The radio industry is fighting to stay relevant in an age of expanding media options. Scholarship has slackened, and media experts say that radio's best days are in the past. This dissertation investigates how today's radio announcer presents him/herself on the air as a personality, creating and performing a self that is meant for mass consumption by a listening audience. A participant observation of eleven different broadcast sites was conducted, backed by interviews with most key on-air personnel at each site. A grounded theory approach was used for data analysis. The resulting theoretical model focuses on the performance itself as the focal point that determines a successful (positive) interaction for personality and listener. Associated processes include narrative formation of the on-air personality, communication that takes place outside of the performance, effects of setting and situation, the role of the listening audience, and the reduction of social distance between personality and listener. The model demonstrates that a personality performed with the intent of being realistic and relatable will be more likely to cement a connection with the listener that leads to repeated listening and ultimately loyalty and fidelity to that personality. The successful deployments of these on-air identities across multiple channels (in-person, online, and through social media as well as broadcast) suggests that the demand for relatable and informative content will persist, regardless of radio's future delivery mechanisms. / Media & Communication

Media use of hurricane graphics to apprise populations vulnerable to severe weather provides a persuasive demonstration of the importance and complexity of visual communication. Surprisingly little research, however, has explored how audiences interpret weather graphics. This study examined whether the general public and the National Weather Service share a common understanding of selected weather related terms and meaning of a NWS informational graphic. Using a coorientation model, general public responses to a questionnaire were compared to definitions prescribed by the NWS. Additionally, the public were asked questions to measure trust of the NWS as a credible and reliable source of severe weather information. Selected broadcast meteorologists were surveyed to measure their opinions of the NWS as well as to measure their perceptions of how the general public would respond to questions relating to knowledge of weather terms and graphics. Results revealed discrepancies between the intent of such graphics and audience interpretations. While the vast majority of respondents recognized the Tropical Cyclone Track Watch/Warning Graphic and understood much of the information it conveyed, study respondents did not seem to remember or understand the meaning of the terms Watch and Warning. While these terms or conditions are only one aspect of the graphic they represent critical information for populations at risk. Additionally, the results of this study indicate that weather forecasting professionals' perceptions of the public's understanding of the graphic are inaccurate. Results also show respondents generally rate the NWS as a reliable and competent agency but they do not consistently rate their local weather providers as well. Weather scientists' foremost concern may be the accuracy of their forecasts, but they also must consider the accuracy of the perceptions of those forecasts if they are to be effective in warning populations at risk of severe weather. These results have sobering implications for both governmental and private sources of emergency communication.

Globalization and technological advancements continue to challenge contemporary organizations’ aims to balance stability and change. As a response to this challenge, organizations often turn to empowerment and participatory processes. Current research emphasizes the need for enhanced communication in these processes. However, there is a lack of research studying how organizations practically enact this idea that these processes require more communication. This dissertation is aligned with the Montreal School’s CCO perspective and departs from communication theory seen as a dialogic of conversation and text, thus directing attention to coorientation and how organizational members coordinate in organizing processes. Based on this theoretical framework, the study aims to contribute to a better understanding – empirically as well as analytically – about the variety of texts that are a part of communicative initiatives aiming at enhancing communication, encouraging participation and empowerment processes. The empirical material is based on how two organizations explicitly emphasized communicative initiatives throughout each organization’s empowerment process attempts. One organization mainly used workshops to provide opportunities for communication, while the other organization incorporated an interactive video website for the same purpose. This dissertation acknowledges that managers and subordinates are not equally capable of discursively constructing the organization. However, enhanced communication through empowering processes has been shown to facilitate members’ abilities to contribute to the organizing process. Hence, the study combines two theoretical frameworks, the empowerment process model and the Montreal School’s CCO perspective, extending both and thereby accentuating the communication-power relationship. To further explore how conversations and text interact in the case organizations, the study enacts a tension-centered approach, arguing that tensions are produced, co- and reproduced and enacted through organizations’ wills to empower their members through communication. The findings indicate a recursive and reflexive relationship between the empowerment process, coorientation, tensions and participation. In practice, this means that organizational members who have the opportunity to engage in conversations about matters of concern while perceiving themselves as taking part in an empowerment process tend to more actively identify and co-produce tensions. Tensions increase participation and lead to new insights. As members realize the value of their input, this further enhances the empowerment process.