Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In addition to his variegated acting roles in movies, John Leguizamo has, to date, written and starred in four one-man Broadway plays. In these performances, Leguizamo engages in a great deal of Latino culturally intimate humor: humor that targets the foibles and folkways of Latino culture he grew up with in New York City.

Given Leguizamo’s fairly significant crossover success with this material, it is instructive, then, to see how his work is perceived by both Latinos and non-Latinos. In particular, how are his multidimensional prototypes are perceived – as subversive representations of Latino life or mere variations on age-old Latino stereotypes? With this in mind, I discuss the notion of Latino humor, perform content analyses of two of his one-man shows, Mambo Mouth and Freak, and then scrutinize the responses of 196 college students that watched the performances.

As expected, Latinos were more familiar with Leguizamo’s work and expressed significantly more appreciation for Leguizamo’s comedy than non-Latinos. Latinos were also more likely to appreciate the “culturally-intimate” elements of his performances, as well as their realism. However, in contradiction to my hypotheses, a very substantial majority of both Latinos and non-Latinos overwhelmingly thought Leguizamo portrayed Latinos in a negative fashion. I attribute this to the fact that Leguizamo exudes a working-class perspective, the inherently problematic nature of comic forms, and the overall lack of Latino visibility in popular culture.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Nonviolent insurrections and revolutions have become increasingly attractive topics of research for social scientists in the last few years. However, most of the research has focused on the practical and strategic concerns and difficulties faced by nonviolent activists and movements. Theoretical problems and questions related to nonviolent revolutions have oftentimes been ignored by researchers. This essay introduces the concept of nonviolence-receptive ideologies (NRIs) and its importance for nonviolent movements. NRIs are secondary commitments to nonviolence that occur through more salient ideologies of a particular movement. I argue that a commitment to nonviolence can take place within a movement even if the commitment is not to nonviolent values specifically. The concept of NRIs is used to explain why some revolutions and movements turn out nonviolent while others do not.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In technologically advanced societies and cultures, information acquisition from information technologies is a part of daily life. Human, psychologically detrimental aspects of this process were examined. Previous measurement and research related to computer and information anxieties revealed some of the nature of the difficulties, as well as direct measurement concerns. The construct of Informational Reception Apprehension (Wheeless, Preiss, & Gayle, 1997) and existing scales provided the bases for developing a new foundation for measuring and assessing these difficulties. Long and short versions of a new Information Reception Apprehension Test for Information Technology (IRAT-IT)were developed and tested in relation to computers, Internet service, and time-on-line. Richer assessment of underlying difficulties drawn for a more receiver-oriented perspective resulted in reliable and valid scales that meaningfully related this type of information reception apprehension to information-from-technology aversive behaviors. Suggested use in technologically advanced and technologically emerging cultures was recommended.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: See Extended Abstract

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: When researching girls’ media reception it does not take long until the question is asked: And what about the boys? From a theoretical point of view it could well be argued why it makes sense to focus on girls exclusively. But in the reality of conceptualising, researching, and, last but not least, sharing the results in public, the bipolar construction of the category gender is something we cannot ignore (even if we would like to). However, if this polarity becomes the point of departure of a study, we mainly encounter one thing: differences, to some extent exceedingly stereotypical ones, and that on both ends. Here, issues regarding methodology come up, but also a much more fundamental self-reflection is needed about the way we deal with stereotypes ourselves and to what extent we are genuinely prepared to engage with the sometimes cliché worlds.

Dr. Maya Götz, is Head of the Internationales Zentralinstitut für das Jugend- und Bildungsfernsehen (IZI) at the Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Head of PRIX JEUNESSE. She wrote her doctoral thesis at the University of Kassel – title: "Television in the everyday life of girls: facets of media appropriation in female adolescence". At the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI) at the Bavarian Broadcasting Corp. she conducted several studies in the area of "children/young people and television" with a focus on gender issues