Traveling is one of the most enriching and fulfilling activities for most people. Yet factors such as crowded airports, long waiting queues, and inaccessible features of airports and airplanes often make traveling stressful for many individuals including those with disabilities. This qualitative phenomenological research study examined the underexplored area of traveling with a vision disability. Framed around a Co-cultural theoretical perspective, the study examined the lived experiences of vision impaired individuals with regard to receiving disability assistance services during air travel. The study specifically explored the communication strategies that vision impaired individuals employed to manage their assistance-related air travel needs. The study used in-depth interviews for data collection, and a combination of thematic analysis techniques for data analysis. Findings indicated four categories of assistance-related issues that vision impaired participants frequently experienced in their travel: personnel training issues, system issues, policy issues, and physical accessibility issues. The study also identified four Co-cultural communication orientations that participants used in navigating air travel: assertive accommodation, aggressive accommodation, assertive assimilation, and nonassertive assimilation. In addition, the study identified a new Co-cultural communication practice - normalizing for self. Findings of this research conclude that despite three decades since the passage of United States legislation to protect the rights of disabled people, vision impaired travelers still frequently experience inequitable air travel practices. The study offers recommendations on pressing issues concerning policies and regulations that can inform airline executives and federal legislators in facilitating a more equitable and pleasurable air travel experience for those with vision disabilities.

This paper aims to effectively portray the stories of migrant laborers who have fallen victim to a system of powerful and exploitative institutions and governments that provide labor for the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The purpose of this case study, therefore, is to both uncover the causes and magnitude of the crisis and to understand the relationship between the victimized laborers and the perpetrators. Through this study, I present the complex dynamics of a mass geopolitical operation that leads to the victimization of Nepali workers. I specifically outline why this issue is complicated and what the proper interventions may be to resolve it.

College sports in America represent a multibillion dollar industry. Recruiting collegiate student-athletes not only is costly for university teams, but is integral for their long-term success. Universities spend substantial amounts of money to recruit student-athletes, yet relatively little academic work has focused on understanding the athletic recruiting process. While NCAA policy regulates when communication is allowed between coaches and student-athletes, there is a lack of literature investigating what the communicative aspects of athletic recruiting entail. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to unpack the student-athlete experience of collegiate athletic recruitment. It builds on theoretical work from organizational and interpersonal communication, as well as management and marketing, to extend existing knowledge of student-athletes’ college choice. Specifically, a conceptual model is presented that includes how student-athletes’ expectations and relationships during athletic recruitment contribute to an overall affinity for the university that, in turn, influences choice.

Thirty Division I student-athletes from six different sports participated in focus groups to discuss their recruitment experiences. Taking a grounded theory approach to the focus group transcripts, thematic analysis illuminated what was most memorable for student-athletes about their recruitment, what expectations they had for the process, and what relational benefits they sought when making their college choice decision. Findings reinforced the prominence of communication in the recruitment process, and indicated the importance of interpersonal relationships, authentic communication, and a customized recruiting experience. This work represents the start of a scholarly trajectory which will further conceptualize and test the relational elements of athletic recruiting. Future directions, as well as theoretical and practical implications, are discussed.

ABSTRACT

This study examines the ways in which employees experience moral emotions that violate employee treatment and how employees co-construct moral emotions and subsequent expressions of dissent. This qualitative study consisted of 123 full-time employees and utilized open-coding, content analysis, constant comparison analysis, and concept mapping. The analysis revealed that employees expressed dissent laterally as a series of sensemaking processes, such as validation of feelings, moral assessments, and assessing the fear of moral transgressions. Employees also expressed dissent as a series of risk assessments that overlapped with the ways in which employees made sense of the perceived infraction. Employees' lateral dissent expression manifested as a form of social support which occasionally led to co-rumination. Employees expressed dissent upwardly when seeking a desired action or change. Circumvention was utilized as a direct reflection to the type and degree of moral transgression related to the person responsible for the mistreatment. Results indicated that experiencing moral emotions that led to expressing dissent with a designated audience was determined by where employees were situated in the cyclical model of communicating moral emotions and in relation to the co-construction of both the infraction related to employee mistreatment and the experience of moral emotions. Results contribute to the existing body of literature on dissent and emotions. A discussion synthesizing the findings and analysis is presented, in addition to the implications for future research.

KEYWORDS: Emotion, Dissent, Moral Emotions, Sensemaking, Risk-Assessment, Social Support, Co-Rumination

This qualitative study examines the major changes in relationship closeness of married couples when one spouse acquires a vision disability. Turning Points analysis and Retrospective Interview Technique (RIT) were utilized which required participants to plot their relational journey on a graph after the onset of the disability. A sample of 32 participants generating 100 unique turning points and 32 RIT graphs lent in-depth insight into the less explored area of the impact of a visual disability on marital relationships. A constant comparison method employed for the analysis of these turning points revealed six major categories, which include Change in Relational Dynamics, Realization of the Disability, Regaining Normality in Life, Resilience, Reactions to Assistance, and Dealing with the Disability. These turning points differ in terms of their positive or negative impact on the relational closeness between partners. In addition, the 32 individual RIT graphs were also analyzed and were grouped into four categories based on visual similarity, which include Erratic Relational Restoration, Erratic Relational Increase, Consistent Closeness and Gradual Relational Increase. Results provide theoretical contributions to disability and marriage literature. Implications for the application of turning points to the study of post-disability marital relationships are also discussed, and research directions identified.

Sports communication is a vibrant, blossoming research area within the communication discipline. One of the more fruitful directions in sports communication research pertains to social media. Social media has embedded itself in the sports world in a very short period of time. As a result, there is a need for instructional resources that prepare students to understand the nuances and power that social media possess. This research provides the foundation for a case study textbook centered on social media and sports communication. Specifically, four cases dealing with: (a) athletes using social media to encourage input from fans; (b) sports organizations using social media as an agenda-setting tool; (c) negative parasocial interaction expressed to athletes via social media; and (d) athletes using social media to enact image repair are presented. These cases demonstrate that social media is a valuable conduit between athletes and fans that enables athletes and sports organizations to cultivate fan identity and maintain control over public information. The cases also demonstrate that fan behavior via social media can quickly turn problematic, requiring that athletes and sports organizations respond appropriately, yet strategically. The research concludes by offering implications for future social media and sports communication research.

The current study is the first qualitative investigation aimed solely at understanding what it means to communicate conditional forgiveness in serious romantic relationships. Conditional forgiveness is forgiveness that has been offered with the stipulation that the errant behavior cease. It is a provocative topic because some argue genuine forgiveness is not conditional, but recent discoveries that have associated its use with severe transgressions and relational deterioration suggest it is a critical site for investigation. This inductive analysis of open-ended data from 201 anonymous surveys identified both distinctions between and intersections of conditional forgiveness, forgiveness, and reconciliation. A relational dialectics analysis also revealed that reconcilable-irreconcilable was the overarching tension for conditional forgivers and six additional tensions also were also discovered: individual identity-couple identity, safety-risk, certainty-uncertainty, mercy-justice, heart-mind, and expression-suppression. Of particular intrigue, the current analysis supports the previous discovery of implicit conditional forgiveness--suppressing conditions, sometimes in response to physical and substance abuse. Ultimately, the current analysis contributes to the enduring conversation aimed at understanding the communication and pursuit of forgiveness and reconciliation. It addresses one of the basic instincts and paradoxes of existing with others--the balance between vulnerability and protection.