This thesis reports the results of a study designed to investigate the influence of exposure to televised medical dramas on perceptions of medical miracles. Four hundred and eighty-one college students participated in a survey in which they responded to different questions about their medical drama viewership and their different beliefs with regard to medical miracles. Results found that heavy medical drama viewers perceived belief in medical miracles to be less normal than non-viewers. Similarly, heavy viewers perceived medical miracles to occur less often than non-viewers. Interestingly, heavy viewers perceived medical dramas to be less credible than non-viewers. In addition, this study found that personal experience with medical miracles affected responses across all three measured viewership levels. The study concludes that, when compared to no exposure to medical dramas, heavy exposure has the potential for creating a more realistic view of medical miracles. Future research should continue to study genre-specific cultivation effects with regard to health perceptions.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / South African adolescents are engaging in sexual activities at an early age and with numerous sexual partners. Various factors such as adolescent physiology, identity development, peer influences and parent-child relationship, play a contributory role in this aspect. However, one of the less explored factors is the role of exposure to information and communication technologies containing sexual content, such as television, internet, music videos and cell phones. Adolescents have been shown to be heavy consumers of these devices. The study aimed at exploring the extent with which sexual content from these digital devices influences adolescents’ sexual perceptions and sexual behaviours. Participants comprised of 18 Grade 10 and Grade 11 learners, between ages 14 to 16 years, conveniently selected from one of the high schools in the Cape Peninsula. Two focus groups were conducted with an equal distribution of males and females in each group. Thematic analysis was utilized to describe participants’ experiences as reported in the text. Results indicated that participants regard ICT as influencing sexual attitudes and behaviour. More specifically, they believed ICT contributes greatly to early sexual initiation. Whilst some participants suggested that ICT encourages them to have many sexual partners with a “certain” physical image, some participants regarded this as irrelevant, viewing it as an individual’s choice. It was also found that participants viewed ICT’s unsafe sexual practices as not impacting in their use of contraceptives, hence they would not imitate such behaviour. Moreover, some participants viewed ICT as impacting on the manner in which they express themselves sexually, whilst others regarded this as untrue since they decide which sexual activities to engage in. The study addressed paucity of information regarding ICT and adolescent sexuality. To be more specific, it is recommended that future investigations should focus on a particular technology such as cell phones and the internet. Research should also focus on a specific domain regarding adolescent sexual attitudes, for example attitudes towards sexual initiation or the use of contraceptives.

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More research is needed to fully understand the way in which parents, particularly fathers, are portrayed in family films and the effects those portrayals might have. Viewers, particularly parents, need to understand how the material their children view presents reality and how it may shape their children's perspectives of the real world, particularly where the family unit and parenting role are concerned. By exploring these portrayals through the lens of Cultivation Theory, this study sought to answer this overarching question: How are fathers portrayed in family films as opposed to television? This quantitative study explores the top twenty films from the 1980s, the 1990s and the decade spanning 2004-2014 in order to ascertain this. Families within those films, particularly parents and most specifically fathers, are the primary subjects of study. Observations were made through content analysis. The findings show that fathers are portrayed more positively in family films than they are on television. The data suggest that the differences between fathers and mothers in film are not so marked and sexist as they are in television shows, and that fathers may exert a stronger and more positive role in film families than they do in television families. This study begins to establish film as a genre to further be explored as a medium for family relations studies as television has been. Film is a powerful media tool in its own right and should further be studied with regard to portrayal of families in its material.

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La présente thèse s'intéresse à la couverture de l'information lors de crises, soit des événements brutaux et inattendus, attribuables « à une situation très difficile, voire dangereuse, pour un individu, une organisation, un corps social, un système économique ou un pays » . Elle a pour objectif de définir en quoi les pratiques journalistiques et le contenu des médias diffèrent du quotidien à la situation de crise. L'hypothèse de départ, sur laquelle elle s'appuie, est qu'en situation de crise, les pratiques journalistiques seront affectées par l'émotivité, l'impulsion du moment et la recherche d'exclusivité. S'agissant du contenu, il y aura saturation de certains thèmes liés à la crise, alors que plusieurs sujets abordés quotidiennement seront évacués et que le risque d'erreurs ou d'inexactitudes sera exacerbé. Ce travail doctoral emprunte la voie de la comparaison entre la France et le Québec, deux pays présentant une structure de chaînes télévisées similaire, laquelle permet d'établir des bases de comparaison valables. Pour répondre au questionnement initial, une triple stratégie méthodologique a été adoptée. Cette stratégie inclut des entretiens semi-directifs sous forme d'histoire de vie professionnelle, réalisés avec différents acteurs de l'information. Suivent les résultats d'une analyse quantitative du contenu des journaux télévisés qui s'appuie sur un corpus composé de reportages présentés lors de trois types de crises survenues en France et au Québec, soit des crises « sociales », des crises « naturelles » et des crises « mixtes ». Enfin, une analyse de contenu des 1 676 décisions issues de la jurisprudence du Conseil de presse du Québec a été effectuée. / This thesis focuses on the news coverage during abrupt and unexpected events, due to "a very difficult situation, even dangerous, for an individual, an organization, a social body, an economic system or a country" and aims to determine in what journalistic practices and media contents in a crisis situation differ from the ordinary daily practices. The assumption on which this thesis rests is that in a crisis situation, journalistic practices will be affected by emotions, the spur of the moment and the search for exclusivity. Regarding content, there will be saturation of certain issues related to the crisis, while many daily topics will be removed and the risk of errors or inaccuracies will be exacerbated. This doctoral work follows the path of a comparison between France and Quebec, as both countries present a similar language and TV channel structure, which allows us to establish valid comparison bases. To answer the question of the research, a triple methodological strategy was adopted. First are presented the results of semi-structured interviews we made, in the form of professional life stories, with different actors from the information sector. These are followed by the results of a quantitative content analysis of television news which is based on a corpus formed of reports presented during three types of crises in France and in Quebec: "social" crisis, "natural" crises and "mixed" crises. Finally, a content analysis of 1,676 decisions from the jurisprudence of the Quebec Press Council was conducted.

Stereotypes play a vital role in the perception of gender roles in American society. This concept is illustrated through low representation of female leadership in the U.S. Women are overrepresented in roles that are communal, which causes backlash when they display agentic traits (Arnold & Loughlin, 2019). Olivia Pope, the main character in the television series Scandal, was a leader who displayed an agentic leadership style and was revered for doing so. Agentic leadership traits are competitiveness, independence, and assertiveness (Arnold & Loughlin, 2019). This study analyzes how Olivia Pope was framed and the potential impact of those frames. Using frame analysis, Olivia Pope’s character in each episode of the television series Scandalwas analyzed. The analysis revealed that Olivia Pope’s character was framed using themes such as power, reverence, fixer, conflicted, sexualized and dysfunctional family dynamics. The framing of a character as rare as Olivia Pope is significant. Though Olivia Pope’s character is based on the life of an African-American woman who owned her own crisis management firm, many viewers would have never known this type of woman existed without the development of this show. Oliva Pope is a complicated character whose role in American television is progressive and has the power to expand its viewers’ perception of leadership.

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Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec l'Institut d’études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence, École doctorale de Sciences Po, Programme doctoral en sciences de l’information et de la communication / La présente thèse s’intéresse à la couverture de l’information lors de crises, soit des événements brutaux et inattendus, attribuables « à une situation très difficile, voire dangereuse, pour un individu, une organisation, un corps social, un système économique ou un pays » . Elle a pour objectif de définir en quoi les pratiques journalistiques et le contenu des médias diffèrent du quotidien à la situation de crise. L’hypothèse de départ, sur laquelle elle s’appuie, est qu’en situation de crise, les pratiques journalistiques seront affectées par l’émotivité, l’impulsion du moment et la recherche d’exclusivité. S’agissant du contenu, il y aura saturation de certains thèmes liés à la crise, alors que plusieurs sujets abordés quotidiennement seront évacués et que le risque d’erreurs ou d’inexactitudes sera exacerbé. Ce travail doctoral emprunte la voie de la comparaison entre la France et le Québec, deux pays présentant une structure de chaînes télévisées similaire, laquelle permet d’établir des bases de comparaison valables. Pour répondre au questionnement initial, une triple stratégie méthodologique a été adoptée. Cette stratégie inclut d’abord des entretiens semi-directifs sous forme d’histoire de vie professionnelle, réalisés avec différents acteurs de l’information. Suivent les résultats d’une analyse quantitative du contenu des journaux télévisés qui s’appuie sur un corpus composé de reportages présentés lors de trois types de crises survenues en France et au Québec, soit des crises « sociales », des crises « naturelles » et des crises « mixtes ». Ces reportages ont été soumis à une grille d’analyse, issue du projet Television Around the World de George Gerbner, adaptée aux nouvelles télévisées. Enfin, une analyse de contenu des 1 676 décisions issues de la jurisprudence du Conseil de presse du Québec a été effectuée. Cette dernière examine en profondeur les plaintes relatives à des situations de crises déposées au tribunal d'honneur de la presse québécoise et revient sur les griefs invoqués et les décisions rendues. Ces diverses analyses démontrent qu’il existe une complexité relative à la définition et à la compréhension des crises qui pose de nombreux défis aux professionnels de la nouvelle. Néanmoins, ces derniers font régulièrement face à ce type de situations, puisqu’elles occupent une place primordiale au sein de la programmation médiatique. Les répondants que nous avons rencontrés se sont dits préoccupés par la rapidité avec laquelle ils doivent traiter l'information, par le manque d'outils à leur disposition pour le faire lors de crises et par l'accès aux sources d’information, lesquelles peuvent tenter d'influencer ou de fausser leur jugement et ainsi nuire à leur liberté journalistique. Dans les deux pays analysés, la couverture de crise est présentée d’une façon très autocentrée, alors que les éléments qui retiennent principalement l’attention des journalistes sont ceux liés à leur pays d’origine. Néanmoins, le choix des thématiques et l’angle de traitement présentent de grandes similarités d’un pays à l’autre, alors que les journalistes ont tendance à mettre de l’avant les mêmes sujets dans les situations que nous avons observées. Des pratiques très spécifiques, qui se distinguent du quotidien, se manifestent donc lorsque vient le moment d’aborder les crises dans les médias. En identifiant ces façons de faire, la présente thèse jette les bases d’une réflexion essentielle sur la place accordée aux crises en information et révèle un manque d’outils déontologiques essentiels au travail des journalistes ainsi qu’un manque de réflexion et de recul sur la place accordée à certains sujets dans l’actualité. / This thesis focuses on the news coverage during abrupt and unexpected events, due to "a very difficult situation, even dangerous, for an individual, an organization, a social body, an economic system or a country" and aims to determine in what ways journalistic practices and media contents in a crisis situation differ from ordinary daily practices. The assumption on which this thesis rests is that in a crisis situation, journalistic practices will be affected by emotions, the spur of the moment and the search for exclusivity. Regarding content, there will be saturation of certain issues related to the crisis, while many daily topics will be removed and the risk of errors or inaccuracies will be exacerbated. This doctoral work follows the path of a comparison between France and Quebec, as both countries share a language and similar TV channel structure, which allows us to establish valid comparison bases. To answer the question of the research, a triple methodological strategy was adopted and the results of these analyses are presented in subsequent chapters of the thesis. First are presented the results of semi-structured interviews we conducted, in the form of professional life stories, with different actors from the information sector. These are followed by the results of a quantitative content analysis of television news which is based on a corpus formed of reports presented during three types of crises in France and in Quebec: "social" crises, "natural" crises and "mixed" crises. These reports were submitted to the grid analysis from George Gerbner’s project "Television Around the World". Finally, a content analysis of 1,676 decisions from the jurisprudence of the Quebec Press Council was conducted. This analysis offered the opportunity to examine a certain amount of complaints relating to crisis situations, to observe the objections raised in these complaints and to analyze the different trends with respect to the complainants, the respondents and the decisions of the Quebec media self-regulatory body. The complexity of the definition and understanding of crises results from these various analyzes and poses many challenges to the news professionals who regularly face this type of situations, since they play a major role in media programming. In the two countries analyzed, crisis coverage is presented in a very self centric way, while the main elements that attract the attention of journalists are those related to their country of origin. Nevertheless, the choice of themes and the angle of treatment are quite similar from one country to another and journalists tend to focus on the same issues and to put forward the same type of elements in the situations we observed. There are therefore very clear practices that appear when it comes to address crises in the media. By identifying these, this thesis lays the foundations of a critical reflection on the place made to crises in the information world and reveals an insufficient number of ethical tools essential to the work of journalists as well as a lack of reflection and perspective on the emphasis given to some topics in the news.