The video game industry makes more than $10 billion a year in the United States alone. It is a young and booming medium. Growing alongside the video game business is the video game media, a niche form of journalism comprised mostly of gaming websites and a few reporters in traditional media. This thesis examines the young gaming news industry through in-depth interviews conducted with six journalists from various news outlets. The research focused on two things: if game journalists followed the same norms and routines as news journalists and if game companies were able to influence what game journalists wrote through public relations efforts. To determine what standards game journalists followed, the researcher asked the participants about each of the journalistic norm and routines. The norms of journalism are news value, objectivity, balance and fairness, professionalism, watchdog role, enduring values, style and format, scoop, and professional cooperation. To find out about outside influence affecting the work of the journalists, the researcher asked participants questions about their interaction with PR workers, how they perceived themselves being influence, and how they perceived other being influenced. The researcher found that video game journalists followed the norms and routines of news journalism and that game journalists are perceived themselves to be free from the influence of video game companies.

In this study, I explore four events to learn the embedded instructions of selfhood performatives in each case and how these performatives code public and private space and experience. The selected events offer a different and explicit example of private and public modes of authority and access e.g., in the public museum experience of an exhibit by photographer Taryn Simon, in the gift of a ticket to Burning Man, womyn only at MichFest, and insider exclusivity at Roden Crater. While each event offered a different understanding of selfhood as it applied to the participant, each confirmed a selfhood performative in play through its structure, methodology, and dependence on participation. Calling on Louis Althussers theories of subjectivity and ideology to approach a definition for selfhood performative, ultimately I argue for a Bakhtinian use of the term. Bakhtin relies on an expansive definition where selfhood is not a particular voice within, but a particular way of combining many voices within (Morson and Emerson 221). This particular way can be understood as a conscious compositional approach to selfhood served by the performance research practice of mystory developed by Gregory Ulmer. The mystory attempts to record and articulate the relationships of the composer and her interdependent institutional and personal subjectivities through the application of the relay. Throughout the study, I make use of a literal and figurative relay between the events, composing, collecting, and documenting associations while conducting my research and drawing out the patterns and poetics therein. The purpose of the study is to show connections between selfhood performatives and commodification, and to find regularities, ironies, and pleasures between the revealed performatives and codes. I also examine how these events enhance, challenge, or stray from post-structural theories that support the interdependence between selfhood and prevailing concepts of public and private. The study also supports the application of mystory theory, with its resistance to the reproductive elements of a model, as performance research that offers an update to Brechts notion of theater for an audience of the scientific age (Brecht 185). I attempt to locate todays audience as one situated in the tension of constructing selves between binary notions of private and public caused by the ramifications of scientific objectification and conceptual representation and reproduction. I argue the mystory is an approach to understanding the self constituted from within the interdependence of private and public relationships, and holds the unrepeatable self central to that approach.

The actions of emergency first responders directly affect the safety of our society, and their expertise relies upon the training they receive in preparation to react to emergency events. The use of training videos has become more prevalent in recent years as a method of teaching vital response skills to first responders. Most of these videos are made in the expository mode,with little or no attempt to introduce elements or conventions from other modes of non-fiction or fiction film genres. This project extends the range of the training video in order to explore the potential impact of using conventions from other film modes and genres on learning. The study shows that participants performed equally well on information retention tests taken directly following presentation of the films. Further research could examine the efficacy of these same video conventions in long-term information retention.

In 2003, writer and cultural critic Bill Wasik stunned the world with his newest experiment, the MOB Project, which flooded the streets of New York City with strange performances quickly labeled flash mobs by participants and local media. With the goal of understanding the communicative purpose and function of these new performance events, this project analyzes the flash mob through the lenses of performance studies, rhetorical studies, cultural studies, and continental philosophy. Drawing from genealogical research, rhetorical analyses, and critical philosophy, I argue the flash mob is a new form of performance serving as a locus of community, creativity, and politics in an age overrun by spectacle and surveillance. Moreover, whether created as complex communal in-jokes or a modern form of cultural critique, flash mobs act as elaborate pranks played out within the quasi-public realm of the capitalist city, exposing its heretofore unrealized methods of operation. Through a critical application of the theories of philosophers Michel de Certeau, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, I analyze the ability of Bill Wasiks flash mobs to highlight the dominant strategies of surveillance, standardization, and structure operating within the capitalist system. In so doing, I explore the tactical nature of the flash mob as a performance event.

Sports fandom research often states sports fans know and understand facts surrounding various sports, teams, leagues, and players. College sports literature argues that media involvement increases popularity and revenues, and as a result, competition, controversy, and complexity. The Elaboration Likelihood Model posits that when involvement in a subject is high, so too is motivation and ability to comprehend, and as a result, cognition increases. Given this, results show that sports fandom acts similarly to issue involvement, leading to increased sports-media consumption. Together, both fandom and consumption lead to increased knowledge of facts surrounding college sports. Results imply that general interest in sports leads to knowledge acquisition of facts related to college sports, independent of a preference for college sports. Due to the pervasiveness of college sports in sports-media, those who value sports and attend to sports-media as a result, come to learn about college sports through mere exposure. Results speak to the popularity of college sports and indicate that sports fans remain aware of characteristics unique to college sports and accompanying discussion that takes place within sports-media. Results, however, also indicate that college sports-media consumption is niche-specific, as individuals who placed the most value in college sports scored the highest, signifying that selective exposure to college sports leads to heightened knowledge. Thus, results imply that media do provide incisive information about the complex nature of college sports and fandom does influence behaviors and reinforces preferences. Individuals ultimately control the information they receive, selectively attending to content that coincides with their preferences while avoiding exposure to that which does not. Sports remain another way for individuals to reinforce niche preferences and ultimately learn.

Nearly 27 million people in North America played fantasy sports in 2009. This quantitative study examined how a persons level of participation in fantasy football affects team identification, team loyalty, fandom of the National Football League (NFL), and consumer behavior. I also looked at whether fantasy football participants prefer a win by their fantasy team or their favorite team. An online survey was conducted using a snowball sample. I found higher participation levels result in higher team identification, higher team loyalty, and higher fandom, where fandom of the NFL is higher than team identification. Higher levels of participation also led to more time spent watching NFL games as well as more time spent online researching and updating their fantasy football team. I also found that over 41% of fantasy football participants prefer a win by their fantasy team, instead of their favorite team. A win preference of fantasy team resulted in lower team identification and team loyalty, which could have major implications on ticket sales, team merchandise sales, and sponsorship sales.

As baby boomers age and the hospice industry grows to meet the demands for care, it is important that these organizations reach their consumers in sensitive and responsible ways. Building caring and mutually beneficial relationships with these consumers is important. Social media can give these organizations the platforms to build and maintain these relationships, but most of the hospice organizations in this qualitative study did not make good use of the opportunities online to relate to their publics. Using public relationships and relationship management measurements, this study monitored the online activity of seven hospice organizations. In general, these organizations under used all available online media. Two hospice organizations, Alive Hospice and Vitas Hospice, most appropriately used the media to interact with their publics online.

At some point in its history every organization will face a crisis situation. How an organization responds to a crisis incident decides its survival. As Internet technology flourishes, public relations practitioners are provided with additional tools to manage crisis situations. This study investigates the role that emerging social media components play in the field of crisis management. It presents a best practice approach to using new technology in times of emergency. A qualitative study of Louisiana public relations practitioners analyzes how and why social media is being integrated into crisis communication plans. Social media components are used to quickly communicate succinct messages and promote two-way symmetrical communication in times of crisis. Social medias role in the theories of issues management and image restoration is explored and incorporated. This study contributes to the literature on crisis communication and social media in regards to the field of public relations. Its findings can be useful to public relations theorists and practitioners in preparing for, handling, and recovering from a crisis. A best practice approach to using social media in a crisis, as concluded from the results, is presented at the end of the study.

Music plays an important role in the lives of individuals and often reflects important societal values. Music can also serve as an important reflection of the publics current opinion at a given point in time. Patriotism is a feeling of love for ones homeland and has often been the subject matter of music lyrics throughout history. In particular, country music has been perceived as being an especially patriotic genre of music. This thesis utilized quantitative and qualitative content analyses as the methods to examine the patriotic content of country music lyrics over the past decade. The sample was adapted from Billboards year-end Hot Country Songs chart. Nearly 40% of the sample conveyed patriotic themes. The majority of these songs expressed blind patriotism, or unquestioning support of America. The songs that exuded patriotism were categorized into one of four themes: songs about terrorist attacks, wartime and the armed forces; songs about the American dream; songs about current events in America; and songs celebrating American life. Additionally, the songs about terrorism, wartime, and the armed forces experienced a shift in tone throughout the decade. The beginning of the time period contained songs that were overtly pro-America and pro-war, the middle of the decade included songs that were much softer and focused on the soldiers lives rather than the actual war, and lastly, the end of the decade contained songs that told stories of wartime casualties that many families were experiencing first handedly. This study illustrates that country musics narrative and story-like lyrics have captured the patriotic feelings experienced by many people throughout the past decade. These songs collectively provided a snapshot of the opinions and values of society throughout the past decade.

This original study examines a new phenomenon in New Orleans tourism. Since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August 2005, droves of individuals and groups have come to New Orleans to help rebuild the city. Through conducting fifty interviews with these individuals from 2008-2009, the author traces the steps of volunteer tourists in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. This study investigates the experiences of volunteer tourists. Additionally, the author immersed herself with volunteer tourism groups to experience volunteering and the groups herself. Through careful inspection of original interviews with volunteer tourists, the author discovers how the volunteer tourists contribute to the city of New Orleans. Particularly, the author looks how stories explicate the experiences of volunteer tourists in New Orleans and how stories serve as souvenirs for the tourists. Additionally, the author shows how volunteer tourists are motivated through their altruism and how religion facilitates volunteer tourists altruistic motives. The next chapter discusses volunteer tourists decisions to work on vacation and how they understand their work in New Orleans as contributions to the city. In Layers of Place: Understanding New Orleans through the Perspectives of Volunteers, the author uncovers how volunteer tourists form a relationship with the city and its residents. Finally, the author looks at future possibilities for research.