Entertainment Studies 2019 Abstracts
‘Live Fast, Die Young’: Programming Strategies of the Phonograph, FOX, and CBS • Anna Aupperle • Everything old is new again on broadcast television, or so it seems. When comparing the programming strategies of broadcast networks, it is imperative to look back to history to see how other media have sold similar content to audiences. This paper compares the programming of the phonograph at the height of its popularity and case studies of three Fox and CBS programs, in an effort to rectify these differing content strategies.
Expecting Victory due to TV or Identity?: Examining media consumption, social identification, and fan expectations • Natalie Brown-Devlin, The University of Texas at Austin; Michael Devlin, Texas State University • This study used a nationwide, purposive sample to simultaneously examine how media consumption and levels of team identification contribute to the formation of fan expectations. Guided by both cultivation theory and social identification theory as an underpinning, this study utilized a survey of 310 highly-identified fans of two teams competing in the NCAA College Football Championship game. Participants reported their media consumption habits, level of team identity, and expectations for the game outcome. Results determined the extent to which sports media consumption contributes to the formation of sport fans’ expectations regarding their preferred team’s performance, and then, examined the extent to which team identification (using the SSIS) contributed to either mediating or moderating the effects of expectations after media consumption.
Binge Watching: Motivations, Demographics, and Television Program Genres • Jiyoung Cha, San Francisco State University; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • Binge watching is a notable phenomenon that is changing the production, distribution, and consumption of television programs. Building upon the uses and gratification theory, this study seeks to better understand binge-watching behaviors. A national survey of U.S. adults identified motivations that predict the frequency of binge watching, the amount of time spent binge watching and the quantity of binge watching episodes. It also uncovered the demographic characteristics and genre consumption patterns of frequent binge viewers.
Teaching Diversity through Satire Literacy • Charisse L’Pree Corsbie-Massay, Syracuse University; Kiah Bennett • Several studies reveal that satire is popular among young audiences, making it a potential didactic tool for in-classroom discussions; however, satire criticized for making jokes that only resonate with those already familiar with the topic (Flanagan, 2017). The current work describes best practices for using satire in the classroom to discuss issues of representation and diversity in media by presenting rhetorical and pedagogical tactics that provide students insight into issues of marginalization with respect to class, gender, and race.
Potterheads: A Cultural Overview • Danielle Deavours, The University of Alabama • All humans have patterns of behavior, thought, and actions that are learned from outside influences, and these aspects make up our cultural identities. Culture can be defined as “learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shared by a group of people” (Martin & Nakayama, 2017). People learn about the world by selecting, evaluating, and organizing various stimuli from the external environment and then creating their perception of self and worldviews. Media is one of these external stimuli by which humans build personal worldviews, and research shows that certain media have great influence over the development of self-perception and other behavioral predictors (Agha, 2010; Ionoaia, 2009). One instance of an influential media is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Arguably one of the most successful book series in history, Harry Potter is a world-wide phenomena that has helped shape the worldviews of millions of readers and fans. The influence of the series is so great that researchers have begun referring to Harry Potter fans as members of a singular culture, known as Potterheads. This paper addresses some of the cultural aspects of Harry Potter fans, including pop culture, language, symbols, games, and arts. The author will also explore Harry Potter fan culture’s viewpoints on nerd versus mainstream identity, relationships, politics, prejudice, gender, philanthropy, and collectivism.
It’s Obviously Funny to be a Meme: Using Memes for Political Entertainment & Observation • Bingbing Zhang, Texas Tech University; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University • Memes are cultural units that transmit among online users. Appearing as jokes, memes are a popular form of expression and appear to serve a greater role in the formation and spread of public opinion, changing the way citizens engage with politics. Driven by uses and gratifications theory, this work examines users’ motivations for viewing, sharing, and creating political memes. A nationwide survey (N = 1,000) of Facebook users identified unique gratifications obtained from political meme use. Results show the use of politically-related memes is a nuanced behavior strategically done to fulfill needs for political entertainment and observation. Specifically, individuals with high political trust, who think of themselves as being humorous, and frequently share or create memes used them to observe politics in action. Alternatively, those who prefer to observe humorous circumstances and frequently share and view memes, without engaging in creation, used politically-related memes for entertainment. Practical and theoretical implications regarding use of memes for engagement and effects are discussed.
Out of the Shadows: Female Representation in Shadow of the Tomb Raider • Jordin Howell, University of Memphis • A textual analysis of Shadow of the Tomb Raider provides insight on the current level of female representation within the video game community. Calls for equal representation peaked during the #GamerGate controversy; the present research concludes this game is a direct answer to that call. Findings show that Shadow of the Tomb Raider presents Lara Croft as a feminist role model who has been transformed into a three-dimensional character. The research also highlights that, while it is important to find areas lacking in representation, it is also important to note when it is done right.
“Slutty ambitious monsters”: The cultivation of female journalists in pop culture • Kelsey Husnick, Wayne State University • Negative, inaccurate portrayals of female journalists have persisted in movies, television shows and other cultural artifacts for decades and little change has been made in the movie and television industry. This paper uses cultivation theory and news processes as a basis for analyzing HBO’s Sharp Objects, which features female journalist as protagonist. Findings include plot elements and themes supporting and pushing back on traditional journalistic scripts.
Looking through the selfie: An analysis of Snapchat Filter/Lens Use in the Context of Objectification Theory and Uses and Gratifications • Angelina Cruz, University of Central Florida; Amanda Brown, University of Central Florida; Elise Legrout, University of Central Florida; Edward Matthew Coyle, University of Central Florida; William Kinnally, University of Central Florida • Highly visual social media like Snapchat have become a mainstays in modern culture, particularly among young people. These services offer filters and lenses that people use to alter their visual messages. However, little is known about why young people use lenses and filters and what the potential effects might be. This study examines the relationship between college students’ use of Snapchat’s silly and beauty lenses and their association with self-objectification and self-esteem. College students responded to an online survey including measures of social media use, motives for using lenses, as well as feelings of self-objectification and self-esteem. Results revealed that three motives accounted for lens and filter use: entertainment/pass time, beautification, and impression management. There was no connection between Snapchat filter and lens use and participant’s tendency toward self-objectification but there was a correlation between Snapchat use and self-esteem. Participant’s sex as well as the entertainment/pass time and beautification motives were the only predictors of their use of Snapchat’s familiar filters/lenses.
Immersion Matters: Trait Empathy, Presence, and Enjoyment in Cinematic Virtual Reality Experience • Zexin “Marsha” Ma, Oakland University • Cinematic virtual reality (CVR), in the format of 360° sphere videos, has gained an increasing popularity over the past few years. As CVR can be viewed in different media platforms that differ in immersion, it is important to understand the impact of immersion on viewers’ psychological experience. This study investigates the role of immersion and its interactive effects with trait empathy on CVR viewers’ spatial presence, social presence, and enjoyment. A sample of 112 young adults were randomly assigned to watch a CVR film either in mobile phone-based VR headsets (high immersion) or tablets (low immersion). Results indicated that viewers experienced greater spatial presence, social presence, and enjoyment when the film was viewed in high (vs. low) immersion. Spatial presence and social presence were also found to jointly mediate the effect of immersion on enjoyment. Furthermore, trait empathy interacted with immersion to influence social presence. Contrary to our expectation, we found that social presence was more strongly influenced by immersion among individuals low (vs. high) in trait empathy. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Hostile Media Bias and Third-Person Effect in Film and Television: A Study of Diversity • Michele Meyer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Abstract: The issue of diversity and stereotyping in film and television has become a politicized, hotly contested topic in discussions of pop culture. In this paper, I use portrayals and audience perceptions of race, gender, sexual orientation, body type, and class to investigate the idea that hostile media bias and third-person effect apply to entertainment media in addition to news. Survey results (n=317) indicate that audiences believe film and television to be more diverse than they actually are. A positive sentiment toward diversity in film and television predicted the perception that creators exclude people from marginalized groups in their productions. Furthermore, when asked if stereotypical portrayals contributed the marginalization of minorities, audiences displayed third-person effect perceptions, believing that others could buy into stereotypes but they do not.
Misogyny and Erotic Pleasure in Bollywood’s ‘Item Numbers’ • Suman Mishra • “Item numbers” are controversial song and dance sequences that have gained popularity in Bollywood cinema in the last two decades. In this study, item numbers produced between 2000-2018 in Bollywood films are analyzed, a period which saw rapid growth in item numbers. Thematic analysis of item number videos shows a trend towards increased sexual objectification of women, along with several other sub-themes such as use of Eurocentric models. The transformation of Bollywood’s song and dances from sensual depictions into an “erotic spectacle” is discussed in the context of globalization and misogyny. Elements of erotic spectacles are noted.
DudeBros Could Love Lady Shows: Gender Expectations, Enjoyment, and Willingness to Recommend Television Among Males • Renee Mitson, University of Minnesota; Eugene Lee, University of Minnesota; Jonathan Anderson; Maral Abdollahi • This research quantifies gendered beliefs, enjoyment, and willingness to recommend television programs expected to be viewed by the opposite gender. We surveyed 350 heterosexual males, and measured gendered beliefs, expected audience gender of popular television programs, enjoyment of shows, and social recommendations. Results found gendered beliefs are not an obstacle for enjoyment or willingness to recommend television shows, but expected audience gender is, and enjoyment and recommendations decreased when participants expected shows were watched by women.
‘Fight the Power’: Themes of Racial Tension in Different Rap Music Eras – A Content Analysis • Dante Mozie, University of South Carolina • Rap music has served as a platform for many artists over the years to tackle issues that affect the African American community, from racial profiling and police misconduct to criticizing government leaders and societal woes. A content analysis of the Billboard Hot Rap Song charts in two different eras for the genre, 1989-1999 and 2008-2018, was conducted to examine the frequency of rap artists mentioning the police in their songs, how often artists criticize racism and oppressive institutions, such as the government, and how often rappers offer advice or self-reflection in their songs. Results found that most artists preferred to discuss themselves, love, sex, drugs, wealth, and other topics besides the police or social and racial topics. However, a small connection was found between the tone of artists (“angry”) and those who tackled racial profiling in their songs, an encouraging sign of support for the African-American Offending Theory, which is discussed and used in this study.
Coming out of the Celebrity Closet: LGBTQ and Authentic Mediated Confessions • Nathian Rodriguez, San Diego State University; Mary Liz Brooks • The current study’s goal is to examine how LGBTQ celebrities frame their coming out messages, with specific attention to mediated platforms, between 2013 and 2018. In addition, the study examined what identities were most salient in those celebrities who did come out. The analysis revealed themes of promoting marriage equality, representation to LGBTQ youth, specific cause-related issues, response to violence, representation in media, celebratory timing, authenticity and honesty, and reputation management. A majority of the celebrities were primarily actors and actresses, athletes, and musicians. The analysis also revealed that more than 62% of the celebrities were male, White, and between the ages of 21 and 35 years-old. Most came out on social media.
Gendered #selfie? An analysis of Selfies, Face-ism, and Sexual Self-Identification on Instagram • Erin Ryan, Kennesaw State University; Cynthia Nichols, US Department of State • Decades of research on face-ism in traditional media report women are more likely to be pictured from a more distant perspective than men, and users of social networks are mirroring this presentation. This analysis used the face-ism index to determine facial prominence of 621 Instagram users who did and did not self-identify as #gay or #lesbian. The analysis revealed users who sexually self-identified did not follow the hetero-normative face-ism trends seen in traditional, gendered media.
Corporate Affirmations of the True Self and Mutual Self Help: Transmedia Rhetorics of Marvel Rising • Burton St. John, University of Colorado – Boulder; J. Richard Stevens, University of Colorado – Boulder • In 2018, Disney launched a Marvel Rising transmedia campaign introducing a line of female superhero dolls and supporting media narratives with Marvel Comics and Hasbro. Utilizing textual and industry analysis, we find that the concentration of ownership and the need to attract a new clientele surprisingly resulted in a “commercialized feminism” text, one that thematically supports Disney’s pro-social messaging agenda, linking its products to what it perceives as the preferred social identity for its audience.
Just One More Episode: Binge-Watching Poetics and Big Data in Non-Linear Television Portals • Ryan Stoldt • In 2013, Netflix declared binge-watching “the new normal” in a press release. Binge-watching, or watching two or more episodes of a television series in one sitting, emerged as a popular way of consuming television as an increasing number of internet-distributed television services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime offered consumers access to a library of content to watch on their own time. This paper offers the concept of binge-watching poetics to describe the technological and narrative poetic devices employed by internet-distributed television services to encourage audiences to continue consuming television. I argue that the seasonal release strategies, algorithmic flows between episodes, and the narrative devices within shows all serve as binge-watching poetics. The employment of binge-watching poetics functions as a socio-historic extension of many previous televisual production practices to keep audiences returning but serves a different economic purpose for the television companies. Through the encouragement of continual consumption in binge-watching poetics, internet-distributed television services gather data on consumption practices. This data production allows the businesses to continually reemploy the audiences’ productive behavior for the businesses’ own economic interest by informing programming decisions and selling advertisements. Thus, this paper argues that the Foucauldian power knowledge created through audience consumption continues to allow the television industry to recreate its own existence, although the power knowledge is employed in slightly different ways from the linear television broadcasting industry.
Shakin’ the Delta: The Evolution and Misrepresentation of Hill Country Blues in Print Journalism • GREENBERRY TAYLOR, University of Florida • R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough are two of the most prolific Hill Country bluesmen from northeast Mississippi. For most of the 20th century, however, music journalists mislabeled their music as Delta blues. This historical study examines magazine and newspaper articles from 1985 to 2002 on Burnside and Kimbrough, while also incorporating oral histories and in-depth interviews, in order to understand the evolution of Hill Country coverage on its rise to mainstream success.
Facing the Music: Analyzing the Depiction and Objectification of Women in American Music Journalism • Kelsey Whipple; Renita Coleman • This content analysis finds significant objectification of female musicians in major music publications during 2016. The stories, predominantly about male artists and by male authors, were more likely to discuss female musicians’ appearance and relationships, and used more sexualized and emotional language. Female writers were just as likely to objectify women musicians. We expand objectification theory with the concept of “vicarious self-objectification,” capturing how women have internalized the sexualized identities and then objectify other women.
Explore horror movie genre preference with miniMAM: An exploratory study in Taiwan • Yu-Lun Wu; Hsiu-Ping Yueh • Media has become the main resource of contemporary entertainment, and people usually approach it for something positive. In between, frightening entertainment has long been an interesting issue in media study. Followed by the tradition of intensity-based models, the study attempted to explore the correlation between media preference, behavior, and individual differences. Since Motivation Activation Measure (MAM) has been an emerging and reliable indicator of biologically based individual difference, the study conducted correlational approach to examine the short version MAM (miniMAM) in correlation with horror preference and watching frequency. Gender was also verified in further analysis. The data were collected from a total of 160 participants. The results showed that the horror movie genre preference is positive correlating to horror movie watching frequency, and ASA scores has positive correlation with horror movie genre preference, especially the more intensive genres, and males performed higher preference in specific genres than females. Nevertheless, due to the limitation of the study, cultural issue and research design needed more consideration in the future study.
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