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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Purpose Of Magazine Web Sites, Mark Marquez Ii Jan 2005

The Purpose Of Magazine Web Sites, Mark Marquez Ii

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether online versions of printed magazines shared an overall purpose. Guided by grounded theory, interviews were conducted of publishers and staff members from the Web sites of 15 printed magazines. The analysis of the interviews suggested that the overall purpose of online versions of magazines is marketing of the printed magazine, and that the sites also are intended to accomplish a number of secondary purposes.


Changing Face: The Evolution Of Chinese Women's Dress And Appearance, Xiaolan Wang Jan 2005

Changing Face: The Evolution Of Chinese Women's Dress And Appearance, Xiaolan Wang

LSU Master's Theses

Women’s dress and appearance can reflect a lot about a civilized society. It is influenced by many factors as well. The dress and appearance of contemporary Chinese women have not been studied much by mass communication researchers. This paper, however, explored the factors that influence the development and evolution of contemporary Chinese women’s dress and appearance. It traced back from Dynastic China to Republican China and then to Mao’s red China to examine the historical and political influences imposed on the dress and appearance of Chinese women. Then, it used in-depth interviews to find out factors that influence women’s dress …


Adoption In New Orleans: What Agencies Are Doing To Promote It, Emily Barbara Rivers Jan 2005

Adoption In New Orleans: What Agencies Are Doing To Promote It, Emily Barbara Rivers

LSU Master's Theses

Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are a national concern in the United States. In addition, many people exist who would like to become parents, but cannot or do not reproduce biologically. While adoption could offer a solution to this problem, the actual number of adoptions that take place is very small. This study examined what adoption agencies in the New Orleans area are doing to promote themselves to women with unwanted pregnancies. In-depth interviews were conducted with five adoption agencies. Three of the five agencies reported using various methods of targeting women with unwanted pregnancies. These methods included public posters, flyers …


Are Murders Equal In The Eyes Of The Media?: A Study Of Race, Gender, Class And Quality Of Coverage, Tobie Marie Blanchard Jan 2005

Are Murders Equal In The Eyes Of The Media?: A Study Of Race, Gender, Class And Quality Of Coverage, Tobie Marie Blanchard

LSU Master's Theses

Crime news is an important component of local news. A literature review suggested that the media’s coverage of crime news can reveal vital information about media routines and biases. The main issue in this study is race and the media. The subtext of crime news and how the media cover different races when dealing with crime can speak to the larger issues of race and the media. The primary focus of this study was to examine how the media cover victims of murder, but more specifically to investigate any differences that may exist in how they cover White and Black …


Predicting Indonesian Journalists' Uses Of Public Relations-Generated News Materials, Simon Sinaga Jan 2005

Predicting Indonesian Journalists' Uses Of Public Relations-Generated News Materials, Simon Sinaga

LSU Master's Theses

The news media are the main channel for public relations practitioners to get messages across to their publics. Getting their news or information materials used in the media is, therefore, a key professional responsibility for public relations practitioners. In an Asian country like Indonesia, this practice constitutes one of the more important parts of pubic relations practices. However, there has been little research conducted on predictive factors – especially as concerns taking into account different factors together – regarding Indonesian journalists’ uses of public relations news materials, since it is the largest nation in the Southeast Asian region, and no …


A Tale Of Two Champions: Lsu And Southern University Compete For Coverage In Louisiana Newspapers, Damiane Christopher Ricks Jan 2005

A Tale Of Two Champions: Lsu And Southern University Compete For Coverage In Louisiana Newspapers, Damiane Christopher Ricks

LSU Master's Theses

The study’s purpose was to discover if two Louisiana newspapers gave Louisiana State University’s football team more favorable coverage than that of the team from Southern University, a historically black university. A content analysis of articles published in The Advocate (Baton Rouge) and the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) from the 1995 and 1998 seasons when Southern University’s team accomplished greater success than LSU’s team, and the 2003 season when both teams won national championship titles revealed that while LSU’s team did not receive more prominent coverage and praise than Southern University’s team, racial stereotypes appeared throughout the 667 articles analyzed. Although …


Women's Uses Of The Internet, Rachelle Powell Jan 2005

Women's Uses Of The Internet, Rachelle Powell

LSU Master's Theses

In this study I will look at the main reasons women use the Internet. Studies about women and the Internet are divided; some indicate less use of the Internet than men, but other studies show strong evidence of a narrowing gap in use. Due to this lack of clarity, a study that looks exclusively at women’s Internet activities and usage is needed. Although qualitative research does not test or apply theory the same way quantitative research does, uses and gratifications theory informed this study. This is an exploratory study of women and the Internet.


Risk Reporting And Source Credibility: Trying To Make The Readers Interested, Raluca Cozma Jan 2005

Risk Reporting And Source Credibility: Trying To Make The Readers Interested, Raluca Cozma

LSU Master's Theses

An experiment with 98 participants was conducted to explore the effects of government versus multiple sources on perceived credibility and interest when applied to the same risk stories. It also analyzed the effects of source treatment on participants' assessment of government credibility and source reasonableness. The study investigated the effects of demographic characteristics of participants (age, gender, media use) on the same variables, and tried to determine if there was any statistical correlation between the two dependent variables of credibility and interest. It also analyzed the effects of human-interest reports on credibility and interest. Overall, the study found that participants …


Baseball And Steroids In The News: How Politicians And Reporters Construct The News, Claudia Kozman Jan 2005

Baseball And Steroids In The News: How Politicians And Reporters Construct The News, Claudia Kozman

LSU Master's Theses

This study is a content analysis of newspaper coverage of baseball and steroids. The data are a random sample from four newspapers: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post. The period under study consists of 77 weeks, from April 10th, 2003, to December 9th, 2004. The results supported four hypotheses and negated one. Analysis showed that the issue of baseball and steroids was not institution-driven news; it was the result of governmental action, events outside of government, and local interest. The number of stories rose after governmental action. It also rose after …


Bonjour Canada: A Case Study Of The 1995-2000 Louisiana Public Relations Campaign To Attract Canadian Visitors To Louisiana, Bonnie Anne Bauman Jan 2005

Bonjour Canada: A Case Study Of The 1995-2000 Louisiana Public Relations Campaign To Attract Canadian Visitors To Louisiana, Bonnie Anne Bauman

LSU Master's Theses

The research undertaken in this study explores five years of the Louisiana Office of Tourism's public relations campaign to attract Canadian visitors to Louisiana. The study considers how the campaign's organizers used the cultural bond between French-speaking Canadians and Louisiana to attract Canadians to Louisiana. The study also examines how important the public relations strategy of highlighting the cultural bond between host and tourist was in attracting Canadian visitors to the state. In addition, the study uncovers whether or not campaign organizers considered the impact their campaign would have on Louisiana's Cajun citizenry. The research method employed was the case …


Spalding Gray And The Slippery Slope Of Confessional Performance, David Price Terry Jan 2005

Spalding Gray And The Slippery Slope Of Confessional Performance, David Price Terry

LSU Master's Theses

Beyond Spalding Gray’s iconic position as a confessional performer, he serves as a representative character for a culture increasingly consumed with both self-reflection and self- disclosure, where confessional speech is understood as somehow more “authentic” or “pure” than other forms of discourse. I argue that confession is a performative, not a constative utterance (a doing not a saying) and that it is a productive not a libratory act; it does not free an already existing self, but produces a new self in the act of performance. Consequently, though the confessional performance style typified by Gray can be aesthetically compelling for …


Coverage Of The 2003 Post-Election Protests In Azerbaijan: Impact Of Media Ownership On Objectivity, Ilgar Khudiyev Jan 2005

Coverage Of The 2003 Post-Election Protests In Azerbaijan: Impact Of Media Ownership On Objectivity, Ilgar Khudiyev

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine bias in press news coverage of the 2003 post-election street protests, which resulted from the presidential election in Azerbaijan. This study provides a look at the extent of state and private media ownership of newspapers in Azerbaijan conducting a content analysis of three highly circulated local newspapers, one state owned and the others privately owned, during a three week period following the election day when the main subject of local newspapers’ coverage was protest actions in the streets of the capital city, Baku. The data are news and articles regarding the street …


Patterns Of Self-Expression And Impression Management In Blogs, Ana Keshelashvili Jan 2005

Patterns Of Self-Expression And Impression Management In Blogs, Ana Keshelashvili

LSU Master's Theses

The constant process of technology development offers Internet users new tools, allowing them to enjoy their right of free expression. One of the latest popular tools introduced for use by mass audience on the Internet is a weblog (or blog). There are more than 4.12 million blogs on the Internet maintained by different people with different purposes. Some of the bloggers manage to create an image that makes them "celebrities" among the community of bloggers. These are the people whose blogs are among the most well-known and also regularly linked by other bloggers. Besides, media's view of blogging comes directly …


Mammary Malfunction: A Comparison Of Breastfeeding And Bottlefeeding Product Ads With Magazine Article Content, Angela Broussard Hyderkhan Jan 2005

Mammary Malfunction: A Comparison Of Breastfeeding And Bottlefeeding Product Ads With Magazine Article Content, Angela Broussard Hyderkhan

LSU Master's Theses

Breastfeeding is a pressing social issue in terms of women’s equality, preventative healthcare, and the preservation of a valuable natural resource. Future progress in breastfeeding advocacy will depend on an accurate investigation into the current situation. In this study, three women’s prenatal magazines (American Baby, ePregnancy, and Parenting) are analyzed via content analysis for one calendar year, looking specifically at infant formula-related product advertisements, breastfeeding-related product advertisements and variations of the mother’s role in infant feeding. The content of breastfeeding-related magazine articles also is analyzed within the context of the advertisements. This sample of media appears to have evolved away …


Museum-Public Relationships: Exploring The Relationship Management Theory Of Public Relations, Mary Presley Schoen Jan 2005

Museum-Public Relationships: Exploring The Relationship Management Theory Of Public Relations, Mary Presley Schoen

LSU Master's Theses

This study employs the organization-public relationship (OPR) scale to measure member perceptions of an art museum affiliated with a Southern university. The scale is a 15-item, multi-dimension tool developed by Bruning and Ledingham to measure a public’s relationship with an organization (Ledingham, 2001). The three dimensions are personal relationship, community relationship, and professional relationship. The study found that member perceptions of the museum-public relationship differentiated members who voted to continue their membership from those who voted to discontinue their membership with the museum. Further, this study supports the relationship management theory of public relations as a viable framework for practicing …


A Historical Perspective Of Governor Mike Foster's "Live Mike" Radio Program, Wayne Wynn,Iii Williams Jan 2004

A Historical Perspective Of Governor Mike Foster's "Live Mike" Radio Program, Wayne Wynn,Iii Williams

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana Governor Mike Foster took to the airwaves on August 10, 2000 with the launch of “Live Mike,” his weekly radio program that would air for 41 weeks during Foster’s second term. Foster, a Republican, served as Governor of Louisiana from January 1996 until January 2004. This study historically chronicles Governor Mike Foster’s weekly radio program, “Live Mike” during and prior to its four years on the air. This historical narrative illustrates how Foster intermingled radio, politics and his personal life to create a weekly radio program that he attempted to use during his second term to relay his message …


Credibility And Authority On Internet Message-Boards, Ryan Goudelocke Jan 2004

Credibility And Authority On Internet Message-Boards, Ryan Goudelocke

LSU Master's Theses

This research aimed to provide some proof or refutation of the hypothesis that online communities develop specialized vocabularies, often technical jargon, and use elements of those vocabularies, here labeled “tokens,” to ascribe credibility and/or authority to other posters. The literature from a variety of communications fields relating to this topic was summarized as a progression from an early “limitations” model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to a later “opportunities” model. The drawbacks of current research were outlined and some new paths were sketched, including the methodology employed here. Several discussions from different Web sites, each containing hundreds of posts, were tabulated …


Country Roads Magazine: Has The Move From The "Country" Influenced Baton Rouge Advertisers' Buying Habits, Arianne Parker Bellizaire Jan 2004

Country Roads Magazine: Has The Move From The "Country" Influenced Baton Rouge Advertisers' Buying Habits, Arianne Parker Bellizaire

LSU Master's Theses

Country Roads magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary in September of 2003. Founded by Dorcas Woods Brown in 1983, the publication prides itself on offering its readers a cultural events guide showcasing events, festivals and destinations from Natchez, Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Readers have watched the magazine evolve over the years. However, nearly two years ago, readers experienced one of the biggest changes. The magazine moved its headquarters from St. Francisville to Baton Rouge. This study evaluated Baton Rouge advertisers' reactions the move. The researcher modified and tested the Country-of-Origin Effects (COO) on a smaller scale by examining City-of-Origin effects. …


Freedom Of Expression In The Republic Of Georgia: Framing The Attempted Shut-Down Of The Independent Tv Station, George Sulkhanishvili Jan 2004

Freedom Of Expression In The Republic Of Georgia: Framing The Attempted Shut-Down Of The Independent Tv Station, George Sulkhanishvili

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the perception and the level of freedom in the media of the Republic of Georgia. The study examines the media’s perception of freedom by identifying the frame newspapers used while covering the event between the government and the independent media outlet. The main interest is to define the predominant frame. A content analysis of 115 news articles of the four Georgian daily newspapers find that responsibility and conflict frames were more frequently used than economic consequences frame and morality frames. The study concludes that the Georgian media have considerable freedom from external …


The Catalyst To Harm Standard: Punishing Speech That Facilitates Harm, J. Colin Trisler Jan 2004

The Catalyst To Harm Standard: Punishing Speech That Facilitates Harm, J. Colin Trisler

LSU Master's Theses

The Catalyst to Harm Standard is a specific standard that sets forth step-by-step criteria for the courts to follow so that they can factually determine if the speech in question falls into the category of protected or unprotected speech. This Standard labels certain speech as “bad” not because of its ideological or social content, but because it is speech that is linked to a definitive social harm that the legislature has the constitutional authority to prevent or punish. This Standard uses three criteria to determine the liability of speech that has allegedly caused harm. In order to meet these requirements, …


A Case Study Of The National Advancement Plan At Louisiana State University As Implemented By The Lsu Foundation In The Memphis, Tennessee, Area, Elizabeth Nealy Jan 2004

A Case Study Of The National Advancement Plan At Louisiana State University As Implemented By The Lsu Foundation In The Memphis, Tennessee, Area, Elizabeth Nealy

LSU Master's Theses

Because university foundations are facing increased pressures as the result of declining funds and increased competition, they must learn to use more effectively a wide range of marketing activities and demographic segmentation. Prospect identification may be one such tool. The literature on non-profit philanthropy suggests that the demographic segmentation of alumni and prospect screening and subsequent identification may serve as appropriate criteria. This case study examines how giving levels, involvement levels and attitudes of donors may vary as a result of the implementation of the National Advancement Plan, a systematic peer screening model and communications tool developed for a university …


"Don't Pooh-Pooh Our Poo Poo": Penalty, Subsidy, And Refusal To Fund In The Aftermath Of National Endowment For The Arts V. Finley, James Gaddy Jan 2004

"Don't Pooh-Pooh Our Poo Poo": Penalty, Subsidy, And Refusal To Fund In The Aftermath Of National Endowment For The Arts V. Finley, James Gaddy

LSU Master's Theses

Legal scholars said the National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley decision would create a "chilling effect" in government subsidy programs, and it unlawfully expanded the government speech doctrine. By analyzing cases that subsequently use Finley for a substantive part of their rationale, this article argues the opposite: the courts have rejected the government's attempts to interpret the decision as one that allows viewpoint discrimination and have not allowed the government to further a broad reading of the decision. The article also argues that, under the government speech doctrine, Finley provides the controlling precedent for truly "hybrid speech" cases where …


Did White House Reporters Defer To The President After September 11?, Jodi Kathleen Bannerman Jan 2004

Did White House Reporters Defer To The President After September 11?, Jodi Kathleen Bannerman

LSU Master's Theses

This study's primary focus is to determine if the White House press corps acted more deferential to President Bush and his agenda after September 11, 2001, and if so, to see how long the period of decreased adversarial relations lasted. This purpose is accomplished through a content analysis of 37 White House press briefings, conducted by then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, examining press-briefing questions three months before, on, directly following, and three months after September 11 according to four dimensions of adversarial relations: initiative, directness, assertiveness, and hostility. Ten question design features comprise the criteria to measure each …


The Sports Appeal: Are Atheletics A Viable Academic Marketing Vehicle In Higher Education?, Reagan Thomas Chenevert Jan 2004

The Sports Appeal: Are Atheletics A Viable Academic Marketing Vehicle In Higher Education?, Reagan Thomas Chenevert

LSU Master's Theses

Universities are beginning to brand themselves. The days when the doors to higher-ed opened and students flooded into the classrooms are no more. Colleges have to find ways to separate themselves from each other in a noisy marketplace. Also there is a decline in newsroom resources for academic coverage, which leaves university marketers searching for ways to communicate their messages. However, universities have another available marketing outlet, which is not seeing declining media attention: sports. College sports are a big business, which generate national media attention. The Southeastern Conference had revenues of over $100 million from the marketing of its …


Deterrence Factors For Copyright Infringement Online, Nico Nergadze Jan 2004

Deterrence Factors For Copyright Infringement Online, Nico Nergadze

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate deterrence factors for online file-sharing by analyzing different conditions that affect compliance with the law through survey of the students in a large university in Southern U.S. The findings show that certainty of punishment, stigma of the label, knowledge of the laws and consensus with the rule negatively correlated with both actual and likely future file-sharing activities of the users


The National D-Day Museum As Mystory Praxis, David A. Pye Jan 2004

The National D-Day Museum As Mystory Praxis, David A. Pye

LSU Master's Theses

Museums in general are shrines of collected memory and cultural values. The National D-Day Museum, in particular, presents the memory of World War II as a good and just action taken by the Allied forces against the evil of the Axis powers. In contrast with later wars, which might be seen as morally ambiguous or futile, World War II was and is thought of as "the good war." In this study, I explore and express how The National D-Day Museum encourages exploration and expression on the part of the visitor, using Gregory Ulmer’s concept and practice of mystory to analyze …


A Performance Genealogy Of "Etchings Of Debutantes", Melanie A. Kitchens Jan 2004

A Performance Genealogy Of "Etchings Of Debutantes", Melanie A. Kitchens

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis history performs that which Della Pollock terms “historicity” in her “Introduction” to Exceptional Spaces: Essays in Performance and History. History as historicity is no longer an evolutionary master narrative that dictates essential Truths. Rather, it is a site for performance where unfinalized and partial fragments of the past cluster into stories that mingle fact and fiction. Historicity defines a space or an event where history is a doing. The performer of this history embraces agency, which she uses to place herself within history rather than dominate or be dominated by it. Observing history as historicity, Joseph Roaches …


From Guerrilla Theater To Media Warfare Abbie Hoffman's Riotous Revolution In America: A Myth, Bruce Eric France, Jr. Jan 2004

From Guerrilla Theater To Media Warfare Abbie Hoffman's Riotous Revolution In America: A Myth, Bruce Eric France, Jr.

LSU Master's Theses

The following thesis is a discussion of the radical activist Abbie Hoffman's theatrical work to revolutionize the United States. What the author does is explain the historical uniqueness of Hoffman's theatrical techniques as tools for social change. What made Abbie Hoffman such a unique character from that already bizarre and devastating time in the United States known as The Sixties was his ability to infuse pot with politics, fun with social activism and cultural change with his contemporary means of communication. He was able to excite and activate a whole generation of people who would otherwise drop out of society …


The Portrayals Of Minority Characters In Entertaining Animated Children's Programs, Siobhan Elizabeth Smith Jan 2004

The Portrayals Of Minority Characters In Entertaining Animated Children's Programs, Siobhan Elizabeth Smith

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to note, categorize, and discuss the stereotypes of African Americans in animated children’s cartoons. The purpose is also to compare them to see how they changed. A content analysis of two cartoons finds that characters do act in stereotypical ways. A quantitative analysis of 76 cartoons supports these findings. Overall, The Proud Family, a cartoon of the 21st century, is more stereotypical than Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, a cartoon from 30 years ago. Though primary characters display the same amount of stereotypical behavior, secondary characters show an increase in the amount of …


Audiating The Lsu Drumline: An Ethnographic Performance, Andrew Michael Causey Jan 2004

Audiating The Lsu Drumline: An Ethnographic Performance, Andrew Michael Causey

LSU Master's Theses

This is an ethnographic study of the drumline of the LSU Marching Band and the mock-fraternity they created called Phi Boota roota (ΦBr). I argue that ΦBr was created as a site to flesh out the various tensions members experience as members of the LSU drumline; they create a rite of passage ritual that functions as a carnivalesque and celebratory inversion of the system they find themselves submerged within. Phi Boota roota marks a created articulation of the transition members make when they become part of the larger ritual of Tigerband; it is a voluntary or liminoid ritual that allows …