Kawaii Killers and Femme Fatales: A Textual Analysis of Female Characters Signifying Benevolent and Hostile Sexism in Video Games

ABSTRACT

Game developers potentially convey socio-cultural values about gender through design choices. This study interpreted the designs of 11 purposively selected female game characters, developed by studios located in the United States and Japan, through the lens of ambivalent sexism. This social psychological theory posits that sexism consists of hostile and benevolent attitudes about women. Two themes emerged across characterizations: bodies as objects, bodies as weapons and (in)dependence. Both consisted of empowering qualities paired with problematic beliefs about women. This analysis contributes to interdisciplinary literature by using an empirical perspective to interpret gender representations in video games.     

Peeking at the Potty: Learning from Academic Library Bathrooms and Advocating Change

Abstract

The authors present the checklist which they created and used to examine twenty academic library bathrooms located in the New York City area. They focus on the most pressing themes they have observed: libraries without restrooms, bathrooms that are difficult to find, cleanliness and maintenance of restrooms, and ensuring library bathrooms address the needs of patrons with disabilities, and of transgender and gender non-conforming patrons. This work is a call to action. Readers are invited to adapt the checklist to their own institutional needs, and then consider the authors’ practical recommendations for improvements based on their findings.     

Television News Viewing,Governmental Scope,and Postmaterialist Spending: Assessing Mediation by Partisanship

This study uses 2000–2002 American National Election Study (ANES) panel data to assess the influence of national television news viewing on opinions concerning the need for federal involvement in social issues reflective of postmaterialist values. This relationship is analyzed in coordination with the testing of perceptions of the proper role of government in society as a potential mediator. In addition, political party identification (Democrat, Republican, and Independent) is assessed as a potential moderator. This study reveals 3 distinct processes of mediation (or the lack thereof) across the party identification groups, with the perceived role of government serving as a full mediator for Democrats, a simple mediator for Republicans, and not serving as a mediator for Independents.     

Communicative Antecedents of Political Persuasion: Political Discussion,Citizen News Creation,and the Moderating Role of Strength of Partisanship

Although much attention has been paid to how media use and interpersonal discussion motivate people to engage in political persuasion, and despite recent efforts to study the role of digital media technologies, less is known about the creation of news and public affairs content online. This study sheds light on how online content creation works alongside other communicative behaviors, such as news use and political discussion, to affect attempted political persuasion. Using two-wave panel survey data, we find that political discussion and citizen news creation mediate the relationships between online and traditional news use, on one hand, and attempted persuasion, on the other. Furthermore, strength of partisanship moderates the relationship between content creation and attempted persuasion. Findings are discussed in light of their implications for the political communication and public sphere processes.     

When Social Media Become Hostile Media: An Experimental Examination of News Sharing,Partisanship, and Follower Count

This study examines whether the characteristics of those who share news articles on social media influence the hostile media effect. In an experiment, participants read a news article shared by 1 of 4 Twitter users, 2 (Republican vs. Democrat) × 2 (21 vs. 503,000 followers). Consistent with the hostile media effect, both Republicans and Democrats believed that a news article shared by a Twitter user from an opposing political party was more biased than one shared by a Twitter user from the same political party. As the Twitter account had more followers, however, this effect was more prominent among Republicans and less prominent among Democrats.     

Effects of Immersive,Sexually Objectifying,and Violent Video Games on Hostile Sexism in Males

Research suggests that media images depicting aggression against sexually objectified women may promote hostile sexism in men. We empirically tested if such effects might occur when men commit simulated acts of aggression against sexualized female opponents in video games, and if such effects might be heightened by psychological immersion (i.e,. the sensation of “presence” while gaming). In two studies, male participants played a first-person-shooter game, with the sex and sexualization of opponents experimentally manipulated. Results indicated that game play increased hostile sexism, to the extent that players reported feeling present in the virtual environment and provided that opponents were depicted as sexualized females, not males or nonsexualized females. No effects on benevolent sexism were observed. These results suggest that the increasingly immersive nature of modern video games might amplify their influence on players, including effects that promote hostility and aggression towards women.     

Across the Great Divide: How Partisanship and Perceptions of Media Bias Influence Changes in Time Spent with Media

This study of media use during the 2012 presidential election examines whether online use, partisanship, and perceptions of media bias predict time spent with traditionally delivered media. Traditional media lost ground to online sources. Moreover, Obama supporters spent more time with liberal media, Romney backers with conservative media, and regardless of support, attention to neutral media increased. Respondents who thought the media were biased against Obama spent less time with conservative media and more with liberal ones and neutral CNN, while those who judged the media as hostile to Romney spent little time with liberal and neutral media.     

Sexism on the Set: Gendered Expectations of TV Broadcasters in a Social Media World

This research examines gender performance expectations of television journalists in the era of social media. A qualitative survey found little to no progress in reducing discourse critical of broadcasters’ appearance in the 20 years since Engstrom and Ferri’s (2000) study, with social media adding another avenue to “correct” rather than challenge gender norms. Nearly all journalist respondents believe viewer criticism has increased with the rise of social media and believe their organizations should provide training and policies addressing this concern. However, 90% of respondents said their organizations provide neither, suggesting news outlets should enhance social media policies.     

Using Text Mining to Compare Online Pro- and Anti-Vaccine Headlines: Word Usage,Sentiments, and Online Popularity

This study aims to explore differences between health misinformation and true information by comparing word usage, sentiments, and online popularity between pro- and anti-vaccine headlines (PVHs and AVHs). Text mining and sentiment analysis showed that AVHs were more likely to use negative sentiment words and trust-related words. PVHs were more likely to use words related to positive sentiments. Anti-vaccine messages (AVMs) were more popular online than pro-vaccine messages (PVMs). AVMs’ online popularity was not related to its emotion words usage. Among PVMs, those with more positive sentiment words were more likely to be shared, commented on, and reacted to online. Wordclouds and word networks were created to visualize the word usage and clustering. Future directions regarding message design and automatic detection and analysis techniques are provided.     

网络竞争情报:特性、原理及技术

本文分析了网络竞争情报的内涵,从几个方面阐述了网络竞争情报的特性,归纳了网络竞争情报的原理与技术,进而指出网络竞争情报是传统竞争情报向网络化发展的一种趋向。     

永久在线、永久连接:移动互联网时代的生活方式及其影响因素

随着移动互联网的发展,"永久在线、永久连接"成为当代受众的新生活方式,也挑战了传统的受众与效果研究范式。本文从理论上阐释"永久在线、永久连接"概念,并运用一个全国性的随机抽样调查数据,首次实证描述中国受众"永久在线、永久连接"的行为与心理现状,并分析其影响因素。研究发现:移动互联网的技术可供性显著正向影响永久在线与连接行为,价格敏感、时尚国际、积极进取、稳定悠闲等生活方式对永久在线与连接具有不同方向的显著影响,错失恐惧对"永久在线、永久连接"的行为及心理均有显著的正向影响。本文在此基础上对研究的理论与实践意涵进行了讨论。     

Online newspapers in the U.S.: Perceptions of markets,products, revenue,and competition

The market position of Public Service Media (PSM) and the programming and services provided have for years been the object of academic media research. Relatively little has however been written about the way the PSM corporations are managed. The article presents a number of reasons why media management researchers should add this area to their field of study. Not only are the managers of PSM corporations in great need of scholarly inspiration from outside. Even more important from an academic perspective is the fact that PSM provides management researchers with a sample of reasonably comparable cases of media companies and managers exposed to radical and very similar changes in their operational environment.     

Let’s Talk about Regulation: The Influence of the Revolving Door and Partisanship on FCC Regulatory Discourses

ABSTRACT

The content of political communication of independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) is understudied. Combining computational text analysis and qualitative document analysis, this study analyzes over 7,500 speeches and statements of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioners, given over two decades, to examine how political and industry influence on policymaking manifest themselves discursively. The results shed light on how external factors, such as regulator party affiliation and passage through the revolving door, exert influence on IRAs by impacting agenda-setting processes and occasionally the content of regulators’ political communication. However, the findings also reveal the contingency of this influence in selected contexts as well.     

Audience Valuation in the New Media Era: Interactivity,Online Engagement,and Electronic Word-of-Mouth Value

This national survey of broadband users (N = 200) investigates people’s participatory behavior on Internet video websites by analyzing their use of interactive features. It seeks to identify a group of “interactive audiences” who take full advantage of web interactivity and may be most valuable to advertisers. This study defined audience interactivity based on people’s frequency in using interactive features and three groups were identified—non-interactive audience, average audience, and interactive audience. It compared three audience groups based on traditional audience valuation criteria such as demographics and media consumption levels, as well as newly proposed criteria including online engagement level and electronic word-of-mouth value. Results indicated that interactive audiences are younger, more engaged online, and have higher electronic word-of-mouth value than non-interactive audiences. Because audience interactivity is related to audience value, findings suggest that advertisers should invest more in this highly engaged and influential group online. The results also reveal the need for expanding audience valuation criteria, particularly in the online space, to include other variables such as online engagement level and electronic word-of-mouth influence. The study then offers practical implications for website managers and marketers.     

Deep Learning and Online Video: Advances in Transcription,Automated Indexing,and Manipulation

In recent years, the amount of video content created and uploaded to the Internet has grown exponentially. Video content has unique accessibility challenges: indexing, transcribing, and searching video has always been very labor intensive, and there were no automated ways of searching videos for specific content. New software tools that use deep learning methods are automating some of these processes, making video content more discoverable and useful. There are also many new tools for processing and manipulating video in interesting ways. This column will briefly discuss the idea of deep learning and how deep learning tools can be used to transcribe, translate, search, and even manipulate videos. It will suggest ways that librarians can use these tools to help their institutions better manage video content. It also includes a list of video-related software tools.