Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1996

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Susan Lucarelli Dimmick

Committee Members

Ed Caudill, Jerry Morrow

Abstract

This thesis explores how a citizen activist group used media advocacy to affect public policy changes within an organization. It is suggested that citizen activist groups become frustrated with normal lines of communications within an organization because they are experiencing one-way, or asymmetrical communications. As a result, these groups may seek other avenues to communicate their messages and to influence the agenda of an organization. The goal of this thesis is to document the effectiveness of media advocacy as a tool for citizen activism as used by a citizen group in a middle Tennessee community. While the group did not achieve its ultimate goal of stopping the construction of a transmission line project, it did force an organization to re-examine the way it communicated and worked with its publics during the siting of future such projects.

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