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The Moral Complexities of Female Leadership in Arrival

Recent studies on streaming services reveal two pivotal shifts in how women are portrayed in popular culture (Lauzen, 2023). First, there are now more women featured than men. Second, these stories are increasingly being told from a female point of view. Media portrayals of strong women in leadership roles may point to societal trends in how strong female leaders are expected to enact moral and ethical choices in everyday life. This chapter explores the moral agency of Louise Banks, the lead character played by Amy Adams in the 2016 science fiction film Arrival. An adaption of Ted Chiang's short story Story of Your Life, the film garnered 20 major nominations and was rereleased on Netflix in 2024. Louise Banks presents a compelling lens to explore moral agency and ethical decision-making from a feminist perspective. As the film's
protagonist and one of the only women in the film, Louise's story exemplifies the moral complexities and ethical dilemmas female leaders face.

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We're All Equal Here: Women of the The Mandalorian 

The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Mandalorian

ETC Press / Carnegie Mellon University

This chapter analyzes four women characters of The Mandalorian series applying feminist ethics as an analytic framework. By closely examining how The Armorer, Bo Katan, Fennec Shand, and Cara Dune’s characters are constructed, the agency they are given, and the motivations behind their choices, the chapter aims to present a more in-depth holistic perspective of how gender and power intersect in The Mandalorian.

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Disinformation detox: teaching and learning about mis-and disinformation using social-technical systems research perspectives

Information and Learning Sciences

Volume: 118 Issue: 1/2, to Volume: 123 Issue: 7/8 (December 2021)

This paper aims to address some limitations in existing approaches to the study of mis- and disinformation and offers what the authors propose as a more comprehensive approach to framing and studying these issues, geared toward the undergraduate level of learner. In doing so, the authors prioritize social shaping of technology and critical informatics perspectives as lenses for explicating and understanding complex mis and dis-information phenomena. One purpose is to offer readers an understanding of the mis- and disinformation studies landscape, and advocate for the merit of taking the given approach the authors outline.

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Cultivating Ecological Literacy: A Critical Framework for Understanding and Addressing Mis- and Disinformation

Paris, B., Marcello, G. and Reynolds, R. (2022), Cultivating Ecological Literacy: A Critical Framework for Understanding and Addressing Mis- and Disinformation. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 59: 479-485. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.656 (Short Paper Award)

This conceptual paper highlights limitations within existing approaches to mis and disinformation and offers a cross disciplinary approach that draws from social shaping of technology and critical informatics to explain and understand these complex informational phenomena. Different scholarly perspectives from policy, technical, and information literacy spheres, often narrowly focus on information practices of actors or components of the technical systems and policy frameworks undergirding these systems often their ‘locus of change’, or concept of the problem and solutions, do not acknowledge the interconnected complexities inherent to mis and disinformation . Our proposed conceptual intervention can be useful to the information science and technology research and teaching community as it offers opportunities to cultivate a complex form of what Milner and Phillips describe as “ecological literacy” to holistically understand the mis- and disinformation problem domain as an interconnected set of
sociotechnical systems.

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85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology | Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2022 | Pittsburgh, PA. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license.

Media Mindfulness. (Chapter 16)

Marcello, G. (2009). Media Mindfulness. In D. P. Macedo & S. R. Steinberg (Eds.), Media Literacy: A reader. essay, P. Lang.

​Media Literacy: A Reader produces a critical understanding of media culture designed to help students develop the ability to interpret media as well as understand the ways they themselves consume and affectively (emotionally) invest in media. Such an appreciation encourages both critical thinking and self-analysis, as students begin to realize that everyday decisions are not necessarily made freely and rationally. While we strongly believe that humans exercise agency, we understand that there are social, cultural, and political forces that affect agency. In this context our conception of media literacy analyzes the ways our everyday decisions are encoded and inscribed by emotional and bodily commitments relating to the production of desire and mood, all of which leads, in Noam Chomsky’s famous phrase, to the «manufacture of consent.» These complex pedagogical and ideological issues demand rigorous skills including questioning, analyzing, interpreting, and meaning-making. Media Literacy: A Reader is a comprehensive collection of essays that is sorely needed, as most of the academic work in the area is written not for an introductory audience, but for scholars in the field. It will shape the agenda in media literacy for years to come.

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Media Mindfulness: Developing the Motivation and Ability to Process Advertisements

The present study utilized the theories of flow, mindfulness, and the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion to explore which factors may influence the cognitive processing of advertisements by students who participated in a five-week media education curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine if students who participated in a media education curriculum that focused on advertising differed in their cognitive processing, attitudes, and knowledge of advertisements from students who did not participate in the curriculum.

Students Taking Exams

Media Literacy: Teaching Activities for NCA Standards 16-20 in Creating competent communicators: Activities for teaching speaking, listening, and media literacy in grades 7-12. 

Marcello-Serafin, G. & Aidman, A. (2003). Media Literacy: Teaching Activities for NCA Standards 16-20. In P. J. Cooper & S. P. Morreale (Eds.), Creating Competent Communicators: Activities for Teaching Speaking, Listening, and Media Literacy in Grades 7-12. Holcomb Hathaway, 2003.

Competence in oral communication is the foundation to students' personal and academic success, and the need to address communication education in grades K-12 has become a crucial national concern. The teaching activities in this book are designed to help students meet communication standards and competencies set forth by the National Communication Association, by state and local accrediting agencies, and by professional education associations such as NCTE, NCATE, AND NCTM. Each activity includes the related communication standard, an objective, the procedure for implementing the activity, a debriefing of the activity using follow-up suggestions and/or questions for discussion, and assessment procedures.

Female Lecturer

Talking Your Way to the Top With Style

Health educators are communicators. The heart and soul of what we do is done through some form of communication. A recent survey of employers revealed that writing and public speaking were the top two most desirable skills for entry-level practitioners. Although a great resume, references, and interviewing skills may get you the job, being able to communicate effectively will go a long way in helping you keep the job and advance to a higher position. It probably would be safe to assume that most health educators, given a choice, would rather develop materials than give a speech or presentation. Public speaking creates anxiety for most people. However, by following a few basic principles of speech preparation and delivery, your level of anxiety can be diminished and your performance improved.

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Report to the Discovery Channel: Assignment Media Literacy Curriculum

The Assignment: Media Literacy curriculum is a 6-module media literacy curriculum developed by Renee Hobbs of Babson College and her staff in collaboration with the Discovery Channel. There are three versions of Assignment: Media Literacy, one for elementary school students, one for middle school students, and one for high school students. Close evaluation of the curriculum, watching teacher training and its use by teachers piloting the curriculum in Maryland, and assessing both student and teacher response leads to the conclusion that the curriculum is very well designed, user friendly, and well supported by teacher guidance materials. Importantly, the curriculum has been designed to closely align with and succeeds in supporting many of the Maryland State Content Standards for language and visual arts; social studies, and health, as well as theater and music.

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Select Conference Papers

Haters Gonna Hate: Belibers and Cyberbullying on the Virtual Playground

National Communication Association · Nov 1, 2015

Imagine a group of teenage girls ages 12-17 are left unattended on a playground for many months without any adult supervision. It is more than likely arguing, aggressive behaviors, community building and bullying might occur. Welcome to Justin Bieber fandom on social media - Twitter, Tublr, Facebook and Youtube. The following paper discusses Beliebers (Bieber fandom) and identifies instances of cyberbullying within the fan community. Youtube video comments of the song Confident featuring Chance The Rapper are used as a case study to identify when, how and to what extent aggressive behaviors and cyberbullying occurs within the fandom

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Mindfulness & the Consumption Continuum: A pragmatic phenomenological approach to media consumption

Presented at NCA 2011, New Orleans · Nov 11, 2011

This paper considers how the field of media communication (Chaffe & Metzger, 2001) can ontologically construct what it means to be an audience member through a phenomenological understanding of the audience. It suggests mindful engagement with narratives, texts, and contexts encourage voice. It considers what new ways of being could emerge if we conceptualize the audience on a continuum of consumption and production rather than a bifurcation of a passive or an active audience.

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