bachelor thesis social media

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Social Media's Impact on Teens Self-Diagnosing Mental Health Concerns: Systematic Literature Review

• Masters Thesis
• Gomez, Laura
• Park, Hyun Sun
• Lipscomb, Allen
• Debonis, Judith
• Social Work
• California State University, Northridge
• Dissertations, Academic -- CSUN -- Social Work.
• information gathering
• adolescents
• self-diagnosis
• mental health influencer
• mental health
• social media
• http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12680/cv43p4120
• by Laura Ashley Gomez

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Home > FACULTIES > Information & Media Studies (FIMS) > MEDIASTUDIES-ETD

Media Studies Theses and Dissertations

This collection contains theses and dissertations from the Department of Media Studies, collected from the Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Witnessing Conspiracy Theories: Developing an Intersectional Approach to Conspiracy Theory Research , David Guignion

Canadians Redefining R&B: The Online Marketing of Drake, Justin Bieber, and Jessie Reyez , Amara Pope Ms.

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Instagram Influencers and their Youngest Female Followers , Amanda Jenkins

A descriptive analysis of sport nationalism, digital media, and fandom to launch the Canadian Premier League , Farzan Mirzazadeh

Influencer Engagement Pods and the Struggle Over Measure in Instagram Platform Labour , Victoria J. O'Meara

Radiant Dreams and Nuclear Nightmares: Japanese Resistance Narratives and American Intervention in Postwar Speculative Popular Culture , Aidan J. Warlow

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

More barriers than solutions: Women’s experiences of support with online abuse , Chandell E. Gosse

Heavy Metal Fundraisers: Entrepreneurial Recording Artists in Platform Capitalism , Jason Netherton

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Resistant Vulnerability in The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Captain America , Kristen Allison

Unwrapping the Toronto Christmas Market: An Examination of Tradition and Nostalgia in a Socially Constructed Space , Lydia J. Gibson

Trauma, Creativity, And Bearing Witness Through Art: Marian Kołodziej's Labyrinth , Alyssa Logie

Appropriating Play: Examining Twitch.tv as a Commercial Platform , Charlotte Panneton

Dead Men Walking: An Analysis of Working-Class Masculinity in Post-2008 Hollywood Film , Ryan Schroeder

Glocalization in China: An Analysis of Coca-Cola’s Brand Co-Creation Process with Consumers in China , Yinuo Shi

Critiquing the New Autonomy of Immaterial Labour: An Analysis of Work in the Artificial Intelligence Industry , James Steinhoff

Watching and Working Through: Navigating Non-being in Television Storytelling , Tiara Lalita Sukhan

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Hone the Means of Production: Craft Antagonism and Domination in the Journalistic Labour Process of Freelance Writers , Robert Bertuzzi

Invisible Labour: Support-Service Workers in India’s Information Technology Industry , Indranil Chakraborty

Exhibiting Human Rights: Making the Means of Dignity Visible , Amy J. Freier

Industrial Stagecraft: Tooling and Cultural Production , Jennifer A. Hambleton

Cultural Hybridity in the Contemporary Korean Popular Culture through the Practice of Genre Transformation , Kyunghee Kim

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Regarding Aid: The photographic situation of humanitarianism , Sonya de Laat

The Representation of the Canadian Government’s Warrantless Domestic Collection of Metadata in the Canadian Print News Media , Alan Del Pino

(Not) One of the Boys: A Case Study of Female Detectives on HBO , Darcy Griffin

Pitching the Feminist Voice: A Critique of Contemporary Consumer Feminism , Kate Hoad-Reddick

Local-Global Tensions: Professional Experience, Role Perceptions and Image Production of Afghan Photojournalists Working for a Global Audience , Saumava Mitra

A place for locative media: A theoretical framework for assessing locative media use in urban environments , Darryl A. Pieber

Mapping the Arab Diaspora: Examining Placelessness and Memory in Arab Art , Shahad Rashid

Settler Colonial Ways of Seeing: Documentary Governance of Indigenous Life in Canada and its Disruption , Danielle Taschereau Mamers

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Finding Your Way: Navigating Online News and Opinions , Charlotte Britten

Law and Abuse: Representations of Intimate Partner Homicide in Law Procedural Dramas , Jaime A. Campbell

Creative Management: Disciplining the Neoliberal Worker , Trent Cruz

No hay Sólo un Idioma, No hay Sólo una Voz: A Revisionist History of Chicana/os and Latina/os in Punk , Richard C. Davila

Shifting Temporalities: The Construction of Flexible Subjectivities through Part-time Retail Workers’ Use of Smartphone Technology , Jessica Fanning

Becoming Sonic: Ambient Poetics and the Ecology of Listening in Four Militant Sound Investigations , David C. Jackson

Capital's Media: The Physical Conditions of Circulation , Atle Mikkola Kjøsen

On the Internet by Means of Popular Music: The Cases of Grimes and Childish Gambino , Kristopher R. K. Ohlendorf

Believing the News: Exploring How Young Canadians Make Decisions About Their News Consumption , Jessica Thom

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Narrative Epic and New Media: The Totalizing Spaces of Postmodernity in The Wire, Batman, and The Legend of Zelda , Luke Arnott

Canada: Multiculturalism, Religion, and Accommodation , Brittainy R. Bonnis

Navigating the Social Landscape: An Exploration of Social Networking Site Usage among Emerging Adults , Kristen Colbeck

Impassioned Objects And Seething Absences: The Olympics In Canada, National Identity and Consumer Culture , Estee Fresco

Satirical News and Political Subversiveness: A Critical Approach to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report , Roberto Leclerc

"When [S]He is Working [S]He is Not at Home": Challenging Assumptions About Remote Work , Eric Lohman

Heating Up the Debate: E-cigarettes and Instagram , Stephanie L. Ritter

Limitation to Innovation in the North American Console Video Game Industry 2001-2013: A Critical Analysis , Michael Schmalz

Happiest People Alive: An Analysis of Class and Gender in the Trinidad Carnival , Asha L. St. Bernard

Human-Machinic Assemblages: Technologies, Bodies, and the Recuperation of Social Reproduction in the Crisis Era , Elise D. Thorburn

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Evangelizing the ‘Gallery of the Future’: a Critical Analysis of the Google Art Project Narrative and its Political, Cultural and Technological Stakes , Alanna Bayer

Face Value: Beyond the Surface of Brand Philanthropy and the Cultural Production of the M.A.C AIDS Fund , Andrea Benoit

Cultivating Better Brains: Transhumanism and its Critics on the Ethics of Enhancement Via Brain-computer Interfacing , Matthew Devlin

Man Versus Food: An Analysis of 'Dude Food' Television and Public Health , Amy R. Eisner-Levine

Media Literacy and the English as a Second Language Curriculum: A Curricular Critique and Dreams for the Future , Clara R. Madrenas

Fantasizing Disability: Representation of loss and limitation in Popular Television and Film , Jeffrey M. Preston

(Un)Covering Suicide: The Changing Ethical Norms in Canadian Journalism , Gemma Richardson

Labours Of Love: Affect, Fan Labour, And The Monetization Of Fandom , Jennifer Spence

'What's in a List?' Cultural Techniques, Logistics, Poeisis , Liam Cole Young

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Distinguishing the 'Vanguard' from the 'Insipid': Exploring the Valorization of Mainstream Popular Music in Online Indie Music Criticism , Charles J. Blazevic

Anonymous: Polemics and Non-identity , Samuel Chiang

Manufacturing Legitimacy: A Critical Theory of Election News Coverage , Gabriel N. Elias

The Academic Grind: A Critique of Creative and Collaborative Discourses Between Digital Games Industries and Post-Secondary Education in Canada , Owen R. Livermore

We’re on This Road Together: The Changing Fan/Producer Relationship in Television as Demonstrated by Supernatural , Lisa Macklem

Brave New Wireless World: Mapping the Rise of Ubiquitous Connectivity from Myth to Market , Vincent R. Manzerolle

Promotional Ubiquitous Musics: New Identities and Emerging Markets in the Digitalizing Music Industry , Leslie Meier

Money, Morals, and Human Rights: Commercial Influences in the Marketing, Branding, and Fundraising of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch , Danielle Morgan

If I Had a Hammer: An Archeology of Tactical Media From the Hootenanny to the People's Microphone , Henry Adam Svec

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Watching High School: Representing Disempowerment on Teen Drama Television , Sarah M. Baxter

Will Work For Free: Examining the Biopolitics of Unwaged Immaterial Labour , Brian A. Brown

Social Net-working: Exploring the Political Economy of the Online Social Network Industry , Craig Butosi

Watching the games: Critical media literacy and students’ abilities to identify and critique the politics of sports , Raúl J. Feliciano Ortiz

The Invisible Genocide: An Analysis of ABC, CBS, and NBC Television News Coverage of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. , Daniel C. Harvey

It's Complicated: Romantic Breakups and Their Aftermath on Facebook , Veronika A. Lukacs

Keeping Up with the Virtual Joneses: The Practices, Meanings, and Consequences of Consumption in Second Life , Jennifer M. Martin

The (m)Health Connection: An Examination of the Promise of Mobile Phones for HIV/AIDS Intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa , Trisha M. Phippard

Born Again Hard : Transgender Subjectivity in Paul Chadwick's Concrete , Justin Raymond

Communicating Crimes: Covering Gangs in Contemporary Canadian Journalism , Chris Richardson

Online Social Breast-Working: Representations of Breast Milk Sharing in the 21st Century , Cari L. Rotstein

Because I am Not Here, Selected Second Life-Based Art Case Studies. Subjectivity, Autoempathy and Virtual World Aesthetics , Francisco Gerardo Toledo Ramírez

Day of the Woman?: Feminism & Rape-Revenge Films , Kayley A. Viteo

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

"Aren't They Keen?" Early Children's Food Advertising and the Emergence of the Brand-loyal Child Consumer , Kyle R. Asquith

Immediacy and Aesthetic Remediation in Television and Digital Media: Mass Media’s Challenge to the Democratization of Media Production , Michael S. Daubs

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2010:239 BACHELOR THESIS Social Media and the Impact on Marketing Communication

Related Papers

Gergana Todorova , Gergana Todorova

The purpose of this report is to present theoretical concepts and developments in the concept of " marketing communication mix". This article explains what is the marketing communication mix, describing its nature, importance, types of instruments and efficiency. Designing the right marketing mix involves the four P's i.e. Product, Price, Place and Promotion. In the field of marketing communications, must be coordinate efforts towards the last P of the marketing mix – Promotion. And need to develop strong sales and advertising messages that will connect with your customers instantly and effectively highlight product's quality and brand`s differentiation from others. Successful marketing communication relies on a combination of tools called the " promotional mix ". These tools include: Advertising, Public relations, Sales promotion, Direct marketing, Personal selling, and are used to describe the set of tools that a business can use to communicate effectively the benefits of your products or services to its customers.

Ljupka Naumovska

The marketing communications industry and theory are facing rapid changes in accordance with global business and society fluctuations. Global and local market conditions are constantly varying and thus creating hardly predictable environment. The most implemented tool for marketing communications – advertising, is losing its power for effective communications; customers are becoming over-advertised and resistant to traditional advertising stimuli. Advertising, as one-way communication mass media tool is no longer effective as previously, hence can no longer fulfill the role of leading marketing mix tool. Therefore, the necessity for altering the structure of the traditional marketing communication mix elements, emphasizing the role of other elements but advertising, with more personalized and interactive functions. One method for improvement of marketing communication's mix efficiency is by reallocation the leading role of advertising with public relations. The practice of public relations tools can ensure higher level of transparency in internal and external organizational communications and thus can certify more effective marketing communication. The theoretical research is supported with qualitative research of business segment by conducting a detailed interview for the marketing communication practice.

Felix Nyareki

Science Park Research Organization & Counselling

Nelson Omenugha

Aim: To review and discuss the use of social media platforms as digital marketing tool and promotional strategy by brands. The digital age inevitably brings changes and increased competition in ways businesses target, reach and recruit customers. This phenomena raises the question of which medium or media do businesses adopt in the marketing effort to reach, inform and convert customers; ultimately for survival? This review is an attempt to address this question within the context of the promotional activities of a beauty brand, Taliah. Approach: A review was conducted on the social media marketing activities of Taliah. It discusses different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube which the brand has combined to target, reach, persuade and convert their customers. In addition, the review identified four factors that reasonably affect the social media marketing as time and date; personality, call to action and post type. Consequently, this logical approach towards the subject-matter would help to provide knowledge and facilitate reaching the best-fit decision that can optimize the marketing activities of brands and businesses; considering the increasingly evolving technological era. Findings: The review considers the evolving changes in business as a result of the presence of various digital and interactive platforms and technologies. The study recognizes that the social media platforms provide opportunities for media content; including information on products and services to be processed and distributed to the targets. There is a worry that the market space is increasingly becoming competitive; particularly as consumers are empowered by the digital technologies to make informed choices among different brands and businesses. Arguably, this is one of the major factors that triggered the competition in the market and among brands. Review limitations/implications: The characteristics of the impact of the social media marketing on brands and businesses have recently been widely discussed because of their general applicability. Consequently, it is impossible to review and cover all the important aspects of the subject-matter in this review. This review focuses on the Taliah brand and how it has particularly conducted its social media and digital marketing management. It also examines four factors that reasonably affect the social media marketing; namely, time and date; personality, call to action and post type. The review examines and provides its own views based on content analysis of the social media marketing activities of Taliah brand. Practical implications: The review highlights the activities, benefits and challenges of applying social media as a marketing and promotional strategy. Social media platforms provide the channel through which brands and businesses can develop and disseminate information about their activities to their targets in an easy, less expensive and convenient manner. On the other hand, if brands and business understand the factors affecting the social media marketing; namely, time and date; personality, call to action and post type – they would be better prepared to checkmate these factors; including been able to aptly adapt the strengths of the social media in their marketing activities. This complement would strike the balance and potentially present a practical means through which brands could coordinate their marketing efforts in using various social media platforms. It is also crucial to gain insight into other factors that potentially impacting the activities of social media marketing strategy. Value: The review considers that the increasing changes in the market is itself an opportunity for the brands to rethink strategy on how various digital technologies and networking platforms can be optimized in marketing their activities and information. It is crucial and beneficial to emerging businesses and academics to understand how Taliah brand Business and Management Studies Vol. 4, No. 3; 2018 59 combined and utilized diverse social media platforms to target, reach out and recruit target customers; ultimately boosting its market shares.

Lucio Lamberti

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Bachelor Theses (Sorted by Terms)

Summer term 2021.

Communication via social media and the feminist movement in Germany - between hate speech and #Aufschrei

Winter Term 2020/ 21

• Sabrina Klingenberg

Political communication - Do influencers constitute a new form of political public players?

• Christoph Schmidt

Normative requirements for journalistic media - a qualitative content analysis of the media coverage regarding the case of Relotius

Winter Term 2019/ 20

• Stefanie Bentert

Which impact do the parameters relevant for telephone surveys have on the willingness of respondents to participate in a survey? An analysis of metadata of surveys conducted in the department of communication stuides at Freie Universität Berlin

• Pauline Kudell

The use of social media in public administrations. An evaluation of the communication between public adminstrations and citizens via social media regarding the concepts of speed, transparency and proximity

• Romano Ussat

News factors on Instagram compared to those on TV: A quantitative content analysis exemplified by Tagesschau

Summer Term 2019

• Anastasia Devyatova

Anti-stigma Campaigns as a Means of Public De-Stigmatization of Mental Illnesses

• Robin Knies

Convenience vs. Content - An Analysis of the Discrepancy between Media Perception and Media Use

• Anastasia Kozlova

Risks of the Use of Social Networks from a Socio-scientific and Technological Perspective - Using the Example of Facebook

The Portrayal of Black Athletes in German Media - To what Extent does the Portrayal of Black Basketball Players differ from the Portrayal of White Basketball Players?

• Taise Pedroso Knutsen

The Political Use of Facebook during the Presidential Election Campaign in Brazil 2018

• Jesko Strosny

The Impact of Social Media on Body Images - A Quantitative Study on the Effect of Fitness Profiles on Instagram

• Denitsa Vasileva

"Give me your heart". Instagram as a Tool for Finding a Romantic Partner from a Uses and Gratifications Perspective

Winter Term 2018/ 19

• Anastasiya Kosyk

Filter Bubbles in Social Networks - Personalization from the Perspective of the Uses and Gratifications Approach

Risks of the Social Media Use of Adolescents

Summer Term 2018

How does the mise-en-scène of the emotions in RuPaul's Drag Race contribute to the representation and the breakthrough of confines of stereotypical femininity? An analysis of the mise-en-scène of the characters Alyssa Edwards and Coco Montrese in RuPaul's Drag Race - Season 5

• Lilia Georgieva

Which are the factors that lead to success in customer driven CSR campaigns?

• Jasmin Hazim

What are the characteristics of media generations?

• Evelin Hordós

The Correlation between the Use of Facebook and the Social Relations of the so-called Generation Y

• Jung-Jung Wu

Chatbot Technology in Supporting External Brand Communication

Winter Term 2017/ 18

Summer term 2017, winter term 2016/ 17, summer term 2015, winter term 2014/ 15, summer term 2014, winter term 2013/ 14, summer term 2013, winter term 2012/ 13.

StarTribune

Major in english, minor in social media colleges add more formal studies of online social networks.

The first time University of Minnesota offered an undergraduate social media management class, it filled up right away. The U offered a second session, and students filled that one, too.

The enthusiasm, coupled with students' future career prospects, is why the university and Associate Professor Valérie Bélair-Gagnon are working to create an official minor in social media. The hope is to give students expertise and experience in social media that they can take into a career managing and producing content for companies' social media accounts.

"There is a need, and we know students are interested," said Bélair-Gagnon, who sometimes teaches the social media management class.

The U isn't the only college looking to bring social media into education. The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul offers a digital media arts major. Arizona State University has a social media management major. Some colleges lack dedicated social media majors but still offer individual courses like Winona State University's social media marketing class.

More than 50% of U.S. adults say they have used YouTube and Facebook, and more than 25% have used Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram and TikTok, according to the Pew Research Center.

Companies want to reach those audiences — and get their products in front of as many eyes as possible — by growing their presence on those platforms, said Arik Hanson, a social media consultant who also teaches the subject at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Hanson said students may have their own social media accounts, but that's not necessarily enough experience or education to run an account for a company.

"They fall back by saying, 'I know all the platforms.' Well, yeah, but there's a big difference between knowing how to personally operate an Instagram account and how you do that to move the needle on business results for a Fortune 500 company," Hanson said.

St. Thomas lets students focus on media design or production as part of their Digital Media Arts major, according to Peter Gregg, the department chair for emerging media. Media design students will learn web and graphic design. Media production students will study video, photography and audio production.

Gregg said the major was started partially because traditional educational approaches to media failed to prepare students for the modern social media landscape. In their major, students not only learn about social media practices but also ethics and theories related to social media.

At the U, students in the social media management classes learn the best times to post on social media to maximize engagement or how to optimize posts for the platform they are published on, among other topics.

Bélair-Gagnon is unsure if social media would be a U student's primary area of focus; however, students pursuing business, advertising, journalism or politics would be interested in a social media minor or a class in the subject to supplement their education.

"All of these people will need to do work in social media," Bélair-Gagnon said.

Building new courses

The social media minor needs input from faculty at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication before it gets approval from the College of Liberal Arts, University and Board of Regents, Bélair-Gagnon said. But she's hopeful the minor will be approved and that students could start the minor as early as fall 2025.

While some new courses will be created, many of the potential classes for the minor are already available, like the storytelling and design or digital marketing courses, according to Bélair-Gagnon. Although they may not go into the minor, classes like the Implications of social media on mental health or digital retail analytics and social media were also created.

Even with the growth of social media education, Hanson said he doesn't expect employers to require a major in social media for prospective employees.

"I can't imagine they are going to be like, 'No social media degree? Can't work in this field.' It's more about experience anyway," Hanson said.

Because it is such a new field, finding experienced professionals who have the knowledge and experience to teach courses about social media is difficult, Hanson added.

Gregg, of St. Thomas, said universities hoping to prepare their students for their future careers will have to start adding social media as a component of their majors and classes.

"I believe that any university that's going to be engaging in the study and practice of media inevitably will be including content or building programs with sensitivity to the current and emerging media landscape," Gregg said.

Jack O'Connor is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune. Reach him at [email protected].

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Jestina Ricci awarded Winston Family Honors Award for Outstanding Honors Thesis

April 16, 2024 The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Jestina Ricci '24, receives prestigious Honors College Award for honors thesis

WGSS major Jestina Ricci has been awarded the Winston Family Honors Award for Outstanding Honors Thesis. Established by Robert and Karen Winston, the annual Winston Honors Writing Awards recognize the written work of students in the University of Maryland Honors College. 

Jestina received the award for Outstanding Honors Thesis for "Forever and Indefinitely My Baby: #MedicalMoms, Social Media Influencing, and the Denial of Disability Identity Formation."

Abstract: 

Throughout the United States, individual states are passing legislation to entitle compensation to the children of family vloggers. However, disabled children are excluded from these pieces of legislation due to their subject positions as both disabled and children. As the subjects of content posted by a community of non-disabled mothers under the #MedicalMom hashtag, disabled children are mobilized for sympathy and online views from non-disabled audiences. When #MedicalMoms are criticized, it is for their irresponsible reproduction and sexuality instead of the denial of their children’s identity formation online. Both content posted by #MedicalMoms and reactions to said content rely on positioning disability as a specter. As the disabled children of influencers age into adulthood, centering their perspectives will be crucial to transforming discourse on care and dependence, as well as addressing any limitations in forthcoming state legislations. 

The selection committee writes the following: "Extensively researched and theorized, your thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine how social media, disability, and privacy concerns intersect in contemporary parenting culture.... Throughout, your call to center, recover, and prioritize the voices, experiences, dignity, and identity formation of people with disabilities rings through with the most compelling intellectual force and ethical conviction."

Congratulations Jestina! 

Disability Media Studies

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NPR in Turmoil After It Is Accused of Liberal Bias

An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives.

By Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson

NPR is facing both internal tumult and a fusillade of attacks by prominent conservatives this week after a senior editor publicly claimed the broadcaster had allowed liberal bias to affect its coverage, risking its trust with audiences.

Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in an essay published Tuesday by The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”

Mr. Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, castigated NPR for what he said was a litany of journalistic missteps around coverage of several major news events, including the origins of Covid-19 and the war in Gaza. He also said the internal culture at NPR had placed race and identity as “paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”

Mr. Berliner’s essay has ignited a firestorm of criticism of NPR on social media, especially among conservatives who have long accused the network of political bias in its reporting. Former President Donald J. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to argue that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded, an argument he has made in the past.

NPR has forcefully pushed back on Mr. Berliner’s accusations and the criticism.

“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” Edith Chapin, the organization’s editor in chief, said in an email to staff on Tuesday. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.” Some other NPR journalists also criticized the essay publicly, including Eric Deggans, its TV critic, who faulted Mr. Berliner for not giving NPR an opportunity to comment on the piece.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Berliner expressed no regrets about publishing the essay, saying he loved NPR and hoped to make it better by airing criticisms that have gone unheeded by leaders for years. He called NPR a “national trust” that people rely on for fair reporting and superb storytelling.

“I decided to go out and publish it in hopes that something would change, and that we get a broader conversation going about how the news is covered,” Mr. Berliner said.

He said he had not been disciplined by managers, though he said he had received a note from his supervisor reminding him that NPR requires employees to clear speaking appearances and media requests with standards and media relations. He said he didn’t run his remarks to The New York Times by network spokespeople.

When the hosts of NPR’s biggest shows, including “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” convened on Wednesday afternoon for a long-scheduled meet-and-greet with the network’s new chief executive, Katherine Maher , conversation soon turned to Mr. Berliner’s essay, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. During the lunch, Ms. Chapin told the hosts that she didn’t want Mr. Berliner to become a “martyr,” the people said.

Mr. Berliner’s essay also sent critical Slack messages whizzing through some of the same employee affinity groups focused on racial and sexual identity that he cited in his essay. In one group, several staff members disputed Mr. Berliner’s points about a lack of ideological diversity and said efforts to recruit more people of color would make NPR’s journalism better.

On Wednesday, staff members from “Morning Edition” convened to discuss the fallout from Mr. Berliner’s essay. During the meeting, an NPR producer took issue with Mr. Berliner’s argument for why NPR’s listenership has fallen off, describing a variety of factors that have contributed to the change.

Mr. Berliner’s remarks prompted vehement pushback from several news executives. Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor of standards and practices, said in an interview that he rejected all of Mr. Berliner’s claims of unfairness, adding that his remarks would probably make it harder for NPR journalists to do their jobs.

“The next time one of our people calls up a Republican congressman or something and tries to get an answer from them, they may well say, ‘Oh, I read these stories, you guys aren’t fair, so I’m not going to talk to you,’” Mr. Cavin said.

Some journalists have defended Mr. Berliner’s essay. Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, NPR’s former ombudsman, said Mr. Berliner was “not wrong” on social media. Chuck Holmes, a former managing editor at NPR, called Mr. Berliner’s essay “brave” on Facebook.

Mr. Berliner’s criticism was the latest salvo within NPR, which is no stranger to internal division. In October, Mr. Berliner took part in a lengthy debate over whether NPR should defer to language proposed by the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association while covering the conflict in Gaza.

“We don’t need to rely on an advocacy group’s guidance,” Mr. Berliner wrote, according to a copy of the email exchange viewed by The Times. “Our job is to seek out the facts and report them.” The debate didn’t change NPR’s language guidance, which is made by editors who weren’t part of the discussion. And in a statement on Thursday, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association said it is a professional association for journalists, not a political advocacy group.

Mr. Berliner’s public criticism has highlighted broader concerns within NPR about the public broadcaster’s mission amid continued financial struggles. Last year, NPR cut 10 percent of its staff and canceled four podcasts, including the popular “Invisibilia,” as it tried to make up for a $30 million budget shortfall. Listeners have drifted away from traditional radio to podcasts, and the advertising market has been unsteady.

In his essay, Mr. Berliner laid some of the blame at the feet of NPR’s former chief executive, John Lansing, who said he was retiring at the end of last year after four years in the role. He was replaced by Ms. Maher, who started on March 25.

During a meeting with employees in her first week, Ms. Maher was asked what she thought about decisions to give a platform to political figures like Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican Party chair whose position as a political analyst at NBC News became untenable after an on-air revolt from hosts who criticized her efforts to undermine the 2020 election.

“I think that this conversation has been one that does not have an easy answer,” Ms. Maher responded.

Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact Ben securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or email at [email protected] . More about Benjamin Mullin

Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email:  [email protected]   More about Katie Robertson

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Let’s Call the Golden Bachelor’s “Divorce” What It Really Is

Gerry and theresa weren’t married long enough to intertwine their lives..

I was still foggy at 8:32 this morning from the rush of lunch-making, dishwasher unstacking, and child-to-school shepherding that I do on weeks when my daughter is with me, when my phone chimed with a text: “Who woulda thought? The Golden Couple already split. I didn’t think they would stay together forever but I would have guessed they’d be too embarrassed to quit so soon. I forgot; it’s reality tv.”

The incoming was from my friend and mentor Ann, who had gotten hooked on the Golden Bachelor at Slate’s suggestion (and wrote this great piece about being 67 and single when the show’s finale aired last November). It took me a second: Who was she talking about? Ah, Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist, the senior citizen–aged lovebirds who had emerged triumphant at the end of Gerry’s turn as the septuagenarian Bachelor. Officially donezo. Talk about out of sight, out of mind. As Scott Nover wrote in Slate on Friday about the end of the pair’s three-month marriage, “the American attention span for Gerry and Theresa’s abbreviated love story had ended.”

Well, I guess I have a little more room in my personal attention span because I spent most of the day trying to figure out why these headlines about the Golden Couple’s divorce were bothering me so much. Yes, I admit, I followed the ins and outs of the whole season . I had even found peace with their match at the end. But I found their wedding—broadcast live on TV—to be both boring and ick . And, as they gave follow-up interviews about their future together, I did keep wondering: Were these two really going to move away from their respective grandchildren in Indiana and New Jersey and settle in … Charleston , South Carolina, as they claimed they would ?

Now we know the answer is no. Per their rehearsed announcement on Good Morning America on Friday morning, they are splitsville. But I refuse to call it a divorce. At best, it is a “divorce,” the same way their relationship was a “marriage.” A divorce entails a splitting of assets. Discussions around family holidays and time spent with children. Decisions around who gets how much of the retirement funds, or the shared compact car. A divorce requires difficult decisions—notably, to end a marriage! There’s no way Gerry and Theresa had enough time together to assemble anything that requires a divorce as we commonly think of it. And even if they had to have some big talks about breaking up—deciding to get divorced can take some couples years!—how many discussions could there have truly been? They got married in January!

Now, it’s possible they’ll have an argument over that Golden Bachelor money , but I doubt it. Seems like the kind of thing that was worked out in reams of paperwork with ABC months ago. Surely they didn’t have a shared bank account at the time they were married, so they probably each got paid via ACH right into their own coffers—no stress there!

In case it is not clear by now, I’m speaking from experience. I am divorced. And I probably have one of the best divorce stories you will ever hear, in that my ex-husband and I are incredibly close, devoted co-parents and forever family. We have keys to each other’s houses, and we see each other all the time. Last weekend, our daughter stayed home with my (second) husband while I went to see a concert with my first husband. Can you follow that? It confuses people all the time!

But it wasn’t easy to get here. It was hard, because getting divorced is really hard! Even if, like us, you don’t own a home and things are relatively simple, the years of shared life and things and feelings are hard to parse. In the best case, you can end up like us. But often, the ending of a life together brings up so much stuff we try to shove in the back of the proverbial closet that the mess can never totally be cleaned up. Every divorced person I know tries their best. But there is a specific kind of lasting sadness—and often much worse—even when things are as amicable as humanly possible.

I am not sorry that Gerry and Theresa will be spared this lasting rubble. But let’s call the end of their “marriage” what it is: a breakup. They couldn’t decide on where to live , and things didn’t work out. It may legally be a divorce, but it amounts to little more than a short-lived, broken engagement.

Andrew "King Bach" Bachelor Signs With CAA (Exclusive)

Andrew Bachelor has signed with CAA as the social media star-turned-actor and producer parts with the talent agency for representation.

The Canadian-born comic and actor, also known as "King Bach," has in all around 75 million fans online, especially on Vine, the shortform video-sharing platform. Vine's limit of six seconds per-movie makes for creative challenges, but Bachelor leveraged his NYU Film School training to pack full dramas into each short Vine post to amass a giant following.

Bachelor then crossed over to film where his credits include Netflix's comedy Coffee and Karee m, where he starred with Taraji P. Henson, Ed Helms and Betty Gilpin, and the streaming giant's horror film The Babysitter: Killer Queen, which also starred Jenna Ortega, Samara Weaving and Bella Thorne.

Bachelor also appeared in the Netflix romantic comedy Holidate and the Gerard Butler-led thriller Greenland. He will also appear in STX's sport drama National Champions and current projects include the action-thriller Miles Ryder .  

In stand up comedy, Bachelor's Truth or Dare tour played in various U.S. cities over the last two years coming out of the pandemic. His additional credits include starring in and executive producing Where's The Money, Meet The Blacks, 50 Shades of Black, To All The Boys I've Loved Before and When We First Met .

Bachelor currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most followed account on Vine. He is managed by Christina Bachelor and his attorney is Duncan Hedges of Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox, LLP.

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