Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Racialized Masculinities In Professional Basketball: Utilizing Mixedness To Challenge Commonplace Black/White Media Discourses About Nba Players, Anthony C. Peavy

Communication ETDs

In this dissertation project, I utilize a Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) lens to examine how mixed-race Black/White players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) are represented, discussed, racialized, and gendered by major sports media platforms. More specifically, I utilize this project to elucidate how media centered on professional basketball continue to partake in hegemonic and essentialist rhetoric surrounding Black and White masculinity—that which has been used to discuss Black and White men in basketball throughout the entire history of the sport—to homogenize mixed-race Black/White men in the NBA and present them in a way that diminishes the potentially deconstructive …

Framing Roles Of Protagonists And Antagonists In Visual Media, Jonas Braden Larson

Masters Theses

Many characters and stories have been interpreted over the past few thousand years. Humans are innate storytellers and make connections through various communication methods. Heroes and villains have affected many lives and given people a lens through which to view the world. The perception of stories and their characters in the visual media may not be as subjective as many people think. The framing communication theory was used to study the perception of audience member’s view of protagonists and antagonists in a visual story. Two short films were produced and screened to an audience that filled out surveys on their …

Libby In Limbo, Moriah Claire Hall

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Libby in Limbo is a scripted narrative podcast that follows Libby as she moves back to her small hometown, gets a job as a librarian, and learns to navigate life in a small, tight-knit community. This podcast serves two main purposes: to create entertainment media about a library that does not promote harmful stereotypes about libraries and to create awareness and accessibility of scripted podcasts.

Representations Of Time In Time-Based Media: An Exploration Of The Human Experience Of Temporality In Film And Tv, Nelea Fong

Honors Thesis

Time is an aspect of the human experience that fascinates us but eludes our understanding. Humans have turned to science, philosophy, and theology in our endeavor to understand time, but our shared love and history of storytelling drives us to explore temporality through visual medias that have a structural foundation in time. Expanding our understanding of the human experience of time through time-based media such as movies and TV can point us toward comprehending various forms of time and how each person can perceive said time differently. Using film and TV theory, informed by scientific and philosophical explorations in the …

Why Industry Professionals Should Care About Fandom, Abigail Minzer

Student Publications

A fandom is a community of people who share a common interest and interact with each other on the basis of that common interest. When a fandom comes together on the basis of a creative work, it allows a mutually beneficial relationship to form in which the fandom will eagerly consume existing content, allowing new content to be produced for their consumption. Thus, professionals in industries such as publishing, theater, and television and film should be aware of the integral role fandoms play in the consumption of their content and how to nurture fandoms through the means discussed in this …

Space Preacher And The Horror Of Isis (A Film), Joanna Wirtz

Doctor of Ministry

There is a profound misunderstanding among religious “nones” in America about Christianity and what it means to follow Christ, which is caused in part by misrepresentation in various media. If solved, it would mean higher interest in and better representation of authentic Christian perspectives in the public square. I have researched where “nones” and these misunderstandings have come from, Christian perspectives on creativity, and Christians who felt called to create media content for secular audiences. As a preacher, writer, and actor, I feel called to share God’s truth through telling stories. Stories transform how people see the world. I chose …

A New Atticus Is Afoot: The Portrayal Of Lawyers In Popular Culture, Anna Thrush

Senior Theses

This project analyzes the stereotypical image of lawyers in popular culture, focusing on either overly demonic or unrealistically heroic. Both stereotypes that are common portrayals of attorneys in popular culture are unrealistic and deny society a true comprehension of the profession. Popular culture has molded the image of lawyers to the characteristics that sell, rather than focusing on a realistic portrayal. Therefore, popular culture creates a falsely dramatized image of attorneys to generate revenue, putting the reputation and future of the profession as risk. These stereotypes are exemplified in this project through a close literary analysis of lawyer characters from …

Simmel, Social Media And The Debatable Virtues Of Not Caring, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper asks how can bare to talk about the nightmares served up by our media? How can we witness horror, only to forget about it and have It replaced by fresh horror the next day? As Keith Tester wrote, most of us today, can ‘witness horror, and feel next to nothing’ (86). How has this become installed as a modern tradition? And, how might we communicate care while escaping from a cycle of outrage and forgetting.

Reimagining Identity Through Photography: The Experience Of Intersectionality For Asian-American Women, Noelle Song

CMC Senior Theses

"Reimagining Identity Through Photography: The Experience of Intersectionality for Asian-American Women'' aims to challenge the common stereotypes of Asian-American women in modern society by examining the history of their identities as both women and Asian Americans. The project highlights the negative consequences of complacency to these stereotypes, exploring the complexity of the model minority myth, intersectionality, and standpoint theory, while providing historical context to understand the violent crimes committed against this demographic. I curated a physical gallery space of 18 images featuring 9 Asian-American women to deconstruct racial and gender myths that contribute to the model minority myth. This exhibition …

Quarantined Across Borders: Theorizing Embodied Transnationalism, Precarious Citizenship, And Resilience For Collective Healing, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Aisha Durham, Joëlle M. Cruz

Media Studies - All Scholarship

Embodied transnationalism is characterized by intimate experiences of human-made political borders that define, limit, and restrict flows of the “Other.” In the Quarantined Across Borders collection, contributors from immigrant and diasporic backgrounds address the material and discursive differences in how they experience the pandemic in terms of a public health crisis and public policy response that intersects racialized gender, class, citizenship status, and profession.

Analog Matters: Labels, Cassettes, And Alternative Economies In Argentina’S Independent Music Scenes, Maria Agustina Checa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnographic study of current cassette production and circulation in Argentina. It analyzes the work of independent labels that record music available online onto cassette tapes, incorporating a variety of music styles. I examine practices of production, circulation, and exchange, and the alternative economies performed around cassettes, with particular attention to the materialities constituting these processes. Through cassettes, I conceptualize and trace "relational value," a notion to understand objects with different kinds of social agencies valued for their abilities to generate connections. Relational value is a theoretical construct that emerges from the ground-up approach to studying …

“Good War” On The Cool Medium: The Cold War's Influence On The Portrayal Of World War Ii On American Television, Michael A. Losasso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a cultural history of the Cold War’s influence on the portrayal of World War II on American television. In it, I chronicle the production, reception, and presentation of the war of three prominent American-produced documentary series from three periods of the Cold War – Victory at Sea (1952-1953), The Twentieth Century (1957-1966), and The Unknown War (1978). The dissertation posits that from the 1940s-1960s, the television portrayal of World War II was an embodiment of the values- that the United Sates was “fighting” for through a “triumphalist” narrative of a “just war” which recast the role of …

Through A Glass Too Brightly: A Long History Of Media, Social Expectations And Loneliness, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper looks at how media, social expectations, and chronic loneliness are intertwined. It uses a historical and cultural approach. Loneliness—a painful gap between the social connections that people have and those they expect to have—has always existed. However, modern life and new media technologies have changed how loneliness feels. Using examples from the telephone, radio, television, and social media, the paper shows that society regularly has greeted new technologies through a polarised hopes and fears discourse. A more long-term history, however, reveals that while media may have positive and negative effects on social connection, the relationship between media and …

Aesthetic Implications Of Using The Computer Medium In Music, Rodrigo Valente Pascale

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I reflect on the relationship between the materiality of computers and computer music. Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler had a fundamental role in unraveling how media shape discourse and influence their conveyed message and history. These were important discoveries that built the foundation for the field of Media Studies. Throughout this thesis, I will revisit reflections of researchers who contributed to this field and point out how the medium molds computer music’s history and aesthetics. After reviewing the role of the materiality of computers, I will indicate some aesthetically compelling directions of computer music, which consider features …

Bisexuality In 21st Century Media, Bethany Abrams

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper sets out to examine bisexuality in 21st century media in order to highlight the importance of good bisexual representation. Media that perpetuates harmful stereotypes only adds to the discrimination that bisexual individuals experience. This paper begins by discussing stereotypes and types of discrimination that are particularly relevant to the bisexual community. After this, pieces of media are analyzed thoroughly for how they portray bisexuality. The three main pieces that are analyzed are Alex Strangelove, Atypical, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. After analyzing each piece, the paper continues to examine audience reactions and discusses the implications of representing bisexuality …

The Bachelor Machine - A Short Film By Jack Rose, Jack Rose

Honors Theses

My Bucknell Honors Thesis submission for the Film and Media Studies department consists of two different parts. The first part is a 5-minute short film, titled “the bachelor machine” that I created through a year-long process of pre-production (idea generation), production (the film shoot itself), and post-production (editing, sound design, color grading). The second part of my Honors Thesis submission is an Artist’s Statement that explains the processes by which I created the film, outlining each aforementioned step in the production process. I also examine the avenues by which I was inspired to create this product, through my previous experiences …

Ecocinema Theory And Practice 2, Stephen Rust, Salma Monani, Sean Cubitt

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

This second volume builds on the initial groundwork laid by Ecocinema Theory and Practice by examining the ways in which ecocritical cinema studies have matured and proliferated over the last decade, opening whole new areas of study and research.

Featuring fourteen new essays organized into three sections around the themes of cinematic materialities, discourses, and communities, the volume explores a variety of topics within ecocinema studies from examining specifc national and indigenous flm contexts to discussing ecojustice, environmental production studies, flm festivals, and political ecology. The breadth of the contributions exemplifes how ecocinema scholars worldwide have sought to overcome the …

America's Next Top Model Magnified, Nina Violi

Capstone Showcase

America's Next Top Model was a reality television show that aired from 2003 to 2018 and the show gave women (and men in the later seasons) a chance to become models and be trained by the best in the business. While the show looked like a positive experience from the viewers' perspective, there were many situations when the models were put in uncomfortable situations. The show is related back to the feminism theory.

Hierarchy And Responsibility In Media: Cults, Culpability, And Culture, Max Hargett

Online Theses and Dissertations

This is a descriptive research project that investigates how popular entertainment media portrays cults. My intention is to see how the selected films and television shows portray issues of hierarchy and culpability within the cult and to explore how the genre and theme of the content was utilized in order to evoke certain reactions and sentiments in the audience. The selected films were The Sacrament, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Midsommar. The selected television shows were Waco and American Horror Story: Cult. Each film and series is given its own analysis. Findings indicate that a common theme of the rigid …

Media Representation Of Mass Migration In Germany, Mohammed Akhtar

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Experiencing Cinematic Vr: Where Theory And Practice Converge In The Tribeca Film Festival Cinema360, John V. Pavlik

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Cinematic virtual reality (VR) production has reached enough capacity to support a festival. This paper offers a theoretical framework of VR narrative structure to critically examine one such festival in cinematic VR. The spotlight here is on the fifteen entries in the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival Cinema360. Findings suggest that although the field of cinematic VR has advanced substantially in recent years in terms of narrative design and user experience, there is still a considerable distance for VR storytellers to travel to fully utilize the nature and potential of the developing medium of virtual reality.

Art Imitates Life: The Representation (Or Lack Thereof) Of Black Women In Video Games, Bug Gadson

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

The key focus of this essay is to compare the representation of black women in media, primarily in television and film, to the representation of black female characters in video games. Using black feminist theory, this essay illustrates the treatment of black female characters in gaming. The particular and deliberate methods of writing black female characters in video games are used to highlight white video game characters and their narratives, instead of giving life and dimension to the black female characters themselves. The hostile and unsafe environments in gaming spaces are cultivated through upholding these harmful stereotypes of black women, …

An Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Representation In Television And Film, Katelyn Thomson

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

As LGBTQ+ representation in television and film increases, viewers must continue to question if this representation is accurate and enough to represent a whole spectrum of individuals. TV and film hold a powerful role in shaping societies perceptions, biases and stereotypes of a community and individuals. This essay analyzes TV and film representations to provide the reader with a better understanding of the power and impact that accurate representations of LGBTQ+ can have on the community and society as a whole. By looking at the issue through the lenses of queer theories, scripting theory, in addition to Stuart Hall and …

Starless Nights, Deepak Rauniyar

Theses and Dissertations

A film about the filmmaking process and the life of a filmmaker. But it's also a story about immigration, home, and negotiation. We constantly negotiate in our lives to maintain our relationships, opportunities, and dreams.

The Pre-Fab Fab Four, Thyra L. Chaney

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper describes the formation of The Monkees as a manufactured boy band and pop culture phenomenon, and the social and cultural context that led to the group's dissolution and lasting legacy in the history of television and popular culture.

'Why Do They Make Her Wear That?': A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ramy Youssef: Feelings, Rania Zaied

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Muslims have often been portrayed in the media, as violent, barbaric, terrorists, and powerless victims, along with many other misconceptions of negative and stereotypical images. Ramy Youssef: Feelings (2019), is an hour-long stand-up comedy special presented by comic Ramy Youssef, who is a Muslim millennial Egyptian-American man. By conducting a rhetorical analysis of the special, this research combines the method of Critical Rhetoric with two of Lowery and Renegar’s (2016) three frameworks, those being Bicultural Otherness and Self and Culture Deprecating Humor, to analyze Youssef’s comedy special Feelings (2019). This research delineates how the media influences the rhetoric of Muslim …

Beautiful People: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Fashion Industry's Thin Ideal, Shane White

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Negative body image among women has become an extremely relevant topic in the last decade. The “ideal” female body image and what a person should look like according to marketing and advertising has become a highly controversial issue. This project seeks to show how the fashion industry has, over centuries, shaped how people think they need to look and in today’s time and show how it has been a root cause of issues like body image complexes leading to negative self-perception, eating disorders, mental illnesses like anxiety, depression and addiction, and even suicide. Over the last three to four decades, …

Climate Change And Vaccines: Distrust Of Science In Politics And The Media, Natalie Montalbano

Senior Honors Projects

Distrust in science and the scientific process has increased significantly over the last fifty years, and this distrust is particularly apparent in the fields of climate change and vaccination. Climate change, a relatively new scientific issue, has become one of the hottest topics discussed in both U.S and world politics. The existence and real threat of anthropogenic global warming was publicly declared by National Geographic in 2004, but climate scientists had acknowledged that humans were causing the warming of our Earth as early as the 1980’s. Vaccines, despite being safe and effective in curbing the spread of infectious diseases, have …

The New Wbgu: A Social Media Marketing Strategy, Brittany Line

Honors Projects

This project looks to find the most effective ways of growing and engaging a social media audience for WBGU-FM. Included in this is strategy used to interact with more people, an analysis of what elements were effective, and ways to increase content. Social media holds growing importance in promoting and connecting with an audience. This project is needed because recently, WBGU-FM has not been frequently or effectively using their social media platforms to connect with the community. As the shift of WBGU-FM’s purpose takes effect to focus on more community aspects of radio, it is important to have multiple ways …

Etika Në Videografi Dhe Fotografi, Berna Sadiku

Theses and Dissertations

Në këtë punim do të shqyrtoj etikën në videografi dhe fotografi duke shtjelluar rolin e mediave në shoqëri nëpërmjet ofrimit të lajmeve dhe informacione të besueshme dhe në forma të ndryshme dhe nëpërmjet platformash të larmishme. Etika ka të bëjë me parimet morale me të cilat punojnë njerëzit, shoqëritë, vendet, grupet të gjitha kanë mënyra për të vendosur se çfarë është e drejtë dhe e gabuar. Videografi dhe fotografi janë para së gjithash gazetarë. Ata duhet të dinë bazat e asaj që bën lajme. Vështirësia më e madhe në ruajtjen e etikës qëndron tek imazhet që transmetohen në mediat elektronike, …