Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Use Of Video Outreach To Increase Incoming Students’ View Of The Higher Education Institution As A Whole: A Case Study At California Polytechnic State University, Leah Horner, Michelle Logan

Journalism

No abstract provided.

Elections Matter: The Politics Of Prosecuting Deceptive Advertising In Wisconsin, Courtney Vander Veen Mich

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the causal relationship between ideology and regulation. Specifically,

this study looks at the relationship between Wisconsin elected officials and their political party in relation to the level of enforcement of the Wisconsin deceptive advertising statute. The study analyzed 79 Wisconsin cases prosecuted for deceptive advertising from 2003 through 2014. The 79 cases occurred over the span of three different governor and attorney general four-year periods.These cases were analyzed for outcomes and the number of cases prosecuted during each of the three four-year periods present in Wisconsin. Fifty-six of the 79 cases were analyzed further for the number …

Portrayal Of African Women In Nollywood Films Over A Five-Year Period: A Content Analysis Of Traits Applying The Stereotype Content Model, Olushola Aromona

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research shows that perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs are cultivated via media exposure. A content analysis of stereotypical traits in five Nollywood movies in a five-year span examines the prevalent portrayals of women in the Nigerian movie industry – Nollywood, and the effect of these portrayals on reinforcement of stereotypical norms and perpetuation of gender disparity. Cultivation and Objectification theories were the theoretical frameworks for this study. Findings revealed no significant change in the stereotypical portrayals of women in the past five years. From the movies analyzed, Nollywood movies appear to remain persistent in typically depicting women as unambitious domestic …

Farm Aid: A Case Study Of A Charity Rock Organization, Andrew Palen

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact that the non-profit organization Farm Aid has had on the farming industry, policy, and the concert realm known as charity rock. This study also examines how the organization has maintained its longevity. By conducting an evaluation on Farm Aid and its history, the organization’s messaging and means to communicate, a detailed analysis of the past media coverage on Farm Aid from 1985-2010, and a phone interview with Executive Director Carolyn Mugar, I have determined that Farm Aid’s impact is complex and not clear. Farm Aid, while very active in the political sphere, including lobbying for …

Gay Liberation Is One Thing, But Nobody Likes A Dyke: Emerging Frames In Queer Radio, Ryan Charles Sugden

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how a social movement uses the media to progress in society. I conduct a framing analysis on the queer community’s use of radio during two time periods: 1970s queer radio program Gay Perspective and a 2015-2016 program, Queery. I examine the show through three emerging frames: Cultured, Diversity, and Assimilation. The thesis studies how segments of the LGBTQIA+ community framed the discussion of gay rights in the 1970s and how those frames have (and haven’t) changed in 2016. Gay Perspective focused much of its energy on trying to demonstrate the need for rights and attempts to demonstrate …

Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary Sacred Waters Film, Cory B. Jones

Communication Studies

The debate to designate a National Marine Sanctuary off the Central Coast of California has been alive for nearly 30 years.

With a recent move by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to nominate the stretch of water as a sanctuary the issue has become one of great concern to local stakeholders.

With concern for additional bureaucracy and regulation that could negatively impact the local economy people choose to stand in opposition. Yet many that are concerned for the future of the region's waters want the protections from offshore oil drilling and other harmful practices that a Sanctuary would …

A Content Analysis Of Advertising On Children’S Television Networks, Demarius Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This content analysis study on licensed characters in advertising collected data in summer 2015 from three children’s cable networks: Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. Using Social cognitive theory and based on past research (Barcus, 1975; Atkin, 1976; Calcott & Lee, 1994; Stitt & Kunkel, 2008; LoDolce et al., 2013; Castonguay et al., 2013), the study examined whether the use of licensed characters and emotional appeals varied in advertising for healthy or unhealthy foods, mass media genre and the character’s gender. The study found licensed characters are more likely to be used to promote unhealthy foods, originate from movies and …

On The Promotion Of The Social Web Intelligence, Taraneh Khazaei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Given the ever-growing information generated through various online social outlets, analytical research on social media has intensified in the past few years from all walks of life. In particular, works on social Web intelligence foster and benefit from the wisdom of the crowds and attempt to derive actionable information from such data. In the form of collective intelligence, crowds gather together and contribute to solving problems that may be difficult or impossible to solve by individuals and single computers. In addition, the consumer insight revealed from social footprints can be leveraged to build powerful business intelligence tools, enabling efficient and …

Corporate Social Responsibility Communication: Beliefs In Motives, First- And Third-Person Effects And Behavioral Consequences, Nianyuan Cheng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a competitive corporate marketing strategy and gained increasingly more attention among organizations. Drawing from attribution theory, persuasion knowledge model and the first- and third-person effects, this study outlined a survey study designed to examine the relationships among consumers’ beliefs in CSR motives, perceived effects of CSR communication on self and others, and behavioral consequences. Also described is a structural equation model which allows for the testing of the research hypotheses. Data was collected from 202 college students via survey. The results supported that when consumers believe the motives of CSR are other-serving, perceived …

The Impact Of Emojis And Emoticons On Online Consumer Reviews, Perceived Company Response Quality, Brand Relationship, And Purchase Intent., Jayme Hill Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several studies have examined the use of emoji and emoticons in computer mediated communication among peers and colleges but there is yet academic research on the impact of businesses using these paralinguistic cues when responding to online consumer reviews. This research is examining the influence these paralinguistic cues have on the consumers perception of the companies quality of the response to an online consumer review, brand relationship, purchase intent.

Using an online survey, participants are asked to answer general questions about the brand, the quality of the response, brand relationship, and purchase intent after seeing a random condition of both …

Believing The News: Exploring How Young Canadians Make Decisions About Their News Consumption, Jessica Thom

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the last two decades, the adoption of online and mobile news applications has drastically altered the practice of news consumption. Young news consumers, the first generation of digital natives, have seemingly unlimited options in news sources, styles, modalities, and stories; but with so many choices, it is unclear how these young people make decisions about what news to consume. It is also unclear how these consumers are coming to believe the news when it is being disseminated from so many platforms and sources. This study seeks to fill a gap in scholarship by exploring how young Canadians are making …

Narratives Of Native American Women And Tribal Courts: The Framing Of The Violence Against Women Act Of 2013 In Mainstream, Native American, And Tribal Press Coverage, Alesha Marie Sangster

Dissertations and Theses

The Violence Against Women Act is a legislation created to expand more legal rights and services to survivors of domestic violence or intimate partner violence. Frame analysis was used to examine the coverage of the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 in three genres of press media: mainstream press, Native American press, and tribal press. Based on the media frames produced in the three media genres, the legislation was presented as more of a conflicting or controversial issue in mainstream press through the use of the conflict frame and the "Indian as other" frame. But all news coverage also presented …

Media Multitasking And Memory: The Role Of Message Modalities, Le Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between message modalities and memory performance in a media environment. In order to examine the role of message modalities in media multitasking activity, this research investigated the memory performance of participants after their exposure with the news stories and the commercials between same and different modalities. The research employed a 2 X 3 experiment using two independent variables: Modality of news broadcast (audio news vs. audio-visual news) and modality of commercials (audio commercials vs. visual commercials vs. audio-visual commercials). The research questionnaire was intended to reveal the influence of modality on participant performance by recalling …

Understanding How Intentionally Unplugging From Cell Phones Shapes Interpersonal Relationships And The Undergraduate College Experience, Jadelin P. Felipe

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of what motivated college students—the Unplugged Students—to intentionally use their cell phones less and how they understood the impact that unplugging had on their interpersonal relationships and college experience. Nine undergraduate college students from four private schools were interviewed in one-on-one semi- structured interviews. These students, considered non-users, provided a particularly useful perspective as these students made a conscious choice to counteract social norms and experienced both being plugged in and unplugged. Cell phones and the act of unplugging proved to make up a complex and more nuanced topic than …

The Feminist Voice In Mainstream News Discourse, Rachel Kinnard

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the work of six self-identified feminist women who wrote opinion pieces for mainstream news and cultures sites in 2014. The internet and the widening public sphere has opened up new spaces for feminist writing that has allowed this writing to be published and read on a large and easily accessible platform. This group of women is an example of a broader generational development born out of third wave feminism, postfeminism, and the rise of online platforms for political commentary. By introducing traditionally private matters into the public sphere, their columns challenge dominant cultural discourse about political issues …

The On-Screen Water Cooler: Effects Of Televised User-Generated Comments On Cognitive Processing, Social Presence, And Viewing Experience., Jaclyn Ann Cameron

Doctoral Dissertations

Social television combines traditional television viewing and interactions with social media to create a phenomenon that connects otherwise autonomous viewers through a shared viewing experience. This dissertation explores one type of social television: on-screen user-generated comments. Although the practice spans multiple television genres, little is known about its effect on viewers’ cognitive processing of the media, perceptions of the social presence of other viewers, or the viewers’ experience of the media. Two experimental studies explored the effects of on-screen user-generated comments on cognitive processing of the media message, the effect of manipulating the content of on-screen user-generated comments and individual …

Romantically Themed Media And The Development Of Children's Understanding Of Love, Tiffani Noelle Isaacson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the influence of romantically themed media on children's understanding of love and romantic relationships. By reviewing literature on relevant media influence theories, learning theories, and the consequences of learning through media, I review how children gain understandings of their world through the media. I then argue that as children identify and internalize meanings through exposure to romantically themed media, such as iconic Disney films, understandings of romantic relationships are shaped. By engaging in qualitative interviews of young children, this thesis investigates whether children can identify iconic Disney images and explores the ways children explain what it means …

Growing Food Equity: A Participant Observation Exploring The Role Of Communication In A Nonprofit Organization’S Work To Improve Food Access In Urban Areas, Samantha Jane Kaufman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the concept of food equity and a nonprofit organization in Milwaukee, Victory Garden Initiative, that is working towards food equity by increasing food access in the city. The work explores issues of inadequate food access, urban development, and other nonprofit organizations working towards food equity. Through participant observation and interviews with VGI, the researcher found that a small nonprofit organization like Victory Garden Initiative is still bound by time, financial, and staffing constraints. In order for nonprofit organizations to market and run effective programming, they need to be efficient with limited resources, take advantage of any research …

Sound And Vision: Marketing Recorded Music In The Age Of Radio, Daniel Martin Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

In the early 1930s, the popularity of radio and the economic austerity of the Great Depression threatened to make the phonograph record obsolete. However, by the time the United States entered World War II in 1941, records were returning to popularity. This return coincided with the first instances of the appearance of unique cover artwork on record albums. This thesis explores the cultural and industrial factors that converged in the late 1930s to make album artwork viable in ways that it would not have been earlier. This thesis also investigates how RCA Victor and Columbia, two record companies that had …

Seeing Is Believing, But Is It The Truth? Reality Vs. Representation Of Men In Contemporary Magazine Advertisements, 1980-2010, Dana Ann Lopez Coleman

Dissertations

McQuail (1994) observed, “The entire study of mass communication is based onthe premise that the media have significant effects” (p. 327). Many of these studies in mass communication have focused specifically on the various consequences that are believed to be a result of advertising. These images and perceptions can also become an individual’s reality which serves to shape society and their day-to-day environment. As Rudy, Popova, and Linz (2010) wrote, “Extensive media exposure leads audience members to adopt media reality as their own, and these altered conceptions of reality can in turn influence behavior” (p. 708). Understanding these visual representations, …

Gender Representation And Occupational Portrayals In Primetime Television, Brittany Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined gender representation and occupational portrayals on primetime television, in order to determine if gender-role stereotypes are still present throughout programming, and what progress, if any, has been made in comparison to previous studies. A content analysis was done on primetime programming airing during the fall of 2013 on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and the CW, and analyzed gender, major and minor character, genre, occupation, and marital status. The findings of this study reveal that women are still underrepresented on-screen, as well as in prestigious occupations, especially when compared to their real world representation. This study also examined …

Mashup Archeology: A Case Study In The Role Of Digital Technology In Cultural Production, Zachary Mcdowell

Doctoral Dissertations

Through examining the phenomena of the musical mashup against the backdrop of the contemporary American legal and economic situations, this work explores the complicated role of digital technology in contemporary cultural production and how it helps to constitute an agency of the contemporary digital subject, oriented towards participation and access. This research comes together in four parts, first weaving together against an understanding of the cultural and technical background as well as the legal and social backdrop that helped to birth the mashup, setting the stage for understanding the different powers at play. Secondly, through considering the construction and determination …

Measuring Strategic Communications, Jeffrey A. Ranta

Theses and Dissertations

The convergence and integration of communication disciplines is a daunting challenge for educators. Traditional distinctions of advertising, public relations, and integrated communication are becoming blurred by the growth of social media and other new media channels. The advent of strategic communications is a newer iteration of this coalescence of technology, analytics, and practice.

Silos of branding, issues management, media relations, image management, research, and many other communications (applied and specialty) as well as skills and traits are being combined in favor of a more comprehensive, strategic communications approach. The multi-platform, multi-disciplinary communicator is becoming the expected product of undergraduate programs …

The Importance Of Music Festivals: An Unanticipated And Underappreciated Path To Identity Formation, Kimberly F. Rudolph

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this study is to understand and explain the growing popularity of music and art festivals around the world. Music festivals are events consisting of a variety of bands and musical artists performing shows, on numerous stages, over a period of days to a large audience in outside and inside venues. Through field research, participant-observation, personal interviews, and survey research at the 2015 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, this study suggests that they are much more than simple entertainment venues. Because humans desire to belong and music functions in the capacity as a global language, music festivals are …

The Ethics And Effectiveness Of Rhetorical Strategies Employed By Environmental Groups And The Palm Oil Crisis, Mason T. Pellegrini

Global Honors Theses

In a world where climate change brings us ever closer to human-made catastrophe and, simultaneously, corporate interests fiercely oppose those who protect the environment, the work of environmental activists is now more critical than ever. Primarily, this work that environmental activists engage in is wielding rhetoric (symbolic communication) in as effective a way as possible to sway public opinion. However, effectiveness cannot be the only determining factor when choosing a rhetorical strategy: ethics complicates the matter. To shed light in this important area—the intersection between the ethics and effectiveness of rhetorical strategies employed by environmental activists—is the goal of this …

How Presidents Can Become "Hip" By Using High Definition Metaphors Strategic Communication Of Leadership In A Digital Age, Mirela Camelia Stimus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this interdisciplinary research was to see whether American presidents can reach Millennials more effectively in the digital age while publicly advancing the legislative agenda of their administration. The rationale is that presidents need to gain public support to pressure Congress into passing their legislation; while doing that, they can capture the public’s interest in politics and educate civically the most inattentive audience. To accomplish the task, strategic messaging adequate to digital media is necessary. Millennials appear as having modest interest and knowledge of politics despite their intense presence on digital media. On the other hand, they represent …

Crimean Referendum: Annexation Vs Reunification. Framing Analysis Of Online News Coverage In Russia And The U.S., Anna Dedova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines whether there is a frame difference in online news coverage of the controversial 2014 Crimean referendum by The New York Times and the Russian newspaper, Kommersant. The research is grounded in framing theory and literature on the attribution of news sources. The study is conducted in two languages and it seeks to examine how media systems, perspectives on the issue, journalistic standards, as well as cultural backgrounds and historical ties influenced framing of the event.

Sample online articles from each newspaper were selected and a quantitative content analysis was performed in order to identify the main …

Mcv Wines Social Media Marketing Campaign: Successfully Marketing Wine To Millennials, Dillon Payne

Journalism

The following study investigates how to develop a commercial on a social media platform in order to advertise a product to millennials – in this study, wine is the product. The number of consumers is increasing as each year more and more millennials become 21 years old, thus being able to be the next and newest consumer of the wine industry. The campaign’s focus was to create a wine commercial for a tasting room called MCV Wines and market it on social media to see if millennials would be interested in purchasing wine after seeing the commercial. Withscholarly research, the …

Pretty Princess And Hurdling Heroes: A Content Analysis Of Walt Disney Studio Movies, Jessica Noll

Communication Studies

This study investigated the portrayal of active and passive behaviors of male and female characters in Walt Disney Studio original animated films. It was hypothesized that males would exhibit more active behaviors than their female counterparts and that females would exhibit more passive behaviors than their male counterparts. The results indicated that both of these hypotheses were supported. The study also found that the least likely interaction of male and female characters was when the male character was being passive and the female character was being active. The most likely was male characters performing active behaviors and female characters performing …

Giving The Global High Sign: Coca-Cola Advertising Of The “American Way” In Life Magazine, 1941-1947, Scott Greenfield

History Theses

Magazine advertising through these years marketed American products to a consumer base that was becoming more patriotic. This “patriotic consumerism” manifested itself both in its foundational support for the United States’ involvement in World War II and in its constant implementation of the “American Dream” ideology that mixed nostalgia and modernity in preparation of a post-war world. Expanding upon the resulting cultural behavior of classifying the support of American business as a quasi-civic duty, The Coca-Cola Company successfully situated the “American Way of Life” as a global aspiration through its product’s entanglement in the global settings of war, ensuring that …