Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

For companies and organizations there's an ongoing battle to maintain reputation, by actively taking a stance in the public debate companies and organizations maintain their position on the market. SJ, Statens Järnvägar, is a Swedish train operating company owned by the Swedish state. In 2017 SJ released the first commercial from their advertising campaign ‘Vem du än är, vart du än ska’ that portray norm-breaking people on their rail travel. The purpose of this essay is to analyze, on the basis of three commercials that are part of SJ's advertising campaign ‘Vem du än är, vart du än ska’ how norms are maintained and challenged through the campaign. The study also aims to investigate how the commercials are being received among younger (22-25 years) and older (58-72 years) age groups, with particular focus on the group's perception of the campaign in relation to norms and corporate responsibility in society. Using tools based in the multimodal analysis we analyzed the commercials and through focus group interviews we gathered thoughts about the commercials from the older and the younger age groups. The theoretical framework based on representation, stereotypes, myths, norms and Corporate Social Responsibility has helped us analyze the commercials and distinguish the respondents thoughts about norms and corporate responsibility. The analysis showed that the respondents understood the message that everyone is welcome to travel with SJ, but they thought the shape of the commercials were weak. Although SJ wants to break norms and stereotypes, we could see that they consolidate certain stereotypes. The respondents stated that they saw a ‘designation’ and meant that by allowing a person to represent a whole group, others within the group may feel designated. The two age groups had similar opinions and we could not determine any major difference based on age. The two age groups did however differ in which subject they discussed most. All respondents expressed how important it was that everyone got a place in the media and that companies have a great responsibility over our social development.

This dissertation consists of three related essays on the motivations and behavior of individual political donors. These essays test theoretical predictions from the campaign finance and political behavior literature using field experiments and a natural experiment, bolstering the causal interpretation of the findings. The first essay reports the results of a field experiment examining the effect of political information on the decision to contribute. In advance of the November 2014 election, postcards with information about the major party candidates for Ohio governor and secretary of state were mailed to nearly 40,000 randomly selected likely donors in Ohio. The messages in these mailings, seven in all, provided factual information regarding campaign fundraising and endorsements, as well as a simple election reminder. Notably, the messages did not include encouragements to donate or partisan cues. The experimental results show that partisan donors respond to electoral threats as well as electoral opportunities under different conditions. Donors are more likely to give to the stronger candidate when they receive a simple election reminder with no fundraising information. But when donors see which candidates are ahead and behind in total fundraising, donors give more to the candidate who is behind while donations to the candidate with more money are unaffected. The results show that donors respond to objective information about fundraising weakness in order to help their preferred candidate. The second essay (co-authored) uses experimental designs to explore two possible paths to expanding the number of small donors. First, we examine whether nonpartisan appeals, of the kind that nonprofit groups or governments could use, expand the donor base. The results suggest that one type of nonpartisan message represents a promising fundraising appeal: encouraging subjects to contribute in order to keep elected officials focused on policy issues of importance to the potential donor. Second, we determine whether informing the public about existing incentives for making small contributions increases the number and size of contributions. We report the results of two field experiments that randomly provided information to likely donors about municipal- and state-level incentives for making political contributions. Across the two experiments, we find little evidence that information about contribution incentives increases giving. The third essay examines the effect of presidential political advertisements on contributing to the presidential campaigns of the major party candidates. I examine the effect of aggregate political advertising on aggregate contributing at the media zone level, and also estimate the effects of each party’s advertisements separately on giving to the party’s presidential campaign. I find that aggregate advertisements may have an effect on aggregate giving, but this effect is substantively small (much smaller than previous scholars have found) and inconsistent across different model specifications. In addition, I find that examining aggregate amounts may mask differences between the parties. During the 2008 election, Democratic presidential advertisements had a small, but detectable, positive effect on giving to the Democratic campaign. By contrast, Republican advertisements did not significantly increase giving to the Republican campaign in 2008.

O crescimento do número de parlamentares evangélicos ao longo das últimas legislaturas acompanha o crescimento populacional de brasileiros evangélicos em todo o Brasil. Esta lógica faz sentido a partir do momento em que o eleitorado evangélico passa a buscar opções e candidatos que possam vir a representar seus interesses no Parlamento em concordância com os princípios da religião, o que ocasiona, também o crescimento de candidatos que se utilizam do discurso da religião para atrair votos dos fiéis. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar se os candidatos evangélicos possuem um perfil de financiamento de campanha eleitoral diferente de outros candidatos. Mais especificamente, analisamos o volume de arrecadação dos candidatos evangélicos; assim como, as diferentes fontes de arrecadação de recursos; como o dinheiro é gasto nas campanhas; e se a arrecadação possui um efeito diferenciado nos votos obtidos e no sucesso eleitoral. Estudaremos as eleições de 2014 para os cargos de Deputado Estadual e Federal, realizando um estudo comparativo entre candidatos evangélicos e não evangélicos. A metodologia utilizada consistirá na regressão linear multivariada e, também, na regressão logística. / The growing number of evangelical parliamentarians over the past legislatures accompanies population growth of evangelical Brazilians. This happen from the moment that evangelical electorate goes to seek options and candidates who may represent their interests in Parliament in accordance with the principles of religion, and there is also the growth of candidates who use the religion speech to attract the votes of this group. This research aims to analyze whether the evangelical candidates have a different election campaign financing profile of other candidates. Moreover, we analyze the total funds of the evangelical candidates; as well as the different sources of fundraising; how money is spent in the campaigns; and whether the total funds have a different effect on votes and electoral success. We will study the 2014 elections for Federal Deputy and State Deputy, performing a comparative study between evangelical and non-evangelical candidates. The methodology will be multivariate linear regression and logistic regression.

Contribuições de campanha afetam decisões públicas ou a atuação pós-eleitoral de atores políticos? Cientistas Políticos debruçam-se sobre esta questão há bastante tempo. No entanto, as respostas obtidas foram sempre ambíguas. Argumenta-se aqui que esta ambigüidade é em parte resultado de dificuldades metodológicas, muitas vezes malendereçadas, enfrentadas pelos analistas, como os problemas relativos a simultaneidade, a variáveis omitidas, geralmente não-observáveis, e ao estabelecimento do contrafatual adequado. Neste trabalho procuraremos contornar estes problemas através da utilização do método quase-experimental de regressão descontínua. Especificamente, iremos examinar a relação entre contribuições de campanha e a alocação de contratos públicos no Brasil. A pergunta a ser respondida é: existiu efeito de se exercer o mandato de deputado federal sobre os contratos públicos futuros recebidos por doadores dos candidatos na eleição de 2006? A conclusão a que se chegou foi de que a análise realizada nos permite afirmar que ter exercido ao menos um ano do mandato de deputado federal parece ter influenciado a quantidade de contratos públicos recebidos pelos doadores de candidatos eleitos por pequena margem na eleição de 2006, no Brasil, se consideramos apenas empresas que doaram para eleitos e apenas empresas que doaram para não-eleitos. / Do campaign contributions affect public decisions or the post-election actions of political actors? Political Scientists have battled this issue for a long time. However, the responses achieved have always been somewhat ambiguous. In this work it is argued that this ambiguity is partly the result of methodological difficulties, poorly addressed at many occasions, faced by the analysts, such as the problems of simultaneity, omitted variables, generally unobservable, and the establishment of the appropriate counterfactual. In this work we will try to circumvent these problems by using the quasi-experimental method of regression discontinuity. Specifically, we will examine the relationship between campaign contributions and the allocation of public contracts in Brazil. The question to be answered is whether there was an effect of exercising the mandate of federal deputy on future contracts received by donors to federal deputy candidates in the 2006 election? The conclusion reached was that the analysis allows us to affirm that having exercised at least one year of office for a federal deputy seems to have influenced the amount of contracts received by the donors of candidates elected by small margins in the 2006 election, in Brazil, if we consider companies who donated only to elected candidates and only to non-elected candidates.

In March 2002, Idaho Falls Post Register owner/publisher Jerry Brady announced his intent to run as the Democratic challenger in the Idaho gubernatorial race. His decision left the newspaper and its editorial staff scrambling for an appropriate way to objectively cover the state's most prominent race involving the man who signed the checks. In an effort to meet this expectation, the newspaper established a detailed plan, which included Brady moving away from the newspaper's operations, both physically and editorially. Additionally, the Post Register brought in an outside media professional to monitor its coverage of the race and hosted several meetings for readers. While several studies have examined the relationship between politics and journalism, there have not been any significant studies related to a newspaper covering one of its own, which is the focus of this work. Using a case study approach, this study examines the Post Register's plan for covering the gubernatorial race and analyzes whether the paper followed its plan. The study includes a content analysis of the campaign-related articles published by the paper based on five components of objectivity as presented by Mindich (1999). These components include detachment, nonpartisanship, inverted pyramid, facticity, and balance. From this analysis, this study aims to answer the question, "Was the Post Register objective in its coverage of the race?" The study addresses the concept of objectivity and examines three general perspectives of journalistic morality and the viewpoints within those perspectives in an effort to determine which would apply to the Post Register's situation. They include the individualist perspective (autonomy, existentialism), the collectivist perspective (communitarianism), and the dialectic perspective (public journalism). The findings reveal that the Post Register staff stuck to their coverage plan and was objective in its coverage of the race. The author suggests that these two elements are related. In other words, because the Post Register staff adopted a coverage plan and stuck to it, they were able to remain objective. The author concludes that Post Register was not rooted in one specific viewpoint. The editorial staff chose to use public journalism tactics as tools toward maintaining a perceived autonomy. In the process, they most heartily embraced the communitarian belief. In other words, if the readers are happy, we must be doing a good job.

Since the U.S. presidential election of 1800, candidates have selected campaign songs to underscore their political platforms. The literature on politics and music suggests that in modern campaigns, the significance of music rests not in the song itself but in the artist behind the song and the image associated with that particular artist. This analysis sought to convey how the very process of selecting a campaign song is a profound rhetorical act, and that songs chosen even in modern elections have a specific meaning and purpose tied to the political contexts in which they are embedded. Using an adaptation of Sellnow and Sellnow's "Illusion of Life" rhetorical perspective, which analyzes whether the musical score and lyrics of a single song form a congruent or incongruent relationship, this study analyzed the official campaign songs for both Republican and Democratic candidates for the 1972-2016 elections. The adaptation provided the opportunity to examine the intersection of music, rhetoric and politics, and explore evolving patterns and trends in campaign music.The primary findings of this research indicated that both Republican and Democratic candidates have predominantly made use of congruity in their campaign songs, with that congruity only increasing over time — a surprising result considering congruity can often diminish listener appeal. The song analyses also indicated that in general, Republican candidates tend to utilize songs that are positive and patriotic in nature, while their Democratic opponents incorporate songs that offer a critique of the nation. Additionally, findings also revealed a transition that began taking place in the 1970s to hit full stride in the 21st century, as campaign songs shifted from being a direct endorsement of candidates to focusing on universal themes that could appeal to both sides of the political spectrum.

Compared to most Western democracies, voter turnout in the United States is consistently lower. Individuals from disadvantaged groups such as the poor are also less likely to vote than more affluent citizens. To counteract these trends, American state governments since the 1970s have adopted election reform laws (early voting, no-excuse absentee or mail voting, and Same Day Registration [SDR] voting) to make voting easier for the citizen. Paradoxically, most research on election reform laws has found that these laws have a minimal effect on turnout, and do not reduce disparities between more and less advantaged voting groups. This study argues that past studies have not properly accounted for features of a state’s electoral system – combinations of voting reform laws, election administration, and history of turnout – that structure the impacts of these laws on turnout. The goal of this research is to re-evaluate the performance of these election reform laws by contextualizing the laws in a state’s electoral system. This study makes several unique contributions to the literature on election reform laws. First, convenience voting laws and state election administration are reframed as components of the overall accessibility of a state’s electoral system. Using a policy feedback framework, this reframing recognizes how citizens, political campaigns, and accessible electoral systems shape turnout. The study then evaluates the effects of accessible electoral systems on overall turnout, and turnout among the poor. Additionally, this project analyzes how these laws structure the mobilization strategies of political campaigns. Finally, this research utilizes two large datasets containing millions of respondents from all fifty American states (Catalist and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study) with advanced statistical methods to assess the effects of these laws at the individual level in the 2008-2014 midterm and presidential elections. After controlling for the accessibility of state electoral systems, this research finds that convenience voting laws do increase turnout, encourage participation from the least likely voting groups, motivate campaigns to mobilize voters, and reduce turnout inequality.

Current literature on public communication campaigns suggests that challenges and problems remain, even though generally the effectiveness of campaigns has increased in the past years. Challenges and problems are issue-specific and efforts put into influencing particular social behaviours through public communication campaigns have not been significantly successful. Although public communication campaigns are a popular method employed to influence social behaviours in many societies, campaign strategies inadequately consider the impact of cultural elements on social behaviours. The disappointing results through the use of campaigns are exacerbated by the difficulties faced in translating research observations to appropriate campaign strategies. In view of current challenges, this research examines public communication campaigns. Two main variables shaped this research ??? ???identity??? and ???culture???. The research postulated that a person???s identity influences his or her behaviour. It also argued that culture would impact on behaviour. The theoretical orientation drew on interpretivist perspectives. Using a comparative cross-cultural method, this research nominated the issues of organ donation and waste disposal behaviours in public places and the countries of Australia and Singapore for empirical study. Focus group research was employed. A total of sixteen focus groups were conducted ??? eight groups on organ donation (four in Sydney, Australia and four in Singapore) and eight groups on waste disposal behaviours (four in Sydney, Australia and four in Singapore). In line with the theoretical orientation, ???grounded theory??? was used to analyse the focus group transcripts. It is argued that a person???s decision to organ donation or waste disposal behaviour was intimately related to his or her identity. Cultural elements are critical constituents of identity. This is to say, cultural values, beliefs and attitudes have significant impact on social behaviours. These intricacies were made apparent when each issue was seen in the national contexts of Australia and Singapore. This research concludes that issues of identity can partly explain the type of decision a person makes about organ donation, and the kind of waste disposal behaviour a person enacts. It also argues that the effectiveness of campaign strategies can potentially be enhanced, if the strategies are responsive to people???s identities.

This research explores areas of contention in the mental heath field in Australia through a qualitative analysis of voices and practices that can broadly be seen as talking with and talking back to psychiatry. The thesis is informed by key shifts in thinking that underpin postpsychiatry and analyses a set of materials through an interpretive lens of reading psychiatry against the grain (Bracken & Thomas, 2005; Lewis, 2006). In particular, it examines a failed ethics application to conduct research with people diagnosed with a mental illness, an anti-stigma campaign, the practices of some prominent mental health organisations in Australia, a conversation with two members of an emerging consumer/survivor network in Australia, and a television documentary and online discussion forum about an antidepressant medication. The research draws from discourse analytic methods and concepts from social movement framing research to identify factors shaping conformity and resistance to psychiatric doxa in the Australian mental health field. The research identifies the discursive repertoires that characterise the mental health field as a "game" in which competing perspectives vie for recognition. In relation to research ethics committees, the thesis argues that deference to clinical expertise is a potential barrier to cultural studies of psychiatry and a more inclusive agenda in mental heath research and practice. Some practices for ethics committees to consider when reviewing research that involves people who may have been diagnosed with a mental illness are proposed. The research also identifies problematic features of anti-stigma campaigns that direct their efforts toward protecting and promoting the discourse of biomedical psychiatry. A critique of this type of campaign is offered in relation to perspectives from postpsychiatry and social constructionism. On the basis of this research, it is argued that organisations that champion "mental health literacy" are limited in their ability to give voice to the goals and priorities of those who are calling for a more open, reflexive and democratic debate in mental health. The central argument of this thesis is that elevating first-person and postpsychiatry perspectives is necessary in order to interrogate and address the dominance of the medical model in psychiatry and its consequences.