Information Flow in the 21st Century: The Dynamics of Agenda-Uptake

Although the theory of agenda-setting is a pillar of political communication research, understanding the dynamics of public attention remains an important challenge as the communication system becomes increasingly fragmented. The development of ideologically oriented niche media and the ability of the mainstream media to carefully track the interests of their audience suggest that both public interest and niche media attention to an issue could affect the mainstream media’s agenda itself. We develop and test the theory of agenda-uptake to isolate when mainstream media influences both public and niche media attention to issues and when public interest and niche media attention influence the mainstream media to cover an issue. Analyzing mainstream and niche media coverage along with Google Trends individual search data for 4 issues in 2008, we provide evidence that the dynamics of agenda-uptake are crucial to understanding the character and content of the information environment in the 21st century.     

Do black women still come first? Examining Essence magazine post Time Warner

Essence magazine is the longest operating magazine catering to a predominately African-American women audience in the US. In 2000, media conglomerate Time Warner purchased 49% of Essence parent company Essence Communications Inc. In 2005, Time Warner purchased the remaining 51% of the black-owned company. As a media conglomerate, Time Warner owns major publishing houses, film, and television production companies, including 130 magazines, New Line Cinema, CNN, and HBO. Essence states it is “the voice and soul of Black women” Collins [Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge] argues that black women must speak in their own voices in order to reject prevailing stereotypes operating on the bodies of black women. The mission statement of Essence aligns itself in what Collins calls “safe spaces” for black women to self-define themselves and articulate their lived realties. A critical theoretical framework allows uneven power relations to be examined and offers emancipatory perspectives. The goal of this study is to examine if Time Warner’s purchase of Essence has caused a shift in the voice and content of this magazine.     

IN THE EYE OF THE OCCUPIER

This paper investigates how a mainstream American newspaper (The New York Times) and an Indian counterpart (The Times of India) construct political violence within the American occupation of Iraq, and how they reconcile notions of democracy and occupation. For both newspapers, Saddam Hussein's execution is the reference point to guide news selection. Findings indicate some differences in the two papers’ coverage, partly explained by the countries’ military involvement in the conflict and their history with Iraq.     

OUT-ing AIDS

Little is known about the relationship between the Irish gay press and the AIDS crisis during the 1980s. This article aims to fill this gap by presenting the findings of a study dealing with the AIDS epidemic in Ireland and how it was confronted through the alternative media platform of OUT magazine. Using issues of OUT, it argues that alternative media in Ireland were pivotal in generating vital public health information for the gay community, particularly when the mainstream press and Irish government were not providing the necessary resources. This article also highlights the activist potential of alternative media such as OUT, as it engaged with public bodies in an attempt to hold them accountable for their response, or lack thereof, to the epidemic. The Irish gay press is thus an important example of how alternative media are critical when mainstream society ignores a particular group’s public health needs.     

Archiving the feminist self: reflections on the personal papers of Merle Thornton

Over the last couple of decades, the modern Australian women’s movement has been the subject of history, which includes the creation of feminist archives in various locations This essay analyses one particular collection – the personal papers of the feminist activist, Merle Thornton – as an account of the making and meaning of a feminist archive. I wish to explore the ways in which the feminist subject impacts on the archive. Accordingly, I analyse the archival process, as well as the contents of Thornton’s personal papers. What emerge are the difficulties of negotiating the public–private divide for this feminist activist.     

Rope Sluts,and Bottoms,and Subs,Oh My: 50 Shades of Grey and the Shifting Discourse on Female Submission in Feminist Kink Porn

To date, feminists have conflated (and continue to conflate) historical understandings of bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism (BDSM) as pathological and representations of BDSM in literature and popular media with the lived experiences of feminist BDSM practitioners. Feminist BDSM practitioner Madison Young’s pornographic film 50 Shades of Dylan Ryan (2012) takes the recent resurgence of the ongoing debate on women, submission, and popular literature as a starting point for reconsideration and possibility. By adapting the discourse surrounding 50 Shades of Grey, Young’s pornographic film points to the ways in which feminism also contributes to that which makes pleasure possible. Young’s film reimagines the dualities that have traditionally dominated feminist cultural critique through concepts the author calls “mediated authenticity” and “formal simultaneity.” Beginning with a brief, rigorous examination of the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon, this article analyzes Madison Young’s 50 Shades of Dylan Ryan and seeks to provide a critical intervention in feminist studies of pornography and popular culture.     

‘I stared at him in defiance:’ Hollaback! movement and the enactment of reflexive,resilient countervisuality

Hollaback! is an international movement seeking to end street harassment. Its website invites women to share narratives of their experience of street harassment as well as photos of the men who harassed them. We treat Hollaback! as an exemplar of feminist online activism and aim to identify lessons for other feminist online activists and organizations. In particular, we argue that the site’s narrative-image posts provide a powerful means of enacting countervisuality in public spaces. After analyzing 26 narrative-image postings on the Hollaback! website, we identify three collective rhetorical effects of countervisuality: Altering the traditional dichotomy of male/observer and female/observed, enacting feminist rhetorical agency through mobility in public spaces, and generating women’s solidarity through shared experience. We then argue that Hollaback!’s strategy of countervisuality insufficiently enacted the core principles of feminist rhetorical resilience, especially the concept of mêtis. We conclude by offering recommendations for feminist online activists and scholars.     

African American Women’s Language Use in Response to Male Partners’ Condom Negotiation Tactics

African American women are vulnerable for sexual health risk; thus, condom use is essential. Guided by research linking goals to communicative content, this study explored women’s use of I-, you-, we-, and hedging language during condom negotiation. Female participants (N = 193) engaged in a condom negotiation role play with male confederates, where language use measures were coded. I-language was used the most frequently. Language use differed as a function of men’s tactics, such that women primarily used I-language in response to verbal attacks, you-language in response to seduction, and I- and we-language in response to information seeking. Women who engaged in more recent condom use were more likely to use you-language and, when confederates attacked, they responded with more you-language and less hedging.     

议程注意周期视角下中日主流媒体对争议性科技议题的报道框架研究:以《人民日报》与《朝日新闻》的转基因报道为例

本研究采用内容分析法,以《人民日报》与《朝日新闻》20世纪80年代至2018年的转基因议题报道为例,基于议程注意周期,对中日主流媒体的争议性科技议题的报道框架进行深入考察。研究发现,两份报纸的转基因议题报道同步进入下降期,但上升期并不同步,相较于《朝日新闻》,《人民日报》的转基因报道进入议程注意周期的时间略晚。报道框架亦存在显著差异,《朝日新闻》始终将关切包裹置于最重要的位置,而《人民日报》的报道尽管不断减少对进步包裹的使用,但进步包裹却始终是首要的框架类型。在关切包裹的运用上,《朝日新闻》将妥善管理和公众参与或教育置于同等重要的位置,而《人民日报》则始终最为强调妥善管理。两份报纸都倚重政府和专家等权威信源,但倚重的专家类型有所区别。本研究从两国转基因技术发展与应用的现实背景以及两份报纸的办报立场两个层面解释了两份报纸转基因议题报道存在差异的原因。     

Internationalization of the women's magazine industry in Taiwan context,process and influence

This paper looks at the impact of internationalization on the women's magazine industry in Taiwan. It addresses the growing concentration of ownership and control at the international level, how the subsequent standardization has affected advertising, and the implications this has had for the magazines’ readership.

The influx of international magazines to the Taiwanese market since the mid 1980s saw a marked shift of advertising toward transnational brand products. With this in mind, content analysis was conducted to compare advertising in local magazines with that of locally available editions of international titles. The domestic titles, New Woman and Nong‐nong and the Chinese editions of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire were analysed for 1995. The results indicate that commercial forces have resulted in Taiwan's women's magazines presenting the international stereotype of women in aesthetic roles.     

The gods are drinking milk! Word‐of‐mouth diffusion of a major news event in India

The objective of this study is to explore whether the US media overemphasized recalled Chinese products in 2007 and, if so, how news coverage in the US media differed from that of the Chinese media. By using a framing analysis of the coverage in two US media and two Chinese media, this study pursues answers to these questions. After comparing the news coverage of the recalled Chinese products and a real world indictor, this study found that neither US nor Chinese media mirrored the real world phenomenon as it was. By comparing news coverage of the issue in The New York Times and The Associated Press with China Daily, and The Xinhua News Agency, the study found that news coverage of the recalled issues differed significantly in terms of the sources used, the nationality of the source, the dominant frames employed, and the attribution of responsibility for the problems. In particular, Chinese media more frequently employed government officials as their main sources, which inherently increased the use of thematic frames. By contrast, US media often used episodic frames. Likewise, American media approached the issues using ‘Customers' Worries’ and ‘Broken System’ frames, whereas Chinese media often attempted to defend the quality of Chinese products and criticized Western media for exaggerating the issues. Owing to the news framing process, US audiences might have acquired more negative images of Chinese products and China in general. By contrast, their Chinese counterparts might have experienced increased antipathy and distrust concerning the American media.     

Constructing a feminist icon through erotic friend fiction: millennial feminism on Bob’s Burgers

This study engages in current scholarly debates regarding third-wave versus postfeminist media icons through an analysis of Tina Belcher, the eldest daughter in the animated series Bob’s Burgers and a paragon of what I coin “millennial feminism.” In it, I argue that Tina rejects popular postfeminist discourses and experiences a politicized feminist awakening. While Tina is significant in her own right, most remarkable is the way millennial audiences have utilized the internet to position Tina as a feminist folk hero. Ultimately, I trace how popular critics use Tina to theorize a millennial feminism that reflects the values and characteristics of the millennial generation. Revisiting Sarah Banet-Weiser’s (2004. “Girls rule! Gender, feminism, and Nickelodeon.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21, pp. 119–139) argument that Nickelodeon’s girl power programming demonstrated third-wave feminist politics for its audiences, I argue that adult-oriented animated sitcoms lend themselves to an absurdity and disregard for hegemonic gender ideologies which have the potential to unsettle dominant ideologies of gender and sexuality and can define contemporary feminist politics for viewers.     

Unapologetic women, "Comic Men" and feminine spectatorship in David E. Kelley's Ally McBeal

–This essay examines how the narrative structure of the Fox primetime television hit Ally McBeal opens the text to a feminist reading. Despite critics' charges to the contrary, I argue that producer/screenwriter David E. Kelley's teleplays construct a preferred feminine spectator position that appropriates dominant male gazes in three ways: the feminine setting of the law firm, the refusal of women characters to yield to the male gaze, and the “comic spectacle of maleness.” Ally McBeal's preferred feminine spectatorship stance is articulated through comic strategies in which gender ideals are questioned through mockery, thus opening a safe space for viewers to reject dominant patriarchal meanings and to experience a feminist epistemology.     

The Trouble with Aileen Wuornos,Feminism's “First Serial Killer”

Lesbian prostitute Aileen Wuornos was popularly termed “America's first female serial killer.” Between 1989 and 1990, she killed six men, later testifying they had raped or attempted to rape her. By analyzing media coverage of Wuornos’ story, I argue that Wuornos’ incommensurability with available stories of women who kill illustrates the need to expand the rhetorical resources that make female violence and victimage intelligible. After demonstrating that Wuornos’ gender transgressions were disciplined into intelligible terms by understandings of criminality as an already spatial and gendered category, I conclude by discussing the “trouble” Wuornos poses to feminist and queer cultural politics.     

White or tan? A cross-cultural analysis of skin beauty advertisements between China and the United States

Femininity and beauty ideals are historically and culturally constructed. The current study examines the role of advertising in cultivating and accentuating cultural ideals of skin beauty. A content analysis was conducted on skin beauty advertisements (SBAs) in women's magazines (local editions Cosmopolitan and Vogue) from China and the USA. The findings provide evidence for the ‘white or tan’ dichotomy in skin beauty ideals between contemporary Eastern and Western cultures as how they are reflected and reproduced in SBAs, although the ‘tan ideal’ in the US was not as apparent as the ‘white ideal’ in China. The study also sheds light on the divergence and similarity in global advertising strategies (level of localization and standardization in execution elements) within the two markets. Implications for the globalization of beauty ideals and marketing practices are discussed.     

From the Closet to the Loft: Liminal License and Socio-Sexual Separation in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

Bravo's surprise hit series, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, has attracted a large and loyal viewing audience and garnered a great deal of critical acclaim. Though there is much to celebrate about the show, the authors of this study point out that Queer Eye also represents a new way of containing queers and queer sexuality. This essay argues that this containment is accomplished through a mediated ritual formula that inverts the traditional sequence characteristic of rites of passage and allows queers only temporary and controlled access to the cultural mainstream while ensuring that, in the end, they do not pose any serious threat of socio-sexual contamination by their continued presence there. Further, the authors argue that Queer Eye’s ritual formula illustrates the construction by mainstream media of a new kind of Closet, which they call “the Loft” because of the term's connection to one of the series’ conventions and because this new Closet simultaneously serves to elevate and contain queers and queer sexuality.     

The rhetoric of androgyny as revealed in the feminine mystique

Despite the feminist controversy regarding whether gender differences exist in discourse style, it appears that one of the most prominent leaders of the conservative wing of the feminist movement, Betty Friedan, strategically employed an androgynous rhetorical style in her crucial feminist document. The Feminine Mystique. Through an analysis of that text, this essay argues that by employing the “rhetoric of androgyny,” Friedan creates a mainstream feminist audience whose ideology ultimately transcends oppressive gender dichotomizations.