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020 ▼a 9781085599344
035 ▼a (MiAaPQ)AAI13882812
040 ▼a MiAaPQ ▼c MiAaPQ ▼d 247004
0820 ▼a 300
1001 ▼a Williams Fayne, Miya.
24510 ▼a Transitioning Mediums and Understandings: An Examination of Entertainment in the 21st Century Black Press.
260 ▼a [S.l.]: ▼b Northwestern University., ▼c 2019.
260 1 ▼a Ann Arbor: ▼b ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, ▼c 2019.
300 ▼a 213 p.
500 ▼a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-02, Section: A.
500 ▼a Advisor: Webster, Jim.
5021 ▼a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2019.
506 ▼a This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
506 ▼a This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
520 ▼a Journalism scholars have investigated how mainstream (typically white) news organizations are adapting to digital media, but this research has created the impression that the entire industry operates similarly. My research shows this is not the case. Although entertainment content has significantly increased in the new media age, it affects the black press differently than mainstream media. This dissertation puts conceptualizations of entertainment, journalism, digital technology and race into conversation. In doing so it extends scholarship on the black press, which typically focuses on the history of the medium from its inception through the 1970s. By understanding entertainment's effect on today's black press, we gain insight into how an African-American institution has endured and evolved.I explore entertainment in the black press via interviews with journalists, focus groups with readers and descriptive web metrics data. Triangulating my research compensates for the limitations of any one approach and offers comprehensive insight into both production and consumption shifts in the black press. My primary objects of study are digital-first black press websites-that attract from 10,000 to over one million unique visitors monthly-and legacy black press publications-that have been continuously publishing for 49 to 135 years. I find that black press journalists and consumers both value entertainment. Entertainment in the black press often represents black success, provides a space for emotional reprieve, serves educational purposes and is frequently entangled with politically significant topics. In an effort to escape hard news coverage of African Americans, which can be psychologically taxing, black press readers consume entertainment as a form of self-care. Also, black press outlets often cover racism in the entertainment industry and the black entertainers who are increasingly using their platforms to make political statements. As such, entertainment is an integral component of depicting the fullness of black life and serving the needs of a diverse black community. I also argue that the proliferation of entertainment is a result of the economic limitations on black press outlets and can have deleterious implications given that those outside of the black community comprise a large percentage of its readership. The nonblack audience for black press outlets is nearly three times larger than the black audience online. The significant presence of the white gaze troubles conceptions of entertainment in the black press as beneficial as it can present a one-dimensional view of African Americans. This is especially problematic when mainstream-owned black press outlets do not publish hard news content because it could alienate their nonblack audience. Additionally, although the entire journalism industry operates under financial constraints, the black press is disproportionately affected due to institutionalized racism among advertisers and the financial hardships of black consumers. Small budgets limit the amount of hard news content that black press outlets can publish and incentivize the production of the more affordable and lucrative entertainment content. Entertainment can then be perilous when it subverts hard news and prioritizes monetary gain.This dissertation investigates how new media is challenging journalists' and readers' traditional understandings of the black press. The 192-year-old institution has continuously evolved over the years, yet an increase of entertainment content evidences a fundamental shift in how it is being conceptualized. My findings contribute to research on journalism's shift from print to digital media and highlight how entertainment in the black press is working to both advance and restrain the diversity of thoughts in the black community.
590 ▼a School code: 0163.
650 4 ▼a Journalism.
650 4 ▼a African American studies.
650 4 ▼a Mass communications.
690 ▼a 0391
690 ▼a 0296
690 ▼a 0708
71020 ▼a Northwestern University. ▼b Media, Technology and Society.
7730 ▼t Dissertations Abstracts International ▼g 81-02A.
773 ▼t Dissertation Abstract International
790 ▼a 0163
791 ▼a Ph.D.
792 ▼a 2019
793 ▼a English
85640 ▼u http://www.riss.kr/pdu/ddodLink.do?id=T15491260 ▼n KERIS ▼z 이 자료의 원문은 한국교육학술정보원에서 제공합니다.
980 ▼a 202002 ▼f 2020
990 ▼a ***1816162
991 ▼a E-BOOK