Journalistic objectivity is the definitive canon of American mainstream journalism. Yet American journalists cannot agree on what it is, how it is measured, or on how it is done. The source of the confusion is the assumption that objectivity is an ideal, absolute, impossible, incomprehensible, value-free state of being, outside of all physical, cognitive, psychological, and social contexts, where reality is perceived without distortions of any kind. This assumption is logically invalid and historically inaccurate. Journalistic objectivity evolved from the American cultural premises of egalitarianism and positive scientific empiricism through four historical stages: Nonpartisanship, Neutrality, Focus-On-Facts, and Detachment. It is possible, comprehensible, and reflects specific values. Within the context of journalism, there is no absolute truth. A "truth" is an interpretation of reality that passes three tests-coherence, correspondence and pragmatism--within a specific context. There are as many potential "truths" as there are contexts from which to determine those truths. With so many potential truths, chaos is unavoidable unless an added dimension of truth is identified. That added dimension is "objectivity." "Objective" truths are interpretations of reality that pass the three tests of truth within the largest, most information-rich contexts. An "objective" journalist is one who gathers interpretations of reality (true or not) from the smaller contexts of news participants, and presents them faithfully and accurately to the larger context of news consumers, so that the most objective truth (the one that everyone in the large context can agree on) can be determined. In order to do this, an objective journalist has to be able to surf contexts. Therefore, "journalistic objectivity" is the ability to surf contexts, or Contextual Independence.

This thesis, through an experiment of 108 subjects, studies the relationship between the presence of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL or web address) in newspaper advertisements and perception of the product advertised as well as the likelihood to act on the advertisement. The findings reveal URLs do in fact have an effect on perception, although, as it is suggested in the theoretical framework, it does not necessarily induce the subjects to act on the ad. This study also finds there is a stronger inclination for perception change to take place versus the likelihood for consumers to either seek more information or make a purchase of the brand advertised. The results indicate brands are much less likely to be considered high-tech or cutting edge when a URL is included in a newspaper advertisement. This is a departure from earlier work that suggested the inclusion of such URLs would have a positive effect on brand value and/or the perception of the company sponsoring the advertisement. The findings also indicate advertisers may have to change the way they present the use of a companys Web technology. The magic bullet of positive associations with technology in the minds of consumers is losing its efficacy from decreased sensitivity to URL saturation in print ads.

Despite the pervasiveness of sports in American society and the ever-increasing role of sponsorship in the marketing mix, sponsorship marketing as a discipline currently lacks the rigorous academic study and theoretical foundations that exist in other marketing disciplines. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not sponsorship of New Orleans Zephyrs baseball is an effective way of increasing awareness of a product or brand. Using intermediate measures of recognition testing, fans at three New Orleans Zephyrs games were surveyed to test sponsor recognition. The study examined various elements of sponsorship marketing including the effects that gender, age, income, education and attendance frequency had on sponsorship recognition. Additionally, fans were asked if they consciously looked for sponsor messages at games and where they most noticed the messages. Lastly, respondents were asked if they would use a Zephyrs sponsor's product over a non-sponsor's product given the same price and quality. Results showed that all 12 sponsors tested were recognized. Major sponsors were recognized considerably more so than mid-level sponsors and minor sponsors. A little more than half of the respondents reported that they consciously looked for sponsor messages at games, and the majority of respondents noticed sponsor signage the most on outfield fence signs. More than 80% would choose a Zephyrs' sponsor over another brand given equal price and quality. Chi-square analysis provided significant differences concerning age, income, education and attendance frequency. Attendance frequency had the biggest impact. The more games a fan attended, the more likely they were to correctly identify most sponsors. As the practice of sponsorship marketing becomes an increasingly more important element of the marketing mix, this study seeks to contribute to the growing body of evidence that supports sponsorship as a means to increase awareness and enhance brand image.

Creating a favorable candidate image is one of the more difficult tasks a political consultant faces. Besides researching which issues their client will address, the consultant must analyze what attributes voters find most appealing in a candidate. Then, through a complex process, a candidate image is finally packaged and presented to the public. This thesis looks at the end result of the packaging process for a Mayoral candidate in East Baton Rouge parish. By examining the press coverage and campaign ads in a local election in a mid-size city, this study expands on previous second level agenda-setting research. Literature in this area has mostly focused on national and international campaigns where there is heavy and extended media coverage. In addition to examining the media effects, the electorate, media habits, and campaign interest are studied to see whether there are any predictors to attribute agenda-setting. Also, this analysis focuses on one candidate in a multi-candidate open primary. The multitude of candidates waging multimedia campaigns in a short time span may produce too much clutter and confusion for any real second level effects to take place, but this a worthwhile study as it could lead to future studies in multi-candidate presidential primaries. A public opinion survey was conducted over the last three days of the open primary in an effort to capture the strongest media effects. Over a seven-week period the media coverage and ads in this campaign were analyzed for content to determine whether there is a significant display of attributes.

This study reviews the newspaper coverage given during the 2001 Louisiana special legislative session. It was convened to raise additional money to fund teacher pay raises through legislation impacting the states gambling tax requirements. The seven markets include Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Monroe and Shreveport. The session was a last resort effort in response to persistent pleas from educators that had elevated into statewide teacher sickouts. In the fall of 2000 the public voted down new taxes to fund their pay raises. The governor charged his administration to come up with a plan to raise teachers pay without further taxing the citizens of the state. As a statewide issue this would suggest that the media coverage would be similar among the markets. On the other hand, the issue concerning taxes and riverboat/land-based casinos is limited to the cities catering to this entertainment. Harrahs casino in New Orleans and the floating boats are the specific targets of discussion. The researcher looked to see influences on reporting between the markets in the state with and without a local casino. Is it headline news? Are the topics of gambling and teacher pay linked in any fashion? The results derived from personal interviews, content analysis, and contextual information presented satisfaction that overall the session was covered in each market across the state. Contrary to what literature suggested, the local news made the front pages of the newspapers during this period. The gambling industry took precedence in reporting importance over the issue of teacher pay raise, but both were addressed throughout the sample of articles. Overall the coverage took on a positive tone regarding the session and especially towards the idea of granting teachers a pay raise, regardless of the source of the money. Although during interviews, reporters claimed it a primary responsibility to directly link gambling revenue to the issue of funding teachers pay for their readers, the results determined by content analysis indicated they used framing, a more indirect method to get the message to the public.

Performative pedagogy combines performance methods and theory with critical pedagogy in an effort to carry out the dual project of social critique and transformation. Performance offers an efficacious means of completing this project by privileging students historicized bodies, by implementing contingent classroom dialogue, and by exposing students to the value embedded in performance risk. In this study, I apply performative pedagogy to an English as a Second Language (ESL) context in response to its problematic pedagogical history. In particular, I argue that Augusto Boals Theatre of the Oppressed practice should be adapted as a method for doing performative ESL pedagogy. Boals practice enlists body-focused performance techniques to encourage participants to investigate their oppressions and rehearse solutions to them. I suggest that performative pedagogy is especially salient for adult students in a community-based ESL environment. Adult ESL students typically include a number of immigrants and refugees to the United States whose efforts to learn English have concrete influences on their respective lives. In this project, I constructed a performative pedagogy within two sites inside a community-based ESL school. First, I devised a performance workshop using Boals image theatre techniques to instigate analysis of students language-based obstacles. I eventually moved to a second site, an intermediate-advanced ESL course, to initiate an explicit performative pedagogy that divided each class meeting into a problem-solving performance section using Boals forum theatre and a structural language section using structural language lectures and grammar drills. My fieldwork suggests that forum theatre, in particular, provides ESL students a means of acquiring communicative competence, particularly in the sociolinguistic and referential senses. Forum theatres efficacy can be seen in its commitment to students lived experiences, its move to address students internally-based language obstacles, and its attention to students bodies as sites of critique and transformation. The value of using Theatre of the Oppressed in an ESL classroom concerns its capacity to particularize language instruction to the concrete areas of language use that students identify as most salient to their lives by creating unique performance spaces within which students assert their voices.

This thesis examined 22 Snapshots on the front-pages of USA Today from April 2001 to determine whether they adhered to the journalism standards of wholeness, accuracy, and credibility. Fourteen were found not whole, 8 were not accurate, and 3 were not credible according to the definitions of this thesis. The researcher compared the data in the Snapshots to the data obtained from the cited source and interviewed sources as well as a news assistant and graphics editor at USA Today. The researcher found four possible explanations for the poor quality of the Snapshots and examined the routines of Snapshot production, which she then compared to those of traditional journalists.

Few studies specifically explore public relations in private high schools. Statistics reveal that in Louisiana the number of nonpublic high school students continues to increase, therefore the competition among private schools for students increases as well as the demand to improve the private schools. These private schools need public relations to establish mutually beneficial relationships with strategic publics to attract students and to raise money to educate the students. This thesis is a case study of private school public relations programs at three Louisiana high schools. The theoretical basis for this thesis centered on the research of James Grunig. To determine the most effective way for schools to communicate with key publics, the researcher explored two questions. The first research question studied the organizational hierarchy of private schools, especially as it relates to the public relations department. Grunig argued that the age, size, complexity and centralization of an organization affected the public relations department. In other words, as organizations aged and grew in size and complexity, public relations would become an integral part of the organizational hierarchy. The second research question examined the public relations models that private schools use, based on Grunigs public relations modelspress agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical and two-way symmetrical and later Kellys adaptation of those models to fund raising. The data supported Grunigs theory that the age, size, complexity and centralization of an organization affect the public relations department. Two of the schools with over 100 years of history, placed a much greater emphasis on public relations than the school with less than 25 years as an institution. For the second question, the research revealed that all three schools use a combination of public relations and fund raising models. However, the most successful school in terms of attracting the best students and raising the most money used Grunigs mixed-motive model, a combination of the two-way symmetrical and asymmetrical models.

The current study seeks to explore the communication in successful career-induced long distance marriages. Elements examined are relational dialectics, relationship satisfaction, communication satisfaction, feelings of (mis)understanding, couple types, relationship sustenance, imagined interactions, and social support. The current study has three primary contributions: 1) the quantitative exploration of a communication in a growing marital framework, 2) the successful quantification of dialectics, and 3) the overall support for studying long distance marriages. The current study reports data collected from 92 individuals in non-military career-induced long distance marriages. All participants completed an 18-page questionnaire consisting of quantitative measures for the variables listed above, followed by four open-ended questions designed to elicit respondents feelings about the living-apart experience. Findings reflect four primary variables: relationship sustenance, feelings of understanding/misunderstanding, communication satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction. Shared tasks as a relationship sustenance strategy successfully predicted feelings of connection, whereas the shared networks sustenance strategy successfully predicted feelings of inclusion and revelation. Feelings of understanding/misunderstanding were significantly related to relationship satisfaction. Seclusion and autonomy-connection were also significantly related to relationship satisfaction, when also considering the frequency of visits during the separation. Communication satisfaction was significantly related to feelings of understanding/misunderstanding, while also significantly related to openness and closedness. Feelings of understanding/misunderstanding were significantly related to openness, closedness, and pre-separation marital length. In addition, relationship sustenance was successfully predicted by feelings of understanding/misunderstanding. These results indicate success of the dialectic measurement beyond reliability. These findings indicate that dialectics do play a role in the relationship satisfaction, communication satisfaction, and feelings of understanding of long distance married couples. Furthermore, the feelings of understanding/misunderstanding scale performed well both as a predictor and outcome variable, indicating a potentially important communication-related variable at work in long distance marriages. Finally, sustenance strategies at work in long distance marriages are significantly related to dialectics and feelings of understanding/misunderstanding. These findings offer a more complete and potentially predictive view of long distance marriages than was previously available.

Imagined interactions (IIs) are a type of social cognition and mental imagery whereby actors imagine an interaction with others for the purposes of planning. Within actual encounters, verbal fluency is a characteristic that contributes to the speaker's credibility. The planning that takes place through imagined dialogues can help a speaker overcome disfluency found in speech. This study shows that improvements in speaking style are also dependent upon the trait of communication apprehension that an individual experiences. Visualization can decrease apprehension levels, thus producing higher verbal fluency. Results from this study indicate planning's influence in the reduction of silent pauses but not vocalized pauses. Finally, the complexity of one's imagined dialogue has been found to play a role in an increase of verbal fluency.