetorical, and suggests ways in which this approach supplements the work already offered by rhetorical scholars in their attempts to make sense of 9/11 discourses.

Social media have altered various aspects of society, including identity management, collective action, and civic engagement. One of the more recent social media to enter the scene is Snapchat, an application that allows users to create snaps (photos or short videos) to share with others. Snapchat has several features that make it unique, yet this research focuses on the Snapchat Map and Snapchat Live Stories feature of the application. These features allow members of a physical offline community to share snaps to the map, generating a content that anyone in the world can view. This research explores this feature of Snapchat, bringing into question the community building potential and identity management strategies of the platform, particularly in instances of civic engagement. This mixed-methods research utilized qualitative textual and visual analyses of Snapchat Live Stories, as well as quantitative content analysis of the data. Additionally, a survey was distributed it 495 active Snapchat users to learn about their experiences with the app. Findings show that Snapchat has the affordances necessary to create a sense of community among individuals, but it seems that most users are not interacting with these application features, bringing into question the usability of the applications. Findings also suggest that the affordances of Snapchat do not easily permit collective action among members of a community or increase perceived political self-efficacy. The application can provide a more wholistic view of a community, giving insider-perspective through camera angles that allow the viewer to feel as if they are present. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / December 13, 2018. / Civic Engagment, Collective Action, Collective Identity, Snapchat, Social Media / Includes bibliographical references. / Ulla Sypher, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Summer Harlow, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Vanessa Dennen, University Representative; Felecia Jordan-Jackson, Committee Member; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member.

Bullying and cyberbullying nowadays have become an issue that a substantial number of college students have to deal with. However, most people do not think they occur as frequently in universities as in high schools or middle schools, and few of them are willing to intervene in a bullying situation when they see one. The goal of this dissertation was to explore ways to promote victim defending behaviors among college students from two perspectives: 1) to examine the psychological and personal factors that determine college students’ behavioral intentions to help victims and 2) to investigate the effects of playing an anti-bullying interactive narrative game on behavioral intention to help victims. To fulfill this goal, two studies – one survey and one experiment – were designed. The first study was a survey to examine psychological factors (i.e., attitude, self-efficacy, injunctive norms, descriptive norms, and personal moral norms) and personal factors (i.e., age, gender, and trait empathy) that might influence behavioral intention to defend victims of bullying. Results from Study 1 showed that psychological factors like injunctive norms perceptions, self-efficacy, and personal moral norms regarding victim defending behaviors as well as personal factors including age, gender, and trait empathy can influence a college student’s intention to help victims of bullying. Following this, an experiment was conducted using a mixed 2 (Medium of Intervention: Interactive narrative game/Non-interactive narrative video) × 2 (Outcome Valence: Positive/Negative) × 2 (Time: Pre-test/Post-test) factorial design with an additional control group. The experiment investigated whether medium of intervention and outcome valence influenced college students’ behavioral intention to defend bullied victims through the mechanisms of presence, identification, counterfactual thinking, and guilt. Results from Study 2 showed that playing an anti-bulling interactive narrative game, Life is Strange, increased college students’ intention to defend victims of bullying due to its ability to facilitate internal ascription of responsibility, personal moral norms for victim defending, and empathy for victims through evoking players’ strong sense of presence in the game. Experiencing a negative outcome in the game also increased intention to help victims later via players’ feeling of guilt. These results and their implications are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 15, 2019. / bullying, experiment, interactive narrative, survey, video games / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura Arpan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Walter Richard Boot, University Representative; Arthur Raney, Committee Member; Mia Lustria, Committee Member.

This dissertation concerns the relationship between the liberating potential of an individuals' use of new media and the various institutional constraints on that. While I aim to explore the emancipatory potential of YouTube, I seek not to lose sight of the cultural, historical and political forces that limit individual use of it. This dissertation examines YouTube from agent, institution and text perspectives, the triangle of media studies. Each perspective illustrates tensions and conflicts between the personal and the public, amateurism and professionalism, narrowcasting and broadcasting, and User-Generated Content (UGC) and Professionally-Generated Content (PGC). Technological development promises the expansion of the human being, the empowerment of individuals and widening opportunities of communication through personalized media. Amateur users take advantage of the convenience and accessibility in YouTube, and consequently they have a chance to deeply engage in the media content production-distribution-consumption-feedback system. With its encouragement of amateur video production, this new medium seems to have the capability to change the nature of media users, from passive audiences to active creators. However, the myth of the active user is inseparable from celebrity culture. Self-expression on the web is often imbued with the fascination with fame, but is not the same as user empowerment. Amateurism in UGC came to be compromised when the line between UGC and PGC started to blur. From a techno futuristic perspective, YouTube seems to make the audience into interactive users, but that interactivity is close to active consumption in the realm of disposable celebrity. The development of mass media always involves a tension between mass communication and interpersonal communication. Historically, YouTube is positioned within the development of personalized media. YouTube is an evolutionary medium under the influence of traditional broadcasting, rather than a revolutionary medium discontinuous from media history. What contemporary people think new about YouTube are likely the consequences of technological evolution rather than those of media revolution. Exploring YouTube, I do not deny the convenience and accessibility of UGC media, but I do not want to lose sight of the legacy of amateurism, individualism and user participation.

This dissertation analyzes three case studies located within the cultural landscape of India in order to explore the multifarious forces at work within the construction of Indian identity. It uses the lens of identity to excavate the interactions between the past and the present and the east and the west within the rapidly changing cultural scene in India. I analyze how diverse Indian identities are represented on the Indian version of the reality TV show Big Brother, I study the ways in which Indian youth playing rock music imagine themselves and explore how employees at Indian call centers negotiate an imposed western accent and cultural garb with their Indianness. Through these studies my project claims that the tensions between the remnants of a colonial past and a globalizing present must be centrally foregrounded in any attempt to understand the ongoing changes within contemporary Indian culture. I show this tension to be at work within the interstitial sites that each of my case studies represents and within which a stable conception of an "Indian" identity becomes increasingly shaky. I show that while the exercise of power and the assertion of agency are crucial components within global cultural flows, the binary is eventually a false one since the two must invariably occur together. It is the ability of power to morph itself in order to better appropriate its counter and become hegemonic that explains the processes of global cultural flows today. I show that in the case of India this morphing crucially relies on certain vestigial structures of colonial rule and in so doing seek to introduce a differentiation of history within theories of cultural globalization.