This thesis examines whether there is a frame difference in online news coverage of the controversial 2014 Crimean referendum by The New York Times and the Russian newspaper, Kommersant. The research is grounded in framing theory and literature on the attribution of news sources. The study is conducted in two languages and it seeks to examine how media systems, perspectives on the issue, journalistic standards, as well as cultural backgrounds and historical ties influenced framing of the event. Sample online articles from each newspaper were selected and a quantitative content analysis was performed in order to identify the main themes, frames and source attribution patterns in media news coverage about the referendum. The pattern to quote official sources for providing justification and legitimacy to news stories has influenced the coverage in both newspapers: both The New York Times as well as Kommersant heavily relied on their respective government officials and experts. However, The New York Times provided a greater diversity of opinions supporting the values of a libertarian media system. Politics was the dominant theme of the referendum-related articles in both newspapers, however, Kommersant and The New York Times touched on economy and military themes with different frequencies. A comparison between themes in two periods (before and after the referendum) has not shown a meaningful difference for both newspapers. Kommersant’s online coverage was less critical of Russian policies and frequently utilized a set of the For-referendum frames, rarely touching upon Russian military activities on the peninsula. However, the frame depicting breach of international law appeared with the same frequency as the For-referendum frames, showing that Kommersant tried to maintain independence under the Russian neo-authoritarian media system. The New York Times focused on the illegitimate character of Crimean annexation and exposed every move of Russian troops, which is in line with U.S. foreign policy aims. However, the American publications did not hide the cultural and historical ties between Crimea and Russia and frequently mentioned the illegal character pertaining to Ukrainian protests and a temporary government.

The overall aim of the five studies that make up this thesis is to elucidate constructions of being old from the perspectives of gender and ethnicity. One of the studies uses quantitative data and four use qualitative data. The sample in study I consisted of 125 participants from the Umeå 85+ study, aged 85 to 103 years old, who were able to use Likert scales in responding to questions. Studies II and III involved content analysis of interviews with old persons scoring on the extremes of the resilience scale. In study IV, interviews with nine Sami women were analysed using grounded theory. In study V, four interview situations were subjected to discourse analysis. Study I showed statistically significant correlations between the scales measuring resilience, sense of coherence, purpose in life and self-transcendence. These scales were supposed to measuring a common dimension, which is here interpreted as “inner strength”. There was a significant correlation between women’s “inner strength” and perceived mental health. The femininities found were associated with “being connected”, “being an actor”, “living in the shadow of others” and “being alienated”. The masculinities found were associated with “being in the male centre”, “striving to maintain the male facade” and “being related”. The femininity associated with “being an actor” and the masculinity associated with “being in the male centre” were pronounced in those participants assessed as having high resilience. Old Sami woman were found to be balancing within various discourses, including being a reindeer owner versus not owning reindeer, being Sami versus being Swedish, speaking in Sami versus speaking in Swedish, dreaming about the past versus looking to the future, being equal to men versus living in the shadow of the male herders, and changing for survival versus striving to retain uniqueness as a Sami. Study V revealed that shifts in power between the interviewer and the interviewed can be related to the discourses of age, gender, education, body, ethnicity and ideology. This thesis presents a complex picture of what it means to be among the oldest old. The ageing, gendered and ethicised selves cannot be seen as socially and culturally fixed. For the women, the femininity expressed in “being connected” involved being satisfied, content and having positive relationships. “Being an actor” involved a stress on the person’s own strength and own choices. The femininities experienced as “living in the shadow of others” and “being alienated” generated narratives about dissociation and loneliness. For the men, it seemed important to relate to themselves and to other men. However, the masculinity expressed in “being related” involved an alternative form of masculinity, focusing on the importance of daily work, new relationships, and reflecting on the meaning of life. The Sami women showed strength in being able to position themselves between various discourses, but their narratives also showed tender sadness when they spoke of their longing for the past and for their mother tongue. The reflection on how narratives are constructed by both the interviewed and the interviewer in relation to their access to various discourses of age, gender, education, ethnicity and ideology in different interview situations can be important for increasing awareness of the role of these discourses. Various ways of constructing femininities and masculinities must be studied if we are to avoid ageism developing in society. Analyzing and reflecting on the importance of age, gender and ethnicity from a constructivist perspective may reduce stereotypical descriptions of the oldest old.

The mutual aid of Alcoholics Anonymous helps more people with alcohol-related problems than all forms of clinical treatment combined. Yet, efforts to understand AA’s action have been conducted, almost exclusively, from a clinical perspective. Thus far, the literature representing Alcoholics Anonymous from the perspective of its members is very limited. This study uses qualitative content analysis of the AA literature and a grounded theory approach to AA’s fellowship to provide an insider’s perspective of change processes associated with AA involvement. This understanding of the AA literature posits that Alcoholics Anonymous involvement results in life improvement, changes in spirituality, improved well-being, an acceptance of powerlessness over alcohol and a sense of fellowship. This understanding of AA’s fellowship posits that Alcoholics Anonymous involvement results in increased life meaning, reduced insecurity, loneliness, anxiety and shame.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Robert W. Meeds / The advertising industry press has been writing about the increase in use of popular music in television commercials, yet there is little to no scholarly quantifiable data to support such press. This study investigates how popular music in television commercials is being utilized and how much is being used. A content analysis of 1,046 prime-time television commercials was conducted to further examine the use of popular music in television commercials and how its use related to observable executional variables in the manifest content. The study found that of the 574 unique commercials, 64% of the commercials used popular music. The results suggest that of the different types of music coded, popular music was in fact the most prominent. This musical prominence could be the result of the advertisers' mission to target the younger audience (18-39) and as such, use the music that is most popular among this age group. Implications for future advertising research and strategy are discussed.

In the years since the 9/11 attacks the incidence of terrorism has been on the rise. At the same time, news media coverage of major terrorist attacks has reached epic proportions, greatly expanding the number of individuals psychologically affected by terrorism. The goal of this dissertation is to better understand how individuals cope with terrorism experienced at a distance. Specifically, this investigation focuses on the impact of stress on integrative complexity (IC; a measure of cognitive processing; Suedfeld, Tetlock, & Streufert, 1992) during and shortly after a major terrorist event. Taken together, the findings from the three studies reported in this dissertation provide several insights into this process. Study 1 replicates and extends results from an earlier study of television newscasters reporting live on 9/11 (Jhangiani & Suedfeld, 2005), in the context of the 2005 London bombings and the medium of radio. In doing so, it provides the first empirical evidence outside of the research laboratory for the curvilinear relationship between stress and IC. Specifically, during the early stages of reports concerning the London bombings, a positive relationship is found between negative emotion and IC. However, once the nature and extent of the event become clearer, increases in negative emotion are related to decreases in IC (the disruptive stress hypothesis). Study 2 replicates this curvilinear relationship in the short-term reactions of two prominent political leaders to 9/11 and the 2005 London bombings. For one of these political leaders, the magnitude of his psychological reaction is moderated by the psychological distance between him and the victims of the attacks. Finally, Study 3 finds that two key personality variables, neuroticism and empathy, play important roles in determining the magnitude of the short-term psychological reactions to 9/11 of more than 250 students from Canada and the United States. This finding is particularly true for those students who were psychologically closer to the victims of the attacks. Implications, strengths and limitations of this research, and possible future directions are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Despite family business researchers having worked towards an understanding of how family businesses obtain success or achieve satisfaction, much confusion and debate on how to define success still exist in the field. It is suggested that defining success in terms of a family business is problematic because even family members themselves have varying perceptions of success. This confusion and debate has in recent years led to an increase in research concerning the meaning of success in the context of family businesses. Defining success is necessary, because if family businesses do not know what success means and what they are working towards, they will not know what decisions to make in order to be successful. Against this background, the primary objective of this study was to establish the perceptions of the concept of success among family business owners. For the purpose of this study, a mixed methodology was adopted because the data was collected using a qualitative method but analysed using a quantitative method. This study used a free word association test – which is a qualitative projective technique – to collect the data, which was then analysed by means of summative manifest content analysis which is a quantitative research method. Convenience sampling was used to identify small business owners to undergo the word association tests. By means of these tests, 811 words/phrases were generated by the 50 small non-family and 51 small family business owners who participated in the study. Theoretical, data, investigator and methodological triangulation was used to ensure the validity of the study whereas credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability and authenticity were applied to ensure its reliability. A coding framework was developed and several analyses were undertaken to summarise the data. The nature and position of the words/phrases recalled as well as the most frequently occurring words/phrases recalled were reported on. To determine whether significant differences exist between the different sample groups, Chi-square statistics were calculated to ascertain statistical significance and Craemer’s V statistics to establish practical significance. The findings of this study show that small non-family business owners mostly associate business success with non-financial indicators. These non-family business owners perceive a successful small business as one that is customer-focused, provides quality service and is characterised by discipline, drive and determination. Similarly, the findings show that the small family business owners participating in this study mostly associate family business success with words/phrases of a non-financial nature. The family business owners perceived a successful family business as one where, in addition to financial returns, discipline, drive and determination, as well as trust, honesty and hard work prevail. Even though both non-family and family business owner participants mostly recalled words/phrases of a non-financial nature, non-family business owners were mainly concerned with being customer-focused and proving quality, whereas family business owners focused more on values such as discipline, drive and determination as well as trust and honesty. Based on the perceptions of success among family business owners, a workable definition of “family business success” was formulated. Family business owners mainly perceive a successful family business as one where, in addition to financial returns, values such as discipline, drive and determination as well as trust, honesty and hard work prevail in the organisational culture of their businesses. Investigating the meaning of success in the field of family business has become a topic of growing interest. This study is one of the first in South Africa to adopt a qualitative dominant approach in attempting to overcome the lack of consensus, as well as to gain greater clarity regarding the way in which success is defined by family businesses. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide family business owners as well as practitioners and researchers in the field with a better understanding of what family business success entails. This understanding offers the potential to guide and improve goal-setting and strategic processes by family businesses, resulting in fewer family business failures and ultimately improving the South African economy.

There is a problem with attitudes that blame the victim of sexual assault: these attitudes are widespread and show popular adhesion to assumptions about rape that have been criticized and combatted by feminists. These assumptions are known as “rape myths.” It is important to look at the role newspapers play in contemporary discourse around rape and the extent to which they reproduce rape myths or, alternatively, incorporate a feminist critique. This research examines how sexual assault is constructed in three English-language newspapers, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and The National Post in the year 2012. Using qualitative content analysis, themes of rape myths and the presence of feminist discourse are categorized. The power of language when describing rape in the media is recognized and a description of rape-supportive culture, within a feminist theoretical framework, is provided. The ultimate aim of this research is to identify and challenge myths and stereotypes surrounding rape as well as identify possible feminist discourse on rape in print news media in Canada.

Members of the workplace are at the heart of the organizational learning process. They play a major role by communicating their shared perceptions, distributing knowledge, and acting as human components of the broader organizational memory. Today, three generations cohabitate in the work environment, each of whom have their own distinct traits that influence how they perceive and enact learning. This thesis explores how Millennials experience organizational learning and its significance. By applying Crossan et al.’s (1999) 4I Framework, the process of intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing are considered from the standpoint of the Millennial generation. The methodology for this study includes semi-structured interviews and qualitative thematic analysis to better understand this relationship. This is based on 13 conversations with members all drawn from a single organization. The findings describe how Millennials see learning as fundamental as well as how they overcome the challenges they face and apply their knowledge.

Historically, legal records were the main focus of archival preservation, and archives served primarily as arsenals of law—instruments for control and management of the State. Today, archives have many different values and uses, and legal value is only one criterion considered during the archival appraisal process. It is an important criterion, though, since archivists have an obligation to preserve not only those documents needed to understand society and its culture, but also those required to protect the rights and interests of society, its institutions, its citizens, and its heirs. Unfortunately, little has been written in the archival literature about what constitutes documentary legal value nor how this value can be recognized and evaluated. This thesis draws on literature from archival science, sociology, records management, diplomatics, law, and jurisprudence in order to define legal value and to identify its components. Since the study focuses on North American archives, the legal literature consulted pertains to the English legal system and its particular manifestations in the United States and Canada. To begin with, the thesis examines the document-event relationship and the relationship of this unit to a society's juridical system. This analysis illustrates the functions that documents play in society, and aims to provide an understanding of the capacity of documents to protect society and to serve as legal evidence. It is then proposed that the presence of a relationship between a document and a juridical event (one in which the society's legal system has an interest) be considered the first component of legal value. Perhaps the most important and most useful of the documents having relevance to events with legal significance is the class identified in this thesis as "legal records," consisting of those documents that execute or constitute written evidence of acts and events which directly affect legal rights and duties. Exploring the first component further, the thesis makes a distinction between actual and potential legal value based on whether the relationship of the document to a juridical event is direct or indirect, and whether the event currently has juridical relevance. Determining the strength of potential legal value involves consideration of the second and third components of legal value, which are related to the use of documents as legal evidence. These two components are admissibility and weight (in the sense of a document's effectiveness as a representation of facts). External factors, such as retention regulations, may play a role in determining this aspect of legal value, and some of these factors are discussed. More often though, the archivist will need to search for indications of reliability and completeness in the documentary formation process and in the elements of form intrinsic to a type of document. The thesis identifies many of the internal factors that contribute to legal value and proposes some criteria and a methodology for appraisal of legal value. Appraisal of legal value is not a mysterious process. With the exception of some diplomatic analysis, much of the information and analysis needed to determine legal value is fundamental to any appraisal process. In a society governed by law in all its aspects, determining legal value is a central part of any archival appraisal. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

Climate change is an issue that is increasingly being adopted into various NGO campaigns. Drawing on a theoretical framework that is grounded in post-colonialism and subaltern studies, this thesis investigates representations of agency in the climate change discourse of Oxfam International. The central research question guiding the study is: To what extent do developing world people and countries have agency in Oxfam International’s 2009 climate change campaign? The methodological approach used to address this question combines content analysis and critical discourse to analyze 105 documents published by Oxfam in the lead up to the 2009 U.N. Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The findings reveal that that developing world subjects tend to possess less speaking space and to be represented with less agency than their developed world counterparts.