School of Communication and Multimedia Studies

Although the sensationalized term “Revenge Porn” is used by media outlets to spark conversation about consent and digital privacy, the nonconsensual distribution of intimate media, or “image-based sexual abuse” (IBSA), is the preferred term by scholars for its more accurate depiction of the variety of modes, methods, and damages. I argue that targeted women experience many of the same damages to their socioemotional, interpersonal, and professional well-being that targets of traditional, offline, sexual violence experience, and that the nature and affordances of digital technology often allow these harms to transcend the once isolated contexts in which offline cases of sexual violence occurred. Moreover, regulatory bodies often trivialize and dismiss IBSA, deeming it inconsequential despite the devastating professional and socioemotional effects targets experience. This research explored a) how women navigate and respond to IBSA in the workplace when boundaries of personal and professional identities are crossed nonconsensually and whether demographic differences influence approaches via fifteen interviews with IBSA targets and two organizational leaders. The findings revealed that organizational environment and attitudes were the most influential factors in female employees' decisions to report, and in turn, employee turnover, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Demographic characteristics, such as age and gender, influenced how and from whom targets sought informal, or emotional support. Therefore, this research demonstrates the need for, IBSA and its impact to be foregrounded in how traditional sexual violence and harassment are dealt with. Finally, to extend the IBSA and workplace sexual harassment literature further, I argue for the importance of an organizational climate that is not only understanding, but supportive of IBSA targets in establishing appropriate training, regulations, and policy for sexual harassment both online and offline, structured around target support, prevention, and bystander intervention.

The animated screendance presents a meaningful experience through the medium of cinema as seen emerging from Mickey Mouse’s early cartoons, Silly Symphony’s experiments, and Fantasia (1940). The core focus of this research investigates the emotional and affective identifications of the audience engendered through the qualities of animation and the screendance. Drawing from the theories of the animated screendance, a term that shows how cinema can construct affective characters across the artistry of their inherent dance, I argue that these films elicit new understandings of the choreographed body. This is derived through the lens of artistic cartoon animation along with the emotional experience of the spectator by examining the critical body, dance, and film practices that form these bonds. Taking a qualitative approach by analyzing the many films in question through robust textual analysis while including theory on mythological narrative and physiognomy brings us to associate the elements of the body and screendance that influence culture and society. The reason for this approach leads us to recognize the importance of the animated dancing body as an imaginative form that can be controlled and manipulated by the pre-conceived ideas of the animators and human labor dictating these images. The screendance also provides additional layers of signification by including the construction of narrative and psychology through the processes of cinematography and editing, which is further placed onto these characters to increase their believability and emotional connection. All the bodies in question have similar elements that refer back to the human referent and focus on the choreographies that create meaning for these beings. The findings indicate that audiences are emotionally connected to the animated dancing characters on the screen through the importance placed on the representation of human form and cinematic structure to create memories and magic.

This thesis provides an overview of immersive journalism (IJ), focusing on its theoretical and conceptual framework, objectives, ethical concerns, and evolving landscape. IJ is defined as the production of news in a form in which people can gain first-person experiences of the events or situation described in news stories through the use of immersive technologies, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. While the initial objective of IJ was to enhance empathy and transport users to distant places, recent scholars note the limitations and challenges of this approach. Therefore, media outlets are shifting from empathy-based journalism to other objectives. The thesis also discusses the ethical concerns that come with such a degree of immersion and reviews principles of traditional journalistic forms such as objectivity and accuracy in the context of IJ. The last section explores the process of creating a 360-degree project and the required skill set and production process. Overall, the thesis provides insights into the evolving landscape of IJ and its potential to reshape journalism.

Exploring the intersection of archeological and artistic visualization and the impact of digital technologies on these disciplines, the author details an endeavor to communicate the essence of the sanctuary of Paliké in Catania, Sicily through digital reconstruction and animation. Emulating the creative process of the famous panoramic artist Yadegar Assisi, and drawing upon first-hand observation and research of the archeological site Rocchicella di Mineo, the author recounts the artistic journey of creating impactful archeological visualizations which, although driven by rapidly evolving technology, can remain relevant. This manuscript chronicles the process and describes the production methods used to convey the essence of the ancient city of Paliké both accurately and expressively.

This thesis presents an analysis of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and the film’s depiction of nature. This analysis will show that the film derives horror from the depiction of nature encroaching on human spaces. Through the film’s depictions of shark attacks, it forces viewers to confront their own edibility. The filmmaking techniques place humans on the other side of the eater/eaten binary, and present humans a prey. Similarly, the depictions of environments show the presence of nature as a disruption to the film’s established visual style. This thesis asserts film analysis as a necessary tool in understanding the nature/culture binary and how film narratives can contribute to this division.

Loose-line is a visual style where dramatic lines are created with quick, swift strokes, often randomly overlapping each other. Loose-lines can be used to depict a subject and emphasize its actions. They capture the viewer's attention and provide them with an understanding of the narrative depicted through its implication or suggestion of action.
In this thesis I will examine, the loose-line technique and its components. I will show how loose-line has been used as a foundational technique for pre-visualizing painting, sculpture, and architecture throughout art history, and especially with regard to its role in the development of cinema and animation. And finally, I will apply the loose-line technique to contemporary visual compositions and reveal how merging rough sketches with 3D renders contributes to an innovative aesthetic style.

This thesis investigates the role of myth in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Through an analysis of concepts such as the body and nation, I investigate the mythical underpinnings of gender, race, social reproduction, and capitalism in Gilead as well as the veritable history of oppression and imperialism in the United States that informs the Gileadean imaginary. I interrogate myth’s utility in creating nations and worlds, real or imagined, and the mechanisms of myth that make this possible. Using the works of authors such as Roland Barthes, Kalindi Vora, Achille Mbembe, and others, I read The Handmaid’s Tale series as a text that reveals how truth can be distorted by myth but can be demythologized to belie intention, historically contextualize, and inspire resistance. Written in the midst and wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, this thesis is also a meditation on auto-ethnographic and textual resistance.

Mythological stories are more than stories. They are important because they give context to our world, our literature, and our own beliefs and carry forward cultural values and tales over generations. So many efforts have been made to pass mythological stories from generation to generation through various forms including traditional storytelling, songs, and films. This thesis explores if learning mythology can be more immediate and fun by instructing it through an immersive, interactive game known as an Escape Room. Riddles of the Gods is an Egyptian theme-based Escape Room that uses the medium of Virtual Reality. It creates an interactive, educative, and entertaining experience for participants. It also provides an opportunity to contribute towards keeping traditional and cultural values alive, in a more expressive form using the latest technologies such as Virtual Reality which are relatable to the current and future generations.

Taking into account: [a] the traditional mother; [b] cultural pressures/expectations; [c] religion; and [d] distinct communication differences in native vs. north American diaspora – the role of mothers when discussing sex with their daughters in Caribbean cultures has a multifaceted set of communication challenges that continue to face mothers and daughters today. When they do communicate, the conversation is predominantly about abstinence and in some cases, condom use completely excluding information about STDS and methods of birth control. The cultural and religious pressures that mothers adhere to may thwart the decision to give their daughters an informative safe sex talk. To truly have effective mother-daughter sexual communication, mothers need to craft educative safe sex messages and communicate that with their daughters. Failure to do so will only increase the likelihood of daughters engaging in risky sexual behavior.

This thesis examines Indigenous environmental justice discourse within the context of the U.S. carceral settler-state to advance a conceptual framework I name discursive frontierism. I use rhetorical analysis informed by critical and cultural theory to help make visual—and visible—the ways in which colonial frontierism operates in discursive spaces. I analyze the language of the carceral settler-state, including embodiment and affect as communicative language, as well as the language of Indigenous and Indigenous-led resistance. In the first half of the thesis, I argue that the language of the settler-state discursively constitutes Indigenous peoples as criminals and colonial subjects in order to justify their removal. The second half of this analysis finds the language of Indigenous land and water protectors to model and declare “survivance”—an active and continuing “sense of presence over absence” that both renounces dominance and victimry, and preserves traditional knowledge systems and ancestral connections (Vizenor 2018). I conclude that discursive iterations of Indigenous survivance meaningfully thwart the U.S. state’s efforts to advance occupation of discursive territory and further settle the discursive frontier.