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Start Date
25-6-2022 3:00 PM
End Date
25-6-2022 4:30 PM
Abstract
This project examines, through comparative case studies, the dominant operating procedures in the mainstream U.S. media industries. Employing critical media industry studies (Havens, Tinic, Lotz, 2009) and critical intersectional feminist frameworks, this analysis centers the construction of star image with attention to the interplay of self-representational decisions and institutional forces that foster and reinforce particular discourses in the industries. The comparative case study considers Debbie Allen and Issa Rae: Allen’s multivalent approach to star image construction incorporates dance, acting, and producing while Rae’s star image utilizes acting, writing, and production of content built for digital natives. Both women continue to create in the contemporary landscape, maintaining leadership positions in their respective projects, and both are committed to the construction and cultivation of Black networks of power within the media industries. This project examines the differences and synchronicities between their trajectories and approaches to maintaining influence amidst significant socio-cultural shifts. Through this analysis, insights about obstacles that block more equitable access to the media industries as well as information about the ever-evolving media industries and their relationship with Black womanhood come to light. Further, this research will provide a more complete picture of who has access to power positions, when and why they are left out, as well as when they are included and why. This type of research can throw into relief pressure points that exist and possible ways around and through them, so that we can build pathways toward increased intentionality and equitable representation and inclusion.
Working the Cracks: Becoming a Multi-Hyphenate Boss
This project examines, through comparative case studies, the dominant operating procedures in the mainstream U.S. media industries. Employing critical media industry studies (Havens, Tinic, Lotz, 2009) and critical intersectional feminist frameworks, this analysis centers the construction of star image with attention to the interplay of self-representational decisions and institutional forces that foster and reinforce particular discourses in the industries. The comparative case study considers Debbie Allen and Issa Rae: Allen’s multivalent approach to star image construction incorporates dance, acting, and producing while Rae’s star image utilizes acting, writing, and production of content built for digital natives. Both women continue to create in the contemporary landscape, maintaining leadership positions in their respective projects, and both are committed to the construction and cultivation of Black networks of power within the media industries. This project examines the differences and synchronicities between their trajectories and approaches to maintaining influence amidst significant socio-cultural shifts. Through this analysis, insights about obstacles that block more equitable access to the media industries as well as information about the ever-evolving media industries and their relationship with Black womanhood come to light. Further, this research will provide a more complete picture of who has access to power positions, when and why they are left out, as well as when they are included and why. This type of research can throw into relief pressure points that exist and possible ways around and through them, so that we can build pathways toward increased intentionality and equitable representation and inclusion.
Bio
Lauren Wilks is pursuing a PhD in Media and Cultural Studies at UW-Madison. Her research interests center power, representation, and identity in media industries, on screens, and online. She is particularly interested in how Black women navigate issues around agency in these spaces. She completed her MA at UT-Austin; before that, she worked in public relations. Those experiences inform Wilks’ academic approach to analyzing how content disseminates, who manages that process, and to what ends.