Analysing ideology through discourse is practiced academically in humanities and other social sciences. It is based upon the hypotheses that through close reading, and systematic analysis, people can figure out the ideologies behind spoken and written texts. People adopt discourse analysis to associate context with the structure of discourse itself. For instance, social positions (e.g. ethnicity, gender or profession) are linked with structural units or linked with strategies of speech or talk that are embedded in their so­ cial, political and cultural contexts. Depending on their various social positions, lan­ guage users might be categorised into various groups or communities . They are ex­ pected to follow a certain set of rules and regulations of their social positions. Based on the Appraisal theory this thesis seeks to discover not only the words people have uttered, but also their implicature which is not easily noted. It also seeks to understand to what extent their words are related to their stance. Firstly, the thesis review what has been achieved on the Appraisal theory. Then the thesis will come to a detailed presentation of the theoretical framework . This leads to the main discussion of this thesis, which is a comprehensive analysis on the basis of the Appraisal theory and have a better under­ standing of each candidate's propositions.

An action-orientation within the workplace is often sought out by organizations as a source for competitive advantage. Organizational leaders are increasingly reliant on independently driven employees that will take action without being instructed to do so. Toward this effort, proactive personality has become increasingly popular within the literature as a personality trait associated with an employee's propensity to take charge of situations and demonstrate initiative to make a positive impact. In identifying potential variables that will moderate the effects of proactive personality, a highly relevant construct is empowerment. Proactive personality is thought of as a trait, whereas empowerment can be thought of as the contextual counterpart. In this study, I research both psychological empowerment as an employee interpretation of organizational conditions, such as feelings of self-efficacy, control, and flexibility for action (Arnold, Arad, Rhoades, & Drasgow, 2000) and structural empowerment as the influence of situational workplace context (Kanter, 1977). Despite the theoretical overlap between proactive personality and empowerment, very little has been done to integrate or investigate these variables together to evaluate their relative influences on important outcomes. Given that limited concentration has been focused on boundary conditions of proactive personality, employee political skill is hypothesized as a moderator that will encourage the attainment of important organizational outcomes (i.e., job task performance, job satisfaction) and minimize negative outcomes (i.e., occupational stress and strain) from proactive personality and empowerment. This study is a more complete investigation of proactive personality that not only provides a meaningful theoretical examination, but also informs applied practice. Despite a number of theoretical links between proactive personality and empowerment, the two constructs have been investigated in isolation from one another. Therefore, the relationship between empowerment and political skill is largely unknown. It is unclear whether empowerment and political skill are both necessary to realize optimal results or whether being high on both leads to exponentially better outcomes. This study included 252 nurses from union organizations in Oregon, Florida, and Missouri that registered and were invited to participate (53%). They were surveyed across two points in time, 176 participated at Time 1 and Time 2 and 76 participated in only Time 1. Results did not show support for my hypotheses that improvements would be observed for those high on any two research variables: proactive personality, empowerment, and political skill. However, results consistently support a compensatory model. In general, task performance, perceived effectiveness, and satisfaction with quality of care improved when nurses were high on either proactive personality or empowerment (either structural or psychological). Those high on either proactive personality or political skill had higher levels of task performance and satisfaction with quality of care. Similarly, those high on either structural empowerment or political skill had higher levels of task performance and satisfaction with quality of care. Only when a nurse was low on both variables in the model did they show reduced benefits. Several clear practical solutions are readily apparent based on study results. Given that empowerment can be manipulated within an organizational culture and proactive personality can be integrated with selection systems, the results are important for organizational leaders and organizational development consultants. Similarly, this research adds greatly to the literature on political skill, an area that is relatively new. By examining the moderating influence of political skill, this adds to the theoretical advancement of the three constructs while also informing practitioners regarding potential selection, training, and organizational design. Political skill has been seen as an attribute with the capacity to change over time with training, experience, and mentoring (Ferris, Perrewé, Anthony, & Gilmore, 2000). Therefore, the practical implications for organizations are clearly evident. Further, given that both proactive personality and empowerment have received limited evaluation into their boundary conditions, an evaluation of potential moderators helps advance into the understanding of the processes related to action within the workplace.

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Journalism is widely believed to contribute to responsive governance. But rigorous evidence is scarce. This dissertation explores whether journalism improves government responsiveness, how journalism improves government responsiveness, and the conditions under which journalism is supplied. I focus my research on Tanzania, which has experienced a rapid expansion of local and independent media since 1990, but where systems of political accountability and public service delivery remain limited. In Chapter 1, I evaluate the influence of investigative journalism on government responsiveness using a national-scale randomized controlled trial. I argue that journalism improves responsiveness by strengthening accountability relationships within Tanzania's ruling party bureaucracy. To test the argument, I collaborated with 15 regional radio stations to identify 206 communities experiencing service delivery problems like flooded roads, broken water points, and missing medical supplies. I then randomly assigned half the communities to the treatment group and half the communities to a pure control condition. In treatment communities, journalists investigated the service delivery problem, broadcast their findings on regional radio, and conducted follow up reports several months later. Seven months after the reports were broadcast, independent auditors evaluated the service delivery problem in all 206 communities. I find that treatment communities received higher audit scores on average (coefficient = 0.25 standard deviations, randomization inference p-value = 0.033), amounting to one road or water point repair in every four treated communities. In line with my argument, the reports generated observable responses by un-elected government ministries but not citizens, local government officials, or members of parliament. In Chapter 2, I evaluate two mechanisms by which journalism influences government responsiveness: informing government officials about the preferences of their constituents and motivating officials with the threat of public exposure. I first draw on surveys of 4,200 citizens and 340 leaders across 109 Tanzanian villages to document whether leaders understand, share, and respond to the policy preferences of their constituents. I then examine the effect of two overlapping treatments, each designed to capture a mechanism of journalism's influence. In the ``information'' experiment, I randomly assigned leaders to receive information about the priorities of their constituents. In the ``motivation'' experiment, I randomly assigned leaders to be contacted by journalists planning reports on a specific development issue in the leader's village. To evaluate outcomes, I developed a behavioral measure of the willingness of village leaders to lobby district council officials for development projects on behalf of their constituents. I find mixed evidence for the role of information, strong evidence for the role of motivation, and no evidence for complimentary between the two mechanisms. In Chapter 3, I analyze the supply of local journalism in Tanzania. I combine three original data sets: a comprehensive history of radio station ownership in Tanzania, a national survey of local journalists in Tanzania, and a hand-coded data set of every news story published by local radio stations in Tanzania over a five month period. I show that despite a rapid rise in the number of local and independent media stations in Tanzania and a journalistic culture that is generally supportive of ``watchdog journalism,'' the slant of local news coverage in Tanzania remains overwhelmingly pro-government. The most dramatic bias occurs at stations owned by the government and stations owned by individuals with significant business interests outside the radio station, while the bias at radio stations controlled by individuals affiliated with the ruling party is surprisingly muted. Media market competition is also associated with reduced pro-government bias.