Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies

Bonnie Brennen — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:13:22 PDT

This book introduces the essential qualitative methods used in media research, with an emphasis on integrating theory with practice. Each method is introduced through step-by-step instruction on conducting research and interpreting research findings, alongside in-depth discussions of the historical, cultural, and theoretical context of the particular method and case studies drawn from published scholarship. This text is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to qualitative methods, ideal for media and mass communication research courses.

Saving Disney: Activating Publics through the Internet

Sarah Bonewits Feldner et al. — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:01:18 PDT

Intercultural New Media Studies: The Next Frontier in intercultural Communication

Robert Shuter — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:58:50 PST

New media (ICT's) are transforming communication across cultures. Despite this revolution in cross cultural contact, communication researchers have largely ignored the impact of new media on intercultural communication. This groundbreaking article defines the parameters of a new field of inquiry called Intercultural New Media Studies (INMS), which explores the intersection between ICT's and intercultural communication. Composed of two research areas—(1) new media and intercultural communication theory and (2) culture and new media—INMS investigates new digital theories of intercultural contact as well as refines and expands twentieth-century intercultural communication theories, examining their salience in a digital world. INMS promises to increase our understanding of intercultural communication in a new media age and is the next frontier in intercultural communication.

Symposium on Indigenous Scholarship: The Centrality of Culture and Indigenous Values

Robert Shuter — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:08:20 PST

The trend of globalization has led to a strong demand for the culture-specific or emic approach in scholarly research. It is the purpose of this paper to provide an opportunity for scholars to have their voices on the issues of indigenous scholarship. The paper consists of four essays examining the theme from four aspects, namely, the centrality of culture and communication, the Asiacentric communication paradigm, the development of Chinese communication theories, and an indigenous view of the study of resilience. It is hoped that the paper will contribute to the better understanding of indigenous scholarship and further provide a possible direction for the future investigation in this line of research.

Research and Pedagogy in Intercultural New Media Studies

Robert Shuter — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:33:07 PST

New media are ubiquitous, changing the landscape of intercultural communication. Intercultural new media studies (INMS), first introduced and conceptualized by Robert Shuter in 2012 in his article in the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, is an exciting new field of study which explores intercultural and international communication in a digital age. It promises to contemporize existing intercultural communication theories by exploring their relevance and salience in a mediated world. INMS also offers the prospect of developing 21st century theories of intercultural communication that include new media platforms. Finally, by exploring the relationship between culture and new media, intercultural new media studies details how culture affects the social uses of new media, and how new media affects culture. This article, and the nine studies in this special issue, are an important step in further developing intercultural new media studies and realizing its’ promise. [China Media Research. 2012; 8(4): 1-5]

The World is a…Network: Social Media and Cause Networks in the Girl Effect Movement

Kati Tusinski Berg et al. — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:46:59 PST

A Different Kind of Inter-Media Agenda Setting: How Campaign Ads and Presidential Debates Influenced the Blogosphere in the 2008 U.S. Campaign

Sumana Chattopadhyay et al. — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:04:25 PST

Weaving Your Way Through the Creative Labyrinth: Words of Wisdom from Professionals

Jean Grow — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:00:46 PST

Creative departments within advertising agencies have long been a Boys Club with women making up about 25% of the staffs within creative departments. Women are also underrepresented in the creative awards given such as One Show Pencils and Cannes Lions among others as well as on the judging panels who bestow these awards. Yet women make 80%-85% of all consumption decisions. There seems an obvious disconnect. This special topics session included four top creative directors -- two women and two men -- from Minneapolis advertising agencies whose work encompassed a broad range of national accounts including Burger King, BMW Mini, Snickers, 3M, American Express and ESPN. Panelists began by telling their stories of how they got their first advertising job and those who mentored them, then the conversation segued to empathy as a way of creating better advertising, issues within creative departments and advertising in general.

Adopting an Attitude of Wisdom in Organizational Rhetorical Theory and Practice: Contemplating the Ideal and the Real

Rebecca J. Meisenbach et al. — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:33:56 PDT

Research and practice in external rhetoric often fall short of ideals both in terms of widespread use of a rhetorical perspective and in achieving dialogic conditions in the public sphere. In this response, the authors consider potential explanations for this shortfall, focusing on challenges that exist on a theoretical level within organizational rhetoric scholarship and on a practical level as individuals and organizations interact.

Business-to-Business Media Selection

Kyle Krueger et al. — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 10:53:33 PDT

Business-to-business advertising media selection consists of analyzing and selecting the appropriate media and vehicles for reaching workplace-based prospects. The analysis is based on quantitative factors such as cost efficiency, and qualitative factors such as the appropriateness of the vehicle's editorial environment for the product or service being marketed.

Effective Family Communication and Job Loss: Crafting the Narrative for Family Crisis

Lynn H. Turner — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:51:09 PDT

Censorship Inc.: The Corporate Threat to Free Speech in the United States

Lawrence Soley — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:03:11 PDT

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is a landmark in the defense of free speech against government interference and suppression. This book shows it also acts as a smokescreen behind which a more dangerous and insidious threat to free speech is at work. Soley shows how as corporate power has grown and come to influence the issues on which ordinary Americans should be able to speak out, new strategies have developed to restrict free speech on issues in which corporations and property-owners have an interest. From the tobacco industry’s attempts to prevent information about the effects of smoking on health from becoming public to corporate lawyers advising tire manufacturers not to disclose that their products are causing death on the roads, what are often seen as legitimate business practices constantly narrows our right to free speech. Censorship, Inc. is a comprehensive examination of the vast array of corporate practices which restrict free speech in the United States today. Soley gives a systematic and detailed account of the legal processes that enable corporate censorship to continue or be halted in fields as diverse as advertising and the media, the workplace, community life, and the environment. He also shows how these threats to free speech have been resisted by activism, legal argument, and through legislation. Grounded in extensive research into actual cases, this book is at the same time a challenge to conventional thinking about the nature of censorship and free speech that points the way towards a recovery of essential rights of citizenship.

Voices About Choices: The Role of Female Networks in Affirming Life Choices in the Academy

Karrin Vasby Anderson et al. — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:20:27 PDT

This essay addresses the topic of women's professional development in the academy, noting the critical roles fulfilled by support networks. Research and personal narratives explore the diverse choices women make, the resistance they sometimes face, and the need to find validation for those choices. Recognizing the importance of women's achievement of tenure and publication, the authors also challenge the notion that those traditional measures of academic success are the only, or the best, way to assess women's professional development.

Finding Connections Between Lobbying, Public Relations and Advocacy

Kati Tusinski Berg — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:06:04 PDT

This study begins to connect our understanding of lobbying and public relations as communication activities. A survey of 222 registered lobbyists in Oregon reveals the range of communication activities in which they are engaged, as well as the range of organizations on whose behalf they lobby, and their description of their occupational role. Findings suggest that many lobbyists, like many public relations professionals, do think about their role as a form of advocacy. I then conclude by noting some of the contradictions and limitations of using the term advocacy as a way of describing the communication activities.

Sports Public Relations

Tom Isaacson — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 08:56:23 PDT

Advertising Media Selection

Lawrence Soley — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:11:52 PDT

Advertising media planning is part of the media planning process. It consists of selecting the appropriate media and vehicles that will carry the campaign advertisements. The decision making involved in media planning is quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative decisions include analyzing the vehicles' delivery to the target market and determining the cost efficiency of particular media and vehicles. Qualitative decisions include looking at the appropriateness of a vehicle's editorial environment for the product being advertised, and the attentiveness of prospects to that vehicle.

Vanishing Acts: Creative Women in Spain and the United States

Jean Grow et al. — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:41:56 PDT

This exploratory cross-cultural study examines the experiences of women in advertising creative departments in Spain and the United States. The study, an exploration of the creative environment and its impact on female creatives, is framed by Hofstede’s dimensional model of national culture (Hofstede 2001; de Mooij & Hofstede 2010) and signalling theory (Spence 1974). Interviews with 35 top female creatives suggest that the challenges women face are rooted in the ‘fraternity culture’ or ‘territorio de chicos’ of creative departments in both countries. The data further suggest that the gender-bound cultural environment of advertising creative departments may be a global phenomenon, one that may adversely affect the creative process and impact women’s upward mobility.

Finding a Home for Communication Technologies

Craig R. Scott et al. — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:01:51 PDT

Censored on Final Approach

Phyllis Ravel — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:34:47 PDT

During World War II a select number of female pilots were selected to serve as WASPs, Women Air Service Pilots. They were not embraced by their male counterparts and struggled for acceptance daily. After the war, four WASPs meet to reminisce about their challenges and successes. The conversation soon shifts to a redacted report about a fellow pilot who was killed while trying to land her aircraft. What really happened? Someone knows the truth. Censored on Final Approach journeys into a time and place often left out of the history books.

Nike Women’s Advertising: A Matter of Principle

Jean Grow — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:23:06 PDT