The most important aspect of online dating is the messaging. Resting upon that argument, this project discursively analyzes naturally-occurring interactions between users on two online dating sites. Current facework, relationship initiation, and online dating research lacks a systematic understanding of the conversational processes involved in establishing a relationship online. This thesis addresses that deficit of understanding. Results show that there is a sequence and a set of resources that online dating users draw upon to get acquainted; suggesting a new typology of opening gambits based on technological affordances. Results also show that users openly negotiate the process of relationship initiation, discussing both the interaction situation and their performances. Overall, this investigation provides insights that give researchers and online dating users a deeper and more complete understanding of the work that is done on a turn-by-turn, conversational level in the online dance of courtship.

This thesis focused on presentations of an e-commerce business opportunity to people interested in a multilevel marketing business. Participation in a multilevel marketing organization can be described as a legitimate business activity where individuals can earn a living while enjoying the benefits of independence, autonomy, and being part of a business team. A second, equally plausible way to describe the business is as a get-rich-quick or pyramid scheme in which individuals learn techniques of persuasion and how to exploit personal relationships in order to maximize profit. Given these alternative descriptions, the primary research question for this project concerned the identity problems managed by current business owners as they built up the first kind of description of the business while simultaneously undermining the second. A series of business plan presentations and training sessions of a multilevel marketing organization were audio and video-tape recorded in the United Kingdom and the United States and transcribed. These meetings were analyzed by means of a rhetorical discursive action approach. This perspective is informed by principles of conversation analysis (i.e., how participants accomplish social actions through talk on a turn-by-turn basis), rhetorical concerns (i.e., how versions of the world are built up and undermined in relation to alternative, rival versions), and fact construction (i.e., how descriptions of events are formulated to be true, objective, and disinterested). The analysis demonstrated that various conversational practices were used to construct the e-commerce business as legitimate and as a vehicle to fulfill the audience members' dreams and goals, while countering the notion that the business involved processes of selling, persuasion, or convincing. Some of the devices used to accomplish this effect included managing informality of the meetings, positioning the audience as intelligent, reflective people who would not fall prey to a sales pitch, and showing how business techniques grew out of a larger ethic of personal relationships and connections. The study concluded with a discussion of the importance of analyzing actual interaction; training and pedagogical implications; future avenues of study; and ethical, political, and critical implications raised by this thesis.

This dissertation connects the study of media discourses of gender in East Asia with how globalization influences consumption of popular culture. It explores the ways in which femininity is framed in different layers of discourse through a speech act called "sajiao," a native term in Mandarin for persuasive talk that generally means to talk or behave like a child for persuasive purposes. This ethnographic study of feminine persuasion includes data from everyday communication and from interactions among online communities. The media texts and fieldwork data are compared to reveal how the dominant ideology that all women have to express femininity in the form of babyish cuteness influences native speakers' understanding of the speech act among Mandarin speakers in Taiwan. This dissertation introduces the issues of sajiao and the relation to gender, culture, and communication. I analyze the sajiao performance conducted by female entertainers in Taiwan, the sajiao discourse in the newspaper, and the discussion about sajiao on TV. These data are compared with the daily practice of sajiao. I describe who does sajiao, how people sajiao, when sajiao happens, and why people sajiao. By detailing the sequential procedure of sajiao, I explore the persuasive dimensions and its cultural implications in the Taiwanese context. In addition, a comparison of sajiao practices between Taipei and Shanghai is offered. In conclusion, I explain why this project is critical and how it contributes to both the interpretive and the cultural studies traditions. Some limitations of this research and its potential development for communication studies in general are discussed.

Stigma, or an identity-threatening mark, represents an enduring stressor for which individuals might require supportive communication to help them cope effectively. Whereas prior research has illuminated the cognitive and sociological features of stigma, this dissertation extends existing research to focus attention on communication as a salient feature and influence in the experience of stigma. Examining interactions in the context of stigma can illuminate the communicative factors that help or hinder coping with identity-threatening stressors and provide a more nuanced understanding of how communication contributes to the experience of stigma. The current study examines how variations in source and message factors during a supportive conversation influence a person’s affect and internalized stigma regarding a devalued trait. Specifically, the project draws upon social identity theory to examine how in-group and out-group support providers impact coping with a stigmatized stressor. To expand the concept of social identity, this study also examines the potential impact of a moderate out-group support provider, or a provider who is perceived to be more similar to the support receiver relative to others. Regarding message factors, the study examines the locus of a supportive conversation, or whether a conversation is provider- or receiver-focused, as a meaningful variation in supportive interactions regarding stigma. Finally, because stigma is an enduring stressor, this study tests whether the effects of supportive interactions last over the course of three weeks. The study used an interaction-based experiment to test how the social identity of a support provider and the locus of a supportive conversation influence people’s perceptions of stigma and affect improvement. Participants were primed to view the communication studies major as a stigmatized trait, before having a supportive conversation with a confederate who was trained to enact one of the six experimental conditions. Specifically, confederates enacted one of the three provider identity manipulations (i.e., in-group, moderate out-group, out-group) while varying the locus of the supportive conversation (i.e., provider-focused, receiver-focused). Participants assessed their affect improvement and internalized stigma immediately following the interaction. Furthermore, participants were invited to participate in a follow-up survey three weeks after the interaction, wherein they again assessed their affect and internalized stigma. Results suggest that nuances within supportive interactions affect how a person copes with stigma. Prior to engaging in a supportive interaction, people reported feeling less stigmatized after being introduced to a moderate out-group provider compared to an in-group or out-group support provider. Following the supportive interaction, people felt significantly less stigmatized after interacting with moderate out-group and in-group support providers compared to a support provider who was a member of an out-group. Analyses also revealed interaction effects. Generally, participants in this study felt less stigmatized when receiving provider-focused support from in-group and moderate out-group members, but reported better outcomes when out-group members were receiver-focused. Provider- and receiver-focused messages differ; however, the effects of those messages depend upon the identity of the person who is offering them. The interactive effects of supportive interactions lasted over the course of three weeks. Results extend research on stigma and supportive communication, while generating practical recommendations that improve supportive interactions in this context.

Specifically, this study examined if students have been using Facebook.com rather than, and/or in addition to, tradition face-to-face techniques, to establish romantic relationships. A group of 440 undergraduate students were given surveys to complete during class. The survey measured the students' intensity of Facebook usage and also directed each participant to reference an instance where they had met someone socially and later checked them out on Facebook. With this in mind, students were presented with three traditional face-to-face interaction scales: the attributional confidence scale, the interpersonal attraction scale, and the perceived similarity scale. To analyze this data, correlation and independent sample t-tests were run to determine whether students with high intensity Facebook usage were more likely to score higher on these respective scales. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: December 15, 2006. / Computer-Mediated Communication, Romantic Relationships / Includes bibliographical references. / Arthur A. Raney, Professor Directing Thesis; Ulla Bunz, Committee Member; Andrew Opel, Committee Member.

People's responses to environmental messages in IMAX nature documentaries Everest, Bears, and Aliens of the Deep were examined. Two processes were involved in their reactions that included media literacy and personal experience. Based upon respondents' levels of media literacy and personal experience with nature and wildlife, I suggest that people can come away with a new understanding of the natural world from the IMAX screen. Also, watching the films reinforces the two-step flow model of communication. Discourses in the documentaries could potentially inspire viewers to have conversations with family and peers that stress broader problems that threaten the environment, such as the practices of pollution, waste treatment, energy consumption, over-development, and encroachment. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: November 13, 2006. / Political Ecology, Greenwashing, Audience Reception, IMAX, Documentary, Media Effects, Enivronmentalism, Economic Anthropology / Includes bibliographical references. / Andy Opel, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Stephen McDowell, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Phil Steinberg, Outside Committee Member; Donna Nudd, Committee Member.

This dissertation discusses and evaluates various cognitive measures to predict college students' intentions to either initiate a discussion about sex or lie about past sexual behaviors to a primary healthcare provider. The following chapters explore stigma, concerns of providers' judgments, and shame, as well as variables of the Protection Motivation Theory. Results suggest that self-efficacy to initiate a discussion or lie to a provider about sex is the strongest independent predictor of college students' behavioral intentions. The dissertation concludes with the limitations to the study and an overview of the future research aimed at improving application of the Protection Motivation Theory to provider-patient communication about sex. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2011. / Date of Defense: May 11, 2011. / Std, Initiation, Honesty, College, Deception, Sex, Patient communication, Communication, Student, Lying / Includes bibliographical references. / Gary R. Heald, Professor Directing Dissertation; Thomas McCaleb, University Representative; Juliann Cortese, Committee Member; Mia Liza A. Lustria, Committee Member; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member.

Many organisations which aim to achieve excellent workplace safety choose 'culture change' as the means to achieve this. They make use of employee communication media to help re-form the values, beliefs, norms and behaviours which are generally thought to comprise culture. However, culture is a complex and profound phenomenon. Successful communication between two culturally separate groups requires each to achieve an understanding of the other, no less so in workplaces than in societies composed of different cultures.Yet even employers who believe in communicating fully with their workforces find it difficult to convey viewpoints other than their own. Their communication tends therefore to be one-directional, asymmetrical and controlling, typified by the ubiquitous staff newsletter containing articles about people's contribution to corporate goals. The messages contained in such media have little or none of their desired effect because they tend to be re-interpreted via the cultural forces of the workers to whom the messages are directed.This study investigated a large industrial minerals refinery to analyse the working lives of shop floor employees and the effectiveness of various communication channels. It focused on one group to whom safety messages were communicated, the shop floor `crews', and examined how the organisation's hierarchy, rules, and informal organisation mediated this communication.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-123)

This study examined U.S. press coverage of the H5N1 bird-flu virus and the possible influenza pandemic in the period 1996 - 2006. One elite and three regional newspapers were used. Framing analysis facilitated by the QDA Miner revealed that militaristic, race, natural disaster and Christian/biblical metaphors, as well as the myths of the “other world,” the “hero,” the “victim,” and the “plague,” created fear that helped to perpetuate the story and keep it on the media agenda. This was a story that the press constructed both scientifically and metaphorically, relying on scientific facts as well as on cultural myths and moral reasons. The social representation of bird flu and a possible influenza pandemic in U.S. press coverage resonated with representations of SARS, Ebola and other infectious diseases. The bird-flu and pandemic story was ripe with values of faith in science and scientific progress, belief and pride in good and generous people and nations, hard and persistent work in the name of public health. This was a compelling human interest story, descriptive of apocalyptic pictures, different worlds and different cultures, mysterious developments, fears of the novel, uncertain and unpredictable. Myths and metaphors, as parts of language, shared culture and understanding, helped the newspapers paint a vivid, descriptive, and informative picture of the bird-flu virus and the expectant avian influenza pandemic. There was consistency between the four newspapers. The myths and metaphors they used in their bird-flu and pandemic reports transcended the particularities of the papers. Myths and metaphors in coverage provoked and kept public interest in the topic, aided comprehension, and served as shorthand for complexity.