The Media Is A Funhouse Mirror: Comparing Economic Interaction Issues In The U.S. And Chinese Media, Yiye Zhang

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

This project studied the differences between mainstream news reporting in the U.S. and China. I employed content analysis to analyze the major features of 427 news reports about the economic interaction between the two countries. The research focused on the key media frames in the two sets of news media, the factors that shaped these media frames, and the real meanings behind those reports. The study found both similarities and differences. The two sets of media showed significant differences in their reporting of news and events about economic issues in terms of the selection of topics, and the discourse …

Iran In U.S. Corporate And Regional Media: A Content Analysis Of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rooz Online, Al Jazeera And Iran Review, Justin Hyde

Master's Theses

There has been an increase in tension between the United States government and the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past decade. A number of events including the US- led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program have strained this fragile relationship. The U.S. and its allies contend that Iran’s nuclear program is intended for arms proliferation while the Islamic Republic of Iran states it is for domestic power and research. Much of this conflict has played out in news media, which have a vital role to provide information, analysis and opportunities for dialogue as …

Getting On The Bus: Marketing San Luis Obispo's Regional Transit Authority, Jenna Higgins

Master's Theses

A new trend is emerging, seeking to recognize the benefits of and encourage the use of public transportation. In the past, public transit agencies have not directed much energy or focus at marketing, seeking to use limited funds elsewhere. “The common perception is that money spent on marketing would be better spent on transit systems themselves…over time, a sustained investment in marketing increases the number of people who use transit. Increased ridership leads to increased revenue, and ideally, an increase in service to match the new demand” (Arpi, 2009).

Even as marketing gains importance in the public transit world, questions …

Do You See Yourself In The Future Or Past? The Moderating Role Of Cultural Orientation In Explaining Temporal Orientation Of Self-Referencing, Seungae Lee

Master's Theses

A cognitive process where audiences relate incoming information to themselves is self-referencing. Advertising practitioners often assume that the self-referencing strategy is one of the most persuasive advertising strategies. Since the self is one of the most well-developed and frequently used constructs in memory, self-referencing advertisements were expected to be more memorable and persuasive (Meyers-Levy & Peracchio, 1996). Further, this self-referencing strategy can result in different consequences of advertisements evaluation depending on which dimension of the self is activated, because the self is a multi-dimensional construct. The current study investigated different types of self-referencing based on temporal orientation of the self. …

Friend-Zone With Benefits: The Parasocial Advertising Of Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Anette Lueck

Master's Theses

This research focuses on the social media-driven convention of advertising, and seeks to analyze the type of communication that occurs between celebrity endorsers and audiences within social media. Kim Kardashian is used as the most current and successful celebrity endorser. A content analysis, including posts and responses from April and May 2011, is used to analyze the type of advertising messages and celebrity/audience interaction. The goal of the study is to establish whether Parasocial Interaction could improve the effectiveness of advertising. Due to findings that yielded a high amount of endorsements embedded into personal stories, as well as female approval …

Nontraditional And Traditional Student Motives To Use Their University Communication Center, Hannah Pritchard Rachal

Master's Theses

Research indicates that nontradifional students differ from traditional ones in many areas of higher education. Recognizing these differences in this growing population of students could impact retention rates for universities. Also, these differences could influence how communication centers deal with nontraditional students in recruiting them for appointments as well as during tutoring sessions. This study explores possible differences in motivations to use communication centers using both traditional and nontraditional students who had used their university's communication center. Students took a survey based on Ajzen's theory of planned behavior to discover if any differences exist and what the differences are. Findings …

Systems At Play: The Construction Of International Systems In Social Impact Games, Jorge Albor

Master's Theses

This thesis explores how game makers conceive of and navigate the intersection between digital systems and real world systems by asking, how can social impact game designers shape procedural rhetoric to effectively address complex real world systems with digital systems? By examining three game case studies, I reach four significant findings regarding player agency, subversive play, design approaches to scale, and game difficulty in regards to systems fluency.

The Viral Fingerprint: A Content Analysis Of Popular Viral Advertisements, Thomas Grant Broadus Ii

Master's Theses

This paper presents an analysis of 280 online videos that appeared on the Advertising Age weekly chart of the top ten viral videos of the week; the videos appeared on the chart from March 23rd 2009 to March 9th 2011. The videos were analyzed along four areas of observation including the advertiser characteristics, the formatting characteristics of the video, the messaging strategies of each video, and the level of involvement the product would require for a consumer to make a purchase. Through examining the components of each video, a thread of commonality was revealed. Cumulatively, the dominant themes and characteristics …

Media Convergence At The High School Level: Why Should High School Journalism Classes Use Technology Currently Used By Professional Publications?, Kristine L. Dekat

Master's Theses

The digitization of media organizations has brought about changes in both the organization and the practices of journalism, which have resulted in a change in how the news is made. Media convergence has required news organizations to combine online media, broadcast news, and print media to create news stories. This thesis will examine why convergence has become necessary for professional publications and how they are converging. The research includes original research gathered from surveying journalism schools to understand how colleges are preparing students for careers in the professional media. High school journalism programs were also surveyed to identify how high …

Happily Ever After: Construction Of Family In Disney Princess Collection Films, Jennifer Hecht

Master's Theses

This thesis examined the role and characterization of family members in Disney princess films. The purpose of this study was to fill gaps in previous research on the Disney princess films by analyzing the themes and collection as a whole, including the newest film in the collection, The Princess and the Frog. Using content analysis, this study identified three variables that were present in every Disney princess film in the collection - nuclear family, love, and appearance. The researcher found little family diversity in terms of types of households, parenting roles, and characterization of family members. Siblings were especially underrepresented. …

Effects Of University Website On Students' Evaluations Of Fort Hays State University, Mo Yu

Master's Theses

The Internet has brought significant developments and challenges to universities and their publics. Meanwhile, the channels to deliver messages have gradually become digitized through the strong impact of the Internet, which offers an additional channel for public relations practitioners. With a survey conducted at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), this study was designed to investigate the relationship between students’ satisfaction with the FHSU website and their evaluations of the university. This study also provided a practical method for FHSU to evaluate how the university website satisfies the students or other publics.

Framing Corporate Social Responsibility On The Websites Of Fortune 10 Green Giants, Kriti Ashok

Master's Theses

This thesis reports a framing study of corporate social responsibility on the Internet. The study explores how Fortune 10 Green Giants frame corporate social responsibility on their websites. The Green Giants are Honda, Continental, Suncor, Tesco, Alcan, PG&E, S.C. Johnson, Goldman Sachs, Swiss Re, and Hewlett-Packard. According to Fortune magazine, these 10 companies have gone beyond what the law requires to operate in an environmentally responsible way. The study is focused on the textual content of these 10 corporation websites. The study involves identification of frames, determination of the most used and the least used frames, and identification of patterns …

Comparative Study Of The Practice Of Product Placement In Bollywood And Hollywood Movies, Shruti Vinayak Gokhale

Master's Theses

Product placement, or placing brands in movies, is a widely recognized practice that dates from the 1980s. This study is a content analysis of product placement in 15Bollywoodand 15Hollywoodmovies from 2005 to 2009.

Statistical tests showed that there were a significantly higher number of product placements in Hollywood movies that were integrated into the storylines, verbally referred to by characters in the movies, appropriate to the movie scenes, and containingimplied endorsementsby the actors than product placements in Bollywood movies. However, in terms of duration of the time that brands were onscreen, product placements in Bollywood movies in 2006 and 2007 …

Female Stereotypes In 21st Century News And Business Magazines, Gosia Gizycki

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Advertising Appeals In Magazine : A Framing Study, S. Aparna Gayatri

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Eliciting Facial Expressions In Children With And Without Down Syndrome, Orietta Coz

Master's Theses

This study investigated facial expressions of children between the ages of 10 and 15 years with Down Syndrome (experimental group) and compared them to typically developing children (control group). Elicitation of facial expressions was carried out through showings of video clips. Trained observers were used to code expressions of happiness, anger, and disgust from video recordings that were made of the children’s reactions while they watched the video clips.

I hypothesized that Down Syndrome children will not differ from typically developing children in the frequency of elicited happy expressions. However, I expected them to differ in the frequency of elicited …

Adviser Awareness Of The Kansas Student Publication Act (1992), Latisha D. Haag

Master's Theses

This thesis was a descriptive study examining adviser awareness of the Kansas Student Publication Act (1992) as reported by advisers who were members of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association during the academic year 2002-2003. Because there were no studies prior to the passing of the Act, there was no base line study to determine whether the Act has had an impact since its passing. For this study, 216 advisors, the complete membership of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association, were either given a cover letter explaining the questionnaire and questionnaire at one of the fall conferences, or mailed a cover letter …

A Survey Of Dramatic Education In Western Kansas : Past Achievements, With Plans And Suggestions For The Future, A Study Of Past, Present, And Future Drama In Western Kansas Based Upon Questionnaires, Research And Practical Experience, Orvis Grout

Master's Theses

This thesis is a history of performing arts in and around Fort Hays Kansas State College beginning in the 1880s and continuing through the 1930s with predictions and suggestions for the future.