In a broad sense, public relations is the communication between an organization and its audience. Public relations helps create and maintain a relationship between the two. When an organization experiences a success or failure public relations is put into place to help rally public support. The intent of this thesis aims to determine the tone of President Obama in U.S. newspapers and social media in association with the capturing and killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden. This thesis examines a variety of U.S. newspapers by region and social media. Newspaper articles related to the topic were retrieved from six regional newspapers: Columbus Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, Charlotte Observer, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post. From these papers, a specific time period was chosen to examine articles. The months of April, June, and August 2012 were chosen. During these months, a keyword search for “osama bin laden” was used. Articles that contained this keyword were then examined and coded. Blogs and Facebook pages of the Republican and Democratic Party were examined. Two political blogs, Daily Kos and Red State, were chosen. From these blogs and Facebook pages, the same time period was chosen as for the newspapers. The keyword search was also the same, “osama bin laden”.

This study was undertaken to determine the dominant cultural metaphors at work in American and Japanese organizational culture, to examine the ways in which each society interprets these metaphors, and to assess the importance of the metaphors relative to intercultural communication. Using a combination of qualitative content analysis, rhetorical criticism, contextual analysis, and non-participant observation, two of the most dominant metaphors in both cultures, business-as-war and business-as-family, were discovered and examined. The research data comes from a variety of books, scholarly and popular articles, pamphlets, unpublished papers, films, and miscellaneous documents. These materials cover many disciplines: communication, history, popular culture, sociology, psychology, business management, and literature. Additional written and verbal information obtained from personal interviews conducted at a Japanese-owned American-staffed manufacturing facility supplements these materials. By applying Osborn's (1967) theory of "archetypal metaphors," or metaphors which strike deep into the human subconscious, Gozzi's (1990b) concept of "minimetaphors" which arise from these archetypal metaphors. and Hall and Trager's (Hall, 1973) "major triad" (formal, Informal, and technical) of behavioral modes, the following conclusions were derived (1) many metaphors appear in both societies, but the familial and military metaphors dominate the business cultures, (2) viewing business as a war developed out of the violent histories of both cultures and perpetuates harmful attitudes, (3) viewing business as a family developed out of the homogeneity of the Japanese culture, but it did not develop as readily in the more heterogeneous United States. (4) each society interprets these metaphors in different ways, making them culturally unique but not culturally exclusive, (5) different interpretations may arise from the ways in which the cultures transmit the metaphors, (6) many of the minimetaphors associated with both of these archetypes no longer refer to their original meanings, and (7) multinational corporations will transmit their own unique cultural metaphors to their foreign employees.

This study examined the relationship of world view to selected communication, demographic, and social variables. Using a newly developed scale for world view, the researcher tested one hundred forty-nine high school and college level subjects to determine significant interactions between world view and communication apprehension, use of mass media, trust, life satisfaction, social participation, age, grade level, sex, income, and race. Data analyses included factor analyses, analyses of variance, and correlation and regression analyses. Results of the simple correlation indicated that the age-grade combination was the strongest single factor followed by income, religious participation, television watching, sex, newspaper reading, radio listening, and communication apprehension. Generally, the ANOVA showed that the college level student had a higher world view than the high school student; that with one exception males had a higher world view than females; that low religious participation almost consistently accompanied a higher world view than high religious participation, that low television watching accompanied high world view; that low income males showed higher world view than high income males, while income failed to show any affect on females; and that communication apprehension interacted with world view in conjunction with religious participation and sex in a complicated pattern. No significant interaction was detected with world view and race, world view and trust, or world view and life satisfaction.

This thesis contains an analysis of apologia from the 1988 national presidential campaign which resulted from Republican vice-presidential candidate Dan Quayle's disclosure that he served in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. Quayle's revelation created a "gaffe sequence" played out in the media over a period of approximately two weeks. The rhetorical situation dictated the use of an eclectic methodology to evaluate apologia generated in response to media questions about Quayle's avoidance of active military service. Quayle's defense included minimalizing the issue through avoidance and denial during staged and spontaneous contact with the media, and also the rhetorical support of other Republicans. Ultimately, he overcame the issue by turning questions about his competence and character into questions about the media's ethos. Notwithstanding, the media's investigation of the relatively unknown Quayle pointed to the larger issue of his qualifications for national office. Although Quayle's strategy was successful, the initial gaffe raised questions about Quayle's ethos which persist to this day. The study yielded three important insights about apologia: (1) apologia is not a single response, nor responses given in a single setting; (2) not only does apologia repair an ethos, it can also help construct an ethos in cases where the public knows little or nothing about a political figure; (3) apologia includes the rhetorical support of others. Additionally, critics must continue refining existing methodologies as they seek to understand rhetorical phenomena.

Since its inception, intercollegiate debate has not only survived storms of controversy and periods of great change but has grown and matured into a vital part of almost every speech department across the country. Today, tournaments are more numerous than ever; the debaters are more plentiful and just as enthusiastic (even if spectators are not). Even though intercollegiate debate has withstood the struggles of its beginning and the ensuing growing pains, maturity has not brought an end to the problems and controversies. Many present day controversies--such as the value of debate, the value of the tournaments, and the type of decision have raged since the early years; other problems such as debating on both sides of the topic have developed and been temporarily solved only to reappear later. In short, intercollegiate debate is still being debated after more than seventy years. In the face of this realization, has intercollegiate debate made any real progress? that has happened in those seventy years-- what have been the major disagreements and problems of the past? Are they the same today? A survey of this past might suggest realistic and pragmatic solutions of some of the present problems. Some predictions on the direction of debate in the future should be evident concomitant with possible changes that will be necessary for debate to grow as an educational tool. In this study, only the history of intercollegiate debate in America will be dealt with; only the major changes and additions to the tournament1 the topic, the form, and the style will be examined from around 1892 until 1968. In almost every instance, this survey is traced through debate as it existed in the four year college.2 This is, presumably, the place where the most important and significant debating was (and is) done in terms of viewing trends and patterns. 1. Both the contest and tournament will be dealt with, therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between them--a contest debate is a single meeting between two teams whereas a tournament is a predetermined number of contests between several teams from different schools ;:ho meet at one commonly agreed place to carry on a tournament until a champion is determined. 2. Every attempt has been made to limit information to four-year colleges except when a form or change involving a prep school or junior college, or some other context, has been significant to the overview of intercollegiate debate.

For the sake of this study, news impact and artistic value will be the chief concerns. Of course, the problem of obtaining news impact poses a number of questions, and two of the most obvious will be studied here: 1) Who is to evaluate a picture's new impact and artistic value? 2) How should the photographer cover his daily assignments to obtain the best of both and thus make the reader stop and look at a particular picture?

Inoculation is a robust theory applied to a variety of health behaviors. Social marketing is designed to change behavior by applying marketing tactics in the context of social change. This study combines inoculation theory with social marketing in the context of substance abuse disorders to promote long-term recovery. This is a pilot project that specifically focuses on the Beacon House, a residential recovery treatment center in Louisville, Kentucky. With the growing drug problem in America, it is necessary to implement effective recovery strategies in treatment programs. The social marketing plan focuses on the target audience to outline potential barriers, motivators, and competition to remaining in long-term recovery. Three intervention strategies were developed as part of the project: a core inoculation message, booster messages, and refusal skills training. These strategies utilize inoculation messages in various ways to address the complexity of long-term recovery. While this study focuses on the Beacon House treatment facility, the concepts can be applied to similar treatment centers.

The United States has a serious epidemic of mass incarceration and high recidivism rates. The U. S. must act on these high recidivism rates by implementing social services programs that help the formerly incarcerated stop committing crimes. The formerly incarcerated are being oppressed by a historic process that has continued to incarcerate and control them, even after they had served their time for their crimes. This project attempts to assist in reducing the high recidivism rates by creating an education-based transitional housing facility with a plethora of supportive services that will be open to formerly incarcerated individuals. This project sheds light on some of the problems that continue to plague this demographic group of people, while providing a possible solution to help reduce recidivism. The outcome of this project is a business plan that explains a procedure to help create a non-profit transitional housing facility that will be located in Palm Springs, CA. The steps of building this non-profit business are detailed in an implementation plan following this manuscript.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.