Honors Program
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
HONORS THESIS PROGRAM 2022-23
The Program: The Honors Thesis Program offers qualified students an opportunity to conduct independent communication research and to write an honors thesis reporting their results. The program provides for close contact between students and thesis advisors so that students can receive intensive guidance and assistance throughout their research and writing. The aim is to help students go through the process of conceptualization, study planning, data collection, analysis and writing, which is essential to excellence in scholarship.
Eligibility: Each student should submit an application for the program no later than the last day of classes of spring quarter of the junior year and have a GPA of 3.3 in Communication courses. The Honors Thesis Program is based on the assumption that useful research and writing take time and effort and thus will be ongoing for the three quarters of the senior year. Students should be aware that no faculty member can effectively supervise more than a few theses each year. Normally, the thesis advisor will be a faculty member with whom the student has already taken a course.
Requirements: Students wishing to participate in the Honors Thesis Program must be majoring in Communication and must have completed the core requirements (COMM 1, 106, 108, STATS 60) and received a grade of B+ or better in Communication Research Methods (COMM 106). A thesis advisor may deem other courses as necessary.
Writing Consultation Services: The Hume Center for Writing and Speaking provides many resources to help you with Honors projects. Honors Thesis Boot Camps are offered during the summer and academic year. Students can seek individual consultation with them about clarifying argument and thesis, framing research, improving transitions, providing revising strategies and other writing issues. Their writing consultants also work with students on scheduling and planning, how to stay motivated, overcoming writer’s block, outlining and organizing sections of a thesis, and assessing a writing schedule for the honors thesis.
Funding: Academic Advising Student Grants support rigorous, independent projects in all disciplines. You can also contact Brian Thomas, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Research Opportunities, during the Autumn Quarter of your junior year for more information regarding how to secure funding for your honors thesis. He can be reached at bthomas@stanford.edu or (650) 723-0051. Two important sources of funding that you may want to apply for are:
Major Grants
Major Grants provide a 10-week stipend in support of full-time immersive Spring or Summer project commitments. Most Major Grants are awarded to students beginning an honors thesis, a senior project in the arts, or senior synthesis project between their junior and senior years.
Small Grants
Small grants of up to $1,500 support smaller independent projects and can also be used to enable particular phases of larger-scale effort. Applications deadlines are found throughout the year, making the Small Grant especially flexible.
Honors Thesis Credit: Students admitted to the program will earn five units of honors thesis credit for a total of three quarters. Students are expected to make steady progress on their honors thesis throughout the year. An ‘N’ grade must be entered in Axess by the thesis advisor at the end of each of the first two quarters, indicating that this is continuing work and that the final grade (posted in spring) will be a letter grade. The honors work may be used to fulfill Communication elective credit. Honors in Communication cannot be awarded retroactively. A student failing to fulfill all honors requirements may still receive independent study credit for work completed which can be applied toward fulfilling major elective requirements. Failure to submit a satisfactory draft of the thesis during fall quarter will result in the student being dropped from the honors program.
Submitting Your Honors Thesis: A final copy of the paper must be submitted to the thesis advisor for review and grading and an electronic copy uploaded to the Stanford Digital Repository by the end of the eighth week of Spring Quarter of the student’s senior year.
Graduation with Honors: The designation graduation with honors is awarded by the Department of Communication to those graduating seniors who, in addition to having completed all requirements for the Communication major, also achieve the following:
- Successfully complete an Honors Thesis (B+ or better)
- Maintain a distinguished grade average in all Communication course work
- Are recommended by the Communication faculty
This distinction will be noted on the student’s diploma and during the department graduation ceremonies.
Honor Students
Diana Jordan
Diana Jordan will be working with Professor Jon Krosnick to examine the effect of sample size on the results of significance testing, testing two assumptions: (1) effects that exist in the population are more likely to be observed in large samples than small samples; and, (2) effects that do not exist in the population are more likely to be observed in small samples than large samples. She will analyze previously collected survey data from five universities to examine whether survey respondents’ demographic information can accurately predict a randomly assigned condition variable (whether a participant is assigned into a treatment or control group), using sample sizes ranging from 50 to 5,000 to assess whether sample size predicts the likelihood of obtaining false positive effects. A current assumption in statistics is that sample size can only affect the likelihood of producing false negative effects, not false positives. However, there is a subset of researchers who believe that with a large enough sample researchers can find something significant, whether it exists or not in the population. This project aims to answer the following question: as samples get larger, do we get more false positives or do we get fewer false positives?
Advisor: Jon Krosnick
Honors Theses
Previous Honors Theses are available for review in Room 110A in Bldg. 120. Examples of some recent theses include:
- Homeworking in Italy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Preliminary European Labour Force Survey Results
Caroline Ghisolfi, 2021, Thesis Advisor: James Hamilton - Film Franchise Strategy in the Age of Intellectual Property
Walker Brown, 2019, Thesis Advisor: James Hamilton - Leadership During Conflict: Where Charismatic Leadership Falls Short
Pascale Eenkema van Dijk, 2019, Thesis Advisor: Jen Pan - Discourse and Deceit: Native Advertising, Influencer Marketing, and the Increasing Corrosion of Public Trust
Minkee Sohn, 2017, Thesis Advisor: Ted Glasser - Heavy Rotation: Japanese Female Idols & Fantasy Image Commodities in the Post-Feminist Age
Alejandra Reynoso, 2016, Thesis Advisors: Fred Turner & Miyako Inoue - Televisa Presenta: Analyzing the cultural resonance of a contemporary Mexican telenovela
Ileana E. Najarro, 2015, Thesis Advisors: Ted Glasser & Guadalupe Valdés - Transmedia and the Spectator: How Disney Represents Interactivity, Star Images and Contingency for Audiences
Sophia Vo, 2014, Thesis Advisors: Fred Turner & Carol Vernallis - Virtual Superheroes: Using Superpowers in Virtual Reality to Encourage Prosocial Behavior
Shawnee Baughman, 2012, Thesis Advisor: Jeremy Bailenson - What Might it Mean to be Human: A Glimpse of the Future Through Battlestar Galactica
Sydney Burlison, 2012, Thesis Advisor: Fred Turner - Influencing Environmental Negotiation Through Immersive Social Perspective Taking
Alyssa Green, 2012, Thesis Advisor: Jeremy Bailenson - Ethnic Tweaking of the Windows to the Soul: The Role of Media in Shaping the Beauty Perception of Korean Women
Christine J. Park, 2011, Thesis Advisor: Fred Turner - Human Centric System Design: An Analysis of How Collaborative System Design Dicates Innovation and Productivity in Modern Economies and How to Seamlessly Leverage Future Technologies with the Human Condition
Steven Duplinsky, 2010, Thesis Advisor: Byron Reeves - Justice at 24 Frames a Second: The Power and Persuasiveness of Victim Impact and Mitigation Videos
Charlie Mintz, 2010, Thesis Advisors: Glenn Frankel & Fred Turner - Multi-Dimensional Design Strategies for Web Recommender Systems: How Grouping Approaches for Generating Product Recommendations Affect User Responses
Paloma Ochi (Firestone Award Recipient), 2010, Thesis Advisor: Cliff Nass - Mixed Emotions: Emotional Juxtaposition in Online Advertising
Alison Johnston, 2009, Thesis Advisor: Cliff Nass - The Portrayal of Africa in the Western Media and its Effects on College-Aged Youth of African-descent Living in the United States
Kamila McDonald, 2009, Thesis Advisors: Fred Turner & Prudence Carter - The News Media in Nicaragua and Their Role in Democratic Development
Amy Bonilla, 2008, Thesis Advisors: Shanto Iyengar & William Ratliff - S.tiches O.f the S.ahara: An Exploration Into the Non-profit Business
Allison Brian, 2008, Thesis Advisor: Cliff Nass - Multi-Media Minds: Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers
Eyal Ophir, 2008, Thesis Advisor: Cliff Nass - Bringing the Asian Journalism Debate into American Newsrooms: Rethinking Diversity
Aram Hur, 2007, Thesis Advisor: Ted Glasser - Learning Tai Chi in Virtual Reality: Exploring the Effects of Fully Immersive Virtual Reality on Learning of Physical Tasks?
Alexia Nielsen, 2007, Thesis Advisor: Jeremy Bailenson - Virtually True: Children’s Acquisition of False Memories in Virtual Reality
Kathryn Rickertsen (Firestone Award Recipient), 2007, Thesis Advisor: Jeremy Bailenson - Virtual Police Lineups: An Exploration of How Virtual Reality Can Improve Eyewitness Identification
Alexandra Davies, 2005, Thesis Advisor: Jeremy Bailenson - Subtle Racial Media Appeals in Political Campaigns and the Local News: How does this influence public opinion and California referenda?
Jessica LaVerne Parker, 2005, Thesis Advisor: Shanto Iyengar