Matching Items (18)
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- All Subjects: Communication
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Nadesan, Majia
- Creators: Gruber, Diane
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
The &ldquoMormon; Colonies” in Chihuahua, northern Mexico, boast a sizable population of women originally from the United States who have immigrated to these small Mexican towns. This ethnographic study of the immigrant women in the area focuses on questions of citizenship and belonging, and bolsters the scholarship on U.S. American immigrants in Mexico. Using data from 15 unstructured interviews, the women&rsquos; experiences of migration provide a portrait of U.S. American immigrants in a Mexican religious community. Analysis of this data using grounded theory has revealed that these U.S. American women have created a third social space for themselves, to a large degree retaining their original culture, language, and political loyalty. Their stories contribute to the literature on transnational migration, providing an account of the way migrants of privilege interact with their society of settlement.
ContributorsNielsen, Vanessa (Author) / Mean, Lindsey (Thesis advisor) / Téllez, Michelle (Committee member) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The economic crisis in 2008 triggered a global financial shockwave that left many wondering about the origins of the crisis. Similarly, in the early twentieth century, Wall Street faced catastrophic losses that set the stage for the Great Depression, which resulted in a decade of economic depression, leaving millions of people out of work. Using discourse analysis to understand how economic crisis is framed through the mainstream press, this research project analyzed the stock market crash of 1929-1932 and the mortgage-backed financial crisis of 2007-2009 through the lens of two mainstream publications, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Comparative analysis focused on explanations for the causes of the crises, attributions of blame, culprits, and proposed solutions emerging in news coverage of the 1929 panic and the 2007-2009 financial crises. Mainstream media accounts of the 2007-2009 crisis are then compared with `alternative media' accounts of crisis causes, culprits, and solutions. These comparative analyses are contextualized historically within economic paradigms of thought, beginning with the classical economists led by Adam Smith and transitioning to the Chicago School.
ContributorsPrice, Eun (Author) / Nadesan, Majia (Thesis advisor) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Ramsey, Ramsey E (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Smoking prevalence has been a significant issue in China. This present study investigates family influences on the smoking behaviors of highly-educated Chinese youths (HECY) and explores whether family factors work as distal factors in the revised framework of the theory of planned behavior. Convenience sampling and snow-ball sampling have been utilized to select participants from highly-educated Chinese youth population who are students studying in colleges or universities and people who recently graduated from Chinese colleges or universities with Bachelor's and/or Master' degrees. This study relies on quantitative methodologies to analyze the data from the participants' responses to online cross sectional surveys with SPSS. This present study has determined that family influences do contribute to the smoking behaviors of highly-educated Chinese youths. In addition to examining the proximal factors (highly-educated Chinese youths' attitudes toward smoking, self-efficacy and social norms of smoking) in the model of the theory of planned behavior, this current study has examined the following distal factors: (1) parental communication about smoking, (2) communication about smoking among siblings, (3) parents, siblings and/or cousins' attitudes toward smoking, and (4) smoking behaviors of parents, siblings and/or cousins.
ContributorsJin, Xianlin (Author) / Waldron, Vincent (Thesis advisor) / Nadesan, Majia (Committee member) / Kwon, Kyounghee (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This ethnographic study contributes to the literature on Latin@ youth in the US by focusing on the experiences of Latin@ youth in Arizona and their identity management practices. The data from 9 months of field observations and 11 unstructured interviews provides a vivid picture of the youth's daily encounters. Using a thematic analysis this study reveals the youth's experiences in occupying predominantly white spaces, managing privilege, and managing negative stereotypes. The youth's involvement at El Centro, an Arizona nonprofit organization, provided them a safe space in which they created a familial environment for themselves and their peers.
ContributorsTerminel Iberri, Ana (Author) / Mean, Lindsey (Thesis advisor) / Téllez, Michelle (Thesis advisor) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
ABSTRACT The goal of this study is to use neoclassical realist methodology to add to the growing body of literature explaining why America is failing so horribly in its media war with militant Islamists. The general argument being conveyed is that inconsistencies in America's ostensibly liberal diplomacy strategy leaves it open to criticism and deprives it of the credibility necessary to muster an adequate rebuttal. To accomplish its aim, the analysis begins with an investigation into the origins of America's current liberal rhetorical approach. It is believed that with this sort look beneath the surface of the idealistic romanticism U.S. citizens have been continually conditioned to embrace, it becomes apparent that the grandiose pronouncements made by America's national political elite are actually based on rather dubious foundations. The evaluation then turns to a more focused rhetorical examination, which spans from the start of the so-called Arab Spring uprisings on December 18, 2010 to the delivery of President Obama's highly publicized State Department address regarding these demonstrations on May 19, 2011, in order to go behind the White House's official statements and uncover what truly motivated its policy decision making. The belief here is that a close review of the administration's abysmal performance during this historic period assists in making the inadequacy of America's current rhetorical narrative all the more evident. Finally, once the contradictory nature of contemporary American liberalism has been fully demonstrated, the last section concludes with an effort to explain why replacing America's liberal strategy with a straightforward realist stance is best for both American's relations with the Muslim world and America's overall security.
ContributorsThomas, John H., III (Author) / Mean, Lindsey (Thesis advisor) / Ramsey, Ramsey E (Committee member) / Nadesan, Majia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Research literature and popular press articles were reviewed to uncover the influences and viewer pleasures received from watching reality television. A close semiotic analysis of the reality television program, Teen Mom, was conducted. The semiotic analysis looked at the characters, the structure of the show, and the show's use of graphics and audio to understand the show's influences on viewers. An analysis of the Teen Mom website and online forum was also conducted. Seventy-one viewer posts and 403 viewer responses were analyzed to uncover viewer reactions to the show. The results were significant in three ways. First, the producers of the show claim the show is meant to educate viewers on the effects of teen pregnancy. The analysis found that while the show sends educational messages, it also contradicts itself by glamorizing teen pregnancy. Second, the analysis of the online forum revealed the formation of close online communities among Teen Mom viewers. Third, the website analysis provided evidence of viewer pleasure resulting from voyeuristic and social comparison tendencies. It is plausible that Teen Mom viewers engage with the show for the opportunity to observe parts of other people's lives they would not normally be permitted to see. At the same time, viewers evaluate themselves in comparison to the Teen Mom cast members.
ContributorsPadelford, Sarah (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey E (Thesis advisor) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Wise, Greg (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Heroism is a phenomenon central to the development of Western Society. It is present at the core of understanding history, it is the basis for all literature, and exists in many forms in contemporary society, including the celebrity. As a result of its pervasiveness, the philosophy by which heroism ought to be understood has been left out of its contemporary iterations. Through an investigation of a provocative real person, rather than a literary character, the being of the hero in the everydayness of life can be more readily understood. The character in question is Leila Khaled, provocative because she is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and participated in two airplane hijackings. The general public understands her to be a terrorist; however, she is a hero among her own people and as a hero has much to teach. Through an inspection of her story, the hero presents itself as acting with courage and being motivated by love toward a greater good. Thus, an investigation of these phenomena - courage, love, and the greater good - will result in a better understanding of the hero that works toward the philosophic discussion about heroism that has been largely ignored over the last several hundred years.
ContributorsMorris, Christopher (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey (Thesis advisor) / Jordan, Elaine (Committee member) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Using a critical textual approach and a feminist lens, this paper analyses the television adaptation, Outlander, and its depictions of sexual violence. The nature of adaptation and how the adaptation process can lead to incidental as well as intentional alterations in the storytelling are addressed throughout the paper. The analysis is done in two parts, the first exploring emergent themes such as the use of bodies’ geographic location, scars, and nudity to depict messages about power, the impact of the adaptation’s choice to promote Jamie’s perspective, and the use of cinematic techniques as narrative devices. The second half of the analysis covers how notable characters and events are framed by the show to promote a division between pure evil (embodied by Capt. Randall) and the heroes of the story, Claire and Jamie, whose problematic behaviors are minimized or promoted by the narrative. Many of the scenes in the show can be read multiple ways, sending different or even contradictory messages. However, despite the positive critical response to the show, this paper argues that Outlander still reinforces the notion that female characters are natural victims, and undermines the trauma of their assaults, in contrast to the focus given to the rape of Jamie, the heterosexual male lead.
ContributorsHeath, Mary (Author) / Mean, Lindsey (Thesis advisor) / Nadesan, Majia (Committee member) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Through critical discourse analysis, this thesis explores the construction of poverty and development within and across the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the proposed post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals texts. The proposed post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals frame the international development landscape for the next 15 years, therefore it becomes imperative for civil society to understand their dominant economic schemes for poverty alleviation in order to adopt or oppose similar methods of poverty abatement. Deductively, this thesis investigates Keynesianism and neoliberalism, the dominant economic discourses whose deployments within the goals have shaped transnational frameworks for interpreting and mitigating poverty. It assesses the failures of the Millennium Development Goals, as articulated both by its creators and critics, and evaluates the responsiveness of the United Nations in the constitution of the proposed post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals in relation to these critiques through the lens of liberal feminist and World Social Forum discourses. These activist and oppositional social discourses embody competing values, representations, and problem-solution frames that challenge and resist the dominant economic discourses in both sets of goals. Additionally, this thesis uses an inductive approach to critically analyze both sets of goals in order to identify any emergent discursive frameworks grounded in each text that assist in understanding the problems of, and solutions to, poverty.
ContributorsBriant, Janie (Author) / Nadesan, Majia (Thesis advisor) / Kelley, Douglas L. (Committee member) / Keahey, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have a polarizing effect in the US. The first commercially viable GMO was Roundup Ready Soy, introduced by Monsanto in 1996, to be used in conjunction with Roundup herbicides. This thesis investigated and delineated the development and deployments of the discourse of Monsanto’s agricultural assemblage of Roundup Ready seeds and Roundup herbicides and its resistant discourses. Monsanto builds its discourse around the safety and necessity of Roundup Ready seeds through federal regulation and toxicology studies. Resistant discourses deployed by Monsanto’s critics problematize Roundup safety and reject Monsanto’s contention that GMOs are necessary for meeting world’s food demands. The discourse analysis pursued in this thesis explored interactions between the dominant discourse and counter discourses and charted their deployments in Colorado’s and Oregon’s 2014 ballot measures that would have required mandatory GMO labeling. Analysis suggested counter discourses were successful in mobilizing people to engage civically.
ContributorsSchluter, Desiree Christine (Author) / Nadesan, Majia (Thesis advisor) / Mean, Lindsey (Committee member) / Wise, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015