Adam Abou-Nasr

Master of Communication and Media

My name is Adam Abou-Nasr, and I graduated from Rutgers — New Brunswick in May 2023 with a Master’s in Communication and Media and a specialization in Digital Media. I was driven by the question, “How do we teach culture to each other through media?”

This research culminated in my capstone paper, “The Cultural Dimensions of Publicly Funded Children’s Shows,” in which I applied Geert Hofstede‘s Cultural Dimensions model to popular children’s shows from national broadcasters around the world.

While at Rutgers, I completed the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship Program for Japanese in summer 2021. I also spent the final year of my undergraduate degree at Meiji University in Tokyo on the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. Through Japan, I studied what we share across cultures and how international media connects people.

I graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Media Communication with a specialization in Public Relations and Advertising and minors in Marketing and International Studies. I acted as Lead Copy Editor on the 2019 issue of CommUNO, the School of Communication’s alumni magazine, which won an Award of Excellence in the professional category from Nebraska PRSA.

Early in my undergrad, I started at Nintendo World Report, where I learned firsthand how the media processes news and dissected the impact of interactive media on the public. I saw the importance of intention in every step of communication.

Before I enrolled in school, I was the Assistant Manager of Sales at the top RadioShack in Omaha, Nebraska, and twice earned the highest sales of the year in the district. From the ground level, I analyzed tech marketing and the impact of messages on everyday consumers.

Communication is not about messages, it’s about connections. Every entity is nothing more than a collection of stories, and the need to share those stories is the very essence of humanity. We crave to connect, to learn, to belong; the field of Communication is the study of humanity itself.

And I am a Master of Communication.

Sample Works:

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Pokémon Go Plus + (Review)

Pokemon Go was designed to be played while doing something else. Niantic’s augmented reality geolocation games are explicitly meant to draw players to areas of interest in their local communities, but parks and outdoor art exhibits are hard to appreciate while staring at a phone. The “Plus” line of companion devices aims to fix that, with some success. The latest device, the Pokemon Go Plus +, might have the hardest-to-Google product name ever but earns all those plusses – alongside one big minus.

Those familiar with the original Pokemon Go Plus or the Poke Ball Plus know the basics: the Plus + connects to Pokemon Go to light up and vibrate when a Pokemon or Poke Stop is nearby. The big button on the front throws a single Poke Ball or spins the Poke Stop to collect items. New here is the option to throw a Great or Ultra Ball for a better chance at catching Pokemon or auto-throw basic Poke Balls without pressing a thing, alongside auto-spin of Poke Stops. Allegedly.

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The Cultural Dimensions of Publicly Funded Children’s Shows (MCM Capstone Research Paper)

“What do you do with the mad that you feel?” Fred Rogers asks the young viewers of his program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, as quoted by Rogers to the United States Senate in 1969 (American Rhetoric, 2021). One minute later, Rogers had secured $20 million in public funding for public broadcasting. That moment led to decades of growth in educational programming around the world, and with it, a unique look into the cultural values of other nations.

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Nintendo Reputation Management Plan

Formative Research

Nintendo, often compared as the “Disney of video games,” is the world’s largest video game company. Competitors, like Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation brands, can lean on technologies, partnerships, and profits made by other branches within their parent companies. Nintendo, on the other hand, generates almost all of its revenue through video game consoles, software, and accessories.

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International Public Relations Class Final Reflection

Authenticity Speaks Every Language

Cut the bullshit. For its entire history, Public Relations has had a reputation of using “spin” to reframe slimy corporate misdeeds or otherwise mislead the public. We see through that. So do people in every other culture.

The importance of authenticity was the most important throughline in our International Public Relations course. Whether we discussed influencers not properly disclosing sponsored posts or Miss Universe’s corporate social responsibility platform, everything came down to the truth.

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To the End of the Ocean: The Wii and Wii U (Case Study)

I, We, Waluigi: a Post-Modern analysis of Waluigi

Waluigi is the ultimate example of the individual shaped by the signifier. Waluigi is a man seen only in mirror images; lost in a hall of mirrors he is a reflection of a reflection of a reflection. You start with Mario – the wholesome all Italian plumbing superman, you reflect him to create Luigi – the same thing but slightly less. You invert Mario to create Wario – Mario turned septic and libertarian – then you reflect the inversion in the reflection: you create a being who can only exist in reference to others. Waluigi is the true nowhere man, without the other characters he reflects, inverts and parodies he has no reason to exist. Waluigi’s identity only comes from what and who he isn’t – without a wider frame of reference he is nothing. He is not his own man. In a world where our identities are shaped by our warped relationships to brands and commerce we are all Waluigi.

-Franck Ribery, May 30, 2013

The Wii U was supposed to be everything. The system promised to play all games, old and new, and act as an entertainment hub for streaming and live TV. Its wide range of controllers worked for the simplest of family games and the most intimate of single-player experiences. The screen in the middle of the Gamepad controller promised unique gameplay and console graphics in the palm of your hand.

It flopped.

After Nintendo’s success with the Wii, follow-up console Wii U was a confident, bold step, but the public had little interest. Instead of the simple focus of its predecessor, the Wii U was a reaction to competitors on all sides. It tried to be everything to everyone, but in doing so, was left with no identity of its own.

The King of Games

Nintendo began in the late 1800’s as a playing card company based in Kyoto, Japan. The company tried its hand at a variety of industries before finding success as a novelty toy maker in the 1960s. As a natural extension of these toys, Nintendo played with the new “video game” industry, creating a few plug-and-play TV games and arcade cabinets in the 70s. Nintendo hired Shigeru Miyamoto to work on these arcade games. His directorial debut, Donkey Kong, was a global smash hit that finally broke Nintendo into the North American market.

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