Browsing by Subject "media"
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Item A Content Analysis of Gender Representations in Independent Video Games(2017-04-10) Nicholl, Grace; Miller, Lee; Cabaniss, Emily; Douglas, KarenVideo games are an increasingly popular pastime, and their influence on society grows along with the gaming industry. Independent video games are also growing in popularity, though little research has been conducted on how indie games compare to mainstream Triple-A (AAA) games, particularly in in representations of gender. This content analysis investigates the representations of gender found in indie video games. Twelve popular indie games from 2010 through 2015 were selected for investigation. Characters appearing in these games were evaluated on a number of variables to determine adherence to gender norms exposed in previous research. Male characters were found to outnumber female characters, though by a smaller margin than expected. Female characters were sexualized in higher numbers than males, though less than found in AAA games. A significant number of characters were found to be gender non-conforming.Item ?But it?s Just a Joke!?: Latino Audiences? Primed Reactions to Latino Comedians and their Use of Race-Based Humor(2012-02-14) Martinez, AmandaRacism persists individually and institutionally in the U.S. and race-based comedy prevails in media, accepted by diverse audiences as jokes. Media priming and Social Identity Theory theoretically ground this two-part experimental study that examines Latino participants' judgments of in-group (Latino) and out-group (White) alleged offenders in judicial cases after being primed with race-based stereotype comedy performed by an in-group (Latino) or out-group (White) comedian. First, participants read race-based stereotype comedy segments and evaluated them on perceptions of the comedian, humor, enjoyment, and stereotypicality. Second, participants read two criminal judicial review cases for alleged offenders and provided guilt evaluations. Importantly, a distinction was made between high and low Latino identifier participants to determine whether racial identity salience might impact responses to in-group and/or out-group members in comedy and judicial contexts. The results reveal that the high Latino identifiers found the race-based comedy segments more stereotypical than did the low Latino identifiers. Latino participants rated the comedy higher on enjoyment when the comedian was perceived to be a Latino in-group member as opposed to a White out-group member. The high Latino identifiers rated the White alleged offender higher on guilt than the Latino alleged offender after being primed with race-based comedy. Simply projecting in-group or out-group racial identity of comedians and alleged offenders with name manipulations in the study influenced how participants responded to the comedy material, and persisted in guiding guilt judgments on alleged offenders in the judicial reviews based on participants' Latino identity salience. A Latino comedian's position as popular joke-teller in the media overrides in-group threat, despite invoking in-group stereotypes in humor. Even with greater enjoyment expressed for Latino comedians' performing stereotypical race-based material, the tendency to react more harshly against perceived out-group members as a defense strategy to maintain positive in-group salience remained in real-world judgments on alleged offenders. Despite the claim that light-hearted comedy is meant to be laughed at and not taken seriously, jokes that disparage racial groups as homogeneous, simplistic, and criminal impact subsequent responses to out-group members in a socially competitive attempt to maintain positive in-group identity, to the detriment of out-groups.Item Consumers' Dependency on Media for Information about Food Safety Incidents Related to the Beef Industry(2012-10-19) Charanza, AshleyFood safety has become an important topic in today's mainstream media. Food safety incidents, specifically related to the beef industry, have the potential to damage the beef industry severely, and negative coverage in the media can alter consumers' perceptions and attitudes toward the beef industry. This study examined consumers' media dependency during normal times when a food safety incident is not occurring or is not expected to occur and during times of a potential food safety incident. This study also compared rural, urban, and suburban respondents' media dependencies and described consumer perceptions of the beef industry. The target population was Texas A & M University former students registered with a valid email address in a database maintained by The Association of Former Students. An online questionnaire was created on surveymonkey.com and sent to respondents over a four-week time period. Most of the respondents were educated, married, 50 years of age, and had some agricultural experiences. Respondents reported using more media during normal times than during a potential food safety incident. There was a level of concern among respondents toward aspects of the beef industry, such as use of antibiotics and growth hormones, and some concerns about respondent's health being affected by a food safety incident. The researcher concluded that respondents use multiple mediums to receive information about any issue; therefore agricultural communicators should target consumer messages to multiple mediums. Messages also should be constructed to address concerns with the beef industry to ensure consumers that the beef food supply is safe. It was recommended that similar research be conducted during or immediately after a national food safety incident, and research could be conducted on a different population.Item Maintaining Effective Media Relations(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2004) Mitchell, WendellItem Media induced anxiety in the active duty medical clinic setting: A pilot study(2009-05-21) Jonathan Michael Strobel; Laura Rudkin; Ruth Levine; Dan FreemanMedia stimuli have long been used in the research community to evaluate autonomic responses among subpopulations. Prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the majority of research had been focused on war veterans, rape/crime victims, and vehicle accident victims. Post- 9/11, a new surge of research has been focused on survivors, eyewitnesses, and media watchers to the extraordinary events that occurred on that historic day. The current news media stimuli of violent activities and economic and political turmoil are potential stressors for active duty soldiers who have faced or will face similar events in the near future. These types of media stressors could potentially lead to unnecessary autonomic response in the active duty soldiers who are a susceptible population. Currently there is no policy is in place to regulate what is being shown in the waiting rooms of clinics attended by these soldiers. The aims of this Capstone are twofold. The first aim is to assess the impact of current news media coverage on the anxiety levels of active duty soldiers in the clinical setting. The second aim is to propose recommendations regarding the types of media that should be restricted in the military medical clinic setting.Item Political Orientation, Media Consumption and Workplace Incivility during the 2012 American Presidential Election(2014-12-04) Wooderson, Robert LindenThe purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which employees? election season consumption of political media affects their perception and instigation of politically-motivated workplace incivility. Participants (N = 895; 81.2% White) enrolled a multi-wave longitudinal survey during the 2012 U.S. Presidential election and completed measures of political orientation, workplace incivility, and media consumption. Providing mixed support for our hypotheses, results indicated that consumption of pro-attitudinal political media was related to out-group mistreatment only for more conservative employees. Consumption of counter-attitudinal political media, on the other hand, was predictive of in-group mistreatment for both liberal and conservative employees. We discuss these findings in light of emerging research on political orientation as an important social identity and the unique and unstable social positions of political groups during elections.Item Shared Experiences and Collective Production: Note Card Confessions on YouTube(2014-12-03) Fowlds, KelliNew media are continuously changing the way in which youth communicate. Social media and online production, especially, are rapidly evolving. This research analyzes note card confession videos found on the popular video site, YouTube. It looks at the many aspects of digital storytelling, networked publics, and social support that make this genre of videos so unique. These videos have many visual and narrative components that tie them together as a unique form of communication. Writing style, narrative cues, and physical gestures were all used as part of the digital storytelling process. It was found that there is a common discussion of intimate topics such as depression, abuse, bullying, self-harm, and suicide. Furthermore, the comments section of each of the videos seems to serve as a potential space for online social support. In response to these videos, a series of parody videos have also been created as an apparent critical response to these note card confessions. These findings potentially open up new paths of research regarding new media communication, prevention studies, and youth health.Item Social comparison, ethnicity, body image, and media exposure to thin-ideal models: an experimental study(2009-06-02) Warren, Cortney SoderlindSocial comparison theory offers a useful conceptual framework to understand how mainstream American sociocultural values of appearance may shape the development of body image disturbance and eating disorders. Some experimental research demonstrates that women report significantly greater increases in negative affect and body image disturbance and decreases in self-esteem after viewing thin models than after viewing inanimate objects, normal-weight models, and overweight women. The main goal of this study was to investigate whether the effects of viewing thin models are influenced by the ethnicity of the observer and/or the ethnic and racial similarity of the model to the observer. In addition, the study tested the extent to which social comparison tendency, trait appearance evaluation, ethnic identity, and racial identity may moderate these effects. In study 1, women rated the race, attractiveness, and thinness of a group of ethnically diverse models. Study 2 assessed affect, self-esteem, and body image in Euro-American (n = 105), African-American (n = 91), and Latina (n = 111) women before and after viewing ethnically self-similar models, self-different models, or control images. Results indicated that ethnic similarity between model and participants influenced affect such that increased social comparison tendency in Latina participants predicted increased negative affect after viewing Latina models. Additionally, the type of media images viewed and proposed moderators influenced affect and body image. As predicted, positive appearance evaluation was more strongly associated with positive feelings about one?s weight after viewing models and, in African-American and Latina women, increased idealization of Whiteness was associated with decreased positive feelings regarding one?s weight after viewing White models. Unexpectedly, increased social comparison tendency was associated with increased positive affect after viewing African-American models whereas increased social comparison tendency was associated with less positive affect after viewing Latina models. Finally, independent of media exposure, African-American women reported higher appearance-based self-esteem and body image than Euro-American and Latina women and increased social comparison tendency, decreased positive appearance evaluation, decreased ethnic identity, and increased racial identity idealizing Whiteness were each associated with undesirable levels of self-esteem and body image. Clinical implications and directions for future research are provided.Item The Strategic Nature of Politics(2011-02-22) Ramirez, Mark DanielScholarship shows that the social construction of crime is responsible for the public?s demand for tougher criminal justice policies. Yet, there remains disagreement over several key issues regarding the relationship between strategic communication and the punitiveness of the mass public. Little is known about the magnitude and direction of changes in punitive sentiment over the last 50 years. Moreover, there is disagreement over when the public began to demand punitive solutions to crime over alternative policies. Many scholars point the racial turmoil of the 1960s, but none have shown conclusive evidence of any fundamental change in punitive sentiment. Finally, there is disagreement over what type of strategic appeal is most effective at shaping public opinion. The argument of this research is that the democratic nature of American pol- itics creates an environment where the competition of ideas flourish. Political ac- tors can use several types of strategic communication (agenda-setting, persuasion, priming, framing) to shape political outcomes. The effectiveness of an appeal does not remain constant over time, but should evolve around systematic social changes? environmental conditions and social norms. Thus, there is a time varying relationship between various appeals and public opinion. A content analysis of crime news in the New York Times provides measures of four types of strategic messages. Instrumental factors such as the economy and public policy are also shown to influence the public?s desire for punitive criminal justice policies. A Bayesian changepoint model provides a means to test when, if any,fundamental change occurred in the public?s punitive sentiment. Contrary to most accounts, the changepoint model identifies 1972 as having the highest probability of a breakpoint suggesting a public backlash against the Supreme Court?s Furman vs. Georgia decision to abolish the death penalty. Estimates from a state-space model show that different types of messages in the media shape punitive sentiment and that the effectiveness of racial primes and presidential attention to crime changes over time. Moreover, these changes are shown to be a function of changes in social context and norms suggesting ways to improve political communication.Item Three Way Inforamtion Flow Between the President, News Media, and the Public(2011-02-22) Lee, Han SooRegarding presidential responsiveness and leadership, this study addresses two questions: Does the president respond to the public? Does the president lead the public? Unlike prior research, this study tries to answer these questions by focusing on the news media intervening in the relationship between the president and the public. Rather than positing a direct relationship between them, this study points out that information flows between the president and the public through the news media, which affect the president and the public. The public receives daily political information including presidential messages from the news media. Also, presidents recognize public sentiments from news stories. Accordingly, this study examines the potentially multidirectional relationships between the three actors from 1958 to 2004 in the United States. This study estimates the reciprocal relationships between the three actors by using Vector Autoregression (VAR) and Moving Average Response (MAR) simulations. Analyzing the three actors' issue stances, this study reveals that the news media significantly influence the public and the president. However, the direct relationship between the president and the public is negligible. Furthermore, the empirical findings demonstrate that presidential responsiveness is more likely to be observed when the news media report news stories consonant with past public opinion changes.