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Reporting On Athletes And Mental Health: An Evolution In Language And Lexicon From 1970 To 2019, Vivian Ferris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the spring and summer of 2021, several athletes made headlines for seemingly prioritizing mental health over the status quo of sports society. For example, in May 2021, during the French Open, professional U.S. tennis player Naomi Osaka announced she would not appear at press conferences, despite threats of fines, citing on social media it was for her mental health. The controversy surrounding Osaka and others led to further questions. Looking through the lens of agenda setting and framing theories, the purpose of this study is to better understand the frequency, variety, and evolution of language in journalistic coverage of …

Asian Male Stereotypes: An Investigation Of Current Beliefs About Asian Males And Stereotypes Perpetuated By U.S. Modern Cinema, Noelle Knopp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a triangulated two-part study with a quasi-experiment design. Study Part 1 performed a textual analysis supported by the theory of framing on the films Crazy Rich Asians, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Always Be My Maybe, and To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You to find commonalities among portrayals of prominent East Asian male characters. Using Wong et. al’s findings of common perceived stereotypes by Asian American males, the author used the six traits defined by Wong et. al as a base to see if the films corresponded to or deviated from the stereotypes …

Agenda Cueing In Aggregated Newsfeeds, Kirill Bryanov

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation brings together the findings from three experimental studies that seek to understand how exposure to information in an online news aggregating portal can influence users’ perceptions of the relative importance of problems facing society. Theoretically, this investigation relies on two foundational ideas. One is that in today’s high-choice, multi-source media environment communication flows are curated by a variety of gatekeeping actors, such as algorithms and fellow users. Individuals can have varying attitudes toward and perceptions of these gatekeepers, which can influence the effects of exposure to online information, including agenda-setting outcomes. Another is that users of digital news, …

Similarities And Differences In Western Media Portrayals Of The Greek Economic Crisis: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Guardian And The New York Times' Summer 2015 Coverage Of The Greek Economic Crisis, Tryfon Boukouvidis

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines newspaper coverage of the Greek economic crisis in the summer of 2015 by exploring attribution of responsibility to the actors involved in the crisis. I performed a qualitative content analysis on 114 news stories, 59 from The Guardian and 55 from The New York Times. Prior literature has indicated that American newspapers tend to present economic crisis from an elite perspective, which could distort public opinion to reflect elite views. Following previous studies, I analyzed the news stories in terms of how they used the responsibility frame of coverage of the Greeks and their creditors. The …

An Exploratory Study Of The Presence And Direction Of Agenda-Setting Effects Between Leading U.S. Foreign Policy Think Tanks And U.S. Newspapers, Dzmitry Yuran

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the roles news media and think tanks play in U.S. foreign policy in an analysis of their possible effects on each other’s agendas. In an analysis of salience of, or attention to, multiple countries over time in coverage from leading U.S. newspapers, The New York Times and Washington Post, and in published online materials from leading U.S. foreign policy think tanks, Brookings Institution and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the research looks at the presence, direction, and strength of agenda-setting effects in the construction of news agendas and attention foci of think tanks. Findings suggest that the …

Defining Dad: Media Depiction Of The Modern Father In Print Advertising, John Robert Evans

LSU Master's Theses

From an advertising perspective fathers are a highly attractive consumer demographic. In order to market to this audience it is important to understand how fathers are framed. With an increase in the number of fathers identifying themselves as caregivers according to the 2012 census, effective marketers would be well-served if they understood what type of frame applies when fathers are employed vs. stay at home. This analysis used framing theory to determine how message givers use frames within their advertisements to explain which particular aspects of the father are given salience. This study is a content analysis of father frames …

Banging Heads - Media Portrayals Of Injuries In Professional Football Before And After The Death Of Mike Webster, Alexander Moe

All Theses

This study addresses the influence of a trigger event on mainstream news coverage of injuries in professional football. In 2002, four-time Super Bowl winner and NFL Hall of Famer Mike 'Iron Mike' Webster passed away due to what is known today as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a condition that develops in the brain after multiple impacts. It has been confirmed that Webster sustained CTE from his 17-year NFL career, although medical evidence at the time of his death did not exist, and his passing was instead attributed to heart failure. This is an empirical analysis of how the trigger event …

The American Empire: A Content And Textual Analysis Of The Media Coverage Of The 2009 U.S. And Colombia Military Base Agreement, Britt Don Christensen

LSU Master's Theses

The United States maintains a worldwide network of military bases and spends more on military expenses than the rest of the world combined. This project seeks to analyze how the U.S. mainstream media cover and discuss the American Empire both broadly and specifically. I conducted a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative textual analysis of the Media coverage of the 2009 U.S. – Colombian military base agreement, which was protested by Latin American leaders. I analyzed the coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN.com, and The Miami Herald regarding the US military’s use of bases in Colombia in …

Hurricane Katrina: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing, Attribute Agenda Setting, And Tone Of Government Response, Brigette Lynn Brunken

LSU Master's Theses

This study content analyzed print media coverage of government response from four newspapers in the five weeks immediately after Hurricane Katrina, looking for common frames, attribute agenda setting, and tone. In addition, it assessed week-to-week differences throughout coverage. Findings indicate that the order of Semetko and Valkenburg's (2000) common frames changed, emphasizing human interest first. Conflict, attribution of responsibility, economic consequences, and morality frames followed. Media's use of attribute agenda setting was evident throughout coverage, primarily emphasizing the issues, relief and rescue, economic, negative timeliness, and rebuilding and repairing. Media's tone of government response was moderately neutral with federal tone …

Unbalanced Media Coverage And The 2004 Presidential Election: The New York Times Vs. The Washington Times, Jimmie E. Cummings, Jr.

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to find out if either The New York Times or The Washington Times participated in unbalanced media coverage during the last two weeks of the 2004 Presidential Election. Through content analysis paragraph tone was used to evaluate news stories, columns, and editorials as positive, negative or neutral from a composite week sample. Scholars, politicians, the public as well as journalists have long argued about the existence or not of media bias and whether it is in support of liberal or conservative politics. This study was not an attempt to pick a side in that …

Greenwashing: Visual Communication And Political Influence In Environmental Policy, Eric Jeffrey Jenner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Some contemporary theories in political science maintain that public lobbying is merely an expression of latent and resolute public opinion that is communicated to policymakers. Other theories contend that the public is highly manipulable and that public lobbying by extension can be considered a form of strategic framing that takes place through the news and paid media. Both theoretical approaches specify a function for words or text but are silent on the influence of photographs or images. In this dissertation, I hypothesize that environmental public lobbying operates as strategic framing and that text and photographs have unique and discrete effects …

Illinois Legislators Revisited: A Comparison Of Legislators' Perceptions And Attitudes Toward Constituent E-Mail, Mary Louise Sheffer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This is a follow up study to a 2000 report, which measured and compared Illinois state legislators’ attitudes and perceptions toward constituent e-mail, and its impact on personal political agendas. Along with measuring attitudes, this study sought to measure and compare the impact of advances in e-mail technology on Illinois legislators’ use of e-mail as a political tool of communication. The panel comparison consisted of 59% of respondents who participated in both the 2000 and the 2004 study. A survey conducted in February 2000 showed that 89% of Illinois legislators had an active e-mail address, but only 65% of those …

Public Journalism, The Second Level Of Agenda-Setting And Public Policy: The Role Of The Daily Press Newspaper In Creating, Framing And Fostering The Issues Of Regionalism And Consolidation On The Virginia Peninsula, 1944-1996, Shannon O'Bier Jackson

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study uses quantitative content analysis, with qualitative elite interviewing as a supplemental tool, to investigate the role of the Daily Press newspaper in creating, framing and fostering the locally controversial issues of regionalism and consolidation on the Virginia Peninsula from 1944-1996.

The investigation supports earlier findings regarding the second-level of Agenda-setting in terms of the newspaper's ability to cumulatively create "the pictures in our heads" of events or issues. The dissertation suggests that by selecting thematically related attributes over time, the newspaper acts to transmit issue salience, but that the potential impact of the "picture in our heads" is …