http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8812 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:58:01 GMT 2013-06-19T15:58:01Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9537 Political-Media Relations and the Power of Party-Based Regimes Symbiotic Politics: Political-Media Relations and the Power of Party-Based Regimes Anthony Ross Ray DiMaggio, Ph.D. Department of Political Science University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois (2012) Dissertation Chairperson: Doris A. Graber This dissertation analyzes the ways in which political parties influence mass media content. It specifically analyzes the partisan composition of government – whether Congress and the Presidency are controlled by one party, the other, or whether control is split between them – and how the composition of government influences how media organizations report public policy and American politics. This study examines a variety of models that try to explain media bias, including those claiming that journalists share a liberal media bias, a pluralistic bias (in which room exists for all types of state and non-state actors in reports), a hegemonic (or pro-business) bias, or a pro-government, pro-official source bias (known as “indexing”) more generally. This study finds evidence that the pro-official source (indexing) bias is the strongest model of the four for explaining how journalists report on public policy issues. More specifically, the composition of government (which parties control Congress and the Presidency) is the strongest factor influencing how media outlets report political conflicts and debates as related to public policy. The pluralistic model of bias is mostly rejected in reporting, since state actors (over non-state actors) overwhelmingly dominate stories, although evidence of a balance between state and non-state actors is found on the op-ed pages of major newspapers. The liberal media bias model is roundly disconfirmed in this study, with little to no evidence that journalists regularly tailor their reporting to fit a liberal agenda. The hegemonic bias model is also rejected in terms of accounting for the ways in which reporters cover stories related to public policy. Hegemonic (pro-business) forces, however, may play a role in influencing not so much what appears in stories, but what does not appear, due to the advertising pressures exerted on editors to leave out of stories those views that are critical of business interests altogether. Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9537 2012-12-13T06:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9500 The Path to Political Incorporation: Place Matters An established literature describes political incorporation as the extent to which a group has achieved significant representation and influence in political decision-making (Browning, Marshall, and Tabb 1984; Bobo and Gilliam 1990). Political incorporation theory is largely developed through studies of the elections of black mayors in large central cities. Because central cities tend to share characteristics, and because there is little variation in the sociopolitical context of these cities, political incorporation theory cannot account for the degree to which context matters to the achievement of incorporation. This research is shaped by John Mollenkopf’s (1986) use of an anomalous New York City to convey the point that the specificities of place matter more to political incorporation than Browning, Marshall, and Tabb (1984) initially recognized. What are the different paths that cities take toward incorporation? How do context-related characteristics determine the path that each city takes? This research uses a comparative case study of two Chicago suburbs—Evanston and Waukegan—to deepen our knowledge of the process of political incorporation. Using qualitative methods—including interviews and focus groups with residents, political activists, civil rights organization members, educators, and political officials—this research focuses on three aspects of the sociopolitical context: black civic fabric, political leadership, and racial dynamics. Despite the demographic similarities between Evanston and Waukegan, both cities have vastly different sociopolitical contexts, opposite paths to incorporation, and different resulting levels of black political incorporation. This dissertation reveals that the achievement of political incorporation is context-specific. The path toward incorporation in both cities was continually shaped by the local sociopolitical context, and numerical strength within the black population alone was insufficient for overcoming context-related obstacles to incorporation. While parts of the sociopolitical context that are external to the black community shape the path to political incorporation significantly more than the current literature suggests, this dissertation also concludes that factors internal to the black community—like racial solidarity and a closely-knit black civic fabric—have a greater ability to overcome sociopolitical contexts that are oppositional to political incorporation than previously expected. Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9500 2012-12-13T06:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9117 Achieving Value & Stability: The Institutionalization of the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission With a budget of $2.25 million and 100 employees at its central headquarters in Washington D.C., the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) opened its doors for operation in May of 1965 to oversee the implementation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Although the EEOC began with the charge of enforcing federal laws designed to end workforce discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion and national origin, it underwent significant increases in its size and scope. By 2011, the EEOC’s budget had increased to $385.3 million, its workforce grew to 2,577 employees in over 53 field offices, and it had established work-share agreements with 64 Tribal Employment Rights Organizations (TEROs) and 94 Fair Employment Practice Agencies (FEPAs). The scope of the EEOC also expanded to include oversight over federal EEO laws addressing employment discrimination against the elderly, compensation discrimination, disability discrimination, and genetic information discrimination. Today, the EEOC is responsible for coordinating all federal EEO regulations, practices, and policies; interpreting employment discrimination laws and monitoring federal sector employment discrimination program; providing funding and support to FEPAs; and sponsoring outreach and technical assistance. Despite the transformation of the EEOC from a legislative cartel to a fully entrenched institution, scholars have neglected to provide a broad understanding regarding how bureaucracies transform from organizations that handle specific tasks for clients to institutions with size, stability, rules, and value beyond the tasks at hand. To determine whether bureaucracies have the potential to emerge as institutions, this dissertation provides a longitudinal study of the emergence and evolution of the EEOC. Through an examination of multiple variables spanning from 1965 to 2010, the institutionalization of the Commission is examined along five dimensions: adaptability, complexity, professionalization, autonomy, and coherence. Findings reveal that, to emerge as institutions, federal bureaucracies must demonstrate an ability to deal with environmental challenges and age, develop complex hierarchical and functional structures, groom a professionalized staff, articulate interest distinguishable from external forces, and foster consensus around their functional boundaries and procedures used to address disputes that arise within their jurisdictions. Mon, 10 Dec 2012 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9117 2012-12-10T06:00:00Z