Journalism electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the School of Journalism. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Public relations in baseball in the 1960's(University of Missouri--Columbia, 1969) Walsh, John A."The first three chapters are concerned with the St. Louis Cardinals' public relations organization. The division in chapters was determined by the three-part division of the St. Louis public relations office. The public relations director and his functions are in the first part of the division, the community relations director and his role in the second part and the sales and promotions department in the final of the three parts. The chapter on promotions also presents the debate among men in baseball concerning the role promotion should play, and thus links Chapter IV with Chapter V, which describes how three separate atypical promotions in baseball helped to improve attendance. Chapter VI uses the preceding as a background and discusses what public relations is doing and is not doing in baseball today. Most of the basis for this chapter is a public relations survey sent to all twenty teams (this was done before the expansion move of 1968 was approved and the four new teams were added to the major leagues). The final chapter draws conclusions from the material presented in the first six chapters. Throughout the thesis are several definitions of public relations, functions of public relations, and theoretical axioms of public relations which support or negate, in theory, the practices of the public relations departments. Their usage is intended to add another dimension to the study. Much of the research for this study was conducted by interviews and on-the-scene reporting. Other sources were leading periodical articles on baseball and on public relations and promotions in baseball."--Page 6.Item Examining gender disparities in gendered traits of images depicting Wimbledon athletes(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022) Paggiarino, Olivia; Greenwood, KeithDoes photographic coverage reflect the socialized tendencies we have to perceive athletes in a gender-stereotypical way, or does it challenge them? This study investigates visuals of men and women athletes when the sport those athletes are playing doesn’t explicitly code them in masculine and feminine ways. The sport this study focuses on specifically is tennis – previous research supports the idea that tennis is an athletic activity whose routines do not influence viewers to make gender-related assumptions about its players. This study examines online content from the American sports news outlets Sports Illustrated and ESPN in particular, partially due to the wide audience of each and partially due to both organizations’ immersion in coverage of both men’s and women’s sports. The findings of this study suggest that visual media in sports – at least, in tennis coverage – was neutralized and relatively equalized in its presentation across SI and ESPN in 2019.Item Media and the accessible platform that furthers disability communication(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2024) Wright, Shelby; Jenkins, JoyThis research explores disabled content creators and the experience of the media sphere that talks about those with disabilities. This study talked to 15 media creators who live and work in the disabled community. The participants shed light on how marginalized communities create media and share information for and with a niche community. The research is contextualized on health and advocacy journalism while largely relying on scholarship about niche community journalism that shares information outside the mainstream like the Black Press. The creators we spoke to explained their motivation to enter the media sphere and how they create content and share information about disability that was missing in their experience. This research shares the participants' role in politics, health, and lifestyle media and draws a larger picture of communication in the disabled community.Item The impact and culture of search engine optimization strategies within smaller news organizations(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2024) Tallant, David Lynn, Jr.; Mathews, NickSearch engine optimization, the practice of curating word choice to rank higher on search engine result pages, has been a major innovation in digital journalism, as many media outlets have migrated onto primarily online platforms for news dissemination (Giomelakis & Veglis, 2015). Newsroom SEO practices have the potential to increase organic traffic and digital visibility, allowing for smaller newsrooms to attract a larger online audience, but the value of the practice is unclear when generated content is geographically localized (Giomelakis, 2023). The purpose of this study is to explore how the innovation of SEO strategies are impacting smaller newsrooms in terms of their editorial processes, their content creation and their digital production techniques. Thirteen semi-structured interviews with professionals identified from various smaller newsrooms across Missouri via purposive sampling were conducted. The findings indicate that SEO practices have diffused to smaller newsrooms, but have had a limited impact due to constraints such as time and resources. The findings indicate that SEO is largely considered a powerful tool, but ultimately was not conducive to the environment or goals of many smaller newsrooms. Participants all agreed that their primary audience was local, but diverged on SEO's potential on affecting that local audience. The observations may serve as a guideline for future research on smaller newsrooms' relationship with SEO and further, the value of scale-based innovations for small local publications.Item To show or to shield : twin cities news media's gatekeeping of the George Floyd video(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2024) Pastner, Deborah McClure; Greenwood, KeithThrough the lens of gatekeeping, this study investigates Twin Cities news editors' decision-making regarding publication of Darnella Frazier's video of George Floyd's murder. The goal was to understand how news editors perceive their roles changed in a digital age, particularly in relation to user-generated graphic visuals. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with editors, news directors, and executive producers at five Twin Cities television and newspaper outlets. The study reveals that some gatekeeping procedures remain unchanged from pre-social media days, but editors have grown more reliant on user-generated visual content, particularly when it counters an institutional authority's narrative. Furthermore, editors are putting greater emphasis on audience well- being, recognizing graphic visuals' potential to trigger trauma. In doing so, editors are shifting from using a traditional Breakfast Test (a taste test) towards a "trauma rubric" when dealing with graphic content. Additionally, the study highlights that editors have mixed feelings about social media. While its existence alleviates some publication pressure, editors also feel social media demands rapid decision-making. Overall, the findings suggest news editors still consider themselves active gatekeepers, even while grappling with a complex triad of issues: upholding traditional editorial practices while contending with emerging technologies and evolving ethical considerations.