The cultivation effect is defined as the distorted view of reality which results from the heavy viewing exposure to a certain type of programming content. The assumption behind the cultivation hypothesis is that the more hours an individual exposes himself or herself to a particular type of program content. the more the individual's view of reality will be consistent with the "reality" shown in the program. It is no mystery that for the past half-century, millions of Americans have made the broadcast soap opera a daily habit. In response to the heavy interest exhibited by this strong audience, social scientists have begun to systematically study this area of broadcast programming. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between women's perceptions of how other women dress based on their amount of viewing exposure to nighttime dramas. ln addition, this study will investigate the relationship between viewing exposure and the use of nighttime dramas for fashion information, and the importance of dressing like the characters in the nighttime dramas.

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The emergence and popularity of mobile and social media have transformed the nature of the parasocial relationship between weathercaster and audience. Two experts and nine television viewers were selected for qualitative interviewing via non-probability sampling to gain an understanding of how respondents’ growing use of social media and other emerging media has impacted the relationship with the local television weathercaster. Additionally, these interviews explored the ways in which these relationships have ultimately changed how viewers receive weather warnings. Storms producing strong straight-line winds and multiple tornadoes in the Fort Wayne, Indiana television market provided a case study that illuminated the role of trust in the complex relationships between weather forecasting and new social media. Mobile and social media have increased the weather forecasters’ influence over the audience, while quickly allowing them to provide severe weather warnings. This study demonstrates the popularity of social media among diverse age groups and that user demographics do not indicate any level of social media literacy. Second, as the literature suggests, this study confirms users’ trust in their weather forecasters as well as the informationseeking behavior displayed during severe weather. Third, this research finds that social media has transformed parasocial relationships. Finally, this study suggests that stations have not recognized nor taken advantage of these new parasocial relationships, and that they can do so by promoting TV personalities’ online social profiles. / Introduction -- Literature review -- Methods -- Trust, weather forecasting and social media -- Online presence -- Conclusion. / Department of Geography

Vorherrschende Meinungsmacht ist das in wenigen Händen liegende Potential, auf die Meinungsbildung einzuwirken. Sie behindert die Gewährleistung eines vielfältigen Rundfunkangebotes, das im Interesse der freien Meinungsbildung steht. Sie kann entstehen, wenn von Anfang an nur wenige Anbieter auf dem Markt sind oder bei anfänglicher Vielfalt kleinere Anbieter ausscheiden, die restlichen zusammenschmelzen oder ein Veranstalter mehrere Programme ausstrahlt. Doch auch die Einflußnahme eines Unternehmens auf verschiedenen Märkten oder die Bildung eines Informationsmonopols können zu vorherrschender Meinungsmacht führen. Daher stellt der Rundfunkstaatsvertrag Antikonzentrationsregelungen auf. Deren Ziel ist es, freie Meinungsbildung durch eine Vielfalt von Programmangeboten zu gewährleisten. Vermutet wird eine Gefährdung der Vielfalt im Fernsehen, wenn ein Veranstalter mehr als 30 % der Zuschaueranteile auf sich vereinigt. Diese Regelung gestattet eine recht hohe Konzentration von Rundfunkveranstaltern, die gleichwohl nicht verfassungswidrig ist. Zu verhindern ist aber, daß starke Unternehmen die vor- und nachgelagerten Märkte und die anderer Medien derart kontrollieren, daß Neueinsteigern der Zugang dazu verwehrt oder unverhältnismäßig erschwert wird. Das auf Zuschauermarktanteilen basierende Modell muß so ergänzt werden, daß die Cross-ownership umfassend berücksichtigt wird. Dies kann nur mit einer methodenpluralistischen Vorgehensweise bei der Messung des Einflusses erreicht werden. Mit dem Zuschauermarktanteilsmodell wurde ein neues Verfahrensrecht eingeführt. Vergleichbar dem Recht der Wirtschaftsaufsicht wurde ein System aus Überwachungsmitteln, Eingriffsmitteln und Sanktionen geschaffen, das die Unternehmen stärker zur Mitwirkung verpflichtet. Die Aufklärung konzentrationsrechtlicher Sachverhalte dient dem Schutz der freien Meinungsbildung und kann daher mit einigen Ausnahmen als Umsetzung der Anforderungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts an den Grundrechtsschutz durch Verfahren aus dem Rundfunkgebührenurteil verstanden werden. / A multifarious broadcasting sypply is an essential requirement/ prerequisite for a free shaping of public opinion in a democracy. Predominance on the opinion market endangers or hinders this opinion-forming. Therefore it has to be avoided by looking first of the mechanism dominance can be developed. It occurs by acting of only a few provider on this market or the impeding of the access of new companies to the relevant market. Further on by merging of the big players or the concentration of several programs in the hands of one supplier dominance can arise. The instrument that states rules of media ownership to guarantee pluralism and diversity in the opinien market is the German Interstate Treaty of Broadcasting (Rundfunkstaatsvertrag). Hereafter a dominant position of a company is assumed by holding more than 30% of the recipients. Holding this high figure in one hand is not unconstitutional. Nevertheless this high market share must not erase competition on the opinion market? To identify an abuse of dominant positions you have to look at the behavior of the respective company, whether it is building up control over the adjacent markets and impeding of competing companies to enter the respective markets. This can only be done by looking at possible cross-ownership of the involved companies through a multi-tasking measuring system. A new procedure was introduced that is comparable to the general competition-rules. It consists of supervision, intervention and sanctions to bring the companies to stick to the rules. The thoroughly and strict enforcement of anticoncentration serves to shelter and enforce the free shaping of public opinion and meets -a few exceptions aside- all requirements given by the Federal Constitutional Court.

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Across the globe, people are everyday audiences of advertising images, which have become integrated in our life worlds. Advertising images are entangled with interesting moral conflicts. This study analyses the decision-processes of advertising self-regulators, who are in the midst of such moral conflicts, with the purpose of showing how and why they decide if advertising images are acceptable or not. Two organizations based in different countries are included in the study; The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom and The Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK) in Sweden. The empirical material consists of interviews with 38 people, images and text documents, from the two mentioned self-regulatory bodies, and some (participant) observation. The study focuses on cases of potentially offensive advertisements. The material is primarily analysed using the theory of worlds of worth, developed by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot. The thesis argues that advertising self-regulation is about ascertaining, and making compromises between, conventions of morality. The study demonstrates the pattern of how the contextual circumstances influence the moral decisions that are made. It is shown that a decisive feature of the decisions is to conceptualize the general public in a justified way. This means that decision-makers picture the public as types of people who hold one or a combination of moral logics, and assume that they use these to interpret and evaluate advertising images. How these publics are defined depends on how the settings of the different advertising images are collectively interpreted by the decision-makers. The thesis argues more generally that to understand people’s values we must look at conflict situations in which current morals surface, such as the ways they appear in relation to advertising images.

This study provides an in depth analysis of three temples dedicated to emperors in Roman Asia (western Asia Minor): the Temple of Divine Rulers at Aphrodisias, the Temple of Divine Rulers at Ephesus and the Temple of Zeus Philios and Trajan at Pergamon. Focusing on each case study in a separate chapter, the project provides a brief introduction to each city's history and a detailed discussion of each temple's name, dating, patronage structure, architectural form, sculptural program, and the application techniques of sculptural and architectural details. The study proposes an understanding of these temples as key monuments of constantly changing dynamic urban landscapes rather than simple symbolic gestures towards the Roman emperors. Utilizing Kevin Lynch's terminology, the project suggests close links between each monument and the already existing urban elements of each individual city, further strengthening its overall urban image. These structures were essential to their urban contexts, and their meanings and functions were directly linked to the culture and history of each city. Finally, the project demonstrates that through their architectural designs and sculptural programs, each temple emphasized the perspectives of the local elite. The methodology of the project involves a careful study of the city plans, an analysis of context-specific local features and finally a consideration of multiple-viewer perceptions. This dissertation aims to provide an alternative model for later studies in Roman provincial art and architecture. / text

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This thesis is an ethnographic study of the soap opera viewing patterns and interpretations of Zulu-speaking students living in residences on the Natal University's Durban campus who watch The Bold and the Beautiful (an American soap opera) and Generations (a South African soap opera). It presents an analysis of how the viewing practices of the students compare with the findings of soap opera audience studies conducted abroad. The students' motivations and reasons for watching both soap operas are investigated. The reason for choosing black students as subjects is that I wanted to determine how a soap opera (Generations) which is comprised largely of black cast members and designed with a young black audience in mind, is interpreted and impacts on the lives of said audience, when compared with an American soap opera (The Bold and the Beautiful) which has an almost exclusively white American cast, and is popular with young black viewers in spite of the fact that it appears on the surface to be unrelated to their everyday lives. Individual one-on-one interviews were conducted with 40 students, 20 male and 20 female. The interviews were analysed to gauge how the viewing behaviour of the students differs from, or is similar to, soap opera studies conducted elsewhere in the world. It emerged that the students watch in groups and not alone, and that watching Generations and The Bold and the Beautiful is a social activity, not motivated from loneliness or isolation. The ways in which the students relate to the characters and situations of both soap operas is also examined, in an attempt to establish the role that these two shows play in the creation of the students' identities. The students displayed a tendency to be more critical of Generations than of The Bold and the Beautiful in the sense that they compared it (unfavourably) in terms of quality of production, to its American counterpart, as well as in the sense that they analysed storylines in terms of their own lived experiences and were quick to criticise Generations when they felt that it did not conform to their notions of the reality of being a black South African. They accepted situations and characters on The Bold and the Beautiful far less critically, although they did voice objections to certain characters and situations which they felt were morally questionable in terms of their understanding of right and wrong. It also became apparent that there was a greater emotional involvement with the characters on The Bold and the Beautiful than with those on Generations. The students interpretations of (and level of involvement with) situations, characters and storylines are examined, as well as the ways in which they derive pleasure from both soaps and incorporate them into their own lives. In summary, this thesis examines the consumption of an American and a South African soap opera by a black South African audience . / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2002.

South African women of different ethnicity and background, having lived under apartheid, are now challenged by the freedoms expressed in the Bill of Rights and the new Constitution. This study, identifying the connections between gender, race, class and social relations, incorporates an ethnographic methodology and a cultural studies perspective in the reception analysis of thirteen multicultural focus groups. In the analysis of their response to two locally produced situation comedies, Suburban Bliss and Going Up III, the effort to determine existing cultural barriers is made, examining laughter as a benchmark for the comprehension by women from different backgrounds. The theoretical framework for the research evaluates the extent to which the writers, producers and directors created a text which connects with the multicultural women viewers' reality. Changes affecting the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in terms of broadcasting policy, are traced, and a brief history of the organization since the inception of broadcasting in South Africa is incorporated. Language policy had ret1ected the overt political ideology of Afrikaner nationalism, consequently the political changes resulting from the 1994 democratic election led to major transformations in language and style of programming to incorporate local content for multicultural audiences. This caused economic hardship for the SABC, as advertising revenue was drastically curtailed. Textual analysis of both Suburban Bliss and Going Up III employed a mix of structural, semiotics, and ideological analysis. Through interviews with the production team it became apparent that SB was based on American sitcom genre, while GU III is a hybrid combination, conceived to meet the perceived needs of the local multilingual multicultural audience. The extent to which the programmes mediate the producer/audience relationship, contributing to the hegemonic process is investigated, as the interpretation of the text can be different in the decoding from that originally intended by the producer or encoder when creating the programme. The situation comedies by depicting in a humorous vein the realities of affirmative action, adult access to pornography, the aspirations of the new black elite, feminine participation in the democratic process, and the rejection of authoritarian censorship from the state or the home indicates the ideological position of the production teams. The responses of the focus groups were examined in terms of their own identity as well as where an historic individuality expands into the collective communities of nations, gender, classes, generations, race and ethnic groups. Identity was perceived as connected but distinct and separate, as any event can affect both individuals and society. The thesis explores the proposition that humour as 'cultural reconcilation' can be effective if people are prepared to alter negative patterns of thinking and social practices. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.