An Examination of Face-ism: How Facial Prominence Enforces the Objectification of the Female Body in the Media

An article by researcher Dane Archer and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1983, analyzed face-ism in more than 1,700 published photographs in U.S. periodicals and found that “males were more likely to be represented in terms of their heads or faces, whereas females were more likely to be represented in terms of their bodies” (Sparks, 2014, p. 271). It is an unexpected finding, and certainly a novel one as well, but it aligns with the aforementioned trend in media to place high value on women’s bodies. Although not much extensive research exists on face-ism today, and hypotheses related to the origin of its effects have still yet to be tested, I contend that the reason female face-to-body ratios are less than that of males is because the female body is subject to objectification more often in media, which subsequently leads to its prioritization over females’ faces in photographs.

Mass Media & Meat Consumption: Normalizing Eating Animals

For this short paper, I decided to look at the influence mass media has on our behavior. Specifically I focused on advertising, television, and movies and the effects they have on our behavior and food choices, and how they normalize eating animals. Why, I wondered, are 3/4 of the nation ‘animal lovers’ who want to ‘eliminate all animal suffering and cruelty,’ yet less than 5% of the nation is vegetarian? What impacts does the media have on influencing a population against animal cruelty to participate in it directly?

Depictions of Sexual Assault Perpetrators: Media Reports Perpetuate Implicit Racism

News journalists’ perpetuation of aggressive and violent stereotypes about Black sexual assault perpetrators is not a new trend. The implicit racism behind depictions of Black assaulters becomes salient when compared to descriptions of White perpetrators

Are Micro-transactions in Video Games Ethical?

Many game companies are preventing the consumers from receiving all of the content they were originally promised and masking it as “additional content” that they players can buy at a later time. Not only that, but they are also making the gameplay unbalanced and in favor of the individuals who spend more money on the game by allowing them to purchase specific items that make their character much stronger such as additional weapons that were otherwise almost impossible to acquire any other way or special abilities that would have taken hundreds of hours to unlock. This “pay-to-win” model that many developers and and companies have adopted is essentially stealing money form the consumer because they are withholding content they had previously promised

How Stephen Colbert is Changing the Political Landscape, One Segment at a Time

Colbert is incredibly talented at not only mobilizing, but also organizing viewers behind a cause. As Reed states, “Mobilizing refers to the process by which inspirational leaders or other persuaders can get large numbers of people to join a movement or engage in a particular movement action. Organizing entails a more sustained process as people come to deeply understand a movement’s goals and their own power to change themselves and the world” (Reed, 130). While many Late Night hosts have “mobilized viewers” for a fleeting moment, very few have “organized” them as Colbert has, stretching his arguments and movements over many episodes and bringing the viewer into a deeper understanding of them. The Late Show marks a change in the Late Night landscape, and perfectly shows how one man can bring the power of the Internet out of its dormant resting place, behind empty letters, numbers, and statistics and into vibrant arguments and colorful segments.

A Human, Not A Cat

In August of this year, pro-life Presidential candidate Marco Rubio tweeted something a little bit weird…

COM 275: Mass Media and Society 2015-11-16 17:31:45

Can a single picture alter your view of a candidate in our current election?

#BlackLivesMatter Is Not Helping #FeelintheBern, But #Berniebro Is Still Hopeful

Without the race-gender connection with BLM, Sanders does not seem to be reaping the publicity rewards like Obama’s campaign in 2008: “Obama supporters uploaded more than 442, 000 user generated video on YouTube alone” (Gosa, 224). Type “Bernie Sanders” or “Bernie Sanders supporters” into Youtube and little to no trending user-generated content comes up.

An Examination of Politics: Digital Participation

Comparing user-generated videos about the 2008 Presidential election and the current one.

Join the Fight for Hillary Clinton: Join the Fight for Women’s Equality.

Hillary Clinton’s ads released in late October were a smart tactical strategy on her part. They paint her as a champion for women’s rights to gain the votes of woman across the United States.