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Commenting On Cannabis: Testing News Fragmentation Using Reader Comments On California's Proposition 19, John D. Beecham
Commenting On Cannabis: Testing News Fragmentation Using Reader Comments On California's Proposition 19, John D. Beecham
College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses
This content analysis studies reader comments on news articles pertaining to the issue of California’s Proposition 19—the “Tax Cannabis Initiative” to legalize marijuana. It investigates whether these reader message boards are consistent with news fragmentation theory, by examining whether the distribution of “yes” and “no” opinion on alternative media sites’ message boards is more homogenous than the distribution of opinions on mainstream news sites’ message boards. This study also uses a thematic analysis to investigate whether the mainstream media, as represented by editorial board endorsements by daily California newspapers, influences themes used by reader comments on Proposition 19. Results show …
Representations Of Homelessness In Four Canadian Newspapers: Regulation, Control, And Social Order, Barbara Schneider, Kerry Chamberlain, Darrin Hodgetts
Representations Of Homelessness In Four Canadian Newspapers: Regulation, Control, And Social Order, Barbara Schneider, Kerry Chamberlain, Darrin Hodgetts
The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare
This article reports on a content analysis of homelessness representations in four Canadian newspapers: two city broadsheets, one city tabloid, and one national newspaper. Clear differences between the papers emerged showing that in general coverage of homelessness in Calgary was much more positive than coverage in Vancouver. It conveyed a stronger sense of crisis or urgency and a stronger sense of optimism that the problem should and can be solved. Experts dominate public discourse about homelessness, with people who experience homelessness themselves marginalized as speakers. Despite these differences, the four papers present a unified narrative of homelessness in which readers …
Selling Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis Of Attorney Advertisement In Las Vegas, Giselle Velasquez
Selling Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis Of Attorney Advertisement In Las Vegas, Giselle Velasquez
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
I analyze how Las Vegas attorneys represent themselves, their associates and clients in televised law firm commercials. I use attorney commercials as a case to explore cultural beliefs in media representations. Using an inductive method, I analyze the textual, visual, and aural symbols that appear most frequently in television commercials to interpret how law firm advertisements convey themes of attorney expertise, knowledge, ethnic and gender stereotyping. I introduce this study with a historical evaluation of the rise of advertisement in the United States. I continue discussing how the media is an important realm of discourse that affects people's identity. Using …
Framing Autism Causes And Prevelance: A Content Analysis Of Television Evening News Coverage--1994 Through April 2010, Angela S. Colson
Framing Autism Causes And Prevelance: A Content Analysis Of Television Evening News Coverage--1994 Through April 2010, Angela S. Colson
Communication Theses
Autism has been declared an urgent public health concern by the U.S. government and an epidemic by some advocacy groups. Determining autism’s diagnostic criteria, prevalence, and causes have been challenging. It is important to examine how the U.S. media have contributed to the public’s understanding of autism. Previous research found that British media coverage of the theory that vaccines cause autism was shown to contribute to the decline of vaccination rates in Britain (Lewis & Speers, 2003). This study examined U.S. television news media coverage using an agenda-setting theory and media framing perspective. A content analysis was conducted of national …
Youtube Politics: Youchoose And Leadership Rhetoric During The 2008 Election, Scott H. Church
Youtube Politics: Youchoose And Leadership Rhetoric During The 2008 Election, Scott H. Church
Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The present study employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine the discourse of leadership in the YouTube video clips of 16 candidates who competed in the 2008 U.S. presidential race. The introduction and farewell videos of the candidates included on the YouChoose portion of YouTube are inductively analyzed for leadership utterances. Common categories are constructed through a grounded theory approach, while frequencies of the appearance of leadership traits are discovered through a content analysis of the data. The findings are then compared with relevant literature to determine the nature of presidential campaigns within the participatory culture of YouTube. …
Unnamed Sources: A Longitudinal Review Of The Practice And Its Merits, Matt J. Duffy
Unnamed Sources: A Longitudinal Review Of The Practice And Its Merits, Matt J. Duffy
Communication Dissertations
This dissertation reviews the history and discourse of the debate regarding the use of unnamed sources in journalism. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis explores how the use of anonymous sources has changed over the years. The ethics justifying their use are examined through the lens of utilitarianism. The author offers guidelines for their future use.
Argument Construction, Argument Evaluation, And Decision-Making: A Content Analysis Of Argumentation And Debate Textbooks, Neil Stuart Butt
Argument Construction, Argument Evaluation, And Decision-Making: A Content Analysis Of Argumentation And Debate Textbooks, Neil Stuart Butt
Wayne State University Dissertations
Critical thinking abilities, especially the advanced critical thinking abilities required for decision-making, are important to both individuals and democratic policy making processes. Previous studies have indicated that argumentation and debate instruction can improve critical thinking abilities, but there are reasons to believe that current approaches are not as effective at developing decision-making ability as they could be, in part because they focus too heavily on argument construction, rather than argument evaluation and decision-making. In order to test which approaches to teaching argumentation and debate best encourage decision-making abilities, researchers need to know which elements are included in current argumentation and …
A Content Analysis Of Elite U.S. Newspapers' Coverage Of Iran, 1979 And 2005, Melissa Kamal
A Content Analysis Of Elite U.S. Newspapers' Coverage Of Iran, 1979 And 2005, Melissa Kamal
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study is a quantitative content analysis of the New York Times and Washington Post coverage of Iran during the period surrounding the Ayatollah Khomeini's ascension to power in 1979 as well as the period surrounding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election in 2005. The results showed that coverage of Iran in the elite American print media as it related to terror was higher in the period after Khomeini came to power and also in the period after Ahmadinejad's election than it was in the period immediately preceding their respective ascensions. The results also showed that there was more coverage of Iran as …