Mass Communication Commons^™

Ua77/1 Wku Spirit, Wku Alumni Relations

WKU Administration Documents

WKU alumni magazine. Contents:

• Society of 1906 Honor Roll
• Wilkerson, Martha. Thank You Gretchen Niva!
• Special Needs Trust Commits $750,000 for Clinical Education Complex
• 2 WKU Students Win Hearst National Championship – Will DeShazer, Brenna Gallegos
• WKU Regents Approve Move to Division I-A Football
• McDaniel, Sue. A Century of Academics
• A Quarter of a Century for the Center for Gifted Studies
• 100 Hours of Life on the Hill, September 6-10, 2006
• Newton, Tommy. A Century of Campus Planning
• A Century of Gifts: 100 Gifts WKU Gave the World
• Centennial Timeline
• One Century, One Vision – Henry Cherry, Gary Ransdell
• Adventures …

Ua1f Wku Archives Vertical File - Wku History, Wku Archives

WKU Administration Documents

Digitized vertical file materials regarding WKU history.

Ua1f Wku Archives Vertical File - Wku Owensboro, Wku Archives

WKU Administration Documents

Digitized vertical file materials regarding WKU Owensboro.

Creativity, Free Expression, And Professionalism: Value Conflicts In U.S. Community Radio, Michael Huntsberger

Faculty Publications

This study investigates how the values of free expression and professionalism provide the basis for interpersonal and organizational conflict in U.S. community radio stations, and shape divergent approaches to audience service. Using qualitative methods, the project examines the motivations, expressions, and behaviors of producers and managers to establish how their values contribute to cooperation and dissention within these organizations. The study illustrates the delicate balance that exists between content-centered and audience-centered objectives, concluding that these core values have a pervasive effect on community radio’s capacity to reach audiences and promote social change through the media.

Alumnews, Winter 2006, Alumni Association, Wright State University

AlumNews

Eight page issue of the AlumNews newsletter. This newsletter focuses on news about programs, events, and activities for alumni from Wright State University.

Wright State University Libraries Access Newsletter Fall 2005/Winter 2006, Wright State University Libraries

Access Newsletter

An eight page newsletter created by Wright State University Libraries that addresses the current affairs of the Libraries.

Statewide Public Affairs Television: Expanding The C-Span Model To The State Level And Achieving Institutional Status In The Process, Karen M. Rowley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A study of 10 states that have statewide public affairs television networks finds that these systems have become an integral part of the state governmental process in the same way that C-SPAN has become an institution in Washington, D.C. That is, lawmakers, legislative staff members, lobbyists, and statehouse reporters ignore it at their peril. At the same time, the content produced by these state versions of C-SPAN has altered the way in which the members of these groups do their jobs by providing a monitoring capacity that makes it easier for them to be more productive. This study uses a …

Whose Input Counts And Which Paradigm Prevails?: A Content Analysis Of Mass-Mediated Debate On U.S.-China Relations In 1990'S And A Policy Critique On Republican Virtue Of The Policy Tradeoff, Xiaowei Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the public opinion-public policy nexus with regard to the making of U.S.-China policy during the Clinton administration (1992-2000). The researcher investigates how the mass media discourse on U.S.-China relations relates to the policy tradeoff between economic interdependence and confrontation on human rights. Particularly, the quantitative study of the media discourse is placed within a Communitarian perspective to determine: (1) whether the policy tradeoff can claim to have the support of public opinion; (2) whether the media discourse originated from the active civic participation; and (3) how the policy tradeoff broke its promise. As a result, the researcher …

Suppressing Cultural Sensitivity: The Role Of Whiteness In Instructors' Course Content And Pedagogical Practices, Laura C. Prividera

Basic Communication Course Annual

Research indicates that students of color often experience marginalization in their academic pursuits at predominantly white institutions. This study utilized critical whiteness studies to examine how communication teachers who instructed basic courses enacted cultural sensitivity in their course content and pedagogical practices. Fifteen faculty at seven academic institutions were interviewed about their teaching practices. Three recurring themes emerged in the data analysis: (a) culture and absence, (b) culture and the marginal, and (c) culture and conflict. These themes revealed how whiteness functioned implicitly to place cultural and diversity issues outside of my participants’ knowing and thus outside of their basic …

Minority Recruitment Efforts Aimed At Increasing Student Diversity At Historically Black Public Colleges And Universities And Predominantly White Public Institutions, Nia Francis Mason

LSU Master's Theses

Minority and other race recruitment have become a significant part of general recruitment efforts at many predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Despite increased efforts, some universities have not been successful at increasing diversity on campus. This study relies on the use of in-depth interviews to document, describe and understand the similar and differing characteristics of minority and other race recruitment tactics being used at PWIs and HBCUs. The researcher conducted interviews at four public institutions of higher education; two of which are HBCUs, and two of which are PWIs. The researcher also sought to …

Measuring Player Perceptions Of Advertising In Online Games, Ben Lewis

LSU Master's Theses

An experiment with 100 participants aged 18-24 was conducted to measure the effects of advertising in an online role-playing computer game on perceived interactivity and other aspects of gameplay experience. Results from a post-test questionnaire revealed insight into players' attitudes toward advertising in video game environments, and reflected varying levels of advertising awareness and recall, message recognition, and factors in purchasing habits. Results suggested that while advertising in online games can sometimes trigger high advertising awareness rates, it can also reduce a game's perceived sense of realism and genuinely annoy players if not appropriately coordinated with the game environment. Whereas …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between City Typology, Interactivity And Advertising Message Strategies Of American Municipal Web Sites, Jeremy John Starr

LSU Master's Theses

This study became to first to scientifically explore the relationship between city typology and the use of advertising message strategy and interactivity within municipal web sites. The study used Taylor’s six-segment strategy wheel to analyze message strategies and previous scales of interactivity to analyze structural interactivity. Medium-size cities and cities within the South and West geographic regions more likely used sensory strategies within their web sites. Cities with racially diverse populations more likely used sensory strategies within their web sites as well. Large cities and central cities, both with large populations, used the most interactive strategies within their sites compared …

Using Web Sites To Achieve Organizational Goals: Are Nonprofits Doing It Right?, Alisha Nicole Tillery

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines how and to what extent nonprofit organizations are using their Web sites to fulfill their organizational goals and missions through volunteerism and fundraising. Through in-depth interviews of communication/public relations managers and executive directors at nonprofit organizations new information reveals factors that negatively affect nonprofits organizations’ growth in Web site development and technology, as well as those factors that push nonprofits to break the digital divide. Four nonprofit organizations that provide youth services in Memphis, Tennessee were selected.

Media Use, Hiv/Aids Knowledge, And Sexual Beliefs: An Exploration Of Differences Between Races, Tarana Hammond

LSU Master's Theses

As the numbers rise among African Americans who are contracting HIV/AIDS, it becomes evident that research is needed to examine where African Americans obtain HIV/AIDS information. This study identified where African Americans obtain HIV/AIDS information and examined how that information affects African Americans’ sexual beliefs about HIV/AIDS. The theoretical foundation for this study was the Health Belief Model (HBM). This study used a survey method. The data analysis demonstrated that race does influence the type of media an individual uses. Race does not impact an individual’s access to health information. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS impacts an individual’s sexual beliefs about HIV/AIDS. …

The Emerging Culture Of A Community College, Misty Kyle O'Connell

LSU Master's Theses

This study explores the emerging organizational culture of Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC). Specifically, the study looks at how faculty and key administrators describe the institution’s culture. Qualitative interviews with seven administrators and ten faculty members reveal the two groups had consistent viewpoints on many themes. Findings indicate BRCC exhibits the characteristics of an adhocracy culture. BRCC’s administration and faculty also describe the college’s culture as strong and externally oriented.

An Investigation Of Focus: Local, Regional, And National Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina, Roxanne Kearns Dill

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the content in coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by local, regional, and national newspapers. Specifically, six newspapers were examined for a variety of items, including topics covered, frame, types of sources cited, types of authorities quoted, geographic focus, and assignment of blame for the devastation and evacuee distress that followed this historic storm. The analysis covered a two-week period, from August 29, 2005, the day Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, to September 11, 2005. The research methods included a content analysis of the 263 articles that appeared on Page 1 of The New York …

Hurricane Katrina: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing, Attribute Agenda Setting, And Tone Of Government Response, Brigette Lynn Brunken

LSU Master's Theses

This study content analyzed print media coverage of government response from four newspapers in the five weeks immediately after Hurricane Katrina, looking for common frames, attribute agenda setting, and tone. In addition, it assessed week-to-week differences throughout coverage. Findings indicate that the order of Semetko and Valkenburg's (2000) common frames changed, emphasizing human interest first. Conflict, attribution of responsibility, economic consequences, and morality frames followed. Media's use of attribute agenda setting was evident throughout coverage, primarily emphasizing the issues, relief and rescue, economic, negative timeliness, and rebuilding and repairing. Media's tone of government response was moderately neutral with federal tone …

An Analysis Of The President-Press Relationship In Solo And Joint Press Conferences In The First Term Of President George W. Bush, Susan Billingsley

LSU Master's Theses

A comparative analysis of presidential press conferences was conducted to determine whether the previously established adversarial relationship between the United States president and the American press was alleviated to some degree by the presence of a foreign dignitary. The study applied a system for quantifying adversarial behaviors exhibited by the press to questions asked of President George W. Bush in solo conferences and where he was joined by another head-of-state in joint press conference sessions. Questions from selected conferences during his first term were coded according to four indicators of adversarialness: initiative, directness, assertiveness and adversarialness. Results showed that the …

Media Framing Of Prescription Drug Coverage Following A Recall, Rebecca Ann Hotard

LSU Master's Theses

Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs receives significant attention from academic researchers. Advertising, however, is not the only way prescription drugs are discussed in the public sphere. Many Americans learn about science through mass media. Additionally, researchers believe readers place more trust in editorial content than in advertisements. This study took a quantitative and qualitative approach to content analysis of prescription drug coverage to examine the effects of the highly publicized and controversial Vioxx recall on the news. Significant changes in framing, drugs mentioned, and prominence of story placement were shown. There were no changes in sources used in prescription drug …

Are You Ready For Some ... Sex, Violence, And Gender Stereotypes?: A Content Analysis Of Monday Night Football Commercials And Programming Promotions, Joel D. Massey

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the content of 200 commercials from the 2004 season of Monday Night Football documenting sexual content, violence, and gender role stereotypes. The data revealed that despite the fact that men appeared twice as often as women, women were more likely to be stereotyped than men. About one quarter of the commercials contained sexual content and about one-fifth contained violence. Beer ads were more sexual than other ads but were not significantly more violent than other ads. There was no clear pattern of variance in the amount of sexual and violent commercials across quarters. Programming commercials were far …

Media Use, Linguistic Preference And Social Capital In The Hispanic Community, Misti Mcdaniel

LSU Master's Theses

While considerable research had been devoted to the study of social capital, limited information is available assessing the connection between linguistic preference and social capital among ethnic groups. Research indicated the American Latino community exhibits levels of social capital similar to the greater United States populous. Latinos who preferred English-language media, however, exhibited higher levels of social capital than those who used Spanish-language media. Finally, Latinos who held a linguistic preference for English held higher levels of social capital than individuals who preferred Spanish.

Civic Journalism And Community Newspapers: Opportunities For Social And Civic Connections, Amy Burroughs

LSU Master's Theses

This study sought to fill in a gap in civic journalism research by considering its implications for community newspapers, those small, locally oriented publications that serve rural and suburban communities throughout the country. In particular, this study posed the argument that such newspapers may have advantages in pursuing civic journalism, and that these approaches may especially benefit newspapers in high-growth communities. This study relied heavily on the language of theorists who describe journalism as a public conversation, the quality of which - its usefulness for readers as citizens and members of a community - the press can either help or …

Unbalanced Media Coverage And The 2004 Presidential Election: The New York Times Vs. The Washington Times, Jimmie E. Cummings, Jr.

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to find out if either The New York Times or The Washington Times participated in unbalanced media coverage during the last two weeks of the 2004 Presidential Election. Through content analysis paragraph tone was used to evaluate news stories, columns, and editorials as positive, negative or neutral from a composite week sample. Scholars, politicians, the public as well as journalists have long argued about the existence or not of media bias and whether it is in support of liberal or conservative politics. This study was not an attempt to pick a side in that …

Target Audiences And Communication Channels Of Lighten Up Programs In The United States, Nancy Leah Borden

LSU Master's Theses

Several Lighten Up programs around the United States were qualitatively studied in efforts to determine their target audiences and the communication channels used to reach these audiences. To guide this study, principles from the social marketing framework and the diffusion of innovations theory were applied. Several Lighten Up program executive directors and other high-ranking individuals in charge of the programs were interviewed in-depth to answer questions pertaining to target audiences and communication channels. Inductive data analysis illustrated that programs did not segment their target audiences, that more programs depended on interpersonal and group communication than mass communication, and finally, that …

Front Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Title Page

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editor's Page, Scott Titsworth

Basic Communication Course Annual

As my tenure as editor of the Basic Communication Course Annual comes to an end, I have a great deal of excitement about the future of communication education and basic course scholarship. Looking back on the three most recent volumes, the diversity of scholars and ideas is remarkable. Moreover, careful readings of articles found in these volumes will show that these scholars are using rigorous methods to ask and answer theoretically provocative and practically potent questions. Indeed, these volumes will add to the rich history of this journal and will also serve as a foundation from which to build as …

Contents And Abstracts

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Connected Classroom Climate And Communication Apprehension: Correlations And Implications Of The Basic Course, Robert E. Carlson, Karen Kangas Dwyer, Shereen G. Bingham, Ana M. Cruz, Marshall Prisbell, Dennis A. Fuss

Basic Communication Course Annual

Although scholars have recommended increasing relational variables in the classroom such as familiarity, acquaintance level, and collaboration to help students moderate communication apprehension (CA), few, if any, academic studies have investigated the relationship between CA and a supportive climate among students in the college classroom. Self-report data were collected from 523 undergraduate students from a Midwestern university who participated in a large curriculum assessment program using the Connected Classroom Climate Inventory (CCCI) and the PRCA-24. Results showed significant relationships between student perceptions of connected-classroom climate and CA levels throughout the course.