Thesis (doctoral)--Friedrich-Alexanders-Universität Erlangen. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-148).

Thesis (M. S. W.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-138).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Manitoba, 1981. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online as part of: Our roots/Nos Racines.

This thesis brings together eighteenth-century attitudes to the abduction of women portrayed by the law, by newspapers, and in fiction. I focus attention on the interest these different forms of narrative share in scrutinizing women’s behaviour and argue that the abduction plot is more important than its status as a stock literary convention would imply. Rather, it is a pliant, complex, and nuanced motif that allows writers the space to explore the difficult and contradictory position of women and attitudes to sexual relations. This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part comprises two chapters that look at abduction from an historical perspective. The first chapter examines the legal context of abduction as a criminal act and the second chapter examines the social context of ‘abduction’ as a euphemism for a sexual adventure. This part includes preliminary analysis of abduction plots in Charlotte Smith’s Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle (1788) and Ann Radcliffe’s The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne: A Highland Story (1789). The second part comprises three chapters in which I read a range of novels for their abduction plots and scenes. Chapter three focusses on reviewing and on lesser known novels that are not widely read today. It examines the uneasy dialogue between novels and the way they were conveyed to readers. I argue that reviewing presents a discourse of aggression towards women. Chapter four considers abduction plots in domestic fiction focussing on a short story from Eliza Haywood’s The Female Spectator (1744-46), Samuel Richardson’s The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753-54), and Sarah Fielding’s The History of Ophelia (1760). Chapter five considers the gothic abduction plot in Frances Burney’s Camilla, or a Picture of Youth (1796), Charlotte Smith’s The Young Philosopher (1798) and Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest (1791). I take an historicist approach and underpin my analysis of fictional abduction plots with newspaper research that suggests ‘abduction’ had a meaning in social and cultural discourse that associated it with gossip and innuendo. This research demonstrates that newspapers played an important role in establishing the ambiguity of ‘abduction’ in the public consciousness. I argue that this journalistic discourse contributed to the suppression of abduction as a violent crime that endangered women. I suggest that the introduction of comprehensive reviewing created the space for a discourse of aggression to flourish. Many reviews are short, pithy comments criticising a novel as derivative, badly written, and immoral. I argue that a series of reviews appearing on a single page gives the impression that violence towards women is a normal everyday occurrence and abduction is a familiar hazard on the road to domestic felicity. I conclude that ‘abduction’ is a porous term in which disparate ideas – sexual aggression, violent crime, and euphemistic social commentary – are held in tension with each other. This tension enables a complex interpretation of what at first appears to be a simple narrative of violent male aggression and female culpability. The ambiguity this tension creates reveals the abduction plot as a versatile motif that challenges the social hierarchy and posits an alternative narrative for women.

香港回歸中國，對新聞工作者來說，是意識形態及權力的轉換，不少人擔心，新聞運作在兩種不同意識形態及權力互換下出現變化，新聞自由空間縮減。經歷2014年「雨傘運動」之後，具爭議性的報章報道屢有出現，報業傳媒的兩極化現象更為明顯，顯示香港報業出現範式變化。本文認為，布迪厄(Bourdieu)的場域理論，能分析回歸20年影響報業媒體的權力結構，以及新聞工作者、機構與權力結構的互動，以至新聞實踐，探討新聞場域和範式的變化。本文探究突發新聞及政治新聞兩個不同的新聞類型，透過新聞工作者的深入訪談，以及分析回歸後釋法事件報道及警方更換數碼通訊系統前後的突發新聞報道內容，根據布迪厄的場域理論框架，以及新聞範式的理論概念，研究兩個新聞類型個案在新聞範式的變化。研究發現，突發新聞在警方及消防更換數碼通訊系統後，新聞數量下降，記者的作業模式劇變，場域角色由主動變為被動，政治力量利用科技力量影響突發新聞運作，警方成了突發新聞消息最關鍵的守門人。然而，科技發展帶動網絡媒體急速發展，在「人人做記者」之下，又為突發新聞帶來消息來源。另一方面，本研究發現回歸後影響香港報業的二元中港權力慢慢趨向一元，中央政府影響力趨強，挾經濟和科技力量，向報業傳媒實施軟硬權力，推動報章立場改變，影響政治新聞報道。報館和新聞工作者面對外在力量的壓逼，不得已改變機構的編採策略和個人的新聞實踐，傾向政治正確的新聞邏輯。綜合突發新聞和政治新聞兩個個案，本研究發現，政治權力如同經濟權力一樣，可以主導其他力量，影響大權力場和新聞場域的結構。科技的角色多元，科技力量、場域和邏輯，會影響其他場域的邏輯和運作，對新聞場域有兩極性的影響。香港報業的新聞場域在外在力量結構轉變和後真相意識形態的影響之下，與其他力量場域高度重疊，場域的他律性強，自由空間收窄。在這樣的場域結構下，回歸後香港報業的新聞範式呈現轉變。

Current literature in the fields of political science and communication exhibit confusion over the existence and effect of corporate influence on a newspaper's daily transactions. Does newspaper ownership affect content? Previous research answers this question "yes," "no," and "maybe." I conduct a longitudinal, time series study across 1,366 newspapers and nearly 30 years to answer the question of whether newspaper ownership affects the papers' presidential campaign endorsements in election years. With demographics data and vote returns as well as newspaper ownership and endorsement information, this study looks at newspaper consolidation and the effect of ownership on endorsements. The results shed light on the current confusion. Changing ownership has a partisan effect on endorsements: Ownership change causes a newspaper to endorse the Republican presidential candidate but has no effect on a newspaper's likelihood of endorsing a Democratic candidate.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University