Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre, and Dance / Timothy R. Steffensmeier / Geographical borders represent a clash of cultures. Those inhabiting or moving through borderlands struggle to maintain a sense of place and, in turn, an understanding of cultural collective memory. This project strives to understand how the visual and discursive elements that constitute the U.S.-Mexico border function rhetorically to communicate difference and establish place. By utilizing a social semiotics perspective, I analyzed visual rhetoric of the U.S.-Mexico border in the form of photographs and maps produced in both the United States and Mexico. Additionally, a theory of cultural memory was used to explore the confluence of events and rhetorical phenomena that shape the U.S.-Mexico border, and allow the U.S.-Mexico border to shape the rhetoric of the countries it divides. I argued that borders are inherently rhetorical and the intersection of visual elements, culture, place and memory make borders important to understand from an anthropological, and geographical perspective, as well as a rhetorical one. This project holds political and social implications for the relationship between the United States and Mexico, and reveals key findings regarding how cultural identity is negotiated in fragmented places like borderlands.

Few studies have attempted to operationalize metaphor or measure its effect on receivers. This thesis suggests that the language used to frame information has a powerful impact on receivers. The experiment following the literature review shows that the use of a {family, plant, biology} metaphor cluster produces significantly greater donations of money to an organization. Better, though nonsignificant, results on other dependent measures were also obtained using the {family, plant, biology} cluster rather than the {war, machine, death} cluster. Theoretical implications and organizational applications of these findings are discussed and new research directions are proposed.

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This study was conducted to explore the influence of architecture on emotions and communication. Correlations were proposed between dimensions of affect (pleasure, arousal, dominance) and communication (formality, warmth, privacy, familiarity, constraint, psychological distance) in interaction environments. Hypotheses also proposed that affective and communicative responses would differ for architectural styles as well as for architects and laypeople. Three contemporary styles of architecture (Modern Traditionalism, Deconstructivism, and Post-Modernism) were depicted in photographs of houses. Using written self-report measures, architects and laypeople rated their affective responses and expectations for communication in stimulus houses. Hypotheses were partially confirmed for correlations between affect and communication dimensions. Results also confirmed that different architectural styles are perceived differently in terms of affect response and expectations for communication. No differences, however, were found between architects' and laypeople's perceptions of architecture. Implications of the findings were discussed concerning the impact of architectural style on human communication and behavior.

According to the philosophers Kuhn and Lakatos, the two ways science has developed for defining a scientific discipline are by paradigms (identifying what is important in theory and technique to the practitioner of the science) and by research programs, specified in this dissertation as areas of study. The purpose of this dissertation has been to examine the areas of study and the body of theory and technique in Communication that has been studied, practiced, and published in the International Communication Association Yearbooks (CY's) between the years 1977 and 1986. The ten years under study were chosen because the first ten years of the CY's followed a format that allowed for consistency in presentation, and the research was conducted by known scholars in the field. Since 1987, the volumes have addressed special issues and were therefore not suited to this study. / The method used to examine this data was content analysis. Content analysis objectively and systematically analyzes words and phrases and quantifies them under categories by counting frequencies. In this study, the method was strictly descriptive. This method of research lent itself well to identifying specific characteristics in a volume of printed material as massive as the one studied in this dissertation. Finding revealed the importance of such research programs as Health Communication, Information Systems, Instructional Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural and Development Communication, Organizational Communication, and Philosophy of Communication. A significant degree of adherence to a common body of theory and methods is evident. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2385. / Major Professor: Thomas King. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

To better understand the communication apprehension (CA) of students in classroom situations, this research investigated the trait and state anxiety of students enrolled in 10 sections of a public speaking course taught at a large Southeastern University. Each of the 195 students (81 males and 114 females) was asked to complete a trait-measure (PRCA-24) one week before and again one week after delivering three required speeches. To measure the state-anxiety, each student was asked to complete the Speaker Anxiety Scale (SA Scale) immediately after delivering each of the three informative speeches. / Five minutes before Speech 2, randomly selected students participated in one of the following treatments: (1) exit the room (E), (2) physical activity (PA), (3) visualization/deep breathing activity (VA), and (4) remain in the room (R), which was considered a control treatment. The treatments were chosen based on suggestions found in various public speaking textbooks to help reduce speaker anxiety. / A comparison of scores reported by the student on the SA Scale for the four treatment groups suggests the following: (1) both the PA and VA treatments were effective in reducing anxiety, (2) the effects of the treatments were considered temporary, and (3) students in the VA and R groups reported the greatest reduction in levels of anxiety from Speech 1 to Speech 3. A comparison of the difference in the posttest and pretest scores of the low, moderate, and high CA students suggests the largest reduction in CA was reported by the high CAs who participated in the PA treatment prior to Speech 2. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2386. / Major Professor: Theodore Clevenger, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study reports four content analyses of the character Nora in Henrick Ibsen's A Doll's House. The first three studies examine different media: the printed page, the play, and a film. The fourth study examines the film again using cluster unitizing as its methodology. The objectives of these studies were twofold: to develop a quantitative methodology for studying a character to complement the more established method of qualitative research; and to compare and contrast various media for presenting the same play. / An adaptation of Sandra Bem's Sex-Role-Inventory was applied to the study of androgynous behavior of the character, Nora. Bem's original scale was used in the first two content analyses with minor modifications. The final two content analytic studies used a revised 3-point scale with twenty adjectives (ten masculine and ten feminine) in place of the original sixty items. / Dietrich's motivational unit was used to unitize the play for each coding. The first three studies used unit-by-unit analysis while the fourth study used longer cluster units. The first two studies were based on one male and one female coder while the third study used four female coders. The fourth study employed fourteen adult coders (six female and eight male). / The intercoder reliability improved with each analysis. The book reliability was .25; the play's was .33; the film was .61; the second coding of the film was .92. Intrascale reliability remained high throughout, but especially with the last coding when reliability for female items was .93 and for male items was .94. Coders for the last study were given the Bem Sex Role Inventory test to determine whether their own androgyny levels affected their coding of Nora; no effect was found. / Coding results were consistent with a subjective, independent dramatic analysis of the play and contributed to a deeper understanding of the character. It was concluded that the adapted BSRI was a promising instrument for studying sex-role behavior in drama. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1625. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

This dissertation attempts to determine whether the original and remake versions of The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Sleep, and Murder My Sweet are sub-genres, visual styles, time bound, or a film genre. It objectifies and compares the aesthetics/environment, proxemics, paralanguage, appearance/artifacts, and kinesics in each film's mise-en-scene. Each pair of films reveals a consistent pattern in its nonverbal/film noir symbols that complements the noir storylines and noir character portrayals. Thus, these six noir films meet the criteria of a film genre. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-12, Section: A, page: 3770. / Major Professor: Peter Stowell. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

This study examined the relationship between trait-like communication apprehension and extroversion/introversion. Included in the study was the determination of the shape of the relational curve, the strength of the relationship and an examination of any gender differences. / Two hundred and ninety-two female and 238 male students enrolled in fundamental speech and public speaking classes at two state universities and one private college were administered McCroskey's Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) scale of extroversion/introversion during the first week of classes. / Descriptive statistics revealed a normally distributed sample for PRCA and a typical distribution for extroversion/introversion. A scattergram between communication apprehension and extroversion/introversion revealed a linear relationship. A Pearson r correlation of.5049 between these two variables was computed. Contingency tables were developed from scatterplots of scores derived from the five levels of communication apprehension and extroversion/introversion for females, for males and for all subjects. The contingency tables confirmed that the communication apprehension/introversion relationship adhered to expectations derived from theory. As the PRCA scores increased, so did the introversion scores. The extroversion/communication apprehension relationship did not seem to fully conform to theory. There were as many extroverts in the extremely high CA category as in the extremely low CA category. / There were no gender differences in the communication apprehension/introversion relationship. / The study verified a moderately strong linear relationship between trait-like communication apprehension and introversion. Replication with other measures of extroversion/introversion is needed to confirm the findings. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-09, Section: A, page: 2922. / Major Professor: Richard R. Lee. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This study examines the rhetorical techniques used by the International or Boston Churches of Christ to persuade and/or coerce an individual into entering and remaining in the cult. The overarching question is whether these messages are distinctive and form a rhetorical genre. / In order to answer these questions, content analysis was applied to sermons from the Boston Churches of Christ and Mainstream Churches of Christ. The coding scheme was produced through examination of literature in sociology, psychology, and religious studies. / The research question asks whether differences existed between the sermons found in the Churches of Christ and the Boston Churches of Christ based on the categories assimilated from research. The sermons from the two groups were found to be different in style, structure and situation. The elements messianic proclamation, socially deviant behavior, authoritarian structure, forced regimens, isolation, and exclusivity are clearly present in a group widely proclaimed to be a cult. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: A, page: 0031. / Major Professor: Thomas R. King. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.