United States media portrayals of the developing world: A semiotic analysis of the One campaign's internet web site

TLDR: The authors examined how the One organization's Web site either supports or rejects established literature that concludes that U.S. media contains negative representations of the developing world. But, they did find that One's portrayal of the developed world supports the general conclusion of negative portrayals in U. S. media.

Abstract: The goal of this research was to examine how the One organization's Web site either supports or rejects established literature that concludes that U.S. media contains negative representations of the developing world. This thesis offers a semiotic critique of the One -organization's Home, About, Issues, and FAQs Web site pages' visual and verbal portrayals of people in Africa, and how these portrayals establish or counteract cultural imperialism. The visual and verbal representations portrayed on One's Web site are a mixture of positive and negative representations. Many of the messages follow the all too frequently witnessed depictions of negativity; however, there are a few messages that convey positive representations of the situations facing the developing world. While the four Web pages under critical examination did display a select few positive representations of the developing nations of Africa, the overall finding is that One's portrayal of the developing world supports the general conclusion of negative portrayals in U.S. media.