Archives for May 2019

“Ceiling-breaker” and “sexist backlash”: Articulations of feminism in narratives of women in sports broadcasting • Dunja Antunovic, Charley Steiner School of Sports Communication; Cheryl Cooky, Purdue University • Recently several women became “firsts” to call nationally televised men’s professional sports games in the United States. Journalists simultaneously celebrated women’s progress and lamented widespread discrimination practices in the industry. This paper examines articulations of feminism in media narratives of “first women.” We locate narratives of progress and narratives of failure to explore the ways certain forms of feminism beome visible. Further, the paper connects media narratives to feminist storytelling practices in academic feminism.

Maidens, Bosomy Belly Dancers and Black Magic Vamps: A Qualitative Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Middle Eastern Women in American Children’s Films • Amal Bakry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Dedria Givens-Carroll, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Nadia Alhashimi • Media are a main source for children to learn about gender (Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund, & Tanner, 2003). On average, children watch 20 hours of television per week (The Kaiser Foundation, 1999). Drawing theoretical support from Said’s (1978) Orientalism, this study aims to examine the portrayal of Middle Eastern women in American children’s films. A qualitative content analysis was conducted of nine animated children’s films from 1956 to 2004. These films included the portrayal of Middle Eastern women and were analyzed. Findings indicate that the films reinforced stereotypes about Middle Eastern women who were either hyper-sexualized or were portrayed as villains and/or conniving seductresses in the majority of depictions.

Black Twitter Representations of #Kavanaugh Hearings • Dorothy Bland, University of North Texas; Mia Moody-Ramirez, Title • Public reaction on Twitter exploded after Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor, testified she was sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, a judge, when they were teens. He denied her allegations, and he became the 114th justice on the Supreme Court of the United States on Oct. 6, 2018. This study employs feminist theory and analyzes tweets containing “Kavanaugh Hearings” and “Black Twitter.” Findings indicate most tweets studied fell into five key categories: call to action, historical repetition, steep racial/political divide, white privilege and informational.

Online Harassment of U.S. Women Journalists and its Impact on Press Freedom • Caitlin Carlson, Seattle University; Haley Witt, Seattle University • The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether and how online harassment impacts U.S. Women Journalists. Of particular interest was whether online harassment creates a chilling effect, which in turn may influence press freedom. Results of the survey (n=141) indicated that negative online interactions caused the majority of participants to feel dissatisfied with their jobs. This may cause women journalists to leave the field before retirement age or discourage young women from entering it all together. Given the important role members of the media play in shaping the public agenda, framing issues, and priming viewers about how to evaluate current events, limiting women’s ability to participate in this process could reshape the universe of discourse in a way that is both skewed and problematic. A chilling effect was also evident in participant’s responses. Some respondents reported avoiding covering certain stories for fear of the online vitriol they would receive. An overwhelming majority of U.S. women journalists surveyed (79%) agreed that online harassment was impacting press freedom. In the United States, a free and fair press is an essential component of our Democracy. Online harassment is preventing women journalists from serving in their capacity as a watchdog on government and other institutions. The paper concludes with suggestions for remedying this issue. Recommendations include changing expectations for how women journalists are expected to interact with their audience social media, having news organizations disable the comments feature on their websites, and prohibiting readers and viewers from posting anonymously on news organization’s websites.

Translating transgender lives: A study of trans* communication practitioners as cultural intermediaries • Erica Ciszek, University of Texas at Austin; Elaine Almeida • Through in-depth interviews with trans* communication practitioners, this paper represents a turning point in communication toward a more intentional and reflexive orientation to gender identity and transgender lives. Findings demonstrate trans* practitioners construct and disseminate discourses designed to counter the historical narratives surrounding gender minorities to reshape these stories for themselves (as part of their own identity work), for trans* communities, and for mainstream audiences. This article employs the Bourdieuian concept of cultural intermediation to explicate the lived experiences of trans* individuals working in fields of communication. It specifically asks how trans* communicators create and maintain cultural intelligibility and negotiate social meaning of transgender representations, considering transgender communicators as cultural intermediaries at the center of the struggle for symbolic and material power.

The Pied Piper of R&B: An Intersectional Analysis of News Coverage of R. Kelly’s Sexual Abuse Allegations in the Era of Me Too and #MeToo • Teri Del Rosso, University of Memphis; Melissa Janoske, University of Memphis; Stephanie Madden; Jeniece Jamison • This paper explores coverage of R. Kelly’s sexual abuse allegations. We collected news stories from three Kelly-invested communities: his hometown of Chicago, the entertainment/music industry, and African-American/Black-centered media, within the first year of Me Too and the subsequent first year of the #MeToo movement. Using intersectionality and misogynoir as a lens, we interrogate how the narrative of Kelly is crafted, and to what degree coverage reinforces an institutional bias against young, black women.

Who broke it first? How news of sexual misconduct in US academia reaches the public • Stine Eckert, Wayne State University; Julie Libarkin, Michigan State University; Madison Witkowski, Michigan State University; Julia Michienzi, Michigan State University; Maddy Coy, University of Florida; Bonnie Moradi, University of Florida; Linda Steiner, University of Maryland • We analyzed how news of sexual misconduct in US academia—specifically, when a university employee was the alleged perpetrator—was broken to the wider public. We used a database of 763 cases between 1975 and 2019 to conduct a systematic textual analysis. Thus far, we have coded 434 cases randomly selected by the research team to discern patterns of gender, disciplines, and results of investigations. We conducted a more detailed analysis of 114 of these randomly selected cases to discern which media type broke the news first to a wider public. We used a feminist theory approach to contextualize our findings. Results of the study revealed that 56 cases were first made public to a wider audience in local media, 16 cases were first reported via student media, and 14 cases were first reported via court documents. Not surprisingly, a gendered pattern of misconduct emerged, with the vast majority of cases involving men as perpetrators and women as targets. The majority of perpetrators were faculty, followed by administrators; the overwhelming majority of targets were students.

Framing Campus Sexual Assault in College News: Peer Education and Counter-Power in a Rape-Supportive Environment • Barbara Friedman • Before campus sexual assault made national headlines, it made campus-news headlines. College newspapers, “flash points for campus tensions over many issues” (Hoover, 2004), have been a point of origin for coverage as institutions increasingly come under external scrutiny for their handling of sexual assault complaints. This study considers the ways that coverage of sexual assault in campus newspapers—which outnumber US dailies evidence some of the practices in national media coverage of the issue, and how campus media might constitute a counter-power project, defined by Castells (2007) as “the capacity of a social actor to resist and challenge power relations that are institutionalized.” The study examines 631 articles from 13 colleges or universities that were or are under federal investigation for possible Title IX violations related to mishandling of sexual assault complaints.

Absence of Female Empowerment and Agency: A Content Analysis of the 2017 Billboard Hot 100 Songs • Stephanie Gibbons; Stacey Hust; Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, Washington State University; Jiayu Li; Soojung Kang; Nicole Cameron • The Billboard Top 100 list of music is a composite of the most popular mainstream songs each week of a calendar year. However, when looking at the list of the top songs over the span of 2017, it is apparent that female only artists are grossly underrepresented, comprising of only 14 percent of the total top spots. While female artists deserve an equal place on the list, so do their messages. The following paper explores the extent that top mainstream artists discuss issues such as female empowerment and female sexual agency. Social Cognitive Theory is applied in this paper to exemplify the need for female empowerment within mainstream music in order for female listeners to perceive themselves as efficacious agents over their own life goals. Results indicate that female only artists are most likely to sing about empowerment and sexual agency; however, of those artists, less than ten percent of top songs include these messages.

Not as Innocent as They Seem: A Content Analysis on Gender Stereotyping in Memes • Crystal Hong; Fiona Mei Robinson; Sherlyn Goh, Nanyang Technological University; Abigail Toh • This exploratory study examines gender representations in memes using a content analysis of 638 memes from the Know Your Meme Facebook page. Guided by Erving Goffman’s framework for analysis of gender advertisements, this study found gender stereotyping in memes, especially in representations of dominance and interaction. Males are further observed to dominate the memetic landscape, with a severe underrepresentation of females. Although perceived as harmless entertainment, memes as a communication channel propagates gender stereotypes.

Nasty Writers: Uses and gratifications of private, online space in the age of Trump • Kelsey Husnick, Wayne State University; Rosie Jahng, Wayne State University • Online spaces of feminist solidarity have sprouted up in the last few years, such as a secret Facebook group specifically for women journalists with more than 8,150 members. Using uses and gratifications and the feminist ethic of care as the key theoretical framework, this study examines the female journalists’ current uses of and motivations for participating in the secret female-journalists-only Facebook group. In-depth interviews with group members produced findings including the motivation to seek out information and camaraderie, which, at face value, seem to align with previous motivations for social media use. The feminist ethic of care also emerged as a new motivation. This study illuminates the unique needs of female journalists that are not yet being met within their workplaces, which could have transformative power in newsrooms across the U.S. if used to try to fulfill those needs moving forward.

Between subject and object: How mass media industries have enabled sexual misconduct and harassment—and how they also exposed them • Jacqueline Lambiase, TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication; Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas; Carolyn Bronstein, DePaul University • These case studies of Fox News and Google examine the #MeToo movement on journalism, advertising, and public relations. These industries have provided a front-row seat for sexual harassment investigations, coverage of the #MeToo Movement, and advocacy for awareness and change. These case studies show that mass media industries need only to look within their own workplaces to find the unforgettable details of abuse. This research provides recommendations to help prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Covering a nation’s shame: A feminist news analysis of maternal mortality • Dustin Harp; Jaime Loke, Texas Christian University • The United States has the worst rate of maternal deaths of any other developed nation in the world. Through a qualitative analysis, the research seeks to elucidate how the topic of maternal mortality is structured in mainstream news media. By choosing to examine both national and state news coverage this research offers breadth and depth in its investigation of journalism covering this serious (and often preventable) medical problem. The research presented here represents a fragment of a larger project focused on understanding just how well contemporary journalists are doing in covering the story. This portion of the research offers a qualitative investigation of media coverage of maternal mortality in the United States and Texas, where women’s death related to pregnancy and childbirth are particularly egregious. Feminist, cultural, and health communication theorists and researchers guided the research process, offering a framework from which to approach a discourse analysis.

Exploring Gender Differences in How Teens and Young Adults Experience Cyber Surveillance, Cyberbullying, and Online Sexual Harassment • Stacey Hust; Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, Washington State University; Nicole O’Donnell, Virginia Commonwealth University; Jason Wheeler • This research examines how young men and women experience and respond to cyber surveillance, cyberbullying, and online sexual harassment. Qualitative in-depth interviews and simultaneous social media tours were conducted with eight high school and eight college students from rural, suburban, and urban communities in the Pacific Northwest. Themes include differences in how men and women use social media to seek sexual partners. Additionally, women discussed experiences with sexual cyberbullying, harassment, same-sex slut-shaming, and victim blaming.

Time’s Up: How Celebrity Endorsements on Twitter Impacted eWOM of the 2018 Women’s Movement • Ayla Oden • The Time’s Up movement was founded on January 1, 2018 with an overwhelming support from Hollywood. Celebrity endorsements were crucial to the movement’s viral success. This study utilizes the two-step flow of communication theory and social presence theory to determine what impact celebrity endorsements on Twitter had on the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) of Time’s Up and other social movement organizations (SMOs). A content analysis of tweets (n=801) mentioning the hashtag #TimesUp shows that while not all opinion leaders have an equal impact, some celebrity tweets did out-engage @TIMESUPNOW. This study also analyzed the correlation between online social presence and eWOM. Little correlation was found, indicating that celebrities can be beneficial opinion leaders to SMOs regardless of previous online activity.

Where’s the Beef? How One Woman Rocketed to Leadership in Advertising’s Creative World • Katie Olsen • The advertising industry presents women with one of the toughest paths to achieve leadership. This study used social role theory to examine how a woman was named Executive Creative Director at one of the leading independent full-service agencies in the lower US Midwest at the age of 33. A passion for leadership and creative development connected with promoting and protecting a strong work-life balance were two overarching themes impacting her journey.

From F-Bombs to Kissing Students: Media Framing of Male and Female Professors Accused of Sexual Harassment • Bethany Pitchford, Texas Tech University; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication; Jesse Starkey; Amy Koerber • This framing analysis identified the differences in the ways in which news stories depicted two male and two female tenured professors accused of sexual harassment—Coleman Hutchison, Jorge Dominguez, Avital Ronell, and Teresa Buchanan—at research-intensive universities in non-STEM disciplines. The identified media frames, some of which were distinctly gendered, included Subjects (Objects) of Hazy Creepiness; Little Boys Being Bad; Academic Power Players; Treacherous “Stay-Away-Froms”; and Eccentric Free Thinkers.

Examining Intersectionality of Ethnicity and Gender in Voting Decisions: An Experimental Study • Martina Santia; Stephanie L. Whitenack, LSU • Despite the recent surge of women in American politics, women of color still confront disproportionate impediments associated with their perceived gender and ethnicity simultaneously. Through a survey-based experiment, this project builds upon the intersectionality literature to bridge conceptual gaps concerning voters’ attitudes towards Latina political candidates. The results show that Latinas are evaluated more negatively compared to their white female counterparts, thus confirming the double disadvantage Latinas are exposed to when running for office.

Reporting on transgender victims of homicide: Practices of misgendering, sourcing and transparency • Natalee Seely, Ball State University • Media representations of violence against transgender individuals have implications for public opinion, awareness, and policy. Journalists must make editorial decisions about identifying transgender victims of homicide who cannot speak for themselves. Choices regarding sourcing, context, and language may also mitigate or exacerbate stereotypes and misinformation. This study uses content analysis to examine a sample (N=112) of mainstream U.S. news articles that covered the 26 transgender victims of homicide reported in 2018. Around 20% of articles referred to victims by their dead names, but around 9% of articles explicitly drew attention to the harms of police misidentification of transgender victims. Around 30% of the sample discussed violence against transgender individuals in social context. Police sources were present in nearly three-fourths of the sample; however, advocate sources were cited in nearly 50% of articles, offering an additional narrative. Associated Press Stylebook guidelines and best practices are discussed.

“Ideal Press Work”: The struggles of Kentucky suffrage press superintendents in gaining right to vote and living their lives • Melony Shemberger, Murray State University • State press superintendents in Kentucky performed vital work in women’s suffrage associations. Keeping Kentucky newspapers supplied with ready-to-print material on the women’s suffrage movement, writing original articles, maintaining relationships with newspaper editors, and clipping published material were among the responsibilities and activities of the press superintendents. In April 1898, Jessie Jane Cassidy, press superintendent for the National-American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), wrote a nearly three-page newsletter article describing the importance of “ideal press work” in reaching most U.S. newspapers and citing reasons why “ideal press work” was not being met by the state suffrage associations. This research examines the press work of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association against NAWSA’s “ideal press work” paradigm. Kentucky is the central focus of this study because of the rich digital resources available in obtaining convention reports for most years since the organization’s founding and during the suffrage movement. Overall, Kentucky’s press superintendents had difficulties in meeting the “ideal press work” standard set forth by Cassidy, but progress and achievements were noted, especially during the tenure of Lida Calvert Obenchain. Other variables prevented an “ideal press work” from occurring, such as illness, death and other personal affairs. This examination not only showcases the worthiness of the publicity efforts among suffrage press superintendents in Kentucky, but it also sheds light on the balance these women sought to achieve between gaining their full right to vote and living their lives. This study has implications for today’s women, who face similar struggles in their battles for workplace equalities.

Guarding against complacency: A multi-industry analysis of attitudes toward Title IX and gender equity in sport • Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee; Charli Kerns • This research explores the attitudes and experiences among sports media professionals toward Title IX and gender equity in sports. Findings update prior research and provide a holistic picture of attitudes toward the law across digital/print, broadcasting and sports information. Findings also show how attitudes may be shaped by gender and age and industry. In highlighting different organizational value systems by industry, this research provides some precision for conversations assessing Title IX and women’s sports coverage.

The Underrepresentation of Women on Commercial FM-radio stations in the Top 20 Markets • Patricia Williamson, Central Michigan University; Ethan Kolek, Central Michigan University • To determine whether women are underrepresented on-air in the radio industry, a content analysis of weekday shifts at commercial FM radio stations in the top 20 U.S. markets was conducted. Findings show women are underrepresented in every daypart except middays, and least represented in Afternoon Drive. By format, women are best represented on-air at Adult Contemporary stations, and least represented at Rock, News/Talk, and Sports stations. Market size nor station ownership impacted air-talent gender.

Challenging the Gender Dichotomy?: Examining Olympic Channel Content Through a Gendered Lens • Qingru Xu, The University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama • “This study content-analyzed 1,013 thumbnails of news episodes at the Olympic Channel through the lens of biological sex. By examining the percentage of pictures rendered to male and female athletes, theme, sports type, sexualization, subordination, and action level, this study uncovered that, although some sex differences existed, the Olympic Channel—overall—showcased a high level of gender equality in visualizing male and female athletes in news thumbnails, especially considering that the cover pictures analyzed in this study were collected from the daily-based media coverage, rather than during the Olympic periods. This study is one of the first to explore sex differences in a media platform established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with theoretical and practical implications outlined.

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Mobile media and fantasy sport: A quantitative analysis of media dependency on fantasy draft information • Travis Bell, University of South Florida; Brody J. Ruihley, Miami University • Fantasy sport is an interactive team management activity that places emphasis on access and technology. This research focuses on media dependency of fantasy sport information in high demand—in advance of a fantasy football draft. Through surveying 718 adult fantasy users, this quantitative study ranks web media, social media, and podcasts as most depended on. The findings highlight significant differences in consumption and spending based on type of media dependency and multiple screen usage.

Enveloped in the American Flag: Contrasting National Identity within Olympic and National Football League Media Consumption • Melvin Lewis, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; Zachary Arth, University of Alabama • This study explored relationships in the context of the National Football League (NFL; American football), employing 732 respondents from a pair of nationally-representative samples to determine the degree of similarity or difference between feelings about the United States as it relates to American consumption of the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 NFL season. Media consumption’s influence on one’s feelings of nationalism was stronger for Winter Olympic fans compared to NFL fans, yet no differences were detected on patriotism and internationalism factors. Academicians and sport marketers should regard these findings as a warrant for considering exploring cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) techniques. Differences in nationalism findings suggest that the comparisons between nations are exclusively an Olympics-based phenomena while the National Football League seems to be much more insular in that regard.

Media Coverage of the Pakistan Super League (Cricket) • Danielle Coombs; David Cassilo, Kent State University • The Pakistan Super League launched in 2016 with massive enthusiasm in its “cricket-mad” nation. Safety concerns stemming from a 2009 terrorist attack in Lahore meant all matches were played in United Arab Emirates. We examine PSL coverage from media in Pakistan, UAE, UK, and US. Findings are considered in the context of social identity theory. This study explores how Middle Eastern sport and national identity are framed in the media across multiple countries.

Legitimizing the journey: National Signing Day and the public relations pseudo-event as cultural moment • Betsy Emmons; Brendan O’Hallarn, Old Dominion University • This research studies the symbolic creation of societal meaning in the rite of passage of National Signing Day. Via case study, using technography from digital media as cultural creator and public relations as mediator, results demonstrated the ritualistic nature of National Signing Day regardless of high school. Results suggest that National Signing Day performs ritual and spectacle to become cultural moment for athletes, embedded into society as an essential mediated aspect of the athlete’s journey.

The Walk-Up: Applying Agenda-Setting Theory to MLB Batters and Television Air Time • Samuel Hakim, The University of Alabama; Zachary Arth, University of Alabama; Darrin Griffin, The University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama • Informed by agenda-setting theory and scarcity, this manuscript examines factors that predict the amount of focused attention Major League Baseball players receive when at bat. Quantitative content analyses were conducted to examine player quality and eight additional co-variates which significantly predicted the on air time players received. Data suggested that home and away broadcasts differed in the attention they assigned batters, with opposing teams highlighting stronger players more than the players’ own home broadcasts.

#JoinTheAlliance: A Network Exploration into Hashtag Brand-Building by an Emerging Sports League • Jennifer Harker, West Virginia University • This research explores the hashtag use of an emerging spring football league, the Alliance of American Football (AAF). Daily data was collected via Twitter API to explore the emergence and persistence of hashtag use surrounding the AAF, the social construction of secondary hashtags, and the semantic network that emerged across the three time periods of this interactivity. These anchoring symbols of social communication, and the brand-building implications of a sports league’s use of hashtags in acquiring a fanbase, is discussed.

The Impact of a Throwback Jersey Promotion on Brand Equity • Nicholas Hirshon, William Paterson University; Klive (Soo Kwang) Oh • Sports teams wear throwback jerseys to drive attendance and increase merchandise sales, but reviving unpopular uniforms can damage a team’s brand equity. This study examines a risky, one-night promotion in which the NHL’s New York Islanders revived the much-maligned fisherman logo worn on their jerseys during two last-place seasons from 1995 to 1997. In an attempt to offer practical value to sports marketers weighing the revival of a controversial jersey, the paper measures the impact of the promotion by comparing a qualitative textual analysis of the Islanders’ radio and television broadcasts from the night the fisherman jerseys were worn against a quantitative content analysis of tweets about the promotion, posted by fans, reporters, bloggers, bots, and the team itself. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the attitudes of fans and reporters toward a sports promotion and creating content tailored to such opinions.

Shared space: How North American Olympic broadcasters framed gender on Instagram • Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Ann Pegoraro • The Olympic Games offer scholars the opportunity to better understand how broadcasters visually frame male and female athletes to their large audiences. Traditionally, scholars have focused their efforts on the televised Olympic broadcasts and photojournalism coverage in newspaper and magazines. Scholarship has found that female athletes are often underrepresented in event coverage and framed along gender stereotypes; but in more recent Olympic Games broadcasters and traditional news media have provided more equitable coverage between the genders. However, digital and social media platforms (SMPs) now play a significantly larger role in how Olympic broadcasters share content and engage with audiences. Utilizing media framing theory, this study examines how gender is framed on the Olympic Instagram accounts of the two official North American rights holders: National Broadcast Corporation (NBC) and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). Researchers collected a cross sectional sample from the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Results indicate that NBC and the CBC were generally equitable in SMP coverage of men and women’s athletic achievements.

Do Women Get Wings? Representation of Female Action Sports Athletes in Red Bull Media Coverage • Charli Kerns; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • This study examines the gender representation of action sports athletes in Red Bull Media House’s YouTube videos. Coding and analysis of a total of 108 videos from 2008 to 2018 revealed that female athletes in Red Bull Media receive more coverage than what is often documented in mainstream, sports broadcasting coverage. However, their representation was primarily limited to feature stories and only specific action sports such as surfing. The results from this study showed that Red Bull does represent a potential break in hegemonic ideology by which male athletes are normalized as authentic athletes through the process of inclusion. However, that visibility was tightly constrained within a normative matrix for imagining female athletes, a process that limits Red Bull Media’s counter-hegemonic potential.

Serena Williams: From Catsuit to Controversy • Jessica Love, University of Southern Mississippi; Lindsey Maxwell, University of Southern Mississippi • Serena Williams was involved in two major news stories in the summer of 2018; she wore a black catsuit at the French Open and was involved in an on-court controversy at the U.S. Open. Newspaper articles from this time frame were analyzed for the sex and race of the author, athletic descriptors (composure, emotionality, strength-based athletic skill) of Williams, and framing of her maternity. Results indicated that Williams was framed differently by various groups of journalists, and framed based on her public behavior.

Dueling Tones of the NBA GOAT Debate • Doug Mendenhall, Abilene Christian University • A debate over who is the GOAT, or “Greatest Of All Time” professional basketball player, saturated social media in 2018. This intense discussion about Michael Jordan versus Lebron James provides data for a quantitative measurement of differences in the tone of language used to evaluate these idols of two different generations of sports fans. Jordan played in the National Basketball Association from 1984 to 2003, the year James, 22 years younger, entered the league. Thus, a generational divide can be expected between fans of the two athletes based on principles of social identity theory, which suggests that the divide may extend to differences in the tone of their discourse in this heated debate. To understand the intersection of these fault lines, the present study gathered more than 8,000 comments appended to 34 YouTube videos related to the Jordan-James debate and sorted them by valence as pro-Jordan, pro-James, or neutral. Analysis was then made using Diction 7.0 software, which provides quantitative measurement of written messages along dozens of tonal variables. Scaled variables created by the author also allowed measurement of levels of incivility and of profanity. Consistent with main hypotheses, comments supporting James, the younger player, were significantly higher in profanity, while comments supporting Jordan were significantly higher in incivility. More than a dozen other differences were found in the tone of comments supporting James or Jordan.

Nike, Colin Kaepernick, and the Politicization of Sports: Examining Perceived Organizational Motives and Consumer Responses • Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; Nandini Bhalla; Jo-Yun Li, University of Miami • This study applies arguments from attribution theory to examine the role of perceived motives (values-driven, egoistic-driven, strategic-driven, and stakeholder-driven motives) in developing individuals’ attitudes, positive word-of-mouth (PWOM), and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) intentions in response to Nike’s 30th Anniversary ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. This study also examines how perceptions of the appropriateness of the politicization of sports moderate these relationships, as well as individual factors that predict people’s assessments of sports as a politicized event. A survey (N = 373) was conducted to examine how much people’s perceptions of Nike’s motives for engaging in Corporate Social Advocacy (CSA) guided their responses and the degree to which they were likely to engage in actions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

From protest to movement: A longitudinal content analysis of the Colin Kaepernick protest • Vincent Peña, Member • This paper conducts a content analysis of ESPN coverage related to Colin Kaepernick’s protest during the national anthem and related events since. The analysis looks at ESPN.com articles (N=305) during three time periods in the timeline of the Kaepernick protest saga, ranging from his initial protest in August 2016 until Nike released an ad campaign featuring Kaepernick in September 2018. His protest, and the ones that he inspired, have received an immense amount of national news coverage, especially by outlets like ESPN. The analysis looked at frames of his protest over time and tried to answer questions about the different types of frames used as well as the extent to which the overall coverage adhered to the protest paradigm. A two-way ANOVA test was run on the variables for framing and the protest paradigm. The content analysis showed how an outlet like ESPN covers social protests and the extent to which its coverage adheres to the paradigm. Results showed framing of protests did not change over time, but that the adherence to the protest paradigm varied depending on story topic.

A Shaky Bet: Legalized Sports Gambling in the U.S. • Brian Petrotta, University of Oklahoma • When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018, it had the potential to dramatically change how Americans consume and consider sporting events. Prior to the ruling, fantasy sports filled a gap for those desiring a legal alternative to illicit sports gambling. This study utilizes social cognitive theory to analyze how fantasy sports participants’ attitudes, behaviors and environments inform their intention to adopt legal sports betting practices.

Rick Pitino and Image Restoration as Brand Management • Michael Strawser; Stacie Shain, Bellarmine University; Lauren Coffey; Grace Lee • This study focuses on recent scandals surrounding the University of Louisville men’s basketball team. Specifically, the analysis centers on former head basketball coach, Rick Pitino, and his public perception and reputation. Through an image restoration theoretical lens, the authors diagnose Pitino’s public relations challenges and provide advice for future action to rebuild his brand.

Remember My Name: Basketball Writers’ Attitudes Towards Branding and Promotion Via Social Media • Jason Stamm, The University of Tennessee – Knoxville; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • Using a survey disseminated to members of the United States Basketball Association (USBWA), this study shows basketball writers favor branding via social media, and the added workload of branding does not affect level of job satisfaction. Parasocial interaction (PSI) is incorporated as a theoretical framework to observe how branding techniques used via social media and attitudes toward those practices among sports media professionals may enact para-social relationships that could be beneficial for their careers.

Is eSports a Sport? Predictors of eSports Playing and Viewing • Tang Tang, Kent State University; Jake Kucek, Kent State University; Steven Toepfer, Kent State University • This study represents one of the first empirical efforts to systematically examine how and why people play and watch eSports. Findings suggest that eSports consumers are both participants and audiences. Individual factors (i.e., demographics, personality, motivations, fandom, preference) and structures (i.e., availability, access to technologies, cost, media use routine, and uses of in-game structures) significantly predicted eSports playing and viewing. Implications of the study are discussed and future directions are proposed.

Voices of the Gatekeepers: Examining the Olympic Channel Production Through a Gendered Lens • Qingru Xu, The University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama • “This study has conducted 11 interviews with Olympic Channel professionals to explore content production through a lens of gender. The findings suggest that (a) sports media professionals claimed considerate agency and autonomy, with individual personality and perspectives heavily influencing their journalism practice; (b) regarding content selection criteria, the Olympic Channel has been trying to strike a balance between the Olympic values and commercial pursuits, which explained the mixed media coverage revealed in the content analysis; and (c) the considerable proportion of female employees played an important role in facilitating a female-friendly workplace at the Olympic Channel, which—at least to some extent—contributed to a more sex-balanced media coverage at the Channel. The current study appears as one of the first studies exploring content production at the Olympic Channel, contributing to the literature by illustrating how employees at an IOC’s official sports media platform viewed gender equality in their journalism practices.

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Effects of Developmental Communicative Feedback • Malena Price, Ball State University; YoungAh Lee • This study sought to bridge the gap between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intentions to endorse an organization for home-based employees in order to provide insights that can lead to optimal effectiveness of this population. This study discovered that developmental communicative feedback impacts each of these outcomes, but the results did not differ between groups. Additionally, this study discovered that home-based employees were particularly influenced when their supervisors were willing to receive feedback themselves.

Students’ Perception of the Classroom Environment: Comparison between Innovative and Traditional Classrooms • Chang Wan Woo, James Madison University; Lori Britt; Toni Whitfield, James Madison University; Tim Ball • As more advanced classroom technologies are developed, more institutions in higher education are building innovative classrooms. Previous studies have focused on students’ academic performances in innovative classrooms, but few have looked at the perceptions of students. After conducting a survey and focus group studies, we found that students in an innovative classroom were more satisfied with the classroom environment and perceived that the classroom was more appropriate for their courses.

< 2019 Abstracts

Social Media, Religious Authority, and the Arab Gulf Crisis • Ibrahim Abusharif • On June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates declared a severing of diplomatic relations with the State of Qatar. In addition to the breaking of ties, a land, sea, and air blockade against the country was enforced. The Arab Gulf, since then, has become embroiled in what is arguably the most severe crisis to have beset the region in the modern era. Immediately upon the initiation of the blockade, social media platforms became inundated with texts that commented on the crisis to various degrees of civility, poise, and partisanship. This paper presents sample case studies of social media texts generated by Kuwait-based scholars and influencers in response to the Arab Gulf crisis and analyzes them through an analytical framework of religious authority. In the important case studies presented here, the discourse analyses examine texts for the usage of language that implicitly or explicitly reference scriptural sources of Islam and normative ethics and precepts rooted in Islamic sacred law, often to excoriate or simply support the various sides or divisions created by Arab Gulf crisis. Researchers are increasingly recognizing the relevance of the online public sphere as a venue for communication and manipulation of information and preferences. This study contributes to the academic literature with this regard.

Faith in the White House: Public perceptions of U.S. presidents’ communicative performance of spiritual leadership • Kirsten Adams, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • American citizens rarely, if ever, personally interact with the president; therefore, the public’s imagined relationships with and understandings of presidential leadership are derived primarily from his communication with the people – both directly, through his speeches, and indirectly, through political news. Using survey data (N = 374), this study assessed public perceptions of six U.S. presidents’ communicative performances of spiritual leadership – ranging from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump – and explored those perceptions in relationship with respondents’ own beliefs, identities, and engagement with political news and presidential communication. These findings suggest, first, that the president already performs as a spiritual leader in ways scholars have generally overlooked – not necessarily by invoking a traditional ideology, but rather by summoning narratives of collectivity through a compelling, unitary vision and uniquely “American” values. But despite a relatively strong normative understanding of the office of the president performing spiritual leadership, this study suggests that in reality, the office-holder does matter: Perceptions of spiritual leadership across the six most-recent presidencies have ebbed and flowed. Aspects of political identity clearly emerged as the strongest predictors of respondents’ perceptions of all six presidents’ performance of spiritual leadership. However, among Republican presidents specifically, patriotism dominated as a predictor variable – with the exception of Trump, for whom nationalism took its place.

Washington, DC-based Religious and Secular Media Coverage of the District’s Death with Dignity Act • Sean Baker, Department of Journalism, Central Michigan University; Kimberly Lauffer, Ball State University, Department of Journalism • In 2016, the District of Columbia passed the Death with Dignity Act, allowing physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medicine to terminally ill patients. A framing analysis of religious and secular media coverage of the passing of the medical aid-in-dying bill, called the “Death with Dignity Act” was conducted. Four frames were found and varied by media type: in the coverage: Preserving Rights, Culture War, Potential for Abuse, and Good Death vs. Bad Death.

Religiosity as a Concept in Communication Research • Taisik Hwang • Religiosity has been increasingly understood as a multidimensional concept across diverse research areas, including journalism and mass communication studies. This paper attempts to conceptualize and operationalize this construct by conducting a systematic review of extant literature and executing reliability and validity tests. This study identifies three basic aspects of religiosity: belief, practice, and affect dimensions. The use of our scale that consists of multiple indicators representing each dimension is recommended. The results of correlation tests that examined the relationships between religiosity and other central variables, including media skepticism, are also presented.

The Impact of Religion in Situational Crisis Communication Theory: An Examination of Religious Rhetoric and Religiosity • Jordan Morehouse, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Lucinda Austin, School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study examined recommended crisis response strategies, based on the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), with and without religious rhetoric to explore impacts on stakeholder’s skepticism, attitudes, trust, and supportive intentions. Crisis communication scholars have not fully explored religious organization crises, including impacts of religious rhetoric in crisis responses or stakeholder’s religiosity. Results provide support for SCCT strategies and suggest that, overall, no religious rhetoric resulted in more supportive attitudes towards the organization.

Semantic and Visual Primes of Stereotypes of Muslim Women: Evaluative and Behavioral Consequences • Alex Tan; Anastasia Vishnevskaya; Heena Khan • Cultivation and Social Learning theories predict the more intense the prime, the more negative the stereotypes. Activation Control Theory predicts that the most negative stereotypes will result from moderate primes; high intensity primes will trigger less negative stereotypes. We tested these predictions in a one factor randomized experiment. The factor was prime intensity: low, moderate, and high. Results support predictions from Activation Control Theory. Stereotypes and evaluations were consistently highest in the high prime condition.

< 2019 Abstracts

Is India Authentic or Progressive? American Media Framing of India Decriminalizing Gay-Sex from a Colonialism and Post-Colonialism • Noura Al-Duaijani • This study looks at American media framing of India’s ruling to decriminalize gay-sex from a colonialism and post-colonialism perspectives. A content analysis of articles compared America’s coverage of the Indian ruling with the 2015 coverage of U.S. legalizing gay marriage, and also compared it with  how the Indian media framed the ruling. A colonial perspective emerged through emphasizing the opposing stance of local India’s religion institutes, and the negative circumstances of the Indian LGBTQ community.

Changing Body Ideals of Marginalized Identities and the Proliferation of Social and Entertainment Media • Cristina Azocar; Ivana Markova • A survey of 565 male undergraduates examined the effects of exposure to social networking sites and entertainment media on young men’s body image. Exposure to social and to entertainment media was found to have negative effects on men’s body satisfaction, social comparison, and thin ideal internalization. Findings indicated significant differences in those men who were more exposed to social and to entertainment media than those who were not as exposed. Consistent with past studies, gay men were found to be more dissatisfied with their bodies than straight men. Gay men compared themselves to other better-looking individuals and internalized ideal body types seen in media significantly more than their straight counterparts. Surprisingly, straight men seem to care as much about their physical attractiveness/appearance as gay men do, but only in public settings such as at the beach, at athletic events (including gyms) and social events. Although on average ethnic groups were more similar than different, small but significant differences occurred with Asian men indicating significantly higher body dissatisfaction than White/European men and Middle Eastern/Arab men their counterparts. The study increases our knowledge about SNS and entertainment use and its associated body image and body satisfaction affects among low-income ethnic minority men.

Is Anyone Surprised? How Journalists Frame the Coming Out of Women Athletes • Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University • Sports journalism coverage of the coming out announcements of Women’s National Basketball Association superstars Sheryl Swoopes and Brittney Griner were analyzed via a two-dimensional measurement scheme for examining media frames. Results found an overall lack of coverage and that journalists framed the two announcements similarly in terms of time and space dimensions. But, compelling differences were found when comparing the results to those of studies examining the coming out stories of gay male athletes.

What’s in a name?: Cultural meanings of the X-marker • Michelle Dreiling, University of Oregon • In 2017, Oregon began issuing driver’s licenses which bear the X-marker for sex, as opposed to M or F. This study uses critical and feminist poststructural discourse analysis to examine newspaper reporting of this policy change. I find that, though the policy change regards sex, reporting of the change shows the term “gender” subsuming “sex.” Additionally, institutional discursive power is magnified through local and national newspapers picking up AP coverage rather than producing original reporting.

Co-constructing a Media Narrative: Interviews with LGBT Activists from the 1960s and 1970s in New Zealand • Linda-Jean Kenix, University of Canterbury; Suvojit Bandhopadyaya • This paper examines how New Zealand activists in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of the 1960s and 70s worked to create their own media representation and production. Through the memories of 29 activists who were active in the LGBT political movement of the time, this paper explores how LGBT communities used potentially harmful media stereotypes to their own advantage and how they worked to purposefully manage their representation as well as media production. Activists depended upon diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing to amplify, extend, bridge, and transform what it meant to be LGBTQ in New Zealand. At the time, the media represented a very mainstream, and conservative, vision of the LGBT community. These media frames and media representations were systematic processes to reaffirm social, economic and political power. Media narratives of the time were created to project an intended reality. This is, of course, still the case. However, the early work of these activists managed to change that intended reality through dogged determination.

Learning to be Inclusive? Testing the Effects of Media Diet on Attitudes  toward LGT Equality • Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Gary Hicks, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • This study analyzed a large national survey to identify the predictors of attitudes toward the equal rights of lesbians, gay men, and transgender individuals. Egalitarian attitudes are associated with being female, younger, more liberal, less Republican, having a higher income and a lower level of fundamentalist religiosity, as well as consuming a wider variety of news media. Also, media diet mediates the effects of political ideology on support for the LGT community.

Getting Bi: An Analysis of Bisexual Characters’ Depiction on the Television Network the CW • Lyric Mandell, University of Houston; Francesca Ervin, University of Houston • “This study aims to understand the depiction of bisexual characters on the popular television network the CW. Through a combination of textual and visual analysis of two episodes of each of the television shows Riverdale and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (four episodes total). It explores the portrayal in modern television of bisexual characters, a subset of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community.

Results from a follow-up Pilot of Patient Self Advocacy Workshops for Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals • Richard Mocarski, University of Nebraska at Kearney; Sim Butler, University of Alabama, College of Communication and Information Sciences; Nathan Wooduff; Robyn King; Debra Hope; Natalie Holt; Sarah Price, University of Alabama, College of Communication and Information Sciences; Jody Kellas • The long-term objective of our research team, Trans Collaborations, is to reduce health disparities for individuals identifying as transgender or gender diverse (TGD) in underserved areas. To do this we are taking a multi-prong approach at the provider, patient, and policy level. This manuscript reports on a pilot of a patient intervention. Specifically, we tested a one day workshop to increase patient self-advocacy through narrative techniques in the TGD population. The ultimate goal is to develop the first evidence-based training program to empower TGNC individuals to self-advocate in health care settings to help reduce health disparities they face. Ideally responsibility for providing culturally sensitive care should reside with health care professionals. Until then, we have developed a self-advocacy skills workshop based on state-of-the-art forensics and communications theory. Preliminary data from an urban sample (36) is reported here and suggests participants have increased self-efficacy following the workshop. Planned follow—up data will test for increased health care utilization and satisfaction.

Information Seeking and MSM’s Attitudes Toward HIV and Condoms • Joseph Schwartz, Northeastern University; Josh Grimm, Louisiana State University • This study examined how frequently men who have sex with men (MSM) used a selection of sources for HIV information and whether MSM’s attitudes toward safer sex could be predicted by the source they used. MSM (N = 969) were surveyed online. Results showed that respondents obtained information most often from HIV/LGBT organizations and dating/hookup apps, particularly the app “Scruff.” Respondents’ attitudes could be predicted by their use of specific sources of HIV information.

< 2019 Abstracts