<p> In recent years there has been a marked shift from face-to-face communication to computer-mediated communication. This shift has also led to changes in the way families communicate as, more often than ever, social media sites are becoming a primary means of communication for a number of groups. The relationship between family communication patterns and offline interaction has long been studied. However, there is a marked scarcity in research examining the relationship between family communication patterns and online interaction. Data collected from a group-administered survey of 246 undergraduate students was used to examine eleven hypotheses related to family communication patterns, self-esteem, social media use, and online/offline family interaction. Family communication patterns were labeled as either high conversation-orientation or high conformity-orientation. Existing research suggests that these communication patterns are inversely related and a correlation analysis in this study supports this notion. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between high conversation-orientation families and both online and offline family interaction as well as measures of self-esteem. Additionally, the results indicate that there is a negative correlation between high conformity-orientation families and offline family interaction. No significant correlations were found between high conformity-orientation families and either self-esteem or online family interaction. Future research should consider motivations behind actions as this may significantly impact how respondents view and evaluate their interaction patterns.</p>

<p> During the 2016 presidential election season, Senator Ted Cruz&rsquo;s use of social media to promote his campaign and build up a grassroots following was masterful. This case study explores Cruz&rsquo;s digital outreach efforts in the shadow of GOP rival Donald Trump&rsquo;s commanding use of traditional earned media. This case study views the Cruz campaign&rsquo;s digital outreach strategy through the lens of the Agenda Setting theory of communication, which seeks to explain the mass media&rsquo;s ability to influence what the important issues are to the public, and through the reverse agenda setting effect, meaning if the airtime is unavailable through traditional means, the opportunity to create their own media space is open to anyone that needs it, and their own agenda will be established for the digital audience.</p>

<p> This study examines the portrayal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA) based on the Twitter feeds of Democratic and Republican leaders. This innovative thesis provides a clear depiction of how divisive and unprecedented political cyberwarfare has unfolded within the realm of computer-mediated communications. This study also uses an original approach in its capability of identifying the political combatants of a divisive topic. This is also the first content analysis of its kind by bringing data analysis to the concepts of Entman and Kuypers, focusing on problem/solution and cause/effect rhetoric that confirms framing as a powerful political weapon. This research combines all of the above concepts and applies them to one of the most popular and current social media sites as a basis of analysis. This research also proves the value of politicians&rsquo; personal Twitter accounts when studying the general framing strategies of the respective parties.</p>

<p> Many advertising, marketing, and communication professionals look for ways to increase consumers&rsquo; engagements with their brands. In doing so many have begun to use social networking sites, such as Pinterest. Consumers can engage with brands through participation in these sites. Through this brand engagement, businesses can hope for positive customer satisfaction towards their specific brand, which can lead to the development of brand attachments. The purpose of this study was to show the association between brand engagement and the elements of uses and gratifications theory, specifically through the use of the virtual brand community of Pinterest. Statistical tests were conducted to determine the relationship between individual and multiple elements of the uses and gratifications theory and brand engagement.</p>

<p> In recent years, concerns over video game addiction have increased. Both individual factors (such as impulsivity and reward sensitivity) and content features in video games (such as reward and punishment features) play a role in the development of video game addiction. In the current study, a content analysis coding procedure is developed in order to categorize the reinforcement schedules of three existing commercial video games from three different genres. Our findings indicate that the reward features in the game <i>The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot</i> resembles a partial reinforcement schedule while the reward features in the games <i>Team Fortress 2</i> and <i> Destination Sol</i> resemble a continuous reinforcement schedule. This key finding demonstrates that the reward content features in commercial video games can be classified along a theoretically meaningful dimensions put forth by Operant Conditioning Theory. Furthermore, in this study we pilot tested several outcome measures related to video game addiction that will be crucial to our conceptualization of video game addiction in the future including a measure of playing time, game enjoyment, trait impulsivity, a measure of behavioral impulsivity, and the game addiction scale. We found that the video game with a partial reinforcement schedule was significantly more enjoyable than the video games with a continuous reinforcement schedule. </p>

<p>Twitch.tv is a new phenomenon in the world of gaming and online entertainment. Advertising professionals could use Twitch.tv as a new outlet to advertise brands to their audiences. To further understand brand recall of advertisements on Twitch.tv, this thesis examined different variables such as game experience, ad placement, and ad familiarity. The Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP) relates to effects on viewer recall of brands in advertisements seen on Twitch.tv, as it is ultimately a new form a television and this model can help understand how its messages are processed (Lang, 2000). A 2x2 factorial design was used to determine interactions between brand familiarity and advertisement placement as well as their effects on brand recall. Game experience was used as a covariate to determine if this variable further made a difference in brand recall of advertisements on Twitch.tv.

<p> The study investigated the existence of some generic and non-generic media frames in the campaign speeches of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton using content analysis. The comparison of the two political actors in their usage of frames in their campaign speeches revealed that Donald Trump exploited economic consequence, conflict, morality, attribution of responsibility, and negative campaign frames more than Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton did not socially exclude any minority group within and outside the United States of America. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are equal in their utilization of the human interest frame, positive campaign, and mixed campaign. If campaign speeches were moderators of candidates&rsquo; electoral victory, negative campaign is, therefore, a facilitating factor in affecting voters' behavior considering the success of Trump in the polls. Nevertheless, the commonness of mixed campaign to both the political candidates indicates that a discrete use of any of the generic frames by political actors and communicators may not be a certainty for changing voters&rsquo; behavior. Instead, scholars and professionals should treat frames as discretional communication tools applicable and dependent on the context of a social environment in which many factors exist and determine the choice of frames in communicating between the speech actors and the audiences.</p><p>

<p> A crisis can threaten the existence of an organization, and in this social media age, information is spread at lightning-fast speeds forcing crisis communication managers to work quickly to quell any unflattering press. Companies in crisis situations attempt to mitigate damage and repair reputations using crisis communication strategies, such as Coombs&rsquo; Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). This thesis explored social media as a crisis communication channel for these strategies, by studying an organizational crisis that played out almost entirely on social media, through the lens of SCCT.</p><p> This thesis used six statements made by The Honest Company during a 2013 crisis where stakeholders accused the company of bullying a working mother over trademark rights. The company&rsquo;s crisis communication messages were retrieved, and by using discourse analysis the messages were examined through the guidelines of the SCCT model, which allowed categorization of the messages according to SCCT, analysis of their effectiveness, and the defining of SCCT challenges in analyzing this organizational conflict aggrandized through social media.</p><p> This study found that even though The Honest Company did not strictly adhere to SCCT&rsquo;s guidelines, it was able to flourish and surpass consumer expectations after the crisis ended. The examination of this crisis offered insight into SCCT&rsquo;s lack of clarity and direction concerning its crisis types, strategies, and guidelines. It also offered suggestions for more specific crisis types and the expansion of crisis types for SCCT. </p>

<p> Social media have recently emerged as one of the primary information sources in the U.S. Journalists and news organizations have been keen on establishing a presence within digital social networks in order to utilize this new channel to build and maintain an audience. However, little is known about the practical implications of social media engagement by journalists for audience perceptions of news. </p><p> The present dissertation attempts to investigate 1) the influences of journalists' social media activities, self-disclosure and interaction with other users, on audience perceptions of the journalists; 2) if the perceptions serve as an important mediator between the social media activities and audience perceptions of the journalists'; news products; and, 3) if and how the direct and indirect effects of journalists'; social media activities are moderated by audiences'; individual differences in journalism orientation (IJO), which refers to which journalism norm audience members lean toward: engagement (public journalism norm) or detachment (objective journalism norm). Given that journalism is in a state of flux between traditional detached approaches and newer attached perspectives, these are important questions to be addressed relative to journalism in new media environments. </p><p> An experiment with multiple message stimuli was conducted in the context of a journalist's Facebook profile, and college students' perceptions of the journalist and his news product were measured via an online questionnaire. All perceptions were examined on both personal (e.g., attractiveness) and professional (e.g., objectivity and competence) dimensions. </p><p> The results provided empirical evidence that, 1) when it comes to journalists, engaging in such common social media activities as self-disclosure and interaction can significantly harm journalists in terms of their perceived competence although the same behaviors can improve perceptions of their personality. Results on the perceived objectivity dimension were mixed such that objectivity was positively influenced by interactive behaviors whereas it was negatively influenced by self-disclosure via social media; 2) Audience perceptions of journalists, formed based on their social media activities, tended to transfer to their impressions of the journalists' news products, demonstrating that the indirect effects of journalists' self-disclosures and interactions via social media on audience perceptions of their news products were mediated through audience perceptions of the journalists in terms of personality and competence although this mediation relationship was not evident in the case of journalists' self-disclosing activities and the professional-dimension perceptions; 3) These influences of journalists' social media activities were moderated by audiences'; individual journalism orientation such that the impacts of journalists'; self-disclosure on the journalists' personal and professional images (in both objectivity and competence) were in general stronger for the audiences oriented to an objective journalism norm, indicating that those with an objective orientation tend to react more sensitively to journalists' unconventional behaviors. </p><p> This set of results revealed that journalists' conforming to social media norms and acting like ordinary social media users could make not only the journalists but also their news products look personally attractive and friendly, but professionally less competent. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. </p>

<p> The National Football League is more than just the most popular sports league in America. Dominant American discourses that surround American patriotism and popular culture have a parallel in the NFL. This parallel is due to the fact that football is a game uniquely rooted and structured like war. Additionally, many products of the American neo-liberal era are flourishing on the NFL stage. These products include: corporatism, commercialization, consumer culture, and aggressive competition. The violent nature of the game invites notions of militarism and war that fit seamlessly with the game&rsquo;s identity. Militarism, being a symbol that protects the nation, fits perfectly with an American civil religion that is largely devoted to Reagan&rsquo;s ideal redemptive America. The NFL, through active and skillful branding, has meshed its identity with foundational aspects of American identity. Now the NFL has to navigate through the popular and traditional logics that are ingrained in American society while maintaining their business.</p>