Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons^™

In His Image: A Content Analysis Of Evangelical Youth Books For Their Representation Of Gender Roles And Ideals, Taryn Renee Vis

Honors Projects

This content analysis discusses the results of the analysis of twelve major Evangelical books for young adults and their representation of gender roles and gender ideals. The background of the Evangelical church’s handling of gender, particularly in relation to media beginning in the 1970s is established and discussed at length in order to situate this analysis amongst previous discussion of Evangelical gender roles. This analysis found that each of the books discussed four main themes of gender roles and relations: biological essentialism, complementarianism, counter-cultural branding of gender, and sexual purity (especially for young women).

Social Justify Your Lesson Plan: How To Use Social Media To Make Pop-Culture Scholarly, Lydia Willoughby, Kelly Blanchat

Publications and Research

In this chapter, we describe a lesson plan that uses social media (specifically Twitter) to empower students with the ability to critically analyze, reflect, and actively engage with community-based research content. The lesson plan is rooted in feminist pedagogy—a teaching/learning that actively engages with the material being studied by embracing social media as a viable platform for scholarship.

Gender In The Slasher Film Genre, Brandon Bosch

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

It slices, it dices, it has entertained and scared audiences for decades—it’s the slasher film. Despite being dismissed by critics, the slasher film refuses to go away. Even if you don’t go to these movies, they are hard to escape, as every Halloween at least a few trick or treaters will dress up as a character from these movies. Given the longevity and popularity of this genre, I want to spend today talking about how these films often represent gender.

Scholars have also studied slasher films, and have provided a more formal definition than the one that I just provided. …

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 …

You Will Be Punished: Media Depictions Of Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women, Caitlin Elliott

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The following thesis focuses on media depictions of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, a list that carries upwards of 1,200 names. The news coverage of these stories is reminiscent of television crime dramas in their depictions of minority victims of crime, specifically in regard to victim blaming. In order to examine this relationship, the present study compares coverage of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canadian news articles to depictions of victims, particularly minority female victims, within crime procedural television shows. An ethnographic content analysis (ECA) was conducted in order to parse out common themes between news articles featuring …

Christian Chicken Vs. Mainstream Media: A Case Study Analysis Of Chick-Fil-A’S Stance On Traditional Marriage Using Situational Crisis Communication Theory, Christiannn Mcnew

Masters Theses

A crisis can strike an organization at any moment and it is the responsibility of the organization to be prepared with a plan of action. This thesis will explore crisis management, using Timothy Coombs’ crisis management strategies, of Chick-fil-A and then COO Dan Cathy to see if those two parties implemented crisis strategies in a way that benefited the organization following Cathy’s statements in support of the biblical definition of family. Since many interpreted these comments as anti-gay sentiments from Chick-fil-A itself, crisis struck the organization Cathy represented. This thesis will also look at the idea of social activism in …

The Dove® Campaign For Real Beauty: What’S Next For Inclusivity?, Kelly Indermill

Journalism

This study analyzes the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, examining the brand’s overall implementation of the campaign, as well as its successes and failures. More than ten years after the launch of Dove’s first campaign, the advertising world has greatly evolved. In an ever-changing media world, Dove took the first step towards an attempt at an all-inclusive advertising campaign. This study examines the degree to which Dove’s innovative campaign set the bar for future advertisements. It demonstrates the importance of corporate social responsibility, brand management, inclusivity and the two-way symmetrical communication model.

Critical Media Literacy And Gender: Teaching Middle School Students About Gender Stereotypes And Occupations, Laurel Puchner, Linda Markowitz, Mark Hedley

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study examined the effectiveness of the implementation of a small-scale critical media literacy curriculum unit focused on gender stereotypes, especially as they pertain to occupations. The research question was whether students exposed to the critical media literacy (CML) curriculum were more likely than students not exposed to believe: that women experience discrimination in the workplace; that the media constructs stereotypical messages about women and men, especially regarding occupations; and that the media influences people’s thinking. Participants were students in 5 seventh grade classes, who were exposed to a 4-workshop curriculum, and students in 5 eighth grades classes, who were …

The Spectacle Of Black Violence: Historicizing Worldstarhiphop.Com, Caylon Fowlkes

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

Have you ever watched, and possibly laughed, at videos of Blacks fighting? You’re not the only one. Worldstarhiphop.com was created in 2005; it is an online hub for “everything” in regards to hip hop culture. This includes sports highlights and new rap artists as well as “crazy fights” mainly between Black people. The videos are primarily made by Blacks and exploited by many. The purpose of this project is to investigate the attraction society has to the behavior of black youth. There are many things that contribute to this phenomenon of violence occurring among black youth. I have chosen to …

Looking Back At The Media's Future: A Mixed Method Analysis Of Race And Gender Bias During The 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary Season, Tim Vance

Dissertations

Political knowledge has been defined as the individual’s ability to recall candidate names, personal characteristics, and qualifications. Furthermore, it is the ability to identify election issues, current campaign developments, and recognize connections between candidates and issue positions (C. Atkin & Heald, 1976). I posit that political knowledge has become much more…and much less.

I have introduced, in this paper, a number of sources for political learning: ads, newspapers, YouTube, and television news. All hold some interest for investigation as political knowledge sources, but methodology cannot be standardized across all sources. As such, the focus of the qualitative part of this …

Gender, Personality, And Self Esteem As Predictors Of Social Media Presentation, Heng Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In an age when people make and maintain relationships in online environments, creating and sustaining impressions online becomes equally important. For a better understanding of social networking sites usage, the present study examines the influence of gender, personality, and selfesteem on social media presentation. The goal of this study is to investigate individuals‘ expressions through social media in order to determine if they reflect the author‘s gender, personality, and levels of self-esteem. Quantitative analysis was used in this study through survey and SPSS content analysis. The researcher found that neuroticism was related to selfpresentation, and agreeableness is related to Facebook …

Winthrop University Students Unite For Black Lives, All Lives, Wendrah M. Mccoy

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

The purpose of this project was to research and compose a soft news story that conveyed the emotions of Winthrop University students who protested during a die-in and injustice march on December 9, 2014. They were demonstrating solidarity with those who protested after two officers were not indicted for killing unarmed black males Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Primary research was conducted through recorded observations of the demonstrations and interviews with the protesters. Facts and statistics were obtained from secondary sources, such as the NAACP website and news sources, such as USA Today. About 100 students of diverse races, …

Slipping Into Darkness: An Ideological Critique Of Racial Inequality Coverage In Milwaukee Newspapers, 2010-2014, Enrique Brown

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This ideological critique assessed mainstream and African American newspaper coverage on racial inequalities such as racial segregation and infant mortality in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 2010 through 2014. Employing Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Class Theory, this textual research analyzed the texts of 405 reports, columns, and editorials from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee's mainstream paper of record, and The Milwaukee Courier, the city's premier African American newspaper. The study discovered important convergences in the Courier and Journal Sentinel's portrayal of racial inequalities as indicators of a racially diseased city and nation. However, the research also revealed important differences in …

A 21st Century Fairy Tale: Disney Princesses And Perceptions Of Gender, Gina Graham

Library Research Prize Student Works

Disney's animated characters, songs, story themes and trinkets are true cultural icons, venerated across the world by staunch believers, adults as well as children, who live in massive urban centers and in tiny rural hamlets (Faherty 1). For some, the Disney princess is the princess of all princesses (Do Rozario 34). As Bruce asserts, since the 1937 premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's princesses have become a directing force of young American girls culture (Princesses 7). Before determining whether this force is positive or negative, one must ask: does the portrayal of princesses in Disney movies affect …

Exoticizing Poverty In Bizarre Foods America, Casey R. Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

No abstract provided.

“I’M Here To Do Business. I’M Not Here To Play Games.” Work, Consumption, And Masculinity In Storage Wars, Mark A. Rademacher, Casey R. Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

This essay examines the first season of Storage Wars and suggests the program helps mediate the putative crisis in American masculinity by suggesting that traditional male skills are still essential where knowledge supplants manual labor. We read representations of “men at work” in traditionally “feminine” consumer markets, as a form of masculine recuperation situated within the culture of White male injury. Specifically, Storage Wars appropriates omnivorous consumption, thrift, and collaboration to fit within the masculine repertoire of self-reliance, individualism, and competition. Thus, the program adapts hegemonic masculinity by showcasing male auction bidders adeptly performing feminine consumer practices. Whether the feminine …

Where We Have Been And Where We Can Go From Here: Looking To The Future In Research On Media, Race And Ethnicity, Riva Tukachinsky

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This special issue illuminates the ways in which media portrayals and practices, together, create barriers to inclusion for diverse groups and normalize existing patterns of relegation on and off the screen. Media representations of race and ethnicity have critical consequences for intergroup relationships and for marginalized group members’ self-concept. A synthesis of the research included in this volume demonstrates the significance of these questions across media outlets, their relevancy despite the rise of new technologies, and their application to social contexts outside the U.S.. Finally, this concluding article suggests directions for future research and offers implications for policies that can …

How Women Of Color Are Portrayed On The Cover Of Magazines: A Content Analysis On The Images Of Black/African, Latina, Asian And Native American (Balana), Connie Johnson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Historically, women of color with little knowledge can blindly imitate the images of themselves as portrayed in mass media, which can be harmful to their self-esteem, contradictions of self-identification, and daily interactions with majority people. Media literacy is important in understanding how images of minority women are distorted to fit the dominant group's ideals and cultural relevance, which affect the identity of minority women. The researcher through the use of BALANA and content analysis examined some attributes of how women of color (WOC) are portrayed on the cover of eight selected magazines, for example, 1) Good Housekeeping, 2) Cosmopolitan, 3) …

Hollywood's Hindering Of Homosexuality For Heroes: Sexuality In Comic Books And Their Movies, Makenna E. Imholte

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Since the inception of comic books, superheroes have populated American households. These heroes, such as Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man, instill various values in youth. These values include honor, strength, and justice. Comic books have become a staple of America and have recently regained interest through film adaptations. These films reinforce the hegemonic masculinity and limited opportunities of women. While the comic books themselves also impose these themes, they also have begun to introduce LGBT themes into story lines and characters. However, these LGBT themes continuously get removed as the stories transform from comic book to film. The purpose of this …

Black Voices, White Power: Members Of The Black Press Make Meaning Of Media Hegemony, Robert Redding Jr.

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

When a former black editor says he was told that blacks do not care about news by his white boss and a black deejay is told that his commentary is too hard hitting and not to go to an event featuring a black militant leader by his white boss, these personal accounts could be extrapolated to mean that there may still be a world filled with white privilege and an ensuing hegemonic bifurcation in a Communication Studies context. This study utilizes Afrocentricity and the agency that is denied to these two individuals to provide insight into a world where these …

Faith, Works, And Praxis: Emergent Post-Colonialism And The Catholic Church In North America, Alexander Odicino

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The personal papers of American Jesuit priest, Wilfrid Parsons, evince an international information war concerned with the praxis of "facts" pertaining to Mexico’s Church and state conflicts of 1925 to 1939. While editor-in-chief of the Jesuit weekly magazine, "America", (1925-1936) Parsons transformed the publication into the pre-eminent Catholic source of information about the "Mexican situation", consequently enabling him to coordinate the publication of "facts" with several other New York based Catholic publications. However, rather than speaking to strictly Catholic interests in the Mexican conflict, research has shown that, when analyzed as a focal point of information processing, the sources in …

The (Not So) New Normal: A Queer Critique Of Lgbt Characters And Themes In Primetime Network Television Situational Comedies, Robert Dallas Byrd Jr.

Dissertations

This analysis of primetime situational comedies feature LGBTQ characters argues that through heteronormative and homonormative constructions of sexuality, race, gender, and class, many LGBTQ people are rendered invisible in the mainstream. Through discourse analysis, the study describes how these programs work to normalize gay and lesbian identity, which then resembles the dominant heterosexuality, aiding in the advancement of white, middle class gays, who privatize sexuality and mimic dominant conventions of gender, race, sexuality, and class in the public sphere. This research is important in understanding the American public’s most recent shifts in public opinion on issues of marriage equality and …

Media For The Masses The Usage Patterns And Social Consequences Of A Mobile-Phone Based Citizen Journalism Platform In Madhya-Pradesh , Sarah Corsa

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In a country as diverse and hierarchical as India, certain marginalized populations are bound to be excluded from the mainstream media. In particular, the adivasi and lower caste populations in rural regions receive either no representation or biased coverage. CGNet Swara, a citizen journalism initiative, seeks to remedy these disparities by utilizing cellphone technology to report and distribute news in the Central Gondwana region. Each citizen with a cellphone in his or her hand, regardless of religion, caste, age or literacy level, can disseminate information he or she sees as valuable by leaving a voice recording at a certain number. …

Challenging Tunisia’S Homogenous Arabness:Post-Revolutionary Civil Society Activismfor The ‘Invisible’ Tunisian Amazigh, Xavier A. Torres De Janon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The 2010-11 Tunisian revolution brought to the forefront of the country an explosion of activism and organizing from civil society, including multiple voices urging for the defense, protection and/or recognition of Tunisian ‘minorities.’ An unprecedented Amazigh (pl. Imazighen, the indigenous population of North Africa) wave of activism from individuals and organizations appeared in the public sphere of the country, a population systematically denied and marginalized by the Tunisian dictatorships and society emboldened to stand up for their rights and challenge the status quo. In the post-revolutionary context of thispseudo-homogenous North African country, dominated by a strong Arab/Islamic ideology since independence, …

Systemic Racism Of The Unicef Germany's Ads Depicting Children In Blackface, April Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

In the summer of 2007, UNICEF Germany released four ads containing the use of Blackface. However, neither the German population, nor UNICEF Germany found the use of Blackface insulting or racist when in fact Americans, who have the history of Blackface Theater, were appalled at the display of white German children with mud on their faces, portraying Africans. Through the use of Joe R. Feagin's theory of systemic racism, this paper rhetorically analyzed whether the UNICEF ads should be considered racist outside the American experience of Blackfacing and Blackface Theater. The analysis revealed the UNICEF ads are racist under the …

Selling Gender: Gender Role Portrayals In Contemporary Magazine Advertisements, Laura Pelletier

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This study presents a content analysis of gender role portrayals and male and female objectification in contemporary magazine advertisements. A total of fifteen magazines were analyzed from a two month period to determine if gender role portrayals have changed or remained the same as earlier studies. The first analysis looks at product categories most and least often advertised by male or female models. The second analysis looks at the sexual portrayals in magazine advertisements and the rate of objectification of male and female models.

Gender Representation In Sports Communication, Michelle R. Stiller

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Perfect Timing: The Rise Of Women’S Political Leadership During Cultural Shifts, Christie E. Pearce

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

America has fallen behind in women's leadership, especially in politics. In the approaching era, there will be more viable female political candidates than ever in the past, but will the public be prepared to elect a woman to high office? Studies suggest that mentalities toward female leadership have taken a shift in a positive direction. The idea of what an 'ideal' politician must offer is more feminine in the modern era than ever before. In the age of social media, female politicians have opportunities to reach more constituents through social media in a more effective way than has been offered …

Review Of Manon Parry, Broadcasting Birth Control: Mass Media And Family Planning, Rose Holz

Women's and Gender Studies Program: Faculty Publications

As Manon Parry explains in her interesting new book, ‘Many of the women who wrote [to the Birth Control Review] noted that they had read about [Margaret] Sanger’s work in the press, confirming the important role of the mass media in publicizing and building support for the movement’ (p. 13). Therein lies the crux of Parry’s project: the use of publicity was central to the family planning movement and a sustained analysis of its use over time is long overdue. To that end, she challenges several long-standing historiographic assumptions and unearths more than a few fascinating stories. For example, …

Remembering Radical Black Dissent: Traumatic Counter-Memories In Contemporary Documentaries About The Black Power Movement, Kristen Hoerl

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Contemporary rhetoric about race and racism has been shaped, in part, by popular films. Since the late 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood has provided a variety of what Kelly Madison refers to as "anti-racist-white-hero" films.¹ Movies including Amistad, Cry Freedom, The Long Walk Home, Mississippi Burning, and Ghosts of Mississippi have routinely positioned white protagonists as civil rights heroes who win justice for the black community by punishing or humiliating white antagonists. Each film frames racial injustice as the consequence of closed-minded individuals, rather than as the outcome of the U.S. economic and political system. More recently, the motion pictures …