This study examined the role character complexity plays in racial attitudes of television viewers. Previous research suggests that stereotypes and counter-stereotypes play vastly different roles in how people process information. Stereotypes act as automatic cues that call up pre-made judgments upon exposure to them. Meanwhile, counter-stereotypes actually work on a conscious processing level, forcing viewers to think more deeply about individuals when presented with them, skipping the automatic recall mechanism all together. By layering counter-stereotypes and stereotypes together in the same stimulus, this study examined whether the existence of there would be an appreciable difference between viewers exposed to solely stereotypes or both using both implicit and explicit measures. To investigate the relationships between character complexity and racial attitudes, this study used a 2 x 2 factorial experimental design featuring 99 students and the data was analyzed using factorial ANOVAs. In addition to the character complexity variable, an additional exposure variable measured differences between single or repeated exposures of the stimulus videos. This experiment used an Implicit Association Test, a Positive Attitudes Towards Blacks scale and a Black Stereotypes scale to measure racial attitudes. Findings show there was no difference in positive, negative or implicit attitudes between the two complexity conditions. And furthermore, there was also no demonstrated difference between the single- and repeated-exposure conditions.

Since its etymological beginnings, the meanings and usages of nostalgia have shifted markedly. In the shifting, nostalgias associations with the body and with the concept of home has diminished. This study of African American nostalgia for Africa uses genealogical inquiry, personal and autoethnographic narrative, and performance theories and practices to reinvigorate the relations between body, memory, aesthetics, past, and home. Attending to operations of time and space, I theorize the aforementioned relations in order to build a theory of critical nostalgia. Following Debbora Battaglia, I argue and illustrate that nostalgia is an act realized in performance, and I develop my theory of critical nostalgia by investigating three primary sites of memory: two African American genealogy websites, Elmina Castle, a slave castle located on Ghanas West coast, and my own staged theatre production Copious Notes: A Nostalgia Tale. Informed by Michel Foucaults method of critical genealogy and Joseph Roachs genealogies of performance, I offer critical nostalgia as a method of scholarly inquiry, as an active practice of personal and cultural memory, as a tool for representing memories of past-homes, and as a compositional aesthetic. In the study, I interrogate the history of nostalgia and its use for scholars as a critical category. Theorizing the positionality of the corporeal black body within nostalgic appeals of home, homeland and community, I attend to the relations between origin, roots, and identity. Further, I explore the performative possibilities of nostalgia in relation to affective bodily experience and in relation to narratives of trauma. Finally, I illustrate the utility of critical nostalgia for creating aesthetic performances sensitive to time and space, and I synthesize the major tenants of critical nostalgia for use in performance praxis.

A study of public information officers (PIOs) in three states and the journalists that cover state government finds five primary factors that shape the working relationships between both groups. Institutional pressures on both PIOs and journalists impact the ability of both parties to meet the needs of the other party on a daily basis. High levels of centralization in state government communication limit the ability of PIOs to meet the needs of journalists, fostering journalists antagonism and a more combative working relationship. The economic decline of journalism is creating a dichotomous situation where PIOs can help journalists manage increasing demands on shrinking deadlines, or they can take advantage of growing limitations on journalists and abuse the relationships. Growing use of social and digital media are providing opportunities to help journalists be more efficient in performing daily tasks, but some journalists perceive of PIOs use of these tools as a source of competition for public attention. Straightforward, ethical practices by both parties that are grounded in candor help build trust over time and strengthen working relationships. These findings provide the basis for a new model for state government media relations that helps PIOs and journalists negotiate these factors to meet their shared responsibilities in co-creating an enlightened citizenry.

As one of the ways to persuade young people effectively, several scholars have indicated that using a tailored message that is consistent with individuals concerns and interests can influence their attitude and behavioral changes. Among diverse tactics to construct tailored health-messages, this research especially paid attention to individuals motivational goals (i.e., regulatory focus) that make them more inclined to a certain outcome. While promotion-oriented individuals primarily focus on how to achieve a desired ending, prevention-oriented individuals mainly focus on avoiding undesirable outcomes (Higgins, 1997; Higgins et al., 2001). Although numerous studies support the positive effects of the congruency between regulatory focus and message frame on persuasion, the researcher was concerned with the limited discussion about the effects of some message attributes (i.e., fear appeals) in tailored health-related Public Service Announcements (PSAs). In particular, a large number of health campaigns provide information in the context of highly emotive graphic images and text; however, the stimulus used in previous studies did not consider such factors possible moderating effects. In the context of an anti-binge drinking health campaign, the researcher therefore focused on how the level of fear in tailored messages influences college students perceptions of the message, their message processing, and their attitudes and behavioral changes. Using a 2 (regulatory focus: promotion vs. prevention) X 2 (message framing: gain vs. loss) X 2 (level of fear appeals: low vs. high) experimental design, the researcher found that messages that are consistent with individuals interests are more persuasive. When the tailored message contained a low fear appeal, more fluent message processing and greater perceptions of message relevance occurred, which in turn impacted persuasion. However, the findings indicate that message effectiveness should be discussed cautiously because the effectiveness of tailored messages is reduced when combined with a high fear appeal. Overall, this study advances our understanding of how a tailored messages attributes influence individuals message processing and persuasion. The findings have practical and theoretical implications for future studies on the use of emotional appeals in persuasive advertising.

This study examines how ghosts perform and are performed in southern Louisiana, particularly in the eclectic Baton Rouge enclave of Spanish Town and at The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville. Although The Myrtles, considered one of the most haunted locations in the United States, served as the genesis for this project, I explore the continuities and discontinuities of the histories and historicities of these two distinct places and my journeys between them over a five year period. Using critical ethnography as a grounding framework, the study draws from literature in tourism studies, performance studies, and other related areas of research, to illustrate how these sites figure histories that are simultaneously informed and troubled by ghostly matters. The study is structured as a performative journey. Chapter One establishes an itinerary, explaining the theory and methodological tools employed in the study. Chapter Two explores the performance of tourism and the ways in which it is inevitably bound up in increasingly complicated notions of home. As the beginning of the journey, it contextualizes the places that anchor the study. Chapter Three revisits Highway 61 and utilizes this liminal space to examine elided histories that will serve as a context and provide insight into the primary ghost at the heart of this study, Chloe, as well as the other ghosts she brings with her. Chapter Four provides a thick description of the grounds of The Myrtles and uses the categories of touristic performance to examine how tourists navigate the spaces prior to taking a tour. Chapter Five provides the reader with a tour of the house. Performed by three different guides, this tour illustrates how the guides function as mediums between ghosts and guests on the tour. In Chapter Six, I situate this journey in relation to how other scholars employ haunting and hauntology as a theoretical perspective and methodological tool before heading off in another haunted direction that explores implications for future research.

The questions of parents are never fully answered due to the plethora of factors involved in raising children. However, a different angle of research has uncovered some new techniques that provide renewed hope for the longevity of parental impact. Many people understand that parents—and people in general—use and are daily impacted by persuasion. This research shows that if parents can more completely understand positive persuasive tactics, their values can potentially follow children from the bubble of the home to their adulthood. An important component of this parental persuasion is the use of inoculation techniques to help children not only live by but also understand and Appreciate the moral code given to them by their parents. The qualitative interview process for this unique research project produced results that verified the need for further study on the use of persuasion and inoculation in parenting situations. It also unearthed some surprising results regarding the understanding of the parental persuasive influence from the parent and student perspective. Although only a beginning to the research needing to be done on the subject, this thesis sheds light on the validity and importance of understanding inoculation in the context of parenting.

Floyd Collins, a Kentucky caver who suffered a lengthy entrapment and eventual death inside Sand Cave in 1925, has had his story told repeatedly and in numerous forms. Although the countless genres (and their historical accuracy) vary, they are basically retellings of the same story—a story filled with drama, suspense, and heroics. Because of these characteristics, the rhetoric of the Floyd Collins ordeal lent itself to examination using Bormann's (1972) fantasy theme method. By using a fantasy theme analysis to explore the saga, I advanced beyond the retellings and gained a greater understanding of why seventy-seven years after he died alone in a Kentucky cave, Floyd Collins' story survives. Specifically, this researcher identified and examined dominant rhetorical visions and communities that emerged from the tragedy and how these influenced the story's perpetuation and continued audience appeal. The method for this study consisted of collecting and analyzing rhetoric produced both during and after Collins' entrapment to reconstruct rhetorical visions. Four dominant rhetorical visions of Floyd Collins were explored: Collins as a tragic hero, Collins as a victim of greed, Collins as a devoted suitor, and Collins as an uneducated hillbilly.

An institution such as broadcasting affects and is affected by the society, which encompasses the viewers and listeners it serves. The increase in crime and violence and the fear of crime may actually help explain the popularity of TV violence. Media violence has been a topic of popular interest right from the fifties, when television was still being applauded as one more of those human marvels. Therefore, for my study, I will concentrate on television, a medium that involves both the visual and hearing senses and to which young people are particularly drawn. The sample for this study involved five schools in Nashville, Tennessee. A random sample of 210 children in the age group of 11 to 16 years were asked to answer a questionnaire designed to determine the effect of television violence on young minds. The study is an introspective one, and the questions required the young people to 'look into themselves' and speculate on why they do what they do. The study is not a laboratory analysis that involves extensive statistical methods. Rather, it is a self-report study asking for subjective introspective guesses that will help answer the research question of whether the sample accepts or denies being affected by television violence. In addition to media violence, other factors to be considered are peer pressure, self-validation, self-identification and initiation into a group. These factors that affect human behavior have been selected as independent variables in my study on the effect of TV violence on young minds The analysis of responses will follow a "Grounded Theory" approach, which is a general methodology for developing theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed. The theory states that the hypothesis to be developed can evolve during actual research or existing schemes can be elaborated and modified as incoming data are played against them. I will elaborate on and modify the Social Learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura in the 60's. His theory is based on research that proves that children learn and reproduce television content under circumstances they believe are appropriate in which to reproduce the content as they have seen it. The Grounded Theory approach also suggests that the grounded theorists can utilize qualitative as well as quantitative techniques of analysis. Some of the close-ended questions will be illustrated by pie charts, and the report of some questions will include percentage tables where the percentage differences are significant. The importance of this study seems obvious since, first, there are very few studies done at such grassroots levels on the impact of TV violence. In fact, even at the most urban and elite levels, there are very few studies made for the general readership. Here, then, is a beginning in a small but truthful way to fill the void. Second, the present study can add to already existing literature and aid future research on this topic. Future studies on media violence are necessary, due in part to the everchanging human mind and to the change in media content itself. Third, the researcher can point towards certain areas that can be undertaken for indepth study by others. Fourth, the results could reveal interesting facts for both viewers and local television stations and, of course, college students in Broadcasting and Communication curricula. Finally, since the study is an introspective, self-report trying to present the beliefs, attitudes and the behavior of the individual as he/she perceives them, we can find out whether there is a selffulfilling psychology at work which, in turn, sheds light on some interesting facts about human mental processes in relation to television violence.

As international trade between China and the United States has increased markedly in recent years, negotiation behavior between Chinese and Americans has become a timely issue. Most research conducted in this area discusses the fundamental cultural differences between East and West, as well as the difficulties Westerners have in negotiating with the Chinese. Little was written on the actual negotiation behavior itself. This paper is focused on the negotiation behavior between Chinese and American business people. Following a review of relevant research, the author found that both Confucian philosophy and Taoistic philosophy continue to provide the foundations of Chinese cultural traditions and values, which influence Chinese perceptions and approaches to conflict resolution and thus affect Chinese negotiation behavior. Cultural values discussed include harmony, collectivism, conformity, holism-contextualism, time, face, shame, reciprocity, high context, friendship, and Guanxi. The author suggests that traditional Chinese cultural values influence Chinese people to be less openly assertive and emotional in conflict situations, which consequently lead Chinese negotiators to the adoption of high compromising and avoiding behaviors and a relatively low preference for competing and assertive postures in negotiations. Based on the cultural values and Chinese conflict preferences, the author offers recommendations for preparing, conducting, and concluding negotiations with Chinese people.

In 1972, Branzburg v. Hayes required the Supreme Court to consider whether the First Amendment to the United States Constitution conferred on journalists a right to quash grand jury subpoenas issued by the government. The Court held in a five-to-four opinion that it did not. Yet, in 2011, a federal district judge found that James Risen, a New York Times reporter, had a First Amendment reporters privilege that protected him from having to reveal his source for a book chapter about a secretive CIA operation. This judge is not alone in finding such a privilege in spite of Branzburg; indeed, many judges have come to the same conclusion. This thesis, through an analysis of post-Branzburg cases at the federal courts of appeals level, attempts to map the current landscape. It finds that Branzburg jurisprudence is in tatters, with some courts of appeals finding a reporters privilege and others not. It further finds that the courts that do find a privilege fail to weigh the First Amendment interests in each case, opting instead for sweeping but vacuous pronouncements of the benefits of the First Amendment. Taking this landscape under consideration, this thesis suggests that Branzburg is the problem not the solution and offers a way for courts to escape from under Branzburgs thumb by recognizing that subsequent case law has implicitly dismissed the presumption on which Branzburg is based. It further extrapolates from this subsequent case law the principle that the First Amendment is implicated when the government or a private party acts adversely to a speaker because of his speech. Having recognized that the First Amendment is implicated by subpoenas against journalists, it then argues that the only way to account for all of the interests involved is to identify and appraise the value of the First Amendment interests in light of First Amendment theory and weigh those interests against the countervailing interests. Finally, it suggests how this approach informs the Risen case.