Political Science Commons^™

Perilous Place: Personal Stories Point To Possible Solutions To Widespread Flooding In The Mississippi Delta, Jared Poland

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and create journalistic stories highlighting the Yazoo Backwater Pumps Projects relationship to climate change while utilizing narrative storytelling techniques. Before explaining the methodology used for conducting research and interviews, the researcher describes the influence that innovations of mass communication channels have had on the way humans form groups and persuasively advocate for their positions. The researcher describes their historical perspective of mass media innovations that were vital considerations during their discovery and investigation of this politically divisive issue. The researcher more specifically focuses on the innovations that have occurred since the digital …

Implications Of Pop Cultural Diplomacy: An Analysis Of Idol-State Interactions, Elizabeth Erwin

Honors College Theses

This paper uses media coverage of idol-state interactions to understand the ways in which states utilize pop culture as a component of their public diplomacy strategy. Idol-state interactions are defined as an event where a pop cultural figure accompanies or is accompanied by a state official to a formal meeting with a representative of a foreign government. Looking specifically at South Korean diplomatic events where K-Pop idols are present, I find that idol-state interactions have the potential to increase media coverage, further cultural understanding and serve as a relationship-building tool.

Racialized Reality: Crime News And Racial Stereotype Framing, Warrington Sebree

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that crime news is a primary mechanism for shaping public consciousness surrounding legal order, social morality, and threats present in their citizens communities. This research explores how news media influences negative attitudes towards criminal justice reform and Black identity. Utilizing Framing Theory, this study focuses on whether negative stereotypes in crime news triggers racial prejudice and bias towards African Americans. Participants of this study will consist of current students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The findings suggest that knowing the race of a potential criminal assailant influences respondents’ attitudes towards presumptions of guilt, future criminality, and criminal …

In His Name: White Evangelicals, The Republican Party, And Their Support And Endorsement Of Donald Trump – Documentary Podcast, Matthew Moore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to provide historical context to the rise of White Evangelicals political involvement in the United States and how it evolved to support and endorse Donald Trump for president in the 2016 election. Three major factors led to this: White Christian Nationalism, traditional family values, and racial resentment. The podcast is a story told in three parts, addressing the history of these elements starting before America was even a nation to today. This project seeks to address the past, acknowledge what led to Donald Trump’s election in 2016, and reckon with White Evangelicals ought to …

American Samoa Politics: Performing Sāmoa, Dayonara S. Gaoteote

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

American Samoa as a self-governing U.S. territory located in the South Pacific is fortunate to be able to maintain their cultural traditions, language, and lands in all aspects- including their government. However, when the community suffers from a number of growing issues that affect the health and safety of its citizens, an analysis of the culture and leadership is fitting. I interviewed Jacqueline Tuiasosopo-Mata'u, Dr. Tapa'au Daniel Aga, and Chief Tauaisafune Niualama Taifane to gain insight into American Samoa government history, American Samoa government and community in the present, and to describe cultural practices and traditions that are in place. …

Best Practices For Voter Engagement Within Higher Education, Alyssa Tomins

Honors Projects

It is imperative that higher education institutions learn more about how to recruit members of younger generations to participate in future elections. Young people have historically voted at low rates, but that trend has started to change in recent years as more resources are being devoted to voter engagement among young people. This leads to the interest of understanding what best practices and strategies have academic institutions utilized to advance voter engagement on their campuses. This qualitative study analyzes these best practices and strategies at 84 colleges and universities, all of whom are members of The Andrew Goodman Foundation Vote …

The New Open Forum: Social Media Use In Georgia Gubernatorial Elections, John Mack

Honors College Theses

In 2018, Georgia saw one of the most contested elections in recent memory with Brian Kemp narrowly defeating Stacey Abrams. As a part of that election, social media would play a critical role in how campaigns are run. This thesis takes a look at previous literature on voter turnout and social media. This thesis asks: How did the campaigns use social media to spread their message, and in what stage of the election was social media most effective? To answer that question this thesis features a content analysis of Facebook posts and Tweets from the 2018 elections compared to posts …

Partisan Trust In Social Media: Who Trusts The News On Social Media And Who Does Not?, Kenneth Morris

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Social Media has changed the way Americans and people around the world receive their news. This advancement in media has political scientists questioning who trusts the information they read on social media sites. The PEW Research Center provides excellent data from a public opinion survey they conducted in 2019. My analysis of the data found that found that the older generations (50 years and older) are more warry of the news they receive on social media. More specifically, the older Republicans have less trust than the other demographics. With President Trump’s Twitter account being permanently banned from the site in …

Barriers To Post-Secondary Success, Douglas Swanson, Najeana Henderson, Maritza Sloan

Dissertations

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness.

Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a …

How "Lyingnewspapers" Made Huey Long The Ruler Of His State: A Model Of Press-Populist Dynamics, Christina A. Georgacopoulos

LSU Master's Theses

Huey Long’s use of the phrase “lyingnewspapers” to discredit negative publicity is commonly cited as evidence of his negative relationship with the mainstream press, but he did not always hold a hostile view toward newspapers. Before the press turned against him during his enemies' attempt to impeach him as governor in 1929, newspapers were one of his central tools for political advancement. He devised strategies to attract press attention and relied on newspapers to publicize himself and propagate his ideas more frequently and consistently than he used circulars or radio broadcasts, which are commonly attributed to his political success. As …

Us Media’S Coverage Of China’S Handling Of Covid-19: Playing The Role Of The Fourth Branch Of Government Or The Fourth Estate?, Wenshan Jia, Fangzhu Lu

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The present study is an analysis of a sample of reports on China’s handling of COVID-19 by several major US media with a focus on a controversial op-ed by the Wall Street Journal. It is found that instead of covering it objectively as a public health crisis, these media reports tend to adopt the strategy of naming, shaming, blaming, and taming against China. In other words, they seize the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan as an opportunity to serve Trump’s “America First” doctrine by a coordinated attempt to destroy the Chinese dream and arresting China’s ascendency. First, the naming/shaming …

Free To Hate: Hate Crimes' Intertwinement With The Evolution Of Free Speech In The United States, Lee F. Paulson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In response to the growing tension between civil liberties and civil rights, this research investigates the relationship between the relative expansiveness of free speech and a the nationwide propensity for hate crimes. I argue that government’s legal limitations of speech influence the development of linguistic and hierarchical norms in a national culture. Given structural inequality’s association to violence and crimes of intimidation, I hypothesize that as the government expands the legal bounds of free speech, the national propensity for hate crimes decreases. Text analyses of 50 influential freedom of expression rulings in the United States (U.S.) Supreme Court from 1919-2019 …

Political Communication Channels Of The Aceh Woman Legislative Member In Conveying Information To The Community, Ainol Mardhiah, Cindenia Puspasari, Maisura Maisura, Nanda Ameliany

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This research investigates the political communication channel of the Aceh’s woman legislators to the community. After the period of political conflict in Aceh, women participation in the public sphere as a legislator is shown to be increasing in quantity. However, their coverage on the media regarding their performance and activity as Aceh’s women’s legislators is still lacking. These women representatives have not been received enough recognition within the community. This study aims to reveal the political communication channel of these women’s legislator to the constituents. This study was conducted in the Aceh Legislative Body using a descriptive qualitative method. The …

Implications Of Information: An Analysis Of How State Secrecy Prevails Over The Rights Of Free People, Cassandra Kostal

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis is an analysis of the withholding of information at the hands of the federal government and the subsequent creation of a culture of secrecy that threatens the freedom of information. The primary research question was: How does the government keep information classified in the age of information and how does this penchant for secrecy and nondisclosure undermine the public’s faith in their leadership? Research into this question was conducted through two means: printed and online publications. The printed publications were books recommended to me by Dr. John Bender and the online publications were sources found through searches using …

Pornography: Social, Emotional And Mental Implications Among Adolescents, William Kelly Canady

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This presentation will explain the historical development of pornography. It will highlight four segments: 1- Porn’s impact on brain development of reward pathways, ultimately increasing the appetite for more porn. 2- Porn can be a false substitute for real intimacy, resulting in decreased sexual satisfaction with a real person and increased verbal and physical aggression. 3- Porn promotes sex trafficking, promotes multiple sex partners and reduced STD prevention. 4- A review of interventions available to assist clients in navigating a lifestyle away from pornography.

‘Enough Apd Terror:’ Protesters Call For Abolition Over Reform: City’S Fatal Police Shooting Rate Remains Highest In The Country, Gabriel Biadora

Black History at UNM

Daily Lobo coverage of February 26, 2021 protest by local activists and community members gathered at the Albuquerque Police Department’s downtown headquarters to march for the abolishment of the heavily scrutinized force. Protesters emphasize New Mexico has the country’s highest rate of fatal police shootings per capita according to a Washington Post database.

Privacy Inside Soviet Communal Life In The Film Дылда By Kantemir Balagov, Erischa Dwi Shintamega, Thera Widyastuti

International Review of Humanities Studies

Russia has a culture of communal living that already existed far before the Soviet era. In the soviet regime, communal living was seen as an instrument to reach Soviet’s utopian objective. In order to minimize dissident movements and rebellions, people are pressed to live together so they can watch each other. As a result, no Russian word could describe privacy, the concept itself did not grow in Russian society. Although consciousness of privacy needs began to grow. In the meantime, people around the world start to fix privacy issues by formulating the law, while Soviet people still dealing with the …

Questions Of Professional Practice And Reporting On State Secrets: Glenn Greenwald And The Nsa Leaks, Rebecca M. Rice

Secrecy and Society

In 2013, journalist Glenn Greenwald met with Edward Snowden, who leaked the most documents in the history of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Greenwald reported on these documents and proved that the NSA spied on millions of American citizens. However, he also provided commentary about the state of journalism and argued that journalists are often complicit in the keeping of state secrets. Using a rhetorical analysis of Greenwald's writings in The Guardian and his later book, this essay argues that journalists function as a technical audience that debates professional standards for leaking secrets. In Greenwald's case, journalists were …

Was Trump’S Deployment Of Federal Officers To Portland, Oregon And Other Cities During The Summer Of 2020 Legal And Constitutional?, Celina Tebor

Copley Library Undergraduate Research Awards

Amidst nationwide protests calling for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd, President Donald Trump deployed federal troops to several cities across the country, including Portland, Oregon. The legal basis for sending the troops was to protect federal property, and relied upon the powers of the Department of Homeland Security and an executive order from summer 2020. However, President Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the deployment suggested that they were truly sent into cities to serve as domestic law enforcement and quell the protests. And as the troops’ presence lengthened and increased in Portland, reports of kidnapping and tossing protestors into …

University Of New Mexico Anti-Racism Action Plan 2021, University Of New Mexico Division Of Equity And Inclusion

Black History at UNM

UNM antiracism action plan 2021: List of initiatives at UNM to intentionally, methodically and systemically address inclusion and equity through an anti-racist lens. This document delineates some recent and planned actions that address concerns raised in calls for action, stimulated by the death of George Floyd. DEI’s work that responds to the many demands for action is ongoing; it is not reactive.

Financial Institution And The Inclusion Of Youths Through Entrepreneurship In Kenya, Fred Ernest Nasubo

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

Kenya is home to 10.1 million youths, which corresponds to almost 20.3 per cent of the country's population aged 15-24 years. According to the World Bank report released in 2017, Kenya tops in the East Africa region in youth unemployment at 17.3 per cent in comparison to Uganda and Tanzania, at 6 per cent. The majority of youths considered to have attained working age are either unemployed or engaged in low paid employment. Promoting youth entrepreneurship is one way of empowering young people to respond innovatively to the needs of society; this would consequently lead to the generation of more …

Testing The Rambo Effect Theory: A Comparative Analysis Of Economic Integration In Mercosur And Sadc, Sarvesh Lutchmun

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

This paper attempts to conduct a comparative analysis between the integration processes of two regional blocs of the Global South, one in Latin America, namely the 1991-founded Common Market of South America (MERCOSUR) and the other in the southern part of Africa, namely the 1992-founded Southern African Development Community (SADC). In particular, this paper will seek to compare the economic integration process between MERCOSUR and SADC using insights of international political economy and regional cooperation. In doing so, the paper will test the 'Rambo effect' theory which claims that the dominant power of Brazil and South Africa has led to …

Federalism, Federal Powers And The Politics Of Restructuring In Nigeria, Charles Ekpo, Stephen E. Magor University Of Calabar

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The fact that Nigeria is a very wealthy country both in human and mineral resources could be debatable since wealth is relative. What is, however, incontrovertible is the growing disparity between the wealthy and the wretched, and the general unevenness in the spread of infrastructural and human capacity development across the country. While several reasons have been advanced for this anomaly, this paper toes the path of structural functionalism by ascribing this ill to the faulty nature of Nigeria's federalism which concentrates excessive power and resources in the hands of the federal ruling elite class, with a chronic history of …

Youth React Negatively To Food Insecurity Amid Climate Change In Chipinge District Of Zimbabwe, Sensewell Chingwaramusee

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

This study analyzes the response of youth in Chipinge in face of climate change's effect on food insecurity in the area. The qualitative research informed by desktop analysis provides empirical evidence that youth in Chipinge district have lost hope in their potential and district’s capacity to guarantee food security due to adverse changing weather patterns over the previous two decades namely, cyclone Eline and Idai. Chipinge’s climate is the key at changing the narrative at hand as it has proven to favor cash crop plantation and small grain production for example, tea, coffee macadamia nuts, sorghum and millet. The study …

Submission To The Future Of The Media Commission, Brendan K. O'Rourke, Joseph K. Fitzgerald

Reports

Dr. Brendan K. O’Rourke is a Senior Lecturer at Technological University Dublin, where he focuses on learning in the area of discourses of the economy, in particular examining enterprise, policy and public discourses on the economy. His scholarly work has been widely published as chapters in edited volumes, encyclopedia / handbook entries and in over 20 peer-reviewed academic journals such the Critical Discourse Studies, Politics and Social Semiotics. More information on his work is available on www.brendankorourke.com . Dr. Joseph K. FitzGerald lectures in international strategy at Technological University Dublin and has published on topics such as how young men …

Technology And Law: The Use Of Artificial Intelligence And 5g To Access The Courts In Africa, Thabo Magubane

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The application of the latest technological advances has the potential of giving the disadvantaged African persons the ability to have their matters heard and resolved by the courts of law. Access to justice is fundamentally important to the injured party, and it is a vital component of the protection, recognition and enforcement of human rights. Many African persons still lack the ability to afford legal fees due to poverty. This paper is to explore the use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Fifth-Generation Cellular Network (5G) to provide economically disadvantaged African people with the ability to access formal and informal institutions …

Yaljod Full Issue 3.1, Prince Ifoh

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The Young African Leaders Journal of Development (YALJOD) is a biennial journal and an official publication of the Young African Leaders Forum (YALF). It was established in 2015 to host scholarly analysis and competing viewpoints about the development of Africa; and it’s multidisciplinary approach makes it more formidable. YALJOD accepts papers from varied disciplinary areas — including Social Sciences, Physical Sciences and Humanities — that show direct relevance to the development of Africa. It publishes researches understood as the social, economic, political, cultural and technological processes of change in Africa. The intended audience of the journal remains the entire African …

Education Towards Attaining Sustainable Development In Developing Nations: Nigeria As A Case Study, Ezeifekwuaba Tochukwu Benedict

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

This Research Paper is a contribution towards highlighting the underdevelopment challenges in Nigeria by applying Education as a tool. In the present decades, there has been a Paradigm Shift in emphasizing on Sustainable Development and the way it been practised. All over the country, there is evidence of a failed leadership attributed by a dwindling economic, educational, political and social fortune. All these challenges are due to the incapability of the leadership to effectively plan for development and apply the necessary educational tools that can produce great leaders that can control the helms of Government and the private sectoral industries. …

A Regional Comparative Analysis On The Role Of Electoral Politics In The Decline Of Africa's Public Sector, Mark Opoku Amankwa, Kofi Agyabeng

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The early post-independence periods saw Africa have efficient Public Sector Institutions. Over a decade, there seems to be a decadent in the public sector. The study examines the regional analysis of government effectiveness in Africa. The study uses data given by the World Bank's Governance Indicator from 55 African countries from 2002 to 2018. The study uses Panel Regression Analysis Model of Random Effects and Pooled Ordinary Least Squares to assess government effectiveness in the five regions of Africa. The findings indicate that Southern African countries performed best as compared to its counterpart regions, followed by North Africa. However, East, …

Power Is Not Served As A La Carte: Rethinking The Social Contract In Nigeria, Chinedu Samuel Ogbuze

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

Social contract is central to the provision of public goods and social welfare. Good governance among other things derives from strong institutions of government and citizen engagement in the political process. This study focuses on reshaping the relationship between the government and the governed in Nigeria. Using functionalism theory, the paper argues that political and economic success is not automatic in a democracy but proportional to the extent that the people can hold their leaders accountable. The study concludes that changing the prolonged ethnoreligious narrative is critical to development and growth in Nigeria as the people are more united by …