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Browsing by Author "Griffin, Cindy, advisor"

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    A narrative inquiry of four female first-year, first-generation student perspectives of the university experience
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Gengler-Dunn, Deborah, author; Banning, James, advisor; Griffin, Cindy, advisor
    This narrative qualitative study explored the experiences of four first-generation female college students during their first year at Colorado State University. Guiding research questions addressed various influences impacting on this first year as a first-generation student, including social, familial, campus environmental issues, and perceptions of self and expectations. While the characteristic of being a first-generation student female overlapped with other characteristics such as race or socio-economics, the essence of this gender specific study sought to give voice to first-generation, first-year, female-dedicated accounts of the college experience. While shared themes were explored and while these proved useful in displaying index streams of some frequent female experiences, the academically mandated process of reducing individual participant experience into generalized themes appeared antithetical to the researcher's felt sense of directing a study toward the individual and the distinct voice and experience of each woman participant. Using a feminist theoretical lens to secure the ecology of the female experience, the researcher interpreted the experiences of these women and shared recommendations toward female leadership strategies. Although evocative insight emerged due to this marginalized group (females) striking out into unfamiliar academic territory for both themselves and their families, a telling wisdom came from what these women expected. While themes of Self-Expectation/Agency, The Familiar, Involvement, Challenges, and Other-Expectation surfaced, the dual expectations of Self and Other provoked a curious antagonistic binary wherein the first courted dynamic self-agency and the latter bred an acquired avoidance/acquiescence. As a result, the researcher questioned an existing perception of responsive gender equality in the college environment and challenged educators toward vital conversations regarding how equal-in-premise and equal-in-lived-reality present themselves for women on a college campus. The researcher also advanced the Fens Behavior Model, an oppositional resistance/avoidance of perceived negative female imaging utilized to defend and/or preserve a positive personal declaration of the female self. It is the researcher's belief that while the instinctive story these women tell themselves is one of personal strength and leadership, the grand narrative they seemingly, sensibly must acknowledge as regards gender may demonstrate a counter-productive adulteration.
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    Crossing the line: K-12 public school teacher negotiation of unsolicited requests for self-disclosure
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Moreland, Emily Susan, author; Griffin, Cindy, advisor; Sprain, Leah, advisor; Aragon, Antonette, committee member
    In the K-12 public school classroom, members of the public may interpret personal information shared by an instructor with his or her students as indoctrinating or persuasive. Using Petronio's (2002) theory of Communication Privacy Management, this thesis sought to expand self-disclosure research by applying it to the public school classroom. Building on Zhang's (2007) study of the uses of instructor self-disclosure in the K-12 public school classroom, this thesis was organized around the following research questions: RQ1: What communicative strategies are used by K-12 public school teachers to respond to unsolicited requests for self-disclosure by their students? RQ2: How does teacher preparation affect a K-12 public school teacher's decision to either share or keep private personal information in the classroom? RQ3: What do teachers perceive to be the benefits and drawbacks of using self-disclosure in the K-12 public school classroom? RQ4: What rules govern these moments of unsolicited requests for self-disclosure? Where do these rules originate? In order to address these questions, 46 public school teachers across the country were recruited to complete a five-part online survey that asked them reflect on their own experiences using self-disclosure in their classrooms. The data gathered from this study suggest that privacy rules are closely tied to public notions of appropriateness, which are impacted by normative beliefs about who teaches America's students and what the nature and purpose of teaching is in America. In addition to the broad findings of the study, specific communicative strategies used by teachers when dealing with unsolicited student requests for private information were identified, as well as topic avoidance strategies used when a teacher wished to avoid answering a student's question. The main communicative strategies utilized by teachers in this study were direct strategies including the use of short and simple responses, indirect strategies, or redirection strategies, such as turning the question into a teachable moment. Topic avoidance strategies included many of these same strategies, as well as the use of humor or sarcasm. The benefits of self-disclosure as perceived by teachers are also discussed in this thesis and include reciprocity, improved communication with students, and feelings of closeness with students. Teachers also frequently cited the benefit of "having my students see me as a real person" on the survey. Drawbacks included risks to security, stigma, face, and role. Consequently, many of the teachers surveyed practiced self-policing of their conversations with students. It is argued in this thesis that self-silencing can cause some teachers, particularly those whose beliefs and lifestyles exist outside of the mainstream, to miss out on positive personal and professional outcomes tied to self-disclosure. Therefore, suggestions for how teacher education programs can better prepare preservice teachers to effectively handle student requests for private information are discussed, as well as suggestions for further research.
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    Globalization of compassion: women in the foreground of cultures of peace
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Tivona, Elissa J., author; Banning, James, advisor; Griffin, Cindy, advisor
    This qualitative document analysis examines nine core rhetorical acts featured in the foreground of mediated public discourse (print and broadcast media) contrasting them to rhetorical acts of nine global "peacewomen" presented in 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe. This text is a compilation of the personal narratives of 1000 women nominated collectively for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. I constructed Local Focus Dyads, juxtaposing one woman's narrative from each global region with a first ranked news story for the same region, as identified through a systematic LexisNexis search. As a result of my analysis I derived a theoretical framework contrasting foreground and background rhetoric around overarching themes of progress, human security, and sustained agency. I found assumptions and news judgments dominating the foreground of public discourse glut communication delivery channels, crowding out clear depictions and focused understanding of alternate, peace-building rhetorical performance being regularly enacted in the background, often by women. The results of the study are discussed in terms of new possibilities for peace construction that emerge by "racking focus" and bringing women's background narratives to the foreground of public discourse. In Weaving Cultures of Peace-Tapestries in the Making I discuss six themes threading throughout the background rhetorical acts I studied. These new possibilities include: mending wounds and alleviating suffering; weaving social safety nets; crafting cultures of conflict resolution and "repurposing" cultures of violence; discerning innovative patterns; knitting together local and global; and affixing badges of honor to peace construction. My findings are consistent with other academic research and provide compelling possibilities for further investigation. From a journalistic perspective, I imagine action research raising questions of whether alternate news stories, featuring rhetorical acts central to cultures of peace (especially those enacted by women), contribute to changing the perceptions of media consumers? In Communications Studies terms, I envision in-depth studies continuing to clarify and articulate rhetoric of peace construction, grounded in a larger dataset of peacewomen narratives. As an educator, I wonder about our responsibilities for re-adjusting a lens on the world to more accurately portray the full bandwidth of human performance, not just the narrow spectrum currently featured in headlines.
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    Searching for a cure?: a feminist rhetorical queering of mainstream breast cancer discourse online
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Downing, Savannah Greer, author; Griffin, Cindy, advisor; Gibson, Katie, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member
    This project is a feminist rhetorical analysis of two main sites of breast cancer communication: Komen and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. In order to better understand messages about breast cancer online and how those messages seek to constitute particular audiences, this project rhetorically queers each organization’s homepage to consider representations of race, class and gender. The intersectional approach critiques the presentation of normalized experiences of breast cancer that rely on traditional femininity and cast breast cancer as a middle to upper class white woman’s disease and points to the potential consequences of such a presentation for those who fall along the margins. Ultimately, the project calls for a remaking of breast cancer discourse to be more inclusive, particularly given the vulnerability of bodies already affected by breast cancer, and demonstrates how seemingly palatable sites that are highly trafficked actually further marginalize already silenced experiences of breast cancer.
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    Talking back on Twitter and blogs: emerging forms of consciousness raising in the 21st century
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Dudney, Anna M., author; Griffin, Cindy, advisor; Bone, Jen, committee member; Souza, Caridad, committee member
    This thesis examines the emerging communicative spaces of new media and their utility in fostering consciousness raising in the modern women's movement. Through this study, I answer the following questions: How does the Internet provide a new communicative space for consciousness raising in the modern women's movement and how can it help members ignite change? What is the communicative value and significance of new media in this context? The new media artifacts I examine include two Twitter campaigns, entitled #NotBuyingIt and #SmartBlackWomenofTwitter, and two blog sites, Feministe's "Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday" and The Feminist Wire's "The Personal is Political." Following a literature review in which I cover scholarship in social movements, the women's movement, and new media, I analyze the artifacts using a close-textual and inductive analysis to identify emerging themes. I engage other communication studies theory, including critical feminist and narrative theory, the Theory of Motivated Information Management, and bell hooks' notion of talking back, among other material. Ultimately, I determine that consciousness raising is enacted in these online spaces by women of multiple identities using an array of techniques. Additionally, new media is sufficiently equipped to foster a connection among participants that leads to click moments of understanding that in some cases promote feminist activism. This activism can in turn lead to tangible change to meet goals of the women's movement, including justice for people of subordinated identities.
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    Ushering in participatory democracy on cyber waves of change? The possibilities of an interactive White House
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Purnell, Amanda Lynn, author; Griffin, Cindy, advisor; Daum, Courtenay, committee member; Sprain, Leah, committee member
    This thesis seeks to understand in what ways the Obama administration uses web-based technologies to fulfill key campaign promises for transparency and participation, as well as how those strategies may foster participatory democracy. To answer these questions, the thesis engages conversations of interactivity, interpellation, participatory democracy and the role the net generation plays in the future of participatory democracy in the United States. The project considers two key features of WhiteHouse.gov—the Briefing Room and the Blog—as well as the administration's online presence on Facebook through their White House Live feature. It concludes that the administration is fulfilling most of their campaign promises, but not all of those promises have the capacity to promote participatory democracy. The American public has more access to their government, and to information, but has little actual influence in everyday governing. This thesis also suggests that the Obama administration is putting forth a new understanding of American citizenship that interpellates an active citizen. The characteristics the administration attributes to this active citizen align with the characteristics attributed to members of the net generation. The implications of these findings and the barriers to participatory democracy are discussed as the project concludes by considering the future of politics in the United States.