Visually Assessing the First Lady in a Digital Age: A Study of Michelle Obama as Portrayed by Journalists and the White House

In a digital age in which the First Lady’s image is captured and disseminated by many different outlets, this article proposes the development of a coding instrument using Goffman’s (1979) gender displays as a new method for exploring the visual frames of the First Lady. Given the manner in which photographs are disseminated via the Internet by both official and journalistic sources, this new coding instrument takes into consideration the different vantage points that these image capturers have. Until recently, visual gender display frames of the First Lady from differing outlets have not been easily studied separately, given the fact that images disseminated by the White House had to go through the journalistic gate prior to dispersion. Ultimately, the study of photos of the First Lady as she appears in the “media” was mixed and confounded journalistic and official framing. The Internet has changed all of this and opens opportunities to study these framing sources separately. As a test of a new coding instrument to study these different framing sources, this article assesses Michelle Obama in her gender portrayal from two different framing sources: journalists and the White House. This visual content analysis demonstrates and supports the use of a new context-independent coding instrument, borrowing from Goffman’s gender displays as a method for visually studying the First Lady.     

Making Sense of a Transnational Merger: Media Texts and the (Re)construction of Power Relations

In this study of symbolic power relations in a transnational merger, we suggest that the popular media can provide a significant arena for (re)constructing national identities and power in this kind of dramatic industrial restructuring, and are an under-utilized source of empirical data in research studies. Focusing on the press coverage of a recent Swedish-Finnish merger, we specify and illustrate a particular feature of discursive (re)construction of asymmetric power relations; superior (Swedish) and inferior (Finnish) national identities, which, we argue, are embedded in the history of colonization and domination between the two nations. The findings of the present study lead us to suggest that a lens taken from post-colonial theory is particularly useful in understanding the wider symbolic power implications of international industrial restructuring.     

From Face-to-Face to Facebook: The Role of Technology and Social Media in Adoptive Family Relationships with Birth Family Members

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study of 77 individuals in 40 couples (same-sex and heterosexual), who had adopted publically, privately, or internationally, examined parents' engagement with their child's birth family via technology (e.g., texting, e-mail, social media) through the lens of the Couple and Family Technology frame-work (Hertlein & Blumer, 2014 Hertlein, K. M., & Blumer, M. L. C. (2014). The couple and family technology framework. New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). Parents used three approaches to contact: active, passive, and no contact. Regardless of approach, some parents described concerns about boundaries. Couples were generally in agreement in their perspectives on engaging with birth family via technology. Practitioners must be know-ledgeable about management of relationships via technology and help adoptive families set healthy boundaries.     

Cancer in the Family: Review of the Psychosocial Perspectives of Patients and Family Members

As advances in cancer care have led to more treatment options and longer survival for cancer patients, a focus on quality of life for patients and their families has gained importance. This review provides a discussion of stress and coping theory, documents the relevance of this topic area for social work practice, and illuminates the results of a literature review by emphasizing the perspective from which research was collected within the family system. Recognizing the impact of cancer on the lives of patients, their partners, children, and the family as a whole is an essential factor in providing appropriate and adequate psychosocial services to families facing cancer.     

Alice in Wonderland: Exploring the Experiences of Female Service Members With a Pregnancy Resulting From Rape

Currently, no clinical research has ever been conducted to examine what, if any, traumatic effects take place when pregnancy results from a sexual assault during military service. The present study investigated the emotional experience and impact of rape and pregnancy on women serving in the military. A qualitative, grounded theory research methodology analyzed single-session interview data with seven self-selected participants. Five major themes emerged from the data. The authors discuss the implications of pregnancy from a sexual assault in military service and suggest future research regarding how social workers can begin to address the traumatic impact of this silent epidemic of pregnancy resulting from rape.     

Sarah was a Butch: Sexual Identity,Gender Practices,and Sarah's Place as Mother in the Jewish National Pantheon

Three fields of discourse regarding a masculine-like woman connect at a point that the queer field calls intersex, medical practice calls a sexual disorder, and rabbinic literature terms aylonit. The queer discursive field focuses on the freedom to choose an identity, but not the freedom from choosing one. The medical field focuses on sexual practice as the source of determining “normal” sexuality. In the discursive field of Jewish law there are no demands, because the Halakhic authority determines gender identity on behalf of the individual, maintaining ambiguity.     

Anatomy of Protest in the Digital Era: A Network Analysis of Twitter and Occupy Wall Street

Two months before the first Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest in September 2011, activists were using Twitter to organize and spread the movement. In this study, the earliest Twitter messages regarding #OccupyWallStreet were subjected to network analysis to answer these questions: What were the central hubs in the OWS discourse on Twitter in the summer of 2011? How did OWS emerge from among several social movement organizations to lead a nationwide series of demonstrations? What were the key points in the Twitter dialogue that aided the process of scale shift? By addressing these questions, this research connects social movement concepts with network centrality measures to provide a clearer picture of movements in the digital era.     

Older Adults and the Digital Divide: Assessing Results of a Web-Based Survey

SUMMARY

This study used an on-line, web-based survey to assess the significance of computer and Internet technology in the lives of adults over age 60. A convenience sample of 110 individuals from the United States, Canada and other countries responded to a 20-question survey regarding individual use, opportunities for learning, family and social connectivity and preferences for and barriers to effectual use. Particular focus was made on the self-described perceptions of personal control and life satisfaction within the responding population.     

The dybbuk and the ikota: similarity and difference in Jewish and Slavic traditions about the possession of an evil spirit

Both the dybbuk and the ikota are mythological spirits which possess a person whom they force to speak in a voice that is not his or hers. They have common transitional, liminal features to a greater degree than many other mythological creatures in Jewish and Slavic traditions. A comparative typology of these Jewish and Slavic demonological creatures, describing them according to their main features and functions, reveals some remarkable parallels between them. The comparative categorization will facilitate the elucidation of the specific features of each of the creatures and universal features that characterize all demonological creatures with a similar characteristic.     

Framing the Other: cosmopolitanism and the representation of difference in overseas gap year narratives

This paper engages with debates surrounding contemporary cosmopolitanism and the outcomes of cultural encounters. It considers if overseas gap years, often put forward in the UK as a way of becoming a global citizen, enable young Britons to ‘broaden their mind’. I explore representations of the people and places encountered during these periods of time out through an analysis of young people's travel blogs. Four key themes are highlighted in these narratives: the exotic place; feeling ‘out of place’; the importance and outcomes of local interaction; and the historical legacies that are implicated in constructing places as ‘different’. Gappers display a willingness to interact with and gain knowledge about their host communities. Yet as gap years are designed to be distinct from the normal course of things, they also demonstrate the ‘difference’ of places. This can often result in the reproduction of established ways of representing the Other in order to frame them as meaningful. There is a tension in the narratives between ‘globally reflexive’ and ‘globally reproductive’ representations of difference, and I suggest that we might question the development of cosmopolitan attitudes and competencies through undertaking a gap year.     

Class and Other Identifications in Managerial Careers: The Case of the Lemon Dress

This article responds to concerns that research in the field of careers needs to bring together an action perspective with a recognition of the continuing impact of structural and cultural imperatives. To do so this article presents a symptomatic study. Through the concept of pedagogies of the everyday, this combines an action orientation with a recognition of how such pedagogies operate within networks of power. Specifically, the article argues that the development of new gendered understandings of management careers requires greater recognition of the continuing, though now relatively neglected, saliency of class. The article offers a summary of contemporary theorizations of class and concludes with a discussion of possible future directions for this field of research.     

Networks,Neighborhoods, and Depression: Negative Interactions by Social Support Members as a Mediator of Neighborhood Characteristics and Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of Recovering Substance Abusing Women

Abstract

Although social networks and substance abuse have been extensively studied, less is known about the role social networks play in the context of neighborhood disorder and depression. Sixty-five women were recruited from CASAWORKS for Families, a national demonstration project for substance abusing women. Average participant age was 31; half of the sample was European American, 40% African American, and 10% was other ethnicities. The average length of time in the program was about three months. We found that negative interactions partially mediated the relationship between neighborhood disorder and depression. Specifically, higher levels of neighborhood disorder predicted increased negative social exchange that in turn predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms. However, mediation analysis indicated that the strength of the relationship between neighborhood disorder and depression was attenuated when negative interactions were considered. These results support the importance of community endeavors that seek to improve basic living conditions in disadvantaged communities.     

Parents' Perceptions of Their Children in a Context of Shared Political Uncertainty: The Case of Jewish Settlers in the West Bank Before and After the Oslo Peace Agreement

This study describes the effect of a politically uncertain situation on the parents' experience and on the way they appraise their children's experience. The study focuses on Israeli families living in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) during two periods: the Intifada (the indigenous Arab population's civil uprising) and the years following the Oslo peace agreements. The results of this study indicate the importance of the specific political situation and the particular context that is created for those who experience it. The supportive context of the Israeli population created by the right-wing government affected the parents' ability to withhold their feelings during the Intifada, while the lack of support of the left-wing government increased the expression of emergency feelings by parents. The children, according to the parents' appraisal, expressed more emergency feelings than their parents did during the Intifada. The number of feelings and their intensity diminished after the Oslo Agreements. The discussion focuses on the effect of family role and its interaction with the political uncertainty on the psychological well-being of parents and children.     

The evaluation of workers by customers as a method of control and monitoring in firms: Digital reputation and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation

As a method of surveillance and monitoring, the evaluation of workers by customers and employers and the disclosure of the results pose a series of challenges for the current legal framework of the European Union (EU). Employees subject to such evaluations are exposed to a far more intense and wider degree of monitoring of their work than traditional workers. The phenomenon arises from the adoption of a customer perspective, seeking to make work observable at all times, without any cost to firms. In this light, the author analyses the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which establishes very specific restrictions when requesting and disclosing information about workers.     

Technology,offshoring and the task content of occupations in the United Kingdom

The authors analyse change in employment levels and in the task content of occupations, both within occupations (i.e. at the intensive margin) and between occupations (i.e. at the extensive margin) in the United Kingdom over the period 1997–2006 using data from the national Skills Survey, which has comparable within‐occupation task data for three waves: 1997, 2001 and 2006. They find that within‐occupation task content changed significantly, and that the magnitude of change was similar to that found at the extensive margin. Their econometric results suggest that these intensive‐margin shifts can be explained by technological improvements but not by offshoring.     

Pandemic in the Time of Trump: Digital Media Logic and Deadly Politics

This paper examines the power of a mediatized President to use reflexive propaganda—the rules and assumptions of digital media—to define a public health crisis. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, President Trump engaged in attention-based politics, or the use of media to draw attention of the largest audience to himself, at the expense of an efficient response to a major public health crisis. The repetitive tweets, with a common form—vulgar and combative language, usually against journalists—converted Donald Trump into a digital meme and enabled the President to dwell on his distorted accomplishments and TV ratings, to downplay health risks, and initially define the lethal virus as a benign hoax.     

Future of Work in the Digital World: Preparing for Instability and Opportunity

Despite conflicting forecasts about the pace and extent of technological changes that lie ahead, it is difficult to dispute the impact that advances in automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence have already had on work in the United States and globally. Hirschi ( 2018 ) provided an excellent discussion of these developments and what they may mean for career clients, practitioners, and researchers. The author aims to complement Hirschi's contribution by (a) amplifying the nature of the challenges faced by workers, both currently and in the foreseeable future, and (b) considering steps that may be taken by career development experts, both individually and collectively, to meet these challenges. These steps include advocacy for displaced workers, participation in dialogues to transform educational institutions, and efforts to extend the range of counseling interventions to prepare clients for a career future that may be far less stable for increasing numbers of workers.     

Collaborative Music‐Making with Digital Audio Workstations: The “nth Member” as a Heuristic Device for Understanding the Role of Technologies in Audio Composition

This article examines amateur music‐making using a digital audio workstation, showing how audio and software are used as resources for creating compositions. The article has two aims. Firstly, to depict how digital music‐making is formed from routine interactional techniques. Secondly, to probe how researchers might account for such multi‐modal activity through a heuristic device: the “nth member.” Whereas sociology has typically been concerned with the cultural facets of how music is made and consumed, we explore the material practices of collaborative song creation utilizing conversation analytic techniques—“turn‐taking” and “next‐selection”—to capture two key interactional moments.