Breastfeeding is a pressing social issue in terms of womens equality, preventative healthcare, and the preservation of a valuable natural resource. Future progress in breastfeeding advocacy will depend on an accurate investigation into the current situation. In this study, three womens prenatal magazines (American Baby, ePregnancy, and Parenting) are analyzed via content analysis for one calendar year, looking specifically at infant formula-related product advertisements, breastfeeding-related product advertisements and variations of the mothers role in infant feeding. The content of breastfeeding-related magazine articles also is analyzed within the context of the advertisements. This sample of media appears to have evolved away from negative stereotypes about breastfeeding being primitive, disgusting, cow-like, or an excretory function. However, breastfeeding product advertisements were found to cater to negative stereotypes more than infant formula product advertisements. The amount of product advertising was not influential in the positive or negative representation of breastfeeding within article content.

The purpose of this study is to determine bias in press news coverage of the 2003 post-election street protests, which resulted from the presidential election in Azerbaijan. This study provides a look at the extent of state and private media ownership of newspapers in Azerbaijan conducting a content analysis of three highly circulated local newspapers, one state owned and the others privately owned, during a three week period following the election day when the main subject of local newspapers coverage was protest actions in the streets of the capital city, Baku. The data are news and articles regarding the street protests from three newspapers: state owned Kalg, privately owned Echo, and Zerkalo. The period under study consists of 3 weeks, from October 15, 2003, the election day, to November 7, 2003. A content analysis of 126 news articles in the three local newspapers found that significant differences exist in newspaper coverage reflecting differences in ownership. The study showed how ownership of media outlets affects political coverage of the street protests by opposition party supporters through unbalanced coverage and framing. The general conclusion of this study is that the privately owned newspapers are more objective than state owned newspapers in their coverage of the political protest.

The study analyzed how independent and state media's news programs differ in the way they framed the Georgian Revolution of Roses. The paper analyzed what sources, frames and key words journalists used to describe the protest in order to investigate if the coverage was objective or biased in any particular direction. Study provides evidence that by framing protests in a different way, politicians and journalists give different meanings to the same issues and suggest what is at issue. Each party of the political elite tried to promote their own political viewpoints. By preferring sources from the ruling party and their supporters and repeating frames and key words suggested by the ruling party, state television supported the ruling party. By quoting frequently reformers and their supporters and framing the event in a way offered by the reformers, the independent media supported the viewpoints of the reformers. This participatory position of the independent station is supported by developmental theory, which says media in countries in transition have to assist to the process of democracy. (Baran & Davis, 2003). In the case of Georgia, the opposition was considered eager to fulfill democratic reforms and so the independent media supported their political views. However, the free press theory suggests that bias is against all professional norms of journalism, regardless the intentions of media to have bias for the "right" side of an issue. (Leigh, 1974). A free press has to offer balanced and objective reports of the event or issue. Otherwise, it will not be credible and lose the public trust, which is most valuable to a free press. (Leigh, 1974). The coverage of the Revolution of Roses in the independent station was not beneficial to the development of a free press. It becomes even more obvious how important an unbiased press is now that the former reformers have become the government. The state TV is still maintaining the ruling party's political viewpoints and the independent television became part of the government's public relations machine by conveying mostly positive news about the policymakers and policies.

Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are a national concern in the United States. In addition, many people exist who would like to become parents, but cannot or do not reproduce biologically. While adoption could offer a solution to this problem, the actual number of adoptions that take place is very small. This study examined what adoption agencies in the New Orleans area are doing to promote themselves to women with unwanted pregnancies. In-depth interviews were conducted with five adoption agencies. Three of the five agencies reported using various methods of targeting women with unwanted pregnancies. These methods included public posters, flyers distributed in various public places, feature stories in newspapers, radio spots, and television commercials. Two agencies did not target women at all because they did not have a need to do so. In addition to providing information on their methods of targeting, the respondents were also able to provide useful ideas and information on aspects such as competition among adoption agencies, demographics of birth and adoptive parents, adoption and the media, limitations agencies face, and ethical considerations in adoption. The majority of the adoption agencies did engage in methods of targeting. Yet, they felt that more could be done if the financial resources were available.

This study focuses on how African-Americans and Hispanics perceive their racial equality in American advertising. A survey was conducted to find out the African-American and the Hispanic perceptions about how these ethnic groups saw themselves depicted, and the way they are stereotyped by the U.S. media. Overall, the study found that there was no difference between race and the level of perception between these two ethnic groups. However, age appears to be the only demographic variable that affects the African-American and Hispanic perception of discrimination. In addition, the study also exposed that African-Americans are mostly portrayed in the athletic advertising industry. Hispanics, on the other hand, appear most often in family-oriented and business-oriented ads.

Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs receives significant attention from academic researchers. Advertising, however, is not the only way prescription drugs are discussed in the public sphere. Many Americans learn about science through mass media. Additionally, researchers believe readers place more trust in editorial content than in advertisements. This study took a quantitative and qualitative approach to content analysis of prescription drug coverage to examine the effects of the highly publicized and controversial Vioxx recall on the news. Significant changes in framing, drugs mentioned, and prominence of story placement were shown. There were no changes in sources used in prescription drug coverage, and the absence of personal stories in news coverage was an important discovery, which may help explain the drop in prominence of articles in newspapers.

A comparative analysis of presidential press conferences was conducted to determine whether the previously established adversarial relationship between the United States president and the American press was alleviated to some degree by the presence of a foreign dignitary. The study applied a system for quantifying adversarial behaviors exhibited by the press to questions asked of President George W. Bush in solo conferences and where he was joined by another head-of-state in joint press conference sessions. Questions from selected conferences during his first term were coded according to four indicators of adversarialness: initiative, directness, assertiveness and adversarialness. Results showed that the president-press relationship is indeed less adversarial in joint press conferences than in solo. This conclusion may serve as justification for increases in general press conference frequency in the last three administrations and the disproportionate increase in joint sessions.

Minority and other race recruitment have become a significant part of general recruitment efforts at many predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Despite increased efforts, some universities have not been successful at increasing diversity on campus. This study relies on the use of in-depth interviews to document, describe and understand the similar and differing characteristics of minority and other race recruitment tactics being used at PWIs and HBCUs. The researcher conducted interviews at four public institutions of higher education; two of which are HBCUs, and two of which are PWIs. The researcher also sought to determine if the universities in the study created their recruiting techniques as a self-presentation tactic. The findings of this study reveal that although similarities exist in general recruitment practices at PWIs and HBCUs, many recruiters and university administrators note the necessity to approach prospective minority and other race students differently than majority students. Secondly, findings suggest negative perceptions of institutions may hinder minority recruitment efforts. Findings also suggest that the universities are putting forth effort in attempts to overcome this problem; therefore, this study supports the idea that universities practice self-presentation in efforts to overcome negative images and poor minority enrollment.

The purpose of this study was to find out if either The New York Times or The Washington Times participated in unbalanced media coverage during the last two weeks of the 2004 Presidential Election. Through content analysis paragraph tone was used to evaluate news stories, columns, and editorials as positive, negative or neutral from a composite week sample. Scholars, politicians, the public as well as journalists have long argued about the existence or not of media bias and whether it is in support of liberal or conservative politics. This study was not an attempt to pick a side in that confrontation. Instead, a goal of this research was to provide additional data along with testing methodology, in the hope that it would contribute to the work that has already been accomplished in moving toward evaluation criteria for identifying media bias. The findings from this study provided evidence of unbalanced media coverage from both news organizations during the particular period of study. The biggest surprise was that The Washington Times was more unbalanced than The New York Times, 64.9% to 56.3%. Data from this study supports the previous research that claims a presence of liberal bias as well as a possible attempt by conservative elites to create and support a perception of media bias. The evidence uncovered also supports agenda setting and priming as well as some agenda setting effects.

A survey with 293 American and 68 international LSU students and two focus groups with American students and one with international students were conducted between November 2005 and February 2006 to determine the difference in media use between American and international LSU students in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: What were students main sources of information after the storm? What were their sources when electricity was out? Which source of information helped students feel less lonely? Which source of information helped students fell less stressful? Finally, which medium did the students believe, when compared to others, did the best job reporting on Hurricane Katrina? Second, the study explored how female LSU students differed from male students in media use and satisfaction after the storm. Survey results showed that television was the primary source of information for both American and international students. For American students, coverage by local TV was both informative and comforting, and coverage of national TV was more informative. For international students, both local and national coverage were more informative. More American students listened to the radio as more of them did not have electricity. International students went online more to contact their friends and family abroad, and American students used cell phones to talk to family members. Friends were the primary stress relief for both groups of students and the source that helped them feel less lonely. The largest number of both groups of students agreed that local TV did the best job in reporting on Hurricane Katrina. Overall, students gave the average grade B to American news media reports on Katrina. International students said they were more comforted using American media and got more information from them than from their native language media. When considering gender, there was a statistically significant difference between males and females in using mobile phones, sending text messages and getting information from family members.