News Coverage and Social Protest: How the Media\u27s Protect Paradigm Exacerbates Social Conflict

Past research on media coverage of social protests has yielded evidence of a protest paradigm: a set of news coverage patterns that typifies mainstream media coverage. This coverage generally disparages protesters and hinders their role as vital actors on the political stage. The lack of respect for the value of social protest inherent in such coverage has created frustration among the protesters, which has in turn contributed to dysfunctional confrontations. However, under certain conditions, journalists will deviate from the protest paradigm. Such aberrations were found in the Los Angeles Times\u27 coverage of the May 1, 2006, Day without Immigrants demonstrations. An analysis of this coverage reveals that the reporters relaxed the conventions of the protest paradigm in favor of more constructive forms of news coverage, permitting a more functional discourse to emerge from the conflict. Based on insights gleaned from this analysis, this paper argues that society would reap enormous benefits if journalists would abandon the traditional protest paradigm in favor of multi-perspective approaches. Following a summary of this analysis, specific suggestions for improving protest coverage are made, which will ultimately enhance the dynamics and outcomes of social conflicts

Flowering and Podding Response of Soybeans (Glycine max) to Irrigation

Soybeans have recently increased in importance as an alternative crop throughout the corn belt and parts of the South. In South Dakota this has involved the expansion of soybean production into less well adapted cropping environments. Because of considerable interest in bean production under irrigation, a need for information on the management of irrigation water has developed, to assure high yields in these marginal areas. The increasing demand for limited supplied of irrigation water, the marginal or poor quality of many of these waters, and the increasing awareness of the energy cost of irrigating have all intensified the necessity to determine the optimum management of minimal irrigation water. The questions in the mind of irrigators are primarily (1) are there really critical periods during growth and development of the soybean for water adequacy? and, (2) what is the profit maximizing point on the yield – irrigation water curve? Inasmuch as only about 25 per cent of the total flowers produced by soybeans are carried to maturity; the impact of reproductive abortiveness and the conditioning effect of soil water on this phenomenon as a yield limitation in soybeans is apparent. However, sufficient variation occurs in these losses to account for significant differences in yield, indicating that some abortiveness may be a management consequence. It appears from other work that the flowering-pod set stages of reproduction may be the key periods and it was decided to investigate this proposition. My hypothesis was that a defined soil moisture deficit would exert an unfavorable moisture response in the plant which, if imposed at a reproductive critical period of development, would be reflected in increased levels of flower and/or pod abortion, and thus a reduced yield potential. The study reported in this thesis was initiated to determine water management for most efficient use of a limited water supply. I expanded the scope of the work to test effects of soil moisture deficits during selected stages of plant development on plant stress, reproductive activity, yield, and yield components

Reconceptualizing Cognitive Media Effects Theory and Research Under the Judged Usability Model

This review synthesizes the existing literature on cognitive media effects, including agenda setting, framing, and priming, in order to identify their similarities, differences, and inherent commonalities. Based on this review, we argue that the theory and research on each of these cognitive effects share a common view that media affect audience members by influencing the relative importance of considerations used to make subsequent judgments (including their answers to post-exposure survey questions). In reviewing this literature, we note that one important factor is often ignored, the extent to which a consideration featured in the message is deemed usable for a given subsequent judgment, a factor called judged usability, which may be an important mediator of cognitive media effects like agenda setting, framing, and priming. Emphasizing judged usability leads to the revelation that media coverage may not just elevate a particular consideration, but may also actively suppress a consideration, rendering it less usable for subsequent judgments. Thus, it opens a new avenue for cognitive effects research. In the interest of integrating these strands of cognitive effects research, we propose the Judged Usability Model as a revision of past cognitive models

Thinking about the media: a review of theory and research on media perceptions, media effects perceptions, and their consequences

This review explicates the past, present and future of theory and research concerning audience perceptions of the media as well as the effects that perceptions of media have on audiences. Before the sections that examine media perceptions and media effects perceptions, we first identify various psychological concepts and processes involved in generating media-related perceptions. In the first section, we analyze two types of media perceptions: media trust/credibility perceptions and bias perceptions, focusing on research on the Hostile Media Perception. In both cases, we address the potential consequences of these perceptions. In the second section, we assess theory and research on perceptions of media effects (often referred to as Presumed Influence) and their consequences (referred to as the Influence of Presumed Influence). As examples of Presumed Influence, we evaluate the literature on the Persuasive Press Inference and the Third-Person Perception. The bodies of research on media perceptions and media effects perceptions have been featured prominently in the top journals of the field of mass communication over the past 20 years. Here we bring them together in one synthetic theoretical review

We haven't got a seat on the bus for you or All the seats are mine: Narratives and career transitions in professional golf

In this article we explore how the stories an athlete tells throughout life in sport affect her career transition experiences. We base our enquiry on a social constructionist conception of narrative theory which holds that storytelling is integral to the creation and maintenance of identity and sense of self. Life stories were gathered through interviews with two professional women golfers (Christiana and Kandy) over a six‐year period. Through a narrative analysis of structure and form we explored each participant’s stories of living in and withdrawing from professional golf. We suggest Christiana told monological performance‐oriented stories which, while aligning with the culture of elite sport, resulted in an exclusive athletic identity and foreclosure of alternative selves and roles. On withdrawal, Christiana experienced narrative wreckage, identity collapse, mental health difficulties and considerable psychological trauma. In contrast, Kandy told dialogical discovery‐oriented stories which, while being in tension with the dominant performance narrative, created and sustained a multidimensional identity and self. Her stories and identity remained intact, authentic and continuous on withdrawal from tournament golf and she experienced few psychological problems

Stories of success: Cultural narratives and personal stories of elite and professional athletes

Using a narrative methodology to explore the stories Olympic and elite athletes tell about success, we identified three alternatives to the dominant conception of success as the achievement of performance outcomes. In these alternatives, success is storied as: (1) ‘I did the best that I could’ – a controllable and sustainable story of effort and application; (2) ‘It’s the closest thing you can get to flying’ – a story where success relates to embodied experience and discovery; (3) ‘People I made the journey with’ – which prioritises relationships and connection between people. We reflect on three key insights: (1) success is a multidimensional concept, broader than the singular conception encapsulated within the dominant performance narrative; (2) through various narrative strategies, experienced athletes resist cultural pressures towards a singular conception of success; (3) for long-term performance and well-being, it is necessary to work towards multiple forms of success over time and across contexts

Alice May Douglas Correspondence

Entries include a typed biography, a handwritten letter concerning permission granted by Dunnack to collect Maine poetry for a possible anthology that Douglas never spoke of, and typed and handwritten correspondence about books sent to the Maine Author Collection

Ruth Curtis Douglas Correspondence

Entries include a typed biography from Douglas whose poems were published in the anthology Maine and Vermont Poets and poetry magazines