FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

Master of Communications Management

About Capstone Research

About Capstone Research

The last course in the program is a professional capstone project. The capstone is an opportunity to pursue original independent research. Students will be matched with an MCM faculty member who will supervise their research on a topic not currently offered in the list of MCM course offerings. The course must have a significant deliverable (case study, research essay or technical report) supported by qualitative and/or quantitative research. Classmates may also attend the presentation.

Capstone Research

Patti Wu, MCM (2024)

From Timber to Towers: Understanding Stakeholder Dynamics in Vancouver's Mass Timber Residential Development

Nicolle Wahl, MCM (2024)

Women in Leadership Roles in Canadian Public Relations/Communications Management: “You’ve (almost) come a long way, baby”

Eiman Abdelrasoul, MCM (2024)

The Role of Communications in Risk Management: Best Practices for Strategic Reputation Risk Management

Muhubo Ahmed, MCM (2024)

Strategic Communications as Catalyst for Organizational Growth and Performance

Matthew John, MCM (2024)

Exploring the Value of Corporate Socio-political Activism

Maggie Darling, MCM (2024)

Communicating Change: The Role of Public Relations and Behavioural Science in Effectively Managing Change

Nela Drury, MCM (2024)

Navigating Disruption: The media landscape and other disruptive changes impacting public relations functions in Canada

Erika Kastner, MCM (2024)

Standardizing Measures of Effective Internal Communications

Patti Lauzon, MCM (2024)

Cultivating Leadership Skills to Excel in a Post-Pandemic Landscape

Paris Semansky, MCM (2024)

On Raising Parents: The Virtual Village as Pandemic Problem or Pal. A study of the experience of Ontario parents with digital community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nicole Longstaff, MCM (2024)

Unravelling the Nexus: Exploring the Relationship Between Compassionate Leadership, Symmetrical Internal Communication, Psychological Safety, and Employee Engagement.

Anita Erskine, MCM (2024)

Women Owning the Narrative: Storytelling and Creative Control As A Driving Force for Social Change A Research Project Based On The Purpose and Success of Black Women in Film! Canada.

Liv Hung, MCM (2024)

We’re Only Human: How Strategic Communicators Can Lead In the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Beth Summers, MCM (2024)

"Meeting the Challenges of COVID-19: How and to What Extent Did Organizational Communicators Prepare, Respond, and Learn From the Pandemic"

Melodie Edwards, MCM (2024)

"The Tower of Babel: Communication between dominant culture and subculture in the financial industry"

Danielle Wong, MCM (2023)

"Should Crisis Communications Employees Be Deemed as First Responders? Examining Crisis Management Execution, Mental Health, and Recovery."

Amber Daugherty, MCM (2023)

"Demonstrating value: How and to what extent PR practitioners can better measure the impact of their efforts"

Ebony Johnson, MCM (2023)

"Intentions and Actions: progress made by Canadian publicly listed companies toward fulfilling their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)."

Nicole Woodall, MCM (2023)

"Cutting the Cord to the Gas Tank and Plugging In: Commercializing Social Listening to Support the Electric Vehicle Industry."

Fernando Carneiro, MCM (2023)

"How and to What Extent Do Dominant Coalition Members’ Values and Perceptions Impact Public Relations Participation in Organizational Strategic Management."

Amanda Fletcher, MCM (2023)

"Trust in the Canadian Municipal Sector: The Role of Communicators and the Public Relations Function."

Laura Watkins, MCM (2023)

"Communicating values-based leadership in a post-COVID-19 environment."

Jenica Middleton, MCM (2023)

The Bedrock of "Organization Transformation: Examining the Relationship Between Leadership, Culture, and Communication in Successful Change Management."

Greg Iarusso, MCM (2023)

"The impact of blockchain technology adoption on public relations outcomes: A case study of Walmart’s Food Traceability Initiative."

Sabrina Lavi, MCM (2023)

"The New Organizational Gatekeeper: Enhancing Reputation Management Through Data."

Christina Friend-Johnston, MCM (2023)

"Polluting the discourse: How misinformation impacts climate change advocacy."

Haley Bolen, MCM (2023)

"Achieving Triple Bottom Line Outcomes Through Strategic Reputation Management: A Role for Communications Leadership."

Josée Thibault, MCM (2023)

"Executive leadership on/with purpose: Uncovering an effective communication model for purpose-driven leadership."

Amanda Macfarlane, MCM (2023)

"The role of strategic communications in organizational strategy development and implementation."

Brian Decker, MCM (2023)

"External social media and internal communication: Insights from practitioners on an understudied dynamic."

Brett Sweeney, MCM (2023)

"Building Public Sector Reputation: An Examination of Child Welfare in Ontario."

Queenie Tse, MCM (2021)

"It’s Not Just a Game: Investigating to what extent Excellence in Public Relations is Practiced to Promote Community Engagement in Canadian Esports."

Peggy Kulmala, MCM (2021)

"The Power and Influence of Canadian Non-For-Profits: Organizational Listening and Citizen Voice."

Nicole Bullock, MCM (2021)

“The Agvocate: Examining the Power of Persuasion and Influence in the Agriculture Industry.”

Andrea Sewell, MCM (2021)

“The principles of change: An exploration of public relations excellence to address anti-Black racism in the workplace.”

Trinity Zhang, MCM (2021)

“Thrive Not Just Survive: Negotiation and Career Advancement Experiences of First-generation Immigrant Women in the Greater Toronto Area.”

Kyla Drewette, MCM (2021)

“The Work-Life Experiences and Perspectives of Mid-career Female Public Relations Practitioners in Canada.”

Erica Di Maio, MCM (2021)

“Strategic Communications Management During Major Health Care Reform: Examining the Role of Public Relations in Ontario Health Teams.”

Scott Anderson, MCM (2020)

“Prepare for Impact: A case study of the Queen’s University Alumni twitter account examining of the determinants of message engagement.”

Alison Gelata, MCM (2020)

“Building Trust with Digital Seniors: Exploring how older adults determine online sources of information and communication about health to be trustworthy and credible.”

Cheryl Crocker, MCM (2020)

“School of Hard Knocks: Exploring how and to what extent leaders in Ontario colleges and universities balance the repuational benefits and risks of intercollegiate athletics”

Lisa Hepfner, MCM (2020)

“Earned Media in a Digital World: Relationships with modern journalists.”

Kristine D’Arbelles, MCM (2020)

“The Social Media Election: A statistical analysis of social media communications during the 2019 Canadian federal”

Ashika Theyyil, MCM (2020)

“Excellence in Digital Storytelling: Exploring how best practices of digital storytelling are embraced by professional communicators.”

Kim Garraway, MCM (2020)

“Employees as Reputation Drivers: Risk or Reward?”

Rosie Hales, MCM (2020)

“Thought Leadership for Non-Profit Followers: How do Canadian non-profits use thought leadership to maintain trust, build relationships and fuel good reputation?”

Pauline Berry, MCM (2020)

“The scoring economy: Reputation management in the age of algorithms”

Onyinye Oyedele, MCM (2017)

“Cultural Intelligence and Strategic Partnerships: Examining communication protocols in emerging markets.”

Martin Waxman, MCM, APR (2019)

“My BFF is a chatbot: Examining the nature of artificial relationships, and the role they play in communications and trust.”

Josie Cassano Rizzuti, MCM, APR (2017)

“A Study of Social Media and the Challenge of Communications in a Global Digital World”

Tammy Quigley, MBA, MCM, APR (2018)

“What’s up Doc? How to effectively share performance data with physicians.”

Rob Lamberti, MCM (2015)

“Police use of social media during a crisis”

Paula Bernardino, MCM (2015), CSR-P, SCMP

“Exploring the Reputation of the Ontario Wine Industry: Organizational identity vs organizational image.”

Kristine Leadbetter, MCM (2018)

“Reputation and Social Capital: A Hammer for the Glass Ceiling”

Peter Bailey, MCM (2015)

“Social Media for Social Licence in Canada’s Industrial Sector.”

Gabriel Roy, MCM (2017)

“Bridging two solitudes: The effect of Québec’s language laws on t­­he practice of public relations”

Aislinn Mosher, MCM (2017)

“@Askyourdoctor: How Canadian Physicians use Twitter to Communicate in Healthcare”