Digital Commons Network^™

Framing Infectious Diseases And U.S. Public Opinion, Mita Saksena

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States has been increasingly concerned with the transnational threat posed by infectious diseases. Effective policy implementation to contain the spread of these diseases requires active engagement and support of the American public. To influence American public opinion and enlist support for related domestic and foreign policies, both domestic agencies and international organizations have framed infectious diseases as security threats, human rights disasters, economic risks, and as medical dangers. This study investigates whether American attitudes and opinions about infectious diseases are influenced by how the issue is framed. It also asks which issue frame has been most influential in …

Law And The Fourth Estate: Endangered Nature, The Press, And The Dicey Game Of Democratic Governance, Zygmunt J.B. Plater

Zygmunt J.B. Plater

Building upon the story line of a current book project on the Tellico Dam case, this Essay explores a challenging reality of modern public interest lawyering – the critical role of public perceptions and of the Press’s role in shaping them. Most public interest attorneys come to realize that their lawyering must move simultaneously on two different tracks that determine outcomes – law and public opinion. This double task can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Both tracks require the organization and presentation of facts, but the two contexts can be quite different. A legal case requires proof of each technical …

The Impact Of Prolonged Nomination Contests On Presidential Candidate Evaluations And General Election Vote Choice: The Case Of 2008, Jeff Dewitt, Richard N. Engstrom

Faculty Articles

The fact that political parties hold competitive nomination contests that require voters to choose among multiple candidates leaves open the possibility that the contest itself could damage the prospects of an eventual nominee. In this study, we employ the American National Election Study panel survey data from the 2008 U.S. presidential election to assess the impact of the Democratic Party nomination process on candidate evaluations and general election vote preference. We find evidence that Barack Obama had greater difficulty uniting his party than his Republican counterpart due to the fact that Clinton voters were slow to coalesce around Obama. These …

On The Relationship Between Regime Approval And Democratic Transition, Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Democratic transition scholars find a large number of factors associated with the likelihood of non-democratic regimes transitioning to democracy. Of these, three factors appear to be among the most potent: economic development, economic crisis, and the type of non-democratic regime (e.g. Geddes 1999, Brownlee 2009). However, another type of factor may matter as well - public approval of the regime. The chief limitation that prevents scholars from addressing this factor is the absence of data. However, we have access to the largest repository of international public opinion data that is comparable for all nations - the Gallup World Poll. The …

Decontextualizing Development: A Critical Examination Of American Popular Discourse On Foreign Aid, Jeffrey Haines

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Humanitarian foreign aid is a controversial topic, subject to much popular debate. Although there is much available polling and survey evidence about public stances on the issue, there have been significantly fewer attempts at more in-depth analyses of the public discourse. This thesis is an attempt to explore the popular discourse on aid in more depth, including its rationales, assumptions, and values.

It concludes that both sides of the American public in the debate often make use of similar types of assumptions regarding international affairs, suggesting often deeper agreement than the debate may indicate. It is argued that the set …

What Do Americans Think About Federal Transportation Tax Options? Results From Year 2 Of A National Survey, Research Report 10-12, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Hilary Nixon

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report summarizes the results of a national random-digit-dial public opinion poll that asked 1,516 respondents if they would support various tax options for raising federal transportation revenues. The 11 specific tax options tested were variations on raising the federal gas tax rate, creating a new mileage tax, and creating a new federal sales tax. In addition, the survey collected standard socio-demographic data, some minimal travel behavior data, and attitudinal data about how respondents view the quality of their local transportation system and their priorities for government spending on transportation in their state. All of this information is used to …

Execution Ritual : Media Representations Of Execution And The Social Construction Of Public Opinion Regarding The Death Penalty., Emilie Dyer 1987-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The public's exposure to state sanctioned killings is limited to the mass media representations such as editorials, news reports, feature films, and books. Therefore it is important to examine the process of execution and its relation to the media forms that construct a social reality of execution for the public. The messages of the mass media and the images they portray are a crucial element of capital punishment because they represent a social construction of reality that may guide the beliefs and opinions of the public (Heath & Gilbert 1996). Using Ethnographic Content Analysis (Althiede 1987), this study uses the …

Citizens' Engagement With Torture: An Analysis Of Neutralizations, Leigh Dickey

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Journalism Ratings Board: An Incentive-Based Approach To Cable News Accountability, Andrew Selbst

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The American establishment media is in crisis. With newsmakers primarily driven by profit, sensationalism and partisanship shape news coverage at the expense of information necessary for effective self-government. Focused on cable news in particular this Note proposes a Journalism Ratings Board to periodically rate news programs based on principles of good journalism. The Board will publish periodic reports and display the news programs' ratings during the programs themselves, similar to parental guidelines for entertainment programs. In a political and legal climate hostile to command-and-control regulation, such an incentive-based approach will help cable news fulfill the democratic function of the press.

Accountability And Political Tolerance: "Sober Second-Thought" Or Knee-Jerk?, Erika D. Price

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the cognitive underpinnings of political tolerance. Past research suggests that political elites are more tolerant than the general population, regardless of political orientation. Survey results suggest that political expertise, interest, and attention to politics foster increased political tolerance, regardless of ideology, party, or the extent to which tolerance is carefully considered by the respondent.

Why Did Californians Pass Proposition 8? Stability And Change In Public Support For Same-Sex Marriage, Gregory B. Lewis

PMAP Publications

Despite numerous public opinion polls indicating that California voters would defeat Proposition 8, a proposed constitutional amendment to limit marriage to one man and one woman, Election Day 2008 brought an end to six months of marriage equality for same-sex couples. This paper explores four possible explanations for why Californians passed Proposition 8 despite the polls: (1) poll respondents did not respond honestly to pollsters; (2) some respondents who opposed same-sex marriage were initially reluctant to amend the constitution for this purpose; (3) the campaign over the amendment changed people’s opinions about same-sex marriage; and (4) poll respondents did not …

Feasibility Of Public-Private Partnerships For Swamp Rabbit Conservation., Lyann Rubert, Eric M. Schauber, Clayton K. Nielsen, Paul D. Scharine

Publications

The distribution and abundance of swamp rabbits in southern Illinois have decreased due to loss and fragmentation of bottomland hardwood forests. Remaining populations are likely isolated because of limited dispersal across open areas. Private citizens own 69% of highly suitable swamp rabbit habitat in southern Illinois, so public-private partnership is key to any conservation efforts. Owners of highly suitable habitat were sent mail surveys to determine current and acceptable forms of land management, participation in government incentive programs, and interest in swamp rabbit conservation. The response rate was 41%, and 69% of surveyed landowners indicated interest in learning about or …

Western Media Portrayal Of The Muslim Brotherhood During The Arab Spring, Ehsan Abushadi

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

What are Western views of the Muslim Brotherhood based on Western media in the aftermath of the Arab Spring of 2011? Analyzing a range of Western media and their audiences' responses from Jan 25 to May 31, this paper reveals that although there are people that have different views of the brotherhood, Western media predominantly gives the Muslim Brotherhood an image of radicalism and extremism.

The Evolution Of Public Attitudes Toward Immigration In Europe And The United States, 2000-2010, Joel Fetzer

Joel Fetzer

This paper documents and analyzes trends in immigration-related public opinion over the past decade in the major North Atlantic countries of the EU-15 and US. Opening with a summary of the international social-scientific literature on the roots of immigration attitudes, the essay next documents changes in the average European’s and American’s views on migration since 2000 using such polls as the Eurobarometer, European Social Survey, World Values Survey, International Social Science Programme, and American National Election Study. A third major section employs over-time statistical models to examine the (minimal) impact of the current economic crisis on such attitudes. Finally, the …

Taxes, Welfare And Democratic Discourse: Mainstream Media Coverage And The Rise Of The American New Right, Matt Guardino

Political Science - Dissertations

Research demonstrates that news media can shape mass opinion on specific public policy issues in politically consequential ways. However, systematic and critical empirical analysis of the ideological diversity of such news coverage is rare. Scholars have also illuminated how and why U.S. economic and social welfare policy has shifted rightward in recent decades, but they have failed to consider media's role in shaping public opinion to democratically legitimate this major reorientation of political economy to favor business and upper-income constituencies. I combine neo-Gramscian theorizations of hegemony, popular common sense and articulation with social scientific research on framing, priming and psychological …

After The Spill Is Gone: The Gulf Of Mexico, Environmental Crime, And Criminal Law, David M. Uhlmann

Articles

The Gulf oil spill was the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, and will be the most significant criminal case ever prosecuted under U.S. environmental laws. The Justice Department is likely to prosecute BP, Transocean, and Halliburton for criminal violations of the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which will result in the largest fines ever imposed in the United States for any form of corporate crime. The Justice Department also may decide to pursue charges for manslaughter, false statements, and obstruction of justice. The prosecution will shape public perceptions about environmental crime, for reasons that are …

The Stable American Mind: Understanding Attitudes Towards Government And Taxes, 1990-2011, Christopher P. Eldred

CMC Senior Theses

As the federal government seeks ways to stimulate our economy and reduce our national debt, understanding public attitudes on the role and size of government and the taxes that support it is important. This thesis evaluates how US public opinion towards government and taxes has changed from 1990 to the present, and analyzes several potential causes for changes that have occurred. It is intended to be an update of William G. Mayer’s 1992 book entitled The Changing American Mind, which analyzed changing public opinion from 1960-1988. In following his analysis, the causes I have analyzed are generational replacement, fiscal …

The Loud Public : The Case Of User Comments In Online News Media, Naama Nagar

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the pre-internet era most members of the public did not have the ability to express their opinions on political issues via the mass media. This dissertation illustrates how the internet changed that by providing average citizens with endless opportunities to be heard. In particular, I analyze user comments on mainstream news sites as a vehicle that enables individuals to have a voice.

Profiling Originalism, Jamal Greene, Nathaniel Persily, Stephen Ansolabehere

Faculty Scholarship

Originalism is a subject of both legal and political discourse, invoked not just in law review scholarship but also in popular media and public discussion. This Essay presents the first empirical study of public attitudes about originalism. The study analyzes original and existing survey data in order to better understand the demographic characteristics, legal views, political orientation, and cultural profile of those who self-identfy as originalists. We conclude that rule of law concerns, support for politically conservative issue positions, and a cultural orientation toward moral traditionalism and libertarianism are all significant predictors of an individual preference for originalism. Our analysis …

Policy Narratives And Policy Processes, Shanahan A. Elizabeth Dr., Michael D. Jones Dr., Mcbeth K. Mark Dr.

Michael D. Jones