This investigation of the 2014 midterm election brings together research in communication, journalism, political science, and sociology. Incorporating concepts of interdependence through the application of social network analysis, I analyzed how journalists construct and utilize networks of news sources in election coverage. Survey results indicate that journalists use sources in a complementary fashion in order to fulfill their resource needs. Such perceptions are also dependent on aspects of the journalist, news norms, organizational pressures, and extra-media influences. Overall, source networks are strategically used to fulfill traditional journalistic norms of objectivity and credibility as well as economic and entertainment needs. Content analysis results suggest that, along with more traditional variables such as ownership and source type, networks characteristics also influence new outcomes, with higher network density resulting in increases in issue coverage. In other words, greater connections among sources may result in more substantive information being passed on to voters. For the field of communication, this study enhances our understanding of agenda building and framing by revealing (1) how journalists perceive their networks (networks to journalists), (2) how they translate real life networks into symbolic networks within news coverage (networks from journalists), (3) how source networks vary across time and election contexts (networks across time), and (4) how such networks influence coverage outcomes. It furthers our understanding of the role interdependence plays in news construction and suggests the incorporation of network concepts and measures will increase our understanding of the news production process.

New information and communication technologies are often viewed as a panacea to thecurrent crisis of representative democracy. The growing number of publications on thedemocratization effects of the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT)in governance focuses on social media and emerging online public spheres. This thesisexamines the democratic potential of ICT from the supply side represented by the concepts ofe-governance and e-government. In the context of destabilization of political communicationsystem, e-governance as a top-down initiative has a better chance to serve as a congregativeforce formalizing institutional procedures between the multi-public spheres and the decisionmakers and, thus, democratizing political communication. The first part of the thesis pullstogether the key concepts of electronic transformation – e-governance, e-government and edemocracy–andanalyzesthemwithinabroadercontextofnewgovernance.Thedemocratictest,based on evaluation against Robert Dahl’s five democratic criteria and democraticdeficits of new governance, indicates numerous negative consequences of e-governance forrepresentative democracy. Moreover, implemented in different institutional settings ofdemocratic and non-democratic regimes, e-governance varies in the level of development andimpact on political communication and political systems in general. To verify theoreticalconclusions empirically, a global study was conducted for two points in time – 2003 and2008; it examined the relationship between e-governance and democracy controlling for theimpact of telecommunication infrastructure development. Hypothesis testing revealed that thelevel of e-governance development and its correlation with democracy strongly varied inrelation to the type of political system. The findings suggest that it is premature to ascribedemocratization effects to e-governance disregarding existing institutional settings.

The purpose of this research was to examine how non-Aboriginal Canadians might respond if the label genocide is used to describe the historical mistreatment of the Aboriginal Peoples’ of Canada. In two studies, I manipulated the perception of Residential Schools as genocide by informing (or not informing) undergraduate student participants that some people believe what happened should be labeled genocide. I also assessed the potential moderating role of knowledge by either measuring participants’ pre-existing knowledge of Residential Schools or manipulating how much participants learned about Residential Schools through a passage. Overall, participants’ reactions to the label depended on what they knew about Residential Schools such that participants with a superficial level of knowledge responded defensively to a description of Residential Schools as genocide, while participants with no knowledge or high levels of knowledge responded positively. Findings provide theoretical insight into how knowledge affects perpetrator group members’ reactions to historical harms.

No description available.

The purpose of this research was to examine how non-Aboriginal Canadians might respond if the label genocide is used to describe the historical mistreatment of the Aboriginal Peoples’ of Canada. In two studies, I manipulated the perception of Residential Schools as genocide by informing (or not informing) undergraduate student participants that some people believe what happened should be labeled genocide. I also assessed the potential moderating role of knowledge by either measuring participants’ pre-existing knowledge of Residential Schools or manipulating how much participants learned about Residential Schools through a passage. Overall, participants’ reactions to the label depended on what they knew about Residential Schools such that participants with a superficial level of knowledge responded defensively to a description of Residential Schools as genocide, while participants with no knowledge or high levels of knowledge responded positively. Findings provide theoretical insight into how knowledge affects perpetrator group members’ reactions to historical harms.

Title: Do we have a common interest? - Cultivating relationships or spreading information; a study of Strategic Political Communication on Facebook. Authors: Amanda Gibbs Sjödin & Sean Rembe Mc Hugh Course: Medie- och Kommunikationsvetenskap C, Bachelor Thesis Paper, 15hp, HT 2014. Words: 16 027 This essay aims to examine the level of relationship cultivation strategies in Swedish campaign communication. The progress in political communication emphasizes aspects of public relations such as relationship marketing . We will combine theories regarding relationship marketing with the new possibilities created for campaign communication by the emergence of web 2.0. The popular social media platforms which exist within web 2.0 give campaigns well suited means to easily facilitate input, inspire dialogue and cultivate relationships. We aim to answer the following question; Which strategic components do the parties apply in their Facebook communication? Do the parties differ in their use of communicative tools? In order to answer this question we have operationalized theories in political communication, reputation management and relationship marketing. This operationalizing resulted in eight variables. We conducted a quantitative content analysis by measuring the presence of our variables in each Facebook post made by each party on their Facebook page during the final month of the 2014 election.. The results show that both parties utilize these strategies and in a similar way but that there is a difference in how much. The Feminist Initiative had a higher overall usage but the strategy common interest was used to a high level by both parties, this shows that the parties mainly stress shared values and ideology in their communication.

No description available.

Cette recherche, inscrite au sein des Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication, porte son attention sur le processus du « tout-voir », du « tout-exhiber » et du « tout-raconter » devenu central depuis les années 2000 dans la communication des responsables politiques à travers le dispositif sociotechnique de la peopolisation. Nous essayons de montrer ici comment la peopolisation s’est inscrite dans le dispositif de Genre à l’œuvre dans le tissu social et politique. Il s’agit d’analyser les formes de construction médiatique du Genre déployées par les responsables politiques eux-mêmes d’une part, à travers leurs stratégies de présentation qui conduisent à une réaffirmation des identités de Genre via un surinvestissement des marqueurs d’appartenance et/ou de différenciation, et par les médias dont la presse échotière d’autre part, à travers la pulsion scopique et le processus d’activation/réactivation des stéréotypes de Genre. Comprendre les liens objectifs qui se créent entre la production de ces images du pouvoir qui se donne à voir dans la presse people, et, tout un système de codages qui donne du pouvoir à ces images par l’impératif de transparence, le désir d’authenticité, la société cybernétique, les représentations sociales et la performativité de Genre, tel est l’enjeu essentiel de cette thèse. La technologie du pouvoir qu’est le Genre, agit sur les productions d’images politiques pour définir les pratiques de communication comme soumises à des conventions culturelles genrées. / The research, appearing in Information and Communication Sciences, focuses its attention on the « all-seeing », the « all-exhibit » and the « all-tell » process which become crucial since the 2000s in communication across the socio-technical device of Life politics. We show how Life politics enrolls in the Gender device at work in the social and political fabric. This is to analyze the forms of media construction of Gender deployed by politicians themselves through their presentation strategies that lead to a reaffirmation of Gender identities via overinvestment of belonging markers and or differentiation, and the media whose tabloid magazines through the scopic drive and process activation/reactivation of Gender stereotypes. Understand the objectives bonds created between the production of these images of power that is to be seen in the tabloids, and while a coding system that gives the power to these images by the need for transparency, authenticity, cybernetic society, social representations and performativity, such is the essential challenge of this thesis. What power of technology gender, acts on the political images productions to define communication practices as subject to gendered cultural conventions

MARQUES, F. P. J. A. Dimensões da ciberdemocracia: conceitos e experiências fundamentais. 2004. 207f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Comunicação) - Universidade Federal da Bahia, Faculdade de Comunicação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação e Cultura Contemporâneas, Salvador, 2004. / Submitted by Maria Josineide Góis (josineide@ufc.br) on 2011-08-17T15:00:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2004_dis_fpjamarques.pdf: 749412 bytes, checksum: 492b9d56545151898ffc7c9c6abbb652 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2011-08-17T15:03:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2004_dis_fpjamarques.pdf: 749412 bytes, checksum: 492b9d56545151898ffc7c9c6abbb652 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-08-17T15:03:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2004_dis_fpjamarques.pdf: 749412 bytes, checksum: 492b9d56545151898ffc7c9c6abbb652 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004 / This dissertation aims to examine some dimensions of the interface between democracy and new technologies of communication and information, its potentialities, problems and perspectives. To admit that new technologies of communication revolutionize democracy is not only to adhere to a triunfalist perspective. It implies, also, in accepting that democracy have some lacks that compromise its superiority while government form. On the other hand, to deny the potential of these technologies for concerting different ways of political manifestation, inclusively from the civil sphere, is not a satisfactory view. One examine five class of manifest phenomena in the thelematics nets with implications in the political field: Electronic Government, Electronic Vote, Digital Activism, Parties and Campaign in a Digital Age and Virtual Public Sphere. The central hypothesis comprises that democracy has in the Internet a complementar channel to foster the participation of citizens and to conform spaces of debate and information, besides indicating changes in the relations between institutional agents (government and partisan clubs) and civil sphere. / Esta dissertação visa examinar teoricamente algumas das dimensões da interface entre democracia e tecnologias de comunicação e informação, suas potencialidades, problemas e perspectivas de maior destaque. Admitir que as novas tecnologias de comunicação revolucionam a compreensão de democracia não é apenas aderir a uma perspectiva triunfalista. Implica, também, em aceitar que a democracia passa por carências que comprometem sua superioridade contemporânea enquanto forma de governo. Por outro lado, negar o potencial destas tecnologias para concertar diferentes formas de manifestação política, inclusive por parte da esfera civil, não parece uma saída satisfatória. São examinadas cinco classes de fenômenos manifestos nas redes telemáticas com implicações no campo político, a saber, Governo Eletrônico, Voto Eletrônico, Ativismo Digital, Comunicação Político-partidária e Esfera Pública Virtual. A hipótese central deste trabalho entende que a forma democrática de governo tem nas redes telemáticas um canal complementar para fomentar a participação dos cidadãos e conformar espaços de debate e informação, além de indicar mudanças nas relações entre agentes políticos institucionais (governo e agremiações partidárias) e esfera civil.

abstract: Do fact-checks influence individuals' attitudes and evaluations of political candidates and campaign messages? This dissertation examines the influence of fact-checks on citizens' evaluations of political candidates. Using an original content analysis, I determine who conducts fact-checks of candidates for political office, who is being fact-checked, and how fact-checkers rate political candidates' level of truthfulness. Additionally, I employ three experiments to evaluate the impact of fact-checks source and message cues on voters' evaluations of candidates for political office. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2015