Mass Communication Commons^™

From The Viewbook To Facebook: A Content Analysis Of Universities' Facebook Posts To Measure Organization-Public Relationships, Aariel Roxanne Charbonnet

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined StudentAdvisor.com's top 25 social media colleges to determine the ways in which these universities communicated with their various publics on Facebook. Using Hon and Grunig's models of public relations as frameworks, a quantitative content analysis was performed. The study considered each individual post on the universities' Facebook walls (n=709) over the course of a three-week period. The study's research questions were based on whether the posts promoted Hon and Grunig's relationship indicators, as well as what public relations models the posts resembled. Results indicated that posts were least likely to resemble the two-way symmetrical model and seldom …

Where The Good Times Roll: New Orleans As A Destination For Sports Event Tourism, Kristen E. Chighizola

LSU Master's Theses

Over the past several decades, sports event tourism has been a growing area of research for scholars in the fields of sport administration, strategic communications, destination marketing and tourism. The city of New Orleans is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, with its various entertainment, sports, and cultural events. Over the past three decades, New Orleans has hosted over 30 major sports events and will host several more major events including the BCS National Championship, NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Four, and the Super Bowl through February 2013. This case study shows several primary reasons …

The American Empire: A Content And Textual Analysis Of The Media Coverage Of The 2009 U.S. And Colombia Military Base Agreement, Britt Don Christensen

LSU Master's Theses

The United States maintains a worldwide network of military bases and spends more on military expenses than the rest of the world combined. This project seeks to analyze how the U.S. mainstream media cover and discuss the American Empire both broadly and specifically. I conducted a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative textual analysis of the Media coverage of the 2009 U.S. – Colombian military base agreement, which was protested by Latin American leaders. I analyzed the coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN.com, and The Miami Herald regarding the US military’s use of bases in Colombia in …

Fandom, Media Consumption, And College Sports Knowledge: A Survey Of College Undergraduates, Theodore Charles Greener

LSU Master's Theses

Sports fandom research often states sports fans know and understand facts surrounding various sports, teams, leagues, and players. College sports literature argues that media involvement increases popularity and revenues, and as a result, competition, controversy, and complexity. The Elaboration Likelihood Model posits that when involvement in a subject is high, so too is motivation and ability to comprehend, and as a result, cognition increases. Given this, results show that sports fandom acts similarly to issue involvement, leading to increased sports-media consumption. Together, both fandom and consumption lead to increased knowledge of facts surrounding college sports. Results imply that general interest …

Indexing And Economic News: Coverage Of The 2009 Economic Stimulus Debate, Portia Levasseur

LSU Master's Theses

Indexing theory predicts that, in certain issue areas, media coverage will index levels of elite debate. Elite controversy, the theory predicts, will embolden the press to include a broader variety of sources and coverage should reflect a more open public debate. This has important implications for public opinion. Proponents of the theory expect that it will operate in a variety of issue areas of news coverage, but support for the theory exists largely in the realm of foreign affairs coverage. This study examines television coverage of the 2009 economic stimulus package to evaluate levels of indexing for a domestic, macroeconomic …

Stay Calm And Tweet: A Best Practice Approach To The Use Of Social Media In A Crisis Situation, Elizabeth Barrow Tadie

LSU Master's Theses

At some point in its history every organization will face a crisis situation. How an organization responds to a crisis incident decides its survival. As Internet technology flourishes, public relations practitioners are provided with additional tools to manage crisis situations. This study investigates the role that emerging social media components play in the field of crisis management. It presents a best practice approach to using new technology in times of emergency. A qualitative study of Louisiana public relations practitioners analyzes how and why social media is being integrated into crisis communication plans. Social media components are used to quickly communicate …

Hospice Organizations On The Social Media Scene: Benchmarking The Uses And Strategies Of Hospice Organizations On The Internet In 2011, Emily Tiller

LSU Master's Theses

As baby boomers age and the hospice industry grows to meet the demands for care, it is important that these organizations reach their consumers in sensitive and responsible ways. Building caring and mutually beneficial relationships with these consumers is important. Social media can give these organizations the platforms to build and maintain these relationships, but most of the hospice organizations in this qualitative study did not make good use of the opportunities online to relate to their publics. Using public relationships and relationship management measurements, this study monitored the online activity of seven hospice organizations. In general, these organizations under …

Celebrity Versus Non-Celebrity: Parasocial Relationships With Characters In Reality-Based Television Programs, Nicole Webb Henry

LSU Master's Theses

Research of parasocial relationships suggests that audiences engage in one-sided relationships with their favorite personae in the media. This study attempts to explore two types of reality stars: those who had fame before being on reality television and those who have fame because of the show. Using the PSR-Processing Scale, I compared levels of parasocial interactions for each, as well how moral disengagement might play a role for each type of reality star. I also explored whether these parasocial relationships are influenced by the frequency with which respondents watch various types of sub-genres of reality-based programs (i.e. game docs, dating …

From "Courtesy Of The Red, White, And Blue" To "If You're Reading This": Patriotic Themes In Country Music Between 2000-2010, Claire S. Carville

LSU Master's Theses

Music plays an important role in the lives of individuals and often reflects important societal values. Music can also serve as an important reflection of the public’s current opinion at a given point in time. Patriotism is a feeling of love for one’s homeland and has often been the subject matter of music lyrics throughout history. In particular, country music has been perceived as being an especially patriotic genre of music. This thesis utilized quantitative and qualitative content analyses as the methods to examine the patriotic content of country music lyrics over the past decade. The sample was adapted from …

There's An App For That: The Ways Young Adults Access Digital Information, Cydney Lauren Palmer

LSU Master's Theses

Despite the popular use of smartphones and mobile applications (apps) and their potential impacts in the near future, only scant academic attention has been paid to mobile apps, especially in respect to the gratifications sought from accessing digital information via apps. This exploratory study investigated the relationship between young adults and their use of mobile apps in accessing digital information, particularly in comparison to the current go-to digital information access device, Internet browsers. In addition, this study examined how levels of perceived privacy concern influence digital information use and how the use of digital information access modalities and the level …

The Effects Of Fantasy Football Participation On Team Identification And Nfl Fandom, Jeremy Lee

LSU Master's Theses

Nearly 27 million people in North America played fantasy sports in 2009. This quantitative study examined how a person’s level of participation in fantasy football affects team identification, team loyalty, fandom of the National Football League (NFL), and consumer behavior. I also looked at whether fantasy football participants prefer a win by their fantasy team or their favorite team. An online survey was conducted using a snowball sample. I found higher participation levels result in higher team identification, higher team loyalty, and higher fandom, where fandom of the NFL is higher than team identification. Higher levels of participation also led …

The Role Of Race In Television News Coverage Of Shortcomings In U.S. Secondary Education, Jasmine Elise Haynes

LSU Master's Theses

Scholars and news media alike acknowledge that one of the main problems in education today is the minority achievement gaps in national testing. Although many education scholars have compiled several in-depth reasons as to why minorities, particularly African-American students, seem to generally lag behind their white counterparts, television news fails to give it’s audiences a comprehensive view of why minority achievement gaps are so prevalent in United States secondary public education. The purpose of this study was to examine where news consumers perceive television news places blame for problems in public education with regards to race. Studying how people perceive …

Framing Jewell: A Discourse Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of The Atlanta Olympics Bombing And Discussion Of Legal And Ethical Standards For Such Practices, Anne L. Songy

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the newspaper coverage of Richard Jewell during the weeks after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. Jewell, a security guard working in the Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, was initially hailed as a hero due to his discovery of a bomb minutes before the explosion. After Jewell’s name was leaked to the press as an FBI person of interest in the case, many reporters began to frame Jewell in a negative light and, in some instances, even implied his guilt. Through a discourse analysis of news stories published between the date of the bombing and the date …

Engaging Audiences: An Analysis Of Social Media Usage In Advertising, Emily Fay Mabry

LSU Master's Theses

The growing usage of social media indicates a potentially effective new platform for advertisers. However, little academic research examines how advertisers use these platforms for marketing and communications. This study sought to provide an analysis of current commercial social media usage by conducting interviews at a digital creative agency and full-service agency, in addition to conducting a statewide online survey of advertising professionals. Results indicated that advertisers use social media differently than they do traditional forms of advertising media. In the current digital media environment, advertisers must provide value or an added benefit to the consumer to gain their attention. …

Measuring Consumer Perceptions Of Credibility, Engagement, Interactivity And Brand Metrics Of Social Network Sites, Jeffrey Evan Forbes

LSU Master's Theses

For advertisers looking to include online media in their marketing strategies, consumer perceptions of Web sites become increasingly important. This study examined three types of endorsement in an online setting. To accommodate the many voices of a social network site, this study employed a new form of endorsement, a social-network endorsement, to account for the collective opinions and feedback of social network site members. Using an experimental design, this study tested the credibility, engagement, and interactivity of three types of endorsements: a corporate endorsement, a third-party endorsement and a social-network endorsement. Two hundred fifty-one participants examined one of three sites, …

Knowledge Gap And Cable Music Television: A Survey Of Mtv, Bet, And H1 Target Audience Members, Katharine Claire Gavin

LSU Master's Theses

American youth and adolescents have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in the industrialized world. Entertainment media, the preferred genre of today’s adolescents, depicts sex, drugs, and alcohol use at a greater rate than any other genre of programming. What are health communication strategists doing to counter the widespread, inaccurate portrayals often depicted in this type of programming? With previous knowledge gap and health communication research failing to examine youth oriented and racial targeted entertainment programming, this study utilizes a survey to analyze BET, MTV, and VH1 audiences’ health knowledge, recall, and attitude toward PSAs to …

Betties And Broads: A Qualitative Examination Of The Maiden And Whore Archetypes In "The Golden Girls," "Designing Women," And "Sex And The City", Crystal Jackson

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the maiden and whore characters in “The Golden Girls,” “Designing Women,” and “Sex and the City.” Using a textual analysis and discourse analysis approach, I examined the two characters comparing them to the definitions of archetype and stereotype provided by Jungian theory and feminist film theory. I analyzed ten randomly selected episodes from the second season excluding both the premier and the finale. Three of the research questions were rooted in central ideas found in the shows: outward appearance, language and conversation, and sexual relationships. The last research question determined whether or not the characters were archetypes …

The Blame Is In The Frame: Inter-Reality Comparisons Of Crime Reports And Local News Crime Coverage On The Internet, Dana Marie Tumblin

LSU Master's Theses

Research of crime news suggests that Blacks are over represented as criminals when compared to crime reports; study of race and crime judgments reveals that viewers with heavy amounts of television news viewing associate Blacks with crime more often than viewers who watch lower amounts of television news. Further complicating the perception of Blacks is their lack of diversified coverage in the news. Most coverage of Blacks frames them as liabilities to their communities, while offering few positive depictions to counter the Black criminality frame. The Internet may aid in exacerbating stereotypes of Blacks by allowing users to selectively expose …

The Effects Of Comedic Media Criticism On Media Producers, Lindsay Nicole Newport

LSU Master's Theses

Leaning heavily on the media criticism and soft news literatures, the study analyzed comedic media criticism and the effect (if any) it has on the practices of media producers by studying a early 2009 exchange between The Daily Show host Jon Stewart and Mad Money with Jim Cramer host Jim Cramer. In the exchange, Stewart criticized the financial advice Cramer doles out on Mad Money, suggesting that Cramer perhaps knowingly leads his viewers astray with ill-advised stock tips. A quantitative content analysis of claims (N=510) pulled from Mad Money transcripts both before and after Stewart’s criticism of Cramer revealed little …

What Content Makes People Want To Use Sports Websites?, Cara Francesca De Carlo

LSU Master's Theses

This study looked at sports websites to see how the variables information, humor, entertainment, community, and credibility affected sports website users’ intentions to use and re-use sports websites. Three groups of 25 and one group of 30 participants each completed a website viewing activity and corresponding survey. There were four website viewing activities (one for each group). The activities led participants on tours of ESPN.com, Deadspin.com, Football Outsiders, and Yahoo! Sports. Furthermore, the tours were designed to expose participants to the variables (as defined under disposition theory and uses and gratifications). Likewise, the corresponding survey assessed participants’ intentions to use …

Creating Brands Online: Third Party Opinions And Their Effect On Consumers' Trust In Brands And Purchase Intentions, Pavel Mrazek

LSU Master's Theses

Consumer lack of trust in online vendors and brands is identified as one of the biggest obstacles in the growth of e-commerce. This study examined how third-party product reviews help in building consumers’ trust, in consumers’ perception of product quality, their brand attitudes and consumers’ purchase intention. The six cell experimental design tested the effect of consumer and expert online product reviews on fictitious web sites for high-involvement and low-involvement products. The findings indicate that online consumer product reviews perform better than online expert product reviews and no product reviews. Online product reviews affected visitors to a web site with …

Press Independence In Newspaper Coverage Of The 2009 Health Care Debate, Matthew Holt Barnidge

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines press independence from the government in the 2009 national health care debate. Through a content analysis examining source expressions, or the words journalists attribute to various people in the news, the study captures the essence of the discourse represented in the news about the debate. This paper also outlines a distinction between various types of autonomy, and offers a new conceptualization of independence. Procedural autonomy, which is autonomy in journalistic norms and routines, does not necessarily result in content autonomy, which is autonomy of viewpoints expressed in the news. In other words, if non-governmental sources say substantially …

A New Focus For A University: Designing A Web Site To Feature Community Service, Andrea Louise Clesi

LSU Master's Theses

This research used focus groups and usability testing to determine how a major land-grant university should design a Web site that would feature the community service work of faculty and staff, students and alumni, also referred to as stakeholders. University public relations professionals planned to launch an interactive Web site as part of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2010, but had concerns that the Web site would not attract stakeholders. The research sought to answer the following questions based on uses and gratifications and impression management theories: What uses and gratifications, if any, do social networking sites provide stakeholders? Does …

Communicating Conservation: Public Relations Practitioners' Communication Efforts To Inform The Public Of The Detriments Of Coastal Erosion And Wetlands Loss, Stephanie Ellene Shaddock

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal erosion is a serious problem that directly affects Louisiana and indirectly affects the entire United States. Between 1990 and 2000, Louisiana lost 24 square miles of land per year, which equals an approximate football field lost every 38 minutes (Barras, Bourgeois, & Handley, 1994). Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 accelerated this land loss by transforming 217 square miles of marsh into open water (United States Geological Survey, 2006). As a leader in seafood, oil, and gas production, and shipping state, Louisiana and the nation have much at stake with continued land loss. To inform Louisiana’s citizens and a …

Staying Objective: The Effect Of Corporate Public Relations On Video Game Journalists, Benjamin Jenkins

LSU Master's Theses

The video game industry makes more than $10 billion a year in the United States alone. It is a young and booming medium. Growing alongside the video game business is the video game media, a niche form of journalism comprised mostly of gaming websites and a few reporters in traditional media. This thesis examines the young gaming news industry through in-depth interviews conducted with six journalists from various news outlets. The research focused on two things: if game journalists followed the same norms and routines as news journalists and if game companies were able to influence what game journalists wrote …

Public Perception And The Oil Industry: An Analysis Of Oil Employees' And Nigerians' Opinions Regarding Exxon Mobil And Shell Oil's Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts, Liana L. Narcisse

LSU Master's Theses

This study looked at oil industry employees’ and Nigerians’ perceptions of Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil as socially responsible corporations and the role the two-step flow model of communication plays in shaping these publics’ impressions of the companies. Measures of participants’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) were developed using Carroll’s 1971 three-dimensional model of CSR and Ketola’s (2008) holistic model of CSR. This study found that for both companies participants had average to less-than-favorable perceptions of the companies’ socially responsible behavior, according to the various categories of CSR. However, employees were more likely to view the companies more favorably …

Evaluating Different Health Communicatioin Theories To Deter College Binge Drinking: A Look At Promising Directions For Future Research, Kristen Meyer Sunde

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

For more than 30 years, college administrators and health communicators have used binge drinking prevention campaigns on university campuses to deter students from this dangerous and life-threatening habit.

Despite the prevalence of such campaigns (Wechsler, Seibring, Liu & Ahl, 2004), binge drinking remains the top public health threat for this population (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995).

In this study, the researcher conducted an experiment using fear appeals to see if these messages were more effective than social norms messages, which are often used in college binge drinking prevention campaigns (Real & Rimal, 2007), at prompting higher message credibility …

In Search Of State Government: The Lack Of State Legislative Coverage In Local Television News, German Adolfo Alvarez

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines how the institutional characteristics of local television news stations affect the stations’ coverage of state legislative news. Focusing on the state of Louisiana, the researcher conducts in-depth interviews with news workers from the seven media markets in the state. The interviews were focused toward the decision makers in the newsroom in order to examine the process that determines the newscast the audience receives. The interview discussions centered on the news making process. In addition, the interviews focused explicitly on the effect of proximity to the state capitol; coverage of state level news versus community level or national …

Twittering To The Top: A Content Analysis Of Corporate Tweets To Measure Organization-Public Relationships, Haley Edman

LSU Master's Theses

Corporations worldwide are realizing the potential to build relationships with publics using social media. The microblogging site, Twitter, has transformed from a platform in which people merely update the Twitterverse about their daily activities to a communication channel where interpersonal conversations between millions of users thrive. As public relations practitioners, it is important to utilize new media to reach out to publics in order to build mutually beneficial relationships. This study examines how 47 corporations use Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool and works towards developing guidelines for practitioners on using and evaluating their communication efforts on Twitter. Grounded …

The Act Of Raising Donors: An Assessment Of Fund-Raising Stewardship Practices In Healthcare Institutions, Megan Lee Moses

LSU Master's Theses

The concept of stewardship within fund raising literature stems from the public relations theories of relationship management, which involve maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics. With the current economic crisis, non-profit organizations see the need to focus more time and attention on maintaining and fostering relationships with existing donors, and therefore, the idea of stewardship stands an area of great interest to scholars and fund-raising practitioners alike. This study seeks to evaluate the role and formalization of stewardship in the fund-raising process, the current tactics practitioners use to practice stewardship, and better understand the limitations to …