Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE 1-1-2015 Screens and stereotypes: The transmission of images of women of color on Twitter and television Sherri Marie Williams Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Sherri Marie, "Screens and stereotypes: The transmission of images of women of color on Twitter and television" (2015). Dissertations - ALL. 312. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/312 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT For decades African-American women and Latinas have lamented the abundance of negative and unrealistic images of them reflected on television. Such images appear to be pervasive today on reality television shows, the most popular television show genre, where many historic negative stereotypes of women of color are conveyed. Social television, the practice of watching television and simultaneously commenting on social media, is now common among viewers. The aim of this research is to determine if the same old stereotypes of women of color on television are finding their way to the new medium of Twitter. This study is a textual analysis of tweets from viewers who watched episodes of seasons one and three one of the Vh1 reality show Basketball Wives LA and the WE TV reality program Mary Mary. Both shows feature women of color in the cast. This study found that the social television conversation among viewers of these shows detected racial and gendered stereotypes. Key words: Twitter, reality television, social television, stereotypes, black women, Latinas, Basketball Wives LA, Mary Mary. SCREENS AND STEREOTYPES: THE TRANSMISSION OF IMAGES OF WOMEN OF COLOR ON TWITTER AND TELEVISION by Sherri Marie Williams B.A., Jackson State University, 2000 M.A., Syracuse University, 2010 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communication. Syracuse University August 2015 Copyright © Sherri Williams, 2015 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is dedicated to black women who struggle to exist outside of ugly stereotypes that conflate their experiences and diminish their humanity. This work is dedicated to black women who are often overlooked, ignored and dismissed daily in stores, at work, at school and even at home. This work is dedicated to the bodies of black women that have been invisible and hypervisible at the same time desired and degraded since colonizers set eyes on them. This work is dedicated to little black girls who don’t feel affirmed or celebrated and don’t yet realize there are forces at play that are designed to make them feel that way. This work is dedicated to black women revolutionaries who fight to show the world that black lives matter, especially the lives of black women and girls including those who are transgender and queer. This work is dedicated to my black Southern grandmothers, Ida Bea Williams and Celestine Marie Burnside, who poured their wit, wisdom and prayers all over me so that I would have a chance to absorb all of the knowledge and opportunities that were not extended to them. This work is dedicated to my mother Blanche Williams who told me I always had the right to speak my mind and the duty to raise my voice in defense of myself others and myself. You always reminded me that I possess the power to accomplish challenging goals and you moved mountains to help me achieve them. Thank you seems insufficient but know that I am beyond grateful for you. I am deeply grateful to my adviser Dr. Carol Liebler who not only encouraged me to apply for the doctorate program; she supported my ideas throughout the entire process. You believed in my ideas and my academic potential. You’ve been a patient and encouraging iv scholarly coach and a dependable friend. My committee: Dr. Vivian May, Dr. Gwendolyn Pough, Dr. Brad Gorham, Dr. Robert Thompson and Dr. Rick Wright thank you to all of you for your guidance and input. All of you are brilliant experts in your area of scholarship and you helped me synthesize this material across disciplines and I am grateful to you for that. Yolanda McDavis I am grateful to you for being a consistent source of support through my transition from the newsroom to the classroom. I am deeply and profoundly grateful for your friendship and your endless expressions of sisterhood especially throughout this process. Shelia Hardwell Byrd you always know what to say at the right time. Your words uplifted me through every stage of this process. You’ve been a mentor and a friend during my entire career and I am grateful for the early lessons that you taught me that I’ve carried along the way. Shakir Hancock-Patterson you prodded me to push forward through the down times. You nourished me through this dissertation with soulful meals and conversations and I am grateful for your humor and your heart during this endeavor. Ynesse Abdul-Malaak, Natalee Simpson and Tre Wentling our PhD writing group was more than that. It was a survival group through this journey. Having all of you as my comrades really thrust me forward during those times when I stalled. Lynessa Williams thank you for having critical conversations with me while watching reality shows on one screen and the Twitter stream on another. By valuing and supporting one another’s ideas and observations we advanced needed research about our people and social media. Dr. Pamela Spearman thank you so much for reminding me that the knowledge that I possess is valuable and for helping me manage the stress of the dissertation process v This work is dedicated to and possible because of the black social television audience that has decimated shows before they hit the screen and resuscitated others and brought them back to the air. The work of the black social television audience is important because it has shown that just as black lives matter so do black images. vi Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: Click, watch, tweet: the emerging second screen .................................................... 1 Research questions .................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: Social television: the connected viewing party ...................................................... 12 Millions of producers working with television networks .......................................................... 14 Black Twitter as an influential force ......................................................................................... 20 Black social TV: The power of the black social television audience .................................... 21 Black women on reality television + social television = ratings success ............................. 23 CHAPTER 3: Relaying realness? ................................................................................................. 26 Reality television’s constructed images ................................................................................... 27 People of color on reality television ...................................................................................... 29 Women and reality television ................................................................................................ 32 CHAPTER 4: Twisted sisters Twisted sisters: Distorted images of women of color .................. 38 Historic and global constructions of women of African ancestry ............................................. 39 American stereotypes of black women ...................................................................................... 40 Not feminine, not beautiful, not real women ............................................................................. 43 CHAPTER 5: Methods .................................................................................................................. 51 Theoretical lens ......................................................................................................................... 55 Data collection ........................................................................................................................... 57 Coding and analysis ................................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER 6: Results .................................................................................................................... 61 Negative sentiment .................................................................................................................... 62 Positive sentiment ...................................................................................................................... 68 Family ........................................................................................................................................ 73 Table 1: Tweets