The growing patriotism of the Catholic population, the Church's vigorous support of the “Social Gospel,” and the accommodation of Catholics to American democratic institutions -- all of these factors helped to make the Church of Rome more acceptable to the majority of Americans. Nonetheless, there was still a considerable amount of latent anti-Catholic feeling in the country, especially in the South. Therefore, when Alfred E. Smith, a Catholic, became the Democratic presidential candidate in 1928, animosity towards the Catholic Church, which hitherto had been submerged, came to the surface during the campaign. Some people, especially Catholics, went so far as to maintain that it was religious prejudice that cost Smith the election. The purpose of this essay will be to determine the veracity or falsity of this interpretation of the cause of Smith’s defeat in the election of 1928, in the hope that a careful representation of the past will enable us to understand the living present and to predict the uncertain future.

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The purpose of this paper will be to look into the election returns to find some of the factors which have caused the trend of voters shifting away from the Democratic party towards the Republican party in presidential elections.

The data revealed, first of all, that in most districts both adults and students tended to vote for the same candidate. This tendency was strongly indicated by the positive correlation of .83 between pupils' and adults' voting throughout the State. Such a finding gave rise to speculation to the effect that the community environment had influenced pupils' political thinking to considerable extent. However, upon closer examination, it was noted that, in most cases, the students not only tended to vote for the candidate receiving the most adult votes, but also that they did so in greater proportions than was the case respecting their elders. This observation seemed supported by Table XIII which, indicates significant differences between adults' and students' votes in all of the districts except three. Thus, the data indicate that the two populations were distinct and separate, a view which is supported by the findings given in Table XIV; also, by the computation and interpretation of t, which indicates further the separateness of the two populations. In the light of these findings, it appears unlikely that an adult election could be predicted by an earlier student election. The results of the study indicate that considerable influence upon students' voting is exerted by stimuli other than those present in their contacts with adults who actually vote in elections. Thus, the inference could be drawn that courses in school, in which political discussions are held, tend to play important parts in determining the political thinking of students; also, that they are perhaps less prone to adopt unquestioningly the views of their forbears than are adults belonging to their communities at large. It is recommended that a study be made of the Presidential Election in 1960, similar to this, in order to provide further insights concerning the effects of school studies and other influences upon adolescents' political views. / M.S.

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This study explored the preparation methods, qualifications and criteria that both university and athletic directors deemed necessary when searching for athletic directors. Participants completed a survey via Qualtrics online software. Two different populations were sampled for this study: 651 university presidents and 651 athletic directors whose schools compete in either Division I or II in the NCAA, resulting in 96 and 150 usable responses respectively. Participants in both groups were primarily white males with mean ages of 62 for presidents and 52 for the athletic directors. The study provided demographic information, educational history, professional experience, and prior careers of athletic directors. The rankings of the athletic were compared to the rankings of the presidents and identified consistencies of opinions. The respondent groups were in agreement on the qualities and ranking of many dimensions of leadership in this role. The top seven, for both groups, in order, were ethics, budgeting and finances skills, fundraising, communications, sport leadership, strategic management and policy, and athletic administration. This information could be used as a guide for people who want to strategically maneuver up the ranks in athletics administration. Presidents might use the information as they prepare to hire candidates for the athletic director position.

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This study analyzed the coverage of Time, TT.S. News and World Report, and Newsweek's coverage of the 1992 presidential campaign. The four research questions posed concerned the newsmagazines' overall direction of coverage concerning the campaign; the individual and collective direction of newsmagazine coverage concerning the candidates and the election, the percentage of attribution given to the newsmagazines, or other sources; and the issues that were covered.The time period of this study spanned the traditional Labor Day kick off of the campaign to Election Day. A total of 29 lead presidential campaign stories were used for this investigation. The sentence was the unit of analysis; the method employed was a directional content analysis. A coder judged each sentence for source, subject, content, and evaluation. In addition, the coder evaluated each sentence as either positive, negative, or neutral.After the raw scores were converted into percentages, the researcher used a chi square to test the level of significance.Findings showed overall the newsmagazines were neutral in their coverage of the 1992 presidential campaign. Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News all contained more negative than positive sentences about the candidates, issues, campaigns, and party.In respect to candidate coverage, George Bush received more than 70% negative coverage in all three magazines. Bill Clinton received more negative coverage in U.S. News than positive or neutral. Time, printed more positive than negative sentences about Clinton, and Newsweek printed more neutral statements about Clinton than either U.S. News, orTime.Consistent with past research, the bulk of statements contained in the lead articles were judged to come from the writers. Finally, coverage during the 1992 campaign overwhelmingly centered around the "horserace" aspects of the campaign instead of the substantive issues. / Department of Journalism

The Internet is rapidly becoming an important part of a presidential candidate's media strategy. Specifically, a candidate's website has distinct implications and uses in the early stages of a presidential campaign. Using an eclectic approach, this research examines the campaign websites of the candidates for the U.S. Presidency in 2008. By examining the websites using content analysis, analog criticism, media criticism, and scenario analysis emerging trends become apparent and conclusions on their further implications can be drawn. This research presents two major conclusions on the affects of campaign websites on the early stages of a presidential campaign. First, the design structure and features available on the Internet could be used to give the user a feeling of direct connection with the campaign, which in turn could motivate political involvement. Second, a candidate's new media strategy and usage must match with the overarching rhetorical style of the rest of the campaign. These two major concepts serve as starting points for further academic research and a greater understanding of our changing democratic system. / Department of Telecommunications