Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Managing Risk Assessment Stakeholder Engagement Processes: A Case Study
    (2014) Leveridge, M. Dianne; Baecher, Greg; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Risk engineers conduct comprehensive risk assessments for many types of large projects, often singularly focused on the technical assessment and its value to the technical engineering team. Limiting or excluding community stakeholder involvement from the assessment process increases stakeholder skepticism, apprehension, and mistrust regarding safety, health and welfare of those stakeholders living or working nearby. Social experts have repeatedly documented connections between perception framing, communication processes, and risks. This research considers the connections between stakeholder perceptions and communication plans associated with risks listed in the risk register, and communication plans designed based upon including social expert suggestions for six projects: three bio-safety laboratories; two levee system assessment projects; and one Superfund site. The project risk assessment value is researched through the lens of risk perception and communication planning via the risk register. The concept of a Risk Perception Management (RPM) Plan developed in collaboration with social science experts and integrated with the risk register is presented. This research shows how the RPM concept iteratively captures stakeholder perceptions to build associated communication plans, thus increasing risk assessment value for stakeholders and decision-makers.
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    The Social Coast Guard: An Ethnographic Examination of the Intersection of Risk Communication, Social Media, and Government Public Relations
    (2012) Levenshus, Abbey Blake; Liu, Brooke F.; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The contemporary communication context includes heightened risk, increasing the need for dialogic or relational risk communication with key stakeholders. Scholars have identified social media's potential to improve dialogic communication, yet governments may face challenges when using social media, particularly in a risk communication context. This study explored social media use in "the complex communication context of risk communication" (Sellnow et al., 2009, p. 53) within the under-studied U.S. public sector and applied a complexity and relational theoretical framework to explore the intersection of government public relations, risk communication, and social media. Questions focused on how government communicators in high-risk environments perceived the public sector context influences their risk communication and social media communication; how they viewed social media's role in risk communication; the extent to which they engaged in social-mediated relational risk communication; and, how they planned and executed social media communication. An ethnographic case study of the U.S. Coast Guard's social media program was conducted, including analysis of 205.25 participant observation hours at the headquarters social media office, 10 interviews, and 49 documents. Findings suggest that organizations with risk-related missions or responsibilities may have a "risk communication mindset" that spurs and constrains social media communication and integrates social-mediated risk communication into ongoing public affairs. Intersecting, overlapping influences within public sector contexts also influenced social media strategies and tactics. Data suggest a continuum exists between organizations participating in and hosting social media engagement. Findings suggest moving toward a multivocal conversational relational communication model that encompasses the distributed public relations model (Kelleher, 2009). The dissertation adds depth to the human conversational voice construct (e.g., Bruning, et al., 2004; Kelleher, 2009; Sweetser & Metzgar, 2007) and online relational maintenance strategies by offering a behind-the-scenes understanding of why and how government organizations can be engaging and conversational hosts via social media by inviting audiences to engage without organizations having to maintain conversations. The study offers practical recommendations such as reducing blog content to increase efforts using more engaging platforms like Facebook; increasing use of visually-rich and engaging content; cultivating internal relationships to improve personnel compliance and participation; and, improving strategic integration and evaluation.