Philip Merrill College of Journalism
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item THE SOCIAL BASE OF MEMES: EXPRESSIONS OF IDENTITY, VALUES, AND AESTHETICS IN QUEER DIGITAL FOLKLORE(2023) Foster , Bobbie; Moeller, Susan; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Memes are a central part of digital communications and cultures. But memes are complex multifaceted expressions of identity and culture. Digital folklorists argue that memes, like traditional folklore, facilitate the creation of identity through socially constructed narratives that form unique groups online. Scholars across disciplines agree that memes rely on community participation, but the methods and theories vary widely. This dissertation advocates for the creation of Critical Meme Studies that centers critical inquiry to examine memes as a form of digital folklore that builds community identity, values, and aesthetics across social media platforms. The concept of boundary-marking memes is introduced to understand how memes build barriers of entry to conversations on public platforms. The methodology consisted of Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (Brock, 2018) and the pairing of Queer theories and methods related to the study of Camp as a form of detachment/attachment of political readings (Horn, 2018). As a result, the dissertation found LGBTQIA+ individuals use memes to construct answers to three core thematic questions, who is invited to Pride, what does Pride mean, and how should Pride look and feel. The answers used expressions of identity, values, and aesthetics to build responses that targeted in-group audiences.Item From the Belly of the HUAC: The Red Probes of Hollywood, 1947-1952(2009) Meeks, Jack Duane; Beasley, Maurine H; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Document: FROM THE BELLY OF THE HUAC: THE RED PROBES OF HOLLYWOOD, 1947–1952 Jack D. Meeks, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Directed By: Dr. Maurine Beasley, Journalism The House Un–American Activities Committee, popularly known as the HUAC, conducted two investigations of the movie industry, in 1947 and again in 1951–1952. The goal was to determine the extent of communist infiltration in Hollywood and whether communist propaganda had made it into American movies. The spotlight that the HUAC shone on Tinsel Town led to the blacklisting of approximately 300 Hollywood professionals. This, along with the HUAC’s insistence that witnesses testifying under oath identify others that they knew to be communists, contributed to the Committee’s notoriety. Until now, historians have concentrated on offering accounts of the HUAC’s practice of naming names, its scrutiny of movies for propaganda, and its intervention in Hollywood union disputes. The HUAC’s sealed files were first opened to scholars in 2001. This study is the first to draw extensively on these newly available documents in an effort to reevaluate the HUAC’s Hollywood probes. This study assesses four areas in which the new evidence indicates significant, fresh findings. First, a detailed analysis of the Committee’s investigatory methods reveals that most of the HUAC’s information came from a careful, on–going analysis of the communist press, rather than techniques such as surveillance, wiretaps and other cloak and dagger activities. Second, the evidence shows the crucial role played by two brothers, both German communists living as refugees in America during World War II, in motivating the Committee to launch its first Hollywood probe. Third, an examination of the HUAC’s practice of requiring witnesses to name names shows this to be an on–going exercise of data triangulation. Finally, the documents in the HUAC archives reveal an overriding concern with exposing the activities and practices of communist front organizations, which the Committee viewed as powerfully effective venues for communist propaganda. In summary, the newly available archival evidence, upon which this dissertation uniquely draws, indicates the HUAC operated in a less sinister manner than previously supposed and, thus, revises previous scholarship on the HUAC.Item Investigating the Investigators: Examining the Attitudes, Perceptions, and Experiences of Investigative Journalists in the Internet Age(2008-10-23) Kaplan, Andrew David; Heider, Don; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines how ownership type affects newsroom support, job satisfaction, and commitment to field by investigative journalists. It also explores agenda-building theory, asking if journalists' belief in their ability to reform the system through their work is a major predictor of job satisfaction. More broadly, the study examines the state of investigative journalism today by probing the attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of investigative journalists working for newspapers, and how these have changed compared with two decades ago. The study found that ownership type does not seem to affect newsroom support, job satisfaction, or commitment to field. Whether at public, private, or family newspapers, journalists across the board expressed great job satisfaction, fierce devotion to their field, and high levels of support in their own newsrooms, irrespective of ownership type. Regarding agenda-building, most watchdog reporters believe their work has substantial influence on reforming policy. Belief that one's work has significant impact has some predictive value for job satisfaction, but not for commitment to field. Investigative journalists today are more likely to contact policymakers to follow up the impact of their stories than journalists were two decades ago, yet still strongly believe the public plays a crucial role in changing policy--despite most empirical studies casting strong doubts on that. This research project found deep ambivalence about the Internet and its impact on the field. Highly experienced journalists tend to worry about the Internet and its effects on the journalistic process. Considerable skepticism exists among reporters concerning the role nonprofits may play in future investigative journalism. This dissertation uncovered a sharp dichotomy between how journalists view their own newsrooms versus how they view the industry at large. It also found that watchdog reporters today estimate they devote more time to investigative journalism than five years ago. Today's journalists still cite the very same factors that motivated journalists to excel almost 20 years ago.Item Women's Participation as Leaders in the Transformation of the Chinese Media: A Case Study of Guangzhou City(2008-08-21) Cai, Chunying; Beasley, Maurine H.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A 1995 UNESCO-commissioned survey of Chinese women journalists revealed that women only comprised 8.5% of high-level leadership positions in the Chinese media. Taking the survey as its springboard, this study set out to explore women's leadership experiences in the Chinese media, as embodied in Guangzhou City, the hive of media reform in China. Twenty-two women media leaders and nine men media professionals in Guangzhou were interviewed. Statistical data of the overall distribution of women leaders in the Guangzhou media were also obtained. Media leadership in Guangzhou was divided into two tiers. Women leaders are still very much the minority, with their presence in second-tier (similar to mid-level) leadership higher than that of first-tier (high-level) leadership. It was found that first-tier women media leaders followed a different promotion pattern from those in the second tier, corresponding to the political function and industrial structure of the Guangzhou media. The distribution of women in first-tier leadership is uneven among different media sectors with the highest percentage in radio stations followed by newspaper groups and then TV stations, likely a result of the lower industrial and social status of the radio sector. Women's distribution in second-tier leadership is uneven among different media organizations, likely a result of these organizations' different institutional cultures and promotion mechanisms. This study identified a range of reasons that have contributed to the under-representation of women in leadership in the Chinese media, which were then compared to the reasons as suggested by the 1995 survey. Women's leadership advantages and disadvantages and their experiences of balancing work and family were discussed. The women media leaders have vividly witnessed, actively participated in, and in some cases successfully propelled the transformation of the Chinese media in Guangzhou. Their leadership experiences have helped to reveal the complex interplay of the political economy of the Chinese media and to expose problems that have emerged in the transformative process. Media transformation in China has brought a significant increase of women media professionals and has resulted in a seemingly improved representation of women in media leadership in Guangzhou, mainly at the second-tier level.Item Pre-Internet Versus Post-Internet News Content: The Case of the Chattanooga Times and Times Free Press(2008-04-22) Wilson, Matthew David; Stepp, Carl S.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines the case of the 1986 Chattanooga Times and the 2006 Chattanooga Times Free Press, and aims to determine, through systematic research, how the content of that newspaper has changed between the pre-Internet and post-Internet eras. To answer those questions, the study measures six indicators of content: story length, links, graphical space, local coverage, types of stories and sectionalization. The data show that all those indicators have changed over the course of 20 years - some more dramatically than others - but generally in favor of busier, more "reader-friendly" content and less breaking news. In some cases the study suggests these changes tend to distinguish newspaper content from Internet content, while in others the change seems to make print news more like Internet news products.Item DARING TO THINK IS BEGINNING TO FIGHT: THE HISTORY OF MAGAZINE ALTERNATIVA—COLOMBIA, 1974-1980(2007-06-12) Agudelo, Carlos G.; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This case study of alternative, radical journalism in Latin America during the 1970s, seeks to clarify and define the characteristics and limits of this model in concrete, specific historical circumstances. It traces the history of Alternativa, a leftist magazine published between February 1974 and 1980 in Bogotá, Colombia when three groups of people from different backgrounds devised a journalistic alternative model based on four objectives (counter-informing; investigation, analysis and interpretation; divulging the people's struggles; and propitiating the unity of the left), to effect a lasting change in Colombia's society. The founders' common Marxist background determined the magazine's content and its approach. Initially, they declared themselves independent and neutral toward the left's groups and decided to reach a wide audience through mass circulation. The narrative shows how inner tensions resulting from principled differences among the magazine's creators and from political circumstances led to two crises that tested its founding principles and determined its journalistic evolution. It also shows the struggle of the magazine to survive in a hostile climate, against a notoriously reckless and corrupt regime, testing the limits of the freedom of the press. In the first phase, the narrative reviews the history of the country as seen through the eyes of the publication, which contested the official version in the mainstream news media. In the second phase, the investigation highlights paramount issues such as human rights violations, corruption and the role of the press, through the magazine's critical coverage of Colombia's armed forces and police. In the third phase, the dissertation explores the magazine's complex relationship with the left, which eventually led to its demise. As author of this dissertation, I was witness to the events covered by Alternativa, and was part of the staff of writers in the magazine's third and last stage, with an inside view of a journalistic phenomenon crucial to understanding Colombia's present troubles.Item Body images in magazines: A cross-cultural investigation of media effects in Russian and U.S. young women(2007-04-25) Markova, Svetlana V.; McAdams, Katherine C.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The dissertation is a cross-cultural-generational investigation of audiences' perceptions of media messages. The study comparatively examines adolescent and young adult females' concepts of body images in beauty and fashion magazines in Russia and USA. The theoretical model for the study was developed in the intersection of mass communication and human development research traditions. Specifically, media effects and audience research traditions of media studies, in combination with social-cognitive domain theory of developmental psychology, were applied for analysis of direct and indirect impact of media messages on young women; of their motivations for reading magazines; of their critical evaluations of media content; and of their predispositions to media-associated health risks. The study was conducted in two stages: mixed research methodologies employing qualitative exploration of the stated problem followed by its quantitative examination. A total of 20 participants (10 Russian and 10 U.S. teenage females) were recruited for in-depth interviews; this part of the study focused primarily on differences in media uses and perceptions between adolescent audiences across cultures. The hypotheses and the survey questionnaire for the second part of the study were developed on the basis of these qualitative data and used to test both cultural and generational differences among media audiences. A total of 400 survey participants represented adolescent (mean age=18.5) and young adult (mean age=28) females in Russia and USA. Two major factors were found to be significant in determining perceptions of media messages by diverse audiences: (1) desire for advice about body-related issues and (2) desire for information and entertainment. Adolescent females were more motivated to read magazines for entertainment and informational purposes than adult women in both cultures, whereas U.S. females were more motivated by body-awareness than Russian females in both generational cohorts. In this connection, U.S. females experienced lower levels of self-esteem after reading magazines and were more predisposed to development of eating disorders than Russian females. The study revealed limited effects of media on diverse cultural and generational audiences, suggesting that media users select specific media content and are consequently influenced by it based on personal motivations for reading specific content of their interest.Item Building the Stained Glass Prism: The Development of the Polish Catholic Church's Electronic Media Properties 1989-2003(2004-11-24) Burns, David Paul; Hiebert, Ray E.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates the Polish political, economic, and social transition from 1989 to 2003 from communism to capitalism, specifically its impact on a powerful Polish institution the Roman Catholic Church - and by extension, the Church's electronic media properties. As Poland changed from an eastern-looking collectivist society to a more western individualist society, its conservative Catholic Church likewise moved from a more autocratic, cohesive force towards a more liberal, Post-Vatican II approach to worship supported by the first Polish pontiff, John Paul II. Various Catholic religious orders with political viewpoints ranging from liberal to ultra-conservative managed the Church's radio, television and Internet properties and shaped the Church's mediated messages along their own religious ideology. This divisiveness was similarly reflected in fragmentation within the Church hierarchy, with individual Polish bishops supporting the media properties that most closely espoused their viewpoint.Item REDEFINING WOMEN'S NEWS: A CASE STUDY OF THREE WOMEN'S PAGE EDITORS AND THEIR FRAMING OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT(2004-10-25) Wilmot Voss, Kimberly; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)For many decades the main area of journalism to which women could contribute was women's pages in newspapers. These sections, which ran from the late nineteenth century until the late 1960s, have been overlooked by journalism historians as containing significant content. While it was true that many sections concentrated on news of weddings, society events, routine notices of club meetings, fashion and recipes, other sections contained news of political and social issues that were important to women especially throughout the 1960s when the women's pages were often the only way that women could learn about the women's liberation movement. This study details the lives of three progressive women's page editors: Vivian Castleberry, Dorothy Jurney and Marjorie Paxson. Throughout their long journalism careers and in their private lives, they strove to redefine news for women by rejecting the limitations of traditional women's sections. In addition to examining their lives through a biographical approach, this dissertation uses framing and feminist theories to analyze the content of the women's sections edited by the three women. This study also includes an examination, using framing theory, of the winning submissions in the Penney-Missouri award competition from 1960 to 1971. These awards, which have not been studied previously, were meant to raise the standards of women's pages by recognizing sections that went beyond traditional content. I found Penney-Missouri award winners, which included Castleberry, Jurney and Paxson, framed women's news differently than male journalists framed news pertaining to women. Women's page editors attempted to balance conflicting messages of staying at home versus fighting for change that were being given to women during the women's movement. They did not focus on friction when they covered it. They created their own issue-based frame that took the women's movement seriously without excluding women who wanted to remain homemakers. The findings support a revision in the history of women's pages and their role in the women's liberation movement. While traditional women's pages filled with society, home and wedding news, appeared in many newspapers, some sections were progressive in content and writing style. Not recognizing the differences among women's page editors at various newspapers leads to the invisibility of women in journalism history and overlooks the important role played by women in pressing for change.Item THE KOREAN PRESS IN JAPAN AFTER WORLD WAR II AND ITS CENSORSHIP BY OCCUPATION AUTHORITIES(2004-02-25) Yoon, Hee Sang; BEASLEY, MAURINE H; HIEBERT, RAY E; GUREVITCH, MICHAEL; SCHREURS, MIRANDA; JournalismThis study deals with censorship of the Korean language press in Japan by the American occupation after World War II. It focuses on the social roles of mass media in a minority community when there were harsh media controls such as discriminatory printing paper allocation as well as censorship. It finds that, in spite of the government control, the press continued to play social roles such as community integration, identity formation, and agenda setting. The dissertation represents the first scholarly examination of 19 Korean newspapers, including one for women, and 14 magazines published by Koreans in Japan during the occupation. It is based on previously unavailable material recently opened to researchers as part of the Gordon W. Prange Collection at the University of Maryland. Therefore, the entire dissertation is the only study to date of Korean publications in Japan during the occupation. This study reveals the contents of articles scheduled to appear in Korean publications that were suppressed by censors. Through this study, the voices of suppressed Korean speakers have been revived and can, for the first time, be heard in on an open forum. Even though the voices represent quite different ideological factions, those of the leftwing, rightwing, and mid-road, the study concludes that Korean publications in Japan, reflecting the yearnings of Koreans in Japan, zeroed in on a consensus: Korea is one; therefore, the homeland should overcome the division over North and South and develop a unified nation. This study shows how a marginalized ethnic minority group, the Koreans in Japan under the Japanese government and American occupation authorities, recognized themselves as members of the same community belonging to one homeland in spite of their geographical distance from it. It demonstrates the fact that journalism under conditions of harsh control may negotiate with the authorities, or attempt to circumvent control. The study also brings out the fact that, from a freedom of the press view, controlling the physical media of communication [printing paper] may be more damaging than control of the contents of communication [censorship].