From Academia to Social Media

I researched Jocelyn Hollander for this blog post, she's a published author from the latest issue of Gender & Society I obtained. She and C.J. Pascoe wrote the essay, "Good Guys Don't Rape: Gender, Domination, and Mobilizing."

I was able to find Hollander on linkedin and facebook.

She has a very professional persona, but allows some of her personal interests to be shown public. On her facebook, her profile pic celebrates marriage equality, she follows very liberal and social-justice oriented people, and is interested in sociology, community, and gender-related groups. Her linkedin shows that she has had a very good education from well-known schools, and has obtained a Ph. D in sociology, so she's credible.

How does their persona on social media differ from their persona in the pages of the academic journal?

I couldn't see her facebook posts, unfortunately, so I haven't seen writing besides the pages in her academic journal. In, "Good Guys Don't Rape: Gender, Domination, and Mobilizing," the writing has sophisticated language, makes use of question and answer style, and has a liberal, feminist bias, but remains factual.

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Academic Discourse & Genre

For this blog post I skimmed through the journal issue and analyzed the different genres and their conventions and purposes.

Genres:

1. Introductory/Opening Article from the Editor-

"Transitions" it explicitly says "As I write this, the editorial team and I are preparing the first issue under my editorship. We are in a state of transition from one editor to the next, from one issue to the next."

2. Essay-

ex: "Good Guys Don't Rape: Gender, Domination, and Mobilizing Rape" it is formatted similarly to an article, the main difference being the headings and diagrams. The essay does not have any tables or images of statistics, it has indented paragraphs and is cleanly sectioned off by the headings "Gender," "Domination," and "Mobilizing Rape." There is no abstract, just an introductory.

3. Letter-

ex: "An Open Letter from Black Women to the Slutwalk" it is simple and straight to the point; there is an introduction, a subheading labeled, "The Issue at Hand" and one other subheading labeled "What We Ask."

4. Book Review-

ex: "Book Review: Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in Indonesia by Rachel Rinaldo" It differs from articles and essays because, "There is, of course, no set formula, but a general rule of thumb is that the first one-half to two-thirds of the review should summarize the author’s main ideas and at least one-third should evaluate the book." (Book Reviews, Indiana University)

5. Article-

ex: "Women in Power: Undoing or Redoing the Gendered Organization?" it has headings and subheadings, article notes, diagrams (statistics and graphs)

Figure 4

Purpose and target audience of each genre-

Opening Article From Editor: To explain what will be addressed in the rest of the issue's content and why it was chosen. The typical viewers of their journal, but also people interested in the absurd rise of rape happening left and right.

Essay: The multiple essays all have their own themes because the editors of Gender & Society reached out to several professors and authors who study/research different subjects (i.e. sociology, law) in order to get different perspectives on the issue of rape. All of the essays have the goal in mind of theorizing rape from their focused/speciality area of study.  I think the target audience depends on each essay's theme, but I think rape affects everyone, and therefore, the message is meant to be relayed to the people who might even least expect it.

Letter: The purpose of this letter is to show what social change and protest can do on the issue of rape. The letter's target audience is all women, but also American society.

Book Review: The book reviews do not relate to the theme of the journal's February issue (theorizing rape), necessarily, but the books are all related to gender and women's studies. I think their purpose in the issue is to critique and recommend books that readers of "Gender & Society" might be interested in. The target audience are all of the readers of the journal.

Article: The article's purpose is to encourage women leadership and shows the benefits to it- that it could lead to a decrease in gendered segregation in the workforce. The target audience is young women who can make this difference/change, or organizations/management who need to accept the change and facilitate it.

Report on My Interviews

What are the most significant or interesting genres that you learned about from your interviewees? Please identify at least THREE specific genres from your discipline/field of study that your interview subjects discussed writing within.  

1. Journal Articles
2. Books
3. Public Art


How do these genres differ from one another? Think about things like genre convention, content, purpose, audience, message, and context as you describe these differences.

Books and journal articles both tend to discuss research and studies, but differ in length and other ways depending on the content. Journal articles and books are very different from public art. They are typically academic, and the audience is usually academics, activists, and students. The purpose of journal articles is usually to inform or give the audience language to use or ways to understand people and society in concern with gender and women's issues. Public art can take on many different forms, unlike journal or academic articles. The purpose of the art is usually to highlight social justice issues and raise awareness, the audience for art might extend to a wider range of people, not just academics.

Based on the information you gathered in your interviews, what is challenging and/or difficult about writing within these genres (from a professional's point of view)?

Journal articles can take a very long time, especially because writing projects in general can take long. They require patience and a long-term strategy for academic publishing.

Sometimes working on smaller projects takes away from larger/more crucial writing projects.

Because of the controversies surrounding gender and women's issues, writing can easily stir people who are very biased and emotional on the topic, so thinking about the audience and language is crucial to focus on when deciding an approach and writing style.

Some work is very disciplinary and may take a while for readers to find it, and some is "too esoteric" for "general academic audiences."

Based on the information you gathered in your interviews, what is exciting and/or rewarding about writing within these genres (from a professional's point of view)?

Gets people, students, faculty, or parents thinking in a different way.
Intended audiences are usually responsive.
Helping activists on social issues
Teaching students concepts and theories that they've actually done research on


Where in mass media - popular, academic, and/or social - can examples of this genre be found? If genre examples cannot be found within mass media easily, where can genre examples be found/located?

Many online publication sites like SAGE journals that publish Gender & Society and Sex Roles, the professionals' websites, and blogs or The Feminist Wire. 

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Rhetorical Analysis of Academic Journal

Unfortunately, I have reached out to two different librarians and they told me they do not have any recent, physical copies of academic journals related to my major (definitely not the popular ones I wrote about in the blogpost before), everything is online as an ebook or computer file. 

Here is a selfie of me with my online academic journal! 

The cover photo on the library website made the publication company (SAGE) and volume/date (vol. 30 number 1/ February 2016) blurry when I tried to zoom in. 

Authors
There are 23 different authors in this specific issue of "Gender & Society." The authors are Jo Reger, Black Women's Blueprint, Valerie Jenness, Sarah Fenstermaker, Patricia Yancey Martin, Nicola Henry, Michael A. Messner, C.J. Pascoe, Jocelyn A. Hollander, Poulami Roychowdhury, Nancy Whittier, Kevin Stainback, Sibyl Kleiner, Sheryl Skaggs, Cheryl Cooky, Nazli Kibria, Vikash Singh, Jamie M. Sommer, Celia Valiente, Anne Esacove, Kristen Barber, Shirley A. Hill, and Donna Bobbitt-Zeher.

Most of these authors have written essays and articles, and some have written several book reviews. Many are doctors and professors at universities, such as Dr. Kristen Barber, part of the SIU Sociology faculty. Valerie Jenness is a published author of at least four books and is a professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society and in the Department of Sociology at the University of California Irvine. A unique organization is Black Women's Blueprint, an activist group for women and girl's of African descent. They engage in research, workshops and movements.

Audience
The intended audience for this journal issue is women interested in how different areas in society are affected by cases of rape. In the table of contents, a main heading is "Theorizing Rape through Time, Place and Relations" and has a lot content under it.

People involved in the law, fraternities and/or athletics, prisoners or military persons, that relate to the issue in the different articles are the secondary audience. One article is titled, "The Rape Prone Culture of Academic Contexts: Fraternities and Athletics."

Context
The context surrounding this journal issue is the prevalence of rape and areas of occurrence throughout history; what has changed, what has stayed the same.

The content in this journal are, mostly, all related to rape and attempts to come up with reasons as to why it occurs in certain situations, like during wartime or what kind of people are rapists; they dig deeper into where sexual assault is common and try to give understanding based on things like gender, sexuality, violence, and domination.

Message
I decided the overall message of this journal article is that rape has never been concentrated in one area, and that rape has become a true epidemic in our culture that needs to be evaluated by its roots and understood in order for change to occur. The articles feature rape in law and political context, in academic/professional/athletic societies, in prisons, in the military, and more areas in order to show how widespread of a problem this is and has become.

Purpose

The purpose of this journal is to provide awareness and promote change. With showing the science behind the occurrence of rape throughout time and how it affects everyone, it hits people emotionally and makes them feel involved in the problem. People will want change and not want to become apart of the statistics, or a desensitized culture.

My Major

In this blog post I'll be responding to questions that help me get a deeper understanding of gender and women's studies, and professionals within that major.

What do students in your program or department learn how to do?

GWS makes students more open-minded, and teaches us how to be more tolerable and accepting. It prepares us with critical thinking, presentation/speech, social and writing skills. Students gain an understanding of differences of gender, race, sexuality, culture, social class, they learn how to be better analyzers of information, they learn how to initiate change and think about the future.

What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?

-Human resources department

-Teachers/Professors

-Directors of Human Rights Organizations

-Business Owners

-Artists

-Communications consultant

-Administrator of a human services department

-Advocate for victims of domestic violence and hate crimes

-Executive director of a foundation

-Journalist 

-Novelist

-Nurse

-Program director of a rape crisis center

-Psychologist

-Psychotherapist

-Public health educator

-Public relations director

-Social worker

-Work for the law/government

What drew you to this field?

Over Thanksgiving break I met some distant relatives and we were discussing our college majors. The conversation got me brainstorming and thinking about what I'm actually passionate about. I was undecided first semester, and out of nowhere a lightbulb went off in my head. I have always been interested in justice and equality for people, also, I am curious about people and our differences. I wanted to know why we think the way we think and I want acceptance for women and all people. This major is very in the now, and is flexible. I know that I can't go wrong with studying gender and women's studies because it's very progressive.

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My major is very broad, and it is hard to pinpoint three leaders/most exciting people, but I can come up with a few prominent figures that I admire recently. 

Planned Parenthood- Planned Parenthood organization is a huge help to women all around the world, they advise and offer services for all things sexual health-related. I love what they stand for and think they have a huge impact in society for women and their rights. 

Emma Watson- She is more than a celebrity known for her movies, she is an open feminist and involved in many movements and speaks out for gender equality. She is also the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador since 2014, and serves as an advocate for the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign. I think she is well-respected, young, and very smart, which makes her a very powerful tool to spread awareness and change in society for women and all genders. 

Bernie Sanders- I think Bernie actively strives for women's rights; he speaks up about the gender wage gap, women's reproductive rights, and gender inequality. Running for president, he has caught much attention and is well-respected. He genuinely cares about equality in every sense of the word; for all races, genders, etc. 

Top Journals:

1. Gender & Society- a peer-reviewed academic journal, currently published by SAGE Publications in association with Sociologists for Women in Society.

2. Psychology of Women Quarterly- quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal, currently published by SAGE Publications.

3. Women's Health Issues- peer-reviewed, bimonthly, multidisciplinary journal, published by Jacobs Institute of Women's health.

4. Sex Roles- peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer

My Interviewees on Social Media

1. For this blog post, I will be reviewing the social media personas of my two interviewees. Patricia MacCorquodale is on linkedin and facebook. Monica J. Casper is on facebook, linkedin and youtube. 
   
   
   How would you describe each interviewee's social media presence? What kinds of things are they talking about or sharing on social media? Write a brief description of what you learned about them through the listed social media feeds.
   
   
   • MacCorquodale is not very public on social media, she has a few family photos on facebook, and her linkedin lists her credentials and research. She has some of her favorite quotes posted on facebook in her info about life/growth and experience. She also belongs to a book store group, UA Honors Student Council group, and mentions UA in her checkins and workplace. 
   • She has a professional social media presence, but also shares some personal things like family pictures and status'. 
   • Also, posts on her wall + quotes make it seem like she's very liberal, i.e. post about marriage equality and human rights.

   
   

   • Casper is very active on social media. On her facebook, I discovered where she writes by looking at the first post! (Don't need to ask that in our interview, I guess!) She is very family-oriented, into arts and crafts, books, photography, nature, publicly supports human rights/social movements (i.e. "black lives matter") and planned parenthood, likes elephants, cares about traveling and animals.. I can tell she is a very passionate person and writes as well as posts on issues that are important to her. 
   • Her youtube is TheFeministWire, for the feminist magazine she is managing editor of
   • Casper remains professional on her linkedin, and looks like she can change with the times, meaning she seems updated with her social media and in the know.
   
   
   
   
   MacCorquodale- Since she is not very active on social media sites, her persona remains professional. 
   Casper- The issues she writes about are the same, however, her language is different in her academic journals.
   
   

   

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My Interviewees as Professional Writers

I've done some research on my interviewees and they are all authors of books and essays that have been published in academic journals. I will provide more information about them as professional writers in the questions below for this post.

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Types of Professional Publications 

(according to their website, CV and/or other easily findable online resources that list their publications):

Patricia MacCorquodale:

Patricia has authored several essays and published books. She has been published in "Feminist Studies, Inc.," "IEEE Spectrum," "Social Science Journal," "State University of NY (SUNY) Press," and "Gender & Society." 

Monica Jasper:

Monica has written books and many essays pertaining to gender and women's issues. Publications that worked with her are Rutgers University Press, Routledge, NYU Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Metropolitics, "Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology," "Gender and Society," and "Women's Studies Quarterly."

Publications and Genres

MacCorquodale-

1. Women in the Law: Partners or Tokens? (Gender & Society, 1993)

2. Authority in Transformation (European Journal of Women's Studies, 1996)

The first example is a formal essay from "Gender & Society," and SAGE published it. The second example was also published by SAGE, but it's excerpted from the European Journal of Women's Studies. Both journals are formal and publish academic and scientific essays.  

Monica Jasper-

1. A Tale of Two Technologies: HPV Vaccination, Male Circumcision, and Sexual Health

2. Love in the Time of Racism

The first example is an essay that was apart of "Gender & Society's" December, 2009 issue. It was published online in "SAGE journals," a professional and academic publishing company. SAGE does not have a specific focus when it comes to the essays they publish. 

• The essay includes feminist science studies and research. This essay is formal and in a PDF, it reads like a research paper, and it also includes formal citations. 

The second example is an essay published in "Ada," an open-access peer-reviewed journal that focuses on gender, new media, and technology. Ada is preserved by the University of Oregon's "FemBot Collective," run by their School of Journalism and Communication. 

• The essay reads sort of like a QRG or blog post. There are pictures, it was formatted for the web/blog, and hyperlinks are used, rather than formal citations that are found in traditional published essays.

Context

(See the bulleted questions on Student's Guide page 180 for specific questions about context). Cite specific details from the pieces in your answers.

For Patricia:

What is the date of publication or delivery?

• "Women in the Law"- December 1993
• "Authority in Transformation"- May 1996

What medium is used to deliver the message? What "rules"or conventions are typical to the medium?

• Written text/essay. 

What contemporary events may have shaped the author's views and the audience's response?

What social and historical movements are related to the topic?

What are the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the primary and secondary audiences?

What are the physical and material surroundings of the event or text (i.e., the city where a speech is delivered or the magazine in which a text is published?)

What other texts (i.e., texts of the same genre, by the same author, written in the same time period, etc.) relate to your text? It is a reaction to these other texts?

For Monica:


What is the date of publication or delivery?

What medium is used to deliver the message? What "rules"or conventions are typical to the medium?

What contemporary events may have shaped the author's views and the audience's response?

What social and historical movements are related to the topic?

What are the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the primary and secondary audiences?

What are the physical and material surroundings of the event or text (i.e., the city where a speech is delivered or the magazine in which a text is published?)

What other texts (i.e., texts of the same genre, by the same author, written in the same time period, etc.) relate to your text? It is a reaction to these other texts?

Message

what's the message of each piece; How did you decide this? Cite specific details from the pieces in your answers.

Purpose

what purpose is each piece trying to achieve? Cite specific details from the pieces in your answers.