Dustin Harp

The links that bind: Uncovering novel motivations for linking on Facebook

Given the increasing uptake of the social network site Facebook, mass communication researchers have begun focusing on what drives people to use the site and what kinds of information they interact with. Perhaps because of the relative novelty of Facebook, little research has scratched beneath the surface to explore why people engage in certain functions the site offers. Attention to these engagements and the motivations behind them could help improve current mass communication approaches, especially in critical industries such as news media, where traditional models are struggling to evolve. This study explored user motivations for engaging in link-sharing through Facebook, uncovering motives that extend beyond those of previous research. The findings also consider the influence of those motivations on linking frequency, and link content, introducing motivations that add to current viewpoints of social network sites as information hubs. It also provides new media researchers and practitioners with novel insight into an increasingly important Facebook behavior.

Women Matter in Newsrooms: How Power and Critical Mass Relate to the Coverage of the HPV Vaccine

This study explored how female journalists affect news content when holding positions of power, reaching a critical mass in the newsroom, and covering an issue that appeals to them. The study compared a male-dominated news organizations coverage of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine with coverage by a more gender-balanced organization in terms of news executives and reporters. It also explored whether content produced by female reporters from both organizations differed. The more gender-balanced organization covered the vaccine more frequently and more prominently, and used more diverse themes than its counterpart. The content created by female reporters at different outlets also diverged.

New Hope or Old Power: Democracy, Pornography and the Internet

New communication technologies in general and the Internet in particular have led some scholars to speculate that we are ushering in a new era of pluralistic and democratic communication. This article takes a critical look at this optimistic view. Using textual analysis and a feminist theoretical framework, the authors examine pornography sites on the World Wide Web to illustrate how the Internet seems to be reifying existing power structures (i.e., male dominance and the exploitation of women). The authors determined that these sites reinforce traditional constructions of mens power over women, and this may cause us to pause as we consider how new communication technology will be used in the future.

Spaces For Feminist (Re)Articulations: The blogosphere and the sexual attack on journalist Lara Logan

This discourse analysis explores traditional and feminist articulations of rape in online mediated discourse regarding the sexual attack on CBS journalist Lara Logan in Egypt in February 2011. Examination of 175 stories and links in the top ten news blogs in the United States showed that the blogosphere contested traditional rape narratives that blamed Logan for the attack and conceptualized rape through a more varied means. In doing so, bloggers engaged in a struggle for meaning, and mainstreamed feminist understandings of sexual violence within the online public space.

Voices of Dissent in the Iraq War: Moving from Deviance to Legitimacy?

Using indexing theory as a framework, this content analysis of 2003–2007 Time coverage explores the range of dissenting voices of the war in news dialogue. Findings show that war criticism remained constant throughout the years and was largely targeted toward the Bush administration. While most dissent originated from official sources, American and Iraqi civilians did have space to voice their dissatisfaction. Journalists themselves became increasingly vocal in their condemnation of the war. These results suggest that clashes between public opinion and official perspectives have implications in news coverage and promotion of debate about current affairs.

Wave of Hope: African American Youth Use Media and Engage More Civically, Politically than Whites

The study is based on a multi-wave panel survey on media use, and political and social attitudes among 12- to 17-year-olds. The results show that African Americans were more likely than Whites to engage in civic activities, politically participate in online and offline settings, take part in political consumerism, talk about news, follow the news, and demonstrate overall interest in news. This suggests that race is a complex, influential characteristic affecting youth behavior.

Newspapers' transition from women's to style pages what were they thinking?

After nearly a century of publishing explicitly named womens pages, US newspapers starting in 1969 and into the 1970s began renaming them ‘style’ or ‘lifestyle’ sections, theoretically meaning they were for a general audience. This research investigates industry discourse during this time to determine what those in newsrooms were thinking about this transition. Seventy-two articles from three newspaper trade publications from 1969 through 1975 reveal that editors and reporters were most concerned with including serious content in these sections and unconcerned with the names of the sections. In fact the women editors of these style pages, who dominated the discourse, indicated that even after renaming the sections industry insiders thought of them as for and about women. The analysis also revealed that newsroom constraints, particularly those placed on lower level staff by male editors, prevented women editors of these womens/style sections from constructing the pages they desired.

Where Are the Women? The Presence of Female Columnists in U.S. Opinion Pages

Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that the news media are male-dominated. This study updates the extant literature on women’s representation in the op-ed pages of ten U.S. newspapers. A content analysis showed that female authors are moving beyond topics traditionally linked to females and are writing columns on topics such as politics and economy. However, they remain a minority, and, thus, women’s voices have yet to gain more visibility in the world of opinion writing in U.S. journalism.

The Symbolic Annihilation of Women in Globalization Discourse: The Same Old Story in U.S. Newsmagazines

This quantitative and qualitative analysis of Time and Newsweek explores how women are incorporated into a globalization discourse that often is seen as a masculinized public sphere. Results indicate that although female journalists integrate women into the news more than their male counterparts, females are invisible in globalization discourse. When discussing female empowerment via globalization, it is through an economic lens with an eye to the impact on womens traditional roles as wives and mothers.

Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Hearing Coverage: Political Competence, Authenticity, and the Persistence of the Double Bind

ABSTRACT Despite inroads made toward gender equality, research has shown that news coverage of female politicians typically follows gendered lines that disregard women’s competence in political affairs. Grounded in a feminist theoretical framework, this textual analysis examines articles from eight news websites covering then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2013 congressional testimony about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The findings suggest that though this news media coverage shows there has been progress regarding how a notable female politician was represented, this discourse still employs stereotypical feminine frames and questions her competence as a leader. Moreover, coverage hinted at a new bind pitting competence against authenticity, with Clinton’s emotional displays during the hearing deemed as either a lack of control that undermined her capability or an insincere show of emotion to escape blame for the situation.