The Parrot and the Cannon. Journalism, Literature and Politics in the Formation of Latin American Identities explores the emergence of literary journalism in Latin America as a central aspect in the formation of national identities. Focusing on five periods in Latin American history from the post-colonial times until the 1960s, it follows the evolution of this narrative genre in parallel with the consolidation of professional journalism, the modern Latin American mass media and the formation of nation states. In the process, this dissertation also studies literary journalism as a genre, as a professional practice, and most importantly as a political instrument. By exploring the connections between journalism, literature and politics, this dissertation also illustrates the difference between the notions of factuality, reality and journalistic truth as conceived in Latin America and the United States, while describing the origins of Latin American militant journalism as a social-historical formation.

The Middle East saw much social change in recent tumultuous decades. On one hand, some communities embraced Westernness as part of the inevitable path to development and modernization. On the other hand, there were communities that resisted global trends that were mostly dominated by the West. The latter deemed these trends as a threat to native cultures, religious groups, and local traditions. This made the Arab world a ground for constant redefinition of the meaning of identity. Of the countries in the region undergoing a turbulent debate over what constitutes national identity, Lebanon serves as a good example. Ever since its independence, Lebanon was a nation-state with no sense of nationality to unite its people. As some communities saw themselves more francophone than Arab, others felt a close connection to a pan-Arab nation. Arguably, the Lebanese people found themselves amidst a tension between the two poles. Defining ones identity required a negotiation between the two extremes. Not only did this negotiation demand a thorough investigation of ones beliefs, social network, and history, but it also necessitated a diligent performance of identity. An individual represented her identity by habits and expressions that she associated with that particular identity. The study at hand is an exploration of the relationship between identity and consumption in the Lebanese society. This project applies a unique approach in that it considers the producers agency in the construction of identity. Taking television advertising as a site for inquiry, the study explores how commercial advertisers utilize the tension between the local and the non-local to promote the consumption of the advertised products. Through exploring the values that educate advertising producers choices in creating text and meaning, this study applies theories of globalization, postcolonial studies, and consumer behavior through which advertisers manifest an ambivalence of identity. Therefore, by taking Lebanon as an example and focusing on advertising, this study contributes to the debates of globalization and the Arab world by invoking questions of producers agency in producing identity references through attitudes, behaviors, and social status associated with the featured products.

In communicating with international markets, one of the key issues is culture. In particular, visual and communication convention are substantial cultural elements, which influence advertising effects. Prior literature suggests that visual and communication culture are different between Western and Asian countries. Past research has indicated that complex visual images, which rely on implicit pictorial images, can be better processed by consumers in collectivist cultures. These researchers further suggest that consumers of individualist cultures are more accustomed to simple visual images that carry direct pictorial images than to implicit visual images. Also, prior communication literature posits that while consumers in collectivist cultures value implicit verbal messages, those in individualist cultures regard explicit messages as more effective. Given the literature, this study sought to understand how these cultural preferences influence consumers evaluation of the sport ad and brand, and their purchase intentions. The study employed a mixed method. In the experimental section, the study tested the effects of visual images, communication styles, and culture on attitudes and purchase intentions. The qualitative portion sought to explore consumers thoughts and feelings toward visual images and communication styles of sport print advertising. For Koreans, the experimental results showed that the complex visual image, high context verbal communication, and the presence of both characteristics induced favorable attitudes toward the ad and brand. These results were also supported by the Korean interview findings. However, the experimental results indicated that regardless of visual images and communication styles, Americans exhibited overall positive attitudes toward the ad and brand. These results were consistent with the American interview findings. Purchase intention was not influenced by visual image type or communication style for either ethnic group. The unexpected findings for American markets were discussed by external and internal influences embedded in America society. Given the findings and discussions, the study proposed two practical frameworks in persuading national and international sport markets: The implicit superiority and schism-bridge effect frameworks.

In recent years, the use of shocking message appeals has become increasingly commonplace in the fashion industry, particularly in the context of print advertising. Sex and violence are two of the specific types of message appeals that are often employed in the creation of shocking advertising or promotions. Despite the increased use of this type of message appeal across all forms of promotion, research into the efficacy of this message appeal has focused primarily on print advertising. Limited research exists on the subject of visual merchandising, in general, and even less exists on store window presentations, in particular, despite the importance of this form of promotion for retailers. For these reasons this study focused on consumers’ reactions to the use of shocking message appeals in visual merchandising presentations, specifically store window displays. The purpose of this study was to examine consumers’ responses to the use of shocking message appeals in visual merchandising, specifically store window presentations, to promote the sale of apparel. An integrated theoretical framework that draws from the information processing model (McGuire, 1978), the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1983), and the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980； Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) informed the development of this study. Together, these models provided a basis for the study of how consumers process information obtained from viewing store window displays, as well as how attitudes toward a retailer may be influenced by window displays and how those attitudes may, in turn, influence consumers’ patronage intentions toward a retailer. An intercept survey was employed to collect data for this study. The sample consisted of 246 students from Colorado State University； 111 male participants, and 135 female participants. T-tests, one-way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance, and regressions were conducted to analyze the data. Results indicated that gender, clothing involvement, and perception of shock impacted consumers’ responses to the use of shocking message appeals in store window presentations, including consumers’ elaborative (information) processing and attitudes. Findings revealed that upon viewing the window presentation, women engaged in more information processing than did men, and that men perceived the window presentations to be less shocking than did women. Findings also revealed that participants’ perceptions of the level of shock present in the window displays as well as their level of clothing involvement impacted their elaborative processing. Perceptions of the level of shock present in the window displays also impacted attitudes toward the window display and toward the retail store. Further, attitude toward window presentation, attitude toward retail store, and elaborative processing predicted store patronage intentions. The findings from this study provide multiple implications related to the use of shocking message appeals in store window displays for apparel retailers that target young adults. These findings suggest retailers need to be cautious when employing shocking message appeals in their store window display so as to avoid negative repercussions. However, these findings also suggest a slight level of shock can have a positive impact on store patronage intentions, and in turn, for the retailer.

This qualitative analysis examines audience engagement with fictional portrayals of mother-daughter relationships in prime-time television of the 21st century. I used in-depth interviews with women of different backgrounds to explore how real mothers and daughters interpret portrayals of mother-daughter relationships on television； how they make sense of their own mother-daughter relationships through their engagement with these portrayals； and how and to what extent their engagement with these portrayals influences their own lives and mother-daughter relationships. The results of this study uncovered a process of audience engagement with mother-daughter relationships on television that involved the viewing experience, interpretation, sensemaking, and perceived effects on the participants real lives and relationships. Throughout this process, female viewers of various backgrounds tended to evaluate the mother-daughter relationships on television using their own relationships as a standard； evaluate their own relationships using the TV relationships as a standard； and ultimately validate the value of their own mother-daughter relationships. As a fourth step in the process, those viewers who were most involved with and identified most strongly with the TV characters also acknowledged effects that their engagement with the shows has had on their lives and relationships. This study demonstrates the importance of studying womens engagement with mother-daughter relationships in media texts and further develops the literature on mother-daughter relationships in fields such as psychology, sociology, womens studies and family studies by bringing popular culture into the discussion.

This thesis examines the complex and evolving China-bound nationalism of Chinese Americans from 1949 to 1955 through the lenses of four Chinese newspapers published in the U.S., the China Daily News, the Chinese Nationalist Daily, the Chinese World and the Chinese Pacific Weekly. Through a focused analysis of their heated debates surrounding a divided homeland in the post-1949 era, it calls for greater attention to the previously understudied “discourse” dimension of diaspora nationalism, particularly that embodied in the ethnic press. By tracing the four newspapers’ different historical experience under the specter of the Cold War, it argues that to understand an immigrant group’ posture on homeland politics, one has to take into account not only the conditions and constraints in both the homeland and the host country, but also their uneven impact on different opinion groups of the community and the subsequent changes in the power balances among them. Chapter 1 reassesses Chinese Americans’ historical involvement in China politics by highlighting the constant state of divisiveness and fluidity of their diaspora nationalism. Chapter 2 focuses on the critical year of 1949 and examines the intense debate carried out in the four newspapers over an imminent power transition in China. Chapters 3 and 4 respectively discuss Chinese Americans’ relationship with and attitudes towards the two home governments competing for their support, the People’s Republic of China and the Nationalist Government in Taiwan. Chapter 5 surveys the experience of different political camps towards the mid-1950s under the shadow of the Korean War. As a whole, this thesis demonstrates that the image of the post-1949 Chinese American community as being either pro-Nationalist or unsympathetic with China politics in general was by no means a natural and unproblematic outcome, but the result of a complicated and intense political battle.

The stated purposes of the Commerce Department’s national radio conferences in the 1920s were simple enough: end signal interference and resolve airwave congestion. This dissertation argues that the preoccupation with the concepts of interference and congestion among advocates of what eventually became the 1927 Radio Act were part of a more general reaction among policy elites and intellectuals to the industrial, technological, and demographic changes that had been unsettling economic, political, and cultural conventions in the United States for decades. Judicial opinions, legal briefs, speeches, films, and articles in trade and general interest magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals in the years and decades before passage of the Radio Act strongly suggest that reformers, policy elites, and intellectuals wanted above all to mediate the transition to modernity. They did not simply want to find an administrative fix for interference and appease the Radio Trust, as most of the studies on the Act assert. Reformers also believed that broadcasting presented a cultural problem as much as or more than an economic or engineering one. Interference and congestion, this dissertation argues, were salient metaphors for anxieties that also manifest themselves, for example, in the contemporaneous debates about immigration, urbanization, mechanization, and the general role government administration in democracy. Seen in this light, the Radio Act of 1927 was only part of a larger reform effort against modernity itself.

Advances in technology occur with increasing rapidity, allowing consumers to control or manage their media consumption. This, in turn, has had a significant effect on the public relations and advertising industries. Navigating this increasingly complex, user-controlled media culture presents new challenges that professionals in these industries need to overcome. The thesis is separated into three main subsections. The first section will primarily cover advertising. Important topics covered in this section will include the history of advertising, how audiences manage their media and how it affects advertising, and advances in technology and media that are presently impacting advertising. The section subsection will cover public relations. Like the advertising section, the public relations section will discuss similar topics and how they affect the field. The history of public relations, how audiences manage their media and how it affects public relations, and advances in technology and media that are presently impacting public relations will all be covered. The third and final segment of the thesis will combine advertising and public relations, comparing and contrasting these related but distinct functions. Research findings will be incorporated to analyze these two fields and hypothesize the direction in which these industries are headed. The final conclusion of the thesis will answer the following question: “What will the functions and strategies employed by the head of communication in an organization look like in five years?”

Research indicates that the representation of the female body image in the media is a skewed one, and images of women in the media inaccurately reflect the general population. To help examine this misrepresentation, two theories were used to explore this further—Social Comparison Theory and Agenda Setting Theory. This study was designed to answer: How do womens perceptions of the female body image compare to the medias representation of the female body image? A mixed-methodological approach was taken where nine interviews were conducted with women. After that, a content analysis of 20 magazine covers was performed. Results of this study showed that womens perceptions of the female body image were similar to the medias presentation of the female body image. Certain physical characteristics were identified, and it was found that women compare themselves to magazine cover models, regardless of whether or not they could achieve a similar look.

The advent of the Internet has increased access to information and impacted many aspects of life, including politics. The present study utilized Pew Internet & American Life survey data from the November 2008 presidential election time period to investigate the degree to which political blog reading predicted online political discussion, online political participation, whether or not a person voted, and voting choice, over and above the predication that could be explained by demographic measures of age, education level, gender, income, marital status, race/ethnicity, and region. Ordinary least squares hierarchical regression revealed that political blog reading was positively and statistically significantly related to online political discussion and online political participation. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds of a political blog reader voting were 1.98 the odds of a nonreader voting, but vote choice was not predicted by reading political blogs. These results are interpreted within the uses and gratifications framework and the understanding that blogs add an interpersonal communication aspect to a mass medium. As more people use blogs and the nature of the blog-reading audience shifts, continuing to track and describe the blog audience with valid measures will be important for researchers and practitioners alike. Subsequent potential effects of political blog reading on engagement, discussion, and participation will be important to understand as these effects could impact the political landscape of this country and, therefore, the world.