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This study examines character traits in United States presidential campaign advertisements. It was predicted that Republican and Democratic trait content would be similar in appeal advertisements but would differ in attack and contrast advertisements. Additionally, it was expected that the traits most frequently conveyed in primary election advertisements would differ from those most frequently employed in general election advertisements. The conveyance of traits in conjunction with issues was examined. The hypotheses and research questions were tested on televised campaign ads from the 2008 and 2012 primary and general elections. Overall, both parties appeal to and attack specific character traits with similar frequencies. The traits used in primary election advertisements were much more positive than the traits used in general election advertisements. Campaigns combine issue content with specific traits in their ads. The findings of this study answer questions about how candidates build and shape their images through televised political advertisements.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa förståelse för de idéer, föreställningar och normer som format underlaget för vår empiriska undersökning. Vår ambition ämnar beskriva reklammakarnas syn på reklam idag och vilka val som påverkat kampanjernas utformande. Syftet ska besvaras med hjälp av frågeställningen, vilka strategiska val ligger bakom skapandet av reklam i vårt konvergerande mediesamhälle? Metod/Material: Vår uppsats är baserad på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där empirin, som utgörs av personliga intervjuer, står i fokus. Studien speglas av tre teman, vilka reflekterar vår frågeställning om vilka strategiska val som ligger bakom skapandet av reklam. Våra respondenter representerar två sidor, dels nyckelpersoner som varit i involverade från de uppdragsgivande företagen eller organisationerna, dels av personer som på något sätt är aktiva inom reklambranschen för att få en så opartisk betraktelse som möjligt. Resultat: Vår empiri påvisar starka tendenser till att de aktiva medieanvändarna/skaparna också speglar företagens strategier och slutligen deras reklam. Ur ett deltagarperspektiv finner vi en återspegling av konsumenternas intressen. Med det menar vi att reklam som fordrar viral spridning måste innehålla något spännande eller intressant för att få effekt. / Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to create an understanding of the ideas, beliefs and norms that shapes today’s advertising. Our ambition intends to describe the trends within parts of the advertising industry today and what has influenced the advertisers in the making of our chosen advertising campaigns. What strategic decisions lie behind the creation of advertising in our convergent media society? Method/Material: Our thesis is based on a qualitative research method where our empirical data is based on personal interviews. The study reflected three themes, which replicate our question about the strategic choices that underlie the creation of advertising. Our respondents represent two sides, first the individuals who have been involved from the funding companies or organizations. The other side is represented by people who somehow are active in the advertising industry to help us get an objective reflection. Main results: The study indicates that active media users and creators reflect the corporate strategies and advertising. The interest of the consumers are reflected in the participant perspective. Commercials that require viral spread must include exciting content to become viral.

This study was an effort to uncover four major facts: (a) the predictive power ofthe proposed integrated model, which posits the influence of attitudes (ATT), subjectivenorms (SN), perceived behavior control (PBC), altruism, self-construal, and paperrecyclingknowledge on behavioral intentions; (b) the moderating effects ofindividualism-collectivism (I-C) on the attitudes-intentions relationship and thesubjective norms-intentions relationship; (c) the comparison of the predictive power ofthe TPB model and the proposed integrated model; and (d) the relationship between twointentions measures: behavioral intentions and implementation intentions.This cross-sectional research consisted of two phases: the TPB elicitation researchand the main study. Participants were undergraduate students recruited from two majorpublic universities in Thailand and the U.S. The sample size used in the main analysiscomprised 417 respondents from Thailand (representing a collectivistic society) and 432respondents from the U.S. (representing an individualistic society). Structural equationmodeling (SEM) was employed to investigate the predictability of the TPB model and theintegrated model. Multi-group SEM was implemented to examine the moderating effectsof I-C. Correlation analysis was conducted to detect the relationship between the twointentions measures.The results yielded some significant findings enhancing our understanding ofpaper-recycling intentions of college students in the two countries. First, TPBdeterminants, especially PBC and SN, were potential predictors of paper recycling.Although ATT was not a successful antecedent of intentions in Thailand, it predictedintentions of U.S. participants. Second, altruism was a significant factor explaining ATTand PBC for both samples; it also directly influenced intentions. Third, two types of selfconstrualsignificantly and distinctively affected ATT and SN. Fourth, paper-recyclingknowledge failed to predict either attitudes or intentions in either country. Fifth, althoughthe ratio difference of the model X2 and the R2 showed the TPB model to be slightly morepowerful than the integrated model, and TPB was more parsimonious, the integratedmodel advances our understanding of additional psychosocial and cultural factors withregard to paper recycling. Finally, the significant correlation between the behavioralintentionsand the implementation-intentions measures were positive and relatively high.Findings can benefit communication campaigns targeting audiences in different cultures.

A wide use of social media and the development of digital communication channels have changed the game in grassroots activism. Embracing those new ways of communication gives a way to new forms of activism and raises questions about media’s shifting role in the sphere of social movements and collective action. The general aim of this study was to map the role of media in the Let’s Do It! (LDI) movement that fights against illegal waste by organizing clean-up campaigns and by building awareness about the problem among the general public. The purpose was to find out what role media plays in the mobilization of clean-up actions; in communicating with the whole LDI movement and in sustaining the global network. The research questions posed were: What communication channels are used, and how are they used by activists to reach general public and to engage the volunteers when organizing the local and the global clean-up campaigns in the LDI network? What is the value of the global Let’s Do It! network and how is global-local communication organized? To find out about the use of communication channels and the purpose of the global network, a web-survey and in-depth interviews with global and local members of Let’s Do It! were conducted. The results show that different communication channels have a different role in the process of coordinating clean-up campaigns and in sustaining the network. Traditional media is important for gaining wider visibility; digital channels of communication, especially social networking platforms, are multifunctional with combining the internal and the external communication; and face-to-face meetings and interpersonal relationships are deemed crucial in forming strong ties and sustaining the network both globally and locally. The actual media use is also strongly influenced by the cultural context and the resources available for the local teams.

The purpose of this thesis was to describe, analyze, and evaluate the rhetorical strategies utilized by Senator Birch Bayh in his campaign for the 1974 Indiana Senatorial General Election. The analysis focused on four rhetorical transactions within the campaign:1) The Lawrence Lions Club Address, 4arion County, July 8, 1974.2) "Debate ‘74," statewide broadcast out of Indianapolis, September 1, 1974.3) The American Postal Workers' Union Address, Muncie, Indiana, October 20, 1974.4) A Democratic Rally Address, Gary, Indiana, October 31, 1974.After analyzing the audience, the man, and the rhetorical problems he faced, the study showed that Bayh faced a three-pronged motive situation of reaffirmation, subversion, and purification. By analyzing and evaluating the rhetorical strategies apparent within his rhetoric, the study attempted to determine the probable effect of Bayh's rhetorical choices. From conclusions drawn in the study, it would seem that Bayh's campaign rhetoric did have a significant influence on the outcome of the election.

No description available.

This thesis describes and demonstrates the use of discourse analysis as a means of facilitating critical awareness and stimulating research practice within a consumer research context. In a generic sense, discourse analysis applies to a range of semiotic methods for studying text (including talk, writing and visual images), where the objective is to gain insight into both the meanings of a text and what it signifies. Emphasis is placed on the constructive use of language, where texts of various kinds are said to construct our social world. Two approaches to discourse analysis are detailed. Firstly, Foucauldian discourse analysis is shown to operate more generally and globally as a social and cultural resource that underpins many human endeavours and activities. Under this approach, discourses are seen as resources that interact with one another. Foucauldian discourse analysis is therefore quite a different enterprise from the finer-grained investigation of talk and texts that is undertaken in discourse analysis and discursive psychology. Instead, discourses are treated as being dynamic in nature, having the ability to mutate over time, and gain dominance in certain settings and cultural locations. Discourse analysis under this approach facilitates critical awareness because it seeks to uncover the ways in which such discourses produce, maintain and constrain people within particular positions and relationships. Secondly, a discursive psychological approach to discourse analysis focuses on the strategic use of discourse within a particular piece of text, where interaction and the acknowledgement of such interaction by the researcher underscores the importance of language and the ways that people purposefully and strategically use language to achieve particular outcomes or goals. A discursive psychological approach focuses upon discursive practices and constructions, rather than cognitive-perceptual processes. A discourse analytic approach is therefore able to potentially redefine and stimulate current research practice. Psychological phenomena that might have traditionally been framed and studied as 'cognitive' and 'internal' processes can be recast as particular situated discursive accomplishments that people are able to draw upon. Because analysis is not subject to what may be termed 'cognitive reductionism' (where attempts to explain social events and processes are made entirely by reference to events and structures in the mental processes of individuals), a discursive analytic approach suggests new insights into current research practice. The specific context for analysis within this thesis is provided by an advertising campaign for Xenical, a pharmaceutical product promoted as a treatment for obesity. Xenical was one of the first prescription medications to be marketed directly to consumers in New Zealand via the use of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), a relatively recent form of marketing communication. The Xenical advertising campaign created both controversy and high awareness for the product. Contributing to this controversy was the overt use of DTCA itself, which critics suggest influences patient demand, encourages the use of expensive and sometimes unnecessary medications and in effect, 'creates' disease. As argued here, positioning obesity as a disease in effect justifies (warrants) the pharmaceutical industry�s efforts to offer medical solutions. In addition to the use of DTCA, the nature of the Xenical advertisements was also controversial. Critics suggested that the Xenical advertisements were based upon negative emotions, associating the state of being overweight with feelings of sadness, shame and embarrassment. These 'emotions' become a key subject in the current study. But in this thesis, rather than viewing such emotions as internal and mental phenomena, the use of discourse analysis focuses on the socio-cultural nature of emotions. Discourse analysis is concerned with uncovering the ways in which bodily sensations are rendered into language and what the subsequent implications for the speaker might be as a result. Using the advertising campaign for Xenical as context then, discourse analysis is used as a research approach to examine the television advertisements from multiple perspectives. Analysis includes the study of the casting tapes that were used by the advertising agency as source material to inform the creative strategy for the advertisements. In addition, one of the Xenical advertisements is deconstructed in greater detail, outlining the effects of visual and aural discourses that weave together to convey meaning within the advertisement. Analysis is informed by interviews conducted with the creative director of the advertisements as well as the marketing manger for Xenical. Discourse analysis allows us to examine the ways in which the producers of an advertisement purposefully (although perhaps unknowingly) create particular effects for strategic reasons, and how advertisements may be subsequently read as a consequence. The final analysis is based on a reader-response to the advertising campaign. Analysis focuses on the �emotional� talk contained within a particular interview, and how talk functions as performance. Rather than treating emotional talk as a description or reflection of inner psychological worlds, discourse analysis examines participant talk in terms of its content and meanings and how participants use such talk to construct their worlds. Although often overlooked within traditional forms of consumer research, the importance of representing social interaction through detailed interview transcripts is demonstrated, underscoring the analysis provided. Results suggest that the language of description and the methods of data capture that are typically utilised within consumer research are not able to provide an accurate account of the external world. This is because the only way we can know our world is always going to be mediated by and through language, and as a consequence, the meanings and interpretations available to us are never going to be transparent or neutral representations. The findings suggested in this thesis are intended as a starting point for subsequent research into the study of language in use and human meaning making within advertising and consumer research environments. Because consumer research has borrowed heavily from the social sciences and particularly from psychology, then it is important that researchers within the discipline re-examine many of the psychological topics that we commonly take for granted by considering the way such talk and text is used in action. Discourse analysis provides a research approach that enables such a re-examination.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2007. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 2008.