The concept of stewardship within fund raising literature stems from the public relations theories of relationship management, which involve maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics. With the current economic crisis, non-profit organizations see the need to focus more time and attention on maintaining and fostering relationships with existing donors, and therefore, the idea of stewardship stands an area of great interest to scholars and fund-raising practitioners alike. This study seeks to evaluate the role and formalization of stewardship in the fund-raising process, the current tactics practitioners use to practice stewardship, and better understand the limitations to the implementation of stewardship. Using a case study approach, which includes document analysis and in-depth interviews, the researcher gives a detailed description of Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisianas current stewardship practices, as well as the practices of 15 other fund raisers in healthcare institutions throughout the United States, measures those practices against the theoretical standards, and constructs a stewardship program that allows MPBCC to effectively steward its donors. The results of this study indicate the widespread practice of all four stewardship elements, but also reveal a focus on reporting. The institutions in this study show formalization of the stewardship elements reciprocity, reporting, and responsible gift; however, use a more personal and individual approach to practicing the element of relationship nurturing. Although budget may seem the most common reason for a lack of stewardship, practitioners see the limitations of staffing and time as greater limitations. These findings show the need to further research the practice of stewardship and its varying levels among organizations of different functions and size.

This study examines press independence from the government in the 2009 national health care debate. Through a content analysis examining source expressions, or the words journalists attribute to various people in the news, the study captures the essence of the discourse represented in the news about the debate. This paper also outlines a distinction between various types of autonomy, and offers a new conceptualization of independence. Procedural autonomy, which is autonomy in journalistic norms and routines, does not necessarily result in content autonomy, which is autonomy of viewpoints expressed in the news. In other words, if non-governmental sources say substantially similar things to governmental sources, then the news content is not independent from government influence. This study determines, therefore, whether there is a substantial difference among the various viewpoints expressed by different types of news sources. Using as its framework the indexing theory, which posits that journalists will tie the range of news discourse the governmental elite opinion, this study determines whether some discourse falls outside the range of elite opinion. The results indicate that while the press did heavily focus on governmental elite debate in the health care debate, they made a moderate effort to bring in non-governmental voices and views. Despite this, however, those voices did not represent substantially different views. The exceptions to this rule were experts and, at least in the contentious months of late summer, popular voices.

The growing usage of social media indicates a potentially effective new platform for advertisers. However, little academic research examines how advertisers use these platforms for marketing and communications. This study sought to provide an analysis of current commercial social media usage by conducting interviews at a digital creative agency and full-service agency, in addition to conducting a statewide online survey of advertising professionals. Results indicated that advertisers use social media differently than they do traditional forms of advertising media. In the current digital media environment, advertisers must provide value or an added benefit to the consumer to gain their attention. Furthermore, companies should view social media platforms as long-term investments and, in doing so, invest time and resources to developing and sustaining them. Finally, whether or not a brand chooses to participate in social media, every company should understand these networks and use them for their researching capabilities. The results of this study not only provide background on social media usage in advertising, but also provide valuable insight for current practitioners and help reduce the academician-practitioner gap.

Consumer lack of trust in online vendors and brands is identified as one of the biggest obstacles in the growth of e-commerce. This study examined how third-party product reviews help in building consumers trust, in consumers perception of product quality, their brand attitudes and consumers purchase intention. The six cell experimental design tested the effect of consumer and expert online product reviews on fictitious web sites for high-involvement and low-involvement products. The findings indicate that online consumer product reviews perform better than online expert product reviews and no product reviews. Online product reviews affected visitors to a web site with a high-involvement product the most. The study implies that online consumer product reviews significantly affect consumers in a high-involvement condition and are more effective than online expert product reviews.

<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.