Theses & Professional Projects

2025

Paige Delgado, Thesis "Women Can't Win: Analyzing the Influence of the Patriarchy on Women, Societal Beliefs, and Beauty Standards and the Role We Can Play in Challenging Patriarchal Structures" 
Saddam Hossain, Thesis "Political Affiliation of Journalists and the Influence on Their Reporting: Bangladesh Perspective" 
Leah Kansiime, Professional Project “Navigating Racial and Cultural Dynamics: The Lived Experiences of African International Students at the University of Wyoming” 
Aly Kruger, Thesis "What Can I Help With?: Examining Structural Changes in Education and Teacher Roles with the Increasing Utilization of ChatGPT" 
Paul Mshighati, Thesis "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication via Social Media on Consumer Engagement: Brand Identification and Self-Enhancement as Explanations" 
Nicholas "Niko" Sims, Thesis "Another One for the Fire: Pentadic Criticism of 'Night of the Living Dead'" 

 

2024

Riley Box, Thesis "Marvel Cinematic YOUniverse"
Jocelyn Campbell, Thesis "Move. Sweat. Beer!: A Case Study of Michelob Ultra Movement Live" 
Elly Frierson, Thesis "Not All Speech Is Free Speech: A Case Study of Kanye West's Image Repair through the Incitement of Fear, Hate and Dangerous Speech on Twitter"
Brianna Garcia, Thesis "Women Within the Comic Universe: A Podcast Regarding the Impact of the MCU & DC Universe on Society"
Hanisah Hassim, Thesis "Romance or Horror?: Perceptions of Romcom Courtship and Harassment Post Me-Too"
Katie Welniak Marcotte, Thesis "Is It Time to BeReal?: The Influence of Photo Sharing Social Media, Fear of Missing Out, and Willingness to Communicate on Loneliness among International Students"
Ryan Tucker, Thesis "On Talking Myself Through Racial Intricacies: An Autoethnographic Analysis of Self-Talk and Inner Dialogue amid Periods of Race-Induced Critical Thinking and Self-Reflection"
Crystal Vogel, Thesis "Confronting Complicity: Illuminating the Origins of Today's Child Trafficking & Tourism in Cambodia with an Advertising Campaign to Report and Deter"
Natalie "Netta" Yehezkel, Thesis "Exploring the Predictive Power of MBTI Dimensions: The Role of Thinking-Feeling in Support for Populist Rhetoric.”

2023

Chaley Dimoff, Thesis "That's Not My Job!: A Mixed Methods Study Exploring How Communication Apprehension, Competence, & Attitudes Influence Career Satisfaction Among Engineers"
Aiman Zehra, Thesis "International Students’ Attitudes Toward Collaborative Learning: Communication Apprehension, Language Competence, And Perceived Prejudice as Explanations"
Alicia Perez, Thesis "The Try Guys Try Cheating: Social Media Influencers in Crisis"
Casey Weaver, Thesis "Effectiveness of Sexual Assault Prevention on College Campuses: The Student Experience, Perceived Roles, And Gender Traits"
Emma Connell, Thesis "Pooshing The Boundaries of Instagram Influencers"
Jackie McBride, Thesis "Framing Environmental Racism"
Amanda Price, Professional Project "There is Always Room for Improvement: Using Self-Identity Theory in a Proof of Concept for an Interior Redecoration Business"
Jordan Kobliska, Professional Project "The Pilot Hill Website: Communicating About Responsible Recreation on Public Lands in the U.S."
Brittany Wells Gray, Professional Project "Family Fridays: A Social Capital Project for the Sweetwater County Child Development Center"

2022

Lawrence Zhou, Thesis "Religious Honesty Norms"
Claire Feathers, Thesis "Meaningful or Mind-Numbing: Video Games as Relational Conduits"
Ellen Fike, Thesis "Men Actually Think Girls Like This Exist: An Investigation of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl"
Kinsey Hein, Thesis "A Fan Built Empire: Reading into Fanfiction"
Brent Lamb, Thesis "The Effects of Framing and Source on COVID-19 Vaccine and Mask Policy Preferences"
Brooke Darden, Thesis "Rattling the Chains: Breaking Through the Miscommunication of Sex Trafficking"
Joel Funk, Thesis "Taking Alternative Routes?: Using Framing and Selective Exposure to Examine News Media Choice"
Taryn Bradley, Professional Project "Putting Out the Fire: Combatting Climate Change Skepticism in Wyoming and Middle America"
Adlynn Jamaludin, Professional Project "K-Pop Reimagined: Bridging Distance Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic"
Morgan Patton, Thesis "Increasing Public Understanding of GMOS: A Website Based Information Campaign"

2021

Laura Driver, Thesis "Trump's Brand is Crisis: Using Situational Crisis Communication Theory and Framing Theory to Examine Trump’s Twitter Posts During Four Crisis Situation"
Jennifer Barella, Thesis "Dick Pics and Privacy Management"
Andrew Wee, Professional Project "Developing Dialogues for Missionaries: A Multimedia Course for Content Creation on Social Media"
Bailey Patterson, Thesis "A Chilling New Normal: Examining School Shooting Culture In the Sandy Hook Promise 'Back-to-School Essentials' PSA"
Kaitlyn Lee, Professional Project "Out With the Old, In With the New: A Proposed Curriculum Change For the Agricultural Communication Degree At the University of Wyoming"
Madison Crepeau, Professional Project "The World Needs More Leaders: A Proposal For a Leadership Communication Course For the Department Of Communication And Journalism”
Madison Clark, Professional Project "Related by Rodeo: How the Cowboy Sport Passes down Family Values and Traditions"

2020

Erendira Abbey Morales, Thesis "The Impact of 280 Characters: An Analysis of Trump’s Twitter Influence on Television News"
Heather Baker, Thesis "Online Learning in Nigeria: A “Developing Country’s” Limitations to Emerging Educational Methods"
Jeff Victor, Thesis "Podcast News And Partisan Views: Exploring How Affective Polarization And Elaboration Impact Political Knowledge Gain From Podcasts And Twitter"
Laurel Brinkerhoff, Thesis "The World Needs Less Plastic: The Role Of Psychological Distance And Self-Efficacy In Environmental Messages"
Lauren Johnson, Thesis "A Feminist Standpoint Phenomenological Study Of The Consequences Of Speech Code Violations In Cross-Examination Debate From the Perspective And Experience Of Gender And Sexuality Muted Groups"
Manish Bengani, Thesis "The Role Of Identity Gaps, Discrimination, And Acculturation In International Employee’s Job Satisfaction In the United States Of America"
Paul Narey, Thesis "Consumption Sumption, What’s Your Function? A Rhetorical Deconstruction And Reconstruction Of Consumption"
Raena Leigh Bush, Thesis "A Grounded Exploration Of Feminism, Race, And Rebellion In Bioshock Infinite Through the Lens Of Cultural Studies And Black Feminism"
Sara Teter, Thesis "Motivated Resistance To Persuasion, Identification, And Trust In Youtube Science Videos: Exploring Consonant And Dissonant Science Videos And On-Screen Human Narration Vs. Human Voiceover Narration"
Saverio Zappacosta, Thesis "A Comparison of the Relationship Between National Identity And Growth Mindset Among Italians And Americans"

2019

Wanting Pei, Thesis "An investigation in the Chinese LGBT People’s Online Coming-Out Narratives: Cultural Influences, Cocultural Practices, and Outcomes"
Shelby Johnsen, Thesis "Way Out West: Promoting National Parks in the Rocky Mountain Region to the Millennial Generation"
Ashton Hooker, Thesis "'Insta-Spiration' Sweeping the Nation: The Influence of Instagram on Intent to Travel to Yellowstone National Park Among Millennials and Post-Millennials"
Brandon Parrino, Thesis "Revolutionizing College Football Recruiting: Social Media's Influential Impact on the College Football Recruiting Process"
Timothy Perez, Thesis "Everything I Know about AI Came from the Movies: How AI Science Fiction Narratives Drive Selection of News Frames"
Jordan May, Thesis "Generational Rifts at Work: Political Talk about Immigration, Generational Stereotyping, and Job Satisfaction of Baby Boomers vs. Millennials"
Jordan Eischen, Thesis "Falling out of Fandom: An Analysis of Politically Outspoken Celebrities and Its Effect on Their Millennial and Gen Z Fan Bases"
Jackie McMillen, Professional Project "Telling the Story: The Development and Design of a New Online Training Resource for the Corral Internship through Social Learning Models and Flipped Learning"
Seneca Riggins, Thesis "The Social Media Gemeinschaft: Are People Likely to Use Facebook Groups to Fulfill a Sense of Community by Joining Identity-Related Subgroups on the Internet?"

2018

Christine Henschler, Thesis "Bad Hair and Tacky Pant Suits: The Political Follies of the 2016 Presidential Election"
Hunter McFarland, Thesis "A Rhetorical Criticism of Settler Homonationalism in 'the Gay Oasis of the West'"
Acadia Munari, Professional Project "The Civility Movement: A Social Media Campaign"
Isabel Perez, Professional Project "OPAL Studios: Platform to Promote Social Justice Artists"
Wendy Perkins, Professional Project "Sex Work: Pretty Woman Ain't Real, Neither is Prince Charming"
Kereston Thomas, Professional Project "Hideous Figures: White is Not Always Right; Racial Portrayals in the Media"
Nate Lake, Thesis "The Gospel According to Kendrick Lamar: A Rhetorical Analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Theology of Struggle"
Marleah Campbell, Thesis "Title IX violation? An examination of the Mountain West Conference social media marketing strategies in men’s and women’s basketball"
Gabrielle Gibson, Professional Project "The structure of college athletics: A glimpse into the life of a student athlete"
Alexis Hartley, Thesis "The Impact of Teacher Clarity and Student Receiver Apprehension on Academic Misconduct"
Dylan McCurdy, Thesis "A Trail of Suffering: Critical Discourse Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Burmese Migrants and Refugees in Aurora, Colorado"

2017

Cassie Niles, Thesis "A serial mediation model for predicting the estimation of factual content in pundit monologues: The impacts of political identity, credibility perceptions, and parasocial relationships"
Timothy O’Flanigan, Thesis "Recruit. Tweet. Repeat. An Analysis of Social Media Practices by Men’s Division I Basketball Coaches"
Elizabeth Gibbons, Thesis "Framing Fraternity Hazing: A Content Analysis in Newspapers from 2010-2015"
Paul Johnson, Professional Project "Redesigning the University of Wyoming's Public Speaking Course: An Application of the Community of Inquiry Framework"
Maddison Haak, Professional Project  "A New 'Vision': A Formalized Internship Program for 'WYO-VISION' Using Online Methods and Instructional Design"
Ryan DeVries, Thesis "Should Your Company Be On Snapchat?"
Zihan "Jessica" Zhao, Thesis "The Influences of Social-Cultural Factors on Materialistic among Young Adults in Urban China"
Emily Cornell, Thesis "Around the Horn: An Intersectional Approach to Sports Communication Design"
Conroy Stout, Thesis "I know Obama, Personally: Examining Parasocial Relationships via the White House Facebook Page"
Bri Brasher, Thesis "Emojis Are Worth A Thousand Words: An Analysis of Mobile-Mediated Emoji Use Across Emerging Adult Conversation"
Rachel Wagner, Thesis "Equal Political Representation on Snapchat?: An Analysis of the political Live Stories during the 2016 Presidential Election"
Chris Wenn, Plan B Project "Remediation Audio for Communication Apprehension"

2016

Ahmad Aldaham, Thesis "The Impact of Japanese Anime on Saudi Anime Fans"
Hollie Dies, Thesis "Bleeding the Team Colors: An Examination of Fan-Team Emotional Brand Attachment and Identification on Instagram"

2015

Jasmine Austin, Thesis "It's a Battle You See": Exploring the Self-Esteem of African American College Students in Predominately White Institutions" 
Dyann Diercks, Thesis "Same-Sex Marriage Legislation in the United States: Analyzing Knowledge Gaps and Belief Gaps" 
Robert M. Horodyski Jr., Plan B Project "Uncertainty While Coaching Team Sports: A Structure for Future Success" 
Jinho Joo, Thesis "How Do Changed Slogans Correspond to a Corporate Identity? A Case Study Analyzing McDonald’s Slogans Using Framing Theory" 
Anastasia Lazebna, Thesis "The Role of Communication Apprehension, Expression of the True Self, and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Relation to Instagram and Selfie Use"
Jamie Pond, Thesis "Student-Athlete or Hot Commodity? The Self-Perceptions of Student-Athletes and University Branding" 
Mitzi Stewart, Thesis "It's Not 'Goodbye', It's 'See you soon':  Examining the Impact of Transportability on Parasocial Relationships with Serial and Non-Serial Book Characters" 
Yifan Yin, Thesis "The Influence of Media Exposure on Body Dissatisfaction: Internalization and Upward Comparison as Explanations"
Zheng "Vicky" Ying, Thesis "The Influences of Acculturation on Parenting Styles and Parental Communication Patterns among Chinese Mothers in Intracultural and Intercultural Marriage"

2014

Samuel Allen, Thesis "More Than Joking: Ideological Criticism of the Humor in Key and Peele" 
Brett Delaney, Thesis "Subcultural Rhetoric of Refusal: Punk Metaphors of 'Class War'" 
Kaitlyn Haynal, Thesis "The Pushback: Female Narratives as Empowerment in Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me" 
Courtney Hucke, Plan B "Audio Storytelling as Therapy" 
Kayla Runkle, Thesis "Beauty Before the Eyes of Beholders: The Cultural Encoding of Beauty Types in Magazine Advertising" 
Malgorzata Rutkowska, Thesis "Conflict in the Workplace: Gender and Culture in Conflict Management Styles" 
Barbara Sandick, Plan B film "Himba and Damara: Cultures at the Edge" 
Svetlana Vyrbonova, Thesis "The Impact of Job Design on Job Satisfaction"

2013

Petrina Awinador-Kanyirige, Thesis "Patient Perceptions of Healthcare Professionals’ Communication Competence: The Development of a Communication Competence Scale"
Ismail El Fallah, Thesis "The Transition of a Media System: A Case Study of Libya"
Kaitlin K. Ens, Thesis "Tales From A Wild Land: From The Characters Of Custer And Lemhi Counties"
Sarah M. Fogerty, Thesis "Effects of Pretrial Publicity on Perceptions of Suspected Criminals"
Julianne R. Friesen, Thesis "Altering the Body/Altering Communication: A Qualitative Study of the Effects of Body Modification on Social Interactions"
Courtney C. Gifford, Thesis "Reality TV: Not Smarter than a Beauty Queen"
Travis Hoff, Thesis "Objectivity in Question: The Ideal of Objectivity and The Display of Adversarialness and Neutrality by Cable News Interviews"
Kathleen Warner, Thesis "Everybody Talks! Learning through Gossip about Celebrities in Us Weekly and Perez Hilton’s Blog"
Breanne C. Winter, Thesis "Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Understanding Communication Apprehension Through Nonverbal Expression in Public Speaking"
Askhat S. Yerkimbay, Thesis "Kazakh Language Issues in the Kazakh Blogosphere"

2012

Nour Eldin O. Abuagila, Plan B film "Arab Spring in America: Perceptions of University of Wyoming Students"
Jennifer C. Hedrick, Plan B project "Helping Students Help Themselves: A Marketing and Communications Plan for the University of Wyoming College of Business Johnson Career Center"
I-Ting Huang, Thesis "Are International Students Quiet in Class? The Influence of Teacher Confirmation and Classroom Connectedness on Classroom Apprehension and Willingness to Talk among International Students"
Emily Koesters, Plan B project "Marketing Omaha Real Estate"
Mark Krug, Plan B project "75 Years of the NJCAA: Advancing Two-Year College Athletics Since 1938"
Bahtiyar O. Kurambaev, Thesis "Analysis of International and Domestic News Coverage of Kyrgyzstan Presidential Election, 2011"
Melissa R. Martin, Thesis "Speaking Volumes Through Food: An Autoethnographic Approach to Viewing the Power of Housewives and Their Cookbooks Through Feminist Standpoint Theory"
Thyra L. Page, Thesis "Ethics of Photojournalism in the Digital Age"
Mark Pedri, Plan B film "Energy! O Energy!"
Corina I. Pike, Thesis "First Lady in Fashion: A Study of Establishing Identity, Social Status, and Leadership through Fashion Choices"
Kristin M. Raeesi, Plan B audio documentary "Native Veterans of Alaska: Exploration of the Social Construction of Identity and Culture through Participation in Warfare"
Sheryl-Ann F. Stake, Thesis "'It’s Going to Be Legend – Wait for It…' Scripting Real Life: How Television Impacts Friendship Expectations"
Laura M. Weatherford, Thesis "Boy Please! Applying the Contact Hypothesis, Imagined Interaction Theory and Politeness Theory to Communication with Gay Individuals"