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While the inclusion of gay and lesbian individuals in the media is not a recent phenomenon, the increased representation of families headed by gay and lesbian couples is somewhat new. Research has shown that mediatized representations of gay and lesbian individuals and couples more often than not adhere to stereotypes and perpetuate ideas that the constructors of these representations want their audiences to consume. Research has also focused on audiences’ reception and processing of the messages that these representations may carry. This study, instead, focuses on the construction of representations of gay and lesbian couples and their families, bringing to the forefront the importance of discursive practices that are used to construct visual, linguistic, and aural elements of the media consumed by audiences. Looking specifically at advertisements (both for and against) concerning California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure proposing to ban same-sex marriages, this study shows how elements of the composition of the advertisements coalesce and mutually enhance each other to create particular understandings of gay and lesbian families. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and Social Semiotics, this study uncovers the underlying ideologies that inform the discursive and semiotic choices that have been made. Together, the music, the visuals, and the language are formed into a coherent whole, the advertisement. This thesis argues that how gay and lesbian people are represented is equally as important as the overt messages that are being disseminated to the audiences. By studying the discursive practices utilized by these advertisements, we are able to see that ideologies of idealistic family life and heterosexual relationships influence both advertisements in their characterisation of gay and lesbian couples and their respective families. / Graduate / 0626 / 0628 / df.tabangcura@gmail.com

This study is a content analysis of news frames used in the coverage of Proposition 8 by newspapers in Utah and California, spanning the three months prior to its passage in November 2008, to the three months after its passage. A total of 401 news stories from five newspapers were analyzed to examine which of five news frames (attribution of responsibility, human interest, conflict, morality, and economic consequence) were used most predominantly and if the use of those frames varied by newspaper. Conflict was the most predominantly used frame, followed by attribution of responsibility, morality, economic consequence and human interest. The use of news frames did vary by newspaper. The newspapers in Utah used the morality frame more often in their coverage of Proposition 8 than the newspapers in California. Framing choices by the newspapers also changed over time. The use of the human interest frame decreased sharply after the November ballot vote, while the use of the responsibility frame and conflict frame showed a meaningful increase.

This thesis analyzes the ideologies present the campaign rhetoric surrounding the 2008 California legislative initiative Proposition·8. Using Foss' method of ideological criticism the campaign is read prior after the opposition response to determine if an ideological shift occurs. The study is framed to identify this shift as a potential product of oppositional interaction, a characteristic of rhetoric defined by Smith and Windes. The study concludes that the shift in ideology during the campaign by the supporters of Proposition 8 was a significant development. The response from the Proposition 8 campaign reframed the debate, making the electorate vulnerable to a different ideology. This new ideology places the state education apparatus, not the courts, in the spotlight as the state mechanism that is in dispute in the marriage controversy. When placed in .this context, theories of political economy are employed to explain how the electorate may have interpreted these arguments. One. explanation offered is that the response ideology of the Proposition 8 campaign allowed voters to vote to outlaw gay marriages as a proactive response to a mistrust of education. The discussion section indicates that this could be an adjustment to existing ideologies, or development of an issues specific ideology that is only relevant for one issue in the mind of the individual. Ultimately, this study demonstrated the utility of ideology as a method to analyze political rhetoric and examines the role that oppositional interaction plays in the long-term development of public dialectic.