Mass Communication Commons^™

Consuming Digital Debris In The Plasticene, Stephen R. Parks

Theses and Dissertations

Claims of customization and control by socio-technical industries are altering the role of consumer and producer. These narratives are often misleading attempts to engage consumers with new forms of technology. By addressing capitalist intent, material, and the reproduction limits of 3-D printed objects’, I observe the aspirational promise of becoming a producer of my own belongings through new networks of production. I am interested in gaining a better understanding of the data consumed that perpetuates hyper-consumptive tendencies for new technological apparatuses. My role as a designer focuses on the resolution of not only the surface of the object through 3-D …

Domestic Extension Of Public Diplomacy: Media Competition For Credibility, Dependency And Activation Of Publics, Yicheng Zhu

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation connects theories of political communication, public relations and international relations to conceptualize a new model of public diplomacy, where boundaries between distinct types of actors are drawn. It proposes an ecological model and a competition model of public diplomacy. Based on these conceptual models, it empirically supports the academic rationalization of governmental interference in foreign media effects among its domestic citizens: Using a quota sample of 560 survey respondent from mainland China, the empirical part of the dissertation illustrated: 1. Governmental control on foreign media accessibility has significant effects on perceived media credibility and thus dependency on it; …

"But She's Snow White, She Would N'T Hurt Anybody": A Critical Analysis Of Gender And Power In Once Upon A Time, Mackenzie Mahler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines gender performance and its relation to power in the television series Once Upon a Time (OUAT). On the surface, OUAT is a television show that constantly challenges the culturally-ingrained gender norms often found in fairy tales, as it creates new storylines for traditional fairy tales. This warrants a deeper examination of the series to understand if and how it is subverting these typical gender norms. To fully understand how gender operates in OUAT, I examined how gender affects and is affected by hegemony in the show and how this relates to our cultural understanding of gender and …

The Digital Surgeon's Warning: Do Disclaimers Have A Place In Beauty And Fashion Advertising?, Jess Gabl

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of disclaimers of photogenic manipulation, models’ body types, and the interaction between the two through the theoretical lenses of social comparison theory and priming effects. In an online experiment, this study employs a 3 (no disclaimer, presence of digital enhancement disclaimer, absence of digital enhancement disclaimer) by 2 (thin model body type and average model body type) factorial analysis to tease apart the effects of disclaimers on consumers (social comparison, self-esteem, and wishful identification) and the organizations that are compelled or choose to employ them (brand attitudes and perceptions of …

The Byline Of Europe: An Examination Of Foreign Correspondents' Reporting From 1930 To 1941, Kerry J. Garvey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on two of the largest foreign correspondents’ networks the one of the Chicago Tribune and New York Times- in prewar Europe and especially in Germany, thus providing a wider perspective on the foreign correspondents’ role in news reporting and, more importantly, how their reporting appeared in the published newspaper. It provides a new, broader perspective on how foreign news reporting portrayed European events to the American public. It describes the correspondents’ role in publishing articles over three time periods- 1930 to 1933, 1933-1939, and 1939 to 1941. Reporting and consequently the published paper depended on the correspondents’ …

The Allure Of Isis: Examining The Underlying Mechanisms That Helped The Islamic State In Iraq And Syria, Alexander Luchsinger

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effects of exposure to media content related to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its effect on support for the group. Using a survey of Muslim adults living in the United States (N = 396), this study sought to understand the influence of media exposure on identification, empathy and attitudes toward ISIS, and how they relate to behavioral intention to support the group. Using social cognitive theory as a theoretical framework, these relationships were assessed using mediation analyses to measure the relationships between variables. Findings indicate that identification, empathy, and attitudes are all …

International Twitter Comments About 2016 U.S. Presidential Candidates Trump And Clinton: Agenda-Building Analysis In The U.S., U.K., Brazil, Russia, India And China, Jane O’Boyle

Theses and Dissertations

Based on agenda-building theory, this study performs content analysis on 6,019 international Twitter comments about Trump and Clinton in the 10 days prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Even excluding bots and trolls, the preponderance of Twitter comments were positive about Trump and negative about Clinton, in the U.S., Russia, India and China. In the U.K. and Brazil, Twitter comments were largely negative about both candidates. Twitter sources and topics were also identified and explored to expand knowledge about the evolving role and effect of agenda-building in six nations, and around the world.

Framing Marijuana: A Study Of How Us Newspapers Frame Marijuana Legalization Stories And Framing Effects Of Marijuana Stories, Hwalbin Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The current study was initially designed to look at how the issue of marijuana legalization was presented in U.S. newspapers and how news frames could influence the audiences’ attitudes or behavioral intentions. To investigate these questions, two different types of research methods were employed: content analysis and experiment. Using framing theory as a theoretical framework, this study found that marijuana legalization has been largely described as a legislation issue or a law enforcement issue, and medical benefit and medical risk were most frequently mentioned attributes to support and oppose marijuana legalization. Findings indicated that news frame could influence the public’s …

Is That Online Review Fake News? How Sponsorship Disclosure Influences Reader Credibility, Mark W. Tatge

Theses and Dissertations

In a randomized between-subjects design, participants (N =595) were assigned one of three online reviews containing disclosure statements (no disclosure, no sponsor, sponsored) denoting whether the author of an online review was paid by an advertiser or whether the review was independent of ad sponsorship. Hayes and Preacher’s bootstrapping procedure was used to test the indirect and direct effects of related to a hypothesized model examining the impact of review disclosure on perceived credibility and purchase intention. The impact of two covariates – involvement and media literacy – was assessed to see if these variables had a potential confounding impact …

Measuring Strategic Communications, Jeffrey A. Ranta

Theses and Dissertations

The convergence and integration of communication disciplines is a daunting challenge for educators. Traditional distinctions of advertising, public relations, and integrated communication are becoming blurred by the growth of social media and other new media channels. The advent of strategic communications is a newer iteration of this coalescence of technology, analytics, and practice.

Silos of branding, issues management, media relations, image management, research, and many other communications (applied and specialty) as well as skills and traits are being combined in favor of a more comprehensive, strategic communications approach. The multi-platform, multi-disciplinary communicator is becoming the expected product of undergraduate programs …

Rap Lyrics, Music Videos, And Themes Of Sex, Violence, And Prosocial Behavior, Terrell L. Green

Theses and Dissertations

Socially and academically, rap music has been linked to more negative symbolism than positive. This study examined sexual, violent, and prosocial text embedded in rap lyrics and videos, using semiology in the form of connotation and denotation. This study is a textual analysis of twenty-six of the most popular, chart-topping rap music videos from 1995 to 2015. It involved conducting four levels of analysis to code the music videos to determine the presence of sex, violence, and prosocial text. Prosocial text was found to be the most disseminated theme in the rap lyrics and music videos studied. Violence was second. …

Toward A Situational Technology Acceptance Model: Combining The Situational Theory Of Problem Solving And Technology Acceptance Model To Promote Mobile Donations For Nonprofit Organizations, Yue Zheng

Theses and Dissertations

Using a nationwide survey of 994 respondents in February 2016, this study combines the situational theory of problem solving and technology acceptance model to refine the conceptual understandings of people’s motivations to make a mobile donation benefiting health-related nonprofit organizations. Findings provide empirical support for the combined model and an emerging situational technology acceptance model. Mobile phone users’ intentions to make a mobile donation are mostly influenced by their attitudes toward using technology and subjective norms. Practical implications are also discussed for nonprofit practitioners to better segment publics, design strategic messages, and disseminate communication campaigns to improve future fundraising.

Redneckaissance: Honey Boo Boo, Tumblr, And The Stereotype Of Poor White Trash, Ashley F. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Tumblr is an understudied social media site with a young, progressive, and queer user base of content creators. This study examines Tumblr posts about Here Comes Honey Boo Boo to understand the nature of Tumblr and the way a convergent culture that includes non-viewers negotiates a television show dependent on stereotypes. Discourses around authenticity, LGBTQ issues, and body acceptance resist the negative white trash connotations of the show, but this resistance is embedded in stereotypes around race, class, gender, sexuality, and geography. The result is a continuum in which users negotiate what the show means in how they use that …

Promoting Hpv Vaccination For Male Young Adults: Effects Of Social Influence, Wan Chi Leung

Theses and Dissertations

HPV vaccination is an important public health issue, but past research has mostly been done on the HPV vaccination for females. This study explores promotions of the HPV vaccination for men, focusing on how social influence plays a role in influencing young male adults’ attitudes toward the HPV vaccine. An online survey was conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, and responses from 656 males aged 18-26 in the United States were analyzed. Results indicated that exposure to messages were associated with perceived effects of the messages on others, which related to the perceived descriptive norm of vaccine uptake among other males. …

God's Eye News: The Use Of Drones In Journalism, A Documentary Film, Robert Lance Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses the format of documentary film to investigate the aesthetic, legal, and ethical issues surrounding the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, commonly known as drones, in journalism. Particularly important are the topics of public perception, safety, freedom of speech, and privacy. Do journalists' First Amendment protections extend to the right to gather images using drones? How will the privacy of citizens be protected against aerial cameras that can go virtually unnoticed? Can drones be safely integrated into the National Airspace System? The goal of the documentary is not necessarily to answer these questions, but to gather opinions from …

History And Impact Of Indian Dubbed Into Arabic Movie Channel "Bollywood": Exploratory Study, Yara Ayman Yosry Omar

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the cultural impact of Indian dubbed into Arabic movies on the knowledge of the Egyptian audience towards the Indian culture. The main channels chosen to conduct this study were MBC Bollywood, Fox, Zee Aflam and Dubai One. The main theoretical framework applied in relation to this study is the Hybridity theory alongside with the term “Glocalization”. The two main methodologies used to test out this exploratory study were Qualitative content analysis aiming to discover the main aspects of the Indian culture portrayed in the Indian dubbed into Arabic movies. The result supported the same aspects mentioned in …

Authentic Relationship Management To Heighten Control Mutuality In Social Media, Diana Catherine Sisson

Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on literature from public relations, marketing, interpersonal communication, and organizational communication, this dissertation focused on the effects of authenticity on relationship management outcomes in nonprofit organizations’ social media efforts. There is significant need for relationship management rooted in authenticity with the rise in inauthentic communication online. This dissertation aims to contribute to relationship management theory by highlighting the role of control mutuality in analyses of authenticity in organization-public relationships in social media for nonprofit organizations like local animal welfare organizations. This dissertation proposes that control mutuality is an ethical outcome of authentic relationship management. This dissertation also proposes that …

Conflicted Union: Culture, Economics And European Union Media Policy, Daphney Pernola Barr

Theses and Dissertations

The constant tension between internal market development and cultural preservation remain within European Union audiovisual media services regulatory policy. While market harmonization and liberalization are key to developing a formidable European media market, the preservation of and promotion of ‘European-ness’ depends upon the protection of cultural diversity, a necessity for a confederation of 27 sovereign nation-states with distinct cultures and languages. It may not currently be possible to reconcile the intrinsic duality of audiovisual media through EU regulatory policy mechanisms. However, a regulatory policy clearly that addresses the potential of cultural harmonization/economic liberalization conflict, that explicitly connects the EU’s audiovisual …

Innovation Among Georgian Journalism Educators: A Network Analysis Perspective, Ana Keshelashvili

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid developments in technology in recent years have disrupted the media’s traditional role as a main informer for citizens. The changes have challenged journalism educators worldwide, pushing them to innovate and experiment. One purpose of this dissertation is to examine adoption of innovations by journalism educators in Georgia, a small post-Soviet country with partly free media and lack of professional outlets, that has been and still is a beneficiary of Western aid for media development. Employing innovation diffusion theory and the network analysis perspective, this dissertation uses a census of journalism educators and journalism program leaders in Georgia to understand …

Doctor Who And The Creation Of A Non-Gendered Hero Archetype, Alessandra J. Pelusi

Theses and Dissertations

This project investigates the ways in which the television program Doctor Who creates a new, non-gendered hero archetype.

Revisiting The Spiral Of Silence In A Social Media Environment: Egypt’S 2014 Presidential Election As A Case Study, Heba T. Saleh Elshahed

Theses and Dissertations

With the advent of the Internet and anonymous features of online media, users have established novel platforms to voice their opinion freely without fear of negative feedback. This thesis explores the application of a long-standing public opinion theory– the spiral of silence by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann–within the prevalent Social Networking Sites (SNS), particularly Facebook. When applying spiral of silence to online mediated environment, it seems intuitive that the lack of verbal cues and anonymity offered would serve to undermine the fear of isolation and restlessness that results in unwillingness to express minority views. This research contributes to understanding how the spiral …

Crime And Poverty In Detroit: A Cross-Referential Critical Analysis Of Ideographs And Framing, Jacob Jerome Nickell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the relationship between crime and poverty is rhetorically constructed within the news media. To this end, I investigate the content of twelve news articles, published online, that offered coverage of crime in the city of Detroit, Michigan. I employ three methods in my criticism of these texts: ideographic analysis, critical framing analysis, and an approach that considers ideographs and framings elements to be rhetorical constructions that function together. In each phase of my analysis, I developed ideological themes from concepts emerging from the texts. I then approached my discussion of these findings from a perspective of …

Visualization, Viewer And Emotion: An Empirical Study Of Cognition And Affective Responses To Infographics Used For Crisis Communication, Sean M. Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

A 3 (crisis response strategy) x 3 (medium) factorial design experiment was conducted to determine if information graphics conveyed through online news sources may be more beneficial for organizational reputations during some crisis situations than the use of news videos and text-based news stories. Variables examined include cognitive and affective appraisal, third-person effect, behavioral response and crisis response strategy.

Recent research in organizational crisis communications has pointed to the fact that more information is needed regarding how individuals react cognitively and affectively to crisis communications. Current crisis communications literature is also sparse concerning the behavioral aspects of crisis message reception …

Analysis Of Belarusian Media In 2011: Discourse, Argument Construction, And Propaganda Framing, Tatsiana Karaliova

Theses and Dissertations

The mass media system in Belarus is characterized by the coexistence of two types of mass media - state-run and independent. This study looks at the difference in characteristics of coverage in these two types of media outlets in terms of diversity of perspectives, argument construction, and propaganda framing. A significant difference in the nature of discourse on the major events in Belarus in 2011 in state-run and independent media exposed their distinct ideological viewpoints. State-run media favored a pro-government perspective and widely presented anti-opposition and anti-revolutionary opinion. Lack of plurality and rational arguments, anti-globalization and Soviet nostalgia rhetoric were …

The Main Effects Of Gender And Faculty Rank On Occupational Stressors, Technology Stressors, And Coping Strategies Of Journalism And Mass Communication Educators In The U.S, Paulette Helen Walter

Theses and Dissertations

Assistant professors who teach journalism and mass communication tend to be more stressed than either associate professors or full professors, and female faculty members are more stressed than male faculty. Both female and male assistant professors ranked the following three items as causing them the highest stress: having inadequate time to devote to research, not having clear criteria for evaluation of research, publication, or creative activities, and teaching inadequately prepared students. Journalism and mass communication faculty generally use positive coping strategies such as prioritizing work or planning ahead. Additionally, across the board, the levels of stress reported for preparing to …

Internet-Mediated Communication: Publicly Interpersonal, Katharine A. Cannella

Theses and Dissertations

A thesis on communication between individuals as mediated by the Internet, concluding that certain types of messages are interpersonal as well as public in nature. Away messages and blogs are examined as evidence that Internet- mediated interpersonal communication is a new context. The researcher determines that Internet-mediated communication (IMC) results in several communicative adaptations unique to this medium and that significance lies within the development of extended interpersonal relationship through the creation and expansion of online social networks.

Black And White: A Historical Examination Of Lynching Coverage And Editorial Impact In Select Virginia Newspapers, James E. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

This is a historical examination of how select Virginia newspapers covered lynching during two time periods, 1880 to 1900 and 1920 to 1932. The newspapers include white-owned and black-owned publications. The study features the owners/editors of four papers, one black and one white from each period. They are Joseph Bryan, John Mitchell, Jr., Douglas Southall Freeman and P.B. Young. The study also examines the standards of journalistic conduct that prevailed during the time periods, and how the selected editors met these expectations. The study concludes that white-owned papers, during the early period, reflected the racism that existed in Virginia at …

Advertising Budget Reduction Impacts On Effective Communication: A Descriptive Analysis : Evaluation Of Virginia State Parks 1994 Advertising Campaign, Lois Ann Delbueno

Theses and Dissertations

A descriptive analysis to determine the communication effects of a reduced advertising budget, this study evaluated the 1994 Virginia State Parks advertising campaign. The campaign's objective was to provide Virginians more information about the parks, which in the previous 1992 Virginia Outdoor Survey, was said to be needed.

The author sought to answer questions relative to the overall effect of reducing the advertising budget, as well as the amount and nature of awareness resulting from it.

In order to measure these relationships, the author collected data into two random seven-day periods to compare 1994 versus 1993 for awareness, cost-effectiveness and …

A Critical Analysis Of Cbs Evening News Coverage Of Two U.S.-U.S.S.R. Summit Meetings: Vienna 1979 And Geneva 1985, James M. Ellis Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Nearly four hours of CBS Evening News summit reports, loaned by the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, were coded to construct a descriptive analysis and comparison of the coverage of the 1979 and 1985 summit meetings. Variables coded include speaker, language, origin of video and audio content, topic and quoted sources. Soviet speakers and topics were given proportionately more air time in 1985 than in 1979. But despite large differences in several important areas such as Soviet willingness to communicate via television, different leaders and their images, geopolitical factors, and improved video technology, many patterns of coverage showed similarities from 1979 …

An Analysis Of Visual Religious Symbols Appearing In The Improvement Era, Ensign, And New Era Published By The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints From 1952-1972, Carl Landus Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the appearance of eighty visual religious symbols in the Improvement Era, Ensign, and New Era, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1952-1972. The study notes their frequency and distribution as well as noting their size, the medium used to render them and the correlation of their religious meanings to the articles they illustrate.

The findings of this study indicate that visual religious symbols are used and that many of them have a high degree of correlation to the articles they illustrate.

This study gives suggestions to those artists who …