Monday Seminar:
Jacquelyn Arcy
UW System Fellow (2018-2019)
Communication, UW-Parkside
Much of the research on media convergence considers new media as a democratizing force or an exploitative system. But how do gendered assumptions affect the ways digital media platforms are developed for and used by women? In this seminar, I will discuss how online content is designed for the female-targeted cable networks Bravo, Lifetime, Oxygen, and WE, and show that digital participation is structured through the socially constructed skills of femininity. I argue that convergent media intensify gender inequalities by reinforcing the gender division of labor where women disproportionately provide emotional and domestic expertise.
Jacquelyn Arcy is an Assistant Professor of New Media in the Department of Communication. She has her Ph.D. in Critical Media Studies from the University of Minnesota, and her MA in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from the University of Cincinnati. Her areas of specialization are television studies, digital media and culture, media industries, and feminist media studies. Her research has been published in Feminist Media Studies, Celebrity Studies, Screen Journal, and Transformative Works and Cultures.