Welcome to MOspace
The MOspace Institutional Repository is an online repository for creative and scholarly works and other resources created by faculty, students, and staff at the University of Missouri--Columbia and the University of Missouri--Kansas City. MOspace makes these resources freely available on the web and assures their preservation for the future.
Recent Submissions
Item Human-centered design, disability, and accessible research experiences : a multiple method study, co-design framework, and model for inclusive instrument design(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2027] Research studies and information design lifecycles often include surveys, interviews, and user testing as part of the process-oriented approach to sharing research outcomes with the world. However, there is a lack of research regarding inclusive instrument design, which would help remove barriers experienced by people with and without a disability when taking surveys or participating in interviews or usability testing required for a research study. Using human-centered design, human-computer interaction, and disability studies perspectives, web-based instruments can become more inclusive and accessible. This sequentially phased 4-article dissertation presents lessons learned of inclusive instrument design as a solution-based framework that enables access to knowledge and helps create a positive research study experience for the broadest representation of humans possible. Everyone is impacted by a disability, impairment, or limitation at some point in their life, whether visible, invisible, permanent, temporary, or situational. Therefore, starting the design of instruments used in research studies with a human-centered and inclusive design mindset can increase the chances of creating more usable surveys and interview protocols. The research approach includes people with disabilities and disability advocates as part of the research process and uses multiple methods of co-design sessions, surveys, interviews, observation, document analysis, and automated and manual accessibility evaluation (including user and expert testing). This approach is a form of universal, participatory, and co-design, with researchers and stakeholders working together on various aspects of the research and design process. In addition to uncovering challenges and design flaws of web design, existing survey tools, or instrument question formats in an exploratory manner (Study 1), critical review of the literature (Study 2), and domain analysis and survey accessibility conformance evaluation (Study 3), this research will also identify user challenges with instruments and instrument preferences from surveys and interviews used in a co-design multiple methods study (Study 4). The themes, findings, and criticality counts across the four studies helped to inform my interpretation of the dissertation research, yielding eight conceptualizations which are used to address the research questions. This knowledge informed my model for inclusive instrument design practices, adding procedures, precedent, and new knowledge to the literature on disability and HCI research. This enriched understanding will assist researchers and designers in utilizing an inclusive instrument for conducting research studies that use online surveys and conduct interviews or test web-based products. Additionally, improving such web-based experiences for people with a disability, impairment, or chronic condition may lead to better experiences for everyone. Resulting recommendations include (1) an alternative to traditional medical-based demographic questions used in data collection for the ability status, (2) co-design as a research method, and (3) a model for inclusive instrument design. The inclusive instrument design recommendations can be adapted to future instrument designs, including procedures for multiple method survey accessibility evaluation and instrument design tenets by criticality. Ultimately, this qualitative study uses multiple methods to learn, create, test, and evaluate an inclusive instrument design model that enables a more inclusive research study experience for everyone.Item Readers' perceived credibility of news stories with AI authorship and different levels of transparency(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] As newsrooms utilize more AI -- from assisting the news production to generating news stories -- readers' trust in AI-generated news must be examined. Using a 2 (authorship: AI or human) x3 (methodology transparency: absent, low, or high) mixed factorial design, this study examined the effects of authorship and methodology transparency on perceived news credibility, news transparency, source credibility, and behavioral intention. Authorship was operationalized as the byline and methodology transparency was operationalized as a yellow-highlighted paragraph explaining the reporting process. A total of 262 participants from Prolific completed the experiment in which they were asked to read three news stories, each reflecting one of the three levels of methodology transparency and one author type, and to provide their self-reported responses. The findings showed that human-authored stories resulted in significantly higher perceived news credibility and source credibility than AI-authored stories. Additionally, the high methodology transparency increased perceived news credibility, news transparency, source credibility, and behavioral intention compared to both absent and low methodology transparency conditions. The practical implications of the findings for newsrooms were discussed.Item Inspiring action : how do video messages affect audiences' intentions to take actions on climate change?(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] In the past decade, climate and environmental news coverage faced many challenges, including the politicization of news content, information avoidance, and declining trust. As climate change continues to represent a critical challenge for countries worldwide, video news remains an important platform to sound the alarm of various future threats, especially for young people. Decades of scholarly research have demonstrated the role that message frames and psychological distances play in selecting and emphasizing particular aspects of scientific issues. Current media coverage of climate change has infused more emotional appeal into its delivery of climate or environment information by employing message frames, meriting additional study. While considerable past scholarship on climate and environmental message framing has focused on text-based messages, with comparatively less examination on non-text-based formats, such as videos. Accordingly, exploring how climate message framing and psychological distances in video news can facilitate public intentions to act has become essential for both science journalists and science communication scholars, and could benefit climate change communicators and movements. To explore the psychological effect of environmental message frames on audiences, we employ a survey of U.S. young adults (N=574) with an embedded 2x2 experiment. The experiment investigates the effect of two message frames (apocalyptic and solution frame) and two construal levels (low and high) using short message videos on the environmental effects of overconsumption. Using ANOVA analyses, I examined how the two message frames and construal levels to understand how they affect participants' views of climate change, Specifically, their attitude to video news, online engagement, attitude to reduce overconsumption, risk perception to overconsumption, self-efficacy advocating with peers, and political behaviors. I discussed insights into the ongoing debate about how short science-focused videos on social media or news can be an effective approach to communicate the urgency of climate change and engage the public in meaningful collective actions.Item History, culture and memory in Recollections of Rifleman Harris and Rough Sketches of the Life of an Old Soldier(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] The growing field of "new military history" presents innovative opportunities for literary scholars in the critical interpretation of military memoirs. However, reconciling literary, historical, and military studies requires careful consideration of both goals and outcomes. This thesis establishes a critical framework for the close study of military memoirs by comparing two popular accounts from soldiers who served in the same unit during the First Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. While Recollections of Rifleman Harris and Rough Sketches of the Life of an Old Soldier represent the perspectives of different discourses in separate literary mediums and periods, considering both texts as literary and historical documents within cultural studies allows scholars to construct a more comprehensive picture of the humans behind the war. Drawing upon recent work in cultural military historiography known as "new military history," this framework also considers John A. Lynn's distinction between "popular," "applied," and "academic" history to situate discursive boundaries in the goals of academic institutions. By exploring the contested academic history of the word "culture," considering the literary history of the texts, and conducting a close reading of the texts along lines of identity formation and literary medium, this approach establishes academic framework for the literary study of military memoirs at United States service academiesItem Storied romance : a qualitative investigation of expectations through romantic life stories(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] Interdependence theory (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) describes reference points through which individuals assess rewards and costs of their current relationship (comparison level; CL) to evaluate satisfaction and assess alternatives to current relationships (comparison level of alternatives; CLalt). Despite extensive theoretical utility, relatively little information is available regarding CL development and adaptation over time. Additionally, the relationship science literature has typically focused on the functioning of a single, current relationship, missing key changes to the way individuals conceptualize and evaluate their relational standards across their lifelong relationship history. I used a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014) to answer the question: How do past relationship experiences shape current standards for romantic relationships? Analysis covered lifetime romantic histories of 35 participants aged 24-40. Participants engaged in a process of developing standards including (a) evaluating relationship-oriented events (b) comparing characteristics across relationships, and (c) reflecting upon unique needs within relationships. These results expand upon the theoretical understanding of interdependence theory and the formation and revision of comparison levels, and thus informs our understanding of expectations within relationships. Furthermore, this process of developing standards encompassed multiple relationships, highlighting the need for future work to include various relationship types (e.g., family of origin, friends, past and current romantic partners) for a holistic view of the role these relationships play across the lifespan.
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