<p> Currently, 27 states have medicalized marijuana, and eight states plus the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use. The media have played a central role in these campaigns by having a robust effect on perceptions of marijuana policy. The media have also been used throughout history to influence individual behavior, particularly surrounding marijuana and other drug use.</p><p> To analyze the media&rsquo;s effects on voting on marijuana initiatives and shifts in perceptions of marijuana policy, risk, harm, and use, this study anonymously surveyed 664 undergraduates. The students were selected using multistage cluster sampling of all departments and courses at a diverse, large university. Findings indicate that the media do not have a significant impact on beliefs and behaviors when peers and social bonds are control variables. Implications include utilizing the media to target peers and parents, an interdisciplinary approach, and utilizing social media for drug reform and prevention efforts. </p>

<p> While some have speculated there has been an increase in the public scrutiny of police over the last few years, little is actually known about the magnitude and scope of changes. This thesis investigates changes in the frequency of front-page articles, and the frequency of all articles, in <i>The New York Times</i> since 2010. Guided by Beck and Tolnay's (1995) Racial Violence Model, seven events were identified as potential threshold events for changes in media reports about the police. Findings indicate policing stories became more common after the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, while the remaining threshold events had no significant impact. This research provides a context for future quantitative and qualitative studies regarding media attention on police following specific events</p>

<p> The present study seeks to add to the scholarly understanding of media coverage of trafficking by analyzing the content of articles on human trafficking published by the Washington Post and the New York Times in 2012 and 2013. Because the media have the potential to reach large numbers of the public and policymakers through the stories they tell, understanding exactly what the media are saying about trafficking and how that discourse changes over time can offer insight into the role of media in our society, particularly their ability to legitimize or challenge the dominant trafficking agenda. An analysis of trafficking articles also offers a chance to reexamine our perceptions -- if one of the major roles of the media in society is to educate or inform the public about social issues such as trafficking, then what perceptions are we being left with, and how accurate are they? By simultaneously focusing on these types of descriptive and theoretical research questions, this study adds to the growing literature on both fronts. The present study also partially replicates work conducted by another researcher for articles published between 1980 and 2006 in order to make comparisons between the two data sets and identify changes in the media coverage of trafficking over time.</p>

<p> In the past five years, there have been numerous newspaper reports on police-involved deaths (PID) in the U.S, many of which have involved African American males as victims (Shane, Lawson, &amp; Swenson, 2017). Police-involved deaths (PID) is defined as a death of an individual that results from police action (i.e., by firearm, by electroshock weapon [commonly known as a Taser&copy;], or by vehicle). Given the amount of coverage of police-involved deaths, it is important to investigate which PID victims receive the most coverage in U.S. newspapers. This study merges three databases (<i>Fatal Encounters </i>, the <i>Washington Post</i>, and the <i>Guardian </i>) which collect information about PID cases that occurred in the U.S. Once a list of PID victims was compiled, Nexis Uni (formerly Nexis Lexis) was used to obtain U.S. newspapers that covered PID incidents. In this study, I examine the race, age, region, and manner of death to distinguish which of these independent variables are the strongest predictors of the number of words and articles used in describing PID incidents. Using a linear regression model, the findings indicate that PID incidents involving African American males had significantly more articles and words written about them than PID incidents involving non-African American males and this effect remained after controlling for other correlates of PID incidents. Additionally, PID incidents involving firearm deaths received significantly more media attention as well. Given the amount of newspaper coverage on PID victims, the ways in which the media portray the victims in those contexts can influence the criminal process for officers involved in the killing. In addition, media portrayals of these incidents can impact policies that revamp the ways in which officers communicate with people of color, specifically African American men (i.e., cultural sensitivity training).</p><p>