Mass Communication Commons^™

Ua3/10/2 Fall Semester Fast Approaching, Wku President's Office - Caboni

WKU Administration Documents

Email from WKU president Timothy Caboni to faculty & staff regarding fall semester.

Marketing Theory And Pregnancy Help Centers: A Unified Pregnancy Help Center Brand, Allison Schmidt

Masters Theses

Starting as a grassroots movement formed by individuals who are opposed to abortion, pregnancy help centers commonly provide resources to help women during and after their unplanned pregnancy. Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics serve as primary competition to pregnancy help centers. Planned Parenthood has branded themselves as the number one nonprofit relating to women's healthcare, sex education, birth control, and abortion. Planned Parenthood clinics are united under national branding and engage their audience through comprehensive sex education and healthcare services while embracing innovative digital technology. By researching how different demographics influence abortion attitudes, different market segments can be developed …

Selling Protest In The News? Movement-Media Framing Of Occupations: An Exploratory Study, Andrew David Butz

Dissertations and Theses

Using quantitative content analysis, this study explores social movement (SM) framing in commercial news media -- by comparing how leading newspapers covered prominent protest occupations in 2011 and 2016. More than other SMs, anti-systemic protests like the 2011 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the 2016 Malheur Refuge Occupation (MRO) only have partial frame-setting agency, raising a broad theory question (to inform the research questions below): If SMs and media relate as interacting systems, are protest news frames more movement- or more media- driven; and do media not just enable but also constrain SMs?

With the movement-media theory question above, the …

Politics In The Social Media Era: The Relationship Between Social Media Use And Political Participation During The 2016 United States Presidential Election, Kevin Everett Curry

Dissertations and Theses

The growth of social media use raises significant questions related to political information and its effect on political knowledge and participation. One issue is whether social media delivers news and political information in a similar manner as traditional news media sources, like newspapers, TV, and radio, by contributing to political knowledge, which is linked to voter turnout. This dissertation examines the relationship between an individual's social media use, their use of traditional news media sources, and whether they turn out to vote. It utilizes American National Election Survey data from the 2016 U.S. Presidential election to complete three studies. First, …

Ua12/2/1 The Hill In Review, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter recapping the top stories of the week.

Prospectus, July 12, 2018, Greg Gancarz, Kayleigh Doyle, Kaiden Pope, Kaitlyn Marsh, Kennedy Coffie, Sami Issa, Elie Ngandu, Evyjo M. Compton

Prospectus 2018

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHT: APRIL 4, 2018: PENALTIES FOR TOBACCO USE TO BE IMPLEMENTED ON CAMPUS; Humans of Parkland: Cole Argoudelis; Article Highlight: April 4, 2018: Parkland launches new website; Excerpts from Diana McDonald Essay Contest 2018 Winning Essays; Article Highlight: April 11, 2018: Parkland promotes awareness of sexual assault

“All Of Our Skinfolk Ain’T Our Kinfolk;” A Triangulation Study Of The Impact Of Black Racial Identity On The Discourse Of Media Practitioners’ Coverage Of Social Justice, Political And Celebrity News, Gheni Nicole Platenburg

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since its inception, in 1827, the black press worked to “plead [its] own cause.”[i] Following the 1968 Kerner Commission report, white newsrooms desegregated, and the number of black newsrooms sharply declined. Black journalists transitioning to the white press faced new editorial and psychological challenges.

Today’s black press functions as a shell of its former self, creating a vacancy for media that represent the needs and interests of the black community. Mainstream cable news programs possibly provide a solution to this void -- black journalists and pundits. Using a triangulation approach, this dissertation explores this possibility by examining the impact …

Ua35 Temporary Administrative Assignments, Wku Academic Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Email from WKU Provost David Lee to faculty & staff regarding Academic Affairs administrators.

Ua68/8 History Alumni Newsletter, Wku History

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about the WKU History Department.

Ua52/1 Out Of The Box, Wku Archives

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about WKU Archives and the records management program.

Fake News And Editing: Marketing Techniques Used To Spin Controversies In Video Mediums, Alexandra Brand

Honors College Theses

This thesis explores the topic of fake news in today's digital landscape by analyzing how young adults (18-2) form and change prior opinions based on the media they consume. I measured this by showing respondents one of two bias montages in response to Google's Project Owl initiative. Project Owl is Google's controversial attempt to regulate false or abusive news by launching new feedback forms in addition to altering their algorithm in a way the company has not yet disclosed to the public (Sullivan). Each self-edited montage is two minutes in length and together they cover two radically different responses to …

Exploring Identities In Online Music Fandoms: How Identities Formed In Online Fan Communities Affect Real Life Identities, Aimee Ratka

Honors College Theses

This thesis set out to explore the identities formed by members of online fandom communities, and to determine the ways in which those identities affect their real life, offline identities. This qualitative study encountered elements related to stereo types of young women who are fans of mainstream pop music, and provided insight on their experiences through interviews with five long time boy band online fandom members. This study asked if fans prefer to keep their fandom identities internal or let them reflect outward, how one's online identity affects or translates to their real life identity, and what experiences in the …

Developing The Next-Generation Don Draper, Valerie K. Jones

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

Technology and the proliferation of data have transformed the advertising industry. Those with digital and analytical skills are now more employable than those with “traditional” advertising skills. At the same time, colleges and universities face increasing emphasis on job placement rates. Are advertising programs providing students with the skills needed to win jobs today and become successful employees tomorrow? Today’s “next-generation Don Drapers” must be fluent not only in creativity and big ideas but also in analysis and Big Data.

21st Century Propaganda: The Age Of Twitter, Holly Thayer

Honors College Theses

Twitter is a new platform in which politics and social engagement has found a home. Due to this a new medium to propagate a message has emerged that is unlike traditional platforms of propaganda. I hypothesize that traditional tactics of analyzing propaganda are no longer sufficient. I conducted an 8 week study cataloguing tweets that contained either the hashtag #falseflag or #hoax that were based on current topics in the United States. In total I retrieved 128 tweets. I first analyzed these tweets through the seven traditional tactics of propaganda and found that they were only present in 51% of …

A Place To Stand: Community Media Centers, James Joseph Knightwright

Theses and Dissertations

With the experience of 30+ years in community media, I envision providing a resource for scholars as well as community media practitioners and stakeholders. I am investigating the processes of training at community media centers (CMC) to determine potential impacts and effects. Functioning as a participant observer, I will prepare a documentary film focusing on the practices and processes utilized by CMCs to serve their communities.

Concentrating on Columbia Access Television (CAT TV), Columbia, Missouri and the Sun Prairie Media Center (SPMC), Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, I plan to visit each location to interview station staff, volunteers, and community members. These …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 42 No. 41, June 28, 2010

Central Florida Future

Alumni giving out legal aid; Get the scoop; Rock the Vote event sets group canvassing in motion.

The Influence Of Instagram Selfies On Female Millennials’ Appearance Satisfaction, Diliara Bagautdinova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have proved negative effects of social network sites on women’s body image caused by social comparison processes. However, only a few studies have examined the effects of Instagram on women’s appearance satisfaction and no selfies were taken into consideration in regard to that issue. The purpose of this research was to examine the social comparison theory through the lens of Instagram selfies and determine the effects of selfies on women’s appearance satisfaction. In-depth interviews with 26 female millennials, ages 18 to 32, reveal the re-defined standard of an ideal body image, shifting away from being skinny to becoming fit, …

An Analysis Of Organ Donation Presentations On Weibo, Shengfei Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the presentation of organ donation organization on Weibo. This study used content analysis to find out the Love.Hope organ donation organization’s main content of Weibo’s content.

The main content includes six themes. The theme of popularizing organ donation knowledge is the majority. Through analyzing the correlation of content of each themes with shares, likes, and comments. It is concluded that people are more inclined to engage with Weibo posts with popularization of organ donation knowledge and stories of organ donors and recipients, and people also concern about the organ supply and demand situation in China.

It turns …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 42 No. 40, June 24, 2010

Central Florida Future

Lightning sparks fire at Pointe; Uncover Thursdays; Plus: Grown Ups; Gold standard; Victim Services a road to recovery; Veteran Services to ship out to new post.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 42 No. 39, June 21, 2010

Central Florida Future

Stipends prove quite a catch; World piece; Older voters leaning right; Florida part of Rock the Votes initiative.

“Breathless Zeal And Careless Confidence”: German Propaganda In World War I (1914-1918), Elisabeth Fondren

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the building and rethinking of German propaganda institutions during World War I. The goal of this dissertation is to illustrate the evolution of German government ideas on propaganda between 1914-1918.

During the war, German military leaders, politicians, and diplomats had ambitions to change, reform and modernize approaches to media governance. They were losing the battle of ideas, they realized early on. And so German officials were desperate to make propaganda fit into the structure of government; they tried to use new media technologies to be more persuasive. Although there was an abundance of ideas, all of their …

Yet Another Ferguson Effect: An Exploratory Content Analysis Of News Stories On Police Brutality And Deadly Force Before And After The Killing Of Michael Brown, Carl Root

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the police-media relationship through an exploratory content analysis of news articles indexed as police brutality and/or deadly force published in six newspapers (The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Denver Post and USA Today) between August 9th, 2013 and August 9th, 2015. This timeframe was selected in order to determine whether significant differences exist between articles published in the year before the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014 compared to those published in the year afterward. Specifically, this research examined whether and how news stories pre and …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 42 No. 38, June 17, 2010

Central Florida Future

Tuition hike possible for fall; Uncover Thursdays; Summer Fun; Plus: D-I-Y for less; iDonate; UCF's pond gets economic makeover; Man robbed near UCF-area apartment.

Ua12/2/1 The Hill In Review, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter recapping the top stories of the week.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 42 No. 37, June 14, 2010

Central Florida Future

Some crime down around UCF; Nursing payday; UCF ID becomes more like debit card; Business students hit the Target with 'Smart' idea.

Ua12/2/1 The Hill In Review, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter recapping the top stories of the week.

Ua12/2/1 The Hill In Review, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter recapping the top stories of the week.

Prospectus, June 7, 2018, Parkland College, Greg Gancarz, Morgan Tapley, David Saveanu, Matt Moss

Prospectus 2018

Article Highlight: April 11, 2018 Parkland Students, Staff Volunteer in Flint, Letter to the Editor, Article Highlight: Feb. 28, 2018 Parkland Tuition Remains Unaltered for First Time Since '92, Commencement 2018

Validation Of Twitter Opinion Trends With National Polling Aggregates: Hillary Clinton Vs Donald Trump, Alexandre Bovet, Flaviano Morone, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

Measuring and forecasting opinion trends from real-time social media is a long-standing goal of bigdata analytics. Despite the large amount of work addressing this question, there has been no clear validation of online social media opinion trend with traditional surveys. Here we develop a method to infer the opinion of Twitter users by using a combination of statistical physics of complex networks and machine learning based on hashtags co-occurrence to build an in-domain training set of the order of a million tweets. We validate our method in the context of 2016 US Presidential Election by comparing the Twitter opinion trend …

News Work: The Impact Of Corporate Newsroom Culture On News Workers & Community Reporting, Carey Lynne Higgins-Dobney

Dissertations and Theses

By virtue of their broadcast licenses, local television stations in the United States are bound to serve in the public interest of their community audiences. As federal regulations of those stations loosen and fewer owners increase their holdings across the country, however, local community needs are subjugated by corporate fiduciary responsibilities. Business practices reveal rampant consolidation of ownership, newsroom job description convergence, skilled human labor replaced by computer automation, and economically-driven downsizings, all in the name of profit. Even so, the people laboring under these conditions are expected to keep their communities informed with democracy- and citizenship-enhancing information.

This study …