Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2024, Journalism (Communication)

This study examines climate journalists' perception of objectivity and balance, comparing their adherence to the working standards in a cross-national context. Given that a majority of individuals rely on media coverage for comprehension of climate change, one of the world's most relevant crises, the journalistic approach to it matters greatly for public knowledge-building and opinion-forming. The study questions the objectivity and balance norms' suitability as universal industry standards in climate news, due to widely observed misrepresentation and distortion of climate change facts through their application. Through the analysis of ten semi-standardized qualitative video interviews with five journalists each from the U.S. and Germany, an open coding process was employed to answer examine the research subject. Due to different personal and editorial approaches, objectivity and balance can no longer be considered universal industry standards within climate journalism. Instead, advocate for the concept of truth as a replacement, based on a general development towards fact- and evidence-based reporting in climate news.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Committee Chair) Subjects: Journalism

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

This phenomenological study explores a nontraditional intervention for military veterans. These veterans took a participatory digital photography course offered through the collaboration of local organizations, and the induction of reflection, an essential element in personal self-growth, was the phenomenon experienced across participants. These 6 Military Veteran textualizations provided surprising and relevant information about this lived experience. By the end of twelve weeks, Veterans in this course seemed to have a relationship to their subjectivity changed through their participation. In turn, this lived experience was a mode for finding greater individual purpose and meaning. Without courses like this one, many veterans transition into civilian life with the same mentality hammered into them when in service that is only conducive to war. This way of perceiving leaves the military hero emotionally and cognitively incapable of navigating a non-military lifestyle. With recreational or art therapeutics as supplements to therapy, court rehabilitation, and in light of many other unique military personnel barriers to treatment, veterans have a sustained chance at living a more productive life. The benefits of art or recreational therapeutics are profound on the psyche of a wounded hero, and it is a relevant necessity that access to these life-altering experiences becomes a more viable community offering for military veterans. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, https://aura.antioch.edu/ and Ohio LINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

Committee: Alan Bishop Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Crystal Ramirez Ph.D., L.M.F.T. (Committee Member); Stephen Southern Ed.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Armed Forces; Clinical Psychology; Mental Health; Psychology; Psychotherapy

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Journalism (Communication)

The lynching era in Ohio lasted from 1803 to 1937. During these years thirty-five people died at the hands of a lynch mob and seventy-nine escaped from a mob's clutches. This thesis situates the history of lynching in Ohio from 1872 to 1932 and discusses the issue of complacent journalism in the Ohio press through a study of twenty-four cases of white-on-white lynching and racial terror lynching. This thesis shows that lynching was employed as a means to enact fear to keep Black Ohioans in a marginalized position and prevent them from prospering economically or politically. The author also argues that journalists were not objective bystanders but were key to the social voice and national conversation that accepted the practice of lynching in America. By utilizing the concept of critical race theory, the author shows that the racist ideal of Whiteness was able to become hidden by seemingly objective reporting, thus allowing the mainstream press to accept the practice of lynching without the guilt of unlawful “justice.” There is also a paucity of research on Harry C. Smith, a Black journalist who pushed for the first anti-lynching law in Ohio. As such, this research aims to make a significant impact not only on the literature involving northern lynchings but also in the history of Ohio and the need to understand its dark past. In 2020 this historical research hold saliency regarding the racial violence which continues today in America.

Committee: Aimee Edmondson (Committee Chair); Michael Sweeney (Committee Member); Marilyn Greenwald (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Journalism

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2015, American Culture Studies

Historians and artists have examined the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) Photographic Collection as a broad and deep account of Depression era US experience, and as a valuable collection of early documentary photography. During the Depression, FSA photographs had everyday life implications for those experiencing rural poverty; the images were made and circulated in order to garner support for rural rehabilitation programs. Simultaneously, the images were circulated as visual representations of “Americans” and the rural US citizen. Problematically, the images were circulated within a modern framework of straight photography in connection to a discourse of objectivity. I consider the photographic project within the historical moment in which it was created with a specific focus on the influence of dominant constructions of race, motherhood, and poverty. The impetus for this research stems from a 1935 photograph by Dorothea Lange of a Mexican-American mother and child which is strikingly similar to her iconic 1936 “Migrant Mother.” In stark contrast to the icon, the image to which I refer as the “1935 Migrant Mother” was rendered invisible within the national imaginary. These two images serve as an entry point through which to consider the entire archive in terms of those images of rural mothers and motherhood that were popularly circulated and those images that were left unseen, unprinted, or unmade. I ask how popular readings of FSA photographs as objective or “true” impacted the material which circulated and that which were excluded from the dominant frame. Using written materials between the photographic unit director, field photographers, and media in conjunction with analysis of circulated photographs of mothers, I argue that the FSA photographs served as popular representations of those who could be imagined as possibly “deserving poor,” “client family,” “rehabilitatable mother,” and “US citizen.” The representation of thes (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susana Peña PhD (Advisor); Andrew Hershberger PhD (Committee Member); Lynn Whitney MFA (Committee Member); Danielle Kuhl PhD (Other) Subjects: American Studies; Art History; Ethnic Studies; Gender Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Communication

Social media have recently emerged as one of the primary information sources in the U.S. Journalists and news organizations have been keen on establishing a presence within digital social networks in order to utilize this new channel to build and maintain an audience. However, little is known about the practical implications of social media engagement by journalists for audience perceptions of news. The present dissertation attempts to investigate 1) the influences of journalists' social media activities, self-disclosure and interaction with other users, on audience perceptions of the journalists; 2) if the perceptions serve as an important mediator between the social media activities and audience perceptions of the journalists'; news products; and, 3) if and how the direct and indirect effects of journalists'; social media activities are moderated by audiences'; individual differences in journalism orientation (IJO), which refers to which journalism norm audience members lean toward: engagement (public journalism norm) or detachment (objective journalism norm). Given that journalism is in a state of flux between traditional detached approaches and newer attached perspectives, these are important questions to be addressed relative to journalism in new media environments. An experiment with multiple message stimuli was conducted in the context of a journalist's Facebook profile, and college students' perceptions of the journalist and his news product were measured via an online questionnaire. All perceptions were examined on both personal (e.g., attractiveness) and professional (e.g., objectivity and competence) dimensions. The results provided empirical evidence that, 1) when it comes to journalists, engaging in such common social media activities as self-disclosure and interaction can significantly harm journalists in terms of their perceived competence although the same behaviors can improve perceptions of their personality. Results on the perceived obj (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: R. Lance Holbert (Advisor); David DeAndrea (Committee Member); David Ewoldsen (Committee Member); Ray Pingree (Committee Member); Brandon Van Der Heide (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Mass Communications

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Philosophy

I argue that the best way to understand Donald Davidson's notion of triangulation is as an account of the concept of objectivity. In particular, triangulation is the framework that makes possible the simultaneous emergence of the interrelated concepts of objectivity, belief, truth, and error, as well as determinate mental content and linguistic normativity. I argue that this framework consists of the shared similarity standards and shared similarity responses of two creatures converging on a common object and the responses of one another. I claim that Davidson's introduction of the notion of triangulation was motivated by the problem of error in interpretation and the related epistemic problem of objectivity. I also claim that the notion of triangulation grew out of theses inherited from his mentor W.V.O. Quine as well as work Davidson did in the middle part of his career both on the causal determination of content, and also on the rejection of linguistic conventions and his alternative account of linguistic normativity. I suggest that Davidson's work on the notion of triangulation went through roughly three periods of changing focus: its role in making possible determinate content; its role in making possible the concept of error; and its role in making possible linguistic normativity. All three roles are required for emergence of the concept of objectivity, and all three require actual linguistic communication with another creature. Finally, I argue that Davidson's solution to the problem of objectivity is to be seen is his final account of interpretation. That account of interpretation was a confluence of his account of linguistic normativity and the way in which triangulation makes such normativity possible in the context of ostensive language learning. Davidson came to see ostensive learning not as the adult teaching the child a preexisting language, but rather as the adult providing the normative check needed for the child to develop a new language of its own (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Taschek (Committee Chair); Neil Tennant (Committee Member); Stewart Shapiro (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Philosophy

This dissertation is a study of objectivity, language, and communication. While most of us take for granted that scientific discourse is objective, when it comes to other discourses, our inclinations are different. For example, we take for granted that humor discourse is not objective. While these attitudes about objectivity are commonplace, they raise questions about the factors that influence objectivity. The primary thesis that I defend is that a discourse's status with respect to objectivity is influenced by how a speaker uses that discourse, especially what a speaker takes for granted about the information that everyone in a conversation shares. When we talk to one another, we take for granted that there is a question that everyone is discussing. However, when a speaker uses an objective discourse in a conversation, someone in a disagreement over the question under discussion must be inattentive, biased, confused, or otherwise cognitively at fault. We take other things for granted in a conversation too, especially about the attitudes that the conversation serves to coordinate. A speaker who uses an objective discourse takes for granted that the discussion serves only to coordinate either epistemic or doxastic attitudes. While conversational requirements are a mark of objective discourse, conversational latitude is a mark of non-objective discourse. Objectivity requires that a speaker take for granted that the discussion addresses a question that does not allow for cognitively faultless disagreement. Objectivity also requires that a speaker take for granted that the conversation only serves to influence either epistemic or doxastic attitudes. However, given that we are dealing with a discourse that is not objective, things are different. When a speaker uses a discourse that is not objective, a speaker might take for granted that there is a question is under discussion that gives rise to cognitively faultless disagreement. In addition, a speaker might take for gr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stewart Shapiro PhD (Advisor); David Sanson PhD (Committee Member); Kevin Scharp PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Philosophy

According to a familiar though naive conception, science is a rigorously neutral enterprise, free from social and cultural influence, but more sophisticated philosophical views about science have revealed that social and cultural are ubiquitous in scientific practice, and thus ought not be ignored when attempting to understand, describe and prescribe proper behavior for the practice of science. Indeed, many theorists have argued that social and cultural values and interests must be present in science (and knowledge gathering in general) in order to make sense of the world. The concept of objectivity has been utilized in the philosophy of science (as well as in epistemology) as a way to discuss and explore the various types of social and cultural influence that operate in science. The concept has also served as the focus of debates about just how much neutrality we can or should expect in science. This thesis examines feminist ideas regarding how to revise and enrich the concept of objectivity, and how these suggestions help achieve both feminist and scientific goals. Feminists offer us warnings about “idealized” concepts of objectivity, and suggest that power can play a crucial role in determining which research programs get labeled “objective”. In addition, the views examined in this thesis offer conceptions of objectivity that are intended to allow us to increase the extent to which our scientific theories are objective, but at the same time allow us to appreciate (and not eliminate) the role of cultural and social interests as they play a role in science.

Committee: Louise Antony (Advisor) Subjects: Philosophy; Women's Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

Is it possible that modern images of knowledge our bound to the historical conditions in which they arise? If modern knowledge systems are grounded at this level, the value of various forms of knowledge is found not in the transcendental or “truthfulness of a claim, but rather in the practical effects which result from such an assumption. In order to gauge the value of modern conceptualizations of knowledge, it is vital that we examine the practical environments in which distinct forms of knowledge emerge. If we examine the practical implications of a given way of thinking and acting, it may be possible to expose various sources of power relations which legitimize modern knowledge as a body of transcendental “truths”. The work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, and Michel Foucault offer us theoretical insight into modern images of knowledge and the structural components which have shaped this transcendental assumption. The three authors in question have attempted to critique the ways in which we conceptualize knowledge as a form of “reason”. This project serves as an examination of the primary means through which the authors in question locate the historical contingency of modern rationality. Through a genealogical investigation, this text functions as analysis of the primary concepts and links which bind the work of the three thinkers. Of particular importance is the direct impact of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche upon the work of Deleuze and Foucault. Central to this project are the ways in which the chosen authors reveal the practically constituted elements inherent in the dominant conceptualizations of knowledge. It is revealed through this analysis that our authors propose that modern images of knowledge may be based upon various fictive abstractions. These abstractions are manipulated and enforced in order to legitimize “objective” truths which are generally assumed to be a priori foundations. Modern knowledge therefore is practically shaped and historic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michelle Brown (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2006, Mass Communication

This thesis uses U.S. mainstream media's coverage of then Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the UN Security Council prior to the Iraq War as a case study to examine the role of the principle of objectivity in U.S. journalism. In that address, Powell claimed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. In covering that event, the media to a large extent took Powell's statement at its face value, and led the American public believe that Iraq did possess WMD and that the threat was massive and imminent. Many critics blame objectivity for the media's failure and call for abandoning the long-standing principle. This thesis goes back into history and seeks the true meaning of objectivity from its roots. The paper answers the questions whether adherence to objectivity was the reason that derailed news reports from truth, and what objective reporting truly is.

Committee: David Sholle (Advisor) Subjects: Journalism

Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2013, Journalism

Journalism has always been about questions. The fundamental building blocks of standard news stories are small questions with documentary orientations: Simple whos, whats, wheres, whens, hows, and whys that flesh out a story. It is easy to make a case for how basic facts help media consumers understand the world around them through simple documentation. But criticisms of modern journalism often take issue with the image of reality that journalism portrays. Scholars have conceptualized it as incomplete, biased, and unhelpful to society. Such questioning of media products and processes is fruitful. This project questions the media's reliance on objectivity as its means of documenting truth, and the primary question is whether or not compromising conventional journalistic objectivity in favor of a hybrid perspective that incorporates subjectivity could be a legitimate way for journalists to better represent truthful worldly reality. It analyzes how the elements of literary journalism can enable blending objective documentary impulses with self-conscious commentary to yield a media product that answers more questions. It asks if this hybridity can move journalism toward bigger questions approached on personal levels, thereby taking journalism from a passive reflection to an active representation. Ultimately, it is concerned with journalists' desire to have their work be a record of human activity and a promoter of democratic freedom and the issue of whether or not journalists have the ability or feel the obligation to comment on big questions and their answers. This project is not the first to question objectivity. It includes a literature review that explores some of the historical and philosophical discourse on the subject of objectivity and its use by journalists as a means to an end of truth. Journalism holds truth as its primary tenant. Objectivity is truth's twin ethic in journalistic discourse. After defining and critiquing a synthesized concept of objectivity (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cary Frith (Advisor); Bernhard Debatin (Committee Chair) Subjects: Journalism

MA, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

This narrative history investigates the trials, conviction, and ultimate execution of Charles Sterling, a tramp, for the murder and rape of Elizabeth Grombacher in Youngstown, Ohio. In the final fifteen months of Sterling's life, much of Youngstown and its surrounding communities remained so certain of his guilt, despite a lack of concrete evidence or witnesses, that Sterling eventually fell victim to the unique confluence of social ideas and cultural norms which made it impossible for a poor outsider to prove his innocence in a late nineteenth-century American city. It is the inconsistencies between rival papers The Register and Tribune and The Vindicator that forms the primary basis for exploring this case and the community's reaction to it. By applying theories of presentation and framing, pioneered and influenced by Erving Goffman, to the coverage of these leading Youngstown newspapers, this study endeavors to show the complex negotiation that took place between members of the community who otherwise left no written record. Ultimately, this inquiry finds that Sterling's fate though decided by a jury and under the watchful eye of a judge, did not come from the courthouse but from extra-legal beliefs and pressures.

Committee: Kenneth Bindas PhD (Advisor); Elizabeth Smith-Pryor PhD (Committee Member); Kevin Adams PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; History; Journalism; Modern History