During the fail semester of 1995, a demonstration of educational delivery via two-way video began as a partnership among the major academic units of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau, the University of Alaska Learning Center, KUAC-TV, Telecommunication Network Services and Arctic Sivunmun Illisagvik College in Barrow. The project broke new ground in Alaska by combining open broadcast of PBS television signal with a closed circuit compressed video network. Success of the project depended on the close collaboration across academic disciplines, institutional boundaries, and epistemologies. Native Ways of Knowing (ANS 461) was taught by Dr. Oscar Kawagley from a studio in Fairbanks to 10 co-located students, 26 distributed enrolled students, and hundreds of un-enrolled students in the broadcast audience. The project was technologically complex as it sought to combine the advantages of a widely distributed student cohort, five distinct eco-systems, a mandate for significantly increased courseware distribution in the University of Alaska system, and cutting edge telecommunications hardware in a rural, remote setting. This analysis of the project seeks to answer two questions related to choice of discourse features. First, how do the participants in a distant education project translate their goals and interests into discourse features? Second, how well did the features of the achieved NWK design reflect the competing interests of the participants? Clearly, discourse design is not value free. but must emerge as a result of a politicized contest. The features of a discourse such as: regulation of turn-taking, protection of privacy, and access to a speaking turn have direct consequences for discourse outcomes. This study seeks to include discourse features as a problematic outcome from a negotiated distribution of resources.

This research examines the role of customer behavior in Internet service deliveries. A nomological network of customer behaviors and its antecedents is developed and tested in two studies. In the first study, two hundred individuals were surveyed about their customer satisfaction, socialization, coproduction, and citizenship behaviors in their most recent online service experience. Results show that customers distinguish between two types of behavior: required customer coproduction behaviors and voluntary customer citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, these two behaviors were predicted by differential antecedents. Customer coproduction was more strongly predicted by customer socialization than by customer satisfaction. Customer citizenship behaviors, on the other hand, were more strongly predicted by customer satisfaction than by customer socialization. In the second study, three hundred twenty-eight participants acted as customers in a simulated Internet service delivery. In a 2 x 2 factorial design, perceptions about customer satisfaction and perceptions about organizational citizenship behavior were manipulated prior to the service experience. Subsequently, measures of self-reported customer citizenship intentions as well as actual citizenship behaviors towards the organization were assessed. Results showed an effect on customer citizenship behaviors and intentions for customer satisfaction but not for organizational citizenship behavior. Participants in the condition with perceptions of high-customer-satisfaction engaged in more citizenship behaviors and reported greater intentions to do so in the future than those in the condition with perceptions of low-customer-satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed from the perspective of organizational citizenship behavior and social exchange theory.

The prevailing wisdom in current intercultural research is that people in collectivistic societies such as Hong Kong have low levels of conflict and competition. This view is challenged, however, based on three arguments: cultural values are too often equated with actual practice, the multiple goals of actions are ignored, and the in-group/out-group distinction is not adequately addressed in theory and research. Data drawn from an ethnographic study of organizational relationships in Hong Kong indicate that a reexamination is in order. While the surface harmony reported in many studies was acknowledged, informants also consistently pointed to underlying currents of competition and conflict within the organization. Two models are proposed based on a reanalysis of the literature. The Classical Confucian Collectivist model represents the received view that Confucianism and collectivism lead to suppression of personal goals in favor of group goals. The Pragmatic Collectivist model, on the other hand, argues that instrumental goals still are the primary drivers of human interaction. While the Classical Confucian Collectivist might represent an idealized model that influences actors' accounts, the Pragmatic Collectivist model is a better representation of everyday action. Analysis of results in an experimental study lends support to these challenges.

Compatibility is a concept that has enjoyed considerable attention in the arena of close relationship research and has emerged as a consistent factor in the experience of positive relational outcomes such as relationship satisfaction and stability. Despite this attention, however, the treatment of compatibility has generally been limited to domains specific to the studies in which it has been utilized. The present study sought to integrate research and theory in two distinct domains, need fulfillment and compatibility, in an attempt to provide an overarching explanation for findings linking compatibility to relational outcomes based on interpersonal need fulfillment. This task involved two distinct, but related, domains. First, general associations among interpersonal need fulfillment, well-being, and social network structure were examined in an attempt to develop a more refined understanding of the interaction between need fulfillment and specific relationships with respect to overall effects on well-being. Analyses were confined to the consideration of interpersonal needs (those requiring others for fulfillment) and relied on the three-dimensional model proposed by Schutz (1966) and comprised of needs for affection, inclusion, and control. Second, need fulfillment was examined in the context of exclusive romantic relationships, and a form of compatibility based on the interpersonal need levels of the partners was introduced and posited to represent an overarching form of compatibility and a major predictor of relationship satisfaction. Analyses involved 91 couples involved in exclusive romantic relationships and 105 individuals who were not involved in exclusive relationships at the time. Results indicated that interpersonal need fulfillment plays an important role in the experience of overall well-being. Furthermore, the fulfillment of specific needs and the experience of well-being were associated with the presence of certain relationships in one's social network (specifically an exclusive romantic relationship). Interpersonal need compatibility in the areas of inclusion and control was found to be a significant predictor of relationship satisfaction, supporting the validity of the interpersonal need compatibility construct. Overall, the proposed framework demonstrated utility value, and important insights regarding need fulfillment and network structure emerged, but additional research is needed to fully understand the interplay of these factors.

This study examined the effects of message framing, message processing and issue involvement on breast self-examination attitudes and behaviors. A health frame message processing model was developed and tested in the context of a detection behavior based on prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) and the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) (Chaiken, 1980). Participants were exposed to either a gain frame message emphasizing the consequences of performing breast self-examinations or a loss frame message emphasizing the consequences of not performing breast self-examinations. Women who were classified as defensive processors displayed maladaptive responses in the form of minimization or denial of the health issue in a thought-listing task following exposure to the message stimuli. The results of the study indicated that (a) women with less self-efficacy engaged in maladaptive responses; (b) there were no framing-related differences in attitudes for high involvement women who processed the messages objectively; (c) high involvement women who engaged in defensive processing responded more negatively to the loss frame message than the gain frame message; (d) attitudes were significant predictors of behavioral intentions; (e) behavioral intentions were significant predictors of behaviors; and (f) low involvement women who received loss frame messages felt more susceptible to breast cancer than low involvement women who received gain frame messages. Limitations, suggestions for future research, and implications for health care professionals are discussed.

Interpersonal influence between peers is marked by the need to (1) maintain a positive image, (2) achieve instrumental or task goals, and (3) maintain interpersonal relations with one's partner. This investigation examined the process of balancing these three objectives or needs, and further examined the consequences associated with failure to balance all objectives. Peers were videotaped during an influence interaction, and their verbal strategies were coded by trained coders along a 5-dimensional scale. Verbal evaluations made by coders were correlated with self-report measures of (1) issue importance, (2) stress, (3) communication satisfaction, and (4) relational message interpretations. Correlation results indicate that while unsupported, there is a trend between stress and self-defense strategies, and between issue importance and other-accusation strategies. Results of hypotheses testing the correlation between communication satisfaction and relational message interpretations, and strategy usage were unsupported. Post-hoc analyses are offered.

This study examines the linkage between similarity and relational satisfaction within friendship dyads. The central proposition states that both actual and perceived similarity between relational partners will be positively associated with relational satisfaction. Actual and perceived similarity were measured using a conflict that had occurred between the relational partners. It was further posited that perceived similarity (PS) will be a better indicator of relational satisfaction than actual similarity (AS). It was found that when both length of relationship and amount of PS were held constant, AS was moderately associated with relational satisfaction. It was also found that PS was negatively associated with relational satisfaction. Furthermore, the findings indicate that PS is a better indicator of relational satisfaction than AS. These findings raise questions about operationalizing perceived and actual similarity, the relationship between relational type, similarity, and satisfaction, and the use of accounts in this type of research.

<p> This study examines class and gender representations in Nollywood films through textual analysis of a sample of films retrieved from the website of the largest Nollywood streaming service, irokoTV. The study investigates patterns in class and gender representations in terms of similarities in portrayals, instances of stereotypes, and value assumptions in terms of who has power by answering the following questions: (1) What class stereotypes are portrayed in Nollywood films? (2) What gender stereotypes are portrayed in Nollywood films? (3) What hegemonic ideas of power are portrayed in Nollywood films as a result of class and gender representations? The study uses an exposure approach to select a sample of convenience of the top 5 films most attended to by the audience on iROKOtv and relies on close reading and a distancing technique called the "commutation test" to discuss the meaning of class and gender representations in the films. Findings indicate that even when they appear to subvert dominant ideologies, the films still reinforce long established societal norms about the importance of wealth and female gender stereotypes such as submissiveness in domestic households. The tales are often aspirational but the films lack grand ideological narratives to make them relevant to social transformation. These findings support Stuart Hall's Theory of Ideology which allows for a subversive agenda in media texts while retaining the flexibility needed to critique connections between dominant ideologies and social practices and structures.</p>

<p> This research investigates the discourse around the terms web 2.0 and cloud computing, which are used as metaphors for information technology. In addition to the disruptive technologies and applications to which they refer, both of these terms have affected information technology, its use, and the way it is perceived. This research examines how this impact has varied over time and by audience. The usage of the terms is examined through a rhetorical analysis of a sampling of articles from the general publications The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today, and the professional publications InformationWeek and CIO Magazine. The research is an analysis of these artifacts using critical methods influenced by metaphoric analysis, symbolic interactionism, and Burke's concept of symbolic action. Metaphors serve as cognitive tools in discourse communities for understanding new domains, the tenor or target of the metaphor, through references to shared symbols, the vehicle or source of the metaphor. Metaphors may be mostly descriptive, as epiphors, or persuasive, as diaphors. This research shows that the web 2.0 and cloud computing metaphors served a persuasive purpose for helping people understand disruptive technology through familiar experiences. Rhetors used the metaphors in persuading audiences whether or not to adopt the new technologies. As the new technologies became accepted and adopted, problems arose which were obscured in the original metaphor, so new metaphors emerged to highlight and conceal various aspects of the technologies. Some of these new metaphors arose with systematicity in the same domain of the original metaphor, while others came from different domains. The ability of the metaphor to be used in various rhetorical situations as the technology evolves affects the usefulness of the metaphor over time. The usage of web 2.0 shortly after the dot com boom and bust cycle of the late 1990s and early 2000s allowed rhetors to frame web 2.0 as an economic phenomenon, casting the collaborative aspects of the technology as tools for making money in a perceived second dot com bubble. The failure of the second dot com bubble to materialize, along with user frustration with the emphasis of the economic aspects of collaboration and the limited usefulness of the software release cycle in representing continuous technical change, led to infrequency of the use of web 2.0 as a metaphor. Other metaphors, like social networking and social media, arose as a new source domain to represent some of the collaborative aspects of the original technologies. Some minor referents of web 2.0, like software as a service and data centers, became referents of cloud computing, which uses a natural archetype of clouds as the source domain to reference the target domain of hosted information technology services accessible through multiple devices. As a natural domain, the cloud metaphor is more extensible than web 2.0 and as a result may have more longevity than web 2.0. The cloud computing metaphor also became associated with lightning, electricity, experimentation, and utility through a fuzzy semantic relationship. The utility metaphor worked with cloud to emphasize the ease of implementation of cloud based solutions. As practical problems arose with implementing cloud solutions, new metaphors arose. Some of these worked within the cloud domain, such as the idea of storms, to emphasize the downsides of cloud computing. Other metaphors arose in new source domains to emphasize territory and private ownership in hosted solutions. By providing an in-depth rhetorical analysis of these IT metaphors, this research can serve as a guide for evaluating rhetorical and metaphoric responses to future disruptive technical changes.</p>

<p> In 2008, a group of masked protesters stood in front of the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles to protest the organization's censorship on the Internet (Knapperberger, 2012). This protest was the first collectivized, localized, and material manifestation of the group Anonymous, a loosely coordinated decentralized group of Internet based-activists that began on the web. Amidst increasing regulation of the Internet, Anonymous is a key subject to watch to determine how contemporary social movements will unfold with the introduction of cyberspace as a place of organization and performance. To provide a foundation for this study, I review social movement theory in the U.S. with an emphasis on visual imagery in protests. While traditional movements relied on public collective action (Bowers, Ochs, &amp; Jenson, 1993), new social movement theory assumes movements rely on private and individual reclamation of identity (Buechler, 1999, 2000). Anonymous fits into neither theory but takes aspects from both, challenging social movement theory to go further and account for the Internet-driven conditions that change the nature of the protester, revealing anonymity and appropriation of images as two distinct markers of contemporary social movements, as initially depicted in the use of the Guy Fawkes mask. Next, I look at geographies of place and how protest changes in cyberspace based on the images that emerge, giving the group aesthetic control over their social construction. Mirzoeff's (2011) analysis of visualized authority explains how Anonymous creates a countervisual to the state control of aesthetic reality by guiding is visual representations. DeLuca and Peeples' (2002) concept of the public screen addresses the promulgation of protest images, which become the primary rhetoric of the movement and a means to establish aesthetic credibility. Anonymous exists as a character in a disembodied cyber-world, with the media creating myths of embodied protesters. Through Bahktin's (1981) analysis of the chronotope, I study the spatio-temporal relationships of traditional social movements and how Anonymous challenges those relationships by establishing new chronotopes that influence contemporary movements. Emerging chronotopes break down the distinction between the protester and the hacker, the public and private dichotomy, and allow for contemporary protesters to break out of these conditions and inhabit a space of legitimacy. Anonymous offers a case study for the future of contemporary social movements that will take place in cyberspace in an era characterized by a struggle over information in a virtual world. Because social movements are no longer primarily defined by traditional media outlets, Anonymous shows how protesters can determine their own aesthetic reality. The chronotopes that emerge speak to the movement's ability to expand social movement theory as both a public and private operation, functioning outside of state suppression tactics and normative restraints. As the chronotopes become recognizable by the public, Anonymous gains leverage in defining its own genre of social movements. Anonymous is a performance without a distinct beginning and end, but operates as an evolving ideological position. The visual realities that emerge into the material world may provide further insight into how the state will allow (or disallow) social movements to occur.</p>