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The 2015–2017 Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA)'s coordinated information operation is one of the earliest and most studied of the social media age. A set of 38 city-specific inauthentic "newsfeeds" made up a large, underanalyzed part of its English-language output. We label 1,000 tweets from the IRA newsfeeds and a matched set of real news sources from those same cities with up to five labels indicating the tweet represents a world in unrest and, if so, of what sort. We train a natural language classifier to extend these labels to 268 k IRA tweets and 1.13 million control tweets. Compared to the controls, tweets from the IRA were 34% more likely to represent unrest, especially crime and identity danger, and this difference jumped to about twice as likely in the months immediately before the election. Agenda setting by media is well-known and well-studied, but this weaponization by a coordinated information operation is novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examined Twitter content addressing the controversial social advocacy movement, American Descendants of Slavery. We collected 1.7 million tweets using the hashtag #ADOS. A sample of these were qualitatively placed into categories: galvanizing support for ADOS, divisive support for ADOS, attack ADOS, or unrelated. Tweets were also categorized as nativist or not nativist. Findings showed that more than half of tweets using #ADOS had a divisive character and nearly ten percent were overtly nativist. No difference was found in user engagement with tweets related to either divisiveness or nativist content, suggesting the character of these tweets is not devised simply for greater amplification of their message. Implications and future directions for research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document methods employed by Russia's Internet Research Agency to influence the political agenda of the United States from September 9, 2009 to June 21, 2018. We qualitatively and quantitatively analyze Twitter accounts with known IRA affiliation to better understand the form and function of Russian efforts. We identified five handle categories: Right Troll, Left Troll, News Feed, Hashtag Gamer, and Fearmonger. Within each type, accounts were used consistently, but the behavior across types was different, both in terms of "normal" daily behavior and in how they responded to external events. In this sense, the Internet Research Agency's agenda-building effort was "industrial" – mass produced from a system of interchangeable parts, where each class of part fulfilled a specialized function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examines the role virtual reality can play in student speech practice for oral communication courses. The study focuses on situational communication apprehension of the virtual reality practice session in relation to students who practice face-to-face and the final grade of the subsequent speech. Test and control groups practiced their informative speech presentations for either another student or in a virtual environment. Both the test and control groups filled out the Situational Communication Apprehension Measure after their session. Student grades were also collected for participants in each group after their in-class speech presentation. The test group (virtual reality practice) was found to have significantly higher situational communication apprehension than the control group. No significant difference was found for final speech grades between the test and control groups. The significance and implications of these finding are discussed as they related to public-speaking education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports findings of two studies exploring instructor feedback orientations. Study one examined relationships between Big Five personality traits and student feedback orientations. Study two examined relationships between academic traits and feedback orientations. Canonical correlations identified two significant functions for each study. Study one found that agreeable, conscientious, and open individuals were more likely and neurotic individuals less likely to view instructor feedback as useful and likely to be retained while being less sensitive to it. Study one also found conscientious and neurotic individuals more likely and extraverted individuals less likely to desire confidential feedback. Study two found entitled and grade-oriented individuals to be more sensitive to feedback and view feedback as less likely to be retained. Study two also found learning-oriented individuals less likely to desire confidential feedback and grade-oriented individuals more likely to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed tweets from handles associated with the Russian Internet Research Agency in an effort to better understand the tactics employed by that organization on the social media platform Twitter in their attempt to influence U.S. political discourse and the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. We sampled tweets from the month preceding the election and analyzed to understand the qualitative nature of these tweets as well as quantitative differences between how types of IRA Twitter accounts communicated. Seven categories of tweet behavior were identified: attack left, support right, attack right, support left, attack media, attack civil institutions, and camouflage. While camouflage was the most common type of tweet (52.6%), descriptive analyses showed it was followed by attack left (12%) and support right (7%). A variety of quantitative differences were shown between how account types behaved. • We sampled Russian Internet Research Agency tweets from the month preceding the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. • We analyzed tweets to understand IRA messaging as well as differences between how types of IRA accounts communicated. • Seven distinct categories of behavior were identified and categories were employed differently by account type. • We discuss implications for what findings mean relative to prevailing and competing narratives surrounding IRA activity. • Findings suggest the IRA was both sowing division while also supporting candidate Trump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed the effectiveness of an integrated engineering public-speaking class relative to a traditionally taught public-speaking class. The integrated class was designed to meet the growing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics communication needs and the fundamental Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and the National Communication Association student outcomes related to public speaking. Working within the Communication in the Disciplines theoretical framework, this study employed a quasi-experiment with both a test (engineering specific communication class) and control (traditional communication class) group; finding a significant increase with respect to attitude toward communication for students before and after the engineering specific class compared with the traditional class. Along with attitude toward communication, efficacy toward communication and being enrolled in the engineering specific class related positively to a sense of engineering identity for students at the end of class. For students enrolled in the engineering specific class, their sense of engineering identity was mediated through an improved attitude toward communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the dangers posed within the college campus communities to which social media may contribute including cyberbullying, racial hostility, and stalking behaviors as well as dangers posed by the evolving threat of coordinated disinformation. The needed pedagogical changes to help students engage with the world through social media are explored. The essential role of standard digital media literacy interventions in addressing the influence of social media is also tackled.

On January 27, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order that attempted to bar citizens and refugees from seven countries from entering the U.S. for a certain time period. One of the contexts most directly affected by this order was higher education. This study examined college and university communicative responses to the order from a public relations perspective. We qualitatively determined a range of responses from U.S. universities then quantitatively determined variables of particular colleges and universities that had a correlation to the nature of the responses. Responses were then assessed using public relations best practices. The data suggest variables with relationships to type of institutional response were number of international students and political stance of the state where the institution is located. While there was no single “correct” type of response, best practices suggest two options for appropriate responses to the order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this content analysis, we explored how students address instructor ideology in the university classroom through the social media platform Twitter. We employed Boolean search operators through Salesforce Marketing Cloud Radian6 software to gather tweets and identified English language tweets by how students referenced their instructor's ideology. Tweets originated in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), and Australia. Using qualitative coding procedures, we identified seven themes in the data that described how students wrote about instructor ideology on Twitter:venting regarding instructor's ideology,sharing classroom anecdote,affirming instructor's beliefs/actions,expressing grade concern,articulating an opposing view,reporting conflict, andindicating confusion. Across categories, Twitter was employed primarily as a back-stage means to communicate expressive dissent regarding instructor ideology and also to demonstrate students’ identity. We identified differences between categories based on the perceived ideology of the students’ instructors as well as differences in the number of tweets per capita originating in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Romantic jealousy is common within romantic relationships, yet there is a lack of research on media portrayals of romantic jealousy and subsequent communicative responses to jealousy. Motivated by script theory and social cognitive theory, this study is a content analysis of types of romantic jealousy and communicative responses to jealousy in the 51 top-grossing romantic comedies released between 2002 and 2014. Results indicate that reactive jealousy was the most frequently depicted type of romantic jealousy in these movies, and destructive communication was the most common response. Furthermore, the type of romantic jealousy was significantly related to the type of communicative response the character employed, and females were more likely to use rival-focused communicative responses than males. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A common perception exists in the media that university instructors are a liberal elite who use their positions to instill a biased perspective in their students. Exploring student attitudes in the United States and Australia, the present study examined how students’ academic beliefs are related to their inferences of instructor ideological bias and the degree to which they identify as reacting to these inferences in the college classroom. Results of regression analysis using previously validated survey instruments revealed that students’ academic entitlement and grade orientation (GO) predicted perceptions of instructor bias. In addition, students’ GO predicted students’ reactions to such inferred bias. Institutional differences, pedagogical implications, and areas for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Colleges and universities have increasingly looked toward social media as a means of engaging with stakeholders. Using the relationship marketing framework as a lens, this study explores how institutions are employing the social media platform Pinterest. Content analysis of the types of college and university pins being used and their relationship to the number of user repins suggests that the tool is not being employed in a manner consistent with user expectations. Our findings suggest that some colleges and universities need to reevaluate their social media plan to acknowledge the different audiences, uses, and functionality of specific social media platforms. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This study explored how colleges and universities are employing Twitter, a popular micro-blogging tool. Using Kent and Taylor''s principles of dialogic communication, a content analysis was performed on individual tweets (n =1130) from 113 colleges and universities. Tweets were coded for whether or not they met each principle of dialogical communication and why. It was found that institutions are not employing Twitter in a dialogic way and they are, instead, employing it primarily as an institutional news feed to a general audience. The implications of this finding are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article the author discusses the implications of the rhetoric of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) about the system of higher education in the U.S. He is critical that the organization only does more harm than good since its claim are insubstantial and unproven. He contends that the organization's rhetoric is only good for its own fundraising initiative, but not for the improvement of the academia.