Browsing by Author "Wolfgang, David, committee member"
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Item Open Access Mind over machine? The clash of agency in social media environments(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) McConnell, Stephen J., author; Kodrich, Kris, advisor; Wolfgang, David, committee member; Champ, Joe, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth A., committee member; Opsal, Tara, committee memberUnderlying many social media platforms are choice recommendation "nudging" architectures designed to give users instant content and social recommendations to keep them engaged. Powered by complex algorithms, these architectures flush people's feeds and an array of other features with fresh content and create a highly individualized experience tailored to their interests. In a critical realist qualitative study, this research examines how individual agency manifests when users encounter these tools and the suggestions they provide. In interviews and focus groups, 45 participants offered their experiences where they reflected on how they perceived the engines, e.g., their Facebook feed, influenced their actions and behaviors, as well as how the participants felt they controlled it to achieve personal aims. Based on these and other experiences, this study posits the Social Cognitive Machine Agency Dynamic (SCMAD) model, which provides an empirically supported explanatory framework to explain how individual agency can manifest and progress in response to these tools. The model integrates Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory concepts and emergent findings. It demonstrates how users react to the engines through agentic expressions not dissimilar to the real-world, including enacting self-regulatory, self-reflective and intentionality processes, as well as other acts not captured by Bandura's theory. Ultimately, the research and model propose a psycho-environmental explanation of the swerves of agency experienced by users in reaction to the unique conditions and affordances of these algorithmically driven environments. The study is the first known extension of social cognitive theory to this technology context. Implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations for future research provided. The study recommends that future research and media discourse aim for an individual-level psychological evaluation of these powerful technologies. This stance will afford a greater understanding of the technology's impacts and implications on individuals, particularly as it is anticipated to significantly evolve in the coming years.Item Open Access Popcorn thoughts: a podcast economy of film criticism(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Blackburn, Hayley, author; Arthur, Tori, advisor; Humphrey, Michael, committee member; Wolfgang, David, committee member; Black, Ray, committee member; Marx, Nick, committee memberThis qualitative study questions how podcasters review films, engage with audiences, and contribute to film and media discourses. The literature exploring podcast cultures and film criticism had not intersected to a large extent, and this ethnographic inquiry into a case study of five podcast film critics provides an entry point for audio criticism scholarship. The research umbrella drew from film writing and critique cultures (Corrigan, 2015; McWhirter, 2016) and podcast analyses (Llinares, Fox, & Berry, 2018; Spinelli & Dann, 2019) to situate the patterns of discourse and production activities (Fairclough, 2003) within a framework of media sociology (Shoemaker & Reese, 2014). The research engaged with over 55 hours of content and various communication technologies in the winter of 2020/2021. The meso-level analysis considered the data from podcasts as a collective group to focus on the patterns across the audio critic culture (Kozinets, 2010). The findings reflect that audio critics can be further studied as a field of criticism as the collective group followed routines and enacted activities above individual and organizational levels of influence. Niches also frame the contributions of audio critics to the media and film discourse ecosystem as they extend film consumption rituals through discussion and provide a forum for participatory culture among their audiences.Item Open Access Representation and legitimation in streaming television's teenage girl traumedies(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Barnes-Nelson, Madison, author; Marx, Nick, advisor; Elkins, Evan, committee member; Wolfgang, David, committee memberMy objects of study for this project are three streaming television series: Hulu's Pen15 (2019-2021), HBO Max's The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021-), and Channel 4/Netflix's Derry Girls (2018-2022). These series comprise a hybrid television genre I term "teenage girl traumedy." I argue that teenage girl traumedies lend teenage girl characters empathy and emotional complexity not historically afforded to them on television. Using these three series as case studies, I argue that the genre is legitimized culturally and industrially in two ways: 1) through textual appeals in narrative and visual form to feminist discourse and 2) paratextual branding in trade press and interviews with creators that centralize these series' feminist messages of teenage girls' trauma as a distinctive, competitive quality in streaming television. My three case studies depict emotional and bodily traumas on different levels, from the intimate and individualized, interpersonal and institutional, to the national. I show trauma growing and spreading as my thesis develops, as a way to show how teenage girl trauma manifests as personal shame and how the coping process for teenage girls bumps up against interpersonal, institutional, and national spheres. Industrially, my thesis explores the tension between creators who produce subversive, feminist art and the commercially driven streaming services that employ them. I am interested in understanding how these creators write television that delves into themes of young women's sexual and psychological trauma, developing out of previous decades of television that portrayed teenage girls as one-dimensional.Item Open Access Tailored for the gram: a technocultural analysis of Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers' self-presentation on Instagram(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Enyinnaya, Joy, author; Arthur, Tori, advisor; Humphrey, Mike, committee member; Wolfgang, David, committee member; Souza, Caridad, committee member; Scolere, Leah, committee memberUsing African Technocultural Feminist Theory, this study uncovered the ways Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers use Instagram and its affordances to perform digital identities online as well as examined their negotiation of patriarchal ideologies within Igbo culture. The Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) of Instagram posts and interview data revealed Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers employed self-promotion and cultural digitization of Igbo-centric fashion in their self-presentation online. Instagram's affordance of photos allowed them post visually appealing pictures which showcased the intricacies of their designs as well as facilitated the designers' cultural digitalization of Igbo-centric fashion while creating space to challenge patriarchal structures within Igbo culture. The analysis also showed Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers value building and maintaining professional relationships with their clients as they embodied visual aesthetics, relatability, and authenticity in their self-presentation online. Implications, recommendations, and limitations were discussed.Item Open Access The failure effect: why you think she can't win(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Brandon, Melissa R., author; Martey, Rosa Mikeal, advisor; Kodrich, Kris, committee member; Wolfgang, David, committee member; Vasby Anderson, Karrin, committee member; Khrebtan-Horhager, Julia, committee memberThis dissertation analyzes how modern media coverage and framing of women political candidates reinforces and sustains what I term the Failure Effect. The Failure Effect is a complex combination of gender-based expectancies and cognitive processes including cultural cognition, motivated reasoning, and pragmatic bias, which are amplified and reinforced by media framing techniques that ultimately disadvantage women candidates. I argue the Failure Effect causes voters to doubt a woman candidate's electability even when she is an otherwise qualified candidate, resulting in voters choosing a man candidate at the ballot box because they believe She Can't Win. Despite progress toward gender parity in politics, women continue to hold a significantly smaller portion of political offices than men, particularly at the executive level. Investigating this issue, I examine the history of women candidates in the U.S., gender-based social role expectations, journalistic norms, the attention cycle model, and symbolic annihilation in connection with women political candidates. The study conducted considers the impact of commonly used media framing techniques, specifically strategic game frames, on political outcomes and the notions voters may hold about the electability of a woman candidate. This dissertation argues that despite progress, gender parity in politics remains a distant goal. The research question posed in this study yielded results that both supported the argument of the dissertation as well as surprising results that are ripe for future investigation and potentially the future success of women political candidates. This study asks: How do media frame ideas about executive-level women candidates' electability? To investigate this question, I examined the framing of news stories in four major national newspapers in the United States and the coverage generated about the six women presidential candidates who ran during the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary. This qualitative thematic analysis found eight primary strategic game frames and several additional sub-frames that were applied to the women candidates. The results of this analysis provide support for the primary argument of this dissertation – the Failure Effect, and how media framing of these candidates causes voters to believe that She Can't Win.Item Open Access The paradox of cellphones: a media dependency study on college-aged teens and their cellphone use(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Cooper, Carson Kane, author; Martey, Rosa, advisor; Wolfgang, David, committee member; Scolere, Leah, committee memberThe cellphone has become a common tool for entertainment, communication, and information in everyday American life. However, with increased dependency on the cellphone, users are also seeing negative repercussions of their relationships with them. Research has found that cellphones are associated with feeling social and job pressures, anxiety, and depression. The media available through cellphones are intentionally crafted to hold users' extended attention and keep them engaged and active for long periods of time. Those who find themselves fighting against their own habits of cellphone use may be struggling against the software designers who make it difficult for users to disconnect themselves from their smartphones. This thesis studies the relationships between college-aged teens and their cellphones to understand the potential tensions between depending on this technology and feeling it is too demanding and distracting. It uses a series of in-depth interviews to address the research question: How do young adults view and feel about their relationship with their cellphones, and to what extent do they believe they are in control over their cellphone use? The theoretical framework of media dependency theory guides this project's approach by integrating considerations of how society plays a role in relationships with media technology. It also introduces key aspects of why users feel they want to escape their cellphones while examining the factors that make it so difficult for individuals to be without their cellphones. As a social level theory, media dependency theory aids in examining the role of the cellphone in society as a whole, and how individuals' relationships with their phones influence their broader social world.Item Open Access The Tumblr porn ban: the platform triad and the shaping of online spaces(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Pettis, Ben, author; Elkins, Evan, advisor; Dunn, Thomas, committee member; Wolfgang, David, committee memberThis thesis considers social media platforms and the fluid nature of online spaces. Specifically, I examine the social network site (SNS) Tumblr and the controversy that surrounded its recently amended community guidelines and adult content policy. Tumblr had previously had somewhat of an "alternative" identity as compared to mainstream SNSs such as Facebook or Twitter. This identity had largely resulted from its previously lax policy toward pornography and other adult content. Such content had previously been allowed on the website, which enabled a wide degree of personal freedom and expression. This policy, along with the platform's specific affordances, had contributed to Tumblr's characteristic as an online queer space. Many LGBTQ+ individuals and groups had once used the platform to share pornography and adult content, but also just to form a sense of community and express their identities in ways that were not always possible on other SNSs or within the physical world. But in December 2018, Tumblr Staff announced significant changes to the website's community guidelines, and that after December 17, 2018 any such content would no longer be allowed on the platform. This policy announcement, which became colloquially known as the Tumblr porn ban, represented a divergence in how the platform's users and its corporate owners envisioned the online space. For Tumblr users, the platform had been an online queer space characterized by a significant degree of individual autonomy and expression. But for Tumblr Inc., the platform could only be an online queer space until it was no longer profitable, and thus adjusted the content policy in response to various political economic pressures. In this thesis, I use digital discourse and political economic analyses of Tumblr Staff's announcement as well as Tumblr users' responses. I argue that the controversy that emerged surrounding the Tumblr Porn Ban represents the fluid and co-construction of platforms and online spaces. The negative response to the Tumblr Porn Ban was not necessarily directly in response to the loss of pornography and adult content, but rather a loss of what such contented had once represented—individual freedom and autonomy for users. Removing the adult content was significant because it changed what the online space had once been. By studying the Tumblr Porn Ban, this thesis demonstrates that online platforms are not static or monolithic entities. Instead, they are fluid online spaces that are constructed, shaped, and continually redefined by a platform triad of users, corporations, and state power.Item Open Access Understanding military and veteran suicide: a social work perspective on risk and protective factors(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Bylotas, Josh, author; Williford, Anne, advisor; Currin-McCulloch, Jennifer, committee member; Hughes, Shannon, committee member; Wolfgang, David, committee memberSubstantial efforts have been made to address the phenomenon of disproportionate veteran suicide deaths and rising active-duty military suicide. Nonetheless, the problem persists: despite considerable time, research, and financial investment suicide rates among veteran and military populations remain historically elevated. This three-article dissertation focuses on the role of risk and protective factors in contributing to stymied prevention efforts as well as their role in potential paths forward. To that end, how risk and protection are contextualized in existing research, what risk and protective factors have historically been attended to, the epistemological frameworks from which they are viewed, and the methodological practices applied, are central characteristics considered here. Study one introduces a trans-conceptual model for understanding suicide in the context of social work practice. This conceptual piece serves to lay the foundation for a contextualized framing of suicide risk and protective factors. Study two is a thematic analysis exploring the role of suicide risk and protective factors among an online community targeting military personnel and veterans. Finally, study three uses Analysis of Variance and multinomial logistic regression to explore differences that exist between veteran students and non-traditional students in university settings on measures of suicide, loneliness, resilience, flourishing and distress. Together, the research presented within this dissertation underscores the importance of an individual's unique social ecology in understanding their overall risk and protective makeup. It highlights the importance of social work perspectives and the continuing need for social work contributions to the greater field of suicidological research.