Reflections on healing: framing strategies utilized by acquaintance rape survivors

This study examines the stories acquaintance rape victims tell through semi-structured interviews. Acquaintance rape, viewed here as a particularly paradoxical crime, creates a need for women to resolve the inconsistency of their experience. By conducting interviews with victims and analyzing their verbal communication, this project explores how victims frame their rape experience. Framing strategies used by victims of sexual harassment served as a guide for the initial identification of framing strategies for victims of acquaintance rape. Women in this study utilized strategies of paradox management to assess blame, define, and reframe their experiences. Recognition of these management strategies can assist social support networks and law enforcement professionals in identifying the communicative strategies of female victims of varying types of violence.     

The Office was asking for it: “that’s what she said” as a joke cycle that perpetuates rape culture

In this essay, we argue that the popular joke, “that’s what she said” is a symbolic representation of rape that contributes to and insulates rape culture. Drawing on Joseph Boskin’s notion of the “joke cycle” and extant literature on rape culture and misogynistic humor, we critique several instances of the joke on the popular television series The Office. From there, we extend our critique of the joke cycle, noting the conspicuous absence of concern over the joke and its implications in other scholarly treatments of the program. Our primary contention is that the joke cycle, which may be the most prominent cycle in recent decades, reinscribes rape culture by normalizing discourses that dismiss and silence rape victims, justify violence against women, and even blame victims for having been assaulted. “That’s what she said” avoids the critical eye because it disguises itself as a joke like any other.     

Library Management in Trivandrum,India

ABSTRACT

The authors present assessment strategies, research results, and decision making in the process of building a website and formalizing management procedures for a library in Kerala, India serving a significant number of deaf students. The strategies include user interviews and developing user experience personas, collecting and incorporating examples from other library sites in building a new website, and communicating new methods of managing and promoting library resources to the university community. The co-presenters encountered difficulties and some resistance regarding their suggestions for changes in the website as well as the public and technical services offered by the library due to differences in infrastructure and expectations in academic culture.     

Enhancing the student experience: A case study of a library peer mentor program

In the fall semester of 2010 the University of Saskatchewan Library piloted a Library Peer Mentor initiative as part of a larger Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) program offered by the University Learning Centre. As partners in the Learning Commons located in the Murray Library, it made sense that the program should expand to include library peer mentors. After four years, personal interviews were conducted with current and former library peer mentors to consider their experience in the program and what impact it has had on them. The case study highlights how academic libraries can collaborate and broaden their scope to incorporate peer learning strategies and provide new opportunities to enhance the student experience.     

Data Sustainability and Reuse Pathways of Natural Resources and Environmental Scientists

This article presents a multifarious examination of natural resources and environmental scientists' adventures navigating the policy change toward open access and cultural shift in data management, sharing, and reuse. Situated in the institutional context of Virginia Tech, a focus group and multiple individual interviews were conducted exploring the domain scientists' all-around experiences, performances, and perspectives on their collection, adoption, integration, preservation, and management of data. The results reveal the scientists' struggles, concerns, and barriers encountered, as well as their shared values, beliefs, passions, and aspirations when working with data. Based on these findings, this study provides suggestions on data modeling and knowledge representation strategies to support the long-term viability, stewardship, accessibility, and sustainability of scientific data. It also discusses the art of curation as creative scholarship and new opportunities for data librarians and information professionals to mobilize the data revolution.     

Quality Is Thy Name

In the current study the authors investigate victims' response to a natural disaster crisis event. Crisis communication research has often considered organizations, but neglected the voice of the victims. Similarly, most crisis research emphasizes the negative outcomes of crisis. Positive communication research and sensemaking theory provide insight into the experiences of crisis victims. Twenty-nine individuals were interviewed from one community in Western Kentucky following a massive ice storm that occurred during January 2009. The remembering emphasis of sensemaking was salient in this study. Victims remembered their overall experience through positive terms and positive interpersonal communication. Communities and organizations alike can use this research to consider how their members may respond to crises and create messages based on these results.     

Females’ (Non)Disclosure of Minority Sexual Identities in the Workplace From a Communication Privacy Management Perspective

In this study, communication privacy management theory (CPM) provides a theoretical framework for investigating the development of privacy rules and strategies for females disclosing a minority sexual identity (MSI) in the workplace. Analysis of in-depth interviews indicated that participants’ rules were influenced primarily by role and relational risk evaluations. Findings nuance CPM’s conceptualization of role risk to identify 3 variations: risk to employment status, professional image, and ability to complete tasks. In addition, connections between workplace relational and role risks and how gender identities influence risk assessments and disclosure are demonstrated. Despite risk, participants disclosed personal information at work and often did so utilizing implicit disclosure strategies in everyday interactions to test confidants’ reactions and normalize their MSI in the workplace.     

Religious disengagement and stigma management by African-American young adults

This study examines religious disengagement among African-American young adults through a communicative lens. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we unpack the tensions between organizational and institutional disengagement in participants’ accounts and trace the relational factors shaping their use of specific stigma management strategies. Participants’ religious disengagement unfolded through encounters with new information that contradicted institutional teachings, ongoing struggles with institutional ideologies they found problematic, localized conflicts with specific church experiences, and family circumstances. Stigma management strategies were chosen to keep the peace within their social circles, protect loved ones from being hurt, care for themselves to ensure their best and most authentic self, defend themselves from perceived attacks and social censure, and come to a mutual understanding with confidants about disengagement. Theoretical implications pertaining to religious membership, organizational vis-à-vis institutional disengagement, and stigma management were discussed, along with practical recommendations to empower congregants to grow spiritually.     

“That background knowledge”: What junior and senior undergraduate transfer students need from their libraries

Undergraduate students who transfer from one institution to another do so at wildly variant points in their college careers. The range of stages at which students transfer raises questions for librarians who support these students. This article presents the findings from the second phase of a two-phase, multi-campus research project, examining incoming transfer students' experiences related to research and information literacy (IL) instruction. Grounded in the dual theories of transfer deficit and transfer student capital, this article uses the results of follow-up interviews with junior and senior transfer students to identify the difficulties these newly arrived students experience with using library resources to conduct research, as well as the research strategies and other strengths these students bring with them from their previous institutions.     

Devising Video Distribution Strategies via the Internet: Focusing on Economic Properties of Video Products

This article tries to link economic properties of video products to strategies that can be used by Internet-based video distributors. First, this study suggests 4 economic properties of video products: video as an experience good, returns to scale, video as a public good, and interdependency of willingness to pay. Second, based on economic attributes, this study synthesizes several strategies. Finally, this article uses a case study to compare theoretical strategies to actual strategies used by 2 Internet-based movie distributors. As a result of this study, we found that there are several possible strategies that are not yet being used in practice. It is expected that as the market becomes more mature through the development of technologies (e.g., digital rights management), more strategies will be adopted by online video distributors.     

Evolving Workflows: Knowing when to Hold'em,Knowing when to Fold'em

Electronic resource management (ERM) workflows in academic libraries are characterized by their complex and constantly shifting nature. This article describes four phases of effective workflow management including careful planning, development of workflow strategies, staffing and identification of resources, and integration of ERM and communication tools. The importance of supporting effective communication strategies is emphasized throughout the article. Information obtained from informal interviews with eight academic librarians provides discussion points on workflows given up and workflows maintained as libraries transition to larger electronic resource collections.     

Bridging strategy versus buffering strategy: enhancing crisis management capability in public management for relational and reputational improvement,and conflict avoidance

This study seeks to understand the effectiveness of an organization’s communication strategy in enhancing its crisis management capability in public management. The relationships between two types of communication strategies (bridging and buffering), crisis management capability in public management, relational improvement, reputational improvement, and conflict avoidance have been tested to suggest how an organization’s overall strategic orientation may help its ability to weather a crisis. A survey of communication managers was conducted in South Korea with 105 responses, representing 105 organizations. Results revealed that organizations which are predisposed toward adopting the bridging strategy as their main communication strategy also report better crisis management capability in public management, and as a result, experience positive relational and reputational outcomes.     

Impact of National Aquarium in Baltimore on Visitors' Conservation Attitudes,Behavior, and Knowledge

This study at the National Aquarium in Baltimore (NAIB) was conducted to assess four key aspects of the visitor experience: (1) incoming conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of NAIB visitors; (2) patterns of use and interaction with exhibition components throughout the NAIB; (3) exiting conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of visitors; and (4) over time, how the NAIB experience altered or affected individuals' conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Three hundred six visitors participated in the study, which was conducted from March through July, 1999. The study utilized four data‐collection techniques: (1) face‐to‐face interviews, (2) Personal Meaning Mapping (PMM), (3) tracking, and (4) follow‐up telephone interviews. Participants were a self‐selected population and were generally more knowledgeable about, more concerned about, and more involved in conservation‐related issues than the general public. However, they were far from conservationists. Visitors in this study clearly absorbed the fundamental conservation message at the NAIB. In fact, the NAIB visit appeared to focus visitors' conservation‐related thoughts, while also broadening their understanding of conservation. Changes in visitors' conservation knowledge, understanding, and interests by and large persisted over six to eight weeks after visiting NAIB. The NAIB experience also connected to visitors' lives in a variety of ways following their visit. However, these personal experiences rarely resulted in new conservation actions. In fact, their enthusiasm and emotional commitment to conservation (inspired during the NAIB visit) generally fell back to original levels, presumably in the absence of reinforcing experiences. The findings of this study are guiding subsequent investigations at the NAIB. More generally, the results suggest strategies to enhance current understanding of the impact free‐choice learning institutions have on their visiting public.     

A different type of dirty work: Hidden taint,intersectionality, and emotion management in bureaucratic organizations

This study explores the intersectionality among identity markers, such as gender, race, and class, and emotion management in two bureaucratic organizations – municipal courtrooms and airport security checkpoints. We name and explore a new type of dirty work called “hidden taint,” which we describe as a larger, encompassing category of dirty work that involves the experience and dynamic co-construction of taint. Utilizing qualitative methods including participant observation and interviews, we compare how hidden taint is experienced in each bureaucratic context. The results focus on the relationship between (1) hidden taint and the co-construction of emotion norms and (2) hidden taint and power dynamics. This study extends communication theory by naming and describing hidden taint as a new type of dirty work, extending literature on emotion management and intersectionality by exploring their connection to dirty work in occupations with varying levels of prestige, and detailing how emotion management is co-constructed between employees and patrons in bureaucratic contexts.     

To explore managerial issues and their implications on e-Government deployment in the public sector: Lessons from Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade

The objective of this article is to explore the experience of reconciling the strategic information system (IS) management with the radical transition of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure in Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) between 1998 and 2003. This investigation will be beneficial for the implementation of IT projects, as well as the comprehension of the organizational and managerial issues related to the discontinuity of IT development in office automation. This paper conducts an interpretative approach by means of qualitative methods – namely through participatory observation and in-depth interviews with fourteen informants – to reveal the managerial issues and their implications on the adoption of electronic government (e-Government). Through the method of content analysis, this study reviews the process of decision making, implementation, and other issues emerging as a result of the adoption of new technologies in public authorities, such as the cognition of the employee toward the benefits and effectiveness of IS in public authorities.     

Impression Management in Chat Rooms: A Grounded Theory Model

This paper investigates impression management and misrepresentation in chat rooms (a form of computer‐mediated communication, or CMC) from the vantage point of 10 chat room participants. The grounded theory approach was employed to derive a model firmly rooted in participants’ accounts. The resultant model reveals the motivations for engaging in impression management, the strategies used while in the chat rooms, as well as the goals achieved during this process. To illustrate the model, the experience of 1 chat room user is detailed. By producing a set of relationships among concepts, this study represents chat room participants’ experiences in a meaningful and coherent way. Findings are linked to extant theory and the value of this study is explored.     

Co-ownership of Private Information in the Miscarriage Context

Pregnancy loss due to miscarriage is a pervasive health issue. Although talking about the miscarriage experience with friends and family members has been linked to better adjustment, revealing this loss can be difficult because discussing a miscarriage often makes people uncomfortable. Moreover, couples often manage this information jointly as they decide whether to share the miscarriage with people outside the dyad. We conducted in-depth interviews with couples to explore the nature of co-ownership in the miscarriage context and to identify the privacy rules that couples develop to manage this information. We found that couples frame miscarriage as a shared but distinct experience and that both members exert rights of ownership over the information. Couples' privacy rules centered on issues of social support and others' need to know about the loss. Even though couples described their privacy rules as implicitly understood, they also recalled having explicit conversations to develop rules. We discuss how the management of co-owned information can improve communication and maintain relationships.     

A Feminist Postsocialist Approach to the Intercultural Communication of Rape at the ICTY

This article argues for postsocialism as an added consideration to postcolonial theory in analyzing and enacting intercultural and international relations of/for social justice. We theorize the need for feminist and communication studies of rape and sexual assault that consider how rape occurs in relation to institutions, bodies, and times that offer varying positions and possibilities to different identities, cultures, and groups. Our study of an international rape trial asks how survivors of rape can have their experiences validated in androcentric international judicial systems. Theorizing Yugoslavia through the prism of rape, we center our analysis on women as property. Utilizing concepts of relationality and performativity, we imagine how the temporal, cultural, and geographic positionalities of women’s experiences of rape can critique patriarchy and global capitalism.     

Research data management at an African medical university: Implications for academic librarianship

The study investigates and provides results on the current status of research data management at a medical school in a developing African country. The study focusses on four aspects of research data management: generation; preservation and backup; competencies; and challenges. Quantitative data collected using a questionnaire from 84 health researchers and 16 librarians was complemented by qualitative data gathered through conducting structured interviews with the Director of Research of the university. The study results provide the research community with a better understanding of research data management perspectives amongst health researchers in a developing country. This could help research data management stakeholders to adopt better strategies for championing research data management activities in this particular country and in other developing countries. The study notes that the current research data management status creates an opportunity for an academic library to consolidate and fortify its widely viewed natural role in research data management. In view of the findings, the study proposes that the adoption of research data management policies is essential in inspiring the conceptualisation, popularisation, adoption, and operationalisation of various research data management activities within the African university environment.