Chief Diversity Officers within higher education is a new phenomenon. While some institutions hired Chief Diversity Officers and established an Office of Diversity, others resisted this trend. This study explored the last three institutions within the Southeastern Conference to hire a Chief Diversity Officer. The last institutions were Auburn…

LimLimited research exists about the experiences and perceptions of school superintendents and their professional use of social media. I aimed to examine the use and perceptions of New Jersey school superintendents and social media. Both are essential to understand their use to transform the education landscape and how people communicate. I…

Artificial intelligence (AI) that is based upon semantic search has become one of the dominant means for accessing information in recent years. This is particularly the case in mobile contexts, as search-based AI are embedded in each of the major mobile operating systems. The implications are such that information is becoming less a matter of…

Can medical advice from other participants in online health social networks impact patient safety? What can we do alleviate this problem? How does the accuracy of information on such networks affect the patients?. There has been a significant increase , in recent years, in the use of online health social network sites as more patients seek to…

Health information is increasingly being shared online not just by credentialed sources such as physicians or health organizations, but also by patients with personal experience with a health concern. This dissertation proposes a new measure of vigilance-avoidance, or tendency to approach or avoid threatening stimuli, in order to understand how…

Cyberbullying is a pervasive problem in schools, negatively impacting children's wellbeing, even having disastrous outcomes such as suicide. An absence of studies was noted on parents' communication needs and preferences with their child's school regarding cyberbullying. This study attempts to gain insight on the communication between home and…

The Internet gives individuals more choice in political news and information sources and more tools to filter out disagreeable information. Citing the preference described by selective exposure theory--that people see and attend to information that supports their beliefs and avoid counter-attitudinal information--observers warn that people may use…

This dissertation examines the impact of internet technologies on the field of health communication. Access and use of health communication technologies has and will continue to become increasingly important to manage and treat chronic conditions and other ailments, particularly in the context of health care reform that promotes improved quality…