Political Science Commons^™

Fighting For Fairness: The History Of Kentucky’S Local Movements To Enact Fairness Ordinances In 1999, Micah Bennett

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This CE/T project explores the histories of the local movements for fairness ordinances which transpired in Kentucky in the year 1999. Fairness ordinances expand local civil rights protections on the basis of ‘sexual orientation’ and sometimes ‘gender identity’ to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) peoples and usually protect in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. Four communities in the state considered such laws in 1999: Greater Louisville, Lexington-Fayette, the City of Henderson, and the City of Bowling Green. This thesis takes a holistic approach towards the history of these movements, exploring the procession of chronological events, …

You'll Never Walk Alone: The Scales Of Identity Of Celtic Football Club Supporters, Neil Conner

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

How and why a person chooses to support a specific sports team/club is more complex than one might imagine. Historically, this selection was primarily established based on a number of socially constructed identities associated with geographic location and the ideas of place and space. This formed a dynamic relationship between the team and the supporter that was relentlessly renegotiated. In today's globalized world, these multifaceted decisions take on additional intricacies as place and space become amplified by growing global cultural exchanges. This ethnographic study will examine how these recent transformations have affected how supporters of the Glasgow Celtic Football Club …

“Change” In The 2008 Presidential Campaign: A Study In Rhetorical Definition, Graciela Saez Kleriga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Every election cycle, the major party candidates accept a nomination for the presidency and launch the general campaign. These rhetors not only weave a narrative about themselves as qualified candidates; they also forward an argument about how the public should choose between two candidates. In particular, the 2008 presidential campaign's central question asked Americans about the type of change the nation should undertake. By tracing the definitional arguments utilized at the outset of the general election, this project analyzes how Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain utilized this desire for "Change" as a strategic theme.

What Is Conservatism?, Heidi Peters

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

The re-branding of the right manifested itself in conservative movements and gatherings across the country in-between 2008 & 2010. One of those events included Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally on August 28, 2010. This research project is a case study that illustrates how the conservative political ideology is defined and rejuvenated after massive defeat.

Network Television’S Coverage Of The 2008 Presidential Election, Stephen J. Farnsworth, S Robert Lichter

Political Science & International Affairs Articles

Content analysis of network evening news coverage of the 2008 presidential election revealed a slight increase in the amount of coverage and a decline in the coverage of policy matters compared to 4 years earlier. Barack Obama received the most positive coverage recorded for any major party nominee on network television since the Center for Media and Public Affairs started analyzing election news content in 1988. The tonal gap between the Democratic and Republican nominees was also the largest recorded over the past six presidential elections. The one-sided coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC was in sharp contrast to the …

Human Rights Revisionism And The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition To Combat Antisemitism, Susan Ferguson, James Cairns

Journalism

This article focuses on the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA): a self-appointed group of parliamentarians dedicated to extinguishing what it calls “the new antisemitism.” Working from a Gramscian perspective, we identify key discursive strategies in coalition publications and testimony and argue that despite the CPCCA’s pretence to being a forum for liberal-pluralist debate, in fact it is engaged in an ideological reframing of human rights designed to restrict political debate. It does so, paradoxically, by drawing on the language of left-liberalism, which contrasts with recent ideological interventions aiming to secure the priorities of the neo-liberal state.

Ua12/2/22 Western Kentucky State Normal Commonwealth, Wku Moot Congress

WKU Administration Documents

Undated report of the WKU Moot Commonwealth Committee on Resolutions. Resolutions regarding transportation, economic development, alchohol and conservation.

Statutory Meanings: Deriving Interpretive Principles From A Theory Of Communication And Lawmaking, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ua12/3/2 Student Government Association - Publications, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Publications created by and about the Student Government Association. Series includes newsletters, annual reports, brochures and posters.

Ua12/2/22 Moot Congress, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding the Moot Congress and Commonwealth created by the Kit Kat Club in order to practice debate and learn about government.

The Loud Public : The Case Of User Comments In Online News Media, Naama Nagar

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the pre-internet era most members of the public did not have the ability to express their opinions on political issues via the mass media. This dissertation illustrates how the internet changed that by providing average citizens with endless opportunities to be heard. In particular, I analyze user comments on mainstream news sites as a vehicle that enables individuals to have a voice.

The 2008 Us Presidential Campaign As Represented In The Online Edition Of The Korea Times, Sherri L. Ter Molen

Communication Faculty Research Publications

Because public opinion has been found to influence government policy (Page & Shapiro, 1983, p. 185) and because media are cultural products that “mirror society” and “contribute to the reconstruction of the culture” (Czarniawska, 2006, p. 250), I conducted a rhetorical analysis of the coverage of the 2008 US presidential campaign in the online edition of the English language newspaper, The Korea Times. Using Entman’s (2007) concept of framing bias in the media as a means to influence the distribution of power, I found that The Korea Times used the deictic expression ‘we’ to express and (re)construct nationalistic views of …

Approval Of George W. Bush: Economic And Media Impacts, Gino Tozzi Jr.

Wayne State University Dissertations

George W. Bush's approval rate had its shares of ups and downs. In this time series study I analyze the empirical evidence of the media's and economy's impact on his approval rate from 2001-2009. People tend to hold the president responsible for the country's economic performance and the media influences people's opinions of the president through agenda setting and priming. I operationalize the media influence on people into an independent variable. My economic independent variables are the monthly percent change in inflation rate, unemployment rate, and personal income. The dependent variable is the president's approval rate. This study seeks to …

Cacophony Or Empowerment? : Analyzing The Impact Of New Information Communication Technologies And New Social Media In Southeast Asia., Jason P. Abbott

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The capabilities, tools and websites we associate with new information communication technologies and social media are now ubiquitous. Moreover tools that were designed to facilitate innocuous conversation and social interaction have had unforeseen political impacts. Nowhere was this more visible than during the 2011 uprisings across the Arab World. From Tunis to Cairo, and Tripoli to Damascus protest movements against authoritarian rule openly utilized social networking and file sharing tools to publicize and organize demonstrations and to catalogue human rights abuses. The Arab Spring, or Jasmine Revolution, was an event that was both witnessed and played out in real time …

Ua1b1/3 University Lecture Series, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by the University Lecture Series committee which invites distinguished and prominent individuals to lecture at the university. The records include correspondence with potential speakers and programs, posters and recordings of lectures.

Ua1b Wku University Wide Committees/Events, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding university wide events such as lecture and concert series. See individual departments for smaller co-sponsored events.

The Future Of The Gender Wage Gap In The American Workforce, Molly K. Merrick

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis aims to accomplish four goals. First, to establish the extent to which a gender wage gap exists in the American workforce and why it matters. Second, it seeks to explore the various factors that scholars have advanced as potential explanations for this gap with the aim of identifying a more concrete and all-encompassing root cause of the gender wage gap as it exists today. Third, this thesis will individually evaluate a succession of equal pay legislation which has been enacted to date in order to discern the effectiveness of previous attempts to address this root cause, as well …

Ua12/2/5 Student Affairs - Wku Amateur Radio Club, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about WKU Amateur Radio Club and WB4DQM. The collection consists of certificates, QSL cards received from other clubs around the world and a brief run of Radio Watch.

Recognition Within The Limits Of Reason: Remarks On Pippin’S Hegel’S Practical Philosophy, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since the publication of Charles Taylor’s Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition in 1989,[1] the concept of recognition has re-emerged as a central if not dominant category of moral and political philosophy.

[1] C. Taylor, “The Politics of Recognition,” in A. Gutmann (ed.), Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 25-73.

Strategies Under Pressure: Usa-China Copyright Dispute, Dexin Tian, Chin-Chung Chao

Communication Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the Chinese and American efforts in keeping the balance of innovation and copyright protection, with an emphasis on China’s strategies under Western, especially American pressure. The research findings are expected to enhance mutual efforts from the two countries to protect copyright and boost innovation and facilitate genuine communication between both sides in their decade-long intellectual property right (IPR) disputes.

Design/methodology/approach – For data collection, this study adopted in-depth interviews of 45 participants who were either copyright holders as publishers and authors, or ordinary consumers in China. Under the theoretical guidance …

El Camino Largo De Integración Regional De Defensa Y Seguridad: Desafíos Y Potencialidades Del Consejo De Defensa Suramericano, William Heegaard

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The South American Defense Council (SDC) represents the most recent step taken along a long road of multilateral and bilateral defense agreements echoing Bolivar’s dream of continental defense integration. Before the Second World War, the continent developed a deep base of collective security agreements that eventually formed the OAS. However, during the Cold War, the U.S. replaced collective security with the doctrine of national security. U.S. unilateral policies prevented the possibility of continental cooperation on defense. In the vacuum, new alliances and agreements were made at sub-regional and bilateral levels. With the end of the Cold War, a new …

Nationalism And Public Opinion In Contemporary Spain: The Demobilization Of The Working Class In Catalonia, César García

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Arts and Humanities

This paper examines the relationship between nationalism and public opinion in the region of Catalonia in contemporary Spain. It analyzes the interaction of the climate of opinion, expectations, poll results, and political action. This holistic approach permits a conclusion that successive Catalan governments and the political class, in an effort to solidify their foothold in and emerging democracy, have been successful in creating a climate of opinion that has encouraged the nationalist part of the Catalan population, concentrated proportionally in highest socioeconomic strata, to be actively involved in politics, while at the same time demobilizing a significant part of the …

Cascading Simulation: A Critical Perspective On Barack Obama‘S Foreign Policy During The 2008 Presidential Election, Ian P. Beier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Entering the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama had little to no foreign policy experience. On face, this would seem to make Obama an unlikely choice for President. Yet, he was able to defeat Hilary Clinton and John McCain, the two candidates with significant foreign policy experience. My thesis examines Barack Obama's speech "A World That Stands as One" as a case study for understanding how simulation operates in the context of presidential campaigns. Using Robert Entman's theory of "cascading activation," I develop a theory of "cascading simulation," arguing that image construction descends downward from the president through the media. In …

Counterterrorism Intelligence Analysis: Language As Threat, Vulnerability, And Risk, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the role of language in describing possible membership in or connection to al Qaeda.

The Missed Dialogues Of The Euro-Turkish Relationships, Juliette Tolay

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper attempts to assess the state of dialogue between Europe and Turkey. Using Thomas Risse's application of Habermas' theory of communicative action, it covers and analyzes four opportunity spaces for dialogue: the European Union-Turkish institutional relationship, the bilateral diplomatic relationships between European countries and Turkey, Turkish immigration to Europe, and European tourism in Turkey. Overall, most communicative interaction between Europe and Turkey is done under the logic of appropriateness (rule-guided behavior) as opposed to the logic of consequentialism (interest-guided behavior) or the logic of arguing (reasoning-guided behavior). As interactions remain superficial and one-sided, they merely are "missed dialogues."

Sea Cruise: Israelis And Palestinians Drowning In Water Sport, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The article discusses differing Israeli and Palestinian narratives in regards to the deaths of 9 people during an Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

The Word On Terrorism Threat As Terrorism Threat, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses terrorism (and terms associated with it), considering the social rhetoric surrounding the terms as well as other potential meanings. The constraints of the words used to define these terms of terror are considered.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 85, No. 49, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Wilson, Laurel. Tuition Hike Limited to 5 Percent
• Wilson, Laurel. Halftime Adjustments: Gary Ransdell Reflects as Administrative Changes Bring Transition
• Harris, Shakia. Regents Approve New Programs – Art History, Asian Religions & Cultures, Organizational Leadership, Water Resource Management
• Duvall, Tessa. Community Colleges Pledge to Improve Graduation Rates – Kentucky Community & Technical College System, KCTCS
• Kasnic, Dave. A Thousand Words – Nell Ferguson, Jamboree Barn, Rosine, Kentucky, Bluegrass
• Duvall, Tessa. Land Sale Approved for Greek Village – Regents, Planning, Design & Construction, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu
• Simpson, …

Is “Fake News” The New News? The Effect Of “The Daily Show” On Media And Political Knowledge, Heather Avenson

Political Science Theses and Capstones

One can hardly argue the impact that “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” have had on popular culture. But do these shows also hold an impact on journalism and political knowledge? In other words, are “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” reasonable sources of news? Using data gathered by the Pew Research Center in April of 2008, and by myself through a survey of Bemidji State University students enrolled in political science courses, I attempt to answer the following questions: Are people who watch either “The Daily Show” or “Colbert Report” more informed than their counterparts? Do people who watch …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 85, No. 41, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Wilson, Laurel & Emily Ulber. Dean Kahler Resigns from Enrollment Management Position
• Snyder, Kristen. This Old House: Bowling Green Residents Restore Historic Homes – Emily Sharp, Bowling Green & Warren County Historic Preservation Board
• Historic Bowling Green
• Kriz, Lindsay. WKU Student Adopts Marine in Afghanistan – Lydia Kerr, Taylor Yontz, Afghan War 2001-2021
• Wilson, Laurel. Government to Control Student Loans – Legislation, Student Financial Aid, Direct Loan Program
• McIntyre, Scott. A Thousand Words – Esh Family, Mennonites, Automobile Accidents
• Wadley, Emily. Engagement Institute Opens in Garrett – Institute …