University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Communication ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-1-2013 A Latina Captain in Showtime's Dexter: (Un)Veiling a Progressive Image of Latinas through Discourse Analysis of Media-Audience Co- constructions of Latinidad' Diana Leon Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds Recommended Citation Leon, Diana. "A Latina Captain in Showtime's Dexter: (Un)Veiling a Progressive Image of Latinas through Discourse Analysis of Media-Audience Co-constructions of Latinidad'." (2013). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds/73 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i Diana Leon Candidate Communication and Journalism Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: Dr. Ilia Rodriguez , Chairperson Dr. Nancy Lopez Dr. Myra Washington ii “A Latina Captain in Showtime’s Dexter”: (Un)Veiling a Progressive Image of Latinas through Discourse Analysis of Media-Audience Co-constructions of Latinidad by Diana Leon B.A., Communication Studies, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX. 2010 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Communication The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM. July 2013 iii “A Latina Captain in Showtime’s Dexter”: (Un)Veiling a Progressive Image of Latinas through Discourse Analysis of Media-Audience Co-constructions of Latinidad By Diana Leon B.A., Communication Studies, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX. 2010 M.A. Communication, University of New Mexico, 2013 ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on Showtime’s series Dexter as a rich text through which to study the production and consumption of racial and gender representations in media. More specifically, this research examines the representation of a prominent Latina character (Captain Maria LaGuerta) in Dexter and the audience readings of this character to explore the co-construction of contemporary discourses on Latinidad. On the basis of a critical discourse analysis of the television text and online viewer comments, I discuss relations between the meanings encoded in the text and the meanings co-constructed interactively by audiences online, and the ideological implications of such discourse on Latinidad given the current climate of racial relations in the United States. The analysis shows how a seemingly progressive representation of a Latina in a breakthrough role that over-steps “old” racial and gender boundaries, does not break down the reproduction of stereotypical representations and notions of Latinidad based on homogeneity, symbolic colonization, and immigration as markers of Latina/o identity. In addition, the analysis iv shows how notions of Latinidad link Latina/os to ideologies of race and gender to which other minority groups are often associated in contemporary conservative discourse. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................10 Theoretical Background...........................................................................10 Relevant Research on Latinidad ...............................................................16 Hybridity and media homogenization............................................17 Symbolic colonization...................................................................22 Immigration discourses and Latinidad...........................................24 Research on Television Representations of Latina/os and Women in Law Enforcement ...................................................................28 Latina/os in crime series................................................................28 Women in crime series .................................................................33 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY..........................................................39 Research Questions.................................................................................39 Key Concepts .........................................................................................39 Dexter as a Relevant Text ........................................................................41 Research Design .....................................................................................42 Discourse Analysis .................................................................................44 Figure 1: Fairclough’s three dimensional model for critical discourse analysis ........................................................45 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION....................................50 Textual Analysis: The Representation of Maria LaGuerta.........................50 Season one: character introduction ................................................52 Season four: romance and marriage...............................................55 Season six: promotion to captain...................................................58 Season seven: death by complexity................................................60 vi Discursive Practices: Media-Audience in the Co-Construction of Meanings .................................................................64 Undeserving of a Lieutenant status................................................65 Manipulation and deceit................................................................70 Good cop?: audience rejection of the character change...................73 Social Practices: Activating Gender and Racial Ideologies.........................79 Theoretical Implications of Research........................................................84 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................90 Limitations of Research...........................................................................94 Significance of Research .........................................................................94 Future Directions of Research .................................................................95 Bibliography...........................................................................................97 1 Introduction Television programs, along with other types of mediated communication, have a profound effect on the meaning-making activities of audiences. For viewers across the world, television images can be the closest thing they have to understanding or experiencing the reality of far-off places or unfamiliar groups of people. However, audiences are not passive passengers sitting in the backseat of a vehicle, waiting to be transported to the next, unknown, location. Audiences, along with media producers, co- construct the meanings of media texts. This activity has become easier to analyze in today’s media environment, where trends toward convergence allow audiences of television series to react to texts and interact with other viewers online—in some cases as the episode unfolds—and thus construct a variety of discourses through discussion forums (Knaggs, 2011). In effect, the online environment allows researchers to delve into a significant space where viewers reproduce, critique, dismiss, complain about, and expand the meanings encoded in televisual texts to co-construct social discourses. These mediated co-constructions can have a great impact on the ways in which the meanings of certain realities are reproduced and transformed in this country. The cultures and experiences of Latina/os, for example, are more visible in the media landscape today than ever before—be it on movies, television sitcoms, or advertisements. The time they are allotted on the screen is now much more than it was twenty years ago (Martinez, 2008) and a seemingly wider range of roles is being assigned to them. However, what does this visibility mean? The fact that Latina/os are represented more frequently in media texts does not mean that these representations are educating the 2 public on the cultural complexities of this group. On the contrary, media texts often misrepresent Latina/o culture because the social realities faced by this community are far more complex than the images in the media could ever portray (Cepeda, 2000). Therefore, when Latina/os appear on television, they are usually confined to certain stereotypical roles that serve as indicators of Latinidad (Valdivia, 1998, 2000). Indeed, stereotypes of Latinas are hard to miss in television programs, where most of the Latinas are usually, “secondary characters playing nurses, maids, and nannies” (Molina-Guzmán, 2010, p. 151). Hence, when a representation comes along that does not fall in line with the aforementioned types, one can hear media critics and audiences claim that the world of entertainment is being “revolutionized” because there are “finally” images to counterbalance the forever present stereotypes and proposed new meanings. One of such instances is Showtime’s series Dexter, where the figure of Police Captain Maria LaGuerta portrays a Latina character as a powerful leader in U.S. American society. In this thesis, I examine the representation of this prominent Latina character in Dexter and the audience readings of the character to explore the co- construction of contemporary discourses on Latinidad. I applied critical discourse analysis