According to Gerbner's cultivation theory, misrepresentations in the media create false realities in the minds of society. To date, much research has been done on the impact of this phenomenon on women, minority races, and the homosexual community. Little consideration has been given, however, to geographic minorities such as Appalachians. This study attempts to identify the frequency and manner of representations of Appalachia in major metropolitan newspapers across the U.S. By conducting a framing analysis on a sample of 823 individual mentions of "Appalachia" in 2005, the author is able to illustrate interesting relationships between geographic proximity and the type of portrayal. Among these, mentions originating in Appalachia were much more likely to frame the region positively than those mentions published outside the region. Similarly, Appalachia and surrounding areas were most likely to report on Appalachia, with more than 75% of all mentions originating within 250 miles of the region.

There is a great deal of diet-specific processed foods on the market today. With so many options it can become difficult for consumers to decide what products to purchase. This situation is further intensified by the plethora of contradictory messages found in food advertising, especially in weight loss and dieting food advertising, but also seen in government nutrition campaigns and all over the internet on platforms like social media, blogs, and so forth. These messages can be confusing and frustrating for consumers as they try to decipher which foods they should eat to reach their health or weight loss goals. The purpose of this study was to determine if these contradictory messages extend to the advertising claims found on diet-specific food product packaging. A content analysis was performed on 400 keto and vegan products to uncover the most commonly used advertising claims and verify their accuracy based on the information provided on the nutrition label and ingredients list. An analysis of the health impacts of nutrient content and food additives based on FDA guidelines was also conducted. Results indicated that contradictory messages do extend to the advertising claims on keto and vegan food product packaging and the lack of healthy food options among these products should be a concern for consumers. This study highlights the importance of shoppers approaching food product advertising claims with skepticism until they can be verified.

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The Disney Princess Brand includes 11 Disney Princess films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Brave (2012). The goal of this campaign is for audiences to be entertained by the narratives while encouraging identification with the princesses in the films (Do Rozario, 2004; Orenstein, 2006). Scholars have suggested possible media effects of representations and messages depicted related to gender roles (England, Descartes, and Collier-Meek, 2011) and romantic relationships (Segrin and Nabi, 2002). No studies to date have examined the potential correlation between media effects of all 11 Disney Princess films and viewers' expectations regarding romantic relationships with a theoretical background in cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, wishful identification, and uses and gratification theory. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the relationship between potential media effects due to watching Disney Princess films and expectations of romantic relationships. An online cross-sectional survey was administered to female undergraduate students enrolled at Virginia Tech (N = 110). Bivariate correlation analyses were computed to measure the data. Results did not support hypotheses related to motivations for watching Disney Princess films, cultivated ideologies due to exposure of all films, and perceived similarity to princesses in relation to idealistic beliefs of romantic relationships. Wishful identification with the princesses was significantly correlated with participants' idealistic beliefs of romantic relationships. Possible implications are that participants in late adolescence (18 - 23 years of age) wish to be like the Disney princesses and to have similar romantic relationships that are represented in the films. / Master of Arts

Previous research shows that perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs are cultivated via media exposure. A content analysis of stereotypical traits in five Nollywood movies in a five-year span examines the prevalent portrayals of women in the Nigerian movie industry – Nollywood, and the effect of these portrayals on reinforcement of stereotypical norms and perpetuation of gender disparity. Cultivation and Objectification theories were the theoretical frameworks for this study. Findings revealed no significant change in the stereotypical portrayals of women in the past five years. From the movies analyzed, Nollywood movies appear to remain persistent in typically depicting women as unambitious domestic servants. Applying Fiske’s stereotype content model, this study found that women are typically depicted as warm and incompetent, but cold and competent when they compete for same resources as the dominant group. With such portrayals in Nollywood movies, women are further subdued and beliefs that normalize these norms are cultivated.

<p>The United States of America is one of the most powerful countries in the world and their broadcasting system has become a role model to the rest of the world. Since the US charge less for their media products in third world countries, it is cheaper even for poor countries to import American content than to purchase local products. The aim with our survey is to explore whether heavy consumers of American television programs in Kenya hold positive attitudes to the American lifestyle and experience feelings of relative deprivation as a result of this consumption. Comparisons are made between students in an urban and a rural area.</p><p>The theoretical framework for this study includes cultivation theory which investigates the effects of the values and behaviors of the television audience. It also includes relative deprivation, which is based on the assumption that people experience deprivation when they compare themselves with others – so called reference groups. In our case the reference group is the American lifestyle. A third theory used for this study is cultural imperialism which says that dominating, mainly western media corporations impose their cultural values on third world countries, as in this case, Kenya.</p><p>In this study we are using a quantitative survey based on questionnaires handed out to Kenyan students at two different universities, one in a rural and one in an urban part of Kenya.</p><p>Television is an important part of everyday life for Kenyan students and they consume more than we had predicted. We concluded that the respondents in our study generally have negative attitudes to their life and their country, but a more positive impression of life in the US. Relating these findings to the television consumption of the respondents, the students that watch American programs the most are students at the university in the urban area, and they are more positively disposed to Kenya, but more negative to the US, compared to the Egerton students in the rural area that generally do not favor American programs. These results do not support the theories chosen for this study. Based on our results, our conclusion is that the attitudes held by the USIU students do not originate from television consumption, but do most likely depend on other influences.</p>

The United States of America is one of the most powerful countries in the world and their broadcasting system has become a role model to the rest of the world. Since the US charge less for their media products in third world countries, it is cheaper even for poor countries to import American content than to purchase local products. The aim with our survey is to explore whether heavy consumers of American television programs in Kenya hold positive attitudes to the American lifestyle and experience feelings of relative deprivation as a result of this consumption. Comparisons are made between students in an urban and a rural area. The theoretical framework for this study includes cultivation theory which investigates the effects of the values and behaviors of the television audience. It also includes relative deprivation, which is based on the assumption that people experience deprivation when they compare themselves with others – so called reference groups. In our case the reference group is the American lifestyle. A third theory used for this study is cultural imperialism which says that dominating, mainly western media corporations impose their cultural values on third world countries, as in this case, Kenya. In this study we are using a quantitative survey based on questionnaires handed out to Kenyan students at two different universities, one in a rural and one in an urban part of Kenya. Television is an important part of everyday life for Kenyan students and they consume more than we had predicted. We concluded that the respondents in our study generally have negative attitudes to their life and their country, but a more positive impression of life in the US. Relating these findings to the television consumption of the respondents, the students that watch American programs the most are students at the university in the urban area, and they are more positively disposed to Kenya, but more negative to the US, compared to the Egerton students in the rural area that generally do not favor American programs. These results do not support the theories chosen for this study. Based on our results, our conclusion is that the attitudes held by the USIU students do not originate from television consumption, but do most likely depend on other influences.