Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Reanimation Of The Zombie Genre, William Engel

Capstones

The following piece is an examination of the evolution of the zombie in popular media. It begins with a brief recap of the zombie’s history, beginning with its roots in 19th century Haitian folklore, followed by its usage in the format of film. The most notable and enduring entries in the zombie film genre served as scathing critiques of contemporary human issues, encapsulating all of the fears and insecurities of its audience. In recent years, however, due to the way the international film market has changed, the zombie film has lost its emotional power and edge. Contemporary zombie filmmakers are …

Retrograde Returns Of The American Housewife: Reimagining An Old Character In A New Millennium, Ruth Emelia Wollersheim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the immensely popular return of the housewife character in the twenty-first century. From films like The Stepford Wives (2004), to television dramas like Desperate Housewives (2004-2012) and The Good Wife (2009- ), to reality shows like Wife Swap (2004- ), Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise (2006- ), Basketball Wives (2010- ), Mob Wives (2011- ), and most recently on the blogosphere with personalities like The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, the housewife character has reentered our imaginations on a mass scale. This anachronistic character trend is in stark contrast to the urban, working superwoman ideal of the 1980s …

Where Are Those Good Old Fashioned Values? Family And Satire In Family Guy, Reilly Judd Ryan

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the presentation of family in the controversial FOX Network television program Family Guy. Polarizing to audiences, the Griffin family of Family Guy is at once considered sophomoric and offensive to some and smart and satiric to others. Though neither judgment of the show is necessarily mutually exclusive, the intention of this study is to reconcile those disparate viewpoints in order to measure the show's purposefulness. After all, if Family Guy succeeds in its satire, it is full of social purpose, offensiveness notwithstanding. This thesis focuses on arguably the main point of contention in Family Guy: the family. …

Running Contradiction: A Negotiated Reading Of Encoding Strategies In The Boondocks Animated Series, 2005-2011, Wesley Tyler French

Dissertations

This study is comprised of a five-point qualitative critical analysis of denotation strategies employed in the first three seasons of The Boondocks Animated Series, which aired on United States cable television between 2005 and 2011. The five encoding strategies discussed in this study were selectively employed into each episode by the cast and crew of The Boondocks Animated Series. The encoding strategies were employed to facilitate audience accessibility between 2005 and 2011 during The Boondocks Animated Series’ successful initial run on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block.

This study focuses on the first three seasons of The Boondocks Animated …

“They’Re All Little Boys Who Need A Strong Mommy:” Burke’S Theories Of Form And Terministic Screens Concerning Maternal Representations In Sons Of Anarchy, Stephanie Michelle Harrelson

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to analyze one contemporary television series’ representations of mothers and what these depictions say about the trajectory of cultural perceptions. As one of the most pervasive forms of media in contemporary culture, television offers an opportune site of study about what American society deems important. While many scholars have begun exploring issues concerning gender on television, few have focused primarily on depictions of motherhood and their implications on society. Televised representations of mothers have traditionally remained in the background of shows, spending the majority of their screen time taking care of their children, husbands, and households in …

Social Media & Audience Participation In Regard To Television, Jean Marie Mcbride

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Jean McBride

Major: Communications: Radio/TV Broadcasting & Mass Media Production

Project Sponsor: Dr. Sylvia White

Number of Project Credits: 3

Social Media & Audience Participation in Regard to Television

The purpose of my honors project was seeing if social media had an influence on television show ratings and popularity by incorporating audience participation. Especially in regards to television shows that have been around for years, I was interested to see if television ratings went up when using Twitter compared to when they did not use Twitter to increase viewers and audience participation. I surveyed forty-nine collegiate women between the ages …