Imagine All the People
Media and Female Politicians: “Intentional Ambiguity” as Strategy in the Image-making Mechanism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Linda Florence Matheson
With the expansion of social media, clothed images adopt an increasingly significant role in disseminating complex, provocative, and ambiguous messages. Recently this ambiguity has been particularly evident with female politicians whose fashion choices produce a colorful, if not clear, atmosphere in which dress performs politically as "persuasive art." Indeed, it appears that ambiguity is intentionally embedded in the image-making process of these political leaders (Choy, 2015; Givhan, 2007; McNair, 2011). To consider our hypothesis, we examine images of Hillary Clinton, 2016 US Democratic Presidential Nominee, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, and Theresa May, Great Britain’s Prime Minster. Our objects of analysis are items of dress culled from media images along with published articles. Our method follows Aspers’ (2001, 2006) phenomenological approach employing meaning structures with pertinent contrasts, reciprocal observations, and performance expectations. Although Beauvoir penned "The Ethics of Ambiguity in 1948," ambiguity has intrigued ancient philosophers like Aristotle ("Sophistical Refutations," 1984) as well as modern scholars like Simmel, Levine, and Butler. Little print, however, has been allotted to its intentional form. Thus, following Hebdige’s (1979) premise "style as intentional communication," we aim to fill this gap while extending aesthetic and media studies theory.
Visualized Pedestrian Speech Act Analysis: How Taiwan Facebook Users Employ Places for Self Performance
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hsiaomei Wu
This study examines Facebook users’ check-in acts based on de Certeau’s perspectives on pedestrian speech acts. In collaborating with the technical assistant from Computer Science, the researcher first developed a visualization tool called VPSA to delineate the discrete check-in patterns for individual users. Twenty-five Taiwan subjects, age from thirteen to forty, were then recruited allowing us to examine their check-in acts with VPSA for further in-depth interviews. The results show that users effectively employ "place" to fulfill their interests and desires. In addition to travel and food, Facebook places are typically used as a marketing strategy or simply as the emotional outlet (e.g. online check-ins). The timeline practices of VPSA also reveal how everyday life routines influence their check-in acts. Users tend to check in at the time possibly inviting more likes rather than to check in at present. Finally, all users reflexively realize that their check-in practices are self-performance, not real everyday lives, although they don’t distinguish the performing self from the real self any more.
Es Bueno o No Bueno? : A Critical Analysis on Mexican American Memes on Social Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ariana Cano
It is just a meme? In the digital age, memes create personal and communal value. These memes, however, also reinforce generalizations of a community and could potentially internalize oppression. This research will use an Ideological Critical approach through a textual analysis to analyze trending memes characterizing the Mexican American community. It will focus on the shared platform emphasizing comedic aspects of the Mexican American life as well as the perpetuation of stereotypes of the Mexican American community.
