Portfolio

Intra-party Conflict Infographic: Learning Outcome 1 considers creating messages that are appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context. These items show that I can find relevant academically sourced information and create an artifact that adapts to the audience that I am sharing it with. I created this item in Fall of 2021 in Social Identity and Intergroup Communication. The purpose of this assignment was to create a graphic that shares information on a particular type of conflict within an identity group. This particular infographic was targeted at my peers/classmates, aimed at informing them about this topic and sharing about the types and role that intra-party conflict plays in today’s society and public discourse. This applies to learning outcome 1 because I created this infographic utilizing academic research to share information with a specific audience in an easily digestible manner.

Digital Storytelling Project: Learning Outcome 1 considers creating messages that are appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context. These items show that I can find relevant academically sourced information and create an artifact that adapts to the audience that I am sharing it with. The purpose of this digital storytelling project was to create a type of multimedia that engages an audience and shares people’s stories in a creative manner. It also works to incorporate principles of digital storytelling such as serial structure, personal presence, social framework, multiple proscenia, and platform proscenia. I then assisted in the creation of this presentation to share our project with our fellow classmates, creating this slide deck to share the application of these principles within our digital storytelling project, which was created on instagram and a website.

Postmodernism in Hocus Pocus 2: Learning Outcome 3 aims at ensuring that I am able to answer communication questions with appropriate research methods. This looks at communication research and my ability to utilize a variety of methodology and being able to distinguish these. In this specific artifact, I made use of critical methods. I created this item in fall of 2022 in Television Criticism. The purpose of this assignment was to look at a piece of media, I looked at Hocus Pocus 2, and analyzed it under one of the critical theory lenses that we studied throughout the semester, and I chose postmodernism. This particular paper was targeted at Dr. Glantz, but could have a wider audience of individuals who have watched the movie. This demonstrates my ability to take one of these advanced theories and very clearly break it down and apply it to a piece of media, evaluating it under the lens of communication research.

Final Dissemination Project about the Effects of Online Dating: Learning Outcome 1 considers creating messages that are appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context. These items show that I can find relevant academically sourced information and create an artifact that adapts to the audience that I am sharing it with. I created this item in spring 2022 in Media Psychology. The purpose of this assignment was to explore media effects and explain them in a way that is understandable to a certain audience. This particular instagram account about the effects of online dating and computer mediated communication was targeted at young people who use dating websites and applications. Specifically it was people between the ages of 18-29, hence why we used instagram since this platform is highly utilized by this population and both interactive and informative. We applied the principles of media psychology to our research on the effects of online dating to share with a specific audience, using an appropriate platform for the topic. Here is a link to the instagram page.

Analysis of Herschel Walker’s Concession Speech: Learning Outcome 2 looks at my ability to critically analyze communicative and media messages. This particular artifact demonstrates my ability to look at a piece of media and identify the meaning of the message and its greater influence. I created this item in fall 2022 in Political Communication. The purpose of this assignment was to apply principles typically found in political rhetoric to a politician’s victory or concession speech and analyze the contents of their message. This particular paper had an audience of Dr. Glantz, as he was the one grading this paper. Throughout this paper, I picked out elements of Herschel Walker’s concession speech and worked to analyze this specific rhetorical piece and its larger implications as a political message.

Taylor Swift’s Critique of the Entertainment Industry Paper: Learning Outcome 3 aims at ensuring that I am able to answer communication questions with appropriate research methods. This looks at communication research and my ability to utilize a variety of methodology and being able to distinguish these. In this specific artifact, I made use of critical methodology and content analysis. I created this item in spring of 2020 in Communication Research Methods. The purpose of this assignment was to take a look at a popular culture piece of media through critical analysis and explore larger themes. This particular paper was targeted at Dr. K, as she was the one assessing it. I applied learning outcome 3 here because I applied the use of communication research methodology in my qualitative assessment of the song and explained how a variety of devices were utilized throughout the song. I explored the greater implications of the song by critically analyzing it and applying the research techniques that I had learned about in this course. 

Analysis of 1986 Challenger Disaster & Group Decision Making Infographic: Learning Outcome 2 looks at my ability to critically analyze communicative and media messages. This particular artifact demonstrates my ability to look at a piece of media and identify the meaning of the message and its greater influence. I created this item in fall of 2023 in Small Group Communication. The purpose of this assignment was to analyze a video that followed the 1986 Challenger Disaster. This particular infographic was targeted at Dr. K to share with her my individual analysis of the group decision making process and principles present in the video. In this infographic, I clearly break down each element of the communication decision making process and discuss its further implications. This goes to demonstrate how I can analyze a message (this group decision making process) and identify the greater implications (how this contributes to the overall process of group decision making and the principles that should be applied).

Media Effects Tetrad Analysis of Instant Replay: Learning Outcome 3 aims at ensuring that I am able to answer communication questions with appropriate research methods. This looks at communication research and my ability to utilize a variety of methodology and being able to distinguish these. In this specific artifact, I made use of critical methodology. I created this item in spring of 2022 in Social Change and Media Technology. The purpose of this assignment was to analyze a piece of media technology utilizing McCluhan’s Tetrad analysis. This particular paper was targeted at Dr. Glantz, but could have a wider audience of those who utilize instant replay technology. This paper demonstrates this learning outcome because it calls upon communication research, the tetrad model, and applies the principles to a piece of media technology, instant replay. I clearly lay out each of the model’s principles throughout the paper and how they apply to my selected media.

Strategic Communication Campaign for Barbie: Learning Outcome 1 considers creating messages that are appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context. These items show that I can find relevant academically sourced information and create an artifact that adapts to the audience that I am sharing it with. I created this item in spring 2022 in Strategic Communication. The purpose of this assignment was to create a comprehensive strategic campaign for a company, ours being Barbie. This particular presentation was targeted at the professor, sharing our plans for this marketing/strategic campaign but applying the strategies we learned about throughout the course of the semester. We created this specific presentation with the intention of sharing our strategic plan that we created for Barbie in a creative way that clearly broke down and explained the objectives we had and applied throughout.

Undergraduate Research-Visual Communication in Politics:  Learning Outcome 3 aims at ensuring that I am able to answer communication questions with appropriate research methods. This looks at communication research and my ability to utilize a variety of methodology and being able to distinguish these. In this specific artifact, I made use of critical methodology. I created this item from spring of 2022 to spring of 2023 in my independent study with Dr. Glantz. This particular poster and paper was targeted at a relatively wide audience, primarily those in the communication field and the undergraduate research forum. This is perhaps the best example I could share about learning outcome number 3 due to the fact that I took all the social methodology and theory I learned about in all my classes and created this unique piece of research to present, and won an honorable mention award. I analyzed campaign logos and what makes them effective, and also explored their greater impact on voter choice. I got to employ research methods like qualitative analysis and focus groups, applying these communication research methods to a new research project that I was interested and passionate about. 

Final Reflection Paper on Political Identity: Learning Outcome 2 looks at my ability to critically analyze communicative and media messages. This particular artifact demonstrates my ability to look at a piece of media and identify the meaning of the message and its greater influence. I created this item in fall of 2021 in Social Identity and Intergroup Communication. The purpose of this assignment was to explore political identity and related media messages and analyze how these perspectives and experiences influence social identity context. This particular paper was targeted at Dr. Morgan, as she was the one reviewing the work. This paper demonstrates my ability to analyze communication messages because we looked at a variety of articles and then talked about how people would respond to said messages in the context of political polarization. We explored the effect they may have on an individual’s identity and their greater impact. 

Analysis of World Health Organization Social Media Video Graphic: Learning Outcome 2 looks at my ability to critically analyze communicative and media messages. This particular artifact demonstrates my ability to look at a piece of media and identify the meaning of the message and its greater influence. I created this item in spring 2023 in Health Communication. The purpose of this assignment was to discuss and understand the impact that a health-related social media message has. This particular infographic was targeted at Dr. K and my fellow classmates at the time, as we posted it on a discussion forum to share the various types and kinds of messages/media we analyzed. As seen in this infographic, I pulled examples of specific elements that I thought demonstrated various communication theories and concepts, analyzing their impact. I looked specifically at what was effective in this post and how it conveyed a warning to WHO’s intended audience.