School of Communication and Multimedia Studies

This study investigates the phenomenon of intersectionality between race and
gender on the lived experiences of African American female broadcast journalists in the
state of Florida. Seven in-depth interviews were conducted and compared to determine
reoccurring themes taking place throughout each participant’s experience in broadcast
journalism as a result of their race and gender. Race, appearance, racial mentoring, and
professional advancement were the common themes that emerged in each interview.
Although there is a significant amount of research on African American women in the
workplace, there is a greater need to focus on the field of broadcast journalism and the
African American women who work in this field. Previous research on African American
women in the workplace shows that women of color experience different work
environments and treatment. The findings suggest African American female broadcast
journalists experience a different work environment compared to their colleagues due to
the intersection of race and gender.
This study investigates the phenomenon of intersectionality between race and
gender on the lived experiences of African American female broadcast journalists in the
state of Florida. Seven in-depth interviews were conducted and compared to determine
reoccurring themes taking place throughout each participant’s experience in broadcast
journalism as a result of their race and gender. Race, appearance, racial mentoring, and
professional advancement were the common themes that emerged in each interview.
Although there is a significant amount of research on African American women in the
workplace, there is a greater need to focus on the field of broadcast journalism and the
African American women who work in this field. Previous research on African American
women in the workplace shows that women of color experience different work
environments and treatment. The findings suggest African American female broadcast
journalists experience a different work environment compared to their colleagues due to
the intersection of race and gender.
This study investigates the phenomenon of intersectionality between race and
gender on the lived experiences of African American female broadcast journalists in the
state of Florida. Seven in-depth interviews were conducted and compared to determine
reoccurring themes taking place throughout each participant’s experience in broadcast
journalism as a result of their race and gender. Race, appearance, racial mentoring, and
professional advancement were the common themes that emerged in each interview.
Although there is a significant amount of research on African American women in the
workplace, there is a greater need to focus on the field of broadcast journalism and the
African American women who work in this field. Previous research on African American
women in the workplace shows that women of color experience different work
environments and treatment. The findings suggest African American female broadcast
journalists experience a different work environment compared to their colleagues due to
the intersection of race and gender.

The story is a sequence of events. Since nomadic times we have been drawn to the process of storytelling and the underlying themes hidden within these plots. Now, as the technological advancements made in new media lead us to this point, there is the need to reconcile the connection of the narrative with that of new media. Many theorists such as Manovich believe the narrative is slowly dying as new media continues to evolve. While others such as Bolter and Grusin think the story and traditional media is merely reinserting itself into new media. In the augmented reality story, The Seven Ages of Susanna, I seek to create a marriage of conventional media narrative and illustration techniques. By using new media tools of Vuforia and Unity, I aim to create an immersive experience that reconciles this issue.

This thesis examined how colorism impacts the representation of young women of color in 21st century television shows. The thesis focused on how colorism affects one’s idea of beauty and self-esteem, and how young women are portrayed. A content analysis of five television programs (Black-ish, Dear White People, Empire, Grown-ish, and The Carmichael Show) were analyzed. Through the analysis, darker complexion women were analyzed and it was found negative attributes were used to describe them in terms of beauty, and for lighter skinned females positives attributes were used throughout the show. In the five episodes examined that aired in the 21st century, beauty was defined based on one’s complexion as it was before in previous centuries. Issues of colorism are still displayed in 21st century television shows and through positive and negative caricatures. Colorism has a direct impact on how women of color are perceived and it can directly impact their self-esteem.

Social media played a pivotal role during The Never Again MSD Movement. This study examines the communicative tools social media, specifically Twitter, provides its users in order to communicate and distribute information. Authors Evans, Twoney, and Talan describes Twitter as “a valuable tool because it allows for instant communication to a wide audience” (9). Twitter is a valuable tool for communication because it fosters an online space where activists utilize the following communication tools: conversation, community, connection, collaboration, and accessibility. The study describes how activists use those tools in the type of messages being communicated on digital spaces. Through a context analysis on tweets from 3 prominent leaders of the movement: Sarah Chadwick, David Hogg, and Cameron Kasky, common themes were identified. The data was collected from a 6 week period ranging from February 14th, 2018 - March 28th, 2018. The purpose of this study is to ultimately examine how activist communicate on online spaces during social movements. Twitter offers activists a series of communication tools such as community, accessibility, and collaboration. Activists use these tools to first communicate about a variety of different topics relating to the movement as well distribute information and encourage involvement from other users. The results from the analysis determined that there is indeed power in communicating your message in online spaces. The study concludes with these findings: social media, specifically Twitter, is represented as a communication tool. The leaders of the Never Again MSD Movement use those tools in a variety of different ways such as communicating their personal opinion, encouraging involvement as well as promoting collaboration, community, and accessibility.

This thesis identifies the price inconstancies between male and female consumer personal care products, such as razors and deodorants. Economic research suggests consumers purchase products based on their willingness to pay, which depends upon satisfaction granted from the product. If this is true, the question must be asked: what grants these consumers high satisfaction from product purchasing? To answer this question, this thesis investigates the rhetorical effect that stems from product design. Using a rhetorical criticism technique, I analyze how product design allows consumers to project their gender identity. I assert that consumers are interpellated to choose products based on their gender. Once this interpellation takes place, a constitutive rhetoric formed by the product’s design already assumes the consumer’s wants by embedding masculine or feminine ideologies. The analysis shows product design perpetuates clear gender dichotomy and fortifies the belief of gender binaries.

The Trayvon Martin shooting of 2013 and the Michael Brown shooting of 2014 by a White security guard and White police officer sequentially led to the Black Lives Matter movement which has grown internationally to 40 chapters. Police agencies have responded with active community outreach programs to proactively reduce conflict. The question arises whether a language of peace such as Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication would be an effective tool to be used in instances of conflict similar to the carnage involving Black men and White police officers between 2013-2017. Local members of the Black community, Black Lives Matter, and law enforcement were interviewed asking the efficacy of Rosenberg’s NVC and deliberative dialogue as well. The study showed that since Blacks and Whites view racism differently, a more comprehensive approach is needed to address the challenges of racism and race relations. This thesis describes the possible use of a few models structured to discuss the racial conflict between all parties affected by racism.

This thesis project seeks to answer the question of how visual rhetoric put forward
in social media content by pro-life and pro-choice organizations may persuade their
audiences’ perspective on abortion. Using Sonja Foss’s guidelines for analysis of visual
rhetoric, I analyze 24 selected examples of Facebook content posted by two pro-life
organizations (Human Coalition and Feminists for Life) and two pro-choice organizations
(Planned Parenthood Action and NARAL Pro-Choice America) in 2017.
My analysis found that the visual rhetoric posted by both organizations on social
media can and does function as a form of visual metonymy. Because of this, these visual
strategies can stand in for more complex arguments in dramatic ways.

The unexpected comparison of a Supreme Court Justice with a popular culture
icon demonstrates how politics and popular culture become entwined in the
contemporary context; moreover, network culture provides a conduit for vernacular
discourse about politics, which circulates in the style of popular culture. Through analysis
of images of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as created, shared, and circulated in network culture,
this project explores the alternative levels of discourse generated in network culture,
examines the ways the public represents politics, and explains the ability of political
subjects to affect meaning. The aim of this project is to document a conjunctural moment;
as such, analysis of the images in aggregate provides a foundation to raise questions
about how American political culture is manifested, attended to, and maintained through
network culture and the parlance of popular culture.

This study analyzes the reactions of interracial relationships within the South
Asian Diaspora via film and literature focused on the United States and England. The
films examined are Mississippi Masala (1992) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002), and the
literature-utilized focuses on cultural identity, interracial dating, the importance of
marriage, the Indian community, and gender roles focused on women within the diaspora.
The films used encourage the idea of interracial relationships as acceptable and give
South Asian women the confidence to be more independent. The intention of this
research is to analyze the importance of cultural blending, independence, heritage, and
traditional values. The focus behind this research is to understand the battle of traditional
versus modern roles for women in the South Asian diaspora, and how independence can
be viewed as a form of dishonoring and humiliating their families when they step outside
of the cultural box.

This thesis builds from press accounts of Bruce Springsteen’s South by Southwest
keynote address, taken by many to be a renewed call to arms of the classic mantras of the
rock ethos in the age of a declining recording industry. In tracing the ways the speech
circulated I argue that its discourse was rearticulated toward quite different (and
concerning) ends. Throughout, I aim to show the apparatuses of power that sustains the
rock liberation fantasy. I read the coverage of Springsteen’s address as a therapeutic
discourse meant to soothe the anxiety over the closure of agency in the age of
neoliberalism. The general problematic for the thesis, then, addresses an anxiety over the
collapse of freedom and as such works to offer broad reflections on the nature of radical
agency in our increasingly neoliberal present.