The purpose of this study was to look for tendencies that social media can contribute to exposing users to a stronger perception of opinion polarization, and further to see if the daily presence of social networking sites can put normative pressure on the users. The study was made using a survey with participants from Umeå University during the time frame of november-december 2014. The theoretical framework behind the study was mainly drawn from The Spiral Of Silence by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann and was further supplemented with more current research, studying the effects from The Spiral Of Silence in the modern and more fragmented media landscape that exists now then when her theory was written. Further theoretical tools for analysis of the results came from Michel Foucault and his discussions in Discipline and punish, specifically his views on how surveillance can be discontinous in practice, but still permanent in it’s effects. The results of this study indicates that social media users tend to isolate themselves from uncomfortable opinions, and do not follow or read opinions they do not already agree with. This indicates that social media plattforms can function as a contributor to opinion polarization among the users, and this study argues that the behavioural patterns of the most frequent users increases that tendency. Further more the study showed that a smaller network of friends seems to increase the users perception of normative pressures, and that user activity is correlated to how frequent they self-censor posts before- and after they are published.

Although advertising featuring gay male and lesbian models can be an effective means of targeting the significant gay and lesbian market, few empirical studies examine how consumers respond to gay-themed advertisements. To address the absence of message-processing research dealing with heterosexual responses to gay-themed advertising, this thesis examines how sexual orientation of model couples featured in magazine advertisements affects heterosexual viewers' responses using the elaboration-likelihood model as a guiding framework. A 3x2x2x3 experiment tested the effects of model couples' sexual orientation (heterosexual, gay male, or lesbian), argument strength (strong or weak), involvement (high or low), and participants' attitudes towards homosexuality (high, medium, or low) on White heterosexual participants' attitudes toward the couple, attitudes toward the advertisement, attitudes toward the brand, attitudes toward the product, purchase intentions, and recall. Results indicate that heterosexual consumers were accepting of ads with lesbian portrayals.  Participants showed more negative attitudes toward gay male portrayals, but attitudes towards heterosexual and lesbian ads were similar. This effect was moderated by participants attitudes toward homosexuals. Regarding message processing, low involvement consumers showed more negative attitudes toward homosexual portrayals than toward heterosexual portrayals, providing some indication that models' sexual orientation in ads may have served as a peripheral cue negatively impacting attitudes toward the couple and ad in situations where elaboration is low. However, such effects on attitudes toward couples and ads did not appear to carry over to attitudes toward the brand and product, purchase intentions, or recall. Implications, limitations, and areas for future research are also discussed. / Master of Arts

Technological, political and economical developments have fostered the spread of transnational media since the latter part of the 20th century. Despite that, most studies of media effects are still nationally bound. This dissertation discusses some of the effects that both national and transnational news media can have on people’s thoughts and feelings. It explores the particular effect of consensus building as a consequence of second level agenda-setting. The main focus of this dissertation is how national and transnational news media can bring different demographic groups closer in their perceptions of major topics in the news. This dissertation analyzes consensus building effects through the European Union’s reaction to the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. It analyzes how the use of national and transnational media brought EU demographic groups in closer agreement regarding the attributes of the terrorism issue and of the Muslim and Arab communities, as they related to the events of 9-11 and its aftermaths for the EU community. This study is based on a secondary data analysis of a survey conducted in the close aftermath of 9-11. It is an extensive replication of Shaw and Martin’s (1992) consensus model based on a cross-national analysis of 15 European Union nations and their patterns of national and transnational news media use among four demographic groups in relation to the substantive and affective dimensions of attribute agendas regarding the aftermath of 9-11. This study found evidence that national media bring the segments of society to closer agreement regarding the attributes of terrorism and the attributes of the Muslim and Arab communities. This was especially true for those indicating they used national television. Transnational media also have some potential for similar effects, though less than for national media. Borders still matter but it will be interesting in the future to see if the increasing availability of transnational media translates into increased influence as well. / text

This thesis deals with the manipulating practices in the political media coverage in the period before the elections to the House of Parliament of the Czech Republic in May 2010. It describes the types of communication in terms of its ability to influence and focuses on the effects of the media and its impact on the audience. It also deals with the theoretical framework of the issues of manipulating methods and techniques and their causes. It defines the function of media in terms of intentions and evaluates the current situation in the Czech Republic, including the existing control mechanisms. A part of this thesis is a comparative analysis that focuses on a detailed qualitative analysis of texts published in the dailies Mladá fronta Dnes and Právo and their comparison during the period under consideration.

Master of Science / School of Journalism and Mass Communications / Nancy Muturi / This study was an examination of the determinants of disordered eating development among female collegiate distance runners. More specifically, the study examined the impact of thinness-emphasizing and thinness-promoting messages disseminated by mass media and running-specific media, and how those messages affected disordered eating among a sample of female collegiate distance runners. It also examines current female collegiate distance runners’ attitudes toward disordered eating, subjective norms from referent individuals close to female collegiate distance runners regarding disordered eating, and female collegiate distance runners’ perceived behavioral control regarding disordered eating—which was divided into various internal and external control factors either inhibiting or facilitating disordered eating among them. The study was qualitative in nature and assumed a multi-method approach. It included an online, anonymous, self-administered questionnaire among 166 current NCAA Division I female distance runners; four small, confidential focus groups with current NCAA Division I female distance runners from four different teams; and 16 in-depth interviews with professional distance runners, dietitians, coaches, physicians, and sports psychologists. The study sought to answer four research questions—each based on an element of the study’s guiding theory, the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Overall, the study found media messages, attitudes, subjective norms, and various internal and external control factors all facilitated disordered eating among NCAA Division I female distance runners. Based upon these findings, the study offers recommendations for practitioners in the field of health communication, coaches, academic institutions with cross country and track teams, and female collegiate distance runners.

Diploma thesis Multimedia Elements of Online News and Their Impact on Recipients is concerned with the transformation of today's information distribution thanks to the development of the Internet. Media institutions use this tool as means of disseminating their messages. For the same reason they also include multimedia elements to the content. Websites allow to quickly pass on information to a large number of users. Multimedia elements, such as photos, photo galleries, videos or infographics, allow to pass on additional information, but also to catch the attention of the recipients. The aim of this study is to find out how much the audience appreciates the contribution of multimedia elements and how much they can use them during processing of the information. The theoretical part therefore first defines the particular cognitive processes, such as attention, perception and memory of news articles readers. These are further reflected with the different characteristics and social background of the news content recipients. Equally important is the description of theories and researches that dealt with the influence of multimedia elements on recipients of various types of media. The theoretical knowledge is followed by quantitative research in the form of an experiment and a subsequent questionnaire....

The present study represents a content analysis of the efforts of real-world brands to facilitate parasocial interaction with their followers. The researcher examined these social media exchanges through the scope of parasocial interaction theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and social response theory. The researcher examined posts in mid to late August 2017 and utilized a code sheet to find confirmed parasocial interaction triggers by brands, and examples of parasocial interaction in the posts of those brands’ followers. The researcher looked to see if the utilization of previous research in controlled environments could provide the framework for studying the non-controlled conditions of a real social media page. He hypothesized that the brands he studied that properly utilized methods and triggers to facilitate parasocial interaction would in fact see higher rates of parasocial interaction. The data, while mostly not statistically significant does provide information that deserves further investigation.

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive from the European Union strives to achieve a high level of environmental protection by preventing or reducing the pollution emanating from industrial installations directly at the source. The Directive implies that the emission limit values should be set in accordance with each industry&rsquo / s Best Available Techniques (BAT). In the present study, water recovery and wastewater treatability alternatives developed beforehand were evaluated towards the evaluation of BATs for the management of wastewaters from a denim textile mill. For this purpose, an assessment that translates the key environmental aspects into a quantitative measure of environmental performance and also financial analysis were performed for each of the alternatives. The alternatives considered for water recovery from dyeing wastewaters were nanofiltration (NF) with coagulation and/or microfiltration (MF) pretreatment, ozonation or peroxone and Fenton oxidation. On the other hand, for the end-of-pipe treatment of the mill&rsquo / s mixed wastewater / ozonation, Fenton oxidation, membrane bioreactor (MBR) and activated sludge process followed by membrane filtration technologies were evaluated. The results have indicated that membrane filtration process providing 70 % water recovery with the least environmental impacts is the BAT for water recovery. On the other side, MBR technology has appeared as the BAT for the end-of-pipe treatment of the mill&rsquo / s mixed wastewater. A technical and financial comparison of these two BAT alternatives revealed that water recovery via membrane filtration from dyeing wastewaters is selected as the BAT for the water and wastewater management in the mill.

This study applies bereavement and media use theoretical perspectives to examine how survivors use media to cope with spousal loss during the first two years. Specifically, this study explores whether survivors’ television use is associated with grief intensity. Potential associations between television use and grief intensity are explored using an online survey. A media use for coping scale is developed. The relationship between television oscillation (i.e., equal use of television for respite, and to cope with primary and secondary stressors) and grief intensity is also explored, and ten specific moderators of this relationship are examined: recency of loss, type of loss, social support, family proximity and contact, marital relationship quality, economic stability, pre-existing physical and mental health issues, and change in television use. Results were collected from 356 spousal survivors and indicate that television use to cope is associated with grief intensity. Survivors that report high television use in general are using more television for relaxation, companionship, acceptance, positive reinterpretation and growth, and emotional and instrumental support. The most dramatic effects are observed with television use for relaxation and companionship, and the smallest effects with television use for emotional and instrumental support. However, there was no association between television use for respite, or to cope with primary and secondary stressors and grief intensity. Results support the value of social support, family contact at the time of loss, fewer physical health issues, and decreasing general television use in promoting more positive bereavement outcomes. Results support television oscillation as a predictor of grief intensity, but only under certain circumstances. Four of the models show significant moderator effects between television oscillation and grief intensity: social support at the time of loss, family contact at the time of loss, pre-existing physical health issues, and change in television use since the loss. When survivors have less social support at the time of loss, television oscillation is associated with less grief intensity as predicted. However, when survivors have more social support, television oscillation is marginally associated with more grief intensity. Likewise, when survivors have less family contact, television oscillation is associated with less grief intensity as predicted. Conversely, when survivors have more family contact, television oscillation is associated with more grief intensity. When survivors have more pre-existing physical health issues, television oscillation is not associated with grief intensity as predicted. For survivors with fewer pre-existing physical health issues, television oscillation is associated with less grief intensity. When survivors decrease television use by approximately one hour, television oscillation is marginally associated with less grief intensity. On the other hand, when survivors increase television use, television oscillation is not associated with grief intensity. Current general television use was a highly significant control variable in all moderator analyses indicating more television use to cope is associated with more grief intensity. Recency, type of loss, marital relationship quality, family proximity, economic stability, and pre-existing mental health issues did not significantly moderate the relationship between television oscillation and grief intensity. This study extends previous work by merging the bereavement and media use literatures, and in the development of a media use for coping scale. Moreover, it provides important empirical evidence on theoretical models about bereavement. This expands the potential for discussions about the association of individual vulnerabilities with more positive bereavement outcomes.

In the final days leading up to elections, many major newspapers in Canada and around the world depart from the principle of media neutrality and openly support a particular political party. Do these overt attempts at persuasion by trusted institutions actually affect the vote choice of their readership, and are these effects felt evenly across the population? In this thesis, I examine the 2011 and 2015 Canadian federal elections using data from the 2011 Canadian Election Study and the 2015 Making Electoral Democracy Work project. I find voters to be significantly influenced by their newspaper’s endorsement in the 2015 sample, and find that this influence primarily influences those who identify with no party. Although the influence is modest in size, with the geographic concentration of newspaper readership it is potentially large enough to influence outcomes in individual ridings. Combined with my finding that newspaper endorsements are far from evenly distributed across parties, this has troubling implications for Canadian democracy.