Fall 2021

COVID-19 has profoundly changed the ways we communicate. In times of isolation and online interaction, brands have shown an increased reliance on social media to communicate with large communities. Although social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are already being used by brands, TikTok offers unique marketing and advertising advantages. TikTok is designed to inspire and entertain with authentic, creative content that is unique to the platform itself. Previous research regarding the impact of the pandemic has largely focused on behavior for preventative health; however, little attention has been given to the impact of a pandemic on consumer behavior relative to social media. This qualitative study aims to better understand how brands on TikTok, including The Washington Post and Gymshark, have each created and promoted content during the coronavirus pandemic. The study will contribute to the wider understanding of how brands and marketers can successfully build meaningful, measurable campaigns. Mentor: Bill Anderson

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The COVID-19 pandemic forced many to shift their outlook and adopt new habits and attitudes in response to the “new normal” of everyday life. The following research examined how podcasts have helped undergraduate Gen Z college students navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Conducted through two focus groups, the research explored how COVID-19 has impacted both the listening habits and general attitudes towards podcasts of the student participants. It also identified how the participants perceived the podcast platform changing in the future. Participants were asked to identify and explain why they choose to listen to podcasts. Incorporating the theory of uses and gratifications, the participants’ responses were analyzed on the key need or satisfaction they were looking to receive from listening to the podcast platform. As a result of the pandemic’s impact, students exhibited an overall increase in their listening habits and positive attitudes regarding the podcast platform. Mentor: Daniel Haygood

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The Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM) highlights the complexities of work and values, positing we have three career needs (authenticity, balance, and challenge) but their importance differs across gender and career stage. In Division I college athletics, athletic directors (ADs) take on the CEO role, but only 7.5 percent of ADs are women. To better understand the gender discrepancy in this leadership role, this study used the KCM to determine differences in ADs career needs. Through a quantitative survey design, findings suggest ADs, regardless of gender and career stage, prioritized challenge, followed by authenticity then balance. This differs from past studies and may reflect the nature of this demanding, ever-changing CEO position in college sports. It is important athletic departments understand what their ADs value and need in their career to provide appropriate support, which may encourage more women to pursue this leadership position. Mentors: Shaina Dabbs, Cara Lucia, Mark Cryan, Young Do Kim, Bill Squadron, and Hal Walker

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The immediacy of the climate change crisis demands informative and influential messaging strategies that advance awareness and action. Environmental documentaries aim to meet this demand with rhetorical strategies. A study of the history, industry, and methods of this genre will inform future communicators as they contribute to climate action. This paper sought to understand how environmental documentaries influence audiences, and how the corresponding messaging strategies evolved over the past 30 years. The author used quantitative and sociolinguistic content analyses to examine environmental documentaries produced in the United States from 1990 to 2019. Findings indicate that the genre is driven by small productions with a wide gender gap and limited profit. Chronologically, films shifted from sanitized to intimate perspectives of the environment and narrowed in scope. Films used rhetorical expression to link audiences to their environment. Mentor: Glenn Scott

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Color is one of the most powerful visual elements due to its psychological ability to influence people’s perceptions, emotions, and behaviors as understood through the theoretical framework of associative learning. The marketing and advertising industry has long recognized this as a strategy, but little research has examined this at work during the COVID-19 pandemic, which suddenly forced companies to shift their focus toward fighting the pandemic while reimagining and adjusting to a new consumer culture. This study performed a content analysis to investigate the use of color in video-based advertisements during the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, companies’ advertising messages were primarily related to mental health and staying home during the lockdown period, and the high presence of the colors blue, yellow, and white in the imagery and textual elements of the videos suggest a shared feeling of hope among companies and consumers who look forward to restoring normalcy one day in the future. Mentor: Jooyun Hwang

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This research seeks to determine bias within coverage of the January 2021 GameStop incident during which small investors inflated the company’s stock as an act protesting Wall Street, effectively causing short sellers to lose billions of dollars. In pursuit of this goal, this study uses conflict framing theory to conduct a content analysis of three major news sources: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg. Findings from this study show that The Wall Street Journal’s coverage favors investors while Bloomberg favors Wall Street, and The New York Times does not have a clear leaning. Additionally, this research concludes that the presence of conflict frames does not suggest bias and a lack of conflict frames does not suggest neutrality. These findings have implications for how audiences perceive the events, potentially reflecting organizational bias or institutional bias relating to the societal role of business news. Mentor: Harlen Makemson

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Since the development of neuromarketing, there has been a wealth of research conducted aimed at defining the practice, analyzing its potential, and testing the effectiveness of its methods. This research explores the common consumer awareness of the fast-growing field of neuromarketing and perceptions of this practice in terms of comfortability, ethics, and future implications. This was accomplished through a quantitative survey, including several open-ended responses. The results found that a majority of the respondents were unaware of neuromarketing. Once made aware, the results were mixed regarding the perception and level of comfort with the practice. While the highest number of respondents maintained that they were comfortable, there were a notable number of respondents who were neutral or uncomfortable. The research suggested that although neuromarketing was perceived as an impediment on one’s free will, the practice was still deemed ethical to the majority of respondents. Mentor: Daniel Haygood

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Animal agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, producing greenhouse emissions roughly equivalent to those of the transportation sector. As meat consumption is on the rise, so are the negative environmental impacts of livestock production. In August 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published the Special Report on Climate Change and Land, emphasizing the need to cut back on livestock emissions and recommending options for adaptation. Despite scientific evidence and the urgency of the issue, media coverage and public awareness on the topic remain low. This study analyzes coverage from five major U.S. newspapers using quantitative and qualitative content analysis to uncover prominent narratives on the topic. From the publication of the IPCC report on August 8, 2019 to August 8, 2020, only 32 relevant articles were identified, indicating media coverage on the topic is low. After coding for narrative components in each article, including initiating impacts, responsible actors and solutions, four narratives were identified: We need to change the way we eat, eating meat is perfectly ethical, business solutions, and humanity has a range of options. Mentor: Glenn Scott

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Objectivity and emotionality have long been viewed as opposing forces in the field of journalism. While journalists follow a strategic ritual of objectivity, this paper uses the theory of the strategic ritual of emotionality and argues that the two can, and should, be understood as concepts that can work together throughout feature journalism. This article uses the Pulitzer Prize as a marker of “cultural capital” of journalistic lore and analyzes the winning feature articles through the strategic ritual of objectivity in conjunction with the strategic ritual of emotionality (Tuchman, 1972, p. 134). This research attempts to answer how, and in what ways, journalists use these two rituals to create affect in feature writing. Mentor: Laura Lacy

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