This study focuses on how media usage can affect ones perceptions of Black collegiate and professional male athletes. While early research focused solely on traditional media, this study focuses on social media as well. This study investigates the relationships between the amounts of time spent using traditional and social media, and the perceptions of athletes in regards to their physical capability, the likelihood of being criminals, and prevalence of committing violent crimes. To explore relationships, this study utilized a total of 145 White participants. Findings showed a positive relationship existed between social media usage and perceptions of criminal-like characteristics. It was found that as social media usage increases, an increase in the perceptions of Black collegiate and professional male athletes having criminal-like characteristics increases as well. Also, results showed that perceptions of criminal-like characteristics, physical prowess, and violent crimes are attributed more to Black athletes than to White athletes. Lastly, findings showed heavy users of traditional and social media attribute more perceptions of criminal-like characteristics than light users of traditional and social media.

From Scott Baios endorsement of Donald Trump to Sarah Silvermans endorsement of Bernie Sanders and subsequent rejection of the Bernie or Bust crowd at the DNC, celebrities have habitually inserted themselves into the political sphere, however, there has been little empirical research on celebrity endorsements of political candidates. Rooted in branding theory, this study seeks to understand the effectiveness of celebrity political endorsements by utilizing advertising effectiveness models. The primary model, derived from work done by Amos, Holmes, and Strutton (2008), translates source factors of a celebrity product endorser to those of a celebrity candidate endorser, such as credibility, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. While in traditional advertising research, effectiveness is measured by outcomes such as brand attitude, and intention for product purchase, this study defines effectiveness in terms of attitudes toward the candidate, endorsement believability, recognition, and willingness to engage in electoral and online civic behaviors. After providing demographic information and information about digital media use and partisanship, participants were provided with a social media post, allegedly from a famous actor, endorsing a fictitious candidate and were asked to rate the actor on 21 attributes of a good endorser (source factors) and answer questions relating to their identification with the celebrity, perceptions of the celebrity-candidate fit, and their perceptions of the candidates viability in the election. They were subsequently asked to evaluate the candidate, the endorsements believability, recognize information from the endorsement, and indicate how likely they were to perform nine civic behaviors for the candidate. The data suggest that the endorser effectiveness model used by advertising researchers is useful for understanding the source factors and other considerations upon which celebrity political endorsement effectiveness is predicated. The study found that source factors vary in effectiveness between attitude, cognitive, and behavioral measures, leading to the conclusion that celebrity endorsers with different characteristics may be useful to political campaigns depending upon desired voter outcomes, particularly with regard to time during a campaign cycle.

In the digitally networked society, social media easily expose individuals to information related to conflicting social issues and allow them to distribute their ideas by creating and sharing content. Accordingly, people have opportunities to be engaged in contentious issues through social media and participate in offline activities. The purpose of this study was to propose an integrative model of activism to understand how individuals in the networked society are engaged in social media and offline activism on contentious issues. In doing so, this study presents an integrative model of activism incorporating the Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS), hostile media perception, affective injustice, and social media efficacy. An online survey of 649 respondents examined how the integrative model of activism predict social media activism and offline activism on three issues of gun ownership, immigration, and police use of power. Significant results were found. First, this study showed a positive relationship between perceptual variables and situational motivation for each of the three issues. Second, situational motivation was a positive predictor for social media activism and offline activism. Third, affective injustice was positively associated with social media activism and offline activism. Fourth, social media efficacy was a significant and positive predictor for activism in the social media. Fifth, there was a strong relationship between social media activism and offline activism. Finally, structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the indirect effect (situational motivation ¨ social media activism ¨ offline activism) is stronger than the direct effect (situational motivation ¨ offline activism), meaning that social media activism is a positive and critical mediator that increases offline activism. The results of this study provide insights for public relations practitioners that the integrative model of activism contributes to theory building in activism research by extending STOPS in the context of social media. In addition, this study conceptualized communicative action of people in the social media as social media activism to better understand the collective action of people on contentious issues in the social media environment. This study also emphasized the practical utility of the model for issues management.

William Francis Mannix was a colossal hoaxer, journalist, criminal, and literary forger. He most famously fabricated Memoirs of Li Hung Chang (1913); sent sensational dispatches from Cuba during the Spanish American War that were published in the New York Times, Philadelphia Press, and other reputable papers; and is suspected of forging love letters written by Abraham Lincoln, published by the Atlantic Monthly in 1929. Mannix is representative of a type of journalist at the turn of the nineteenth century. At that time elements of the press were striving for professional respectability and embracing ethical standards. Historians have held these publications up as standing apart from the sensational press. In fact, even the best publications were tied in with journalists like Mannix. This thesis attempts to consolidate the threads of Mannixs life, putting his career into the larger journalism context it illuminates.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a $871.6 million industry. Well over $700 million of this annual income is generated from the media, giving collegiate athletics a national platform. This brings both opportunities and downfalls to amateur athletes who play NCAA sports and the journalists who report on their sporting events. Conflict often arises on the playing field and can continue off the field. With high profile athletic events aired nation-wide, comments are bound to be made about the athletes involved in the game. Some comments may even rise to the level of defamation. Through an in-depth examination of published court cases, this thesis explored whether a court would classify a student-athlete as a public official, public figure, or private person in a defamation suit. The thesis also examined whether the student-athlete would have to prove actual malice or negligence to win a defamation claim filed against a member of the news media or a social media user. Although few cases addressed the plaintiff status of a collegiate student-athlete or the level of fault required for a collegiate student-athlete to prove in a defamation claim, this thesis found that collegiate student-athletes would not be considered public officials. Rather, the thesis found that courts have found coaches and athletes to be either limited-purpose public figures or private persons, depending upon their level of access to media, their engagement with media regarding matters of public controversy, and their involvement in controversies. If courts consider collegiate student-athletes to be limited-purpose public figures in defamation suits regarding matters of public concern, the student-athletes may have to prove actual malice to win a defamation claim. If courts consider collegiate student-athletes to be private persons in defamation suits not related to matters of public concern, the student-athletes may have to prove negligence to win a defamation claim.

<p> Reporting of international conflict has implications for understanding, political action, and policy formation. This means media coverage can influence the outcomes of conflict. This study investigated reporting of the Arab Spring conflicts by U.S. television networks (<i>ABC, CBS,</i> and <i> NBC</i>). The study examined the time frame between the onset of the uprising and February 29, 2012 when dictators were unseated in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Agenda-setting and media framing theory were used to analyze transcripts (<i>N</i> = 316) for dominant issues, sources used, frames and, social media. Results of the study corroborate existing research regarding conflict reporting. Coverage was mostly episodic and dominated by violence, however, attention was paid to the role of social media in overthrowing regimes, violent acts of regime brutality, and democracy. Core causes of the uprising received only marginal coverage. Ordinary domestic citizens were used most frequently as sources. Other findings applicable to U.S. media coverage are presented.</p>

This mixed-method dissertation 1) identifies and describes common local law enforcement public relations activities, including reputation management, community relations and engagement, media relations, social media management, and internal communications; 2) addresses perceived similarities and differences associated with local law enforcement public relations relative to peers within the same level of government (e.g., public relations in the parks department of the same municipality); 3) identifies distinctive and reinforces common government public relations environmental characteristics, challenges, and opportunities associated with local law enforcement; 4) provides insights regarding how local law enforcement are using online tools (e.g., websites and social media) for public relations purposes; and 5) prescribes some best practices for local law enforcement public relations. This research addresses departmental level and mission or task gaps in the government public relations literature particularly the Government Communication Decision Wheel line of research through interviews with 20 local law enforcement public relations and leadership personnel, representing 16 local law enforcement agencies from across the United States. Furthermore, this research adds a unique contribution to the body of dialogic communication and online relationship building literature through content analyses of website homepages, Twitter profiles, and tweets for local law enforcement agencies representing municipalities with populations of 50,000 people to more than 500,000 people. Some of the most interesting findings in this research relate to local law enforcement perceptions of how their public relations activities and environmental characteristics are different from other local governmental departments and local governmental agencies. Among the key themes they shared were the demand they face and being 24/7; the levels of attention paid to, interest in, and media scrutiny they are exposed to; and the nature and complexity of law enforcement interactions and information.

Lippmann (1922) theorized that we understand our world through elites and the media because we cannot experience everything ourselves. We look to others to share their experiences with us. In this way, the media and elites tell us what is important in our world. Converse (1964), Zaller (1992), and Lupia (1994) argue that not only do elites and the media help us see what is important, but they draw out attributes of these issues to help us make political determinations congruent with our belief systems. In this thesis, I conduced two studies investigating candidate, party, and White House tweets about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). First, I used a quantitative content analysis to understand how in-parties, out-parties and politicians communicated about the PPACA. I studied tweets from 2009, when the bill was in Congress; in 2012, during an election year; and in 2015, at the start of another election cycle. I observed that elites and media used the term Obamacare with affective cues to communicate about the PPACA. The Democrats used positive tone when talking about the law, while the Republicans used negative tone and oppositional language. I also noted that Democrats linguistically reappropriated Obamacare to imbue it with positive cues for their base. Next, I conducted to qualitative textual analysis to investigate how the White House communicated about the healthcare policy priority. I began with emergent open coding of 10% of the sample and used this to develop a quantitative code book to analyze the remaining 90%. I developed a tactical category architecture with six categories of provision of information and seven categories of propagandistic techniques. I was able to show that widely used techniques in strategic communication are effective in setting the agenda for the public. Parties, candidates, and the White House communicate what issues are salient and help us toward value judgments of those issues in line with our ideologies. Twitter changes how tacticians practice. The brevity of tweets requires strategic use of language to build the agenda and a savvy press to interpret those cues as they share the agenda with the public.

This is a historical examination of how select Virginia newspapers covered lynching during two time periods, 1880 to 1900 and 1920 to 1932. The newspapers include white-owned and black-owned publications. The study features the owners/editors of four papers, one black and one white from each period. They are Joseph Bryan, John Mitchell, Jr., Douglas Southall Freeman and P.B. Young. The study also examines the standards of journalistic conduct that prevailed during the time periods, and how the selected editors met these expectations. The study concludes that white-owned papers, during the early period, reflected the racism that existed in Virginia at the time. During the later period, white papers were more neutral in their reporting and opposed to lynching in their edito1ials. The black papers were opposed during both periods. The study also concludes that the four editors varied in their allegiance to the journalistic standards of the day.

Nearly four hours of CBS Evening News summit reports, loaned by the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, were coded to construct a descriptive analysis and comparison of the coverage of the 1979 and 1985 summit meetings. Variables coded include speaker, language, origin of video and audio content, topic and quoted sources. Soviet speakers and topics were given proportionately more air time in 1985 than in 1979. But despite large differences in several important areas such as Soviet willingness to communicate via television, different leaders and their images, geopolitical factors, and improved video technology, many patterns of coverage showed similarities from 1979 to 1985. Nuclear weapons and disarmament talks garnered one-third of all summit-related story time, with U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations and the summits themselves being covered almost as much as nuclear issues. Coverage time spent on the leaders themselves remained stable. Overall, coverage of the 1985 summit was two-and-a-half times as extensive as 1979 coverage (perhaps because of attention paid in 1979 to a then-impending gasoline shortage), and 1985 coverage seemed to include more attempts to present "background information." A portion of the expanded 1985 coverage did not appear to be well balanced, but CBS coverage overall did not seem politically biased. The literature indicates that the study abstracted here may be the first analysis of video content pertaining to summit meetings. The literature also indicates that the perceptions and goals of summitry have changed since World War ll, that the process is now seen by many as increasingly bureaucratized and ritualistic. Printed media coverage which was reviewed contained references to this trend, but also to the possibility for individual leaders to achieve diplomatic breakthroughs on the basis of charisma or personal initiative. While no specific hypothesizing was done in these areas, the results of this analysis suggest that, from 1979 to 1985, either CBS coverage of summits, or the summits themselves, or both, were ritualistic and stable, and thus produced similar patterns of summit coverage across years during which large changes in other areas occurred.