This dissertation examines communication processes surrounding political scandal. It demonstrates that scandal coverage is improperly calibrated to the severity of scandal accusations, with trivial but salacious sex scandals tending to receive inordinate amounts of press attention while deeper forms of financial corruption go unreported or underreported. Patterns of scandal coverage, in turn, result in real-world effects on public perceptions and electoral outcomes. Specifically, sex scandals generate such intense media scrutiny that accused officials often resign their offices rather than generate unwanted publicity. Financial scandals are often downplayed, resulting in little or no ramifications for the accused. Recognizing basic differences in scandal typology is key to understanding press coverage and political ramifications of scandal. Previous efforts to explain and predict scandal coverage tend to take a one size fits all approach, assuming that different types of scandal create basically the same type of effects on public opinion and electoral outcomes. Rather than taking an all scandals are created equal approach, this study sheds new light on how different types of scandals sexual and financial are covered by the press, how voters react to news of these scandals, and how differential coverage decides electoral fortunes. Chapter 1 outlines factors that influence press coverage of political scandals. A variety of economic and partisan incentives, and institutional journalistic routines are considered. Chapter 2 analyzes over five years of scandal news from the Pew News Coverage Index (NCI), showing differential patterns of coverage across a wide range of scandals. Chapter 3 uses a survey-based experiment to determine the influence of financial and sexual misconduct on judgments of accused officials. Using aggregated data collected on members of the U.S. House from 1996 to 2012, Chapter 4 explores how the interplay of press coverage and scandal type relate to electoral outcomes. Chapter 5s conclusion suggests that patterns of scandal coverage actually make it electorally safer for public officials to be accused of bribery or extortion than cheating on a spouse. The findings present a challenge to journalistic accounts of official misconduct, suggesting the need for scandal reporting to actively address scope and severity.

This study simulated a fan extension of the Broadway-renowned musical Les Miserables on a community level and measured the effects of fan interactionsboth online and with the characters narratives as performed at Theatre Baton Rouge during summer 2013. The stimulus materials in this study were Tweets distributed via Twitter identities for each of the lead characters whereby their thoughts and narratives were communicated with audiences and Twitter followerscoinciding with the opening of the live theatrical production. Patrons of Theatre Baton Rouge were surveyed online after the closing of the production. This study served as a practical use of Twitter for Theatre Baton Rouge and promoting the live production as well as an examination of the aforementioned media theories. The goal was that greater audience engagement with the narratives would result in more interest in attending the actual production. This theoretical approach also had very real-world implications and usefulness for the organization and its operations. Through a quasi-experimental, post-test only design, this study observed the significant predictive relationship between audiences empathy, connectedness, identification, and perceived realism of the characters of Les Miserables and their attitudes towards the narratives, their personal involvement with Les Miserables, as well as their behavioral intention to attend the live production. This study also found a significant predictive relationship between audiences familiarity, or fan activity, with Les Miserables and the parasocial interactions (PSIs) and audience-persona interactions they experienced. While the hope of this study was that there would be real-world implications of this digital performance or campaign on Twitter for a traditionally non-digital theatre, the expectation was that data collected would also offer an opportunity to apply media theories in new and creative ways.

As social media becomes a more prominent tool for mass communication, nonprofit organizations are using social networking sites as a means to communicate with their target audiences and recruit supporters. This study explores how nonprofits are using Twitter, a microblogging website, to communicate with their audiences during the year-end charitable giving period and investigate which messaging acquires audience engagement. This was determined by investigating nonprofit organizations use of Twitters multimedia features and the different types of message appeals used when tweeting about their organizations year-end campaign. Another aim of this study was to identify which message appeals in online charitable giving campaigns are most successful at engaging Twitter users. A content analysis was conducted to determine which multimedia features and message appeals nonprofits are using on Twitter in their year-end tweeting. Tweets were sampled from five nonprofit organizations: United Way, American Red Cross, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Salvation Army and American Heart Association. These organizations were chosen, because of their top-rated efforts in online fundraising. The study investigated which multimedia features and message appeals were used by these nonprofits in year-end tweets and which multimedia features and message appeals stimulate the most user engagement. Interactions between an organization and Twitter users are considered engagement; thus, engagement increases awareness of the nonprofit organizations mission. This study found that rational appeals were more frequently used among nonprofits organizations and were more likely to increase engagement than emotional appeals. The sample nonprofit organizations appeared to differ in their use of rational and emotional message appeals on Twitter. Results also showed differences in nonprofits use of multimedia features. Nonprofit organizations tend to use hashtags and links more frequently than photos and videos; however photos and hashtags seem to be more likely to increase engagement.

Technology is enhancing our amateur culture, which may provide counter-stereotype depictions. The present study reexamined the continuum model of impression formation by investigating how the mechanism of an amateur technology platform interacts with the depiction of amateur content created by social minority members to redirect peoples cognitive process of impression formation of minority members in the online amateur setting. More specifically, conducting a 2 (Stereotype Depiction) x 2 (Platform) experiment, this study looked at whether amateur platform YouTube encouraged people to go beyond stereotyping to form an counter-stereotypic impression of the mediated transgender person featured in the amateur content. Moreover, it examined whether the outcome of the impression formation would be transformed into attitudes toward the featured transgender person and transgender people as a whole. Furthermore, this study explored the psychological responses that caused the transformation from impression to attitudes in the impression formation process in the digital amateur phenomenon, integrating the theoretical framework of elevation. The findings revealed that the counter-stereotypic depiction in amateur content would encourage peoples counter-stereotypic labeling individuation. Regardless of stereotype depiction, the amateur platform encouraged information seeking individuation. However, the consequent increased information seeking individuation might lead to less positive attitudes towards both the featured transgender person and transgender people as a whole. For attitudes towards the featured person, the regular platform and counter-stereotypic depiction optimized the viewers counter-stereotyping outcome. Aligned with platforms influence on attitudes towards transgender people, the regular platform elicited significantly higher levels of elevation responses (i.e. affective responses, physical responses, motivational responses).

Journalists inform residents living on or near Native American reservations about key policy issues. Since most tribal councils own and operate their news outlets, retaliation towards journalists working for the tribe is a real concern if the leadership does not appreciate the message. In response to the threat of retaliation, some tribes, like the Cherokee Nation, have legal protections for journalists. The Cherokee Nations newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, operates under the guidelines of the Cherokee Independent Press Act (CIPA) originally passed in 2000 and amended in 2009. CIPA was the first of its kind in Indian Country. This thesis analyzes the adoption of CIPA and its efficacy within the context of an issue dividing the Cherokee Nation membership.

<p> While campaigning as a candidate for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump publicly used the term &ldquo;silent majority&rdquo; to motivate his voting base. Although this term may seem original on the surface, it was first used in a political setting in the 1960s, when former President Richard Nixon began using the term extensively before and after his election in 1968. In this critical discourse analysis, the term &ldquo;silent majority&rdquo; is examined through a historical lens to get a sense for how it originated, why it was used, and how it has developed. Furthermore, this project&rsquo;s research question is directed at American news media, as we study how, and if, journalists&rsquo; interpretations of the &ldquo;silent majority&rdquo; have changed over a timespan of nearly 50 years.</p><p>

<p> The current quantitative study attempted to understand, identify and examine four aspects of the viewing behavior; binge watching. Those aspects were binge watching characteristics, binge watching motivations and people&rsquo;s perceptions of binge watching, as well as exploring the relationships between binge watching and gender. The study found that people would usually binge watch alone between 3-5 episodes in one session, and they would spend six hours binge watching on weekends. Moreover, catching up on missed episodes was the only positive significant motivation the study found. The study found people perceived binge watching as a satisfying activity that made them feel in control, which would not cause anxiety, addiction, or isolation even though it was unproductive and time-wasting behavior. The study found some differences between men and women. Women binge watched dramas and were motivated by catching up on missed episodes. Women tended to perceive binge watching as unproductive behavior. Men were more likely to repeat binge watching after they had already finished doing so.</p><p>

The topic of this thesis is how frequent news exposure affects the Black communitys perceptions of the world and trust in institutions. The purpose of this thesis is to uncover whether African Americans with more news exposure are more likely to view the world with skepticism and fear when compared to those with less news exposure. My hypotheses predicted that African Americans who have had frequent exposure to news will perceive the world as a meaner and scarier place (H1), will exhibit less trust in police officers (H2), and will exhibit less trust in news media (H3) than those who have had less news exposure. I also took into account how strength of racial identity and prior contact with law enforcement moderated these relationships. I ran a series of regression tests that revealed support for H1 and H2, but no support for H3. I found that higher levels of news exposure for African Americans predicts mean world perceptions and feelings of paranoia around police officers, but does not predict lack trust in the news media. I also found that racial identity and prior contact with law enforcement partially moderated these relationships. The possibility that participants who consume news frequently do so because they have a lot of trust in the news media is discussed, as well as other implications. Limitations and opportunities for future study are also considered.

This study analyzes cultural discourses around political deepfakes through mediaarchiving. Deepfakes use deep learning techniques to edit authentic media content and are currently impacting online political communication. To assess the field of discourse around political deepfakes, the study involved the creation of a database of digital media artifacts, including texts and audio-visual documents. The study relies on cultural analytics method to establish the patterns contained in media used to portray political deepfakes and their effects. Deepfakes continue to threaten democracies and erode trust in public institutions. Thus, studies that focus on the discourses around political deepfakes stand to increase and promote literacy about this important subject. / Media & Communication

Selective avoidance has been conceptualized and most often analyzed as a mirror image of selective exposure since the origins of political communication research (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1948). However, recent studies have served to differentiate selective avoidance from selective exposure (Garrett, 2009a, 2009b; Garrett & Stroud, 2014; Song, 2017; Tsfati, 2016), and the current project explores the selective avoidance phenomenon at the individual, global, and macro-social levels. Secondary analyses were conducted on three reputable global-level data sets (i.e., World Values Survey [1981-2020, N = 174,450], European Values Studies [1981-2020, N = 114,983] and Digital News Report [2019, N = 75,749]) using a wide range of univariate and multivariate procedures. Results show that politically interested people are less likely to avoid news and people on the extreme ranges of political ideology tend to avoid news across the globe. Macro-level cultural values did not serve as a moderator, but other factors (e.g., Freedom House Index, Internet penetration rate, and Urbanization rate) moderated the relationship between political interest and extremity and selective news avoidance in a series of post-hoc tests. Individuals’ affective reaction to the news (i.e., being worn out by news) significantly predicts selective news avoidance. Stepping away from a consistency-based theoretical foundation, the current study has introduced affect as a new theoretical avenue that can direct future research on selective avoidance. / Media & Communication