Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

All Good Women Are Mothers: Exploring Gender Binaries In How I Met Your Mother, Jessica Marinho

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Television is thought to be a form of entertainment through its many genres from comedy to drama, however, it is more than a relaxing pastime. Television series construct messages that influence audiences to accept specific behaviors. In this thesis, I analyzed the portrayal of the two main female characters in the popular television series How I Met Your Mother (2005-2009) and I argued how their depiction served to represent childless women as unwomanly and mothers as the ideal woman.

Newspaper Representations Of Homelessness: A Temporal Comparative Analysis, Sarah Werman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research focuses on the ways in which homelessness is discussed in two newspapers in a major city in the intermountain United States. I analyzed newspaper articles with the goal of understanding public discourse in two ideologically distinct newspaper venues. I examined the news media portrayal of the homeless in 752 articles in these two newspapers during two distinct six­-month time periods, one during which the city was nationally recognized as a major advocate for “Housing First,” or “solving homelessness,” and a more recent period during which urban gentrification has challenged the location of homeless services. Specifically, I addressed the …

Framing Fracking: Media Coverage Of Unconventional Oil And Gas Development In South Texas, Jebadiha E. Potterf

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The rapid growth of unconventional oil and gas development in the United States has greatly increased the production of these minerals, but has also raised the public’s concern over the dangers involved in this process. Due to the contested nature of unconventional development gaining an understanding of both how the public perceives this development and the influences on these perceptions is vital. As several previous research studies have investigated public perceptions this project addresses the second of these requirements.

This is done using qualitative methods to analyze the content of the online communications of proponents and opponents of this development. …

Clinician Perceptions Of Media Use By Male Sex-Offending, Conduct-Disordered, And Normal Youth, Melissa A. Vogel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sexual offenses by youth have been increasing. The literature recognizes media as a socializer, yet few studies examine nonpornographic media and youthful sex-offending. The purpose of this research was to survey the perceptions of clinicians as to the use of media type and content for male sex-offending, conduct-disordered, and normal youth. The questionnaire was completed by 78 American clinicians from 30 states specializing in the treatment of youthful sex offenders.

Means, standard deviations, and percentages were calculated, which provided descriptive data. Male sex-offending and conduct-disordered youth are believed by clinicians to be more frequent consumers of aggressive, explicit, and sexually …