<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>

Clinical communication on the medical wards can be interruptive and inefficient. However, effective communication is critical to the safety and quality of patient care. Studies to understand the problem found that many of the issues stemmed from the reliance on numeric paging technology. The University Health Network (UHN) began to address these issues by implementing a number of technology solutions. Although successful, these solutions created new issues that need to be understood and addressed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interprofessional communication tool (IP Tool) used to send electronic messages, uncover the new and unintended consequences of implementing this technology, and to better understand the gap between what physicians and nurses perceive as an urgent issue. This was a mixed-methods study utilizing semi-structured interviews to obtain feedback on the impact of the IP Tool, followed by the distribution of a survey to specifically explore the gap in what physicians and nurses perceive as an urgent issue. The semi-structure interviews uncovered 5 main themes; accountability; increase in communication; perception of urgency; knowledge of inappropriate use; and gaps in the tool or workflow. The electronic format of the messages sent using the IP Tool facilitated the use of the system to create accountability and at times absolve oneself of responsibility. Removing some of the barriers to communicating seen previously with paging increased the amount of communication and interruptions, which led to features of the IP Tool being leveraged and other tactics being used to elicit responses and improve personal productivity. Other workflow issues and gaps in the tool such as policy preventing the use of the electronic communication to clarify medication orders were identified. The perceptions of urgency survey found that there is not a significant gap between physicians and nurses in terms of how each discipline defines the clinical urgency of an issue. The gap exists when the element of time is used to determine urgency. There was also variation within disciplines and across disciplines in regards to how an urgent and non-urgent issue is defined. Clinical communication is complex. Technology has the potential to resolve many of the issues but some of the issues relate to the interprofessional nature of healthcare and not easily resolvable with technology. In fact, technology can accentuate these interprofessional issues and create new problems that need to be addressed. In exploring one of these interprofessional issues, specifically the gap between what physicians and nurses perceive to be an urgent issue, it was found that both disciplines generally agree on what constitutes a clinically urgent issue. The element of time is the primary sources of disagreement. More work to improve clinical communication is necessary and must be conducted within the context of continuous quality improvement as the healthcare environment is constantly changing. / Graduate

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1971. / Bibliography: leaves 76-81. / ix, 81 l tables

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, 1988. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 76).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Akron, School of Communication, 2006. / "May, 2006." Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed 11/28/2007) Advisor, Carolyn Anderson; Faculty readers, Andrew Rancer, Heather Walter; School Director, Dudley Turner; Dean of the College, James Lynn; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Psychology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1992. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [208]-222).

Thesis (M.A.) in Communication--University of Maine, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-106).