Gesher is a theatre founded by a group of Russian immigrants in Tel Aviv in 1990. Gesher is a cultural phenomenon that, like a prism, refracts issues of interethnic relations, cultural and immigration policy, and the status of media discourse in Israel. Therefore, Gesher is a rich site for research on cultural production and exchange. In this dissertation, I apply the theoretical perspectives of cultural and critical studies to the analysis of the cultural practices of Gesher and the discourses emerging in the theatre's reception. First, I use the theoretical perspective of cultural studies to write the history of the Gesher theatre, connecting each stage in its evolvement with the cultural and social context in Israel. Second, I offer a critical discourse analysis of Gesher's media reception, exploring questions of cultural production and exchange in the context of hegemonic ideology. I contrast the media reception of Gesher in Israel to its reception abroad. Third, I theorize the dynamic of cultural exchange that emerges in this media reception in order to uncover regimes of power and normative knowledges active in Israeli cultural production. To that end, I construct an original theoretical model grounded in my fieldwork. My analysis of Gesher's reception indicates a novel situation in which the discursive condition of immigration has important parallels to colonization. And so, extrapolating post-colonial discourse analysis to the context of immigration, I suggest a model of Mutual and Internal Colonization. In the discursive process of mutual colonization the roles of the cultural colonizer and the colonized shift in different contexts, leading both immigrants and their hosts to colonize each other, and then ultimately to colonize themselves as these roles turn inwards. In the future, this model can be applied for theorizing the positions of different subjects with hyphenated identities across cultures.

Broadcast and cable television news coverage of the CIA's drone program from 2002 through 2013 is reviewed critically. Corporate ownership is examined to determine whether the need to generate profits has an influence on news coverage of the issue. This thesis looked specifically at the quality of the coverage of the legal and ethical issues of the CIA drone program and whether the coverage looked at all facets of the controversial aspects of the program. To carry out this analysis, the database LexisNexis was utilized to search news transcripts for this time frame using both the search terms "unmanned military aircraft" and "cia AND drones." These transcripts were then examined to determine which qualified as a discussion of the issues. Broadcast and cable news were then compared in light of the political economic framework of the propaganda model to determine whether corporate ownership has an influence over news coverage, particularly when it comes to news stories on national security issues that bring together powerful defense and government interests. This thesis finds that coverage of the drone program only becomes a serious issue when the policymakers in Washington begin to become divided on the issue, suggesting that rather than facilitating a truly democratic debate with a variety of perspectives, television news follows a discourse set by the political and economic elite. This was the same even for publicly-owned PBS, who, in the midst of the most drone program coverage, produced a drone documentary funded by drone manufacturer Lockheed Martin and did not present a significantly different range of views or more critical coverage of the program than cable news outlets. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2015. / December 3, 2014. / drones, national security, news, television news, war journalism / Includes bibliographical references. / Jennifer Proffitt, Professor Directing Thesis; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member; Andy Opel, Committee Member.

Research based on the affective approach has established that political partisans' emotional responses to identity-threatening news content, particularly that of anxiety and anger, will affect their subsequent information seeking (e.g., Marcus et al., 2000; Arpan & Nabi, 2011), although they did not agree upon the effect of anger. Some contend that anger will close off information seeking (Valentino et al., 2008), and some argue that anger will motivate more information seeking (Arpan & Nabi, 2011). Based on the Hostile Media Effect and Lazarus' (1991) cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, the current study examined the role bias-induced emotions (anger and anxiety) play in mediating partisan information seeking preferences, as well as the roles that anger expression trait and issue novelty play in moderating partisans' emotional responses. The current study involved an experiment including a 2 (Novel v. Familiar issues) X 3 (three different identity-threatening issues) design with a control condition (non-threatening) to explore the mediating role of anger and anxiety on subsequent information seeking preferences (identity-bolstering information, identity-threatening information, and neutral information), as well as moderating effects of anger expression and issue novelty. A total of 243 participants completed this study. The results indicated three main findings. First, bias-induced anger, but not anxiety, motivated participants to want to read additional identity-threatening information. Second, surprisingly, only the interaction of anger-in expression and exposure to identity-threatening news articles affected the subsequent identity-threatening information seeking, which was contrary to the current study's proposition. The higher the anger-in expression trait, the stronger bias-induced anger's mediating effect. Third, perceived issue novelty did elicit greater anger and anxiety, and it also moderated bias-induced anger's effects on identity-threatening information seeking: the more perceived issue novelty, the stronger bias-induced anger's mediating effect. The findings have implications for the relationship between exposure to identity-threatening news and information seeking in a democratic society. Limitations and suggestions for future research were discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Communication and Information in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / July 14, 2014. / Anger, Anger Expression, Anxiety, Emotion, Information Seeking, News Bias / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura M. Arpan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member; Arthur Raney, Committee Member.

When conservative politicians captured Washington in the 1980s and 1990s, they brought with them a style of rhetoric rooted in the South of the 1950s and 1960s. The three core elements of this Southern style are clear: * Strong beliefs -- firmly held, loudly proclaimed and adhered to at the risk of becoming dogmatic. * Learning not to see -- a practiced avoidance of complications or distracting issues, an ability to turn a blind eye, to deny the obvious. * Policing of the public square -- strict enforcement of the ruling beliefs, at times becoming a bullying of allies to keep them in line, paired with quick and sharp public attacks on dissenting opinions. The Southern style is now an ingrained element of the conservative movement, and it operates with, and relies upon, active cooperation of the conservative press. This, too, has roots in the South. During the decades of civil rights activism, Southern newspapers instilled Southern ideology and allegiance among white readers, turned a blind eye to injustice and other weaknesses of Jim Crow culture and cleared the public square of dissenting opinions and alternative points of view. This study examines how the Southern style operated in the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the work of journalists in Richmond, Virginia, Tallahassee, Florida, and Jackson, Mississippi, and on their interactions with political leaders, activists and the public. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / August 21, 2014. / civil rights, integration, journalism, media, newspapers, Southern / Includes bibliographical references. / Neil Jumonville, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jeffrey Ayala Milligan, University Representative; Maxine D. Jones, Committee Member; Jennifer L. Koslow, Committee Member; Andrew K. Frank, Committee Member.

The prevalence of social media in the past few years has changed the way people consume entertainment media and generated many new types of hybrid media entertainment experiences. This dissertation focuses on one of its multiple manifestations: social TV. Although several qualitative studies have suggested that live posting enhances viewers' media entertainment reception, few studies actually tested the proposition based on a rigorous research design. In addition, previous experimental research on live posting often assumed that live posting is a rather popular media behavior among young TV viewers. However, the actual popularity of and the motivation behind the behavior remain largely unknown. Against this background, the overarching goals of the dissertation project were 1) to explore the motivation and popularity of live posting among college student; 2) to test the effect of live posting on entertainment TV viewing experience through an innovative experimental method; 3) to identify the key variables that are underlying the mechanism of entertainment effects of live posting; and, 4) to examine a proposed live posting and entertainment model. To that end, five studies were conducted. Result of Study 1 and 2 confirmed that live posting is a popular media behavior (85.7%) among a college sample and helped to establish a 19-item measure of motivations for live posting, encompassing five constructs labeled interaction, community, catharsis, engagement, and extending enjoyment. Built upon these results, two experimental studies were conducted. Study 3 demonstrated that live posting matters, as it affects viewers' media entertainment reception. Implications for the results are discussed in detail. Study 4 focused on the effect of "treatment strength" utilizing a randomized control trial with live-tweeting frequency vary at three levels. Results indicated that live-tweeting frequency had a significant impact on viewers' program enjoyment; however, such effects were not linear. Study 4 also served as a preliminary study investigating the associations between the content of live tweets and program enjoyment. As a final step to the dissertation, Study 5 was conducted with a primary focus on the content of live tweets and other sub-components of live-tweeting behaviors. Findings suggested that both live-tweeting content and other features of live-tweeting are associated with program enjoyment. To conclude, the last chapter reconsidered some of the theoretical issues embedded in the live-tweeting phenomenon and offered a set of well-tuned propositions regarding the entertainment effects of live posting. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / October 1, 2015. / Co-presence, Enjoyment, Experiment, Involvement, Live posting, Social media / Includes bibliographical references. / Arthur A. Raney, Professor Directing Dissertation; Susan Losh, University Representative; Ulla Sypher, Committee Member; Patrick Merle, Committee Member.

Overwriting Literature and Other Acts of Cultural Terrorism in the Control Era examines American experimental writers and artists who compose in what Gilles Deleuze called the control era. This project locates the beginning of the control age to the 1975 Schizo-Culture conference at Columbia University. The conference introduced Deleuze and Félix Guattari to the American public, and it featured key artists in the American avant-garde: William S. Burroughs and John Cage. Deleuze explained that these weapons would "hijack" speech and create non-communication. Overwriting Literature reads their composition methods as potential weapons against the "control society." While this study examines experimental writing, it uses these writers to think of how one might apply these techniques to mass media / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 12, 2017. / Deleuze and Guattari, John Cage, Kathy Acker, Media Studies, "Societies of Control", William S. Burroughs / Includes bibliographical references. / S.E. Gontarski, Professor Directing Dissertation; Krzysztof Salata, University Representative; Andrew Epstein, Committee Member; Barry Faulk, Committee Member; Aaron Jaffe, Committee Member.

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Previous studies have found that preschoolers appear confused about some of the properties of televised images, indicating that the televised image shares some of the same properties of the object it is representing. For example, 3.5-year-olds claim that a televised object will spill if the television is turned upside down and 3.5- and 4.5-year-olds claim that a character appearing on television can see and hear them. Little is known, however, about the reasoning behind these confusions regarding televised images and whether children will act on these beliefs. In this project, two novel tasks were created. One of these tasks looked at whether children's behavioral responses about a televised person matched their verbal beliefs. Three-and-one-half- to 5.5-year-olds were introduced to a live person and a televised person who provided information about the location of a hidden sticker(Study 1a and 1b). All three age groups said that the televised individual could see the hiding event and acted on this claim by searching for the sticker in the location suggested by the televised individual about as often as the information suggested by the live individual. The second task examined the rationale behind childrens' confusion about the properties of televised images by creating a task in which children made comparisons between an item presented in three different modalities (as a televised object, as a physical object, and as a photo of the object). When given this comparison task (study 2), 3.5- and 4.5- year-olds claimed that the televised objects no longer shared the properties of real objects (e.g., said that the televised object would not spill if the television was turned upside down). Having the televised object next to the real object or a photo of the object seemed to help direct children's attention to the fact that the question was being asked about the televised object itself and not the real object it was representing. Preschoolers may understand the properties of televised objects much earlier than previously believed; however, understanding the properties of televised people may be more difficult.

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