Matching Items (2)
Description
Advertisements intend to persuade the reader to invest money or time in a product or service. Newspapers contain advertisements that are space-limited, thus necessitating a concise and convincing message that will influence readers. Nord (2008) analyzed conative function (Jakobson 1960) as a persuasive tool in a corpus of Spanish, English, and German advertising texts. A portion of Nord's study focused on sender attitude indicators directed at addressees as a key element of conative function, and analyzed address forms among several attitude indicators found in print advertisements. The current study analyzed 604 Spanish newspaper advertisements in Arizona and Florida, focusing on possible independent factors related to the probability of the occurrence of various address forms. These factors included: the type of product being advertized and its cost, the nature of the advertisement, the location of the advertisement in the newspaper (main section, sports, etc.), intended audience (including age and sex), geographic region of the newspaper, and each newspaper as compared to others. These variables were categorized and statistically analyzed using a quantitative design. The study provided results indicating a strong statistical relationship between the presence of address forms and product type, a moderate relationship with audience age, and a mild relationship with product cost. Various similarities and differences were also found when comparing the data geographically.
ContributorsBorba, Andrew (Author) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Thesis advisor) / Lafford, Barbara (Committee member) / Shepherd, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Theme parks have been expanding in size and scope since their inception decades past, a trend that the academic world has begun to notice. There is a wide variety of academic literature on tourism, but not nearly as much on theme parks. As a unique entertainment concept, theme parks have yet to be studied as extensively as other tourism settings. The purpose of this study is to expand on the current academic research concerning theme parks. The researcher applied directed content analysis to dozens of mass media articles in an attempt to identify strategies currently in use in the theme park industry, thereby filling a gap in academic research on the practical application of strategy in the theme park industry. The content analysis consisted of 87 articles from 34 United States-based sources ranging in year from 1985 to 2013, including both large- and small-scale publications, in regards to circulation, spanning the entire country. At the conclusion of the data collection process, the researcher recorded 225 statements demonstrating eight distinct strategies historically present in the theme park industry. The statements from the articles were extracted, analyzed and categorized as discussed below. Those strategies fit into the following eight categories: (1) value, (2) uniqueness, (3) niche, (4) innovation, (5) variety, (6) quality, (7) currency, and (8) convenience. Results from this study introduced two new key strategies being applied in the theme park industry that had not been previously included in the academic literature. The first new strategy discovered was currency. The strategy of providing something current means the theme park attempted to give its guests experiences that were culturally relevant at that time and modern in the theme itself, like creating a ride from a new movie. The second new strategy was convenience, in which case the theme park attempted to make its experiences more accessible for a single member in a party, or the entire group. Both of these new strategies appeared frequently, often more than the six strategies originally identified in the academic literature review. As theme parks continue to grow and diversify in the United States and around the world, it is important for professionals in tourism and business to understand the industry's progression. By combining previous knowledge and adding new research, this study has provided a foundation for future research and analysis on the dynamics of the theme park industry on a national and international scale.
ContributorsLillestol, Tayllor Paige (Author) / Timothy, Dallen (Thesis director) / Goodman, Rebekka (Committee member) / College of Public Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2014-05