{"title":"Representing Single Women: The Transformation of “Leftover Women” on Chinese TV Series","authors":"Anqi Peng","doi":"10.1177/01968599221130750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221130750","url":null,"abstract":"The tendency of late marriage and the increasing single population in Chinese society have galvanized a considerable amount of anxiety in recent years. Part of such anxiety has been manifested through the constant media representations of “shengnü” or “leftover women” since 2010. Referring to women in their late twenties or over thirties while still not getting married, the term “leftover women” indicates a continuous patriarchal policing of single women circulated in mass media. This study, by comparing two popular Chinese television series— We Get Married (2013) and Nothing but Thirty (2020), discusses the altering constructions of unmarried women on Chinese television against the backdrop of China's post-socialist gender politics. The comparison provides a useful vantage point to examine the emerging gendered structures and new cultural imperatives under specific historical contexts.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49385302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards a Definition of Hate Speech—With a Focus on Online Contexts","authors":"M. Hietanen, Johan Eddebo","doi":"10.1177/01968599221124309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221124309","url":null,"abstract":"As legislators and platforms tackle the challenge of suppressing hate speech online, questions about its definition remain unresolved. In this review we discuss three issues: What are the main challenges encountered when defining hate speech? What alternatives are there for the definition of hate speech? What is the relationship between the nature and scope of the definition and its operationability? By tracing both efforts to regulate and to define hate speech in legal, paralegal, and tech platform contexts, we arrive at four possible modes of definition: teleological, pure consequentialist, formal, and consensus or relativist definitions. We suggest the need for a definition where hate speech encompasses those speech acts that tend towards certain ethically proscribed ends, which are destructive in terms of their consequences, and express certain ideas that are transgressions of specific ethical norms. SAGE-Journals-Accessible-Video-Player 10.1177/01968599221124309.M1 sj-vid-1-jci-10.1177_01968599221124309","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"47 1","pages":"440 - 458"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43127258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Polling, Partisanship, and Promoting Violence: New Developments in Impression Management From Candidate and Super PAC Advertisements","authors":"Nathan Katz","doi":"10.1177/01968599221130059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221130059","url":null,"abstract":"Super PACs have become a pivotal force in U.S. elections, often working in tandem with political campaigns to create cohesive messages in advertisements that serve as a tool for impression management. In previous research, I outlined a series of performance types, impression management techniques used by candidates and Super PACS in the 2012 Republican Primary. Since then, a second Republican Primary occurred, and a more expansive dataset on 2012 was released. In this paper I replicate my past work with the new dataset and compare performance types in advertisements from the 2012 and 2016 primaries. When comparing datasets, the findings were overwhelmingly consistent. At the same time, there were fundamental changes between 2012 and 2016. Notably, the inclusion of a new performance type, “the warrior,” which promotes an eagerness to use physical violence toward non-Americans. This change further indicates the rightward shift in Republican messaging that leans into fascism.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47114424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Constructed Meaning of Suicide: A Relational Dialectics Theory Analysis of Online Suicide Chats","authors":"Jordan B. Conrad, C. Coohey","doi":"10.1177/01968599221128533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221128533","url":null,"abstract":"Examining synchronous chats from an online suicide crisis intervention, we used contrapuntal analysis to identify competing discourses of meaning among online suicide chat users. Contrapuntal analysis revealed two emergent discourses in competition to make meaning of suicide among crisis chat users: Discourses of the Precious Life (DPL) and Discourses of Life as a Thing (DLT). The results provide a nuanced understanding of the cultural meaning of suicide presented in chat visitors’ discourse. Aside from the theoretical implications for RDT 2.0 focused research, this study extends a growing body of suicide research that foregrounds culture as a basis for understanding the meaning of suicide from the perspective of the lived experience.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"47 1","pages":"168 - 186"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45817750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Khaleel M. Al-Said, Tatyana Galich, Rufina Khanova
{"title":"Cultural Phenomenon and Cognitive Semantic Analysis of Children's Blogs","authors":"Khaleel M. Al-Said, Tatyana Galich, Rufina Khanova","doi":"10.1177/01968599221127949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221127949","url":null,"abstract":"The research proposes the cognitive semantic analysis of 50 children's blogs. Using cognitive semantic analysis and the experiment method, the research identifies lexical-semantic domains based on the blogs’ concepts. Therefore, it explores the role of culture in children's blogs published by authors from different countries. The cognitive semantic analysis reveals that the key themes in children's blogs are sport, books, entertainment and games, music, fashion, nature and environmental protection, travel and so forth. The sample consists of 625 schoolchildren studied in grades 1, 5, 9 and 11. The research finds there is a cultural component in children's blogs. Future research should focus on the analysis of different blogs, not only for children, but also for adults, and the development of lexical and semantic domains based on key themes and concepts.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48334773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Selling Yoga ‘Off the Mat’: A 10-year Analysis of Lifestyle Advertorials in Yoga Journal Magazine","authors":"Nandini Bhalla, Jane O’Boyle, Leigh Moscowitz","doi":"10.1177/01968599221118646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221118646","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars have critiqued popular media representations of yoga as largely emphasizing thin, white, upper-class female practitioners donning expensive apparel and accessories, exemplifying many aspects of a commercialized and objectified fitness culture and lifestyle brand. However, there is a dearth of research that has investigated the promotional content in popular magazines such as Yoga Journal; for example, no study to date has examined advertorials in yoga lifestyle magazines. Using framing theory, this study reports on a content analysis of advertorials across 10 years (2008–2017) of Yoga Journal magazine and found that products such as health supplements, herbal remedies and lifestyle brands like clothes and shoes were most often featured across the decade. The most common format was a regular feature, entitled “Off the Mat,” which promotes yoga lifestyle products identified by the magazine as “our partners.” This study also found that yoga-related products and female practitioners were the most common image categories displayed in advertorials. As the use and reach of advertorials increase, in the form of native ads in digital media, this study discusses the implications for the continued commodification of yoga and the role of advertorials in print magazines.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43908052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aesthetic Subjectification Through Ambivalent Play: Exploring a Ludic Theory of Popular Propaganda","authors":"Sheng Zou","doi":"10.1177/01968599221125532","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221125532","url":null,"abstract":"Propaganda research was central to the coalescence of communication studies into a modern social science field in the early twentieth century. Positivist and behaviorist in its orientation, traditional propaganda research centers on questions of message and effect, brushing aside the culturally rich forms that propaganda assumes as well as the myriad ways in which subjects experience these forms on an aesthetic and sensorial level. This article endeavors to complement the message-and-effect-centric orientation by proposing a (re)turn toward the aesthetic dimension of propaganda, with a particular emphasis upon the nexus between propaganda and the concept of play. Drawing on observations from modern China, I venture a ludic theory of popular propaganda that captures the affective, non-discursive, and post-ideological dimensions of propaganda artifacts as well as subjects' aesthetic engagement with them. My intent in this article is to diversify the perspectives, approaches, and possibilities of propaganda research within the field of communication and media studies.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42821159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Religious Identity, Politics, and the Media: What White Evangelical Christian Women's Religious Identity Reveals About Their Endorsement of Donald J. Trump and Distrust of News Outlets","authors":"Gayle Jansen Brisbane","doi":"10.1177/01968599221120060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221120060","url":null,"abstract":"This research examines white evangelical Christian women's social/religious identity and how this distinctiveness influences their political standpoints, voting behaviors, and opinions of perceived out-groups, including news outlets. While appreciating that numerous theoretical aspects are at play in this multifarious subject matter, an analysis of social/religious identity can provide focal insight and understanding when deliberating Christianity, politics, gender, and the media in reference to the nature of evangelical Christian women's support of Donald J. Trump as the United States President as well as their cynicism of most news outlets. This qualitative study employed focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews with evangelical Christian women and examined their responses through the lens of critical discourse analysis and social identity. The participants in this study consider their religious identity a vital aspect of their character; it motivates their viewpoints in numerous aspects of their lives, including individual motivations, group stimuli and political impulses. Consequently, how they construct their religious identity, and how and why they react uncompromisingly to out-group threats is a focal element for this exploration.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47913039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Becoming Celebrity Girl Activists: The Cultural Politics and Celebrification of Emma González, Marley Dias, and Greta Thunberg","authors":"Spring-Serenity Duvall","doi":"10.1177/01968599221120057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221120057","url":null,"abstract":"Young girls have historically been symbols to be conjured by social movements to garner sympathy for social causes, but are frequently silenced as political agents. This study addresses the celebrification of non-celebrity girls such as Emma González, Greta Thunberg, and Marley Dias and analyzes how backlash politics promote their fame. Some ordinary girls become celebrity activists in part because the trolling and negative media coverage helps propel their visibility, while others enjoy relatively positive experiences with fame. Both of these types of representations of celebrity girl activists - whether fueled by backlash or not -can serve as cautionary tales or as inspiration for girls who wish to engage in activism. Through an intersectional feminist lens, I address the complex social media narratives that emerge about girl empowerment and negotiation of risk - emphasis on self-care and struggle - when girls are famous activists.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"47 1","pages":"399 - 419"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49517868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editor’s Introduction","authors":"Frankline Matanji","doi":"10.1177/01968599221116691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221116691","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"46 1","pages":"327 - 328"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49416369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}