Mass Communication COME124, Final Poster: This poster was created for COME124 in the Spring of 2022. It is an oral history of my two uncles who are television producers. The intended audience was my classmates and the course instructor, Dr. Kretz. While it details the cultural signifigance of my uncles work, it also explains some of the technilogical challenges they faced in the early 2000s when it came to their production styles. This artifact achieves learning outcome 1 (create messages appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context) and learning outcome 3 (answer communication messages using appropriate research methods). The purpose for this poster was to gather a greater understanding of the different avenues and techniques individuals take when engaging in mass media. The context of this poster was the entire semester of COME124, which scrapes the surface of mass communication theory and techniques. Additoinally, the information presented here was gathered via a semi-structured interview I conducted with Catania and Ignacio in the Spring of 2022. We had a conversation regarding their careers in production and the types of challenges they had to overcome to reach their audience members. Since their work is very niche, it required sitting down and talking about their paths to gather adequate information for the poster.

Final project infographic from COME305, Social Identity and Intergroup Communication: This infographic depicts the importance of non-partisan communication when engaging in land conservation policy conversations, and was created for COME305 in Fall of 2023. Provided are steps to help achieve non-partisan solutions, as many individuals share the same sentiments when it comes to land use. The intended audience are individuals in the Brown County area who engage in land conservation efforts. This piece of evidence achieves learning outcomes 1 (create messages appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context) and 3 (answer communication questions using appropriate research methods). This project required several steps in the research process, including scholarly article evaluations and an annotated bibliography. I primarily relied on the critical approach for this project, as I was gathering and interpreting research that other scientists have completed. My final presentation is simply a summary of previous literature, along with my own interpretation on how that research can lead to productive conversations. The final product is an infographic intended for policy makers in the Brown County area. It is intended for individuals who understand that partisan politics seep into non-partisan conversations in a politically polarized climate. It provides a brief overview on how the current state of affairs impacts everyday decision making, and then provides a list of steps to help overcome partisanship to create solutions that are for the greater good.

Annotated Bibliography from COME305, Social Identity and Intergroup Communication: This annotated bibliography was used in the research stages for COME305 prior to the composition of the final project infographic in Fall of 2023. This piece achieves learning objective 1 (create messages appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context) and learning objective 2 (critically analyze messages). The purpose of this annotated bibliography was to provide a framework for the final infographic and to summarize the sources I was planning on using. The audience was primarily myself and the instructor, Dr. Maisano. Once I completed this annotated bibliography, it was a lot easier to understand the different approaches available to me. Additionally, I engaged in critically analyzing messages. The intent of an annotated bibliography is to provide a brief summary of an academic source to understand how the different aspects of previous literature fit together.

Final Paper from COME329 Political Communication: This final paper describes Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers’s acceptance speech following the 2022 Gubernatorial Election for Political Communication in Fall of 2022. It outlines the qualities that all acceptance speeches contain, a critical analysis of Evers’s speech, and the importance of including all 6 qualities. The primary audience was my classmates in Political Communication and the instructor, Dr. Glantz. This paper is an example of learning objective 2, critically analyzing messages. Here, the message is the acceptance speech. It is an analysis of content that someone else produced, and the way that is applies to the overall culmination and importance of political communication in a democratic society. This was created as a final paper project for Political Communication. It includes key terms and topics that were covered in the course, and it shows a real life application of the content that I learned.

Scholarly Article Evaluation from Political Communication COME329: This article evaluation was completed as an assignment in the Fall of 2022 for Political Communication. The intended audience was myself and my instructor, Dr. Glantz. This article evaluation was completed to better understand the role that narratives play in political communication. It achieves learning objective 2, which is to critically analyze messages. It is a series of responses regarding the content and impact that the article “Cherrys for My Grandma” has on readers. This evaluation was used as an example exercise to learn how to identify narrative elements, and can be used as a framework for developing similar messages.

Final Research Proposal from Communication Inquiry, COME180: This paper is a research paper proposal that was created by myself and 4 other classmates in the spring of 2023 in Communication Inquiry. Our intended audience was primarily ourselves and our instructor, Dr. Smith. With this project, we accomplished learning objective 1 (create messages appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context) and learning objective 3 (answer communication questions using appropriate research methods). While we outlined a research project, we did not actually undergo the research process. Rather, everything was theoretical in this research proposal. We created an introduction, brief review of the available literature, created several survey questions for participants to respond to, and we explained the hopeful results if this experiment were to be carried out. For learning objective 3, while there was no actual data collection, we engaged in the appropriate research methods techniques to gather a baseline of the existing research and determined how to best approach a study of this nature.

Scholarly Article Evaluation from Media Studies Capstone, COME468: This article evaluation was completed during class in the Media Studies Capstone course taken with Dr. Kretz in the spring of 2024. The intended audience was myself at Dr. Kretz, and it assited in my greater understanding of Social Comparison Theory and the role it plays in social media consumption. This scholarly article evaluation achieves learning objective 2 (critically analyse communication messages). After reading the scholarly article, I answered questions about the research process and how longitudinal research is conducted and analyzed. I determined the various limitations and challenges that longistudinal research presents, along with the benefits of longitudinal studies.

Media Studies Capstone Final Research Project, COME468: This is a video recording of the presentation I made and plan to give for the Media Studies Capstone course. The audience is myself, my instructor Dr. Kretz, and my fellow Media Studies peers. This piece of evidence accomplishes all three learning objectives set out by the communication department. For LO 1, which is create messages that are appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context, this video was made in relation to the presentation. The context of this presentation is the larger experiment I conducted, which serves as a culmination of my time as a media studies student. For Learning Objective 2, which is critically analyze messages, this project entailed a review of the existing literature. The studies that have already been conducted surrounding social media marketing and political communication needed to be analyzed to determine where the holes in the existing research were. From there, I engaged in learning objective 3 (answer communication questions using appropriate research methods. This experiment required me to create and administer an online experimentally designed survey. I used various types of survey questions, including Likert Scales to assess attitudes. This project truly covers all three learning objectives taht are hoped to be achieved via the Media Studies department.