Communication Studies -- Graduate Theses

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https://hdl.handle.net/10587/947
This collection features graduate student theses produced in the Department of Communication Studies.

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 50
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    Incel Communities and the Mainstreaming of Misogyny: A Study of Rhetoric, Persuasion, and Media Influence
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-08) Botma, Emilie
    This research project seeks to understand how news media influences the public’s perception of current events and society, centring the example of a specific online community of men who share a misogynistic, racist, and extremist belief system, known as the incel (short for involuntary celibate) community. The work provides background on the incel community, misogyny, incel rhetoric, feminist theory, and analyses news coverage of the incel community and violence committed by individuals within the community. The work examines communication tactics used in news coverage that leverages framing and narrative construction to shape belief systems and behaviors about the current state of misogyny in Western society. The study aims to foreground news media’s consistent failure to acknowledge incels and adjacent misogynistic communities for the threat they pose as a phenomenon exacerbated by the patriarchal structures shaping society, and as a manifestation of a broader social trend/desire to return to “traditional norms” due to increasing anxieties in a neoliberal capitalist society.
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    Decolonizing the University: A Critical Exploration of the Rhodes Must Fall Movement and the Politics of Reckoning in Higher Education
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-08) Adeyemi, Oluwasemilore Faith
    The longstanding and ongoing liberation struggles for a decolonized African university, a search for a modern African identity, an epistemic citizenship, and an autonomous African development raised the question of decolonization when a Black student hurled a pail filled with human excrement against the Cecil John Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, sparking the formation of the RMF movement on March 9, 2015. Grounded in both the Decolonial Critical Discourse Analysis (DCDA) and theory of Decoloniality, the objective of this study was to explore the Rhodes Must Fall movement and analyze the politics of reckoning, epistemic justice, and institutional transformation in higher education. The aim was to critically examine how the RMF movement challenged the persistent coloniality within the African university and fostered a pluriverse knowledge system, decolonized leadership, and pedagogy. Through an analysis of speeches, institutional statements, media coverage, visual and symbolic materials, and peer-reviewed journal articles, the study investigated how Black students sought to make sense of their experiences in a Western-dominated university by de-linking from UCT’s Eurocentric curricula and creating their own decolonial frameworks based on Pan-Africanism, Black Consciousness, Black radical feminism, epistemic disobedience and Fanonism. This thesis argues that decolonization remains an ongoing yet unfinished project that requires continuous unlearning of colonial structures and the dismantling of systemic hierarchies. The RMF movement served as both an epistemic and political intervention, exposing the limitations of liberal multicultural reforms that fail to address the deeper, more profound issues of coloniality.
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    The Social Obligation Paradox: #BlockOut and Celebrity Silence on TikTok
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-12-08) Blundon, Hannah
    This thesis examines the #BlockOut movement on TikTok, a short-lived but highly visible digital activism campaign in which users blocked celebrities perceived as silent or indifferent toward the genocide in Gaza. The study investigates why audiences expect celebrities and influencers to engage in sociopolitical discourse, how celebrity silence became framed as complicity, and what this reveals about power, performance, and accountability in digital culture. Using a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design, the research analyzed 973 comments from 11 high-engagement TikTok videos alongside follower and engagement data for the most frequently mentioned celebrities. Findings show that TikTok users positioned celebrities as moral agents obligated to speak out, transforming silence into a politically meaningful act. Seven discursive themes revealed how users negotiated responsibility and belonging within the movement. Although #BlockOut generated significant attention and momentary shifts in online behaviour, its measurable impact on celebrity status was limited, and its momentum rapidly declined. The study concludes that #BlockOut exposes a paradox at the heart of contemporary digital activism: public expectations for celebrity advocacy are intensified by parasocial relationships and platform logics, yet these same dynamics undermine sustained collective action.
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    Communicating Imminent Safety Threats: Understanding the Use of Emergency Alerting by Canadian Law Enforcement
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025) Maier, Mandy
    Mandatory 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.
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    Exploring the Communication Process Model
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-08) Omojuwa, Boluwatife Andrew
    In 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.