These pieces demonstrate my commitment to meeting the learning objectives established by the Communication and Media Studies department at St. Norbert College to (1) create messages appropriate to an audience, purpose, and context, (2) critically analyze messages, and (3) answer communication questions using appropriate research methods. The scholarly perspective that I primarily engaged with is social scientific research.

Website

Capstone Project: The Relationship Hub

This assignment showcases the culmination of my Communication and Media Studies education throughout my undergraduate years. The topic, format, and project timeline were entirely self-directed, and the modality that I chose was a website called the Relationship Hub. The Relationship Hub was designed as a community for those who want to learn more about romantic and/or family relationships, how they are often interconnected, why they are important, and other factors that influence these two major social spheres. The purpose of this site is to share information and advice informed by empirical research in a way that makes it more accessible to a lay audience. This piece reflects all three learning objectives of creating messages, critically analyzing messages, and answering communication questions using appropriate research methods.

Infographics

Family Communication: Infographic

This infographic was created in the Fall of 2021 for the Family Communication course’s final assignment, and it was the initial project for which my independent research was based upon. The purpose of this infographic was to apply intergroup communication and theory to real-world issues today by selecting a specific topic of interest related to family communication. For this reason, this assignment is reflective of the communication research objective because I conducted a literature review to explore what information existed surrounding this topic in order to generate the content of this infographic. Additionally, this project reflects the objective of creating messages because, while, infographics are just one way to communicate content to an audience, I adapted scholarly based research to a visual format in order to appeal to a more general target audience. In this case, the intended audience was primarily individuals who are introducing a new romantic partner to their family members, but given its inherent research component, it is also geared at an academic audience.

Communication Technology at Work: Theory Summary

This infographic was created in the Summer of 2021 as part of the Communication Technology at Work online course. The purpose of this assignment was to provide a comprehensive overview of a theory that we read about to showcase a general understanding of the theory and the ways in which that theory can be applied both in research and in understanding organizations and technology. The target audience was my classmates, as this theory summary was posted to an online forum in an effort to learn from one another and facilitate discussion. Therefore, this infographic summary is reflective of the communication research learning objective as well as the creating messages objective because I applied the empirical research surrounding Adaptive Structuration theory in the creation of the content, which communicated this information through the use of visuals.

Written Assignments

Health Communication: Health Campaign Analysis Final Paper

This paper was written in the Spring of 2022 for the Health Communication course’s final. The purpose of this paper was to choose a health campaign from one of the three websites provided and examine the public service announcements (PSAs) of that campaign in order to: identify the target audience of the campaign, describe the health topic and the specific behaviors that the campaign was asking of its audience, explain the channels used in the health campaign by analyzing one of the PSAs and the online platform, and provide concluding thoughts about the impact of the campaign. As a result, this paper’s target audience was my professor, and it addresses the learning objectives of critically analyzing messages, as well as creating messages. For this project, I chose to analyze the Fatherhood Involvement Campaign from the website Ad Council, which can be found here: https://www.adcouncil.org/campaign/fatherhood-involvement

Crisis Communication: Image Repair Paper

This paper was written during J-term of 2021 for the Crisis Communication online course. The purpose of this assignment was to choose a recent instance in which a corporation, politician, celebrity, or athlete attempted to repair their image in the wake of an offensive act that threatened their reputation and to analyze the case by applying Benoit’s Theory of Image Repair Discourse. The target audience of this paper was primarily my professor; however, due to the topic of the paper revolving around a major brand (Target) and that the event under evaluation was popularized on social media, it is also geared at public opinion surrounding the incident. Albeit, an academic audience who is familiar with Benoit’s typology of image repair strategies will find this paper most accessible. This paper meets the criteria for critically analyzing messages by using a mindful lens to examine the corporate messages used to respond to this event, recognize the meanings that were embedded in the image repair attempt, and evaluate the influence of this on the corporation’s overall image.

Book Review

Book Review: Own It- A Practical Guide to Defying the Odds and Claiming Your Life

This book review was conducted throughout the Spring semester in 2022 for the Communication and Mental Health course. The purpose of this assignment was to select a book that relates to communication and mental health to read over the semester and to critically reflect on the theoretical and empirical support for the claims of the book in an effort to analyze popular press advice on cultivating mental health through communication. The target audience was my classmates and my professor, as we engaged in in a round-table discussion to share the main points of the book and our thoughts about what we learned. This review reflects the learning objective of critically analyzing messages because it demonstrated my ability to examine the advice and recommendations surrounding popular press depictions of communication and emotional well-being.

Social Media Post

Communication & Mental Health: Translational Final Project

This social media post was created in the Spring of 2022 as my final project for the course Communication and Mental Health. The purpose of this project was to practice interpreting and applying empirical research to identify pathways between communication and mental health by developing a resource for a specific audience to address a specific topic relating to recommendations on facilitating mental health. There was also a paper that accompanied this resource to provide information on the specific audience, which was single mothers, as well as an explanation of the empirical communication research that was used to guide the suggested recommendations that were included. This project met the criteria for the learning objective of creating messages appropriate to audience, purpose, and context.

Presentations

Theory Application

This presentation was given in the Spring of 2023 for the Communication Theory course. The purpose of this assignment was to practice doing theoretically guided research, learn about applied examples of a selected theory, practice verbal and written communication skills, and evaluate a research article. This assignment entailed choosing one of the theories we were learning about throughout the semester to identify a research article that is guided by the assigned theory and then to facilitate a 15-20 minute presentation including the following:

1. A summary of the research article that you found, including a summary of the purpose, method, findings, and how the theory was utilized in the study.
2. An applied example that you would like to share with the class of the theory. Applied examples could be a short video clip, a news story, an activity that we do in class, etc.
3. An interactive component with class members (i.e., discussion questions, etc.)

As additional components to the theory application assignment, we were tasked with completing an article evaluation of the chosen research article, as well as completing a reflection paper after the classroom facilitation regarding how it went and what we learned from further researching the assigned theory. The target audience of this presentation was my professor and classmates, and this project reflected the learning objectives of: creating messages appropriate to an audience, purpose, and context, critically analyzing messages, and applying communication research methods.

Scholarly Articles

Interpersonal Communication: Scholarly Journal Article

This assignment was completed in the Fall of 2020 as part of the Interpersonal Communication course. The purpose of this assignment was to select a journal article that examines communication and relationships, to notate the article, and to write an abstract. The target audience for this assignment was my professor, however, it also was personally useful in allowing me to practice scholarly journal evaluation skills. Therefore, this assignment met the learning objective of answering communication questions using appropriate research methods.

Communication Theory: Annotated Bibliographies

This assignment was completed as a component of my Capstone project in the Spring of 2023 for the course Communication Theory. The target audience was myself, as the purpose of this task was to organize relevant literature surrounding the topics of my capstone project and aid in the development of my website. This document is an exhaustive list of the sources and information that I gathered from scholarly sources, and for that reason, it adheres to the learning objectives of critically analyzing messages and answering communication questions using appropriate research methods.