This study employed the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and a quantitative version of the five-factor TARES Test to gather data on the ethical decision-making patterns of public relations practitioners. The former is an instrument based on Kohlbergs (1969) moral development theory, the latter self-enforced, ethical consideration statements derived from the research of Baker and Martinson (2001). Results show that levels of moral development in public relations differ based on job segment, and that age, education, gender and rank significantly affect levels of ethical consideration. The TARES test, it was discovered, is better suited for a three-factor configuration based on Days (2003) definition of moral knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the different type of ownership will affect the degree of objectivity of newspaper coverage of 2000 presidential election. It is predicted by Shoemakers news content theory that publicly-owned newspaper is more objective than privately-owned newspaper. The findings of this study support this theory. A content analysis of 238 news stories and eight editorials from publicly-owned the Boston Globe and privately-owned the Boston Herald showed that not only does the ownership affect the objectivity of the coverage of these two newspapers on 2000 presidential election, the endorsements also affect the degree of objectivity. The study found that there has been some improvement on the newspapers coverage of Presidential election since 1988. This study found more evidence to support Shoemakers theory of news content and ownership. It also extended the previous study done by Kenney and Simpson(1993) by giving new evidence from a different election, in different newspapers, and by including the owners political views.

The purpose of this study is to examine the function of the bard in situation comedy theme songs. This study calls upon Fiske and Hartley's concept of television as a cultural bard, a singer and teller of stories that create and conserve community. The bard reaffirms the culture's identity while delivering social and political messages relevant to the culture at specific times throughout history. This study also draws upon social-historical and cultural perspectives, and a selective semiotic analysis to investigate the visual, vocal, and musical themes from four decades of television sitcoms. The shows and themes from the 1960s include The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71), The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68), Gomer Pyle, USMC (1964-70), Bewitched (1964-72), and That Girl (1966-71). Those from the 1970s include All in the Family (1971-79), The Jeffersons (1975-85), Maude (1972-78), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77), M*A*S*H (1972-83), and Three's Company (1977-84). Those from the 1980s include The Cosby Show (1984-92), Cheers (1982-93), The Wonder Years (1988-93), The Golden Girls (1985-92), and It's Garry Shandling's Show (1988-90). Lastly, the shows and themes from the 1990s include Roseanne (1988-97), Married. . .With Children (1987-97), The Simpsons (1989-), Home Improvement (1991-99), Dharma and Greg (1997-2000), Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-), Frasier (1993-), and The Drew Carey Show (1995-). The results of the analysis reveal that the themes address relevant cultural issues such as race relations, the role of the domestic woman, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, class conflict, and the construction of reality. To date, very little scholarly attention has been paid to the area of television theme songs. Given that television is a central part of popular culture, and that sitcoms and theme songs comprise a significant amount of television air time, it is important to understand their relationship to culture and culture making. This study concludes that theme songs are concise bardic utterances that offer brief yet powerful rhetorical statements. Through the performance of these texts, the bard speaks to the prevailing values of the culture, using familiar means to uphold a sense of community and offer the audience a reinforcing idea of themselves.

Universities are beginning to brand themselves. The days when the doors to higher-ed opened and students flooded into the classrooms are no more. Colleges have to find ways to separate themselves from each other in a noisy marketplace. Also there is a decline in newsroom resources for academic coverage, which leaves university marketers searching for ways to communicate their messages. However, universities have another available marketing outlet, which is not seeing declining media attention: sports. College sports are a big business, which generate national media attention. The Southeastern Conference had revenues of over $100 million from the marketing of its sports to television networks. The national reach of college sporting events is immense and university marketing officials have the opportunity to capitalize. This study examined a communications campaign launched by Louisiana State University's Office of University Relations to see how it translated athletic coverage generated by its 2003 college football national championship appearance into academic promotion. This case study was used to determine if athletics are a viable academic marketing tool in higher education. It used student enrollment, licensing revenue, and movement in the U.S. News and World Report's college rankings subsequent to the championship to evaluate the campaign and determine if sports are a viable academic marketing vehicle. Athletic success provided a Halo around the LSU brand and its Office of University Relations capitalized by launching a marketing campaign titled A Great Game Plan On and Off the Field. Since winning a football national championship LSU has realized a 208% increase in licensing royalties, student enrollment has reached record numbers, and its academic reputation ranking in U.S. News and World Report's college rankings increased. The positive results realized by LSU after winning an athletic national championship are an indicator that sports are an effective academic marketing vehicle in higher education.

How talk show workers, guests and audiences behave behind-the-scenes is largely a mystery to the public. This research focuses on the behind-the-scenes workings of a daytime syndicated talk show to better understand the motivations of talk show guests and how talk show workers manipulate guests and audiences. While researchers have conducted studies of talk show guests using formal interviews and questionnaires, no researchers have posed as covert observers to study talk shows. The researcher conducted participant observation to study the behaviors of those involved with the on and offstage talk show structure. The researcher interned for the show without revealing she was conducting a study. She anticipated the workers', guests' and audiences' behaviors would not be affected by her presence. The researcher was able to participate in the talk show environment, ultimately being accepted by those under study. This study found that talk show workers manipulate guests and audiences to engage in onstage behavior that potentially increases ratings. This research also determined additional reasons why guests appear on talk shows. Due to those under study perceiving the researcher as an intern, they behaved as if she was a natural part of the environment, not an observer recording their actions.

This study explored imagined interaction (IIs) and bereavement coping self-efficacy in psychosocial adjustment to spousal bereavement. II characteristics and functions explored include discrepancy, activity, proactivity, specificity, retroactivity, variety, valence, catharsis, self-understanding, rehearsal, compensation and use of IIs with the deceased spouse. The current study's primary contribution is the introduction of bereavement phenomena into the framework of intrapersonal communication. The present investigation includes results of two studies. The first included a sample of 232 individuals at varying lengths of widowhood who completed the Adjustment Survey, a 15-page survey instrument consisting of II factors, IIs with deceased spouse, bereavement coping self-efficacy, social support, interaction with other widow(er)s, pre-death communication for survivorship, as well as demographic characteristics. The second study, a follow-up to the initial study, included a sample of 75 widows/widowers who completed a revised version of the Adjustment Survey. Revisions to the survey consisted of contextualizing the II measurement tool to reflect more direct association with spousal bereavement. Findings of the first study unearthed an indirect relationship between psychosocial adjustment to spousal bereavement and reports of IIs with the deceased spouse. Participants reporting more frequent occurrence of IIs with the deceased spouse reported lower levels of adjustment. Findings confirmed a direct relationship between bereavement coping self-efficacy and psychosocial adjustment to spousal bereavement. These findings indicate that internal phenomena, namely imagined interaction and self-efficacy, make significant contributions to processing spousal bereavement. The nature of the association between IIs and the adjustment process was further explored in a follow-up investigation. The second study was conducted to explore the strength of the relationship between global psychosocial adjustment and II factors more specifically reflecting the nature of spousal bereavement. Study 2 results support the first study in that IIs with the deceased spouse again were found to share an indirect relationship with global adjustment. II valence also emerged as a significant, negatively-related factor in global adjustment. II self-understanding, which also shared an indirect relationship with adjustment, began to approach traditional significance as well. Overall findings confirm that intrapersonal phenomena contribute to the adjustment process in spousal bereavement.

This study examines the rhetorical choices made in public addresses by members of the contemporary conservative movement in the United States during the 1990s. The contemporary conservative movement in this instance is defined as a post World War II phenomenon. Specifically, it is argued that the popular notion of a unified conservative ascendence in America is but an illusion. Rather, two distinct tribes of conservatives, the economic and the traditional conservative, participate in a rhetorical homology that serves to hide significant ontological differences beneath the dialectical God terms freedom and order. Additionally, the charismatic nature of the term freedom authorizes allegiance to several abstract policy positions for differing reasons. It is only when the abstract is offered as concrete policy proposal that each wing of the movement is confronted with the gap between their core beliefs and those held by their ally. Because of the transcendence achieved in their discourse, conservatives are able to continually win election while experiencing policy defeat. Several implications for the future of conservatism in particular and political movements in general are asserted in the conclusion.

The purpose of this study is to examine the perception and the level of freedom in the media of the Republic of Georgia. The study examines the medias perception of freedom by identifying the frame newspapers used while covering the event between the government and the independent media outlet. The main interest is to define the predominant frame. A content analysis of 115 news articles of the four Georgian daily newspapers find that responsibility and conflict frames were more frequently used than economic consequences frame and morality frames. The study concludes that the Georgian media have considerable freedom from external restraints but less understanding of what may be accomplished by freedom.

The purpose of this study was to investigate deterrence factors for online file-sharing by analyzing different conditions that affect compliance with the law through survey of the students in a large university in Southern U.S. The findings show that certainty of punishment, stigma of the label, knowledge of the laws and consensus with the rule negatively correlated with both actual and likely future file-sharing activities of the users

This study will analyze the relationship between myth and the fantasy rhetoric of charismatic leadership by employing Fantasy Theme Analysis to examine the pervasive discourses invoking this enduring folk belief. Fantasies of the Charismatic Superhero are explored within the popular leadership treatises of successful management gurus and in our popular culture entertainments. The rhetorical visions of Stephen Coveys Principle-Centered Leadership, Jim Collins Level 5 Leadership, and Manz and Sims' SuperLeadership are examined for their displacement of charismatic leadership in favor of the empowered crypto-charisma of self-leading memberships. Findings suggest empowerment rhetorics, like the rhetorical visions championed by many populist gurus, bear striking similarities to the fantasy script of charisma and tacitly champion mythic culturetypes that are variations on known routinizations of charismatic leadership: the Ubermensch Prophet, the Messianic Prince, the Servant Superhero, or Technocratic Superteams.