Digital Commons Network^™

On Trial: The Branch Davidians Of Waco Texas 1987-1993, Andrew Michael Pedrotti

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the integration of the Branch Davidians into the Waco, Texas community during the years immediately preceding the BATF siege of 1993. An examination of media and biographical sources indicates that the Branch Davidians were better integrated in the community than is commonly suggested. Survivor accounts describe the Branch Davidians working and relaxing in Waco, rather than hiding in their compound. A survey of local newspaper coverage reveals that the press in Waco had a positive view of Koresh and the Branch Davidians in the late 1980s. In particular, coverage of a 1988 trial involving David Koresh and …

The Role Of Media In Promoting Good Governance And Building Public Perception About Governance: A Comparison Of China And The United States, Juan Liu

Wayne State University Dissertations

The media plays three key roles in promoting good governance: watchdog, civic forum and agenda-setter. Despite decades of scholarship, there is little systematic effort to examine the empirical relationship between the media and governance. Moreover, scholars conceptualized governance with their interests and scope of work. Regardless of political system, this dissertation puts forth a new definition of good governance, and explores how controversies or issues framed by the media can be employed to initiate debates among citizens to enhance their own understanding of the political process, in particular the performance of the government.

The first study utilized framing theory to …

Making Policy On The Front Page: How The National Media Shape Indian Foreign Policy Toward Pakistan, Sehr Taneja

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis explains how national media shape Indian foreign policy toward Pakistan. I use empirical research to explore the contribution of national media to the formulation of policy during the 1999 Kargil War and 2001 Agra Summit between India and Pakistan. I created a database of news articles in the leading national English newspapers—The Times of India and Hindustan Times and then coded and analyzed them. I analyze the media’s role by identifying trends in media strategies such as framing, agenda setting, and manufacturing consent. In addition, I analyze government documents and parliamentary debates to gather information on the policy …

Active Shooter Event Severity, Media Reporting, Offender Age And Location, Philip Joshua Swift

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Following the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, it was hypothesized that offenders used knowledge gained from news media reports about previous events to plan mass shootings. Although researchers have studied active shooter events, little research has been conducted on the factors that influence an active shooter's decision and ability to carry out such events. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the rate of news media reporting about an active shooter event and the casualty rate of the ensuing event in the United States. The bracketed time of this assessment was between April 20, 1999, and …

The Fragility Of The Free American Press, Ronnell Anderson Jones, Sonja R. West

Scholarly Works

President Donald Trump has faced criticism for attacking the press and for abandoning longstanding traditions of accommodating and respecting it. This Essay argues that the national discussion spurred by Trump’s treatment of the press has fallen short of capturing the true seriousness of the situation. Trump’s assault on the custom of press accommodation follows a generation-long collapse of other major press protections. In order to fully understand the critical juncture at which American press freedom now stands, we must expand the discussion beyond talk of a rogue president’s aberrant attacks on the press and consider the increasingly fragile edifice on …

In And Out Of Memory: Exploring The Tension Between Remembering And Forgetting When Recalling 9/11, A Traumatic Event, Anna M Walker

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

In and out of memory: exploring the tension between remembering and forgetting when recalling 9/11, a traumatic event. My research is an unravelling of a traumatic memory to describe, understand and answer questions about the 'trauma body.' In my research, I put forward the idea that traumatic memories are detached memories with an emotional resonance that fixes them historically in a specific place and time, unwieldy anchors for a body that is neither here (present), nor there (in the past). I analyse this paradox from philosophical and psychoanalytical perspectives. Through a layered arts practice of text, sonic art work, and …

(Re)Mediating The Spirit: Evangelical Christian Young Adult Media, Tamara Watkins

Theses and Dissertations

"We are in the world, but not of the world," a maxim frequently spoken in evangelical Christian culture, provides insight into how these individuals view their relationship with secular culture. They presume to share the same temporal plane with secular culture, but do not participate in it. In this dissertation, I explore whether the division between evangelical Christian culture and secular culture is as clear as this aphorism implies. To facilitate this investigation, I examine media Christian content creators created for an American evangelical Christian young adult audience in the early twenty-first century, specifically focusing on novel-length fiction, comics and …

The Odcombian Climber: How Thomas Coryate Employed Media For Social Advantage, Julian T. Neuhauser

Theses and Dissertations

Thomas Coryate (1577?-1617), the writer, traveler and social climber, embraced various media in order to achieve social gains. This thesis surveys the content and materiality of writings by and about Coryate to investigate the nature of his sociability. The study begins by drawing on John Hoskyns’ (1566–1638) poem, “Convivium philosophicum,” to explore how Coryate used oral and social performance to create a unique form of sociability through which mockery is transmuted into praise. This thesis then addresses how Coryate’s sociability factored into the conflation of aspects of manuscript and print media in the production of the “Panegyricke Verses” that were …

Measuring Presence: Hypothetical Quantitative Framework, Krzysztof Szczurowski, Matt Smith

Conference papers

Virtual Reality Head - Mounted Display (HMD) manufacturers claim that consumer electronics can finally deliver a high degree of presence in virtual and remote environments. Certainly, current consumer-grade HMD systems offer rich and coherent mediated experiences of such environments. However, the very concept of presence is still a subject of debate, and researchers' investigation of the phenomenon of `presence' is based primarily on qualitative (i.e. questionnaire-based) assessments. Some researchers attempted to develop real-time, quantitative methods to facilitate more objective investigation of presence in mediated environments. Most such methodologies are derived from attempts to correlate presence with cardiovascular and electrodermal activity …

Children's Letter Learning: The Effect Of Manipulating Visual Complexity On Children's Letter Learning, Bahar Amani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As a growing presence in homes and schools, technology plays an important role in the way that children learn in their environment. The early integration of technology within education reflects the promise of computer-based educational tools to facilitate early learning in children (Grant, Wood, Gottardo, Evans, Phillips, & Savage, 2012). Young learners are reported to be challenged with high levels of distractibility that can hinder their ability to learn in particular conditions and contexts (Fisher, Godwin, & Seltman, 2014). This can be a problem when considering that educational materials are often designed to be elaborate to keep young learners interested. …

The Weaponized Lawsuit Against The Media: Litigation Funding As A New Threat To Journalism, Lili Levi

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Televising The American Nightmare: The Twilight Zone And Postwar Social Criticism, David Brokaw

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone (1959-1964) emerged during a period of American history which has since become something of myth, legend, and lore. Popularly portrayed as a kind of golden age when middle class aspirations were within reach, suburban housing affordable, and the nuclear family perfectly contented, postwar America was more accurately characterized by profound cognitive dissonances. At a time when the Cold War was understood to be first and foremost a battle of ideas, psychological marketing promoted many different facets of the American Dream. While market researchers plumbed the depths of American minds and explored their subconscious desires and insecurities …

Media Coverage Of Domestic Extremists And The Influence On Police Emotions, Jamie Porter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The media have influenced domestic extremists who are targeting the police, and this is related to negative emotions among the police. These extremists are targeting police officers based on how events are framed by the media. In this way, the media have influenced domestic extremists' target selection and caused negative emotions among police officers because they are now the targets. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to understand the perceptions of police officers about how the media have influenced domestic extremists to target them. The narrative of this qualitative inquiry was guided by a semistructured interview sample consisting …

Investigating The Relationships Between Education And Culture For Female Students In Tertiary Settings In The Uae, Beverley Mcclusky

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research is about the higher education of Indigenous Emirati women and how they balance the intricate demands of higher education with the social customs of a traditional society and the expectations placed on women. The study sought to identify and comprehend the issues which have affected the educational changes that are taking place, including culture, gender, religion, the influence of Western education processes, and the desire of an Indigenous population to raise their educational practices to an internationally recognised benchmark.

The research was aimed at providing insights into the distinctiveness of this group of women from their social and …

Influence Of Media Messages On Obesity And Health Perceptions Among African American Women, Carolyn Grant

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American women have the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, thus increasing their risks for chronic diseases. Their understanding of their health status and response to it could be triggered by messages in the media, yet few researchers have examined this topic with African American women. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how advertisement and editorial content in media contributed to perceptions African American women have about overweight and obesity. Following the theoretical foundation of the social cognitive theory, the research questions explored what messages study participants encountered and which messages prompted …

Predicting Parental Mediation Behaviors: The Direct And Indirect Influence Of Parents’ Critical Thinking About Media And Attitudes About Parent-Child Interactions, Eric E. Rasmussen, Shawna R. White, Andy J. King, Steven Holiday, Rebecca L. Densley

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Many parents fail to interact with their children regularly about media content and past research has identified few predictors of parents’ engagement in parental mediation behaviors. The present study explored the relationship between parents’ critical thinking about media and parents’ provision of both active and restrictive mediation of television content. Results revealed that parents’ critical thinking about media is positively associated with both active and restrictive mediation, relationships mediated by parents’ attitudes toward parent-child interactions about media. These findings suggest that media literacy programs aimed at improving parents’ critical thinking about media may be an effective way to alter children’s …

Desire And Fantasy Between Commercialism And Personal Room, Yukimi Otagiri

Theses and Dissertations

I apply two aspects of my life history to my art; my childhood experiences and my advanced studies in sociology. My work therefore combines a highly personal reading of my experiences of social interactions and my ongoing analysis of the nature of capitalism and socialism, commodification and media, especially in regard to the experiences of women in particular and consumers in general.

Media Credibility Perception Among Millennials In Slovakia, Lucia Vilčeková

Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets

Communication professionals have been facing various challenges and one of them is how to win the audience. Past studies suggest that credibility could be the key. Therefore, credibility can be suggested as one of the key factors driving the traffi c of individuals to certain media. By gaining a better understanding of how Millennials perceive credibility, companies can more appropriately plan and execute successful media campaigns directed to this very important public. A survey with 190 respondents – Millennials – was conducted to determine how they perceive the credibility of various media types. To measure the perception of media credibility, …

Smoking Prevalence And Media Impact On Smoking Behaviors Among Adult Lgbt Persons, Christina Tuell

Health and Kinesiology Theses

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the prevalence of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) smoking prevalence and to identify possible associations between smoking behavior and depictions of smoking presented in visual media programming commonly viewed by these groups.

Background: Recent studies have shown there is a higher prevalence of smoking in LGBT communities (Tang et al., 2004). Approximately 17.8% of adults age 18 or older in the U.S. smoke cigarettes; while, 26.6% - 36.0% of LGBT persons smoke. The Big Tobacco industry has been known to intentionally target sub-groups of the general population, particularly minorities such …

The Effect(S) Of Media On The National Football League, Christian J. Bunce

Theses

Exemplification theory states that the sample is applied to the whole. This paper specifically look into how the media’s coverage of certain high-profile National Football League (NFL) cases may have created a negative perception about the NFL. Specifically, this paper will compare exemplars and the effects they have. The media play a large role in how players, leagues, and teams are perceived. However, our results do not support this idea. Both groups were asked the same questions, the questions were designed to gauge subject’s opinions of the NFL. After analysis, there was not a significant statistical difference in the responses …

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: When Facts And News Diverge 12-2-2016, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 1, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 7, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 9, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 13, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 22, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Special Announcement- December 26, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 16, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 19, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.

Isu Today- December 14, 2016, Indiana State University, Communications And Marketing

University Announcements - ISU Today

No abstract provided.