Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Adviser: James H. Kuklinski. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy)--Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School, 2008. / Title from PDF title page; viewed on Dec. 11, 2008. "4 April 2008." Electronic version of original print document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-90).

This dissertation is a study of Robert F. Kennedy's images in the American news media. By using a geographically representative sample of widely-circulated daily newspapers as well as periodical magazines, Kennedy's career was examined from 1953, when he was Senator Joseph McCarthy's assistant counsel, to 1968 when he was a Presidential candidate. The examination was keyed on a number of sensitive issues in which Kennedy was involved: McCarthyism, civil rights and the war in Vietnam, to name three. Sometimes Kennedy himself was the issue, such as when he was appointed Attorney General and when he ran for the offices of United States Senator and President.Robert Kennedy's career was a controversial one. As Chief Counsel for the Rackets Committee and as Attorney General he was widely perceived as a tough and tenacious enforcer of the law. Some members of the press approvingly saw Kennedy as a scrupulous defender of what was right and decent in American society. Others condemned him as self-righteous and a true disciple of Joseph McCarthy.With President Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy's career was radically altered. He was elected to the Senate in 1964, where he became increasingly outspoken on a broad range of Johnson administration policies. Most controversial, however, were the positions he took on the war in Vietnam. Increasingly Critical of the United States role in the war, Kennedy was pictured by a few editors as a man trying to come to grips with a national emergency. Many more thought Kennedy was using the war to attack President Johnson for his own political purposes.As early as 1962, editorialists speculated about Robert Kennedy's political future and the Presidency. The speculation was heightened by the murder of John Kennedy. Furthermore, the more critical senator Robert Kennedy became of President Johnson, the more imminent a final break between the two politicians seemed. When the final break came, in March 1968, few in the press were surprised. Some were outraged, however, particularly supporters of Eugene McCarthy who was already running for President on a platform similar to Kennedy's. The Presidential race was the most controversial period in Robert Kennedy's career and it was also the period which was most intently covered by the press. Between 1953 and 1968, two separate and in some ways antithetical images of Robert Kennedy emerged. One Kennedy was ruthless and obsessed with power. The other was a bold spokesman for the underrepresented and outcast.

This thesis is a case study applying George Lakoff’s theories regarding frames to a specific series of legislation dealing with immigration. First, literature is examined regarding changes in Congress and media and the relationship between the two. George Lakoff’s theories on framing are discussed, playing special attention to the familial models and biconceptualism. The case study regards immigration reform legislation that was attempted to pass through Congress in 2007, specifically the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and the STRIVE Act. The application of Lakoff’s theories to this case study aids in further understanding the link between politics and communication and the importance of persuasion in a political setting. / Department of Political Science

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Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves 236-242. / Microfiche. / xv, 242 leaves

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

This thesis examined all references to George Bush in Time, U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek in the time periods before and after the 1988 Republican National Convention in order to determine if there was a difference in how these newsmagazines portrayed Bush in these time periods. The hypothesis of this study: George Bush was portrayed more positively in the total coverage of these newsmagazines after the convention than he was portrayed prior to the convention.In order to determine this, a coder chose news stories from before and after the convention from the newsmagazines if they dealt primarily with the man George Bush or the campaign in general.All references to Bush were highlighted in the articles along with all statements made by Bush. Then, sources of these sentences with these references were determined and placed into one of three categories: newsmagazine, Bush or "Other." Coders were asked to evaluate the references to Bush as to whether the references placed Bush in a positive light, negative light or did not reflect him positively or negatively, neutral.The findings of this study show there was no apparent difference in the coverage of Bush between the time periods. The hypothesis was not supported. Additionally, the overall coverage of Bush was neutral and the newsmagazines were the source of the largest amount of references. / Department of Journalism

This study seeks to determine, through content analysis, whether there was evidence in news magazines during the 1980 presidential campaign to support the claim that Anderson was a "media-created candidate." Studying weekly issues of Time, Newsweek, and U. S. News & World Report from April 28, 1980 through November 3, 1980, it was found that (a) Anderson received 17 per cent of the total campaign coverage, compared to Reagan's 42 per cent and Carter's 37 per cent, and (b) overall, Anderson's coverage was mildly negative in all magazines. The study concludes that rather than "creating" Anderson, news magazines may have undercut his viability by restricting the length and number of stories about him.

The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the slanderous rhetoric of the Federalist and Republican parties during the American presidential election of 1800. Both parties relied on newspapers, pamphlets, sermons, and songs to influence public opinion; however, newspapers were the most effective means of swaying the voters. Although the Federalists, led by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, had almost twice as many partisan newspapers to disseminate their propaganda, the Republicans, under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, had a much larger number of journals that were substantially more dogmatic in their denunciations. This advantage, coupled with internal Federalist crises, enabled the Republicans to be victorious at the polls. This study proves that the campaign of 1800 was one of the most libelous and rancorous in United States history.