College of Arts & Humanities
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1611
The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item Overcoming Opioid Stigma through Communication: An Extension of the Model of Stigma Communication(2022) Ledford, Victoria Ann; Nan, Xiaoli; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines how stigmatizing messages about opioids influence beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors. Uniting the model of stigma communication (MSC) and intergroup emotions theory (IET) along with persuasion and stigma research, this study proposed a new identity-based model of stigma message effects: the integrative model of identity-based stigma communication (I-MISC). The experimental study among 1,444 U.S. MTurk participants tests the proposed mediators and moderators put forth in the I-MISC and offers theoretical and practical implications related to stigma communication theory and opioids stigma communication. The I-MISC argues that stigma messages can lead to stigma-related outcomes through dual affective and cognitive pathways. In other words, stigma messages can cause harm because those messages trigger negative emotional reactions or belief-based perceptions. More specifically, the I-MISC situates stigma beliefs and negative affect or emotions as these dual mediators that can operate in tandem or separately to influence stigma outcomes. Affective mediators explored in this study include negative affect, anger, frustration, fear, disgust, anxiety, sadness, and sympathy. Cognitive mediators explored in this study include stigmatizing beliefs about opioids related to beliefs about dangerousness, immorality, and responsibility. In addition, experience with Opioid Use Disorders (OUDs) was explored as a moderator of the relationship between stigma messages and emotional responses. Five outcomes of the stigma process were considered: attitudes, social distance, behavioral regulation, support for opioid-related policies, and stigma message sharing. Results of a 4 (stigma message feature: mark, label, responsibility, peril) x 2 (stigma level: high, low) x 3 (opioid context: prescription opioids, fentanyl, heroin) between subjects online experiment offered preliminary support for the I-MISC. Mark and peril messages exerted the strongest effects, with null findings for label and responsibility messages. Mark and peril messages each exerted indirect effects on all five study outcomes, through primarily a combination of cognitive and affective pathways, leading to less positive attitudes, more desired social distance, increased behavioral regulation, less support for helpful opioid-related public policies, and more stigma message sharing. Affective mediation varied based on an individual’s experience with OUDs. This research suggests the importance of removing stigmatizing communication about opioids in health and news media messaging.Item Beyond Scraps: Narrating Traumatic Health Experiences Through Scrapbooking(2010) Reynolds, Dawn M; Struna, Nancy; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)For centuries, women have served as the primary storytellers of domestic life. In volumes known as scrapbooks, women collect family snapshots and memorabilia for generations to enjoy. Traditional scrapbooking tends to highlight cheerful familial themes, such as weddings, births, and other life milestones. Contemporary online iterations of the age-old artform have begun publicly incorporating stories of traumatic health experiences. In this dissertation, I attend to the scrapbooking projects created by a selection of women who address personal health issues. I examine narrative and rhetorical strategies employed in health trauma scrapbooks, contending that women use the craft to preserve a sense of self while also publicly voicing social concerns. I combine feminist textual analysis and ethnographic-inspired observation to illustrate how scrapbooking comprises a form of knowledge production narrating women's collective wisdom about survival. The scrapbook projects I explore demonstrate techniques crafters use to manage cultural memories by reformulating their self-image as social change activists rather than as mere enthusiasts engaging in a trite hobby. This dissertation explores a selection of health concerns women raise through the craft, with a particular emphasis on breast-cancer themed scrapbooks. Applying breast cancer scrapbook pages as a case study, I illustrate how women deploy online scrapbooking in the service of health narration, thereby claiming a public voice about the illness experience. As I show in the final part of the dissertation, scrapbookers coalesce in activist communities, carving out a platform from which to press for social justice. I conclude by revealing ways that scrapbookers utilize the World Wide Web to facilitate health activism and public narration of traumatic health experiences. This dissertation is designed to elevate the place of contemporary scrapbooking in American Studies scholarship. Because the scrapbook has been both poorly preserved and grossly understudied, the earnest task of my project is to offer a useful model for analyzing women's trauma scrapbook pages that resonates for future scholars. I seek, above all, to raise awareness about the scrapbook as a relevant cultural artifact that contains richly contextual narratives of self and society.Item When the Organization-Public Relationship is More Than Just Calculation: What We Can Learn from the Case Study of an Exemplar Community-based Intervention(2008-05-09) Austin, Lucinda; Aldoory, Linda; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Working with publics and organizations at the community level has become increasingly important for government and non-governmental organizations, although, little is known about how to foster development of these relationships. Through the case study of an exemplar relationship between a national organization and a community-based organization, organization-public relationship theory is used to explore relationship type, antecedents, cultivation strategies, and relationship outcomes. Methods within the case study include in-depth interviews with organizational members, participant observation, and documentation. Strong support is found for the covenantal relationship type; capacity, readiness, and climate antecedents; cultivation strategies of networking, sharing of tasks, and access; and all relationship outcomes. Admiration, received support as an additional outcome and as a relational antecedent. Additionally, themes of customer service and researching and understanding publics emerged as cultivation strategies. This study has implications for forming relationships with publics and organizations at the community level, especially in health and social contexts.