This study deals with the analysis of public opinion about crime and attitudes regarding criminal justice issues along two major dimensions. The first part concerns how respondents rank crime among a list of nine social problems (unemployment, high interest rates, inflation, crime, the high cost of living, moral decline, taxes, dissatisfaction with the government, and Reagan). The second dimension examines some research questions. These are whether there was any association between the respondents' perception of crime trends and each of the following: demographic background, neighborhood safety, the death penalty, gun ownership, frequency of locking doors, avoidance of teenagers, and the evaluation of police job performance; and also whether there was any association between the respondents' victimization experience and seriousness of crime and police job performance. The data were obtained from the archives of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research in Michigan.

In an attempt to shed light on the further sophistication of opinion leadership in online communities, this study examined the forces and structures that affect their formation in the League of Legends subreddit. By investigating what users thought about the various types of individuals with which the communicate, the researcher hoped to begin to understand and record how those forces work bother on this particular subreddit and in mass media beyond. Opinion leadership continues to be an integral force in deciding what information is consumed by a public and under what frames and agendas it is contextualized. If researchers can operationalize formal definitions for the influences and structures that occur online, they can better navigate the deep waters that are global communication on the internet.

The problem of this study is a comparison of minimum competencies needed for high school graduation as perceived by local professional educators to those perceived by the local school community. The source of data is Community Survey of Essential Student Skills. This survey instrument is a rating of the importance of minimum competencies by 1,931 patrons in the local school community. A total number of 401 professional educators had previously rated these competencies. The following conclusions are based on the analysis of each hypothesis and observations during the study. 1. There is an increasing amount of emphasis in the literature that major perceptual differences exist between professional educators and school communities. Educators need to identify and act upon the perceptions of their patrons. Increased emphasis upon community involvement is supported by findings of this study. For example, the community could be involved in curriculum development for life skills. Patrons, students and parents could serve on advisory committees to school boards. 2. There is evidence that increased communication efforts are needed to narrow the gap between perceptions of educators and school communities. Educators perceived the reading and writing skills in this study as Essential but patrons did not. Better clarification to patrons relating to why and how skills are taught would be helpful. Otherwise, it will appear to patrons that schools are out of step with requirements for coping in today's society. 3. Inflation has increased the cost of education, and taxpayers are not willing to support a system that they feel may not be doing an effective job. While there is a large majority of the American public that still has confidence in schools as indicated by the 1978 Gallup Poll, there needs to be a bolstering of support. It behooves educators to set and monitor expectations of achievement, provide resources to meet needs of diverse students, inform and involve patrons and promote a caring, disciplined atmosphere in all classrooms.

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This dissertation examines three different subjects underpinned by one common approach— the survey experiment—and, broadly, one common aim: to better understand heterogeneity in public opinion in the United States and Canada. Specifically, it focuses heterogeneity as it relates to minorities and the cultural dynamics that emerge in multiracial and multiethnic countries. Contexts with diverse racial and ethnic compositions, diverse immigration and equity policies, and complex sociohistorical lineages are bound to be underpinned by deeply fragmented attitudinal dynamics. Yet only recently has research taken a deep dive into what the contours of this fragmentation might look like. As diversity increases in the West and cultural complexities deepen, understanding heterogeneity in public opinion toward and among different cultural, racial, and ethnic groups will become increasingly pressing. Luckily for the research community, the ability to study such heterogeneity is increasing as well. Fielding large-scale surveys has been facilitated by both the vast penetration of the Internet in the 21st century and the explosion of online marketplaces that allow researchers to buy survey respondents relatively cheaply and quickly. This dissertation exploits these contextual developments to field three online survey experiments among a total of 40,000 respondents in Canada and the United States.

The evidence from both international and local literature reviews shows that, informal settlement upgrading is a global practice. The adoption (although at a minimal scale) of informal settlement upgrading programs and related policies in developing countries (South Africa included), should in the main be understood within a twofold context- first, is a failed policy on conventional public housing model, second, is a subsequent role and influence of theoretical writings of JFC Turner on informal settlement upgrading as a possible policy alternative to conventional public housing in 1960s and 1970s. Furthermore, evidence from empirical study findings in Soshanguve Extension 3 area present some interesting results. Amongst others, is the extent to which implementation of upgrading project in Soshanguve Extension 3 area seems to have promoted a generally acceptable access level to certain basic service and housing infrastructure. This despite the project implementation being criticized for its deviation from certain key housing policy principles including those (principles) underpinning theoretical writings of Turner on informal settlement upgrading. Using both literature and empirical findings, the study has, in a nutshell, succeeded in presenting a balanced reflection on strengths and weaknesses in the general performance of informal settlement upgrading projects in developing context particularly South Africa. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Depuis trente ans, les campagnes électorales sont menées par des stratèges en communication qui appliquent à la sphère politique les principes qui guident le marketing commercial (Giasson, 2006a). Les principaux indicateurs du malaise démocratique se manifestent également depuis une trentaine d’années. Ce parallèle mène plusieurs chercheurs à s’interroger sur la possibilité d’un phénomène de « marketing malaise » (Giasson et coll., 2012a; Savigny, 2008). Les objectifs de cette thèse sont les suivants : 1) évaluer la plausibilité théorique de cette hypothèse et 2) proposer une première analyse empirique qui relève et décrit les perceptions des citoyens à l’égard des pratiques de marketing politique et des effets perçus sur la démocratie. Nous proposons pour la première fois un cadre théorique du marketing malaise à partir du fruit de travaux théoriques existants, en incluant le rôle des médias. Nous avons campé notre analyse depuis la perspective des citoyens en réalisant huit groupes de discussion, qui sont divisés en fonction du niveau de confiance politique. Aucune recherche n’avait jusqu’à présent interrogé directement, dans une démarche qualitative et approfondie, les citoyens sur leur niveau de connaissances, leurs perceptions et de même que sur les effets sur la vie démocratique du marketing politique. Bien que le modèle théorique du marketing malaise guide notre recherche, notre approche est avant tout inductive. Notre démarche est guidée par trois grandes questions de recherche : 1) Comment les citoyens perçoivent-ils la démocratie? 2) Quelles sont les connaissances et les perceptions des citoyens sur couverture médiatique de la politique? 3) Quelles sont les connaissances et les perceptions des citoyens sur le marketing politique? Notre analyse révèle que les citoyens valorisent la démocratie. Ils l’associent surtout aux élections et aux droits et libertés. Ils se montrent toutefois critiques de l’état actuel de cette dernière au Québec. Le mode de scrutin uninominal à un tour, l’insatisfaction envers les partis politiques et la baisse perçue de la participation électorale sont les principaux éléments identifiés pour exprimer leur pessimisme à cet égard. La confiance portée aux politiciens ne déclenche pas un vent d’optimisme chez les participants. Les participants estiment que malgré leurs bonnes intentions, les élus se feraient manipuler par les stratèges politiques. La perception de corruption est également une des principales raisons qui engendrent de la méfiance envers les politiciens. En ce qui a trait à la couverture médiatique de la politique, les participants pensent que les aspects les plus couverts sont liés au sensationnalisme, comme les gaffes et les anecdotes. Ces éléments comportent un trait commun: ils sont reliés aux activités « visibles » des campagnes aux yeux du grand public, aux divers moyens de communication déployés par les partis pour gagner les élections, ce qui correspond au marketing tactique. Les participants se montrent très critiques des médias qui sont perçus comme des facilitateurs des comportements déviants en politique puisqu’ils ne parlent pas assez des enjeux. Le dernier volet étudié porte sur le marketing politique. À cet égard, il appert que les connaissances des citoyens à l’égard du marketing politique sont plutôt limitées et imprécises. Ils comprennent toutefois que les politiciens ont recours aux sondages pour élaborer leurs stratégies, qu’ils ciblent des clientèles et qu’ils ont recours à de nombreuses tactiques de communication, qu’ils estiment souvent trompeuses. Les participants associent fortement le marketing politique à son aspect tactique, qui consiste à l’élaboration du message politique et à sa diffusion. Notre analyse tend ainsi vers un rapprochement entre les connaissances des citoyens sur le marketing politique et la couverture médiatique de la politique, fortifiant ainsi le rôle central des médias dans la formation des perceptions. Nous estimons que cette thèse signale que les citoyens devraient être mieux informés des réalités du marketing politique par les médias et par une éducation civique adéquate. De plus, les participants perçoivent négativement le marketing politique, en particulier ceux qui sont moins confiants envers la politique. Les participants croient que le marketing politique est un outil qui devrait servir à développer une relation à long terme entre les partis et l’électorat. Cette thèse conclut que l’hypothèse du marketing malaise est plausible comme explication du malaise démocratique. Les futurs travaux académiques devraient s’orienter vers des devis de recherche quantitatifs visant la vérification de l’hypothèse du marketing malaise. / In the last 30 years, political campaigns have been dictated by communication strategists who applied principles taken from commercial marketing. Meanwhile, main indicators of a democratic malaise started to appear. As a result, researchers started to wonder whether a new phenomenon, known as “marketing malaise” (Giasson et coll., 2012a; Savigny, 2008), could emerge from a possible link between the invasion of marketing strategies in politics and this democratic malaise. The objectives of this dissertation are twofold. First, it evaluates the theoretical plausibility of the marketing malaise hypothesis. Second, it proposes an empirical analysis which describes and explains the perception of citizens regarding political marketing practices and of its perceived impacts on democracy. We propose a marketing malaise theoretical framework based on existing theoretical studies conducted in political science that included the role of media. The analysis is built on a citizen perspective, using data gathered in eight focus groups. To this date, no previous research on marketing malaise used a qualitative and comprehensive approach to directly interview citizens on their knowledge level, their perceptions, and on the effects of political marketing on democracy. Although the marketing malaise theoretical model guides this research, the approach we use is mainly inductive. Three main research questions guide our work: 1) How are citizens perceiving democracy? 2) What are citizens’ levels of knowledge and their perception regarding media coverage of politics? 3) What are citizens’ levels of knowledge and their perception of political marketing? The analysis reveals that citizens are attached to democracy, as a political system, which they associated mainly with free elections and the protection of fundamental freedoms and civil rights. However, citizens share concerns regarding the health of democracy in Québec. Their main critics are directed at the “first past the post” electoral system, political parties and the perceived decline in turnout. Furthermore, the low level of trust in politicians nowadays compromises the optimism of participants. The main reason explaining the suspiciousness of citizens towards politicians are related to their perception that 1) politicians do not have the freedom to accomplish what they want because they are manipulated by political strategists, and 2) politicians are corrupted. Participants of our focus groups believe that media coverage is driven mainly by sensationalism which outlines first blunders and anecdotes. Those elements have a common trait: they are related to the “visible” campaign activities seen by the general public and to the various communication strategies deployed by the political parties (i.e. tactical marketing) to win elections. Citizens are very critical about the news media, which is perceived as a facilitator of deviant political behaviors as they do not cover main political issues. The last component of the dissertation investigates participants’ opinions about political marketing. It seems that the knowledge of political marketing by citizens is often limited and imprecise. However, citizens understand that politicians rely on opinion surveys to elaborate their strategies, target certain types of voters and use communication strategies that citizens often find misleading. The participants of the study strongly associate political marketing with its tactical aspects, which consist in elaborating and broadcasting a political message. Our analysis indicates a convergence between what citizens know about political marketing and about media coverage of politics. This highlights the central role the news media play in shaping public perceptions of politics. Therefore, the dissertation outlines that citizens should be better informed about the realities of political marketing by the media and that they should have access to better civic education. Furthermore, citizens have negative perceptions of political marketing, particularly those who show low political confidence level. They believe that political marketing is a tool that should be used for developing long-term relationship between parties and voters. We conclude our research by stating that the marketing malaise hypothesis is a plausible explanation of a democratic malaise. Future research should be oriented towards quantitative analyses aimed at validating the marketing malaise hypothesis.

Forms in pocket. / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1965 P947 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1965 W117 / Master of Science