Global ETD Search

11	<b>Smartphone habits and health: Testing Habit Theory to target perceived behavioral control within the Theory of Planned Behavior</b> Elizabeth Ann Labadorf (19166191) 18 July 2024 (has links) <p dir="ltr">Behavior-change theories reliably explain behavior, but they often lack messaging recommendations to modify behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) could benefit from clear, replicable messaging strategies to target its constructs of attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) about a behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Habit Theory is commonly used for behavior-change interventions because it offers both behavior-change explanations and messaging (Orbell & Verplanken, 2020). Its habit strength measure has been used repeatedly to add explanatory power to the TPB model, and this study tests whether its messaging strategies can effectively pair with the TPB to affect PBC and instigate behavior change (Bamberg et al., 2003; Bayer & Campbell, 2012).</p><p dir="ltr">To test these strategies in the context of problematic smartphone use among college students, focus groups were conducted to select a target habit and to refine the messaging strategy and channel for a habit-focused intervention. These findings were used to create and conduct an intervention with a sorority at Purdue University, and a pre-test, post-test, delayed post-test survey design was used to analyze the effectiveness of the intervention. The intervention had positive effects on participants’ attitudes and intentions toward implementing the habit and to reduce smartphone use, improved their habit strength, and increased the number of times they put their smartphones out of sight while studying or doing homework. Additionally, the sticker cues given away during the intervention increased the effects of the intervention for those who affixed them to at least one of their devices. However, the intervention did not affect PBC or time spent on a smartphone. These findings emphasize the importance of continued research into how messaging strategies affect behavior and the constructs within the TPB.</p> Communication studies theory of planned beavior smartphone addiction Habit theory intervention
12	Worldbuilding in Feminist Game Studies: Toward a Methodology of Disruption Bianca Batti (6622946) 10 June 2019 (has links) <div>This project engages in an intersectional and interdisciplinary tracing of the emerging field of feminist game studies and the epistemologies and methodologies that exist within this field. Through such tracing, this project asks—what are feminist game studies’ epistemological goals and frameworks? What methodologies can the field draw from in order to achieve these epistemological goals? Ultimately, this project argues that feminist game studies enacts an epistemology of feminist worldbuilding—that is, an inclusive, embodied, space-claiming mode of producing knowledge—and achieves this worldbuilding through methodologies of intersectional disruption in order to perform disruptive feminist interventions into video game culture. </div><div><br></div><div>In the first chapter of this project, I make use of a methodology of narrative autoethnography to discuss my experience with online harassment as an inroad into interrogating the bodies at risk in gaming spaces in order to make a case for the need for feminist interventions to disrupt the violent structures within video game culture. The second chapter traces the ways hegemonic, patriarchal frameworks in game studies epistemologically deprivilege material, representational analyses of bodies and culture in the study of games and, instead, argues for the implementation of intersectional approaches to video game culture. The third chapter maps the intersectional feminist methodologies that can be implemented in feminist game studies in order to perform generative and disruptive interventions into video game culture and build feminist worlds. </div><div><br></div><div>In the fourth chapter, I apply some of these methodologies of disruption to the alienation of mothers in the gaming industry’s workplace culture and representations of mothers in the games Among the Sleep and Horizon Zero Dawn in order to intervene into video game culture’s prejudicial attitudes regarding labor, mothers, and women. The final chapter continues my autoethnographic work through the connection of my experiences with online harassment to previous experiences with gendered violence and trauma in order to underscore the stakes of feminist game studies praxis. In all these ways, I argue that feminist game studies builds worlds by performing interventions into video game culture through intersectional and pluralistic methodologies of disruption, for such methodologies imagine new, inclusive models of existence and futurity in video game culture.</div> Culture, Gender, Sexuality Screen and Media Culture Epistemology Feminist Theory Visual Cultures feminist game studies methodologies intersectionality video game culture feminist worldbuilding online harassment
13	The Objective/Subjective Nature of Affordance Use in Digital Environments: Building a Tailored Climate Change Adaptation Website for the Colombian Coffee Sector Jessica Eise (8801109) 06 May 2020 (has links) <p>This dissertation extends our knowledge of digital affordances in communicating complex scientific information by building and testing a climate change adaptation website for the Colombian coffee sector, <a href="http://www.climaycafe.com/">www.climaycafe.com</a>. This project offers both a practical component (scholarship of engagement) and theoretical component (extension of our understanding of the objective/subjective nature of affordances). Practically, it seeks to create a collaborative and tailored science communication solution for improved information access to support climate change adaptation. Theoretically, it extends our understanding of affordances in a digital environment through a qualitative assessment, specifically how occupational identity influences the subjective nature of affordances. Data is gathered through an iterative qualitative assessment of users’ interpretation of the perceived affordances on the website. The results demonstrate that occupational identity has an influence on perceived digital affordances, particularly influenced by (1) Perceived Social Status of Occupation, (2) Perception of Value Based on Occupational Demands, (3) Occupational Influence on Perceived Reliability and (4) Usability Preferences Based on Occupation. We additionally found that as creators we can set general goals for digital tools and achieve general success in obtaining them, but ultimately the users will dictate their needs within this broader framework. Lastly, there is a self-identified need for more practical knowledge and information access for coffee farmers in these regions of Colombia around climate change adaptation.</p> Digital Humanities Environmental Humanities Environmental Education and Extension Communication Studies digital affordances science communication environmental communication media technology climate change adaptation coffee producers colombian coffee engaged scholarship climate change dimensionalization
14	The Role of Communication in Accessibility for Virtual Music Festivals Cassie Joanne Beer (12295688) 20 April 2022 (has links) <p>A literature review covering both the social construct model and medical model of disability followed by an argument of the importance of leisure and social activities, especially the arts, for people with disabilities. Concluding quantitative and qualitative research through focus groups and surveys, the project ends with a guide to implementing accessibility and inclusion efforts when planning online arts events.</p> Translation and Interpretation Studies Communication Studies accessibility virtual accessibility inclusion disability music festivals virtual event accessibility social construction of disability medical model of disability leisure studies communication accessibility guidebook
15	<b>Playing With(out) Golden Hands: The Intersections of Video Game Controllers and Gamer Identity</b> Victoria L Braegger (18405969) 19 April 2024 (has links) <p dir="ltr">Since the Electronic Software Association (ESA) began reporting data for the video game industry in 2002, women have represented nearly half of the game playing population. However, despite this stable statistic, the industry’s ideal “Gamer” is consistently depicted as a young, white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied male, and the games industry frequently targets this idealized identity through advertising and game design. This has resulted in a culture that is notably toxic towards women and marginalized players, built on an assumption of meritocracy within games—or the expectation that every player begins each game with the same advantages, disadvantages, and skills as every other player. While the construction of gamer identity has received extensive scholarly attention, gaming peripherals—such as video game controllers—are either minimized or left entirely out of the conversation. This dissertation, informed by feminist methodologies in technical communication and game studies, uses a mixed-methods approach involving archival research, visual analysis, surveys, and interviews to understand the intersections of video game controllers and gamer identity. Using Microsoft’s Xbox as a case study, the findings demonstrate how a dominant narrative has controlled controller design decisions through iterative processes. This has resulted in controllers that are more uncomfortable, more unusable, and more frustrating for and viewed more negatively by women and marginalized players. For each controller iteration, women and marginalized participants rated controllers significantly lower. Though the total improvement score (TIS) from first iteration to current iteration were similar between women and marginalized participants and cismale participants, the lower starting point for women and marginalized participants resulted in a lower ending point. Design decisions across controller iterations privilege cismale experiences, reifying gamer identity through controller design and resulting in not just an ideal gamer identity, but an ideal gamer body. </p> Digital writing Technical writing Computer gaming and animation Media industry studies Media studies gamer identity game controller gamepad video game controller user experience in games game studies technical communication
16	An Exploratory Study on The Trust of Information in Social Media Chih-Yuan Chou (8630730) 17 April 2020 (has links) This study examined the level of trust of information on social media. Specifically, I investigated the factors of performance expectancy with information-seeking motives that appear to influence the level of trust of information on various social network sites. This study utilized the following theoretical models: elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the uses and gratifications theory (UGT), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model (UTAUT), the consumption value theory (CVT), and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) Model to build a conceptual research framework for an exploratory study. The research investigated the extent to which information quality and source credibility influence the level of trust of information by visitors to the social network sites. The inductive content analysis on 189 respondents’ responses carefully addressed the proposed research questions and then further developed a comprehensive framework. The findings of this study contribute to the current research stream on information quality, fake news, and IT adoption as they relate to social media. Information Systems Human Information Behaviour Social and Community Informatics Web Technologies (excl. Web Search) Computer-Human Interaction Information Systems Management Business Information Systems Innovation and Technology Management trust of information information quality performance expectancy Stimulus-Organism-Response Model social network sites social media fake news
17	Social Media in Politics: Exploring Trump's Rhetorical Strategy During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign Within Twitter's Discursive Space Christa L Jennings (6581261) 10 June 2019 (has links) <p>The prevalence of social media in political campaigns are changing the face of politics in the United States and abroad. The rapid pace at which this change is occurring demands inquiry into the previously unexplored area of unconventional political campaign messaging practices on social media. Investigation of Donald Trump’s use of tweets as rhetorical strategy in the discursive space of Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign revealed a bypass of traditional media and its source verification processes. This circumventing of mainstream media channels facilitated Trump’s deployment of an unchecked ‘broken system’ narrative alleging government corruption</p> <p>and a rigged system. Trump’s tweet discourses tapped into existing feelings of disenfranchisement and disaffection felt by a self-identified politically marginalized segment of society. This study</p> <p>investigates how social media use in political campaigns can serve as a public sphere for contestation of social and political norms. An interdisciplinary theoretical frame comprised of Feenberg’s critical theory of technology, McLuhan’s media ecology, Fraser’s counterpublic spheres, and Iser’s implied reader offer new understandings about the power of anti-establishment discourses and a hybrid discursive space to destabilize governing institutions and redefine social and political identities. Study of Trump’s tweets as rhetorical strategy granted insights into the social and political capacity of alternative truth to undermine the political process. Further, it uncovered the power of social media to awaken and leverage existing political identities for personal political gain.</p> Social and Community Psychology Literary Theory Stylistics and Textual Analysis Hermeneutic and Critical Theory Discourse and Pragmatics Communication Studies social media Politics Donald Trump Twitter Political Campaigns Rhetorical strategies discursive space Textual analysis social media strategy electorate influences Technology Critical Theory of Technology Implied Reader Counterpublic Spheres Media Ecology 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Anti-establishment Discourse
18	Factors Influencing Indiana Residents' Level of Interest in Engaging with Purdue University Ashley E Rice (6615803) 15 May 2019 (has links) The land-grant university system was founded in the 19th century as a public means to help improve people’s everyday lives. A century and a half later, the challenges that the public faces to live a quality life are constantly changing, creating a need for the land-grant system to respond and adapt to continue to fulfill its mission. While the literature contains a wealth of conceptual papers addressing the role and mission of land-grant universities, relatively few papers could be found that reported empirical data or proposed and tested metrics for public engagement constructs. The current study sought to address this void in the literature through the investigation of factors influencing Indiana residents’ level of interest in engaging with Purdue University. Mail survey methods were used in which up to three contacts were made with adult members of 4,500 Indiana households identified through address-based sampling. Stratified random sampling was employed to ensure adequate rural household participation for other project purposes. Usable responses were received from 1,003 households representing 87 Indiana counties for a total response rate of 26%. <br><div><br> </div><div> A theoretical perspective was developed from Public Sphere Theory and the social science writings of Jurgen Habermas and Alexis de Tocqueville. Descriptive findings revealed some to moderate concerns about community and social issues such as affordable health care, violent crime, pollution and prescription drug abuse. Moderate levels of anomie, or perceived social disconnectedness, were also reported by respondents. Several items tapped respondents’ past levels of interaction with and current perceptions of Purdue University. Nearly a fifth of respondents reported interacting with Purdue University by having visited a website for news or information, followed by interacting with a Purdue University Extension professional. Regarding perceptions of Purdue University, the results of this study revealed relative consensus among respondents that Purdue University makes a positive contribution to the state of Indiana through its educational, research and outreach programs. For a majority of the perceptual items regarding Purdue University, more than one-third of the respondents neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement, suggesting some areas in which the university might improve its reputational standing with Indiana residents in the future. Nearly one-quarter to about half of the respondents indicated interest in topical areas addressed by Purdue Extension programs as well as an interest in engaging with the university. Respondents reported the highest levels of interest in free Extension programs in their local area, followed by the topics of science and technology, health and well-being, and gardening.</div><div><br> </div><div> A predictive model of respondent interest in engaging with Purdue University was developed and tested using binary logistic regression procedures. The model was shown to be of modest utility in accounting for variance in respondent interest in engaging with Purdue University, explaining 12% to 16% of total variance. Past interaction with Purdue University, perceived level of concern for social and community issues, and highest level of education were the strongest predictors in the model.</div><div><br> </div><div> The current research was completed in 2019 as Purdue University celebrated its 150th anniversary. Results and implications of this study provide important insight into current engagement levels, concerns and perceptions of residents within the state of Indiana, whom the university is mandated to serve. One of the study’s primary contributions is the establishment of baseline engagement data on current levels of Indiana residents’ interest in engaging with Purdue University on selected topics. Findings from this study could be of benefit to university administrators, faculty, staff and Extension professionals in assessing and improving future programming and setting strategic priorities. This study also adds to the conceptual and empirical body of literature, which may help inform future public engagement efforts at other land-grant universities. Periodic social science and public opinion research is needed to keep pace with the changing needs and perceptions of Indiana residents. Different data collection modes should be utilized to reach more audience segments and add to the growing knowledge base of public engagement.</div> Education Health Care Family Care Social and Community Psychology Decision Making Continuing and Community Education Higher Education Environment and Resource Economics Organisational Behaviour Marketing Communications Family and Household Studies Population Trends and Policies Education Policy Public Administration Social Policy Citizenship Farming Systems Research Consumption and Everyday Life Rural Sociology Sociology of Education Urban Sociology and Community Studies Education not elsewhere classified Communication Studies Social Change land grant colleges land grant institutions Morrill Land-Grant Acts public engagement with science Public Engagement with Research Public Perceptions public perceptions of science public perceptions of risk Past Interaction Past Behavior Higher Educational Institutions Colleges Universities Social Issues Community Issues Anomie hopelessness future behavior Rural Community Urban Cities Purdue University Indiana state-wide research Agricultural Sciences Health Sciences Sociology Psychology Public Sphere Tocqueville Habermas Classical Theories Democracy Citizenship United States Public Policy Issues Life-long learning Continuing Education Extension Cooperative Extension Purdue University Extension America Level of Concern

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