Digital Commons Network^™

A Rhetorical Criticism Of “Bothsidesism” In Journalism, Jess Kirby

Student Research Submissions

In recent years, a term called “bothsidesism” has come into public use as both a critique of journalists participating in false balance and as an expectation that journalists should cover all sides of an issue—no matter if a side’s claims are unfounded. I argue that bothsidesism is problematic because 1) bothsidesism is a fallacious rhetorical tactic that minimizes objective fact; 2) the term “bothsidesism” and the act of practicing it both reinforce bipartisan thought, which stymies political action; 3) false balance is at odds with the role of a journalist; and 4) false balance is perpetuated by comment sections. I …

Examining Framing Of Local And National Media Coverage Of Sandy Hook And Robb Elementary School Shootings, Gabrielle L. Debruler

LSU Master's Theses

There have been over 350 K-12 school shootings since the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 (Cox et al., 2023). Thousands of journalists cover these attacks each in their own way with unique motives. This information goes to the public, and it is up to that person how they want to consume the story and view the shooting. National and local journalists tend to cover school shootings quite differently throughout time with unique frames. The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary and Robb Elementary Schools illustrate this framing distinctively.

Through a qualitative study of national and local coverage of the …

A New Test Of The News: An Examination Of The New York Times And Cnn Coverage Of The War In Ukraine, Hannah Ross

LSU Master's Theses

Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, setting off Europe’s largest war since World War II. The war captured the attention of American news organizations, which gave the conflict unprecedented levels of coverage. This thesis tested the coverage of the war in Ukraine by two major American news outlets: The New York Times and CNN. This study used qualitative content analysis to examine the top four front-page stories of the Times and CNN Newsroom show. Two timeframes were used to analyze these materials: February 24, 2022, to March 9, 2022, and September 17, 2022, to September …

How The U.S. Mainstream Media Perpetuates Cis White Masculine Hegemony, Yelena Dzhanova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The news is important because it helps individuals understand their place in the world and make the best decisions for themselves. Throughout its strong history and presence in the United States, the journalism industry has prided itself on delivering fact-based news using an objective framework, meaning that there is an expectation that journalists communicate the news impartially and without bias. Through an examination of gendered language and visual representations published in and by recent mainstream U.S. digital and print media outlets, this paper explains how the media plays a major role in the perpetuation of cis white masculinity. This paper …

Local Broadcast Reporters Maintaining Social Responsibility And Mental Health While Serving A Community Under Lockdown, Mary-Morgan Ellis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study looks at local broadcast news reporters working in Northwest Arkansas before, at the start, and during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Research for this study includes a content study of the tweets and Twitter accounts of eleven local reporters. This study considers the social responsibility theory and examines how these eleven local reporters use the theory in their everyday work. Research found, though these reporters don’t credit the theory by name, they are still putting its guidelines into effect as a sort of moral compass when creating objective and representative news for their communities. The research also found that …

50 Years Later: How Title Ix Has Influenced The World Of Sports And The Effect It Has Had On Female Athletes, Catherine Jeffers

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to research the opportunities given to women within sports, and perceptions around their identities in the sporting industry. This thesis highlights the history of Title IX and its’ impact on gender in sports. This thesis also discusses the lack of women’s sports represented in media and the limited number of women in positions of power in sports. Since sports were introduced into modern culture, women have been advocating and fighting for their right to participate in sporting events and forcing even more complex conversations around equal compensation for their play.

Come Close And Listen: Exploring The Intimacy Of Audio Media, Eleanor Kingwell Sharples Hoover

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to demonstrate the power of the audio medium to connect speaker and listener, as a result of the uniquely intimate nature of the medium. By understanding how speakers and listeners connect through audio, the research reveals that the audio medium is a sustainable media outlet, one that is durable despite changes in culture in the media market, that has transformed over time, all while keeping itself within the principal constraints of its original form, that being sound as conveyed to a listener. Three interviews were conducted with individuals situated in different areas of the audio media landscape; …

Gatekeeping Blackness: Roles, Relationships, And Pressures Of Black Television Journalists At A Time Of Racial Reckoning, Denetra Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Building on Du Bois’ (1903) concept of double-consciousness, Critical Race Theory, and communications theories including Gatekeeping, this dissertation aims to provide understanding of the experiences of Black broadcast journalists at a racially contentious time in American history. In 2020-2021, following the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, and during a global pandemic, a “racial reckoning” ensued throughout the nation. The reckoning, which continued through the writing of this dissertation, was a salient issue for news media. Through my positionality as a Black female forever journalist, I interviewed 29 Black journalists who …

“Power, Poison, Pain & Joy”: Applying A Critical Race Conceptual Model Of Implicit Racial Bias To Narratives Framing Blackness In Black Sports Columns, Black Music, And Black Journalism, Christina Lauren Myers

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a Critical Race Conceptual Model of Implicit Racial Bias to representations of African Americans in mass media to illustrate how stereotypical depictions and racist ideologies arise in media content, including by Black content creators. By bridging the concepts of implicit bias, framing theory and concepts from critical race theory through the conceptual model, I contend that content creators implicitly share racially biased beliefs. Moreover, Black content creators in expressing the authentic experiences of the Black community also do the same. Thus, Black content creators further stereotypes, majoritarian narratives as well as deficit perspectives about the Black community …

News Media Trust And Mistrust During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kaitlyn Seiter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the uncertainty and growing information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, news media consumption has increased drastically compared to pre-pandemic consumption. At the start of the pandemic, 94% of Americans reported closely following COVID-19 news, with more than half of Americans spending more than two hours consuming COVID-19 news everyday (SSRS, 2020). With the news media serving as a critical source of information through this public health crisis, the public’s reactions, behaviors, and attitudes to the pandemic stem from the level of trust they have in the news media to share COVID-19 information. Because of this, this study examines trust in …

Challenging The Illusion Of Diversity: A New Theoretical Paradigm Towards Newsroom Inclusion., Paromita Saha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past forty years, the news industry has attempted to diversify the racial composition of their newsrooms from the perspective of representing their markets better mirroring best business practices in the industry. The statistics show that an affirmative style of recruitment has produced minimal, superficial results with a high turnover of minority journalists who are hardly promoted to editorial positions, as well as skewed representations of minority racial groups. The literature indicates that hegemonic ideological forces and the White male professional ethos behind journalism is not conducive to minority journalists producing meaningful changes to news content. My study indicates …

Influences On Business Journalists In Egypt During Imf-Backed Economic Adjustments Of 2016-2019, Tamim Salman

Theses and Dissertations

The economic adjustments that Egypt implemented as part of an IMF-backed program between 2016 and 2019 were a milestone event in the country's economic history. Business journalism was an important part of it as people, policymakers and businesses tried to grasp the developments. Using qualitative in-depth interviews with business journalists and editors, this study attempts to examine the various influences experienced by journalists that affected their framing of news and the quality and type of coverage. The study argues that journalists came under the influence of political pressure and media controls, as well as the technical allure of market sources …

Perilous Place: Personal Stories Point To Possible Solutions To Widespread Flooding In The Mississippi Delta, Jared Poland

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and create journalistic stories highlighting the Yazoo Backwater Pumps Projects relationship to climate change while utilizing narrative storytelling techniques. Before explaining the methodology used for conducting research and interviews, the researcher describes the influence that innovations of mass communication channels have had on the way humans form groups and persuasively advocate for their positions. The researcher describes their historical perspective of mass media innovations that were vital considerations during their discovery and investigation of this politically divisive issue. The researcher more specifically focuses on the innovations that have occurred since the digital …

Controversy, Coverage And Cancel Culture: The Daily Mississippian's Reporting Of The 2018 Ed Meek Controversy, And Related Findings, Mason Thomas Scioneaux

Honors Theses

As this thesis reflects a body of work completed by a journalism student near the conclusion of a journalism education at the University of Mississippi, I approached research and writing in that way. I interviewed three people, for an hour each, and the things I learned in those interviews greatly affected the conclusions I reached with this thesis. My full transcripts from those interviews are located in Appendices A-C. I also did a lot of scouring through articles of The Daily Mississippian from fall 2018 and otherwise; I looked at every single edition of the paper from that semester, both …

Narrative Storytelling In Conjunction With Environmental Journalism, Abbey Edmonson

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the effectiveness of long-form narrative storytelling in relation to environmental journalism. It particularly focuses on effectively communicating the seriousness of climate change on a local level through narrative storytelling. The bulk of the information was gathered through multiple interviews with people experiencing the effects of climate change on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. By using interviews with local people interspersed with scientific data, I hope to be able to show the average reader that climate change is real and it can dangerously affect people on a local level, even in rural states like Mississippi.

Through my research, I …

How "Lyingnewspapers" Made Huey Long The Ruler Of His State: A Model Of Press-Populist Dynamics, Christina A. Georgacopoulos

LSU Master's Theses

Huey Long’s use of the phrase “lyingnewspapers” to discredit negative publicity is commonly cited as evidence of his negative relationship with the mainstream press, but he did not always hold a hostile view toward newspapers. Before the press turned against him during his enemies' attempt to impeach him as governor in 1929, newspapers were one of his central tools for political advancement. He devised strategies to attract press attention and relied on newspapers to publicize himself and propagate his ideas more frequently and consistently than he used circulars or radio broadcasts, which are commonly attributed to his political success. As …

Feasting On Words: What University Students Learn When They Study Food Writing And Food Media, Janet K. Keeler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of food in college curriculum is unique in its ability to create lasting impact because of the keen interest millennial and Generation Z students have in what they eat and drink. Studying media with food at its core is an underutilized mechanism to show how food intersects with the lives of all people thus encouraging students to look beyond their own experiences to consider the wider society. A program evaluation of 10 semesters of food writing and food media courses at a Florida public university reveals the ways in which students make deeper connections to culture and current …

Women Trailblazers In The Local Oxford Community: Real And Relevant Stories Of Six Unique Paths To Success, Karsyn S. King

Honors Theses

Women Trailblazers In The Local Oxford Community is a collection of six women’s stories in six different fields and their unique paths to success, all showcased through written and visual elements in a multi-modal website. The goal of the project was to have a diverse compilation of women from a variety of backgrounds, ages, careers, and experiences. The trailblazers represented include a woman in the STEM field (science, technology, engineering, math) who is the only female on the biomedical engineering staff, a first generation college student who now holds the second highest position in higher education academia, a local woman …

The Stigmatization Of Hunger: The Impact Of Social Stigma On Arkansas Youths’ Food Security, Emily Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Arkansas, 26.3% of children are food insecure, meaning they do not have enough or lack the ability to obtain enough food for adequate nutrition (Miller 2019). In recent years, a new phenomenon has been taking place called lunch shaming where children are sometimes forced to wear signs or handstamps that say the child’s lunch account is overdue. This research analyzes how the media frames food insecurity and how perceived social stigmas affect a student’s willingness to seek out help when struggling with food security.

Niche Journalism: Successful Steps In A Saturated, Modern Market, Arianna L. Smith

Honors College Theses

“How-to” articles make up the bulk of an average Google search when initiating research on a new venture—the subject of self-publishing and propagating journalistic content is no exception. In this day and age, self-started publications are almost guaranteed to be niche in nature. With the intent to create a more academic and objectively reliable guide, this literature review takes into account the observations and conclusions of multiple communications professionals, long-and-short standing news organizations of varying success and notoriety, and studies concerned with the trends relating to audience engagement and technology integration to answer the main research questions thus: what is …

Social Media, Journalism And Crisis: Twitter Representation Of #Syrianrefugees In Western News Media, Ahmad Khaled Alshallal

Dissertations

Generally, there have been conflicts in the world regarding media coverage especially on #SyrianRefugees in Western media. It is undebatable that the Western states have political stability and peace; thus, they remain better hosts for asylum seekers and other refugees who come in search of greener pastures. However, current trends have hindered such countries from being ideal hubs because citizens have basic fears including those related to national security. Refugee situations have attracted lots of controversies over the years to the point that the concern is evident in the media. This dissertation explores the crisis of Syrian refugees and the …

Reporting Poverty In Louisville : News Coverage Of Slum Clearance, La Salle Place, And College Court, 1934-1938., Shelby N Carter

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This project examines poverty in news by analyzing reports on Louisville slum clearance, La Salle Place, and College Court public housing projects from November 1934 through February 1938 in the Courier-Journal, Louisville Herald-Post, and Louisville Leader newspapers. In contrast to current academic research, reports on issues related to poverty appeared regularly, portrayed the poor as deserving, and avoided intersecting poverty with issues of race or gender. However, in support of current academic research, coverage of poverty in Louisville neglected to discuss perpetual poverty and relied on elite sources for information. In the event of economic distress and federal intervention like …

Contextualizing The News: Newspaper Front Pages In The Age Of Fact-Checking Journalism., Srijan Sen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates influences on the selection of stories on the front pages of newspapers. It investigates whether a daily newspaper that has an in-house, fact-checking unit (The Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel) selects front-page stories differently from a newspaper that does not have an in-house, fact-checking unit (The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, MN). While the study found no direct influence of fact-checking journalism, it did find that newspaper front pages in 2014 were increasingly prioritizing contextual stories over conventional stories. It also found a decline in political/governmental stories on front pages. It is suggested that these changes might signal a …

Newsroom Narratives And Newsroom Solutions: Local Print Media In The Digital Age, John Pendygraft

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks solutions to vexing problems facing media institutions today by exploring media narratives n the context of established anthropological theory. It is based in one local newsroom, the Tampa Bay Times, where I have worked for 22 years. The ethnography is a personal journey that draws on those decades of newsroom experience, social science theory, participant observation, interviews with journalists, and personal reflections. It examines dangerous historic periods of social dehumanization to put the political nature of today’s local print media crisis in context, and concludes that the greatest modern challenges to legacy journalism’s broken business model …

An Impossible Direction: Newspapers, Race, And Politics In Reconstruction New Orleans, Nicholas F. Chrastil

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the racial ideologies of four newspapers in New Orleans at the beginning and end of Radical Reconstruction: the Daily Picayune, the New Orleans Republican, the New Orleans Tribune, and the Weekly Louisianian. It explores how each paper understood the issues of racial equality, integration, suffrage, and black humanity; it examines the specific language and rhetoric each paper used to advocate for their positions; and it asks how those positions changed from the beginning to the end of Reconstruction. The study finds that the two white-owned papers, the Picayune and the Republican, while political opponents, both viewed …

Journalist And Hoaxer: William Francis Mannix And The Long History Of Faked News, Madelyn Kay Duhon

LSU Master's Theses

William Francis Mannix was a colossal hoaxer, journalist, criminal, and literary forger. He most famously fabricated “Memoirs of Li Hung Chang” (1913); sent sensational dispatches from Cuba during the Spanish American War that were published in the New York Times, Philadelphia Press, and other reputable papers; and is suspected of forging love letters written by Abraham Lincoln, published by the Atlantic Monthly in 1929. Mannix is representative of a type of journalist at the turn of the nineteenth century. At that time elements of the press were striving for professional respectability and embracing ethical standards. Historians have held these publications …

Uses Of Twitter And Citizen Journalism: A Comparison Of Press Reaction To The September 11th Terrorist Attacks And The Boston Marathon Bombings, Sarah Johansson

Honors Theses

The microblogging site, Twitter, was created in 2006 and changed the way the news is received and distributed. Since its inception into daily life, Twitter provides users with an outlet to both access and produce news updates anywhere, at any time. Even average citizens join the news cycle by posting descriptions, photographs, or videos of events in the community. This honors thesis examines the relationship between professional journalists and these citizen journalists, focusing on the influence of Twitter. Using interviews with a selection of broadcast and print journalists, this thesis investigates how professional journalists use Twitter and citizen journalists' reports …

Comparing News Frames About The Syrian Crisis Between The Kommersant And The Financial Times, Anton Dinerstein

Masters Theses

This is an exploratory comparative study aimed to examine media frames about ongoing civil war in Syria. The civil uprising started on March 15, 2011, and turned into a civil war after May 8, 2011. The conflict has lasted for more than four years, and more than 220,000 people have died since it began. During the conflict, both the Syrian government and military opposition were accused of extreme cruelty and of using chemical weapons. However, there was no official proof of using chemical weapons until the August 21, 2013, when Syrian government forces used chemical weapons during their attack on …

God's Eye News: The Use Of Drones In Journalism, A Documentary Film, Robert Lance Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses the format of documentary film to investigate the aesthetic, legal, and ethical issues surrounding the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, commonly known as drones, in journalism. Particularly important are the topics of public perception, safety, freedom of speech, and privacy. Do journalists' First Amendment protections extend to the right to gather images using drones? How will the privacy of citizens be protected against aerial cameras that can go virtually unnoticed? Can drones be safely integrated into the National Airspace System? The goal of the documentary is not necessarily to answer these questions, but to gather opinions from …

Slipping Into Darkness: An Ideological Critique Of Racial Inequality Coverage In Milwaukee Newspapers, 2010-2014, Enrique Brown

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This ideological critique assessed mainstream and African American newspaper coverage on racial inequalities such as racial segregation and infant mortality in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 2010 through 2014. Employing Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Class Theory, this textual research analyzed the texts of 405 reports, columns, and editorials from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee's mainstream paper of record, and The Milwaukee Courier, the city's premier African American newspaper. The study discovered important convergences in the Courier and Journal Sentinel's portrayal of racial inequalities as indicators of a racially diseased city and nation. However, the research also revealed important differences in …