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Browsing by Author "Faw, Meara, advisor"

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    Barstool consequences: college students' risk perceptions when interacting with Barstool Sports' modeling of the college experience through Instagram
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Coviello, Jenna, author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Marx, Nicholas, committee member; Barone, Ryan, committee member
    This study focuses on how college students engage with the various Instagram accounts run by Barstool Sports (e.g., @chicks, @barstoolsports, @5thyear, and college-affiliated Barstool Instagrams) and how engagement influences their perceptions of risk and risky behavior decision-making. Through this study, I review the literature surrounding Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and risk communication. I also give an overview of Barstool Sports and how they present college students in the previously mentioned Instagram accounts. I looked to answer two research questions: RQ1: How does Barstool's affiliated Instagram accounts showcasing college-student-produced videos model destructive and risky behaviors? RQ2: How do Barstool Sports' Instagram accounts influence college-aged consumers' perceptions of risk and decision making in the college experience? I conducted fifteen interviews with recent college graduates of universities who have previously consumed and/or currently consume media with Barstool Sports' affiliation. My goal was to understand how participants' consumption of this media specifically affects their cognitive development, risk perceptions, and, ultimately, the culture of their college institution. I coded the interviews through thematic analysis and discovered three, key themes in RQ1: Glorifying college stereotypes as the "norm," imitation and "one upping" to be featured, and college life as opportunity for Barstool content causes a need to be vigilant of one's actions. Five, key themes were uncovered in RQ2: Being featured on Barstool and consuming Barstool for "coolness," popularity, and social clout; dissonance from personal morals; cringy and risky images provide entertainment, but to a certain extent; recognition of the unexpected (and sometimes expected) negatives of Barstool features and a student's selective disengagement and its association to a college's mission and conduct expectation. Because college is a time when students run the risk of developing negative habits that can damage their academic standing, negatively impact their health, and result in struggles with university student conduct codes, this research can provide clarity on why students choose to partake in the behaviors and actions like those portrayed on these Instagram accounts.
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    "I am not a bad friend for having boundaries": exploring the need for and creation of support boundaries in friendships
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Johnson, Kylie J., author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Parks, Elizabeth, committee member; Quirk, Kelley, committee member
    Although research effectively depicts the benefits of social support and support recipient experiences, less scholarship explores discrepancies and challenges in supportive communication. This research study investigates support provider experiences and offers new insight for challenges that might arise in supportive contexts. Two primary goals motivated this research: understanding what conditions influence providers' need for support boundaries and what communicative strategies are utilized to create them. Qualitative research methods were utilized, and 22 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. Analysis of 865 pages of texts illustrates how various conditions, both personal and relational, drove providers to need support boundaries. Participants described four primary themes to explain their need for support boundaries: ineffective involvement, relational transgressions, protecting the self, and network negotiations. Various sub-themes were identified, and all participants detailed numerous conditions that contributed to their need for support boundaries. Participants utilized three central strategies to enact support boundaries with their friends: direct communication, indirect communication, and collaborative communication. The findings depict existing discrepancies between support provider and recipient needs, and that boundary creation, when enacted skillfully, is an effective way to protect themselves and the relationship. Ultimately, this exploratory study emphasizes the importance of support boundaries and positions boundary creation in supportive contexts as an enriched area for further investigation.
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    Made you laugh: the interpretation of interactive laughter within friendships
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Matter, Michelle M., author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Lucas-Thompson, Rachel, committee member
    Although past scholars have studied laughter as a form of communication, prior research is scarce on how laughter is perceived by interactants. This mixed methods study deepens scholarly understandings of laughter as both a communicative act and a form of affection by investigating how friends in dyadic interactions make meaning of the laughter they share during those interactions. Pairs of friends were video-recorded having a short, light-hearted conversation. Following the conversation, each individual watched the video, explaining at each instance of laughter what they were feeling and why they believed laughter occurred at that point in the conversation. Data from both interactants was then compared to examine the types of laughter that were manifested in conversations as well as patterns regarding participants' perceptions and communication of laughter. In general, previous laughter categories were supported by the data, but new categories were also identified, including laughing out of relatability (show understanding), lighten (decrease stress or negative feelings), memory (remember the situation being discussed), reactionary (because the other person laughed first), anticipation (expecting something funny to happen), cue (indicate that the other person should laugh), common joke (previously shared and recognized humor), mental image (picturing the event or story), and endearing (out of love) laughter. A new categorization system is proposed which assesses laughter in terms of its relational effects along the spectrums of prosocial-antisocial and basic-complex; in particular, prosocial laughter is examined as an affectionate behavior according to the definitions from Floyd's Affection Exchange Theory. This study offers a deeper understanding of laughter as a crucial yet understudied form of nonverbal communication by highlighting the relational meanings and implications of laughter among friends.
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    Managing occupational stigma in abortion care work
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Lee-Simpson, Becca, author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Long, Ziyu, committee member; Kelp, Nicole, committee member
    This study explores how United States health professionals who work in abortion care experience occupational stigma and enact stigma management communication (SMC; Meisenbach, 2010) in the wake of the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Through interviews with 24 current and former abortion workers, the results indicate that health providers experience stigma through stigmatizing messages, stress compounded by stigma, and socioemotional impacts. Workers manage stigma using a blend of SMC strategies including accepting, avoiding, transcending, and challenging. Further, the study uses intersectional analysis to identify seven factors that influence how workers manage stigma as it intersects with their social identities and context: state laws, service delivery, organizational culture, community attitudes, regional identity, privileged/marginalized identities, and reproductive experiences. The study concludes with discussion of theoretical contributions to the SMC model and practical recommendations for healthcare organizations providing abortion.
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    Race, sexual orientation, and childbirth: locating identity in the framework of social support
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Porterfield-Finn, Bentley, author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Parks, Elizabeth, committee member; Brown, Samantha, committee member
    Social support is a growing field in Communication Studies. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have studied the influence of social support on health, but there is a need for more research which considers how identity factors, including racial identity and sexual orientation, influence supportive interactions. Using the case study of childbirth as a stressful event and investigating the role of doulas as support providers in this context, the present study explores how identity influences both provisions of support and evaluations of support. This mixed methods study, consisting of interviews with doulas (n = 16) and a survey of expecting parents (n = 168), deepens our understanding of how racial identity and sexual orientation influence how doulas communicate support to birthing persons as well as how these identity factors influence from whom expecting parents report a willingness seek support. Combined findings from these studies illuminate how doulas support birthing persons and the nuanced influence of racial identity and sexual orientation on this support. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
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    Supernatural friendships: parasocial relationships and the provisions of social support
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Thomas, Kayla L., author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Marx, Nick, committee member; Martey, Rosa Mikeal, committee member
    Parasocial relationships and social support both have independently rich literatures within the field of communication. However, until this study, parasocial relationship partners had not been considered as social support providers. This study furthers scholarly understandings of both parasocial relationships and social support by considering the two relational phenomena in tandem. Fans of the American television show Supernatural with a strong parasocial relationship with a character from the series were interviewed regarding their feelings towards their parasocial relationship partner and how they feel supported by their parasocial relationship partner. Analysis of the interviews revealed participants received esteem support, informational support, emotional support, and social network support from their parasocial relationship partners. The finding that parasocial relationship partners can and do provide social support challenges current understandings of social support as reciprocal and intentional. Two methods by which participants received support without reciprocity and intentionality are proposed: imagined support and constructed support. Additionally, this study investigated the characteristics of supportive messages. Participants watched scenes from Supernatural and identified qualities that made messages supportive or unsupportive. The data from this study corroborated existing methods of categorizing supportive messages such as verbal person centeredness and nonverbal immediacy. Lastly, this study compared support received while watching troubles talk scenes (scenes in which a problem is discussed) and ordinary conversation scenes (scenes in which anything but a problem is discussed) to compare Goldsmith's Normative Approach to social support and Lakey and Orehek's Relational Regulation Theory. This study offers a new approach to describing parasocial relationships through the lens of social support and extends the relational contexts in which social support can be given and received.
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    The art of love: using arts engagement as a promoter of relational maintenance in couples with dementia
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Griggs, Anna Katherine, author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Long, Ziyu, committee member; Malinin, Laura, committee member
    Previous communication scholarship has thoroughly examined the use of relational maintenance behaviors as outlined by Canary and Stafford (2003) on various types of relationships. These relational maintenance behaviors include openness, positivity, assurances, shared tasks, and networks (Canary & Stafford, 2003). However, little scholarship applying relational maintenance to contexts involving a life-altering illness exists, especially from the care partner's perspective. With the rising threat of Alzheimer's Disease and related diseases (ADRD), it is necessary to better understand how these behaviors might play into interactions between loved ones. Specifically, this research explores the use of relational maintenance behaviors between partners where one person has ADRD and the other is their primary care partner as they are involved in a participatory arts engagement workshop. Data collection involved video observation during the workshop sessions and follow-up phone calls with care partners about their experience after each session. Using thematic analysis, this study implicates that participants use relational maintenance regardless of their mental capacity and that the use of these behaviors creates tensions primarily for care partners to balance. The findings of this research encourage further exploration of the use of relational maintenance by people with a life-altering illness and their loved ones in order to understand the complicated communicative process associated with the immeasurable effects of a life-altering illness.