Matching Items (16)
Description
This thesis project explores the nature of power dynamics in the dialogue of video gamers within designated online forums of discussion. Previous scholarly work has noted the lack of diverse representation and tolerance in the gaming community, despite statistics revealing that the video game community is not as homogeneous as it is often represented. Specifically, the prominent literature analyzing gaming culture focuses on poor representations of gender within video games and the gaming community itself, including sexualized and objectified depictions of women as well as prejudice toward women as members of the gaming community. More recent entries to the field of research draws attention to the experiences of other marginalized communities in gaming. This thesis, then, begs the question – what power dynamics emerge in the dialogue of people who consider themselves to be gamers? How are concepts of social identity expressed or constructed in communication, and what reinforces and legitimizes these relationships? This project will review a foundation of literature structuring the framework of this project, propose methodology for data collection and analysis, and explore themes discovered within the data analysis, which support or negate existing research and give insight to the proposed research questions.
ContributorsFitzgerald, Karina Marie (Author) / Nadesan, Majia (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Kishonna L. (Committee member) / Walker, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Masculinity presents itself in many forms, but only a few are accepted by society. Men are exhibiting exaggerated characteristics of hyper-masculinity that result in harm to themselves and others in order to meet society’s standards. This has generated a toxic sense of masculinity that generates men who glorify violence, objectify women, are misogynistic, and feel entitled. Not every man fits into the toxic masculinity category or even the hyper-masculinity category, however, they do fit into the failed masculinity category. Those who fall into this category do not receive the societal benefits that more masculine men do, like female attention. A relatively new movement has emerged from failed masculinity, the Involuntarily Celibate. They call themselves Incels and they meet online through chat forums to discuss their feelings about not having relationships or meeting society’s expectations of a man. The extreme Incels are known as Blackpill Incels, and they believe that their position in the world has no hope of improvement. This has resulted in threats against women online, and physical violence to women and society. The hate stratagem is used to categorize Incel chat posts and explain how they use hate speech to carry out this violence.
ContributorsBoyd, Sarah (Author) / Walker, Michael (Thesis director) / Lewis, Stephen (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Music is a long time form of resistance, evident through scholarly journals about Gangsta rap for inner-city, African American youth. How does this translate to other minorities? Mexican drug ballads, known as narcocorridos, have been brushed off as violent and meaningless by the media since the 1930s. This thesis serves to redefine narcocorridos as another tool of resistance for the Latinx class, particularly drug traffickers and undocumented immigrants. As an attempt to provide insight into the living conditions, ideologies, and struggles of the voiceless Latinix class, this thesis analyzes a series of corridos (ballads) and narcocorridos. Theories of the hidden transcript, the badman, and the Mark of criminality were utilized to examine the lyrics of these corridos like its cousin genre, gangsta rap. Through the use of these theories, many counter-narratives and alternative histories of Latinx individuals were discovered. Narcocorridos in this thesis are argued as a tool used to resist negative dominant narratives and the Prison Industrial Complex was also concluded to be the main antagonist of those narratives.
ContributorsFoster, Marcelo Alejandro (Author) / Walker, Michael (Thesis director) / Graham, Lance (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the music and rhetoric of Rage Against the Machine is co-opted and delegitimized through internet memes. After a thorough internet search, I chose five memes that express opposing viewpoints to that of RATM’s anti-capitalist, liberalistic messaging and examined their appropriation of lyrics from their popular hit “Killing In the Name.” as well as the accusations of hypocrisy levied against the band for being inauthentic protest musicians. I also draw comparisons between the structure of these five memes and other politically centric internet memes such as Pepe the Frog and his appropriation by the alt-right, and the attacks against the hashtag Black Lives Matter through the antagonistic hashtag All Lives Matter. I observed the way internet memes use cultural icons to distort and shape narratives about the images’ meanings, in certain cases dissolving an icon’s original message or context entirely. I also propose the idea of internet memes as “ideological capital” that internet users exchange to bolster hegemonic thought and a national identity.
ContributorsBrown, Joshua H. (Author) / Walker, Michael (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Social Entrepreneurship has become a major trend in the business world. Social entrepreneurship is a form of business where the primary goal is to create a successful business and use the resources of the company to help solve a social issue. This thesis covers several modern examples of social entrepreneurship and the positive effects these businesses have had on the world around them. After analyzing several ventures, the paper moves on to describe Wolvertech and the reasons behind its creation and the inspiration for the various programs at Wolvertech. Wolvertech is a gunsmithing company which hopes to create a positive change on the environment through the funding conservation of efforts. Wolvertech also plans to create a scholarship and mentorship program that encourages high school graduates to attend trade schools. After discussing the goals of Wolvertech the thesis moves onto describe leadership styles as well as initial ideas for setting the company up for success. Next is the marketing plan and what products will be offered at Wolvertech. The thesis finishes with the timeline for what Wolvertech hopes to accomplish in the future.
ContributorsOrtiz, David (Author) / Gruber, Diane (Thesis director) / Walker, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Crime media has been a large part of entertainment for decades and the popularity of these shows continues. Because audiences' perceptions are shaped by the media they consume, it is important to understand how these shows portray offenders, and the accuracy of those portrayals. This thematic analysis focuses on the portrayal of offenders and if those portrayals have changed over time. The shows analyzed were Law and Order: SVU, Criminal Minds, and NCIS episodes sampled from seasons airing in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The themes that emerged were the relationship between victimization and offending, gender of victim and offender, relationship between offender and victim, number of offenders, connection between race and crime, lack of remorse, and forms of justice. The findings indicate that some respects changed over time while others remained consistent, with the majority of findings being congruent with justice system statistics.
ContributorsAdair, Rachel (Author, Co-author) / Lee, Nicole (Thesis director) / Walker, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2024-05