<p> Two questions drove this case study. 1) To what extent does playing the online computer game Minecraft at home in a multiplayer environment impact a player's media literacy skills of analysis, evaluation, and access? 2) To what extent does playing the online computer game Minecraft at home in a multiplayer environment impact a player's 21^st century skills of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration? The study employed quantitative and qualitative research methods (pre and posttest, survey, and interview) using a case study design, enabling an opportunity for in-depth data gathering in a naturalistic environment.</p><p> Using pre and posttest, the researcher assessed whether participants' 21^st century skills changed over the course of a 24 week period. Participants&rsquo; media literacy skills were assessed at the beginning and end of the study, using a pretest/posttest method adapted for use with younger children from the Arke and Primack Media Literacy Measure (2009). In addition, media literacy skills and the Four Cs skills were assessed using a combination of survey, reflective questioning, and interview methods. Analysis of the data shows that participants' media literacy skills did improve at the end of six months of gameplay, and playing Minecraft multiplayer did provide opportunities for participants to practice 21^st century skills.</p>

The purpose of this study is to examine a situated instance of discourse, in this case testimony during the Congressional hearings in Honolulu on Guam commonwealth legislation, and to locate this testimony in the system of commonwealth negotiations. Texts are analyzed for underlying moral orders through multiple readings which tease out moral orientations of care and justice. Additionally, the testimony is examined for central metaphors and the various ways in which the island is imagined as a community. The moral orders are then juxtaposed to display similarities and differences between them. Finally, in identifying some underlying assumptions about conflict, the place of the hearings in the larger context of commonwealth negotiations is examined. Most moral orders represented in the testimony were some combination of care and justice orientations. The moral voice of care most frequently spoke of "pain." Those texts which included a justice orientation made frequent references to "rights." An instance which encapsulates the way in which moral orientations of care and justice are combined in the testimony is found in the visions shared for Guam's new relationship (an aspect of care) with the U.S.: one based on fairness (an aspect of justice). A central metaphor of Guam as adolescent in the American political family surfaced across all categories of moral order. The analysis exposes the great diversity underlying the statements, bringing to the fore deep-rooted differences which account for the seeming interminability of the conflict. This study extends the application of moral order analysis beyond personal narrative into a different form of communication, political testimony. In the secondary analysis for metaphor and imagined communities, connections are made between human development theory and international political relations. The language of family masks the power imbalance in the Guam-U.S. relationship as parental concern. Within the context of commonwealth negotiations, the hearings in Honolulu function to reconstruct a pattern of quiescence in which the people of Guam are persuaded by symbolic means that progress is being made toward defining a new political relationship with the U.S.

This dissertation explores the import of Lacan's theory in critical cultural studies and examines its special contributions to an understanding of structure, ideology, and identity, especially concerning about relevant issues of ideology and identity in the condition of postmodernity. Although terms of contemporary postmodernism, such as cultural diversity and heterogeneous ideological formation, have entered our language, together with their legal and political imports, many theoretical questions and difficulties in fact still remain. By focusing on the theoretical discussion, this project tries to examine how Lacan's thinking, with philosophical and conceptual nuances, offers an alternative to reconsidering the issues of epistemological questionability and postmodernist skepticism, and the way a structure for him is formed. In addition, Lacan's formulation of psychoanalytic theory is specially illuminating in reading the notions of ideology and identity, since the psychoanalytic notion of unconscious can provide more comprehensive accounts of psychic economy that resides at the deepest level of human reality. As this work presents, Lacanian conceptual tools—such as desire, fantasy, and anxiety—constitute a new plane, a non-discursive dimension beyond the discursive discussions in widespread debates over ideology and identity. In considering cultural phenomenon in contemporary “politics of identity,” this study also investigates the political significance of Lacanian thinking through which current issues on multiculturalism, racism, and fundamentalism can be properly explained.

This study sketches out the ways in which a candidate talks to voters. In modern presidential campaigning far too much of the focus is upon the broadcast media and their role in determining what gets filtered through to the citizenry. This is not a study of the effects of the mass media. No attempt is made here to dispute or confirm the effects of television upon the political process. Instead, this is a study of public speaking--the relatively direct interaction between the candidate and the potential voter. The work addresses a theoretical concern about creating a public space where political communication can occur. The study is divided into rhetorical analyses of key elements of the political arena that candidates from both parties constructed. The first chapter outlines the mythic rhetoric of citizen participation that characterizes this election in New Hampshire and outlines how the press attempts to locate representations of that participation. The following three chapters treat separately key elements of the public sphere by investigating where the candidates spoke and to whom, outlining the choices of formats for these appearances, and describing the sorts of language and image strategies employed by the candidates. A fifth major chapter depicts alternate constructions of public space that a handful of candidates used to deviate from the general patterns. Although this study is focused upon a single primary election and offers a clear historical record this is not the main purpose of the work. The analysis is spatially oriented and is meant to offer a geographic record of how the campaign was shaped by collective and individual conceptions of a public stage. To accomplish this purpose a rhetorical analysis of the political arena is used to create a "map" of the 1988 New Hampshire primary. This map details where the candidates chose to speak, to whom, in what manner, and with what language and images.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 1991. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84).

<p> Issues of sexual assault have become pervasive across all social strata in American society. Citizens need to start having conversations regarding these issues. To combat the issue of sexual assault, children need to be educated regarding the multifaceted aspects of sex through sex education in order to understand consent and resources they have available to them. Utilizing grounded theory methodology, this thesis analyzes sex education literature provided to Palm Beach County Middle School students. Using Burke&rsquo;s theory of terministic screens and Foucauldian theories of power and control; an understanding of the ideological underpinnings of this literature and discourse were acquired. After analysis, suggestions for disclosure and sex education programs are provided.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 467-473).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2006. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-320).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Australian National University, 2004.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3323071."