Reality television is unique from other television programming because its format is less scripted than typical entertainment television programs, but not as candid as documentary style shows. Aspects of cast members’ private lives are publicly aired as “real.” The consequences for airing one’s private life in the public sphere are unclear. This may be especially important to study when the private disclosures reveal activities that may be unethical, immoral, illegal, or abusive. Petronio’s (date) communication privacy management theory was used to examine the martial disclosures that occurred between Taylor and Russell Armstrong, cast members of the reality television show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Two seasons of the show were analyzed and coded according to the five suppositions of CPM. Results revealed several aspects of Walker’s cycle of violence theory being played out in the public sphere without consequence. Additionally, co-ownership of information appeared to constitute a license to gossip freely about private disclosures shared in confidence between certain individuals with any and all other cast members.

abstract: This dissertation explores South Asian American (SAA) emerging adult daughters' roles as their parents' reluctant confidants and mediators of conflict. Using Petronio's (2002) communication privacy management theory (CPM) as a framework, this dissertation investigates daughters' communicative strategies when engaged in familial roles. Findings from 15 respondent interviews with SAA women between the ages of 18 and 29 reveal daughters' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for role-playing within their families, such as inherent satisfaction and parental expectations, respectively. Additionally, findings highlight daughters' use of coping and thwarting strategies after they become the recipients of their parents' unsolicited private information. Namely, daughters engaged in coping strategies (e.g., giving advice) to help their parents manage private information. Likewise, they enacted thwarting strategies (e.g., erecting territorial markers) to restore boundaries after their parents (the disclosers) violated them. Consequently, serving as parental confidants and mediators contributed to parent-child boundary dissolution and adversely affected daughters' well-being as well as their progression toward adulthood. This study provides theoretical contributions by extending CPM theory regarding reluctant confidants within the contexts of emerging adult child-parent relationships and ethnic minority groups in America. Practically, this study offers emerging adult children insight into how they might renegotiate boundaries when their parents change the relationship by disclosing personal information. Information gleaned from this study provides SAA emerging adult daughters with an understanding of the ramifications of prioritizing their familial roles and being a reluctant confidant, in addition to potential avenues for remediation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Communication Studies 2012

The transitional period of attending college marks a shift towards personal independence for students. The management of conversational topics requires students to determine how they share information. Management of mental health information is a critical topic that cannot be overlooked during these re-negotiation periods. The goal of this study was to examine how the five privacy rule development criteria (culture, context, motivation, risk/benefit gender) of Communication Privacy Management Theory predict a college student’s likelihood to reveal a mental health problem to their instructor. Using multiple regression, bivariate linear regression, and factorial ANOVA, this study revealed that the CPM rule development criteria variables (culture, context, motivation, and gender) are predictors of college students disclosing a mental health problem to their instructors. Findings suggest that predictors of privacy management center on communication and relational factors between students and instructors as well as perceptions of an open conversation-oriented classroom culture, and gender.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Survivors of sexual assault make difficult privacy management decisions regarding their experiences, particularly in romantic relationships where physical intimacy makes these sensitive disclosures even more complex. As fever is an indicator of illness and a part of healing from the illness, disclosure can be an indicator of underlying disturbance and a part of the restorative process. Additionally, communication privacy management (CPM) theory considers ownership, control, and turbulence to illustrate how private information is regulated. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews (n=19) and a phronetic iterative approach to data analysis, I examined the ways survivors of sexual assault managed their private information regarding their experiences in a romantic relationship and if disclosure relieved any psychological distress of the survivor. Results of this study offer insight into the ways participants controlled their personal information through the privacy management process; the establishment of boundaries surrounding ongoing disclosures; and the emotional effect of various privacy management strategies on participants, their partners, and the relationship. Reaching across theoretical concepts, this research offers a comprehensive understanding of the factors salient when managing private information regarding sexual assault. This research also provides practical applications for considering the influence of various privacy management approaches and their influence on the physical and psychological health of the survivor and the health of the relationship.

<p>The current study empirically tested a model of sibling caregiving topic avoidance, including privacy rule criteria as predictors of topic avoidance and both relationship satisfaction and depression as outcomes of topic avoidance. Associations between topic avoidance and its predictors and outcomes were compared for primary and non-primary caregivers. Additionally, the study tested privacy expectations, including information ownership and caregiving talk preference, as moderators of the associations between topic avoidance and both relationship satisfaction and depression. The current study is grounded in communication privacy management theory, conceptualizing topic avoidance as a strategy for maintaining privacy (CPM; Petronio, 2002). Findings validate CPM propositions related to privacy rule development and privacy turbulence. Findings also further understanding of informal caregiving, sibling communication, and topic avoidance.</p> <p>Over 75% of all eldercare in the United States is provided by unpaid, non-professionals (Family Caregiver Alliance, n.d.). Providing unpaid care has been linked to diminished well-being, including negative physical and mental health effects (Cooper, Balamurali, & Livingston, 2007). However, some scholars argue that caregiving is only detrimental in particular circumstances with some caregivers experiencing more benefits than burdens (Roth, Fredman, & Haley, 2015). The current study proposes that sibling communication is a key factor in determining when caregiving is harmful. </p> <p>Specifically, the current study examines topic avoidance about parent well-being and sibling’s contributions to parental care, including predictors of topic avoidance and the association of topic avoidance with sibling relationship satisfaction and depression. The current study includes a pilot study of 207 participants to develop CPM measures of caregiving topic avoidance, benefit-risk analysis, and information ownership as well as a measure of caregiving involvement (including personal care, routine tasks, and emotional support). The resulting measures are utilizing in a main study of 415 participants, testing models of middle-aged siblings’ topic avoidance.</p> <p>Findings contribute to understanding of informal care, sibling communication, and CPM. Privacy rule criteria, including context, motivation, and risk-benefit analysis, were associated with topic avoidance. Surprisingly, gender and family culture were not strongly associated with topic avoidance. Topic avoidance resulted in relationship dissatisfaction and greater depression when topic avoidance did not align with privacy expectations, resulting in privacy turbulence. Differences emerged for primary caregivers compared with non-primary caregivers, including predictors of topic avoidance and direct effects of caregiving involvement on relationship satisfaction and depression. For primary caregivers, involvement in personal care was associated with greater depression, and involvement in emotional support was associated with less depression. Overall, findings further understanding of privacy management, caregiving, and sibling communication and provide interesting avenues for future research.</p>

Communication processes can be affected by stigma – a negative evaluation of an individual’s attributes that discredits or identifies the individual as not normal (Goffman, 1963). One such communicative process that is affected by stigma is disclosure. Disclosure is when individuals share personal information that reveals something not previously known (Charmaz, 1991). One such group of individuals who may be forced to choose between disclosing (to get accommodations or social support) and avoiding stigma (by not disclosing) is individuals with disabilities (Braithwaite, 1991; Charmaz, 1991). This study focuses on one particular population of individuals with disabilities – those with a hearing loss. Through the use of interactive interviewing and Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory, this study examines hard of hearing and deaf individuals’ perceptions of both the disclosure process and stigma. CPM examines how and why people conceal or reveal private information, such as hearing loss (Petronio, 1991, 2002). Using CPM, this study poses research questions surrounding how hard of hearing individuals disclose and manage turbulence surrounding their hearing loss. Further, participants’ perceptions and responses to stigma surrounding hearing loss are also examined. Based on the participants’ responses, managing the boundaries surrounding their hearing loss includes considerations of identity, the other person/people in the interaction, risks of not disclosing, timing, and how much to disclose. Further, participants viewed boundary turbulence as positive only when it was helpful; otherwise, they reported a feeling of a loss of control. In examining stigma and other consequences of disclosure, participants talked about being labeled, not being worth others’ time, and being seen as incapable. Finally, participants reported a wide variety of responses to stigma surrounding their hearing loss. In this study, I also discuss the implications of these findings, both theoretical and practical implications, and how they reflect the lives of the deaf and hard of hearing. Finally, I address the directions for future research on this topic as well as the limitations to this study.

Based on the rapid development of Big Data, the data from the online social network becomea major part of it. Big data make the social networks became data-oriented rather than social-oriented. Taking this into account, this dissertation presents a qualitative study to research howdoes the data-oriented social network affect its users’ privacy management for nowadays. Within this dissertation, an overview of Big Data and privacy issues on the social network waspresented as a background study. We adapted the communication privacy theory as a frameworkfor further analysis how individuals manage their privacy on social networks. We study socialnetworks as an entirety in this dissertation. We selected Facebook as a case study to present theconnection between social network, Big Data and privacy issues. The data that supported the result of this dissertation collected by the face-to-face and in-depthinterview study. As consequence, we found that the people divided the social networks intodifferent level of openness in order to avoid the privacy invasions and violations, according totheir privacy concern. They reduced and transferred their sharing from an open social networkto a more close one. However, the risk of privacy problems actually raised because peopleneglected to understand the data process on social networks. They focused on managed theeveryday sharing but too easily allowed other application accessed their personal data on thesocial network (such like the Facebook profile).

This study aims to investigate how parents are reasoning when it comes to sharing photos of their children on Instagram. The phenomenon, known as sharenting, has been questioned due to the morality problems that arise from the fact that children don't have the same opportunity to approve their exposure in social channels as an adult. The fact that parents make money off their Instagram account is another aspect that is included in the study, which is relevant because of a new law in France. This law regulates profitable content that includes children, in order to protect the children. The aim and purpose of the survey was therefore to gain a deeper understanding of what motivating factors that surround sharing pictures and information about your child on Instagram, and also investigate how parents are reasoning about moral issues. The theoretical framework for this study is uses and gratification theory and communication privacy management theory. Through interviews and a qualitative method of analysis, the results show that many motivating factors are affecting, but that the connection and communication created between parents online is one of the biggest driving forces. There is a significant variation in awareness of the moral issues, but it was possible to decipher a pattern regarding where the boundaries of integrity go. For example, naked content and conflicts are being held outside Instagram. Discussions are held about whether this could be linked to a media morality where societal norms control what is considered accepted to share or not.

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