Analyzing 549 advertisements in Chinese and U.S. women's fashion magazines, this research studies the role of western culture in reshaping Chinese cultural values in terms of modernity, tradition, individualism, and collectivism as well as in the use of western fashion models and language. Results indicate that there is no statistical difference in individualistic and modernity values between U.S. and Chinese print ads in women's fashion magazines. In 1 of the product characteristics, shared products, collectivism values in Chinese ads are not found more than those in U.S. ads as it is assumed. In addition, almost half of the Chinese ads employ western models and only 2 out of 226 Chinese ads are applying merely Chinese language to name the brand. The implications for future research and limitation of this study are discussed.

This research explores the unique and divergent experiences of LGBTQ+ young adults as they engage in identity and space-making practices at the intersection of gender/sexuality and religion. Utilizing queer theorists’ conceptualization of identity as a form of embodied and spatial labor, I critique the approach of existing scholarship that constructs LGBTQ+ and religious identities as incompatible or at least in need of reconciliation. Based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with LGBTQ+ young adults in Utah, my research makes visible how vulnerability and risk impact the strategies that LGBTQ+ young adults employ to navigate their identities and make space. It shows that they strategically navigate space wherever they find themselves, regardless of whether they encounter accommodation or belonging. In doing so, it comes to look beyond the narrative of visibility as the primary strategy for LGBTQ+ progress to recognize that LGBTQ+ young adults employ varied strategies of visibility and concealment to navigate the spaces where they find themselves.

The purpose of this problem is to give further meaning to the phrase ''in the public interest" as it applies to radio programs. This study will answer the following questions: What are the opinions of the Federal Communications Commission on broadcasting in the public interest? What are the opinions of authorities recognized by broadcasters on the meaning of "in the public interest"? What are the opinions of some station managers in California on the meaning of the phrase "in the public interest"? What services can radio programs give the listener that might be termed "in the public interest"? In the opinions of station managers in the United States are the services radio programs give, as determined by the listening surveys, in the public interest?

The cultivation effect is defined as the distorted view of reality which results from the heavy viewing exposure to a certain type of programming content. The assumption behind the cultivation hypothesis is that the more hours an individual exposes himself or herself to a particular type of program content. the more the individual's view of reality will be consistent with the "reality" shown in the program. It is no mystery that for the past half-century, millions of Americans have made the broadcast soap opera a daily habit. In response to the heavy interest exhibited by this strong audience, social scientists have begun to systematically study this area of broadcast programming. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between women's perceptions of how other women dress based on their amount of viewing exposure to nighttime dramas. ln addition, this study will investigate the relationship between viewing exposure and the use of nighttime dramas for fashion information, and the importance of dressing like the characters in the nighttime dramas.

This study examines the work of single, white, middle-class women feeding and caring for their families during the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020. The study draws from qualitative analyses of one-on-one interviews conducted with seven single mothers. After situating single mothers and family food provision in the academic literature, as well as and current knowledge about the pandemic in the U.S., the author explores ways that the pandemic disrupted family life. Findings indicated that the single mothers were keenly impacted by being cut off from child care, schools, and other social connections they needed to maintain employment. Further, their feeding work became exceptionally complex as they navigated the need to provide food for their families amid restricted food options, alongside the need to minimize family exposure to the coronavirus. The mothers’ meal preparations and connecting around meals were impacted by complexities caused by the virus and social distancing.

This qualitative research study is an exploration of how college students navigate code-switching between their home and academic environments. Data were collected from five participants using interview and small group methods. Through the lenses of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) and Memorable Messages (MM) frameworks, the researcher explores how key MMs affect how participants coordinate and manage meaning in communications with others in their home and college environments. Findings were fourfold: 1) participants chose between following established and creating new rules when code-switching; 2) participants shared experiences and strategies regarding knowing when and how to code-switch; 3) preparing audiences for information disclosure was a key element of code-switching and 4) there was a need for community and a space of non-judgement for students who experience large differences between their home and academic cultures.

This study explores the experiences of people who have lost loved ones due to socially stigmatized deaths. Drawing from eight individual interviews, the author argues that the stigma associated with death due to drug overdose, suicide, substance abuse, or murder can cause traumatic or prolonged grief and can complicate the way the bereaved talk about grief as a part of their healing process. With the mortality rate in the U.S. rising, there is an epidemic of disenfranchised grief affecting millions of bereaved individuals. Using Coordinated Management of Meaning and Communication Privacy Management theories, the author uncovers strategies the traumatically bereaved employ to manage interactions and relationships with others. A qualitative analysis of participant interviews revealed that social stigma, whether experienced or anticipated, affects the way the bereaved communicate and can cause self-silencing. Findings indicate a need for safe, supportive, and non-judgmental spaces for the traumatically bereaved to share their stories.

Screen-based educational media, as an extension of the schooling process whose history has mirrored brick and mortar institutions, have traditionally espoused narratives of Eurocentricity, shifting relatively recently to multicultural yet simultaneously raceless narratives. While many viewers have learned from and been inspired by these media, the enthusiastic response to the film Black Panther (2018), as demonstrated by financial earnings and sustained social media energy, revealed an intense yearning in the Black community for media positively centering the strengths and successes of Black lives. Launched from the sociocultural fervor for Black concordance in media, and extending concordance into the educational media landscape, this qualitative study sought to assess responses from African-American children, ages 3-8, to educational media concordant to them, and contextualize these responses in recognition of race socialization patterns within the home. Children’s responses to the media ranged from acknowledgment of skin color as well as hair texture and style, to full identification with and enthusiasm for animated protagonists. Caregivers responded positively to the samples while self- reporting varying degrees of race socialization. These responses demonstrated promising potential for identification with concordant educational media based on phenotypic resemblance, particularly for children approximately 8 years of age.

Fan studies has examined how fan fiction resists heteronormativity by challenging depictions of gender and sexuality, but to date, this inquiry has focused disproportionately on slash, to the exclusion of other genres of fan fiction. Additionally, scholars disagree about slash’s subversive effects by setting up a seemingly stable dichotomy—subversive vs. misogynistic—where one does not necessarily exist. In this project, I examine multiple genres of fan fiction—namely, slash arising from bromances; femslash from female friendships; incestuous fan fiction from dysfunctional familial relationships; and polyamorous fics. I chose fics from four televisions shows—NBC’s Revolution, MTV’s Teen Wolf, the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, and its spin-off, The Originals—and closely read them to identify patterns in their representations of gender and sexuality and how they connect to the source texts. Taking a dialogic “both/and” approach, I argue that critics claiming that slash is often not subversive are right to a point, but miss a key potential of fan fiction: its ability to evoke possibility—for new endings, relationships, and sexualities. Heteronormativity often asserts itself in endings; queerness plays in the middles and margins. So, too, does fan fiction. While some individual fics may reinforce elements of heteronormativity, many also actively question and transgress norms of gender, sexuality and love. Further, they embrace fluidity and possibility, and engage with the source texts and larger culture around them in a way that provides a subversive interpretation of both and offers insight into the function of the constructed nature of institutionalized heterosexuality.

This is a nontraditional thesis that combines social research in ethnic stereotypes in TV and film with the creative process of film production. This paper contains the formal step of research, in addition to the details on the production and creation of five original short films related to the issue of ethnic representations.