Current Search: Vie, Stephanie (x)
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- Title
- Ok, Ladies, Now Let's Get Information: Recognizing Moments of Rhetorical Identification in Beyonc(&)#233;'s Digital Activism.
- Creator
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Arban, Garrett, Jones, Natasha, Vie, Stephanie, Wheeler, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This research seeks to understand how activists are encouraging audiences to identify with their work in digital spaces through a case study of Beyonc(&)#233; Knowles-Carter's activism. The current scholarship surrounding digital activism is extensive and has offered a detailed look at individual tools used in activist movements, but there is a lack of research that recognizes the complex network of tools that are often used by an activist or activist group. To address this gap in the...
Show moreThis research seeks to understand how activists are encouraging audiences to identify with their work in digital spaces through a case study of Beyonc(&)#233; Knowles-Carter's activism. The current scholarship surrounding digital activism is extensive and has offered a detailed look at individual tools used in activist movements, but there is a lack of research that recognizes the complex network of tools that are often used by an activist or activist group. To address this gap in the research, this thesis offers an analysis of three specific activist tools used by Beyonc(&)#233; to encourage her fans and other audiences to identify with and participate in her activism. This study investigates the methods Beyonc(&)#233; employs to get her multiple audiences informed and engaged through an analysis of her activist blog, the (")Formation(") music video, and her live performance during the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to assess, from a rhetorical standpoint, how Beyonc(&)#233; is inviting her audiences to respond and become engaged.The analysis of these three activist tools utilizes qualitative data analysis, focusing on Burke's (1969) concept of rhetorical identification to understand how her activist messages are presented across mediums. To expand on the findings of this analysis, a reception study on Beyonc(&)#233;'s (")Formation(") music video and 2016 Super Bowl performance was conducted to gauge the success of her rhetorical methods. The findings of this study recognize the need to continue looking at the multiple tools used by activists to understand the complexity of their rhetorical work online. This study also provides methods for analyzing the intertextual nature of digital activism so that further research can be done. While this study begins to address the gap in the current scholarship, more research needs to be done to study the current rhetorical practices of digital activists.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006557, ucf:51344
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006557
- Title
- The Resonance and Residue of the First African American Newspaper: How Freedom's Journal Created Space in the Early 19th Century.
- Creator
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Kasper, Valerie, French, Scot, Vie, Stephanie, Grajeda, Anthony, Voss, Kimberly, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The first African American newspaper, Freedom's Journal, has a historical, rhetorical, and spatial purpose. It not only showed the impact made by African Americans in the fight for their civil rights in the early 19th century, but as an artifact it illustrated and preserved that history allowing it to be studied centuries after the newspaper ceased printing. The purpose of The Resonance and Residue of the First African American Newspaper: How Freedom's Journal Created Space in the Early 19th...
Show moreThe first African American newspaper, Freedom's Journal, has a historical, rhetorical, and spatial purpose. It not only showed the impact made by African Americans in the fight for their civil rights in the early 19th century, but as an artifact it illustrated and preserved that history allowing it to be studied centuries after the newspaper ceased printing. The purpose of The Resonance and Residue of the First African American Newspaper: How Freedom's Journal Created Space in the Early 19th Century is to provide an interdisciplinary approach to historical newspapers that illustrates an alternative history in this country (-) a history of and by African Americans. By combining both print and digital research methods, new historical, rhetorical, and spatial information can be discovered that illustrates how the first African American newspaper fought against the influences of white society in the early 19th century and created a space for the black community that became meaningful enough to transform America into a place in which African Americans identified as Americans. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to combine traditional research and close reading with digital analysis (machine reading) by using different digital tools to illustrate how Freedom's Journal used text to combat the influences/powers that were shaping the early 19th century, and create a new and different type of historical narrative about how one oppressed community was successfully able to fight another dominant community through the use of text.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007028, ucf:52034
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007028
- Title
- Moving Towards a Dialogic Pedagogy: Using Video Feedback as a Teaching Tool to Respond to Writing across Disciplines.
- Creator
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Martin, Paul, Vie, Stephanie, Brenckle, Martha, Roozen, Kevin, Kitalong, Karla, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This study examined the impact of video feedback (VF) as a teaching tool for responding to writing activities and assignments across disciplines and whether or not VF can help instructors facilitate dialogic exchanges between students and teachers. I conducted three case studies with three different instructors from three different disciplines: psychology, history, and nanoscience. To determine the potential of video feedback to facilitate dialogic pedagogies, this dissertation examined the...
Show moreThis study examined the impact of video feedback (VF) as a teaching tool for responding to writing activities and assignments across disciplines and whether or not VF can help instructors facilitate dialogic exchanges between students and teachers. I conducted three case studies with three different instructors from three different disciplines: psychology, history, and nanoscience. To determine the potential of video feedback to facilitate dialogic pedagogies, this dissertation examined the presence of transformational leadership theory (Parkin, 2017), the voices of teaching and learning (Collison et al., 2001), and gesture theory (Bavelas et al., 2014; Pera?kyla? (&) Ruusuvuori, 2008) for the paralinguistic activity in the VF content to determine if the presence of these theories position students as what Buber (1965) referred to as a (")Thou(") and dismantle the authoritative discourses (Bakhtin, 1994) in higher education that hinder learning. This dissertation found that teachers experienced meta-reflection and self-dialogue from making videos, which is dialogic. This study also found that instructors can facilitate dialogic exchanges that undermine authoritative discourses if they can utilize their paralinguistic activity that video affords them. This study also revealed that using VF requires overcoming a significant learning curve, and that Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) can help teachers improve how they negotiate feedback variables like the assignment, discipline, pedagogy, and learning outcome that can lead to dialogic feedback.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007497, ucf:52650
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007497
- Title
- Meeting Student, Instructor, and Institutional Expectations in Online Writing Courses.
- Creator
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Proulx, Emily, Vie, Stephanie, Rounsaville, Angela, Hall, Mark, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Research in online writing instruction often focuses on student perceptions of learning and best practices of online pedagogy (Boyd, 2008; Dziuban, Moska, Kramer, (&) Thompson, 2013; Hewett (&) Warnock, 2015; Pigg (&) Morrison, 2016; Roby, Ashe, Singh, (&) Clark, 2013; Warnock, 2009). At the University of Central Florida, online learning research is especially important due to the increasing volume of both online and hybrid courses across the university (which is itself in response to...
Show moreResearch in online writing instruction often focuses on student perceptions of learning and best practices of online pedagogy (Boyd, 2008; Dziuban, Moska, Kramer, (&) Thompson, 2013; Hewett (&) Warnock, 2015; Pigg (&) Morrison, 2016; Roby, Ashe, Singh, (&) Clark, 2013; Warnock, 2009). At the University of Central Florida, online learning research is especially important due to the increasing volume of both online and hybrid courses across the university (which is itself in response to increasing numbers of students enrolling but limited classroom space with which to teach). The current push from many university administrators for increased enrollment in online classes focuses on access and convenience; however, there is not as much of a conversation asking if the learning in the class is affected by the online course, or the different avenues for learning that these courses present. In this study, I noted that while scholarship discussed students', teachers', and institutions' roles in online courses, there was a lack of alignment in those areas.To investigate this lack of alignment, I interviewed four students enrolled in online courses and three instructors currently teaching online courses through the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Central Florida. Through a grounded theory analysis (Charmaz, 2006; Strauss (&) Corbin, 1998), I identified areas of agreement and dissonance in both the creation of and implementation of online courses. Overall, students and instructors seemed to focus both their positive and negative perceptions and expectations around discussions as sites of learning, expectations of time/effort, feedback, and classroom community. These are common sites of benefits and disadvantages of online writing courses, which make this investigation important to the continuing conversation of how we better align our perceptions and expectations to improve student learning in online writing courses.The conclusions from this study address the importance and difficulty of transparency in online courses and the need for consistency across the institution, the instructors, and the students. This research provides suggestions for implementing the findings of this research at the classroom and department levels.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006644, ucf:51255
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006644
- Title
- The User Experience of Disney Infinity: Do Smart Toys Matter?.
- Creator
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Welch, Shelly, Smith, Peter, McDaniel, Rudy, Vie, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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?This study investigated what factors come into play when looking at the user experience involved with the commercial video game Disney Infinity (2.0 Edition), and sought to determine if the unique combination between sandbox and smart toy based gameplay present in gameplay offers an additional level of immersion.This study analyzed the effect of Disney Infinity (2.0 Edition) on immersion utilizing a Game Immersion Questionnaire modified to analyze play preference as well as video game...
Show more?This study investigated what factors come into play when looking at the user experience involved with the commercial video game Disney Infinity (2.0 Edition), and sought to determine if the unique combination between sandbox and smart toy based gameplay present in gameplay offers an additional level of immersion.This study analyzed the effect of Disney Infinity (2.0 Edition) on immersion utilizing a Game Immersion Questionnaire modified to analyze play preference as well as video game experience. The study methodology analyzed 48 users while playing in (")Toy Box(") mode both with and without the associated smart toys, or Disney characters.Results show that while there was no significant difference in immersion for either group, nor were there any significant correlations between variables, there was a preference for playing the game with the associated smart toys in both groups. Recommendations were made for continued research building on modifications to this study as well as future research exploring the potential for smart toys in other areas.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005904, ucf:50890
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005904
- Title
- Applying the Technology Acceptance Model to Predict and Explain Elementary and Secondary Preservice Teachers' Continuance Behavioral Intentions and Pedagogical Usage of Twitter to build Professional Capital: A Structural Equation Modeling Inquiry.
- Creator
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Gurjar, Nandita, Sivo, Stephen, Roberts, Sherron, Xu, Lihua, Vie, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The purpose of this research study was to predict and explain elementary and secondary preservice teachers' continuance behavioral intentions and pedagogical usage of Twitter, a web based social networking, microblogging platform, to build professional growth and capital. The objective of the research study was to examine preservice teachers' beliefs associated with the specified constructs that formed the latent variables of the hypothesized research model; these latent variables were then...
Show moreThe purpose of this research study was to predict and explain elementary and secondary preservice teachers' continuance behavioral intentions and pedagogical usage of Twitter, a web based social networking, microblogging platform, to build professional growth and capital. The objective of the research study was to examine preservice teachers' beliefs associated with the specified constructs that formed the latent variables of the hypothesized research model; these latent variables were then measured with their associated indicators or manifest variables, and the relationship between the manifest variables was examined through the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) process. A non-experimental empirical research study was conducted using the survey methodology; purposive, criterion referenced, sampling of elementary and secondary preservice teachers, N=379, was employed using social media platforms and intern listserv at a large Southeastern university. The final sample of N= 250 participants was determined through the process of regression imputation of elementary and secondary preservice teachers' survey responses. The results demonstrated that constructs of the extended Technology Acceptance Model showed significant goodness-of-fit indices and coefficients of determination after analyzing the data from the survey. Implications of this research contribute significantly toward teacher education and training by providing insights into the factors that impact the pedagogical use of Twitter, a web-based social networking and microblogging platform, for building professional capital in preservice teachers.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006314, ucf:51551
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006314
- Title
- Learning Spaces are WAC: Investigating How Classroom Space Design Influences Student Disciplinary Identities.
- Creator
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Berry, Landon, Zemliansky, Pavel, Vie, Stephanie, Bowdon, Melody, Pigg, Stacey, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation used classroom observations, movement mapping, instructor interviews, and student focus groups to examine the ways in which both instructors and students navigated the classroom spaces they were assigned in upper-level, discipline-specific courses. By focusing on three diverse disciplines (writing and rhetoric, education, and chemistry), this dissertation makes arguments about how the design of classroom spaces (as well as the tools that are housed therein) support,...
Show moreThis dissertation used classroom observations, movement mapping, instructor interviews, and student focus groups to examine the ways in which both instructors and students navigated the classroom spaces they were assigned in upper-level, discipline-specific courses. By focusing on three diverse disciplines (writing and rhetoric, education, and chemistry), this dissertation makes arguments about how the design of classroom spaces (as well as the tools that are housed therein) support, facilitate, and detract from a student's ability to develop a disciplinary identity, which is defined here as the social and linguistic construction of a practitioner of a discipline that is shaped by the language, positions, and peer acknowledgement negotiated by that discipline. Moreover, this dissertation also makes arguments about how tools that are common across many disciplines (desktops, chairs, etc.) support or detract from student engagement. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that teachers across disciplines can be mindful of the spaces they are assigned (even if those spaces were perhaps not designed with disciplinary goals in mind) in an effort to help students begin to think of those spaces as extensions of their discipline so they can better imagine themselves as future professionals in those spaces.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0006977, ucf:51651
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006977
- Title
- Celebrities, Fans, and Queering Gender Norms: A Critical Examination of Lady Gaga's, Nicki Minaj's, and Fans' Use of Instagram.
- Creator
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Dieterle, Brandy, Vie, Stephanie, Brenckle, Martha, Salter, Anastasia, Pigg, Stacey, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation used queer rhetoric as a lens for studying queering gender norms on Instagram by using Lady Gaga's, Nicki Minaj's, and fan posts as case studies. The research considers how celebrities may use social media, like Instagram, for queering gender norms, and what this might look like. This research also aimed to better understand if and how fans may take up celebrities' efforts at queering gender norms and, in turn, queer gender norms in their own Instagram posts where they tag...
Show moreThis dissertation used queer rhetoric as a lens for studying queering gender norms on Instagram by using Lady Gaga's, Nicki Minaj's, and fan posts as case studies. The research considers how celebrities may use social media, like Instagram, for queering gender norms, and what this might look like. This research also aimed to better understand if and how fans may take up celebrities' efforts at queering gender norms and, in turn, queer gender norms in their own Instagram posts where they tag Gaga or Minaj. To conduct this research, I took a multimodal methodological approach and collected and coded 1,000 posts from Gaga and Minaj, respectively, and 1,000 posts that used the hashtag Gaga and another 1,000 posts that used the hashtag Minaj. My findings suggested that Gaga and Minaj do not engage in the queering of gender norms as frequently as anticipated, and when they do it is often in relation to their public, staged performances as musicians. Furthermore, Gaga also spoke on issues relating to gender and marriage equality whereas Minaj also spoke on issues relating to racial equality. The data collected on fans was inconclusive in part because of the large number of spam posts and also because, without interviewing fans, it was difficult to discern whether they were taking up celebrity messages in their posts given information shared in the photo and in the caption. However, I was able to note that, most often, fans were engaging with celebrities by expressing admiration. This research is useful for considering how gender performance manifests on Instagram, and possible ways celebrities can utilize Instagram to queer gender norms as well as promote other messages. With regard to fan posts, I argue for continued research in ways to support fans becoming critical rather than passive consumers of celebrity culture.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0006996, ucf:51623
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006996
- Title
- Wounded Warrior or War Hero? Or Maybe, Neither?: Resisting Common Tropes of the Veteran and Developing Digital Literacy Practices via Narrative Building and Identity Presentation in Social Networking Spaces.
- Creator
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Branham, Cassandra, Vie, Stephanie, Rounsaville, Angela, Salter, Anastasia, Grohowski, Mariana, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This project reports on the results of a study that investigated the social networking use of student and non-student veterans, with a particular focus on the narrative building and identity presentation practices involved in this use. In this dissertation, I argue that stereotypical and exclusionary tropes of the veteran, such as the veteran as war hero and the veteran as wounded warrior, are damaging to our veterans and to others, in both the society and the classroom. However, through the...
Show moreThis project reports on the results of a study that investigated the social networking use of student and non-student veterans, with a particular focus on the narrative building and identity presentation practices involved in this use. In this dissertation, I argue that stereotypical and exclusionary tropes of the veteran, such as the veteran as war hero and the veteran as wounded warrior, are damaging to our veterans and to others, in both the society and the classroom. However, through the detailed analysis of survey data and data collected from an interview and social networking profile tour with one student veteran participant, I highlight the exclusionary nature of these tropes and argue that the complex digital narratives crafted in social networking spaces can offer resistance to popular tropes of the veteran. The complexity of my participants' digital narratives also offers support for the argument that elements of one's social networking profiles, when viewed independently and decontextualized, can lead to invalid and unfair assumptions about the users' identity. Additionally, I argue that, for my participants, many of whom demonstrated a nuanced and critical understanding of audience, decisions to self-identify as military personnel in social networking spaces are intertwined with perceptions of privacy. Finally, this project culminates in the identification of a number of digital literacy practices present in my participants' social networking use, as well as a set of pedagogical and programmatic recommendations for writing teachers and writing program administrators interested in aiding student veterans in the process of transition and reintegration.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006268, ucf:51030
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006268
- Title
- Exploring Repurposing Across Contexts: How Adolescents' New Literacies Practices Can Inform Understandings about Writing-Related Transfer.
- Creator
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Mitchell, Cynthia, Wardle, Elizabeth, Rounsaville, Angela, Vie, Stephanie, Scanlon, Elizabeth, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This project examines how middle school students engage in new literacies practices and how they repurpose across contexts. With the use of screencast software and interviews, this project analyzes six case study participants' new literacies practices and the way they use and change ideas and strategies across physical and digital contexts.Drawing from transfer methodology, this project looks at how broadening conceptions of transfer and contexts to include repurposing increases the...
Show moreThis project examines how middle school students engage in new literacies practices and how they repurpose across contexts. With the use of screencast software and interviews, this project analyzes six case study participants' new literacies practices and the way they use and change ideas and strategies across physical and digital contexts.Drawing from transfer methodology, this project looks at how broadening conceptions of transfer and contexts to include repurposing increases the possibilities for finding transfer in literacies practices. Applying new literacies theory, this project explores how literacies practices that are chronologically and ontologically new (Lankshear (&) Knobel, 2006) are often repurposed across contexts. In addition, employing rhetorical invention and arrangement theories, this project examines how contemporary invention is repurposing and how arrangement aids in meaning making in new literacies practices. It also explores concerns over increased repurposing across collapsed contexts for literacies.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006145, ucf:51160
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006145
- Title
- Understanding the Role of Resources in Writing Center Tutoring Sessions.
- Creator
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Lambert, Megan, Hall, Mark, Vie, Stephanie, Roozen, Kevin, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This research examines the use of writing resources in tutoring sessions, which is considered one of the valued tutoring practices at the University Writing Center (UWC) at the University of Central Florida (UCF). This research explains the methodology and presents the findings of a study that serves as a partial answer to the call for more evidence-based research in the field of writing center studies. There is scholarship that explains the importance of using resources to facilitate...
Show moreThis research examines the use of writing resources in tutoring sessions, which is considered one of the valued tutoring practices at the University Writing Center (UWC) at the University of Central Florida (UCF). This research explains the methodology and presents the findings of a study that serves as a partial answer to the call for more evidence-based research in the field of writing center studies. There is scholarship that explains the importance of using resources to facilitate learning, but there is a lack of empirical research that explores the patterns and variations in the resources that writing tutors use, the ways they are implemented in tutoring sessions, and the effects of the moves tutors and writers make involving resources.To address this gap in the research, the researcher developed a study of tutoring sessions in the UCF UWC to explore the role of writing resources as they are used to mediate activity in tutoring sessions. This research investigates the relationship between the use of resources by the tutor and/or the writer and the impact this has on the facilitation of the writer's learning during the consultation. To gain insight into these areas of interest, tutoring sessions were video recorded and follow-up interviews were conducted with the participants to gain insight into the choices made involving resources and the resultant consequences. This research demonstrates the potential of writing resources to contribute to the collaborative knowledge development processes that happen in tutoring sessions to address writing concerns. This study also provides insight into the control that tutors have over the distribution of knowledge in the way that they implement resources into the tutoring session. What we can learn from these findings is a step toward developing a more evidence-based practice in the writing center.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005644, ucf:50176
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005644
- Title
- Composing the Classroom, Constructing Hybridity: Writing Technology in(to) First-Year Composition Course Design.
- Creator
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Friend, Christopher, Vie, Stephanie, Wardle, Elizabeth, Scott, Blake, Stommel, Jesse, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Online education has received excessive attention in recent decades as its characteristics and potential have undergone intense debate and scrutiny. Similar debate and scrutiny surround the content of first-year composition (FYC) courses. As we continue to define what composition studies entails, we redefine what we study in FYC. Yet discussions of blended delivery mode---using both online and on-ground teaching methods---get lost amid these debates. This dissertation addresses the dearth of...
Show moreOnline education has received excessive attention in recent decades as its characteristics and potential have undergone intense debate and scrutiny. Similar debate and scrutiny surround the content of first-year composition (FYC) courses. As we continue to define what composition studies entails, we redefine what we study in FYC. Yet discussions of blended delivery mode---using both online and on-ground teaching methods---get lost amid these debates. This dissertation addresses the dearth of research on blended online writing instruction by asserting the essential nature of connections between the content and the delivery of FYC courses.Through case studies of two experienced instructors teaching FYC in a blended environment for the first time, this dissertation evaluates the composition(-)both as a noun and as a verb(-)of FYC courses in light of the technology involved. Through an analysis of interviews with instructors, students, and faculty involved with FYC, I highlight the points of contact(-)the interfaces(-)that themselves create the experience of a class. This analysis applies interface theory from rhetoric and composition to the pedagogical acts of teaching FYC and reveals how attention to classroom interfaces can benefit our pedagogy.This project also incorporates student performance data (in the form of portfolio evaluations), student perception data (in the form of surveys), and comparative institutional data (in the form of website analysis) to better understand the varied causes, effects, and implementations of blended learning. By looking outside the classroom environment, I show how schools influence the way blended courses are perceived by those who create them. The differences in student and instructor expectations for this kind of class emerged as particularly influential in determining how successful a blended course can be.The perspective taken by an instructor in terms of experience and expertise also emerged as a significant determinant of perceived success, particularly for instructors themselves. This dissertation reveals the delicate balance instructors must navigate between relying on expertise in the field and exploring the course delivery as a novice. This balance allows instructors to be responsive, flexible, and dynamic in their classes while also assisting students in their efforts to better understand FYC course content.Overall, this dissertation defines and advocates for a hybrid approach to FYC instruction as an essential evolution of our pedagogical praxis. Students lead increasingly hybrid lives and learn in increasingly hybrid ways. Instructors must adopt hybridity in their classes to accommodate not only students' changing learning styles but also the changing nature of composition as a field and writing as its subject matter. And finally, institutions must consistently define and implement principles of hybridity to help reduce confusion and frustration across the disciplines. Suggestions for educators and institutions alike are provided to help meet the needs of today's students.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005332, ucf:50541
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005332
- Title
- Using Hashtags to Disambiguate Aboutness in Social Media Discourse: A Case Study of #OrlandoStrong.
- Creator
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DeArmas, Nicholas, Vie, Stephanie, Salter, Anastasia, Beever, Jonathan, Dodd, Melissa, Wheeler, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
While the field of writing studies has studied digital writing as a response to multiple calls for more research on digital forms of writing, research on hashtags has yet to build bridges between different disciplines' approaches to studying the uses and effects of hashtags. This dissertation builds that bridge in its interdisciplinary approach to the study of hashtags by focusing on how hashtags can be fully appreciated at the intersection of the fields of information research, linguistics,...
Show moreWhile the field of writing studies has studied digital writing as a response to multiple calls for more research on digital forms of writing, research on hashtags has yet to build bridges between different disciplines' approaches to studying the uses and effects of hashtags. This dissertation builds that bridge in its interdisciplinary approach to the study of hashtags by focusing on how hashtags can be fully appreciated at the intersection of the fields of information research, linguistics, rhetoric, ethics, writing studies, new media studies, and discourse studies. Hashtags are writing innovations that perform unique digital functions rhetorically while still hearkening back to functions of both print and oral rhetorical traditions. Hashtags function linguistically as indicators of semantic meaning; additionally, hashtags also perform the role of search queries on social media, retrieving texts that include the same hashtag. Information researchers refer to the relationship between a search query and its results using the term (")aboutness(") (Kehoe and Gee, 2011). By considering how hashtags have an aboutness, the humanities can call upon information research to better understand the digital aspects of the hashtag's search function. Especially when hashtags are used to organize discourse, aboutness has an effect on how a discourse community's agendas and goals are expressed, as well as framing what is relevant and irrelevant to the discourse. As digital activists increasingly use hashtags to organize and circulate the goals of their discourse communities, knowledge of ethical strategies for hashtag use will help to better preserve a relevant aboutness for their discourse while enabling them to better leverage their hashtag for circulation. In this dissertation, through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Twitter discourse that used #OrlandoStrong over the five-month period before the first anniversary of the Pulse shooting, I trace how the #OrlandoStrong discourse community used innovative rhetorical strategies to combat irrelevant content from ambiguating their discourse space. In Chapter One, I acknowledge the call from scholars to study digital tools and briefly describe the history of the Pulse shooting, reflecting on non-digital texts that employed #OrlandoStrong as memorials in the Orlando area. In Chapter Two, I focus on the literature surrounding hashtags, discourse, aboutness, intertextuality, hashtag activism, and informational compositions. In Chapter Three, I provide an overview of the stages of grounded theory methodology and the implications of critical discourse analysis before I detail how I approached the collection, coding, and analysis of the #OrlandoStrong Tweets I studied. The results of my study are reported in Chapter Four, offering examples of Tweets that were important to understanding how the discourse space became ambiguous through the use of hashtags. In Chapter Five, I reflect on ethical approaches to understanding the consequences of hashtag use, and then I offer an ethical recommendation for hashtag use by hashtag activists. I conclude Chapter Five with an example of a classroom activity that allows students to use hashtags to better understand the relationship between aboutness, (dis)ambiguation, discourse communities, and ethics. This classroom activity is provided with the hope that instructors from different disciplines will be able to provide ethical recommendations to future activists who may benefit from these rhetorical strategies.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007322, ucf:52136
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007322
- Title
- Curating culture through social media in the 21st century: Orlando as a case study for arts participation and engagement among millennials.
- Creator
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Givoglu, Wendy, Applen, JD, McDaniel, Rudy, Vie, Stephanie, Krick, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The American non-profit arts sector is faced with challenges including shifting audience demographics, competition for patrons due to evolving new media and entertainment technologies, changes in donors, and the discontinuation of federal and state funding sources. Savvy arts organizations are rebooting for long-term sustainability and relevancy to their communities, while some organizations adhere to unchanged practices and modes of operation. Amidst the 21st century digital landscape, arts...
Show moreThe American non-profit arts sector is faced with challenges including shifting audience demographics, competition for patrons due to evolving new media and entertainment technologies, changes in donors, and the discontinuation of federal and state funding sources. Savvy arts organizations are rebooting for long-term sustainability and relevancy to their communities, while some organizations adhere to unchanged practices and modes of operation. Amidst the 21st century digital landscape, arts engagement that yields personal and community impact and sustainability for the future is indeed attainable. Characteristics of participatory culture and democratization rooted in emerging digital entertainment and social media communications technology, coupled with the power of the millennial generation, the first generation with access to digital technologies since birth, are two forces that can be non-profit arts organizations' biggest resources and are inherently a part of the arts. Using a mixed method approach, this project examines discourse surrounding arts engagement, focusing on the millennial generation, social media as a catalyst for potent arts participation, and Central Florida as a region demonstrating significant innovations and opportunities for growth in the arts. A survey was completed by Central Florida millennials, and with permission from Americans for the Arts, select questions replicated their 2016 National Arts Engagement survey, situating Central Florida alongside National data. Qualitatively, interviews were conducted with six executive directors of Central Florida non-profit arts organizations. Grounded theory practices yielded a synthesis of perspectives and strategic action plan for arts organizations to consider. Resulting recommendations for organizations seeking to further arts engagement with millennials via social media include: incorporating transmedia storytelling elements, considering how the arts convene and create around causes, programming with consideration of the life cycles and interests of millennials, considering diversity and cultural equity in the arts, and creating experiences that define engagement in the digital and physical worlds.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007460, ucf:52675
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007460
- Title
- Digital Citizenship Tools for Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum of Social Media Engagement and Participation-Scale Methodology.
- Creator
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Miller, Jennifer, Vie, Stephanie, Scott, Blake, Flammia, Madelyn, St. Amant, Kirk, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Digital Citizenship Tools for Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum of Social Media Engagement and Participation-Scale Methodology develops and applies two new tools for understanding, measuring, and recursively adjusting small to medium-size social media-based philanthropic campaigns to better foster participation and engagement(-)in other words, democratic digital citizenship. First, a theoretical model is offered broadening current binary conceptions of success and failure or impact...
Show moreDigital Citizenship Tools for Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum of Social Media Engagement and Participation-Scale Methodology develops and applies two new tools for understanding, measuring, and recursively adjusting small to medium-size social media-based philanthropic campaigns to better foster participation and engagement(-)in other words, democratic digital citizenship. First, a theoretical model is offered broadening current binary conceptions of success and failure or impact of campaigns, situating specific participant actions in social media on a spectrum. Then, from that model, a new methodology is provided to measure participation and engagement generated by campaign posts. Recommendations are also offered for recursively adjusting campaign posts to better foster democratic digital citizenship. These tools were developed from data generated by #TheFaceOffChallenge, a research project representative of a typical small to medium-size cause-based campaign. #TheFaceOffChallenge also serves as a sample for analysis illustrating how to use these tools. While explicating these tools, this dissertation explores a broad range of topics related to better understanding democratic digital citizenship: online philanthropy, awareness, and digital activism; viral and memetic transmission; tensions between consumption and creation of ideas, content, and knowledge; public(s), counterpublics, and counter-efforts; literacies and access for engagement and participation in algorithmic environments; and visual communication and semiotics.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007227, ucf:52214
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007227
- Title
- Making Waves, Mixing Colors, and Using Mirrors: The Self-Regulated Learning Support Features and Procedural Rhetoric of Three Whole-Body Educational Games.
- Creator
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Johnson, Emily, McDaniel, Rudy, Vie, Stephanie, Applen, John, Pigg, Stacey, Lindgren, Robb, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation investigates the question, (")How can the procedural rhetoric of three whole-body educational games improve the understanding of self-regulated learning with digital technology?(") It explores three whole-body educational games (WBEGs) using a quantitative study, a case study, and analyses of their procedural rhetoric to better understand the roles these types of games can have in teaching digital literacy and self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. The three WBEGs, Waves,...
Show moreThis dissertation investigates the question, (")How can the procedural rhetoric of three whole-body educational games improve the understanding of self-regulated learning with digital technology?(") It explores three whole-body educational games (WBEGs) using a quantitative study, a case study, and analyses of their procedural rhetoric to better understand the roles these types of games can have in teaching digital literacy and self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. The three WBEGs, Waves, Color Mixer, and Light and Mirrors, are each intended to teach science concepts to players. These games are similarly structured in that they all invite players to immerse themselves in the game by standing on the (")screen(") (the games project images on the floor). The WBEGs differ from traditional console video games because they receive input from players via motion-sensing technology, requiring players to make large movements with their bodies to influence elements within the game. This study explains SRL as a complex combination of internal (mental) behavior, external (observable) behavior, and interpersonal (social) behavior, identifying within three WBEGs the presence of elements supporting the SRL behaviors of goal setting, strategy planning, collaboration, progress monitoring, feedback, and reflection. These findings inform the understanding of SRL by revealing that each game includes a different combination of SRL-supporting elements that encourage the use of SRL skills in different ways. SRL scaffolding features are those elements within a WBEG that guide players to use certain SRL strategies, helping and supporting their efforts much like construction scaffolding supports a building as it is being erected. This dissertation also utilizes analyses of procedural rhetoric to investigate the techniques reinforced by the underlying structure of these three WBEGs in an effort to further the understanding of digital literacy in education and sociocultural contexts. All three WBEGs appear to emphasize player agency and collaboration. Waves and Light and Mirrors encourage player strategy, while Color Mixer rewards speed and rote knowledge. These reinforced techniques perpetuate the underlying cultural values of accuracy, collaboration, problem-solving, autonomy, and scaffolding. This study discusses these values in the contexts of education and society.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005959, ucf:50799
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005959
- Title
- The Effects of Narrative and Achievements on Learning in a 2D Platformer Video Game.
- Creator
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Fanfarelli, Joseph, McDaniel, Rudy, Smith, Peter, Bowers, Clint, Vie, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Game design is a rigorous practice rife with complexity. The design of learning games is similarly complex to the design of their entertainment-based relatives. This complexity is partially due to the many interacting components that comprise games. The impacts of these individual components are not well understood. Advancing the understanding of how such component parts contribute to the formed game will inform decisions related to their inclusion and subsequent design within games....
Show moreGame design is a rigorous practice rife with complexity. The design of learning games is similarly complex to the design of their entertainment-based relatives. This complexity is partially due to the many interacting components that comprise games. The impacts of these individual components are not well understood. Advancing the understanding of how such component parts contribute to the formed game will inform decisions related to their inclusion and subsequent design within games. Achievements and narrative are two such components. They have been examined within gamified systems, but little research has studied them within the context of a serious game. The interactions between such elements and other game elements could produce results that diverge from the results of their use in isolation of a complete gaming framework. This dissertation selectively incorporates or excludes narrative and achievements within a two-dimensional platformer serious game to understand their impact on learning, flow, engagement, narrative transportation, and intrinsic motivation. Conditions are examined individually as well as in a combined condition. A control condition is maintained for comparison. Results indicate that narrative and achievements were not effective in improving the effectiveness of the game. Potential causes are discussed in tandem with the implications for the design and integration within a gaming framework. While the manipulations did not improve effectiveness, the game was responsible for substantially increased knowledge acquisition, as determined by pre and posttest results.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005490, ucf:50341
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005490
- Title
- GAYME: The development, design and testing of an auto-ethnographic, documentary game about quarely wandering urban/suburban spaces in Central Florida.
- Creator
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Moran, David, Moshell, Jack, Santana, Maria, Kim, Si Jung, McDaniel, Thomas, Vie, Stephanie, Pugh, William, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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GAYME is a transmedia story-telling world that I have created to conceptually explore the dynamics of queering game design through the development of varying game prototypes. The final iteration of GAYME is @deadquarewalking*. It is a documentary game and a performance art installation that documents a carless, gay/queer/quare man's journey on Halloween to get to and from one of Orlando's most well-known gay clubs - the Parliament House Resort. "The art of cruising" city streets to seek out...
Show moreGAYME is a transmedia story-telling world that I have created to conceptually explore the dynamics of queering game design through the development of varying game prototypes. The final iteration of GAYME is @deadquarewalking*. It is a documentary game and a performance art installation that documents a carless, gay/queer/quare man's journey on Halloween to get to and from one of Orlando's most well-known gay clubs - the Parliament House Resort. "The art of cruising" city streets to seek out queer/quare companionship particularly amongst gay, male culture(s) is well-documented in densely, populated cities like New York, San Francisco and London, but not so much in car-centric, urban environments like Orlando that are less oriented towards pedestrians. Cruising has been and continues to be risky even in pedestrian-friendly cities but in Orlando cruising takes on a whole other dimension of danger. In 2011-2012, The Advocate magazine named Orlando one of the gayest cities in America (Breen, 2012). Transportation for America (2011) also named the Orlando metropolitan region the most dangerous city in the country for pedestrians. Living in Orlando without a car can be deadly as well as a significant barrier to connecting with other people, especially queer/quare people, because of Orlando's car-centric design. In Orlando, cars are sexy. At the same time, the increasing prevalence in gay, male culture(s) of geo-social, mobile phone applications using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and location aware services, such as Grindr (Grindr, LLC., 2009) and even FourSquare (Crowley and Selvadurai, 2009) and Instagram (Systrom and Krieger, 2010), is shifting the way gay/queer/quare Orlandoans co-create social and sexual networks both online and offline. Urban and sub-urban landscapes have transformed into hybrid "techno-scapes" overlaying "the electronic, the emotional and the social with the geographic and the physical" (Hjorth, 2011). With or without a car, gay men can still geo-socially cruise Orlando's car-centric, street life with mobile devices. As such emerging media has become more pervasive, it has created new opportunities to quarely visualize Orlando's "technoscape" through phone photography and hashtag metadata while also blurring lines between the artist and the curator, the player and the game designer.This project particularly has evolved to employ game design as an exhibition tool for the visualization of geo-social photography through hashtag play. Using hashtags as a game mechanic generates metadata that potentially identifies patterns of play and "ways of seeing" across player experiences as they attempt to make meaning of the images they encounter in the game. @deadquarewalking also demonstrates the potential of game design and geo-social, photo-sharing applications to illuminate new ways of documenting and witnessing the urban landscapes that we both collectively and uniquely inhabit.*In Irish culture, (")quare(") can mean (")very(") or (")extremely(") or it can be a spelling of the rural or Southern pronunciation of the word (")queer.(") Living in the American Southeast, I personally relate more to the term (")quare(") versus (")queer.(") Cultural theorist E. Patrick Johnson (2001) also argues for (")quareness(") as a way to question the subjective bias of whiteness in queer studies that risks discounting the lived experiences and material realities of people of color. Though I do not identify as a person of color and would be categorized as white or European American, (")quareness(") has an important critical application for considering how Orlando's urban design is intersectionally racialized, gendered and classed.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005214, ucf:50641
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005214