This study's primary focus is to determine if the White House press corps acted more deferential to President Bush and his agenda after September 11, 2001, and if so, to see how long the period of decreased adversarial relations lasted. This purpose is accomplished through a content analysis of 37 White House press briefings, conducted by then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, examining press-briefing questions three months before, on, directly following, and three months after September 11 according to four dimensions of adversarial relations: initiative, directness, assertiveness, and hostility. Ten question design features comprise the criteria to measure each dimension, and ultimately, to measure the degree to which the press acted more deferential or adversarial toward Fleischer after the September 11 attacks. Overall, the study's results show the White House press corps asked similar questions before and after September 11. Though deferent questions soared to the sample's highest levels on September 11, the press corps not only maintained its pre-September deferential/ adversarial relations with Fleischer in the weeks following September 11, but it became even more adversarial. By December 2001, deference increased and adversarial relations decreased, but not by more than 10 percent of what they were before September 11. This group of press members, in touch with the highest-ranking political officials and newsmakers, initiated more direct, assertive, and hostile questions following the momentous domestic shakeup of September 11, 2001. Contrary to many reports, this study found the press to be more aggressive than normal in their questioning in the two-three weeks following the attacks. This information begs bigger questions, which may serve for continuing areas of study: If members of the White House Press Corps were asking more adversarial questions following September 11, why didn't their increased adversarial tone make it into the headlines of national newspapers, broadcasts, and magazines? Is there a correlation between questions the media ask sources and what gets into the news? Does the press question's agenda have any bearing on the news agenda?

This dissertation examines media coverage of two events in the Civil Rights Movement-the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955 and the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955-56. The study focuses on three publications aimed primarily at white audiences (Life, Look and the New York Times) and two aimed primarily at black audiences (the Birmingham World and Jet). The dissertation seeks to answer several questions. How did mainstream news organizations cover black Americans in the decades prior to the 1950s? In reporting on the Till murder case and the Montgomery bus boycott, did coverage by mainstream news organizations change? If so, in what ways? And, most important, which news organizations did the best job covering the Till murder case and the Montgomery bus boycott? The researcher defined best as those publications that quoted a diversity of sources, provided historical context and identified the central problem while following accepted journalistic routines such as attribution and balance. The researcher examined every story and photograph published by the five news organizations about the Till lynching and the Montgomery bus boycott. The researcher used textual analysis as the primary methodology. The study also incorporated two mass communication theories-framing and cultural studies. The dissertation found that the black-oriented publications produced the most accomplished journalistic coverage by providing a greater range of sources, broader context, more depth and a clear statement of the central problem. The study showed that during the first half of the twentieth century, mainstream news organizations largely ignored blacks or presented them as criminals. But this changed during the Till murder case and the bus boycott. The dissertation found that in reporting on these events, Life, Look and the New York Times adopted new frames-first presenting blacks as the innocent victims of deadly racial hatred and later as nonviolent protestors. These findings challenge the widely held opinion that the New York Times provides the best journalistic source of information on key historical events. This study also challenges the widespread view that the black press is a "fighting" press that uses its news columns to advance a political agenda.

The purpose of the study was to determine how often and to what degree imprecise frequency descriptors are used in prescription drug print ads. These descriptors along with the side effects they describe were compared to their corresponding prescription medicine websites and analyzed to determine whether or not the general public is being misinformed and/or misled in terms of side effect warnings by current drug advertising. Content analysis of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertisements found in five of the top seven magazines most likely to be consumed by readers over age 65 was the method of investigation for this study. The time frame of the magazines studied, was, August 2002 to July 2003. Using SPSS and descriptive statistics, results indicated that within DTC advertising, there is a great potential to mislead. For example, all of the side effects listed in the advertisements were also listed on their corresponding drug websites. Though, in some cases, the side effects with the highest incidence percentages on the websites were not listed at all in the advertised side effect warning. Some side effects with incidence levels of over 30% on the websites were listed in the advertisements but were provided with imprecise frequency descriptors such as may include or most common. The difference in website and magazine side effect descriptions present a question of credibility. It appears from the discrepancy between the website side effect descriptions and magazine side effect warnings that the magazines are at best incomplete and probably misleading. Possible suggestions for correcting the situation could include mandatory guidelines for side effect warnings including the number of side effects, inclusion of percentages, font size, and placement of the side effect warning.

Louisiana Governor Mike Foster took to the airwaves on August 10, 2000 with the launch of Live Mike, his weekly radio program that would air for 41 weeks during Fosters second term. Foster, a Republican, served as Governor of Louisiana from January 1996 until January 2004. This study historically chronicles Governor Mike Fosters weekly radio program, Live Mike during and prior to its four years on the air. This historical narrative illustrates how Foster intermingled radio, politics and his personal life to create a weekly radio program that he attempted to use during his second term to relay his message to listeners. By examining the 41 weeks of the show through newspaper accounts, personal interviews and experience, and Governors Office records and call logs, the study found some evidence that Foster was able to take his message directly to the people at times without the filter of the media. In doing so, the show caused Foster to leave his introverted tendencies for an hour each week. The show brought Foster down to a human level for the public, but also opened the Governors vulnerability to be seen by listeners. The study also shows that while some saw the 8 p.m. time slot as an advantage for Foster by not providing reporters enough time to recheck facts or obtain opposing views before going to print, the late time of the show eventually led to a decreased audience and a lack of news coverage of the program. While the desired audience and impact was not what Foster first envisioned for the 8 p.m. show, it served as a training ground for the governor that allowed him, at the launch of the 2 p.m. show, to portray confidence from behind the microphone and be more effective in reaching out to his listeners.

This research aimed to provide some proof or refutation of the hypothesis that online communities develop specialized vocabularies, often technical jargon, and use elements of those vocabularies, here labeled tokens, to ascribe credibility and/or authority to other posters. The literature from a variety of communications fields relating to this topic was summarized as a progression from an early limitations model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to a later opportunities model. The drawbacks of current research were outlined and some new paths were sketched, including the methodology employed here. Several discussions from different Web sites, each containing hundreds of posts, were tabulated and analyzed for the effects of inclusion of anecdotally-chosen token posts. Gauging authority and credibility as attention paid token posts and positive reaction to token posts, respectively, no correlation was found between token posts and attention paid them. One of three discussions showed a strong correlation between token posts and positive reaction, while two other discussions analyzed yielded results short of statistical significance. Suggestions were made regarding further work in this expanding field.

The November 2, 2003, parliamentary election caused a significant political crisis in the Republic of Georgia. During the election campaign, the political parties questioned the desire of the government to carry out a fair election. They blamed President Edward Shevardnadze for fabricating the election. After the election, the opposition parties did not recognize the results and claimed that there were massive fabrications (the number of people who voted was much more than the number of people who were in voters list). The public supported this position, and several huge demonstrations demanded the resignation of President Shevardnadze. Two weeks after the election, under the pressure from all parts of Georgia, Shevardnadze stepped down. Since the main symbol of the opposition was rose, this event was called the Revolution of the Rose. This study analyzes the media coverage of the parliamentary election. The aim of the study is to examine the extent the government and opposition were able to affect news coverage. The study involves the descriptive content analysis of the stories published by three of the highest circulated Georgian newspapers 24 Hours, Resonance, and Alia from September 25, 2003 when the election campaign officially started, to the election day November 2, 2003.

The constant process of technology development offers Internet users new tools, allowing them to enjoy their right of free expression. One of the latest popular tools introduced for use by mass audience on the Internet is a weblog (or blog). There are more than 4.12 million blogs on the Internet maintained by different people with different purposes. Some of the bloggers manage to create an image that makes them "celebrities" among the community of bloggers. These are the people whose blogs are among the most well-known and also regularly linked by other bloggers. Besides, media's view of blogging comes directly from this select "A-list" of bloggers. This research intends to contribute to understanding of the characteristics of these popular bloggers. The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it adds to the knowledge of verbal and visual characteristics, as well as demographics of popular blogs. Second, this research investigates impression management tactics and strategies used by the popular blog authors. Finally, it provides data regarding the common elements of popular blogs (topics, style, visual communication elements, etc.) that create ground for future research on impression management, employing the research of blog authors and their motivations and reasoning for using particular blog elements, as well as for future investigation of popular blog readers, and their impressions and reasoning for reading the blogs.

The sports industry is big business just like any other big business. Sports organizations face various crises just as corporate America does. A survey of 345 professional and college level sports organizations revealed that 70% of them experienced a crisis in 1997, while the Los Angeles Times reported that 220 college athletes were the focus of criminal charges in 1995. "Sports crises are clearly more frequent today than ever before," said Kathleen Hessert. Mike Paul agrees with that trend based on his research, attributing the trend to poor life choices away from the sport. What is a crisis? A crisis is a situation that disrupts normal business operations, and has an uncertain and a potentially negative outcome. What are some crises within the sports industry? Crises can range from criminal charges, labor disputes, arena/stadium issues, politically incorrect statements or actions, accidental deaths and workplace violence. This thesis will examine how nine public relations practitioners in the sports industry handle crises, and compare the findings to the Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt crisis management model. The nine sports organizations interviewed will gain insight into their practices concerning crises, thus, giving them the opportunity to improve communications with their publics whereby mutually valuable relationships can be formed. The findings of this thesis seem to support certain aspects of the crisis management model, however, none of the organizations follow the model exactly. The inability of all of these organizations to implement more proactive public relations or to conduct formal research causes these organizations to operate in a reactionary mode. The findings of this thesis point out the areas in which these sports organizations indeed do follow the Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt crisis management model, and points out the areas in which these organizations' performance is lacking. The areas tended to be planning and research. Although these findings cannot be generalized to all sports organizations, those organizations can use these findings as an educational tool in which to enhance their own operations.

The Catalyst to Harm Standard is a specific standard that sets forth step-by-step criteria for the courts to follow so that they can factually determine if the speech in question falls into the category of protected or unprotected speech. This Standard labels certain speech as bad not because of its ideological or social content, but because it is speech that is linked to a definitive social harm that the legislature has the constitutional authority to prevent or punish. This Standard uses three criteria to determine the liability of speech that has allegedly caused harm. In order to meet these requirements, the plaintiff must establish the harm that actually resulted, establish the intent of the speaker, and establish a causal connection between the speech and the harm that occurred. While my Thesis is not the first research done on the topic of limiting harmful speech, it is the first research paper to develop generic, step-by-step criteria by which courts can legally punish speech that has caused harm. The Catalyst to Harm Standard does not require Brandenburgs notion of imminence because there is no need for the imminence requirement when punishing speech that has already resulted in harm. Instead, to impose liability, this standard focuses on other factors such as harm, intent, and causal connection. The purpose of the Catalyst to Harm Standard is not to impose an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech. Instead, this Standard only applies to speech that has facilitated and resulted in harm. In adhering to the marketplace doctrine, this Standard is a punishment only for certain speech that is too instrumental and intertwined with the performance of criminal activity to retain First Amendment protection.

This two-part study employed 11 qualitative interviews, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and a quantitative version of the five-factor TARES test to complete the first cross-cultural analysis of the ethical decision-making patterns of public relations practitioners. The DIT is an instrument based on Kohlbergs (1969) moral development theory, the TARES test composed of 14 self-enforced, ethical consideration statements derived from the research of Baker and Martinson (2001). Results indicate no statistically significant difference in levels of moral development and ethical consideration between sampled practitioners in Australia, New Zealand and the United States (Lieber, 2003). This finding argues for a vocational uniformity in moral and ethical reasoning across these countries despite geographic, cultural, economic and ethnic disparities.