Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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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Item "I Have an Extra Level of Context That Some Reporters Don't Have": Journalistic Perspectives on the Role of Identity and Experience in the Production of More Equitable News Coverage(2023) Siqueira Paranhos Velloso, Carolina; Steiner, Linda; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the summer of 2020, Alexis Johnson and Miguel Santiago, Black reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, were removed from covering ongoing racial justice protests. The following year, Felicia Sonmez, a Washington Post reporter who had publicly identified herself as a survivor of sexual assault, was barred from covering stories about sexual misconduct. In both cases, management at their news organizations invoked a safeguard against bias as the reason behind the removal of the reporters from covering certain stories or beats. In other words, management feared that these reporters would not be able to perform basic journalistic duties because their proximity to the subject matter, whether through similar lived experiences or certain identity markers, would render them unable to relay a suitable and accurate account of events. However, the journalists in question protested their coverage bans by arguing that their identity- or experience-based connection to the issue would have been advantageous to their journalism. For example, Johnson said: “as a [B]lack woman, as a Pittsburgh native, as the daughter of a retired state trooper and a retired probation officer, it was a shame I wasn’t able to bring my background to cover this story.” In essence, the journalists argued that, rather than their proximity to the stories rendering them unable to produce proper accounts of events, their personal identities and lived experiences made them more capable of capturing the nuances required for adequate coverage. The purpose of this dissertation is thus threefold: first, it investigates journalists’ perceptions about the relationship between, and impact of, their personal identities and lived experiences and the reporting they produce. Second, it examines best practices journalists recommend to other journalists about covering issues or groups with which they don’t share an identity- or experience-based connection. Finally, it describes best practices journalists recommend to newsroom leaders for supporting journalists in producing more equitable and inclusive coverage. Through a textual analysis of 186 metajournalistic articles and 93 Twitter posts (“tweets”), this study found that journalists pinpoint a myriad of specific advantages they perceive reporting with an identity- or experience-based connection provides. As such, this dissertation advances literature on journalistic identity and role conception by demonstrating how journalists’ personal identities and experiences shape their professional values. It also argues that, by positioning this form of newsmaking as more equitable and legitimate than traditional “objective” reporting, journalists are constructing new conceptions of journalistic identity. This dissertation also contributes to literature on journalistic authority by showing that many journalists claim reporting with identity- or experience-based connections in fact makes them more authoritative interpreters of news. By asserting their roles as professionals who ultimately aim to produce accurate, factual reporting and resisting accusations of being activists rather than journalists, reporters also engaged in boundary work by increasingly placing reporting which embraces the subjectivity of the journalist within the bounds of professional journalistic practice. When making recommendations to fellow reporters for producing more equitable and inclusive reporting, the journalists featured in this dissertation called for a reconsideration of normative journalistic practices and recommended that their colleagues place equity at the forefront of every decision they make during the reporting process. The journalists’ recommendations to newsroom leaders demonstrate that producing equitable coverage goes beyond individual strategies that journalists can implement; change must also occur at the structural level. Establishing and enforcing new sets of journalistic policies at the newsroom level is a vital component of providing coverage that is fair and accountable to all communities. In describing how journalists are harnessing the tenet that knowledge is socially situated to advocate for new standards of news production, I also suggest feminist standpoint epistemology (FSE) as an operational framework of journalistic practice.This dissertation is a timely intervention into the ways journalists say their industry needs to change in order to better serve the needs of American audiences in the twenty-first century. The findings in this study have relevant implications for journalistic practice: they provide a clear roadmap for journalism scholars and practitioners for engaging in efforts to make journalism more equitable and inclusive.Item Impact of Age and Experience on Pattern Separation(2017) Canada, Kelsey Leigh; Riggins, Tracy L; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The ability to remember highly detailed events and discriminate between them is thought to be supported by two distinct but complementary neural computational processes: pattern completion and pattern separation. The current study focused on the process of pattern separation, in which similar memories are assigned distinct representations, thus reducing the overlap between similar inputs. This process is measured behaviorally by tasking individuals with mnemonically discriminating between similar stimuli. The present study addressed the contribution of age and experience, which are difficult to distinguish during development, to pattern separation in adults and 9- to 11-year-old children, in whom this process and its supporting neural substrates are still developing. We examined differences in participant’s mnemonic discrimination of high-experience (e.g., own-race faces) and low-experience (e.g., other-race faces) stimuli. Results indicate better pattern separation overall in adults, and, that level of experience with a stimuli class may moderate age-related differences in pattern separation.Item Architecture and the Senses: A Sensory Musing Park(2013) Stein, Sarah Noelle; Rockcastle, Garth; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis studies the relationship of architecture and the senses. The first part of the document explores sensory characteristics and how they work. It defines their importance in allowing humans to navigate complex environments. The second part of the thesis looks directly at environmental stimuli. It seeks to qualify and associate physical variables with particular sensory responses. The goal of the research is to create a set of standards by which architecture can design "for the senses". The design project will put to test the principles organized from research through a series of architectural installations that harness both natural and man-made stimuli. The methodology with which stimuli are engaged will highlight time, place, and the awareness of being. Each installation is part of a greater constellation that can be sequenced in a variety of ways, experienced uniquely each time, and even added to by visitors and artists.Item Washington Monument Visitor's Center(2004-09-09) Sabin-Díaz, Patricia; Oakley, Deborah; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Washington Monument is an international symbol of the United States of America. The monument has around one million of visitors every year. The necessity for better amenities and accessibility, safety and security for the visitor (better than wait in a line under the rain) and better opportunities for citizens to learn about their monument, President Washington and the Mall. In respond to these needs it could be interesting to design (and perhaps to construct) a visitor center to say Welcome to all the visitors in a comfortable place. It is necessary that new construction does not compete with the monument, it is necessary also that this new building has the appropriate comfort for the visitors and for one of the most recognizable symbols of the world.