Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Fielding Graduate University, 2008. / Adviser: Erik M. Gregory. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-56).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Harding Graduate School of Religion, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-113).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation examines a body of popular arguments concerning gender and communication. In several important areas of popular cultural discourse, conflicts between men and women are regularly explained as misunderstandings caused by differences in communication style. This specific line of discourse is part of a larger picture where women and men are portrayed as fundamentally different groups, with different values systems, interpretive frameworks, and ways of using language. This miscommunication explanation for gender strife resonates with many men and women who find that it accurately reflects their experiences with the opposite sex. The overall purpose of this project is to identify the ways in which these discourses are used to make specific arguments about the meaning of perceived gender differences and to understand the consequences of those arguments. I examine popular representations of the miscommunication argument from a gender performance perspective. This perspective treats differences in communication behavior as the on-going performance of gender identity rather than as a simple product of gender identity. This perspective shifts attention away from identifying and verifying gender differences towards understanding the consequences persistent belief in gender differences. Women's communication style, as presented in popular literature, television, and participant comments, includes assisting others and deferring authority. At the same time, men's communication style is presented as a natural product of men's greater need for autonomy and independence. In self-help literature, these two different styles are used as a justification for men and women serving different roles in relationships and in the workplace. Women are portrayed as natural helpers at home and work while men are portrayed as better decision makers. Primetime television offered portrayals of men and women that closely parallel the different communication styles present in self-help literature. Finally, interviews with individuals about their response to a primetime television program revealed that many people believe that men and women have communication styles that match the styles presented in self-help literature. I conclude that the resonance of these differences is linked to the undeniable importance of communication in relationships coupled with the heterosexist bias of self-help literature and television representations of relationships.

This study analyzes the ideological effects of Channel One, the commercial television news program currently being implemented in the nation's public school systems, from a cultural studies perspective. These effects are traced primarily through an audience study of 627 high school students and 39 teachers from public schools in a small city in Ohio. The qualitative research design involves a modified application of the "encoding/decoding" model for studying media effects, developed by Stuart Hall and operationalized by David Morley. Specifically, I apply the encoding/decoding model to analysis of the social uses of Channel One, rather than to the content of Channel One. In doing so, I expand the model to integrate political economic determination of the encoding/decoding process, by treating this as a distinct "level of preference" to be explored within a qualitative research design. The findings of the audience study are examined against the backdrop of the overall cultural context within which Channel One has emerged. I argue that Channel One is an exemplary "post-Fordist" cultural form that arose in response to both a crisis in capital accumulation and a crisis in symbolic overaccumulation in contemporary U.S. culture. Its fundamental role amidst these crises is to reassert control over an increasingly fragmenting semiotic landscape, and thereby to recapture an increasingly fragmenting media audience. The audience study finds that Channel One is profoundly hegemonic in its attempt to police and control audience interpretations of its social use as a media form and as an 'official' educational tool.

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-76).