Communication Studies -- Graduate Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
This collection features graduate student theses produced in the Department of Communication Studies.
Browse
Recent Submissions
- ItemCommunicating Imminent Safety Threats: Understanding the Use of Emergency Alerting by Canadian Law Enforcement(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025) Maier, MandyMandatory emergency alerts distributed via Canada’s National Public Alerting System (NPAS) notify of imminent safety situations and are used by police to support public safety. This mixed-methods study investigated how Canadian police navigate challenges, utilize tools and meet public expectations when communicating via emergency alert and what forms public awareness, trust and expectations regarding police communication methods during imminent safety situations. Eight interviews with Canadian police service representatives were conducted, and public survey data were collected (n = 486). Interview results indicated that police preparedness and experience affect alerting approach, alert strategy and risk impacts police decision making, alerting is influenced by external factors and alerting approach differs across police services. Survey results linked public trust in the police to communicate when an urgent threat impacts their safety and whether local police do a good job educating the public about alerts. Targeted, police-driven alerting education campaigns are recommended to expand public understanding and build trust and preparedness.
- ItemExploring the Communication Process Model(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-08) Omojuwa, Boluwatife AndrewIn this thesis I conduct a systematic content analysis to assess the communication process model portrayal and presentation in undergraduate business textbooks over time. To accomplish this, I analyze 32 undergraduate textbooks published between 2000 and 2025 that feature the communication process model. The goal of the research is to: (1) identify communication theories inserted in undergraduate student business textbooks; (2) observe the evolution of the communication process model in text; and (3) determine the manner and extent of which the communication process model is modified or simplified in business undergraduate student textbooks. The findings reveal a widespread reliance on the Shannon-Weaver model, often presented as a simple sender-receiver communication flow, with limited or no representation of noise (either visually or textually). Where noise is addressed, it is often substituted with vague terms like ‘interference.’ These findings show the oversimplification of the communication model for learners and the need for an up-to-date consistent model in pedagogical materials in business communication.
- ItemFrom Online Anti-Gender Groups to Offline Protests: Analyzing Mobilization in the “1 Million March 4 Children” Movement in Canada(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-07) Guo, YueThis study examines how supporters of the anti-gender movement “1 Million March for Children” use social media to articulate arguments, engage with opponents, build trust, and mobilize offline protests. Through thematic analysis of 503 tweets tagged with #handsoffourkids from September 20, 2023, to October 21, 2023, the study identifies four main themes: clarifying arguments and trust-building, mobilizing supporters and calls to action, counterstrategy, and trust-destroying and trust-building narratives. The findings indicate that supporters enhance group cohesion and public trust by emphasizing patriotism, diversity, and unity, and framing parental rights in moral and emotional terms. They articulate positions on LGBTQ+ issues, sex education, and broader political matters, fostering in-group solidarity. Notably, a significant portion of the data employs counterstrategies aimed at delegitimizing opponents through accusations of child sexualization, grooming, violence, hatred, pathologization, political extremism, censorship, and dishonesty. Though limited to tweets from the supporters of the movement, this research provides timely, valuable insights into Canada’s contemporary anti-gender mobilization. The real-time social media data analysis offers an essential primary-source perspective, laying groundwork for future studies and highlighting critical issues for scholars and policymakers.
- ItemA Scholarly Examination of Zoom Fatigue: A Systematic Review(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2024) Onoigboria, DestinyThis systematic review focused on the nature, prevalence, contributing factors and mitigating strategies of Zoom fatigue. The study reviewed 42 research articles identified from the peerreviewed literature published between 2020-2024. In the current study, Nadler’s third skins theory and Latour’s Actor-Network Theory were used as the theoretical lens. The results indicate that Zoom fatigue is a construct with cognitive, physical, and social-psychological plight. Some of the main areas are; staring, self-observation, lack of motion and abnormal social signals. The findings reveal variations of the disorder affect more women than men and persons with previous anxiety or stress related disorders. Measures for reduction are development of structured breaks, provision for ‘no camera’ option, toggling between synchronous and asynchronous communication. The work shows that Zoom fatigue is a multifaceted phenomenon that relates to human psyche and cognitive activity; technologies and interfaces; as well as organisational and managerial institutions. All of these have important implications for remote work policies and design of video conferencing platforms. The research affirms and prescribes a multi-level response to the problem of Zoom fatigue that entails technology solutions, policy changes, and personal adaptations. More future longitudinal researches are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of these interferences in the long term, as well as in different circumstances and with people.
- ItemThis is my story: Bringing voice to the violence of anti-Black racism trauma with African Nova Scotians through digital storytelling(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2024) Willis, Rajean N.This qualitative research study explored and examined with six African Nova Scotian participants (co-researchers) their experiences of race-based trauma, and the ways these experiences impacted their overall well-being and quality of life. Specifically, I addressed the research question: What are the Indigenous ANS’ experiences of race-related trauma and how have these experiences impacted their overall well-being and quality of life? The study used an arts-based research method: digital storytelling. There is a growing body of literature examining the intersections and complexities of race-related experiences that have been identified as traumatic by those who experience them. This study looks explicitly at the relationship between racism, trauma, and Indigenous African Nova Scotians’ overall quality of life through their own accounts with a group of six co-researchers. Indigenous African Nova Scotian refers to those whose ancestors had arrived in Nova Scotia as early as the early 1700s, which are a group distinct from more recent Black immigrants (Elliott Clark, 2012). Using Digital Storytelling (DST), co-researchers created a two to five-minute mini-movie articulating their traumatic experience(s) with racism and its impact on their lives. Co-researchers participated in three two-hour group workshops, during which they engaged in finding their story, telling their story, crafting the story and sharing the story. Informed by theories such as Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome Theory, Africentric Theory and Critical Race Theory, this study acknowledges the intersectional nuances of how anti-Black racism has been experienced with co-researchers. The recognition of structural and systemic anti-Black racism is reflected in the co-researchers’ digital stories. The resiliency and critical hope for equity and healing have also been made evident through their ability to take appropriate action against the assaults of anti-Black racism. Study recommendations point to the need to expand education, including African Nova Scotian-centred/Africentric pedagogies, to contextualize this reality into trauma-informed care in education. Additionally, this study provides further evidence of the value of DST as a research method for individual, communal, institutional, and structural transformation.