This thesis concludes that the discourse surrounding the Arctic in the Norwegian press has a prevailing focus on resource extraction and resource demands, and that the term “sustainable development” is rarely being employed. At the same time, there is an increase in the amount of times the topics climate change and environment are discussed in the same articles that discuss oil, gas and resource extraction. This indicates that in the post-petroleum and “green shift” era that Norway has entered, these discourses now demand a joint discussion, rather than two separate discourses and topics. Looking at how Norway might act in the Arctic in the future, this can indicate that these focus areas will lay the foundation for possible action in the region as well. The background of the study was to obtain an understanding of how Norway deals with its conundrum of contradictory roles as an advocate for sustainable development and as an oil and gas producer. This was done through an investigation of how the Arctic, and especially sustainable development in the Arctic, is framed in the Norwegian press. By looking at the media discourse surrounding the topic, it is possible to get an understanding of how the region is framed in Norway, and subsequently how Norway as an Arctic actor will act in the future. Social constructionism, critical discourse analysis, mediatisation and framing theory make up the theoretical underpinnings of the thesis, and content analysis with a sequential process of three steps is employed to analyse the material from a bird’s-eye view to a very specific analysis.

This dissertation research focuses on the development of South Korea’s democracy movement from 1979 to 1987, a time that was marked by two waves of sustained protest: one of which was brutally repressed while the other led to a transition to democracy. This dissertation examines the cultural processes at work during the period between these two waves. This study builds a dataset drawing on archival data in the form of memoirs, diaries, leaflets and brochures, minutes, statements, and testimonies of activists and activist organizations as well as newspaper reports and government documents. Using the dataset, this study advances scholarship on contentious politics and democratization by revising and expanding three theoretical concepts: threat, memory work, and framing.

Thesis advisor: Celeste Wells / This study analyzes female students’ perceptions of sexual assault at Boston College. These perceptions are interpreted and understood using the theory of framework and organizational communication. The goal of this study is to effectively illustrate how female students form perceptions of sexual assault, and to understand why they are often hesitant to engage in conversations about it. Through the use of framing devices, this study explains how the administration and campus culture influence the way students view the issue of sexual assault. 135 female students at Boston College participated in an online survey, and their responses indicate that a culture of silence emerges from the perceptions of sexual assault on campus. While the culture of silence influences most female students to refrain from talking about sexual assault, a new framing device emerged from the data, which I refer to as the frame of defiance. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Communication.

This study, Palestine & Israel through the eyes of the Swedish newsmedia, has examined how four Swedish newspapers framed the Israel-Palestine conflict between the years 2008-2018, as well as how the newspaper's coverage changed over time. The study used a quantitative and a qualitative method by analyzing frequently used words in the analyzed articles as well as in-depth readings of a few individual articles chosen via random selection. The study used framing theory as a way of analyzing the texts as well as Johan Galtung's normative theory of war- and peace journalism (Galtung 2003, 177-180). The study found that the Swedish newspapers most often used an international political frame to contextualize the war between Israel and Palestine. Focusing on the actions of international organizations and countries outside of the region historically known as Palestine. This way of framing the war also increased in tandem with big events in the international community such as Palestine's application to become a member of the UN. Furthermore, the results also showed that the Swedish newspapers’ portrayal of peace differed somewhat from Johan Galtung's description of “peace journalism”. The main difference was that peace journalism focused a lot more on the actions of elites rather than the actions of civilians. The elite persons that appeared in this frame were usually political actors such as the president of The United States and the foreign minister of Sweden.

Stakeholders involved in debates around climate-energy policy shape public conversations through different “frames”: message units that strategically emphasize particular aspects of an issue while downplaying others. I investigate the presence of frames within climate change discourse and their political influence in the creation of climate-energy policies. Findings suggest that science frames may play a limited role when it comes to the development of actual climate policy at the state level, and importantly, that the strategic use of issue frames was able to level the playing field between environmental advocates and historically dominant industry actors. This work thus contributes to ongoing debates in the climate change framing literature by considering the “real world” of political communication coupled with an on-the-ground policy conflict.

Many people view climate change as one of the top issues facing the world today. As a result, a better understanding of how climate change messages are communicated has become increasingly important. Additionally, with the progression of today’s society into that of highly-visual culture, opportunities for the investigation at the intersection of climate change and visual content would be of great benefit to academia and society, as a whole. More specifically, providing insight into how climate change visuals are framed and what their relationship is to emotions would support visual framing theory and present opportunities to strengthen climate change messaging in the future. Taking a quantitative approach, this research deploys experimental design to test hypotheses and answer research questions on the relationships among three climate change visual frames (causes, impacts, solutions), emotional experience, and climate change salience. In addition, to attempt to provide further insight into these relationships, the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion are tested as moderators. A sample provided from Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 289) was evenly disturbed between three experimental conditions, each representative of one of the climate change visual frames. Statistical analysis was then utilized to generate results in response to hypotheses one thru eleven and research questions one and two. The findings from this study show that climate change visual frames each generate specific emotional experiences upon viewing. The causes and impacts climate change visual frames result in a negative emotional experience, while the solutions climate change visual frame generates a positive emotional experience. However, this research found no support for the personality traits neuroticism or extraversion playing a role in that response. Similarly, there was no connection found between emotional experience and climate change salience. The findings of this research, however, ultimately support the effectiveness of climate change visual frames without their traditional accompanying text, in the form of a caption or story, and contribute to visual framing theory. Considering the effectiveness of stand-alone climate change visual frames in generating positive and negative emotional experiences can prove useful for practitioners in the creation of future climate change content.

Two years after its signing into law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), underwent a constitutional challenge at the Supreme Court. The Court’s decision to uphold the power of Congress in enacting most of the provisions of the ACA was regarded as a highly salient decision that is thought to have affected the public perception of the law. The focus of this thesis is to determine whether the Supreme Court was able to frame arguments used for or against the ACA in relation to the decision. By organizing and analyzing open-ended responses gathered from a panel survey both before and after the 2012 decision, I sought to determine how arguments used in discussion about the law and institutions regarding it varied after the decision. Findings show that the argument types used to explain individuals’ policy perceptions remained relatively stable throughout the waves. The study presented here offers an in-depth, micro-level effects of a real Court decision on individuals. By focusing on within-subject language change in a tight window around the decision, this approach helps clarify thinking about the relationship between the Court and public opinion.

Orientador: Murilo Cesar Soares / Banca: Maximiliano Martin Vicente / Banca: Danilo Rothberg / Resumo: A pesquisa analisa a cobertura jornalística de temas relacionados ao governo do presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) realizada pelo Jornal Nacional da Rede Globo, o mais importante telejornal brasileiro. Por meio da análise de enquadramento de reportagens sobre as reformas constitucionais (previdenciária e tributária), a definição da taxa de juros e o caso Waldomiro Diniz, temas direta ou indiretamente relacionadas ao governo Lula, verifica-se como o Jornal Nacional destaca ou atenua aspectos favoráveis ou desfavoráveis à gestão federal de modo a torná-los mais ou menos visíveis. Ao final do estudo, conclui-se que o telejornalismo da Rede Globo pratica enquadramentos pouco críticos ao governo federal, fenômeno observado em outros trabalhos a respeito de governos anteriores. / Abstract: The research analyses the journalistic coverage of issues related to president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government (PT) carried out by Jornal Nacional of Rede Globo, the most important Brazilian news-bulletin. By means of analyzing the framing of reformas (social security and tax policy), the adjustment of the interests' rates and Waldomiro Diniz case, issues directly or indirectly related with Lula's government, it is verified how Jornal Nacional exaggerates or attenuates favorable or unfavorable aspects about federal government in order to make them more or less apparent. At the end of study, the conclusion is that news-bulletin of Rede Globo conducts quite uncritical frames about the federal government, phenomenon perceived in other studies about previous governments. / Mestre

This research adds the growing body of literature on the role of celebrities as emergent spokespersons in climate advocacy and the process and consequences of its effects on public attitudes and behaviors to resolve the climate crisis. By applying social cognitive theory in conjunction with emotional appeals and language styles as message frames, the study examines the effects of role-modeling in adoption of eco-attitudes and behaviors. In a 2 x 2 design, the independent variables were emotion frame (fear, hope) and celebrity involvement frame (first person pronouns; FPP, non-first person pronouns; NFPP). For the manipulation check, the tweets were pilot tested. The main study was an experiment that asked participants to read tweets attributed to Leonardo DiCaprio or Pharrell Williams. Four main dependent variables were attitudes toward climate change mitigation and three behaviors, including support for government action, intention to engage in sustainable behavior, and intention to participate in activism for climate change mitigation. The role of two mediating variables (risk awareness, response efficacy) and one moderating variable, parasocial interaction (PSI) with the celebrity, were also examined. First, one-way ANCOVAs compared the effects of emotion frames to the control group. No evidence of the effects of emotion frame over unrelated messages on any dependent variables was found. Second, 2 (fear vs hope) x 2 (FPP vs NFPP) ANCOVAs found that fear-framed messages were more effective than hope-framed messages in driving intention for participation in activism, but emotion frame did not affect any other variables. The results also found that FPP frames led to more positive attitude (compared to NFPP frames), but had no effect on behaviors. Third, regression analyses found no evidence that risk awareness or response efficacy mediated the effect of emotion frames on attitudes or behaviors. In addition, the study discovered that PSI was a strong positive predictor of attitudes and all behaviors, but PSI did not moderate the impact of the celebrity involvement frame. The findings provide empirical evidence of the potential for celebrities to serve as role models in climate advocacy by psychologically involving people, which can be translated to the adoption of attitudes and behaviors.

Society’s efforts to ‘manage’ the problem of human-induced climate change – for example through setting targets, tracking progress, imposing sanctions and incentives, and creating markets in emission rights and offsets – have given rise to numerous calculation, measurement, attribution, monitoring, reporting and verification challenges, which are being addressed by many different communities (including scientists, governments, businesses and accountants) in many different ways. Carbon accounting – this diverse and ever-expanding assemblage of calculative practices – is a rapidly evolving phenomenon, which has only recently become a subject of academic accountancy-related research. This thesis explores what carbon accounting means, who it involves, and how different communities define and lay claim to competence in the field. It also examines, through case studies on the emergence of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board and the controversies around generating tradable carbon offsets from forestry projects in the UK, the immense technical, cognitive, social and political work required to make carbon measurable, commensurable and thereby amenable to various forms of management. The thesis contributes to both conceptual and practical understanding of carbon accounting as an emerging field of study. Bringing together a wide range of empirical examples of different types of carbon accounting practices, it proposes a unique definition of carbon accounting which expands the horizons of the field. It provides a conceptual basis for making sense of carbon accounting by considering it not as a unitary phenomenon but rather as a set of overlapping frames, each associated with different communities of practice. It shows that competence in carbon accounting is contested, particularly where these frames overlap, and that boundary organisations are emerging that offer the opportunity to negotiate such tensions and lead to more productive policy-making. Finally, it makes the case that engagement with the detail of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of carbon accounting is essential, as these apparently technical details can have major implications for the effectiveness of society’s response to climate change, and it is only by opening them up to rigorous scrutiny that we can make progress, both conceptually and practically.