<p> America&rsquo;s legacy media institutions, particularly print newspapers, experienced transformational change from 2005 through 2014. The Internet&rsquo;s rise as an advertising competitor, coupled with an historic economic downturn beginning in 2007, led to crippling financial hardship. In response, many newspapers slashed budgets, staff, and content. These trends raise lasting concerns about the vitality of American journalism. Previous research documents the industry&rsquo;s financial woes, explores implications for its future, and proposes reforms. This study contributes to the literature by examining how news content changed during this unique period. Specifically, it assesses how state government reporting by six U.S. publications&mdash;California&rsquo;s The Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times, Florida&rsquo;s Tallahassee Democrat and Tampa Bay Times, and Pennsylvania&rsquo;s The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Patriot-News&mdash;fared from 2005-14. A systematic content analysis of more than 4,000 articles measured two key indicators of journalistic strength over time: (1) the volume of in-depth news articles, and (2) the amount of investigative coverage. The research shows that across the six outlets, in-depth news pieces declined 30 percent from 2005-14, and investigative coverage dropped 17 percent. Half of the outlets experienced three or more consecutive years without any investigative coverage of state government. Below these topline trends, however, was a great deal of variation by outlet and year. These findings empirically support what media scholars and observers alike have suspected: The financial crises of the preceding decade diluted news content. More importantly, they underpin concerns that powerful actors are making critical choices on behalf of citizens with weaker media watchdogs holding them accountable.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3323073."

<p> This thesis examines the frames used by three news organizations to cover the rescindment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The rescindment of DACA was a pivotal transition period open to new immigration policy, and frames used in the news coverage of DACA are important as frames influence public opinion and possible future immigration policy. This study uses corpus linguistic methods and Van Gorp&rsquo;s inductive framing analysis to explore how a complex political decision like DACA rescindment is covered in condensed news stories on Twitter as well as in full-length news articles. The Executive Critique frame, which places blame on President Trump as the problem of DACA rescindment, is the most common frame of both full-length news articles and Tweeted news articles. The Public Resistance frame, showing opposition to DACA rescindment by members of the public, is used more often in Tweeted news articles than in full-length news articles likely because of the salient visuals accompanying Tweeted news stories. Because visuals play a role in framing, journalists should capitalize on the potential of visuals in Tweeted news stories and balance using Human Interest frames and political frames like the Executive Critique frame. Using visuals to show DACA as human issue that promotes common ground, rather than as a divisive political issue, could be more productive in advancing comprehensive immigration reform, which failed in the six-month window President Trump gave to phase-out the DACA program. </p><p>

<p> During the 2016 presidential election season, Senator Ted Cruz&rsquo;s use of social media to promote his campaign and build up a grassroots following was masterful. This case study explores Cruz&rsquo;s digital outreach efforts in the shadow of GOP rival Donald Trump&rsquo;s commanding use of traditional earned media. This case study views the Cruz campaign&rsquo;s digital outreach strategy through the lens of the Agenda Setting theory of communication, which seeks to explain the mass media&rsquo;s ability to influence what the important issues are to the public, and through the reverse agenda setting effect, meaning if the airtime is unavailable through traditional means, the opportunity to create their own media space is open to anyone that needs it, and their own agenda will be established for the digital audience.</p>

<p> For the past decade, the profession of journalism has been under intense pressure to adapt to changing business models, technology, and forms of communication. Likewise, journalism education has been under intense scrutiny for failing to keep pace with the industry and inadequately preparing students for a rapidly changing professional environment. Social media has become a nexus for the pressures being experienced by both the profession and academia. This study uses Wenger&rsquo;s (1998) model of Communities of Practice to consider how a student newsroom functions and how student journalists adapt within a newsroom and on social media. This study used a quantitative self-reported survey (<i>N</i>=334) design to understand the relationship of students&rsquo; social media use and newsroom participation, social media use and digital skills, and the differences relationships between demographic variables and the use of social media. Items in the survey were in one of four categories: newsroom participation, social media use, digital skills, and demographics. Results demonstrated that as students take on more responsibilities in a newsroom, the more likely they are to have relationships in the newsroom, to have a voice (in both editorial content and newsroom policy), to share their experiences with newer staff members, and to see the importance of social media use in their newsroom experience. Findings also related to meaning, identity, and practice within Wenger&rsquo;s (1998) notions of Communities of Practice. Significant correlations among items measuring digital skills are related to length of time on staff, use of social media (e.g. watch breaking news and find story ideas), holding a digital position, frequency of use of social media, and critical knowledge of digital skills (including high-level relationships among libel, audience analytics, and multi-media content). Analysis showed that participants who held primarily digital positions demonstrated patterns of the more sophisticated digital skills.</p>

<p> The study investigated the existence of some generic and non-generic media frames in the campaign speeches of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton using content analysis. The comparison of the two political actors in their usage of frames in their campaign speeches revealed that Donald Trump exploited economic consequence, conflict, morality, attribution of responsibility, and negative campaign frames more than Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton did not socially exclude any minority group within and outside the United States of America. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are equal in their utilization of the human interest frame, positive campaign, and mixed campaign. If campaign speeches were moderators of candidates&rsquo; electoral victory, negative campaign is, therefore, a facilitating factor in affecting voters' behavior considering the success of Trump in the polls. Nevertheless, the commonness of mixed campaign to both the political candidates indicates that a discrete use of any of the generic frames by political actors and communicators may not be a certainty for changing voters&rsquo; behavior. Instead, scholars and professionals should treat frames as discretional communication tools applicable and dependent on the context of a social environment in which many factors exist and determine the choice of frames in communicating between the speech actors and the audiences.</p><p>

<p> Social media have recently emerged as one of the primary information sources in the U.S. Journalists and news organizations have been keen on establishing a presence within digital social networks in order to utilize this new channel to build and maintain an audience. However, little is known about the practical implications of social media engagement by journalists for audience perceptions of news. </p><p> The present dissertation attempts to investigate 1) the influences of journalists' social media activities, self-disclosure and interaction with other users, on audience perceptions of the journalists; 2) if the perceptions serve as an important mediator between the social media activities and audience perceptions of the journalists'; news products; and, 3) if and how the direct and indirect effects of journalists'; social media activities are moderated by audiences'; individual differences in journalism orientation (IJO), which refers to which journalism norm audience members lean toward: engagement (public journalism norm) or detachment (objective journalism norm). Given that journalism is in a state of flux between traditional detached approaches and newer attached perspectives, these are important questions to be addressed relative to journalism in new media environments. </p><p> An experiment with multiple message stimuli was conducted in the context of a journalist's Facebook profile, and college students' perceptions of the journalist and his news product were measured via an online questionnaire. All perceptions were examined on both personal (e.g., attractiveness) and professional (e.g., objectivity and competence) dimensions. </p><p> The results provided empirical evidence that, 1) when it comes to journalists, engaging in such common social media activities as self-disclosure and interaction can significantly harm journalists in terms of their perceived competence although the same behaviors can improve perceptions of their personality. Results on the perceived objectivity dimension were mixed such that objectivity was positively influenced by interactive behaviors whereas it was negatively influenced by self-disclosure via social media; 2) Audience perceptions of journalists, formed based on their social media activities, tended to transfer to their impressions of the journalists' news products, demonstrating that the indirect effects of journalists' self-disclosures and interactions via social media on audience perceptions of their news products were mediated through audience perceptions of the journalists in terms of personality and competence although this mediation relationship was not evident in the case of journalists' self-disclosing activities and the professional-dimension perceptions; 3) These influences of journalists' social media activities were moderated by audiences'; individual journalism orientation such that the impacts of journalists'; self-disclosure on the journalists' personal and professional images (in both objectivity and competence) were in general stronger for the audiences oriented to an objective journalism norm, indicating that those with an objective orientation tend to react more sensitively to journalists' unconventional behaviors. </p><p> This set of results revealed that journalists' conforming to social media norms and acting like ordinary social media users could make not only the journalists but also their news products look personally attractive and friendly, but professionally less competent. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. </p>

<p> Algorithmic curation is a growing influence on our information flows as it complements and sometimes supplants traditional mass media and personal information sharing. One of the primary agents of this rise in algorithmically-curated information flows is the Facebook News Feed, a onetime source of primarily entertainment that has, as of late, taken large strides towards the news business. It is fair to say that Facebook has a huge influence on our information, one that will likely expand in the future; even if not Facebook, similar systems will rule our information. Yet, we know next to nothing about how they work, as the algorithms that power them are sealed inside a black box. This thesis approaches the Facebook News Feed through a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods in a process dubbed &ldquo;Negative Reverse Engineering&rdquo; in an attempt to gain access to the contents of the black box not through traditional technical means, but through an analysis of Facebook&rsquo;s values structure and needs. Components include an extensive, cross-disciplinary review of the literature, an experiment based around the generation of filter bubbles through the application of negative pressure, a grounded content analysis of Facebook&rsquo;s statements and documents, an autoethnography of Facebook use, and a regression analysis of Facebook under duress. From this data, a Hierarchy of Needs for the News Feed is created, rejecting the model of News Feed filtering as an equation in favor of a holistic, values-based model.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to formulate a preliminary conceptual perception about how Kuwaiti college students in the United States use and perceive electronic media. This qualitative study has sought to recognize the utilization habits and perception of Kuwaiti college students in the USA toward electronic media. The study examines the reasons for the high degree of dependency on electronic media by Kuwaiti students in the USA and the most significant features and properties that are available by electronic media, which attract youth attention. This research conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a sample of 15 Kuwaiti college students in the United States. It was concluded that Kuwaiti college students are the major users of recent technology and pioneers of electronic and social media. It also seeks for future investigations to understand whether the demographic characteristics of Kuwaiti college students are affecting their media utilization habits. </p><p>

<p> The TV industry is a competitive marketplace with rapidly realigning powers and players, fueled by an environment of intense conglomeration and consolidation. The present study focuses on three facets of this industry that are inextricably related to competition: (1) government rules, regulations, and policies; (2) the role of TV content production; and, (3) the role of consumer behavior and preference. Further, it explores the technology behind TV, as television distribution is intrinsic to the future of the industry. </p><p>