Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Political Science

In the aftermath of Argentina's December 2001 financial meltdown, the political class was widely blamed for the crisis that transformed this once predominantly middle-class country into a poor one. However, when new presidential elections were held in April 2003, establishment candidates generally placed higher relative to non-establishment candidates. To account for this puzzling election outcome, I examine the role that Argentine centrist print media may have played through their coverage of establishment and non-establishment candidates. The research design involves content analysis of front-page news articles from large, centrist newspapers, Clarin and La Nacion, over an eleven-month period. To analyze the data, I rely on count data and multi-linear graphs as well as correlation coefficients and tests of significance. Testing two hypotheses, namely media attention and framing, I find that establishment candidates received more media attention, and perhaps more name recognition, than did non-establishment candidates. I also find that centrist print media framed candidate strengths and weaknesses in particular ways. Establishment candidates were portrayed as having competency and electability as their strengths and integrity as their weakness. In contrast, their non-establishment rivals were presented as having integrity as their strength and competency and electability as their weaknesses. This study shows that both the extensiveness and the slant in coverage may have advantaged establishment candidates over non-establishment candidates in terms of their ultimate standing in the polls. A discussion of pre-election and post-election survey results validate these findings by showing that media depictions of candidate competency and integrity were reasons named for candidate support. The value-added of this study is that it examines a macro level outcome in an original and systematic way by focusing on candidate information that voters may have relied on when making (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anthony Mughan (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Sociology

Beginning around 2020, conservative politicians and media outlets have launched an aggressive campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives via the symbolic vilification of critical race theory. Several scholars have observed that this crusade has largely taken the form of a conservative media-driven disinformation campaign that seeks to obscure the true intent and scope of critical race theory's influence on American society for political gains. Drawing upon critical race literature, framing theory, and various scholarship pertaining to the relationship between media and cultural hegemony, this project sought to qualitatively interrogate the frames used to discuss critical race theory within live Fox News broadcastings. Upon analysis of 50 randomly selected live Fox News transcripts, I found that Fox News commentators regularly invoked 6 common frames in discourses surrounding critical race theory. Therein, critical race theory was often projected to be: 1.) Divisive, 2.) Governmental Overreach, 3.) Indoctrination, 4.) a Marxist/Communist Agenda, and 5.) as Racist, with 6.) people of color (POC) often being used as legitimizers of these narratives. To conclude, I contemplated the implications of these frames, particularly in regard to what they unveil about mass media's influence over knowledge production and dissemination processes, as well as what they project for future social and racial justice strategies in light of the impending direction of the conservative political agenda.

Committee: Michael Vuolo (Advisor); Vincent Roscigno (Committee Member); Dana Haynie (Committee Member) Subjects: Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Social Research; Sociology

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2020, Communication

Women in the political sector struggle to find their place. Though the number of female representatives has increased in recent years, it has been a slow climb often complicated by the socially prescribed importance of their image to the public eye as represented through media. In the impeachment of President Donald Trump, two female senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, were prominently featured on news coverage outlets. As it is not historically common for female politicians to be at the center of major debates, this case allowed for valuable analysis of how the media portrays women in politics. Through this work, three questions are explored: 1) How did cable news media frame Senators Susan Collins' and Lisa Murkowski's roles in the impeachment process of President Donald Trump? 2) How did Senators Collins and Murkowski frame themselves in their self-representations through the impeachment process? 3) How have Collins and Murkowski engaged in self-representation for their overall identities as senators?

Committee: Sheryl Cunningham (Advisor); Kelly Dillon (Committee Member); Edward Hasecke (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Gender Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Political Science; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2006, Film (Fine Arts)

Mainstream news media organizations have adopted classical Hollywood narrative storytelling conventions in order to convey vital news information. In doing so, these organizations tell news stories in a way that paints political realities as causal agents, delicate international crises as sensational conflicts, and factual profiles of public figures as colorful characterizations. By establishing artificial narrative lines and unnecessarily antagonistic conflict, the press has at times become an unwitting agent of government policy and, in part, altered the course of international events. The classical Hollywood narrative is the storytelling model on which the American media based its coverage of United States foreign policy after September 11, 2001. The sensationalized coverage culminated in a cinematic presentation of events that led to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Since September 11, a narrative plot unfolded, the characters were defined, and the tension rose. The news media primed the audience as if the American people were watching a well-executed and often predictable Hollywood narrative. And though there was no evidence that proved Iraq had played a role in the September 11 attacks, by March of 2003 the war seemed inevitable and possessing of seemingly perfect narrative logic.

Committee: Adam Knee (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2011, Political Science

Two concurrent developments have been taking place in American politics over the past few decades: the development of social media and the growth of presidential power. It is the assertion of this work that the emergent social media is offering the presidency the ability to bypass the fourth estate. In short, the presidency is gaining autonomy in the 21st century not just from other governing institutions, but from the press itself. In order to document this change, this work proposes to examine the data from the current Obama administration to assess and examine how social media is changing executive governance and offering the presidency new press autonomy. Such an evolution can only serve to not only change the executive interaction with the press, but also with the populace at large.

Committee: Ryan Barilleaux (Advisor); Christopher Kelley (Committee Member); Bryan Marshall (Committee Member); Andrew Cayton (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

One recent internet phenomenon that has ignited discussions on social media and in academic circles is the topic of cancel and call-out culture. To bridge this gap, I map a cultural and theoretical lineage of digital activism and cancel culture, which intersects with black feminist studies, racial capitalism scholarship, and feminist media discourses. Within this lineage, I examine the tensions between respectability politics, homonormativity, and Foucauldian panopticism to contextualize the disproportionate policing and hate speech lobbied at black and brown queer bodies online, alongside their popular representations in the media. Furthermore, I conduct a digitally ethnographic case study that collects and analyzes instances of fan cancellations involving various contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race as evidence supporting my claims that the show encourages the fanbase to act as “cancellors,” regulating how queer individuals are allowed to express themselves on the reality television giant. Interrogating respectability further, I consider how RPDR devises its own canceling culture, funneling a homonormative and white supremacist gaze that year after year, season after season, profits from and perpetuates the social disposability of disrespectable queer persons of color. By analyzing how Drag Race constructs a “canceling culture” through its mise en scene, construction of on-screen power dynamics, and fan-polling, I intend to demonstrate that RuPaul and production company, World of Wonder, invite fans to evaluate and eliminate queens alongside the show's panel of judges, depoliticizing the transgressive potential of the camp representations the show platforms by encouraging the disposal of and minimization of its queer talent.

Committee: Mytheli Sreenivas (Committee Member); Linda Mizejewski (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

This dissertation explores the role of democracy promotion in US foreign intervention with a particular focus on the weaponization of media and civil society by two important US democracy promotion institutions, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (USAID). Focusing on these two institutions and building on scholarship that takes a critical Gramscian Marxist perspective on US democracy promotion, this study brings media imperialism and deep political scholarship into the conversation. Delimiting the study to focus on US activities, I trace historical patterns of intellectual warfare and exceptional states of violence and lawlessness pursued by the US government in case studies of foreign intervention in which democracy promotion has played an important part since 1983. I survey the evolution of elite US Cold War conceptions of managed democracy as well as transformations of covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) media and civil society operations into institutionalized, pseudo-overt US democracy promotion that became a foundational pretext and method for US interventionism post-Cold War. Case studies include the Contra War in 1980s Nicaragua, Operation Cyclone in 1980s Afghanistan, the 2000 overthrow of Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, the 2002 military coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the 2004 coup against Haitian president Bertrand Aristide, and the 2014 Euromaidan Coup against Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. I dedicate the penultimate chapter to US-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011, demonstrating how USAID provided instrumental monetary, media, and civil society support to primarily sectarian, theocratic, Salafi rebels against the Ba'athist government. Throughout the dissertation, I argue that the NED and USAID represent important engines of intellectual warfare in US foreign intervention, mobilizing communications and organizational resources to reinf (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cynthia Baron Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Oliver Boyd-Barrett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alexis Ostrowski Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: American History; American Studies; East European Studies; History; International Relations; Journalism; Latin American History; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Middle Eastern History; Military History; Military Studies; Modern History; Peace Studies; Political Science; Public Policy; Regional Studies; World History

MA, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Over the last two decades, there has been rapid growth of social media platforms both in availability and complexity. There is ample evidence in literature about the negative implications of social media exposure in emerging adults but there is a gap in literature about any potentially positive impacts social media exposure may have on this population of users. This paper will explore the potential for any positive impacts in the use of Facebook and increased amounts of political and civic engagement in users between 18 and 29 years of age. Using a secondary dataset of cross-sectional data (n = 1,228) collected in 2013 collected to better understand how young adults use social media to engage in community and politics, an OLS regression model will be used to test the following hypothesis: Increased time spent on Facebook is associated with increased political and civic engagement; increased number of friends on Facebook is associated with an increase in political and civic engagement; and, the more the user learns about politics on Facebook is associated with higher levels of political and civic engagement.

Committee: Richard Adams (Committee Chair) Subjects: Sociology

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

Historically and in the present, immigration looms large in the American consciousness. Today, we find ourselves in a challenging moment, struggling with political polarization alongside key questions about the causes and consequences of immigration. In this contemporary context, I explore the views that Americans hold about immigration, which may in turn impact immigrant integration. I then explore how first, second, and third-generation immigrants experience national and transnational social ties with attention to their health impacts. Broadly speaking, my dissertation seeks to understand how proximity to the immigrant experience is an important marker of group change. Since a large number of Americans are immigrants or have parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents who are or were immigrants, understanding variability in the ideas or stereotypes that Americans hold with respect to contemporary immigration is crucial to understanding how today's immigrants will be incorporated into the fabric of American life. To that end, I collect and analyze original survey data through the American Population Panel (APP) to first examine variability by generation in how Americans view immigrants in today's climate (Chapter Two). I find that generation is an important predictor of views towards immigration, but generation matters less for how individuals perceive diversity. Next, I use the commentary associated with my original APP survey to understand the thought processes and ideas that respondents invoke when presenting their views of immigration (Chapter Three). I find that oftentimes respondents cannot separate immigration from illegality, with politics, nationalism, and mistrust combining to create archetypes that respondents superimpose on immigrants broadly. Last, I conduct interviews with first, second, and third-generation immigrants in order to characterize the social ties that immigrants hold, how these ties inform their experiences in both the U.S. and in t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Reanne Frank (Committee Chair); Tasleem Padamsee (Committee Member); Townsand Price-Spratlen (Committee Member); Cindy Colen (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Applied Mathematics; Asian American Studies; Asian Studies; Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Demographics; Demography; Health; Hispanic American Studies; Hispanic Americans; Mental Health; Political Science; Public Health; Public Policy; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology

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

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Arts and Sciences: Communication

Polarization has been a growing problem in the United States, but in 2020 it reached a new high (Dimock & Wike, 2020). The tension— or better yet, hostility— between ideological lines was palpable as the country navigated controversy after controversy. How individuals navigate intense moments like this significantly depends on where they live and whether their political affiliation is the dominant group. Often many issues arise for those in the minority, as concepts of the spiral of silence and co-cultural communication theories illustrate. This study explores the challenges of those in the perceived political minority and offers nuance to our understanding of what it means to spiral into silence. Utilizing the phronetic iterative approach and the theoretical frameworks of spiral of silence and co-cultural theory, this study investigates how progressives in a staunchly conservative state communicate politics offline and online. The findings from this qualitative exploration reinforce notions of self-censorship, fear of isolation, and a quasi-statistical organ as ways to understand and adapt to their political landscape. However, findings also supported common SOS critiques that fear of isolation is not the only, nor most substantial, motivator for falling silent. Moreover, findings support the connection between Orbe's co-cultural theory and Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theory by addressing scholarly critiques regarding tactics and motivations beyond self-censoring and fear of isolation.

Committee: Eric Jenkins Ph.D. (Committee Member); Heather Zoller Ph.D. (Committee Member); Shaunak Sastry Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2022, Political Science

Recent years have seen online political subcultures that embrace populism and reject many liberal institutional norms gain increased influence over the mainstream political arena. Four of the most prominent of these subcultures include White Nationalists, believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, the Black Lives Matter movement, and modern Socialists. All four of these groups have, to varying degrees, seen support for their views rise among mainstream media outlets, elected officials, and the public. However, the insistence of these groups on ideological purity and their often combative stance towards moderate colleagues has made influencing legislative efforts difficult for them at times. Additionally, these groups have had differential impacts on democracy in the United States. While the more progressive of these subcultures seek to expand democratic rights and participation to the poor and people of color, the more conservative among these groups often seek to restrict the political rights and influence of their ideological rivals and historically marginalized people.

Committee: DeLysa Burnier (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Music History

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” which serves as the United States' national anthem, has experienced a flux of controversial attention in the 21st century. The melody, which originates from a British song titled “To Anacreon in Heaven,” has been paired with a variety of lyrics in the U.S. dating before “The Star-Spangled Banner,” whose poetry was inspired by the War of 1812. Francis Scott Key, who authored the text of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was just one of many U.S. citizens who utilized this melody in the 19th century to express their feelings about the country in regard to a particular historical event. Key, a lawyer and slave-owner, reveals his attitude toward the U.S. specifically in the three later verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which depicts the tragedies of slavery in the 19th century. Scholars such as Mark Clague, Carlos Abril, and William Robin have analyzed the national anthem's lyrics, as well as its performance practices, in context with the history of the U.S., tracing the transformation and function of the national anthem over the 200 years of its existence. This thesis explores the use of the national anthem in racial politics leading up to (and specifically in) the 21st century, the ways in which it does and does not adhere to the ideologies and democracy of the present-day United States, and its implicit representation of systemic racism that is highlighted by the social and political movement “Black Lives Matter.” Analyzing the function of the national anthem, its performance practices, and reactions to these practices, this thesis argues that “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays a role in upholding systemic racism by shining a light on its use as a vehicle of protest and political expression, a use that has been a defining characteristic of the original melody since it made its way to the U.S.

Committee: Mary Natvig Ph. D. (Advisor); Katherine Meizel Ph. D., D.M.A. (Committee Member); Ryan Ebright Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Music

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

“What We Got to Say” examines a political period in hip-hop history during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This dissertation was partly inspired by contemporaneous examples of systemic oppression inside the criminal justice system as well as racial hostility that developed out of a series of police officer-involved shootings. It was in large part inspired by an intellectual curiosity to explore the connection between the failures of the modern civil rights movement and the politization of hip-hop. It argues that a hip-hop social movement emerged in this period to protest Ronald Reagan's expansion of the criminal justice system: the War on Drugs. The use of hip-hop culture, public rhetoric, and mass media as evidence was guided by a “new social movement” theoretical framework that emerged in the early-to-mid 1980s. The goal was to reimagine hip-hop-generated political activism during the height of the War on Drugs through the prism social movement theory to determine hip-hop's function as a Black sociopolitical struggle. The hip-hop social movement consisted of cultural productions in rap, politicized hip-hop films, anti-state critiques in rap journalism, and sociopolitical statements that hip-hop activists made in the mass-media. They produced political critiques that condemned hyper-social surveillance, extraordinary scrutiny, militarized policing, as well as mass incarceration. In doing so, the examined participants effectively placed the government, crime politics, and the criminal justice system on proverbial trial. The main points of this dissertation include the carceral state and how it plagued Black life in the post-civil rights era. Hip-hop-generated activism that nationalized the destruction of a racialized carceral state. Also, hip-hop activists that consisted of rappers such as Public Enemy, KRS-ONE, NAS, Ice-T, N.W.A., and 2Pac Shakur; filmmakers like Spike Lee, John Singleton, and Albert and Allen Hughes; as well as a handful of hip-hop jour (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; History; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Sociology

Contemporary emergent adults are culturally unique as they are the first generation to grow up as internet natives. This extends to social media, where a plethora of research shows that emergent adults and young adult use social media as an extension of their identity, including political identity. Sociological research demonstrates that emergent adults use social media platforms to engage in political behavior as part of politically engaged citizenship. However, there are two unanswered questions regarding political engagement via social media. Namely, are emergent adults accessing social media, and the political behaviors therein, in an egalitarian fashion? Further, how might social media affect existing status inequalities, and is this effect evenly distributed across liberal and conservative users? To answer these questions, I employ two large and nationally representative datasets. The first is the Monitoring the Future dataset which contains nationally representative data from respondents between the ages of 16-22 (n=29,000), administered in 2018. Secondly, the Civic Network dataset contains nationally representative data from three large democracies—the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia—from respondents between the ages of 17-29 (n=3,480) from the years 2013-2015. I use these to empirically interrogate inequality in access and use of social media, as well as the ways in which social media may shape political orientations and formal and informal political behaviors. Chapter 1 presents an overview of relevant sociological literature regarding emergent adults, social media, and political attitudes and behaviors. Significant conceptual and empirical gaps in the literature are identified. Further, I also outline the relevant guiding research questions that the following chapters address. Chapter 2 dives into the inequality of use of social media platforms. New and relevant findings demonstrate inequality of access and use, and, paradoxically, gre (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vincent Roscigno PhD (Committee Chair); Andrew Martin PhD (Committee Member); Ryan King PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Research; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, History of Art

Chinese media art has evolved in tandem with the growing enthusiasm for technological revolution since the post-Mao 1980s. While recent scholarship has analyzed the critical role played by the so-called “information fever” in propelling China's transition to a technocratic society, the dynamic interplay between post-Mao techno-utopianism and the development of media art is yet to be historicized. My dissertation fills this gap by examining how artists negotiated new fantasies about information on the one hand, and anxieties about state control and social engineering on the other. Seeing information technology as a new form of power impacting post-socialist artistic practices, I investigate how media artists adopted new ideas and vocabularies from cybernetic theories to articulate the political manipulation of technology and the tension between control and communication. Through inspection of historical documents and audiovisual materials, my preliminary research suggests that the rise of a technocratic society profoundly reshaped subjectivity and corporeality in post-Mao China. As artists reacted to an increasingly precarious status of humanity, the socially and biologically reengineered human body appeared as a vital subject matter in media art. Based on these findings, I argue that media artists of the post-reform era transformed a cybernetic imaginary of the body into new inventive forms of embodiment. In doing so, they were able to visualize the alienating effects of modernization, activating an alternative political imagination that enabled them to rethink the politics of the “human.” Rather than framing Chinese media art as a derivative or an imported art form, my project illuminates its specific social and political context and its potential to resist the dehumanizing aspects of technology. As one of the first efforts to address the impact of technology on art and humanity in the context of post-Mao China, my study complicates a Western-dominated discourse (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Julia Andrews (Advisor); Erica Levin (Committee Member); Kris Paulsen (Committee Member); Namiko Kunimoto (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Asian Studies; Science History; Sociology; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Mass Communication (Communication)

The following study uses a feminist ethnographic approach to explore the relationship between the romance genres, feminism, and fandom, as well as how women are experiencing and sharing romance novels in their everyday lives. Furthermore, this study tackles the nature of the cultural stigma against the romance genres, and how readers and writers navigate and respond to said stigma. The goal of this study was to highlight and explore the significance of gynocentric narratives in popular culture, as well as the nature of gynocentric participatory culture. Readers and writers understand the cultural stigma that surrounds romance novels in the context of cultural misogyny and literary elitism in the publishing world. The enduring appeal of romance novels for readers and writers is characterized by romance novels as spaces of hope, optimism and escape; as spaces of feminist resistance within an increasingly neoliberal, or individualistic, patriarchal culture; and as texts that explore and celebrate female subjectivity and sexuality. Furthermore, romance novels, as gynocentric participatory spaces, resist publishing industry standards and literary elitism, blur the producer-consumer binary, and champion a model of feminist ethics and care over a competitive hierarchal value system.

Committee: Eve Ng Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Literature; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, History

This paper explores the power of history in the rhetoric of conservative politicians, historians and media figures during the Long American Culture Wars (1992-2010). Throughout these years, the content of historical rhetoric remained generally consistent and emphasized four essential ideas: the 1960s as a moment of national declension, a national history of neoliberalism, the Christian tradition in America, and general opposition to multiculturalism. Throughout these 18 years, conservative rhetoric grew progressively more hostile in three distinct sub-eras, “The Contract With America” era (1992-2000), the “With Us or Against Us” era (2002-2006), and the “Tea Party” era (2007-2010). The rhetoric of conservative figures demonstrated this paper's central argument – that history was an essential tool for conservative elites to defend their policies and values, while simultaneously attacking those of their liberal opponents.

Committee: Nishani Frazier PhD (Advisor); Steven Conn PhD (Committee Member); Thomas Misco PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, American Culture Studies

In late 2014 the mainstream press reported about a far-right movement that sought to discredit feminist, anti-racist, and trans-inclusive interventions in the video games industry, its products, and its consumer culture. Called GamerGate by its devotees, the movement began when American game designer Zoe Quinn weathered public harassment after her ex-boyfriend published a five-part essay falsely alleging she had sex with a game journalist to collect a positive review for her game Depression Quest. GamerGate activists launched a smear campaign against Quinn but attempted to absolve themselves of harassment by rebranding the movement as a game consumer revolt against unethical journalists and leftist academics. Almost five years later, GamerGate continues to grow in membership on its official subreddit, /r/KotakuInAction, which is a self-governed community hosted on the popular discussion forum-based social media platform Reddit. Shortly after /r/KotakuInAction materialized, a conscientious objector created the pro-feminist /r/GamerGhazi to resist GamerGate. Despite Reddit's massive user base, its 1.2 million subreddits, and its ubiquity in American culture, it remains an underexplored space in the academic literature. Academics have neither adequately addressed Reddit's role in promoting far-right communities like /r/KotakuInAction, nor the efficacy of using Reddit as a space for staging feminist resistance to such communities. Drawing from feminist epistemology, intersectionality, and masculinity studies, this dissertation investigates /r/KotakuInAction and /r/GamerGhazi's use of the Reddit interface—most particularly its upvoting and downvoting mechanic—to shape debates around feminism and critical race issues in American culture. The research is based on data collected over the course of six months from discussion threads on each subreddit, subreddit wiki documents, and the video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Using a mixed methods approach defined by textu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Radhika Gajjala Dr. (Committee Chair); Sandra Faulkner Dr. (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse Dr. (Committee Member); Laura Landry-Meyer Dr. (Other) Subjects: American Studies

Bachelor of Science (BS), Ohio University, 2019, Journalism

Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is widespread and far-reaching. Many international outlets are covering the conflict alongside local media, and the conflict has intense political ramifications that spread far past the Middle East. In this thesis, I examine two points of coverage during the Second Intifada in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and compare coverage amongst three different news outlets. The intifada broke out right after the turn of the century and was covered in a heavily global context. There is a sufficient existing literature examining media coverage of the Second Intifada, but my research focuses on two periods of involving the disengagement plan brought forth by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. My research will examine the connection between politics and journalism in the conflict by taking political role conception theories and applying them to Israeli and U.S. media outlets covering the conflict. I will examine how these media outlets crafted certain political role conceptions in their coverage and also analyze the framing devices through which they were conveyed.

Committee: Andrew Alexander (Advisor); Nukhet Sandal (Advisor) Subjects: Journalism; Political Science