Completed Dissertations

Alumni Dissertation Titles and Committee Chairs

Discover the range of dissertation topics covered over the years by Klein College doctoral students who have earned their Media and Communication PhD. Titles are grouped by the decade in which they were published and listed in chronological order.

For more information, contact Brian Creech, associate dean for research and graduate studies. 
Phone: 215-204-1617
Email:

A student at Commencement.

Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg, CLA ’14

1970s

1977

Simonet, Thomas, 1977 (MMC)

Regression analysis of prior experiences of key production personnel as predictors of revenues from high-grossing motion pictures in American release. [Chair: Ken Harwood]

1978

Compaine, Benjamin M., 1978 (MMC)

The daily newspaper industry in the United States (1977): An analysis of trends in production technology, competition and ownership, economic structure, circulation, advertising, newsprint and labor. [Chair: Edward Trayes]

Schwartz, Stuart H., January 1978 (MMC)

A Q-study of the value structures and professionalism of 35 reporters, editors, and photographers from five daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. [Chair: Edward Trayes]

1979

Cook, Bruce, 1979

Understanding pictures in Papua New Guinea, 1975: An experiment comparing style and content in sociological, epistemological and cognitive context. [Chair: Ken Harwood]

Lashner, Marilyn A., 1979 (MMC)

The chilling effect of a White House anti-media assault on political commentary in network television news programs: Comparison of newspaper and television vigorousness during the Nixon administration. [Chair: Michael Kitross]

Moniot, Drew, 1979

Photographs and their meaning: An experimental study addressing the cognitive dimensions which viewers of three photographic competence levels use in generating meaning from photographs embedded in art versus documentary contexts. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

1980s

1980

Finlon-Dajani, Karen, 1980

Egypt’s role as a major media producer, supplier and distributor to the Arab world: An historical-descriptive study. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Zeitz, Elizabeth, 1980

No record of title. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

1981

Haskin, Lynn, 1981

Experimental comparison of persuasive print messages involving occupations, sex roles and motivational attributes designed by advertising copywriters with and without the aid of computerized cognitive mapping. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

Lusbough, Julia, 1981

No record of title. [Chair: Chris Sterling]

Smith, Conrad, 1981

Selecting a source of local television news in the Salt Lake City SMSA: A multivariate analysis of cognitive and affective factors for 384 randomly selected newscast viewers. [Chair: Thomas Gordon or Edward Trayes]

1982

Austin, Bruce, 1982

MPAA film rating influence on stated likelihood of high school student film attendance: A test of reactance theory. [Chair: unknown]

1983

Appleman, Dan, 1983

No record of title. [Chair: Edward Trayes]

1984

Chow, Peter, May 1984 (MMC)

Socialization of scientists in China, 1949-1981: Content analysis of people’s daily editorials and research papers, and theoretical interpretation of cross-paradigm communication. [Chair: John A. Lent]

1985

McKenna, Donald, August 1985 (MMC)

The adoption of two technical innovations by American daily newspapers: A test of diffusion predictability. [Chair: Edward Trayes]

1986 

Atkyns, Robert L., May 1986 (MMC)

Adolescent information acquisition: Locus of control, lifestyle and substance abuse: A social market segmentation for health communication effectiveness. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

Hemenway, Paul, May 1986 (MMC)

Philadelphia radio before and after deregulation: A time-series care study of news and public affairs programming in the nation’s fourth market. [Chair: Norm Felsenthal]

Shapiro, Steven, May 1986 (MMC)

A consideration of privacy violations inherent in press coverage of criminal proceedings such as Commonwealth v. John Cordeiro et al. and Commonwealth v. Joseph Vieira and Daniel Silvia. [Chair: Edward Trayes]

1987 

Kazan, Fayad, January 1987 (MMC)

Relations between mass media and attitudes toward modernity and psychological stress of university students and civil servants in four Arabian Gulf countries. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Mahoney, Eileen, January 1987 (MMC)

Negotiating new information technology and national development: The role of the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics. [Chair: unknown]

1988

Siddiqqi, Mohammad, January 1988 (MMC)

An Assessment of the Evolving Telematics Policies in Malaysia. [Chair: John A. Lent]

1989

Hakanen, Ernest, August 1989 (MMC)

Adolescent identification of heroes: A study of media exposure and perceptions of public figures. [Chair: unknown]

Russial, John, August 1989 (MMC)

Pagination and the newsroom: Great expectations.” [Chair: Edward Trayes]

Tsao, Chien Chung, August 1989 (MMC)

Health communications: The relationship of the immune system to relaxation, music, imagery and emotional arousal. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

1990s

1990

Bradbury, David E., May 1990 (MMC)

A uses and gratifications study of three audiences: Cable decliners, basic cable subscribers and pay cable subscribers. [Chair: Norm Felsenthal]

Foulger, Davis A., August 1990 (R&C)

Medium as process: The structure, use and practice of computer conferencing on IBM’s IBMPC computer conferencing facility. [Chair: Herbert W. Simons]

LeShay, Steven, August 1990 (MMC)

The image of businesspeople on prime-time network television: A content analysis. [Chair: Sari Thomas]

McGovern, Sr., Eileen, May 1990 (MMC)

From Varela to Marti: Four nineteenth century Cuban newspapers. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Rhodes, Leara D., May 1990 (MMC)

Haiti’s exiled press: Development and continuance. [Chair: John A. Lent]

1991

Armson, Joy, May 1991 (SLH)

A study of laryngeal muscle activity during stuttering episodes: Searching for an invariant physiological correlate. [Chair: C. Woodruff Starkweather]

Evans, William, August 1991 (MMC)

Media presentation of scientific research: Press coverage of physical, biological and social science. [Chair: Sari Thomas]

Hudson, Timothy, January 1991 (MMC)

Graphic depiction of violent material in television news: News directors’ and producers’ perceived acceptability levels. [Chair: Thomas F. Gordon]

Incitti, Michael, May 1991 (MMC)

Newsroom learning environments: Journalists’ perceptions of organizational communication satisfaction at 11 daily newspapers in eastern Pennsylvania. [Chair: Edward Trayes]

Kim (Jang), Hoonsoon, January 1991 (MMC)

Cultural continuity and change: Characterization and narratives present in 

Korean contemporary films. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Kim, Myung Jun, August 1991 (MMC)

Coverage of the Korean War by the New York Times and Ashahi Shimbun: Foreign policy as the key constraint on the war reporting. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Pugliese, Rudi, August 1991 (MMC)

Predictors of telecourse withdrawal and withdrawal/failure: Loneliness, communication competence, dyadic communication apprehension and locus of control. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

Sholar, Sylvia, January 1991 (R&C)

Corporate communicators: The development of business communication strategies in the 1970s and 1980s. [Chair: Jeanne Allen]

Welldon, Paula J., January 1991 (R&C)

From words to shields: Tactical uses of role reference in committee conversation. [Chair: Robert T. Craig]

1992

Celano, Donna C., August 1992 (MMC)

Teacher use of Channel One: An ethnographic study of one school. [Chair: Richard Luker]

Kaiser, Daniel M., January 1992 (MMC)

The role of social maturation in adolescent media use: Parent and peer relationships as mediators of teens’ perceptions of TV versions of social relationships. [Chair: Richard Luker]

Karpur, Shashi Rao, August 1992 (MMC)

Factors associated with perceptions of productivity and usage of information technology in a service organization. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

McCullough, Mary, January 1992 (R&C/CAS)

Black and white women’s friendships’ claiming the margins. [Chair: Joseph P. Folger]

McGoldrick, John, January 1992 (MMC)

The role of offices of consumer advocate in telecommunications regulations. [Chair: Herbert Dordick]

Quinn, Rosemary, August 1992 (SLH)

Mother-Infant interactions among Puerto Rican dyads. [Chair: Aquiles Iglesias]

Saenz, Terry I., August 1992 (SLH)

Strategies for obtaining toys at Head Start. [Chairs: Aquiles Iglesias and Anita Pomerantz]

Spisak, Frances, May 1992 (R&C)

Acquiring communication competence in a dental hygiene school: An ethnographic study. [Chair: Anita Pomerantz]

1993

Goldstein, Brian, May 1993 (SLH)

The evidence of phonological processes of three- and four-year-old Spanish speakers. [Chair: Aquiles Iglesias]

Igyor, Gerard, May 1993 (MMC)

The transfer of telecommunications technology to Nigeria. [Chair: Herbert Dordick]

Inyang, Young Dan, August 1993 (MMC)

Information technology and sales productivity in an insurance company. [Chair: Herbert Dordick]

Liu-Lengyel, Hongying, May 1993 (MMC)

Chinese cartoons as mass communication: The history of cartoon development in China. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Kay, Bonnie Kathryn, August 1993 (R&C)

Manager interpersonal communication behaviors and subordinate motivation. [Chair: Joseph Folger]

Kyrish, Sandra, May 1993 (MMC)

Predicting the future: Assessing predictions and forecasts for residential broadband services. [Chair: Stewart Hoover]

Pena, Elizabeth, January 1993 (SLH)

Dynamic assessment: A non-biased approach for assessing the language of young children. [Chair: Aquiles Iglesias]

Sparks, Suzanne, May 1993 (MMC)

A study of the credibility of advertising to younger and older adults. [Chair: James Marra]

Stutzman, Ervin, May 1993 (R&C)

From nonresistance to peace and justice: Mennonite peace rhetoric. [Chair: Herbert Simons]

Van Dusen, Donna, August 1993 (R&C)

The world view of a singles’ organization: Singleness as a transitional status. [Chair: Joseph Folger]

Zhengzing, Fei, August 1993 (MMC)

A stylistic analysis of the films by Zhang Yimon and Tie Jin. [Chair: John A. Lent]

1994

Bresnahan, Rosalind, August 1994 (MMC)

Access to, use and credibility of mass media, alternative media and other alternative information sources during the Persian Gulf crisis and war with Iraq: A survey of information-seeking by college students of the post-Vietnam generation. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

Brown, David, August 1994 (R&C)

Watered down wine: Secularization and rhetorical authority management in American Baptist preaching. [Chair: Marsha Witten]

Burrowes, Carl, August 1994 (MMC) Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830–1970: The impact of modernity, ethnicity and power imbalances on government relations. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Elliott, Charles W., August 1994 (MMC)

The people’s news: Content and values in the press releases of the new China news agency 1950–1989. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Fry, Katherine, May 1994 (MMC)

Old south, agrarian midwest and frontier west: Discourses of repression and consumption in southern living, midwest living and sunset magazines. [Chair: Paul Swann]

Hanley, Barbara, May 1994 (MMC)

Boundaries and illusions: Prestige and transgression in American prime time television. [Chairs: Thomas Gordon and Stuart Hoover]

Hyter, Yvette, August 1994 (SLH)

A cross-channel description of reference in the narratives of African American vernacular English speakers. [Chair: Aquiles Iglesias]

Lancioni, Judith, January 1994 (R&C)

Rhetorical analysis and historical documentary: A case study of the Civil War. [Chair: Aram Aghazarian]

Lynch, Christopher, May 1994 (R&C)

I went on television to help my sponsor, the good lord: The television rhetoric of Bishop Fulton Sheen. [Chair: Aram Aghazarian]

Santana, Maria, August 1994 (MMC)

The Puerto Rican independence party as covered in local elections: A content analysis of the Puerto Rican press. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Sunderaj, Victor, January 1994 (MMC)

Predictors of social mobility: Profile of innovative and non-innovative scheduled castes of rural Tamil Nadu. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Yedes, Janet, August 1994 (R&C)

Social justice commitments and communication in a homeless advocacy organization. [Chair: Joseph Folger]

1995

de Montigny, Michelle C., May 1995 (MMC)

Gender differences in the relationship between the self-esteem and television viewing habits of young adolescents. [Chair: Thomas F. Gordon]

Foti, Margaret A., August 1995 (MMC)

Information systems for biomedical scientists: Evolution, current practices, and promise for the future. [Chair: Thomas F. Gordon]

Grabe, Maria E., August 1995 (MMC)

Does crime pay: Tabloid vs. highbrow news. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Haller, Beth, January 1995 (MMC)

Disability rights on the public agenda: Elite news media coverage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

Hsiao, Hsiang-Wen, January 1995 (MMC)

Political cartoons in Taiwan: Historical profile and content analysis. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Kelly, Frank, May 1995 (MMC)

Business television in corporate America: The history, operation, programming and categorization of satellite business television networks. [Chair: Thomas F. Gordon]

Livezey, Marlene, May 1995 (MMC)

Writing and physiology: An analysis of two methods (cathartic freewriting and writing for insight) to promote and maintain physical and emotional health. [Chair: Thomas F. Gordon]

Merchel, Paulette Posluszny, May 1995 (MMC)

Gavriel Salomon’s theory of perceptions of media and amount of invested mental effort in processing information: A high school application with implication for learning from television. [Chair: Thomas Eveslage]

Mitnick, Andrea (Donath), January 1995 (R&C)

For the woman who wasn’t born yesterday: Middle age as a rite of passage in Lear’s. [Chair: Barbie Zelizer]

Ose-Mensah, Michael, November 1995 (MMC)

Telecommunications sector reforms in Ghana: An appraisal of regulatory and institutional approaches. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

Reich, Robert, August 1995 (MMC)

The role of emotional images in the persuasive effect of television commercials. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Shi, Chyun-Fung, August 1995 (MMC)

News coverage and representation of female candidates in political campaigns in Taiwan. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Viser, Victor, January 1995 (MMC)

The use of children in American magazine advertising: 1940–1950. [Chair: Paul Swann]

Yoon, Jae H., August 1995 (MMC)

Social networking technology and discourse of communications network and information services. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

1996

Brown, Hilary, August 1996 (MMC)

Jamaican youth, American media use and the cultural dependency thesis. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Denny, Harry, May 1996 (R&C)

Refiguring and dismantling civil rights: The discursive strategies affecting social space and bodies in Colorado’s Amendment Two campaign. [Chair: Cynthia Patton]

Holderman, Lisa, August 1996 (MMC)

The public construction of expertise: How experts are portrayed in popular U.S. talk shows. [Chair: Sari Thomas]

1997

Bakelaar, Philip, May 1997 (R&C)

The issue culture of the gay and lesbian religious controversy in the ages of Aids: Moral argumentation in American mainline religious communities as a symbolic contest between competing interpretations. [Chair: Herbert W. Simons]

Bishop, Ronald, May 1997 (MMC)

Lose all the weight you want: An examination of the impact of commercials for weight loss products on body image. [Chair: Thomas F. Gordon]

Ditton, Theresa Bolmarich, May 1997 (MMC)

The unintentional blending of direct experience and mediated experience: The role of enhanced vs. limited television presentations in inducing source-monitoring errors. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

McLaurin, Patrick, January 1997 (R&C)

An examination of cross gender intimate aggression in urban African American youth culture: A symbolic interactionist approach. [Chair: Joseph Folger]

McNamara, Raymond Timothy, January 1997 (MMC)

Popular music use by older order Amish youth in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. [Chair: Thomas Gordon]

O’Dowd, Kathleen Shawn, August 1997 (MMC)

Personal competencies and their relationship to mediated interpersonal enactments. [Chair: Sari Thomas]

1998

Hyun, Daiwon, August 1998 (MMC)

U.S. telecommunications policy in the global market: The role of USTR. [Chair: John A. Lent]

King, Michael, May 1998 (RC)

Fractured dance: Steps and missteps in conversation and in application of gadamer to a mennonite debate on homosexuality. [Chair: Herbert W. Simons]

Kitch, Carolyn L., May 1998 (MMC)

The girl on the magazine cover: Gender, class and the emergence of visual stereotypes in American mass media, 1895–1930. [Chair: Patricia Bradley]

Larsen, Robin, May 1998 (MMC)

The closeup shot in American film, 1911–1921: A marker for expressivity and identity. [Chair: Paul Swann]

Madia, Sherri, May 1998 (MMC)

The global news race and the branding of CNN. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

Peliggi, Mary, August 1998 (MMC)

No sex, no drugs, just hardcore rock? Using Bourdieu to understand straight-edge kids and their practices. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

Pudlinski, Christopher, August 1998 (R&C)

Giving help on a consumer-run warm line: Ideological dilemmas and practices. [Chair: Anita Pomerantz]

Puritz-Cook, Judi, August 1998 (MMC)

Social class identification and anxiety in television home shopping. [Chair: Sari Thomas]

Reed, Elaine Walls, January 1998 (MMC)

Representations of miscegenation during the Hays Office years: How the public relations efforts of the motion picture producers and distributors of America helped to institutionalize racism in the first half of the twentieth century. [Chair: Paul Swann]

1999

Kotani, Mariko, May 1999 (R&C)

Accounts in two speech communities: Views and practices of Japanese and English speakers. [Chair: Joseph P. Folger]

Okamoto, Rei, January 1999 (MMC)

Pictorial propaganda in Japanese comic art, 1941–1945: Images of the self and the other in a newspaper strip, single panel cartoons, and cartoon leaflets. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Park, Woong-Ki, August 1999 (MMC)

Talking back To television: Parasocial interaction and parasocial relationships. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Souder, Lawrence G., January 1999 (R&C)

A rhetorical contextualist analysis of the literature on the Chinese room thought experiments: Trying to Get a Grip on Virtual Reality. [Chair: Herbert W. Simons]

Yu, Kie-Un, August 1999 (MMC)

Development of the Korean animation industry: Historical, economic and cultural perspectives. [Chair: John A. Lent]

2000s

2000

Alaswad, Saleh, January 2000 (MMC)

Hollywood shoots the Arabs: The construction of the Arab in American culture. [Chair: Paul Swann]

Berens, Eileen, May 2000 (R&C)

Testing a model of intergenerational conflict initiation in young-old adult interaction. [Chair: Tricia S. Jones]

Bracken, Cheryl M. Campanella, August 2000 (MMC)

Children and social responses to computers: Praise, intrinsic motivation, and learning. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Campbell, Cheri, May 2000 (R&C)

An analysis of dialectical tensions in college classroom interaction. [Chair: Tricia S. Jones]

Lizie, Arthur, May 2000 (MMC)

Community and identity formation in cyberspace: Popular music and the flow of culture. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

O’Leary, John, January 2000 (MMC)

The Rockford Files: Television textual analysis and institutional demands. [Chair: Paul Swann]

Snyder-Duch, Jennifer, August 2000 (MMC)

The evolution of media reviewing: A content analysis of film and television reviews in the New York Times and the New York Daily News, 1967–1997. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Stine, Mark D., May 2000 (MMC)

Development of a selection instrument for identifying traits of radio and television news reports: Test construction and validation. [Chair: Thomas F. Gordon]

Tunc, Asli, May 2000 (MMC)

Beyond the line: The situation of editorial cartoonists as a press freedom issue in post-1980 Turkey. [Chair: John A. Lent]

2001

Kelly, Christine, January 2001 (MMC)

Entertainment-education and American social issues in prime-time television broadcasting. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Pompper, Donnalyn, January 2001 (MMC)

Framing the public policy issue of environmental risk 1983–1997. [Chair: Priscilla Murphy]

2002

Choi, Hyunju, January 2002 (MMC)

The politics of representations in four different genres: Documentary photography, photojournalism, government public relations and art photography: A comparative analysis on FSA photographs of the 1930s. [Chair: John A. Lent]

D’Angelo, Paul, May 2002 (MMC)

Framing the press: A new model for observing press frames in presidential campaign news. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Kahlenberg, Susan G., January 2002 (MMC)

The interrelationship among intelligence, sexuality and attractiveness on prime-time television. [Chair: Sari Thomas]

Keeratikrainon, Monsinee, January 2002 (MMC)

Development of telecommunications infrastructure and policy in Thailand. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Monolescu Kliger, Dominique, January 2002 (MMC)

Computer mediated videoconferencing: A technology in evolution in distance education. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

Moore, Aaron J., May 2002 (MMC)

Teams as software: An examination of mass media ownership in professional sports. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Shiau, Hong-Chi, August 2002 (MMC)

The production and consumption of animation in Taiwan: The interplay of global political and economic forces. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Zemel, Alan, May 2002 (R&C)

Participation and standing in consensus decision-making. [Chair: Anita M. Pomerantz]

2003

Feeney, Brian, May 2003 (MMC)

The social construction of environmental policy: From oppositional ideology to social learning through conflict using a case study at Aberdeen proving ground. [Chair: Priscilla Murphy]

Franzini, Amy, August 2003 (MMC)

Sex on television programming popular among teenagers: Correlates and consequence. [Chair: Sari Thomas]

Kaynak, Mehpare Selcan, August 2003 (MMC)

Scholarship in the news: An epistemological examination of the public discourse about controversial social research. [Chair: Priscilla Murphy]

Marshall, David, May 2003 (MMC)

The uptown coalition: A case study of the intersection of media advocacy, media literacy and social change. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Radosh, Jodi Linder, January 2003 (MMC)

Defining sensationalism in local television news. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

2004

Allan, David, January 2004 (MMC)

The role of personal significance: Effects of popular music in advertising on attention, memory, attitudes, and conation. [Chair: Andrew Mendelson]

Alnor, Bill, August 2004 (MMC)

Borrowed or stolen? A study of plagiarism in religion, with an emphasis on contemporary religious media. [Chair: Patricia Bradley]

Lin, Mu, August 2004 (MMC)

Investing in China’s media market: Interplay of ideology and commercialization. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Liu, Chang-de, May 2004 (MMC)

Technology, media workers, and labor process: The ICTs’ influences on Taiwanese newspapers’ journalists and freelancers. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Tian, Yan, August 2004 (MMC)

Reputation and branding: A cross-cultural study of corporate web presence in the US and China. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

Vilceanu, M. Olguta, May 2004 (MMC)

Framing science: International media coverage of crop biotechnology. [Chair: Priscilla Murphy]

2005

Diaz, Mercedes, January 2005 (MMC)

Drawing in Cuban: Examining the life and work of expatriated Cuban cartoonists. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Estwick, Evene S., August 2005 (MMC)

Media Imperialism revisited: A historical analysis of television in Barbados. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

Hwang, Ha Sung, January 2005 (MMC)

Predictors of IM use among U.S. college students: Gratifications sought, gratifications obtained and social presence. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Karuchit, Sudjai, May 2005 (MMC)

Imported Imperialism? A content analysis of Thai television and a re-evaluation of the media Imperialism in Thailand. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

Kim, Heeman, May 2005 (MMC)

Cultural differences in human-computer interaction: A content analysis and experiment of design features of organizational home pages. [Chair: Andrew Mendelson]

Liu, Dandan, May 2005 (MMC)

Stadium out of Chinatown: A case study of the interaction between news media and social change. [Chair: Patricia Bradley]

Owino, Levi Obonyo, May 2005 (MMC)

Growing in the cradle: History, development and functions of cartooning in Kenya. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Park, Sung Bok, May 2005 (MMC)

The mechanics of online social interaction: How cyberspace and physical territory interplay in Korean computer-mediated communication environments. [Chair: Jan Fernback]

Sen, Nandini, May 2005 (MMC)

Telecommunications policy and changing rhetoric in India: Towards technophilia, markets and structuralism. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

2006

Akdenizli, Banu, February 2006 (MMC)

The impact of information and communication technologies on the nation-state: Internet policy and Turkey. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

Choi, Suhi, May 2006 (MMC)

Korean war caught in history and memory: Examining the U.S. media coverage of the No Gun Ri incident (1999–Present) with the comparison of Korean survivors’ testimonies. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Gil-Egui, Gisela, February 2006 (MMC)

Framing the internet as a public or private good: A network text analysis of competing discourses within the United Nations information and communication technologies task force. [Chair: Concetta Stewart]

Horvath, Karl John, May 2006 (MMC)

The computer as information intermediary: Using social and spatial cues to evoke presence in computer users and optimize human computer interaction. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Kwon, Jae-Woong, February 2006 (MMC)

The development of digital cultural products in the age of globalization: Focusing on the Korean digitized animation industry. [Chair: John A. Lent]

Selverian, Melissa E. Markaridian, February 2006 (MMC)

Being there in the VLE: A pan pedagogical model for the enhanced learning through perceptual states of presence. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Simone, Maria A., May 2006 (MMC)

The public’s public interest: Re-visioning the mediated public sphere. [Chair: Jan Fernback]

2007

Chang, Li-Yuan, May 2007 (MMC)

Measuring participation as communicative action: A case study of citizen involvement in and assessment of a city’s smoking cessation policy-making process. [Chair: Thomas Jacobson]

Hains, Rebecca Consentino, August 2007 (MMC)

Negotiating girl power: Girlhood on screen and in everyday life. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Poe, Pamela Zubow, May 2007 (MMC)

Health-media literacy for the elderly: How do older persons perceive health information and marketing messages in print and televised drug advertisements? [Chair: Jan Fernback]

Robinson, Susan Joan, May 2007 (MMC)

Someone has to be in control here: The news narrative and journalist authority shifts in the move from newspapers to cyberspace. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Shi, Yunhe, August 2007 (MMC)

Framing corporate reputation: A comparative study of the images of Canary Wharf in the media. [Chair: Michael Maynard]

2008 

Avila-Saavedra, Guillermo, May 2008 (MMC)

The Latino trend: Identity, influence, and transformations in U.S. television. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Gilpin, Dawn, August 2008 (MMC)

Organically grown: Emergent power and influence in complex issue networks. [Chair: Priscilla Murphy]

Jones, Matthew T., May 2008 (MMC)

Found in translation: Structural and cognitive aspects of the adaptation of comic art to film. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Noh, Sueen, May 2008 (MMC)

Negotiating gender and culture: Korean women reading Japanese girls’ comics. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

O’Connor, James, August 2008 (MMC)

Resisting the melting pot through ethnic newspapers: History and function of the Irish echo. [Chair: Andrew Mendelson]

Popp, Richard, May 2008 (MMC)

Magazines, marketing, and the construction of travel in the postwar United States. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

2010s

2011

Dasgupta, Satarupta, August 2011 (MMC)

Communication and community mobilization, anti-trafficking and legitimization, participation and empowerment: HIV/AIDS intervention and the Sonagachi Project. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

McClain, Jordan, August 2011 (MMC)

Media framing as brand positioning: Analysis of coverage linking Phish to The Grateful Dead. [Chair: Michael Maynard]

Schuyler, Michael T., January 2011 (MMC)

Setting up camp: Identifying camp through theme and structure. [Chair: Cornelius Pratt]

2012

Amazeen, Michelle A., August 2012 (M&C)

Blind spots: Examining political advertising misinformation and how U.S. news media hold political actors accountable. [Chair: Michael Maynard]

Pan, Lingling, May 2012 (M&C)

Performance evaluation, communication environment and decision legitimacy: A case in China. [Chair: Thomas Jacobson]

Peterson, Tina, May 2012 (M&C)

Seeing, believing and cooking: Visual communication, food-media literacy, and self efficacy. [Chair: Renee Hobbs]

Ray, Mary Elizabeth, August 2012 (M&C)

The digitalization of music culture: A case study examining the musician/listener relationship with digital technology. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

2013

Crider, David, December 2013 (M&C)

The construction and performance of an on-air radio identity.  [Chair: Nancy Morris]

George, Kelly, December 2013 (M&C)

The birth of a haunted asylum: Public memory and community storytellings. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Mendoza, Kelly, August 2013 (M&C)

Protection and empowerment: Exploring parents’ use of internet mediation strategies with preteens. [Chairs: Fabienne Darling-Wolf and Renee Hobbs]

2014

Cirucci, Angela, December 2014 (M&C)

The structured self: Authenticity, agency and anonymity in social networking sites. [Chair: Brooke E. Duffy]

Flener, Katrina, May 2014 (M&C)

Drug narratives and differences in ideological content across varying economic models of television. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Hogea, Constanta Alina, May 2014 (M&C)

Collective memory and national identity in post-communist Romania: Representations of the Communist past in Romanian media and Romanian politics (1990-2009). [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Jones, Rachel, December 2014 (M&C)

Without words: The use of an image-based instructional video to convey information to culturally diverse Audiences. [Chair: Nora Alter]

Lee, Byron, May 2014 (M&C)

Tales of the Gayborhood: Mediating Philadelphia’s gay urban spaces. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

RobbGrieco, Michael, December 2014 (M&C)

Media for media literacy: Education movement in Media & Values Magazine, 1977-1993. [Chair: Renee Hobbs and Patrick Murphy]

Srauy, Sambo, May 2014 (M&C)

Speaking about race: Biopower and racism in the video game landscape. [Chair: Jan Fernback]

Stiles, Siobahn, May 2014 (M&C)

Feminist communicative action: Examining the role of “being heard” in a rehabilitation program for prostitutes. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

Teresa, Carrie, May 2014 (M&C)

Looking at the stars: The Black press, African American celebrity culture and critical citizenship in early 20-century America, 1895–1935. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

2015

Cipollone, Maria, December 2015 (M&C)

Motivation to mine: An analysis of the motivation for extended video game play among pre-adolescents in a physical learning environment. [Chair: Deborah Cai]

Miller, Alanna, May 2015 (M&C)

Negotiating, religious identity and mass media: Examining the relationships among lived religion, mass media and narrative identity. [Chair: Andrew Mendelson]

Plugh, Michael, May 2015 (M&C)

Team Japan: Themes of Japaneseness in mass media sports narratives. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

Provorova, Elizaveta, May 2015 (M&C)

Media literacy education, gender and media representation in the high school classroom. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

Sadegh-Vaziri, Persheng, December 2015 (M&C)

Iranian documentary film culture: Cinema, society and power 1997–2014. [Chair: Patrick Murphy]

Su, Chiaoning, May 2015 (M&C)

The perfect typhoon: Viewing Taiwan’s Typhoon Morakot through journalistic lenses. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

2016

Fullmore, Yvonne, December 2016 (M&C)

United States (U.S.) adult teachers’ and learners’ perspectives on representations in video games used in the classroom. [Chair: Jan Fernback]

Gallagher, Thomas, August 2016 (M&C)

The entertainment presidency: American politics in the digital age. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Kim, Ju Oak, May 2016 (M&C)

The Korean Wave as a localizing process: Nation as a global actor in cultural production. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

McMonagle, Susannah, December 2016 (M&C)

Advertising producers’ localization of global brands: Glocalization, storytelling, and audience construction. [Chair: Brooke Duffy and Patrick Murphy]

Midberry, Jennifer, May 2016 (M&C)

Visual frames of war photojournalism, empathy, compassion and information seeking. [Co-chairs: Deborah Cai and Andrew Mendelson]

Morrow, Stephanie, December 2016 (M&C)

Twelve days of hell: A study of violence, urban space and media coverage of the York Race Riots. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch & Andrew Mendelson]

Palmieri, Stephanie, December 2016 (M&C)

Assessing industry ideologies: representations of gender, sexuality, and sexual violence in the book versions and film adaptations of The Hunger Games trilogy, the Divergent trilogy and the Vampire Academy series. [Chair: Jan Fernback]

2017

Cao, Weidan, May 2017 (M&C)

Every cloud has a silver lining: An investigation of cancer patients social support, coping strategies, and post-traumatic growth. [Chair: Deborah Cai]

Fuentes, Juan, December 2017 (M&C)

Clintons 2016 Latino ground game in northeast Philadelphia: Human bodies as the basic material elements of political communication systems. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

Gesualdi, Maxine M., August 2017

Extending organizational role theory to understand shared resources and role encroachment in organizations. [Chair: Deborah Cai]

Mau, Heidi, May 2017 (M&C)

Communicating legacy: Media, memory and Harvey Milk. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

2018

Almujaibel, Naser, May 2018 (M&C)                

Changing a system from within: Applying the theory of communicative action for fundamental policy changes in Kuwait. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

Greenwood, Linda L., December 2018 (M&C)

Stimulating interest in political information and facilitating deep comprehension of a political text for young voters: Does embodiment matter? [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Jeong, Jaehyeon, August 2018 (M&C)

Imagining national cuisine: food, media and the nation. [Chair: Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

Lee, Hojeong, August 2018 (M&C)

A journey of identity construction: Korean diaspora, digital media and their social movements. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

Steiner, Emil G., August 2018 (M&C)

Binge-watching killed the idiot box: The changing identities of viewers and television in the experiential, streaming video age. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Suh, Haelim, August 2018 (M&C)

The rise of the Korean wave in the U.S.: Global imagination and the production of locality among Korean Americans in Philadelphia. [Chairs: Thomas Jacobson and Fabienne Darling-Wolf]

Xu, Kun, December 2018 (M&C)

Media are social actors: Individuals' social responses to social robots and mobile phones. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

2019

Meade, Melissa, August 2019 (M&C)

In the shadow of “King Coal”: Memory, media, identity, and culture in the post-industrial Pennsylvania anthracite region. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

Pruchniewska, Urszula, May 2019 (M&C)

Everyday feminism in the digital era: gender, the fourth wave and social media affordances. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Tinga, Tracy, August 2019 (M&C)

From Afropessimism to Africa rising: Anglo-American and Afro representations of the African continent. [Chair: Patrick Murphy]

2020s

2020

Almalki, Abdullah, May 2020 (M&C)

Tracing news on Twitter: Forces shaping news consumption and perceptions in Gulf country media systems. [Chair: Logan Molyneux]

Buozis, Michael, May 2020 (M&C)

Cyberlibertarian dreams: Producing privilege and power in journalistic discourses of the internet. [Chair: Brian Creech]

Huang, Luling, May 2020 (M&C)

The role of psychological discrepancy in belief change: Testing four models with a single message. [Chair: Deborah Cai]

Murphy, Eloise, May 2020 (M&C)

The heady mix of the 2016 presidential election: Twitter, power, politics, gender and journalism. [Chair: Logan Molyneux]

Rooney, Shannon, December 2020 (M&C)

Memory, margins and materiality: The Philadelphia MOVE bombing. [Chair: Carolyn Kitch]

Ryan, Kelly, December 2020 (M&C)

Transjacking television: Transgender representation on American narrative television from 2004-2014. [Chair: Jan Fernback]

Vliet, Diantha, December 2020 (M&C)

Postcolonial Pete: Race, media and memory in the politics of Dutch identity. [Chair: Patrick Murphy]

Wang, Yuanxin, December 2020 (M&C)

The role of perceived social injustice in cyberbullying. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Westrick, Nicole, December 2020 (M&C)

Teaching from the margins: An examination of the teaching practices and labor conditions of adjunct faculty in communication. [Chair: Nancy Morris]

Yang, Hocheol, August 2020 (M&C)

VR and higher education: Presence and motivation to learn via immersive media experiences. [Chair: Matthew Lombard]

Zeng, Chen, December 2020 (M&C)

Group identity versus relational identity: The influence of identity primes on socio-political attitudes. [Chair: Bruce Hardy]