Capturing Students’ Attention

By Leslie-Jean Thornton
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Associate Professor
Barrett Honors Faculty
Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Arizona State University
Leslie-Jean.Thornton@asu.edu

 

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, November 2015 issue)

Here’s what I remember: After 15 minutes of a lecture, students start to glaze over, attention-wise. After 30 minutes, they’re genuinely antsy with brains in rebellion. And at the dreaded 45-minute mark, they’re actually losing knowledge, and will leave the lecture less smart than they were when the lecture began. This was the highly memorable advice I recall from a teaching bootcamp I attended a decade ago. It may not be exactly accurate, but… it’s a cautionary tale. I often think of it when I’m at a conference and the speaker’s gone on too long. As I fight to focus, I’m pretty sure I feel smarts escaping out my ears.

A variety of studies have weighed in on the attention span issue, including a recent one widely sourced as being from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. It famously reported that humans now have an average attention span of 8.25 seconds, three-quarters of a second less than that of goldfish and 3.75 seconds shorter than what humans averaged in 2012. When I tried to track this down, however, I found a range of attributions, squishy research dates and nothing in the way of solid data. So consider it another one of many comments on how external stimuli are encroaching on our abilities to — wait, what?

The general consensus, in terms of workable information, is that the most attentive a student will be is at the beginning of a class, after a brief settling-in period. Then attention will come and go in ever-decreasing amounts of time — unless interrupted by something that is interesting, refreshing, or otherwise engaging. A question will often do it, or a demonstration. But much depends on a host of variables, many of which are out of a professor’s control. A class’s stay-on-task potential, as any teacher can tell you, is inversely related to the proximity of holidays and semester breaks.

The lecture mode of teaching has come in for hard knocks in recent times, partly as a result of genuine research into how people learn, and how long they can pay productive attention. Still, in the right hands and for the right class, and by employing some keep-them-attuned tips, it can be one of many powerful methods. A key factor in teaching effectiveness is how appropriate the delivery method is to what is being taught. If you’re teaching a complex skill — how to create an interactive digital infographic, say — you’re going to want to go step by step, pausing often to let material sink in, and reinforcing it with “doing” (that would be the students) and showing (that would be you).

Take advantage of the “settling in” period. In those first few minutes of class, connect with the students in some way. This might be asking the class at large how their weekends went, telling them a lighthearted piece of news about yourself, or relaying some breaking news you heard on the way in and asking them if they know anything more. Direct their focus toward you, the teacher, in a way that makes them want to absorb what you say. During the settling-in time, expect them to wrap up their own conversations and do whatever’s needed to prepare for a productive time in class. Bonus: It tends to relax the professor, too. Caution: Don’t announce important information during this time if you can avoid it. If you do, expect to repeat it so that they hear it during a clearly designated pay-attention time.

The idea of “chunking” information, or delivering it in neat packages of easily absorbed units of time and complexity, can apply to all presentation genres. The increasing use of videos for online instruction has spurred inquiry into best practices. Good results are reported for videos that clock in under 10 minutes, and I’ve seen substantive points made in half that time. Of course, the advantage there is that students can replay segments when they want to clarify or review. In real life, it’s there and it’s gone. Traditionally, notes are the review materials, but they’re only good if the student taking the notes knows what’s going on when the notes are taken. Offering material incrementally, pausing to let students absorb each stage, and helping them stay clearly focused is just part of basic good teaching.

So what are some tips for that “clearly focused” part?

It might sound counter-intuitive in light of many, many complaints about technology and social media encroaching on class time and attention, but why not harness some of that to your own ends? Keeping in mind that a change in pace every 10 or 15 minutes is beneficial, and that engaging your students wakes them up and gives them “buy in” to what you’re doing, think about information races. Ask a question and see how long it takes for them to come up with answers — good, credible answers — using their smart phones or computers.

If your class lends itself to sending students outside of the classroom, work in movement breaks. Teaching reporting? Give them 15 minutes to go out and find a story seed after taking about 15 minutes to explain what you mean. Have them take notes with their cellphone cameras, or record a mini-interview with the same device. Then, once back in class, explain how that can be used in what you intended to teach them all along. Have them work at it for awhile, then, informally, have several students share their experiences. Then perhaps it’s time for another 15-minute session where you explain the next step…

Working in modules works. The key is another one of those teaching-skill tricks: matching the complexity of what you’re teaching to the complexity your students can handle at the time. But that’s another column.

Teaching Corner

The Device Du Jour Is Changing and Challenging

By Amy Falkner
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
Syracuse University
apfalkne@syr.edu

 

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, September 2015 issue)

This is my last Teaching Tips column and I couldn’t be more jazzed. Not because I’m almost done — writing 800 words every once in awhile isn’t too taxing — but because of what I learned at the AEJMC San Francisco Conference. I am cycling off the Standing Committee on Teaching after two wonderful terms where I had an opportunity to think, discuss and judge great teaching. But, mostly, learn a lot.

To wit, I will share with you some great teaching resources and insights from the San Francisco Conference. If you are like me, your head was spinning when you got back with all the things you heard that you wanted to immediately incorporate into your fall courses. I’m writing this in mid-August but you are reading this in September and hopefully well on your way. If not, there is always time to adjust.

This dizzying effect may have taken hold while trying to follow #aejmc15 on Twitter during the conference. Yes, we were trending at one point. The good news is all those thousands of tweets are still available and — after you sort out the snapshots of the Golden Gate Bridge — very valuable. They are chock full of links to terrific graphics, articles and complete presentations as well as pithy food for thought on what we should be talking about in the classroom.

One of your pit stops should also be the AEJMC website and the Teaching Resources link (under the “Resources” heading). There you will find the last nine Best Practices in Teaching booklets, including the latest on Best Practices in Teaching Online and Blended Learning.

The conference presentations by this year’s winners blew me away. Perhaps it is also because my school has just launched a new online master’s program and I have been wrestling this summer while planning my course with the what-do-I-teach-live versus recorded question. I am fortunate that the platform we are using is super interactive, but if you are at a school where that is not the case, the innovations of the winning professors (listed in box, right) will provide inspiration. There are tools you would expect — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Hangouts, WordPress, Blogger — with inventive means to an end.

I also heard about new ways of student learning from Ron Yaros, Maryland, one of the contest winners, who teaches using an app called Nearpod that his students access during live class on tablets or smartphones. No laptops allowed. On purpose. Ron has been testing how students best learn and some of that is to eliminate multitasking and distractions.

So maybe the device du jour is changing and that is part of our challenge — both in what we teach and how we teach it. Do we need to learn every new app and teach it in class? No, we’d lose our family, offline friends and probably our sanity if we invested every waking hour to that. But getting a handle on what new (and potentially free) tools our students can use related to analytics and, in particular, measuring social media was a theme I heard echoed in several panels and across disciplines.

Full disclosure: I am in the Advertising Division so my POV on POE (point of view on paid, owned, earned may differ from yours) but a fascinating panel on that topic put together by Patricia Mark, South Alabama, gathered quite a crowd at 8:15 a.m. on Friday of the conference. Penn State’s Marcia DiStaso made a great presentation titled “Data Science Changes in the Classroom” that included free analytical tools such as SimplyMeasured, Followerwonk, SumAll, Quintly, Cyfe and Keyhole that may (or may not) be familiar to you. Her slide on this has been tweeted and retweeted for good reason, including by me (@amyfalkner if you need it).

The last panel I will mention was led by (shameless plug alert) Newhouse’s Beth Egan on the topic of native advertising, which is Beth’s area of expertise and fertile ground for debate among the Ad, PR and journalist types in the room. The panel included Steve Rubel, EVP of Global Strategy and Insights at Edelman, who basically told the crowd that native is (and has been) happening for years, and too bad if we don’t like it. He also said publishing companies don’t matter much, mobile is the sun and all other platforms are planets, and that consumers will sort out the ethics of native advertising. That last snippet caused a kerfuffle. Is that the job of consumers? Shouldn’t we be teaching students the ethics of this?

So that trail eventually led to a discussion among the Teaching Committee to consider “teaching ethics in relation to emerging media” as our next teaching contest. It isn’t finessed or finalized yet, but look for the call explaining the next topic in the near future. Then mark your calendars for Aug. 4-7, 2016, in Minneapolis and be sure to add the Best Practices in Teaching session to your mobile app schedule. As for me, I will not need to attend another 7 a.m. meeting for this committee (the only happy part about my term ending), but I will definitely be at that session. #aejmc16 #loveteaching

Teaching Corner

San Francisco and the Amazing Teaching Race: Get Your #AEJMCPARTAY On!

By Linda Aldoory
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Director, Horowitz Center for Health Literacy
Associate Professor, Behavioral & Community Health
School of Public Health
University of Maryland
Laldoory@umd.edu

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, July 2015 issue)

One of the great things about living close to our nation’s capital is the interesting activities you get to see on a regular basis. For example, last week, I happened upon a national scavenger hunt. There was a long line of backpack-clad individuals from across the country waiting on Constitution Avenue to sign up for the day’s adventure and win tons of money. Blue versus green team, families versus singles.

Why can’t AEJMC have a similarly amazing race? Thus, we are proud to present the first-ever, “Professors’ Amazing Race for Teaching at AEJMC, Yeah!” or PARTAY (another thing you learn living in DC is how to make reverse acronyms!). Here is how to play: Below is a list of the amazing teaching sessions available this year in San Francisco. If you attend one session from each of the five categories below, thus collecting five teaching sessions, you win! What do you win? We cannot divulge the top-secret prize until the first day of the conference (since we don’t actually know what it is yet), but it will be highly valuable, I am sure. In addition, we will have set up the Twitter hashtag #AEJMCPARTAY for you to post to when you attend a session so you can share with others what you have learned. We expect a photo, and a quote or two from each session, establishing the fact that you were in attendance. Extra points for live tweeting the entire session! Good luck to everyone who joins the PARTAY!

1. Several pre-conference workshops on Wednesday relate to the new communication landscape. Google, hacking, Facebook, and the digital age—topics of this year’s workshops cover the range of issues that impact mass communication and journalism today. For example, Small Programs Interest Group is sponsoring a workshop from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on methods for teaching digital storytelling and for putting courses online. There will be eight panelists from across the country from both education and private industry sharing expert advice. There is also a workshop on teaching traditional journalistic skills, such as how to teach fact checking and accountability. This session will be 8 a.m. to noon, is sponsored by the American Press Institute, and includes a panel of four industry experts and faculty who will share best practices and sample exercises for teaching journalistic reporting. Finally, the Standing Committee on Teaching is hosting a workshop from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for adjuncts and instructors on the “nuts and bolts” of teaching journalism and mass communication. This session will include faculty from the committee who will discuss syllabus development, classroom behavior to look out for and how to deal with technology in the classroom.

2. Thursday’s Best Practices in Teaching. At 10 a.m., the Standing Committee on Teaching will host a presentation of the winning entries in the Teaching Best Practices competition. The best cases in online and blended learning include an example of global communication between students from different countries; the use of Twitter to connect students with professionals; the application of social media for collaborative learning; and a look at a journalism history class that used online activities to engage students.

3. Friday’s Big Session on Big Data. Everyone is talking about big data and the Standing Committee on Teaching is having a plenary panel on the implications of big data on teaching journalism and mass communication. The panelists include Edward Carl Malthouse from Northwestern, Deen Freelon from American, Jolie Marting from Pinterest, Thomas Lento from Facebook, and Laurie Thomas Lee from Nebraska Lincoln. Seth Lewis from Minnesota will moderate. The session will dive into the different types and sources of data that relate to our field and the ramifications of using data in teaching and research.

4. Saturday’s Panels on Unique Teaching Topics. Particularly unique are Saturday’s sessions on teaching. For example, the Community College Journalism Association is hosting a panel on how to turn your program into “an experimental lab.” The Magazine and Visual Communication divisions are holding a “Teaching Marathon” with TEN panelists discussing such topics as visual presentation, news literacy, partnering with service-learning organizations to advance visual literacy, and teaching multimedia narrative. Plus there is a session by Law and Policy Division cosponsored with the Entertainment Studies Interest Group on teaching taboo topics.

5. Sunday’s Whopping Ten (10!) Sessions Devoted to Teaching Issues. Starting at 9:15 a.m. and running through 2:15 p.m., several simultaneous teaching panel sessions are being coordinated by several divisions. Media Management and Economics has partnered with Communication Technology on a panel about open educational resources and massive open online courses. The Public Relations Division will be having its top teaching papers presented. Scholastic Journalism and the Internship and Careers Interest Group put together panelists from high schools to discuss teaching digital skills. The Political Communication Interest Group partnered with Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk Division to present on innovative methods for student engagement. Late morning, there are three simultaneous teaching panels. The Community College Journalism Association and the Communication Technology Division covers analytics and why it is one of the most important things to teach students. The Commission on the Status of Women and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Interest Group have a six-person panel on teaching gender in journalism and mass communication courses. The Entertainment Studies Interest Group and the Electronic News Division will present their panel on “Accessing Hollywood: Using Entertainment News to Foster Learning and Understanding.” Finally, Religion and Media and Small Programs Interest Groups will host a panel on teaching religion writing and working on religion in newsrooms.

With so many options, it will be easy to join the race to PARTAY and tweet the amazing sessions. We look forward to seeing everyone in San Francisco!

Teaching Corner

CONTACT: ELIZABETH L. TOTH, University of Maryland, College Park, 2014-15 President of AEJMC • September 9, 2015
Active campaigning for the 2016 presidential election has now begun, and the candidates are presenting their platforms for reporting and scrutiny by the press. This essential democratic process must be performed in an environment of respect both for the journalists who report as well as for the candidates who seek election. Some recent exchanges between candidates and journalists have failed to live up to this standard.

During political campaigns, we often look to a candidate’s treatment of the press to infer what that relationship will be like if the candidate is elected. Thus, it is concerning if candidates treat the press, and the process of journalistic inquiry, dismissively. At the same time, journalists have the responsibility to perform their critical function in a way that is fair, impartial and according to professional standards.

Americans must be vigilant about preserving the free and democratic society that exists through the First Amendment rights of citizens and the strong role of the nation’s watchdog press. Democracy and human rights are possible only when journalists are allowed to perform their role freely and without constraint, and with full adherence to their professional responsibilities of fairness and accuracy.

Particularly in this era of social media, channels of communication that facilitate vigorous discussion and debate are accessible to all citizens, which can enhance democracy. With this benefit comes personal responsibility of all citizens and a heightened professional responsibility of those who perform the role of journalists.

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the largest association of journalism and communication educators in the world, calls upon both the political candidates who are campaigning for office and the journalists who cover them to maintain the highest levels of civility and respect to ensure an environment where the electorate can make informed decisions about those who seek to represent them in government.

For more information regarding this AEJMC Presidential Statement, please contact Elizabeth Toth, 2015 President of AEJMC, at eltoth@umd.edu or Lori Bergen, 2016 President of AEJMC, at Lori.Bergen@colorado.edu.

<<PACS

“It’s on us.” The role of social media in individual willingness to mobilize against sexual assault • Cory Armstrong; Jessica Mahone, University of Florida • “Stopping sexual violence has become a key issue in the public and media agenda. This study examines the role of social media and bystander intervention in predicting an individual’s willingness to engage in collective action against sexual violence. Two surveys were conducted in fall 2014 and early 2015 examining young adults’ views of SNS, rape culture and collective action. Results indicated that gender and bystander intervention were key predictors, along with the privacy concerns of SNS and views supporting rape culture, which had a negative association. Implications were discussed.

Covering Clinton (2010-2015): Meaning-making strategies in news and entertainment magazines • Ingrid Bachmann, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Dustin Harp, University of Texas-Arlington; Jaime Loke, University of Oklahoma • With a trailblazing political career, Hillary Clinton has been the focus of media attention for decades. This study examines 27 magazine covers of the former First Lady and presumptive presidential hopeful from 2010 to 2015, and addresses what these mediated representations of Clinton say aboWith a trailblazing political career, Hillary Clinton has been the focus of media attention for decades. This study examines 27 magazine covers of the former First Lady and presumptive presidential hopeful from 2010 to 2015, and addresses what these mediated representations of Clinton say about the relationship between gender, power and politics. Based on a semiotic analysis, we found that Clinton is presented as a power-hungry, emasculating and surreptitious politician, with the media often warning citizens about her authenticity and ambition. ut the relationship between gender, power and politics. Based on a semiotic analysis, we found that Clinton is presented as a power-hungry, emasculating and surreptitious politician, with the media often warning citizens about her authenticity and ambition.

Media Representations of Hillary Clinton’s Emotional Moment: A Semiotic Analysis • Deborah Bauer, New Mexico State University • This study analyzes media discourse surrounding Hillary Clinton’s ‘emotional moment’ during her Presidential campaign. Interpreting media representations through semiotic and phenomenological analysis, a gendered language emerges as a sign of residual cultural stereotypes that continue to dichotomize gendered abilities. This study demonstrates media representations as a site for perpetuating a woman’s use of emotion to manipulate, connive, or calculate career goals.

Love the Way You Authenticate Domestic Violence Narratives • Laurena Bernabo, University of Iowa • Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), in all its forms, is a social epidemic which affects millions of Americans. The CDC’s 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, the first of its kind, found that 35.6% of women and 28.5% of men in the U.S. have experienced IPV in their lifetimes, and even more (48% of women and men) have experienced psychological aggression; the impact of such experiences includes fear, PTSD, injury, and the need for medical, housing, and legal services. While public attention to these issues has increased incrementally over time, media texts have engaged rather minimally in terms of accurate, complex representations. This research interrogates the pop culture phenomenon of Love the Way You Lie, a two-part song with an accompanying music video made famous by Eminem and Rihanna, two musicians known for their own first-hand experiences with IPV. By applying work done in the areas of gender violence, domestic violence and IPV to the lyrics and video, this paper demonstrates how public reactions to the media texts conflate the two with each other, and inextricably tie both to the performers through discourses of authenticity. Ultimately, this research argues that the song and video contribute to public conceptions of the cycle of violence by extending the popular understanding of domestic violence beyond the application of physical force.

Gold is the new pink: A qualitative analysis of GoldieBlox retail ratings and feedback • Sara Blankenship, University of North Texas; Sheri Broyles, University of North Texas • The pink and blue color washing of the toy aisle suggests it has remained untouched by the advancements of our social progress. GoldieBlox, a toy company focused on stimulating girls’ interest in engineering, set out to change this. This qualitative analysis of GoldieBlox user ratings has determined this generation of parents unequivocally and enthusiastically supports the concept of encouraging girls to pursue a science-based education, rending Barbie irrelevant.

Activism? Or Group Self-Objectification? • Shugofa Dastgeer, University of Oklahoma • This paper is a comparative analysis of visual images of two feminist groups, FEMEN sextremists and extreme Islamists. The main purpose of this paper is to explore how women in these two groups use their bodies to express their ideologies, and how these tactics give are seen in visual images? The findings show that women in both feminist groups express themselves as objects, which misrepresents their political causes. So, both extremism and sextremism reproduce similar traditional values for women’s bodies by using different approaches.

Building Community? The Use of Social Media by Scholars for Peer-Communication • Stine Eckert, 3135770716; Candi Carter Olson, Utah State University; Victoria LaPoe, Western Kentucky University • This study surveyed 62 members and affiliates of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a subdivision in the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), about their social media use for professional, non-classroom purposes. It is theoretically grounded in media ecology and cyberfeminism. Respondents preferred Facebook for sharing information, followed by Twitter; few participants used LinkedIn. Several respondents noted that due to time constraints they do not use social media. This begs the question of whether or not promoting and utilizing social media as a time-saver, especially for women scholars, may result in a more connected online community, and in turn may help with membership and retention. Given the dearth of studies on scholars’ use of social media for peer communication, this study gives valuable insights into and suggestions for the ways scholars and academic organizations can enhance professional relationships through a communication strategy that integrates social media.

Journalistic Coverage in Rape Culture: Reporters’ Socialization in a Gender-Biased Indian Patriarchal Society • Deepa Fadnis • This study examined the journalistic coverage of the Delhi gang rape case of 2012 in the Times of India to understand the influences of the Indian society firmly rooted in gender inequalities and patriarchy on individual reporters. This content analysis suggested that female reporters were more vocal about rape law reforms and setting up immediate relief measures for women in need. And contrary to the popular belief, male reporters did not entertain ideas about male supremacy through their reporting. Further implications for gender inequality in India are discussed.

Mum’s the word: An analysis of frames used on parents who left children in cars • Andrea Hall, University of Florida; Lauren Furey, University of Florida • This study explored how media communicate biological and parental gender roles when parents commit a crime in addition to how frame is affected by story type. A content analysis of 348 news articles over a 15-year period was conducted. This study found that a gender divide in some cases, such as women being referenced as mothers, but not in others. Child’s gender was also a factor in analyzing when analyzing stories.

RAW Appearances: Examining Contrast Effects in Adaptation to Women Wrestlers’ Sexualization in World Wide Entertainment • Nisha Garud; Carson Wagner • Several studies in psychology confirm the operation of contextual contrast effects on judgments. This experiment extends adaptation-level contrast effects to the field of media through examination of attitudes towards sexualization of WWE women wrestlers. Participants (N=75) were randomly primed with high-sexualized and de-sexualized content and their explicit and implicit attitudes towards sexualization were measured. Contrast effects were found as high-sexualized group rated WWE Women’s program low on sexualization whereas the de-sexualized group rated the program high on sexualization. Both the groups were compared to a control group. Implicit measures supported explicit attitudes. Regression analysis suggest women wrestlers’ clothing, touch, movement and pose strongly predict sexualization. However, no gender differences were found in attitudes towards sexualization.

Easy, Breezy, and Patriarchal: Femvertising in CoverGirl and Beyond • Kate Hoad-Reddick, Western University • This paper takes a 2014 CoverGirl advertisement as its object of study to explore the pervasive advertising trend of femvertising—advertising that positively represents women—and question the impacts of commodified feminism on the feminist movement. By deconstructing the hypocrisy inherent in this commercial, the author problematizes femvertising and questions the mainstream media’s ability to offer feminist sentiments that resist commodification. Using the theoretical lens of ventriloquism, this analysis argues femvertising stems from hegemonic patriarchy.

Women as Eye Candy: Predictors of Individuals’ Acceptance of the Sexual Objectification of Women • Stacey Hust, Washington State University; Kathleen Rodgers, Department of Human Development, Washington State University; Nicole Cameron, Washington State University • Exposure to music videos that objectify and sexualize women was associated with traditional gender beliefs. A survey of undergraduate students indicates exposure to music and a preference for rap music were positively associated with the acceptance of women’s sexual objectification, even after controlling for gender, religiosity and beliefs in sexual stereotypes. This suggests consistent exposure to music videos reinforces traditional gender attitudes, but contextual factors still play a role in the formation of gender attitudes.

Gender Trouble in the Workplace: Applying Judith Butler’s Theory of Performativity to News Organizations • Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri; Teri Finneman, University of Missouri • Butler’s theory of performativity challenges understandings of gender, suggesting gender is constituted through ritualized performances of norms. Although Butler primarily considered discursive constructions of gender, we argue this theory can be considered within organizations. This paper offers a critical perspective by examining patriarchal organizations’ definitions of gender performances and the emancipatory potential of performativity. We explore how performativity could be understood and studied within TV newsrooms, where women reinforce gender roles mandated by organizational norms. ​

Gathering Online, Loitering Offline: Hashtag Activism and the Claim for Public Space by Women in India • Sonora Jha, Seattle University • This paper provides a theoretical critical analysis of the online discursive (textual and visual) representations of women claiming public spaces across India through the #WhyLoiter hashtag campaign in December 2014, protesting “rape culture” following the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of a student. Using feminist media theory and the theory of digital social movements – cyberfeminist protest in particular – I examine the strides and limitations of online and offline repertoires of the #WhyLoiter campaign.

Searching for Thinspiration: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Tumblr Blog Posts about Weight Loss and Disordered Eating • Nicki Karimipour, University of Florida • Young women’s use of microblogging sites to communicate and disseminate messages about body image ideals is an emerging topic of research. As thinspiration content continues to proliferate online, body image researchers and psychologists seek to understand how people, mostly young women, discuss and engage with this phenomenon on social media. This study takes a feminist perspective on body image, and includes theoretical foundations such as the sociocultural model of female body image and identity demarginalization theory to help explain prevalence of online communication about stigmatized conditions such as eating disorders. This study utilized a qualitative, inductive approach to examine tone of the blog posts, commonly appearing codes, motivations for engaging in weight loss, use of hashtags, and mentions of recovery and/or recovery resources. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and avenues for future research are outlined within.

Is Breast Best? Feminist Ethics for Breastfeeding Promotion as Public Relations • Amanda Kennedy, University of Maryland • This paper took a critical feminist approach to interrogate dominant discourses of breastfeeding and motherhood in America and how they have manifested in public relations campaigns. Using the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign as an illustration, we identified ethical dilemmas in their popular constructions of breastfeeding and motherhood. We proposed materialist and care-based feminist ethics as more ethical and practical alternatives for breastfeeding promotion and public relations.

Collective Memory of the Feminist Revolution: “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution” in a Post-Feminist Twenty-First Century • Katherine LaPrad, University of South Carolina • This study examines the collective memory of the feminist revolution through the filter of the feminist art movement by analyzing a variety of media engaged with WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, a retrospective exhibition of feminist art and visual culture. Through a qualitative analysis this inquiry interrogates media coverage and public dialogue surrounding this commemorative exhibition, revealing the collective memory of the feminist revolution and its impression on feminism in the current social and political landscape.

Butts and other body parts: Celebrity culture, ethnic identification and self-objectification • Carol Liebler; Li Chen, S.I. Newhouse of Public Communications • This study investigates women’s experiences with a sexually objectifying environment by examining the degree to which engagement with celebrity culture affects self-objectification among women. We further explore the role of ethnic identification in this relationship. An online survey was conducted in the U.S. of 249 women of East Asian or Southeast Asian ethnic descent. Results indicate that strength of ethnic identification and perceived knowledge of and interaction with celebrity culture are predictors of self-objectification, but that results vary by ethnic group. Findings highlight the need to consider the intersectionality of gender and ethnicity in relation to self-objectification.

Problematizing postfeminist/neoliberal female sexual subjectivity: A textual analysis of sex-related articles in Cosmopolitan in post-socialist China • Qi Ling, The University of Iowa • This study adopted postfeminism as a critical tool to analyze sex-related articles in Cosmopolitan (Chinese version) to see how female sexual subjectivity is constructed, and how the internal conflict of neoliberal rhetoric in it may render the touted message of empowerment problematic. Three interpretive repertoires were exacted from the text: “empowering sexiness”, “self-surveillance on sexual body”, and “sexual liberty”, all of which contributed to an enabling female sexual subject, while re-entrenching the normative by making it the only one and the most rewarded choice within the existing system. This paper further suggests that the fact that postfeminist discursive strategies originated in West is gaining currency in post-socialist China has bearing on its integration into the symbolic and economic order of global neoliberalism.

Boy story: An analysis of gendered interaction frames in the Toy Story trilogy • Timothy Luisi, University of Kansas • Past research shows that what children see can greatly influence behaviors and the development of gender identity. Female characters have been depicted in film with less frequency and detail than their male counterparts. The following study examined female-voiced characters within the Toy Story trilogy and used grounded theory to find frames between female-voiced characters and male characters based on their interactions. The findings build upon past literature in gaze theory and symbolic annihilation.

Gender, politics, and social networks: Tracking the 2014 elections on Twitter • Shannon McGregor, University of Texas – Austin; Rachel Mourao, The University of Texas at Austin • The 2014 elections offer a last chance to evaluate discourse about female politicians before the 2016 presidential campaign. Building on gender bias literature, we assess the differences in network attributes of male and female candidates. Results show that when a woman runs against a man, the conversation revolves around her. Female candidates are both more central and more replied to. Findings suggest that there is still something unique about a campaign with a woman.

“Why just my children? This is for all our children.” – The rise of the woman citizen journalist in India • Paromita Pain, The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism • Recent citizen journalism developments, especially in developing countries like India, is encouraging a new generation of women in very resource poor areas to participate in the news production process that could potentially level the playing field by allowing them to sidestep traditional gatekeepers and barriers. Using the most significant change technique and qualitative data from three citizen media organizations in India, this paper employs feminist readings of Habermas’ theory of the public sphere to argue that citizen media can significantly contribute towards a feminist public sphere and be used as an important tool for women’s empowerment in the developing world.

“A Woman Walks Alone in the Dark:” Hostile Sexism & Script Writing for Crime TV • Scott Parrott • Crime-based television programs in the U.S. often contain gender-based stereotypes, including the inaccurate association of females and victimhood. The present study explored the relationship between hostile sexism and the appearance of gender role stereotypes in plot synopses that communication students wrote for a crime-based dramatic program. Respondents (n=197) to a survey studying “the creative process behind scriptwriting” were asked to outline the plot for an episode of a crime-based drama and to provide descriptive information, including gender, for three characters (victim, police detective, criminal). Respondents most often assigned the role of victim to a female and the roles of police detective and criminal to males. Plot synopses often included violence against females. Separate analyses showed that the higher the respondents’ hostile sexism, the more likely they were to assign the victim role to a female and the less likely they were to assign the detective role to a female.

Constructing Girls in a Post-Feminist Society: Female Adolescent Gender Representations in Glee • Roseann Pluretti, The University of Kansas; Kristen Grimmer, University of Kansas; Jessica Casebier, University of Kansas • This exploratory study examines adolescent gender identity formation and the female adolescent gender representations in the teen drama Glee. Through feminist theory, this study investigates how these representations compare to past representations and if they contain post-feminist ideals. A qualitative textual analysis of six episodes and over 130 scenes was implemented. Thematic analysis of these representations found empowering, post-feminist and stereotypical representations in Glee. These representations could shape female adolescent audiences’ gender identity formation.

Using Feminist Memories for Postfeminist Needs: The Celebratory Feminism of MAKERS: Women Who Make America • Urszula Pruchniewska, Temple University • Through the lens of collective memory, this paper uses textual analysis to explore the documentary MAKERS, which traces the second wave women’s movement by presenting a collective memory of “celebratory feminism.” Despite aiming to show the movement as continuing, by evoking postfeminist sensibilities in its presentation of the feminist past, MAKERS categorizes feminism as over. Thus the construction of collective memory of feminism in MAKERS works to fit the needs of the present climate, postfeminism.

If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Be It: Do Children’s Movies Pass The Bechdel Test? • Erin Ryan, Kennesaw State University • Organizations such as the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media consistently report gender imbalance is still very much alive. This is particularly true of media crafted specifically for children, and this has real consequences for the ways in which children are taught to perform their gender. Cultivation theory tells us that continuous consumption of media can change people’s attitudes and beliefs about the world, beginning in childhood. If children see the same depictions ad nauseum they can only assume the gender performance they see is the “right” one. And as social learning theory demonstrates, beginning in toddlerhood children begin to mimic behaviors they see in media. Thus, it is crucial to study children’s media with an eye on gender roles. One method to do so is the so-called “Bechdel Test” which puts films to a three-question test: are there two or more women in the film who have names? Do they talk to each other? Do they talk to each other about anything other than men? This content analysis put the top 21 children’s movies to the Test and results revealed seven failures: Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Princess Bride, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Ratatouille, and Up. Release date did not appear to affect whether a movie passed, implying that women’s roles in children’s movies have not evolved over time. However, a tally of character actions revealed female characters in both passing and failing movies to be performing fewer stereotypical roles than non-stereotypical

Crusaders, Not Subordinates: How Women’s Page Editors Worked to Change the Gender Climate Within APME and ASNE • Kimberly Voss; Lance Speere • This scholarship reveals what women were doing in the 1960s and early 1970s within the newspaper industry, which had largely excluded them from decision-making or leadership positions, to produce change. Yet, they worked within their limitations to improve working conditions and to improve content for women within the pages of their newspapers. This study documents their efforts to initiate change through the Associated Press Managing Editors and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Understanding images of sexual objectification: A study of gender differences in Taiwanese magazine ads from 1985 to 2011 • Ping Shaw, National Sun Yat-sen University; Yue Tan, National Sun Yat-sen University • Content analysis is used to explore media portrayals of 1856 female and 816 male models in 2336 Taiwan magazine advertisements over a 27 year period, from 1985 to 2011. We mainly examined how female models and male models are sexually objectified differently over time in terms of four coding categories: “decorative roles”, “portion of body shown”, “sexual explicitness”, and “objecting gaze and touch”. We argue that these categories measure different dimensions of the sexual objectification concept. The results from the content analysis revealed that the four measures correlated moderately, indicated different degree of gender gaps, changed differently over time, and influenced differently by the women’s movement and consumerism in Taiwan. Finally, the implications of the results for the sexual objectification theory are discussed.”

Frat Daddies and Sorostitutes: How TotalFratMove.com and Greek Identity Influence Greek Students’ Rape Myth Acceptance • Bailey Thompson, Texas Tech University; Rebecca Ortiz, Texas Tech University • College students in social Greek organizations are at greater risk of sexual assault than other college students. The present study examined how readership of the online news site TotalFratMove.com (TFM), which often includes coverage of stereotypical fraternity culture, may impact rape myth acceptance. Results revealed that the more frequently Greeks read TFM, the more likely they were to be accepting of rape myths when also taking into account the strength of their Greek social identity.

One “pin” closer to the image of health: The medicalization of makeup discourses on Pinterest • Andrea Weare • This study explored discourses that medicalize beauty on Pinterest. With a boom in social media use among the beauty industry, these platforms are serving as affordances to extend a user’s ability to perform desired industry actions: product consumption. Results illuminate an understanding of the uses of Pinterest and how female users are hailed to be more beautiful and healthy, as well as how scholars and health practitioners might mediate this discourse to improve women’s health.

2015 Abstracts