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Department of Journalism & Media Communication

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/100460
These digital collections include theses, dissertations, faculty presentations, and faculty publications from the Department of Journalism & Media Communication. Due to departmental name changes, materials from the following historical department are also included here: Journalism and Technical Communication.

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Browsing Department of Journalism & Media Communication by Author "Alghaith, Shaikhah, author"

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    Framing female candidates for office: a comparison of newspaper coverage of the 2008 and 2009 Kuwaiti parliamentary elections
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Alghaith, Shaikhah, author; Christen, Cindy T., advisor; Rouner, Donna, committee member; Anderson, Karrin Vasby, committee member
    The way newspapers framed their news coverage may have influenced the perceptions of the Kuwaiti female candidates for office. This study examined if the Kuwaiti female candidates who ran unsuccessfully in 2008 but were elected in the 2009 parliamentary election were framed differently in the 2008 and 2009 news coverage. It looked at and compared the frames that were used by the Kuwaiti press in 2008 and 2009 to see if there was any association between the way female candidates were framed and the two different election results. A qualitative content analysis was used to identify the way Kuwaiti newspapers framed Kuwaiti women candidates. Using a census sample of news articles from three Kuwaiti newspapers, a comparison was done between the frames used in the coverage of the 2008 and 2009 Kuwaiti parliamentary elections. The results of this study showed that Kuwaiti female candidates received more newspaper coverage in 2009 than 2008. Most of the frames used by the Kuwaiti newspapers when covering female candidates occurred in both 2008 and 2009 coverage. iii More positive associations were used in the 2009 coverage of female candidates. Kuwaiti newspapers framed women candidates with gender-specific frames and were mostly used favorably. Kuwaiti women candidates were framed as agents of change in Kuwaiti parliament more frequently in the 2009 election coverage. In this study, framing theory explained the selections of frames that were used for the female candidates and the positive ways they were directed whereas priming explained the relationship between the positive attributions that were used by the newspapers’ coverage of female candidates and the result of the 2009 election, where women candidates won seats in the Kuwaiti parliament. The readers may have been primed by the positive frames used for women candidates in 2009 when deciding whom to vote for.
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    Understanding Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs and their adoption of social media: a study of gender, diffusion, and culture in the Middle East
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Alghaith, Shaikhah, author; Kodrich, Kris, advisor; Champ, Joseph, committee member; Martey, Rosa Mikeal, committee member; Anderson, Karrin Vasby, committee member; Hirchi, Mohammed, committee member
    The growing number of small businesses owned by Kuwaiti women in recent years is an indication of a new progress that Kuwaiti women are achieving. This study through the lens of Diffusion of Innovations theory examined why and how Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs adopt social media. It investigated the attributes of social media that made social media appealing to be adopted by Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs. It also investigated the pros and cons associated with social media when used as a marketing tool. This study specifically looked at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram comparing these three types of social media. This study integrated concepts such as gender, entrepreneurship, social media, Diffusion of Innovations theory, and culture. The snowball sample of this qualitative study included in-depth interviews with owners of 20 businesses which revealed detailed data examining women’s entrepreneurship and their adoption and use of social media as a marketing tool. Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs were asked in 2014 to answer 18 questions that included inquiries regarding Rogers’ (2003) five attributes of innovation: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. The results showed that most Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs in this study prefer using Instagram, the photo and video sharing social networking platform, over Facebook and Twitter when marketing to their customers. Findings also revealed Rogers’ attributes associated with adopting an innovation, such as relative advantage, complexity, and observability, apply to adopting Instagram as a marketing tool by Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs. Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs adopt and incorporate Instagram in their marketing strategy because of Instagram’s photo-sharing nature (relative advantage), ease of use (complexity), and popularity (observability). This study’s findings also unveiled the perceived pros of using Instagram as a marketing tool – Instagram is like a photo album, it enlarges the circle of customers, it is widely used, and it is suitable for smaller businesses. However, the study also showed several cons to Instagram – including that products may not be what they seem and that the business owners have to deal with rude and discouraging comments. The women entrepreneurs also worry about providing unique content. They worry that their accounts will be stolen or lost and their products’ photos may be copied. They also wonder how long Instagram will be the preferred social media.