Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation explores the role of African media in shaping Africa's image through both the analysis of newspapers over the course of the 2014 Ebola crisis and an exploration of African films. This methodology redeploys aspects of Africa's (in)visibility in global politics and discourse on representation in geopolitics. Placing African film and media organizations at the center of analysis in this study is vital, as they add diversity of voices to the conversation about Africa's image in the media. The dissertation looks at how Africa is framed as perpetually “in crisis.” Specifically, the research engages analysis of African film and media depictions under the premise of crises to advance Africa's visual culture and representation. I am interested in exploring how coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in The Inquirer, a major English newspaper in Liberia, compares with that in the New York Times coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Likewise, I explore how African cinema frames and represents crisis through three films – Xala (Ousmane Sembene, 1975); Pumzi (Wanuri Kahiu, 2009); and Les Saignantes (Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 2005). I argue that African films speak to the possibility of positive anticipated outcomes ignored by western scholars, and, therefore, possess the agency to decolonize minds. For instance, Pumzi and Les Saignantes offer an outlook on Africa's challenges and possibilities through newly imagined futures. Precisely, the selected films first address Africa's crisis in relation to the political, economic, and environmental struggle as well as gender discourses and, second, offer a prescription of development and progress. How do African filmmakers and media personnel, through their various creative works, reconstruct Africa's global identity? Finally, I advance that this research gives voice to how Africa frames crisis. This dissertation interrogates an unbalanced global power structure that has been typically Eurocentric. Taking an opposing pos (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrea Frohne (Committee Chair); Erin Schlumpf (Committee Co-Chair); Steve Howard (Committee Member); Ghirmai Negash (Committee Member) Subjects: African History; African Literature; African Studies; Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; Communication; Comparative Literature; Mass Communications; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2017, Mass Communication (Communication)

The minute the 26th Ebola Virus Disease broke out in parts of West Africa in 2014, journalists and media practitioners in the region went straight to work in keeping their citizens informed about the strange and deadly disease. Armed with nothing but their pens, papers, voices and computers, West African journalists in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries most affected by the pandemic, struggled to communicate the noxious pandemic to their citizens who were at the mercy of the virus and were dying in droves by the day. In spite of the numerous challenges they faced, West African journalists in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and other countries in the sub-region kicked their `interventionism' role into overdrive and braved the frontlines of the deadly disease just to get the information for their citizens. While reporting on the outbreak, some journalists got infected and died, others had their human rights to free speech infringed upon and faced harassment from their governments based on what they had said or written. Some employed innovative methods in reporting the disease while others were branded as alarmist and rumor peddlers. The African approach to reporting health emergency was evident. In Sierra Leone, journalists there said they agreed to partner with the government and practiced development journalism with the goal of helping the government to end the pandemic. Various templates used in reporting normal stories were experimented until journalists found the best way to communicate the disease to their citizens. With Ebola declared over in Sierra Leone, journalists believed they played a major role to take Sierra Leone out of the Ebola nightmare. This study took a comparative approach to inquire from West African journalists in Sierra Leone and Ghana who reported on the 2014 Ebola outbreak about their lived experiences in covering the disease. The purpose was to find out the differences and similarities in the approach used by West Afric (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steve Howard PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Comparative Literature; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Public Health

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, Mass Communication (Communication)

Studies of media coverage and framing of armed conflict in Africa routinely focus on the roles of Western media. In the post-independent periods, foreign media provided in-depth news as some African countries degenerated into armed conflicts. As Africa's newest country became dangerous for journalists, South Sudan's post-independence government imposed restrictions on local journalists' coverage of the third civil war (2013-2020). In neighboring Kenya, the East African (TEA) became a de facto regional African media covering the conflict during this period. This dissertation focused its qualitative examinations of TEA archives to explore the newspaper's coverage and framing of the conflict as an African newspaper. This research further examined TEAs' role in agenda-setting and framing theoretical frameworks. Among other conclusions, the dissertation found that TEA shaped the news agenda by using officials' news sources' narratives and framings. The study also concluded that as an African newspaper, TEA did not offer unique coverage or news framing; instead, it followed the traditional journalist practice of using and relying on officials as news sources. This dissertation is limited to the East African newspaper as a case study.

Committee: Steve Howard (Advisor) Subjects: Mass Communications; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

This dissertation focuses on the development of the Lost Cause mythology in North Carolina between the 1880s to the 1920s. The Lost Cause is a racist and inaccurate view of the Civil War years promoted by Neo-Confederate Southerners. This dissertation argues that the Lost Cause developed primarily through the efforts of Neo-Confederate organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy. These individuals built a compound-public space that united grassroots movements with official governmental figures to promote the Lost Cause mythology. The formation of this compound-public space and its impact on the Lost Cause provided the necessary cultural support for the development of a Democratic-backed white supremacist campaign in North Carolina in 1898 conducted to reduce the political power of Republicans and African Americans, and to re-establish Democratic hegemony. This dissertation explores the ways in which Neo-Confederates constructed the compound-public space including: the role of politics, gender, religion, education, the media, and Confederate monuments with the express goal of increasing the political power of the Democratic Party.

Committee: Joan Cashin (Advisor); John Brooke (Advisor); Stephanie Shaw (Committee Member); Paula Baker (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Black History; Education History; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Journalism; Mass Media; Modern History; Religion; Religious History; Teacher Education; Womens Studies

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2021, Journalism (Communication)

This study evaluates the popular Nigerian-based women's magazines, Today's Woman, Genevieve, and Exquisite, to uncover how the editorial content of these publications represent Nigerian femininity and womanhood, using social representations theory, originally coined by Serge Moscovici in 1961, as a theoretical framework. This study also evaluates how the representations of women featured in the editorial content of these magazines align with the theory of africana womanism. By conducting a qualitative textual analysis of 60 articles, this study found that Nigerian women are most frequently and significantly represented by their jobs/careers, the condition of their bodies, their self-esteem/self-sufficiency, the opinions of others, and their life challenges. This construction of Nigerian femininity and womanhood supported the following tenets of africana womanism: ambition, role flexibility, recognition, strength, black female sisterhood, respect, wholeness, adaptable, self-definition, and male compatibility.

Committee: Elizabeth Hendrickson (Committee Chair); Eddith Dashiell (Committee Member); Rosanna Planer (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Black Studies; Gender Studies; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Sub Saharan Africa Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Mass Communication (Communication)

This dissertation analyzes the ways Eritrean migrants adapted PalTalk chatrooms as venues for political deliberation, activism, and peacebuilding. By relating to annihilated traditional and modern civic spheres in the country, I explore how diaspora Eritreans build dynamic communities of solidarity and engage in counter activities against their government. Primarily using in-depth interviews and archival analysis, I have documented some milestone achievements this online community was able to accomplish in the period between 2000 and 2016, identifying breaking the spiral of silence in the diaspora, mobilizing protests, and consolidating clear political opinions. I also examine the role of Eritrean PalTalk chatrooms in building peace and deterring violence in relation to the overarching question about the role of new media in building peace. By focusing on a popular PalTalk chatroom called Smer, I identify the promotion of non-violent struggle, peace education, and truth sharing as important communicative exercises that can serve as examples that new media can contribute positively for peace and national healing. I also underscore how a sense of enervation with war and violence has inclined many Eritreans to pursue a negative peace that aspires the end of militarized governance and forced conscription.

Committee: Steve Howard Prof. (Advisor); Wolfgand Suetzl Dr. (Committee Member); Devika Chawla Prof. (Committee Member); Ghirmai Negash Prof. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Music Ethnomusicology

The Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira has become an increasingly popular sport in the United States. Capoeira performances consist of a back-and-forth exchange of movements between two players in conjunction with a musical ensemble to accompany the physical display. Since the introduction of capoeira in the United States in the 1970s, capoeira has become the focus of various social institutions. The objective of this thesis is to acknowledge and problematize the impact American culture has made on capoeira aesthetics. The methods for this thesis included research in the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, post-colonial theory, and transatlantic studies. Fieldwork was conducted to acquire first hand accounts of capoeira practitioners from the Michigan Center for Capoeira. Lastly, an analysis of the portrayal of capoeira in the media examines how capoeira is showcased to audiences in the United States. Historical accounts, academic discourse, capoeira practitioners, and popular culture reveal how American culture has received capoeira. My research has shown that capoeira culture is represented and interpreted by various groups, such as scholars, American capoeira academies, and the media. These different interpretations have resulted in the displacement, fragmentation, or misrepresentation of capoeira history in the context of American culture. I conclude that dominant social structures have inherently changed how capoeira is discussed in academia, practiced in American academies, and portrayed in the media. Dominant social structures in the United States favor product over process. For capoeira, valuing product over process means highlighting performance and devaluing various Afro-diasporic rituals and practices. My solution to avoid fragmentation and misinterpretation of capoeira culture is to reiterate the importance of the African diaspora to practicing capoeira students in the United States. Acknowled (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kara Attrep (Advisor); Megan Rancier (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Dance; Ethnic Studies; History; Latin American History; Latin American Studies; Music; Music Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, American Culture Studies

This study examines the community-based political work of the pionero generation of Puerto Rican migrants to New York City from their collective naturalization under the Jones Act in 1917 to 1948, when political changes on the island changed migration flows to North America. Through discourse analysis of media narratives in black, white mainstream, and Spanish-language newspapers, as well as an examination of histories of Puerto Rican and allied activism in Harlem, I analyze how Puerto Ricans of this era utilized and articulated their own citizenship- both as a formal legal status and as a broader sense of belonging. By viewing this political work through the perspectives of a range of Harlem political actors, I offer new insights as to how the overlapping and interconnected multicultural communities in Harlem contributed to New York's status (in the words of historian Juan Flores) as a "diaspora city." I argue that as Puerto Ricans came to constitute a greater social force in the city, dominant narratives within their discursive and political work shifted from a search for recognition by the rest of society to a demand for empowerment from the bottom up and emanating from the Puerto Rican community outward, leading to a diasporic consciousness which encompassed both the quotidian problems of life in the diaspora and the political and economic issues of the island. A localized process of community-building bound diaspora Puerto Ricans more closely together and re-constituted internal social connections, supported an analysis of social problems shared with other Latinx people and African Americans, and utilized ideological solidarities to encourage coalitional politics as a means for mutual empowerment. In drawing Puerto Ricans into a broad and rich history of Harlem, I consider the insights of a range of neighborhood individuals and groups, including African American and West Indian (im)migrants, allied white populations such as progressive Italians and pacif (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susana Peña Dr. (Advisor); Lara Lengel Dr. (Other); Vibha Bhalla Dr. (Committee Member); Nicole Jackson Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Ethnic Studies; Hispanic American Studies; Hispanic Americans; History; Latin American History; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2017, Mass Communication (Communication)

This study examines returnee African women's identity articulations in the web series An African City. Specifically, the research focuses on the appropriation of a U.S. popular cultural text perceived as more powerful by a Ghanaian producer in the creation of counter-discourses, cultural spaces, and identities in alternative media. Using multi-theoretical lenses – a framework of in-betweeness - the study is grounded in the theory of articulation to examine how the web series An African City uses Sex And The City in response to Western monolithic representations of African women. A social constructivist framework that considers identities as shifting subjectivities are interrogated through the theoretical lenses of transnational postcolonial feminism, using a framework of in-betweeness informed by hybridity and conviviality as intempestivity. The study makes theoretical links to transnational postcolonial feminisms, invoked by specific intersections of returnee African women. Using articulation analyses, thematic links are made between the series and in-depth interview with the series producer and focus group interviews with African women in Ghana and American diaspora. The argument is made that a continuum of `outsidenes' and `insideness' informs any system of identity and belongingness where identities shift ever so often. It is further argued that while An African City web series represents one of many re-configured identity formations embedded within Eurocentric African women's identities that conform to globalizing homogenization of capitalist cultural productions, the series creates and occupies a space of conviviality that engenders dissensus in the distribution of Ghanaian women's representation in particular and Black women in general. Examining diasporan African women identity articulations is important particularly when African women use media technologies to represent themselves in alternative media spaces in a bid to enrich research on stereotypical port (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steve Howard (Committee Chair); Jenny Nelson (Committee Member); Raymie McKerrow (Committee Member); Edna Wangui (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; African Studies; Film Studies; Gender Studies; Mass Communications; Sub Saharan Africa Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1976, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2012, Psychology

This study investigated the effects that the viewing of violence in movie clips has on the aggressive affect and self-efficacy for aggression/violence among African American men when the aggressive/violent model is similar versus different to them in race/ethnicity. A dimension of racial identity (race centrality) was also investigated as a protective factor against aggressive affect and self-efficacy for violence. The sample consisted of 127 African Americans aged 18 to 22, of which only the 76 men were investigated in this study. Aggressive affect significantly increased after viewing a movie clip with an African American, aggressive model but not after viewing a movie clip with a Caucasian, aggressive model. There were no significant results found concerning self-efficacy for aggression. There was no relationship between race centrality and aggressive affect.

Committee: Anna Ghee Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lynn Bowers Ph.D. (Committee Member); Nicholas Salsman Ph.D., ABPP (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Mass Media; Psychology; Social Psychology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2010, African-American and African Studies

The mass media industry as a hegemonic entity has played a vital role in displaying fallacious accounts of black life. Grounded in ideas from scholars like Richard Schechner, Patricia Ticineto, Joseph Roach and Sara Ahmed, this research is a critique of the ways in which memory, and its possible manifestations, plays in non-blacks' (specifically whites) interpretation, motivation, and perception of stereotypical visual portrayals of blackness. The focus will be on how the continuing phenomenon of stereotyping blackness in the 20th and 21st centuries is perpetuated in child-targeted feature-length animations with animal characters. I argue that the possible furtive and/or involuntary visual manifestations of “black identity” in animation have their sources in a white historical memory that clings to the desire to maintain whiteness. This work demonstrates how ideas of blackness in white memory were not solely constructed from the imaginations of producers of mainstream culture. Rather black stereotypes are the result of a combination of black protest against negative portrayals, blacks as accomplices in perpetuating their negative stereotypes, and whites' imagined ways of blackness. Following the work of Anna Everett and Robin Kelly and commentary from Bert Williams and George Walker, the perpetuation of whiteness through imagined black identities in media outlets does not take into account the ways in which blacks think of and present themselves within black communities, the ways blacks display their identity outside the constraints of white imagination, or how blacks openly or discreetly oppose stereotypical caricatures. However, the change in the portrayal of black people after the Civil Rights Movement (1945-1964) is the result of the powerful black collective voice influencing change in nefarious deceptions of African-Americans in media outlets. This change, according to Donald Bogle, Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki, however, simply gave new faces to old ca (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Horace Newsum PhD (Committee Chair); Maurice Stevens PhD (Committee Member); Kenneth Goings PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Gender; Mass Media; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Motion Pictures; Philosophy; Social Structure; Womens Studies

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2010, Journalism (Communication)

Leon Bibb became Ohio's first black primetime anchor in 1976 when he was promoted at WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio. He was also one of the first ten black primetime anchors in the country. Almost a decade later, he broke new ground again as the first black primetime anchor in Ohio's largest television market when Cleveland's WKYC-TV promoted him to the anchor desk in 1985. With this promotion, he became the seventh black primetime anchor in a top 20 market in the country. Bibb entered the journalism field during an era when there were very few blacks in the newsroom. A true trailblazer, Bibb opened the doors for many of Ohio's black television journalists, and he continues to keep those doors open as a veteran television news anchor for WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio. An iconic figure in Northeast Ohio, Bibb's deep, low voice and exemplary storytelling abilities have set him apart from his peers in the business. An award-winning anchor, Leon Bibb sets an example for journalists by adapting to the ever-changing field of broadcast journalism. This thesis examines his life and career, his struggles and successes, and uncovers unique anecdotes to insightfully reveal the personality and unique history of one of Cleveland's most beloved broadcast journalists.

Committee: Mary Rogus M.B.A. (Committee Chair); Patrick Washburn Ph.D. (Committee Member); Aimee Edmondson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; Black History; Journalism; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2010, Telecommunications (Communication)

Since the late 1990s, political democratization and new broadcasting technologies have transformed African countries' mediascapes. In addition to new private local television, broadcasters of transnational television officially gained access to African audiences. As such, transnational football (soccer) broadcasting became increasingly accessible to African football fans. This study aims to understand and to explain how television broadcasting's political and technological changes in the late 1990s induced electronic colonialism in Francophone Africa. This qualitative study was conducted in Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina, and Cameroon. It constituted at first the goal to achieve an understanding of the intricacies of football television broadcasting by public, private, and transnational television broadcasters. The in-depth interviews, documents analysis, and field observations provided required data to analyze transnational television broadcasting in Francophone Africa within the theoretical framework of Thomas McPhail's (2006) electronic colonialism. Several significant findings emerged from this study. The main players in football television broadcasting are public and transnational television broadcasters. The newly installed private television broadcasters remain too economically fragile to compete for broadcasting rights. The economics of broadcasting rights (along with the access to satellite technology) give to European transnational television broadcasters – and media and marketing groups – a competitive advantage over local public television broadcasters. Consequently, media flows from Europe (and the one produced by Africans) are controlled by European media and marketing groups. What contributes to the control of the media broadcasting by European media and marketing corporations are the cultural and linguistic connections facilitated by African players in various French and European leagues, and the inherent cultural discount of football. Th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steve Howard Ph.D (Advisor); Rafael Obregon Ph. D (Committee Member); Kreutzer Andrew Ph. D (Committee Member); Muhammad Najee Ed. D (Committee Member); Zyati Ali Ph. D (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Media; Political Science; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2009, Mass Communication (Communication)

In the 1990s, the liberalization of the media industry in African countries such as Kenya was faced with the challenge of continuing to provide much-needed information to the African population. One segment of particular interest in Kenya was the rural audience that makes up 80% of the country's population. This is a research on the role of radio in rural listeners' everyday lives within a liberalized media environment. Using the media ethnography method, I examined the radio consumption habits of rural people of the Kieni West Division, Nyeri District, Kenya. How do they choose content from the stations that are available? What type of content do they seek and how does this relate to their daily lives? Data was collected using interviewing, focus-group discussions and observation methods. In addition, documents relating to radio broadcasting in Kenya were analyzed. This research found that radio is the most important and accessible medium in Kieni West and that vernacular radio stations are the most preferred ones. Kieni West listeners use radio to obtain information about what is happening locally and beyond. They use radio to access information on health and agriculture. In addition, listeners rely on radio for social interactions, civic engagement, and as a platform where they can take some of their problems and seek solutions. This research concludes that media liberalization and commercialization of radio in Kenya has led to a number of outcomes to rural listeners. These include emergence of a competitive radio industry that provides multiple outlets and a wide variety of content from which people can choose. Secondly, the rise of vernacular radio stations has provided access to broadcasting in various local languages which allows for diverse content to a wide section of the population. Vernacular stations demonstrate sensitivity to the needs of rural audiences and therefore higher acceptance.

Committee: Steve Howard (Committee Chair); Duncan Brown (Committee Member); Phyllis Bernt (Committee Member); Diane Ciekawy (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2009, Mass Communication (Communication)

This research examined the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana to understand the frames and representations used by the local newspapers to promote the policy. The study also examined the major themes that were embedded in the NHIS news stories and the extent to which they promoted official perspectives. Again, it investigated the culture and ideology that guided media professionals in the representation of the NHIS.Framing analysis was used as a major theoretical tool for the study, particularly news frame. The inquiry also explored the relationship between framing and ideology as connected concepts that are rarely interrogated in media studies, especially, in the construction of new stories. It was also guided by the social constructivism theory that conceptualizes news making as a direct reflection of the social realities of individuals and groups. All these theories became interconnected during the construction news stories on the NHIS. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods for the data collection and analysis. Four major local newspapers with the highest circulation, including the Daily Graphic, the Ghanaian Times, Chronicle and the Daily Guide, were selected for the study. In, addition, interviews were conducted with media professionals , composed of three journalists and three public relations officials, to complement the analyses of the stories from the newspapers. The major findings of this research showed that: 1) news stories were dominantly framed around the core issues of NHIS implying that newspapers showed a more responsible coverage of the health policy; however, most of the news stories were not accorded the front page prominence normally given to many other social issues; 2) while the media embarked on a sustained effort to present the NHIS as a mainstream event, they, nevertheless, relied heavily on government sources for information supporting the assertion that, the media see official rhetoric as the most importa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steve Howard (Advisor); Benjamin Bates (Committee Member); Rafael Obregon (Committee Member); Francis Godwyll (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2012, Educational Leadership

African American women and girls have struggled to define themselves independent of a public curriculum, supported by education, politics, social commentary and community, that continues to define us in relationship to work, sex and motherhood. This study will select current manifestations of controlling images, and, in the tradition of Critical Race Feminism, historicize and speak back to the ideologies that support such derogatory images of African American womanhood. This study will provide a discussion of the multiple discourses of citizenship and public curriculum, and then connect them to the histories and heritages which have constructed differentiated citizenship in America, and has created the public curriculum which legitimates it.

Committee: Denise Taliaferro Baszile (Committee Chair); Lisa Weems (Committee Member); Sally Lloyd (Committee Member); Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black Studies; Educational Leadership; Educational Theory; Ethnic Studies; Gender Studies

Master of Science in Sport Studies, Miami University, 2008, Physical Education, Health, and Sport Studies

This thesis contains a qualitative discourse analysis of U.S. and western sports media constructions of four African athletes, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tegla Loroupe, Christian Okoye, and Tamba Hali. These athletes were/are among the first and most dominant African athletes to professionally compete in their respective sports on the U.S./western stage. For the length of their respective athletic careers, this project examines the sport media constructions of race, nationalism, gender and sex for each athlete. While utilizing current research to ground the findings, this project focuses on the nuances and complexities in the representations for each athlete in order to gain greater insight into the treatment of African athletes and Africa in general by U.S./western sports media.

Committee: Othello Harris PhD (Advisor); Valeria Freysinger PhD (Committee Member); Mary McDonald PhD (Committee Member); Abdoulaye Saine PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Studies; Sociology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2006, Mass Communication

This paper is an analysis of the depiction of African-American women's rage in mainstream American film. The thesis analyzes the films Coffy, The Color Purple, Waiting to Exhale, and Two Can Play That Game. The paper focuses on the negative images of African-American women's rage in film. It then contextualizes those images within a racist and sexist paradigm. An ideological analysis is used in this paper as well as a Black Feminist theoretical critique.

Committee: Gwendolyn Etter-lewis (Advisor) Subjects: Mass Communications

MA, Kent State University, 2008, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

Historically, representation of African-Americans in the media has been negative and reflected a certain pathology (the storyline that routinely portrays blacks as drug lords, crack victims, the underclass, the homeless and the subway muggers) (Drummond, 1995). Representation deals with image and what messages one can take away from certain images. The purpose of this study was to analyze how African-Americans are framed and what messages are being communicated about the black community when they are represented in newspapers. The researcher conducted a descriptive content analysis of The Plain Dealer, Akron Beacon Journal and The Vindicator over a three-week time period in 2006. The weeks were randomly selected and coded for the frequency of African-Americans in the centerpiece story. Framing stories is a part of the reporting process. Columnist Thomas Huang of the Poynter Institute said that "framing a story is akin to composing a photograph. If you're a reasonably good photographer, you deliberately point your viewfinder to capture certain things..." In relation to diversity stories (stories about people of color), he named some basic frames that are often used: conflict, bridge-building, disorientation, identity, creation, and the mainstreaming frame. These frames were used as a guide in this study.

Committee: Max Grubb PhD (Advisor); Jeanette Drake PhD (Committee Member); Gene Shelton MA (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Journalism; Mass Media; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Social Research