Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Dissertations Department of Communication 5-11-2015 Representations of African American Women on Reality Television After the Great Recession Steven Herro Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss Recommended Citation Herro, Steven, "Representations of African American Women on Reality Television After the Great Recession." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2015. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss/55 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. REPRESENTATIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN ON REALITY TELEVISION AFTER THE GREAT RECESSION by STEVEN K. HERRO Under the Direction of Marian Meyers, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This project is animated by two related probLems. First, there are reLativeLy few studies of the ways that African American women are represented on reaLity teLevision. Second, the current Literature about representations of BLack women on reality television compLetely ignores the Great Recession as an important contextual factor. In this study, I pair the Constant Comparative Method of textuaL anaLysis with discourse analysis to answer the question: “How does reaLity teLevision represent African American women in terms of gender, race, and cLass in the context of the aftermath of the Great Recession?” I closeLy anaLyzed reaLity teLevision programs with the highest ratings in 2012: The Voice, American Idol, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta. To better understand how Black wom- en are represented on these shows, I contextualize my analysis in terms of intersectionality, post-racism, post-sexism, and neoLiberaLism.