Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Marxist Analysis Of Social And Economic Narratives In Childrens' Cartoons, Shane Mcgregor

Theses and Dissertations

Using a Marxist framework with a grounding in critical literacy, this study employs a content analysis methodology to analyze 25 episodes of five of the most popular children’s television cartoons in order to understand how these cartoons portray economic and social systems, as well as how the messages these cartoons express would tend to support these systems. In so doing, this research hopes to provide a conceptual framework that educators and parents can use as a guide for demonstration of a critical approach to understanding the curriculum of children’s media inside or outside of the classroom. Educators can modify this …

The Binge Viewing Index: Creating And Testing A New Measure, Larry J. Webster Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Television Binge Viewing is a media consumption behavior that is in its research infancy. To date, researches have used a dichotomous variable to measure binge viewing. That measure is based on operationalizing binge viewing as having watched two to six episodes of the same television program in one sitting. This research project created and applied a continuous measure by creating the Binge Viewing Index (BVI), which is based on the duration (number of episodes) and the frequency (weekly average) of binge viewing sessions. These dimensions are structured similarly to measures for binge drinking. A national survey demonstrated the intensity of …

If A Tree Falls In The Forest: Presidential Press Conferences And Early Media Narratives About The Covid-19 Crisis, Masha Krupenkin, Kai Zhu, Dylan Walker, David Rothschild

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, as we confronted questions about social distancing, masking wearing, and vaccines, public safety experts warned that the consequences of a misinformed population would be particularly dire due to the serious nature of the threat and necessity of severe collective action to keep the population safe. Thus, the media and the political elites (e.g., President of the United States) who possess the power to set the information agenda around COVID-19 bear a huge responsibility for the general welfare. Through automated text analysis of complete transcripts of national cable, network, and local news, we explore their narratives surrounding …

Q/A: A Semiotic Deconstruction Of Narrative Transportation On Episodic Television, Josh Grube

Masters Theses

Narrative transportation is a captivating phenomenon in which an audience member psychologically departs from material reality and immerses into the narrative world (Gerrig, 1993). Existing literature on narrative transportation mostly consists of audience-level studies, primarily focused on the phenomenon’s persuasive effects and audience attributes that mediate their ability to be transported. From a theoretical media perspective, transportation is conceived as an aspect of the larger audience cultivation process (Gerbner, 1998) due to its persuasive influence, revealing the importance of viewing it from the textual level. This thesis fills a significant gap in narrative transportation theory by examining television narratives through …

Racialized Reality: Crime News And Racial Stereotype Framing, Warrington Sebree

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that crime news is a primary mechanism for shaping public consciousness surrounding legal order, social morality, and threats present in their citizens communities. This research explores how news media influences negative attitudes towards criminal justice reform and Black identity. Utilizing Framing Theory, this study focuses on whether negative stereotypes in crime news triggers racial prejudice and bias towards African Americans. Participants of this study will consist of current students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The findings suggest that knowing the race of a potential criminal assailant influences respondents’ attitudes towards presumptions of guilt, future criminality, and criminal …

Cultivating Courage: Medical Dramas And Portrayals Of Patient Self-Advocacy, Alyssa H. Harrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the influence of medical dramas on perceptions of patient self- advocacy. With a purposeful sample of college students, the study explored perceptions of information seeking preferences of a medical drama patient. With a quasi-experimental design using an online questionnaire containing both qualitative and quantitative measures, the study was able to compare four unique variables to perceptions of the information seeking preferences of a medical drama patient. The study analyzed the influence that (1) medical drama exposure, (2) patient advocacy rating, (3) perceived realism of medical dramas, and (4) previous experience healthcare each had on college students’ perceptions …

Super Bowl Ads And The Donald Trump Culture War, Jessica Barron

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been studies that have looked at how television commercials represent or portray minorities such as gender or race. Very few have tried to look at how commercials compare to the culture, specifically in regards to a presidential term and the culture they promote. This present study examines Super Bowl commercials during the culture war led by the Donald Trump administration and looks to discover if these advertisements are becoming more diverse in comparison to the previous presidency. Using content analysis, the researcher analyzed and compared 50 commercials from three different time periods 2009-2010, 2013-2014, and 2017-2018. The categories …

Popular Television’S Health And Safety Message: What Has Changed In The Past Generation?, Heather Ann Leon

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The assertion that television has an impact on viewers is well-supported in theory and empirical research. Hundreds of researchers have conducted hundreds of studies focused on limited, specific programming content or specific effects to contribute to this evidence. However, far fewer researchers have conducted broad, comprehensive programming content analysis. One exception is a 2005 study from Will et al. examining multiple health and safety behaviors including sexual activity, driving behaviors, intoxicating and unhealthy substance use, and violence depicted in the 1997/1998 primetime television season. Results of their research showed overall that primetime television promoted the perception that the observed health- …

The Cultivation Theory And Reality Television: An Old Theory With A Modern Twist, Jeffrey Weiss

Capstone Showcase

George Gerbner, a Hungarian-born professor of communication, founded the cultivation theory, one of the most popular and regarded theories in the communications world. Developed in the mid 20th century, the theory focus on the long-term effects of television on people. Longer exposure to signs, images and people on television cultivates their perception of reality in the real world. The television became a household staple during this time. Families often spent time together watching programming together, however, it played out different effects for each person. Television's constant visual and auditory stimulation on a person made it easier to cultivate certain messages, …

“Where Are We Now?” The Image Construction Of Arabs And Muslims In Bodyguard, Safa K. Khairy

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade Arab and Muslim representations in the media have been either negative or overly simplified as a way to avoid criticism from watchdog groups. Arab and Muslim culture is viewed by the mainstream Western perspective as different, and inferior. According to Edward Said this divide and hierarchy between Eastern and Western comes through the process of Othering and is at the heart of Orientalism. This thesis investigates how Arabs and Muslims are Othered through a case study of the successful BBC television series Bodyguard.

Bodyguard presents the British government and police force attempting to stop various terrorist …

Television And Perceived Control: A Longitudinal Study Of The Cultivation Of Powerlessness Among Millenial Adolescents, Fernando Rodriguez

Doctoral Dissertations

Cultivation research has observed the long term subtle contribution of television mediated storytelling on the perceptions and beliefs of American viewers for fifty years. Early criticisms of cultivation argued the associations of viewing amount and fear of victimization were spurious and explained away by personality traits such as perceived control or authoritarianism. This project frames perceived control as a cognitive assessment of the personal ability to cope with life challenges. As a cognitive assessment, perceived control is assumed to be in constant revision. From a life-course approach, the symbolic cultural environment (which includes television) is seen as providing context and …

“Because He Is Different”: Shifts In Discourse And The Increasing Presence Of Autism In Fictional Television, Sierra Wolff

Theses and Dissertations

Characters with an autism spectrum disorder are not new to media, television in particular. What has recently changed is the willingness to put a label on a character who is on the spectrum. This thesis looks at 21 characters in television from 2007 to 2017 who are labeled or are generally perceived to be autistic. I categorize these character representations by genre and find that representations of autism vary according to the characteristics of each genre. I also focus in more depth two series, ABC’s The Good Doctor and Netflix’s Atypical, which both premiered in 2017 with lead characters who …

A Place To Stand: Community Media Centers, James Joseph Knightwright

Theses and Dissertations

With the experience of 30+ years in community media, I envision providing a resource for scholars as well as community media practitioners and stakeholders. I am investigating the processes of training at community media centers (CMC) to determine potential impacts and effects. Functioning as a participant observer, I will prepare a documentary film focusing on the practices and processes utilized by CMCs to serve their communities.

Concentrating on Columbia Access Television (CAT TV), Columbia, Missouri and the Sun Prairie Media Center (SPMC), Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, I plan to visit each location to interview station staff, volunteers, and community members. These …

Masculinity In American Television From Carter To Clinton, Bridget Kies

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines American television during a period I call the long 1980s. I argue that during this period, television became invested in new and provocative images of masculinity on screen and in networks’ attempts to court audiences of men. I have demarcated the beginning and ending of the long 1980s with the declaration of Jimmy Carter as Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1977 and Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. This also correlates with important shifts in the television industry, such as the formation of ESP-TV (later ESPN) in 1979 and the end of Johnny Carson’s tenure as …

The Psychology Of Marathon Television Viewing: Antecedents And Viewer Involvement, Riva Tukachinsky, Keren Eyal

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This study focuses on the expanding trend of marathon (“binge”) television viewing. It examines the personality antecedents of such media consumption (attachment style, depression, and self-regulation deficiency) as well as the psychological experiences of marathon viewers relative to the narrative (transportation, enjoyment) and its characters (parasocial relationship, identification). In a two-study design, theoretical models of media use and involvement, on one hand, and models of media addiction, on the other hand, are applied to predict the extent of marathon viewing and to compare it with “traditional” viewing. Results advance understanding of enjoyment and involvement theory and support cognitive theories of …

Ethical Issues And Consequences As Portrayed By Medical Dramas: An Analysis Of The Effect Of Cultivation Theory, Molly Johnson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Television medical dramas, like American Broadcasting Company’s Grey’s Anatomy, strive to make the program as accurate as possible while creating a dramatic and entertaining program. Grey’s Anatomy, since the first episode in 2005, has employed medical consultants to help write episodes in order to make the television program as realistic as possible (Otto, 2014). Although there are some realistic aspects of Grey’s Anatomy, as a whole it is a fictional medical drama with plotlines and characters used for entertainment purposes only. However, previous research shows that fictional programs can still have an effect on its viewers. Cultivation Theory states that …

Watching Self From A Distance: The Whys Of Watching Sinetrons Among Malay-Javanese Women In Malaysia, Lily El Ferawati Rofil

Informasi

This article discusses the cognitive reasoning behind the love for watching sinetron expressed by Malay-Javanese women in Malaysia. The Malay-Javanese women in this context refer to female members of Javanese communities within Malay society. Malaysians of Javanese descent are constitutionally considered as ethnic component of Malay racial group due to similarities in cultural customs and religion of Islam. However, they retain some semblance of Javanese cultural heritage including speaking the language in their everyday life. In the context of Malay-Javanese women under this study, it is identified that sinetrons have become the main source of their cultural consumption from television. …

"But She's Snow White, She Would N'T Hurt Anybody": A Critical Analysis Of Gender And Power In Once Upon A Time, Mackenzie Mahler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines gender performance and its relation to power in the television series Once Upon a Time (OUAT). On the surface, OUAT is a television show that constantly challenges the culturally-ingrained gender norms often found in fairy tales, as it creates new storylines for traditional fairy tales. This warrants a deeper examination of the series to understand if and how it is subverting these typical gender norms. To fully understand how gender operates in OUAT, I examined how gender affects and is affected by hegemony in the show and how this relates to our cultural understanding of gender and …

Cultivating Conceptions Of Masculinity: Television And Perceptions Of Masculine Gender Role Norms, Erica Scharrer, Greg Blackburn

Communication Department Faculty Publication Series

The potential of television to both reflect and shape cultural understandings of gender roles has long been the subject of social scientific inquiry. The present study employed survey methodology with 420 emerging adult respondents (aged 18 to 25) in a national U.S. sample to explore associations between amount of time spent viewing television and views about “ideal” masculine gender roles. The viewing of particular television genres was explored in addition to (and controlling for) overall amount of time spent with the medium, using cultivation theory as the theoretical foundation. Results showed significant statistical associations between viewing sitcoms, police and detective …

Predicting Parental Mediation Behaviors: The Direct And Indirect Influence Of Parents’ Critical Thinking About Media And Attitudes About Parent-Child Interactions, Eric E. Rasmussen, Shawna R. White, Andy J. King, Steven Holiday, Rebecca L. Densley

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Many parents fail to interact with their children regularly about media content and past research has identified few predictors of parents’ engagement in parental mediation behaviors. The present study explored the relationship between parents’ critical thinking about media and parents’ provision of both active and restrictive mediation of television content. Results revealed that parents’ critical thinking about media is positively associated with both active and restrictive mediation, relationships mediated by parents’ attitudes toward parent-child interactions about media. These findings suggest that media literacy programs aimed at improving parents’ critical thinking about media may be an effective way to alter children’s …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Feminist And Patriarchal Themes Within Shonda Rhimes' Television Shows "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," And "How To Get Away With Murder", Katelyn Roshetko

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Exploring Ethnic Stereotypes Through The Production Of Five Short Films, Ines Galiano Torres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a nontraditional thesis that combines social research in ethnic stereotypes in TV and film with the creative process of film production. This paper contains the formal step of research, in addition to the details on the production and creation of five original short films related to the issue of ethnic representations.

Confessions In The Courtroom: An Audience Research On Court Shows, Silvina Beatriz Berti

Doctoral Dissertations

Since the mid to late nineteen eighties, the television world has been showing an increasing number of programs that are presented as “reality programs,” or “reality shows.” Court Shows, which are also known as Judge Shows, or Syndi-Courts, can be considered to be part of such a mega-genre. These programs (Court Shows) are offered as an alternative way for people to find a quick solution to some legal problem they may have. Meanwhile, millions of people tune in and watch those shows on a daily basis. Working within the Cultural Studies tradition, this research analyzes, on one hand, Judge Judy …

The Power Of Virtual Space, Katherine G. Schmidt Ph.D., Derek C. Hatch

Faculty Works: TRS (2010-2022)

The following essay emerges from the consultation of Evangelical Catholics and Catholic Evangelicals at the 2016 convention of the College Theology Society, which brings together Catholica and Protestant voices concerning a shared topic. In 2016, the theme of liturgy and contemporary social and communications media was in focus. As panelists, we offered complementary papers that have become two sections of this essay. In the first section, Katherine Schmidt provides a theological account of media from a Catholic perspective. Through reflections on the mediatory character of the incarnation, she argues that para-liturgical or extra-liturgical spaces are integral to the Eucharistic assembly …

I Threw My Pie For You: Engagement And Loyalty On Tv Show Facebook Pages, Tracy M. Wisneski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Facebook boasts an audience approximately three times as large as the next most popular social media networks, so it comes as no surprise that brands are devoting substantial resources to engage with their fans on the world’s most widely used social networking site. Television shows are among those brands using Facebook as a platform to connect with consumers, and their potential for fan relationships is unique from those of other brands, but there are, as of yet, no published scholarly articles for driving Facebook fan engagement and loyalty for a television show. This mixed methods study uses an ethnographic content …

Investigating How Mtv’S 16 & Pregnant May Be Used As Media Literacy Education With High-Risk Adolescents, Tracy Marie Scull, Rebecca Ortiz, Autumn Shafer, Jane Brown, Janis B. Kupersmidt, Katherine Suellentrop

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Reality television shows featuring teen pregnancy may be used as media literacy education tools to positively affect youth sexual health outcomes. Concerns, however, exist that such programming may glamorize teen pregnancy. The present study examined how viewing and discussing episodes of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant, a reality television series about teen pregnancy, may impact adolescents at high risk for teen pregnancy (N =162; M=13.5 years). Adolescents indicated that they enjoyed viewing and discussing the episodes and saw the program as realistic but did not perceive the lives of the characters as desirable. Many also reported that they …

Parents’ Television Viewing And The Cultivation Of Materialism Among Families With Young Adult Offspring, Laras Sekarasih

Doctoral Dissertations

Employing cultivation theory as a guiding framework, and utilizing online survey responses from 303 young adults aged 18 to 25, this study examined how parents’ television viewing cultivates materialism among parents and young adult offspring, as well as offspring’s social comparison and life satisfaction. Path analyses revealed the evidence for intergenerational cultivation through parents’ materialism for the success and happiness dimensions of materialism. For the two dimensions, parents’ general television viewing positively predicts their own materialism, which in turn is positively associated with their children’s materialism. Somewhat differently, the analysis on the centrality dimension of materialism suggest that parents’ general …

"Bring The Fan To The Game:" Football, Baseball, And The Transformation Of Sports Television Into Entertainment, Ethan Collins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the growing symbiosis of the sport-television relationship as it evolved during the 1960s. Professional football and baseball are primarily considered they demonstrate the ways television impacted local and national audiences. Football embraced television as a way to disseminate the game to a wider, national audience. Baseball, because of its long history as a local attraction, resisted the encroachment of television. Baseball prioritized the live game over the televised version, while football became more visually descriptive for viewers and took on characteristics of entertainment programming. These changes were technologically, industrially, and economically based, and this thesis discusses the …

Human Nature And Cop Art: A Biocultural History Of The Police Procedural, Jay Edward Baldwin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prior to 1948 there was no “police procedural” genre of crime fiction. After 1948 and since, the genre, which prominently features police officers at work, has been among the more popular of all forms of literary, televisual, and cinematic fiction. The received history suggests that much of the credit for this is due to Jack Webb, creator of Dragnet.

This study complicates that received history and traces the historical emergence of this signifying practice to early 20th century ideologies of Social control and the conjuncture of Social forces that ultimately coalesced in the training practices of the Los Angeles Police …

Media Use And International Engagement, Brenna Parish

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The internet’s interactive composition and fluid interface has changed the way in which individuals acquire information, and has given consumers of news media a means to access a large amount of information regarding political content and international issues. Furthermore, the internet provides users the choice of the information that they consume, which contrasts the rigid, predetermined nature of televised news media. Because of this, this research project will compare the effects of both television and internet media on engagement in international affairs in order to examine the difference between old and new forms of media. Through a statistical analysis of …