Portfolio

The "School of Communication VR Tour" is an immersive and interactive virtual experience designed to give prospective and incoming students a dynamic introduction to the University of Miami’s School of Communication. This project addresses the challenge of limited access to physical campus visits, providing a 360-degree visual simulation that brings the school to life in a way traditional descriptions and photos cannot match.

This study focuses on the relationship between the mainstream press and right-wing protests in Brazil. Guided by the “protest paradigm” literature, my goal was to understand how reporters in the Global South cover conservative demonstrations. Protest paradigm scholarship found that news norms and routines lead to delegitimizing patterns of coverage, focusing on official viewpoints, spectacle, and violence. Here, I consider how the same practices can aid in the legitimization of right-wing movements. Through a mixed methodology combining content analysis and interviews with reporters from the analyzed outlets, findings revealed that when protesters’ grievances and demands aligned with the preferences of anti-leftist elites, right-wing politicians subsidized information to journalists. The lack of clashes with the police and cohesive leadership also allowed for coverage to become more thematic. As a result, I argue three conditions lead to news legitimization of protests. First, the movement fitting within a broader political conflict between elites. Second, the movement being sympathetic to the state's repressive apparatus. Third, the movement having cohesive leadership and unified identity. These conditions, which favor right-wing demands, drove legitimizing coverage even when reporters viewed the movement with skepticism.

After the 2020 presidential election, sustained efforts to overturn outcomes culminated in the invasion of the United States Capitol. While scholars have long investigated the impact of news on support for left-leaning protests, it is critical to understand how political predispositions and news consumption relate to support for anti-democratic movements. Through a survey fielded one week after the invasion, we analyzed how ideology, attitudes about protesting in general, authoritarianism, and media habits relate to people’s support for the movement, perceptions of its disruptiveness, and opinions about police response. Results show that conservative media have a strong unidirectional relationship, increasing support for the movement, while left-leaning or mainstream media impact is moderated by partisanship, which is related to increased support for liberals and decreased support for conservatives. We found authoritarianism related to support for Stop the Steal and perceptions of the police as too severe to suppress it. Evidence suggests elite cues and consumption of conservative media can legitimize insurrectionist movements, even among those who strongly oppose the right to protest overall.

The responsibility of businesses has changed drastically over the past 50 years. Long gone are the days when corporations only focused on stock-holder value. Today, businesses are expected to engage in purpose. However, the definition of purpose is muddled, particularly within the context of marketing and advertising. Indeed, practitioners employed in purposeful agencies have yet to come to a consensus regarding what is the “purpose” of purpose. This manuscript seeks to develop a clear definition of purpose that is rooted in business theory. Further, this article extends the concept to marketing and advertising and develops a new understanding of tools available to practitioners under the umbrella of purpose. The goal in taking this step is to lay a foundation that future research in purposeful marketing and advertising may utilize, as well as outline potential paths that practitioners may take should they wish to pursue more purposeful practices. Directions for future research are outlined.

AGUADILLA Faculty Lead: Tom Musca Project Support: Alexander Zeke Musca, Tim Sparks, Ben Zuiderweg Fiancial Support: SoC Creativity Award & University of Miami Fellowship [...]

This study evaluates the impact of the UMVerse VR Experience, an immersive virtual replica of the University of Miami campus, on student behavior, perceptions, and spatial knowledge to enhance university onboarding and explore VR's role in higher education.

There is a strong link between HIV and maternal health, with higher HIV rates correlating to increased maternal mortality. HIV-infected women face a 2 to 8 times higher risk of death and pregnancy complications. Indigenous Mayan women in Guatemala are particularly vulnerable due to partner migration and traditional gender roles.

Kendrick is an expat, semi-retired and once celebrated African American novelist living in Shanghai, China. Kay is a young, up-and-coming Asian-American writer in Miami. They share correspondence through which they examine each other’s lives, cultures, challenges, and the burrowing relationship between them.

Alarmingly, over 20% of tweens (aged 9 to 12) are exposed to cyberbullying, with 15% of young victims unlikely to report the issue to peers, family, or adults.

AI technologies now play various communicator roles, from content producers (e.g., automated news generation) to interpersonal interlocutors (e.g., voice assistants).

This paper examines the current trends, consumer behaviors, and technological advancements of social commerce, with a particular focus on the COVID-19 pandemic's catalytic role. It [...]

Smart cities are infrastructures that increase convenience, efficiency, safety, sustainability, and optimal performance in a vast array of fields made possible by the Internet of [...]