Faculty

An Eminent Illustrator and the Man Behind the Man: J.C. Leyendecker and Charles Beach • Rodger Streitmatter, American University • This paper focuses on the relationship between J. C. Leyendecker, the most successful American magazine illustrator during the early 1900s, and his same-sex partner Charles Beach, who played critical roles in the artist’s success. Hundreds of Leyendecker’s hand-painted images appeared on the covers of such leading magazines as the Saturday Evening Post and Vanity Fair, and hundreds more images appeared in advertisements. Much of the artist’s success was due to the behind-the-scene creative and business decisions that were made by Beach.

Student

Covering the other: A historical analysis of the Stonewall Uprising and GLBT rights movement • Chad Painter, University of Missouri • In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, New York police officers raided the West Village bar the Stonewall Inn. Similar raids had happened before, but this time was different because those inside the Stonewall Inn fought back. This historical study focused on the New York media’s coverage of the Stonewall Uprising, with an emphasis on two front-page articles in the July 3, 1969, edition of The Village Voice.

I See Gay People: Exploration of Television Program Types, Acceptance of Homosexuals, and the Para-Social Contact Hypothesis • Dave Wilcox, University of Wisconsin – Madison • An analysis of program types found preferences for television programming genres correlate with acceptance of homosexuals when measured against support for same-sex marriage. This research seeks to provide support for the para-social contact hypothesis, previously shown to be present at the individual program level, at the program genre level. Significant positive relationships were found in information and entertainment programming, indicating content need not center on same-sex characterizations to affect acceptance levels.

Stars, Stripes, and Gays: Coverage of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal in military news • Paige Madsen, University of Iowa • This study examined the framing of the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military paper, Stars and Stripes. Textual analysis of both original stories and reader comments reveal three main themes: one of challenges or obstacles, one of social experimentation, and one of homosexuality being wrong.

Broadband Bugchasers: The digital, physical, and social habits of those who purposely give/contract HIV • Cory Weaver, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications – Syracuse University • This study digs deeper into the community of people who purposely contract and spread HIV and seeks to develop a greater understanding of these individuals using digital ethnography. Rather than focusing on the surface details of what bugchasers and giftgivers do, this study seeks to provide in-depth analysis of how this community functions online, how they negotiate their own social deviance, and offers a revised theory of why bugchasers and giftgivers engage in such risky behaviors.

Aliens in the Closet: Representations of LGBT Characters in American Science Fiction Television Programs • Laura Osur, Syracuse University • This paper problematizes the symbolic annihilation of LGBT characters in science fiction television programs. Through a textual analysis of American science fiction programs, I find that science fiction shows are willing to represent diverse, strong, and three-dimensional LGBT characters who are in intimate physical relationships with same-sex partners, although there are too few of these characters. Science fiction television is well suited to present LGBT issues in radical, progressive, and important ways.

Clearing the Bench: Framing the 2010 Iowa Fight Over Gay Marriage • Shawn Harmsen, University of Iowa • This framing analysis of newspaper coverage of the 2010 Iowa Supreme Court Justice Retention vote identifies dominant and subordinate frames in media coverage of the race, and considers the ways in which those frames may have helped shape the outcome of the election, which was itself largely seen as a referendum on gay marriage in the state.

<< 2012 Abstracts

All This Has Happened Before: Battlestar Galactica as a Dialogue on the War on Terror • Laura Osur, Syracuse University • The purpose of this study is to explore how Battlestar Galactica addresses issues related to the War on Terror.  As science fiction critics Darko Suvin, Carl Freedman, and Frederic Jameson have suggested, the genre has a unique ability to address sociopolitical situations.  Through a textual analysis, I find that Battlestar Galactica pushes the audience to reconceptualize war and terrorism by presenting multiple perspectives on questions related to violence, terror, and humanism.

Animation Growing Up: Hollywood is Adding Adult Humor in Children’s Animated Films • Chelsie Akers, Brigham Young Uniersity; Giulia Vibilio • Children’s animated films have held a lasting influence on their audiences throughout the decades. As adults co-view such films with their children Hollywood has had to rewrite the formula for a successful animated children’s film. This study concentrates on the idea that a main factor in audience expansion is adult humor. The results show that children’s animated films from 1995-2009 are riddled with many instances of adult humor while in films from 1980-1994 use adult humor sparingly.

Breaking Drug War Hegemony or Reinforcing the Bad? Illicit Drug Discourses in AMC’s Breaking Bad • Katrina Flener, Temple University • This paper examines the first four seasons of AMC’s critically-acclaimed series Breaking Bad in terms of its representations of illicit drug use, the drug trade, and associated policy considerations.  Relying on critical discourse analysis, this research attempts to understand how the basic cable series supports and/or challenges dominant ideology about illicit drug use, the drug trade (both here and in Mexico), and the United States’ drug war policies.

Buffy the Stereotype Slayer • Nichole Bogarosh, Washington State University • Great strides have been made in breaking down barriers and stereotypes – in deconstructing what it means to be a woman and a man – in our society.  However, despite these strides, there is much yet to be done.  Stereotypes remain and women are still constructed within our society as the weaker sex – the not-powerful, subject to the rule and whims of men.  Stereotypes still promote the subordination of women by men.

The cathartic effects of narrative entertainment through contemplation: Examining the mediating role of self-perceptions on health outcomes after fictional drama exposure • Guan-Soon Khoo • In response to its disputed status in communication research, a new catharsis theory for media psychology is examined in a controlled experiment. One hypothesized model was tested, and two exploratory models were investigated. Mediational analyses found weak trends towards the hypothesized effects through unfavorable meta-emotions and self compassion as mediators. Further, significant indirect effects were found via emotional self-efficacy. Results provide initial evidence for the cathartic effects of cinematic tragedy and human drama.

Dancing with the Binary: Heteronormative Expectancies and Gender Inclusiveness on Dancing with the Stars • Betsy Emmons; Richard Mocarski; Rachael R. Smallwood, University of Alabama; Sim Butler, The University of Alabama • The celebrity-based television reality show Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) has been praised for having a diverse cast during its reign as a favorite prime-time competition show. Using a content analysis of gender performance based on Trujillo’s (1991) tenets of hegemonic masculinity along with a femininity binary opposite, this study affirms that heteronormative behavior persists on the show, even while varying genders are included.

De-spiritualization, de-contextualization, and the “politics of repression”: Comparing The/Whale Rider’s competing texts • Robert Peaslee, Texas Tech University • This paper seeks to couch Niki Caro’s film Whale Rider (2002), especially in comparison with the novel from which it was adapted (The Whale Rider, published in 1987 by Witi Ihimaera), in an ongoing tradition in New Zealand film which Martin Blythe (1994) terms the “politics of repression.”

From Heroic Hawkeye to the Morgue Playboy:  Shifting Representations of Health Professionals and Patients in 1970s and 1980s Television • Katie Foss, Middle Tennessee State University • From the 1930s until the 1960s, film and television consistently depicted doctors as infallible heroes who almost always cured their patients.  By the 1970s, the cultural climate had begun to shift, as people moved from celebrating to criticizing modern medicine and the healthcare industry.  This research explored how Marcus Welby, M.D., M*A*S*H, Emergency!, and St. Elsewhere constructed medicine in the midst of this changing environment.

Get Rich or Die Buying: The Travails of the Working Class Auction Bidder • Mark Rademacher • By documenting working class bidders consuming used goods circulated through an alternative marketing system during an economic downturn, this essay argues the reality program “Storage Wars” represents a “potentially disruptive” cultural text. However, its emphasis on the formal and economic aspects of auction bidding, the economic value rather than use or aesthetic value of used goods, and the limitations of working class cultural capital the program ultimately reinforces rather than disrupts the dominant consumption ideology.

Gloomy Euphoria or Joyous Melancholy? Nostalgic Experiences of MMORPG Players in China: A Qualitative Study • Hang Lu, Marquette University • As predicted by Newman (2004) one of the three modern trends in future gaming is retrogaming. Retrogaming is a subculture in which gamers return to play some old computer games, including the most popular genre of online games, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). In order to examine gamers’ psychological motivation for returning to some old MMORPGs and their psychological experiences in retrogaming from the perspective of nostalgia, this study interviewed 65 Chinese gamers of a classic MMORPG, StoneAge.

The Greatest Entertainment Ever Sold: Branded Entertainment and Public Relation Agencies’ Role in Product Placement • Kathy Richardson, Berry College; Carol Pardun • The use of product placement as a publicity tactic has exploded, as Spurlock’s 2011 documentary “The Greatest Movie Every Sold”—and its lead sponsor POM Wonderful demonstrated. But brands have moved from their satirized and now almost routine appearances in feature films into genres including television shows, video games, books, plays, music recordings, music videos, blogs and social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook, even in “advergames” that may be accessed online, creating a strategy Jean-Marc Lehu (2007) has called “branded entertainment, …entertainment by or in conjunction with a brand” (p. 1).

Have We Ever Experienced Remade Fan Video as Visual Poaching on YouTube? • Keunyeong Kim, Pennsylvania State University • As media technology develops, it became harder to avoid the convergence of cultural studies and medium theory (Meyrowitz, 2008). In fact, the advance of interactive new media has accelerated fan cultures by providing a vast proliferation of both text-based and image-based spaces (Jenkins, 2006a, 2006b).

I know you are, but what am I? Adolescents’ third-person perception regarding dating violence • John Chapin, Penn State • A survey of adolescents (N = 1,646) documented third-person perception regarding media depictions of dating/relationship violence. It also contributes to the growing literature documenting optimistic bias as a strong predictor of third-person perception and draws from the optimistic bias literature considering new variables including self-esteem, self-efficacy, and experience with violence.

Is Cheating a Human Function? The Roles of Presence, State Hostility, and Enjoyment in an Unfair Video Game • J.J. DeSimone, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Li-Hsiang Kuo; Tessa Verbruggen • In sports and board games, when an opponent cheats, the other players typically greet it with disdain, anger, and disengagement. However, work has yet to fully address the role of AI cheating in video games. In this study, participants played either a cheating or a non-cheating version of a modified open source tower defense game. Results indicate that when an AI competitor cheats, players perceive the opponent as being more human.

Is Fat the New Black?: The Impact of Multiple Exposures of Mike & Molly on College Students Attitudes Toward Obesity and Body Image • Cynthia Nichols, Oklahoma State University; Bobbi Kay Lewis, Oklahoma State University • The study examines on college students’ opinions about obesity and body image based on the after watching the CBC program, Mike & Molly. Using a quasi-experimental design, college students’ attitudes toward obesity and body image were measured through pre- and post-testing. Participants (N=135) were either in a single-exposure or a multiple-exposure group.

It’s Still All In Your Head: Revisiting the Parasocial Compensation Hypothesis • Phillip Madison; Lance Porter • In America socializing with friends is now a functional alternative to watching television. This study draws from research on intrapersonal communication and media effects, to ask “What functions and characteristics of parasociability predict compensation for real-life interaction?” We combined data from two surveys, arguing that parasocial thinking, when functioning as internal rehearsal and self-understanding, and is characterized by variety and self-dominance, predicts parasociability as compensation for human interaction. Retroactive parasocial thinking negatively predicted compensation.

Judging a book by its cover: Using Q Method to examine millennials’ perceptions and expectations of classic novels • Katherine Patton • The purpose of this study is to explore the ideas of what makes an effective book cover and what attempts have been made to pull in a new, younger audience. This research examines the different types of millennials and their interests in reading and/or purchasing classic novels based solely on the visual presentation of the book cover.  This study, in using Q methodology, allowed similarities among college students to emerge based on the cover types and styles that would entice them to buy or not buy a book.

The Kardashian Phenomenon: News Interpretation • Amanda McClain, Holy Family University • The name “Kardashian” is a contemporary cultural touchstone, regularly connoting warrantless celebrity, voluptuous beauty, and a flash-in-the-pan marriage.  The appellation is scattered throughout mainstream press, recurring in seminal newspapers and tabloid magazines alike.  Regardless of this apparent popularity, media coverage of the family is often adverse.

The Kardashians made me want it:  The effects of privileged television on emerging adults’ materialism • Emily Acosta Lewis, University of Wisconsin-Madison • A survey was given to 18-29 year olds (N = 733) to examine the relationship between privileged TV (shows that glamorize wealthy lifestyles) and materialism in young adults by looking at mediating processes of this relationship. The results show that there is a positive relationship between privileged television exposure and materialism and that the there are many complementary mediating processes that can help to explain this relationship (e.g. upward comparison and materialistic learning).

May Self-Efficacy Be With You: Self-Efficacy in Star Wars Online Fan Communities • Alexis Finnerty, Syracuse University; Dan Amernick • We examine the role of creative and technical self-efficacy in the online fan community. By surveying producers of fan-made Star Wars music videos to find out how their self-efficacy levels relate to the number of videos they upload, we conclude that creativity is more important to fan video producers than technical skills. We found a slight positive correlation between higher creative self-efficacy levels and uploads, and a negative correlation between uploads and technical self-efficacy.

Men on The Wire: A textual analysis of ‘the most realistic depiction of a newsroom ever • Patrick Ferrucci, University of Missouri; Chad Painter, University of Missouri • This study investigates how fictional print journalists were portrayed on The Wire. Portrayals of journalism on television could influence audience perceptions of real-life journalists. The researchers used a cultural studies approach focusing on contextualization to analyze the text of all 10 episodes aired during The Wire’s fifth season, paying special attention to latent meanings of verbal and visual features.

Portlandia Tracks the Music Industry into the Age of Digital Media • Elia Powers, University of Maryland-College Park • Portlandia, an Independent Film Channel (IFC) comedy series that affectionately satirizes Portland, Oregon’s hipster culture, represents an unprecedented success by individuals to use the web to turn a video project into a network television series. Its format, niche-oriented content and narrative structure fit with the way that increasingly fragmented audiences consume media in the digital age. While Portlandia episodes are the traditional thirty minutes, sketches rarely run longer than three minutes and are easily understood independently of each other.

Real or Fiction? Perceived Realism, Presence, and Attitude Change in Reality Programming • Emily Dolan; Laura Osur, Syracuse University • This study investigates the effects of perceived realism and presence on attitude change from both first and third person perspectives.  Furthermore, this study aims to extend the scholarship on presence and attitude change to the realm of reality television.  Results indicate that viewing a show that is perceived to be reality, as opposed to fiction, does not lead to higher levels of presence.

The reality of it all: Navigating racial stereotypes on Survivor: Cook Islands • Patrick Ferrucci, University of Missouri; Margaret Duffy • This study investigates how race was depicted on Survivor: Cook Islands. This particular season of the reality television program divided contestants by race into four distinct tribes. Television helps people make sense of the world around them and informs their understanding of the unfamiliar. Racialized depictions may amplify racism and polarization. Using social identity theory as a framework, we argue that this division and focus on race simply reinforced stereotypes, promoted the concept of Whiteness and furthered in-group, out-group divisions.

Scripted Sexual Violence: The Association between Soap Opera Viewing and College Students’ Intentions to Negotiate Sexual Consent • Stacey Hust; Ming Lei, Washington State University; Weina Ran, Washington State University; Chunbo Ren, Washington State University; Emily Marett, Mississippi State University • Sexual assaults are frequently portrayed on soap operas in ways that reinforce rape myths and may perpetuate sexual assault. Research has identified that viewing soap operas is associated with sexual behaviors in general. However, little research has investigated the association between viewing soap operas and the sexual consent negotiation behaviors that play a crucial role in reducing sexual assault.

Sex and Violence in Billboard’s Most Popular Songs:  A Content Analysis of Sexual and Violent Content in Mainstream Music Lyrics • Stacey Hust; Weina Ran, Washington State University; Kathleen Rodgers, Department of Human Development • Listening to music continues to be a popular activity among young people. Research has identified that music content contains more sexual content than other medium. Portrayals of sexual activity, violence and derisive terms against women are prevalent in music media. Most previous research, however, has focused on the prevalence of sexual and violent content in rap/Hip-hop music.

Story, Music, and Disposition Theory • Mark Shevy, Northern Michigan University; Lauren Larsen; Carolyn Tobin; Aubrey Kall • Disposition theory states that moral evaluation of characters and perceived justice are central factors in determining enjoyment of media. Music psychology provides evidence that music can influence evaluation of characters. This is the first study to empirically investigate the role of music in disposition theory. Initial results from an experiment suggest that music does influence variables central to disposition theory. The effects of the music can vary based on the ending presented in the story.

Traditional vs. Entertainment News: A Study of Framing and Format Effects on Consumer Perceptions • Holly Miller, University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication and University of Minnesota Law School; Whitney Walther, University of Minnesota • Entertainment media make up a multi-billion-dollar industry, and celebrity news has seeped into traditional news sources, such as network nightly newscasts, 24-hour cable news channels, and widely circulated publications. More people report knowing about Lindsay Lohan’s 90-day jail sentence for violating her probation than the Prime Minister of Israel’s visit to the White House. But what do people think about the celebrities they read and hear about?

What Happens to the “Cream of the Crop?” The Representative Anecdote in AMC’s Mad Men • Erika Engstrom, UNLV • The author employs the representative anecdote to examine how disparate narratives of highly capable women in the period drama “Mad Men” combine to tell the story of gendered relationships, particularly marriage. Although the experiences of these characters are not exactly identical, the “variations on a theme” contained in their experiences return their disparate texts form a common story tells us of the negative consequences for women who choose to make their careers life priorities.

<< 2012 Abstracts

Faculty

Making Hyperlocal News: An Exploration of the News Values and Perceived Roles of Journalists Working in Local, Independently Owned Online News •Michael Horning, Bowling Green State University • Popular media reports have observed a new phenomenon called hyperlocal news. This research uses a survey method to explore this emerging form of local media. It first explores the demographic characteristics of hyperlocal news sites. Next it reports on the perceived roles and values of hyperlocal journalists. Findings show most hyperlocal sites are not as “hyper” local as media suggest and that they are less diverse and fairly traditional in their approaches to journalism.

“Letters from home” Intimacy in the Norwegian community press • John Hatcher, University of Minnesota Duluth • By many indicators, Norwegian newspaper readership habits are some of the highest in the world (Ostbye, 2010). While the larger, regional newspapers have seen declines, the last forty years have witnessed an explosion of local, community newspapers that parallels the decentralizaton of the Norwegian government (Host, 1999). In a 2010 visit to Norway, journalists from local newspapers across the country were interviewed to explore the role they see for themselves in a culture where the community newspaper has such value. The findings suggest the community situation in Norway appears to be a collective vision of the community, discouraging actions that would draw attention to the individual. Journalists, it would appear, are expected to understand the boundaries of a community.

Student Experiences in Community Journalism: A Case Study of Two Universities • Lisa Paulin-Cid • Students at a large public university and a smaller HBCU have been collaborating on a community newspaper project to serve a marginalized area of a local city. Through interviews, researchers found that despite some similarities, students from large and small programs get different things out of the experience. Additionally, students felt community journalism was very different from working for the campus newspaper, indicating value in expanding curricula to provide more experiential learning in community journalism.

Youth connection: Promoting community ties and positive values in scholastic and non-scholastic online youth-generated news • Jeffrey Neely, University of North Carolina Wilmington • This study conducts a qualitative content analysis of 14 youth news websites to derive themes within a broader theoretical context of community attachment. The results show that while some content on these sites references specific community concerns of interest to a general local audience, the real value of these platforms is that they provide a resource for building positive interpersonal ties and promoting constructive personal values among members of the community, particularly youth.

Fighting spirit: Competing hyperlocal sites outmatch legacy newspaper’s efforts • Barbara Selvin, Stony Brook University • A competitive market for community news drives online hyperlocal sites to produce full community reports regardless of ownership structure, this case study finds. Corporately owned and independent hyperlocal sites in Riverhead, NY, produced timely news reports on a range of issues and events while a regional legacy newspaper’s hyperlocal effort trailed in both breadth and timeliness.

If You Build It, Will they Come? An Exploratory Study of Community Reactions to an Open S ource Media Project in Greensburg, Kansas • Samuel Mwangi, Kansas State University; Steve Smethers, Kansas State University; Bonnie Bressers, Kansas State University • This exploratory study seeks to ascertain whether community engagement behaviors among residents of Kiowa County, Kansas, and their attitudes about the new community information portal affect their intentions to contribute content. Results indicate that while most residents are engaged and have a favorable view of this citizen journalism project, technology-based communication hubs pose unique challenges beyond civic engagement that creators of information hubs should consider.

Undocumented Workers and Immigration Reform: Thematic vs. Episodic Coverage in a Rural Kansas Community Daily • Michael Fuhlhage, Auburn University • This qualitative historical case study examines how the Garden City Telegram, a small community daily newspaper, diverged from an episodic, conflict-driven frame for the debate over 1980s and 1990s immigration reform. Qualitative textual analysis of opinion pieces, locally originated articles, and wire stories in the Telegram found it promoted community dialogue by including Latino leaders in the conversation. It emphasized thematic coverage that explored the reasons for immigrants’ presence and contributions to life in southwest Kansas.

Student

Conversation Starters: A Study of Interactivity on Community Press-Supported Facebook Pages • Michael Clay Carey, Ohio University • Using Sheizaf Rafaeli’s three-level approach to online interactivity as a foundation, this study examines possible relationships between some basic elements on the social networking website Facebook and the propensity of readers to engage in interactivity on Facebook pages maintained by community newspapers. Ten community newspapers were analyzed because personal familiarity and engagement tend to be more common among their readers. This content analysis suggests connections between interactivity and the phrasing and subjects of Facebook posts

<< 2012 Abstracts

Cynics and Skeptics: Evaluating the Credibility of Mainstream and Citizen Journalists • D. Jasun Carr; Matthew Barnidge, University of Wisconsin – Madison; ByungGu Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Stephanie Jean Tsang; Joshua Villanueva • With the increase in citizen-generated news, the need to understand how individual predispositions interact with this shift in source becomes increasingly important to understand. This study begins to explore this question, with a focus placed on the perceived credibility of a citizen journalist and his mainstream counterpart. Our results indicate that media skepticism is purely dispositional, applied uniformly to both media outlets, while political cynicism interacts with message source to influence perceptions of credibility.

Whose news? Whose values? Citizen journalism and journalistic values through the lens of content creators and consumers • Avery Holton, University of Texas – Austin; Mark Coddington, University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • As user-generated content and citizen-driven forms of journalism have risen to prominence alongside professional media production, they have presented a challenge to traditional journalistic values and processes. This study examines that challenge from the perspective of the creators and consumers of citizen-driven news content, exploring their perceptions of citizen journalism and the professional tenets of good journalism.

The relationship between citizen journalism and development communication • Tyler Jones, University of Alabama; Wilson Lowrey • This study examine the conditions in which a citizen journalism site may be more or less likely to adopt aspects of development communication, a field that applies communication to socioeconomic betterment. As a participatory media form, citizen journalism overlaps with certain aspects of development theory, and certain conditions in the U.S. suggest development communication may be increasingly relevant.

Crowdfunding for Civic Journalism: An Analysis of Story Content and Publication on Spot.Us • Marianne McCarthy, California State University, Northridge • Crowdfunding is becoming a popular means of financing independent projects. For journalism, crowdfunding allows online community members to contribute to the financing of story ideas that interest them. This study analyzed 113 articles on the website Spot.Us for content, donations and publication placement. The research determined that journalism produced there did not conform to traditional news topics, focused mainly on local and regional stories, attracted mostly non-commercial funding, and were disseminated through non-traditional media outlets.

In their own words: Teens find a voice in their communities through working with youth news websites • Jeffrey Neely, University of North Carolina Wilmington • This study examines the experiences, motivations and challenges of youth who participate in producing original news content online. Within a general conceptual framework of community building, the researcher applies the constant comparative method of grounded theory to derive emergent themes relating to teens’ experiences in generating news in their own words. Specifically, the researcher conducted 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews with youth news producers and the adult advisors who work with them.

Citizen Journalism 3.0: A Case Study of the Twin Cities Daily Planet • Mary Lou Nemanic, Pennsylvania State University-Altoona • Despite the popularity of citizen journalism, there have been few micro-studies that examine the structures and practices of online participatory journalism news sites.  This paper provides a case study of the nonprofit the Twin Cities Daily Planet, based on in-depth interviews with the staff and some of its contributors, and examines how the roles of journalists have changed now that collaborative journalism has become so widespread.

New Institutionalism and a Business Model for “Social Journalism” • Mark Poepsel, Loyola University New Orleans • Finding a sustainable model for participatory journalism matters for democratic participation the world over, and it matters for a certain type of social cohesion built around the shared discourse of an informed electorate. This paper outlines the emergence of a form of journalism called “social journalism” in which information gathering and dissemination are conducted as parts of an ongoing conversation rather than as more of a one-way “lecture and listen”.

The New Storytellers for Community Reclamation: Emerging News Non-Profits • Sue Robinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Magda Konieczna, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This essay begins a scholarly response to the questions: Who are the new non-profit journalists? What do they aim to accomplish? Textually analyzing the mission statements of the non-profit news organizations, the researchers qualitatively approach these questions. A descriptive typology categorizes the myriad groups in America as of 2012, offering a snapshot of this burgeoning industry. The evidence shows that these groups aim to re-connect citizens with news about public affairs through a rebuilding of trust and also to create a new kind of relationship borne of mutual understanding and agency in information co-production.

Twitter as “a Journalistic Substitute”? Examining #wiunion Tweeters’ Behavior and Self-Perception • Aaron Veenstra, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Narayanan Iyer; Fawaz Alajmi, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Rajvee Subramanian, Southern Illinois University; Chang Sup Park • Twitter has been cited as a key factor behind a number of recent protest movements. Through interviews with heavy users of the #wiunion hashtag, this study examines the motivations and perceptions behind its usage during the 2011 Wisconsin labor protests. Findings suggest these users see a blurred boundary between citizen journalism and activism, but that their Twitter behavior is driven in part by distrust of traditional news sources and a desire to present an alternative.

<< 2012 Abstracts

The icon of the Egyptian revolution: Using social media in the toppling of a Mideast government • Sadaf Ali, Wayne State University; Shahira Fahmy, University of Arizona • On June 6, 2010, policemen beat 28-year old Khaled Said to death on a public street in Alexandria, Egypt. In less than one week a Facebook page ‘We Are All Khaled Said’ was created. The page became the most popular Facebook entry in Egypt, attracting almost half a million users. It posted images of him smiling juxtaposed with graphic battered pictures of his face. These images made available in social media make the studying of such visuals of interest to both professional and citizen journalists.

Hot Metal, Cold Reality: Photographers’ access to steel mills • Howard Bossen, Eric Freedman, & Julie Mianecki, Michigan State University • Hot Metal, Cold Reality explores how photographers gained access to steel mills and how the type of access gained influenced their image-making. It explains legal and ethical issues associated with gaining access to industrial sites, as well as how the right to publish or exhibit may be restricted even after access is granted. It incorporates extensive face-to-face interviews and uses archival documents and images to illuminate challenges facing photographers of steel and industrial facilities.

Richard as Waking Nightmare: Barthesian Dream, Myth, and Memory in Shakespeare’s Richard III • Brian Carroll, Berry College • This paper applies French semiologist Roland Barthes’s conceptions of sign, symbol, metaphor, and myth to Shakespeare’s Richard III, focusing in particular on the playwright’s use of dreams and dream worlds in the creation of a national memory. The fascination with dreams and dream worlds by Elizabethans, a more than passing interest reflected in the era’s drama, is well documented and extensively researched, and by or from many different disciplinary perspectives.

Images of Injustice: A Visual-Rhetorical Analysis of Inside Job • Anthony Collebrusco, University of Colorado – Boulder • Since media in the United States are increasingly visual, the field of rhetoric must consider images and text when addressing persuasive media. The 2010 documentary film Inside Job argues for political reform in the United States through explicit logical appeals, but also visual symbolism. This paper uses a visual-rhetorical analysis, Barthes’ three message analytical tool, to deconstruct three different sequences in the film and explicate the anti-inequality messages within them.

Seeing the world through a different lens: Examining visual gatekeeping via East African photojournalists’ experiences with news organizations • Steve Collins, University of Central Florida; Kimberly Bissell, Gyro Newman, University of Alabama • The present study used in-depth interviews with four Western photographers working in East Africa to examine visual gatekeeping in the context of new media and in the context of news flow outside of the United States. Using gatekeeping and media sociology theories to guide the study framework, four photographers were interviewed to discuss their views on the way news content is produced and distributed from the East African countries of Uganda and Kenya.

A story of a somber remembrance: Visual framing and iconicity in the 10-year commemorative coverage of 9/11 • Nicole Dahmen & Britt Christensen, Louisiana State University • The goal of this study is to understand how the news media—specifically newspapers—visually told the story of 9/11 ten years later, and in doing so, how they visually “framed” our collective remembrance of that significant day. In addition, this study considers the tenants of iconicity in studying news photographs. Through analysis of 170 photographs, researchers found that visual frames of the physical site of the attack and the people affected dominated coverage.

She Poses, He Performs: A Visual Content Analysis of Male and Female Professional Athlete Facebook Profile Photos • Betsy Emmons, Samford University & Richard Mocarski, University of Alabama • Using branding theory and a content analysis of the visual components of male and female professional athlete Facebook profile photos, this study suggests that hegemonic gender portrayals persist in visual representations of athletes. Female athletes were more likely to pose for the photos and smile while male athletes were more likely to look away from the camera and be in motion. Athletes most often were visually represented in their uniforms, while sexualized visual portrayals of athletes of either gender were not affirmed in this study.

Picture This: Employing Social Proof To Identify Media Bias • Michael Friedman, Michigan State University • The research presented in this study will compare photographic news coverage on Twitter of the Occupy Wall Street Protests from two competing New York City tabloid newspapers on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the New York Post (conservative) and New York Daily News (liberal). The study applies the principles of social proof to determine if photographic coverage of the protest by both tabloids can be used to show support or rejection of the movement.

A tale of two icons: Photographic representations of reconciliation In Peru and Guatemala • Robin Hoecker, Northwestern University • This paper examines the photographic icons used by the Peruvian and Guatemalan Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. By examining the symbolic elements embedded in the photographs and the conditions in which they were produced, this project explores how the images could be understood to represent the commissions’ different approaches towards reconciliation. Of special interest are how the images address the concepts of “truth” and “justice.”

Picturing the World • Hwalbin Kim & Soo Yun Kim, University of South Carolina • Through a quantitative content analysis, this study examines how the international news photographs are presented in three major U.S. newspapers – The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times – from 1984 to 2005. With time, the whole amount of international news photographs considerably increased. The study found that three major U.S. newspapers conveyed world images as an unbalanced way in showing regions and topics.

Adopting Situational Ethics in Photojournalism • Yung Soo Kim, University of Kentucky • Photojournalists frequently face serious ethical dilemmas in choosing between acting as dispassionate observers and “Good Samaritans” while documenting human tragedy. Using an online experimental design with multiple stimuli, five situational characteristics were tested. Results showed that ordinary citizens (N=100) generally adopted a situational ethics rationale rather than insisting on an absolutist or utilitarian rationale. It is clear that certain, if not all, distinguishable situational characteristics are indeed important in assessing photojournalistic behavior.

The iconic Situation Room image and its appropriations: A study of Internet memes and their rhetorical messages • Natalia Mielczarek, University of Iowa • A day after the Osama bin Laden mission in May, 2011, the White House released the now iconic Situation Room image, which became an Internet meme. This study set out to find out why people appropriated the icon, what rhetorical messages they wanted to convey and how social media helped in the meme replication process. The central finding was that some of the intended rhetorical messages of selected memes were not always communicated. The study relied on three qualitative methods, including interviews with meme producers, to answer posed research questions.

How the Visual Fits into the Framing Process • Sarah Merritt, American University • As visual communication as a discipline is new, this literature review serves as a comprehensive review of visual framing literature in order to develop and combine visual framing concepts and theoretical approaches into a more unified paradigm. Within the fractured paradigm of framing theory itself, visual framing is distinguished apart from conventional framing through a concept explication in this paper. Visual framing is then positioned back in the appropriate location in the framing process.

Storytelling with Interactive Graphics: An Analysis of Editors’ Attitudes and Practices • Jennifer Palilonis & Mary Spillman, Ball State University • Are interactive graphics an important storytelling tool? Are they cost effective in this digital age? This study finds that while editors value interactive graphics, few newspapers devote prime website real estate to graphics, making it difficult to assess their worth. The authors also use the results of a national survey, a content analysis and personal interviews to determine the frequency with which graphics are produced and to identify the barriers to their production.

A Poker Face: Rhetorical Analysis of Prototypical Images of Luxury Brand Advertising • E. Soo Rhee, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire & Wan Seop Jung • By analyzing advertising visuals in visual rhetorical perspective, this study aimed to reveal how luxury brands advertising creates aspirations and fantasies for purchasing these luxury brands. Commonalities found from analyzing the luxury brand ads in visual rhetoric perspective were that ads were either highlighting its brand image or the users’ image. Ads either arrange the product or the user in the center of the ads with ample blank spaces, or position in the middle of disorder.

The Influence of Mood and Symbolic Value on the Evaluation of Destination Logos • Sela Sar, Lulu Rodriguez, Suman Lee, & Supathida Kulpavaropas, Iowa State University • This study examines the effects of mood and symbolic value on the evaluation of destination logos. It hypothesized that mood differences activate either holistic or analytic cognitive processing styles that, in turn, influence country logo evaluations. The results show that people in a positive mood engaged in holistic elaboration and consequently evaluated country logos more favorably than those in a negative mood. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Visual Exploration of Environmental Issues • Michelle Seelig, University of Miami • Though controversy regarding the scientific data continues, the focus of this research pertains to the overwhelming visual proof of global warming. Many photographers have taken to visually document environmental concerns to raise public awareness of environmental issues concerning endangered cultures, threatened environments, global warming, and other social issues relevant to conserving and protecting our natural resources.

The Visual Representation of Campaign Communication: Candidate Images in Partisan Blogs • Shuo Tang, Indiana University • Through a framing analysis of 546 candidate images published on 10 partisan blogs during the early stage of the 2012 presidential campaign, the present study discussed how partisan bloggers visually framing the presidential candidates. The results suggested that partisan blogs did not represent their preference fully by framing image structures or showing certain candidate traits. They did, however, illustrated certain facial displays of candidates to show which party they supported and which they disapproved of.

Framing the Bureau: Legitimacy and the Public Relations Photographs of Hoover’s FBI • Jennifer Tiernan & Matthew Cecil, South Dakota State University • This study asserts that the public relations photographs created by the FBI were selected specifically to communicate legitimizing themes of science and responsibility along with the steady leadership of Director J. Edgar Hoover. Those themes, evident throughout the body of photographs reviewed for this study were public relations messages intended to portray the FBI as a dispassionate, useful and careful agency, publicly countering critics who frequently charged the Bureau was too powerful, an “American Gestapo.”

Multimedia Use on News Websites: A Look at Photo Slideshows and Videos Through the Uses and Gratifications Theory • Jin Yang, Rachelle Pavelko, & Sandy Utt, University of Memphis • Undergraduate students were surveyed about their motivations to view photo slideshows and videos and to identify which variables might predict the use of them. Employing the uses and gratifications theory, salient motivations identified were the multimedia elements’ “realistic content” features and the “physical” and “mental relaxation” functions. Demographic variables didn’t predict multimedia use, but the frequency of visits to news websites and perception of innovativeness had the greatest impact on predicting use.

Does Negativity Prevail? A Content Analysis of Award-Winning News Photos • Carolyn Yaschur, University of Texas – Austin • Photojournalists understand the impact of emotion in their images, in particular negative emotion. Adding to the evidence of a negativity bias, a content analysis of winning photos from the Pictures of the Year International contest revealed winners were more likely to depict negativity. Adults and international subjects exhibited more negative emotions than youth or those in the United States. Visual stereotyping was also found with regard to age and international subjects.

<< 2012 Abstracts