Showing papers in "Journal of Communication Inquiry in 2012"
TL;DR: The authors examined the news behaviors and attitudes of teenagers, an understudied demographic in the research on youth and news media, based on interviews with 61 racially diverse high school students in the US.
Abstract: This article examines the news behaviors and attitudes of teenagers, an understudied demographic in the research on youth and news media. Based on interviews with 61 racially diverse high school st...
300 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that journalists discuss the emergence of these technologically specific forms of work in three distinct ways: (1) as exemplars of continuity; (2) as threats to be subordinated; and (3) as possibilities for journalistic reinvention.
Abstract: Changes in the technologies of news production do not simply modify journalistic practices; they also introduce what might be considered technologically specific forms of work. These work forms are rooted in the affordances of novel technical capacities while also making claims about the journalistic nature of such work. How do journalists discuss the emergence of these technologically specific forms? When are new work forms seen as contributing to the practices of journalism and when are they seen as threatening it? Drawing on archival research of industry discussions, this article argues that such work is discussed in three distinct ways: (1) as exemplars of continuity; (2) as threats to be subordinated; and (3) as possibilities for journalistic reinvention. Each mode, it is argued, points to different understandings of the relationship between journalistic work and technology and carries different implications about the changing nature of journalistic work in the digital age.
78 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that postracialism pervades public discourse and positions race and racism as ancient history with little bearing on contemporary culture, which impedes discourse on race in education, politi...
Abstract: Postracialism pervades public discourse and positions race and racism as ancient history with little bearing on contemporary culture. This orientation impedes discourse on race in education, politi...
69 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the experiences of women of color in academia by placing my narrative alongside literature about shapeshifters/werewolves and racism and sexism in the academy are discussed.
Abstract: This article centers the experiences of women of color in academia by placing my narrative alongside literature about shapeshifters/werewolves and racism and sexism in the academy. I use my narrati...
61 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe how television's perceived weakness at the turn of the century opened a rhetorical and economic space for entrepreneurs eager to curate and distribute web programs, and introduce various f...
Abstract: Television’s perceived weakness at the turn of the century opened a rhetorical and economic space for entrepreneurs eager to curate and distribute web programs. These companies introduced various f...
29 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the relationship between advertisings' directive to consume and the binary-based "legitimizing myths" surrounding feminine identity found in magazine advertisements by first-person readers.
Abstract: This article explores the relationship between advertisings’ directive to consume and the binary-based “legitimizing myths” surrounding feminine identity found in magazine advertisements by first p...
16 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors test Smythe's thesis of the audience commodity against emergent marketing paradigms and commercial models organized around interactive television and show that Smythe is wrong.
Abstract: This article tests Dallas Smythe’s thesis of the audience commodity against emergent marketing paradigms and commercial models organized around interactive television. Television technologies, incl...
15 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that radio activists cultivated a technical identity that served to mark boundaries between their group and others in the terrain of media democracy work, and that technical identity also took on special significance as the group grappled with organizational maturation, mitigating the anxiety felt by workers as they experienced the shift from an inexperienced, though highly driven and successful, to a more sustainable nonprofit activist organization.
Abstract: This article follows radio activists engaged in a combination of policy advocacy and broadening access to technology and skills through hands-on work. In practice, this largely played out as a systematic elevation of “technical” work and downplaying of policy/advocacy expertise, even though both were salient features of their work. The article argues that radio activists cultivated a technical identity that served to mark boundaries between their group and others in the terrain of media democracy work. Technical identity also took on special significance as the group grappled with organizational maturation, mitigating the anxiety felt by workers as they experienced the shift from an inexperienced, though highly driven and successful activist collective, to a more sustainable nonprofit activist organization. The article concludes by naming technological activism as one strategy in the wider spectrum of work to promote media democracy and speculates on the consequences of technical identity within the wider...
15 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the issues of online representations of orphans in China and India in the intersection of power, voice, and placement are explored using the theoretical frameworks of voicings, whiteness, and the colonial gaze.
Abstract: This article is an attempt to explore the issues of online representations of orphans in China and India in the intersection of power, voice, and placement. Textual and visual representations of orphans at www.homeofhopeindia.org and www.homeofhope.org are analyzed using the theoretical frameworks of voicings, Whiteness, and the colonial (technological) gaze. We examine how online networks are spaces for discursive reproduction of existing offline hegemonies. We pay particular attention to the reproduction and representation of the so-called voiceless Other in online settings.
13 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors call attention to the importance of time as a vantage point from which the intersection between finance, media, and information can be critiqued, arguing that the existence of financial television relies on the creation of new financial markets and the centralization of information to financial transaction.
Abstract: This article calls attention to the importance of time as a vantage point from which the intersection between finance, media, and information can be critiqued. The neoliberal temporality is constituted by both abstract time and historical time of the media. The sense of abstract time constructed by financial television is critiqued: the paradox of low production cost of television programs and high commercial value of advertisement spots illustrates the inherent contradictions of capitalism. The existence of financial television relies on the creation of new financial markets and the centralization of information to financial transaction—both phenomenon ought to be understood in the context of the historical time marked by neoliberalism since 1970s.
12 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the connections between American military recruitment history and DeBeers' "Fighting Diamond" advertisements via a series of archival materials from the N.W. Ayer and Son Advertising Agency Records at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Archives Center.
Abstract: In the 1940s, the advertising agency, N.W. Ayer, created for then-client, DeBeers Consolidated Mines, a campaign that wedded the values of patriotism, American citizenship, and luxury consumerism through advertising copy. The text and accompanying images touted what they termed “Fighting Diamonds.” While most American military and labor propaganda of World War II encouraged civilians to sacrifice, ration, and save, “Fighting Diamonds” ads assured would-be buyers that their wartime gemstone diamond and jewelry splurges supported the Allied Forces. This article examines the connections between American military recruitment history and DeBeers’ “Fighting Diamond” advertisements via a series of archival materials from the N.W. Ayer and Son Advertising Agency Records at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Archives Center. I argue that “Fighting Diamonds” were part of a growing trend within advertisement propaganda that positioned American political participation and civic duties increasingly as...
TL;DR: It can be concluded that a gradual shift is taking place in who fulfills the gatekeeper’s role as to what extent viewers apply an active search process toward video content.
Abstract: This article focuses on how viewers decide what to watch in a context of almost infinite video content availability and a lasting expansion of the process of digitization. We investigate to what extent viewers apply an active search process toward video content. Therefore we applied a focus group methodology. Seven focus group sessions were conducted, totaling 47 participants. We found that this process is guided by a combination of contextual, content-related, and personal factors, which simultaneously free as well as restrict the viewer in his choice. Moreover it can be concluded that a gradual shift is taking place in who fulfills the gatekeeper’s role.
TL;DR: In this paper, the author read the German philosopher Karl-Otto Apel as a communication theorist and examined five fields of significance for communication theory in the early 20th century.
Abstract: In this article the author reads the German philosopher Karl-Otto Apel as a communication theorist. After a brief biographical introduction, the author examines five fields of significance pertinen...
TL;DR: The Net Effect: Romanticism, Capitalism, and the Internet by Thomas Streeter as mentioned in this paper was one of the first books to explore the connection between romanticism, capitalism and the internet.
Abstract: Having just finished reading Thomas Streeter’s (2011a) new book, The Net Effect: Romanticism, Capitalism, and the Internet, when the news of Steve Jobs’ passing broke I couldn’t help but wonder how Streeter’s argument about the mythic American narrative of entrepreneurs could help us to understand the outpouring of media eulogies that remembered him as a visionary entrepreneur, a hero, and a genius who changed the world. To better understand the media memory and posthumous celebration of Steve Jobs as well as a host of other recent issues such as the digital labor debates and the SOPA/PIPA bills I contacted Thomas Streeter. The following interview, conducted by email, documents our conversation on those issues and other topics discussed in The Net Effect.
TL;DR: Hilmes, Newcomb, and Meehan as mentioned in this paper discussed what television was and what we can learn from its past. But they focused on the early years of television history.
Abstract: Three media studies scholars who are very well known for their works on television history, Michele Hilmes, Horace Newcomb, and Eileen Meehan, were invited to speak on a plenary panel that discusses what television was and what we can learn from its past. Michele Hilmes talks about how television is “radio with pictures,” Horace Newcomb talks about early television studies and the Peabody Awards, and Eileen Meehan talks about the “known unknowns” regarding television’s past. This is the transcript of the panel discussion.
TL;DR: The authors examines the period between 2000 and 2004 when Palestine Media Watch (PMW) lobbied newsworkers and does so in order to uncover what journalistic responses to PMW reveal about journalism's professional ideology.
Abstract: In September 2000 Palestine Media Watch (PMW), a group of activists who were critical of American journalism’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, began to lobby journalists to revise their coverage. They lobbied by appealing to professional journalism’s ideal-typical traits and by bombarding news organizations with complaints. This study examines the period between 2000 and 2004 when PMW lobbied newsworkers and does so in order to uncover what journalistic responses to PMW—what criticisms journalists legitimized and what criticisms they rejected—reveal about journalism’s professional ideology. The study finds that journalism’s ideal-typical traits possess a core-like quality that allows critics to make professionally resonating criticisms but that journalism’s fluidity often prevents these criticisms from achieving a “journalistically useful” level in which coverage revisions result. Journalism’s ideal-typical traits are so fluid, in fact, that professional journalists will often denigrate thei...
TL;DR: The authors conducted a dual analysis of the textual and extratextual features of Americanos: Latino Life in the United States/La Vida Latina en Los Estados Unidos, a coproduction of Olmos Productions, Time Warner, and the Smithsonian Institution, that presents a generous vision of both Latina/os and America.
Abstract: At the turn of the century, data from the 2000 U.S. Census announced an emergent population of 35 million Latina/os, and focused the attention of journalists, media producers, politicians, and marketing demographers on Latina/o individuals and Latinidad as a coherent structure of feeling that might unite a disparate group who share a common ancestry. Since then, Latina/os have garnered an extraordinary amount of attention from cultural producers and audiences alike. This essay conducts a dual analysis of the textual and extratextual features of Americanos: Latino Life in the United States/La Vida Latina en Los Estados Unidos, a coproduction of Olmos Productions, Time Warner, and the Smithsonian Institution, that presents a generous vision of both Latina/os and America. While Americanos does indeed display affirmative representations of Latina/o life, the conditions of its production yield a text that adheres to the dominant ideologies of multiculturalism and the American Dream. By articulating Latinidad w...
TL;DR: A special issue based on What is Television? A Conference Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Television was released in 2013 as mentioned in this paper. But the special issue focused on the past, present and future of television has not yet been discussed.
Abstract: This essay introduces the special issue based on What is Television? A Conference Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Television.