Television Commons^™

Rhetorical Commonsense And Child Molester Panic--A Queer Intervention, Ian Barnard

English Faculty Articles and Research

This article considers how contemporary representations of child molesters in scholarly, political, and popular culture participate in projects that revolve around the recuperation of heteronormativity. I argue that these multimodal obsessions with child molestation displace the resilience of entrenched homophobic fears, prejudices, and dispositions, giving the lie to the commonplace that the political advance of same-sex marriage in the United States signals the apotheosis of gay rights. My analysis focuses on two representative popular and scholarly texts: the long-running television series Law and Order: SVU and a scholarly article about the Jerry Sandusky case published in jac. The former …

The Politics Of Engagement In The Digital Age, Sherlynn Allen-Harris

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Steven Avery, A Case Study: Making A Murderer Or Making An Identity, Allison Grussing

Masters Theses

Steven Avery, a Wisconsin native, has spent the majority of his adult life in prison, once for a crime he was later exonerated from, and then again for murder. The Netflix series Making a Murderer documents Avery's murder trial, and uses only first hand accounts. Ultimately, this research had two goals: one was to better understand how the series utilized framing to engage in advocacy for Avery and the second was to uncover what identity was constructed by the producers and series for Avery. With a thematic analysis approach and open and axial coding this research revealed three themes that …

Statistical Plight Of Black Women, Kimberly-Joy M. Walters

Sociology Summer Fellows

The purpose of this research is to examine how television shows and their portrayals of professional Black women impact the interpretation of marriage rates by race and perpetuate ideologies about the angry, unlovable Black woman. Using a content analysis of cable and network television shows with Black professional women as lead characters, this study connects an analysis of the characters’ lived experiences to normative expectations of Black women in relationships to call into question the prevailing narrative that Black women are in part personally responsible for their statistical plight. I will closely study how the two stereotypes, the Jezebel and …

Television In Ireland: A History From The Mediated Centre, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper identifies and critiques a dominant narrative in the history of Irish television, which is too often passed off for, or accepted as, the history of television in Ireland. The his- tory of television in Ireland has been written within an institutional framework and depends on the cultural binary of tradition and modernity, ‘old Ireland’ and ‘new Ireland’. This dom- inant narrative fails to interrogate television as a medium. It provides an account of the Irish broadcaster RTÉ rather than an account of the arrival of a new medium. Ironically this nar- rative which hinges on the role of …

Analyzing Media Representations Of Male Rape And Debunking Myths On 'Law And Order Special Victims Unit', Ryan J. Stephens

Celebration

The project that I have done shows the importance of recognizing that male rape does exist and that it is more frequent than people think. By using Law and Order Special Victims Unit I am able to portray how myths about male rape are debunked and how the show creates new ways of thinking about male rape. Little research has been conducted about male rape and what we do know comes from the myths that are created in society and reinforced by false representations in the media. The research also concludes that we need more research to fully understand the …

La Creación De Crianza: Un Retrato De La Niñez En Martín Centeno, Sara Dean

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the ever-shifting landscape of rural Nicaragua, how do new developments affect the ways in which children make sense of their worlds and their identities? Taking place in Martín Centeno, a cooperative community near Río Blanco in the Department of Matagalpa that was founded in the 80s for families displaced by the war, the present study borrows the theoretical framework of children’s geographies. Through observation, interviews, and visual research methods, this study paints a portrait of childhood in Martín Centeno today, as well as highlighting ways it has changed over time. The study places particular emphasis on the role of …

Student Protests At Uct: An Analysis Of Uct Community's Perspectives Of Tactics Used In The Fallist Movement, Laura Isdahl

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigates the opinions of Rhodes Must Fall from the perspective of various members of the UCT community. Violence has been a term used to describe the tactics used in protests during the Fallist movement. I argue against condemning the students based on this reasoning, citing Fanon, Robins, among others.

Through six interviews and observations, I gathered different narratives and accounts of the Fallist events at UCT. This study includes perspectives from activists involved in the Fallist movement, other forms of activism, and some who oppose the movement as a whole. It seeks to gain different narratives than are …

Film Tourism And Expectation: Using The Hallyu Wave To Model How Governments And Media Exports Influence National Image, Aishat O. Bello

Undergraduate Research Posters

Film tourism encompasses the interest, investment and influence that exported media products can contribute to cultural globalization, and subsequent visitation of a nation. The Korean Wave or Hallyu wave has been studied and commended for its rapid spread and growing popularity within Asia and more recently, on a more global scale. By comparing and contrasting the methods used by the Korean government to enhance Hallyu, with several trade deals made by the US government to support Hollywood, we can see how the effects of film tourism were directed towards modifying perspectives on Korean culture. A few consequences of making trade …

No More Mind Games: Content Analysis Of In-Game Commentary Of The National Football League’S Concussion Problem, Jeffrey Parker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

American (gridiron) football played at the professional level in the National Football League (NFL) is an inherently physical spectator sport, in which players frequently engage in significant contact to the head and upper body. Until recently, the long-term health consequences associated with on the field head trauma were not fully disclosed to players or the public, potentially misrepresenting the dangers involved in gameplay. Crucial to the dissemination of this information to the public are in-game televised commentators of NFL games, regarded as the primary conduits for mediating in-game narratives to the viewing audience. Using a social constructionist theoretical lens, this …

Introduction: A Legacy Of Raised Expectations, Leif Stenberg, Christa Salamandra

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Fear And Media: The Relationship Between Crime Related Television Consumption And The Fear Of Crime Among Americans, Timothy Breitfeller, Tatiana Broukhim, Angelina Riccio, Leah Whitenack

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This paper explores the relationship between crime-related media consumption, shows about actual and fictional crime, internet-related problems, and the fear of crime. Our research proves that there is a direct relationship between crime-related media consumption, internet-related issues, and the fear of crime. The Chapman Survey of American Fears (Bader, 2014) identified fear of crime among various categories and included seventeen questions that were the subject of the key variables and were measured on a four point Likert scale. A series of questions directed at 1,573 respondents regarding the variables resulted in findings of positive correlations between crime-related media consumption and …

When Actors Don’T Walk The Talk: Parasocial Relationships Moderate The Effect Of Actor-Character Incongruence, Riva Tukachinsky

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The study examines the effect of a narrative that featured an actor playing a counterattitudinal role. Participants read an online magazine interview with a popular comedian and then watched a sitcom in which this actor played a role that was either consistent or inconsistent with his personal views. Parasocial relationships with the actor moderated the effect of actor-character incongruence. Specifically, incongruence was associated with lower support for narrative-related attitudes, but only among viewers with weak parasocial relationships. These results provide evidence of the existence of vicarious cognitive dissonance, wherein witnessing another person’s hypocritical behavior produces attitude change in the observer.

Documenting Portrayals Of Race/Ethnicity On Primetime Television Over A 20-Year Span And Their Association With National-Level Racial/Ethnic Attitudes, Riva Tukachinsky, Dana Mastro, Moran Yarchi

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The current study content analyzes the 345 most viewed U.S. television shows within 12 separate television seasons spanning the years 1987 to 2009. Using multilevel modeling, the results from this comprehensive content analysis then are used to predict national-level racial/ethnic perceptions (between the years 1988 and 2008) with data from the American National Election Studies (ANES). Content analysis results reveal severe underrepresentation of Latinos, AsianAmericans, and NativeAmericans, and a tendency to depict ethnic minorities stereotypically (e.g., overrepresentation of hyper-sexualized Latino characters). Multilevel-modeling analysis indicates that both the quantity and quality of ethnic media representations contributes to Whites’ racial attitudes.

Specters Of Kurdish Nationalism: Governmentality And Counterinsurgent Translation In Turkey, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

This essay examines translations of the Kurdish epic poem Mem û Zîn into Turkish, tracing the logics behind these state-sponsored translations and examining how acts of translation are also efforts to regulate, translate, and erase Kurdish subjectivities. I argue that the state instrumentalizes Mem û Zîn’s potent nationalist currency in order to disarm present and future claims of Kurdish national autonomy. Using translation as a counterinsurgent governmental tool, the state attempts to domesticate Kurdish nationalist discourses even as it reproduces them, thereby transforming Kurdish nationalism into a specter of itself. Attending to this specter, however, allows us to see how …

Representing Us All? Race, Gender, And Sexuality In Orange Is The New Black, Michael Robert Chavez

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Orange Is the New Black is a Netflix television series that began in 2013. The series focuses on the lives of inmates in a fictional women's prison. Television series about prison have focused primarily on men in prison. This thesis will expand upon previous research on representation of minorities in television using a feminist media analysis to examine the first season of the series. I will explore how race, gender, and sexuality are represented within the series. I examine the representations of four characters during the first season. I chose these four characters because they represented different racial groups, sexualities, …

It's Not Unusual: Glee And The Mainstream Acceptance Of Spontaneous Public Performance, Elizabeth M. Downey

UL Publications

When Glee debuted in 2009, the genre of the television musical series had a shaky history. Traditional episodic programs had previously aired musical episodes but these were seen as rare absurdities; the genre was an oddity to exploit on occasion, not something that could sustain an entire series (a belief proven when previous attempts had failed). The flash mob culture that emerged in the mid-2000s alongside the groundswell of social media changed this environment. The absurdity of people “bursting into song” in a public place was no longer a completely unrealistic scenario, and this reopened the door for the musical …

Who's Your Daddy: Father Trumps Fate In Supernatural, Lugene Rosen

Library Books and Book Chapters

"This chapter will examine the characters [of Supernatural] using several indicators of present/absent fathers: the father hunger scale designed by Paul. B. Perrin et al and the schemas developed by several father-focused theorists. These indicators will help explain the motivations that drive Dean, Sam, and to a lesser extent, Bobby. Based upon this exposure to fatherhood and father roles, Dean and Sam seem to be fulfilling a destiny that was decided, not by fate, but by the effects of their relationships with their father."

Revenge: Baltimore's Justice, Rachel M. Bellwoar

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

This essay explores the concept of revenge and whether or not seeking it out is ever legitimately justified. Using an example from HBO’s critically acclaimed television drama, The Wire, specific focus is placed on fan favorite character, Omar Little’s, violent search for vengeance following the season one murder of his boyfriend, Brandon. Some points considered are what consequences Brandon’s killers would have faced for their crimes if Omar hadn’t sought punishment on his own initiative, what the collateral damage is of such focused anger, and the impact of environment on what kind of retribution is desired.

Course Syllabus (Fa13) Coli 211 Literature & Psychology: "Power, The Subject, And Technological Rationality", Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Course Description and Objectives:

In this course, we will examine mechanisms of power and the processes by which these produce categories of subjectivity. Theoretically speaking, we will begin by considering these processes at the level of society and then dwell on their human experience at the level of the psyche. Here, we will aim to discover processes by which the subject reproduces conditions of domination by power at the level of psychic experience. Power-practices assume their condition of possibility by positing, on the one hand, that the category of the subject is a priori existent and, on the other, that …

Movie And Television Fathers: A Positive Reflection Of Positive Changes, George J. Mcgowan

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Certain films and television programs depicting fathers have both enduring popularity and have reflected the advances in the institution of fatherhood. This has happened because of a symbiosis that has delivered positive results: popular films and television shows that earn money for producers and advertisers have depicted fathers who have changed to reflect the popular example. These depictions have contributed in their way to mending the family dynamic, specifically related to the father’s essential role in the family. Such family-oriented films and television shows have effectively showed fathers (and men that would become fathers) that they could be much more …

Citizen Bunker: Archie Bunker As Working-Class Icon., Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Archie Bunker, the central character and patriarch of Norman Lear’s “All in the Family,” (1971-1979) has been referred to as an “everyman” and an “angry-man prototype” with “hard had prejudice.” The name Archie Bunker itself has become synonymous with a blue-collar, racially chauvinistic mentality. The title of the show’s pilot and theme song, “Those Were the Days,” emphasized Archie’s dream of a simpler (though idealized) time, a world that he could understand and upon which he could exert some control. In 1970s America, Archie seemed to feel that the world was against him – economically, socially, politically and culturally – …

How Does The Fictional Tv Marriage Influence A Young Adult's Own Perceptions About Marriage?, Gina A. Svedsen

Student Work

This study explored the relationship between television influence and the young adult‘s perception of marriage. The participants were 178, college-aged males and females (median age 20) from a large Midwestern university. How much television participants watched and the types of programs they watched were examined. Participants were asked where they got their information about marriage and how they thought marriage was displayed on TV. Two hypotheses were tested -- H1: Female students are more likely than male students to use TV programs for ideas on what marriage is really like; H2: Television has a greater influence over female students than …

The Unwatched Life Is Not Worth Living: The Elevation Of The Ordinary In Celebrity Culture, Joshua Gamson

Sociology

No abstract provided.

Para-Romantic Love And Para-Friendships: Development And Assessment Of A Multiple-Parasocial Relationships Scale, Riva Tukachinsky

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Parasocial-relationships (PSR) are viewers' imaginary relationships with media personae. Despite the growing body of research on PSR, the field is still lacking a clear conceptualization and precise measure of this phenomenon. The present study suggests a novel theorization of PSR as para-friendship and para-love. Study 1 demonstrates construct validity of a new Multiple-PSR scale using the logic of a multi-trait multi-method approach. Study 2 replicates the factorial solution using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, Study 3 provides evidence for the criterion validity of the scales. Together, these findings suggest that PSR encompass several types of relationships that might mediate different media …

Media Exposure And Women's Fear Of Crime, Pamela C. Hooper

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between the media portrayal of women and crime on television and fear of crime among female viewers. Data from the National Opinion Survey of Crime and Justice was used. A weak relationship between media exposure and fear of crime was found. Consistent with previous research, a statistically significant gender difference was revealed. Women reported higher levels of fear overall. When television dramas were examined, women who watched these shows had a lower reported fear of crime. An unexpected inverse relationship emerged between women's age and fear of crime. This finding contradicts a majority of the …

“Weekend Update” And The Tradition Of New Journalism, Paul Achter

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

“Weekend Update,” like much of SNL, saw itself as a show talking back to the media, as “television’s antidote to television, to all the bad things–corrupt, artificial, plastic, facile–that TV entertainment had become.”³ The show sought this influence in a period of heavily publicized official corruption: it’s not a coincidence that the segment, which Chevy Chase hosted on SNL’s first show, debuted on the heels of Nixon’s resignation over Watergate and Johnson’s lies about Vietnam. These abuses of power led not only to widespread disappointment with Washington politics and politicians, but to a kind of skepticism about journalism and …

Heroes: A Realistic Depiction Of Heroism, Cheryl’Lynn Joost

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In the world we live in, heroes are traditionally thought of as perfect individuals who always save the world. Perfection, however, is unrealistic in the real world. The television series Heroes is a form of text that provides viewers with heroes that are more realistic to the real world and easier to relate to. Heroes, which debuted in September of 2006, follows various people around the world who have recently discovered that they have extraordinary abilities. With their newly discovered talents, the characters now have to decide how to use them. This study critically analyzes particular characters that illustrate the …

The Simpsons: A Reflection Of Violence, Theodore S. Huptich

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Violence in the media has always been a concern to many people. There have been numerous studies that have reviewed the effect that violent television programming has had on the people that have viewed; most of these studies have shown an increase in aggression in the people that viewed the violent programming. However, there have been very few, if any, studies that have examined the amount and type of violence that exists in television programs. This study uses the television program "The Simpsons", due to its popularity and longevity, to examine the amount and type of violence that exists. This …

The Bachelor Primetime Construction Of Romance, Fairy Tales, And Melodrama, Susan E. Beck

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This thesis is centered on the reality television program The Bachelor. Presenting itself as a modem day Cinderella story, The Bachelor speaks directly to women's fantasies and their familiarity with fairy tales. In the process, women are molded into convenient and stale stereotypes. Furthermore, the show uses melodrama to create suspense as well as sensational episodes and romantic sentiments to keep the viewer tuned in. Instead of "reality" the show highlights a series of marginalized, sexualized, commodified, and pacified women who place marriage at the epicenter of their selfworth. From Queen for a Day to The Phil Donahue Show …