U.S. television is about earning profits, but European broadcasting has historically been governed as public service, indirectly or directly operated by the government. Substantial changes occurred in the 1990s. Privatization and the United Kingdom’s Independent Television franchise auction stimulated commercial developments throughout Europe. Even public service broadcasters lost their traditional characteristics, adopting routines making them almost indistinguishable from commercial competitors.

Television remains the number one news source overall. Research shows news adheres to similar, recurring and predictable elements; an anchor team balances the broadcast and its various elements, following a formula of friendly personalities, visuals and sound bites.

This study examined American news consultants’ role in the development of television news in the UK in the 1990s. American news consultants’ work abroad is important because they spread the U.S. model - the origin of today’s on-air news style – and changed television news on a global scale.

Limited research has been conducted on the consultants’ European work and how they operated, largely because of proprietary material. This study was based on 2359 pages of archival material from Frank N. Magid Associates’ European archives. In addition, 24 interviews with Magid staff and UK journalists allowed for a comprehensive examination.

Magid truly infiltrated UK television - from the headquarters of the BBC and ITN, to the regions. A major finding is the extent of Magid’s penetration with research services, storytelling and performance training. During the franchise auction, Magid worked with ITV clients in 11 of the 16 regions.

This study examined how Magid played a role in the development of television news. It analyzed key concepts integrated into UK news and how those are similar or different from the U.S. The importance of good storytelling permeated the findings. Tell a story well – tailored to the culture, medium and viewers – and it will attract an audience. In turn, that attracts advertisers, making news profitable. Change theory guided an analysis of societal forces. Driving forces, such as privatization and technology, spurred on development of television news; restraining forces, such as fear of Americanization, slowed it down.

In collegiate athletics, recruiting talented prospective athletes is imperative to be successful at the Division I level. This creative project aims to explore the recruiting culture of NCAA Division I women's soccer programs across the United States. More specifically, it will analyze the surfacing trend of recruiting players at increasingly younger ages and evaluate how this trend is affecting institutions, coaches, recruits, and the game as a whole. In today's recruiting landscape, youth soccer players are being recruited by college coaches as early as seventh grade with some athletes offering verbal commitments before they even enter high school. With 333 Division I women's soccer programs in the country, competition to recruit the most talented athletes has caused the age at which athletes are being recruited to take a dive. While college coaches feel it is wrong to be recruiting players this young, if they don't secure the top talent now, their teams won't win in the future and they will be without a job. Throughout the course of this creative project, multiple prospective athletes, college coaches, and youth club soccer coaches provide insight into their own experiences in this recruiting age. The future of recruiting in this collegiate sport is more deeply discussed, concluding that in order for this trend to be slowed or halted, the NCAA must step in. Additional resources and information such as the NCAA rules governing the process and suggested recruiting timelines for players are available for prospective athletes who are currently going through the recruiting process or just getting started. Website: https://minimaddie14.wixsite.com/recruitingepidemic

Herbert G. Klein was one of the important political figures of the mid to late 20th Century. Born in 1918, Klein’s career spanned 63 years. He retired as Editor-in-Chief of Copley Press, a company he worked for from the start of his career as a young journalist covering an up-and-coming Richard Nixon and was active in public affairs up to his death in 2009. Klein is best known as longtime advisor to Richard Nixon, and was with Nixon at peak moments in his career, including the Checkers Speech, as well as Nixon’s 1960 and 1962 campaigns. Upon Nixon’s election as President, Klein became the White House Director of Communications, a new position Klein was tasked with designing. For four years, Klein is known as one of Nixon’s chief advisors. But then, for reasons historians never have fully explored, he disappears from Nixon’s political landscape as well as from scholarly and public prominence.

The purpose of this dissertation is to establish Herbert G. Klein as a formative figure in the Richard Nixon White House, whose contributions to Nixon’s television strategies, their subsequent impact on the President’s actions and attitudes and eventual fall, have been largely overshadowed in the scholarly literature. The work draws from previously unexplored materials on Klein in the Nixon Library. The account is notable for the first examination of Klein’s only known oral history, lessening a gap in the existing literature on Nixon’s aides and his relationship with the media.