Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Storytelling In Digital Brand Marketing: A Case Study Of Tennessee Hills Distillery And Brewstillery, Cassidy Blackwell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study evaluates the impacts of brand storytelling on customers of a craft brewery and distillery in East Tennessee. Brand storytelling is well researched, but has not been applied to niche sectors and customer response. The study consisted of a 15-question survey distributed to customers of Tennessee Hills Distillery and Brewstillery (TN Hills), and received 139 responses. The results were that despite a seeming trend of lack of engagement with the business, respondents value brand stories and can identify unique brand characteristics. Respondents’ answers reflected a personal connection with TN Hills, and connected the brand to grander ideals like the …

T. Hanks For Nostalgia: The Power Of Tom Hanks And Film Branding, Jacob Higgs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In March 2020, Tom Hanks announced he had contracted COVID-19 while shooting the Elvis Presley Biopic in Australia. On Instagram, he encouraged fans to take the disease seriously and be aware of how severe of a disease it was. Character brands and nostalgia have been found to foster trust in products and encourage relationships with those brands. Using the lens of nostalgia and uses and gratification to examine Tom Hanks as a character brand, the researcher analyzed five blockbuster films with Tom Hanks as the lead character. The study used narrative thematic analysis to observe Hanks and the depictions of …

The Past And Present: Issues Of Male Patriarchy Throughout Historic Literature And Dominance In Media Today, Leah Moore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Women’s subjugation to the objectification of men is a traced theme throughout the history of Western culture. In this thesis, the attributes of the male gaze will be explored via the patriarchal pioneers of literature: Dante to Petrarch to Shakespeare. The solidification of the male gaze takes place during the late middle ages as Dante Alighieri writes an infatuated love for Beatrice throughout La Vita Nuova and Inferno, demonstrating the virgin-whore dichotomy with Francesca. Similarly, Francesco Petrarch’s poetry of Rime Sparse describes the objectification and dismantling of woman for erotic pleasure and patriarchal power. The shift from early to …

Corporate Social Advocacy On The Blm Movement: A Content Analysis Of Corporate Responses Via Instagram, Oromidayo Racheal Tunji-Ajayi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black Lives Matter (BLM) has been a concern in the US since 2013, thereby becoming an increasing interest. Several US corporations’ attention has been drawn to BLM due to its radical strategy on social media to facilitate engagements. Research shows that a company's engagement in activism by taking a stance on socio-political issues often records growth. Also, scholars have focused on corporate responses to BLM through the lenses of the implications or intentions of the brand’s engagement. This study, however, analyzes 236 corporate Instagram BLM posts through the lenses of the attributes of their responses. It is assumed that brand …

The Defeathered Bird: A Case Study Of The Boeing 737 Max Crisis, Ernest Eshun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On April 10, 2019, a global crisis began outside Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. A Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane owned and operated by Ethiopian Airline crashed in the desert killing all on board. The accident mimicked a six months old Lion Air flight 610 which happened in Indonesia and claimed the lives of all crew and passengers. Together, these accidents claimed the lives of 346 people and have been noted as one of the dark days in modern aviation history. Subsequently, the aviation world grounded all Boeing 737 Max aircrafts amid safety concerns. This brought severe public criticism to Boeing, …

Trends In Advertising: How The Rise In Artificial Intelligence May Influence The Field Of Content Strategy, Joel Eaton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Whereas prior research on artificial intelligence has dealt with automation in fields like medicine, engineering, and computer science, this research study seeks to answer the question, “To what extent can AI be creative in the context of content strategy?” To answer this, this study employs content analysis using 16 online news and blog articles from primarily marketing organizations to identify and explain key variables surrounding the relationship between the computer and the creative professional. This study has found that the core belief that AI will play the future role of creative assistant in the context of content strategy is shared …

To Buy Or Not To Buy: Consumer Purchase Behavior Based On Lifestyle Brand Logo Colors, Chelsi Crockett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to examine the logos of lifestyle brands and explore whether certain logo colors elicit a purchase response in consumers. Color Theory and Impression Management Theory are examined alongside the idea of this study. Two-hundred-nine United States residents 18 years of age and older who are not color blind or color deficient participated in a voluntary online survey where they were presented with several differently colored lifestyle brand logos and then prompted to choose which color of lifestyle brand logo would prompt them to purchase a product from the brand in question. The variables of gender, age and, …

“Friendship With A Brand”: Parasocial Interaction With Burger Brands On Social Media, Alexander E. Carter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study represents a content analysis of the efforts of real-world brands to facilitate parasocial interaction with their followers. The researcher examined these social media exchanges through the scope of parasocial interaction theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and social response theory. The researcher examined posts in mid to late August 2017 and utilized a code sheet to find confirmed parasocial interaction triggers by brands, and examples of parasocial interaction in the posts of those brands’ followers. The researcher looked to see if the utilization of previous research in controlled environments could provide the framework for studying the non-controlled conditions of …

Scroll In Color: Examining How Colors In Instagram Pictures Illicit Emotions In Users, Chelsi Crockett, Susan Waters

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study aims to understand if colors in Instagram pictures causes emotions in users. The methods involved in this study included a survey where respondents were presented with questions asking them how certain colors made them feel and users were also presented with pictures with varying color undertones and asked which picture made them feel a specific emotion. This study may provide indications for further research and advertising and public relations techniques using social media, specifically Instagram and utilizing colors within Instagram pictures.

Dialogic Communication And Public Relations Websites: A Content Analysis Of The Global Top 250 Pr Agencies, Charles C. Akwari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Past research has shown that dialogic communication has essential characteristics that foster two-way communication between organizations and their stakeholders. This study investigates how public relations firms incorporate the principles of dialogic communication on their websites. The top and bottom 50 websites from the Holmes report on Top 250 Global PR agency rankings were content analyzed. Kent and Taylor’s (1998, 2003) five principles of dialogic communication were applied to find out if public relations firms incorporate the principle of dialogic communication effectively on their websites, provide relevant information for stakeholders and prospective clients, and if there are differences between PR rankings …

Examining Snapchat: Narcissistic Tendencies Of Core Users, Austin Philpott, Susan Waters

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study aims to establish current levels of narcissistic tendencies among the major Snapchat demographic, 18 to 34-year-olds in the United States. Like the Raskin and Terry 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory, commonly referred to as NPI-40, the present survey utilized a smaller variant with 16 items, known as NPI-16, for participants. This study may provide indications for further research and advertising techniques using social media, specifically Snapchat.

"To Share Or Not To Share:" A Study Of An Individual's Self-Representation On Instagram In Accordance With Impression Management Theory, Breyanna Marie Blackwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined what the motivations and consequences of self-disclosure on Instagram were as well as its correlation with Impression Management Theory. The research used a 37 question survey which was distributed on social media, through the Department of Media and Communication at ETSU as well as a public speaking class. There were 232 participants in this study who were 18 or older and used Instagram. Research found that individuals’ self disclose using levels of relationship management, showing off, information sharing and habitual behavior. Future research includes the opportunity to incorporate a sample of participants across different cultures to …

Narrative Advertising, Meng Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brand meaning, which is often used in narrative advertising, is an important value that companies try to build around their loyal consumers. This exploratory research aims to explore brand meanings from consumers’ narratives. This study analyzed 2,382 consumer submitted narratives for a real brand in the food service marketplace. Brand narratives were analyzed using a mixed method content analysis approach by applying Leximancer software to generate key themes and their related concepts. The results indicate brand meaning with some thematic similarities as well as differences when comparing narratives submitted by females and males. This exploratory study introduces analyzing narrative as …

Media, Publicity, And Fashion: The Michelle Obama Effect A Content Analysis Of News Around The World, Temitope M. Fancy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a content analysis of media content in a 12-month time period in the lives of Jason Wu and Thom Browne, who were the designers of Michelle Obama’s outfit to the second presidential inauguration. In order to discover the increase in awareness and media coverage of these designers due to Michelle Obama’s fashion selection during the second inauguration, which brought about publicity, the researcher compared mentions, tone of stories, and framing of stories concerning these designers 6 months before and after the inauguration. Results indeed gave support to the hypothesis that mentions of these designers increased significantly after …

Framing The 2012 Olympics: A Content Analysis Of International Newspaper Coverage Of Female Athletes, Jessica Giuggioli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present content analysis was designed to identify the representation of female athletes in the media during the 2012 London Olympics. Coders analyzed 617 mentions of male and female athletes in order to determine the quantity and quality of coverage during the 2012 Olympics. The research mostly supported previous literature concerning the depiction of female athletes in the media, as the study revealed an imbalance in the quantity and quality of coverage of male and female athletes in newspapers. The frequency of mentions of female athletes was lower than the frequency of mentions of male athletes. Furthermore, female athletes were …

Julian Assange: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing In Newspapers Around The World, Meylin K. Menjivar Andrade

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researcher conducted a content analysis in order to examine how the media framed Julian Assange after the Ecuadorian government granted him political asylum at their embassy in London on August 16, 2012. Researchers compared 380 English and Spanish language newspaper articles from North America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Asia, and Latin America to examine regional differences in the way Assange was framed.

This study revealed that generally the tone toward Assange was mostly neutral or positive in all continents. Furthermore, European media gave more attention to Julian Assange than did media from North America or other continents.

Exploratory research revealed that …

Content Analysis: U.S. Newspaper And Social Media Portrayal Of President Obama In Association With The Killing Of Osama Bin Laden During The 2012 Presidential Election Year, Whitney Y. Thomas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In a broad sense, public relations is the communication between an organization and its audience. Public relations helps create and maintain a relationship between the two. When an organization experiences a success or failure public relations is put into place to help rally public support.

The intent of this thesis aims to determine the tone of President Obama in U.S. newspapers and social media in association with the capturing and killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden.

This thesis examines a variety of U.S. newspapers by region and social media. Newspaper articles related to the topic were retrieved from six regional …

The Effect Of Political Advertising On Perceived Bias And Credibility Of Online News Stories, Salma M. Ayad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was an investigation of the effect of political advertising on readers’ perceived bias and credibility of an online news article based on participants’ political leanings. Media priming and the hostile media effect were the theoretical underpinnings. Participants were asked to read an unbiased news article placed alongside 3 advertisements. Participants were put into 1 of 3 conditions — right-leaning advertisements, left-leaning advertisements, or neutral advertisements. They then answered questions about the perceived bias and credibility of the article and their own political affiliation. The researchers hypothesized that left-leaning individuals would perceive the article with right-leaning advertisements as biased …

Amanda Knox: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing In Newspapers Around The World, Deidre Freyenberger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Newspaper coverage can have a positive or negative impact on the image of an individual. This study examined the framing of Amanda Knox in newspapers published worldwide during the 4 years Knox was imprisoned in Italy. An American foreign exchange student, Knox was studying in Italy when her roommate was murdered. A content analysis of 500 major world newspapers was conducted. The study’s purpose was to determine the tone, story placement, and page placement of each mention of Amanda Knox. Newspaper articles associated with the topic were retrieved from the LexisNexis database and analyzed. The results showed that mentions of …

A Content Analysis Of Reliability In Advertising Content Analysis Studies., Weize Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Content analysis is a systematic research method for examining symbolical content in communication by recording or transcribing these messages into categories. Reliability is one of the most distinctive attributes of content analysis methodology comparing to other techniques in communication. A content analysis was conducted by analyzing the method sections of published journal articles in Communication Abstracts from January 2006 through January 2011 by searching "advertising" and "content analysis". Results suggested that television is still the most focused medium in advertising content analysis research. Most of the content analysis studies employed 2 coders for coding reliability assessment data and final data. …

Talking Heads: How Broadcast Media Frame The Public Relations Industry., Samara Rose Litvack

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers conducted a content analysis to measure framing of the public relations industry in 354 English language broadcast transcripts from the United States, Canada, and Australia from Sept. 1, 2009 to Aug. 31, 2010.

The overall tone toward public relations was strongly negative. Mentions reflected one-way forms of communication and mentions of the pejorative term "PR" appeared more frequently than mentions of "public relations". The profession was almost always mentioned within the body of the broadcast, as opposed to the headline or the lead paragraph.

Exploratory research showed 15 shows that included negative mentions 100% of the time. Additionally, 27 …

Exploring The Lower Third: The Use, Innovations, And Future Of Snipes In The U.S. Television Industry., Aaron M. Sharp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Digital video recorders have given a growing number of viewers the ability to skip television commercials. In an effort to combat ad-skipping, television providers and advertisers are looking at ways to embed advertising into the video content; one way this can be accomplished is with graphic overlays known as snipes. Little is known about how content providers use snipes and what research they have conducted. This study is qualitative and uses long telephone interviews with 8 respondents from various cable television network and broadcast affiliate stations; examining the characteristics of innovation, as found in Rogers's (1995) diffussion of innovation theory. …

Exploring Brand Personality Through Archetypes., Candice Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though brands are created and maintained using many different management strategies, market and academic research has offered evidence that brands presenting the strongest personalities are more likely to perform better and resonate longer with consumers. This paper examines the components of brand personality using connections between contemporary branding and 13 classic archetypes. The study also discusses the life cycle of the brand, including development of brand personality and achievement of iconic status in conjunction with archetypal marketing. The research of Faber and Mayer (2009) is the basis for an analysis measuring participant attitudes toward popular brands by matching them with …

Aruba And Natalee Holloway: A Content Analysis Of Four Years Of Newspaper Coverage Surrounding The Incident., Brittany Parks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Negative media coverage can have a significant impact on the image of a country and can be detrimental to tourism-dependent areas. This study examined the newspaper coverage of Aruba 2 years before and after American tourist Natalee Holloway disappeared while vacationing with fellow classmates on a class trip. A content analysis of 400 major world newspapers was conducted. The study's purpose was to uncover the amount of publicity (both good and bad) from the incident as well as to unearth the overall tone towards Aruba.

The study revealed the Holloway incident did have a visible effect on the world news …

Comparative Analysis Of Advertising Value Appeals Reflected In U.S. And Chinese Women's Fashion Print Advertisements., Yi Lin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analyzing 549 advertisements in Chinese and U.S. women's fashion magazines, this research studies the role of western culture in reshaping Chinese cultural values in terms of modernity, tradition, individualism, and collectivism as well as in the use of western fashion models and language. Results indicate that there is no statistical difference in individualistic and modernity values between U.S. and Chinese print ads in women's fashion magazines. In 1 of the product characteristics, shared products, collectivism values in Chinese ads are not found more than those in U.S. ads as it is assumed. In addition, almost half of the Chinese ads …

Exploring Changes In Nascar-Related Titles In The New York Times And The Johnson City Press., Wesley Michael Ramey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

NASCAR has become one of America's fastest growing spectator sports, and corporate sponsors have played an important part in this upsurge in popularity. Race teams, drivers, and sanctioning bodies use the income that sponsors provide to operate at NASCAR events. This study provides an analysis of how corporate sponsorships have changed the way that NASCAR is presented in print journalism. Using Burke's method of indexing, NASCAR-related titles in the New York Times and the Johnson City Press from 1950 to present day are analyzed. The analysis reveals not only a steady increase in the number of NASCAR-related titles, but 4 …

Are U.S. And French Cultural Differences Reflected In Advertising Appeals?, Ciprian S. Begu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using 2 of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (power distance and uncertainty avoidance) associated by the research of Albers-Millers and Gelb with some of Pollay's value appeals used in advertising, this study successfully replicated 3 of 8 dependant relationships when analyzing the content of print magazines in U.S. and France. Going beyond the scope of a highly educated audience in which Hofstede's cultural dimensions were developed and retested, we indirectly found that these 2 dimensions of culture are partially salient in non-business, less elitist environments in the form of value appeals such as "dear", "untamed", "magic", and "youth" reinforcing the idea that …

The Status Of Public Relations In Russia., Inga Lvovna Ragozina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the status of public relations in the fledgling democratic Russian Federation. The purpose was to determine: whether public relations practitioners in Russia practice Grunig and Hunt's (1984) press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, and two-way symmetrical models of public relations; how public relations has contributed to the political and economic transformation in Russia; and how the former communist propaganda has affected contemporary public relations.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 10 Russian public relations practitioners. The findings revealed that the 4 models of public relations are practiced in Russia; communist propaganda affected contemporary public relations; and, the field …

$750 Million Of Neutral News Coverage: A Content Analysis Of Nextel's Media Exposure Before And After Becoming Nascar's Primary Corporate Sponsor., Joshua Tod Watson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the exposure of the Nextel brand name in major U.S. newspapers 1 year before and after Nextel became the primary sponsor of the North American Stock Car Association of Racing. A content analysis of 576 newspaper articles was performed. The hypotheses tested the quantity and quality of Nextel's coverage, as well where the stories were appearing and where the brand was being used in the stories.

The study found the number of Nextel mentions in year two was almost 4 times as many as year one. The data reveal a dramatic increase in cases found in sports …

Product Placement During The Family-Viewing Hour., Harry C. Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The so-called family-viewing hour, the eight to nine o’clock hour of prime time, is one of the most watched hours of television by both adults and children. Advertisers, of course, favor shows that draw large audiences so their product presentations or commercials are witnessed by masses of people. Now, because of videocassette recorders and other similar control devices, viewers are eliminating commercials from their viewing experience¹ and advertisers are clamoring for new ways to get their products into the mind of the consumer.² To counteract this commercial avoidance by consumers, advertisers are embedding products within television programming thereby …