Communication
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2223
Browse
6 results
Search Results
Item A Theory of Argumentative Norms: Conceptualizing and Evaluating Domain-Specific Argumentative Expectations(2021) Stoltz, Nathaniel Halkias; Hample, Dale; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This project develops and tests a theory, the Theory of Argumentative Norms. The Theory of Argumentative Norms states that individuals carry specific social norms into interpersonal arguments that depend on the goal of the argument—persuasion, inquiry, identity, or play. Conforming to these norms is theorized to lead to optimal argumentative perceptions and outcomes, and violating any of these norms is thus theorized to lead to more negative consequences. The first two chapters detail the theory and its specific normative constructs, leading to the construction of ten hypotheses and a research question. The nature of the theory called for the creation of new instruments and stimuli, so the next two chapters detail the piloting of these measures and materials. The predictions are then tested in two further studies, primarily by the construction and manipulation of dialogic argument vignettes that do or do not contain particular violations, and then asking participants to rate the vignettes for their conformity to argument norms and for other argumentative perception and outcome measures. Findings of the research were mostly supportive of the theory: it was found that norm violations were associated with significantly more negative perceptions than normative arguments, both with respect to in-the-moment perceptions (argument quality, pleasantness) and outcomes (goal attainment, future willingness to argue, escalation). The theory also predicted that different argument goals would be associated with different patterns of outcomes, but these predictions were mostly unsupported.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 An Identity-Based Approach to Organization-Public Relationships and Interactions(2018) Xu, Sifan; Sommerfeldt, Erich; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Public relations research has vigorous agendas on theorizing publics and organization-public relationships, but the conceptualization of publics is mostly separated from the theorization of organization-public relationships. This is reflected in organization-public relationship research, where the matter of who is a public is usually ill-defined. Research involving organization-public relationships and interactions also assumes that relationships are inherently mutually beneficial, without fully investigating the utilities of a relationship for publics. An identity approach to organization-public relationships and publics' interactions with an organization is proposed in this study. This identity approach is grounded in the identity perspective based on social identity theory and self-categorization theory, and is able to connect the research areas involving issues, publics' communicative behaviors, and organization-public relationships. A 3 X 2 X 2 experiment is conducted, where participants (N = 483) are randomly assigned to one of the three issues related to diversity, politics, and environment. In each issue, a nonprofit organization or a for-profit organization (two types of organizations) either fully discloses its position on the issue (affirmation) or does not have any clear stance (non-affirmation). Results of this experiment show that issues affect salience on certain identities, and individuals' overall identity salience and an organization's affirmation on a particular issue significantly affect individuals' identity expression and perception of the organization as an ingroup, which in turn impact individuals' communication and relationships towards the organization. Such results indicate that publics' interactions and relationships with an organization are used to reinforce their identity and essentially related to their identity building. This project builds a foundation to theorize publics as identity-activated individuals based on issues, and their communicative behaviors and relationships as identity expression and identity connections. The significant moderating role of organizational type in these processes indicates that an individual's overall perception of a specific type of organization matters for public relations research.Item "I AM NOT JUST AN ECOMOM": HOW ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS MOTHERS MAKE MEANING OF THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION(2012) Schloss, Renata Faye; Khamis, Sahar M; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although publics have been recognized in the field of public relations as active players in the communication process, there is still a need for better understanding different publics and listening to the voices of individual members of publics, especially those who have been marginalized. The purpose of this study was to explore how members of a particular public, namely "environmentally conscious mothers," make meaning of their environmental engagement and communication and how their diverse identity markers impact this process. In doing so, the study also investigated how they obtain information about environmental issues of interest to them, what their best channels for obtaining such information are, and what determines the credibility of such sources of information. Studies dealing with culture and meaning making, identity, publics, women's and mothers' environmental awareness, engagement, and communication, channels of communication, and source credibility formed the foundations of the literature review for this study. Based on this literature review, four research questions were posed, namely: What are the avowed identity markers of "environmentally conscious mothers" and how do they self-define their own environmental roles? How do "environmentally conscious mothers" make meaning of their engagement in environmental issues and activity? What channels of communication do "environmentally conscious mothers" rely on to increase their environmental awareness and discuss environmental concerns? How do "environmentally conscious mothers"' various identities impact how they make meaning of communication around environmental issues? To allow the individual voices of the participants to be heard and expressed throughout this study, a qualitative research methodology was adopted. Through conducting 36 in-depth, semi-structured personal interviews with self-defined "environmentally conscious mothers," they were given an opportunity to speak for themselves and share their knowledge and experiences. Guided by feminist standpoint and ecofeminist epistemologies, a grounded theory approach was adopted to analyze the collected data.Item Traditional Values and Progressive Desires: Tensions of Identity in the Rhetoric of the Granger Movement in Illinois, 1870-1875(2008-11-21) Chambers, Michael Allen; Klumpp, James F; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the decade following the Civil War, Illinois Farmers suffered from a variety of economic problems such as deflated currency, increased agricultural production, international competition, high tariffs, expensive farm implements, high transportation rates, high taxes, and the occasional natural disaster. Scattered, powerless, and dependent, Illinois farmers were especially vulnerable to a political and economic system controlled by corporate monopolies, corrupt and unresponsive government, and an endless procession of middlemen waiting to take their share of the farmers' hard-earned profits. Farmers responded by forming the Granger movement, the first large-scale farmers' movement in the United States and the initial episode of a broader farmers' movement in the late nineteenth century. Granger movement rhetoric constituted Illinois farmers as powerful agents of change by transforming them from individual actors into the agricultural class, a powerful collective identity motivated for political and economic action. Movement rhetoric did so by drawing upon the motivational power of three strands of American public discourse--the agrarian myth, the rhetoric of class, and the legacy of the American Revolution--to create a narrative that empowered Midwestern farmers to see the dire consequences of their agrarian individualism and to constitute themselves as a class that could adequately respond to their material conditions in the late nineteenth century.Item Identity, power, and difference: The management of roles and self among public relations practitioners(2007-10-09) Tindall, Natalie T.J.; Aldoory, Linda; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Public relations is important to organizations because this function has boundary spanning roles and responsibilities. Public relations practitioners work between the organization and various publics to communicate messages in an effort to inform and influence the organization's leadership and dominant coalition and to inform and effect change among the organization's stakeholders. According to public relations theory, the communicators in the public relations department must match the diversity in the internal and external populations the organizations serve (e.g., L. A. Grunig, J. E. Grunig, & Dozier, 2000; Sha & Ford, 2007). However, public relations has been called a "lily-white profession" (Layton, 1981) and has been classified as "gay industry" (Woods & Lucas, 1993). Recent surveys about the field have indicated modest changes in the profession's demographic makeup (cf. 2005 PR Week Diversity Survey). The aim of this dissertation research is to examine and explore how power and identity merge and diverge in the everyday, professional lives of minority public relations practitioners. This research identified how these practitioners navigate through organizational networks, how they manage identity in their organizations, and how these practitioners interpret the concept of power. To recognize how practitioners interpret their experiences in organizations and to examine the meaning-making of practitioners, I needed the resulting product to be descriptive data that could be unraveled and clarified, then bracketed back to the Excellence Theory of public relations. Therefore, I utilized qualitative methodology. I conducted in-depth interviews with 51 public relations practitioners of various backgrounds--African American and Hispanic heterosexual practitioners; white lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) practitioners; and African American and Hispanic gay male practitioners. The findings revealed some particularly distinct themes. Black and Hispanic public relations practitioners and lesbian, gay male, and bisexual (LGB) public relations practitioners encountered heterosexism, racism, sexism, and occasionally all of these prejudices at the same time. As research participants encountered these barriers, they said they simultaneously resisted and enacted countermeasures to avoid those pitfalls. Power was perceived as having access to knowledge; access and control of financial resources; holding a seat in the dominant coalition; and having a high-ranking position in the organization. Participants achieved power and empowerment in their organizational roles through various avenues--avenues such as mentoring, seeking social support, and reaching out.