Mary Angela Bock | The University of Texas at Austin (original) (raw)
Papers by Mary Angela Bock
Visual Communication Theory and Research
Health experts are in widespread agreement that breastfeeding is generally the best option for in... more Health experts are in widespread agreement that breastfeeding is generally the best option for infants and their mothers. The right to breastfeed in public has been guaranteed in forty-seven states in the US as a means to support nursing mothers and their babies, yet breastfeeding in public remains a controversial act. This project represents a textual analysis of news articles in the top ten newspapers in the United States to study the way breastfeeding is framed. We focus particular attention on the way one word, "nipple, " is treated in news coverage and argue that by using this word in connection with sexuality or pathology, news reports inhibit efforts to normalize nursing. Our findings suggest that because of journalism's role in framing public discourse, a more frank, frequent and open use of the word nipple might better serve the needs of maternal-infant health.
Feminist Media Studies, 2018
TV news is a visual medium that requires its on-air journalists to look good, but a history of la... more TV news is a visual medium that requires its on-air journalists to look good, but a history of lawsuits and survey research suggests that this burden is spread unevenly. Critics charge that women are expected to look younger and sexier, and minority broadcasters are held to a White standard of beauty. This project investigated the reality behind those complaints by examining the faces of on-air journalists working for local stations in the U.S. according to race, gender and attractiveness. The resulting content analysis of more than 400 online publicity photos suggests that a certain look dominates for men and for women and that the range of appearance standards is wider for men than women.
This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way polit... more This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way political actors engage in embodied performance to maintain their image in visual media. Mug shots are images that are ostensibly equalizing and represent a long-standing link between law enforcement, journalism and visual culture. Released through the “gates” of law enforcement, they are imbued with a connotation of guilt even though they are created prior to a person’s conviction. Using mixed methods, including textual analysis, field observations and interviews, this case study examined the way journalists covered the mugshot booking of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. The event was widely proclaimed a victory rather than a ritual of shame. The study suggests that the governor and his staff engaged in embodied gatekeeping by orchestrating the events leading up to his booking photo which impeded journalists in their effort to independently control their narratives.
New media technologies allow for unprecedented participation in the public sphere, with financial... more New media technologies allow for unprecedented participation in the public sphere, with financial investments on par with other mainstream hobbies. Citizen video journalists (VJs) are acquiring the technical, and in some cases, narrative skills needed to participate in online discourse. Yet citizen VJs lack the institutional authority enjoyed by professional journalists. This chapter compares the narrative strategies used by professional and non-professional VJs to establish authority. Practitioners in the U.S and the U.K. were observed in a variety of professional and activist contexts, with one group, a so-called “cop watching” organization in t
he US, serving as an illustrative case study. Several stories posted by the groups under study were chosen for textual analysis, with particular attention paid to authority-building narrative strategies. The findings advance previous research on the discursive strategies of Citizen VJs.
This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way polit... more This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way political actors engage in embodied performance to maintain their image in visual media. Mug shots are images that are ostensibly equalizing and represent a long-standing link between law enforcement, journalism and visual culture. Released through the “gates” of law enforcement, they are imbued with a connotation of guilt even though they are created prior to a person’s conviction. Using mixed methods, including textual analysis, field observations and interviews, this case study examined the way journalists covered the mugshot booking of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. The event was widely proclaimed a victory rather than a ritual of shame. The study suggests that the governor and his staff engaged in embodied gatekeeping by orchestrating the events leading up to his booking photo which impeded journalists in their effort to independently control their narratives.
This article represents a qualitative analysis of the Twitter feed from one news organization dur... more This article represents a qualitative analysis of the Twitter feed from one news organization during the first phase of protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014. The tweets, images, and videos from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalists constitute a real-time record as the protests unfolded. By applying a strand of framing theory known as the protest paradigm, the analysis discovered that journalists’ tweeting marganalized protesters and framed police officers as dispassionate protectors of social order. Journalists’ tweeting of protesters took on a more sympthatic tone when they both were subjected to police tear gas.These findings have implications for the coverage of race, violence, and protests in the United States as well as the way Twitter binds and represents an interpretive community.
his qualitative project examines an American photojournalism ritual known as the “perp walk,” def... more his qualitative project examines an American photojournalism ritual known as the “perp walk,” defined as the nonconsensual imaging of a person who is either in custody or otherwise legally obligated to attend a legal proceeding. The project draws from interviews, participant observation, and visual textual analysis to analyze perp walks within a constructivist paradigm. Framing theory and gatekeeping also inform the analysis, characterizing perp walks as cultural sites for both material and discursive struggle. The study found that the discursive framing of their portrayals seems most painful to the subjects of perp walks and that the materiality of image access causes photojournalists to ignore everyday competition and work as a team to complete perp-walk assignments.
Police accountability organizations known as “cop-watching” groups are proliferating thanks to sm... more Police accountability organizations known as “cop-watching” groups are proliferating thanks to smartphone penetration and the ease of video sharing on social networks. These groups use digital media technologies to challenge official accounts of events and encroach on the borders of traditional journalism. This qualitative project collected material over the course of more than two years, and uses participant observation and long-form interviews to explore the nature of this activism. Grounded analysis suggests that cop-watching represents a unique form of active citizenship; one that combines text and practice to produce embodied narratives that give voice to the concerns of others. As a form of so-called “sousveillance,” cop-watching raises theoretical questions about accountability, journalism and visual evidence.
Video has become a central part of news on the web. As an emerging form of news, news videos are ... more Video has become a central part of news on the web. As an emerging form of news, news videos are appearing with varied narrative structures, styles and formats. Narrative structure is one way that journalists establish discursive authority. Because of contrasting traditions regarding visual news, newspaper videos might be expected to employ different narrative strategies. This content analysis compared the narrative structure of videos posted by newspaper websites with those posted by television organizations. It finds that form reflects contrasting traditions, with newspaper videos taking a more mimetic (showing) approach and television websites using a more diegetic (telling) narrative style.
This case study of a capital murder trial explores the way television journalism work routines sh... more This case study of a capital murder trial explores the way television journalism work routines shape trial coverage. Based on field observations, textual analysis and open-ended interviews, it examines how TV news routines are translated into the stories that are broadcast and posted to the web. The interviews and fieldwork made it possible to connect the way gatekeeping and the source-journalist relationship affect the framing of the stories produced. The project also evaluates the process and product according to normative expectations for U.S. journalism. The analysis suggests that video news-gathering routines for trials rely heavily on law-enforcement sources, granting considerable control for the story’s framing to those authorities.
News organizations are turning increasingly to video journalism as surnival strategy in the era o... more News organizations are turning increasingly to video journalism as surnival strategy in the era of convergence. Video journalism, the process by which one person shoots, writes, and edits video stories, represents both a socially and materially constructed form of neii's and adds a new dimension to daily work practices. This qualitative project examines the daily work practices of video journalists in a variety of organizational settings, including newspapers and television stations. This project found that the material requirements of video journalism have the potential to shift control of some aspects of news narrative away from journalists and toward their sources.
Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often ... more Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often a new skill for print-based journalists, who previously may have considered it the province of television news organizations. Institutional convention has held up television news as a foil to still images and the printed word, a dualism that has fostered hierarchal thinking about video and its normative role in journalism. Such hierarchal thinking, or what Pierre Bourdieu discussed in terms of distinction, is often reflected in institutional, automatic, unconscious daily practices. This study looks through Bourdieu's lens at a set of observational and interview data to describe the way journalists in newspaper organizations are adopting video for presenting news. The study finds that newspaper journalists, both writers and still photojournalists, are responding in ways that allow them to claim a distinct form of multi-media presentation, thereby sustaining their place in the traditional journalistic hierarchy.
Journalism, 2012
Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often ... more Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often a new skill for print-based journalists, who previously may have considered it the province of television news organizations. Institutional convention has held up television news as a foil to still images and the printed word, a dualism that has fostered hierarchal thinking about video and its normative role in journalism. Such hierarchal thinking, or what Pierre Bourdieu discussed in terms of distinction, is often reflected in institutional, automatic, unconscious daily practices. This study looks through Bourdieu's lens at a set of observational and interview data to describe the way journalists in newspaper organizations are adopting video for presenting news. The study finds that newspaper journalists, both writers and still photojournalists, are responding in ways that allow them to claim a distinct form of multi-media presentation, thereby sustaining their place in the traditional journalistic hierarchy.
International Journal of Press-politics, 2009
Camera pools and video feed systems allow news institutions to receive video imagery with greater... more Camera pools and video feed systems allow news institutions to receive video imagery with greater efficiency and lower costs. Such arrangements are frequently managed and negotiated through politically engaged institutions. The resulting video is transmitted and traded with the underlying assumption that images are discrete, objective representations of real events, an assumption that is called into question when the practice is carefully examined. Unlike facts or ideas, which are intangible and constructed entirely in language, video images are constructed both discursively and materially. Consequently the power to grant physical access to events for photographic coverage grants political actors an advantage as they negotiate their image, literally and metaphorically.
Visual Communication Quarterly, 2008
This article examines the work practices of news photographers and a nascent revolution in the co... more This article examines the work practices of news photographers and a nascent revolution in the context of news production. Two photographic forms—print and television—have traditionally operated in separate professional spheres. Now convergent internet technology is compelling newspaper organizations to demand that their photographers learn to shoot and edit video. The work of these new broadband journalists is appearing on the web as everything from musical slide shows to highly produced, narrated video stories. Using ethnographic field visits, interviews, and discourse from trade organizations, this article examines print, television, and broadband photojournalistic practice and the revolutionary changes underway in visual newswork.
This early study of public affairs websites uses qualitative textual analysis and interviews to e... more This early study of public affairs websites uses qualitative textual analysis and interviews to explore an emerging form known as hyper local news.
OpEds by Mary Angela Bock
OpEd about the epistemology of video
OpEd re. Ferguson and the right to film police in the US
This is an OpEd about the need for equal justice in the US
Visual Communication Theory and Research
Health experts are in widespread agreement that breastfeeding is generally the best option for in... more Health experts are in widespread agreement that breastfeeding is generally the best option for infants and their mothers. The right to breastfeed in public has been guaranteed in forty-seven states in the US as a means to support nursing mothers and their babies, yet breastfeeding in public remains a controversial act. This project represents a textual analysis of news articles in the top ten newspapers in the United States to study the way breastfeeding is framed. We focus particular attention on the way one word, "nipple, " is treated in news coverage and argue that by using this word in connection with sexuality or pathology, news reports inhibit efforts to normalize nursing. Our findings suggest that because of journalism's role in framing public discourse, a more frank, frequent and open use of the word nipple might better serve the needs of maternal-infant health.
Feminist Media Studies, 2018
TV news is a visual medium that requires its on-air journalists to look good, but a history of la... more TV news is a visual medium that requires its on-air journalists to look good, but a history of lawsuits and survey research suggests that this burden is spread unevenly. Critics charge that women are expected to look younger and sexier, and minority broadcasters are held to a White standard of beauty. This project investigated the reality behind those complaints by examining the faces of on-air journalists working for local stations in the U.S. according to race, gender and attractiveness. The resulting content analysis of more than 400 online publicity photos suggests that a certain look dominates for men and for women and that the range of appearance standards is wider for men than women.
This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way polit... more This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way political actors engage in embodied performance to maintain their image in visual media. Mug shots are images that are ostensibly equalizing and represent a long-standing link between law enforcement, journalism and visual culture. Released through the “gates” of law enforcement, they are imbued with a connotation of guilt even though they are created prior to a person’s conviction. Using mixed methods, including textual analysis, field observations and interviews, this case study examined the way journalists covered the mugshot booking of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. The event was widely proclaimed a victory rather than a ritual of shame. The study suggests that the governor and his staff engaged in embodied gatekeeping by orchestrating the events leading up to his booking photo which impeded journalists in their effort to independently control their narratives.
New media technologies allow for unprecedented participation in the public sphere, with financial... more New media technologies allow for unprecedented participation in the public sphere, with financial investments on par with other mainstream hobbies. Citizen video journalists (VJs) are acquiring the technical, and in some cases, narrative skills needed to participate in online discourse. Yet citizen VJs lack the institutional authority enjoyed by professional journalists. This chapter compares the narrative strategies used by professional and non-professional VJs to establish authority. Practitioners in the U.S and the U.K. were observed in a variety of professional and activist contexts, with one group, a so-called “cop watching” organization in t
he US, serving as an illustrative case study. Several stories posted by the groups under study were chosen for textual analysis, with particular attention paid to authority-building narrative strategies. The findings advance previous research on the discursive strategies of Citizen VJs.
This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way polit... more This project uses a case study of an elected official’s booking mug shot to examine the way political actors engage in embodied performance to maintain their image in visual media. Mug shots are images that are ostensibly equalizing and represent a long-standing link between law enforcement, journalism and visual culture. Released through the “gates” of law enforcement, they are imbued with a connotation of guilt even though they are created prior to a person’s conviction. Using mixed methods, including textual analysis, field observations and interviews, this case study examined the way journalists covered the mugshot booking of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. The event was widely proclaimed a victory rather than a ritual of shame. The study suggests that the governor and his staff engaged in embodied gatekeeping by orchestrating the events leading up to his booking photo which impeded journalists in their effort to independently control their narratives.
This article represents a qualitative analysis of the Twitter feed from one news organization dur... more This article represents a qualitative analysis of the Twitter feed from one news organization during the first phase of protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014. The tweets, images, and videos from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalists constitute a real-time record as the protests unfolded. By applying a strand of framing theory known as the protest paradigm, the analysis discovered that journalists’ tweeting marganalized protesters and framed police officers as dispassionate protectors of social order. Journalists’ tweeting of protesters took on a more sympthatic tone when they both were subjected to police tear gas.These findings have implications for the coverage of race, violence, and protests in the United States as well as the way Twitter binds and represents an interpretive community.
his qualitative project examines an American photojournalism ritual known as the “perp walk,” def... more his qualitative project examines an American photojournalism ritual known as the “perp walk,” defined as the nonconsensual imaging of a person who is either in custody or otherwise legally obligated to attend a legal proceeding. The project draws from interviews, participant observation, and visual textual analysis to analyze perp walks within a constructivist paradigm. Framing theory and gatekeeping also inform the analysis, characterizing perp walks as cultural sites for both material and discursive struggle. The study found that the discursive framing of their portrayals seems most painful to the subjects of perp walks and that the materiality of image access causes photojournalists to ignore everyday competition and work as a team to complete perp-walk assignments.
Police accountability organizations known as “cop-watching” groups are proliferating thanks to sm... more Police accountability organizations known as “cop-watching” groups are proliferating thanks to smartphone penetration and the ease of video sharing on social networks. These groups use digital media technologies to challenge official accounts of events and encroach on the borders of traditional journalism. This qualitative project collected material over the course of more than two years, and uses participant observation and long-form interviews to explore the nature of this activism. Grounded analysis suggests that cop-watching represents a unique form of active citizenship; one that combines text and practice to produce embodied narratives that give voice to the concerns of others. As a form of so-called “sousveillance,” cop-watching raises theoretical questions about accountability, journalism and visual evidence.
Video has become a central part of news on the web. As an emerging form of news, news videos are ... more Video has become a central part of news on the web. As an emerging form of news, news videos are appearing with varied narrative structures, styles and formats. Narrative structure is one way that journalists establish discursive authority. Because of contrasting traditions regarding visual news, newspaper videos might be expected to employ different narrative strategies. This content analysis compared the narrative structure of videos posted by newspaper websites with those posted by television organizations. It finds that form reflects contrasting traditions, with newspaper videos taking a more mimetic (showing) approach and television websites using a more diegetic (telling) narrative style.
This case study of a capital murder trial explores the way television journalism work routines sh... more This case study of a capital murder trial explores the way television journalism work routines shape trial coverage. Based on field observations, textual analysis and open-ended interviews, it examines how TV news routines are translated into the stories that are broadcast and posted to the web. The interviews and fieldwork made it possible to connect the way gatekeeping and the source-journalist relationship affect the framing of the stories produced. The project also evaluates the process and product according to normative expectations for U.S. journalism. The analysis suggests that video news-gathering routines for trials rely heavily on law-enforcement sources, granting considerable control for the story’s framing to those authorities.
News organizations are turning increasingly to video journalism as surnival strategy in the era o... more News organizations are turning increasingly to video journalism as surnival strategy in the era of convergence. Video journalism, the process by which one person shoots, writes, and edits video stories, represents both a socially and materially constructed form of neii's and adds a new dimension to daily work practices. This qualitative project examines the daily work practices of video journalists in a variety of organizational settings, including newspapers and television stations. This project found that the material requirements of video journalism have the potential to shift control of some aspects of news narrative away from journalists and toward their sources.
Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often ... more Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often a new skill for print-based journalists, who previously may have considered it the province of television news organizations. Institutional convention has held up television news as a foil to still images and the printed word, a dualism that has fostered hierarchal thinking about video and its normative role in journalism. Such hierarchal thinking, or what Pierre Bourdieu discussed in terms of distinction, is often reflected in institutional, automatic, unconscious daily practices. This study looks through Bourdieu's lens at a set of observational and interview data to describe the way journalists in newspaper organizations are adopting video for presenting news. The study finds that newspaper journalists, both writers and still photojournalists, are responding in ways that allow them to claim a distinct form of multi-media presentation, thereby sustaining their place in the traditional journalistic hierarchy.
Journalism, 2012
Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often ... more Video has become a key component for multi-media newspaper websites. Working with video is often a new skill for print-based journalists, who previously may have considered it the province of television news organizations. Institutional convention has held up television news as a foil to still images and the printed word, a dualism that has fostered hierarchal thinking about video and its normative role in journalism. Such hierarchal thinking, or what Pierre Bourdieu discussed in terms of distinction, is often reflected in institutional, automatic, unconscious daily practices. This study looks through Bourdieu's lens at a set of observational and interview data to describe the way journalists in newspaper organizations are adopting video for presenting news. The study finds that newspaper journalists, both writers and still photojournalists, are responding in ways that allow them to claim a distinct form of multi-media presentation, thereby sustaining their place in the traditional journalistic hierarchy.
International Journal of Press-politics, 2009
Camera pools and video feed systems allow news institutions to receive video imagery with greater... more Camera pools and video feed systems allow news institutions to receive video imagery with greater efficiency and lower costs. Such arrangements are frequently managed and negotiated through politically engaged institutions. The resulting video is transmitted and traded with the underlying assumption that images are discrete, objective representations of real events, an assumption that is called into question when the practice is carefully examined. Unlike facts or ideas, which are intangible and constructed entirely in language, video images are constructed both discursively and materially. Consequently the power to grant physical access to events for photographic coverage grants political actors an advantage as they negotiate their image, literally and metaphorically.
Visual Communication Quarterly, 2008
This article examines the work practices of news photographers and a nascent revolution in the co... more This article examines the work practices of news photographers and a nascent revolution in the context of news production. Two photographic forms—print and television—have traditionally operated in separate professional spheres. Now convergent internet technology is compelling newspaper organizations to demand that their photographers learn to shoot and edit video. The work of these new broadband journalists is appearing on the web as everything from musical slide shows to highly produced, narrated video stories. Using ethnographic field visits, interviews, and discourse from trade organizations, this article examines print, television, and broadband photojournalistic practice and the revolutionary changes underway in visual newswork.
This early study of public affairs websites uses qualitative textual analysis and interviews to e... more This early study of public affairs websites uses qualitative textual analysis and interviews to explore an emerging form known as hyper local news.
OpEd about the epistemology of video
OpEd re. Ferguson and the right to film police in the US
This is an OpEd about the need for equal justice in the US
In today's multimedia environment, visuals are essential and expected parts of storytelling. Whi... more In today's multimedia environment, visuals are essential and expected parts of storytelling.
While images may not be everything, they are a fundamental part of almost everything that
goes on in the mass media. However, the visual communication research field is fragmented
into several sub-areas, making study difficult. This book rectifies this issue by compiling
research across different areas. Looking at topics such as the effects of viewing violence on
television and analyses of the depictions of minority groups in newspaper photographs, ...
Video journalism, the process by which one person shoots, writes, and edits video for broadcast o... more Video journalism, the process by which one person shoots, writes, and edits video for broadcast or the web, is a form of newsgathering taking hold in newsrooms of all kinds, by professionals and would-be citizen journalists around the world. Some proponents have celebrated it as an improved narrative form, one that uses more intimate, emotional documentary filmmaking technique than conventional television. Its detractors consider it simply a cheaper way to make news.This project weighs in on the controversy while addressing two overall concerns: First, What is video journalism, exactly? And secondly, how do the stories created by video journalists compare with other forms of news? This book presents more than two years of ethnographic research in a wide variety of contexts in both the U.S and the U.K, including local newspapers, The New York Times¸ local television stations, the BBC, and the Voice of America radio network, and several professional photographic workshops. The book also takes an approach somewhat unusual for a news ethnography, in that the author observed VJs at work in the field, not just in newsrooms, on stories ranging from an urban shooting to a presidential campaign visit.
Visual Communication Quarterly, 2017
This study analyzes newspaper and television coverage of the shootings of two journalists in Virg... more This study analyzes newspaper and television coverage of the shootings of two journalists in Virginia in 2015 to compare discourses about the victims, a videographer and an on-air reporter. Working within the larger framework of Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, the analysis considers the way various subgroups of journalism maintain borders and work to establish hierarchies. The project compared news discourse about the female reporter, an on-air presenter, and the male videographer who worked behind the camera in print and broadcast reports. Three tensions within the journalistic field emerged from the analysis: reporter-photographer, print-television and male-female. Our findings offer insight into the way these tensions are navigated within the field and serves to communicate visual journalism’s value to the public.