Historically, the federal government has been the institution responsible for setting the nation's drug policy. Since 1996, however, the federal government's authority and legitimacy in this issue area has increasingly been challenged through state ballot measures introduced via the initiative process. While only eight percent of ballot measures historically are approved by voters (Initiative and Referendum Institute 2004), half of the 28 state ballot measures on illegal drugs have been approved by voters over the past decade. The stated goal of those supporting legalization through ballot measures is to "build a political movement to end the war on drugs" (Nadelmann 2004). Nadelmann (2004) suggests that victories in the states show that the "nascent drug policy reform movement" can win in the "big leagues of American politics" and that the successful models presented through the ballot measures will increase "public confidence in the possibilities and virtue" of regulating the non-medical use of illicit drugs. To date there has been no detailed examination of the issue framing strategies in this venue; nor has there been an effort to link the problem definition and direct democracy literatures. This dissertation links the problem definition and direct democracy literatures, using drug policy as the vehicle and applying Stone's (2002) analytic framework of problem definition to make descriptive inferences about the issue framing devices employed in state ballot measures on illegal drugs. The research examines a range of materials related to the state ballot measures on illegal drugs including the language appearing on voter ballots; the full text of the ballot measures, including ballot titles and political preambles; and the voter information statements and their authors. In addition, the dissertation describes the elements of legalization proposed by the ballot measures that were approved by voters and examines three key legal challenges to Proposition 215, one of the first ballot measures on illegal drugs approved by voters in California in 1996, including two U.S. Supreme Court cases. / Ph. D.

The 2006 Congressional elections included some of the closest elections in recent history. Party control was on the line in both houses of Congress. As a result, candidate message strategies were subject to intense scruntiny by media and voters alike since each election played a significant role in determining which party would control the Senate. This thesis employs a content analysis of ten candidate-controlled blogs from five 2006 U.S. Senate elections to evaluate candidate issues, incumbent and challenger strategies, and message tactics used by the candidate to reach a wide classification of voters. The entire population of posts from the ten candidate blogs (N = 474) was included in this analysis. The thesis assesses candidate blog strategies and candidate gender difference through the theoretical perspectives of the issue ownership framework, agenda setting, and incumbent and challenger strategies. Findings show little evidence of intercandidate agenda setting through blogs, general adherence to assumptions of the issue ownership framework, and offer foundations for future communication research focused on candidate blogs. Recommendations for future research include a more expansive study of all campaign blogs as well as an intermedia agenda setting study to measure systematically the influence of blogs on other media. / Master of Arts

This study content analyzed candidate press releases and newspaper articles from the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election in order to determine which issues, strategies, and audiences were most salient on candidate and media agendas during the campaign. Monthly cross-lagged correlations were used to measure agenda setting effects between the two major party candidates, among the four newspapers, and between candidates and newspapers. These correlations showed that the candidates maintained consistent issue agendas throughout the campaign but shifted their strategy and audience agendas frequently, while the newspapers generally maintained consistency for all three types of agenda. Many of the cross-lagged correlations indicated that the candidates shared reciprocal influence with the newspapers, but in some cases the candidates set the newspapers' issue agendas, while the newspapers set the candidates' audience agendas. The two candidates showed reciprocal influence between their agendas throughout much of the campaign, but Republican Jerry Kilgore set Democrat Tim Kaine's agenda during some months early in the campaign. The four newspapers studied showed a clear path of influence on issue agendas, with the Richmond Times-Dispatch influencing The Washington Post, which in turn influenced The Roanoke Times, followed by The Virginian-Pilot. Influence between the newspapers' audience and strategy agendas was mostly reciprocal. / Master of Arts

Social media is becoming an increasingly studied phenomenon in recent years, with a rise in users and the wide variety of content. Political socialization covers mass media and social media, though it only discusses the implications of how attitudes are developed from media forms. While politics and political content occur on different social media platforms, the literature and research of this subject is lacking. Life-altering events can work to change one's political outlook, where motherhood, traumatic experiences, and first-time experiences can affect political opinions. Converging the two together, with specific groups on social media platforms discussing politics, will help to expand the knowledge of how politics and social media work with one another. This study seeks to examine first-year teachers and teachers on social media platforms, the types of content they post, the types of political content they post, and how they work to discuss political topics. I scraped different first-year teacher posts on social media platforms, coded the posts into different categories, and analyzed the trends in these posts. Then I take these first-year teacher posts and compare them with Florida teachers in the same context. This will help to understand how each of these groups vary from another in discussions of political content. With these findings working to expand the previous knowledge of how political socialization is within social media, how different teachers discuss political content, and the types of possible interactions work to socialize children in schools.

The role of media in society is significant, and what the media reports influences people. The agenda-setting theory suggests that the issues covered by the media become important topics in society, and through descriptions and attributes, the media can shape public opinions. Sweden's military non-alignment ended with its membership in Nato becoming a reality in 2024. Until 2012, public opinion in Sweden strongly opposed joining Nato. However, a shift occurred, and the gap between supporters and opponents narrowed. This study, through a qualitative content analysis, examined how the editorial pages of three Swedish newspapers described Swedish Nato membership from 2008 to 2015, and how the relationship between these descriptions and public opinion evolved. The results clearly show that, over time, the editorials increasingly portrayed Swedish Nato membership positively rather than negatively. There is a correlation between these descriptions and public opinion. However, it is not possible to conclude whetherthe editorials influenced public opinion or if the reverse is true.

The purpose of this study was to analyze how two major online newspapers, Aftonbladet.se & Expressen.se, have framed and portrayed the actions of the environmental organization Återställ Våtmarker in their reporting. Additionally, the study also examines whether the portrayal of the organization has changed over time. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on 23 articles. The analysis was based on framing and agenda setting theory and included both text and image analysis. The results of the study showed that initially in the first half of 2022 Återställ Våtmarker was framed as a “peaceful” organization, where the conflicts and drama arose due to public reactions and actions. This however changed in the later half of 2022, Återställ Våtmarker began to be framed and portrayed as an organization who was seeking conflicts and drama. The articles and their reporting began to indicate that their primary focus was to highlight the demonstrations and actions as “annoying” and “disruptive” to the public. But also how “chaotic” scenes and “turmoil” constantly arose due to Återställ Våtmarker and their demonstrations. However, it can be argued that the reporting was a textual overdramatization as there was a clear discrepancy between the text and the images in the reporting, Thus, it can be speculated that the articles overdramatized the text to attract more readers, which in turn leads to more revenue for the newspaper.

Debattsidan i Dagens Nyheter har sedan 1980-talet varit en av Sveriges viktigaste opinionsbildare, och den fyller en värdefull funktion för fri åsiktsbildning i en väl fungerande demokrati. Denna studie fokuserar på hur debattsidan förändrats under de senaste 25 åren med utgångspunkt i kön (vem får oftast komma till tals på debattsidan, kvinnor eller män? – och hur har könsfördelningen utvecklats sedan 1980- talet?) och roll (exempelvis politiker, chefer och forskare). Vi har gjort en kvantitativ undersökning med början första helåret som DN Debatt hade en egen sida i tidningen, 1985, fram till 2010. Med hjälp av konstruerade veckor har sju dagar per år slumpmässigt valts ut. Resultaten visar att av våra författare (n = 498) är 75,3 procent av de undersökta författarna män, och 24,7 procent är kvinnor. Skillnaden mellan kvinnor och män minskar. Politiker är den största yrkesgruppen, och andelen politiker ökar ytterligare. Forskarna har legat på en relativt jämn nivå medan företagen publiceras på DN Debatt i allt högre grad. / The daily discussion feature ”DN Debatt” within the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter has been one of the country’s most influencial opinion formers since the 1980’s. With the starting point in theories within media and communication, we hade studied this important institution with focus on how the gender distribution and the authors’ professional roles – for example politicians, researchers and journalists – have changed over the last 25 years. The results show that of our total population of authors (n = 498), 75,3 percent are men and 24,7 percent are women. The difference between men and women is decreasing. The professional roles that dominate our study are politicians, followed by researchers, journalists, CEOs and other representatives from companies, authorities and organizations. The ”common man” without some kind of established professional role is not published on DN Debatt.

Worldwide, the remarkable diffusion of transparency and access to information laws poses a monumental challenge to the state’s most enduringly undemocratic feature— excessive secrecy. Will recent laws lead to an effective surrender of secrecy? The incipient literature on transparency reform says little about the strength of current legislation or how strong laws emerge. This dissertation addresses these theoretical and empirical gaps. First, it articulates a theory on the political determinants of strong access to information laws. Second, employing an original evaluation, it scores the strength of twelve access to information laws advanced throughout Latin America between 2002 and 2010. Two extreme outcomes are examined in detail: a failed comprehensive reform in Argentina (1999-2005), which resulted in a limited presidential decree (2003), and the adoption of a seminal law in Mexico (2002). These cases are then compared with others across Latin America with special attention placed on Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay. I find considerable variance in the strength of the region’s laws: the average score is “moderately strong,” while the median and mode scores are “moderately weak.” Evidence shows that while civic coalitions and external pressure often help drive reform, they cannot explain observed variation in legal strength. Rather, I find that laws emerge more robust and earlier-on within the electoral cycle (within the first half of a president’s term of office), in countries where 1) presidents lack control over the legislature and 2) news media coverage of access to information laws is strong. By contrast, where news media coverage is weak and presidents possess strong negative agenda setting powers (partisan majorities or constitutional means of denying a vote), I find that laws tend to emerge later-on during the electoral cycle (within the last third), and are considerably weaker. I also find that press advocacy for access to information laws tended to be greater in countries where presidents were weaker and news media ownership concentration was low. The dissertation addresses key institutional preconditions for good governance and transparency reform. More specifically, it speaks to the determinants and power of the news media as an agent of democratic advancement (and stagnation), and the importance of weak leaders and partisan competition in promoting good governance reform. / text

This study focused on policy agenda-setting models for school sport and physical education in South Africa. The primary objective was to assess and propose options for improved agenda-setting by focussing on the use of agenda-setting models and by applying it to physical education and school sport and the policy agenda of the national government. The study has shown that pertinent school sport and physical education policy issues, as supported by key role-players and principal actors, were initially not placed on the formal policy agenda of government during the research investigation period (2005-2009). However, during 2010 and 2011 the issue of school sport and physical education received prominent attention by authorities and these developments were subsequently included in the study. The study aimed at contributing to existing policy agenda-setting models and by recommending changes to the Generic Process Model.The study also made a contribution by informing various role-players and stakeholders in education and school sport on the opportunities in policy agenda-setting. The study showed that policy agenda-setting is a vital step in the Generic Policy Process Model. Policy agendasetting in South Africa is critical, as it is important to place new and emerging policy issues on the policy agenda and as a participative public policy process is relatively new in this young democracy. The reader should not confuse the study as one dealing with school sport and physical education primarily, but rather as a research investigation dealing with policy agenda-setting models as applied to school sport and physical education.The secondary objectives of the study included the development of a historical perspective on trends and tendencies in education and sport in South Africa. A second objective was to provide theoretical perspectives on public policy and specifically on policy agenda-setting. From these theoretical perspectives, the Generic Policy Process Model was selected to use as a model that provided guidance on the overall policy process normally followed in South Africa. The Issue Attention Cycle and Principal Actor Models on Agenda-Setting were selected to apply to the case study to specifically ascertain important factors related to policy agenda-setting such as the identification of key role players as well as key policy issues. The Generic Policy Process Model provided for both a comprehensive set of phases as well as specific requirements and key issues to be addressed during each phase of the policy process.In terms of findings the study found that a number of specific agenda-setting elements or phases needed to be added to the Generic Policy Process Model, which includes a problem stage, triggers, initiator, issue creation and actors or policy stakeholders.The Principal Actor Model to agenda-setting was selected for application to the case as different actors have different levels of success at each policy stage. In the South African experience it is important to look at who sets the policy agenda and why, who can initiate agenda-setting and the role played by these principal actors in the agenda-setting process.Issue emergence often places policy issues on the policy agenda. The public is initially involved in issues, but in the long term public interest declines. The government realizes the significant costs involved in placing policy issues back on the agenda. This leads to a decline in issue attention by policy-makers and the public. The Issue Attention Cycle Model of agenda setting was used to analyse this phenomenon in South African Education policy.The study provides a case assessment of the South African experience. From the research findings, a set of conclusions and recommendations were developed for improved policy agenda-setting models and implications for school sport and physical education, as well as tools to place it on the national policy agenda were identified. The research findings suggest that pertinent school sport and physical education policy issues, as supported by key roleplayers,stakeholders and principal actors were not placed on the formal policy agenda of the government as a vital step in the policy process between 2005 and 2009. Ever since, principal policy actors, civil society NGOs, and government officials placed sufficient pressure on the Minister of Basic Education to place Physical Education on the agenda. Subsequently,Minister Angie Motshega has placed physical education in the school Curriculum under the subject Life Orientation and Lifeskills. It has become evident from the research that agendasetting is both necessary to, and a complex phase in, the policy-making process.This study has shown that major policy issues such as physical education and school sport were neglected during the period 2005 and 2009 despite reformed and advanced policy cycles in government. It has also shown that the role of policy agenda-setting in the overall policymaking process was revisited by government in the subsequent period 2010/2011 and placed on the policy agenda. Specific lessons of experience emanated from this process.The study recommends that the triggers of the agenda-setting phases be added to the Generic Policy Process Model, which should include the problem stage, triggers, initiators, issue creation, actors and policy stakeholders. Principal actors in the agenda-setting model in South Africa want the issue of physical education and school sport to be part of the school curriculum, and therefore be placed back on the policy agenda by the Government on its institutional agenda. Furthermore, the study showed that actors wanted it to be compulsory in all phases of the school (Foundation, Intermediate, Senior, GET, FET) and that it should have the same legal status as other subjects.The important findings include that: Comprehensive policy process models such as that of Dunn, Wissink and the Generic Process model may need to be reviewed to incorporate more fully the policy-agenda setting stages of the overall process; Current policy agenda setting models in use are relevant and valuable in identifying key role players as well as key issues and considerations regarding the policy process; Institutional arrangements to strengthen the role of NGOs and lower level institutions,such as schools to participate in policy agenda setting are important; and the study has shown that a number of key factors have been identified that had a key influence on policy agenda-setting in the case of physical education and school sport in South Africa. These included the influence of changing political leadership, the competency of policy capacities in government, the profile of issues in the media etc. The key findings of the study have shown that further potential exists to improve monitoring and evaluation and policy analysis.The study made a set of recommendations to principal actors such as the Minister of Education, Minister of Sport and Recreation, non-governmental organisations, interest groups,department officials and pressure groups. A set of research topics was also identified for future research. / Philosophiae Doctor - PhD

According to earlier studies, men dominates the sports pages in Swedish newspapers. The gender balance is far from equal and the purpose of this thesis is therefore to look into how Swedish local and regional newspapers covered gender in their sports pages during the year of 2013. The study also examines the news values of men’s and women’s sports, whether there are any differences compared to previous studies and whether there are any differences across the country. The study uses a quantitative content analysis and the result is based on editorial material from six randomly selected newspapers in 18 randomly selected days. We have analyzed 2005 separate units in 108 copies of newspapers. The study shows, as in previous studies, that the news feed is mainly concentrated on sports practiced by men, and it isn’t any significant differences across the country regarding the coverage of gender. Sports practiced by men also have a higher newsworthiness since it gets more space and are more promoted on the frontpages of the newspapers. The conclusion is therefore that sports practiced by women are marginalized as a deviation from the male norm.