The effects of entertainment-education narratives on pro-social, story-consistent beliefs and behaviors have been discussed by many. Less research has looked into the underlying mechanisms that facilitate these effects. Past research have attempted to explain the process through which persuasion occurs in narrative using a variety of theories, models and constructs. Recently, a better-integrated and structured theoretical framework -- the Entertainment Overcoming Resistance Model -- has been proposed to account for the persuasive effects. It clarifies the role of some similar constructs in narrative message processing. The present study examined several hypothesized relationships in the EORM by investigating the effects of exposure to a major bipolar disorder storyline embedded in a popular serial teen drama -- 90210 -- compared to those of exposure to a PSA addressing bipolar I disorder. The role of identification, transportation, parasocial interaction, perceived similarity, counterarguing, reactance, and perceived invulnerability in producing persuasive outcomes were re-examined in this bipolar I disorder E-E narrative. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three viewing conditions, a Stormwater Runoff Public Service Announcement plus a video of 90210 excerpts containing bipolar disorder storyline, a bipolar disorder PSA paired with a video of 90210 excerpts without bipolar disorder storyline, and the Stormwater Runoff PSA plus the video of 90210 excerpts without bipolar disorder storyline (control condition). They completed a questionnaire immediately after viewing each video and filled out another online follow-up questionnaire two weeks later to assess their responses to the program. Results of the study indicated the following: (1) Relative to the control condition, BPI E-E narrative exposure was not associated with greater overall pro-treatment behavioral intention and behaviors regarding BPI but did enhance the behavioral intention to seek help from mental health professional regarding BPI; (2) among the three resistance-related variables examined in this study, only perceived invulnerability was negatively associated with behavioral intention; (3) identification with characters was the only construct that contributed to reduced perceived invulnerability; and (4) the additional consideration of perceived invulnerability of "others" seemed helpful in understanding the effects of the bipolar I disorder narrative. Implications of findings, suggested areas of future research, and limitations of the present study are discussed. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2014. / January 16, 2014. / Bipolar Disorder, Entertianment-Education, Mental Illness, Narrative Persuasion / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura M. Arpan, Professor Directing Thesis; Arthur A. Raney, Committee Member; Juliann Cortese, Committee Member.

Ever since professional wrestling made the transition from sport to spectacle, stereotypes have played a role in the show, traditionally as a narrative device that divides the wrestling world into heels (villains) and faces (heroes). In the past, as a regional product, wrestling promotions would appeal to the demographic of the region, placing their morals and ideology onto the hero. As wrestling has gone mainstream, that hasn't changed, but the audience has. No longer relying solely on regional ticket sales, but rather large, national mass media contracts and advertisers, professional wrestling now attempts to appeal to the white, masculine, neoliberal hegemony and in doing so perpetuates its ideology through stereotypes. Now, nearly every group outside of the majority culture is depicted by lazy archetypal portrayals meant to reinforce hegemonic ideology. This thesis, using the work of many political economic scholars, attempts to identify and describe portrayals of race in the WWE from a political economic perspective, focusing on the ideology dispersed by the messages within WWE content and the structural factors that encourage the portrayals. In attempt to do so, trade journals and popular press were examined, and WrestleManias 1-30 were analyzed using textual analysis to examine portrayals of race. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2014. / April 18, 2014. / Economy, Political, Race, Stereotype, Wrestling, WWE / Includes bibliographical references. / Jennifer Proffitt, Professor Directing Thesis; Davis Houck, Committee Member; Felecia Jordan Jackson, Committee Member.

In light of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, campaign finance law has been re-regulated to promote freedom of spending in elections. Previously, outside spending in elections was restricted to avoid corruption or the appearance of corruption in the democratic process. Corporations, unions, and individuals can now spend unlimitedly on political advertisements in an attempt to persuade voters. Unlike campaign advertisements, the newly christened Super PACs do not have to approve the message or disclose donors if the money was last received from a nonprofit organization. Super PACs must also pay top dollar for their ad space unlike campaign ads that receive the lowest rates. This has the possibility of creating a massive conflict of interest for the news media. Journalists are expected to serve as watchdogs on these ads so citizens may make informed decisions, but the concentrated media industry is making massive profits from airing them - can we trust them to report on the often misleading and negative ads? This dissertation examines broadcast, cable, and public television news transcripts surrounding Super PAC ads in the 2012 primary and general presidential elections utilizing textual analysis and political economic theory. After exploring the economic structure and ownership of the news media and its coverage of this issue, I argue that we cannot trust the commercial news media to report critically or even accurately on Super PAC advertisers. This analysis attempts to explain how and why the commercial news media failed in its coverage and how it perpetuated problematic ideologies that support the status quo and ignore public opinion and protestation / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / March 7, 2014. / Citizens United, Election, News, Political Economy, Super Pac, Supreme Court / Includes bibliographical references. / Jennifer M. Proffitt, Professor Directing Dissertation; Leigh Edwards, University Representative; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member; Andy Opel, Committee Member.

Health issues, such as sexually transmitted infections, would traditionally be addressed in information campaigns such as print or commercial (radio or video) public service announcements (PSAs). However, these information-based campaigns have been found to have unintended negative effects and cause resistance to the message, such as psychological reactance and counterarguing. Health messages included in entertainment programming, called entertainment education, are thought to be more effective than the information-based campaigns more blatant attempts at persuasion. This dissertation investigated 1) if modeling a safe sex behavior in combination with an injunctive norms cue (depiction of social sanctions that indicated a reward for an adaptive behavior and/or a punishment for a maladaptive behavior) in an entertainment program significantly influenced norms perceptions, 2) if modeling a safe sex behavior in combination with an injunctive norms cue in an entertainment program significantly influenced the accessibility of norms perceptions, 3) whether including an explicit descriptive norms cue (depiction of the prevalence of a safe sex behavior) in addition to the modeled behavior with an injunctive norms cue increased the influence of the program on norms perceptions/the accessibility of norms perceptions, and 4) if perceptions/the accessibility of norms perceptions were mediating factors between identification/perceived similarity with characters and behavioral intent. In study one (n = 106), participants were randomly assigned to view one of two conditions: a health message that featured a modeled behavior with an injunctive norms cue or a control message. Results demonstrated that a) exposure to a health message that featured a modeled behavior with an injunctive norms cue can influence the accessibility of injunctive norms perceptions in viewers and b) the effect of identification and perceived similarity on behavioral intent was mediated by the accessibility of injunctive norms regarding sexual health behavior. A second study was conducted to replicate the results of study one and investigate if the addition of an explicit descriptive norms cue was more influential than just the modeled behavior with an injunctive norms cue. In study two (n = 140), participants were randomly assigned to view one of three conditions: a health message that featured a modeled behavior with an injunctive and descriptive norms cue, a health message that featured a modeled behavior with an injunctive norms cue only, or a control message. Results of study two demonstrated that a) a single mediated message can influence the perceptions of injunctive norms in viewers, b) the effect of identification and perceived similarity on behavioral intent were mediated by the perceptions/accessibility of injunctive norms perceptions, and c) the addition of an explicit descriptive norms cue was not more influential than just the modeled behavior with an injunctive norms cue. The results as well as theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Further, suggestions for future research are offered. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / November 3, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura Arpan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Juliann Cortese, Committee Member; Arthur Raney, Committee Member.

This study is a content analysis of China-related research published in three prominent communication peer-viewed journals, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication, and Communication Research between 1979, the year after China started to implement its reform and opening-up policy and 2013. The purpose of this study is to discover potential trends in China-related research published in the communication field. Thus, every peer-reviewed article pertaining to mainland China (N = 55) is considered as a unit of analysis. This inquiry focuses on the nature of the topic covered, the theoretical framework, methodological details, research questions and hypotheses as well as authorship, statistical approach, sampling method and source of data. Results indicated that American institutions published the largest amount of communication research on China. Political issue and public opinion was the most popular research topic addressed dominantly through quantitative method and most specifically with content analyses. The published research, tested through hypotheses more than research questions, dominantly featured theoretical framework and more precisely agenda-setting. Statistically, frequency was used in the majority of articles. Keywords: content analysis, China, mass communication, comparative studies, international communication. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2014. / October 29, 2014. / China, comparative study, content analysis, international communciation, mass communication / Includes bibliographical references. / Patrick F. Merle, Professor Directing Thesis; Jaejin Lee, Committee Member; Felecia Jordan, Committee Member.

The system of intellectual property is based on the fundamental proposition that creativity beneficial to the whole of society is best achieved through a limited monopoly grant for the creator. The modern U.S. copyright regime, however, has made a mockery of that grant's limits. This analysis tracks the case Aereo v. ABC et al to illustrate the ease with which broadcasters can use copyright's broad language - e.g. the Transmit Clause - to snuff out potential competition. This not only deprives the individual of products and services in the present, but it also forecloses avenues of innovation in the future - the exact opposite of intellectual property's stated intent. To rectify this I propose three unique but interconnected remedies: an expanded, more robust copyright misuse doctrine, a safe harbor for local retransmission of broadcast signals, and compulsory Internet simulcast of the broadcast signal. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2014. / November 13, 2014. / Aereo, Copyright, Public Interest, Public Performance, Supreme Court / Includes bibliographical references. / Jennifer Proffitt, Professor Directing Thesis; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member; Michael Giardina, Committee Member.

For many higher education institutions, alumni donations are the lifeblood of financial support. This is why so much time, effort, and resources are expended in an attempt to solicit donation funds from any given school's alumni base. Although motivation and ability to give vary drastically, there are certain elements which have proven to be reliably predictive of giving behavior. The stronger any individual identifies with an institution, the more likely is their donation. Data were collected from the alumni of a Southeastern public university through a survey questionnaire gauging their motivations for giving, behavioral intent, and organizational identification. 3,663 alumni were contacted and 489 successfully completed the survey. As expected, identification was found to be statistically significant regarding donation behavior. Multiple facets of identification varied in respect to statistical significance between genders. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2014. / November 14, 2014. / Alumni, Donation behavior, Donation motivation, Organizational Identification, Survey / Includes bibliographical references. / Patrick Merle, Professor Directing Thesis; Jay Rayburn, Committee Member; Jaejin Lee, Committee Member.

A vocabulary intervention during shared storybook reading was implemented with 22 Spanish-English bilingual children. One intervention consisted of English expansions of vocabulary words and the other of English-supplemented-with-Spanish instruction. Participants between the ages of 4 and 6 received both interventions during a four-week summer program. It was hypothesized that the intervention incorporating Spanish would produce greater learning in three areas: naming, receptive knowledge, and expressive definitions. It also was hypothesized that the children's initial language proficiency in each language would affect their learning from Spanish vocabulary expansions. Results revealed significant improvement in all three areas. The Spanish vocabulary expansions condition produced the greatest gains in expressive definitions. Also, the children's initial language proficiency in Spanish and English was found to affect the children's possible gains from the intervention. The thirteen participants with limited skills in both languages showed significantly less vocabulary growth than the participants who had strong skills in Spanish. Although both languages of intervention were beneficial, there were additional benefits to using Spanish expansions in the vocabulary instruction. Findings support previous literature that suggests shared reading is a useful tool to enhance word learning. This is especially true for bilingual children when supporting and strengthening a child's first language and facilitating second-language acquisition. Future research should explore additional ways of enhancing the vocabulary growth of children with limited skills in both languages. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 20007. / April 24, 2007. / Bilingual Vocabulary Acquisition, Preschool, Spanish-English Bilinguals / Includes bibliographical references. / Carla Wood Jackson, Professor Directing Thesis; Howard Goldstein, Committee Member; Shurita Thomas-Tate, Committee Member; Christopher Lonigan, Committee Member.

This dissertation is a descriptive case study of information security governance in higher education institutions. It is a qualitative study that describes, through institutional theoretical constructs, the information security governance frameworks responsible for the protection of sensitive personal information at three large public research universities. The objectives of the study are 1) assess the impact of the regulative policy environment on security management structures in higher education and specifically addresses the regulative initiative, the Gramm- Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the strategic initiative Information Security Governance: A Call to Action. 2) Describe the information security governance structures in academic institutions in terms of examining the roles and responsibilities of the security governance actors in the large public research universities that participated in the case study. 3) Describe the impact of information security governance on the institutionalization of information security enterprises in higher education in terms of strategic security outcomes, namely strategic planning, security policy development and security program development. The study begins with a descriptive assessment of the regulative compliance policy environment by first describing the historical background that led to the modern conceptual framework of information security, which evolved from the inception of national security after World War II. It laid the groundwork for describing the institutional regulative environment that affects information security governance frameworks in the institutions that participated in the study. The assessment examines the regulative initiatives that effect the protection of sensitive personal information, which were addressed by the participants in the study that include: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); GLBA and related financial instruments including the Sarbanes- Oxley Act, Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (Red Flags Rule) and the Program Compliance Industry (PCI) standard. The security enterprises at three large public research universities agreed to participate in the case study. At each institution, a set of three security governance actors from each university, namely the Chief information Officer, Chief Security Officer and Chief Compliance Officer or IT Auditor agreed to be interviewed for the study. Each participant was interviewed regarding their roles and responsibilities within the institutional security enterprise at their university, and they were asked to describe, from their perspective, their university's institutional security governance frameworks in terms of regulative compliance, strategic planning and security policy and program development. After transcribing and evaluating the data from the field site interviews, each institutional security governance structure was described using the organizational narrative approach. The organizational narratives provided a story line on how their information security governance structures developed within their institutional frameworks. The three narratives are followed by a discussion based on a comparative analysis of the security structures and mechanisms in place at each university. The results from the comparative analysis indicate that the strategic initiative, Information Security Governance: A Call to Action, a normative governance mechanism, did not have a direct impact on the development of any of the institutional security enterprises that participated in the study, but do suggest that GLBA, a coercive governance mechanism has had an indirect influence on the institutions by mandating they have information security programs embedded within their governance frameworks and that they designate institutional information security officers at their institutions. In each institution, no antecedents to information security governance were identified, but at each university, the information security enterprise reported directly to IT. The CIO, at each university, was the institutional strategic security officer while the Chief Security Officer was responsible for supervising security staff, managing operational and regulative compliance issues. The results also suggest the role of the Chief Compliance Officer is still in the development stages in IT security enterprises. The results also revealed two potentially important factors that require further investigation. First, the results suggest that culture plays a pivotal role in the success of information security governance frameworks in higher education. Second, the results suggest that organizational maturity plays an important role in the robustness of information security governance structures and security enterprises in academic institutions. / A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Library and Information Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2011. / May 3, 2011. / Information Security, Governance, Security Policy, Academic Institutions, Policy Development / Includes bibliographical references. / Gary Burnett, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Paradice, University Representative; Lawrence C. Dennis, Committee Member; Besiki Stvilia, Committee Member.

This study investigated whether personality differences (i.e., personal need for structure [PNS] and personal fear of invalidity [PFI]) would interact with the type of risk information in Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs to influence participants' attitudes toward the ad and brand via differences in processing of the content of the ads. Results for both high PNS and low-PNS participants suggested that their attitudes toward the brand were influenced by their global attitudes toward DTCA, while their attitudes toward the ad were not affected by their global attitudes. For participants with higher personal fear of invalidity, their attitudes toward the brand were also correlated with their global attitudes toward DTCA. For low-PNS participants, attitudes toward the brand were influenced by the type of risk information. The analyses also indicated that for participants who seemed to engage in the central route (careful) processing (i.e., low PNS), attitudes toward the drug were more favorable among participants presented with mild (vs. severe) risk information. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Communication in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2007. / July 9, 2007. / Direct-To-Consumer Advertising, Personal Fear Of Invalidity, Personal Need For Structure, Information Processing / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura Arpan, Professor Directing Thesis; Arthur Raney, Committee Member; Juliann Cortese, Committee Member.