Cultural and Critical Studies 2013 Abstracts
South Park and the Defense of the Status Quo • Larry Anderson, University of Memphis • Trey Parker and Matt Stone, co-producers of the popular adult cartoon series South Park, have reputations as iconoclastic critics of contemporary culture. This study conducted an examination of the use of literary devices in three episodes of the series to determine whether the duo employ their knowledge of metaphors, symbolism, and other literary techniques to support the status quo in economic issues.
Ghetto Princes, Pretty Boys and Handsome Slackers: Masculinity and Race and the Disney Princes • Guillermo Avila-Saavedra • This essay aims to explore the symbolic interconnections of race and gender through qualitative discourse analysis of the construction of masculinities in the three Disney films with non-White male protagonists. The analysis exposes the performance of gender roles in the context of race and class as established by the narrative. A discursive analysis of these popular movies reveals the mediated construction of multiple forms of masculinities as well as changing notions of masculinity and femininity.
Media-To-Come: Media Literacy, Autoimmunity, and Hope • Ralph Beliveau, University of Oklahoma • A new paradigm has emerged of fluid networks, where connections are temporary, structures are contextualized, relationships are incidental, and the visual, aural and textual integrate temporarily but seamlessly. Descriptions of fluidity have yet to be discussed in terms of their implied potential for realizing a new experience of citizenship. I argue that these notions can be made sensible through the notion of “Democracy-to-Come.” It must also address the notion of “autoimmunity,” where a social formation begins to act as if under attach and begins to destroy itself as a protective response. Resistance to media literacy pedagogy represents such a self-destructive response.
Zombie Messiah: Apocalypticism, Secularism, Semiotics, and Warm Bodies • Jonathan Birkel, Brigham Young University • Using a semiotic Marxist approach, this paper explores science, secularism, and postmodern rhetoric as they are presented through the apocalyptic film Warm Bodies. Results show that by using a Christian narrative structure, anti-Christian ideologies are conveyed which promote doubt in authoritative structures and hostility toward absolutism. Findings suggests that Christian audiences may be persuaded into believing that doubt toward religious structures is not only normal but appropriate.
“The Best I Can Be”: Framing Disability Through the Mascots of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. • Sim Butler, University of Alabama; Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama • For the first time ever during the summer Olympic and Paralympic games, the mascots for each game were introduced together, as a pair. The Paralympic mascot, Mandeville, and the Olympic mascot, Wenlock, are strikingly similar in appearance and construction. However, their adventures, established through a website and online movies, highlight striking differences between the mascots and the athletes they represent. As mascots portray physical representations of the ideologies of sporting teams, leagues, and events, producing two mascots for two different sets of athletic competition creates a unique situation through which to compare normative constructions. Through the online mediated representations of Mandeville and Wenlock, the present study used rhetorical analysis to examine the textual and visual stories of the two mascots communicated specific messages to viewers about ability and disability. Within these films, those deemed as disabled are clearly otherized through injury, isolation, and displays of ability. As these films are cartoons for children, their effect has the potential to influence the constructions for a new generation. The lens through which viewers learned about able-bodiedness and disability through the Olympic mascots presents a stereotypical representation of the body at best, but through the animated stories told about the two mascots, dominate frames about disabled athletes being injured, isolated, or being incapable of managing specific tasks are constructed. These and other findings are discussed.
The 2012 “Women’s Olympics”: Striving toward equity in major news and sports magazine coverage • Sara Blankenship, University of North Texas; Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas • This qualitative study examines the coverage of women in Sports Illustrated, Time and Newsweek magazines during the 2012 Olympic Games. These “Women’s Olympics” also marked the 40th anniversary of Title IX. A textual analysis under a feminist framework shows an equitable portrayal of powerful women, defying previous trends that downplayed their agency. We theorize that the effects of Title IX may finally be taking root by exhibiting women’s sports as exciting, entertaining and victorious.
An Examination of the 1967 Michigan Chronicle Through a Politically Responsive Constructionist Lens • Liz Candello, Arizona State University • This article seeks to further the study of dialogue created by colorblindness and multiculturalism in advocacy journalism within the historical context of the civil rights movement, the African-American weekly newspaper the Michigan Chronicle, and its hiring of its only White reporter from 1965 to 1968. I argue that the Michigan Chronicle employed dialogue that was historically situated. I apply the Politically Responsive Constructionist theory to argue that “colorblindness” hinders, rather than advances dialogue about race in the United States.
The Degradation, Defiling, and Decay of Our Gender: Reading Bravo’s “The Real Housewives” Online • Nicole Cox, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College • As a franchise that has survived more than six years, 350 episodes, and seven series locations, Bravo’s The Real Housewives is a formidable force on cable TV. Centered on the lives of wealthy women, this research utilizes critical, feminist political economy to explore how fans negotiate the series’ gendered messages. Examining 71,000 online posts, this research demonstrates how females make sense of gendered messages and how they- through online interactivity- participate in their own commodification.
I am Spartacus: Whiteness’ Power to Liberate in Film and Television Productions • Richard Craig, George Mason University • Spartacus is one of the most recognized names and legends connected to slave revolts, the story of the Thracian slave who led a resistance against the Roman Republic for over two years, 73 B.C. – 70 B.C. The film and television industry have demonstrated an appeal for the story of this slave who revolts against the established order, and have reimagined the life of this rebellion in cinematic and televised retellings of this mythic individual. The narrative situated in the popular media depictions of Spartacus privileges whiteness as a great liberator, strategically and aggressively rebelling against the institution of slavery, in a historically based context. Yet, popular media has ignored the presence of similar narratives featuring Blacks who violently resisted the institution of slavery in the Antebellum south and West Indies, in a historically based context. This paper challenges the lack of popular film and television productions in popular culture recounting the deeds of historical rebellions led by “Others”. The absence of such narratives denies and devalues the historical lived experience of people of color. The popular cinematic and television depictions of Spartacus’ methodical violent uprising preserve the sense of purity connected to whiteness; not through the violence of the man and his followers, but rather embedded in Spartacus’ quest to see an end to the institution of slavery.
Orientalism for a New Millennium: Cable News and the Specter of the “Ground Zero Mosque” • Ruth DeFoster, University of Minnesota • This study uses discourse analysis to examine cable news coverage of the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” considering the arguments put forth by those supporting and opposing the center in the politically charged post-September 11 media environment. It found several trends in terms of sources present in cable coverage opposing the center, as well as a narrow set of talking points that underline the presence of an “Islamophobic” network of individuals/organizations present in American media discourse.
The face of multiculturalism in Korea: Media ritual as framing in news coverage of Jasmine Lee • Frank Durham • Racial purity remains a contentious issue in contemporary Korea. In this case study of news coverage of the first non-Korean appointed to national office there, Jasmine Lee, we have applied Turner’s social drama theory as a methodology for a critical framing analysis of coverage by the nation’s three largest English-language media outlets—the Korea Herald, the JoongAng Daily, and the Korea Times. Our ideological analysis focuses on the use of sources in this on-line context.
Breaking the circle: Citizens, journalism, and the statutory divide • Edgar Simpson, Central Michigan University; Aimee Edmondson, Ohio University • What is the definition of “journalist”? This study examined the United States statutes and administrative codes for all fifty states and the District of Columbia for definitions of our profession. Overall, this study found lawmakers and policy writers established specific duties, responsibilities, and exemptions for “journalists,” tending to rest the definitions and privileges on those employed by traditional news outlets. The authors, inspired by Barbie Zelizer’s definitions of journalism through values, routines, and practices, found five primary categories in which journalists were set apart from “citizens.” These are described as 1) official witness 2) promoter 3) town crier 4) chronicler/commentator, and 5) official representative of the people and of journalism. For instance, twenty states make specific provisions for journalists as “official witnesses” for arguably the most solemn acts of government, putting inmates to death and overseeing elections. While the definitions varied substantially, many tied the definition of journalist to employment by a legitimate or “bona fide” news outlet. The study discusses findings within the context of the ongoing debate over “citizen journalism” and offers suggestions toward definitions that incorporate the increasing role of the audience in producing journalism.
Parrhesia as social theory, digital parrhesia as media theory: Notes toward a holistic model for digital communication • Nicholas Gilewicz, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania • An attempt to reformulate discussions of digital communication, this article interpolates Foucault’s articulation of parrhesia into the digital realm while grounding it in wider literature about communication and social theory. Parrhesia implies that those who have the ability to speak freely have concomitant duties to truth and honest self-representation. This article works uses a method that operationalizes parrhesia to understand the work and 2012 death of “citizen journalist” Rami al-Sayed in the Syrian civil war.
Pseudo-Events as a Mesocyclone: Rethinking Pseudo-Events in the Digital Age • Timothy R. Gleason, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • Daniel J. Boorstin’s concept of pseudo-events has been around almost as long as Queen Elizabeth’s reign as monarch. 2012 was the year of the Diamond Jubilee, a 60th year anniversary, which can be viewed as a giant pseudo-event made from smaller pseudo-events. Compliant media were ready and willing to present images reinforcing the power, authority, and naturalness of the monarchy. This study frames the Diamond Jubilee by reconceptualizing pseudo-events using the analogy of a Mesocyclone.
Escape, Tradition and Gender Discourse: The Neighborhood Gate • Noura Hajjaj, Marist College • The focus of this research is to examine the format, values, and cultural impact of “The Neighborhood Gate” across the Arab region. This iconic Syrian soap opera is enjoying extraordinarily successful runs and reaching very broad Arab audiences. Reflecting on the plot premises, the cultural themes, the representation of characters, and the expected masculine and feminine communication patterns, highlights the revolving messages and the portrayal of Arab women at a time of rising feminist self-determination.
Community Journalism as Community Development: Implications for the Journalistic Field • Gary Hansen, University of Kentucky; Elizabeth Hansen, Eastern Kentucky University Dept. of Communication • Drawing upon community theory, a case is made for viewing community journalism as community development based upon its contributions to both the creation of community solidarity and the development of community agency. Key concepts or “thinking tools” of Bourdieu’s field theory are then outlined, applied to journalism, and used to illuminate both the current position of community journalism within the journalistic field and the implications for the field of viewing community journalism as community development.
The Journalist In-Group: American Journalism Culture’s Promotion of Othering • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University • This paper argues that the conceptualization of American journalism culture should consider journalists’ strongest source of group membership. Journalists have adopted Said’s definition of Othering by conceiving of themselves as familiar and others as strange. By social identity theory’s standards, they have positioned themselves as the in-group and others as the out-group. Thus, this paper argues that journalists have created the journalist in-group, which is upheld by the standards of many professional news organizations.
Deregulation v. Un-Regulation: A qualitative framing analysis of press releases published by interest groups in the debate over net neutrality • Brett Johnson, University of Minnesota • Net neutrality pits the interests of ISPs and Internet application creators against each other. As described by politics of technology theory (Berg 1998; Gillespie 2007), press releases help craft and sell the political ideals of a neutral or non-neutral Internet. This project will conduct an inductive, qualitative framing analysis (Gamson & Modigliani 1989) of press releases published by interest groups in the debate over net neutrality between 2006 and 2012.
Culture as Constitutive: An exploration of audience and journalist perceptions of journalism in Samoa • Linda Jean Kenix • Much research implicitly suggests that journalism values arise from culturally removed organizational structures or shared occupational training and few studies examine the perspective of journalism from both audiences and journalists. These omissions are important given the essentiality of mutually constructed and culturally embedded normative behaviours within journalism. This research examines audiences and journalists in Samoa, a country purposefully selected as a recently independent, post-colonial, country that relies upon a very traditional, shared national identity for it’s relatively nascent identificatory cohesion. This study aims to gain a better understanding of how local culture can set parameters and expectations for journalism; how journalists negotiate culture into their own professional ideology; and how audiences understand journalism within a cultural context.
Girls’ Generation: Neoliberal Social Policy, Governmentality and Girl Industry in the Age of KOR-US FTA • Gooyong Kim, Temple University; Dong-hyun Byun, Graduate School of Media Communication, Sogang University • This paper argues how the Korean government has been an integral part of Koran popular music’s (K-pop) recent global popularity as a part of state intervention in maintaining national competitiveness in a post-IMF neoliberal society. To be more specific, I will examine how the growing popularity and numbers of idol girl bands are possible in conservative Confucian Korean society, claiming that they are the apex of neoliberal commodity that creates vast surplus value to Korea’s talent management companies and provides the contemporary myth of market competition in the age of Free Trade Agreement between Korea and the United States (KORUS FTA). Foucault’s (2008) notion of biopower and neoliberal governmentality is deployed to understand Korean government’s support of K-pop industry as neoliberal social policy, which is not for social safety-net but for economic growth. I will conclude that contemporary female K-pop idol bands are the latest export item to earn foreign currency and to perpetuate the dominant market ideology of neoliberalism.
Navigating good citizenship in a networked world: The case of Kony2012 • Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, University of Southern California; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Southern California • This paper uses the case of Kony2012 to explore competing citizenship discourses. We propose that the controversy around Kony2012, expressed through online discussions and humorous images, illuminates a moment in which citizenship norms are in flux. Using media artifacts, we explore the tension between proposals that new media enable new kinds of civic action, and critiques of “slacktivism”, grounded in a vision of the informed citizen as the only acceptable model of good citizenship.
News Attention Climax: Does News Framing Create Better Capitalists? • Derek Last • This paper explores the theoretical phenomenon of “News Attention Climax”, and focuses upon the moment when news is first transferred from news producer to news consumer. A news attention climax system champions forms of delivery that are efficient, and that emphasize speed of reception. This is reflective of a neo-Taylorist movement that has guided, and continues to guide news delivery and reception, and which has only been augmented with social media and search engine optimization.
Net is Neutral, But the Media Is not Neutral: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Print News Coverage of Network Neutrality • Ju Young Lee, Pennsylvania State University • Based on Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model, this study intended to examine whether the media tended to serve governmental purposes to sustain their dominant status or viability in the media market. The print news coverage of the network neutrality policy during the period 2005-2011 was analyzed in terms of framing strategies, structures, and rhetorical devices. The major newspapers have supported the positions of both governments by differently framing the network neutrality issue using diverse rhetorical devices.
Social Conflict and Mistrust: Understanding the Ambivalent Relationship between Journalists and Underprivileged Groups in China • Zhaoxi Liu, Trinity University; Judy Polumbaum • A field research reveals that journalists in a Southwestern China metropolis share the view that helping members of the lower social strata or those in need is a prominent component of the meaning of their work as journalists. At the same time, journalists do not completely trust those they are willing to help. Such ambivalent feeling is deeply rooted in China’s social environment, particularly the widespread social conflict and mistrust. From a cultural studies perspective, this study intends to arrive at an understanding of the mixed feeling journalists have toward a particular social group through a contextualized analysis of journalists’ work. In so doing, this study demonstrates that journalistic practice is in indeed deeply connected with its social context.
Media Errors and the “Nutty Professor”: Riding the Journalistic Boundaries of the Sandy Hook Shootings • Dan Berkowitz, U of Iowa; Zhengjia Liu, The University of Iowa • This study explores dual threats to journalism’s authority and professional paradigm during coverage of the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. One threat concerned widespread errors in early reporting. A second threat came shortly after, when a communication professor blogged that the news media had been complicit in a government conspiracy to further the gun control agenda. This study also addresses how social media became part of journalism’s boundary work.
“The King Is Dead, Long Live The King!” • Rashad Mammadov • Relationships between the Soviet Union and the United States in Cold War have been analyzed from different angles, but primary focus is usually on political events with lack of attention to the role of media as a mirror of politics. Although declared cooperation with the West was the key characteristic of Khrushchev’s Thaw, by examining the cartoons of Krokodil magazine I find evidence that Khrushchev’s position about the US was even more radical than Stalin’s.
Warriors and Witches: Cinematic Constructions of Navajos in “Windtalkers” and “Skinwalkers” • Megan McSwain, Middle Tennessee State University • Analyzing Native Americans in a narrower approach, this study focuses on one tribe. This paper deconstructs the discourses used to define Navajos in the 2002 films Windtalkers and Skinwalkers. Both films are found to portray images of Navajos as the Other, Navajos as devices, Navajo religion as superstition, Romanticized Navajos, and Corrupted Navajos. While the films attempt to depict the Navajo as a distinct tribe, Native American stereotypes are still prevalent in the twenty-first century.
Political Performance, Boundary Spaces, and Active Spectatorship: Symbolic Organization During the 2012 Democratic National Convention • Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Laura Meadows, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper presents an ethnographic study of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. We combine literatures on journalistic and political fields with scholarship on performance theory to provide a framework for understanding conventions as contemporary media events. We detail the layered production of performance in the journalistic and political fields, arguing that performances were directed internally and across fields for strategic advantage, and for co-present spectators and the public at-large. Conventions provide boundary spaces for actors from different fields to coordinate work and mediated, integrative spaces for the polity. We conclude by arguing that media events provide occasions for networked practices of ‘active spectatorship’ that serve as paths to political authority and ultimately consent for citizens, if not necessarily political power.
Connected and Disconnected: Catchphrases on the Chinese Internet From 2003 to 2012 • Guo Mengjun, Tsinghua University • The article examines the trends of catchphrases on the Chinese internet from 2003 to 2012 as a popular form of cultural and political expression and their social, culture and political implications. The development of internet-mediated discourse has strong bearing on the environment that gives birth to it, and it reflects the transformation of social, political, cultural and technical reality. I analyze ongoing social changes in Chinese society through the lens of evolving online catchphrases.
‘Weinergate’ online and on paper: A media insurgent and a mainstream newspaper cover the Weiner story. • Natalia Mielczarek, University of Iowa • This study relied on textual analysis to analyze how a media insurgent, the conservative blog Big Government, inserted itself temporarily into the vertical, top-down traditional media landscape by breaking the story of Congressman Anthony Weiner’s sexting. The blog, however, promptly gave up its story to mainstream media, engaging in ‘horizontal cross-dressing’ and self-incorporation. The project analyzed this dynamic through a framing analysis of the Weiner story in Big Government and the Washington Post.
Hegemony in the White House: An examination of gender portrayals on The West Wing • Ben Miller, Univeristy of Minesota; Tanner Cooke • This study examined the role of women in the hit television program The West Wing. Using a qualitative content analysis methodology, this study dissects the power dynamic of women within the already powerful context of the White House. While in recent years the role and position of women on television has elevated, this study argues that it is not the role that necessarily matters, but the interaction with male counterparts and the resulting relative power. The findings of this study uncover hidden power dynamics within the text of a popular program. Ultimately this leads to a discussion of cultural hegemony and the way in which representation can reinforce rather than eliminate hegemonic messages through television programs.
Man Therapy: Framing Mental Health as Masculine • Richard Mocarski, The University of Alabama; Sim Butler, University of Alabama • To address high numbers of suicides by men in America, the mental health promotion campaign Man Therapy attempts to de-stigmatize mental health as staunchly opposed to masculinity through overtly humorous constructions of “therapy the way a man would do it” (Cactus, 2012). Through a critical analysis of the campaign, including the interactive website, modeled as the fictitious office of Dr. Rich Mahogany, this project addresses the influences of humor within the confines of hegemonic masculinity, mental health, and suicide.
Gateway to the Global City: Digital Media and Mobile Place-making • Erika Polson, University of Denver • Drawing from ethnographic research of expatriates in Paris who use meetup.com and similar websites to organize face-to-face events, this paper engages theories of place and placemaking to argue that digital media are engaged in new forms of ‘digital emplacement’ which are particularly suited for proliferating mobile lifestyles and careers.
Seeing the Other: Sexuality and Gender in the Globalized World • Elizaveta Provorova, Temple University • Transnational sexuality studies, transnational feminism and global queer studies emphasize the importance of seeing sexuality and gender as global phenomena that are constantly shaping and being shaped by interrelationships between nations, cultures and groups of people. In this paper I discuss challenges associated with exploring non-mainstream gender practices and sexuality identities of the Other. As scholars belonging to a certain culture and academic tradition we should always be aware of our positionality and biases.
Exploring the Alternative-Mainstream Dialectic: What ‘Alternative Media’ Means to a Hybrid Audience • Jennifer Rauch, Long Island University-Brooklyn • This study enriches scholarship on “alternative media” by exploring what the category means to audiences. A survey (n=224) revealed a distinct system of alternative-media values and practices supported by users. They valued alternative content (neglected issues, diverse voices, mobilizing information) above forms (being nonprofit, advertising-free, small-scale). Despite criticizing corporate-commercial media, this hybrid audience used many such outlets and considered some “alternative.” I discuss why the alternative-mainstream dialectic remains useful in a converged culture.
Performing Community: Public Television and Library Policy • Camille Reyes, Rutgers University • In 1967, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television published a report with recommendations that became the foundation for American Public Television policy. The report strongly urged Congress to fund a quality alternative to the commercial broadcasting system, recognizing a need for programming unfettered by the imperative of mass audiences for advertisers. The language of diversity and public service runs throughout the document, yet such rhetoric falls short within the deeper structural recommendations for the nascent network. This paper analyzes the contradictions related to community service in the original report, and argues that policymakers must strengthen the definition of diversity within the system before any argument to increase federal funding will be successful. The paper also offers transferable policy guidance from the field of library and information science. Public libraries have long faced similar challenges to those of PBS in serving the information needs of diverse communities. Literature pertaining to collection development and needs assessment in public libraries provides useful suggestions for media reformers striving to reshape a system that for all its faults has the great potential to fulfill its original and vital public interest mission.
Residents’ Journal: Chicago’s public housing residents take on the news • Loren Saxton; Elli Roushanzamir, University of Georgia • This paper explores how racial, class, and spatial pressures condition the exercise of contingent agency via Residents’ Journal, an online journal that publishes articles pertinent to Chicago’s public and government-assisted housing communities. The critical textual analysis examines how community media provide and limit alternative spaces of social (re)positioning and reclamation of social power. Ultimately, the paper calls for the continued critical analyses of community media as forms of resilience, opposition and platforms for social change.
Framing of Osama bin Laden’s Death: A Global Perspective • Whitney Sessa, University of Miami, School of Communication; Michael North, University of Miami; Katie Lang, University of Miami, School of Communication • Media framing of Osama bin Laden’s death was examined in four international, 24-hour news networks: CNN.com, BBC World News, Al Jazeera English and Al Arabiya English. This study found no association between news network and frames used, suggesting that neither geographical location nor ethnocentrism influenced media frames. In contrast to previous media analyses conducted of bin Laden, this study found the dominant frames of bin Laden to be “neutral figure” or “terrorist leader.”
The “Madness” of Capitalism’s Reckless Warrior/Priest: Jim Cramer as Oracle of the Post-Meltdown Neoliberal Capitalism • John Sewell, The University of West Georgia • This essay is a discursive analysis of “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s postings on TheStreet.com in 2010 to understand transnational business masculinity in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown in terms of myth, fantasy theme, and prophetic stance. For his affluent and primarily white, male subscribers, Cramer functioned as channeler and oracle, providing rhetorical vision and offering “secret knowledge” that spurred risky trading behaviors based on narrative and emotion rather than rationality.
The Poetics of Goodbye: Plot, Change and Nostalgia in Narratives Penned by ex-Baltimore Sun Employees • Stacy Spaulding, Towson University • Using plot and thematic analysis rooted in narrative and organizational studies, this study examines the narratives produced by a group of workers laid off by The Baltimore Sun in April, 2009. This study describes the poetics of “goodbye narratives,” the narratives written by ex-employees regarding their organizational experience. This paper demonstrates that these narratives constitute a unique genre with identifiable poetics. Through narrative devices such as plot, these writers make story choices that reflect differing ideological outlooks on the meanings of The Sun’s 2009 layoffs. This analysis also explores collective memory of organizational changes. These narratives speak dramatically to the impact of organizational decline and the influence of staffing levels, changes in ownership and decline in product quality on employee morale. This paper further theorizes that the presence of nostalgia can be seen as a narrative marker of durational discourse which collects, conserves and curates both individual and collective sense making.
The Blue Approach and Propaganda: Law Enforcement, Indy Media, and the 2008 RNC Protests • Robert Frenzel, Old Dominion University; Burton St. John, Old Dominion University • Law enforcement at the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul, MN used a variety of coercive measures to keep independent media under control. This work examines such efforts as evidence of propaganda of the deed – non-symbolic actions that also served to send subtle messages that power centers associated with the RNC would not tolerate disruptions. This work also points to implications for today’s journalism and the challenge to its ability to cover protest.
So says the stars: A textual analysis of Glamour, Essence and Teen Vogue horoscopes • Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri • This study examines horoscopes published in three women’s magazines: Essence, Glamour, and Teen Vogue, a magazine for teenage girls. Leaving out race and age, the demographics of all three magazines are very similar. In this textual analysis of more than 400 individual horoscope entries, three dominant themes emerged: love, money and work. Stereotypes associated with race and age—more than zodiac signs—shape the fate of those who read and believe in what horoscopes predict.
Crime of Impossibility? A Critical Examination of Western Obscenity Laws and the Criminalizing of Fantasy • Jason Zenor, SUNY Oswego • Few issues receive the same condemnation as sexual abuse of children. But, unfortunately, harm to minors has become the primary justification for speech censorship throughout the world. In fact, people have been incarcerated for possessing cartoon pictures of fictitious minors engaged in sexual conduct- with little media scrutiny or public outcries of injustice. This attack on the freedom of thought has undoubtedly put the fandom of erotic anime on alert- is their genre protected expression or child pornography? This article examines international attempts to pass new obscenity and child pornography laws and recent efforts to censor erotic anime. First, this paper will examine the development of sexually explicit Japanese animation and the sociological and historical roots of the genre, illustrating the social value that it has for its fandom. Then it outlines the laws for obscenity and child pornography in countries with a large anime fan base. Finally, the article analyzes the western socio-legal ideology that has led to censorship and why they are misguided and antithetical to the free speech values of democratic nations.
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