Social Influence and Political Communication Commons^™

#Clandestini: How Italy's Center-Right Parliamentary Coalition Frames The Migrant Crisis On Social Media, Jenna Lynn Depasquale

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines the intersection of Italian neo-fascism, the Mediterranean migrant crisis, and digital media. Through a qualitative content analysis of the Twitter and Instagram posts made by Italy's center-right parliamentary coalition from 2014-2018, this research outlines frameworks that facilitate both the physical and social deaths of migrants. Twitter is a platform on which bite-sized xenophobic messages characterize migrants as criminals, spoiled youth, spreaders of infectious disease, and future terrorists--sometimes in a contradictory fashion. Instagram is a medium for conveying Italian identity and history, which disregards the longstanding contributions of people of color, including Muslims, in Southern Italy. Comment sections …

Not Just An Ad: Exploring Exposure, Persuasion Knowledge, And Health Misinformation On Social Media, Danielle Murray

University Honors Theses

This study explores how exposure to sponsored health and fitness content on social media influences users' perceptions of influencer motivation and belief in health-related misinformation. Drawing on parasocial interaction (PSR), attribution theory, and influencer marketing research, this study investigates two hypotheses: that frequent exposure to branded content is positively associated with (1) perceptions of influencers as commercially motivated and (2) belief in pseudoscientific health myths. A cross-sectional online survey (N = 104) was conducted using convenience sampling of adult social media users. Results partially supported the first hypothesis: exposure frequency was positively correlated with recognition of persuasive intent, but …

Inciting Action By Analyzing Pachirat, Rhi N. Soto

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

The book Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight by Timothy Pachirat explores “the politics of sight”, or the intentional invisibilizing or transparentizing of repugnant acts in order to encourage or limit them, through the case study of a beef slaughter house in Omaha, NE. While also utilizing the politics of sight, Pachirat hopes for great political and social change concerning the immoral acts that happen at meat plants through a radical act of transparency: a narrative ethnography. Writers with similar goals of great change in social and political issues can make use of Pachirat’s techniques, which …

Social Media And The Technological Infrastructure Of Polarization In The United States: How Do We Move Forward?, Phoebe Cordova

Dissertations and Theses

The United States is currently experiencing extremely high levels of polarization that is unique to other times in history. One way to account for this historical difference is the fact that polarization is playing out under the novel conditions generated by technology and, specifically, social media. Thus far, work in the area of social media and polarization has primarily focused on proving a causal relationship between the two with contributions across disciplines remaining disparate without an integrative framework of understanding. Strikingly, there are few contributions from the field of conflict resolution, indicative of the more sweeping need for the field …

Language Representation Diversity In Independently Translated Literature, Cecilia Too

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The purpose of this survey is to determine the diversity of language representation in translated literature. Specifically, this study will examine three independent presses and one imprint that publishes literary works, both fiction and nonfiction. This paper surveys the languages represented in the translated works published by these presses over the course of five years, from 2018 to 2022. A case study of one independent press, Other Press, is conducted to further study the genre and country representation in translated literature. This study finds that European languages, particularly Western European languages, are overrepresented in translated literature by more than a …

Governmental Persuasion Strategies On Social Media During Covid-19: A Comparative Study Of The Us And China, Fan Wang

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

This study compared persuasive strategies of the governments of the U.S. and China during a public health crisis using social media messages. Collecting data with R and Python from two national public health sectors' official accounts on Twitter (N = 1,630) and Sina Weibo (N = 3,554), the researcher investigated how the organizations' messages reflected Cialdini's seven principles of persuasion and whether other emergent messaging patterns occurred. According to the different phases that the two countries had gone through during the pandemic, the researcher also conducted a pooled times series analysis to investigate the relationship between the frequency of daily …

A Remote Environment’S Effect On The News Consumption Of College Students, Amelia R. Webb

Anthós

This study investigates how PSU Honor Students' news interactions have changed with the shift to a remote environment. After conducting four interviews, it found that students' news exposure increased in a remote environment. This change caused students to be more aware of the news's mental health impacts, and they adjusted their news interactions accordingly.

Developing A Conceptual Framework For Research On Social Media And Political Polarization, Audrey C. Sanders

University Honors Theses

Americans in 2020 live in a time of unprecedented political polarization. Scholars often study this trend of increased polarization in conjunction with the use of social media platforms, or social networking sites (SNSs). Despite a nearly twenty-year existence, however, the discourse community surrounding the relationship between SNS use and political polarization has yet to develop past a scattered and largely theoretical body of literature. What follows is a description of the current state of the literature followed by a description of a conceptual framework scholars can use when approaching the field and designing their own research in order to make …

The Alt-Right And Global Information Warfare, Emmi Bevensee, Alexander Ross

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Alt-Right is a neo-fascist white supremacist movement that is involved in violent extremism and shows signs of engagement in extensive disinformation campaigns. Using social media data mining, this study develops a deeper understanding of such targeted disinformation campaigns and the ways they spread. It also adds to the available literature on the endogenous and exogenous influences within the US far right, as well as motivating factors that drive disinformation campaigns, such as geopolitical strategy. This study is to be taken as a preliminary analysis to indicate future methods and follow-on research that will help develop an integrated approach to …

Framing Homelessness As Crisis: A Comparative Content Analysis Of Local Media Reports On Portland's Tent Cities, Katrien Cokeley

Dissertations and Theses

This content analysis of mainstream and alternative news narratives interprets the use of the crisis media frame, and describes the relationship between local policy initiatives, media discourse and public opinion on tent cities, organized by people experiencing homelessness in Portland, Oregon. Framing homelessness and housing as a crisis intensified the public debate, attested by an increase in mainstream media reports on tent cities, and by controversial policy changes that addressed the individually-experienced traumatic impacts of the City's anti-camping ordinance, as well as the systemic lack of affordable housing and emergency shelter. Media discourse related to city-sanctioned tent cities blurs the …

"First"-Matters: Projecting The Displacement Of Responses To Questions In The Context Of Presidential Primary-Campaign Debates, Kristella Marie Montiegel

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis takes a conversation-analytic approach examining the pragmatic functions of the linguistic marker "first (off/of all)" in second-pair-part (i.e., responsive) position relative to questions. Using data from question-answer sequences in the 2015-2016 U.S. Presidential Republican primary debates, I propose six claims regarding the composition, position, and action of what is referred to as the practice of "First"-prefacing. Analysis reveals that "First"-prefacing projects the displacement of a response (conforming or non-conforming) to a question. In projecting the displacement of a response, "First"-prefacing does two things: (1) it projects that the unit(s) of talk to come immediately next will be something …

Inspiring Action: Measuring The Effect Of Motivational Frames On Social Movement Mobilization, Rebecca Louise Smith

Dissertations and Theses

In order to probe how social movement messages foster participant mobilization, this study utilized an experimental design to investigate collective action frames, core messaging tasks that define problems, assign blame, convey a plan of action, and inspire participation. The study compared the effects of climate change messages that contain motivational frames with those that do not, incorporating the influence of resonance, and exposure to competing and counter frames. Results revealed that motivational frames contributed to mobilization, especially intention to act, under conditions of resonance and with exposure to counter frames. Salience primed participants to respond to motivational frames, however for …

The Media’S Presentation Of The Second Chance Act: Funding For Reentry Following Prison, Ailene Joyce Farkac

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

The US prison system has multiplied by four since 1980; each year about 730,000 people enter state and federal prisons and 700,000 people exit. As a result of this expansion, there is a massive increase of formerly incarcerated people reentering local communities every year. Budget cuts in prison programs and in local government’s social services are causing these individuals to be less educated and less prepared for reintegration; communities are also ill prepared to absorb them. The Second Chance Act was signed into law by President Bush on April 9, 2008. It authorized a pool of about $393m (renewed in …

Community Connections: Exploring The Constructive Potential Of Facebook For Civic Engagement, Sarah Ruth Martin

Dissertations and Theses

Recognizing the importance of civic engagement to the health of local communities and the overall success of a democracy, this research sought to better understand the relationship between online media use and civic engagement. Specifically, the constructive potential of the social networking site Facebook was explored using the theoretical framework of communication infrastructure theory (CIT; Ball-Rokeach, Kim, & Matei, 2001). Results of a cross-sectional survey with a national sample of 375 participants indicated that Facebook does hold potential for civic engagement. The two most important findings of the research were that Facebook facilitated connection to neighborhood storytelling and that connection …

Cross-Cutting Concerns: The Varying Effects Of Partisan Cues In The Context Of Social Networks, Benjamin King Smith

Dissertations and Theses

The theory of motivated reasoning predicts that partisan cues in the media will affect political attitudes, by encouraging individuals to align their views with those of their party's elites. The effect has primarily been tested by looking at issues which have pre-established partisan positions (e.g. immigration reform, gay rights, etc.). This study looks at the effects of partisan cues in the media on attitudes toward a non-partisan issue, the NSA's collection of American's meta-data. Additionally, the study extends research on partisan cues by exploring the moderating role of an individual's political communication network and, specifically, exposure to cross-cutting political communication. …

Dead Newspapers And Citizens’ Civic Engagement, Lee Shaker

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using data from the 2008 and 2009 Current Population Survey conducted by the United States Census, this article assesses the year-over-year change in the civic engagement of citizens in America’s largest metropolitan areas. Of special interest are Denver and Seattle, where the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer closed during the intervening year. The data from the CPS indicate that civic engagement in Seattle and Denver dropped significantly from 2008 to 2009 – a decline that is not consistently replicated over the same time period in other major American cities that did not lose a newspaper. The analysis suggests that …

Exploring Communicative Aspects Of Client Satisfaction, Loyalty, And Retention In A Private, Non-Profit Organization: A Qualitative, Interview-Based Study Of Catholic Charities, Amanda Michelle Fortin

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis focuses on Catholic Charities (Hereafter CC), a non-profit agency that provides pregnancy and adoption support to families in times of crisis. Research and agency data reflect a positive association between the amount of time clients engage in services and the resolution of crises. Both theoretically and empirically, a key determinant of the depth and breadth of clients' engagement with both for-profit and non-profit services is their satisfaction with such services. In 2009-2010, CC's in-house, client surveys reported a decreasing level of client engagement with services. One clear trend was that clients discontinued services after thirty days or less. …

"Game Over" For The Climate: The Keystone Xl Pipeline On Tv News, Elisabeth Wilder

Dissertations and Theses

The overwhelming consensus of the world's climate scientists is that we must rapidly reduce our greenhouse emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change. Yet the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil that emits three to four times the carbon emissions of conventional gasoline across the U.S., is supported by a solid majority of Americans. This level of support for a project a proposal that would dramatically increase greenhouse gas emissions, pollute sensitive lands and water sources, and threaten the health and safety of communities along the way begs the question: what kind …

Beyond The Yellow Brick Road: Queer Localization In The Age Of Anita Bryant, 1974-1980, Stewart John Van Cleve

Dissertations and Theses

Collective memories of gay rights in the late 1970s offer a conflicted portrait of Anita Bryant, an infamous anti-gay personality who inspired, organized, or funded four anti-gay referendums between 1976 and 1978. I employ J. Jack Halberstam's concept of "metronormativity" in an analysis of campaigns that failed to preserve local gay rights laws in Miami and Eugene, the first and last of Bryant's four "target cities." I use L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz as a metaphor to compare the beginning of Bryant's role as a leader in Miami to her subsequent role as a specter of national controversy in …

War's Visual Discourse: A Content Analysis Of Iraq War Imagery, Mary Elizabeth Major

Dissertations and Theses

This study reports the findings of a systematic visual content analysis of 356 randomly sampled images published about the Iraq War in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report from 2003-2009. In comparison to a 1995 Gulf War study, published images in all three newsmagazines continued to be U.S.-centric, with the highest content frequencies reflected in the categories U.S. troops on combat patrol, Iraqi civilians, and U.S. political leaders respectively. These content categories do not resemble the results of the Gulf War study in which armaments garnered the largest share of the images with 23%. This study concludes that …

Idealism And Pragmatism: "Transcendent" Validity Claims In Habermas's Democratic Theory, Richard Van Barriger

Anthós

In her recent article "Realism and Idealism: Was Habermas's Communicative Turn a Move in the Wrong Direction?" Maeve Cooke examines the evolution of Jürgen Habermas’s thought over the past five decades. According to Cooke, Habermas’s so-called ‘communicative turn’ was a necessary step in his philosophy’s systematic attempt to derive a universal norm from the immanent context of human practices and institutions. In her opinion, however, Habermas’s theory is unable to achieve such "transcendence from within" due to the inherent problem of justification in his theory’s treatment of normative validity claims. Cooke believes that despite Habermas’s exhaustive efforts to provide a …

News Images, Race, And Attribution In The Wake Of Hurricane Katrina, Eran Ben-Porath, Lee Shaker

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study looks at the effect of news images and race on the attribution of responsibility for the consequences of Hurricane Katrina. Participants, Black and White, read the same news story about the hurricane and its aftermath, manipulated to include images of White victims, Black victims, or no images at all. Participants were then asked who they felt was responsible for the humanitarian disaster after the storm. White respondents expressed less sense of government responsibility when the story included victims' images. For Black respondents this effect did not occur. Images did not affect attribution of responsibility to New Orleans' residents …

Comparing Discrete Simulation And System Dynamics: Modeling An Anti-Insurgency Influence Operation, Wayne Wakeland, Una E. Medina

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper contrasts the tradeoffs of modeling the same dynamic problem at a micro scale and at a macro scale of analysis: discrete system simulation (DS) versus continuous system simulation or system dynamics (SD). Both are employed to model the influence of entertainment education on terrorist system decay, with implications for field application. Each method optimizes different design, scope/scale, data availability/accuracy, parameter settings, and system sensitivities. Whether the research served by the computer model is applied or theoretical, DS tends to be useful for understand low-level individual unit/step influences on system change over time, whereas SD tends to shine when …

Local Political Information On The Web: The Case Of The 2007 Philadelphia Mayoral Campaign, Lee Shaker

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scholars and pundits have widely discussed the decline of print journalism, but there has been very little empirical research focused on examining online alternatives. This article utilizes a unique sample of online local political content related to the 2007 Philadelphia mayoral campaign to address this void. A content analysis of this dataset has three objectives: to depict the range of sources of online local political information (LPI) available to Philadelphians, to compare the LPI provided by these various sources, and to determine the amount and provenance of the original LPI that is available on the web. New media sources of …

Islamophobia And The U.S. Media, Michelle Maria Nichole Diamond

Dissertations and Theses

The following paper examines the growing fear and discrimination currently projected towards Islam and Muslims in the United States. This thesis will specifically focus on what role the U.S. mainstream media has played in either increasing or decreasing Islamophobia amongst the American public post September 11, 2001. The research collected to conduct this study came from theories of political science, conflict resolution, international affairs, psychology, sociology, and personal interviews. I conclude that Islamophobia has increased in the United States since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and that Islamophobia, due to the mainstream media, is more pervasive in the U.S. …

Another Look At The Portrayal Of Minorities And Women In Prime-Time Television, Tellisa Amos

Dissertations and Theses

This study updates a 10-year longitudinal study investigating TV's portrayal of minorities and women on prime time television. Prior studies focused on the types of roles held by performers. This study extends prior research, examining not only the types of roles held by performers, but also networks' preference for women and minorities and the genre that most often feature women and minorities.

Data were collected for a consecutive five-week period from February 19, 1997 to March 14,1997. From this sample 40 dramas and 115 situation comedies were recorded and coded. Programming was taken from shows that aired in the Pacific …

A Rhetoric Of Movements: A Dramatistic Analysis Of The Open Convention Movement, Gunnar Neil Farevaag

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to analyze the rhetorical strategies of the Open Convention Movement, a conglomerate of political mavericks who arose during the Democratic Presidential primary campaign of 1980. It consisted of both supporters and antagonists of incumbent President Jimmy Carter, primarily because of opposition to a proposed rule which would have required delegates to the Democratic National Convention to vote, on the first ballot, for the presidential candidate whom they represented in their state-wide primaries.

The Rhetoric Of Sir Thomas More And Dietrich Bonhoeffer In Original Work And Dramatic Portrayal, Robert C. Harvey

Dissertations and Theses

Chapter I. This is a critical study of the rhetoric of Sir Thomas More and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and of plays in which they are portrayed. The purpose is to discover whether or not the rhetoric of the playwrights preserves the integrity of the ideas of the central characters as evidenced by the rhetoric found in their original works .

Chapter II. Rhetorical criticism is rendering a judgment on the fitness, correctness or appropriateness of those discourses, spoken or written the aim of which is to influence the readers or hearers. There is much variety in methods of rhetorical criticism. This …