Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Media and Communication

While scholars from a wide range of disciplines have analyzed thematic development, iconography, narrative, characterization, and animation style of Japanese anime, the music of anime programs is largely ignored or trivialized. This dissertation fills the gap in critical intercultural communication and media studies research by examining original anime soundtracks and their roles as narrative devices. Anime is explored as a site of global cultural resistance, while maintaining articulations of gender and cultural ideals in their stories and reflected in the lyrics of their theme songs. Employing critical intercultural communication, critical media studies, Affect Theory, with textual analysis and rhetorical criticism, this dissertation analyzes how music is intrinsic to the narrative and an expression of cultural values in anime. Analysis focuses on Hibike! Euphonium (2015-present) by Tatsuya Ishihara and Naoko Yamada, from the studio of Kyoto Animation, a slice-of-life drama involving the coming-of-age stories of high schoolers in a competitive concert band, and Vivi -Furoraito Aizu Songu- (2021) by Tappei Nagatsuki and Eiji Umehara, produced by Wit Studio, which follows an autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AI) programmed to entertain humans with her voice, and who discovers her humanity through music while trying to save the world from destruction. Each anime illustrates how musical scores, lyrics, and instrumentation are incorporated into narratives of gender, agency, culture, and humanity. The dissertation also analyzes compositional style, structure, instrumentation, and lyrics encoded with hegemonic messages and constructions of gendered, raced, and cultural distinctions. It provides a critical analysis of how music is used as a narrative tool in media and communication studies involving anime and how the rhetorical messages encoded in texts, via lyrics and instrumentation, are forms of intercultural communication of Japanese anime viewed by a Western aud (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lara Lengel Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Alberto González Ph.D. (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Member); Wendy Watson Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: American Studies; Asian Studies; Communication; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Music; Rhetoric

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2024, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines how three major American newspapers reported on paleontology during the 1990s. Paleontology experienced a popularity spike in the 1990s with the Jurassic Park films breaking film records and bringing dinosaurs to the forefront of the public consciousness. A number of important specimens were found and improving technology revolutionized the field, leading to numerous discoveries. This study documents which topics within paleontology the media reported on the most and what news values drove this reporting. Additionally, this study analyzes the occurrence rate of a few common tropes, metaphors and mistakes often associated with paleontology within news articles. This thesis examines USA Today, The New York Times, and The Associated Press's coverage of paleontology due to their status as being amongst the largest news organizations and running wire services which distributed their work across the United States. This study applies the revised news values proposed by Harcup and O'Neill to gauge which news values are used by reporters and editors when covering paleontology and to determine if these revised news values are applicable to science journalism.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Committee Chair); Lawerence Witmer (Committee Member); Parul Jain (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Multimedia Communications; Paleoclimate Science; Paleoecology; Paleontology; Science Education; Science History

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Music History

This dissertation examines the social contexts for music livestreams, in order to lay the groundwork for future studies of both livestreaming as a whole and individual case studies. No frameworks currently exist for analyzing music livestreams. Although the technologies of livestreaming have been evolving over the past few decades, there have been no organized or successful attempts to standardize the ways we understand and study this fast-growing medium for music performance. Chapter 1 provides basic definitions of livestreaming, and then emphasizes the framework of liveness, arguing that although livestreaming technologies developed relatively recently, the practice of transmitting and receiving live music has been developing since the late-nineteenth century. I examine livestreaming as a continuation of broadcast media wrapped up with conceptions of liveness that have been constantly transforming over the long twentieth century. Chapter 2 connects livestreaming with the social media platforms that have emerged in the past two decades. I also position livestreaming within discussions and anxieties surrounding attention and distraction in the context of digital media. In Chapter 3 the discussion of attention extends into the realm of joint attention, and the ways livestreaming engages our attentive capacities in groups to facilitate specific modalities of participation—observational, reactive, and generative. Finally, the conclusion pulls these frameworks together to demonstrate their use in an analysis of music livestreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the patterns of behavior and audience engagement, conceptions of liveness during the pandemic, and the effects of these factors on the social aspects of live music.

Committee: Daniel Goldmark (Advisor); Francesca Brittan (Committee Member); Georgia Cowart (Committee Member); Vera Tobin (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications; Music; Performing Arts; Psychology; Recreation; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, East Asian Languages and Literatures

Often cited as one of the most salient indices of sociocultural meaning, “sentence-final expressions” (bunmatsu hyogen) have long been a subject of analysis in Japanese linguistics. These units are a kind of what Bolinger and Sear (1981) more broadly refer to as an “audible gesture,” or a linguistic unit that conveys paralinguistic meanings, i.e. meaning that includes neither denotational nor propositional content. Named for their frequent and typical appearance at the end of utterances, in Japanese an immense number are deployed to a wide variety of sociocultural ends. Because of the large number of available expressions, however, previous research has struggled to develop a method of sociolinguistic analysis that is capable of capturing their multivalent nature. This is a difficulty that has been compounded by an array of different degrees of use, resulting in highly skewed levels of academic attention being given to certain expressions and nearly none to others. In this dissertation, I explore alternate means of addressing the intersection of sentence-final expressions and sociocultural meaning through a hybrid approach that utilizes statistical methods informed by cultural analysis. Drawing on frameworks developed for understanding “role language” (Kinsui 2003) and “character language” (Sadanobu 2011, Kinsui and Yamakido 2015), the series of studies presented in this dissertation approach these expressions from the perspective of their role in the performance of characterological figures and the history of use that these expressions have within mass media genres. By utilizing mass media genres, in particular popular entertainment media, I focus not simply on the use of these expressions, but the sociocultural ideologies that inform their use with regard to both creator and audience. Moreover, careful study of these expressions in popular media sheds light on the boundaries of their potential meanings, since we find them at work in such a variety of situations (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Charles Quinn PhD (Advisor); Mineharu Nakayama PhD (Committee Member); Anna Babel PhD (Committee Member); Mie Hiramoto PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Linguistics; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

In our increasingly media-saturated world, the ability to critically interact with media is crucial. Popular culture classes represent an excellent opportunity for students to engage with media, but most popular culture pedagogy is based in hermeneutic approaches emphasizing a `decoding of meaning' of texts, rather in than reflexive and dialogic understandings of the social and affective functions of popular culture as experienced by the students themselves. This qualitative action research investigates whether we can engender a greater sense of student agency in relation to media by centering an educative process on students' own creative and critical responses to texts, and on a concurrent reflexive awareness of pedagogical practices. A university-level general education course, `American Genres: Superheroes,' constitutes the primary data collection site, so that the currently ubiquitous superhero genre—in which individual, interpersonal, and cultural power are an inherent narrative concern—serves as the backdrop for an investigation of authority dynamics in the classroom. Tropes of the superhero genre also serve to frame the structure and idioms of the dissertation document. The study's theoretical framework draws on scholars of critical pedagogy whose work addresses dynamics of authority and agency, and highlights critiques of that scholarship; it further situates such concerns through discussions of critical theorists whose work has pedagogical implications. The study draws on critical pedagogy methods that aim to address these theoretical concerns in classroom practice by transgressing traditional student/teacher relationships, so that hierarchical relationships between teachers and students become an unsettled question rather than a foregone conclusion. Using an autoethnographic research methodology that incorporates the voices of the teacher, students, and guests in the class, the dissertation is first and foremost a story of our classroom experience. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Shari Savage Dr. (Advisor); Jennifer Richardson Dr. (Committee Member); Jared Gardner Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Education; Educational Theory; Pedagogy

Undergraduate Honors Program, Malone University, 2016, Honors Thesis

People's opinions of animals can potentially be influenced by many sources, including personal encounters, formal and informal education, and popular media. The media in particular serves as a teacher for children about the natural world, and thus it is important to study the content of such media and its subsequent transfer of ideas. Animated Disney movies are ideal to study because of their undeniable presence in American culture. This study compared college students' opinions about and knowledge of particular animals with the animals' portrayal in popular Disney movies. Potential factors influencing the amount of transfer, such as the anthropomorphic nature and screen time of the characters in question, were examined. Participant opinions were significantly correlated with how Disney portrays the animals but were influenced by their degree of anthropomorphism. Participants' animal knowledge was also correlated with Disney's accuracy concerning the animals as well as students' real-life exposure to them. These results have potential implications for the average citizen's level of concern for conservation efforts.

Committee: Karyn Collie Dr. (Advisor); Diane Chambers Dr. (Committee Member); Ebenezer de Oliveira Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Media; Psychology; Zoology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Interdisciplinary Programs

New Media, New Maternities: Representations of Maternal Femininity in Postfeminist Popular Culture argues that new media facilitate the construction of new maternities in popular culture through the privileging of visuality as the primary way to celebrate and/or regulate maternal bodies; through the veneration of self-surveillence, self-discipline, and the willing subjection of oneself to feedback as the primary form of gendered citizenship and participation in these spaces; and through the processes of normativity and normalization fed by user-generated comments and feedback. Young women increasingly rely on new media in order to comply with postfeminist demands, and these technologies are also spaces where fantasies are built and anxieties are fueled, and these two elements frequently merge at the intersection of normative femininity and maternity. Postfeminism describes the ways the liberal feminism has been recognized by social institutions and mainstream culture as commonsense. It also explains the ways the feminist language of choice and empowerment has been co-opted and re-defined for a new generation of young women who find their power through (hetero)sexuality, consumption, and decisions to push marriage and motherhood to the backburner. In recent decades, normative femininity has been represented in postfeminist media through the predominant archetype of the "single girl"--the young, white, educated, heterosexual, middle class girl who prioritizes career success, consumption, romance and sex without too much commitment, and body projects ranging from fashion to diets to online profiles. The "single girl" has also been the primary subject of feminist critiques of postfeminist media culture because this archetype emphasizes postfeminism's obsession with normative bodies and its dismissal of the experiences of women of color, queer women, and working class women. I intervene in existing scholarship to argue that the "single girl" cannot be understood with (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mary Thomas (Advisor); Linda Mizejewski (Committee Member); Ruby Tapia (Committee Member); Jill Bystydzienski (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Gender Studies; Mass Media; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Popular Culture

One of the most powerful arenas where the construction of ideal femininity gets constructed is through the depiction of women on television. My thesis investigates one of the most popular television shows in the 21st century, Desperate Housewives. It explores how the female protagonists are depicted through the ways they attempt to maintain power within their suburban worlds. My thesis discusses how certain power is allotted within the narrative of the show. I investigate the implication that power is a good thing, and also offer analysis with some of the problems of gaining power. We not only see constrained power, but also see women in positions of status. Power within family dynamics, romantic love/marriage, and domestic and professional activities are central to my thesis. I focus on beauty and image through consumption, the struggles for women balancing their domestic and professional worlds, and alternative depictions of femininity through the repression of emotion. I use textual analysis to examine dialogue, plot and narrative, character development, genre, and aesthetics/formal elements within production, which include costumes, make-up, cinematography, editing, acting, lighting, and sound. My thesis draws on feminist scholarship within media studies and popular culture studies; specifically elements of sociological and psychological theory within the context of gender.

Committee: Becca Cragin (Committee Chair); Marilyn Motz (Committee Member); Sandra Faulkner (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Personal Relationships; Sociology; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Human Development and Family Science

BACKGROUND Romantic love is a hallmark of human beings. Traditionally, love research has focused on terminology, childhood antecedents, or love style subcomponents; however, there has been little research exploring where attitudes about romantic love develop. This study explored contemporary entertainment media for love imagery. The media patterns were then compared with the research view of love to identify possible sociocultural patterns of romantic love. METHODS Award-winning films, music, and television series with romantic plots from four time periods were selected and evaluated qualitatively. Using a constant comparison method, romantic themes were identified. Each romantic relationship was further evaluated using the criteria of the Love Attitudes Scale and the Triangular Love Scale. Media from each era were holistically evaluated before moving to the next time period. This allowed for a deeper immersion into each era's historical context. RESULTS Two sets of media archetypes and metaphors were identified. Archetypes were either images of romantic love change agents (Cupid, Knight in Shining Armor, Venus) or a relationship story line (Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty). The metaphors that were identified were paired opposites and included phrases about finding love (“love at first sight” – “there all the time”; “likes attract” – “opposites attract”; “hunting for anyone to love” – “hunting for a lost love”) and phrases about dealing with love (“love conquers all” – “endings”; “happily ever after” – “doomed love”). Archetype change agents and metaphors build the archetype relationship story lines. DISCUSSION The media relationships resolved into a love relationship progression pattern of Seeker, Fairy Tale, and Mature. Seekers were looking for “true love” or enjoying the sexual infatuation of early relationships. Fairy Tale couples have found each other, overcome difficulties and were committed to their love. Mature c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jerelyn Schultz (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Popular Culture

Thinspiration images, meant to inspire weight-loss, proliferate online through platforms that encourage the circulation of user-generated content. Despite numerous alarmist critiques in mass media about thinspiration and various academic studies investigating 'pro-anorexia' sites, surprisingly little attention has been given to the processes of creation and the symbolic potential of thinspiration. This thesis analyzes the formal hybridity of thinspiration, and its use as an expressive medium. The particularities of thinspiration (including its visual characteristics, creative processes, and exhibition) may be considered carefully constructed instances of self-representation, hinging on the expression of beliefs regarding the mind and body. While these beliefs are deeply entrenched in popular body management discourse, they also tend to rely on traditional dualist ideologies. Rather than simply emphasizing slenderness or reiterating standard assumptions about beauty, thinspiration often evokes pain and sadness, and employs truisms about the transcendence of flesh and rebellion against social constraints. By harnessing individualist discourse and the values of mind/body dualism, thinspiration becomes a space in which people struggling with disordered eating and body image issues may cast themselves as active agents—contrary to images of eating disorders proffered by popular and medical discourse.

Committee: Marilyn Motz (Advisor); Rebecca Kinney (Committee Member); Jeremy Wallach (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Art Criticism; Communication; Folklore; Gender Studies; Health; Multimedia Communications; Social Research; Web Studies; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1993, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, English

This project functions as an examination of the folkloristic question of the generic category of the “fake”, “fictitious”, or “invented” legend. Using The Blair Witch Project (1999) motion picture as an example text, case study, and vehicle for this exploration, this project engages with historical folkloristic discourses of authenticity, extant taxonomies of legendry and legend performance contexts, and the novel category of the “folkloresque” system of folkloric popular culture allusion. These domains are examined in order to reimagine an allegedly “fake” legend complex (the marketing campaign surrounding The Blair Witch Project's initial premiere) as nevertheless engaged in certain critical contexts of folkloresque legend performance – namely, process and participation. These contexts, this project ultimately argues, serve in part as public platforms through which the generic boundaries of “fake” legend texts (like The Blair Witch Project) are generically reinforced or renegotiated by emic interlocutors through a pronounced reliance on commensurately folkloric rhetoric, performances, and other processes.

Committee: Merrill Kaplan (Advisor); Amy Shuman (Committee Member); Elizabeth Hewitt (Committee Member); Dorothy Noyes (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Folklore; Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Popular Culture

Retro video game collecting has seen an increase in popularity in the recent decade, however, with the increase in popularity of digital gaming and digital media the retro video game collectors are an endangered subculture of the video gaming industry due to the increase in digital gaming and the disappearance of the physical commodity. This research takes an autoethnographic approach and uses theories such as, Pierre Bourdieu's theories regarding capital and the field, Karl Marx's theory of commodity, and Ray Oldenburg's theory of the Third Place to explain the importance of this subculture and why retro video game collecting is worth researching.

Committee: Kristen Rudisill Ph.D (Committee Chair); Jeremy Wallach Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Epistemology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Musicology

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of tremendous change in American musical life. It was the early days of the American popular music industry, represented by the moniker “Tin Pan Alley.” One of its leading lights was Charles K. Harris, an American songwriter who wrote “After the Ball” (1892), a song that became synonymous with the industry and Harris himself. However, like the music industry, Harris's story may have begun with a hit song, but it did not stop there; motivating him over the next few decades was a quest—how to keep a popular song popular—that put him on the edge of several transformative moments and technologies in American music. This dissertation explores and interprets Harris's attempts at keeping his music, notably “After the Ball,” popular as representative of the ways in which the music industry transformed in response to shifts in technology along with the new relationships audiences formed with popular music. Building upon the existing literature on Charles K. Harris, in particular that of Charles Hamm, Esther Morgan-Ellis, David Suisman, and Daniel Goldmark, as well as secondary literature on marketing theory, film, cartoon, media, nostalgia, and American cultural history, I shed light not just on a fascinating and influential figure in the early popular music industry, but on the ways in which popular music, media, and advertising interrelated during the era in which mass media and many of the most salient features of modern life were born.

Committee: Daniel Goldmark (Advisor) Subjects: American Studies; Marketing; Motion Pictures; Music

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Popular Culture

This study looks at sexual fetishism and commodity fetishism of monsters in popular culture and what results have been made due to the development of combining these two forms of fetishism. The study goes into how the monster's image and effect on a culture has made a significant shift. The shift being how the monster's imagery and presence within a culture had switched from undesirable to desirable. The main reason that is brought up within this study is that the monster's image has undergone a process of being fetishized. This applies to both the image of the monster being subjected to sexual transformation in imagery, as well as the imagery of the monster being fetishized as a commodity and having that imagery bought and sold in stores by appropriate settings. The significance of this work highlights the process of how older concepts of our culture find a new place and why they have ended up in these places. Finally, the study will point out how these forms of fetishism combine and can be found in the modern distributions of luxury goods because of the fetishism.

Committee: Jeremy Wallach Ph. D. (Committee Chair); Kristen Rudisil Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Folklore; Mass Media

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

Fantastic Femmes: Latinxs in Speculative Storytelling is a journey of my experiences in encountering speculative storytelling created by and about femme, queer, Latinxs. When I began my research, the problems I sought to explore included: (1) erasure of femme, queer, Latinx representation in mainstream media—especially as it pertains to speculative fiction (2) a need for Latinx media scholarship that is focused on not only cisgender Latinas/os, but studies dedicated to the representation of femme and queer representations in recent twenty-first media (3) a need for Latinx media scholarship specifically focused on how femme and queer Latinxs are represented in the speculative storytelling modes of literature, film, television, music, and comics. My project of Fantastic Femmes aims to fill this need through an exploration of speculative genres like fantasy, magical realism, and horror. In locating Latinx cultural productions that are both (1) speculative and (2) focused on femme and queer Latinx representation, it is my hope that my work will encourage future and current scholars to continue contributing to the lineages I have outlined in my chapters. I believe in the power of stories, and see my dissertation as a creative and academic exercise in exploring the fantastic possibilities of femme, queer, Latinx storytelling.

Committee: Paloma Martinez-Cruz (Advisor); Jian Chen (Committee Member); Martin Ponce (Committee Member); Frederick Aldama (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Film Studies; Folklore; Gender Studies; Latin American Studies; Literature; Mass Media; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Performing Arts; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, American Culture Studies

From 1981-1996, the United States experienced an epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) that held profound implications for issues ranging from civil rights, public education, and sexual mores, to government accountability, public health, and expressions of heterosexism. Popular comic books that broached the subject of HIV/AIDS during the U.S. epidemic elucidate how America's discourse on the disease evolved in an era when elected officials, religious leaders, legal professionals, medical specialists, and average citizens all struggled to negotiate their way through a period of national crisis. The manner whereby comic book authors, illustrators, and publishers engaged the topic of HIV/AIDS changed over time but, because comic books are an item of popular culture primarily produced for a heterosexual male audience, such changes habitually mirrored the evolution of the nation's mainstream, heteronormative debates regarding the epidemic and its sociocultural and political implications. Through studying depictions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in popular comic books, alterations in the heterocentric, national discourse emerge revealing how homophobic dismissals of the “gay plague” in the early 1980s gave way to heterosexual panic in the mid-1980s, followed by the epidemic's reinterpretation as a national tragedy in the late-1980s. Ultimately, this study uncovers how, in the early 1990s, HIV/AIDS awareness became a national cause celebre and a fad effectively commoditized by the economic forces of American popular culture until its novelty waned when the epidemic phase of the U.S. HIV/AIDS crisis drew to a close in the mid-1990s. Throughout, representations of HIV/AIDS in popular American comic books show how comic book creators sought to elevate their medium beyond the confines of its perceived juvenile trappings by exploring topical and controversial material that would appeal to the expanding market of adult buyers that blos (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeffery Brown (Advisor); William Albertini (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse (Committee Member); Michael Decker (Other) Subjects: American History; American Literature; American Studies; Mass Media; Public Health

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 (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

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2019, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Our culture is steadily becoming more aware, and less tolerant, of sexual harassment and misconduct. This is particularly evident in the wake of the viral Me Too movement beginning in 2017 which highlighted the breadth of personal experiences of sexual harassment on various social media platforms. Often the focus of these experiences is on overt sexual harassment and assault, but less attention is paid to the buildup that can lead to these terrible events. What is more, is that often these events are attributed to character flaws of the perpetrator without taking covert social norms into perspective. This dissertation takes a social constructivist perspective to concretely define sexually objectifying microaggressions (SOMs), a building block of sexual assault, as well as outline their clinical implications. This was done in the hope of expanding cultural competency of gendered microaggressions for both psychology professionals and students, exposing the potential impact SOMs may have on clinical presentations, and espousing the importance of utilizing modern media to better understand our culture. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the seven top-grossing PG-13 rated films between the years 2010–2016, beginning with a pilot study analyzing a clip from the top-grossing PG-13 rated film of 2009 to measure inter-rater reliability and construct validity. An extensive literature-based qualitative code book was created to conduct this analysis. Results indicated that SOMs were present in all the films, but saturation longitudinally decreased. SOM targets were primarily protagonist characters with both men and women being equally targeted. The primary SOM perpetrator was found to be the audience or viewer of the films. An unexpected result was the high prevalence of idyllic hypermasculinity in the films. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.

Committee: William Heusler Psy.D. (Committee Chair); Chris Heffner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mo Brown Psy.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Educational Psychology; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Media; Mental Health; Motion Pictures; Pedagogy; Psychology; Social Psychology; Womens Studies