In the years since the 9/11 attacks the incidence of terrorism has been on the rise. At the same time, news media coverage of major terrorist attacks has reached epic proportions, greatly expanding the number of individuals psychologically affected by terrorism. The goal of this dissertation is to better understand how individuals cope with terrorism experienced at a distance. Specifically, this investigation focuses on the impact of stress on integrative complexity (IC; a measure of cognitive processing; Suedfeld, Tetlock, & Streufert, 1992) during and shortly after a major terrorist event. Taken together, the findings from the three studies reported in this dissertation provide several insights into this process. Study 1 replicates and extends results from an earlier study of television newscasters reporting live on 9/11 (Jhangiani & Suedfeld, 2005), in the context of the 2005 London bombings and the medium of radio. In doing so, it provides the first empirical evidence outside of the research laboratory for the curvilinear relationship between stress and IC. Specifically, during the early stages of reports concerning the London bombings, a positive relationship is found between negative emotion and IC. However, once the nature and extent of the event become clearer, increases in negative emotion are related to decreases in IC (the disruptive stress hypothesis). Study 2 replicates this curvilinear relationship in the short-term reactions of two prominent political leaders to 9/11 and the 2005 London bombings. For one of these political leaders, the magnitude of his psychological reaction is moderated by the psychological distance between him and the victims of the attacks. Finally, Study 3 finds that two key personality variables, neuroticism and empathy, play important roles in determining the magnitude of the short-term psychological reactions to 9/11 of more than 250 students from Canada and the United States. This finding is particularly true for those students who were psychologically closer to the victims of the attacks. Implications, strengths and limitations of this research, and possible future directions are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Traditionally, emphases in the mass media coverage of almost all crimes have been placed on the alleged offender and the victim (and on occasion, their families). As a result, the families of offenders have been either largely ignored or presented unfairly even though their lives have also been devastatingly impacted by the media coverage of their loved one. While scholars have explored the impacts of offending on offenders’ relatives, this exploratory study adds to the literature by focusing on a uniquely marginalized sub-population of relatives of sex offenders in Canada. This study examines some of the collateral consequences of sex offending on the relatives, while focusing primarily on the impacts and effects of media coverage on these relatives. The findings of this study are based on a thematic analysis of nine in-depth semi-structured interviews with partners, mothers and daughters of Canadian adult male sex offenders. Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Herbert Blumer’s (1969) symbolic interactionism and Erving Goffman’s (1963) stigma, this research finds that relatives of sex offenders encounter a myriad of consequences and repercussions resulting from a loved one’s sexually offending behaviour. In particular, the interview data suggests that the media coverage of a loved one’s criminalized behaviour exacerbates many of the already difficult and challenging collateral consequences, as well as the overall stigmatizing effects that arise when a loved one engages in sexually offending behaviour. Recommendations, offered by the participants, regarding future media reporting practices are presented, along with important directions for future research within this area of study.

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Granskning av makt och makthavare är ett av mediernas viktigaste uppdrag och i en jämställd politisk miljö bör uttalanden och ageranden bedömas utifrån lika villkor. Det för ingenting gott med sig om medierna gör en orättvis skillnad på kvinnor och män i deras rapportering om politiska skandaler. Det finns många påståenden om en genusdimension i mediernas rapportering, men relativt få vetenskapliga belägg för detta. Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning det förekommer likheter och skillnader i hur nyhetsmedier rapporterar om kvinnor och män i svenska politiska skandaler samt bidra med en förståelse för förekomsten av dessa eventuella likheter och skillnader. I en kvantitativ innehållsanalys analyseras 4345 tidningsartiklar fördelade på 92 svenska skandaler med förtroendevalda politiker på den nationella och den europeiska nivån mellan åren 1997 och 2010. Utifrån teoretiska antaganden om mediernas dagordningsmakt, gestaltningsmakt och medielogik undersöks nyhetsmedierna Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen och Svenska Dagbladet. Studiens resultat visar på flera stora könsskillnader som är till kvinnornas nackdel, men i datamaterialet framträder också många likheter. Som grupp betraktat missgynnas dock kvinnor i flera avseenden gentemot män vilket kan innebära att kvinnor kan få sämre möjligheter till att hantera och överleva politiska skandaler än män. En slutsats är att huvudpersonens kön är en viktig aspekt i strävan efter förståelse för hur politiska skandaler tar sin början, utvecklas och kommer till avslut.

The diploma thesis Sport rioting and its media coverage examines the way in which specified Czech media inform about rioting linked to sport events, in this case football mathches. The theoretical part of the thesis maps the history of sport fans, sociological and psychological background of football rioting as well as approaches to dealing with it. Likewise, it features theoretical points on the problematics of reality representation. The chosen cases and analysed media are presented in brief profiles. These are followed by the analytical part of the thesis, which employs qualitative content analysis of the specified media texts. The analysis examines content of the media outputs in the period of one week after the cases occurred. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate which language means the media used, how it framed the events and whether they resorted to tabloidization while reporting on them. Keywords Media coverage, rioting, sport, fans, stereotyping, framing

Esta pesquisa tem como objetos de estudo o palhaço Bozo e o padre Marcelo Mendonça Rossi. Como objetivo, ela propõe investigar as características dessas duas celebridades, com base em suas exposições midiáticas, a fim de discutir as congruências e incongruências que existem entre elas. Foi realizado um breve levantamento histórico com o objetivo de entender a representação dessas personalidades como palhaço e como padre, a se constituírem no espaço-tempo até a atualidade. Com vistas aos papeis sociais desempenhados por eles, trata-se de observar seus potenciais de produção sentido, a partir do uso de suas expressividades pela mídia, baseadas no discurso, carisma e indumentária. Para tanto, a orientação teórico-metodológica que norteou os estudos foram obras que abrangem os campos da estética e da linguística. O estudo de caso foi o método adotado para a realização das comparações entre o palhaço Bozo e o padre Marcelo, balizadas, sobretudo, no dispositivo audiovisual. A nossa premissa é a de que as mutações culturais e a cristalização do sujeito pela mídia colaboram para uma categorização estética do sujeito. / This research has a subject of study between Bozo, The Clown and Father Marcelo Mendonca Rossi. As the objective, it proposes to investigate the characteristics of these two celebrities, based on the exposure of media coverage, with the purpose of discussing the similarity and unsimilarity that exists between them. A brief historic background was performed with the purpose of understanding this representation of these two personalities as a clown and as a priest, to constitute themselves in space and time until today. With views of their roles played by them, it is about observing their potential in the production realm, from their use of expressive means by the media based on their speech, charisma and wardrobe. For that matter, the orientation theory-methodology that have started the studies were the work that covers the fields of aesthetic and linguistics. This study/case was the method adopted for the conduct of these comparisons between Bozo, the clown and Father Marcelo, highlighted by audio and visual devices. Our premises is that the cultural mutations and crystalization of the individual(s) by the media co-interact with each other for the aesthetic categorization of the person(s) in question.

This research project is designed to understand the relationship between states and Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs), especially how they influence one another. In this study, I argue that the theoretical relationship between states' foreign policy behaviors and the behavior of NGO is dynamic and conditional, with the influence of NGOs on states' behaviors depending on the host states' regime type and the age of the influencing NGOs. I also argue that NGOs influence states' foreign policy behaviors toward other states both directly and indirectly, functioning as information providers, lobbying groups, agenda setters, and norm generators. By applying these theoretical arguments to the field of international development, the influence of NGOs on states' decisions about foreign aid is analyzed with the case of the United States. A new time-series cross-sectional dataset of the activities of US-based NGOs in developing countries is constructed by utilizing annual reports of NGOs, websites, and through personal communication with NGO officers. In addition, another new dataset is constructed about the number of New York Time articles. With constructed datasets, the quantitative studies are conducted. The quantitative studies show that as number of US-based NGO field operations in developing countries increase, that country is significantly more likely to receive higher amounts of aid from the United States. NGOs that have longer operations in developing countries are also more effective at lobbying the United States to provide more foreign aid. Furthermore, empirical analyses show that as number of US-based NGO activities increase in a country, the media coverage of that country increases. The qualitative analyses of NGOs' influence on states' foreign policy behaviors are also conducted. Interviews with NGO workers, governmental officials, and a reporter from the New York Times provide insight about how NGOs interact with the US government. In addition, these interviews show that NGOs function as information providers, lobbying groups, agenda setters, and norm generators. The theoretical understand of NGO-state relationships will contribute to the study of NGOs and NGOs' interaction with states. In addition, empirical analyses with newly constructed dataset and interviews with people in the field will become an important asset to social scientists in this field. The study also has a great potential to be expanded by including more NGO data, issue areas, and other countries' NGOs.

This thesis addresses universities’ image repair strategies when a student athlete is accused of sexual assault and the media’s coverage of these strategies. This is a particularly important issue due to the prevalence of campus sexual assault, as recent studies have shown that one in five women is sexually assaulted in college. Sexual assaults involving college athletes typically receive more media attention due to their high-profile nature. Athletic programs are typically sites of hegemonic masculinity, where men take action to maintain dominance over women. They may do this through misogynistic and homophobic talk or committing violence against women. Athletic departments’ image repair strategies when male athletes are accused of sexual assault also sometimes uphold hegemonic masculinity if their main goal is to maintain the team, which may generate significant revenue for the university. As such, their image repair strategies may allow male athletes to continue to partake in misogynistic practices, including committing violence against women. The media also has been accused of upholding masculine dominance by supporting rape myths or blaming the accuser in sexual assault incidents. This thesis consists of two case studies: the University of Colorado, which faced several allegations of sexual assault by football players in the early 2000’s; and Baylor University, which underwent a similar scandal starting in late 2015. It contains textual analysis of officials’ image repair strategies at both schools and the media’s responses to them. Ultimately, both Colorado and Baylor upheld hegemonic masculinity through their image repair strategies, though Colorado did so on a larger scale. In both instances, journalists were largely critical of their image repair strategies and argued that the strategies were not enough to change the structure of masculine dominance.