Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

News And The Public Sphere: The Boston Marathon Bombing In The New York Times And Le Figaro, Ioana Alexandra Coman

Doctoral Dissertations

The current dissertation explores the online mediatization of the Boston Marathon bombing crisis by an American newspaper (The New York Times) and a French one (Le Figaro) and their publics’ reactions to it. The research was conducted along two main analysis axes: (1) the main frames and themes through which the journalists and the publics gave meaning to the event, and (2) the characteristics of the online public spheres therefore created. The comparative perspective on the journalistic frames showed a strong tendency of homogenization, as the same main frames appeared in both analyzed newspapers. However, the …

Trust In News Media In Post-Communist Eastern Europe: The Case Of Serbia, Ivanka Pjesivac

Doctoral Dissertations

The main purpose of this dissertation research was to examine the influences of cultural and performance factors on trust in news media in Serbia. This was done by conducting a survey on a stratified random sample of the Serbian population (N=544). Before testing cultural and performance theories, this dissertation explored the meanings of trust in news media and trust in other people in Serbia, in order to properly operationalize these concepts and establish their conceptual equivalence needed for their adequate measurement. This was done by 20 in-depth interviews with representatives of the Serbian population. The results of this …

The Effects Of Risk Disclosure In Direct-To-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising (Dtca): Prominence, Dtca Regulatory Knowledge, And Perceived Attention, Ilwoo Ju

Doctoral Dissertations

Fair balance of benefit and risk information in consumer prescription drug advertising (DTCA) has received much research attention. In this regard, it has been well-documented that varying levels of risk disclosure prominence have disproportional effects on consumer response to the DTC ad. However, little research has examined how the prominence effects can be maximized or minimized depending on consumers’ varying levels of knowledge of the FDA’s regulatory role for DTCA. In a similar vein, rare research has been conducted to investigate how such regulatory knowledge directly affects consumers’ risk disclosure coping strategies.

Drawing on consumer information processing perspectives, this research …

Assessing The Impact Of United States Mass Media On Croatian Cultural Identities, Iveta Imre

Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers throughout the decades have been interested in understanding how global communications coming from the West affect different cultures around the world. Many have raised concerns about the impact of American media on unique national cultures. The main purpose of this study was to understand how exposure to American television influences cultural identities and values of young people in Croatia, one of the new democracies of post-Communist Eastern Europe. This was accomplished in two parts. First part of this study sought to test the relationship between watching American television and adopting American values following a cognitive functional theory of television's …