UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item THE “PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHERS”: HOW JOURNALISM EDUCATORS ARE INNOVATING AND COLLABORATING IN RESPONSE TO THE NEWS CRISIS(2023) Burns, Mary Alison; Steiner, Linda; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the motives, experiences, and perspectives of journalism faculty members at colleges and universities who have invented, developed, and led innovative experiential learning collaborations in their programs. Through qualitative interviews and constructivist grounded theory, this study finds that journalism educators are launching specific types of collaborative projects in response to ongoing and emerging problems in journalism. This dissertation offers a typology of ideal-type j-school collaborations, and a new conceptualization of collaboration as a strategy for democratic stewarding in journalism education.Item Deliberation and Legitimacy in Economic Development Policy(2021) Good, Joseph E; Wible, Scott; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Most policy decisions are channeled through deliberative forums, such as a city council or state legislature. Economic development is a frequent concern in those deliberative forums, as economic development policy can greatly affect the life and livelihood of constituents. Yet the process of economic development policy can be enigmatic, intimidating, and/or inequitable. Accordingly, this dissertation analyzes economic development in localized policy processes and decisions. The driving goal is to better understand and ameliorate policy problems, especially problems of democratic deliberation and legitimacy. Thus, this dissertation joins other works that aim to “illustrate how rhetoric engages advocates and audiences alike to frame public problems and identify policy solutions.” This dissertation uses case studies as the basis for qualitative analysis. The case studies are distinct episodes of economic development decisions and campaigns. Rhetorical analysis is the main method of analysis. But this dissertation also honors the goals of a “problem structuring” study, where policy problems are interpreted, organized, and more clearly defined. Furthermore, each case is structured as an ecological study. This intensive observation of past situations and decisions allows a more concentrated focus on policy problems. Chapter one introduces the frame of work, methods, and goals. Chapter two is an intensive look at the economic development policy of Harrisburg, PA from 1999-2003. This centers around an aging trash incinerator and encompasses issues such as environmentalism and social justice. Chapter three observes university-centered economic development. A series of case studies shows how universities employ similar rhetorical appeals to secure funding and investment. Chapter four addresses democratic legitimacy. After defining the term, the case studies of previous chapters are re-analyzed to uncover problems of democratic legitimacy. In using this localized focus and distinct methodology, this dissertation endeavors to ameliorate policy problems in the analyzed cases. Yet these problems are often analogous to policy processes in many other contexts. Therefore, this dissertation is applicable to many policy situations across the country.Item “A CONSTANT FIGHT WITH OUR MORALS:” EXAMINING UKRAINIAN JOURNALISTS’ NORMATIVE DEMOCRATIC BELIEFS AMID PLURALISM, PROPAGANDA, AND WAR(2018) Nynka, Andrew; Oates, Sarah; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This work addresses a central problem in contemporary democratic theory. John Rawls, the American political philosopher, defined the potential problem of division in plural, liberal democracy: “How is it possible that there may exist over time a stable and just society of free and equal citizens profoundly divided by reasonable though incompatible religious, philosophical, and moral doctrines?” In considering the question of social division, this dissertation asked whether journalists in Ukraine – a country dealing with propaganda, fake news, war, and a difficult transition to liberal democracy – believe they should play a role amid such tension. Qualitative in-depth, semi-structured interviews of 31 Ukrainian reporters probed their normative beliefs for a journalistic pragmatism that represents the full spectrum of beliefs and positions in their society. This research also contrasts and compares the broader normative beliefs of post-Soviet Ukrainian journalists with Western normative journalism theory by analyzing interviews conducted with 41 American journalists. This dissertation used the theoretical work of pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty, who argued that journalists could ease tension in plural society by fulfilling normative journalism theory’s charge for reporters to be a voice for the voiceless. It was hypothesized that journalists in Ukraine would deprioritize journalistic pragmatism, while prioritizing war-time reporting that polarizes society, primarily because of three factors: the business needs of the press, war in Ukraine, and the legacy of Soviet culture on journalistic norms. The findings defied expectations to a degree by showing that journalists believe the press should represent the full spectrum of positions and beliefs in Ukraine and they should uphold established western norms. Journalists said oligarchic ownership of media and a legacy of control over the press by people in power limit their independence. The findings show division on objectivity: roughly half believe reporters must remain neutral amid pro-Russian propaganda and fake news, while the second half said objectivity leads to false equivalency. Journalists said on-the-ground, factual reporting can fight propaganda and fake news. Analysis of the U.S. interviews showed more convergence of concerns between Ukrainian and American reporters than was expected, suggesting that journalistic norms can transcend country contexts to an unexpected degree.Item A HOUSE OF BRICK: USING THE ACRL FRAMEWORK TO [RE]BUILD A STRONGER, MORE SUSTAINABLE DEMOCRACY THROUGH A STAND-ALONE, INFORMATION LITERACY COURSE(2017) Douglass, Courtney Lawrence; Jaeger, Paul; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores the relationship with and value of information literacy to a successful, democratic society. It analyzes societal needs and presents historical and philosophical relevance for the value of understanding how to acquire, use and create accurate, timely and relevant information pieces and products. Finally, this thesis presents a model for teaching information literacy as an independent social or information science course, and how a college at a major research university has moved to implement such a course for the benefit of the University at large.Item Credible Commitments and Post-Conflict Refugee Return: A Statistical and Network Analysis(2016) Creed, Daniel Patrick; Calvo, Ernesto; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I examine determinants of refugee return after conflicts. I argue that institutional constraints placed on the executive provide a credible commitment that signals to refugees that the conditions required for durable return will be created. This results in increased return flows for refugees. Further, when credible commitments are stronger in the country of origin than in the country of asylum, the level of return increases. Finally, I find that specific commitments made to refugees in the peace agreement do not lead to increased return because they are not credible without institutional constraints. Using data on returnees that has only recently been made available, along with network analysis and an original coding of the provisions in refugee agreements, statistical results are found to support this theory. An examination of cases in Djibouti, Sierra Leone, and Liberia provides additional support for this argument.Item AN OCCUPATION WITH DEMOCRATIZATION: A MARGINAL VALUE APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE CONSOLIDATION OF IMPOSED DEMOCRATIC REGIMES(2013) Mathewson, Jesse-Douglas Robert; Soltan, Karol; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The dissertation attempts to understand the causes and correlates of democratic consolidation in occupied territories. A Marginal Value Model attempts to explain the consolidation of democracy in these cases as a function of international threat dynamics and the relationship between the occupiers and the occupied regime. The dissertation tests the Marginal Value Model and its corresponding hypotheses against four case studies: post-WWI Germany, post-WWII Germany, Japan and Korea. The study finds that democracies are more likely to consolidate when there is an external threat, when the occupier credibly protects the new regime against this threat, and when the occupier provides additional goods to the domestic population. These tests find support for the Marginal Value Model and its corresponding hypotheses.Item Museums, Social Media, and the Fog of Community(2011) Wong, Amelia Selene; Sies, Mary C; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the early twenty-first century, museums increasingly turn to "social media" to engage audiences and in these efforts they routinely imagine them as "communities." This dissertation tends to the politics of that choice, which extends a long history of museums employing community as a strategy towards institutional reform. Museums invoke community in numerous ways but without typically articulating those meanings, even though they influence the implementation and evaluation of social media projects. I argue that this lack of articulation creates a "fog" over practices--an ambiguous and confusing context of work--in which community operates as a "self-evident good," but serves traditional interests as much as transformative ones. To expose the many ideas that lay within this fog, I examine how American museums invoked community throughout the last century, showing how they use it both to reinforce their power and alter relations with audiences. After exploring how community has been conceptualized through networked digital media and social media--technologies and a culture that emphasize openness, communication, collaboration, and the materialization of digital bodies--I show how museums continue to use community in complex ways. As social media conflate community with communication--specifically "face-to-face," or immediate, communication, I argue they influence museums to over-value visible acts of communication, which narrows their understanding of online visitor engagement and dilutes the potential of community to shape projects that more conscientiously serve audiences and institutional reform. To illustrate the complexity of these ideas at work, I present three case studies of museums using social media to construct community: the Getty Center's blog, A Different Lens; the Japanese American National Museum's website, Discover Nikkei; and the website of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Science Buzz. I expose the definitions of community at work in each, examine how they influence the use of media, and work to limit and serve the project's various democratizing goals. The conclusion offers a nascent problematique that suggests more critical approaches museums may take for invoking community and using social media towards democratizing aims.Item Democracy and State Repression: What we Don't Know, Can Kill Us(2009) Armstrong II, David; Davenport, Christian; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There is an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence that democracy makes states more pacific toward their citizens. This robust finding has left scholars working in this area confident that they know {\em why} democracy causes states to be more pacific. I argue this is not true for two reasons. First, the theories adopted to explain this relationship have not been properly tested. Second, when good faith efforts have been made to test theories, measurement of all key variables has not been treated rigorously. I solve both of these problems by revisiting the theories upon which the literature rests and using a rigorous measurement strategy that is as true as possible to the theories proposed. I show that while the theories are up to the task of explaining the relationship, often the data are the weak link. Often, there is relatively little variation on the dependent and key independent variables. Thus, I show that most of the results generated in the literature are of the between-country variety rather than the within-country variety.Item The Transparency of Democracy: A Lefebvrean Analysis of Washington's Nationals Park(2008-11-17) Friedman, Michael Todd; Andrews, David L.; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In 2008, the Washington Nationals began play in their new stadium, Nationals Park, which has been subsidized with $611 million of public money from the city of Washington, D.C. According to lead architect Joseph Spear of HOK Sport, "the transparency of democracy" (as qtd. in Nakamura, 2005a, p. B1) is one of the stadium's primary design themes, as Spear was inspired by the city's global image and role in American political life. Using faux-limestone made from precast concrete to look similar to Washington's myriad of federal buildings and glass to provide transparency, designers claim that Nationals Park is an inclusive space, which promotes civic cohesion and economic growth along the Anacostia River. However, similar to the way that the practice of democracy diverges from Washington's democratic image as the city's 586,000 residents are denied political representation in the United States Congress, Nationals Park is actually an exclusionary space as high prices and highly segregated spaces belie the designers' stated intentions. This dissertation examines the contradictions between National Park's image and practice through exploring the spatial politics expressed in and through the process approving the stadium, the various economic redevelopment initiatives of Mayor Anthony Williams' administration, the stadium's architecture, and the elimination of the site's previous use as a sexually-oriented space catering to Washington's LGBT community. To do so, this dissertation utilizes the theories and methods of Henri Lefebvre, who examined space as being constitutive and reflective of dominant social relations towards changing those relations to create a more democratic society in which people could create their own lives free from exploitation and alienation. As such, this dissertation investigates Nationals Park not for its own sake, but as a lens through which to examine the ideologies and practices that define the relationships between governments and citizens, communities and individuals, and people with one another within the contemporary moment.Item Beyond Cynicism: How Media Literacy Can Make Students More Engaged Citizens(2008-04-22) Mihailidis, Paul; Moeller, Susan D.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Beyond Cynicism: How Media Literacy Can Make Students More Engaged Citizens explores what media literacy courses actually teach students. Do students become more knowledgeable consumers of media messages? Do students, armed with that knowledge, become more engaged citizens? A large multi-year study found that classes in media literacy do seem to make students more knowledgeable about media messages--but also found that the increase in students' analytical abilities does not perforce turn them into citizens who understand and support media's essential role in civil society. This dissertation used a sample of 239 University of Maryland undergraduates in a pre-post/control quasi-experiment, the largest-ever study of this kind on the post-secondary level. The study did find that the students enrolled in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism's J175: Media Literacy course increased their ability to comprehend, evaluate, and analyze media messages in print, video, and audio format. Based on the positive empirical findings, focus group sessions were conducted within the experimental group and the control group. The students from the media literacy course expressed their belief that media literacy education enable them to "look deeper" at media, while feeling more informed in general. Yet, when the discussions concerned media relevance and credibility, the students who so adamantly praised media literacy, expressed considerable negativity about media's role in society. Preliminarily, these findings suggest that media literacy curricula and readings which are solely or primarily focused on teaching critical analysis skills are inadequate. Critical analysis should be an essential first step in teaching media literacy, but the curriculum should not end there. Beyond Cynicism: How Media Literacy Can Make Students More Engaged Citizens concludes by recommending a way forward for post-secondary media literacy education. Beyond Cynicism offers a new curricular framework that aims to connect media literacy skills and outcomes that promote active citizenship. With a greater understanding of the limitations of teaching students to be cynics, university faculty can adapt their courses to give students not just analytical and evaluative tools to critique media, but a focused understanding of why a free and diverse media is essential to civil society.