Researchers conducted a content analysis to measure framing of the public relations industry in 354 English language broadcast transcripts from the United States, Canada, and Australia from Sept. 1, 2009 to Aug. 31, 2010. The overall tone toward public relations was strongly negative. Mentions reflected one-way forms of communication and mentions of the pejorative term "PR" appeared more frequently than mentions of "public relations". The profession was almost always mentioned within the body of the broadcast, as opposed to the headline or the lead paragraph. Exploratory research showed 15 shows that included negative mentions 100% of the time. Additionally, 27 shows included zero positive mentions of either term. Of 251 speakers recorded during data analysis, 126 spoke of the industry negatively 100% of the time. American shows were most often negative. Stories about the public relations industry were most likely to reflect public relations as a two-way form of communication.

A content analysis was conducted to analyze how media frame roller derby. The research included an analysis of newspaper articles published all around the world in 20 different nations from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2011, and different languages were considered. The research did not support previous studies concerning women athletes and the sport. Overall tone toward roller derby was mainly neutral, and the description of roller derby was not defined as sexist or using violent terms. Women journalists who wrote articles were slightly more sexist and used violent terms than men. Exploratory research showed that the previous findings did not change no matter the date of publication of the article or when roller derby was implemented in the nation. Results were not statistically significant. Also, the movie Whip It did not change people's point of view on roller derby even after the movie came out.

China is one of the largest and most promising markets for new global business ventures. This exploratory research investigates the current news-related themes regarding business in China by comparing news originating from eastern countries to western countries. This study applied agenda-setting and framing theoretical frameworks. A mixed-method approach of both qualitative and quantitative content analyses was used to generate key themes and their related concepts. The results indicate some thematic similarities as well as differences in agenda and news framing between eastern and western news samples. This exploratory study contributes to agenda-setting and framing literature as well as by creating a media agenda benchmark for future agenda-setting studies focused doing business in China.

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During recent years a subculture of people who live in “involuntarily celibacy”, so called incels, has received attention in the mainstream media. The definition of an incel has since the 1990s changed from meaning any person who is alone, to being an online-community of hateful, angry and lonely men. The popularity of the term “incel” in the current media debate can be explained by a number of mass murders and violent crimes that have been committed by men who are a part of that community. As of today, no incel-related crimes have occurred in Sweden, however the term is still heavily discussed in the media. The conversation peaked in 2021, when the Swedish psychiatrist and author Stefan Krakowski released a book based on in-depth interviews with Swedish incels. During the same time period, TV4 made a documentary on the subject of incels that contained conversations with three men who fall into the incel spectrum. The purpose of this study is therefore to do a thematic analysis on how incels were portrayed in Swedish news media during 2021, and analyze the result with help of two theories; news values- and framing theory. From this specific time period, 15 articles were selected for analysis. The results showed that there are some themes that dominate the media, for instance the perception of incels as violent or incels as sad and lonely. This study can be scientifically relevant to show a nuanced picture of how incels are portrayed and what frames that can lead to in society. It can bring new perspectives to the discussion about incels and by that further develop the research field of journalism as well as alternative subcultures.

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Informed by theories of media framing, exemplification, and non-fiction film production, this case study used as its sample for textual analysis the typed transcripts from the final cut of Helen Whitney's (2007) documentary film, The Mormons, and the interview transcripts of the 15 key commentators interviewed for the documentary. These theories suggest that (a) media producers condense topics in the media by selecting information that connects news stories to a larger context and imbues them with symbolic value; (b) verbal and visual examples have been shown to be more easily retrieved in memory than abstract ideas and are consequently judged by audiences to be more common in the real world; and (c) expository non-fiction films are organized in ways that convey objectivity, belying their constructed nature. With the aid of NVivo (2002), the themes in each text were identified and compared in order to evaluate which themes about Mormons were given salience in the film and which themes were de-emphasized in the film. It was found that the themes about Mormons' unusual commitment to their faith, as well as the Mormon Church's historical conflict in the United States and more recently with disaffected church members were accentuated in the film; the film did not equally incorporate the themes of LDS Church officials' self-description of Mormon beliefs and social practices. By coupling a close examination and comparison of the texts with the filmmaker's own personal statements about the making of the film, this thesis suggests that Helen Whitney constructed the film through a process that gave voice to minority viewpoints, challenged institutional or ecclesiastical authority, and favored complexity. As a result of these decisions, for example, the film perpetuated confusion about whether Mormons are Christians, the 19th-century LDS practice of plural marriage, and the current treatment of homosexuals within the LDS Church.

It has been well documented that female athletes receive much less media attention than male athletes, with estimates placing coverage of male athletes at 95% of all sport-related media (Coakley, 1986). While not to that extent, studies focusing on media portrayals of Olympic athletes also confirm that the media dedicates the majority of coverage to male athletes (Duncan, 1990; Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988; Hambrick, Simmons, Greenhalgh, & Greenwell, 2010; Higgs, Weiller, & Martin, 2003; Lee, 1992; Kinnick, 1998; Pfister, 1978). Some evidence suggests that media coverage of female athletes and the recognition of their achievements are slowly increasing (Higgs et al., 2003; Kinnick, 1998). While the aforementioned studies show many of the same results, no recent research on the subject was found. The majority of past research has focused on summer Olympians specifically, and no studies were found looking at the past five Olympic Games. This study will add to the literature by providing new data to compare to that of previous studies. The author conducted a content analysis, looking at six online media outlets, and selecting 100 athlete profiles. The profiles were coded for any reference to the physical/emotional or strength/weakness characteristics of the athlete. The author analyzed the data using SPSS. Findings show no statistically significant relationships between gender and athlete characteristics, suggesting noticeable improvements in the quality and quantity of media coverage for female athletes when compared to previous studies.

In this thesis, I will explore the idea that choices between present, smaller value options and future, larger value options depend on how much individuals trust the future to deliver the reward. Due to this aspect of trust, the individual must build their estimate of trust based on information for their present environment and their future expectations. This estimate of future trust can change across different time points in the same environment (i.e., before and after a national election) and between environments in the same time point (i.e., between two countries experiencing different economic rates of change). In this set of presented experiments, I will explore the link between decision environment and delay discounting, as well as the relationship between the contents of future perception and delay discounting. These two experiments will test differences in delay discounting (a) across two economic systems (China and the U.S.), as well as (b) before and after a national election (2018 U.S. Midterms). The results of the different decision environments study show that the delay discounting rates are significantly different across the two countries, specifically within the framing of present and future. These differences are not explained by differences in culture effects or individual differences in personality traits, suggesting that difference in environment is driving the effect. The results from the Midterm election experiments show evidence for differences in delay discounting between political identities and income groups. There are also differences in how these two groups perceive the contents of their future before and after the election. Specifically with evidence that negative future projection corresponds with increased delay discounting. Overall, these experiments show that delay discounting can be affected by the way information is framed within an environment and how we expect our environments to change over time.

Since the 1990s, Sweden's societies has changed in terms of the prevalence and spread of criminal environments. Gun violence in criminal environments has become more frequent and has grown during the last couple of years. The police explains the increased gun violence through organized crime. Previous research has showed that newspapers portrayal of gang crime lacks in a distinct definition of the criminality and are more likely to use condescending descriptions rather than positive ones. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate how the Swedish news media portray and describe gang crime in terms of attribute and definition. To enable the survey, a qualitative content analysis with a limited selection of newspaper articles were used. The study has been conducted with two theories, framing theory and the agenda-setting theory to create an understanding of the news media's presentation of gang crime. To achieve the aim of the study, 18 articles in three newspapers were used in a process of coding to highlight the descriptions of gang crime. The results of the study demonstrated in two main categories and six subcategories. The results of the collected empirical evidence showed that gang crime was presented mainly in a negative way to describe vulnerable areas, young men, shootings and rappers. The results also showed that the definition in Swedish news media is vague and lacks a clear description of what the issue is about.