Digital Commons Network^™

In Search Of State Government: The Lack Of State Legislative Coverage In Local Television News, German Adolfo Alvarez

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines how the institutional characteristics of local television news stations affect the stations’ coverage of state legislative news. Focusing on the state of Louisiana, the researcher conducts in-depth interviews with news workers from the seven media markets in the state. The interviews were focused toward the decision makers in the newsroom in order to examine the process that determines the newscast the audience receives. The interview discussions centered on the news making process. In addition, the interviews focused explicitly on the effect of proximity to the state capitol; coverage of state level news versus community level or national …

Dress, Dialogue, And Gender In The Mary Tyler Moore Show From 1970-1977, Ashley Hayes

LSU Master's Theses

Hayes, Ashley, B.S., Western Kentucky University, 2007. Master of Science, Fall Commencement, 2010. Major: Human Ecology Dress, Dialogue, and Gender in The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970-1977 Thesis directed by Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, Professor Pages in thesis: 78 Words in abstract: 303 ABSTRACT The Mary Tyler Moore Show has been recognized as the first television program to feature a single career oriented female, the lead character Mary Richards. Many aspects of the show have been researched, including whether Mary Richards could be considered a true feminist role model. The show, which aired from 1970-1977, is important as it reflects …

Traditionalism And Temporal Variance In Predictors Of Gendered Homicide, 1970-2000, Julia Maria D'Antonio-Del Rio

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

During the second half of the 20th century, changes in gender relations and equality have led to substantial shifts in many aspects of American life. As one feature of society, the relationship between social structure and crime has also changed with the shift from traditional to nontraditional views of gendered interaction. In particular, what were once thought to be invariant structural predictors of homicide may, in fact, have varying explanatory power over time; in particular, measurements of disadvantage and population structure may not equally affect men and women between 1970 and 2000. Therefore, the present study posits a transformation in …

An Economic Analysis Of Cover Crops In Corn-Dominated Production Systems, Sukirti Nepal

LSU Master's Theses

A survey data by Singer et al. (2007) was used to study the factors affecting the adoption of cover crops by the producers at the Corn Belt area of the United States. Data was collected from four states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota. Two binomial logit models were used for the econometric analysis. The first logit model was used to observe the factors affecting the adoption of cover crops by the producers. The second logit model was used to analyze the factors affecting the adoption of cover crops by producers in recent years, specifically, in past five years. The result …

Deterrents To Participation In Web-Based Graduate Nursing Programs, Suzanne H. Carpenter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe what a sample of registered nurses in the state of Louisiana, who are members of the Louisiana State Nurses' Association (LSNA), identify as deterrents to participation in web-based graduate nursing programs. Two hundred and eighty one RNs participated in the study. The 54 item four point Likert - type interval scale Deterrents to Participation in Web-Based Graduate Nursing Programs Survey Instrument was utilized to measure what LSNA member RNs identified as deterrents to participation in web-based graduate nursing programs. Eighteen items assessed demographic information about the respondents. A factor analysis revealed a …

Framing Jewell: A Discourse Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of The Atlanta Olympics Bombing And Discussion Of Legal And Ethical Standards For Such Practices, Anne L. Songy

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the newspaper coverage of Richard Jewell during the weeks after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. Jewell, a security guard working in the Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, was initially hailed as a hero due to his discovery of a bomb minutes before the explosion. After Jewell’s name was leaked to the press as an FBI person of interest in the case, many reporters began to frame Jewell in a negative light and, in some instances, even implied his guilt. Through a discourse analysis of news stories published between the date of the bombing and the date …

Conceptualizing The Consumer-Brand Relationship As A Truly Dyadic Process, Jamye Foster

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The consumer-brand relationship (CBR) has gained interest in recent years, but as currently conceptualized, it is limited to a parasocial relationship where the role of the brand is not acknowledged. In order to better understand the CBR, we have to ask several key questions: (1) What is the CBR? (2) What are consumer-brand interactions (CBIs)? And (3) How can we measure CBIs? The objective in Essay 1 is to develop a better understanding of the conceptual foundation of the CBR. This was accomplished through extensive review of relevant literature, which highlighted the need to consider the CBR as a truly …

A Study Of Communication In Baby Boomers' Romantic Relationships And The Effects Of Their Children's Communication About The Relationships, Lois B. Nemetz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study contributes to our knowledge of life-span communication by examining the communication of the Baby Boomer generation (born 1946-1964) as they re-enter the dating scene. Although Baby Boomers' early years of dating (the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's) occurred in a time of new-found freedom, especially in sexual relationships, the experience of dating several decades later brings many complications due to aging and children. The intent of this study was not to generalize that all Baby Boomers would express the views stated in this study, but to show the complexity of this generation, and to present a theoretical framework for …

Prejudice And The New Latino Migration: The Geographic Locus Of Anti-Latino Sentiment, Angela Caraway

LSU Master's Theses

A large body of literature on the relationship between prejudice and discrimination and the size of minority populations suggests that as a minority population increases so will incidents of prejudice and/or discrimination. This school of thought is led by Hubert Blalock who contends that large minority populations generate prejudice among the majority, who view the minority as a threat to their economic and/or political standing. Minority population size has been tested and widely confirmed as a cause of anti-black prejudice and discrimination. But the corresponding research for Latinos has generally produced inconsistent and largely inconclusive findings. The reason for this …

The Power Struggle Between Americans And Creoles In The First Half Of The Nineteenth Century And Its Influence On The Architecture Of New Orleans, Sylvia Starns Mince

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the first half of the nineteenth century the house types of the landscape and the footprint of New Orleans changed dramatically. Many of the changes can be attributed to the influx of the refugees from Saint Domingue and the Americans who immigrated from the North and the East Coast of the United States. Both sets of influxes reflect the impact of these two immigrant groups on the previously existing power structures in economics, politics, and society of the city. While the refugees from Saint Domingue more or less assimilated into the city, and in doing so, achieved power over …

Testing Virginity In Achilles Tatius And Heliodorus, Kirk Ormand

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In the Greek Romances by Achilles Tatius (Leucippe and Clitophon) and Heliodorus (An Ethiopian Tale), the virginity of the central heroine is not only central, but curiously problematized. In this article I explore the ways that these two novelists construct the plot of Romance around the tension between the heroine's physical integrity, and the reader's desire to know about her sexual experience. Both authors display considerable cunning in maintaining this tension, ultimately defining virginity as a state which can never be fully known, except in the moment of its loss.

Reputation In A Networked World: Revisiting The Social Foundations Of Defamation Law, David S. Ardia

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Moral Politics Of Social Control: Political Culture And Ordinary Crime In Cuba, Deborah M. Weissman, Marsha Weissman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Which “Body” Is A Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19)? Paul Beyond The Individual/Communal Divide, Nijay Gupta

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Pauline scholarship has always been interested in the “theology” of the Apostle, and questions of his understanding of God, Christ, salvation, the church, and ethics are as passionately pursued now as in any prior generation. An important methodological point that has been widely accepted among scholars, though, is that such attempts at extracting theological bits from Paul must take sufficient account of the ancient context of his writing and the “contingency” of his literary engagements, that is, “the specificity of the occasion to which it was addressed.” One major manifestation of this concern for understanding Paul in his original setting …

Community Development For A White City: Race Making, Improvementism, And The Cincinnati Race Riots And Anti-Abolition Riots Of 1829, 1836, And 1841, Silas Niobeh Crowfoot

Dissertations and Theses

This project is an historical ethnography and a cultural history of the anti-black race riots and anti-abolition riots in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1829, 1836, and 1841. It is also a case history in an urban and commercial/early industrial context of the idea that violent social practices such as riots, as well as law and the customary practices of everyday living, are deployed as race making technologies, actually constructing racial categories. By extending this constructivist concept to the conversion of space to place through the human ascription of meaning, this study also examines racial violence as a strategy for place making …

American Belly Dance And The Invention Of The New Exotic: Orientalism, Feminism, And Popular Culture, Jennifer Lynn Haynes-Clark

Dissertations and Theses

Belly dance classes have become increasingly popular in recent decades in the United States. Many of the predominantly white, middle-class American women who belly dance proclaim that it is a source of feminist identity and empowerment that brings deeper meaning to their lives. American practitioners of this art form commonly explain that it originated from ritual-based dances of ancient Middle Eastern cultures and regard their participation as a link in a continuous lineage of female dancers. In contrast to the stigmatization and marginalization of public dance performers in the Middle East today, the favorable meaning that American dancers attribute to …

Beyond The "Stalled Revolution": Stay-At-Home Fathers, Gender Identity And The Division Of Household Labor, Aundrea Janae Snitker

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how stay-at-home fathers view their role as the primary caregiver, and how they encounter opposing masculinity issues. This is explored through discussion about daily life, the decision to stay home, and household labor, a particularly interesting reflection of gender roles and equality. The two research questions used to explore this included: How do stay-at-home fathers understand their masculinity and social role? How does talk about the negotiation of household labor in stay-at-home father/career mother families illustrate masculinity issues? Through an analysis of interviews of eight present or past stay-at-home fathers, I capture …

Negotiating Meaning With Educational Practice: Alignment Of Preservice Teachers' Mission, Identity, And Beliefs With The Practice Of Collaborative Action Research, Jan Marie Carpenter

Dissertations and Theses

The case study examined how three preservice teachers within a Master of Arts in Teaching program at a small, private university negotiated meaning around an educational practice--collaborative action research. Preservice teachers must negotiate multiple, and often competing, internal and external discourses as they sort out what educational practices, policies, organizational structures to accept or reject as presented in the teacher education program. This negotiation is a dynamic, contextual, unique meaning-making process that extends, redirects, dismisses, reinterprets, modifies, or confirms prior beliefs (Wenger, 1998).

Korthagen's (2004) model for facilitating understanding and reflection was used to explore the process of negotiating meaning. …

The Role Of Race In Television News Coverage Of Shortcomings In U.S. Secondary Education, Jasmine Elise Haynes

LSU Master's Theses

Scholars and news media alike acknowledge that one of the main problems in education today is the minority achievement gaps in national testing. Although many education scholars have compiled several in-depth reasons as to why minorities, particularly African-American students, seem to generally lag behind their white counterparts, television news fails to give it’s audiences a comprehensive view of why minority achievement gaps are so prevalent in United States secondary public education. The purpose of this study was to examine where news consumers perceive television news places blame for problems in public education with regards to race. Studying how people perceive …

The Argument For Same-Sex Marriage (Debate), Deborah A. Widiss, Nelson Tebbe, Shannon Gilreath

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Perry v. Schwarzenegger, in which a federal district court held California's ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional, is set for expedited review in the Ninth Circuit; many argue that the case will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. The arguments for and against the constitutionality of such statutes are thus at a fever pitch. In an article published earlier this year, Professors Nelson Tebbe and Deborah Widiss argued that marriage rights are best conceived of as an issue of equal access, rather than one of equal protection or substantive due process. Nelson Tebbe & Deborah A. Widiss, Equal Access and …

Beyond The Youth Gap In Understanding Political Violence, Colette Daiute

Publications and Research

"Youth are never taken seriously, and we sometimes have ideas that would be good for all people." ~ Alex, Croatia

"... Some things do depend on us; war, consequences of the war, poverty; the influence of the church interfering with the state affairs, which must not be so. " ~ Ljubicia, Serbia

As we hear in these comments by two teenagers who have grown up in the shadow of political violence, their generation is aware of the past and its legacies. These brief quotes mention many details that young people in easier situations may not notice: "consequences of the war," …

My Name And My Face, Stuart Ewen

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Editorial: Introducing Formations, The Formations Collective

Publications and Research

This journal is about the process of formation: the formation of our social worlds, and the formation of concepts we develop to understand and intervene in those worlds.

Guest Editorial: On Method, Technorealism And Aesthetic Capitalism, Patricia Ticineto Clough

Publications and Research

The guest editorial excerpts the keynote address Professor Clough held at the First Annual Graduate Student Conference hosted by the Graduate Center's Sociology Students Association.

Theory, History, And Methodological Positivism In The Anderson-Thompson Debate, Abraham Jacob Walker

Publications and Research

This article repositions the famous debate between Edward Thompson and Perry Anderson in relation to major figures of comparative-historical sociology. The author shows that the debate was — in the last instance — an argument about methodology.

Conceptualizing Hybridity: Deconstructing Boundaries Through The Hybrid, Haj Yazdiha

Publications and Research

History has shown that the notion of hybridity has existed far before it was popularized in postcolonial theory. However, in this time after imperialism, globalization has both expanded the reach of Western culture, and has allowed a process by which the West constantly interacts with the East. This hybridity is evident in every snapshot of society, from trends in "fusion" cuisine to the adoption of Caribbean rhythms in popular music. Ethnic Americans are marked with hyphenated identities: "Indian-American," "Asian-American," illuminating the lived experience of ties to a dominant culture coinciding with the cultural codes of a third world culture. This …

The Critical Aesthetics Of Disorder: A Porteña Crisis Of Size, Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo

Publications and Research

In Argentina, contemporary notions of progress originate within the whitening projects of the nineteenth century. In this work I propose that the imprints of these Colonial modernization projects are still visible on the porteña body. For this reason I examine the Porteño fashion industry alongside the pervasive Barbie culture. I believe that Porteñas embody the national crisis of identity. I seek to pose the possibility — instead of arguing the fact — that the fashion industry's power over Porteñas (women who live in Buenos Aires Capital) toughened post the economic crisis of 2001. The reason for this is rooted in …

Blood/Lust: Freud And The Trauma Of Killing In War, Nolen Gertz

Publications and Research

During World War I, Sigmund Freud and his followers held a special symposium in Budapest entitled "Psycho-Analysis and the War Neuroses." Their contributions centered on the importance of trying to understand what can cause a soldier to become traumatized in war by investigating the individual factors of each case as opposed to merely the situational factors. Thus by redefining such ambiguous illnesses as shell shock and war strain into the Freudian framework of the traumatic neuroses, they were able to do what the neurologists could not — explain the meaning behind the soldiers' symptoms and treat them with successful results. …

Becoming European? Constructing Identity In Urban Regeneration Discourse In Ireland, Alan Gerard Bourke

Publications and Research

Drawing upon policy documents and interview data, this article critically assesses how the conservation, interpretation and promotion of built heritage is used as a categorical identity referent within urban regeneration discourse in Ireland. The paper is critical of two inter-related dynamics. First, it addresses the relation between "culture-led" urban regeneration and the construction of a "sense of place." Second, it problematizes parallel attempts to constitute a sanitized and marketable urbanism expressed via a rhetorical and contrived veneer of European identity. A fundamental premise of the discussion is that the challenge of articulating a coherent and "distinctive" sense of urban cultural …

Commentary: Culture Of Poverty: Don't Call It A Comeback!, Marnie Brady, Kathleen Dunn, Jamie Mccallum

Publications and Research

Commentary on the culture of poverty argument.