The thesis of this study was that variances in the popularity on college and university campuses of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), are related to the presence and/or absence of American society's fears of imminent danger from without or within the country. To determine the validity of this thesis, the relationship between the fluctuations in ROTC enrollment in four-year colleges and universities in the First ROTC Region and changing attitudes toward the programs as expressed in popular magazines was explored. The ROTC programs studied were limited to the Army units (AROTC) in the First Region, including Maine to Puerto Rico. Popular magazines were limited to Time and U.S. News and World Report. Two periods of war (Korea, 1950-53; Vietnam, 1969-72) and two periods of peace (post-Korea, 1954-57; and post-Vietnam, 1974-77) were the time frames selected. / A content analysis technique was utilized by a team of three professionals. All pertinent articles in the magazines under scrutiny were read, analyzed and categorized as pro-, neutral or anti-ROTC. Reasons (stated or apparent) for attitudinal stance, photographs, other illustrations and authors (where given) were tallied for each article. Percentages were computed for all articles and all categories. / Enrollment figures for colleges and universities having Army ROTC programs and for the campus military units themselves were collected. Percentages of students enrolled in AROTC were computed therefrom. Those percentages of students enrolled in AROTC during the periods selected and the percentages of articles favorable, neutral or unfavorable toward the Corps were used to determine the relationship between campus enrollment and societal attitudes. The resulting answers to questions posed in the study failed to show a definitive relationship between ROTC enrollment, as represented by the Army units, and societal attitudes as found in the two popular magazines during the periods considered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-12, Section: A, page: 5041. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74717 |
| Contributors | PARKER, HERBERT GERALD., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 121 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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