This study was conducted to identify the nature of the content devoted to the 2008 presidential election in the editorial pages of three newspapers. The research sought to discover what percentage of the content was specific to the election, whether this election-centered content focused on the campaign or on specific issues, what issues were covered, and the role in which the author was writing. This study used a comparative quantitative content analysis to examine this content appearing during the final three months of the 2008 campaign in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Dallas Morning News, and the San Francisco Chronicle, three major U.S. metropolitan newspapers with regional focus. The results provided insight into whether a marketplace of ideas exists in the editorial pages of the selected newspapers. Analysis of the election-related material revealed that each newspaper devoted a substantial portion of their editorial pages to the election. However, of that election-centered material, the majority was focused on the campaign, or "horse race," devoting much less to the discussion of substantive policy issues. The exception was the San Francisco Chronicle, which devoted almost 50% of its election-centered material to substantive issues. Only a handful of issues dominated the issue coverage in each newspaper: money, social issues, and defense/foreign policy. The general format for the editorial pages in each newspaper allowed for only a limited amount of diversity with the role in which an author is writing (i.e. the newspaper's own editorial writers vs. letters to the editor written by citizens). The majority of columns, the portion of the editorial pages where a diversity of authors has the potential to exist, were made up by authors identified by only a handful of roles.

The Internet provides the opportunity to develop a new way to present journalism, but many scholars say newspaper Web sites do nothing but mirror their print parents. This study used content analysis to compare the content of stories in five newspapers with their Web counterparts, and it examines whether reporter affiliation or a story's geographic emphasis has a relationship with the story's amount of contextual elements. These elements could include photos, graphics, or multimedia or interactive components online. This approach applied gatekeeping theory to publications that have editions in two media. This study examined the five largest newspapers in the South over 14 days, collecting a sample of 635 stories on the front pages and metro section front pages of the papers. Nearly all stories in the sample appeared on the newspapers' Web sites, and story content was the same 96% of the time. The study found that 85% of print stories were published with at least one contextual element, but only 58% of online stories had at least one such element. About a third of the sample had at least one contextual element in common between print and online versions of a story, while about 20% of the sample had entirely unique sets of contextual elements in print and online. Newspapers are no more likely to publish additional contextual elements with local stories than any other type of content. This effort focused on storytelling components; it examined whether print and Web editions of newspapers tell stories differently---whether they are complementary or competitive.

A content analysis of news Web sites reveals how many multimedia and interactive components both converged and non-converged media organizations include on their Web presence. The sample included four news Web sites considered to be highly converged with their print and broadcast counterparts (TBO.com, chicagotribune.com, DallasNews.com, and Azcentral.com), one newspaper Web site not affiliated with a broadcast media organization (buffalonews.com), and one broadcast news Web site not affiliated with a print news organization (kfmb.com). A multimedia and interactivity score was given to each Web site based on the quantity of these components each site used. Both kfmb.com (a non-converged organization) and chicagotribune.com (a highly converged news organization) offered significantly more multimedia components than the other four organizations, but only chicagotribune.com provided a statistically significant number of interactivity components on its Web site. The results of this study revealed that among the four converged news organizations (azcentral.com, dallasnews.com, chicagotribune.com, and tbo.com), the only organization demonstrating the characteristics of a converged news organization was chicagotribune.com.

Bakgrund: Hållbarhetsredovisning har växt sig allt starkare genom åren och 2017 infördes en lag gällande just detta. Innan lagen, hållbarhetsredovisade majoriteten av stora företag i Sverige. Över åren har det även skett en förändring vad gäller innehållet i hållbarhetsredovisningarna. Sandvik är ett företag som har inkluderats i olika hållbarhetsindex genom åren. Men hur har Sandvik gått tillväga för att utveckla en sådan bra hållbarhetsredovisning och vad har intressenter och samhället för roll av utvecklandet? Syfte: Denna uppsats kan bidra till att fördjupa kunskapen om hur ett excellent företag har utvecklat och förändrat sin hållbarhetsredovisning longitudinellt under 11 år. Metod: Studien är byggd på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. Datainsamlingen är gjord enligt mallar som är utformad av GRI:s ramverk och utifrån variabler som anses relevanta vid en undersökning av hållbarhetsrapporter. En person vid Sandvik har blivit intervjuad för att få en djupare förståelse i Sandviks hållbarhetsredovisning. Empirin består av en sammanfattning av nyckelorden i mallarna och intervjun. I analysen ställs empirin och intervjun mot teorier och tidigare forskning. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att Sandviks hållbarhetsredovisning har utvecklats under åren samt att resultatet kan tyda på att Sandviks intressenter och samhället har haft ett inflytande över Sandviks hållbarhetsredovisning. / Background: Sustainability reporting has grown stronger over the years. And 2017, a law was introduced concerning sustainability reporting. Before the law, the majority of large companies in Sweden developed sustainability report and there has been a change in the content of sustainability reports. Sandvik is a company that has been included in number of various sustainability indices over the years. But how did Sandvik develop such a good sustainability report and what is stakeholders and society’s role of the development. Purpose: This essay can help to deepen the knowledge of how an excellent company has developed and changed its sustainability report longitudinally for 11 years. Method: The study is based on a qualitative research method. The data collection is made by a template that is designed by GRI's frameworks and variables that are considered relevant in a research of sustainability reports. A person at Sandvik has been interviewed to gain a deeper understanding of Sandvik's sustainability report. The empirical data consists of a summary of the keywords in the templates and the interview. In the analysis, the empirics and the interview were set against theories and previous research Conclusion: The study results show that Sandvik's sustainability report has been developed over the years and that the results may indicate that Sandviks stakeholders and society have had an influence on Sandviks sustainability report.

Phishing is a social engineering attack to deceive and persuade people to divulge private information like usernames and passwords, account details (including bank account details), and social security numbers. Phishers typically utilize e-mail, chat, text messages, or social media. Despite the presence of automatic anti-phishing filters, phishing messages reach online users' inboxes. Understanding the influence of phishing techniques and individual differences on susceptibility and detection accuracy is an important step toward creating comprehensive behavioral and organizational anti-phishing awareness programs. This dissertation seeks to achieve a dual purpose in a series of three essays. Essay 1 seeks to explore the nature of phishing threats that including identifying attack intentions, and psychological and design techniques of phishing attacks. Essay 2 seeks to understand the relative influence of attack techniques and individual phishing experiential traits on people's phishing susceptibility. Essay 3 seeks to understand an individual's cognitive and affective differences that differentiate between an individual's phishing detection accuracy.

The rationale behind this study concerns the issues school administrators and teachers of expatriate students face over the progress and placement of the growing number of these students in mathematics classrooms in various countries brought about by the demographical changes occurring in this globalization era. This study aimed to present a method of examining lower secondary school mathematics textbooks with the purpose of evaluating students' expected past learning and comparing students' expected mathematics learning across the different curricula. It is anticipated that such an investigation will be of value to those responsible for the correct level of placement of these students.Six sets of textbooks from four countries on the Asia-Pacific rim, namely Australia, Brunei, China and Singapore, were selected for this study. The textbook content of each country was analyzed in terms of strand weighting and content details, and then coupled with information gained from interviews with teachers. This led to the findings which addressed the various issues raised.The findings facilitated a comparison of the learning paths offered by the various textbooks, fleshed out the differences and similarities of the various curricula and made available detailed comparisons of the textbooks' content in terms of topics covered. The analytical procedure of the examination of text content as presented in this study is itself a diagnostic technique for assessment of the students' past learning, which addressed the main objective of the study.The findings will be of interest to all who are interested in the mathematics taught in the countries involved. / Outcomes will be particularly useful to curriculum planners and textbook writers as well as the administrators and teachers of International Schools and other schools enrolling expatriate students from these countries. The study offers a 'simplistic' way of evaluating textbooks to assess students' learning progress, and highlights the traits of the countries' curricula to provide a general idea of the mathematics ability expected from the expatriate students residing in these countries.

This study examines voluntary intellectual capital reporting (ICR) in New Zealand firms' annual reports, with a view to contributing to understanding ICR practice. This study also reflects on content analysis with a view to refining the methodology when applied to investigating ICR.The literature includes widespread claims that intellectual capital (IC) resources are important value drivers and assets, and that IC information should be reported externally. However, complexities relating to identifying IC prevent it from being recognised as an asset under current accounting regulations. Consequently, the traditional financial reporting system is being criticised as out-of-date, giving deficient and irrelevant information, and having lost its value relevance. Numerous scholars have investigated voluntary ICR in several countries, but have presented different results and findings. The literature argues that the results of many ICR studies cannot be meaningfully compared because inconsistent data collection instruments have been applied. To advance ICR research, further refining and developing of the methodology is advocated; problems relating to applying methodological issues need to be resolved. Moreover, to establish consensus about ICR, more research and evidence is needed concerning exactly what and how IC is reported.The 2004 annual reports of the 30 largest (by market capitalisation) New Zealand firms listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange were analysed. Content analysis was applied to determine what and how IC is reported. Inferences about what IC is communicated were made based on an analysis of the content of texts and visual representations. To determine how IC is reported, voluntary reporting was categorised according to the form, nature and location of the disclosure. Frequencies of mention were recorded. Hence, each incidence of occurrence was coded and counted.This study reflected on content analysis methodology by searching the literature for guidance on how to apply this approach and how to deal with the challenges and problems it poses. The thesis discusses methodological issues that could be applied differently, and hence hinder the replicability and comparability of ICR studies. Moreover, the ICR literature provided limited guidance about how to deal with methodological challenges and problems, and revealed an absence of explicit recording instructions. Therefore, explicating this study's recording instructions should enhance replicability and comparability of future ICR research and hence further refine the methodology.Some results of this content analysis study disconfirm those of prior research: New Zealand firms show high levels of ICR, the most reported IC category is human capital, and the most reported IC item is employees. In line with prior research, this study showed that most ICR is presented in declarative terms. Moreover, more than one-third of New Zealand firms' ICR is disclosed as pictures. This indicates the importance of pictorial information as a means of reporting IC and the need to include graphics when conducting ICR research. This study's findings also indicate a narrative approach, similar to the European notion of story telling, to voluntarily report IC information. This approach suggests that narratives have possible potential for voluntary ICR, as an approach that departs from a measurement and quantification approach.

Doctor of Philosophy / There is a current debate in schools of social work in Taiwan about whether they should provide specific HIV/AIDS courses or integrate HIV/AIDS issues into the curriculum. However, an argument that draws on the understandings of curriculum development in social work has not emerged. This project not only explores why this is the case but also aims to resolve the debate. This research is based on two methodologies, the development of a genealogy and content analysis of data collected to build the genealogy. Foucaultian conceptualisation of using a genealogy to explain the relationship between power and knowledge has been utilised as a primary theoretical framework. The texts analysed included social work documents as well as social documents. The research objectives were an exploration of what discourses related to HIV/AIDS were constructed in broader Taiwanese society and within social work; and what forces and stakeholders outside and within social work formed HIV/AIDS curricula in social work in Taiwan. The first PLWHA case in Taiwan was reported in 1984, and four key discourses about HIV/AIDS were gradually constructed. They are individual pathological, programmatic, governmental, and socio-cultural discourses. The individual pathological discourse became dominant in Taiwan. Taiwanese social work did not consider HIV/AIDS as an issue until 1992, nearly ten years after it was recognised as a serious medical and social problem in the West. This genealogical research shows that, over time, four key discourses about HIV/AIDS were also represented in Taiwanese social work texts. The programmatic discourse emerged as more popular in social work documents. The genealogy also showed that four identified subgroups within social work in Taiwan were more able to express their views about HIV/AIDS issues. They were social work scholars, practitioners, students and translated social work documents. Reflecting dominant wider social prejudices the genealogy revealed that Taiwanese social work scholars were likely to adhere to the individual pathological discourse, the discourse that blamed those with HIV/AIDS for their own predicament. The other three groups were likely to express a programmatic discourse, which often reflected the changing governmental response over time. The genealogy also showed that influential forces outside social work included international responses on HIV/AIDS, the Taiwanese central governmental responses, social norms regarding sex, sexuality and homosexuality in Taiwan, and the status of social work in society. The key findings of this research lay in the revelation of the power of the four key discourses, the four visible subgroups within social work and the influential forces outside social work in Taiwan that emerged as dominant throughout the genealogical study. These forces formed and shaped the development of HIV/AIDS curricula in a complex way. What these findings provide is a pathway for the development of a responsive curriculum for the education of future social workers in Taiwan.

This study examines the impact of national culture on the content of corporate Web sites, and Web users’ attitudes and intentions toward culturally congruent or incongruent Web sites. In this work, culturally bipolar clusters based on Hofstede’s (1991) and Hall’s (1976) cultural dimensions are conceptualised. New Zealand and Korea are chosen as representatives of the respective bipolar clusters. This research utilises both content analysis and experimental research to provide deep insight into an area which has not yet been explored. Two studies are undertaken, Study One, focusing on the content analysis, examines how the use of visual communication and Web features differs between the two countries and between industry types. Study Two assesses Web users’ predispositions to respond favourably or unfavourably to the Web site. Web users’ perceptions, measured by experimental research with four culturally manipulated Web sites, are assumed to be the most suitable concept for studying the effectiveness of Web sites. Three ethnic groups are involved: Korean university students, New Zealand university students, and English-Korean bilingual university students. The findings reveal differences in the content of corporate Web sites from the two countries. However, these results do not support the findings of extant research. The results show that the corporate Web sites studied can be distinguished not only by the two national cultures, but also by other significant factors such as a company’s characteristics, its online presence strategy, national broadband infrastructure, and unique Internet culture. Additionally, the segment of young adults shows a convergence of cultural value systems which can be attributed to the fact that young adults in both countries have similar perceptions toward corporate Web sites regardless of their nationalities. Language structure and local terminology on the Web sites, however, are still important. This study contributes to knowledge by providing critical insights into the effectiveness and cultural congruence of Web sites. The results will benefit both academics and practitioners.

The aim of this study is to understand the importance of public relations activity in non-profit organisations. The study emphasizes the bearing public relations activities can have on non-profit organisations in the contemporary world. This is especially true in an over communicated society where the vast majority of organisations compete to gain access to the scare media resources to put their message across to their potential clients, supporters and customers. Non-profit organisations generally have to depend on the donor agencies and therefore fail to attract a sizeable public relations budget. On the one hand, these organisations lack the resources to launch a successful public relations campaign and on the other the lack of knowledge and interest among general staff members makes it even harder for a public relations campaign to be developed or successfully launched. In this study, I used both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to collect and analyse data. The data were collected from two non-profit organisations based in New Zealand working in the area of child welfare. The primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires. A single semi-structured interview was conducted with each team leader of the two selected organisations. However, this was like skimming the surface and in-depth interviews would have helped me to collect richer data. On the other hand the data collected was sufficient for this research and it helped me to create a holistic understanding of the topic. The findings of the research highlight that most non-profit organisations working in the area of child welfare find it hard to market themselves due to a lack of funds and employee involvement. Although the findings from the study are significant; caution is necessary in applying the results to other scenarios and in making generalizations. One of the key findings from this research is that both organisations did not use public relations as a strategy. Most decision related to public relations was made on random basis and no long term strategic plan was made to adopt public relations as a core strategy to build creditability among their stakeholders.