The thesis "Analysis of the Czech Periodicals' News Coverage of the 2013 Presidential Elections in the Czech Republic" examines how the daily newspapers Mladá fronta DNES, Lidové noviny and Hospodářské noviny framed the election campaign. It also focuses on the degree of compliance with the criteria of impartiality in media contents. Texts with the endorsements are also a part of the analysis. The teoretical part draws the typical features of the relationship between the media and politics and the main theoretical and methodological basis for research of the frames and objectivity. It also introduces the concept of media framing as "fragmented paradigm" and objectivity as an unattainable ideal. Foreign researches and a study of Český rozhlas are an integral part of the theoretical section. Their conclusions were used in the analysis itself. The aim of the research carried out by means of a combined quantitative and qualitative content analysis was to determine how Czech daily newspapers responded in their content to direct presidential elections associated with the phenomenon of endorsement. Quantitative analysis focuses on the dominant frames and key issues associated with elections occurring in media contents. Further, it focuses on the extent to which journals presented candidates in the neutral...

Thesis advisor: Arthur Lewbel / This thesis proposes two semiparametric estimators; one for heavily censored panel models and another one for binary-outcome sample selection models. The first chapter proposes a new panel data estimator, and applies it to investigate whether the key assumption underlying most twin studies is valid. Roughly, the assumption is that differences in twins' outcomes can on average be attributed to differences in observed treatments, possibly after conditioning on observable covariates. The empirical results here cast doubt on this assumption, by showing that a particular outcome, survival, varies by birth order, even after conditioning on health-at-birth characteristics. The proposed panel data estimator is the first one in the literature that simultaneously handles having an unknown error distribution, fixed effects, fixed T, fixed censoring point, and heavy (greater than 50%) censoring. These features are all required to adequately deal with the limitations of available census data on twins. The proposed estimator also allows for coefficients that vary by t, and for a censoring point that is an unknown but deterministic function of regressors. The second chapter proposes a new semiparametric estimator for binary-outcome selection models that does not impose any distributional assumption, nor specify the selection equation. The estimator, however, requires a special regressor satisfying a support restriction in the outcome equation and a variable satisfying the exclusion/inclusion restriction; the former should be continuous whereas the latter can be discrete. The estimators of Klein et al. (2011) and Escanciano et al. (2012) require optimization, but our estimator for the outcome equation has a closed-form expression with no need for any optimization (but the selection equation estimation may still need an optimization). We apply MLE and the proposed estimator to US presidential election data in 2008 and 2012 where Barack Obama won to see to what extent racism mattered; we use a prejudice variable as a measure of racism. Putting our empirical findings in advance, there is evidence that the white Democrats voted less for Obama due to prejudice, whereas the white Republicans acted in a more muted fashion (i.e., almost no change in voting due to racism) or voted more for Obama to escape the stigma of racism. We also found evidence of "own-race favor" by blacks. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

The US presidential election of 2016 between the republican Donald Trump and the democrat Hillary Clinton was special in the aspect of the fierce tone between the two candidates, largely by personal attacks and how the media to a large extent focused on this rather than political issues. Many evangelical leaders decided to endorse Trump, even though their earlier outspoken criticism toward Trumps previously controversial statements about women, immigrants and minorities. In six articles this case study examines how the authors from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal frame the relationship between Trump and evangelical leaders during the 2016 US election. This is done by using a framing analysis and the categories: actors, characteristics, motives and goals which help me to answer a couple of analysis questions and latter put it into context of Snow and Benfords (1988) three tasks of framing. In this way I can answer the first research question: ”How is the relationship between Donald Trump and the evangelical leaders represented in the selected cases and how can this be understood by using Snow and Benfords (1988) three tasks of framing; diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing?” The second research question “How can the framing of the relationship between Trump and the evangelical leaders be understood according to Hjarvards (2012) theory medialization of religion with a focus on media as language?” visualizes the attitudes and the shaping of frames contained in the articles. The study concludes that the three tasks of framing help assign causation, identify reasons, strategies and solutions to the phenomenon that is framed by the authors of the articles, but also how Trump and evangelicals are framed by the authors to rationalize the defined measures. The results show that the authors of the articles mainly focus on Trumps motives and goals to gain support of evangelical leaders vice versa the leaders which want to gain ground and influence the politics Trump is going to convey. This can be seen in both NYT and the WSJ articles through the framing of Trump and his fierce tone toward Clinton and her campaign. It is also recurrent that the authors of the article describe how Trump uses a language aimed at the Christian right and its leaders to promise them to pursue a value-conservative policy that favor them.

This study was conducted to identify the nature of the content devoted to the 2008 presidential election in the editorial pages of three newspapers. The research sought to discover what percentage of the content was specific to the election, whether this election-centered content focused on the campaign or on specific issues, what issues were covered, and the role in which the author was writing. This study used a comparative quantitative content analysis to examine this content appearing during the final three months of the 2008 campaign in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Dallas Morning News, and the San Francisco Chronicle, three major U.S. metropolitan newspapers with regional focus. The results provided insight into whether a marketplace of ideas exists in the editorial pages of the selected newspapers. Analysis of the election-related material revealed that each newspaper devoted a substantial portion of their editorial pages to the election. However, of that election-centered material, the majority was focused on the campaign, or "horse race," devoting much less to the discussion of substantive policy issues. The exception was the San Francisco Chronicle, which devoted almost 50% of its election-centered material to substantive issues. Only a handful of issues dominated the issue coverage in each newspaper: money, social issues, and defense/foreign policy. The general format for the editorial pages in each newspaper allowed for only a limited amount of diversity with the role in which an author is writing (i.e. the newspaper's own editorial writers vs. letters to the editor written by citizens). The majority of columns, the portion of the editorial pages where a diversity of authors has the potential to exist, were made up by authors identified by only a handful of roles.

This study is a textual analysis of the mainstream media coverage of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, surveying more than 1,000 news stories featuring Clinton, Palin, Obama, Biden and McCain published between January 1, 2007 and November 11, 2008. The central findings of this study are twofold: first, mainstream news sources continue to use stereotypical and sexist news frames that describe women in ways that are at odds with the criteria we set for being a good president; and second, feminism is characterized in ways that divorce the ideas of the movement from the activism necessary to overcome existing injustices. Chapter 2 discusses how the news frames and double binds-in place for more than 100 years in media coverage and constructions of women-are still being used to describe women candidates today. These frames highlight sexist concerns about how women candidates will balance their public and private lives and deflect the multiple, competing roles women are capable of enacting. Chapter 3 analyses news articles that relate the terms "feminism" and "feminist" to comments about Clinton and Palin to determine the ways in which the movement is being defined by mainstream media. The chapter argues that this coverage offered a limited vision of feminism that ignored race, class, and issues presented in the third wave. It also divorces the feminist movement from the activist work that has and will continue to make change possible in our country by equating feminism with postfeminist ideas. Chapter 4 highlights the associations made between the male candidates and the women's movement. The coverage of the male candidates in the campaign posits a vision of women's experiences that are defined through the media by male candidates. These definitions highlight women as caregivers and separate the issues important to women from the feminist activism necessary to work toward changing the situation women in the United States face. Finally, the conclusion offers suggestions for how to intervene in the 135-year cycle that perpetuates limited and damaging views of women candidates and of the feminist movement. Through these types of interventions, feminist-minded men and women can continue to work toward more positive and fair representations of women candidates and that changes in representations of women candidates will lead to the election of the first woman president of the United States.

<p><em>Aim</em>: Over the years, marketing has become a more and more important tool in politics in general. In order to campaign successfully – and become the President-elect - in the U.S. Presidential Election, marketing is indispensable. This lead to enormous amounts of money spent on marketing. The aim of this research is to contribute to existing knowledge in the field of political marketing through the analysis of how marketing is done throughout a political campaign. The 2008 U.S. Presidential Primary Elections, together with a few key candidates have served as the empirical example of this investigation. Four research questions have been asked; what marketing strategies are of decisive outcome in the primary season of the 2008 political campaigning, how is political marketing differentiated depending on the candidate and the demographics of the voter, and finally where does the money come from to fund this gigantic political industry.</p><p><em>Method</em>: The exploratory method and case study as well as the qualitative research method have been used in this work. Internet has been an important tool in the search for, and collection of data. Sources used have been scientific articles, other relevant literature, home pages, online newspapers, TV, etc. The questions have been researched in detail and several main conclusions have been drawn from a marketing perspective. Correlations with theory have also been made.</p><p><em>Result & Conclusion</em>: In the primary season, the product the candidates have been selling is <em>change</em>. The Obama campaign successfully coined and later implemented this product into a grassroots movement that involved bottom-up branding of the candidate. This large base allowed for a different marketing strategy that implemented earlier and better organization in the caucus voting primary states resulting in an untouchable lead for the Obama campaign. The successful utilization of the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube led to enormous support, not least among the important group of young (first time) voters. It also served as the main base for funding throughout both the primary and the presidential season, effectively outspending the Clinton, and later, the McCain campaigns. This study has shown that there are differences in marketing when it comes to different presidential candidates even within the same party. Marketing activities and efforts also look different for different marketing groups.</p><p><em>Suggestions for future research</em>: This study was limited to the primary season; it would have been interesting to include the whole U.S. Presidential campaigning process from start to finish. In future research projects, it would also be interesting to see comparisons between political marketing in the U.S. and political marketing elsewhere, in Europe for example.</p><p><em>Contribution of the thesis</em>: This study contributes to increased knowledge when it comes to understanding the role of social media, grassroots movement, and bottom-up branding as a political marketing strategy. It also contributes to increased knowledge about political marketing in general. Furthermore, it shows the importance of marketing - and money - in American politics. Political parties as well as individual candidates may also find the results of this research useful for future campaigning.</p>

The 2008 election of Barack Obama to the United States’ presidency is an undeniable historical landmark demonstrating progress in race relations; however, it has yet to be determined how the election affects the way in which racial minorities are viewed and whether Obama’s presidency will advance their societal position. Despite some claims that the election signifies the existence of a post-racial nation, recent social (Harlow 2008; Hunt and Wilson 2009; Parker, Sawyer, Towler 2009; Tesler 2010), psychological (Effron, Cameron, and Monin 2009; Eibach, and Purdie-Vaughns 2009; Kaiser et al. 2009), political (Piston 2001; Huddy and Feldman 2009; Redlawsk, Tolbert, and Franco 2010), economic (Jacobson 2010; Lewis-Beck and Tien (2009) and legal (Nelson 2009; Troutt 2009) research predicts that the election will have little effect, or potentially a negative impact, on efforts to achieve racial parity in America. To assess what President Obama’s election means for American race relations, this study examines multiple measures of prejudice among Whites as predictors of their support for racial equality. Using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), I examine different forms of racism, and the extent to which they influence Whites’ support of government policies that promote racial equality. The focal independent variable, racial ideology, is measured by old-fashioned racism, systemic racism, symbolic racism, laissez-faire racism, and color-blind racism. The focal dependent variable, race-based policy preferences, is measured through support for government policies which promote racial equity in education and employment contexts. Factor analysis is used to identify how Whites’ feelings towards Obama, reaction to Obama’s election victory, feelings towards Blacks, outlook on black presidents in general, and beliefs concerning political power differentials between Blacks and Whites relate to different theoretical racial ideologies. Racial orientations that are indicated by measured variables then serve as focal independent variables in multiple regression analysis to predict the focal outcome variables concerning support for policies that foster racial equality. Factor analysis and regression analysis are conducted with pre-election, post-election, and recent data in order to assess change in Whites’ racial attitudes and policy preferences at various points in time. Results from the analysis suggest differences before and after the election in terms of racist ideology and support for programs that benefit racial minorities. Whites are now less likely to agree with the implementation of affirmative action and government policy supporting racial equality. Systemic and color-blind racist ideologies are the strongest predictors of opposition to race-based policy. Furthermore, it seems antiracist ideology has diminished since President Obama was elected. These findings are consistent with sociological and political research that suggests Whites’ opposition to racial policies and black candidates is often more influenced by symbolic racism than by realistic self-interest (Sears and Henry 2003) and confirms predictions (Bonilla-Silva and Ray 2009; Metzler 2010) that Obama’s presidency coupled with new forms of racism, such as color-blind racism, may serve to negatively affect racial equality in the United States.

The aim of this study is to explore the implementation of viral marketing in Politics. We led a case study in order to discover how viral techniques were used to promote candidates running for the 2007 French election. The review of previous research provided learning about the use of new communication methods in electoral campaigns.Nevertheless, they are not specifically devoted to the viral marketing method. At present, theoretical models about this new phenomenon exist only for business sectors. Viral marketing is becoming of greater importance in the promotion of a candidate's brand image. It was interesting to discover how marketing techniques are transferred into the field of politics. Through our theoretical framework we analysed results from our interview with a webmaster who works for the Nicolas Sarkozy's political party. We explained the role of viral marketing in the communication strategy of politicians. Thanks to the focus group, we assessed the impact of viral marketing among French voters. The results show that it generates a word-of-mouth campaign about the candidate's personality which results in a political "Buzz". This high media coverage heavily influences the voters who are highly sensitive to image branding. However, the counterpart of using viral marketing is the lack of control that candidates maintain over their image. For example, the spreading of undesirable videos could harm their credibility. Finally, our study shows that modern politics is appealing for viral marketing in order to shape the political leader's image, which constitutes a determinant factor to influence voters.

AbstractTitle: Political Bias in Entertainment (Politisk partiskhet i underhållning)Number of pages: 38Author: Andreas GawellTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this research paper was to investigate political bias in TheDaily Show before the presidential election 2008.Material/Method: With a quantitative content analyze based on variables connected withtheory from investigating bias in news, I am looking at 19 episodes of The Daily Showstarting one month before the presidential election 2008.Main results: The results of this research indicated a liberal bias in The Daily Show favoringthe Democratic Party. Both parties was made fun of and joked about, but the Republican Partyand its candidates was a lot more frequently laughed at then its Democratic equivalent. Alsolooking at the issues that came up in the show you can see Republicans getting to talk aboutissues not on their own agenda more frequently than Democrats.Keywords: The Daily Show, political bias, presidential election 2008, Republican Party,Democratic Party

This research attempts to find out the possible reasons which affect to the polling supports of pan-blue and pan-green¡¦s presidential candidates by first-order autoregressive model since May 20th 2000 to March 22nd 2008. We explore the effect of these factors and how the factors to affect the degree of both candidates¡¦ supports. We try to explain the fluctuating of both sides¡¦ degree. To exploring the change of the polling supports and degree, this research collects many significant events during the said period. We view the degree of each category¡¦s effect by sorting out government¡¦s policy, economy, ideologies of independence and unification, the personal issues of candidates, parties¡¦ issue and others to explain the reasons of polling supports¡¦ change in addition I add the effect of media organ, candidates nominating or not, the difference of each election, and the time effect. From the results of this research, the effect of media positions for polling outcomes is not significant, but the candidates nominating or not and the difference of each election affect to pan-blue¡¦s supports and both sides¡¦ degree. Besides, the issue of ideologies of independence and unification influences to pan-blue and pan-green¡¦s candidates, but the candidates personal issues affects the change of the both sides¡¦ degree. When the events of government policy and ideologies of independence and unification are happened more nearly at the polling time, the effect to the change of the polling supports will be greater.