This thesis examines the rhetoric employed by President George W. Bush in the period leading up the American-led invasion of Iraq. Specifically, this thesis posits that the appeals to obligation so prevalently featured in Bush's oratory were well suited to his particular rhetorical situation. In supporting this claim, a theoretical understanding of how obligation rhetoric functions is created. By approaching appeals to obligation from both a Neo-Aristotelian and Narrative criticism perspective, the conclusion emerges that obligation rhetoric: 1) builds a speaker's credibility, 2) limits a speaker's liability with regard to proposed action, and 3) allows a speaker to receive praise for future success. The rhetorical work done by appealing to obligation is then applied to Bush's particular rhetorical situation to show how obligation rhetoric worked in his unique context. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Communication in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 30, 2006. / Presidential Rhetoric, Obligation, Duty, War Rhetoric, Crisis Rhetoric, Presidential Crisis Rhetoric / Includes bibliographical references. / Danielle R. Wiese, Professor Directing Thesis; Davis W. Houck, Committee Member; Donna Marie Nudd, Committee Member.

One goal of communicating with others can be to gain their compliance, essentially to get someone else to do what we want them to do. The techniques used and communicative messages chosen to accomplish this goal can vary widely. This study investigated the effects of gender, self-esteem, age, and relationship on compliancegaining strategy selection. Two hypotheses and three research ·questions were addressed in this study. Hypothesis One predicted males would be more likely to select anti-social compliance-gaining strategies in a social setting when trying to influence other males and pro-social compliance strategies when trying to influence females. Hypothesis Two predicted women will select more pro-social compliance-gaining strategies in social settings with both males and females. Three research questions examined the effect of interactant age, relationship (interpersonal or noninterpersonal) and self-esteem on the selection of compliance gaining strategies. The total sample size was 161 college students drawn from a medium-sized, private university in the western United States. Students were enrolled in one of four communication courses. A factor analysis was first employed to reduce the Weisman and Schenk-Hamlin Compliance Gaining typology into pro- and anti-social strategies, so that Hypothesis One could be addressed. However, after the analysis showed that the thirteen strategies used did not fall into two discrete categories as originally anticipated, a t-test was used to evaluate each strategy individually. An analysis of variance was used to determine interaction effects among gender, age, self:esteem, and compliance-gaining strategy. At-test was employed for analysis ofhypothesis two to determine gender differences in strategy selection. All research questions utilized regression analysis to determine the existence of a relationship between the individual variables of age, relationship, and self-esteem on compliancegaining strategy. Results for Hypothesis One showed no significant difference in male research participants' selection of compliance-gaining strategies for both male and female targets. Results for Hypothesis Two indicated female research participants used the 'allurement' strategy more than males with both male and female targets. No significant difference in strategy usage for the remaining 12 strategies resulted. Results for the three research questions showed significant interaction effects for the strategies of ingratiation, promise, allurement, aversive stimulation, threat, altruism, and hinting.

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微博在中国的互联网上十分流行，这对中国宣传机构的信息控制形成了新的挑战。微博可以使信息得到快速和广泛的传播，从而增加了国家宣传机器进行信息控制的难度。本文试图探讨微博可以在多大程度上帮助网民挑战政府对信息的控制。通过分析在新浪微博上收集的数据，本文发现微博对宣传工作的挑战有四种机制。首先，基于对微博上热门政治信息的分析，本文发现微博上的部分话语权由媒体转向个人，同时出现了一批对政府持批判态度的超级网民。其次，对于一些热点事件，微博与传统媒体的报道角度与侧重点不同，从而使得中国的政治信息更加多元化 。第三，虽然中央政府可以实现对微博的有效审查，但地方政府时常不能控制微博上的报道。第四，网民通过微博上的信息运动，可以将某些传统媒体不愿报道的事件问题化，这对中国传统媒体的自我审查形成了冲击。本文认为微博可以帮助人民挑战国家的信息控制。 / The micro-blog, with its huge popularity in recent years, poses a new challenge to the propaganda state in China. The micro-blog is able to spread information fast and reach a wide audience. The liberating potential of the micro-blog on the information flow is in conflict with the control efforts from the propaganda state. It is puzzling then the extent to which the netizens are able to use the micro-blog to counter the information control. Based on the data collected from Sina Weibo, this study finds the propaganda state is challenged by the micro-blog through four mechanisms. First, analysis of political posts demonstrates a partial shift of discursive power from media to individuals and a rise of critical super-netizens in the micro-blog. Second, the posts in the micro-blog report the controversial issues in a different way than the traditional media that contributes to the pluralization of political information. Third, the netizens are able to use the micro-blog to expose certain information that the local government would like to censor. Forth, the netizens are able to problematize certain issues through information movement that challenge the self-censorship of media. This study concludes that the micro-blog is able to empower the people in the battle between state and society on what is fit to know. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Yang, Shen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-98). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES --- p.VI / Chapter CHAPTER I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- METHODS AND DATA --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- THE ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY --- p.8 / Chapter CHAPTER II --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- THE PROPAGANDA STATE IN CHINA: STRUCTURE, MECHANISM AND EFFICACY --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- THE INFORMATION DIFFUSION PROCESS IN THE MICRO-BLOG --- p.14 / Chapter 2.3 --- THE RESEARCH ON CHINESE INTERNET --- p.16 / Chapter 2.4 --- SOCIAL MEDIA AND AUTHORITARIAN STATE --- p.20 / Chapter 2.5 --- THE DEBATE ON TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM --- p.21 / Chapter CHAPTER III: --- MICRO-BLOG AND POLITICS: AN ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL POSTS --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2 --- WHO WRITES THE POPULAR POLITICAL POSTS? --- p.27 / Chapter 3.3 --- CONTENT OF THE POPULAR POLITICAL POSTS --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4 --- WHO SPEAKS WHAT? --- p.30 / Chapter 3.5 --- HOW POLITICAL INFORMATION IS TRANSMITTED --- p.32 / Chapter 3.6 --- THE RISE OF CRITICAL SUPER-NETIZENS --- p.35 / Chapter 3.7 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.38 / Chapter CHAPTER IV: --- COMPARING MICRO-BLOG AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA: CONTENT ANALYSIS --- p.39 / Chapter 4.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.39 / Chapter 4.2 --- HOW MICRO-BLOG DIFFERS FROM TRADITIONAL MEDIA: FRAMING ANALYSIS --- p.45 / Chapter 4.3 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.58 / Chapter CHAPTER V: --- MICRO-BLOG AND INFORMATION CENSORSHIP --- p.61 / Chapter 5.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.61 / Chapter 5.2 --- THE CENSORSHIP PRACTICE IN MICRO-BLOG WEBSITE: MECHANISM AND EFFICACY --- p.62 / Chapter 5.3 --- EXPOSING INFORMATION THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT WOULD LIKE TO SUPPRESS --- p.66 / Chapter 5.4 --- EXPOSING INFORMATION THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT WOULD LIKE TO SUPPRESS --- p.68 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Case of “Watch Uncle --- p.68 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Summary and Discussion --- p.73 / Chapter 5.5 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.73 / Chapter CHAPTER VI --- MICRO-BLOG AND SELF-CENSORSHIP --- p.75 / Chapter 6.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.75 / Chapter 6.2 --- THE REPORTING OF CHINESE MILITARY IN TRADITIONAL MEDIA --- p.76 / Chapter 6.3 --- THE MILITARY VEHICLES SNAPSHOT MOVEMENT --- p.76 / Chapter 6.4 --- HOW NETIZENS PROBLEMATIZE THE ISSUE OF MISUSING MILITARY VEHICLES --- p.81 / Chapter 6.5 --- THE POWER OF THE INFORMATION MOVEMENT --- p.83 / Chapter 6.6 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.85 / Chapter CHAPTER VII: --- CONCLUSION --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1 --- THE PROSPECT OF THE PROPAGANDA STATE --- p.87 / Chapter 7.2 --- THE POLICY IMPLICATION --- p.91 / Chapter APPENDIX 1 --- FRAMES USED IN THIS RESEARCH --- p.92 / BIBLIOGRAPHY: --- p.94

Apart from politics and market, ideology was a significant factor in the realm of rock music. Upholding an ideology that focused on individuality and autonomy, and epousing a set of aesthetic value that placed emphases on live performance: how to maintain a balance between autonomy from politics and adaptation to market tastes became a question for both rock artists and the culture industry, a topic of which will be examined in the dissertation. / At the same time, this paper examined the struggle of rock artists against the official constraints and prohibitive coding via rock lyrics, the visual, the music, the body as well as the theatrical performance. / Finally, this paper explores how rock artists and the rock industry turned to alternative spaces for projecting their causes: the Internet, the underground music network and the realm of piracy, spaces where interferences from both the state and the market were minimum. / It also took as its study why rock music was a noise in the market and how rock labels contested for a space in the market which had been plagued by piracy and lack of protection for intellectual property rights. It at the same time explored the ways rock companies attempted to make the books balanced in operating the rock music business in a market where rock fans only constituted a marginal audience. / It looked at how the government imposed control and prohibition on the publishing, performance and dissemination of rock music which it perceived as an alien noise. For this, interviews had been held with personnel from the official apparatuses, the culture industry, the mass media as well as the rock artists and musicians, in a way to understand why rock was rarely heard on the radio or performed on television; why rock music became a term rarely appeared in the official press; and why rock was not allowed to mingle with official discourse like party songs or national anthem; and in what ways the contents of songs as well as the visuals on album covers were censored; and how the government controlled the speech, acts and dress of rock artists on stage. / This paper concludes with the view that despite the many constraints encountered by rock music in the realm of both the state and the market, rock music as a cultural space did not totally lose its freedom, autonomy or integrity. It adopted a mode of communication which is hinged on the non-verbal, the second-order signification, the hidden and the symbolic. It utilised a strategy which avoids direct antagonism with the political regime, and sought outlets for its own messages and meanings. / This paper started by examining how rock music had been transformed into a genre distinguished with its ideology and aesthetics in a socialist country where politics and economy weighed equally significant. / This study took rock music as a cultural space that reflected a larger political and economic environment in China, where it had been marginalized and segregated as a noise by both the state and the market. / Wong Yan Chau Christina. / "September 2006." / Adviser: Joseph Man Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: A, page: 0783. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

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This paper presents seven conversations of men from a variety of backgrounds, in a variety of environments. I analyze the discussions to determine if they can be characterized as typical gossip, and to compare their interaction styles to the men and women of past studies on gossip.

This study investigated the influences of the Japanese sense of ba on their patterns of perceiving the working environment and work-related human~relations in the U.S. social context. Ba in this study refers to the frame of relationships that is shared among the individuals in a certain specific situation. The goals of this heuristic qualitative study are: (I) to investigate whether Japanese working in the U.S. retain a sense of ba, (2) to examine how the sense of ba affects their perception of the problems that they face in dealing with work-related matters and relationships with their American colleagues, supervisors, and customers, and (3) to investigate whether and how ba functions as a facilitating factor in establishing collaborative relationships between Americans and Japanese in the workplace. To pursue these study goals, I conducted in-depth interviews with twelve Japanese working in the U.S. The interviews were conducted in the form of focused interview and the obtained data were analyzed in reference to the characteristics of ba stated in the literature review. The results indicated that the subjects retained and exercised their sense of ba in the - U.S. workplace context. The subjects' narratives also suggested that relationship building between Americans and Japanese based on the ba-principle was possible.