The moments of terror, emergency, and helplessness that unfold during a crisis extend beyond their initial occurrence through narrative. The stories that emerged from the December 13, 2013, Arapahoe High School shooting in news articles written by The Denver Post and in the survivor-authored play Thirteen provided different narratives about...
Since television has had the ability to entertain, it has also had the ability to persuade us about how we ought to perceive the world. To do so, television has long relied on stereotypes, whether they are of gender, race, or class, and research across media and communication disciplines have...
This study examines representations of Amy Winehouse’s death in mass and social media to better understand the ritual of collective mourning in regards to celebrity death. It uses the concept of mediatization to characterize this ritual and the ways that media culture shapes representations and the formation of community within...
The purpose of this project was to examine the impact of a generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis in the romantic relationships of emerging adults. By applying the Relational Turbulence Model (RTM), my goal was to uncover how relational confidence and partner interference were affected by the diagnosis as a turbulent event....
A prevalent issue on U.S. college campuses is the complex relationships between international and domestic student roommates. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how domestic dorm residents and resident advisors narrate disputes they have with their international roommates or residents. The communication practice of narration served as...
Alcohol use on college campuses, especially in campus residence halls, has a significant impact on students. In order to help build community and provide support to college students who live on-campus, universities often employ current students as resident advisors. Resident advisors are also charged with enforcing campus and residence hall...
One underexplored category of adoption is intrafamily adoption, which occurs when an adult adopts a child who is also a relative. Using a relational dialectics theory framework, this study examined online posts from 40 intrafamily adoptive families to identify communicative tensions and struggles within the family following the adoption. This...
The purpose of this study is to understand how recovering alcoholics manage stigma and conduct facework when disclosing their alcoholic identity to a romantic partner. While studies analyzing other contexts, including the workplace and parties, show topic avoidance as a successful approach to alcoholic disclosure, topic avoidance does not work...
This honors thesis project is opening up the discussion around issues of gender identity and how it intersects in a sports context. This project includes the voices from high-level athletes, sports professionals, advocacy organization leaders, medical professionals and researchers to illuminate the different perspectives surrounding this complex issue. Caster Semenya,...
Climate scientists believe that humanity has just about twelve years to solve climate change. As the second largest polluter in the world, this leaves the United States in a position of power and global responsibility. However, the United States has seen a rise in climate change denial since the late...