Erika Engstrom

Catholic Horror on Television: Haunting Faith explores the significant intersection of horror media and the Catholic Church. Religious themes enjoy a long history in film and television, with narratives featuring the supernatural, science fiction, and horror making use of Roman Catholicism in particular. The horror genre frequently tells fantastic stories about the mysteries that we seek to understand, helping to come to terms with the destructive and the monstrous. This book analyzes the genre of Catholic horror in the current television and streaming media environment, exploring its treatment of physical mortality, the metaphysics of meaning, and morality. Catholic Horror on Television: Haunting Faith offers a fresh take on how television and streaming horror series critique, expand, and interrogate Catholicism and its place in the modern world. In doing so, this book contributes to conversations in several disciplines including media, cultural, television, and religious studies.

Gramsci and Media Literacy: Critically Thinking about TV and the Movies offers a series of contemporary media analyses that use Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony to explore how dominant ideologies in media delivery, historical storytelling, and gender in today’s mass media environment become the commonsense viewpoints that maintain power structures in civil society. Through a media literacy approach, case studies of ideological delivery through television and film illustrate why Gramscian media theory serves as a valuable tool for revealing the many ways hegemonic thought operates in the media sphere and in everyday life, and they offer hope for counterhegemonic understandings.

This book offers a series of contemporary media analyses that use Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony to explore how dominant ideologies in media delivery, historical storytelling, and gender in today’s mass media environment become the commonsense viewpoints that maintain power structures in civil society. Through a media literacy approach, case studies of ideological delivery through television and film illustrate why Gramscian media theory serves as a valuable tool for revealing the many ways hegemonic thought operates in the media sphere and in everyday life, and they offer hope for counterhegemonic understandings.

Abstract: This study focused on the effects that a person's sex and appearance have on ratings of his or her credibility. Specifically, it is an examination of differences in ratings of expertise, character, and dynamism of male and female sources who appeared as experts in simulated television interviews, and whether variations in clothing affect perceptions of credibility of males and females differently. A stimulus videotape was created in which male and female actors posing as college professors appeared in three modes of dress: conservative, causal, and neutral. Subjects drawn from a sample of college students and from a civic organization comprised mostly of adults over age 35 viewed the interviews and rated the sources according to characteristics which measured source expertise, character, and dynamism. Contrary to expectations, no significant differences were found between expertise and character ratings of male and female sources. However, male sources were rated as more dynamic. Credibility ratings of female sources were expected to be significantly lower when they were dressed casually than when dressed conservatively. No significant difference in ratings betwee the two dress conditions for females were found. It was also predicted that subjects Dissertation Discovery Company and the University of Florida are dedicated to making scholarly works more discoverable and accessible throughout the world. This dissertation, "Effects of Sex and Appearance on Ratings of Source Credibility" by Erika Engstrom, was obtained from the University of Florida and is being sold with permission from the author. A free digital copy of this work may also be found in the university's institutional repository, the IR@UF. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation.

Abstract: This study focused on the effects that a person's sex and appearance have on ratings of his or her credibility. Specifically, it is an examination of differences in ratings of expertise, character, and dynamism of male and female sources who appeared as experts in simulated television interviews, and whether variations in clothing affect perceptions of credibility of males and females differently. A stimulus videotape was created in which male and female actors posing as college professors appeared in three modes of dress: conservative, causal, and neutral. Subjects drawn from a sample of college students and from a civic organization comprised mostly of adults over age 35 viewed the interviews and rated the sources according to characteristics which measured source expertise, character, and dynamism. Contrary to expectations, no significant differences were found between expertise and character ratings of male and female sources. However, male sources were rated as more dynamic. Credibility ratings of female sources were expected to be significantly lower when they were dressed casually than when dressed conservatively. No significant difference in ratings betwee the two dress conditions for females were found. It was also predicted that subjects Dissertation Discovery Company and the University of Florida are dedicated to making scholarly works more discoverable and accessible throughout the world. This dissertation, "Effects of Sex and Appearance on Ratings of Source Credibility" by Erika Engstrom, was obtained from the University of Florida and is being sold with permission from the author. A free digital copy of this work may also be found in the university's institutional repository, the IR@UF. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation.

Religion Across Television Genres: Community, Orange Is the New Black, The Walking Dead, and Supernatural connects communication theories to the religious content of TV programs across an array of platforms and content genres, specifically the NBC comedy Community, the critically acclaimed Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, AMC’s international megahit The Walking Dead, and the CW’s long-running fan favorite Supernatural. Its contemporary relevancy makes Religion Across Television Genres ideal for use as a library resource, scholarly reference, and textbook for both undergraduate and graduate courses in mass media, religious studies, and popular culture.

Religion Across Television Genres: Community, Orange Is the New Black, The Walking Dead, and Supernatural connects communication theories to the religious content of TV programs across an array of platforms and content genres, specifically the NBC comedy Community, the critically acclaimed Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, AMC’s international megahit The Walking Dead, and the CW’s long-running fan favorite Supernatural. Its contemporary relevancy makes Religion Across Television Genres ideal for use as a library resource, scholarly reference, and textbook for both undergraduate and graduate courses in mass media, religious studies, and popular culture.

Widely hailed as one of the best feminist-oriented series on television, NBC’s Parks and Recreation (2009–2015) presents a multifaceted text for examining the incorporation of feminist ideology into its storylines. This book analyzes the various ways the series presented feminism as a positive force, such as the satirical portrayal of patriarchy; alternative depictions of masculinity; the feminist ideology and political career of main character Leslie Knope; the inclusion of actual political figures; and depictions of love and romance as related to feminist thinking. A much-needed treatment that adds to the literature on feminism in media and popular culture, this book serves as an ideal resource for instructors and scholars of gender and mass media, women’s studies, and media criticism by investigating Parks and Recreation’s place in the continuum of other feminist-leaning television programs.

Widely hailed as one of the best feminist-oriented series on television, NBC’s Parks and Recreation (2009–2015) presents a multifaceted text for examining the incorporation of feminist ideology into its storylines. This book analyzes the various ways the series presented feminism as a positive force, such as the satirical portrayal of patriarchy; alternative depictions of masculinity; the feminist ideology and political career of main character Leslie Knope; the inclusion of actual political figures; and depictions of love and romance as related to feminist thinking. A much-needed treatment that adds to the literature on feminism in media and popular culture, this book serves as an ideal resource for instructors and scholars of gender and mass media, women’s studies, and media criticism by investigating Parks and Recreation’s place in the continuum of other feminist-leaning television programs.

Television, Religion, and Supernatural examines the text of the CW network television series Supernatural, a program based in the horror genre that offers viewers myriad religious-based antagonists through the portrayals of monsters, which its two main characters “hunt” and destroy, as well as storylines based on the Bible. Even as the series’ producers claim a nonreligious perspective, the authors contend that story arcs and outcomes of episodes actually forward a hegemonic portrayal of Christianity that portrays a good-versus-evil motif regarding the superiority of Catholicism. The depiction of its protagonist brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester of Lawrence, Kansas, provides a pro-American perspective regarding a more generalized fight against evil in contemporary times.

This book was featured as one of thirty-four Epic Feminist Books in Teen Vogue magazine. This book offers interpretive and contextual tools to read the AMC television series Mad Men, providing a much-needed historical explanation and exposition regarding the status of women in an era that has been painted as pre- or non-feminist. In chapters aimed at helping readers understand women’s lives in the 1960s, Mad Men is used as a springboard to explore and discover alternative ways of seeing women. Offering more than a discussion of the show itself, the book offers historical insight for thinking about serious issues that «modern» working women continue to face today: balancing their work and personal lives, competing with other women, and controlling their own bodies and reproductive choices. Rather than critiquing the show for portraying women as victims, the book shows subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways that feminism functioned in an era when women were supposedly caught between the «waves» of the women’s movement but when, the authors argue, they functioned nonetheless as empowered individuals. By doing so, it provides historical context and analysis that complicates traditional interpretations by (1) exploring historical constructions of women’s work; (2) unpacking feminist and non-feminist discourses surrounding that work; (3) identifying modes of resistance; and (4) revisiting forgotten work coded as feminine.

Television, Religion, and Supernatural examines the text of the CW network television series Supernatural, a program based in the horror genre that offers viewers myriad religious-based antagonists through the portrayals of monsters, which its two main characters “hunt” and destroy, as well as storylines based on the Bible. Even as the series’ producers claim a nonreligious perspective, the authors contend that story arcs and outcomes of episodes actually forward a hegemonic portrayal of Christianity that portrays a good-versus-evil motif regarding the superiority of Catholicism. The depiction of its protagonist brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester of Lawrence, Kansas, provides a pro-American perspective regarding a more generalized fight against evil in contemporary times.

This book was featured as one of thirty-four Epic Feminist Books in Teen Vogue magazine. This book offers interpretive and contextual tools to read the AMC television series Mad Men, providing a much-needed historical explanation and exposition regarding the status of women in an era that has been painted as pre- or non-feminist. In chapters aimed at helping readers understand women’s lives in the 1960s, Mad Men is used as a springboard to explore and discover alternative ways of seeing women. Offering more than a discussion of the show itself, the book offers historical insight for thinking about serious issues that «modern» working women continue to face today: balancing their work and personal lives, competing with other women, and controlling their own bodies and reproductive choices. Rather than critiquing the show for portraying women as victims, the book shows subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways that feminism functioned in an era when women were supposedly caught between the «waves» of the women’s movement but when, the authors argue, they functioned nonetheless as empowered individuals. By doing so, it provides historical context and analysis that complicates traditional interpretations by (1) exploring historical constructions of women’s work; (2) unpacking feminist and non-feminist discourses surrounding that work; (3) identifying modes of resistance; and (4) revisiting forgotten work coded as feminine.

In response to the growing scope and popularity of wedding-related offerings and the media attention given to celebrity and royal weddings, The Bride Factory critically examines various bridal media outlets, artifacts, and the messages they convey about women today. The book departs from conventional wisdom and other treatments of the bridal industry as a scholarly topic by revealing how media portray women in modern American society, and how these portrayals reflect feminism and femininity and illustrate the hegemony created by these media. The book discusses the portrayal of women as brides in media coverage throughout history; the various forms of wedding media, including print, television, and the Internet; how bridal media forward ideals of feminine beauty; how reality wedding programs depict brides – and the new «bridezilla» – as agents of control over their perfect day; the role of men in wedding planning; and the extent to which the white wedding ideal is embraced or resisted, with special attention given to alternative wedding media. Cohesive and multidisciplinary in its approach, The Bride Factory is the first major publication to shed critical light on bridal media and their feminist implications.

In response to the growing scope and popularity of wedding-related offerings and the media attention given to celebrity and royal weddings, The Bride Factory critically examines various bridal media outlets, artifacts, and the messages they convey about women today. The book departs from conventional wisdom and other treatments of the bridal industry as a scholarly topic by revealing how media portray women in modern American society, and how these portrayals reflect feminism and femininity and illustrate the hegemony created by these media. The book discusses the portrayal of women as brides in media coverage throughout history; the various forms of wedding media, including print, television, and the Internet; how bridal media forward ideals of feminine beauty; how reality wedding programs depict brides – and the new «bridezilla» – as agents of control over their perfect day; the role of men in wedding planning; and the extent to which the white wedding ideal is embraced or resisted, with special attention given to alternative wedding media. Cohesive and multidisciplinary in its approach, The Bride Factory is the first major publication to shed critical light on bridal media and their feminist implications.