http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2783 2013-06-19T06:08:49Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13495 Title: Out of Work: Youth Unemployment in Baltimore Authors: Wilding, Alexandra Abstract: ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: Out of Work: Youth Unemployment in Baltimore City Name of degree candidate: Alexandra Wilding Degree and Year: Master of Arts, 2012 Thesis directed by: Dr. Katherine C. McAdams, Associate Dean, Philip Merrill College of Journalism A 2012 report from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington said that since the start of the recession in December 2007, young adults have attained the highest unemployment rate on record since 1948. Through a series of interviews, this project aims to explore the reasons and effects of unemployment on Baltimore's young adults. To complete the project, approximately 13 youth aged 17 to 24 were interviewed in the winter and spring of 2012. Almost all of the youth interviewed for this project said that getting further education was a key to having better work options. But simultaneously, the majority of out-of-work youth interviewed for the project lacked any consistent work experiences. The project aims to give a human face to statistics about youth unemployment using community reporting as a model to tell the stories of young people out of work in Baltimore in 2012. Access the project: www.alexandrawilding.com/youthunemployment. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13227 Title: PARTISANS AND CONTROVERSIAL NEWS ONLINE: COMPARING PERCEIVED BIAS, CREDIBILITY, AND USER BEHAVIOR IN MAINSTREAM NEWS VERSUS BLOGS Authors: Kim, Mihee Abstract: This 2 (partisan opinion) x 2 (content source) x 2 (content valence) factorial experiment investigates how partisans' prior positions on two controversial issues of same sex marriage (N = 132) and guns on campus (N = 130) influence their perceptions about online content from either mainstream news source online (the Associated Press) or citizen blogs. Partisans' perceptions of the content included perceived bias and credibility. This study also explores how the perceptions affect partisans' online behaviors, including commenting on the content and subsequent information seeking. Theoretically, the study tests `hostile media effect' framework with a blog then investigates whether the effect differs when the same content appears on a mainstream news source online (the Associated Press). The study also examines the relationship between the hostile media effect and partisans' online behaviors. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions with each containing stimuli manipulated as either pro or anti on the issues on either a mainstream news source online (the Associated Press) or a blog. Similar to previous evidence of a relative hostile media effect in traditional printed news articles and national network broadcasts, this study found that online content also generated the effect regardless if content is produced by professional journalists or citizen bloggers. Partisans evaluated both mainstream online news and blog postings with opposite views as biased and less credible. Particularly, user-generated content, blog postings, generated a stronger relative hostile media effect than mainstream online news. In addition, hostile media effect appeared to motivate partisans to comment on content that opposes their position to correct perceived bias, and amplify their own position. This study also confirms partisans' selective exposure to additional content that supports their position. However, the hostile media effect did not appear to enhance the tendency for selective exposure. In their totality, partisan audiences' perceptions of bias and credibility in mainstream online news and blog postings in a hostile direction, followed by commenting and more information seeking, seems to reinforce partisanship rather than encourage consensus between supporters and opponents of the controversial issues. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13106 Title: THE EMOTIONS SOCIAL MEDIA BRING TO NEWS: THE EMERGENCE OF EMPATHY AND COMPASSION AS ELEMENTS IN NEWS MESSAGES Authors: Chong, EunRyung Abstract: This study is an experiment examining qualitative differences of social media as an emerging news platform from traditional main stream media. The study argued a need of the reinterpretation of Marshall McLuhan's notion, "media is the message" in terms of an interaction between news content and media platforms. The study proposed a new concept of users' proximity to news, called "locality," which has been matured by user driven social media environments. For the study, a laboratory experiment was conducted. A total of 83 college students in a large mid-Atlantic university participated in the laboratory experiment as a representative of young adult news consumers. A main stream media news website and Facebook were assigned as news platforms, while negative and positive news content was provided as news content to subjects. Subjects' responses to news content which was laden in the same directional valence of a platform (negative news on a negative main stream media news website) and an opposite directional platform (negative news on positive social media) were observed. Subjects' reaction time and accuracy of memory of news content were measured by psychological software. Subjects also reported their emotions such as valence, intensity, compassion and empathy on negative and positive news content. Results exhibited an effect of coactivation between news content and media platform. When the valence of news contents and its platform were contradicted, the effect of coactivation such as users' hesitation of decision making was found. The results implicated that users' preoccupied expectation for specific news platform may filter their attention to news stories on a specific platform. The ambivalent responses of both empathy and compassion on identical negative news contents supported the proposed concept of "locality." It was revealed that media users manipulate their psychological proximity to news within securing safe distances from negative situations in recent user driven communication environments. Based on the examination, implication of the study for the practice of journalism against confronting challenges was discussed. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12976 Title: SOCIAL MEDIA INSTRUCTION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS HIGHER EDUCATION Authors: Auxier, Brooke Elizabeth Abstract: The purpose of this research is to examine how university-level journalism programs throughout the country are teaching, utilizing, and confronting the new and developing topic of social media. Examined in this research is how journalism programs incorporate social media instruction into their curriculum, how they put it to practice on their program's website, and how and if their tracks or sequences have changed in name and content to reflect an industry shift towards digital, interactive and social media. The questions this thesis will answer are (1) how are journalism schools throughout the country are teaching social media, teaching with social media, and teaching about social media; (2) do social and new media have a place in journalism curricula; and (3) how do changes in the media industry and journalism school curricula coincide. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z