Culverhouse School of Accountancy

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Browsing Culverhouse School of Accountancy by Subject "Mass communication"

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    Censorship in public libraries: an analysis using gatekeeping theory
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Steele, Jennifer Elaine; Bonnici, Laurie J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    One pressing issue in libraries today is the censorship of information. This study applies Kurt Lewin's gatekeeping theory to examine the decision-makers as well as the different pressures and constraints that are at issue in decisions regarding challenges and censorship attempts that occur in public libraries. Through an in-depth case study of two federal court cases dealing with challenges and censorship attempts that occurred in public libraries, this study seeks to identify the gatekeeping structures present within public libraries, specifically those that contribute to conditions that encourage librarians to censor. A qualitative content analysis of court documents as well as newspaper articles covering the court cases being analyzed, followed by a series of interviews with individuals involved in the cases, seek to reveal in more complexity the gatekeeping structure present in public libraries. Knowing who the decision-makers, or gatekeepers, are in the decision-making process, whether it is library boards, library directors, or public officials, is crucial to the understanding of censorship in public libraries. Central to the study is the phenomenon of librarians themselves engaging in acts of censorship. Factors such as power and authority can lead librarians to engage in censorship activities as a reaction to instructions from their governing bodies. Without a clear understanding of the function of gates and gatekeepers in the decision-making process, libraries may allow unintended censorship of ideas and information to persist. This study seeks to inform librarians and information professionals to become better equipped to support the fight against censorship.
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    A global election: analyses of Chinese, Russian, and Saudi Arabian news coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Stokes, Ethan Christopher; Gower, Karla K.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    This dissertation was designed to investigate how state-owned news media outlets from China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia covered the 2016 U.S. presidential election. More specifically, this study includes analyses of Chinese, Russian, and Saudi Arabian news stories from four major events throughout the 2016 election campaign: 1) the national conventions for the Republican and Democratic parties, 2) the first presidential debate, 3) Election Day, and 4) Inauguration Day. Drawing from the global news flow theoretical framework, this study examined the extent to which media dependency was present among the international news coverage. Furthermore, drawing from the nation branding theoretical framework, this study assessed how these state-owned news outlets presented the U.S. nation brand to their audiences. Using a content analysis methodological approach, the researcher coded 365 news stories into various quantitative coding categories and qualitative themes. The overall results show that the Chinese and Saudi Arabian sources favored Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, while the Russian sources favored Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Additionally, the results show that these news outlets cited U.S. news sources more often than non-U.S. news sources. Moreover, the overall results indicate that these news outlets’ coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election presented the U.S. nation brand negatively, and indicate perceptions of “gray zones” between the U.S. and other nations. This study’s theoretical implications, practical implications, and avenues for future research are discussed at length.
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    Understanding organization environmental sustainability messages on social media and testing the communication effectiveness
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Shin, Sumin; Ki, Eyun-Jung; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Organizations have communicated about their environmental protection activities with publics via various media channels. As social media have become popular in the past decade, organizations have begun to communicate about environmental issues using these channels. This dissertation aims to understand the current nature of organizations’ sustainability messages on social media and to test the effects of the messages on audiences’ attitude, belief, and behavioral intention. To achieve the purposes of the study, three series of studies were conducted. Study 1 analyzed the green message content of for-profit and nonprofit organizations on a popular social media platform, Twitter. Study 2 used attribution theory to examine how the substantiation and specificity of green messages influence receivers’ attribution and attributional processes. Using a scenario of green messages on Twitter and Facebook, Study 3 investigated the effects of message substantiation and specificity on affective and cognitive responses (attitudes toward message and organization, credibility of both the message and organization, and perceived organizational green image) and the effects of the affective and cognitive responses on green behavioral intentions (intention to engage in the green campaign and intention to purchase the organization’s green product) and social media reaction intentions toward the green message (like, share, and comment intention). The results showed that associative and vague messages were more prevalent than substantive and specific messages on Twitter. In particular, for-profits’ messages tended to be substantive and specific, while nonprofits’ messages were generally associative and vague. For for-profit organizations, messages about environmental facts led to more likes, shares, and comments than other green message orientations. Furthermore, a specific message increased perceived intrinsic motivation and decreased perceived extrinsic motivation of the organizational environmental communication. The perceived intrinsic motivation was positively and the perceived extrinsic motivation was negatively associated with message attitude, organization attitude, message credibility, organization credibility, and green image. The results of this study attest that substantive and specific messages positively drove the affective and cognitive responses which positively predicted green behavioral intentions and social media reaction intentions.