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<p>  </p> <p>My dissertation seeks ways that data systems can be constructed differently in order to focus on improving outcomes for marginalized and vulnerable populations. The cases I study in my dissertation all represent different stakeholders in and types of engagement with crime, violence, and policing in the United States. The three cases are the FBI's crime data system and especially their newer NIBRS and CDE (National Incident Based Reporting System and Crime Data Explorer, respectively) interfaces, the <em>Washington Post</em>'s Fatal Force police brutality database project, and the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI)'s <em>Our Bodies, Our Stories</em> reports on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis. The three cases scaffold onto one another to create a deeply contextual, well-rounded picture of crime data rhetorics. Each case is unique and distinct, but also overlaps onto the other two cases; the UIHI reports, for instance, are an example of community-focused data activism like Fatal Force, but they also co-opt institutional data systems similar to the FBI's database. Similarly, the Fatal Force database explicitly engages issues of social justice and names a gap in institutional reporting; in so doing, Fatal Force includes community reporting and allows private citizens to submit tips, but it also draws on official institutional data as part of its sources. And as a case of institutional data practices that collect crime data from across the country, the FBI's NIBRS case sets up standards that Fatal Force and the UIHI reports look to work both with and against.</p> <p>I describe the methodology I pilot in this study: unblackboxing. I first put unblackboxing in context with current conversations in science and technology studies, information studies, critical data studies, and rhetoric and technical communication. I emphasize the importance of narratives, whether explicit, implicit, or cultural, to unblackboxing, especially when data is the object of study. Then, I enumerate key principles of unblackboxing and offer a heuristic for adapting unblackboxing to studying data systems. This approach helps researchers meet a system on its own terms and work with it rhetorically rather than trying a one-size-fits-all approach. Finally, I describe how I applied unblackboxing in my dissertation research and adapted my preliminary work on unblackboxing in order to study each system fairly and responsibly.</p> <p>Ultimately, I find that each data system is responsive to unique needs and challenges of that system. Strategies that work to make data easier for users to understand in cases like Fatal Force aren’t options in cases like FBI crime data, where the sheer scale of data means relying on automated data visualization that introduces error and uncertainty. But by keeping ethical principles of user-centered design and data justice in mind, I argue, designers and technical communicators can continue to make strides in using data to communicate ethically and effectively.</p>

This thesis is an exploration of how the communication of technical information can be facilitated by practices of collaborative media. While focusing on the domain of bicycles and more specifically on hobbyists working on their bikes, the aim of this study has been to show possible directions for the design of collaborative media for hands-on kind of work environments in general. Two design experiments were carried out in the process. While the first one attempts to connect local work with global resources, the second experiment is more deeply connected to an existing local community of bike enthusiasts and their practices of learning and knowing. Through carrying out the two design experiments, an argument was made that involving existing social structures into collaborative media design solutions is crucial due to the fact that these existing resources are deeply connected to practices of learning and knowing. However, more work needs to be done to generate more detailed solutions for different domains.

This study’s main focus is people’s experience of telepresence (or presence for short) —where the roles of technology are misperceived by media users in various ways, such as the illusion of “being there” in a mediated environment. Although over 2000 articles have examined telepresence and nearly all of research studies about telepresence have been conducted in labs by controlling and measuring the effects of different factors, with few examining it from the perspective of people’s experiences in their daily lives. Following Lombard and Sun’s (2014) (my previous study with Lombard) study of people’s presence experience outside the lab, this study used the combined results of a survey and an interview (n = 36) to explore participants’ lived experiences of presence. Participants offered basic information about them and their experience of presence in the survey; and talked about any experience of presence in their lives and specifically talk more details about their recent experience during the interviews. This study found when, where, with what kind of media, and in what situation people are more likely to have the experience of presence, and explored what elements could contribute to people’s experiences of different types of presence. The results of this study noted aftereffects of presence experiences, which means the effects presence has after people’s mediated experiences are over. These results were new findings to the study of presence outside the labs. Moreover, this study also demonstrated the value of Lombard and Sun’s (2014) survey and found two questions in the survey that could be improved. / Media Studies & Production

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary work that explores the intersection of humanities and technical communication by focusing on the presence and impact of software company workplace bias in technical professional communication. It focuses on workplace bias in technical communication because, when present, bias can impact the experiences that technical communicators and end-users (people who use the software) have with the software. This mixed-methods study consists of a survey, an interview, and a new diagram designed to help technical communicators mitigate biases in technical documentation. To understand better the presence and impact of bias in these workplace contexts, this study surveys and interviews technical communication professionals (TCPs) with software industry work experience. First, I introduce key relationships and terms that connect the software industry to technical communication, discuss the significance of workplace bias in technical communication, and provide an overview of the study, including its research questions, research methods, and design. Next, I present background based on a literature review, including defining and presenting workplace bias issues in the software industry and technical communication field. I also present intersectional feminism as the theoretical framework. Thereafter, I detail research methods, which include the mixed-methods design, strategies for a feminist research approach, and a detailed explanation of the survey and interview design. Next, I present survey and interview results and discuss implications from professional and scholarly technical communication lenses. Finally, I draw conclusions about workplace biases based not only on survey and interview data but also by discussing new intersectional themes that offer new bias-based perspectives and legitimize issues of intersectional feminism and social justice in technical communication.