Commission on the Status of Women 2012 Abstracts
Faculty
Few Shades of Gray: Media Portrayal of German-American Relations During the Postwar Occupation of Germany • Marilyn Greenwald, Ohio University • This paper examines the portrayal in the U.S. media of the relationship between American GIs and German citizens during the post-World War II Occupation of Germany. Based on the personal and professional correspondence of Pauline Frederick, who covered post-World War II Central Europe, and the content of Life magazine and the New York Times, it appears that American news managers did not want to publish any stories – human interest or otherwise — that could be construed as sympathetic to German citizens, or ones that portrayed GIs in anything but a positive light.
“I Am Just an Ordinary Housewife:” Congressional Television and the Disruption of the Public Sphere in the Early Fifties • Bastiaan Vanacker, Loyola University Chicago • In March of 1951, live broadcasts of the Kefauver Crime Hearings from New York generated unprecedented public interest and put television on the map as a viable medium to report on political/public issues. The enthusiastic reactions of the massive viewership brought the debate on the role of television in democracy to the forefront and led to calls for more live broadcasts of political proceedings.
“A Girl Move”: Negotiating Gender and Technology in Chess Offline and Online • Undrahbuyan Baasanjav, Temple University • This research explores the real-life and online experience of women chess players. Based on the analysis of data collected in in-depth interviews, it explores how women integrate technology into their play/pleasure and how different cultural contexts influence the perception of gender and mastery in chess. The research suggests that an intellectual gap between men and women in chess has been discursively constructed without consideration of the historical asymmetry of power relations and other social and cultural factors.
A Section of Their Own: Women Leaders in the Financial Times’ Women At the Top • Elanie Steyn, University of Oklahoma; Kathryn Jenson White, University of Oklahoma • Historically, women’s pages elevated to the status of news issues defined as important to women. These sections integrated women into mass-media worthiness while segregating their concerns to suggest they mattered only to women. Recently, business publications have begun to create similar women’s sections focusing on women as leaders, managers and entrepreneurs. This paper qualitatively analyzes how the Financial Times’ Women at the Top products are portraying women’s progress toward and process to achieve these positions.
Subverting the script: Strengthening young women’s sexual self-concept by exposure to televised counter sexual scripts • Rebecca Ortiz • Television is a major source of common sexual scripts for adolescents and young adults. The proliferation of the heterosexual script on television is of particular concern because constant exposure may lead to reinforcement of negative sexual stereotypes by young viewers and negatively affect their sexual well-being.
The Marginalization of Dagongmei: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Coverage on Female Migrant Laborers in China. • Siyuan Yin • Dagongmei, referring to young and unmarried female migrant laborers in China, has become an emerging social group since the 1980s. Labeled as undereducated, impoverished and vulnerable, this group not only suffers political and economic exploitations but suffers cultural oppressions with bias and contempt from urban residents. By analyzing how news media represent dagongmei, the article accesses the role of media in the intersected oppressions the group suffer.
“Catfights” under the Male Gaze: Framing of the 2010 U.S. House Race between Kristi Noem and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin • Miglena Sternadori, University of South Dakota • Using theories of agency, benevolent and enlightened sexism, and the male gaze, this paper employs framing analysis to explore stereotypes in the media coverage of a political race with more than one female candidate. The focus is on the 2010 race for the U.S. Representative for South Dakota’s at-large congressional district, in which the Republican candidate Kristi Noem won by 1.2 percent of the vote over the Democratic incumbent, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.
The Bounce of Title Nine • Aimee Edmondson, Ohio University • Utilizing the critical method of fantasy theme analysis, this study will examine the rhetorical strategies employed by the Bounce catalog in its quest to appeal to the female buyer, analyzing how the parent company, Title Nine, executes a feminist editorial agenda and advocates for women’s participation in sports. The analysis will employ symbolic convergence theory in the study of the text and photographs of the catalog through the context of third wave feminism.
Girlhoods in the Golden Age of U.S. Radio: Music, Shared Popular Culture, and Memory • Sharon Mazzarella, James Madison University; Rebecca Hains, Salem State University; Shayla Thiel-Stern, University of Minnesota • In this paper, we interview 30 U.S. women born between 1918-1948 in order to uncover their girlhood experiences with media and popular culture during their child and teen years. Their narratives reveal a lack of engagement with youth and/or girl-oriented media artifacts; the shared experience of radio listening; an emphasis on the “experience” of using media artifacts rather than on the content; and the appeal of music and dance as a girlhood pasttimes.
Media and Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign: A Model for Understanding Construction of Collective Memory • Mary Tucker-McLaughlin, ECU; Kenneth Campbell • Using the public life and 2008 presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, we offer a model for understanding personal, historical and mass media memory in the construction of collective memory. We use results of our grounded theory study of television news representations of Clinton, which identified two themes — innovator and voiceless — to show implications of mass media portrayals on collective memory.
The performance of gender roles in creative writing: Why do women submit less than men? • Richard Mocarski • The 2011 VIDA report demonstrates the gender gap in creative publishing, finding only 30% of the work in the top thirteen literary magazines by women. This study of 200 creative writers confirms that women not only published less often than men, but also submit to journals less often than men. It is posited that these behaviors are based on gendered expectations imbued from the culturally accepted norms of hegemonic masculinity and femininity.
Performance of Gender Identity on Wedding Websites • Laura Beth Daws, Georgia Highlands College • For many women, having a wedding ceremony is part of an ideal adult identity (Mead, 2007). Their performative elements extend beyond the ceremony to wedsites, or websites created for an upcoming wedding. Performativity (Butler, 1999) provides a theoretical framework for understanding wedsites as virtual spaces that accommodate gender identity performance. Photo elicitation interviews and thematic analysis of wedsites reveals that women construct wedsites to be consistent with traditional notions of gender and sex roles.
Gender politics in interscholastic sports: A framing analysis of Title IX • Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee; Marie Hardin, Penn State University; Drew Shade; Julia Daisy Fraustino, The Pennsylvania State University; Erin Ash, Pennsylvania State University • This research explores the way Title IX is framed in interscholastic sports by using a content analysis to examine coverage stemming from lawsuits filed against the Florida and Michigan High School Athletic Associations (FHSAA and MHSAA).
Student
Women bloggers: Identity and the Concept of Sports • Dunja Antunovic, Pennsylvania State University; Marie Hardin, Penn State University • The emergence of the blogosphere has offered a unique opportunity for women to share their experiences. While research on women bloggers has pointed to the ways in which women generate knowledge and challenge social structures, little work has been done about women who blog about sports; a sphere deeply embedded in hegemonic masculine ideology. This study explored the formation of self and the conceptualization of sports in the “Sports Blog” directory of BlogHer, a women’s blog network.
He Said, She Said: The Effects of Gender on Political Attack Ads • Bryan McLaughlin, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Catasha Davis, UW-Madison; Sandra Knisely, University of Wisconsin-Madison; David Coppini, University of Wisconsin Madison; Young Mie Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Contrary to conventional expectations, empirical research suggests female politicians can successfully attack male opponents. Using an experimental design, this study examines the interaction between the gender of an attack ad sponsor and participant’s gender in the context of a political sex scandal. Results show that among male participants, an attack is more successful at lowering evaluations of the opposing politician when the sponsor is female, while no significant results were found among female participants.
How Female and Male J/MC Authors Perceive the Journal Peer Review Process: Differently • Brendan Watson, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Daniel Riffe, University of North Carolina • Web-based survey (N=377) of J/MC scholars’ perceptions of peer-review for Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and “other mass communication journals.” JMCQ rated generally positive on measures of satisfaction, particularly for time of review, editorial correspondence, and reviewer professionalism and clarity. Other journals rated more positively on review usefulness for improving scholarship. No major JMCQ-others difference in perceived openness to ideologies, methods or topics. Manuscript rejection negatively predicts satisfaction, though women were less affected by rejection.
A Correlation Study on Chinese Young Female Audiences’ Exposure to American TV Drama, Perceived Realism, and Sex-related effects • Qi Ling, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Xin Zhang • Correlation between exposure to American TV drama, social cognitive element – perceived realism, and sex-related effects were investigated among 302 young female audiences in China. More exposure to American TV drama and higher perceived realism on it was associated with more permissive sexual attitude, while exerting weaker effect on female audiences’ beliefs of sexual double standard and sexual agency. Perceived utility of sexual content in American TV turned out to significantly predict the effects.
Sweetness and Strength: Codes of Femininity and Body Image in Branded Social-Networking Messages • Anne Holcomb, Western Michigan University • This study is a semiological textual analysis of Facebook Page updates by the Victoria’s Secret PINK and Nike Women apparel brands. This research carries the tradition of critical feminist media analysis into the 21st Century. The research uncovers six semiotic codes of femininity marketed to Facebook users: “cheekiness,” “sweetness,” and “spirit” were the three main codes found in PINK posts. “Role-model athleticism,” “globalism” and “discipline” were the three main codes found in Nike Women content.
Western media attitudes toward an immigrant of color sex crime victim: Case study: The DSK case • Jenny Mumah, University of North Texas • This qualitative content analysis examined the coverage of the DSK case by three international newspapers: the New York Times, The Guardian and Le Monde within a feminist framework. Findings suggest that the accuser, an immigrant woman, received less favorable coverage than the defendant. Frames identified in the coverage include the importance of status/prominence, race and male privilege.
“Try to Lift Someone Else as We Climb”: Building Bridges From Press Clubs to Women’s Liberation • Candi Carter Olson, University of Pittsburgh • This paper maps the business-minded Women’s Press Club of Pittsburgh onto the history of the radical women’s liberation movement. Through oral history interviews and archival research, this paper examines how the club’s efforts at racial integration and individual member’s successes in conquering barriers in other areas of the newsroom strengthened the broader women’s movement. Battles won by women in the 1960s and 1970s established a foundation for the next generation of women journalists.
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