Information Studies Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2780
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Item Gossip as a Site of Resistance: Information-Sharing Strategies Among Survivors of Sexual Violence(2018) Hagelin, Karina; Jaeger, Paul; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)How do survivors pursue healing justice in a world increasingly dominated by digital - and social - media? This research paper focuses on survivors' responses to healing from sexual violence as mitigated through zines, gossip, callout culture, and social media, as enabled by and through digital media. Gossip has been utilized as a communication practice among the most marginalized communities and peoples across society: women, people of color, queer and transgender folks, as well as survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence. Gossip is traditionally understood as spreading rumors, witch-hunting, creating drama, or otherwise attention-seeking and generally negative behaviors (with a gendered and feminized slant). Yet when we are actively and historically excluded from traditional information institutions, such as the media, our education system, and political sphere, it can become one of our only and last resorts for not only resistance – but sharing life-saving information with each other. The experiences, knowledges, and works of marginalized peoples are trivialized. Feminized labor, such as gossip and rumor, is marked as trivial, insignificant, and superficial at best, and malicious, attention-seeking, and slanderous at its worst. In the digital era and age of social media, we cannot afford to downplay the importance, relevance, and power of gossip. Survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence have used gossip as a tool of resistance to share their experiences, seek support, build community, warn others, and demand justice and accountability from their rapists and abusers. This paper seeks to examine the potential of gossip as a site of resistance for survivors of sexual violence and as a tactic to challenge rape culture.Item "Nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer": Portrayals of Masculinity and Ideal Citizenship in World War II Combat Films, 1989-2001(2013) Cerullo, Michelle; Giovacchini, Saverio; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Traditional platoons of World War II combat films were visualizations of an America that could be, rather than a reflection of the America that was. One might assume that, had the trend toward inclusive representation continued, the World War II combat platoons of the films of the 1990s might have included women or homosexuals, since the military of the 1990s was fully integrated on a racial front. Instead platoons' compositions remained unchanged. And in this new context, rather than acting out of a desire to expand the terms of citizenship, these movies represent a closing off of the terms of citizenship. In the face of demands for a change in the terms of civic participation from women, from homosexuals, from disabled citizens, these movies represent a vision of a shared past that is easier than the one currently inhabited by viewers. What does it mean that this period, out of all the periods in the history of the United States is the one that is deemed most worthy of celebration?