During its violent spread across the Middle East, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) amassed both a local and international following in large part due to its usage of emergent media distribution. Beginning in 2014, ISIS’s Ministry of Media published an English-language magazine, Dabiq, disseminating its issues through online platforms. Dabiq and its successor Rumiyah both serve as propagandistic recruitment material for ISIS’s international community as well as broadcasting the message of the jihadist movement to ISIS’s enemies. This study analyzed ISIS’s publications using a qualitative content analysis in order to identify jihadist recruitment strategies through the perspectives of agenda-setting theory, the diffusion of innovations, symbolic convergence theory, and speech codes theory. These communication theories characterize the roles that civilizational conflict, population demographics, narrative themes, and emergent media play in the diffusion of the jihadist movement. This study samples the textual content and imagery of issues of Dabiq and Rumiyah, using thematic analysis to procedurally code the data by recognizing shared characteristics and concepts. The fundamental goal of this study is to gain a greater understanding of the way ISIS, its members, and the jihadist movement communicate their intentions, with the hope of preventing further recruitment and radicalization. The two following research questions drive this study: (1) What themes are present in the ISIS publications of Dabiq and Rumiyah? (2) How do the themes of these publications vary over time?

This thesis addresses the phenomenon of the recent success of foreign-born mangaka in the Japanese comic industry. One in a long line of foreigners who have written about Japan, Swedish mangaka Åsa Ekström is a representative example whose success has been facilitated by a set of circumstances brought on by the influence of the international manga market, socio-economic policies stemming from the unique challenges presented by Japan’s declining birthrate and rapidly aging population, and changes in the landscape of the Japanese publishing industry. Drawing upon themes and excerpts from Ekström’s popular comic essay series, Nordic Girl Åsa discovers the Mysteries of Japan (Hokuō joshi Ōsa ga mitsuketa Nihon no fushigi 北欧女子オーサが見つけた日本の不思議), this thesis explores those facets of her skilled background in conjunction with the aforementioned circumstances that have contributed to her success, including the influence of internationalization, effects of an increasingly digitized publishing industry, and proliferation of vocational manga schools encouraging overseas student enrollment. By doing so, this thesis attempts to answer the question of whether foreign participation in what has been traditionally considered a closed market is reflective of a globalizing Japan, and determine the future of the market for comic essays by foreign-born mangaka.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and criticize the role of social media in the development and/or encouragement of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body dissatisfaction in college-aged women. College women are exceptionally vulnerable to the impact that social media can have on their body image as they develop an outlook on their bodies and accept the developmental changes that occurred during puberty. This paper provides evidence that there is a relationship between the recent surge in disordered eating and high consumption of social media. I examine the ways in which traditional advertising has portrayed women throughout history, as well as analyze the ways in which this depiction of the female ideal has helped shaped society’s perspectives about beauty and increased the rate of disordered eating among college aged females. Further, this analysis assesses the ways in which the thin ideal as portrayed in advertising encourages women to look a certain, unrealistic way. I also consider various social psychological theories to explain how women in society form their perceptions with a combination of what they see in the media as well as what they see in their friends and family. I demonstrate that social networking sites (SNS) have similar effects on young women as advertising and other forms of mass media do. Therefore, I will argue that SNS, as a combination of real life and a personalized form of advertising, can potentially have the same, yet amplified, consequences. Indeed, I argue that the ubiquitous and enduring nature of social media websites result perhaps in a wider and more detrimental impact to the body image concerns of college aged women than advertising or the media generally.

For centuries, Arabic music has been intrinsically linked to Arab culture and by extension bonded to the environmental landscape of the region, reflecting their emotions, moods, and behaviors. Numerous technological advancements in the latter half of the twentieth century, have greatly affected the rich legacy of Arabic music, significantly impacting the natural progression of traditional Arabic musical genres, scales, and instrumentation. This thesis serves as an introduction to generative methods of music production, specifically music generated through gestures. Through generative music, and its unique ability to map gestures to different musical parameters, music can be produced using computer algorithms. The outcome of this thesis aims to demystify the intricacies of recent technological advancements to enable the musician and the audience to incorporate responsive technology into their ensembles. This approach aims to further evolve Arabic music, using the concepts of Arabic music creativity while addressing international accessibility through integration. The intention of this thesis is to bridge between the contemporary and the traditional Arabic audiences and provides insight into a possible future of Arabic music based on its own fundamental principles.

Claims of customization and control by socio-technical industries are altering the role of consumer and producer. These narratives are often misleading attempts to engage consumers with new forms of technology. By addressing capitalist intent, material, and the reproduction limits of 3-D printed objects’, I observe the aspirational promise of becoming a producer of my own belongings through new networks of production. I am interested in gaining a better understanding of the data consumed that perpetuates hyper-consumptive tendencies for new technological apparatuses. My role as a designer focuses on the resolution of not only the surface of the object through 3-D printing, but the social implications to acknowledge consequential conditions of new forms of consumer technology.

We are inundated by a constant feed of media that responds and adapts in real time to the impulses of our psyches and the dimensions of our devices. Beneath the surface, this stream of information is directed by hidden, automated controls and steered by political agendas. The transmission of information has evolved into a spiral of entropy, and the boundaries between author, content, platform, and receiver have blurred. This reductive space of responsive media is a catalyst for immense political and cultural change, causing us to question our notions of authority, truth, and reality.

This exploratory study identified generational preferences for receiving information from management through different communication channels and determined if age predicted productivity for productive and unproductive information received through different communication channels. This is the first study to empirically examine the relationship between age cohorts, communication channel preferences, information categories, and productivity. Sample participants worked as Extension agents at a major land-grant university. The four generations represented in the sample utilized multiple communication channels and were geographically dispersed throughout the state. The survey was administered electronically and completed by 204 (74%) of the eligible 275 employees in the organization. Independent Samples t-tests, General Linear Modeling, ANOVA’s, means analysis and linear regressions were employed to analyze the data to test the hypotheses. Regarding channel preference, the findings determined that face-to-face communication was preferred by both generations for receiving private and confidential information and for training. Media was preferred by both generations for routine and procedural and time-sensitive information. Lastly, the analysis revealed that written documents were the preferred method of both generational cohorts for compensation and benefits. Regarding productivity, the findings determined that age predicted a perceived increase in productivity tasks for production information received face-to-face from management, but did not predict a perceived increase in productivity tasks for the other communication channels. Both generational cohorts perceived productive information received face-to-face from management to increase morale and decrease stress. The cohorts, however, differed on the increase of trust as a result of receiving productive information face-to-face. Both generational cohorts perceived unproductive information received from management through all communication channels to negatively impact productivity tasks. Finally, both cohorts perceived unproductive information received face-to-face from management to negatively impact morale, trust and stress. Empirical examination of generational workforce issues is relatively new to Human Resources and research is needed to further examine generational perceptions. The study begins to open dialogue that the supposed differences inherent in the multigenerational workforce are not as much a factor of the generation as the information. The development of the new instrument in this study provides a new tool to examine organizations preferences and productivity.

Relying on framing theory, this study used The New York Times to explore how Chinese news was depicted before, during and after the Beijing Summer Olympics. The research regarding how the Chinese government tried to leverage the Olympics to enhance its image is often deliberated. However, there have only been a 3 few studies on the evaluation of the effects the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games had on the image of China, as depicted by The New York Times. This study generated an understanding of the impact the presentations of The New York Times had on the soft power used by China through the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. The study examined how the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics were associated with the depiction of Chinese news in The New York Times during the pre-, mid-, and post-Olympics years. Specifically, world and business sections within The New York Times were mainly influenced by the effects of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. In addition, there were no direct associations found between the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and how China was depicted photographically in The New York Times. In terms of the above factors; this study showed that China's national image did not improve in the New York Times after the 2008 Bejing Summer Olympic Games.

This investigation is based upon the old, but popular Chinese Proverb- "one picture is worth more than a thousand words" (Bartlett, 1980, p. 132). This researcher examined presidential campaign photographs in hopes of finding a possible media bias toward political candidates. This study confirmed two previous studies (Moriarty and Popovich, 1991 and Moriarty and Garramone, 1986), which reported that the media does, in fact, attempt to balance the visual coverage of political candidates during a presidential election. All visuals, including photographs and illustrations from Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report of candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole were used for this study. Data from these national news magazines were collected from September 2 (the kick-off after the Labor Day) to November 4 (the weekly edition just prior to the election on November 5). Moriarty and Garramone ( 1986) developed coding definitions to identify 15 visual attributes of presidential campaign photographs. These attributes include: activity, posture, arms, bands, eyes, expression, interaction, camera angle, portrayal, position, size, props, setting, dress and family association. All visuals were coded as more favorable, less favorable or neutral. A total of 282 visuals were used in this study. The results concluded that Bill Clinton was in 183 visuals, while Dole was in 99 visuals. If one looks at the sheer number or quantity of the visuals, they would assume that Clinton did out photograph Dole. This assumption would lead one to believe that the media was biased, but in fact, most of the visuals that were coded were "more favorable" to both of the candidates.

Women’s professional sports leagues have often been considered a risky business endeavor. Critics cite low attendance, lack of sponsorships, lack of media rights deals, and numerous other reasons for why women’s professional sports leagues are not profitable. In analyzing the current landscape of women’s professional sport leagues, this paper uses a case study approach to develop a strategy that will highlight lessons learned from past women’s professional sports leagues, current professional sports leagues, sponsorship agreements, fans, social, digital, and mobile marketing strategies, and management practices to show how the business of women’s sports could be made into a more profitable endeavor.