Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, Political Science

President Obama's use of the pardon power was widely criticized. Early in his presidency, there were demands that he use his power more often and later in his presidency, the complaints shifted to the idea that he used the power too often. These criticisms suggest two questions for investigation: how did Obama's use of the power fit into historical and current views of the functions of the power and, more generally, how should the power best be used? In this thesis, I examine both concerns. I conclude that there are legitimate purposes for the use of the pardon power and Obama's use fits with historical precedent. Other purposes are more questionable, but it is difficult to identify reforms which would prevent possible harms without also impeding the legitimate purposes of the power. Last, the processes for implementing the power pose administrative difficulties regarding financing and control of agents by principals.

Committee: Joseph White (Advisor); Jonathan Entin (Committee Member); Michael Benza (Committee Member) Subjects: Law; Legal Studies; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, History

Today presidential libraries are expected from every former president. Presidents begin to plan their libraries before exiting office. It was not always so. Over time, the American public and their government altered their views of presidential documents. For years, presidential documents had been considered personal property, so former presidents did as they wished with them. During his presidency Franklin D. Roosevelt created the National Archives to preserve presidential papers. His presidential library was the first in the federal presidential library system and therefore receives much recognition for being the first presidential library. However, twenty years before Roosevelt's library existed there was the Hayes Memorial Library and Museum. Now known as the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Roosevelt used it as a model for his presidential library. Therefore, it influenced the federal system of presidential libraries. This project argues the Hayes Memorial Library and Museum exists due to the determination and resourcefulness of its founder Colonel Webb Cook Hayes. It further states that by creating the first presidential library, Webb influenced the federal presidential library system. This project analyzes the creation of the Hayes Memorial Library and Museum, following its journey from conception to fruition. This thesis first outlines the life of founder Colonel Webb Cook Hayes, revealing what led him to create the memorial: influences that shaped his interests, sources of his power, and passions that drove him. Then the text examines the difficulties surrounding the creation of the Hayes Memorial. It was managed and owned by the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society. Because no presidential library existed before it, the Hayes Memorial had to become the model for others to follow. This project follows the complications that arose due to the innovative concept of a presidential library and how Webb assisted in managing them. The s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rebecca Mancuso (Advisor); Nicole Jackson (Committee Member) Subjects: History

BA, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / School of Peace and Conflict Studies

This honors thesis aimed to look at the changeability of American Exceptionalism over time by examining presidential rhetoric in in State of the Union Addresses from 1965 to 2016. This thesis asked the questions, does American Exceptionalism rhetoric decrease during times of failed military intervention, do Republican presidents use more American Exceptionalism rhetoric than Democratic presidents, and is presidential rhetoric of American Exceptionalism increase during times of war compared to times of peace. State of the Union Addresses were coded by groups (i.e. times of failed military intervention and times in the absence of failed military intervention, for the first research question.) and group means were compared using independent samples t-tests. For the qualitative analysis the Constant Comparative method was used to code the statements into three categories: uniqueness, superiority (social identity theory), and miscellaneous. This research found that Republican presidents use American Exceptionalism rhetoric more often than Democratic presidents and that intensity of American Exceptionalism increases over time (from 1965-2016). Further research is needed to develop more coherent conclusions on the finding of a detected increase in intensity over time

Committee: Landon Hancock (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science; Psychology; Social Psychology; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, Journalism (Communication)

This qualitative study explores the impact of new media, specifically social media and campaign websites with greater direct user participation and involvement. With the historic election of the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the candidacy of the first Republican woman nominated for vice-president, Sarah Palin, the 2008 presidential and vice-presidential campaigns remain important for study. "Political Campaigning 2.0" analyzes campaign and user-generated web content covering a wide array of new media: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, and campaign websites. The study is based on Erving Goffman's theories of Framing and Impression Management and complemented with James Grunig's Situational Theory of Publics. In contrast to other studies, this research includes the issue of age and explores the intersectionality of race, gender, and age. It uses a multi-method approach, combining textual analysis with in-depth interviews, focus groups, and self-reports made up of 66 Ohio University undergraduate student participants. Findings reveal that a majority of web users interpreted and represented the Democratic candidates in the same way as the campaign framed them, indicating convergent and successful representation in terms of race, gender, and age. The Obama-Biden campaign was able to take advantage of Obama's race as a historic milestone and Biden's age as a sign of experience. In contrast, most web users interpreted and represented Republican candidates differently than intended by the McCain-Palin campaign, indicating a divergence in framing. A majority of users framed McCain as old, rather than experienced, and Palin as inexperienced, rather than a "maverick." The McCain-Palin campaign worked to represent Palin as a candidate who would appeal to women, but her representation in terms of gender did not resonate with a majority of web users. Emphasizing the importance of new media technology, this study shows how the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Advisor); Joseph Bernt (Committee Member); Duncan Brown (Committee Member); DeLysa Burnier (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2002, Arts and Sciences : Political Science

Monitoring the popularity of the president is a vital aspect of public opinion research today. Presidential approval has become a very closely watched political indicator in the United States. The measure of job approval has grown in importance over time. It is now argued by many that a president's personal standing with the public is a very important aspect of his political power. While pollsters often report on "gaps" in presidential approval, citing differences in approval between socio-demographic groups, in most cases, the socio-demographic gaps referred to by pollsters are the products of simple bivariate analyses. Seldom are further steps taken by pollsters to investigate the reality of whether or not these gaps in approval actually exist when controlling for other factors. The focus of this research is directed towards the "gender gap" in presidential approval. In the literature review that follows, we see in detail that there is a gap between women and men, with women tending to the left and men tending to the right on many issues, including presidential approval. But does this frequently observed "gender gap" reflect a real difference in the political preferences of American men and women, or is it just an artifact of simple bivariate analyses, with many uncontrolled variables? In addition, does this "gender gap" interact with other socio-demographic variables to move presidential approval? This thesis tests the reality of the "Gender Gap" through a multivariate analysis of Ohio Polls conducted during the administration of Bill Clinton.

Committee: Dr. George F. Bishop (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Political Science

Expectations are an important part of our understanding of presidential primaries. Whether we look at expectations in terms of how they drive momentum for some candidates, or as a component of expected utility in the individual decisions of primary voters, the chances of a candidate winning either the party nomination (viability) or the general election (electability) are key variables in understanding their success. Viability and electability are influenced over a long period of time leading up to the primaries, and continue to develop throughout the primary season. By adopting a theory of rational expectations, I look at how expectations change in reaction to information that is made available to voters. Using expectations data from the 2000 National Annenberg Election Study along with data on media coverage and campaign finance in the 2000 presidential nomination process, I show that expectations about the candidates' chances change in response to changes in the information provided by the candidates and the media. In contests involving well-known candidates, voters act rationally by using this outside information to inform their expectations of the candidates' chances of winning. In contests involving only lesser-known candidates, voters do not act rationally, and only base their expectations on past values of their expectations for these candidates. This dissertation provides new insights into how expectations change over the course of a primary campaign, and gives a better understanding of these important variables.

Committee: Herbert Weisberg (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1963, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

EDD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Higher education is facing a wave of presidential transitions. While the transition of a president can be a monumental and celebrated occasion for a college or university, it is often accompanied by work disruptions, job uncertainty, and turnover of senior administrators. University presidents can face numerous challenges as they try to adapt to a new culture, team, and work processes; at no time during their career are leaders more susceptible to failure than when they are in transition. Therefore, the development of the senior leadership team comes at a time critical for the new president's success. It is vital for mid-level administrators who have ambitions to serve on the senior leadership team to understand the leadership transition and how university presidents develop their teams. This understanding is equally important for senior leadership team members who are a part of the inherited leadership team and will likely face a presidential transition. This narrative study examined how university presidents and senior team members understand their experiences and decision-making processes while building a senior leadership team after the presidential transition. Five university presidents and six senior leadership team members were interviewed for this study. The senior leaders interviewed were vice presidents and individuals who reported directly to the university president. When making decisions about the makeup of their team, significant influences on the presidents included institutional practices, governing bodies, diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, effective communication, collaboration, expertise, and trustworthiness were vital attributes that influenced the new university presidents' decision-making. Findings show how the senior leaders interviewed understood their path to a senior leadership team and experienced the presidential transition. Finally, the findings suggest that senior leadership team members have had an overall positive expe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Tricia Niesz (Committee Chair); Amoaba Gooden (Committee Member); Charlene Reed (Committee Member); Natasha Levinson (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, American Culture Studies

The purpose of this dissertation is threefold. First, to investigate settings where audiences participated in the 2020 U.S. presidential election debates by organizing or attending debate watch parties. Second, to explore why these parties became meaningful for audiences. Third, to explore how the setting of these parties organized the sense-making for audiences of the debates. While no prior research on debate watch parties currently exists, they have become popular over the last five U.S. presidential elections and are significant in that they involve facets of political communication and political engagement not typically paired in American political culture: political consumerism, activism, sports spectatorship, and political cynicism. An ethnographic narrative excavation of debate watch parties—compiled from participant observations collected from my own field notes, open-ended surveys, and postmodern interviews—reveals six roles that audiences performed as they participated in these events: Marketeers, Public Seekers, Activists, Hosts, Antagonists, and Reluctant Partiers. I investigate how the setting organized these roles, comparing parties held in physically built bars and in online, virtual platforms, finding that both settings allowed for the construction of participatory civic identities amongst audiences. I evaluate how public interactions at debate watch parties in virtual environments mimicked the public interactions at parties hosted in bars, and particularly how political brand cultures crept into online environments. This leads to a discussion of how these audiences demonstrated the concept of creative narrative appropriation, particularly in the blending of electoral spectatorship with sports spectatorship. This underscores the stress and unease amongst audiences towards electoral politics, and how debate watch parties provided attendees and organizers with a safe social setting in which to publicly cope with these concerns.

Committee: Joshua Atkinson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Hyeyoung Bang Ph.D. (Other); Cynthia Baron Ph.D. (Committee Member); David Jackson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Clayton Rosati Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2021, Psychology, General

The thesis examined associations regarding COVID-19 realistic threats (i.e., concerns about physical health and material well-being) and symbolic threat (i.e., sociocultural concerns) with the likelihood of voting for Joe Biden or Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election. Political ideology and attitudes about racism, sexism, and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) were considered as well. It was hypothesized that realistic threat concerns would be positively associated with the likelihood of voting for Biden, but this association would be modified by political ideology, with more liberal ideologies strengthening the association between realistic threat and the likelihood of voting for Biden. It was also hypothesized that symbolic threat would be positively associated with the likelihood of voting for Trump, but that this association would be qualified by a significant interaction between political ideology and symbolic threat, showing that more conservative ideologies strengthen the predicted association. Both hypotheses controlled for racism, hostile and benevolent sexism, and RWA. The study was a cross-sectional, correlational design and the hypotheses were tested in two separate regressions, one examining the likelihood of voting for Biden and the other examining the likelihood of voting for Trump. Broadly, the hypotheses were not supported; it was found that political ideology and symbolic racism accounted for most of the variance within the sample. Exploratory regression analyses examined the unique contributions of threat, sex differences, and tested interactions between threat perceptions and sex. In these models, the likelihood of voting for Biden was positively associated with realistic threat and the likelihood of voting for Trump was positively associated with symbolic threat. Results showed that sex did not moderate realistic threat but did moderated the association between symbolic threat and the likelihood of voting for each candidate. Speci (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Erin O'Mara Kunz (Committee Chair); Joy Losee (Committee Member); Jack Bauer (Committee Member) Subjects: Experimental Psychology; Psychology; Social Psychology

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2021, Political Science

This paper addresses what happened at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and analyzes how the Electoral College came to be. Understanding the compromises made during that summer in Philadelphia is paramount to comprehending how certain features were written into the electoral process or became the de facto way to do things. I maintain that the Founders themselves were not sure how to handle the issue of presidential selection and through their concessions and fears, the Electoral College was developed. This system is simply outdated and has outgrown what the Framers envisioned. This paper examines the major challenges and countermajorian features plaguing the electoral system. I first explain how the Three-Fifths Compromise came to be and what led to its application in electing the executive from its original context of legislative representation. From there I dissect how the interests of small states were protected through the Connecticut Compromise, and how this contributed to the “House Size Effect.” I argue that the winner-take-all method is the most undemocratic feature in the Electoral College and ignores the voices of the minority. From the myriad of problems permeating the electoral system, I advocate for direct election of the president.

Committee: Rob Baker (Advisor); Ed Hasecke (Committee Member); Molly Wood (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Political Science

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2021, Political Science

The 2019 Mueller Report revealed a campaign by the Russian Internet Research Agency to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and insert systemic distrust in Western democracy. The campaign engaged in “information warfare” using false accounts, or bots, to prey on inherent social vulnerabilities that are amplified by the novelty and anonymity of social media, such as echo chambers and the rapid spread of fake news. This thesis explores the aims, methods, effects, and behavioral patterns of bots. It also proposes BotWise, a model designed to distill average behavior on the social media platform Twitter from a set of real users and compare that data against novel input.

Committee: Tyler Highlander (Advisor); Staci Rhine (Advisor); Alyssa Hoofnagle (Committee Member); Yu Bin (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Political Science; Sociology; Technology

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2021, Political Science

This thesis explores the relationship between voter evaluations of presidential candidates' character traits and their vote choice. First encompassing a dive into the current understanding of this relationship and a standard analysis of it at work in the 2016 US presidential election, consideration then proceeds to two novel approaches. The first of these investigates a finding from the preliminary analysis: the relationship between vote choice and trait evaluations more closely resembles a cubic function, rather than the traditional assumption of a linear relationship. The cubic model is tested for every US presidential election 2000-2016 and, by allowing for polynomial curvature, predicts the relationship better than a linear model in each case, with a consistent p-value of less than .001. The combination of the cubic model's increased accuracy and the reframing it brings prompts the conclusion that researchers have had an erroneously diminished opinion of trait evaluations' impact on elections. The second study investigates variation of trait evaluations over the course of the 2000 and 2004 elections. Further analysis is conducted by breaking respondents into groups based upon vote choice variation. Significant systematic variation is found in every case, though not for every trait, indicating the existence of forces driving this variation independently from respondents' vote choice.

Committee: Barry L. Tadlock (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, American Culture Studies

This study looks at twentieth-century representations of fictional female U.S. presidents in film, television, and literature. Examining how these portrayals either reinforce or subvert existing ideas about gender may give some insight into why the U.S. has not had a female president yet, as well as how each wave of feminism may have its own corresponding backlash. This project employs a textual analysis method and uses a feminist methodology. After analyzing the primary texts under consideration, it becomes clear that the majority of twentieth-century fictional representations of female U.S. presidents reify hegemonic gender roles and do not portray the presidents as being fully capable and worthy of respect. It is only toward the middle of the 1990s and later that any real change is seen in these characters. The media framing of real-life women running for president is somewhat in line with how female presidents are portrayed in fictional texts. These women are not depicted as being fully capable to serve the office of the U.S. presidency, and it takes quite a few decades before content creators are willing to deviate from this norm. This study has broader implications, too, insofar as the U.S. presidency is symbolic of systems of power more generally, and thus the texts herein can offer insight into how women are received in many positions of political and economic leadership.

Committee: Kimberly Coates PhD (Advisor); Emily Pence Brown PhD (Other); Cynthia Baron PhD (Committee Member); Andrew Schocket PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Literature; American Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Literature; Mass Media; Performing Arts; Political Science; Womens Studies

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2019, Humanities

In this thesis, I illustrate how epistemic injustice functions in the divide between white working-class men and the educated elite by discussing the discursive ways in which working-class knowledge and experience are devalued as legitimate sources of knowledge. I demonstrate this by using critical discourse analysis to interpret the underlying attitudes and ideologies in comments made by Clinton and Trump during their 2016 presidential campaigns. I also discuss how these ideologies are positively or negatively perceived by Trump's working-class base. Using feminist standpoint theory and phenomenology as a lens of interpretation, I argue that white working-class men are increasingly alienated from progressive politics through classist and ableist rhetoric. If progressives wish to win over white working-class men, they will need to ameliorate this division, otherwise this gap will continue to grow. Finally, I suggest class-sensitive approaches for moving forward and bridging this gap.

Committee: Kelli Zaytoun Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jessica Penwell-Barnett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Donovan Miyasaki Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Demographics; Epistemology; Gender; Gender Studies; Philosophy; Political Science; Rhetoric; Sociology; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Political Science

In the early 1990s, scholars and pundits alike celebrated the advent of democracy as the end of the Cold War saw the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of authoritarian regimes throughout the world. Nearly three decades later, the optimism of the earlier era has all but disappeared. By the mid-2000s, scholars began to warn of the dangers of democratic decay, particularly in areas where democracy was relatively new. Latin America, with its tumultuous history of violent coups and repressive authoritarian regimes, was no exception. Rather than turning to overt instances of regime overthrow, however, leaders in the modern era used a more sophisticated, democratic toolkit of constitutional changes, referendum votes, and legislative and supreme court decisions to slowly dismantle traditional democratic checks and balances. By 2018, presidential term limits, a traditional check on executive power, had been successfully removed in four countries (Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela), eliminated and later reinstated in two countries (Ecuador and Peru), and challenged in two countries (Argentina and Colombia). More dramatically, then-president Manuel Zelaya in Honduras was physically removed from office in 2009 for suggesting that term limits be extended beyond a single term, while a similar proposal in Paraguay in 2017 almost led to a constitutional crisis. Rather than focusing on institutions or political leaders, this dissertation directs its attention to the role of citizens in these processes of democratic degradation on the ground. In doing so, this dissertation asks: What explains citizens' support for the removal of presidential term limits? Why are term limits contentious in some countries and not others? What explains why some challenges to remove term limits are successful while others fail? And ultimately, is support for the removal of term limits congruent with democratic attitudes? This dissertation begins by situating the removal o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sarah Brooks Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Irfan Nooruddin Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Amanda Robinson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Thomas Nelson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2019, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

Research on voting behavior is one important area of study in the field of political science. One explanation of vote choice, the Economic Voting Theory, suggests that democratic citizens tend to favor governments whose time in power corresponds with positive economic or social outcomes and reject governments they see as responsible for poor performance. When poor performance occurs, voters tend to choose the opposition during subsequent elections. Based on this discussion, the purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how the recent period of political and economic crisis affects popular voting behavior in Brazil. Few studies based on economic voting theory have relied on in-depth data collected in the field during political-economic downturns. This thesis draws on analyses of 21 semi-structured interviews conducted with voting age adults from different economic backgrounds in the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, during the election year of 2018. The results suggest that the Economic Voting Theory is effective in explaining voting behavior in Brazil. Respondents who expressed grievances with government performance express strong preference for the opposition. However, the theory fails to explain the variation in voter certainty regarding their choice of opposition candidate. At the time of the study, many respondents expressed significant uncertainty regarding the alternatives available in the campaign. This demonstrates the need to incorporating other variables, such as level of education and ideological inclination, to understand voting preferences. Combining Sociological and Psychological theories with Economic Voting Theory improves predictions of respondents vote choice.

Committee: Matthew Layton (Advisor); Myra Waterbury (Committee Member); James Mosher (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2018, International and Comparative Politics

This study examines what factors contribute to United States' compliance with rule of law in response to terrorism. A qualitative analysis utilizing a comparative case study approach to examine the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations' response to domestic and international terrorism. This study tests what impact the location of terrorist attacks, nationality of terrorist actors, and presidential ideology have upon rule of law compliance. Results from this study illustrate the causal relationship between rule of law compliance and presidential ideology, while taking into account the impact of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

Committee: Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Donna Schlagheck Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Feldmeier Ph.D. (Committee Member); Laura Luehrmann Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Comparative; History; International Law; International Relations; Law; Legal Studies; Political Science; Public Policy

Master of Fine Arts, University of Akron, 2018, Creative Writing

On Writing 2: An Essay Collection and Loose Sequel to Stephen King's On Writing, a creative nonfiction thesis, takes horror and suspense legend Stephen King's memoir on the craft and UPS THE ANTE!!! Eighteen years after the debut of King's nonfiction hit comes the sequel fans have been begging for. Gone are the tales of King's childhood, his lessons on writing, and that time he got hit by a van. Now, read of the essays of a different schmuck, none of which have to do with writing, but do deal with traveling in Key West, volunteering at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and trying to keep a relationship together at an IKEA. Each essay is handled deftly with a lot of humor and that innate sadness that is key to the human condition. See what the critics are saying about On Writing 2: "This is worse than A Million Little Pieces." — Melvin Goldfarb, New York Times "My son has really disappointed me this time." — Barbara Cibella, Mother of Author Do yourself a favor and download Stephen King's lawyer's favorite thesis of 2018! Get On Writing 2 today! DISCLAIMER: This is a sequel to Stephen King's On Writing in name only. Please do not sue me.

Committee: David Giffels (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature; Composition; Fine Arts; Journalism; Literature; Modern Literature; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Media and Communication

This study investigated the intermedia agenda-setting dynamics among various media Twitter accounts during the last seven weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Media Twitter accounts included in analysis were those of print media, television networks, news magazines, online partisan media, online non-partisan media, and political commentators. This study applied the intermedia agenda-setting theory as the theoretical framework, and network analysis and computer-assisted content analysis enabling hyperlink and sentiment analysis as the methods. A total of 5,595,373 relationships built via Tweets among media Twitter accounts was collected. After removal of irrelevant data, a total of 16,794 relationships were used for analysis. The results showed that traditional media Twitter accounts, such as print media and television networks, play roles in the Tweeting network by bridging isolated media Twitter accounts, and are located in the center of networks, so that information reaches them quickly; further, they are connected to other important accounts. Together with the changes in the volume of Tweeting that signaled media interest, the set of popular URLs and keywords/word pairs in Tweets also served as sensors that detected media Twitter accounts' interest about that time. The results also supported the previous research findings that, as political events, the debates affect the production and dissemination patterns of news. Not only did the volume of Tweeting produced spiked immediately after each debate, but various types of hyperlinks and sentiment words used in Tweets increased as well. The number of negative sentiment words observed in the Tweeting network surpassed the number of positive sentiment words observed in the Tweeting network across different time points, and the gap between them decreased as the election approached. The use of positive and negative sentiment words differed across different media Twitter account categories. Online non- (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gi Woong Yun PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Kate Magsamen-Conrad PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Sung-Yeon Park PhD (Committee Member); Bill Albertini PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Journalism; Mass Communications