Showing papers in "Journal of Communication Inquiry in 2001"
TL;DR: In the 1990s, popular discourse shifted toward what some might consider "pro-girl" rhetoric as discussed by the authors, and women began talking about a shi cation of women's empowerment.
Abstract: During the 1990s, popular discourse shifted toward what some might consider “pro-girl” rhetoric. At the same time, in the academy as well as among feminist activists, women began talking about a sh...
100 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated newspaper coverage of the political movement Deaf President Now (DPN) for evidence of positive or negative framing in photographic and written content and found that DPN en...
Abstract: Newspaper coverage of the political movement Deaf President Now (DPN) was evaluated for evidence of positive or negative framing in photographic and written content. This research found that DPN en...
34 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider Policing the Crisis' continued significance some three decades into the crime wave that began in the United States and use it as a sinecure.
Abstract: This article considers Policing the Crisis' continued significance some three decades into the crime wave that began in the United States. Specifically, this article uses Policing the Crisis as a s...
24 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on cyberspace myths about the end of politics and how these are manifested in two substantive developments: the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a lobbying organization led by George Gilder, Alvin Toffler, Newt Gingrich and others, and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), whose protective shield promises to safeguard the United States from nuclear annihilation.
Abstract: Communication scholars have used the concept of myth to understand important concerns of both the political economy and cultural analysis of communication. This article builds on this work by examining myths about cyberspace and is part of a wider project that aims to address issues on the borders of political economy and cultural studies. Specifically, our understanding of cyberspace can benefit by theorizing it as a mythic space marked by powerful beliefs about a radical and transcendent disjunction celebrating the end of history, the end of geography, and the end of politics. The article concentrates on cyberspace myths about the end of politics and how these are manifested in two substantive developments: the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a lobbying organization led by George Gilder, Alvin Toffler, Newt Gingrich, and others, and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), whose protective shield promises to safeguard the United States from nuclear annihilation.
23 citations
TL;DR: The authors draw on recent studies of the Walt Disney Company that have used a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to challenge some of the myths that surround the company, its products, and its creator, Walt Disney.
Abstract: The article draws on recent studies of the Walt Disney Company that have used a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to challenge some of the myths that surround the company, its products, and its creator, Walt Disney. The discussion considers five assumptions that are typically made about Disney: (1) Walt Disney was a creative genius who was responsible for the company's success; (2) the Disney company is somehow special and unique, not like other corporations; (3) Disney is only for kids; (4) Disney's products are harmless, safe, and unbiased; and (5) everyone adores Disney. The arguments that challenge these myths are drawn from a wide range of studies from different disciplines but rely heavily on the integration of political economy, critical cultural analysis, and reception research.
18 citations
TL;DR: A series of LEXISNEXIS searches was performed between April and October 1998 for news stories and broadcast news transcripts from 1990 to the present that focused either on news media coverage or the practice of journalism as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The past decade has seen a marked increase in the amount of coverage afforded the “media angle” in major news stories. But where do journalists turn to find support for stories they write about themselves? It is hypothesized that certain sources do recur in these stories. A series of LEXIS-NEXIS searches was performed between April and October 1998 for news stories and broadcast news transcripts from 1990 to the present that focused either on news media coverage or the practice of journalism. Stories were taken from major daily newspapers in the United States and broadcast transcripts from ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. In all, nearly 3,500 source citations from 677 newspaper stories and 131 broadcast news transcripts were coded. The analysis revealed that former CBS reporter Marvin Kalb was the most frequently cited source during this period, followed by Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, author and University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato, Bill Kovach, a former journalist now affiliated with...
16 citations
TL;DR: The mass media ideology was then inscribed onto the interactive TV system, actually determining its design, how it was built, and its strategies of technical deployment as mentioned in this paper, which was effectively a return to the concept of the conventional model of TV mass media.
Abstract: The building process of a technology system involves more than a mechanical combination of technical components. It follows particular organizing ideas and principles—the organizing ideology—of technology. This organizing ideology guides firms in their use of technology and in its manufacturing and marketing. Since the 1970s, telecommunications firms have conducted a great number of technical and commercial interactive TV trials. Interactive TV was believed to be a revolutionary new medium. Contrary to such rhetoric, the organizing ideology of interactive TV varied little from that of traditional TV. It was effectively a return to the concept of the conventional model of TV mass media. This mass media ideology was then inscribed onto the interactive TV system, actually determining its design, how it was built, and its strategies of technical deployment. This conceptual and institutional inertia was a main factor in the development of biases in the technological, institutional, and cultural structure of in...
16 citations
TL;DR: This article applied textual and ideological analysis, layered on a cultural studies framework, to explore the stylistic shift of the diet industry from rapid weight loss to one or a combination of these themes: (1) that using the product is part of a well-balanced diet and will help the dieter limit fat intake, (2) that dieter controls the evolution of this new "healthy dieting"...
Abstract: The diet industry came under fire in the 1980s for making unsubstantiated promises to the millions of Americans who buy diet products and enlist in diet regimens. Instead of telling dieters that their products will help them quickly lose a great deal of weight, these companies now urge Americans to diet in a healthy fashion. They have rejected fad dieting and now preach weight management as the key to maintaining one's health. Along the way, they have started to poke fun at the claims they previously made about the effectiveness of their products. This article applies textual and ideological analysis, layered on a cultural studies framework, to explore this stylistic shift. A textual analysis of commercials for these products reveals that their thematic focus has shifted from rapid weight loss to one or a combination of these themes: (1) that using the product is part of a well-balanced diet and will help the dieter limit fat intake, (2) that the dieter controls the evolution of this new “healthy dieting”...
16 citations
TL;DR: This article explored how a Kenyan-owned newsmagazine, the Nairobi-based Weekly Review, represented female advocacy based on combative motherhood, such that advocates were portrayed either as overly aggressive women ill equipped for public debate or as well-meaning mothers whose advocacy was easily co-opted by opposition politicans.
Abstract: This historical case study explores how a Kenyan-owned newsmagazine, the Nairobi-based Weekly Review, represented female advocacy based on combative motherhood. Maxine Molyneux developed the concept to describe a strategy whereby women draw on their moral authority as mothers to assert their legitimacy in an otherwise male-dominated political arena. This research is based on a textual analysis on all news, features, and editorials about the Mothers of Political Prisoners' 1992 hunger strike for the release of their sons. This article argues that framing emerging from coverage created a split between the fundamental elements of combative motherhood, such that advocates were portrayed either as overly aggressive women ill equipped for public debate or as well-meaning mothers whose advocacy was easily co-opted by opposition politicans. Coverage invoked culturally specific identity discourses about gender and ethnicity as a key means of suggesting these frames.
15 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the Web-based promotional discourse of the American golf community in an effort to highlight the intimate relationship between material and social space. But their analysis revealed a complex negotiation of American core values, underpinned by significant tensions concerning purity, exclusivity, freedom, and control.
Abstract: This study examines the Web-based promotional discourse of the American golf community in an effort to highlight the intimate relationship between material and social space. It is argued that golf communities represent uniquely imagined spaces in which identity is worked and power is wielded. In examining specificities of the physical space that the residents share, the requirements for accessing and/or belonging to the golf community, and in particular the marketing strategies employed by community developers, an attempt is made to bring into relief the broader themes that underlie formative American ideologies of nature, individualism, democracy, and class privilege. A rhetorical analysis of Web-based appeals to prospective golf community members reveals a complex negotiation of American core values, underpinned by significant tensions concerning purity, exclusivity, freedom, and control.
14 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the dialogical notion of fundamentalism in ultra-orthodox Jewish preachers and show that although the fundamentalist preachers portray themselves as embedded in a fixed cherished past, it is the modern/postmodern dialogue that constitutes their identity.
Abstract: Although fundamentalism would like to portray itself as devoted to the monologic voice of past tradition, it is the modern-laden rhetoric that reconstructs its traditional image, and through this stance constitutes its identity. In this study, while analyzing speeches of ultra-orthodox Jewish preachers, the authors present the dialogical notion of fundamentalism. More specifically, the article aims to show that although the fundamentalist preachers portray themselves as embedded in a fixed cherished past, it is the modern/postmodern dialogue that constitutes their identity.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the contemporary situation of media saturation and hypercommercialism calls for an alternative model of communication that accounts for the current political economic conditi cation, and propose an alternative communication model that is consistent with the current economic conditions.
Abstract: The authors argue that the contemporary situation of media saturation and hypercommercialism calls for an alternative model of communication that accounts for the current political-economic conditi...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed different discursive strategies through which women politicians express themselves in the Slovenian press and found that women politicians in Slovenia spontaneously express their femininity through different myths about women: woman as a body and sex object, woman as martyr, and woman as an enigma and threat.
Abstract: The authors have analyzed different discursive strategies through which women politicians express themselves in the Slovenian press. Based on a constructivist paradigm which defines gender as a discursively constructed category the authors have applied discourse analysis to discover how many women politicians articulate and reproduce certain dominant myths of femininity in accordance with hegemonic discourses paying special attention to the notion of sexist language. Female politicians in Slovenia spontaneously express their femininity through different myths about women: woman as a body and sex object woman as a martyr woman as a loving and caring individual and woman as an enigma and threat. As women politicians in Slovenia are interpellated in a broader dominant ideological discursive framework they do not challenge hegemonic beliefs and myths in society. (authors)
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use the present political economy of communication as a vantage point from which to examine the issue of alternative media, dominant power relations, and the ideological constructs arising from and perpetuated by such relations.
Abstract: This article uses the present political economy of communication as a vantage point from which to examine the issue of alternative media, dominant power relations, and the ideological constructs arising from and perpetuated by such relations. An exercise in antilabor public relations, or “scientific strikebreaking,” is examined and juxtaposed with how such messages were received by a working-class community during the 1930s as evidenced in the editorial commentary and reportage of its labor newspaper. A theoretical approach that provides for the consideration of psychic and material domination through myth and discursive resistance to such domination provides a framework within which to examine the dialectical exchange. The contested meaning of “harmony” and similar contradictory themes of the advertising suggests the emergence of a working-class consciousness at a specific historical juncture and points to the importance of alternative media locally and nationally. Furthermore, previous studies of business-sponsored propaganda campaigns in the 1930s and 1940s have not considered to any significant degree how working-class people and their media interpreted and resisted these and similar messages on an immediate level.
TL;DR: Facing further censorship on advertising, cigarette companies exploited the billboard in the 1990s as discussed by the authors, which posed problems of communication because of the short time for perception. All the compa...
Abstract: Facing further censorship on advertising, cigarette companies exploited the billboard in the 1990s. Billboards pose problems of communication because of the short time for perception. All the compa...
TL;DR: Most media scholars interested in cultural studies and most cultural studies scholars define culture as a whole way of life and then operationalize the study of culture as the analysis of texts as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This article reflects on problems in defining and operationalizing the term culture. Most media scholars interested in cultural studies and most cultural studies scholars define culture as a whole way of life and then operationalize the study of culture as the analysis of texts. This reduction of a whole way of living, being, and doing in the world to reading texts has methodological benefits, but it obscures experiential differences that mark the processes of encoding and decoding artifacts, differences between types of artifacts, and experiential and economic differences in access to the technology necessary to gain exposure to specific artifacts. Furthermore, as the language of this abstract suggests, the reduction tends to eliminate human beings from discussions about texts and culture. Perhaps we need to theorize culture in a way that recognizes human beings as well as texts.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors uncover themes and patterns that suggest a latent ideology and create a ritual of transformation in Michael Jackson's Dangerous video, which ritually transforms viewers from interpersonal and societal tensions of the 1990s to a utopian ideology that unites all peoples.
Abstract: Michael Jackson's video, Dangerous, moves viewers beyond space and time to a liminal reality that invites the audience to identify with the music, lyrics, images, and persona of Jackson. This offers to ritually transform viewers from interpersonal and societal tensions of the 1990s to a utopian ideology that unites all peoples. Rhetorical analysis is used to uncover themes and patterns that suggest this latent ideology and create a ritual of transformation. This study uncovers the rhetorical movement of the ritual process within the video text. Jackson himself is the liminal bridge offering to move fans from victim to deity status. Ultimately, this ideology transforms Jackson as his persona is constructed, but it fails as it offers temporary solutions to tensions that reflect the status quo.
TL;DR: In this paper, student interpretations of the film The Lion King reflect a linear, behaviorist understanding of communication, which Carey has called the transmission paradigm, which can be divided into three categories: (1) responses that reflected the assumption that a message must reflect the sender's intentions, (2) responses were concrete things that are “inside” of a text, and (3) responses had a message can be effectively or ineffectively interpreted by a receiver, who must be cognizant of the message if it is to have an effect.
Abstract: Student interpretations of the film The Lion King reflect a linear, behaviorist understanding of communication, which Carey has called the transmission paradigm. The ways in which the students' discourse reflected the assumptions of the transmission paradigm can be divided into three categories: (1) responses that reflected the assumption that a message must reflect the sender's intentions, (2) responses that reflected the assumption that messages are concrete things that are “inside” of a text, and (3) responses that reflected the assumption that a message can be effectively or ineffectively interpreted by a receiver, who must be cognizant of the message if it is to have an effect.
TL;DR: This paper argued that disk jockeys were pressured by recording industry largess and station management, which constrained their autonomy and public representations and contradicted the democratic ideology articulated by the U.S. broadcasting industry.
Abstract: While much historiography on U.S. radio and popular music of the postwar period portrays disk jockeys as having a large degree of freedom, this article challenges this rendition and argues that their autonomy was constrained by a number of institutional and industry pressures. Based on discourses in industry and lay publications, the author argues that disk jockeys were pressured by recording industry largess and station management, which constrained their autonomy and public representations and contradicted the democratic ideology articulated by the U.S. broadcasting industry. Rather than neutral arbiters of public tastes, disk jockeys were complicit in a concerted effort to endow undifferentiated commodities with symbolic capital.
TL;DR: For more than twenty years, until they were banned in 1971, cigarette commercials were a staple of American television as mentioned in this paper. During this period, tobacco companies spent millions of dollars producing and a...
Abstract: For more than twenty years—until they were banned in 1971—cigarette commercials were a staple of American television. During this period, tobacco companies spent millions of dollars producing and a...
TL;DR: La Florida, a popular Quebecois film produced in the United States, was used to reexamine the figure of a Franco-Quebecois community in Florida and how it unsettles the politics of nationalism in its northern adjunct.
Abstract: Even as the lack of necessary congruence between national boundaries and cultural identities becomes elsewhere a point of consensus, cultural politics in Francophone North America turn exactly around the concept of a nascent nation-state and how to achieve it. How do popular media intersect with this ongoing process through the textual production of diasporic identities, both abroad and at home? How do such texts help citizenship weave diaspora's figures of internationalism and, at home, transculturalism back into the nationstate? This article addresses these questions by starting from La Florida, a popular Quebecois film produced in the United States, to reexamine the figure of a Franco-Quebecois community in Florida and how it unsettles the politics of nationalism in its northern adjunct. Citizenship, it is argued, becomes the interface through which regimes of value travel between state and individual, binding individual obligations with affectivities and wrapping together citizens and patriots; this, ...
TL;DR: The campaign for instructional channels for American schoolchildren was a lively and passionate discourse by educators who believed U.S. education would be markedly improved through the use of television technology.
Abstract: The 1950-51 battle for educational channels produced 914 oral and written statements, achieved 11.7 percent of the spectrum, and ushered in a television system dedicated to formal, in-school instruction. The campaign for instructional channels for American schoolchildren was a lively and passionate discourse by educators who believed U.S. education would be markedly improved through the use of television technology. Many were convinced that their efforts were nonprofit television's last chance for spectrum space, and they joined in a successful effort to produce the electromagnetic framework that stands today as channels for public television. Even so, the strategic decision by the Joint Committee on Educational Television and National Association of Educational Broadcasters to promote a specialized, in-school use of noncommercial TV was a move that abandoned other constituencies and narrowly defined educational television as instructional. A public service became a teaching tool, and the cost was a publi...