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Historically, the federal government has been the institution responsible for setting the nation's drug policy. Since 1996, however, the federal government's authority and legitimacy in this issue area has increasingly been challenged through state ballot measures introduced via the initiative process. While only eight percent of ballot measures historically are approved by voters (Initiative and Referendum Institute 2004), half of the 28 state ballot measures on illegal drugs have been approved by voters over the past decade. The stated goal of those supporting legalization through ballot measures is to "build a political movement to end the war on drugs" (Nadelmann 2004). Nadelmann (2004) suggests that victories in the states show that the "nascent drug policy reform movement" can win in the "big leagues of American politics" and that the successful models presented through the ballot measures will increase "public confidence in the possibilities and virtue" of regulating the non-medical use of illicit drugs. To date there has been no detailed examination of the issue framing strategies in this venue; nor has there been an effort to link the problem definition and direct democracy literatures. This dissertation links the problem definition and direct democracy literatures, using drug policy as the vehicle and applying Stone's (2002) analytic framework of problem definition to make descriptive inferences about the issue framing devices employed in state ballot measures on illegal drugs. The research examines a range of materials related to the state ballot measures on illegal drugs including the language appearing on voter ballots; the full text of the ballot measures, including ballot titles and political preambles; and the voter information statements and their authors. In addition, the dissertation describes the elements of legalization proposed by the ballot measures that were approved by voters and examines three key legal challenges to Proposition 215, one of the first ballot measures on illegal drugs approved by voters in California in 1996, including two U.S. Supreme Court cases. / Ph. D.

This study seeks to identify and examine issue transformation in public policies, and to understand the relationship between issue transformation and policy change. The focus for this investigation, the information resources management (IRM) policy subsystem, is examined as a 28-year case study, concluding at the end of 2002. Study results are documented textually, and visually in an exploratory, "virtual reality-based" Policy World. This study examines the questions: "In what ways are the core issues underlying public policies transformed over time, and what is the relationship between issue transformation and policy change?" Using the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) for explaining policy change over considerable periods of time, this research identifies and examines the issues over which policy coalitions contend, and seeks to identify issue transformation in the IRM policy subsystem's 28-year history. Augmenting the traditional paper-based dissertation is an exploratory, "virtual reality-based" case study, called "Policy World," that visualizes both the policy subsystem environment and critical elements of the external policy system. Visually depicting the richness, texture, and artifacts of policy activities aids policy learning, and promotes understanding of the dynamic and complex environment of issue transformation and policy change. In confirming issue transformation, this study contributes to the advocacy coalition framework by detailing the initiation and maturation of a policy subsystem. In demonstrating issue transformation's role as facilitating policy continuity through policy change, this study contributes to policy theory. As a chronology of IRM's issue transformation and policy change, this study documents the rise of IT-enabled governance for public administrators and educators. Policy World provides an interactive, experiential learning environment for public administration scholars and practitioners wanting substantive knowledge of both policy theory and Federal IRM policies. Public administration literature notes both the need for and the lack of an information resource management component to public administration education. Information visualization concepts are combined with interactive designs and hosting on the World Wide Web, to provide wide access to Policy World and extend educational opportunities in public policy and information resources management wherever desired. / Ph. D.

学位プログラム名: 京都大学大学院思修館 / 京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(総合学術) / 甲第25457号 / 総総博第33号 / 新制||総総||6(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院総合生存学館総合生存学専攻 / (主査)准教授 水本 憲治, 教授 齋藤 敬, 教授 今中 雄一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy / Kyoto University / DFAM

The 2006 Congressional elections included some of the closest elections in recent history. Party control was on the line in both houses of Congress. As a result, candidate message strategies were subject to intense scruntiny by media and voters alike since each election played a significant role in determining which party would control the Senate. This thesis employs a content analysis of ten candidate-controlled blogs from five 2006 U.S. Senate elections to evaluate candidate issues, incumbent and challenger strategies, and message tactics used by the candidate to reach a wide classification of voters. The entire population of posts from the ten candidate blogs (N = 474) was included in this analysis. The thesis assesses candidate blog strategies and candidate gender difference through the theoretical perspectives of the issue ownership framework, agenda setting, and incumbent and challenger strategies. Findings show little evidence of intercandidate agenda setting through blogs, general adherence to assumptions of the issue ownership framework, and offer foundations for future communication research focused on candidate blogs. Recommendations for future research include a more expansive study of all campaign blogs as well as an intermedia agenda setting study to measure systematically the influence of blogs on other media. / Master of Arts

It has been more than ten years since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, but the events related to the attacks are still a focus for the whole world. This study examined the news coverage of the 9/11 tenth anniversary from Phoenix TV and CNN, which are among the most influential news media in China and the U.S., respectively. A systematic content analysis was performed using latest news, opinion articles, photographs, and videos as classified by CNN and Phoenix TV on their commemorative 9/11 tenth anniversary websites. Framing theory guided this thesis project. The results offer some evidence regarding differences in the selection and use of frames in the U.S. and Chinese media. Results also suggest that global media share news resources for global events. / Master of Arts

A content analysis and post hoc content analysis of 362 news articles in national newspapers, regional newspapers, and Internet news Web sites investigated the prevalence of issue-specific and generic frames, frame valence, and the personalization of media coverage of the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball. Research guided by framing theory found 2,353 frames present in the initial analysis and 2,834 frames present after the post hoc analysis. Generic frames were more prevalent than issue-specific frames in coverage in initial analysis. The post hoc analysis, however, indicates that issue-specific frames were more prevalent than generic frames in terms of times present. Frames are valenced negatively more frequently than neutrally or positively in coverage. Media coverage was focused on the individuals more often than on the organization, however, both the individuals and organization were treated similarly in terms of valence of frames. The findings of the analyses supported scholarship calling for more analysis of generic and issue-specific frames, the presence of valence in frames, and the personalization of media coverage in the political communication context that in this case is present in the sports media context as well. Findings merit further scholarship on broader source comparison in coverage of this scandal, agenda-setting in various forms, and further frame analysis in the sports media contexts and other contexts outside of the political communication context as well. / Master of Arts

[pt] As reflexões presentes na tese O ser negro na metrópole do não ser são resultado de uma antiga pretensão (ou um longevo desabafo). No caso, a proposta reconhece a experiência negra na metrópole do Rio de Janeiro enquanto postulado dotado de uma série de interdições. Tal percepção atravessou parte de minha formação, mas só se consolidou mediante o amadurecimento de aspectos teóricos e subjetivos. Destacam-se como estruturas metodológicas elementares para a discussão: a longa duração; a tríade materialização-substrução-projeção; a semântica do vertiginoso conjunto e a imbricação entre as presenças que se preenchem das ausências em meio à produção do espaço. Esta base possibilita a articulação da perspectiva em diferentes designações espaço-temporais, uma dinâmica fundamental à abstração e à chegada ao objeto do trabalho, que contempla a questão racial em meio à produção do espaço no cotidiano urbano do período atual, caracterizado por sua fruição militar e explicitamente forjada pela metropolização. O trabalho destaca, portanto, a objeção à corporeidade e aos conhecimentos negro-brasileiros na produção da cidade, realidade presente na patrimonialização, nas políticas de segurança pública do novo urbanismo militar e nos códigos racistas que condicionam a apropriação do urbano por parte de negros e negras, o que ecoa em seu conteúdo psíquico e na sua própria realização enquanto ser. / [en] The reflections in the thesis Being black in the metropolis of nonbeing are the result of an old claim (or a long-standing discontent). In this case, the proposal recognizes the black experience in the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro as a postulate endowed with a series of interdictions. This perception ran through part of my education, but was only consolidated through the maturing of theoretical and subjective aspects. The following stand out as elementary methodological structures for the discussion: the long duration; the materialization-substruction-projection triad; the semantics of the vertiginous whole and the imbrication between presences that are filled with absences in the midst of the production of space. This basis makes it possible to articulate the perspective in different spatio-temporal designations, a fundamental dynamic for abstraction and for arriving at the object of the work, which contemplates the racial issue in the midst of the production of space in urban daily life in the current period, characterized by its military fruition and explicitly forged by metropolization. The work therefore highlights the objection to black-Brazilian corporeality and knowledge in the production of the city, a reality present in patrimonialization, in the public security policies of the new military urbanism and in the racist codes that condition the appropriation of the urban by black men and women, which echoes in their psychic content and in their own realization as a being.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) has overseen the implementation, evaluation and development of the environmental political decisions in Sweden since 1967. In 1999 one “generation goal” (the general direction of the environmental politics) and fifteen “environmental quality goals” was installed to guide their work, in 2005 a sixteenth goal was instated. These goals (except for one) are supposed to be met in 2020. This is a study from a communication perspective of these goals and The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s role based on the theoretical concepts issue arena, stakeholder thinking, network, translation and mass communication. The method used is critical discourse analysis which focuses on how we understand, relate to and value different aspects of reality. The way political goals about the environment are written has implications on our relationship with nature and how we choose to govern it. The analysis shows, in line with previous studies on environmental policy documents, that the economical and human-centred discourses dominate. Ecological metaphors and expressions are mostly allowed within the discourse ecological modernisation. What differs from previous studies is that the growth discourse and the neo-liberal discourse are somewhat challenged and that the economical and human-centred discourses are questioned in some cases. The main conclusions are that more ecological discourse should be implemented in the translations of the political goals to gradually change the way we value and relate to nature and thereby create solutions that are sustainable long term. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency also should not back away from expressing the ethical responsibilities we have to restore and protect nature.