Browsing by Subject "Moral Foundations Theory"

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    Cultivation Theory And Violence In Media: Correlations And Observations
    (2019-05-01) Obert-Hong, Christine; Lewis, Robert
    Cultivation Theory represents the idea that people’s perceptions of the real world are unconsciously influenced by their consumption of media. As technology has improved and increased, so too has the amount of information various platforms are able to spread. However, there is an imbalance between the amount of violence depicted in media and the amount that occurs in real life, leading to unrealistic perceptions of a mean world. Most cultivation research is not experimental. For my thesis, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own using YouTube clips emphasizing violent or fearful content, using a variety of established practices and questions, as well as some of my own. Although result were not conclusive, a few patterns consistent with Cultivation Theory were observed in this online context.
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    A Threshold-Based Analysis of Bipartisanship in Crime and Law Legislation in the United States Senate (1989-2018)
    (2021) Burniston, Mary Margaret; Rose, Mary
    As affective polarization rises in the United States, much scholarly work is devoted to gridlock and hyper-partisanship. In this thesis, I examine whether the issue of crime and law legislation has been impacted by rising polarization, or if it has been able to maintain a degree of bipartisanship. With the use of data on 432 crime and law bills considered from 1989 to 2018, I analyze the concept of issue ownership over crime and law legislation, create 18 different subcategories within the crime and law category, and conduct four network analyses which examine the role of thresholds in facilitating bipartisan collaboration. In doing so, I create several new variables, including Cosponsorship Partisan Difference (CPD) and Sponsorship Partisan Difference (SPD) in order to conceptualize degrees of hyper-partisanship and bipartisanship. I make several key findings, including that CPD is a critical factor which sets apart the most successful sessions and bills, and that individual senators skilled in bipartisan collaboration serve as crucial actors in the most successful session networks.