Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-138).

This paper examines newspaper portrayals produced by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times of women in the military from Sept. 11, 2001, to Sept. 11, 2009. The purpose was to identify how the three nationally recognized U.S. newspapers depict women’s expanding combat roles on contemporary battlefields that lack definitive front lines. Because the news media are the primary vehicle to update the general public on military matters, how the news media portray military women can play a role in shaping audience perceptions of military women. In turn, this relationship can influence the public debate on issues pertaining to women in the military. For my research method, I employed a longitudinal, qualitative content analysis of news articles that revealed three distinctively themed portrayals of U.S. servicewomen. The thematic findings include: "Tip of the Spear," a largely laudatory category portraying the "new" or "first" generation of servicewomen filling historically uncommon (particularly direct ground combat) roles for women; the "Combat Debate," with coverage listing arguments for and against military women’s expansion into "direct ground combat;" and the "Sexual Assault" category that exposed women as continued victims of sexual assault across the U.S. Armed Forces. The portrayals of women in the "Tip of the Spear," and to a lesser extent in the "Combat Debate," reveal how these three particular newspapers are applying a new formula to represent military women. Rather than portraying military women in stereotypical support roles—or castigating them for transgressing gender norms—the stories from these papers cast the servicewomen performing traditional masculine military activities in a positive light. However, following objective reporting protocol, the reports in the "Combat Debate" category also covered conventional patriarchal concerns to include protecting women from harm, particularly military mothers. Overall, these two categories comprised the greater part of the coverage of military women among the reports in this study, with only a handful of reports covering women as victims. I propose that the many positive portrayals that describe women fulfilling nontraditional masculine roles and activities demonstrate a revised blueprint in how the news media report on military women. Furthermore, while these research results cannot be applied universally outside this study’s sample, I contend that these types of images representing today’s servicewomen on contemporary battlefields increase public acceptance of women in the military and their expanding military assignments.

For 150 years, chemical photography had a privileged status as a truthful means of representation. The emerging technology of digital imaging is challenging this unique position. This paper proposes to examine the status of the photographic image in the digital age, as well as the debate surrounding the new technology and its implications. Chapter one begins with a brief technical history of the medium and establishes the construction behind the myth of photographic truth. Chapter two debunks the myth of photographic image's objectivity. Chapter three describes the specifities of digital imaging technology and discusses the potential problems and consequences of the invasion of digitally enhanced images in the media, as well as possible solutions. Finally, the fourth chapter considers the use of digital imaging in women's magazines and examines what such a use says about our society's values. By considering the issue of photo-manipulation, one can understand that manipulation expresses the human will to create a world of simulation.

"The Makeover and Other Consumerist Narratives" is an interdisciplinary work in both approach and scope, and reads the construction of feminine desire and identity through what is popularly known as the makeover. Bringing together such diverse areas as film, literature, women's magazines, psychoanalysis, historical analysis and cultural theory, this research is particularly concerned with visual communications media (mostly film and advertising) and spectatorship. Of central import is the relationship of consumerism to feminine identity, desire, and the historical emergence of popular entertainments aimed directly at women. / The narrative of the makeover---so prevalent in women's magazines and advertising---works to effectively orient women's desires in a consumerist direction through product promotion and self-commodification. In addition, the makeover is explored in terms of how it might be seen to provide a model by which to understand the workings of late consumer capitalism as a whole. From an excavation of the official commodity-oriented origins of the makeover in the history of women's magazines, the project then moves through a reading of several print advertisements and the phenomenon of the consumer tie-in, and finally to what I call the "Transformation Film." Questions of narrative, desire and class are key here, especially insofar as these films make explicit the connection between self-transformation, commodity consumption, feminine desire and the promise of identity in consumer culture. / At issue is the peculiar problematic of feminine desire as negotiated by Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, as well as the historical implications of female identity as explainable by Marxian commodity theory. It is only by means of examining the objects which cater to feminine desire that we may be able to understand this "culture of the makeover" and women's identity therein.

The under-representation of women in the media has been contested by gender activists the world over. Studies have indicated that women are more likely to be portrayed as models on advertising bill-boards than as serious news sources. Why are women continually portrayed in a narrow range of roles? If visual representation is a means of how we make sense of the world and women are continually portrayed in a narrow range of roles and particularly as second-class citizens, does that not shape our understanding of the world? One of the critical areas of concern of the study was the construction, selection and production of gender images in the print media. In the case of Post newspaper, it is the media workers who, in order to boost the sales of the newspaper, select a model with a “pretty face” for their front pages. Surely there is more to these women than their physical beauty? According to the findings, models are selected for their attractive features. Photographs are carefully composed, enhancing the model?s appealing attributes. Thereafter the selection of photographs is done by the photographer, sub-editor and editor and produced in weekly editions of Post. At the time of the interview, the team of selectors was entirely male. Does this have a bearing on the selection of photographs? According to the findings, it does! When women journalists offer their suggestions during the selection process, they are completely disregarded. Based on the findings regarding the selection of photographs, it is evident that there is a bias towards the opinions of the males in the newsroom, in particular the editor. It is evident that the Post does not reflect Indian women on the cover of Post, instead it contributes to the gender stereotype of women depicted as models rather than news sources. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This dissertation provides an analysis of the Agenda construction of South African Feminism(s). Agenda is a feminist, peer-reviewed SAPSE journal that was launched as a publication in 1987 in South Africa. The Journal provides a forum for a number of issues: the most important being the representation of women's voices towards transforming unequal gender relations; and women's unequal position in society, their visibility, struggles and problems in relation to gender inequalities. The Journal also uses a format that encompasses creative writing and original research that is intended to be accessible to a broad readership. Over the years, the Journal has published broadly on issues ranging from health, violence, sexuality, the media, poverty, labour, HIV/AIDS, rights, sustainable development, citizenship, etc. This dissertation analyses how some of these themes have been addressed by Agenda in terms of editorial content and the subsequent impact these choices have had on creating a uniquely South African Feminism. To determine the 'impact', the study adopts a content analysis of the Journal, (Neuman, 1997). The content of the Journals, especially during Apartheid (pre-1994) reflects a focus on the lived experiences of South African women. It is hypothesised that Agenda has shifted its focus since Issue 20 (the first Issue of 1994 aptly titled "Politics, Power and Democracy"). The argument in the dissertation demonstrates that with the inclusion of South African women, Agenda has steadily and consistently developed a discourse that is collaborative and participatory, reflecting a hybrid of various earlier strands of Western originating feminisms (such as radical, liberal, Marxist, socialist). This new discourse could be labelled South African Feminism(s), and such a conclusion is investigated through close analyses of selected themes and issues covered by the Journal copy. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Since the advent of the women's movement, the mass media and literary classics have become targets for intensive scrutiny by some feminists who are concerned with the role and influence the media and literature play in promoting a gendered society. This thesis, focuses mainly on representations of Indonesian women as presented by the Jakarta-based women's magazine, femina. By analysing six articles that appeared in the magazine from the 1970s to the 1990s, representations of gender relationships have been highlighted. Shaped dominantly by Islamic beliefs, and the Javanese values, which consist of a syncretic blend of Animist, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic beliefs, contemporary Indonesian society is dominated by a strong political state and patriarchal value system which downgrades women. Resulting from the political changes introduced by the New Order, there has been a pivotal transformation of Indonesian women's organisations. The regime strongly encourages wives' organisations, despite the full equality guaranteed to men and women by the 1945 Constitution. It is demanded of Indonesian women that their foremost duties are their motherly and wifely roles. The influence of the priyayi, the Javanese elite, who believe that woman's destiny is primarily centred on her role as wife and mother, is partially responsible for the continuing influence of this ideal and the way it subordinates women to men. The religious traditions are also not without considerable influence in this area. These values can be found in the articles examined. Further, the thesis investigates attitudes to women who work outside the home, the double burden that they carry, and any changes in the representations of women and gender relations over the twenty years as revealed infemina.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-170). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-147). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.J.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-151). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.