Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


seroka final.pdf (4.94 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Mass-Personal Divide: Bridging Scholarship and Paving Ground Through the Lens of Environmental Discourse on Public Land Use

Seroka, Laura A.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9726-5731
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1565205958393969

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Media and Communication.
The emergence and reliance on interactive media in society creates a space for integrated “masspersonal communication” and necessitates a reimagining of the separation of mass and interpersonal communication and the metaconstructs used to define each. Rather than audience size, channel used, and message sender, this dissertation explores the variables introduced by O’Sullivan and Carr (2017) of personalization and publicness of messages to create a continuum moving from interpersonal to masspersonal to mass communication. Theorization into masspersonal messages is an emerging topic, thus, this research examined the application of the masspersonal communication model, two-step flow (which has always acknowledged the connection between interpersonal and mass communication), and adjacent theory connective action in an ongoing public dispute over the use of land at Bears Ears National Monument. Twitter data was collected for one year using the search term “Bears Ears” and “BearsEars.” Using social network analysis, topic modeling, and qualitative content analysis this complementary mixed-methods study identified masspersonal message characteristic variances such as message topic and purpose, mention/hashtag use, and follower/following counts in Twitter conversations, tracked network structures created through masspersonal message sharing over time, and identified and analyzed masspersonal messages from and to key influencers. Results indicate more public masspersonal messages focus on media driven legislative and political topics and are crafted to easily spread information, while less public messages contain more directed comments and personalized information. Networks formed through masspersonal messages showed high modularity, low levels of reciprocal communication, and high centralization. Mentions became problematic as a means of measuring personalization due to the inability to effectively interpret their intention and reception in online spaces. Results indicate research into the masspersonal continuum needs a more concrete definition of “public” as not all messages achieve the same level of visibility within “public” platforms and “personalization” as mentions hold a variety of meanings and levels of interpersonal attempts.
Sandra Faulkner, PhD (Advisor)
Lisa Hanasono, PhD (Committee Member)
Syed Shahin, PhD (Committee Member)
Judith Jackson May, PhD (Other)
254 p.
Communication
masspersonal; bears ears; national monument; topic modeling; network analysis; twitter; environmental; public; private

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Seroka, L. A. (2019). The Mass-Personal Divide: Bridging Scholarship and Paving Ground Through the Lens of Environmental Discourse on Public Land Use [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1565205958393969

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Seroka, Laura. The Mass-Personal Divide: Bridging Scholarship and Paving Ground Through the Lens of Environmental Discourse on Public Land Use. 2019. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1565205958393969.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Seroka, Laura. "The Mass-Personal Divide: Bridging Scholarship and Paving Ground Through the Lens of Environmental Discourse on Public Land Use." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1565205958393969

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1565205958393969
1,547
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.