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ETD Abstract Container

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Remember Women: The Los Angeles Times’ Role in Perpetuating Harmful Narratives Against Marginalized Women Victims in the “Southside Slayer” Serial Killer Cases

Menard, Laura Leigh
http://orcid.org/0009-0008-0028-3430
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1684155892636127

Abstract Details

2023, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD.
This dissertation examined media rhetoric in the Los Angeles Times about 51 murdered marginalized women in the “Southside Slayer” serial killer cases. The “Southside Slayer” was five different Black men who did not fit the profile of a serial killer and were able to continue murdering women from 1983 to 2007. The victims and/or killers were all associated at one point with the “Southside Slayer” moniker and/or task force, even though some of the killers were later given different nicknames in the press. The goal of this study was to identify harmful narratives against marginalized women victims, and how they were perpetuated through the Los Angeles Times. Through qualitative archival research and a feminist social constructionist lens, language and word/phrase choices in 126 articles from the Los Angeles Times dating from 1985 to 2020 were examined for the use of synecdoche, derogatory language, and negatively connotative language when referring to the fifty-one women. In addition, use of the victims’ names, use of the killers’ names, and use of killer-friendly language were examined. Using critical discourse analysis and grounded theory, harmful narratives and dehumanization of the women were perpetuated through the underuse of victims’ names combined with overused combinations of synecdoche, derogatory, and/or negatively connotative words/phrases. Digital media of today was also examined, and perpetuation or disruption of the harmful narratives and dehumanization varied.
Lee Nickoson, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Christopher Ward, Ph.D. (Other)
Radhika Gajjala, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Chad Iwertz-Duffy, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
232 p.
Composition; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Rhetoric; Social Structure; Womens Studies
media rhetoric; rhetoric; serial killers; marginalized women; Southside Slayer; critical discourse analysis; grounded theory; feminist; social constructionism; harmful narratives; narratives; body; prostitute; dumped; dump; bodies; remains; strawberry; sex workers; dumping; Black women victims; Grim Sleeper; murder; digital media; digital rhetoric;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Menard, L. L. (2023). Remember Women: The Los Angeles Times’ Role in Perpetuating Harmful Narratives Against Marginalized Women Victims in the “Southside Slayer” Serial Killer Cases [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1684155892636127

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Menard, Laura. Remember Women: The Los Angeles Times’ Role in Perpetuating Harmful Narratives Against Marginalized Women Victims in the “Southside Slayer” Serial Killer Cases. 2023. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1684155892636127.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Menard, Laura. "Remember Women: The Los Angeles Times’ Role in Perpetuating Harmful Narratives Against Marginalized Women Victims in the “Southside Slayer” Serial Killer Cases." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1684155892636127

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1684155892636127
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© 2023, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.