TOWARD A THEORY OF REFRACTIVISM: HOW ‘OTHERS’ DISRUPT NARRATIVES IN NEWS & DIGITAL MEDIA

Abstract

In this dissertation, I examine how individuals and groups turn the narrative tools of media against dominant power. Across four case studies, I extend theories of gaze to show how those who are “Othered” contest power and narrative by subverting familiar media practices and elite-controlled narratives. To do so, I introduce a theory I call refractivism that centers agency and counter-narrative production, describing how marginalized individuals actively reject harmful representations and assert alternative identities. In critical, agentic moments—flashpoints where media afford intervention—refractivists leverage both legacy and digital platforms to challenge dominant narratives and advance new social realities. These acts of mediated resistance not only contest power but reshape media ecology, expanding possibilities for representation and future resistance.The four case studies focus on populations marginalized by hegemonic legal and social discourses related to age, body size, criminalization, and gender. Specifically, I examine (1) how gray-haired older women built community through social media to affirm their professional value and beauty, predominantly researching via digital ethnographic methods; (2) how Lizzo used social media to reject body-shaming and promote boundary-breaking plus-size celebration online and in person, researched via deep content analysis; (3) how journalists and editors reconsidered the routine use of police mug shots that stigmatize arrested but unconvicted individuals, leaning heavily on data gleaned from journalist interviews; and (4) how Britney Spears’ fandom mobilized online and offline activism to challenge and ultimately prompt reevaluation of her conservatorship, all examined with metajournalistic discourse analysis, through an investigation of both mainstream media and the social media platform Twitter/X. These four cases document how distinctively different actors can redirect public and media attention toward harms that had previously gone unseen or unacknowledged, creating initiatives and inspiration for others to follow. This dissertation demonstrates how media practices within mainstream and social media can be mobilized to disrupt entrenched social and political hierarchies. By extending theories of gaze through refractivism, in this dissertation I speak to scholars across fields and additionally provide practical insight for marginalized communities seeking to resist and reshape dominant narratives.