Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2014, Educational Leadership

It is visible in academic dialogue, specifically educational research, that there has not been any substantial research published that constructs or examines The Boondocks animated series in a capacity that extends the discourse past stereotypical issues and paradigms that are associated with the inferiority of African American males and the marginalized experiences they encounter. One primary purpose of this study is to offer a counter argument to the negative conversations that surround The Boondocks comic and animated series. Because most arguments about the text stem from the images and language, the conversations surrounding anything positive or hopeful as it pertains to being a Black male, are left out. Furthermore, this media text is currently not perceived as a reference that can be used as a pedagogical tool. In this qualitative critical media analysis, I sought to answer the question: How does the curriculum of The Boondocks represent issues of race, spirituality, and masculinity? Although The Boondocks is typically understood and critiqued as a Black Nationalist text, I intend to look at the animated series through the lens of race, spirituality and Black Masculinity. I specifically examine the text through the theoretical underpinnings of Critical Media Literacy and Critical Race Theory. Methodologically, Critical Media Literacy, Critical Race Theory and Qualitative Media Analysis help to contextualize The Boondocks animated series. I ultimately argue that the animated series can be understood and used as a curriculum text.

Committee: Denise Taliaferro-Baszile (Committee Chair); Dennis Carlson (Committee Member); Sally Lloyd (Committee Member); Paula Saine (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Curriculum Development; Education; Minority and Ethnic Groups

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

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, Art

Monsters are powerful symbols of transformative agency, heavily ingrained in Western culture. With transmutating creatures living rent-free in our collective imagination, I have to wonder: why is it taboo for queer people to transform? Tracing a historical line from biblical angels, Greek mythology, the gothic novel, and contemporary horror cinema, I create a framework for understanding monsters as revered, transformative figures in important texts throughout the centuries. Just as LGBTQ+ activists reclaimed `queer' as a radical identifier, I reclaim `monster' as an uncompromising symbol of bodily agency, engaging with Queer readings and critical media theory along the way. Using my MFA Thesis artwork God Made Me (And They Love Me), I weave my soft sculpture beasties through historical imagery, religious text, folklore, and media pieces depicting `monster' and `monstrosity'.

Committee: Amy Youngs (Advisor); Caitlin McGurk (Committee Member); Gina Osterloh (Committee Member); Scott Deb (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Fine Arts; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Mass Media

Master of Applied Communication Theory and Methodology, Cleveland State University, 2013, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current critical climate in popular online video game reviews (i.e., video game criticism written for a general audience). So far, most of the research published in this area focuses on how the reviews reflect the games themselves, rather than strictly examining the content of the reviews in this growing body of literature. This study uses computer-aided text analysis (CATA) supplemented with human coding to identify typological differences between film and video game reviews, as well as differences in theory usage and critical thought and style. Video game reviews are more concerned with the price of the work being reviewed, supporting the notion for a utility theory of video games. Game reviewers also tend to find redeeming qualities even in very flawed games, suggesting they are either overly passionate and/or concerned about keeping advertisers happy. Although not at the exceedingly high levels as previous studies, the author finds support for using usability heuristics (e.g., responsiveness of controls, use of in-game tutorials) to review games. Neither body of popular criticism examined delves deeply into theoretical frameworks for auteur or feminist theories, but discussion is provided as to how the reviewers could address these issues should they choose to do so.

Committee: Kimberly Neuendorf PhD (Committee Chair); Bob Abelman PhD (Committee Member); Anup Kumar PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Mass Media

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2007, Education : Urban Educational Leadership

This study seeks to systematically uncover one part of the complex organism of systemic racism by analyzing the way in which the popular media defines the success of the public school in order to theorize possible explanations for the pervasiveness of educational inequality. Using Newsweek's report on America's “Top” High Schools, this research raises awareness to the reality of educational inequality in contrast to the myths created and sustained by the general media and current trends in classifying educational success. The study has three concomitant purposes: to analyze the way in which academic excellence and the educational success of schools are currently defined in American discourse; to investigate the attention of the media related to educational inequality; and to call for a deeper and broader response to educational inequality by grounding the debate in theoretical notions from Critical Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Critical Race Theory. After a review of the literature related to educational inequality, the author launches the investigation into Newsweek magazine, its annual high school report, and the schools on its 2006 list. By presenting additional educational information on the Top 10 schools on Newsweek's 2006 list, significant gaps in student achievement and student composition reveal that educational inequality is not a factor in determining overall quality according to Newsweek's criteria. Information related to the debate surrounding Newsweek's report provides evidence that issues related to educational equality remain largely unaddressed by the dominant discourse. The broad implications are discussed in the context of key components from Critical Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Critical Race Theory such as hegemony, ideology, discourse, the purpose of education, race as factor of inequity, and the role of counter-storytelling. Through an analysis of Newsweek, its annual report, and the debate surrounding it, the author concludes that Newsweek (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Kent Seidel (Advisor) Subjects:

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

Afrophantasm is both a rhetorical framework and a lens considering how the invisibility of black disability can be used and understood in both positive and/or negative ways. As a reconsideration of W.E.B. Du Bois's seminal idea of double conscious “two-ness” in The Souls of Black Folk, Afrophantasm instead represents a “threeness” by positioning a person's self-state in a trifecta of Blackness, American status, and embodiment through the lens of ability. Further, it theorizes how an environment can produce or amplify a black disabled spectral state created through stigma and ignorance, either by erasing the acknowledgment of this multi-marginalization or refocusing it to leverage its perceived disadvantages into a state of empowerment or self-recognition. By considering the idea of the rhetorical in relation to this theory, its application is expanded through a variety of examples, including cultural rhetoric (via nommo or West African oral stylistic practice), visual rhetoric (and the question of photographic disabled representations), as well as in embodied rhetoric (through the interrogation of black genetics or cybernetics), to name a few. When he coined Afrofuturism in 1993, Mark Dery wrote that "African Americans…inhabit a sci-fi nightmare in which unseen but no less impassable force fields of intolerance frustrate their movements; official histories undo what has been done; and technology is too often brought to bear on black bodies" (181). Through a complex nexus of art, music, literature, and more, the genre exists as a universe progressively centered on black lives and experiences juxtaposed against a world built to erase them. Yet, when it comes to the subaltern realm of Blackness and disability woven together, those most in need of a reprieve are instead assaulted with a litany of new shiny digital tools of discrimination, as the famed “digital divide” (highlighting an assumed lesser black digital literacy vs. white internet competence) turns corporeal (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Jones (Committee Chair); Nick White (Committee Member); Amrita Dhar (Committee Member); Kishonna Gray (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Comparative Literature

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, 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.

Committee: Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christopher Ward Ph.D. (Other); Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Member); Chad Iwertz-Duffy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Rhetoric; Social Structure; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

First available in the US in 2017, TikTok is a relatively new social media platform. This, however, has not prevented it from playing a massive role in people's socialization. Although some hail social media as the end of the culture industry's tyranny, the fundamental logic of capitalist ownership and production still guides TikTok, as evidenced by the prevalence of advertising, data collection, and censorship on the platform. In capitalist society, ubiquitous hints of emancipation that are often eclipsed by realities of alienation and manipulation lead people to crave something "real," or "authentic” – perhaps explaining the latter term's status as a buzzword in TikTok discourse. With authenticity being a socially constructed designation, I aim to discern the criteria people employ to determine (in)authenticity on TikTok. I ground my critique in the Frankfurt School to explore how determinations of authenticity reinforce or subvert capitalist reality. To gather data, I conducted a “scavenger hunt” study of 238 people in which they provided links to videos they deemed fake and authentic alongside justifications for why they thought a video was apt. After coding justifications with a Systematic Thematic Discovery approach, I found that most definitions of authenticity (relatability, vulnerability, good marketing…) reinforce the capitalist status quo; however, some – like the tendency to see profiteering as fake – suggest that “seeing through” is possible. This has notable implications for the creation of echo chambers, the formation of identity, and the definition of reality in capitalist society.

Committee: Thomas Vander Ven (Committee Chair); Howard Welser (Committee Member); Matthew Rosen (Committee Member); Cynthia Anderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Sociology

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2023, Journalism (Communication)

This study examines the media representation of Indigenous communities in the context of environmental issues in three media outlets: Indian Country Today, High Country News, and the New York Times. By using Indigenous Standpoint Theory as a framework, the work seeks to elevate Indigenous voices in the debates on environmental justice. Through Carvalho's framework (2008) of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study considered a variety of manifest textual elements and used them to infer multiple underlying discursive strategies and ideological convictions of the journalists of the different outlets. The results of this study show that media outlets with Indigenous journalists in their newsrooms focus more on empowering Indigenous communities through highlighting their knowledge, their relationships with their lands and their grievances for justice. Providing historical context amplified Indigenous demands, while considering the power imbalances between colonizers and colonized. In contrast, the New York Times' coverage fell short in portraying Indigenous communities and their claims for environmental justice in a nuanced, contextualized way. Their reporting focused on conflict and negativity, which thwarts forms of journalism that are both more constructive and more empowering to Indigenous communities affected by the environmental crises

Committee: Victoria LaPoe (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Justice; Journalism; Mass Media; Native Americans

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Media and Communication

This dissertation looks to study the potential impacts and influences of media use and consumption on how individuals play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), a popular tabletop role-playing game. Now enjoying its 7th consecutive year of record profits, D&D has grown alongside a wave of D&D media, with the traditional board game taking on new digital forms that alter how players can now interact with the hobby. Utilizing media theories such as figurations, Medium Theory, the Magic Circle, and the concept of media worlds, this paper looks at both the media objects being consumed and what influences they left with their user. Interpretive focus groups were used to collect testimony from groups that played D&D together, examining individual impacts and how groups as a whole negotiated their media use while playing. When looking at media consumed, it appears that the most common Uses by participants included Entertainment, gathering Information, or finding Tools to use during gameplay. Overall, Tool media were the most frequently utilized, although the physical distancing required by COVID-19 was cited as a factor in this widespread use. Demonstrated by the Engagement-Consumption-Impacts model, the major influences discovered were increases in the user's Game Knowledge and a decrease in the level of Rules-Adhesion, or how strictly the written rules of the game were enforced. Other findings included participants changing the style in which they played D&D, basing changes off the habits of players they watched online or strategies found to become “better” players. This study also suggests further implications of the theories used. In particular, the study of the “alpha media object,” media capable of impacting the user, the other media objects surrounding it, and even the figuration model as a whole, leaves several questions for future scholars to examine. In this study, that alpha media object was the podcast Critical Role (2015), a show so popular that it has begun to i (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joshua Atkinson PhD. (Committee Chair); Vivian Miller PhD. (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala PhD. (Committee Member); Laura Lengel PhD. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, American Culture Studies

This project is concerned with the forms of play that modern restaurant companies engage in online and the implications of them. I evaluate the strategies of corporate social media accounts through 3 critical lenses--postmodern theory, affect theory, and critical race theory. Using a combination of methods, including textual and discourse analysis, as well as grounded theory, I deconstruct the various strategies utilized by corporate social media accounts to connect with their consumers. My argument rests on the notion that these interactions represent a larger dialectic between consumers and producers of culture. Social media has impacted this relationship by increasing consumer freedom and agency. As a result, companies have found ways to adjust to this consumer freedom in different ways—through mocking and dismissal, or perhaps a viral social challenge as well as racialized performances. While on a spectrum, these strategies represent the anxiety of modern corporate representation in late capitalism.  

Committee: Radhika Gajjala Dr. (Advisor); Thomas Mowen Dr. (Other); Lisa Hanasono Dr. (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, English

This dissertation intervenes in antiracist scholarship's recent trend of acknowledging/openly critiquing whiteness as primary means to dismantle white supremacy in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy (Ratcliffe, Inoue). I use intersectional Black Feminist thought (Lorde, Cohen), buttressed by Black Studies (DuBois, Godwin-Woodson, Weheliye) and Afrocentric philosophy (Asante, Mazama), to interrupt that trend by examining marginalized antiracist agency, through analysis of meanings of blackness in the US vis-a-vis institutional power. In centering blackness, I apply “a critical method” that “presents a positive rather than a reactionary posture” (Asante) in mobilizing generative approaches to destabilizing institutional whiteness, as opposed to reparative attempts that often paradoxically center whiteness. At the crux of this project is an attempt to establish a lens for reading rhetorical ecologies of race—race relations interrelated through space, culture, and context. I use that lens to undertake a case study of a large Midwestern historically white institution, Midwestern State University, during a defined cultural moment (post-Ferguson). “Black or Right” foregrounds its Black feminist rhetorical analysis with an eye toward a fracturing multiplicity through a relational methodology, building from Sara Ahmed's work in On Being Included. In doing so, I expand Ahmed's focus on diversity practitioners by emphasizing different positions/locations within the historically white educational institution under scrutiny while adopting differing vantage points or roles from which I analyze material: through a concentration on graduate student positionality (autoethnographist) in Chapter 2; in undergraduate student work in my antiracist composition classroom (critical pedagogue) in the following chapter; via the cultural context of historical, populist, and pedagogic meanings of #BlackLivesMatter (cultural rhetorician) in the fourth chapter; and within the praxis of policy (a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wendy Hesford (Committee Chair); Beverly Moss (Committee Member); Margaret Price (Committee Member) Subjects: Black Studies; Composition; Literacy; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Media and Communication

Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a brutal civil war. Since the start of the war, over 470,000 Syrians have lost their lives. This conflict has led to over 13.5 million Syrians who are in need of humanitarian aid. Over 6 million Syrians have been internally displaced and more than 5 million are refugees living outside of Syria, resulting in the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Syrian citizens and refugees have faced arduous conditions, as evidenced by three-year-old Syrian child Aylan Kurdi's body washing ashore in Bodrum, Turkey in September 2015 as his family attempted to flee their homeland. To date, no studies have examined refugees through the scope of alternative media. Responding to this lack of research, this dissertation examines media framing of Syrian refugees. Informed by Orientalism, Framing Theory, and Critical Race Theory, the dissertation employs qualitative content analysis to analyze language and images used in 473 articles from a strategic selection of alternative media organizations. It incorporates diachronic analysis of media articles released during the two-week period preceding and succeeding three distinct critical incidents: first, the body of three-year-old Syrian child, Aylan Kurdi, washing ashore in Bodrum, Turkey; second, the Paris massacre; and, third, Donald Trump's first executive order attempting to ban refugees from Syria and six other predominantly Muslim countries. This analysis of change in a phenomenon over time repositions framing by considering it as a changing concept rather than a fixed thought. Additionally, this dissertation advances Oliver Boyd-Barrett's definition of alternative media by considering their role in operating on the fringes of political spheres. Overall, U.S. political right media emphasized refugee threat, while the left focused on refugee victimization. As such, both left and right media removed refugees' humanity and agency. Furthermore, of the 473 articles analyzed, onl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lara Lengel PhD (Advisor); Nicole Kalaf-Hughes PhD (Other); Ellen Gorsevski PhD (Committee Member); Lisa Hanasono PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2015, Educational Leadership

In this study, I conduct a critical discourse analysis of the 2010 film Waiting For “Superman.” Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the film paints public education as a failing institution that is harmful to students casting blame on teachers and teacher unions while simultaneously casting private/charter schools and high-stakes testing as the only path to a “good” education. In this study, I ask the following questions: In what ways does the film construct a notion of common sense based on a neoliberal model? What initiatives, specifically constructed by teachers and other public school personnel, are currently taking place that resist neoliberal common sense? And, In what new ways can public schooling flourish under a new teacher-led common sense in the current political economy? The purpose of this study is to investigate how neoliberal ideology attempts to create common sense or “naturalize” notions of “good” public education. This study accomplishes this by analyzing the film Waiting For “Superman” as a deconstructable text. The critical discourse analysis in this study is based on Barthes' (1972, 1974, 1977) approach to semiology. From this analysis, cogent themes regarding representations of neoliberal common sense are identified and interpreted.

Committee: Dennis Carlson (Committee Chair); Thomas Poetter (Committee Member); Denise Taliaferro-Baszile (Committee Member); James Shiveley (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership; Educational Sociology; Educational Theory

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, EDU Teaching and Learning

This study focused on the way in which students engage with political and social issues through their use of social media. The study used a mixed methods design as emblematic of the pragmatic approach to conducting research. The design consisted of a survey followed by a series of focus groups, with questions for the focus groups influenced by the results of the survey. The results from the research suggested that students do not generally engage with political and social issues on social media, and that, in some instances, students view such engagement negatively. Using a framework of critical theory, including critical global perspectives, critical pedagogy, and critical theory of technology, the results indicated the need for educational approaches that encourage students to value the political and social possibilities of social media, which are, as yet, unrealized by conventional use.

Committee: Dean Cristol (Advisor); Michael Glassman (Committee Member); Binaya Subedi (Committee Member); Tracey Stuckey-Mickell (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Technology; Educational Theory; Social Studies Education

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, 2012, Journalism (Communication)

This paper interrogates the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision from the perspective of J¿¿¿¿rgen Habermas's Between Facts and Norms. It takes a legal-historical look at U.S. policy impetus toward legitimation procedures up to the Warren Court, and normatively reconstructs the U.S. constitutional right to participate in politics. Using a close reading of judicial literature defending the old status quo of campaign finance law against Citizens United's lawsuit, the paper examines market colonization of a discussion space that, according to Habermas, ought to be set aside for non-coerced political discussions. The paper argues that because rights derive from the natural human capacity for language and reason, any right to political participation should be able to protect public political discourse from the colonizing components of non-human market systems, namely corporations. The thesis further argues that public political discourse is important because elections are important, and that critical responses to Citizens United should be situated within movements for election reform and media reform more than campaign finance reform alone.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Committee Chair); Aimee Edmondson (Committee Member); Hans Meyer (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Communication; Economic History; Economic Theory; Economics; Ethics; Journalism; Labor Relations; Law; Legal Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Public Policy; Sociology

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2011, Journalism (Communication)

This study compared depictions of chronic pain in newspapers and magazines with blogs by people with chronic pain. Using critical discourse analysis, the study identified and compared frames, definitions of people with chronic pain, symbols and metaphors, and depictions of otherness/unhomelikeness. Marked differences were found among blogs and mainstream print media, with lesser differences between newspapers and magazines. By defining people with chronic pain by their illnesses, downplaying the impact of persistent pain on everyday life, and relating chronic pain to character or mental fortitude, magazines and newspapers contributed to the stigmatization and otherization bloggers described. Mainstream print media authors also portrayed chronic pain as less impactful, less agonizing, and less real than bloggers' descriptions. As such, newspapers and magazines made chronic pain more palatable to readers, but deprived them of the knowledge people with chronic pain glean through the lived experience of illness.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin Ph.D. (Advisor); Michael Sweeney Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joseph Bernt Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Health; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Social Research

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2010, International Development Studies (International Studies)

The thesis is a case study of the Chinese nationalist movements after the Tibet riots in 2008. It is a qualitative research study. I use critical theory to analyze the stimulus of the movement, the new characteristics of the movement, as well as its impact to the country and international society. My study indicates that narrative bias in China and the West has been the main obstacle for dialogue between China and the West, as well as China and Tibet. Hence, more communicative actions are necessary for conciliation.

Committee: Jie-Li Li (Committee Chair); Takaaki Suzuki (Committee Member); Vibert C. Cambridge (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Mass Media; Political Science; Sociology