Archives for June 2013

Sin and Spin: The Importance of Public Relations in the Early Gay Rights Movement, 1950-1974 • Edward Alwood, Quinnipiac University • This study examines public relations strategies in the gay and lesbian rights movement from the 1950s when most homosexuals remained deeply closeted through the gay liberation movement in the early 1970s when homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of message framing and focuses on activists who spearheaded these efforts and the strategies they used to gain recognition as a social minority. Public relations played a vital role in the early stages of the gay rights movement. The study concludes that gay and lesbian activists made a concerted effort to influence public opinion using fundamental public relations strategies more than a decade before the New York riots that marked the beginning of the modern Gay Liberation Movement.

Creating A Narrative Of (Im)Possibility: Outsports.com’s Declaration of a Gay-friendly Sports World • Robert Byrd, The University of Southern Mississippi • In this essay, I argue that Outsports.com writers constructed a narrative using a rhetoric of possibility of an open and accepting environment in American professional sport. By relying on straight athletes, as sources, Outsports’ narrative insinuates that an openly gay athlete would be able to successfully navigate the unknown terrain outside the closet and actually thrive as an openly gay athlete. In this essay, I argue, however, that the narrative of possibility relies on heteronormative constructions of masculinity and gayness.

“The fact is, I’m gay”: Coming Out as a Public Figure • Molly Kalan, Syracuse University; Azeta Hatef; Christopher Fers, Syracuse University • In the summer of 2012, three public figures (Anderson Cooper, Megan Rapinoe, and Frank Ocean) from different industries publicly disclosed that they identify as non-heterosexual. This study employs textual analysis in order to discern what themes appeared across articles covering this disclosure, and what media narratives about LGBTQ figures emerged. Common themes include how public figures act as role models and also provide increased visibility to the LGBTQ community within different industries.

Campaigning from the Closet: Contexts of Messaging During the Campaign to Defeat North Carolina’s Amendment One • Laura Meadows, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This article presents the results of a four-month ethnographic study of the Coalition to Protect All NC Families, the campaign to defeat North Carolina’s 2012 constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. We chart the campaign’s creation and conduct, focusing on the its decision to frame the amendment in terms of its harmful consequences for children and families, which marginalized the perspectives of those wanting to argue for marriage equality.

News Attention and Demographic factors Affecting attitudes towards Legalization of Same-sex Marriage in Singapore • Chitra Panchapakesan Kumari, Nanyang Technological University; Li Li, Nanyang Technological University; Shirley Ho • This paper focuses on the impact of the level of news attention to traditional, internet, social media and demographic factors influencing individual’s attitude towards the legalization of same-sex marriage in Singapore. The results indicated that news attention to internet media had positive association whereas news attentions to traditional media or social media had no effects on the individuals’ attitudes. Also individuals’ religion affiliation and religious guidance affected individuals’ attitude towards legalization of same-sex marriage.

Double-Edged Discourse: An Analysis of the LGBT Community’s • John Sewell, The University of West Georgia • This essay introduces the concept double-edged discourse (an oppositional discourse within another, larger oppositional discourse), relating it to the occurrence of queer discourse within LGBT discourse. Employing Laclau’s logic of equivalence, the essay analyzes how the discourse instigated by the Queer Nation manifesto, “Queers Read This,” spearheaded the appropriation of queer as an empty signifier. The essay examines the historical factors leading to the emergence of queer identity from within the greater LGBT discourse, considers the move from gay assimilationist strategies of the 1960s/70s toward queer’s transgressive oppositionality in the 1990s, examines the role of the manifesto, “Queers Read This” as a motivator for the appropriation of queer as an empty signifier, explains how the term queer has been something of a rhetorical burden for the LGBT community, imagines alternative discourses that might have occurred in an AIDS-free world to further clarify how the AIDS crisis may have led to the emergence of queer discourse, and explains how the equivalential linkages enabled by queer eventually dissipated. It is argued that queer functioned at cross-purposes with itself, operating in a way that at first produced constitutive unity and then became divisive as queer discourse ran its course.

Remembering Rustin: Brother Outsider and the Politics of Intersectional Queer Memory • Adam Sharples, University of Alabama • This essay examines the public memory of gay Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin to question how African American and sexual identities are remembered through contemporary representations in film. By analyzing the documentary Brother Outsider through a critical framework of public memory, intersectionality, and queer theory this project questions how contemporary texts recuperate and circulate Rustin’s memory through mass media and what these revivalist memories signify for race and sexuality as a site of resistance.

<<2013 Abstracts

Identity exploration in emerging adulthood and the effects of privileged television on materialism and life goal importance • Emily Acosta Lewis, Sonoma State University • This study examined a newly proposed sub-genre of TV called privileged TV, which refers to shows that glamorize wealthy lifestyles (e.g. Gossip Girl). The main purpose of this study was to evaluate if and how privileged TV shows may influence emerging adults’ (18-29 years of age)level of materialism and life goal importance (altruistic and wealth/status goals). A survey was conducted on a college (N = 323) and non-college sample (N = 410) to investigate the relationship between privileged TV, materialism, and life goal importance and moderation by identity exploration (a key dimension of emerging adulthood). The results showed that there was a positive relationship between privileged TV and materialism. There was also a negative relationship between materialism and altruistic life goals and a positive relationship between materialism and wealth/status life goals. It was found that those who were low in identity exploration (those who had not yet begun exploring their identity or already have an established identity) needed to engage with the TV show (e.g. influence of presumed influence and peer norms etc.) in order to be affected whereas those who were high in identity exploration (those actively exploring their identity) were affected both directly and indirectly by privileged TV.

Effects of Web Content, Perceived Interactivity and Organization on Attitudes toward the Sport Website. • Taesoo Ahn, Merrimack College; Young Ik Suh; Moonki Hong; Juha Yoon; Paul Pedersen • The current study sought to identify the relationships among web contents (entertainment and informativeness), perceived interactivity, web organization, and attitude toward the sport website. Four hypotheses were presented from a conceptual model, and were tested with Structural Equation Model (SEM) analyses. The results showed that interactivity directly and indirectly influenced attitude toward the sport website, and web organization played a moderate role between perceived interactivity and attitude toward the sport website. The findings of this study suggest that sport marketers need to place more emphasis on perceived interactivity and Web organization, which significantly affect overall attitude toward the sport website. It would be particularly beneficial for sport marketers to use the interactive contents of sport websites to reach current and potential users, but it is important to note that the interactivity functions should be well-organized.

Active versus inactive video game play: Trends in ownership, use, and motivations for use • Mary Katherine Alsip, Institute for Communication and Information Research, The University of Alabama; Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama • Active video games have been a proposed solution to the growing obesity trends in the U.S. Some studies have indicated that active games are not played as often as needed to improve health outcomes, even when individuals have home access to gaming equipment. Uses and gratifications theory may help determine what motivates players to choose active vs. inactive games. A survey of 217 young adults indicates that there are significant differences in console ownership, use, and motivation to play video games based on gender and based on regular play of active vs. inactive games. Even those that have access to active gaming equipment do not appear to play active games significantly more often than inactive games, and many active equipment owners actually play inactive games more. Females and specifically female active video game players have utility and social motivations for playing video games. Males and female inactive video game players may be more motivated to use video games as a distraction and to alleviate loneliness. These findings are discussed in the context of uses and gratifications theory, and potential directions for promoting active game play are suggested.

Fanfare for the American: NBC’s Primetime Broadcast of the 2012 London Olympiad • Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; James Angelini, University of Delaware; Paul MacArthur, Utica College; Lauren Smith, Auburn University; John Vincent, University of Alabama • Analysis of NBC’s 2012 London Summer Olympic broadcast revealed significant differences between American and non-American athletes. Regarding athletic mentions, American athletes were more likely to be mentioned (55.8%) than all other athletes combined and composed 75% of the most-mentioned athletes within the broadcast. Regarding descriptions ascribed to the Olympians, American athletes were more likely to be depicted using subjective characterizations, disproportionately having their successes attributed to superior composure, commitment, intelligence, and consonance as well as having a greater level of comments pertaining to their modest/introverted nature. Conversely, non-American athletes were more likely to receive success attributions related to their superior experience and failures depicted as a lack of athletic skill—both largely objective measures. Implications on the dialogue divergences are offered at theoretical level, with heuristic impact being discussed in a variety of contexts.

Reality television depictions of mental illness and bias: Priming, media exposure, and bias development • Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, University of Alabama • It is estimated that between 3 and 6 million people in the United States are compulsive hoarders or struggle with hoarding behavior. To most of the U.S. population, hoarders may be perceived as dirty or messy people who are too lazy to clean their homes. This stereotypical belief about the disease may remain as the general perception of hoarding unless alternative information is presented. Using the theories of priming, cultivation, and the parasocial contact hypothesis, we analyze factors that might be predictors of increased or decreased levels of bias against mental illness followed exposure to mediated representations of hoarding. Thus, the present study had two overarching objectives: 1. To assess participant attitudes toward mental illness following exposure to representation of the mental illness in the clips of Hoarders: Buried Alive; and 2. To assess participant attitudes toward mental illness when factors at the individual, social, and media level are considered. Results from the present study suggest two key findings: first, when exposed to hoarding behavior via a mediated representation of it, negative attitudes were the most prevalent for the experimental group who received no information about hoarding or about it being a mental illness. More simply, if we use exposure to mediated representations of mental illness to make assessments about others without information or knowledge, it is very possible that stereotypical attitudes and beliefs may develop or grow stronger. Second, bias against mental illness was mediated by individual, social, and media factors. These and other findings are discussed.

The Internet’s Role in Sustaining Engagement with Children’s Television • Matt Burns, University of Georgia • For decades, programming models insisted that children’s television series aired 65 episodes, re-ran for a few years, and then disappeared into the recesses of viewers’ memories. Now online video streaming allows nearly any television episode ever produced to be viewed instantly at any time, and social media outlets encourage users to share, discuss, and demand this content. With several media corporations currently riding a wave of nostalgia by reviving children’s television franchises from the 1990s, this research sought to discover how and why college students are engaging with children’s television, and if this sustained engagement can impact the ways media companies consider their programs’ life spans. This article reports the findings of an online survey (n=308) that assessed methods and motivations, as categorized by Askwith (2007), that college students reported for engaging with children’s television. Engagement with children’s television in college is common (69%), but students are unlikely to pay for content or merchandise. Traditional television broadcasts remain an essential component of a show’s longevity. Drawing from uses and gratifications theory, respondents’ motivations for viewing children’s television in adulthood revealed three unique motivation factors labeled Entertainment, Nostalgia, and “Closeted Masters.”

The Nashville Spin on Records: Recording Industry Promotion Techniques • Ashley Cockerham • The onset of a digital music age has forced the music industry to reconsider its methods of music promotion. Publicity-based promotional methods help to expand the recording industry’s shrinking profit margin. The results of this study demonstrate that a paradigm shift to exclusively public relations-rooted promotion is necessary in order to excel within a competitive music market. This study demonstrates that record labels have employed significantly more public relations promotional techniques than they have previously.

Identity and Avatar Similarity in Games: An Exploration of Flow and Enjoyment • Tanner Cooke, Pennsylvania State University • The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between video game players’ salient identity characteristics (age, sex, and body image), degrees of perceived avatar similarity, state of flow, and enjoyment of game play. An online survey with skip logic questions was conducted to understand the impact of age, sex, and body image on gamers’ perceived avatar similarity as well as the relationship between perceived similarity and a user’s state of flow and enjoyment. Using Likert style scale to measure avatar similarities, body image, flow and enjoyment, self-reporting on the survey was used to calibrate perceived gaming ability and time spent playing as gamer level and experience. While only a small sample was collected (sixty-one participants) responses were measured via general linear model and indicated a relationship between males over the age of twenty-six with higher degrees of perceived avatar similarity and their state of flow and enjoyment. This study contributes to extant literature with a preliminary, nuanced understanding of the importance of customization within avatar-based games targeted at certain demographics.

‘Nigger’: Interpretations of the Word’s Prevalence on Chappelle’s Show, Throughout Entertainment, and Everyday Life • Kyle Coward, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning • Throughout history, there have arguably been fewer words more controversial and hurtful than that of ‘nigger.’ In recent times, however, utterance of the term among various African-descended persons has become not so much the rehashing of a negative word, but rather the deconstruction of the term’s historically-perceived connotation, whereby it is reconstructed as a term signifying endearment, particularly among black persons. Employing Berger and Luckmann’s (1967) theory of social constructionism, this study looks at how ten black media consumers interpret the word ‘nigger’ as it is used within three contexts – a 2004 skit of the comedy series Chappelle’s Show, throughout entertainment, and outside of entertainment. Utilizing the grounded theory framework of Strauss and Corbin (1998) to collect data, results uncovered that while a majority of participants had similar interpretations of the word within the context of the skit, there was less agreement of the word’s usage/appropriateness in other contexts.

The Possible Prosocial and Antisocial Effects of Playing Video Games Frequently • J.J. De SImone, University of Wisconsin-Madison • With the renewed attention of video games’ role in school shootings and violent crime, it is important to explore the effects of playing video games frequently. By collecting survey data from a large sample of English-speaking people from across the globe, this study sought to explore whether playing video games frequently may have an effect on people’s prosocial and antisocial behaviors. By considering the frequency of playing popularly released video games as the primary predictor variable, this study’s data revealed that frequent game playing is related to antisocial behaviors, while less frequent playing is related to prosocial behaviors. It appears that playing video games in moderation may have a beneficial effect on individuals while frequent playing is deleterious. The data support the long-term predictions of the General Aggression Model and General Learning Model.

Pseudo newsgathering: Analyzing journalists’ use of pseudo-events on The Wire • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri; Chad Painter, Eastern New Mexico University • This textual analysis examines the role of pseudo-events in the newsgathering process depicted on season five of The Wire. The researchers found that the press and sources construct “reality,” sources present “masks” to conceal “reality,” and journalists acknowledge the absurdity of pseudo-events but cover staged events as genuine news. The overriding conclusion is that fictional journalists fail citizens by constructing a false reality through a negotiation with powerful sources media savvy enough to control depictions.

Does Movie Viewing Cultivate Unrealistic Expectations about Love and Marriage? • Lauren Galloway; Erika Engstrom • The current study examines the association between consumption of media messages by way of movie viewing and genre preference and endorsement of ideals and expectations concerning romantic relationships. A survey of young adults found that viewing preference for both romantic comedies and dramas was significantly and positively correlated with idealized notions of faith that love conquers all, greater expectations for intimacy, and endorsement of the eros love style. However, participants who frequently watched romantic movies did not endorse beliefs in sexual perfection, mindreading, or disagreement disallowance. Results suggest that more mythic romantic ideals may tend to supersede other relational demands.

The Wonder of Wonderfalls: A Search for the Meaning of Life • Timothy R. Gleason, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • This paper analyzes the short-lived 2004 television series Wonderfalls from an American Studies perspective. I argue the series takes a Generation X view of spirituality, which is one not bound to a particular religion. Wonderfalls can be viewed as a dialogue about the meaning of life, as well as a criticism of religion for religion’s sake. The show represents having a meaningful, humanistic purpose in life as being more important than wealth or prominence.

Fandom as a form of media enjoyment • Alice Hall • This study investigated whether the engaged, participatory viewing mode characteristic of media fandom as conceptualized by Henry Jenkins (1992) is associated with entertainment gratifications distinctive from those evoked by programs that are viewed more casually. It compared viewers’ enjoyment television programs characterized by these two reception modes. Participants reported higher levels hedonic enjoyment and appreciation for the programs they viewed as fans as opposed to those they watched more casually, and this difference was more pronounced in relation to appreciation. Fan-oriented viewing was associated with both meaningful affect as well as with more negative emotions. Positive emotions did not differ across the two program types. Fan-oriented viewing was also associated with stronger social gratifications and character identification. Implications for research into fandom, for emerging conceptualizations of media enjoyment, and for Self Determination Theory are discussed.

Effects of Nonverbal Sensitivity and Gender on the Enjoyment of a First-Person Shooter Videogame • Younbo Jung, Nanyang Technological University; Hyun Jee Oh, Hong Kong Baptist University; Jeremy Sng; Jounghuem Kwon; Benjamin Detenber, Nanyang Technological University • In this study we investigated the effects of gender (male vs. female) and nonverbal sensitivity (high vs. low) on game experience after playing a first-person shooter videogame. The results of Experiment 1 (n = 29) confirmed that male participants enjoyed the game more than female participants. However, the results of Experiment 2 (n = 50) showed that participants with high nonverbal sensitivity experienced more positive valence and a greater level of arousal after playing the same game than people with low nonverbal sensitivity, regardless of their gender. The biological gender of the participants became non-significant, after taking into consideration of nonverbal sensitivity. The results of a mediation analysis showed that the positive affect mediated the effects of nonverbal sensitivity on the enjoyment of the videogame. Implications with respect to a new understanding of gender preference for certain genres of videogames by identifying specific gender-related skills are discussed.

Reality TV, Materialism, and Associated Consequences: An Exploration of the Influences of Enjoyment and Social Comparison on Reality TV’s Cultivation Effects • Shu-Yueh Lee, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Yen-Shen Chen, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan; Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee • This study applied cultivation theory to examine the effects of reality TV on materialism. At first glance reality TV appeared to be the programming most strongly associated with materialism. However, the direct effect waned after introducing enjoyment and social comparison as mediators. In particular, the results showed enjoyment fully mediated the cultivation effect of reality TV on materialism. This study demonstrated media effects not only were mediated by individual differences in demographics and personalities but also were determined by the viewing experiences.

Personifying America: Contrasting Fantasy Themes in the Japanese Animation Hetalia • Wan Chi Leung, University of South Carolina • Hetalia is a Japanese animation in which each character represents a particular nation and is named after the country it represents, with a physical appearance, personality, and behaviors based on widespread cultural stereotypes of the respective nation’s government or people. This study examines Hetalia using symbolic convergence theory to analyze the fantasy themes on the depiction of the character representing the United States and his relationships with other characters. After analyzing the animation and audience responses, pairs of contrasting setting, character and action themes were found. These contrasting themes neutralize each other to create a rhetorical community in which audience accept both positive and negative aspects of nations.

The Parasocial Contact Hypothesis Revisited: An Individual Differences Perspective • Minjie Li, Louisiana State University • Contact with mediated outgroup members can lead to changes in attitudes toward the outgroup as a whole. This belief, known as the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis, has been found to exist in a variety of forms. The present study attempted to expand theorizing in parasocial contact’s relationship with prejudice reduction of homosexuals by taking an individual differences perspective, and taking into consideration various contexts presented by entertainment narratives. We examined the Big 5 personality traits and their relationships with prejudice reduction (measured through implicit and explicit measures, and social dominance orientation). We also examined how prejudice reduction may differ depending on the focus of the narrative (i.e. politics, religion, technology). The results showed that changes in prejudicial attitudes and social dominance orientation didn’t differ as a function of type of issue focused on in the narrative. Personality traits correlated in various ways with prejudiced attitudes. Implications for theory are discussed.

People’s hero vs. Ms. Lane Crawford Populist and petit-bourgeois manifestations in Chinese popular culture • Zhengjia Liu, The University of Iowa; Xianwei Wu, University of Iowa • Super Girl, China’s first reality televisions show, produced the first two audience-voted stars in 2005 and 2006. At the time the show drew intensive attentions for its voting mechanism and democratic potentials. More than five years have passed, but neither of the two champions’ marketing strategies had met the political expectation for their democratic potentials in the previous discussions. By a closer examining of their marketing packages, we found that the two champions presented two manifestations of the contemporary popular culture in China. To understand the complexity of popular culture in a unique social context, we argue to avoid a false dichotomy paradigm of making harsh normative judgment.

How EWOM Influences Group Size of Potential Film Viewers: The Case of Chinese Online Community • Yuqian Hao, Tsinghua University; Yusi Liu, Tsinghua University • Electronic word of mouth (EWOM) is especially significant to experience-based products such as films. This study examined the EWOM effects on the group size of potential film viewers together with the moderating effect of the film’s inherent nature empirically. Using a random sample of films (1895-2011, N = 564) from the database of a popular film-review websites in China, we found although the online community members were fond of new movies and award-winners, the EWOM factors still positively affect the potential box office. The number of comments online, rather than the raters, was effective to enhance the intention to view a film. Both the positive and negative feedback percentages would significantly affect the group size of potential film viewers. Those effects were moderated by a film’s release year, location and award-winning. The findings were valuable for cross-cultural online movie marketing and reexamining the interpersonal influence in the collectivism, high-context cultures.

Music television online: Pitchfork Weekly and the ideology of consumerism • Jordan McClain; Amanda McClain, Holy Family University • Traditional music television features a nexus of advertising, celebrity, and music, supporting philosophies such as consumerism and capitalism. This study examines if similar ideals are evident as music television moves online. A discourse analysis of Pitchfork Weekly, an online music television series, finds consumerism is a primary ideology constructed throughout the program. Despite the democratic potential of the Internet, representative examples of Pitchfork Weekly expose how the program nevertheless upholds the same ideological content that has historically defined music television.

Representations of Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory • Heather McIntosh • The Big Bang Theory offers a unique moment to explore the representations of female scientists within the situation comedy. This article begins with a brief discussion about representations of scientists in media genres, highlighting the differences created by the situation comedy. Focusing on Bernadette and Amy, this article then analyzes these characters’ representations within the contexts of representations of scientists, focusing specifically on their professional roles, their gender roles, and their intelligence. It concludes with suggesting that while on the surface some challenging and even undermining of these stereotypes do appear, those challenges remain short-lived in light of the situation comedy’s goals to entertain while reinforcing the status quo.

The Non-Normative Celebrity Body: Constructing Peter Dinklage in Entertainment Journalism • Russell Meeuf • Analyzing the descriptions and discussions of dwarf actor Peter Dinklage in contemporary, entertainment journalism, this article examines the possibilities for celebrities with non-normative bodies to challenge dominant stereotypes and stigmas concerning bodily difference. While Dinklage’s career provides an opportunity for entertainment journalism to challenge Hollywood’s bigotry concerning little people, the prominence of a dwarf actor also elicits condescending descriptions, puns, and other language that makes a spectacle of bodily difference.

Out of Harlem: A historical comparison of race in comic books • Ben Miller, Univeristy of Minesota • This study performed a comparative qualitative content analysis to examine how the initial portrayals of African American super heroes have changed from their early conception following the civil rights era to more recent times. Using hegemony as a theoretical framework, this study compared the first appearances of three heroes from 1969-72—John Stewart, the Falcon, and Luke Cage—to the first appearances of Miles Morales as the new black Spider-Man in 2011-12. The findings found clear differences between the ways the earlier heroes were presented compared to the present day character. In particular, the locations of the characters, their dealings with authorities and the visual representations were discussed. Finally, the conclusions section used previous literature on African American stereotypes and the evolution of minority portrayals to interpret the findings.

What’s Funny About That? Late Night Comedy’s Portrayal of Presidential Candidates • Tyler G. Page, Brigham Young University; Melissa Steckler; Tom Robinson, Brigham Young University • Late night comedy gets viewership in excess of three million people each night. This study explores the narratives embraced by late night comedians about the major party presidential candidates in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 United States Presidential Elections. Using a content analysis of over 1200 jokes, researchers discovered trends in the narratives promoted by comedians and the way those changed for incumbents during their re-election campaigns.

Understanding the Appeal of Reality Television (RTV) using IMSD Theory • Jeffrey Ranta, University of South Carolina • This paper explores the use of Individual Media System Dependency Theory as a way of interpreting the use of Reality Television (RTV) by television consumers. Utilizing Mechanical Turk to access responses to an online survey about RTV dependence and containing a brief examination of the role of social media in RTV program selection, the study also provides insight into the appeal of social media for enjoyment and selection of RTV programming.

Out of the Box: An Attitudinal Analysis of The Perception of LGBT Characters on US Television • James Triplett, Georgia State University; Erin Ryan, Kennesaw State University • The number of LGBT characters on US television is on the rise. Social Identity Theory suggests this increased visibility may lead to more social acceptance of the LGBT community in American society. Thus, this study is an attitudinal analysis of straight and non-straight television viewers regarding perceptions of LGBT characters on television. Research questions included: What attitudes do straight viewers have regarding homosexual characters on scripted television? and; What attitudes do homosexual viewers have regarding homosexual characters on scripted television? Survey methodology was utilized with questions falling into three categories: visibility, representation, and attitudes. Pearson correlations and ANOVAs were performed, using sexual orientation of participants as the grouping variable. Several findings were statistically significant. Regardless of a participant’s sexual orientation, there is general agreement that LGBT individuals are not adequately represented on television. Analysis of the optional open-ended question found that participants believed there were unrealistic representations of LGBT characters on television.

“She’s the Wittiest Person You’ll Ever Meet”: Predictors of Audience Thoughts about Media Figures • Victoria Shao; Xizi Wang; Angeline Sangalang • Scholars have attempted to understand the importance the way in which audiences connect to media characters. In this study, we analyze open-ended responses audience members make about their favorite media figures. We explore the degree to which audiences list descriptive or evaluative thoughts. Additionally, we explore whether individual differences for affect predict the types of thoughts when thinking of their favorite media figures. Finally, we discuss implications for character involvement and enjoyment.

To Be Romanian in Post-Communist Romania: Entertainment Television and Patriotism in Popular Discourse • Adina Schneeweis, Oakland University • This article uses the case study of the entertainment program Garantat 100%, broadcast on Romanian public national, international, and local channels, to describe an exceptionalist type of patriotic discourse – unique in the public sphere of democratizing Romania. The study identifies the program’s primarily educative and moralizing role, and its call for an out-of-the-ordinary, resilient living. Further, in the context of developing Romania, high rates of emigration to Western Europe and the United States, and politico-economic crises, the show illustrates the challenge in grappling with Western influences, on the one hand, and the desire to celebrate localism, on the other.

BUYERS BEWARE: Brett Favre is not in this Paper: A Textual Analysis of Online User Reviews for Madden NFL 12 • Brett Sherrick, Pennsylvania State University • The value of online user-generated content is debatable. Critical scholars argue that it reinforces hegemonic control, but Cultural Studies scholars argue that it provides an outlet for resistance of hegemonic control. This textual analysis examines online user reviews for EA Sports’ Madden NFL 12 from Amazon.com and determines that both existing Critical and Cultural Studies literature can help explain the content of the reviews, but a varied perspective is necessary to provide full explanation.

I Did it Myself!: Pinterest and the Evolution of DIY Communities • Danny Shipka, Oklahoma State University; Steven Smethers, Kansas State University • The rise of Pinterest as a social/entertainment site has transformed the Internet landscape. Though the media platform may be new, the concept is only the latest in the line of mediated DIY platforms that began with the introduction of women’s magazines in the 1830s. This paper examines how the concept of community has shifted away from geographical boundaries onto a virtual environment giving the user more control over their informational and entertainment choices.

Motivations for fan fiction participation • Jessica Smith • More than a million fan fiction stories have been posted online, and their authors and readers spend hours creating and consuming the content. A survey (N = 321) of members of fan fiction communities based on popular television shows revealed greater involvement with shows for which participants read and wrote fan fiction than with other shows they liked but didn’t follow in fan fiction. Higher levels of involvement correlated with greater degrees of parasocial interaction with participants’ favorite characters. In addition, participants found four gratifications from their membership in a fan fiction community: personal expression, entertainment, pass time, and social connection.

What Children’s Book Say About Watching Too Much Television • Tia Tyree • With such strong and negative effects connected to watching television and consistent benefits of associated with reading, parents could use books as a tool to not only obtain positive educational benefits for their children but teach them about the perils of too much television watching. This is a study of children’s literature about watching too much television. The purpose of this study was to address these issues by 1) examining what messages are placed in children’s literature about television watching, 2) identifying whether children’s literature is used as a tool against television watching, and 3) analyzing the approaches used to teach children about watching television. This research found that behavior change approaches depicted in children’s books about television viewing focused on fear as a major factor used in drawing children away from watching television; the pointless pressure to purchase products advertised; the chance to learn other activities they could do rather than to watch television and that the children’s self-realization of the destructive effects of watching television mainly occurred absent parental influence. In fact, parents and adults were largely absent from the plots or contributed to the children’s negative behavior.

<<2013 Abstracts

Beyond “Death Panels”: Fox News’ Prime-Time Coverage of Health Care Reform in August 2009 • Mitchell Bard • Writers often offer the partisan bias of Fox News as its defining characteristic. But the lack of neutrality should not end the discussion. Does Fox News abide by the other traditional values of objective journalism? I answer this question by qualitatively examining Fox News prime-time programming in August 2009 related to health care reform. I find that the channel does not abide by journalistic values, instead working more closely within the traditional elements of propaganda.

Traversing the Twittersphere: Social Media Policies in International News Operations • Terry Bloom, University of Miami; Johanna Cleary, University of Florida; Michael North, University of Miami • This article examines the workflows, editorial guidelines, and managerial oversight of social media, particularly Twitter, at six different international news agencies. Through a series of in-depth interviews with news managers, social media producers and public relations officials at Al Jazeera, CNN, Globo, Telecinco, RTVE, and the U.S. government’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting, the authors examined how these policies may affect the framing of news stories.

Missing White Woman Syndrome: How Media Framing Affects Viewers’ Emotions • Lindsey Conlin, The University of Alabama; William R. Davie, Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette • Missing White Woman Syndrome relates to the idea that stories about attractive, young white females who go missing are more prevalent in the news to the exclusion of similar stories about other demographics. This study employed an experiment to test whether visual framing elements affected the emotional responses of viewers. Results showed that participants did respond more strongly to some emotions in some situations, particularly to the emotions sympathy and pity, and generally supported the ideas of framing and framing effects.

Tweets from the Horse’s Mouth: Network television news framing of 2012 presidential candidates on Twitter • Denae D’Arcy, University of Tennessee; Dzmitry Yuran, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Ioana Coman • Voters rely on the media to provide information about presidential candidates. One platform from which voters now glean this information is social media. This study considers network television news coverage of the 2012 presidential election on Twitter. Content analysis of tweets from news networks examines patterns of tone and framing. This study found that news networks gave more positive coverage to Obama than Romney and used horserace framing most often when covering the presidential candidates.

Broadcast meteorology, clashing institutional logics, and the pursuit of legitimacy • Betsy Emmons; Wilson Lowrey • Due to technological innovations both within institutional journalism and interactive communication, broadcast meteorologists are at a crossroads in the routines of their professions. This study builds on institutional logics within organizational structures in interviews with broadcast meteorologists to learn how professional duties have shifted in this new technological domain.

Journalists’ Credibility Assessments and Use of Social Media in the News-gathering Process • Tamara Gillis, Elizabethtown College; Kirsten Johnson • A survey of 421 journalists identified key factors used when evaluating credibility of social media information sources. Results show journalists consider social media sites that contain accurate information, documented expertise of the writer, and evidence of objectivity to be credible. Journalists reported their use of social media is increasing. Three-quarters of those surveyed reported that they need to maintain a Twitter account connected to their job, however traditional means of news gathering are favored.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Reporting: Examining Broadcast Network News Coverage and Indexing of a National Debate over Time • Jacob Groshek; Lanier Holt, Indiana University • The maelstrom of coverage surrounding the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) debate provides an instructive setting in which to compare television news and analyze how tones change over time along the contours of official consensus. In advancing the concept of indexing further beyond actual conflict or the threat of war and honing in on a domestic but still military issue, we examine all U.S. network news coverage on this topic for the years 2010 and 2011 (effectively 1 year before and after DADT was repealed). Findings observed here suggest relatively high levels of similarity across networks and additional independence from military operations and official consensus than have been suggested in previous research. Importantly, though, findings observed here suggest that on certain contentious but sensitive topics, conventional conceptions of indexing may not hold.

Engaging the Online Audience: Web News Appearance, Nature and Value • Diane Guerrazzi, San Jose State University; August Grant, University of South Carolina; Jeffrey Wilkinson, Houston Baptist University • As news organizations increasingly rely on the Internet for disseminating content, understanding how best to package that content rises in importance. This study attempts to isolate the qualities of effective online news reports through an experiment that tests the impact of three different online news formats upon a set of dependent variables identified in prior research. Building upon previous research, three different presentations were created for two different news stories: a text-only version, a version with the same text plus subheads and photos, and a version with the same text plus subheads and video. Results included strong relationships among perceived appearance, perceived cognitive impact, and perceived value of the story. Time spent viewing a story was strongly correlated with recall, but there was no relationship between the format of the story and the subjective evaluations or recall. Some suggestions for packaging and presenting news in online formats are presented.

Taking the “Local” out of Local TV News: Implications for an informed public • Lee Hood, Loyola University Chicago • The meaning of “local” in local TV news is not as straightforward as one might imagine. “Local” newscasts in several markets around the country emanate from hundreds of miles away. This study examines the implications of such a delivery system, using a content analysis of more than 1,000 stories to compare outsourced and local newscasts to determine if differences exist on story topics and source types, particularly in the realm of public affairs news.

Televised Objectification of Africa’s Summer Olympic Athletes: Subtle or Blatant? • Yusuf Kalyango, Ohio University, Ohio, Athens, USA • This study examines how major television networks—NBC Universal Sports in the United States, BBC Sport in the United Kingdom, and Supersport in South Africa—are perceived to objectify African athletes in the Summer Olympic Games. It tests assumptions and initiates an intellectual discussion that some African athletes and African viewers perceive irregularities in the global television sports representation of African athletes during the Summer Olympics. The analysis is based on coverage of the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China and London, United Kingdom, respectively, as gleaned from semi-structured in-depth interviews with African athletes, trainers, and viewers in six African countries as well as the United Kingdom and the United States who closely watched the Olympic coverage during the past two Summer Olympic Games.

Restoring Sanity Through Comic Relief: Parody Television Viewers and Political Outlook • Barbara Kaye, University of Tennessee – Knoxville; Tom Johnson • The Daily Show and The Colbert Report regale viewers with satirical, witty, and humorous exposes` of the political world and news coverage. But they have also been criticized for creating cynicism and political disengagement. This study found parody news viewers are more politically knowledgeable, interested, active, and self-efficacious than viewers of CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, or broadcast television news. Additionally, reliance on parody news shows does not lead to polarization or government distrust.

Motives for News Consumption and Patterns of Digital Media Use: Their Differential Relationships among Internet Users • Shin Haeng Lee • To examine online news consumers’ activity and its implications, this study analyzes data collected by the 2010 Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. The findings demonstrate the relationship of online news consumers’ civic motive to their use of participatory digital media tools whereas their social and entertainment motives are associated with increased acquisition of online news. The analysis also reveals different patterns in that relationship, considering news consumers’ style of digital feature use: the relationship is contingent on the frequency of Internet use. Lastly, this paper suggests online news consumers’ divergent types of digital citizenship.

How People Read Controversial News: Findings from an Eyetracking Study Exploring the Effects of Reader Bias • Soo-Kwang Oh • This exploratory study utilizes eyetracking to examine how an individual’s bias about news topics influences their news reading behavior. As previous studies do not discuss behavioral responses as a result of perceived bias, this study investigated the influence of perceived bias on reading patterns by measuring 1) eye movements and 2) pupil size when reading online news articles containing perspectives they agree or disagree with. Findings suggest consistent trends, which call for further studies.

Autonomy and perception of work quality drive job satisfaction of TV news workers • Scott Reinardy, University of Kansas • Self-determination theory tells us that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influence our goal-oriented behavior and determine individual satisfaction. Self-determination issues such as deadlines, breaking news, multiple-screen obligations, competition and the desire to produce quality journalism confront TV news workers each day. In this study of nearly 900 TV news workers, broadcasters who have the freedom and organizational support to conduct their work have managed to find a great deal of job satisfaction. They also say they are producing a high quality of journalism. Of the sample, 19% (n = 155) said they intended to leave broadcast journalism within five years. Those intending to leave demonstrated significantly lower levels of job satisfaction, organizational support, autonomy and work quality. The primary reasons for leaving were salary, family issues and concerns about quality journalism.

Interactive Quizzes on News Websites • Natalie Stroud; Josh Scacco; Ashley Muddiman • The use of interactive features on news websites has become increasingly popular. Drawing from a “mix-of-attributes” approach (Eveland, 2003) and literature on survey research, we propose that a multiple-choice quiz will increase engagement compared to an open-ended quiz because (a) the open-ended quiz is more interactive, (b) an open-ended quiz using a slider poll is more novel, and (c) open-ended questions require more processing time to reach a conclusion. We partner with a local news station to show that a mix of open- and closed-ended polls can increase use of the interactive features and time-on-page. Methodological and practical implications are discussed.

The Effects of “Social Watching” the 2012 Presidential Debates • Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Joshua Hawthorne, University of Missouri; Alecia Swasy; Mitchell McKinney, University of Missouri • This paper examines the impact of watching the debates with others—whether those others are present in person or accessed through Facebook or Twitter. Theory about the impact of debate content suggests that viewers may experience negative emotions as “their” candidate is attacked, and may experience great uncertainty about issues at the same time. These negative response may occur simultaneously with the excitement of knowing one is sharing an experience of importance with millions of others. These possibilities suggest that “social watching,” whether in person or mediated, will produce a more positive response to the debate (more enjoyment, attention, interest) as well as a higher likelihood of more debates being watching and watched longer. These predictions are strongly supported with a sample of American adults in two different parts of the country.

Broadcasting’s New Scarcity Principle: a Case Study in Radio Newsroom Resource Allocation • Christopher Terry, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • This case study examines the FCC’s use of the benefits of economy of scale as a rationale to justify many mergers of broadcast radio outlets after the implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. After exploring several licensing and transfer decisions where the FCC’s rationale for approving a merger relied on the premise that consolidating stations into common ownerships would allow resources to be dedicated to content production, the article reports the observations of the resources made available to a radio news operation on four presidential election over a twelve year period. The results of this participatory observation indicate that the longer a station was owned and operated by a consolidated media company, the internal news operation received less resources, produced less local news content, and began re-using material produced for other media outlets. These findings demonstrate that the FCC’s use of economy of scale as a justification for approving media mergers was a flawed policy.

Political Advertising on Social Media in the 2012 Presidential Election: Exploring the Perceptual and Behavioral Components of the Third-person Effect • Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Guy Golan, Syracuse University • This exploratory study examines the perceived effects of political ads that appeared on social media in the 2012 presidential campaign from a third-person effect framework. Results of a survey using a probability sample of 496 college students indicated that they tend to believe that political ads on social media have a greater influence on others than on themselves. However, the more desirable they viewed such ads, the more they admitted the ads to having influenced them. Finally, third-person perception of political ads on social media was found to be a positive predictor of engagement in promotional social media behavior after the influences of demographics, social media use, and political attitudes were taken into consideration.

Subsidizing Disaster Coverage in the Digital Age: An Exploration of Hurricane Sandy • Shelley Wigley, University of Texas at Arlington; Maria Fontenot, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; Ioana Coman • This study explored reporters’ use of user generated content to subsidize coverage of Hurricane Sandy. Sources cited in articles from local and national news websites were analyzed. Results revealed nearly 7% of sources came from UGC (or social media sites), that cable stations used more UGC as sources than network stations, and that reporters sourced content from Twitter significantly more often than content from other social media sources, such as Facebook and YouTube.

<<2013 Abstracts

“I’ll Take Commas for $200”: Instructional Intervention Using Games to Help Students Master Grammar Skills • Susan Bullard, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Nancy Anderson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • Effective writing requires mastering grammar. For journalists, this mastery is especially important because research shows poor grammar erodes media credibility. College writing instructors say students don’t understand basic grammar concepts, and greater numbers of college students are enrolling in remedial writing classes. This quasi-experimental mixed methods study examines whether using games to teach basic grammar skills helps college students understand and retain grammar concepts. It also examines student perceptions of their learning experience.

Strengthening Basic Writing Skills: A Collaborative Approach Between Media Writing Courses and Writing Studio Tutoring • Michael Drager, Shippensburg University of PA; Karen Johnson, Shippensburg University; Rachel Bryson, Shippensburg University • Strengthening journalism students’ basic writing skills has been a challenge for journalism instructors for many years. Various research studies have indicated a concern for that challenge and attempts to address it adequately. This mixed-methods study explores the development of a collaborative program between journalism instructors and writing studio tutors that incorporates a pretest to identify student weaknesses in basic skill sets, proficiency examinations to test student progress, and targeted tutoring to strengthen skills. Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of this collaboration over a three-year period by employing a variety of methods: paired sample t-tests, independent t-tests, descriptive statistics, surveys, interviews, and document analysis. Results indicated that students scored significantly higher than their pretest scores and control groups from previous years. Students acknowledged their improvement and agreed that tutoring helped them develop writing proficiency. This study suggests that mandatory tutoring can benefit students, and guidelines for developing similar collaborations are provided.

The gaps between journalism education and practice in the digital age: A factor analysis • Ying Roselyn Du, Hong Kong Baptist U.; Eric Lo • This study is a twin survey of online journalism professionals and students that examines and compares their perceptions of journalism skills, duties, and concepts. Using samples of online journalists and online journalism students in Hong Kong, Asia’s news media hub, the survey attempts to offer updated insights into the changes taking place in online journalism classrooms and newsrooms, and uncovers the discordance between online journalism education and practice. Through a factor analysis, the study finds that in online newsrooms, traditional journalistic skills such as writing and news judgment remain prioritized over technical skills such as multimedia and website works. The findings also suggest that today’s journalism students are fairly proficient in new media skills. Therefore, journalism curricula should not forgo training students on traditional journalistic skills for computer skills.

MOOCs in the Humanities: Can They Reach Underprivileged Students? • Suzannah Evans, UNC; Karen McIntyre, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been heralded as a democratizing force bringing higher education to the world’s neediest students. But do MOOCs effectively confront the well-documented challenges of online education for underprivileged students? This textual analysis examines current MOOC offerings in the humanities and finds that courses are designed for relatively well-prepared students, not underprivileged students.

Enhancing student learning in knowledge-based courses: Integrating team-based learning in mass communication theory classes • Gang (Kevin) Han, Greenlee School/Iowa State University; Jay Newell, Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State Univ. • Using the case of teaching an undergraduate mass communication theory class in a large Midwest research university, this study discusses the adoption and adaption of the team-based learning (TBL) method in knowledge-based and theory-oriented journalism and mass communication courses. This study first reviews the origin and the concept of TBL, the theories relevant to TBL, and then introduces the TBL method and implementation in the particular course, including procedures and assessments. Based on the results, the significance of this study concerning students’ learning effectiveness and outcome, as well as its pedagogical implications for the journalism and mass communication field and beyond, are discussed.

You Can Fix Stupid: An Experimental Game to Teach a Need For News • Kelly Kaufhold, Texas Tech University • A novel, entertaining classroom experiment was devised to augment current events and public affairs knowledge in journalism classes. The experiment featured an interactive news game modeled after two television game shows: Ca$h Cab and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. The game experiment, conducted across eight classes in two semesters, succeeded in creating a few more avid news consumers among students; strongly conveyed civics knowledge to many students; and is fun and easily replicable.

Cultivating a Professional Ethic in Covering Marginalized Populations: Learning About the Poor Through Service-Learning • Philllip Motley; Amanda Sturgill, Elon University • As mass communications programs teach students to tell stories, it is important that the curriculum includes the significance of covering diverse groups accurately. Scholars have paid some attention to the coverage of different genders and nationalities, and to ethnic and racial minorities. One area that has seen less concern is economic difference and coverage of the poor in particular. This work examines how service-learning might be used to affect students’ ideas about the poor and their sense of responsibility to tell accurate stories about them. Researchers found that students who encountered the poor directly through service-learning changed their attitudes about the poor and causes of poverty and expressed concern about the need to represent the poor fairly and accurately.

<<2013 Abstracts

South Park and the Defense of the Status Quo • Larry Anderson, University of Memphis • Trey Parker and Matt Stone, co-producers of the popular adult cartoon series South Park, have reputations as iconoclastic critics of contemporary culture. This study conducted an examination of the use of literary devices in three episodes of the series to determine whether the duo employ their knowledge of metaphors, symbolism, and other literary techniques to support the status quo in economic issues.

Ghetto Princes, Pretty Boys and Handsome Slackers: Masculinity and Race and the Disney Princes • Guillermo Avila-Saavedra • This essay aims to explore the symbolic interconnections of race and gender through qualitative discourse analysis of the construction of masculinities in the three Disney films with non-White male protagonists. The analysis exposes the performance of gender roles in the context of race and class as established by the narrative. A discursive analysis of these popular movies reveals the mediated construction of multiple forms of masculinities as well as changing notions of masculinity and femininity.

Media-To-Come: Media Literacy, Autoimmunity, and Hope • Ralph Beliveau, University of Oklahoma • A new paradigm has emerged of fluid networks, where connections are temporary, structures are contextualized, relationships are incidental, and the visual, aural and textual integrate temporarily but seamlessly. Descriptions of fluidity have yet to be discussed in terms of their implied potential for realizing a new experience of citizenship. I argue that these notions can be made sensible through the notion of “Democracy-to-Come.” It must also address the notion of “autoimmunity,” where a social formation begins to act as if under attach and begins to destroy itself as a protective response. Resistance to media literacy pedagogy represents such a self-destructive response.

Zombie Messiah: Apocalypticism, Secularism, Semiotics, and Warm Bodies • Jonathan Birkel, Brigham Young University • Using a semiotic Marxist approach, this paper explores science, secularism, and postmodern rhetoric as they are presented through the apocalyptic film Warm Bodies. Results show that by using a Christian narrative structure, anti-Christian ideologies are conveyed which promote doubt in authoritative structures and hostility toward absolutism. Findings suggests that Christian audiences may be persuaded into believing that doubt toward religious structures is not only normal but appropriate.

“The Best I Can Be”: Framing Disability Through the Mascots of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. • Sim Butler, University of Alabama; Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama • For the first time ever during the summer Olympic and Paralympic games, the mascots for each game were introduced together, as a pair. The Paralympic mascot, Mandeville, and the Olympic mascot, Wenlock, are strikingly similar in appearance and construction. However, their adventures, established through a website and online movies, highlight striking differences between the mascots and the athletes they represent. As mascots portray physical representations of the ideologies of sporting teams, leagues, and events, producing two mascots for two different sets of athletic competition creates a unique situation through which to compare normative constructions. Through the online mediated representations of Mandeville and Wenlock, the present study used rhetorical analysis to examine the textual and visual stories of the two mascots communicated specific messages to viewers about ability and disability. Within these films, those deemed as disabled are clearly otherized through injury, isolation, and displays of ability. As these films are cartoons for children, their effect has the potential to influence the constructions for a new generation. The lens through which viewers learned about able-bodiedness and disability through the Olympic mascots presents a stereotypical representation of the body at best, but through the animated stories told about the two mascots, dominate frames about disabled athletes being injured, isolated, or being incapable of managing specific tasks are constructed. These and other findings are discussed.

The 2012 “Women’s Olympics”: Striving toward equity in major news and sports magazine coverage • Sara Blankenship, University of North Texas; Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas • This qualitative study examines the coverage of women in Sports Illustrated, Time and Newsweek magazines during the 2012 Olympic Games. These “Women’s Olympics” also marked the 40th anniversary of Title IX. A textual analysis under a feminist framework shows an equitable portrayal of powerful women, defying previous trends that downplayed their agency. We theorize that the effects of Title IX may finally be taking root by exhibiting women’s sports as exciting, entertaining and victorious.

An Examination of the 1967 Michigan Chronicle Through a Politically Responsive Constructionist Lens • Liz Candello, Arizona State University • This article seeks to further the study of dialogue created by colorblindness and multiculturalism in advocacy journalism within the historical context of the civil rights movement, the African-American weekly newspaper the Michigan Chronicle, and its hiring of its only White reporter from 1965 to 1968. I argue that the Michigan Chronicle employed dialogue that was historically situated. I apply the Politically Responsive Constructionist theory to argue that “colorblindness” hinders, rather than advances dialogue about race in the United States.

The Degradation, Defiling, and Decay of Our Gender: Reading Bravo’s “The Real Housewives” Online • Nicole Cox, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College • As a franchise that has survived more than six years, 350 episodes, and seven series locations, Bravo’s The Real Housewives is a formidable force on cable TV. Centered on the lives of wealthy women, this research utilizes critical, feminist political economy to explore how fans negotiate the series’ gendered messages. Examining 71,000 online posts, this research demonstrates how females make sense of gendered messages and how they- through online interactivity- participate in their own commodification.

I am Spartacus: Whiteness’ Power to Liberate in Film and Television Productions • Richard Craig, George Mason University • Spartacus is one of the most recognized names and legends connected to slave revolts, the story of the Thracian slave who led a resistance against the Roman Republic for over two years, 73 B.C. – 70 B.C. The film and television industry have demonstrated an appeal for the story of this slave who revolts against the established order, and have reimagined the life of this rebellion in cinematic and televised retellings of this mythic individual. The narrative situated in the popular media depictions of Spartacus privileges whiteness as a great liberator, strategically and aggressively rebelling against the institution of slavery, in a historically based context. Yet, popular media has ignored the presence of similar narratives featuring Blacks who violently resisted the institution of slavery in the Antebellum south and West Indies, in a historically based context. This paper challenges the lack of popular film and television productions in popular culture recounting the deeds of historical rebellions led by “Others”. The absence of such narratives denies and devalues the historical lived experience of people of color. The popular cinematic and television depictions of Spartacus’ methodical violent uprising preserve the sense of purity connected to whiteness; not through the violence of the man and his followers, but rather embedded in Spartacus’ quest to see an end to the institution of slavery.

Orientalism for a New Millennium: Cable News and the Specter of the “Ground Zero Mosque” • Ruth DeFoster, University of Minnesota • This study uses discourse analysis to examine cable news coverage of the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” considering the arguments put forth by those supporting and opposing the center in the politically charged post-September 11 media environment. It found several trends in terms of sources present in cable coverage opposing the center, as well as a narrow set of talking points that underline the presence of an “Islamophobic” network of individuals/organizations present in American media discourse.

The face of multiculturalism in Korea: Media ritual as framing in news coverage of Jasmine Lee • Frank Durham • Racial purity remains a contentious issue in contemporary Korea. In this case study of news coverage of the first non-Korean appointed to national office there, Jasmine Lee, we have applied Turner’s social drama theory as a methodology for a critical framing analysis of coverage by the nation’s three largest English-language media outlets—the Korea Herald, the JoongAng Daily, and the Korea Times. Our ideological analysis focuses on the use of sources in this on-line context.

Breaking the circle: Citizens, journalism, and the statutory divide • Edgar Simpson, Central Michigan University; Aimee Edmondson, Ohio University • What is the definition of “journalist”? This study examined the United States statutes and administrative codes for all fifty states and the District of Columbia for definitions of our profession. Overall, this study found lawmakers and policy writers established specific duties, responsibilities, and exemptions for “journalists,” tending to rest the definitions and privileges on those employed by traditional news outlets. The authors, inspired by Barbie Zelizer’s definitions of journalism through values, routines, and practices, found five primary categories in which journalists were set apart from “citizens.” These are described as 1) official witness 2) promoter 3) town crier 4) chronicler/commentator, and 5) official representative of the people and of journalism. For instance, twenty states make specific provisions for journalists as “official witnesses” for arguably the most solemn acts of government, putting inmates to death and overseeing elections. While the definitions varied substantially, many tied the definition of journalist to employment by a legitimate or “bona fide” news outlet. The study discusses findings within the context of the ongoing debate over “citizen journalism” and offers suggestions toward definitions that incorporate the increasing role of the audience in producing journalism.

Parrhesia as social theory, digital parrhesia as media theory: Notes toward a holistic model for digital communication • Nicholas Gilewicz, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania • An attempt to reformulate discussions of digital communication, this article interpolates Foucault’s articulation of parrhesia into the digital realm while grounding it in wider literature about communication and social theory. Parrhesia implies that those who have the ability to speak freely have concomitant duties to truth and honest self-representation. This article works uses a method that operationalizes parrhesia to understand the work and 2012 death of “citizen journalist” Rami al-Sayed in the Syrian civil war.

Pseudo-Events as a Mesocyclone: Rethinking Pseudo-Events in the Digital Age • Timothy R. Gleason, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • Daniel J. Boorstin’s concept of pseudo-events has been around almost as long as Queen Elizabeth’s reign as monarch. 2012 was the year of the Diamond Jubilee, a 60th year anniversary, which can be viewed as a giant pseudo-event made from smaller pseudo-events. Compliant media were ready and willing to present images reinforcing the power, authority, and naturalness of the monarchy. This study frames the Diamond Jubilee by reconceptualizing pseudo-events using the analogy of a Mesocyclone.

Escape, Tradition and Gender Discourse: The Neighborhood Gate • Noura Hajjaj, Marist College • The focus of this research is to examine the format, values, and cultural impact of “The Neighborhood Gate” across the Arab region. This iconic Syrian soap opera is enjoying extraordinarily successful runs and reaching very broad Arab audiences. Reflecting on the plot premises, the cultural themes, the representation of characters, and the expected masculine and feminine communication patterns, highlights the revolving messages and the portrayal of Arab women at a time of rising feminist self-determination.

Community Journalism as Community Development: Implications for the Journalistic Field • Gary Hansen, University of Kentucky; Elizabeth Hansen, Eastern Kentucky University Dept. of Communication • Drawing upon community theory, a case is made for viewing community journalism as community development based upon its contributions to both the creation of community solidarity and the development of community agency. Key concepts or “thinking tools” of Bourdieu’s field theory are then outlined, applied to journalism, and used to illuminate both the current position of community journalism within the journalistic field and the implications for the field of viewing community journalism as community development.

The Journalist In-Group: American Journalism Culture’s Promotion of Othering • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University • This paper argues that the conceptualization of American journalism culture should consider journalists’ strongest source of group membership. Journalists have adopted Said’s definition of Othering by conceiving of themselves as familiar and others as strange. By social identity theory’s standards, they have positioned themselves as the in-group and others as the out-group. Thus, this paper argues that journalists have created the journalist in-group, which is upheld by the standards of many professional news organizations.

Deregulation v. Un-Regulation: A qualitative framing analysis of press releases published by interest groups in the debate over net neutrality • Brett Johnson, University of Minnesota • Net neutrality pits the interests of ISPs and Internet application creators against each other. As described by politics of technology theory (Berg 1998; Gillespie 2007), press releases help craft and sell the political ideals of a neutral or non-neutral Internet. This project will conduct an inductive, qualitative framing analysis (Gamson & Modigliani 1989) of press releases published by interest groups in the debate over net neutrality between 2006 and 2012.

Culture as Constitutive: An exploration of audience and journalist perceptions of journalism in Samoa • Linda Jean Kenix • Much research implicitly suggests that journalism values arise from culturally removed organizational structures or shared occupational training and few studies examine the perspective of journalism from both audiences and journalists. These omissions are important given the essentiality of mutually constructed and culturally embedded normative behaviours within journalism. This research examines audiences and journalists in Samoa, a country purposefully selected as a recently independent, post-colonial, country that relies upon a very traditional, shared national identity for it’s relatively nascent identificatory cohesion. This study aims to gain a better understanding of how local culture can set parameters and expectations for journalism; how journalists negotiate culture into their own professional ideology; and how audiences understand journalism within a cultural context.

Girls’ Generation: Neoliberal Social Policy, Governmentality and Girl Industry in the Age of KOR-US FTA • Gooyong Kim, Temple University; Dong-hyun Byun, Graduate School of Media Communication, Sogang University • This paper argues how the Korean government has been an integral part of Koran popular music’s (K-pop) recent global popularity as a part of state intervention in maintaining national competitiveness in a post-IMF neoliberal society. To be more specific, I will examine how the growing popularity and numbers of idol girl bands are possible in conservative Confucian Korean society, claiming that they are the apex of neoliberal commodity that creates vast surplus value to Korea’s talent management companies and provides the contemporary myth of market competition in the age of Free Trade Agreement between Korea and the United States (KORUS FTA). Foucault’s (2008) notion of biopower and neoliberal governmentality is deployed to understand Korean government’s support of K-pop industry as neoliberal social policy, which is not for social safety-net but for economic growth. I will conclude that contemporary female K-pop idol bands are the latest export item to earn foreign currency and to perpetuate the dominant market ideology of neoliberalism.

Navigating good citizenship in a networked world: The case of Kony2012 • Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, University of Southern California; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Southern California • This paper uses the case of Kony2012 to explore competing citizenship discourses. We propose that the controversy around Kony2012, expressed through online discussions and humorous images, illuminates a moment in which citizenship norms are in flux. Using media artifacts, we explore the tension between proposals that new media enable new kinds of civic action, and critiques of “slacktivism”, grounded in a vision of the informed citizen as the only acceptable model of good citizenship.

News Attention Climax: Does News Framing Create Better Capitalists? • Derek Last • This paper explores the theoretical phenomenon of “News Attention Climax”, and focuses upon the moment when news is first transferred from news producer to news consumer. A news attention climax system champions forms of delivery that are efficient, and that emphasize speed of reception. This is reflective of a neo-Taylorist movement that has guided, and continues to guide news delivery and reception, and which has only been augmented with social media and search engine optimization.

Net is Neutral, But the Media Is not Neutral: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Print News Coverage of Network Neutrality • Ju Young Lee, Pennsylvania State University • Based on Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model, this study intended to examine whether the media tended to serve governmental purposes to sustain their dominant status or viability in the media market. The print news coverage of the network neutrality policy during the period 2005-2011 was analyzed in terms of framing strategies, structures, and rhetorical devices. The major newspapers have supported the positions of both governments by differently framing the network neutrality issue using diverse rhetorical devices.

Social Conflict and Mistrust: Understanding the Ambivalent Relationship between Journalists and Underprivileged Groups in China • Zhaoxi Liu, Trinity University; Judy Polumbaum • A field research reveals that journalists in a Southwestern China metropolis share the view that helping members of the lower social strata or those in need is a prominent component of the meaning of their work as journalists. At the same time, journalists do not completely trust those they are willing to help. Such ambivalent feeling is deeply rooted in China’s social environment, particularly the widespread social conflict and mistrust. From a cultural studies perspective, this study intends to arrive at an understanding of the mixed feeling journalists have toward a particular social group through a contextualized analysis of journalists’ work. In so doing, this study demonstrates that journalistic practice is in indeed deeply connected with its social context.

Media Errors and the “Nutty Professor”: Riding the Journalistic Boundaries of the Sandy Hook Shootings • Dan Berkowitz, U of Iowa; Zhengjia Liu, The University of Iowa • This study explores dual threats to journalism’s authority and professional paradigm during coverage of the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. One threat concerned widespread errors in early reporting. A second threat came shortly after, when a communication professor blogged that the news media had been complicit in a government conspiracy to further the gun control agenda. This study also addresses how social media became part of journalism’s boundary work.

“The King Is Dead, Long Live The King!” • Rashad Mammadov • Relationships between the Soviet Union and the United States in Cold War have been analyzed from different angles, but primary focus is usually on political events with lack of attention to the role of media as a mirror of politics. Although declared cooperation with the West was the key characteristic of Khrushchev’s Thaw, by examining the cartoons of Krokodil magazine I find evidence that Khrushchev’s position about the US was even more radical than Stalin’s.

Warriors and Witches: Cinematic Constructions of Navajos in “Windtalkers” and “Skinwalkers” • Megan McSwain, Middle Tennessee State University • Analyzing Native Americans in a narrower approach, this study focuses on one tribe. This paper deconstructs the discourses used to define Navajos in the 2002 films Windtalkers and Skinwalkers. Both films are found to portray images of Navajos as the Other, Navajos as devices, Navajo religion as superstition, Romanticized Navajos, and Corrupted Navajos. While the films attempt to depict the Navajo as a distinct tribe, Native American stereotypes are still prevalent in the twenty-first century.

Political Performance, Boundary Spaces, and Active Spectatorship: Symbolic Organization During the 2012 Democratic National Convention • Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Laura Meadows, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper presents an ethnographic study of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. We combine literatures on journalistic and political fields with scholarship on performance theory to provide a framework for understanding conventions as contemporary media events. We detail the layered production of performance in the journalistic and political fields, arguing that performances were directed internally and across fields for strategic advantage, and for co-present spectators and the public at-large. Conventions provide boundary spaces for actors from different fields to coordinate work and mediated, integrative spaces for the polity. We conclude by arguing that media events provide occasions for networked practices of ‘active spectatorship’ that serve as paths to political authority and ultimately consent for citizens, if not necessarily political power.

Connected and Disconnected: Catchphrases on the Chinese Internet From 2003 to 2012 • Guo Mengjun, Tsinghua University • The article examines the trends of catchphrases on the Chinese internet from 2003 to 2012 as a popular form of cultural and political expression and their social, culture and political implications. The development of internet-mediated discourse has strong bearing on the environment that gives birth to it, and it reflects the transformation of social, political, cultural and technical reality. I analyze ongoing social changes in Chinese society through the lens of evolving online catchphrases.

‘Weinergate’ online and on paper: A media insurgent and a mainstream newspaper cover the Weiner story. • Natalia Mielczarek, University of Iowa • This study relied on textual analysis to analyze how a media insurgent, the conservative blog Big Government, inserted itself temporarily into the vertical, top-down traditional media landscape by breaking the story of Congressman Anthony Weiner’s sexting. The blog, however, promptly gave up its story to mainstream media, engaging in ‘horizontal cross-dressing’ and self-incorporation. The project analyzed this dynamic through a framing analysis of the Weiner story in Big Government and the Washington Post.

Hegemony in the White House: An examination of gender portrayals on The West Wing • Ben Miller, Univeristy of Minesota; Tanner Cooke • This study examined the role of women in the hit television program The West Wing. Using a qualitative content analysis methodology, this study dissects the power dynamic of women within the already powerful context of the White House. While in recent years the role and position of women on television has elevated, this study argues that it is not the role that necessarily matters, but the interaction with male counterparts and the resulting relative power. The findings of this study uncover hidden power dynamics within the text of a popular program. Ultimately this leads to a discussion of cultural hegemony and the way in which representation can reinforce rather than eliminate hegemonic messages through television programs.

Man Therapy: Framing Mental Health as Masculine • Richard Mocarski, The University of Alabama; Sim Butler, University of Alabama • To address high numbers of suicides by men in America, the mental health promotion campaign Man Therapy attempts to de-stigmatize mental health as staunchly opposed to masculinity through overtly humorous constructions of “therapy the way a man would do it” (Cactus, 2012). Through a critical analysis of the campaign, including the interactive website, modeled as the fictitious office of Dr. Rich Mahogany, this project addresses the influences of humor within the confines of hegemonic masculinity, mental health, and suicide.

Gateway to the Global City: Digital Media and Mobile Place-making • Erika Polson, University of Denver • Drawing from ethnographic research of expatriates in Paris who use meetup.com and similar websites to organize face-to-face events, this paper engages theories of place and placemaking to argue that digital media are engaged in new forms of ‘digital emplacement’ which are particularly suited for proliferating mobile lifestyles and careers.

Seeing the Other: Sexuality and Gender in the Globalized World • Elizaveta Provorova, Temple University • Transnational sexuality studies, transnational feminism and global queer studies emphasize the importance of seeing sexuality and gender as global phenomena that are constantly shaping and being shaped by interrelationships between nations, cultures and groups of people. In this paper I discuss challenges associated with exploring non-mainstream gender practices and sexuality identities of the Other. As scholars belonging to a certain culture and academic tradition we should always be aware of our positionality and biases.

Exploring the Alternative-Mainstream Dialectic: What ‘Alternative Media’ Means to a Hybrid Audience • Jennifer Rauch, Long Island University-Brooklyn • This study enriches scholarship on “alternative media” by exploring what the category means to audiences. A survey (n=224) revealed a distinct system of alternative-media values and practices supported by users. They valued alternative content (neglected issues, diverse voices, mobilizing information) above forms (being nonprofit, advertising-free, small-scale). Despite criticizing corporate-commercial media, this hybrid audience used many such outlets and considered some “alternative.” I discuss why the alternative-mainstream dialectic remains useful in a converged culture.

Performing Community: Public Television and Library Policy • Camille Reyes, Rutgers University • In 1967, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television published a report with recommendations that became the foundation for American Public Television policy. The report strongly urged Congress to fund a quality alternative to the commercial broadcasting system, recognizing a need for programming unfettered by the imperative of mass audiences for advertisers. The language of diversity and public service runs throughout the document, yet such rhetoric falls short within the deeper structural recommendations for the nascent network. This paper analyzes the contradictions related to community service in the original report, and argues that policymakers must strengthen the definition of diversity within the system before any argument to increase federal funding will be successful. The paper also offers transferable policy guidance from the field of library and information science. Public libraries have long faced similar challenges to those of PBS in serving the information needs of diverse communities. Literature pertaining to collection development and needs assessment in public libraries provides useful suggestions for media reformers striving to reshape a system that for all its faults has the great potential to fulfill its original and vital public interest mission.

Residents’ Journal: Chicago’s public housing residents take on the news • Loren Saxton; Elli Roushanzamir, University of Georgia • This paper explores how racial, class, and spatial pressures condition the exercise of contingent agency via Residents’ Journal, an online journal that publishes articles pertinent to Chicago’s public and government-assisted housing communities. The critical textual analysis examines how community media provide and limit alternative spaces of social (re)positioning and reclamation of social power. Ultimately, the paper calls for the continued critical analyses of community media as forms of resilience, opposition and platforms for social change.

Framing of Osama bin Laden’s Death: A Global Perspective • Whitney Sessa, University of Miami, School of Communication; Michael North, University of Miami; Katie Lang, University of Miami, School of Communication • Media framing of Osama bin Laden’s death was examined in four international, 24-hour news networks: CNN.com, BBC World News, Al Jazeera English and Al Arabiya English. This study found no association between news network and frames used, suggesting that neither geographical location nor ethnocentrism influenced media frames. In contrast to previous media analyses conducted of bin Laden, this study found the dominant frames of bin Laden to be “neutral figure” or “terrorist leader.”

The “Madness” of Capitalism’s Reckless Warrior/Priest: Jim Cramer as Oracle of the Post-Meltdown Neoliberal Capitalism • John Sewell, The University of West Georgia • This essay is a discursive analysis of “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s postings on TheStreet.com in 2010 to understand transnational business masculinity in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown in terms of myth, fantasy theme, and prophetic stance. For his affluent and primarily white, male subscribers, Cramer functioned as channeler and oracle, providing rhetorical vision and offering “secret knowledge” that spurred risky trading behaviors based on narrative and emotion rather than rationality.

The Poetics of Goodbye: Plot, Change and Nostalgia in Narratives Penned by ex-Baltimore Sun Employees • Stacy Spaulding, Towson University • Using plot and thematic analysis rooted in narrative and organizational studies, this study examines the narratives produced by a group of workers laid off by The Baltimore Sun in April, 2009. This study describes the poetics of “goodbye narratives,” the narratives written by ex-employees regarding their organizational experience. This paper demonstrates that these narratives constitute a unique genre with identifiable poetics. Through narrative devices such as plot, these writers make story choices that reflect differing ideological outlooks on the meanings of The Sun’s 2009 layoffs. This analysis also explores collective memory of organizational changes. These narratives speak dramatically to the impact of organizational decline and the influence of staffing levels, changes in ownership and decline in product quality on employee morale. This paper further theorizes that the presence of nostalgia can be seen as a narrative marker of durational discourse which collects, conserves and curates both individual and collective sense making.

The Blue Approach and Propaganda: Law Enforcement, Indy Media, and the 2008 RNC Protests • Robert Frenzel, Old Dominion University; Burton St. John, Old Dominion University • Law enforcement at the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul, MN used a variety of coercive measures to keep independent media under control. This work examines such efforts as evidence of propaganda of the deed – non-symbolic actions that also served to send subtle messages that power centers associated with the RNC would not tolerate disruptions. This work also points to implications for today’s journalism and the challenge to its ability to cover protest.

So says the stars: A textual analysis of Glamour, Essence and Teen Vogue horoscopes • Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri • This study examines horoscopes published in three women’s magazines: Essence, Glamour, and Teen Vogue, a magazine for teenage girls. Leaving out race and age, the demographics of all three magazines are very similar. In this textual analysis of more than 400 individual horoscope entries, three dominant themes emerged: love, money and work. Stereotypes associated with race and age—more than zodiac signs—shape the fate of those who read and believe in what horoscopes predict.

Crime of Impossibility? A Critical Examination of Western Obscenity Laws and the Criminalizing of Fantasy • Jason Zenor, SUNY Oswego • Few issues receive the same condemnation as sexual abuse of children. But, unfortunately, harm to minors has become the primary justification for speech censorship throughout the world. In fact, people have been incarcerated for possessing cartoon pictures of fictitious minors engaged in sexual conduct- with little media scrutiny or public outcries of injustice. This attack on the freedom of thought has undoubtedly put the fandom of erotic anime on alert- is their genre protected expression or child pornography? This article examines international attempts to pass new obscenity and child pornography laws and recent efforts to censor erotic anime. First, this paper will examine the development of sexually explicit Japanese animation and the sociological and historical roots of the genre, illustrating the social value that it has for its fandom. Then it outlines the laws for obscenity and child pornography in countries with a large anime fan base. Finally, the article analyzes the western socio-legal ideology that has led to censorship and why they are misguided and antithetical to the free speech values of democratic nations.

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