Digital Commons Network^™

Benefits, Corporate Motives, And Communication Patterns In Strategic Philanthropic Relationships As Perceived By Nonprofit Partners, Gregory Grant Rumsey

Doctoral Dissertations

Businesses are increasingly held accountable both to their owners and to the larger society in which they operate. Accordingly, many companies are extending their resources to meet community needs through philanthropic partnerships with nonprofit organizations. Such ventures, however, have drawn close scrutiny of motives and benefits. For example, some consumers register skepticism when evaluating the sincerity of corporate intent in cause-related marketing arrangements. Attribution theory suggests that altruistic reasons for corporate good deeds may be discounted in the context of apparent self-interest. Likewise, a debate between shareholder and stakeholder theorists introduces questions about possibly conflicting obligations facing corporate managers. Some …

Scripted Vs. Real: An Analysis Of Parent-Child Interactions In African American Sitcom Families And Real Life Families, Syrenthia Johnson Robinson

Doctoral Dissertations

This is an exploratory study of the parent-child interactions in African American families as they are portrayed on television and as they are experienced in real life. The research methods- frame analyses, focus groups, and a parent-child relationship questionnaire- facilitated the exploration of common interactions between parents and their children, such as their verbal communication styles (conversation orientation, conformity orientation), conflict management styles (avoiding, accommodating, confronting, compromising, collaborating) and level of closeness (disengaged, separated, connected, enmeshed).

To examine the parent-child relationships depicted in African American television families, four television shows were included in the analysis: My Wife & Kids, Family …

Developing An Integrated Model Of Interactivity In The Context Of Travel-Related Web Sites, Juran Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates relationships among interactivity as functional features, actual interaction and perception, its moderators (i.e. experience) and its consequences (i.e. attitude, trust and purchase intention) in the context of travel-related Web sites. This study is expected to contribute to the body of knowledge by clarifying the concept of interactivity in an important advertising/marketing context. An experimental design is used to explore key questions about relationships among types of interactivity, with a focus on exploring similarities and differences in Human-to-Human and Human- to-Computer interactivity, as well as moderators and consequences of the interactive experience at travel-related Web sites.

Framing The Internet In China: Cross-Cultural Comparisons Of Newspapers’ Coverage In China, Hong Kong, Singapore, The United States, And The United Kingdom, Xiang Zhou

Doctoral Dissertations

This study introduced the framing theory, Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchical model, and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions into a cross-cultural comparative analysis of news coverage of the Internet in China from 2000 to 2004 in selected newspapers in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Significant differences were found to exist across the societies in both the salience of Internet-related issues and the usage of generic news frames. The issue of Internet diffusion and use was most frequently mentioned in the newspapers from China, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. The U.S. newspapers paid most attention to the issue …

Leadership Ability Based On Communication Style: A Quantitative Study Of The Effects Of Sex And Gender On Perception Of Leadership, Linda Pysher Jurczak

Doctoral Dissertations

Work to date on masculine and feminine communication styles in leadership roles is limited. Much of the leadership research reflects an interest in the differences between the styles of men and women, but relatively little has been done focusing on feminine and masculine communication styles. This study seeks to fill in some of the gaps. The quantitative design of this study is based on Goldberg's (1968) experimental paradigm and used an Internet-linked survey consisting of four different sex and gender combinations. The survey included Renzetti's (1987) Sex Role Attitudinal Inventory, a brief description of a leader, and a Likert-type scale …

Madam President: A Content Analysis And Media Effects Approach To Investigating News Nedia Coverage Of Female Presidential Primary Candidates, Tiffany Jane Shoop

Doctoral Dissertations

From the early 1900s when the first Congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin, in reference to a reporter, shouted, “Tell him to go to hell!” to the late 1980s when gubernatorial candidate Evelyn Murphy, in reference to an unflattering picture of her in jogging shorts published in the Boston Herald, stated, “Just some kind of parity among us, that’s all I’m asking,” the tension between women in political positions and the news media has been a topic of considerable scholarly interest (Witt, Paget, & Matthews, 1995, p. 186, 183). This research project continues the stream of research on news media coverage of …