<b> ABSTRACT </b> <p> For more than 30 years, college administrators and health communicators have used binge drinking prevention campaigns on university campuses to deter students from this dangerous and life-threatening habit. <p> Despite the prevalence of such campaigns (Wechsler, Seibring, Liu & Ahl, 2004), binge drinking remains the top public health threat for this population (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995). <p> In this study, the researcher conducted an experiment using fear appeals to see if these messages were more effective than social norms messages, which are often used in college binge drinking prevention campaigns (Real & Rimal, 2007), at prompting higher message credibility and intentions to change behavior for a sample of college students. <p> Overall, students in this experiment who viewed messages containing fear, either alone or combined with social norms, reported higher message credibility scores, and students who received a message using only fear reported higher intentions to change behavior than students who received a message with only social norms. <p> This study offers experimental evidence that fear appeals could be an effective health communication strategy for binge drinking prevention campaigns aimed at college students.

Corporations worldwide are realizing the potential to build relationships with publics using social media. The microblogging site, Twitter, has transformed from a platform in which people merely update the Twitterverse about their daily activities to a communication channel where interpersonal conversations between millions of users thrive. As public relations practitioners, it is important to utilize new media to reach out to publics in order to build mutually beneficial relationships. This study examines how 47 corporations use Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool and works towards developing guidelines for practitioners on using and evaluating their communication efforts on Twitter. Grounded in Grunigs four models of public relations, Hon and Grunigs (1999) relationship indicators, and theories of interactivity, this thesis utilized a content analysis to investigate corporate use of Twitter as a means of communication. This study analyzed 47 corporations Twitter homepages (n = 94) and tweets (n = 1,577) during a one-week sampling period. This research is important because companies dedicate time and resources to communicate with publics through Twitter. Not only do public relations practitioners need to know how to effectively utilize this medium, but they also need to be able to demonstrate to corporations their return on investment. The data show that 44.4% of the tweets follow the two-way symmetrical model of public relations, and 63.3% of the corporate tweets demonstrated a desire on behalf of the corporations to form communal relationships with users. In addition, trust and control mutuality were the most common relationship indicators used. Finally, the data reveal that corporations post higher interactive tweets, utilizing the at reply function to converse with publics. While these results reflect the tweets as a whole, when analyzing individual companies, many are not following commonly accepted relationship building and communication strategies. The first study of its kind, this thesis illustrates how corporations are using Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool. This study concludes with implications of using Twitter and how public relations practitioners can effectively use Twitter for developing and maintaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with publics.

Coastal erosion is a serious problem that directly affects Louisiana and indirectly affects the entire United States. Between 1990 and 2000, Louisiana lost 24 square miles of land per year, which equals an approximate football field lost every 38 minutes (Barras, Bourgeois, & Handley, 1994). Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 accelerated this land loss by transforming 217 square miles of marsh into open water (United States Geological Survey, 2006). As a leader in seafood, oil, and gas production, and shipping state, Louisiana and the nation have much at stake with continued land loss. To inform Louisianas citizens and a national audience about coastal erosion, several organizations have formed to create awareness and serve as educational bodies. Americas WETLAND Foundation, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, and the Governors Office of Coastal Activities use public relations as a communication tool to spread the message of coastal restoration. By understanding what messages the public relations practitioners disseminate and how, best practices may be found to help future coastal restoration advocates. This thesis examines these organizations public relations practitioners strategies and tactics as well as local and national newspaper coverage. Through in-depth interviews and a content analysis of organizational press releases, the researcher found that the messages focused on government and coastal restoration engineering. Each organization also focused on different attributes determined by the organizations public. The public relations practitioners described media as an important communication channel. The researcher performed a content analysis of news articles about coastal erosion to see if their messages made it into the local and national media. The major themes from the news article content analysis revealed attention to government, hurricanes, and coastal restoration engineering. Though the major themes for the organizational press releases and the news articles shared similarities, the media did not always use these organizations as sources in its stories. To further spread the coastal restoration messages, practitioners must develop and maintain relationships with organizational publics and news media and establish themselves as the voices of coastal restoration authorities in Louisiana.

This study looked at oil industry employees and Nigerians perceptions of Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil as socially responsible corporations and the role the two-step flow model of communication plays in shaping these publics impressions of the companies. Measures of participants perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) were developed using Carrolls 1971 three-dimensional model of CSR and Ketolas (2008) holistic model of CSR. This study found that for both companies participants had average to less-than-favorable perceptions of the companies socially responsible behavior, according to the various categories of CSR. However, employees were more likely to view the companies more favorably than Nigerians; but, this difference was significant in only a few measures of CSR. This study also found that participants viewed Exxon Mobil as more socially responsible than Shell Oil. The two-step flow model of communication played a significant role in shaping a more positive perception of both companies, especially among Nigerians. Findings from this study can be used to help companies understand their weaknesses and strengths of their CSR campaigns. This studys findings will help companies like Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil identify tactics for gain a socially responsible image and strengthen community support in antagonistic environments, such as Nigeria.

Leaning heavily on the media criticism and soft news literatures, the study analyzed comedic media criticism and the effect (if any) it has on the practices of media producers by studying a early 2009 exchange between The Daily Show host Jon Stewart and Mad Money with Jim Cramer host Jim Cramer. In the exchange, Stewart criticized the financial advice Cramer doles out on Mad Money, suggesting that Cramer perhaps knowingly leads his viewers astray with ill-advised stock tips. A quantitative content analysis of claims (N=510) pulled from Mad Money transcripts both before and after Stewarts criticism of Cramer revealed little to no evidence that Stewarts jabs had an impact on Cramers work. Discussion of what the studys results mean for the relationship between viewers, their attitudes, the news media, and democracy followed, with a special emphasis placed on the possible link between media criticism and cynicism development.

This study examined journalistic press criticism between 1865 and 1930. It sought to understand how the first modern journalists conceived of their profession in a period of great transitions. As the study revealed, journalists writing about journalism between 1865 and 1930 discussed recurring themes such as commercialization, sensationalism, advertising, and ethics. They expressed ambivalence toward the rise of big business in their field and the consequences it could have on the quality of the work. In the process, journalists also defined journalism as a profession providing a public service or as a business aiming solely for circulation and profit. Definitions shifted depending on the period during which the journalists wrote. Criticism during the period under study often reflected the social and cultural trends journalists witnessed. During the postbellum era, it mirrored the belief in the American Dream of wealth, well-being, and democracy. In the 1890s, criticism focused on the downsides of commercialism, expressing the fears people felt toward the new corporate giants. During the progressive period, the writings of press critics revealed the pride they felt in the civic services journalism provided. But World War I brought an end to progressivism. During the 1920s, disillusioned journalists criticized mediocre journalism. Their frustration echoed that of the old generation of progressives. Underlying the journalists criticism was also the perception they had of news. Excited about the democratic promise of this new concept, postbellum critics praised journalism more than they criticized it. During the 1890s, and despite the downsides of commercialism, journalists never lost hope because, for them, news democratized information. The progressive period seemed to confirm the democratic potentials of news, promoting pride among critics. But the propaganda campaigns of World War I broke the spell, as critics realized that news was potentially susceptible to propaganda. The establishment of public relations as a profession based on the spinning of news during the 1920s further aggravated the problem. Journalists, who had kept their optimism throughout the previous fifty years, became concerned, in the 1920s, that many newspapers did not live up to the democratic promise of the press.

Scholars and news media alike acknowledge that one of the main problems in education today is the minority achievement gaps in national testing. Although many education scholars have compiled several in-depth reasons as to why minorities, particularly African-American students, seem to generally lag behind their white counterparts, television news fails to give its audiences a comprehensive view of why minority achievement gaps are so prevalent in United States secondary public education. The purpose of this study was to examine where news consumers perceive television news places blame for problems in public education with regards to race. Studying how people perceive where television news places blame for minority gaps in academic achievement will build on the arguments of previous research that minorities are underrepresented as victims of social and political problems. Through a descriptive online survey of quantitative responses, this study assesses respondents political affiliations and perspectives, their views on race, racial achievement gaps and television news coverage of those gaps. This study will discuss some of the major research on why African-Americans and other minorities struggle with academic achievement more than Whites and how television news rarely, if ever, covers these issues nor provide context to stories on African-Americans and education.

This study examines how the institutional characteristics of local television news stations affect the stations coverage of state legislative news. Focusing on the state of Louisiana, the researcher conducts in-depth interviews with news workers from the seven media markets in the state. The interviews were focused toward the decision makers in the newsroom in order to examine the process that determines the newscast the audience receives. The interview discussions centered on the news making process. In addition, the interviews focused explicitly on the effect of proximity to the state capitol; coverage of state level news versus community level or national level news; and the effect of gubernatorial coverage on the topics within state legislative news. The findings suggest that local television news media hold distinct institutional characteristics that determine the extent of legislative news coverage provided. Proximity affects commitment to state government news. Also, news workers tend to cover the governor more than state legislative news. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that the structure of local television news is not optimal or even sufficient for serving the public in state legislative news.

This study examined the maiden and whore characters in The Golden Girls, Designing Women, and Sex and the City. Using a textual analysis and discourse analysis approach, I examined the two characters comparing them to the definitions of archetype and stereotype provided by Jungian theory and feminist film theory. I analyzed ten randomly selected episodes from the second season excluding both the premier and the finale. Three of the research questions were rooted in central ideas found in the shows: outward appearance, language and conversation, and sexual relationships. The last research question determined whether or not the characters were archetypes or stereotypes. Ultimately, the study found that the maiden and whore characters in the three shows were archetypes that are neutral as explained and defined in Jungian theory.

This study looked at sports websites to see how the variables information, humor, entertainment, community, and credibility affected sports website users intentions to use and re-use sports websites. Three groups of 25 and one group of 30 participants each completed a website viewing activity and corresponding survey. There were four website viewing activities (one for each group). The activities led participants on tours of ESPN.com, Deadspin.com, Football Outsiders, and Yahoo! Sports. Furthermore, the tours were designed to expose participants to the variables (as defined under disposition theory and uses and gratifications). Likewise, the corresponding survey assessed participants intentions to use each of the four websites based on the degrees to which they perceived each variable to be present. In addition to the surveys, the study utilized focus group discussion data as a secondary method. Five focus groups and one interviewee each answered eight open-ended questions. All answers were analyzed according to which of the variables were important to participants on sports websites. Results of the survey data showed that humor and entertainment content had the most positive effect on sports website users intents to use, whereas information and credibility content scored highest among the discussion participants. The community variable ranked last via both methods. The ramifications for this study are that sports websites should develop their humorous and entertaining content regarding athletes and sports figures. Website partnerships with informative and credible sites should be formed to maintain sports information links.