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Politicians, Photographers, and a Pope: How state-controlled and independent media covered Francis’s 2015 Cuba visit
(Taylor & Francis, 2017-01-07) Thomson, T.J.; Perreault, Gregory; Duffy, Margaret
Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to Cuba provided a unique opportunity for a comparative study of state-controlled and independent media systems. This study, grounded in the interpretivist tradition, uses symbolic convergence theory and fantasy theme analysis to explore how visuals created by United
States-based AP Images, United Kingdom-based Reuters, and Cuba-based Prensa Latina reveal the underlying rhetorical visions, ideologies, and priorities of each culture’s media system. More specifically, state-controlled and independent media depicted the Pope’s visit differently in the degree of
personalization shown, the social actors who were depicted, the purpose of the visit, how the Pope was shown in relation to others, and the location where the action occurred. Each media system highlighted its news values and priorities through these differences. Additionally, the images
revealed two master narratives: Cuba as a model of Catholicism and the Pope as a model of hierarchy and conformity.
Emotions in Metajournalistic Discourse:Discussing the Emotional Dimensions of Journalism in Belarus, Germany, India, Ukraine, and the United States
(Annenberg Press, 2026-10-29) Kotišová, Johana; Perreault, Gregory; Koliska, Michael; Kananovich, Volha; Chadha, Kalyani
The “emotional turn” in journalism studies has demonstrated the ubiquity of emotions in journalism practice, in news content, and in the relationship between journalists and their audiences. Because journalism’s institutional and public standing rests on professional values such as facticity, impartiality, and transparency, exploring metajournalistic discourses about emotions can illuminate how journalistic actors legitimize or delegitimize the role of emotions in journalistic practice. Based on an analysis of metajournalistic discourses (N = 107) in 5 countries—the United States, India, Germany, Ukraine, and Belarus—we find that metajournalistic discourses across diverse national cultures “authorize” journalists to empathize with sources experiencing hardship but rarely address the potential of emotions to build trust among wider audiences and their role in journalistic epistemology.
A Whale of a Tale: Gaming Disorder and Spending and Their Associations With Ad Watching in Role-Playing and Loot-Box Gaming
(CDS Press, 2021) Tham, Samuel M.; Perreault, Gregory P.
Mobile games featuring the loot-box design are associated with gambling because of
the uncertainty in the value of the purchase and the propensity for gamers to keep
spending. Role-playing games (RPGs) have been associated with gaming disorders
because of the addictiveness and immersion experienced by gamers. Advertisers have
capitalized on this gaming trend by having gamers watch advertisements, often in
return for earning in-game currency. In this study, we explored the intersection of
role-playing and loot-box mobile gaming, in particular examining the association
with gaming disorders and ad watching and the role of game spending. An online
survey was conducted (n = 595) in which we recruited participants who play four
popular loot-box RPGs on their mobile devices. In line with previous research, we
found similarities between these players and those with disordered gaming and an
association with increased game and gaming involvement. We found that different
spending habits based on gamer classifications have unexpected associations with the
willingness of gamers to watch ads. Our results have implications for loot-box
gamers, game designers, and advertisers, as we believe that addicted loot-box
gamers, because of the association between loot-box games and gambling, may be
experiencing a form of morbidity and that these gamers may be more susceptible to
such addictions.
Journalists on COVID-19 Journalism: Communication Ecology of Pandemic Reporting
(Sage Publications, 2021-02-05) Perreault, Mildred F.; Perreault, Gregory P.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists have the challenging task of gathering and distributing accurate information. Journalists exist as a part of an ecology in which their work influences and is influenced by the environment that surrounds it. Using the framework of disaster communication ecology, this study explores the discursive construction of journalism during the COVID-19 crisis. To understand this process in the field of journalism, we unpacked discourses concerning the coronavirus pandemic collected from interviews with journalists during the pandemic and from the U.S. journalism trade press using the Discourses of Journalism Database. Through discourse analysis, we discovered that during COVID-19 journalists discursively placed themselves in a responsible but vulnerable position within the communication ecology—not solely as a result of the pandemic but also from environmental conditions that long preceded it. Journalists found their reporting difficult during the pandemic and sought to mitigate the forces challenging their work as they sought to reverse the flow of misinformation.
The evolution, administration and policies of the national stockpile, 1918-1952
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1953) Hood, Burton Francis, Jr.