Four Communication Majors Present Senior Honors Theses

On Wednesday, April 15, senior Communication majors presented their year-long individual research projects to an audience of their advisors and peers. Each of the four students wrote an honors thesis and/or a Communication and Public Service (ComPS) Capstone Thesis as a required part of their ComPS concentration. All will graduate with honors in the major at Annenberg’s ceremony on May 17.

The Communication thesis course lasts two semesters, and students are supervised by Kim Woolf, Ph.D. For the first semester, the students write research proposals that contain a literature review and detailed methodologies for their theses. During the second semester, the students complete data collection and write the thesis.

2026 Student Theses

“Black Girlhood on Television: A Content Analysis of Emotional Regulation in Children’s Animated TV”

Kiara F. Davis

Thesis Advisors: David Lydon-Staley, Kim Woolf

This thesis examines how children’s animated television represents young Black girls through emotional expression and coping strategies. Through content analysis of shows featuring Black girl characters, it explores the challenges that shape their emotional regulation, the responses modeled on screen, as well as how peers interact with them. The findings reveal patterns in emotional support and resilience, highlighting how media both reflects and shapes understandings of Black girlhood and emotional care within broader children’s media landscapes.

“Parasocial Intimacy in a Platformed Public: Illusory Relationships in Social Media Discourse Among Reality TV Audiences”

Jada Eible Hargro

Thesis Advisors: Jessa Lingel, Kim Woolf

This thesis examines the evolution of parasocial intimacy from its early theoretical foundations to today’s social media landscape. Using Love Island USA as a case study, it analyzes how audiences actively construct and negotiate relationships with media figures through online discourse. Drawing on coded X posts from Season 7, the study identifies patterns of supportive, critical, and protective engagement. Findings show that both positive and negative interactions reflect sustained attachment, revealing intimacy as publicly performed, shaped by platform dynamics, and influenced by broader social factors like race and gender.

“Crime in the Digital Age: Representation and Perception of Crime on Video-First Social Media Platforms”

Emma Lynn Luo

Thesis Advisors: Matt O’Donnell, Kim Woolf

This thesis examines how crime is represented on video-first social media platforms and how these representations shape public perception. Using a mixed-methods design, it combines computational text analysis and a survey of U.S. adults. Findings reveal that violent crime is over-represented and that TikTok frames crime through emotionally driven narratives while YouTube often situates crime within political contexts. Moreover, crime type and online discussion sentiments influence whether an individual is deemed innocent or guilty, while frequent engagement with crime-focused social media creators is associated with heightened perceptions of crime prevalence. Together, these findings demonstrate that video-first social media platforms actively construct distorted representations of crime that shape perception, with implications for media literacy and platform accountability.

“Words of Power: Presidential Speech and the Rhetoric of Political Reconstruction (1933-2025)”

Sarah Usandivaras Klaehn

Thesis Advisors: David Eisenhower, Kim Woolf

This thesis explores whether reconstructive presidential leadership, as defined by Stephen Skowronek (1997), is associated with consistent rhetorical patterns. Using Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan as case studies, it develops a six-part rhetorical model and applies it to Donald Trump to assess alignment with reconstructive presidential rhetoric. Through historical-rhetorical analysis of presidential speeches, the study finds strong consistency between Roosevelt and Reagan, while Trump’s rhetoric diverges from the reconstructive model. These findings highlight rhetoric as a defining mechanism through which presidential leadership gains legitimacy and enacts political transformation.