Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Trustworthiness Issues About Disaster-Related Information Generated By Artificial Intelligence, Xin Tao

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tested the degree of trustworthiness of disaster-related information generated by artificial intelligence among American people and Chinese people, and explored the causes of people's attitudes towards trust or distrust. The thesis used OpenAI's GPT-3 model to generate stories based on real disaster events by artificial intelligence, and tested the degree of trustworthiness in semi-structured interview. The study showed that it was promising to use AI technology to publicize disaster-related news to audience. To increase readers' trust in AI-generated disaster-related information, news organizations should maintain a high level of transparency about the identity of the AI author, use the …

Risk Propensity In Journalists: An Analysis Of Journalists’ Personality Traits And How They Direct Behavior In The Field, Ellen Katherine Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

Much like first responders, journalists run toward dangerous scenes instead of away from them, often putting themselves at risk. Unlike first responders, there is no research on a how a person’s risk propensity ties to their career. For this project, reporters of various ages and tenures were surveyed on their sensation-seeking levels and propensity to engage in risky behaviors while working as journalists. Journalism risk propensity correlated positively with sensation seeking. Risk motivations increase with age and tenure, meaning that older and more experienced journalists are more likely to engage in risky behavior. Males are more risk-prone than females. The …

Brand New: How Visual Context Shapes Initial Response To Logos And Corporate Visual Identity Systems, Robert A. Wertz

Theses and Dissertations

When a new logo is released, it does not have an established meaning in the mind of the viewer. As logos have become more highly scrutinized by consumers and critics, it has become more important to understand consumers’ initial response to logos. While other studies have researched the impact of aesthetic choices on viewer reaction to logos, few researchers have attempted to understand the effect of the surrounding visual identity system when a new logo is introduced. This study combines a content analysis of the logo review website Brand New with the voting data from their polls to understand how …

The Games Behind The Scenes: Newspaper Framing Of Female African American Olympic Athletes, Martin Reece Funderburk

Theses and Dissertations

Competing in and representing their country in the Olympic games is considered one of the greatest achievements for an athlete. From heroes such as Michael Jordan and the “Dream Team,” to Michael Phelps setting world record after record in the pool, Olympians are remembered as legends to those watching at home. How their amazing achievements at these Olympic games have been framed by the media though is another story. Newspapers have facilitated a platform for a qualitative content analysis on the framing of three female African American Olympic gold medalists that showed statistical significance in terms of the amount of …

How S. C. Daily Newspapers Framed The Removal Of The Confederate Flag From The State House Grounds In 2015 Through Letters To The Editor And Editorials, Thomas Craig Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds in Columbia, South Carolina during the summer of 2015 was an action that had been discussed previously in the state since the flag went up over the State House in 1961. While the state legislature acted swiftly to have the flag removed after Gov. Nikki Haley’s announcement on June 22, the two and a half weeks between her announcement and removal on July 10 was filled with opinions from citizens all across the state and in areas of the United States where Confederate monuments and memorials still have a …

Fatal Force: A Conversation With Journalists Who Cover Deadly, Highly-Publicized Police Shootings, Denetra Walker

Theses and Dissertations

After the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the deaths of unarmed Black teens Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, news about police shootings catapulted into the local and national spotlight through videos and messages on social media. Information about police shootings is usually reported to the public through media sources such as television, online/digital news, and social media. This study examines how television news journalists cover the issue of police shootings in the United States. Through 10 in-depth interviews with television journalists who covered highly-publicized police shootings, the author analyzes how race, journalistic norms, technology, and citizen journalists …

Creating An Online Social Movement In Socially Conservative Societies: A Case Study Of Manshoor Blog Using Frame Alignment Process, Noura Abdullah Al-Duaijani

Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, the Arab region has witnessed many political and social changes. Parts of these changes were initiated by millennials seeking social change to elevate the quality of life in their country and themselves. In one particular country, Kuwait, youth have pursued social change by advocating a freer lifestyle and regime change in government and institutions. Manshoor, an Arab language blog launched in November 2016 by two Kuwaiti liberals, Jassim Qamis and Ali Al-Nessif, stimulates an open conversation on a wide range of issues, including controversial ideas in the region such as scrutinizing some practices and beliefs of …

Fandom In Politics: Scale Development And Validation, Won-Ki Moon

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the importance of fandom in politics to understanding individuals’ political behaviors, reliable scales measuring political fandom are lacking. To fill this gap, the present study constructs and validates a new scale for political fandom. First, by reforming existed questions and making new questions, the author derived 42 questions belonging to seven dimensions as an initial item pool based on conceptualization. Second, to refine and develop the scale, the researcher conducted exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. According to the result of the studies, the final factor model of political fandom retained 25 questions and seven dimensions. In addition, …

Network Vs. Netflix: A Comparative Content Analysis Of Demographics Across Prime-Time Television And Netflix Original Programming, James Corfield

Theses and Dissertations

This content analysis examines how prime-time television and Netflix original programming represent and portray ethnicity, age, occupation, criminality, gender and sexuality. More specifically, this study provides an updated study from previous television research, comparing various demographics across multiple television platforms and genres. Findings revealed that there has been an increase in the sheer number of minority and female characters in prime-time television and Netflix programming, however, the roles in which these marginalized groups are cast is still less assertive and meaningful than those roles held by White and male characters. Overall, the findings in this study can be used to …

Hydraulic Fracturing In The United States: A Framing Analysis, Kenneth Stephen Cardell Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This research considers the issue of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale and coal deposits. The technology, commonly referred to as “fracking,” has only been employed on an industrial scale since the late 1990s and is increasingly becoming the focus of news coverage. In this thesis research, a representative sample of both national and regional newspaper coverage on the issue of hydraulic fracturing is analyzed, looking at several key elements of framing. This study also examines differences in issue framing between the national elite press and regional news sources, as well as based upon partisanship. …

Public Perceptions Of Genetically Modified Food On Social Media: A Content Analysis Of Youtube Comments On Videos, Nanlan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Controversy about genetically modified (GM) food prevails on social media. Discussion about GM food includes the implementation of mandatory labeling as well as public concerns about potential health hazards posed by GM food. Previous studies mainly focus on traditional press and broadcast media, few investigate such controversial topics on social media. Interested in public opinion about this issue and possible influences of social media on public opinion, this study uses quantitative content analysis to examine the characteristics of user comments on a specific social media platform, YouTube. The purpose of the study is to investigate YouTube comments from several aspects, …

Beating Down The Fear: The Civil Sphere And Political Change In South Carolina, 1940-1962, Sid Bedingfield

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contends that print culture – newspapers in particular – played a decisive role in launching the black civil rights movement and shaping the white response to it during the middle of the twentieth century. Focusing on South Carolina, this study is the first to use civil sphere theory and frame analysis to explore the role of cultural expression in the political struggle over black equality in the years immediately before and after World War II. It shows how African-American editors and other activists made strategic use of the society’s symbolic codes concerning justice, freedom, and liberty to elicit …

Parental Mediation Of Adolescent Movie Viewing, Larry James Webster Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Parental mediation of media use by children has been studied extensively as it applies to television and children 12 years old and younger. This study expands the scope of Parental Mediation Theory by applying it to adolescents (age 13-17 years old) and movie viewing. The results of this study show overall parental mediation of adolescent movie viewing is negatively associated with the age of the child. The results show that among parents who mediate movie viewing, restrictive, instructive and social co-viewing mediation strategies are negatively correlated with the age of the adolescent. Third Person Effect is also examined as parental …

That's News To Me: An Exploratory Study Of The Uses And Gratifications Of Current Events On Social Media Of 18-24 Year-Olds, John Vincent Karlis

Theses and Dissertations

Social media is a dominant news source among the college-age demographic (18-24). Inherent in news consumption on social media is current events, that is, news that has individual relevance, societal relevance and is time constrained. This study adds to the existing body of uses and gratification literature. This one-shot exploratory study is the first of its kind, examining the "what" or different dimensions of news and the "why" or uses and gratifications that 18-24 year-olds use current events on social media. It also looked at the factors predicting recall of current events on social media.

Using a survey of 896 …

The Corporation In The Marketplace Of Ideas: The Law And Economics Of Corporate Political Speech, Matthew W. Telleen

Theses and Dissertations

In 2010, the Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. FEC, and raised the ire of commentators around the country. The President even criticized the ruling during the State of the Union Address. But corporate political speech has existed at various levels throughout history, and the debate is often clouded by complex balancing tests and convoluted reasoning. In this dissertation, the methodology of law and economics is utilized to analyze the value of corporate political speech to the marketplace of ideas. Chapter 1 introduces Tracing the history of Supreme Court decisions dealing with corporate political speech, variables can be isolated that …

An Alternative Path: The Intellectual Legacy Of James W. Carey, Matthew Ross

Theses and Dissertations

The following is an inquiry into the intellectual Legacy of James W. Carey. This study locates, classifies and critiques the three most salient currents of his work: (1) His critique of the intellectual history of mass communications and the positivism of the media 'effects tradition,' (2) his North American cultural studies alternative to the dominant ways of knowing in his discipline, (3) and his technological criticism. All three of these currents are discussed and evaluated in terms of Carey's contribution to the discipline. While Carey was neglectful is his analysis of institutions and issues of political economy, the author argues …

What Can Reader Comments To News Online Contribute To Engagement And Interactivity? A Quantitative Approach, Brett A. Borton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the relationship between journalism and computer-mediated communication by exploring the degree to which newly empowered audience members are using the reader comment forum on newspaper websites to participate in democratic discourse - a key component of civic engagement. Twenty-first century journalism has evolved from the traditional asynchronous, 'one-to-many' model into a process involving producers, content and audiences. The interactive capabilities of Internet-based news products have enabled legacy media to connect with audiences in unprecedented fashion. Perhaps more than any other interactive platform, the reader comment forum on online news sites reflects the ideal of the 'public sphere,' …

Mental Health On Youtube: Exploring The Potential Of Interactive Media To Change Knowledge, Attitudes And Behaviors About Mental Health, Caroline Belser Foster

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation first examines the mental health content on the video-sharing site YouTube as a foundation for exploring the ways the mental health community (members and associates of the National Alliance on Mental Illness) have used, and may use, YouTube in the future for information seeking, social support seeking, information providing, and social support providing. Using a content analysis of a systematic sample of YouTube videos produced by the YouTube search engine for the terms 'mental health' and 'mental illness,' this study highlights types, topics and formats of mental health related content, including types of mental illnesses, as well as …

Making Stewardship Meaningful For Nonprofits: Stakeholder Motivations, Attitudes, Loyalty And Behaviors, Geah N. Pressgrove

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the ways in which stewardship motivates nonprofit stakeholder attitudes, behaviors and loyalty. Using an online survey of stakeholders from eight local United Ways in one southern state (N=660), this research has three major focuses. First, it seeks to validate a scale to measure perceptions of the relationship cultivation strategies of stewardship. Second, it investigates group differences between nonprofit stakeholder types (donor only versus both donor and volunteer). Third, the study explores opportunities to extend existing relationship management models beyond assessments of perceived relationship quality to include desirable behavioral outcomes.

Findings offer a new conceptualization of stewardship comprised …

Political Advertising In Kuwait - A Functional Discourse Analysis, Jasem Alqaseer

Theses and Dissertations

Most political advertising studies focus on the U.S. or other western democracies like the U.K. and other European countries. In general, political advertising studies focused on the content of political advertising especially on the subject of issues vs. images in advertising. In addition, many studies of political advertising content focus on the topic of negative advertising. The practice of political advertising has been found to vary depending on the political and media structure within a country as well as cultural and legal elements. Therefore, the gap in the literature about the practice of political advertising in the Middle-East is worth …

The Westernization Of Advertisements Published In Kuwaiti Newspapers From 1992 To 2012; A Content Analysis, Farah Taleb Alrefai

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the degree of Westernization in advertisements published in major Kuwaiti daily newspapers over the past 21 years (1992-2012). Utilizing a quantitative content analysis, the diffusion of Westernization into the content and form of the advertisements was analyzed. Specifically, a sample of 584 advertisements published on the front pages of AlQabas and AlWatan Kuwaiti dailies from 1992 to 2012 were examined. The advertisements were analyzed to detect the increase and/or decrease of the presence of 12 Westernization attributes. These attributes are: product/ brand origin (Western or local), Western models and or local models, …