Master of Arts / Department of History / Donald J. Mrozek / On 16 January 1991, a coalition of nations led by the United States launched a series of air strikes against Iraq to force that country to withdraw from Kuwait. What followed was an intense aerial bombardment of Iraqi military and civilian infrastructure which lasted until 24 February when the coalition began a ground offensive. After four days of ground fighting Iraq withdrew from Kuwait. American pictorial print media created a historical interpretation of the 1991 Persian Gulf War in the sense that selected images were immediately published to a broad audience and these images provided an acceptable story of the war. Perceptions of an Air Campaign examines the cultural meanings of the air war and how these meanings took shape in the narrative pictorial print media produced. The narrative is intricately related to the legacy of the Vietnam War. For generations, Americans viewed contemporary war, politics, foreign affairs, and culture through their memories of the U.S. defeat in Vietnam. President George H.W. Bush guaranteed the U.S. public that the Gulf War was consciously being constructed to avoid a conflict similar to Vietnam. According to the president, the United States was going to war with enough resources for a swift and decisive victory, thereby avoiding the Vietnam pitfall of an open-ended conflict. Pictorial print media articulated a narrative displaying U.S. military strength and dominance that fulfilled Bush’s promise.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Joye C. Gordon / Global warming and its implications have astounding consequences for the global community. Although some research has been done on the trends within environmental reporting, few studies have looked at the issue of global warming in particular. Global warming is a troublesome issue for reporters for a number of reasons, and hence, it is important that we delve into how newspapers cover the topic. Latin America, especially the Caribbean region, is expected to suffer extreme consequences due to global warming, yet no studies regarding global warming coverage have been done in these regions. The first purpose of this study was to discover how a Mexico newspaper frames the issue of global warming. Next, this study sought to expand the current knowledge of global warming coverage by the media. Lastly, this study sought to expand on existing literature to discover how journalists outside of the United States communicate, to the public, the issue of global warming. Based on previous studies on global warming a frame analysis was conducted to explore how the Mexico City-based newspaper Reforma covers the issue of global warming. This study identified that ecology/science and consequences are the most frequently occurring themes of coverage, while scientific conflict and North/South conflict are present, but in low frequencies and near the end of stories. This study also identified international relations as the most frequent solution to global warming, while global warming story frequencies peaked during international conferences. These results confirm previous research, which has found that news media outside of the United States tend to emphasize international relations and de-emphasize conflicts and controversies.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / The Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers offer a number of services to Kansas wheat producers. Kansas wheat producers will be willing to pay more if they perceive they are getting more value from the Kansas wheat organizations. However, Kansas wheat producers are unaware of what the Kansas wheat organizations are doing on their behalf. It is believed that if Kansas wheat producers were more aware of what their organizations were doing on their behalf, they would be willing to contribute more. The overall objective is to improve Kansas wheat producer knowledge of Kansas Wheat activities. A survey of Kansas wheat producers provided data about willingness to pay, importance of services, channel preferences and producer demographics. Funds provided by the Kansas wheat assessment are used for a number of projects and programs. Current programs can be categorized into four areas: research; education, communications, and meetings supporting Kansas wheat growers; domestic market development; and international market development. When asked to rank those four areas from highest to lowest priority, respondents overwhelmingly chose research as the highest priority investment of the Kansas wheat assessment. The survey results indicated that Kansas wheat producers were willing to pay an amount above the current level of 10 mills per bushel for the Kansas wheat assessment. The mean response was 12.42 mills. Members of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers were willing to pay more for the assessment (15.13 mills per bushel) than non-members. In general, radio is the preferred channel of Kansas wheat producers; however, the two most listed publications and radio stations they rely on for information about wheat were High Plains Journal (33%) and Kansas Farmer (30%), both industry publications. Other producer demographics such as location in the state, type of producer, and acreage also affect producers' willingness to pay.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Robert W. Meeds / Recent research on magazine advertisements, for the most part, has examined race in terms of representation and gender in terms of stereotypical social roles and objectification. Very few content analyses have been done regarding the depictions of women in terms of specific body types portrayed in the advertising content of women's and teen magazines. In addition, very few, if any, studies have examined women's and teen's magazine advertisements for the presence of gender and racial stereotypes, overt sexuality, and depictions of a body ideal. This content analysis of six mainstream women's magazines explores the existence of all those variables and puts them in context with one another, examining the implications for what these advertisements say about our society. Specifically, this study focuses on the portrayals of women in women's and teen magazines, where previous studies have examined portrayals of women in general magazines or men's magazines, but no focus has been put on teen magazines or specifically women's magazines. Major findings include the obvious suggestions of specific body ideals for women and teens of different racial backgrounds, perpetuation of social role expectations and social stereotypes, and lack of sexual imagery prevalence in women's and teen magazines.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Kristy L. Pederson-Archuleta / Viewership of reality television has been indicated to influence behaviors among individuals and groups, as existing literature has linked reality television viewership to an increase in the likelihood of demonstrating other non-financial behaviors. The literature notes increases in risky sexual and dating behavior, increases in tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, and increases in violent behavior. This dissertation examined the perceptions of the influence of reality television on financial behavior. Situational reality television programming was found to have the greatest influence on the financial behaviors of college students. Ten college students were interviewed using a phenomenological qualitative approach. There were four primary findings from this study. The first was that reality television has the ability to inform the financial behavior of college students. Second, an individual’s connection to his or her social system has an influence on financial behavior. Third, reality television does have the ability to influence financial behavior change and fourth, reality television influences the meaning of money as perceived by the respondents. The results of this study provide valuable information to promote further inquiry as to how reality television and other forms of media influence financial behavior.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Louise Benjamin / This study examines women’s interpretations of model minority stereotypes of Asian American women in prime-time television. This stereotype depicts Asian Americans as well educated, intelligent, competitive, hardworking and successful career women. Using focus group discussions, this study recalls perceptions and explores potential effects of model minority stereotypes in prime-time television among women of varied racial-ethnic backgrounds. The study finds that both Asian/Asian American women and women from other racial-ethnic groups confirm belief in the model minority media stereotype in prime-time television. The selfperception and others’ perception of Asian American women as a model minority imposes stress on Asian/Asian American women in terms of gender role, academic performance and career achievement. Additionally, perceptions toward the model minority media stereotype among women of varied racial-ethnic backgrounds influence intergroup relations, interracial contact and evaluation of the model minority media image. Implications indicate that the model minority media stereotype has both positive and negative influences on Asian/Asian American women and other racial-ethnic groups. The study suggests that American media can increase the frequency and diversity of Asian American women’s media representation to reduce the negative societal influence of one-dimensional media stereotypes.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Todd F. Simon / This paper explores queer self-presentation on the social network site, Facebook, emphasizing gendered functionality, gender and queer politics and presentations of gendered identities. It provides a review of early critical cyberculture studies, identity performance and queer theoretical considerations. This study is based on hermeneutic analysis of public profile information and transformative changes of Facebook users as well as in-depth interviews of two queer Facebook users. Results indicate that queer users are always-already gendered, even in the seemingly liberal environment of a social network site, but some, aware of the restrictive structures of Facebook, manipulate presentation to negotiate adequate gender performance. With specific attention to heteronormative structures, this paper challenges former claims of the potential for social progress inherent in social network sites and calls for changes within.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Joye C. Gordon / Military spouses have a complex relationship with news coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 2003 Iraq War. Utilizing uses and gratifications, hostile media perception, and cognitive dissonance perspectives as a basis, the researcher studied military spouses' media behaviors, perceived benefits of media usage, and whether hostile media perception and cognitive dissonance were present in this convenience sample of military spouses. Thirty military spouses participated in in-depth interviews. The results showed a desire for more positive news stories and less negative news stories about Operation Iraqi Freedom. Hostile media perception and cognitive dissonance responses were noted among participants–especially with regard to the media's tracking totals of soldier and civilian casualties. Military spouses in this sample found military news sources more credible than civilian news sources. They also described using news coverage for the purposes of gaining information, surveillance, political competency and empathy.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / William Adams / This is an exploratory study on the existing transition efforts of the Kansas State University Graduate School for master’s degree students. There are a variety of graduate students at Kansas State University with many different graduate program experiences. This study identifies the current status of incoming master’s degree students outreach and details experiences of transitioning graduate students to make suggestions on future strategies. It is vital to identify if, and which, programs are catering to the different needs of these students during their socialization into their graduate program. The study has three main objectives: (1) determine the level of personal contact and emphasis on relationship-building during a master’s degree student’s transition, (2) identify the general efforts and practices of specific master’s degree programs and the Kansas State University Graduate School, and (3) to document the needs of students as they transition into graduate school at Kansas State University. The research was conducted through use of confidential one-on-one in-depth interviews with nine Kansas State University graduate program directors and two Graduate School administrators. Ten newly admitted to the Kansas State University graduate program in the spring of 2013 were interviewed. The qualitative approach to this study enabled the researcher to get detailed testimonials and experience-based knowledge from all of these key stakeholders. Overall, the study revealed that graduate students value face-to-face and personal interaction and showed that student-to-student contact is a preferred component to a successful socialization of graduate students. The needs of transitioning graduate students included assistance with course scheduling, assistantship responsibilities, advisor selection, and an overall understanding that graduate school is different from undergraduate school. Future graduate program strategies that would assist in the successful socialization of graduate students include: orientations, meeting with graduate program directors, social and networking opportunities, and workshops. Involvement in student organizations and utilization of on-campus resources are also a part of most of the graduate programs, and graduate school transition outreach. Based on the findings of this study, the researcher offers suggestions to the Graduate School, graduate programs, and incoming students in order to help enhance the transition experience of master’s degree students into graduate school at Kansas State University.