AbstractTitle: Political Bias in Entertainment (Politisk partiskhet i underhållning)Number of pages: 38Author: Andreas GawellTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this research paper was to investigate political bias in TheDaily Show before the presidential election 2008.Material/Method: With a quantitative content analyze based on variables connected withtheory from investigating bias in news, I am looking at 19 episodes of The Daily Showstarting one month before the presidential election 2008.Main results: The results of this research indicated a liberal bias in The Daily Show favoringthe Democratic Party. Both parties was made fun of and joked about, but the Republican Partyand its candidates was a lot more frequently laughed at then its Democratic equivalent. Alsolooking at the issues that came up in the show you can see Republicans getting to talk aboutissues not on their own agenda more frequently than Democrats.Keywords: The Daily Show, political bias, presidential election 2008, Republican Party,Democratic Party

This thesis examines Senator John McCain’s concession address from the 2008 United States Presidential election campaign. McCain’s concession speech was significant because of his come-from-behind victory in the Republican primary, the favorable critical responses to his speech, and his response to the historic nature of a person of color winning the presidential election. This study is also significant because it contributes to the small body of literature that examines concession addresses. This study examined how well McCain’s concession speech demonstrated the qualities associated with the genre, if McCain’s concession functioned as a model speech, and whether McCain’s concession might signal an evolution of the genre. The method used to critique McCain’s concession was generic application, using a combined framework of Chesebro and Hamsher’s (1974) and Ritter and Howell’s (1974) characteristics of the concession genre. This method entailed applying the characteristics of the concession genre to McCain’s speech to determine if the artifact constitutes a strong example of the genre. The study found that McCain’s speech demonstrated qualities associated with the genre of concession speeches well, functioning as a model because he utilized rhetorical techniques that were uniquely successful for him, and that scholars and practitioners of should be flexible in their application of the genre constraints associated with concession speeches. / Department of Communication Studies

New Zealand’s 2008 general election, with its unprecedented focus on the “ethnic vote” and ethnic minority candidates with highest-ever party list rankings, proved compelling from a migrant engagement perspective. How do migrant communities achieve voice in their adopted country? And how does a now unmistakably multicultural nation address the political communication needs of an increasingly vocal, pro-active, and politically involved migrant population? This thesis examines the role of ethnic minority media in engaging migrant communities in the democratic process. In particular, it examines South Asian media in New Zealand and the extent to which they represented a vital public sphere for informing and engaging their wider migrant communities in public political debate during the 2008 election campaign. Applying qualitative and quantitative research approaches, this thesis elicits and analyses diverse perspectives of the extent to which local South Asian newspapers and radio current affairs programming represented an important complementary public sphere for informing and engaging migrant voters during the campaign. Ultimately, this study provides an alternative perspective on media coverage of the 2008 New Zealand general election, and insight into the role and influence of ethnic minority media within democratic discourse. As a contribution to the body of academic literature examining the media and minority political engagement, it is intended to provoke critical consideration of the communications needs facing new migrants in an increasingly multicultural New Zealand.

The Internet is rapidly becoming an important part of a presidential candidate's media strategy. Specifically, a candidate's website has distinct implications and uses in the early stages of a presidential campaign. Using an eclectic approach, this research examines the campaign websites of the candidates for the U.S. Presidency in 2008. By examining the websites using content analysis, analog criticism, media criticism, and scenario analysis emerging trends become apparent and conclusions on their further implications can be drawn. This research presents two major conclusions on the affects of campaign websites on the early stages of a presidential campaign. First, the design structure and features available on the Internet could be used to give the user a feeling of direct connection with the campaign, which in turn could motivate political involvement. Second, a candidate's new media strategy and usage must match with the overarching rhetorical style of the rest of the campaign. These two major concepts serve as starting points for further academic research and a greater understanding of our changing democratic system. / Department of Telecommunications

No description available.

The advent of the Internet has increased access to information and impacted many aspects of life, including politics. The present study utilized Pew Internet & American Life survey data from the November 2008 presidential election time period to investigate the degree to which political blog reading predicted online political discussion, online political participation, whether or not a person voted, and voting choice, over and above the predication that could be explained by demographic measures of age, education level, gender, income, marital status, race/ethnicity, and region. Ordinary least squares hierarchical regression revealed that political blog reading was positively and statistically significantly related to online political discussion and online political participation. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds of a political blog reader voting were 1.98 the odds of a nonreader voting, but vote choice was not predicted by reading political blogs. These results are interpreted within the uses and gratifications framework and the understanding that blogs add an interpersonal communication aspect to a mass medium. As more people use blogs and the nature of the blog-reading audience shifts, continuing to track and describe the blog audience with valid measures will be important for researchers and practitioners alike. Subsequent potential effects of political blog reading on engagement, discussion, and participation will be important to understand as these effects could impact the political landscape of this country and, therefore, the world.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this study, Janis Edwards and Carol Winkler’s method, based on Michael McGee’s ideograph, is applied to non-discursive forms in order to understand the extent to which these images can be understood as a representative form functioning ideographically. Artifacts for analysis include the 2008 Shepard Fairey Obama “PROGRESS” and “HOPE” images, related campaign graphics, and parodies, political and non-political, humorous and serious. Literature on visual rhetoric, the ideograph, and extensions of McGee’s ideograph to visual forms was reviewed. When the method was applied to the artifacts, the Obama “HOPE” image was found to be an example of a representative form. Additionally, the representative form was demonstrated to function ideographically in the parodied examples analyzed in this thesis. Opportunities for further study on the visual ideograph and additional artifacts were proposed.