Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are a national concern in the United States. In addition, many people exist who would like to become parents, but cannot or do not reproduce biologically. While adoption could offer a solution to this problem, the actual number of adoptions that take place is very small. This study examined what adoption agencies in the New Orleans area are doing to promote themselves to women with unwanted pregnancies. In-depth interviews were conducted with five adoption agencies. Three of the five agencies reported using various methods of targeting women with unwanted pregnancies. These methods included public posters, flyers distributed in various public places, feature stories in newspapers, radio spots, and television commercials. Two agencies did not target women at all because they did not have a need to do so. In addition to providing information on their methods of targeting, the respondents were also able to provide useful ideas and information on aspects such as competition among adoption agencies, demographics of birth and adoptive parents, adoption and the media, limitations agencies face, and ethical considerations in adoption. The majority of the adoption agencies did engage in methods of targeting. Yet, they felt that more could be done if the financial resources were available.

Perceptions of interpersonal dominance and affiliation have been extensively examined throughout past research. In the current study, the purpose was to fill in the some of the gaps of existing research well, specifically the gap created by current confusion in the literature regarding the effects of sex, status, and emotional display on ratings of dominance and affiliation. Also, interactions between the primary variables of interest (sex, status, and emotional display) were observed. Results revealed significant relationships within several of the dimensions addressed, specifically between emotional display and ratings of dominance and affiliation such that individuals displaying anger were viewed as more dominant than those displaying happiness whereas those displaying happiness were viewed as more affiliative than those displaying anger. Sex, both of the participant and of the source, affected ratings of affiliation and dominance such that women were viewed as more affiliative than men but men were viewed as more dominant than women. Results also revealed significant interactions such that overall ratings were mediated by the interactions between variables as well as by single variables. Also, the findings revealed a negative correlation between ratings of dominance and ratings of affiliation.

This study focuses on how African-Americans and Hispanics perceive their racial equality in American advertising. A survey was conducted to find out the African-American and the Hispanic perceptions about how these ethnic groups saw themselves depicted, and the way they are stereotyped by the U.S. media. Overall, the study found that there was no difference between race and the level of perception between these two ethnic groups. However, age appears to be the only demographic variable that affects the African-American and Hispanic perception of discrimination. In addition, the study also exposed that African-Americans are mostly portrayed in the athletic advertising industry. Hispanics, on the other hand, appear most often in family-oriented and business-oriented ads.

Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs receives significant attention from academic researchers. Advertising, however, is not the only way prescription drugs are discussed in the public sphere. Many Americans learn about science through mass media. Additionally, researchers believe readers place more trust in editorial content than in advertisements. This study took a quantitative and qualitative approach to content analysis of prescription drug coverage to examine the effects of the highly publicized and controversial Vioxx recall on the news. Significant changes in framing, drugs mentioned, and prominence of story placement were shown. There were no changes in sources used in prescription drug coverage, and the absence of personal stories in news coverage was an important discovery, which may help explain the drop in prominence of articles in newspapers.

A comparative analysis of presidential press conferences was conducted to determine whether the previously established adversarial relationship between the United States president and the American press was alleviated to some degree by the presence of a foreign dignitary. The study applied a system for quantifying adversarial behaviors exhibited by the press to questions asked of President George W. Bush in solo conferences and where he was joined by another head-of-state in joint press conference sessions. Questions from selected conferences during his first term were coded according to four indicators of adversarialness: initiative, directness, assertiveness and adversarialness. Results showed that the president-press relationship is indeed less adversarial in joint press conferences than in solo. This conclusion may serve as justification for increases in general press conference frequency in the last three administrations and the disproportionate increase in joint sessions.

Minority and other race recruitment have become a significant part of general recruitment efforts at many predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Despite increased efforts, some universities have not been successful at increasing diversity on campus. This study relies on the use of in-depth interviews to document, describe and understand the similar and differing characteristics of minority and other race recruitment tactics being used at PWIs and HBCUs. The researcher conducted interviews at four public institutions of higher education; two of which are HBCUs, and two of which are PWIs. The researcher also sought to determine if the universities in the study created their recruiting techniques as a self-presentation tactic. The findings of this study reveal that although similarities exist in general recruitment practices at PWIs and HBCUs, many recruiters and university administrators note the necessity to approach prospective minority and other race students differently than majority students. Secondly, findings suggest negative perceptions of institutions may hinder minority recruitment efforts. Findings also suggest that the universities are putting forth effort in attempts to overcome this problem; therefore, this study supports the idea that universities practice self-presentation in efforts to overcome negative images and poor minority enrollment.

The purpose of this study was to find out if either The New York Times or The Washington Times participated in unbalanced media coverage during the last two weeks of the 2004 Presidential Election. Through content analysis paragraph tone was used to evaluate news stories, columns, and editorials as positive, negative or neutral from a composite week sample. Scholars, politicians, the public as well as journalists have long argued about the existence or not of media bias and whether it is in support of liberal or conservative politics. This study was not an attempt to pick a side in that confrontation. Instead, a goal of this research was to provide additional data along with testing methodology, in the hope that it would contribute to the work that has already been accomplished in moving toward evaluation criteria for identifying media bias. The findings from this study provided evidence of unbalanced media coverage from both news organizations during the particular period of study. The biggest surprise was that The Washington Times was more unbalanced than The New York Times, 64.9% to 56.3%. Data from this study supports the previous research that claims a presence of liberal bias as well as a possible attempt by conservative elites to create and support a perception of media bias. The evidence uncovered also supports agenda setting and priming as well as some agenda setting effects.

A survey with 293 American and 68 international LSU students and two focus groups with American students and one with international students were conducted between November 2005 and February 2006 to determine the difference in media use between American and international LSU students in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: What were students main sources of information after the storm? What were their sources when electricity was out? Which source of information helped students feel less lonely? Which source of information helped students fell less stressful? Finally, which medium did the students believe, when compared to others, did the best job reporting on Hurricane Katrina? Second, the study explored how female LSU students differed from male students in media use and satisfaction after the storm. Survey results showed that television was the primary source of information for both American and international students. For American students, coverage by local TV was both informative and comforting, and coverage of national TV was more informative. For international students, both local and national coverage were more informative. More American students listened to the radio as more of them did not have electricity. International students went online more to contact their friends and family abroad, and American students used cell phones to talk to family members. Friends were the primary stress relief for both groups of students and the source that helped them feel less lonely. The largest number of both groups of students agreed that local TV did the best job in reporting on Hurricane Katrina. Overall, students gave the average grade B to American news media reports on Katrina. International students said they were more comforted using American media and got more information from them than from their native language media. When considering gender, there was a statistically significant difference between males and females in using mobile phones, sending text messages and getting information from family members.

This study analyzes Jack Kerouacs writing method of spontaneous prose and articulates how the method can be understood as performative writing. Kerouacs Essentials of Spontaneous Prose, On the Road, Visions of Cody, and Doctor Sax are explored to evaluate both the successes and failures of the authors attempts to break literary boundaries and create a new writing method based upon spontaneous tenets. These three novels, which were written in succession from 1950 to 1953 when Kerouac was in his most productive period, represent both the emergence and dissent of the authors use of performative writing. To explicate the cultural genesis and dissemination of Kerouacs writing method, the historiographical method of performance genealogy is utilized to address two fictions operating within the larger discourse surrounding Kerouac. First, by focusing on the authors works rather than on his biographical life, this study seeks to contribute to our understanding of Kerouacs status as an author and as a performer of fiction. Second, by focusing on the cultural historicity of his writing method, it is argued that Kerouacs method of spontaneous prose is a much more complicated approach to novelistic discourse than both his earlier critics and some contemporary fans have acknowledged. By addressing spontaneous prose as a method of performative writing, this study articulates what spontaneous prose is and what it does. To this end, the study tracks the doing of spontaneity over the course of three separate literary performances of the novel. As the genealogical trajectory of the writing method demonstrates, in On the Road Kerouac has only begun to implement the changes he wanted to explore after discovering his literary method. Visions of Cody represents the authors commitment to the writing method, but as its series of literary experiments shows, Kerouac is not yet able to balance his writing method with a sustained approach to narrative story telling. Finally, in Doctor Sax, Kerouac is able to achieve what his two earlier novels had not. That is, a synthesis between the form of invention and the subjects of invention themselves. Implications for performance studies and performative writing are explored.

This project examines the history of science and its relationship to the popular, or lay, audience, a problem of rhetorical inquiry since Aristotle. This project also explores the implications of the emerging trend in lay literature on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to transform the causal mechanism underlying ADHD so that it is isomorphic in structure and parallel in content to the most contemporary and fetishized sciences of the human body. In other words, how ADHD was once a problem of brain chemistry, and is now a problem of genetics is not simply a matter of scientific practice on the level of empirical data, but instead reflective of a larger societal trend in the era of rational instrumentality to reduce human behavior to the analogy of a mechanical machine. As such, by examining literature on ADHD that is designed to persuade a lay audience of the existence of ADHD, this project argues that the rhetorical dimensions of ADHD are perpetuated by a logic of a black box, or a type of reasoning that privileges effects over the internal operations of an organism or machine.