Leaning heavily on the media criticism and soft news literatures, the study analyzed comedic media criticism and the effect (if any) it has on the practices of media producers by studying a early 2009 exchange between The Daily Show host Jon Stewart and Mad Money with Jim Cramer host Jim Cramer. In the exchange, Stewart criticized the financial advice Cramer doles out on Mad Money, suggesting that Cramer perhaps knowingly leads his viewers astray with ill-advised stock tips. A quantitative content analysis of claims (N=510) pulled from Mad Money transcripts both before and after Stewarts criticism of Cramer revealed little to no evidence that Stewarts jabs had an impact on Cramers work. Discussion of what the studys results mean for the relationship between viewers, their attitudes, the news media, and democracy followed, with a special emphasis placed on the possible link between media criticism and cynicism development.

This research applied a two-step triangulation approach to the study of mother-daughter communication in arranged marriages among the religious Sunnis of Beirut, Lebanon. Combining the theory of structuration and relational dialectics in one theoretical framework, the study investigated the role of mother-daughter interactions in the socialization of the daughter into the marital experience. The study investigated the process of marital socialization by first surveying 199 mother-daughter dyads, representing 398 individuals. In the second step, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 families (three interviews per dyad), randomly selected out of the 199 surveyed pairs. The dyadic data analysis of the surveys assessed mother-daughter generational difference and the interdependence of their views on marriage, taking into consideration the daughter‟s marital status (single, engaged, and married). Findings revealed that mother-daughter interdependence moved in a curvilinear fashion. The mother and her engaged daughter converged in their marital views, then slightly diverged as the daughter‟s relationship with her husband progressed. The analysis of the 36 interviews examined stancemaking in the reported speeches of past mother-daughter conversations, and dialogues that took place during the third mother-daughter interviews. The stance analysis revealed the flow of socialization (one-way for the mother, and conversational for the daughter), and the three main lines of socialization: Structuration rules related to male-female interactions, criteria for selecting the ideal husband, and guidelines on how to become a good wife and mother. The analysis of stance alignments also exposed four mother-daughter relational dialectics happening during the arranged marriage process: Real versus ideal, powerful versus powerless, individual versus collective, and connection versus separation. Those dialectics corresponded to the fundamental tensions and the power resources that influenced both the daughter‟s marital structuration and her relationship with her mother during the marital process. The main findings were discussed at the end in line with mother-daughter connection, and the cultural schema of gender among the religious Sunnis of Beirut, Lebanon. The socialization involved in arranged marriages constitutes a turning-point in mother-daughter relationship, and a potential source of institutionalizing the perception of women as fragile beings in constant need of protection.

This study examined journalistic press criticism between 1865 and 1930. It sought to understand how the first modern journalists conceived of their profession in a period of great transitions. As the study revealed, journalists writing about journalism between 1865 and 1930 discussed recurring themes such as commercialization, sensationalism, advertising, and ethics. They expressed ambivalence toward the rise of big business in their field and the consequences it could have on the quality of the work. In the process, journalists also defined journalism as a profession providing a public service or as a business aiming solely for circulation and profit. Definitions shifted depending on the period during which the journalists wrote. Criticism during the period under study often reflected the social and cultural trends journalists witnessed. During the postbellum era, it mirrored the belief in the American Dream of wealth, well-being, and democracy. In the 1890s, criticism focused on the downsides of commercialism, expressing the fears people felt toward the new corporate giants. During the progressive period, the writings of press critics revealed the pride they felt in the civic services journalism provided. But World War I brought an end to progressivism. During the 1920s, disillusioned journalists criticized mediocre journalism. Their frustration echoed that of the old generation of progressives. Underlying the journalists criticism was also the perception they had of news. Excited about the democratic promise of this new concept, postbellum critics praised journalism more than they criticized it. During the 1890s, and despite the downsides of commercialism, journalists never lost hope because, for them, news democratized information. The progressive period seemed to confirm the democratic potentials of news, promoting pride among critics. But the propaganda campaigns of World War I broke the spell, as critics realized that news was potentially susceptible to propaganda. The establishment of public relations as a profession based on the spinning of news during the 1920s further aggravated the problem. Journalists, who had kept their optimism throughout the previous fifty years, became concerned, in the 1920s, that many newspapers did not live up to the democratic promise of the press.

Scholars and news media alike acknowledge that one of the main problems in education today is the minority achievement gaps in national testing. Although many education scholars have compiled several in-depth reasons as to why minorities, particularly African-American students, seem to generally lag behind their white counterparts, television news fails to give its audiences a comprehensive view of why minority achievement gaps are so prevalent in United States secondary public education. The purpose of this study was to examine where news consumers perceive television news places blame for problems in public education with regards to race. Studying how people perceive where television news places blame for minority gaps in academic achievement will build on the arguments of previous research that minorities are underrepresented as victims of social and political problems. Through a descriptive online survey of quantitative responses, this study assesses respondents political affiliations and perspectives, their views on race, racial achievement gaps and television news coverage of those gaps. This study will discuss some of the major research on why African-Americans and other minorities struggle with academic achievement more than Whites and how television news rarely, if ever, covers these issues nor provide context to stories on African-Americans and education.

This study examines how the institutional characteristics of local television news stations affect the stations coverage of state legislative news. Focusing on the state of Louisiana, the researcher conducts in-depth interviews with news workers from the seven media markets in the state. The interviews were focused toward the decision makers in the newsroom in order to examine the process that determines the newscast the audience receives. The interview discussions centered on the news making process. In addition, the interviews focused explicitly on the effect of proximity to the state capitol; coverage of state level news versus community level or national level news; and the effect of gubernatorial coverage on the topics within state legislative news. The findings suggest that local television news media hold distinct institutional characteristics that determine the extent of legislative news coverage provided. Proximity affects commitment to state government news. Also, news workers tend to cover the governor more than state legislative news. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that the structure of local television news is not optimal or even sufficient for serving the public in state legislative news.

This study examined the maiden and whore characters in The Golden Girls, Designing Women, and Sex and the City. Using a textual analysis and discourse analysis approach, I examined the two characters comparing them to the definitions of archetype and stereotype provided by Jungian theory and feminist film theory. I analyzed ten randomly selected episodes from the second season excluding both the premier and the finale. Three of the research questions were rooted in central ideas found in the shows: outward appearance, language and conversation, and sexual relationships. The last research question determined whether or not the characters were archetypes or stereotypes. Ultimately, the study found that the maiden and whore characters in the three shows were archetypes that are neutral as explained and defined in Jungian theory.

This study looked at sports websites to see how the variables information, humor, entertainment, community, and credibility affected sports website users intentions to use and re-use sports websites. Three groups of 25 and one group of 30 participants each completed a website viewing activity and corresponding survey. There were four website viewing activities (one for each group). The activities led participants on tours of ESPN.com, Deadspin.com, Football Outsiders, and Yahoo! Sports. Furthermore, the tours were designed to expose participants to the variables (as defined under disposition theory and uses and gratifications). Likewise, the corresponding survey assessed participants intentions to use each of the four websites based on the degrees to which they perceived each variable to be present. In addition to the surveys, the study utilized focus group discussion data as a secondary method. Five focus groups and one interviewee each answered eight open-ended questions. All answers were analyzed according to which of the variables were important to participants on sports websites. Results of the survey data showed that humor and entertainment content had the most positive effect on sports website users intents to use, whereas information and credibility content scored highest among the discussion participants. The community variable ranked last via both methods. The ramifications for this study are that sports websites should develop their humorous and entertaining content regarding athletes and sports figures. Website partnerships with informative and credible sites should be formed to maintain sports information links.

American youth and adolescents have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in the industrialized world. Entertainment media, the preferred genre of todays adolescents, depicts sex, drugs, and alcohol use at a greater rate than any other genre of programming. What are health communication strategists doing to counter the widespread, inaccurate portrayals often depicted in this type of programming? With previous knowledge gap and health communication research failing to examine youth oriented and racial targeted entertainment programming, this study utilizes a survey to analyze BET, MTV, and VH1 audiences health knowledge, recall, and attitude toward PSAs to identify lapses in health communication strategy. This study distributed an Internet survey to a large southern university undergraduate population to capture the perceptions of BET, MTV, and VH1 target audiences. Respondents with low viewing habits of MTV and VH1 exhibited greater knowledge of HIV and alcohol. No difference in knowledge was found among high and low viewers of BET. Respondents reported their perceptions of the effectiveness of three PSAs. The most effective PSA utilized the fear and loss appeal. This PSA also portrayed real life consequences not often portrayed in entertainment programming. Finally, the PSA that utilized the informational appeal was more effective in promoting the advocated behavior among female respondents. Contrasting previous social identity theory research, the inclusion of same-ethnicity models within the PSAs was not indicative of perceived effectiveness of the message. Interestingly, ethnic-related impressions did influence respondents perception of the PSAs personal relevance. The survey provided support for third-person effects with respondents overestimating others viewing habits. The results of the study indicate a greater need of informational HIV and alcohol PSAs on VH1 and MTV. The gaps in knowledge exhibited by the respondent group reveal the lapses in health communication broadcasted on the selected cable-music channels. In addition, the results illustrate the ideal frames and themes deemed effective by youth audiences. The ideal youth and adolescent targeted PSA would include same-ethnicity models, a strong informational argument, a strong emotional appeal, portrayal of real life risks, and inclusion of a loss-frame appeal associated with the risky behavior.

Research of crime news suggests that Blacks are over represented as criminals when compared to crime reports; study of race and crime judgments reveals that viewers with heavy amounts of television news viewing associate Blacks with crime more often than viewers who watch lower amounts of television news. Further complicating the perception of Blacks is their lack of diversified coverage in the news. Most coverage of Blacks frames them as liabilities to their communities, while offering few positive depictions to counter the Black criminality frame. The Internet may aid in exacerbating stereotypes of Blacks by allowing users to selectively expose themselves to more crime news than they would receive from traditional media. Prior studies of race and crime coverage have analyzed Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia news. The current study seeks to reveal if Baton Rouge, Louisianas local news websites present an accurate reflection of the crime committed in Baton Rouge and endeavors to reveal the amount of positive, counteractive depictions of Blacks present on such websites.

This study contributes to our knowledge of life-span communication by examining the communication of the Baby Boomer generation (born 1946-1964) as they re-enter the dating scene. Although Baby Boomers' early years of dating (the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's) occurred in a time of new-found freedom, especially in sexual relationships, the experience of dating several decades later brings many complications due to aging and children. The intent of this study was not to generalize that all Baby Boomers would express the views stated in this study, but to show the complexity of this generation, and to present a theoretical framework for better understanding communication in their romantic relationships, and with their adult children. Information gathered in this research fills an important gap in the information about this generation. Although previous studies have examined romantic communication of much younger or older subjects, the current study employs a life-span perspective with extended interviews of twenty-four men and women age 46-64, to examine changes in communication from the respondents' early years of dating to mid-life. Results indicated that numerous changes in romantic communication and behavior have occurred, especially in the areas of communication channels, use of technology, and physical romance. Bowen Family Systems Theory (1966) and Petronio‟s (2002) Communication Privacy Management Theory were used as a framework to explore how management of communication within the family affects the romantic relationships of single Baby Boomer parents. Results indicate that a poorly differentiated family member can create or amplify privacy boundaries, thus hampering communication within the family unit. Triangulation, the addition of any third person (in this case, the romantic partner of the Baby Boomer parent) to a two-person relationship (parent and child), can potentially affect the original relationship. Most interviewees indicated that they had open communication with their adult children, but they failed to notice that they were not discussing the parent's romantic relationship. Most of them also stated that their children's opinions about their partners would be noted, but not acted upon. These findings suggest that communication in the family should be carefully monitored when triangulating new persons into relationships.