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

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Spanish and Portuguese

In my project, I analyze the star text of Maria Felix (1914-2002). In spite of her prolific film career of 47 films and her memorable image in the media, the scholarly treatment of her films and larger star text has been limited. As vintage film magazines and Mexican melodramatic comics attest, Felix was very visible and her personal life was scrutinized as her “real-life” self played out characteristics from her mala mujer film persona—her multiple husbands and lovers, her relationship with her son, and even her wardrobe choices. I analyze many of her films and her image in other forms of media such as fotonovelas, trade magazines, and her biographical sources in the following chapters. Her star image is powerful and far-reaching and presents an alternative model of Mexican womanhood from the beginning of her film career in the 1940s through (and even beyond) her last film in 1970. The star text of Maria Felix is a site that registered tensions between modernity and the traditional at a particular moment in Mexican history. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 brought many changes to society as warfare destabilized the family and disrupted the region. After the war, the Revolution became institutionalized as the government attempted to put into practice the goals of the Revolution. From the 1940s and throughout 1950s and 1960s it was a time of increased industrialization and urbanization as people migrated to the cities to find employment, as it became increasingly difficult to support a family through farming. These social tensions registered in her films and star text are in relation to women's changing roles as Mexican women gained more political freedoms, including national suffrage in 1953,and began working outside the home as the nation became more industrialized and urbanized throughout the 1940s and subsequent decades.

Committee: Laura Podalsky (Advisor) Subjects: