The New Debt Peonage In The Era Of Mass Incarceration, Timothy Black, Lacey Caporale

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

In 1867, Congress passed legislation that forbid the practices of debt peonage. However, the law was circumvented after the period of Reconstruction in the south and debt peonage became central to the expansion of southern agriculture through sharecropping and industrialization through convict leasing, practices that forced debtors into new forms of coerced labor. Debt peonage was presumable ended in the 1940s by the Justice Department. But was it? The era of mass incarceration has institutionalized a new form of debt peonage through which racialized poverty is governed, mechanisms of social control are reconstituted, and freedom is circumscribed. In this paper, …

Disney's Portrayal Of Women: An Analysis Of Female Villains And Princesses, Natalie S. Wellman

Concordia Journal of Communication Research

Abstract

This study was conducted to understand how our views of women are shaped by Disney films. Specifically, this paper looks at how female villains and princesses are portrayed in nine Disney movies. These films were studied and coded for similarities and differences within specific themes. Ultimately, this study concluded there were a number of similar themes in regard to appearance, nonverbals, interactions, and common female stereotypes. The study also noted a shift between older (four movies before 1990) and newer (five movies after 1990) Disney movies; however, many of the changes do not occur until the most recent Disney …

Incels, Compulsory Sexuality, And Fascist Masculinity, Casey Ryan Kelly, Chase Aunspach

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Incel, the now-widely circulated portmanteau for involuntary celibacy, denotes a growing community of mostly cisgender men who are unable to find sexual partners or forge romantic relationships. Organizing in online networks, these men blame their exile from sexual relations on everything from feminism and sexual liberation to genetics and natural laws of attraction. In this essay, we offer an asexual critique of compulsory sexuality in online incel communities to illustrate how the sexual imperatives that animate fascism and the politics of the alt-right rest on myths of an insatiable male sex drive. We argue that incel discourse repurposes liberal conceptions …

Amjambo Africa! (January 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Transportation planning ...........p. 2

Celebrating Diversity in Maine .p. 3

Opinion on refugee numbers....p. 4

Jamat Ibrahim dreams big..........p. 9

In Her Kitchen ...........................p. 10

Lewiston author pens children’s book.........................p. 13

Food Co-op and MAIN ............p. 18

World Affairs Council...............p. 19

Youth Get Together..................p. 19

Introduction, Antonio Medina-Rivera, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Communicated Perspective-Taking (Cpt) And Storylistening: Testing The Impact Of Cpt In The Context Of Friends Telling Stories Of Difficulty, Jody Koenig Kellas, Jonathan Baker, Megan Cardwell, Mackensie Minniear, Haley Kranstuber Hortsman

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Grounded in communicated narrative sense-making theory (CNSM), the purpose of the current study was to test the effects of storylisteners’ communicated perspective taking (CPT) on storytellers’ well-being and evaluations of storylisteners’ communication skills in the context of telling stories about difficulty. Pairs of friends (n = 37) engaged in a storytelling interaction in which one person told a story of a difficult life experience (DLE). Listeners’ CPT was rated by observers using the Communicated Perspective-Taking Rating System (CPTRS) and tellers reported on listeners’ behaviors and their own psychosocial health. Results indicate that observed CPT relates positively to tellers’ perceptions …

Sex, Gender, Sexual Assault, And Rape On The Red Pill: A Thematic And Linguistic Analysis, Walker Talton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The digital space has offered fertile new territory to connect with like-minded individuals and discuss anything and everything. This has resulted in the creation of the Manosphere, a collection of men concerned about the state of men and masculinity and how society views and treats men. One of the places online this community has found a home is the popular website Reddit, which offers the ability to create individual pages in which communities can form around and discuss and share information on almost any topic they desire. This study aimed to investigate the ways in which one community on Reddit, …

Expectation Versus Reality: Star Trek, Nyota Uhura, And The Female Role, Cecelia Otto-Griffiths

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In a media saturated world, there is an abundance of stereotypes perpetuated for women. Since the late 1960’s, however, Star Trek has been one example of how television and film can challenge stereotypes and what is considered normal. This study sought to understand the extent of change in how women’s physical and role representations are presented through the artifact of Lt. Uhura in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the 2016 film Star Trek: Beyond. Using feminist theory as a lens to conduct a content analysis of these films, this study used frequently identified “feminine” characteristics in …

Like A Virgin: Comparing Cross-Cultural Virginity, Anastasia M. Tejada

Communication Senior Capstones

Studies have been conducted about the social construct of virginity inside the United States and cross-culturally. Investigations comparing the United States with these other cultures are limited and focus on the United States as the ideal representation of virginity in men and women. I aim to expand upon the current research provided by adding a new perspective to the analysis. The objective of conducting this analysis is to provide a global perspective defining the connotations of virginity cross-culturally. This study focused on the cultural, religious, and societal impacts on virginity collected through qualitative methods in the cultures of Arab-Americans, Latinx-Americans, …

Doing Gender: Cars And Culture In The United States, Adrian L. Zavala

Communication Senior Capstones

This qualitative research study aims to define and describe gender stereotypes and car culture. It will also explain how these stereotypes influence car culture and vice versa. This paper aims to explain how the mass media uses car culture in the United States and imposes gender stereotypes. The mass media I will be discussing includes but is not limited to commercials and magazine adverts. This paper asserts that by portraying what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, car companies build car culture and use pre-existing constructs of gender for marketing it. According …

Critical Incidents In The Development Of (Multi)Ethnic-Racial Identity: Experiences Of Individuals With Mixed Ethnic-Racial Backgrounds In The U.S., Megan Cardwell, Jordan Soliz, Lisa Crockett, Gretchen Bergquist

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Secure ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is tied to well-being, especially for minority individuals; however, there is still little consensus on the key processes and optimal outcomes of various multiethnic-racial (ME-R; i.e., individuals with parents from different ethnic-racial groups) identity development models. In this study, we examine the critical incidents in personal and social relationships that are central to ME-R identity development. Twentynine ME-R individuals provided retrospective accounts of incidents and conversations they self-perceived to be critical to their ERI development. Four major themes emerged: incidents and conversations surrounding intergroup contact, confrontation, heritage, and appearance were all recalled as …

Feminazis And Social Justice Warriors: Gender And Rhetoric Is Superhero Film Fan Culture, Shelby Miksch

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Social Justice Scholarship Informing Visual Communication Practices, Alicia Campbell

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My discussion hinges on the groundwork of social justice as integral to the field of technical and professional communication (TPC) with an understanding of the importance of visual communication; ultimately, I seek to understand the intersections of Social Justice and Visual Communication within the field of Technical Communication. Based on this research, I develop a heuristic that allows technical communicators to critically analyze their visual communication efforts, specifically infographics, for advocacy/social justice.

The Moderating Influence Of The Strength Of Racial Identity On The Relationship Between Teacher-Student Racial Similarity-Dissimilarity And Classroom Engagement, Md Enamul Kabir

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This research, titled ‘The moderating influence of the strength of racial identity on the relationship between teacher-student racial similarity-dissimilarity and classroom engagement’, was conducted by Md Enamul Kabir, a graduate student in the Department of Communication Studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato as a requirement for completing a Master of Arts degree in August 2020. The purpose of this quantitative study was to understand how the strength of racial identity moderates the effects of the teacher-student racial similarity and dissimilarity on the engaging behavior of students with their instructors in United States classrooms. This study questioned the prevalent assumption that …

A Black Feminist Quare Interrogation Of Stud Misogyny In Black Queer Web Series, Taisha Mcmickens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this Black feminist-quare study is to analyze the relationship between misogyny and queer masculinity performed by “studs” in Black queer web series located on YouTube.com: Women of Atlanta TV, New York Girls TV, Choiices The Series, and The Best Friend. Studs are masculine-identified Black lesbians. Stud misogyny is tethered to histories of the patriarchal gaze on Black women’s bodies. This gaze exposes stud and femme queers to layers of violence challenging us to rethink masculinities outside of the colonial imagination. I employ a Black Feminist Quare theoretical framework to attend to stud’s embodied experiences, challenge …

“Invaders”: U.S. Right Wing Media’S Framing Of Muslim Immigrants, Faizullah Jan, Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah

Research, Publications & Creative Work

This study identifies and examines the framing patterns in the U.S. right-wing media coverage of the President Donald Trump administration’s ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The study is directed by one research question: How did the right-wing media frame the ban on Muslim immigrants? A total of 53 articles (news stories, features, and opinion pieces) from two right-wing U.S. media outlets, Daily Caller and Breitbart News, were identified and included in the analysis. Framing theory served as a framework for the analysis of the data. Findings of this study show that the right-wing media used negative frames …

Does This Grant Them Agency? An Analysis Of The Female Athlete As Portrayed In Espn's Body Issue, Aubri Mckoy

Senior Independent Study Theses

Since 2009, one of the world’s largest and most circulated sports mediums, ESPN, has been publishing an annual nude magazine. Formerly known as ESPN’s Body Issue, this magazine seeks to highlight aesthetics of the athletic form, as well as the power of testimony told through the inhabited bodies of the magazine’s featured athletes. Over the years, the magazine has featured many identities, including the representation of varying races, genders, body types, physical abilities, and sports. This study particularly examines the representation of a Black woman athlete, Tori Bowie, as featured in the magazine’s tenth edition. Furthermore, this study focuses on …

2020 Icrcc Proceedings Table Of Contents, Conference Organizers

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

These proceedings are a representative sample of the presentations given by professional practitioners and academic scholars at the 2020 International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference (ICRCC) held March 9-11, 2020. The ICRCC is an annual event that takes place the second week in March in beautiful sunny Orlando, Florida. The conference hosts are faculty and staff from the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. The goal of the ICRCC is to bring together prominent professional practitioners and academic scholars that work directly with crisis and risk communication on a daily basis. We define crisis and risk broadly to include, for …

Viral Stories In Spanish And English: A Qualitative Analysis Of Narrative Perceptions Regarding Infant Immunizations Across Major Ethno-Linguistic Communities, Zeynep H. Elshaer

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to analyze the varying perceptions among Hispanic (Spanish-speaking) and Anglophone communities regarding vaccines and more specifically infant immunization practices, in order to identify common or diverging patterns of communication, information dissemination, and narrative discourse. Currently, medical messaging and health policy is largely formulated without thorough attention to the different ways diverse or minority ethno-linguistic communities may interpret the information, thereby leading to deficiencies in effective communication practices between individuals and healthcare providers or policymakers, and outright opposition between informal and formal public health messaging. This evaluation was conducted in order to broaden the current …

The Mothman And Other Strange Tales: Shaping Queer Appalachia Through Folkloric Discourse In Online Social Media Communities, Brenton Watts

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Little work has been conducted on the intersections of queer and Appalachian identities, in part because these two identities are viewed as incompatible (Mann 2016). This study uses a multimodal critical discourse analytic approach to examine the Instagram posts of the Queer Appalachia Project, which represent a substantial body of discourse created by and for queer Appalachians. Of specific interest to this analysis are those posts which employ folkloric figures, such as West Virginia’s Mothman, to do identity work that is queer, Appalachian, and queer-Appalachian. Often, this act is accomplished through juxtaposition with Appalachian imagery and the reclamation of homophobic …

We Live In A Society: Violence And Radicalization In The Internet Manosphere, Emily Price

Capstone Showcase

In a world of incels, pick-up artists, and other Men’s Rights Activists, friction between the so-called Manosphere and contemporary feminist thought has led to documented violence with regards to American mass shootings. Starting with the violent outbursts of disaffected young men, I will work backwards to the point of contact between the man and the Manosphere. This piece seeks not to draw a connection between radical MRAs and violence – the mass shooters draw that connection themselves in their manifestos by outlining their dissatisfaction with society as it is, and particularly with what they perceive as a politically correct and …

Of Fire And Stars And Queer Desires: What A Queer Ya Fantasy Novel Represents About Queer Experiences, Savannah Munholland

Capstone Showcase

This paper analyzes the queer YA novel "Of Fire and Stars" by Audrey Coulthurst within the framework of queer theory and representation theory to find what a novel written by a queer author says about queer desires and experiences.

The Evolution Of Revenge: Genre, Feminist Theory And Jennifer’S Body, Sophia Birks

Capstone Showcase

The representation and proliferation of violence against women in media, when applying genre theory, reflects the social climate of rape culture and the social response to sexual violence. Looking at the Rape-Revenge genre through the scope of Feminist Theory, the only way to reintroduce female agency into a trauma led narrative is to reclaim the tropes used to perpetuation female exploitation and a popular culture ambivalent to male on female violence. Within this subversion and deconstruction, a genre benefiting from female trauma finally includes an honest artistic retelling of that female experience. With the intention of the creator in line …

The Pink And Blue Problem: Altercasting In Gendered Advertising, Abigail Benn

Capstone Showcase

When you meet a baby for the first time, and you don’t know its sex, if its wearing pink clothes, most people will automatically assume it’s a girl; or if they’re wearing blue clothes, it’s automatically a boy. The pink and blue problem is the enforcing of gender stereotypes through color, associated roles, and imagery. The root of this problem is that many people are unaware of the difference between “sex” and “gender”, and that they can be mutually exclusive. Your sex is the body you’re born with, and all the parts that come with it, while your gender is …

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, …

“I Don’T Want To Hear Your Language!” White Social Imagination And The Demography Of Roman Corinth, Ekaputra Tupamahu

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

This article aims to deconstruct the hidden pervasive whiteness in biblical scholarship and to propose another way to reimagine the linguistic dynamic of Roman Corinth from an Asian American perspective. It highlights the legal and historical interconnectedness of whiteness and the dominance of English. English is a critical marker of whiteness in the United States. In this context, immigrants are expected to conform to and assimilate themselves with whiteness by performing English. This particular racialized context has influenced and resulted in a scholarly historical reconstruction of immigrants in Roman Corinth as “Greek speaking im/migrants.” Immigrants can come from many different …

Perceptions Of Asian American Representation In Entertainment Media, Lydia Susan Owens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The rise of Asian American representation in entertainment media has brought new questions to the current perceptions of Asian Americans in American culture. Where whitewashing of roles or stereotypes of the Model Minority were once portrayed frequently in the past, there are now more diverse stories being shown. When representational images are being shown in entertainment media, there is need for a media literacy lens to critically analyze these images. With this rise in Asian American representation, what are current perceptions of Asian Americans in American culture and American entertainment media? What are current levels of media literacy? This study …

Rey-Ifying A New Heroine: Interrogating The Curriculum Of Femininity In Star Wars Films, Rebekah S. Morgan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Star Wars film trilogies are a cross-generational phenomenon. Due to its powerful and pervasive nature, the messages within Star War’s films must be problematized. As a cultural artifact, Star Wars was used to explore the representations of women across time and three generations. Using a conceptual framework based on cultural curriculum studies and feminist theory, this study explored the significance of Star Wars as gender text by interrogating the representations of women in the Star Wars film saga and what these representations teach about gender and femininity. By focusing on the themes of agency, empowerment, and identity, this work …

Free-To-Play? An Examination Of Intrinsic Motivation And Gaming Behaviors In U.S. Female Mobile Gamers, Margot Goldblum

Dissertations and Theses

The prevalence of U.S. female gamers has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the popularity of mobile games; however, this population is underrepresented in academic research. The present study aimed to close this gap in the literature by focusing on the motivations and behaviors of adult female mobile gamers in the U.S. It also aimed to capture changes in gaming motivation and behavior resulting from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An online sample of 354 American women 18 to 77 years of age (M = 36.79, SD = 12.38) were surveyed about their motivations for mobile gaming, …

Introduction Project 400: Our Lived Experience, Ronnie A. Dunn

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.