Departmental Papers (ASC) Copyright (c) 2012 University of Pennsylvania All rights reserved. http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers Recent documents in Departmental Papers (ASC) en-us Sun, 15 Jan 2012 01:40:00 PST 3600 Review of "Transgender History" and "Transpeople: Repudiation, Trauma, Healing." http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/281 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/281 Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:47:01 PST C. Riley Snorton The Pyramid Scheme: Visual Metaphors and the USDA’s Pyramid Food Guides http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/280 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/280 Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:43:57 PST In 1991 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the creation of the Eating Right Pyramid, an icon designed to illustrate the federal government’s recommendations for a healthy diet. Even before its release, the Pyramid was a source of controversy; nutritionists and public health officials criticized the project as an exercise in jurisdictional malfeasance, while beef and dairy farmers complained that the new diet deemphasized the nutritional benefits of their products. The greatest source of conflict, however, did not derive from the information the guide displayed, but from the way in which that information was presented...

]]> Alison Perelman An Ethnographic Filmflam: Giving Gifts, Doing Research, and Videotaping the Native Subject/Object http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/279 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/279 Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:06:03 PST Using the discussion of self-reflexivity as an organizing principle, this article examines how mobilizing digital video technology during fieldwork opens up empirical and theoretical space for reconceptualizing the relationship between anthropologists and informants. Placing the field of visual anthropology into critical conversation with long-standing theoretical arguments about the objectivist limitations of native anthropologists, I argue that the slipperiness of nativity as an anthropological designation helps to provide analytical tools for examining filmmaking as a kind of gift-giving process between native ethnographic filmmakers and the subjects of their films. This article highlights some of the ways in which my own filmic and videographic exploits in Harlem, New York, mark integral connections between seeing and being the proverbial other, probing social exchanges predicated on the usefulness of low-budget digital technology as a means of fostering politically and epistemologically valuable ethnographic collaborations.

]]> John L. Jackson Jr Agreement and Information in the Reliability of Coding http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/278 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/278 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:29:08 PDT Coefficients that assess the reliability of data making processes – coding text, transcribing interviews, or categorizing observations into analyzable terms – are mostly conceptualized in terms of the agreement a set of coders, observers, judges, or measuring instruments exhibit. When variation is low, reliability coefficients reveal their dependency on an often neglected phenomenon, the amount of information that reliability data provide about the reliability of the coding process or the data it generates. This paper explores the concept of reliability, simple agreement, four conceptions of chance to correct that agreement, sources of information deficiency, and develops two measures of information about reliability, akin to the power of a statistical test, intended as a companion to traditional reliability coefficients, especially Krippendorff‟s (2004, pp. 221-250; Hayes & Krippendorff, 2007) alpha.

]]> Klaus Krippendorff Will Ignorance & Partisan Election of Judges Undermine Public Trust in the Judiciary? http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/277 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/277 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:02:52 PDT Kathleen Hall Jamieson et al. Models and Metaphors of Communication http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/276 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/276 Thu, 26 May 2011 09:26:09 PDT Klaus Krippendorff On the Ethics of Constructing Communication http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/275 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/275 Thu, 26 May 2011 09:26:06 PDT Klaus Krippendorff Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English: A Comparative Institutional Analysis http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/274 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/274 Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:06:06 PDT Marwan M. Kraidy On Generating Data in Communication Research http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/273 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/273 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:17:20 PDT Communication research requires data that are rich enough to contain explicit evidence about processes of communication. The paper fonnally distinguishes among and discusses three kinds of data: aggregational data (such as accumulated in much of psychological inquiries, small group experiments and survey research) and network data (representing observable patterns of interest to relational biology and sociology, for example) are found to be not rich enough to qualify as communication data proper.

The paper describes an elementary form of communication data that would contain explicit evidence about the process in question. It exposes some conceptual degenerations in communication research as a consequence of heavy reliance on inadequate data. Pointing to the fact that the advancement of knowledge is critically linked to the ability to process a certain kind of data, the paper concludes that communication research must develop new analytical techniques that are compatible with its most basic concept: communication.

]]> Klaus Krippendorff Theorizing Diffusion: Tarde and Sorokin Revisited http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/272 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/272 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:55:07 PDT This article is a call for volunteers to stand on the shoulders of Gabriel Tarde and Pitirim Sorokin, who dared to theorize the process of diffusion over a wide variety of disciplines. While all of the social sciences and humanities regularly produce case studies of diffusion, theorizing seems paralyzed. This paralysis stems from the ostensible incommensurability of diffusing items; their refusal to hold still in transit; the complexity of their interactions with the cultures, social structures, and media systems in which potential adopters are embedded; the difficulty of reconciling voluntary action and external imposition; and the lack of a disciplinary home.

]]> Elihu Katz The Two-Step Flow of Communication: An Up-To-Date Report on an Hypothesis http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/271 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/271 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:54:55 PDT The hypothesis that "ideas often flow from radio and print to opinion leaders and from these to the less active sections of the population" has been tested in several successive studies. Each study has attempted a different solution to the problem of how to take account of interpersonal relations in the traditional design of survey research. As a result, the original hypothesis is largely corroborated and considerably refined.


A former staff member of the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University, the author is now on leave from his post as assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and is currently guest lecturer in sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

]]> Elihu Katz Rediscovering Gabriel Tarde http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/270 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/270 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:54:41 PDT Gabriel Tarde (l843–1904) is thought to have “lost” his debates with Durkheim by insisting that sociology ought to occupy itself with observable interpersonal processes. Given contemporary interest in such processes—much abetted by the computer—Tarde’s reputation is being rehabilitated. Terry Clark (1969) was first to notice that Tarde (1898) had anticipated Lazarzfeld’s two-step flow of communication. Tarde’s work has bearing on social networks, interpersonal influence, diffusion of innovation, and the aggregation of public opinion.

]]> Elihu Katz Further Notes on Why American Sociology Abandoned Mass Communication Research http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/269 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/269 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:54:02 PDT Communication research seems to be flourishing, as evident in the number of universities offering degrees in communication, number of students enrolled, number of journals, and so on. The field is interdisciplinary and embraces various combinations of former schools of journalism, schools of speech (Midwest for ‘‘rhetoric’’), and programs in sociology and political science. The field is linked to law, to schools of business and health, to cinema studies, and, increasingly, to humanistically oriented programs of so-called cultural studies. All this, in spite of having been prematurely pronounced dead, or bankrupt, by some of its founders. Sociologists once occupied a prominent place in the study of communication— both in pioneering departments of sociology and as founding members of the interdisciplinary teams that constituted departments and schools of communication. In the intervening years, we daresay that media research has attracted rather little attention in mainstream sociology and, as for departments of communication, a generation of scholars brought up on interdisciplinarity has lost touch with the disciplines from which their teachers were recruited. The object of this speculative article is to reflect on why mainstream sociology in the United States may be said to have abandoned media research early on in spite of the centrality it occupied in the pioneering departments.

]]> Jefferson Pooley et al. Patterns of Involvement in Television Fiction: A Comparative Analysis http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/268 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/268 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:53:50 PDT This article analyses discussions of an episode of Dallas by focus groups of different ethnic origins in Israel and the United States. It identifies four rhetorical mechanisms by which viewers may 'involve' themselves in or 'distance' themselves from the story: referential v. critical framings; real v .play keyings; collective' or universal v. personal referents; and normative v. value-free evaluations. Use of these mechanisms varied across the groups, and when the cultures were arrayed along a multidimensional involvement scale overseas viewers appeared to be more involved in the programme than Americans. Possible roles for involvement in the process of viewer susceptibility to programme messages are then discussed.

]]> Tamar Liebes et al. On the Use of the Mass Media for Important Things http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/267 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/267 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:53:29 PDT The mass media are ranked with respect to their perceived helpfulness in satisfying clusters of needs arising from social roles and individual dispositions. For example, integration into the sociopolitical order is best served by newspaper; while "knowing oneself" is best served by books. Cinema and books are more helpful as means of "escape" than is television. Primary relations, holidays and other cultural activities are often more important than the mass media in satisfying needs.


Television is the least specialized medium, serving many different personal and political needs. The "interchangeability" of the media over a variety of functions orders televisions, radio, newspapers, books, and cinema in a circumplex. We speculate about which attributes of the media explain the social and psychological needs they serve best. The data, drawn from an Israeli survey, are presented as a basis for cross-cultural comparison.

]]> Elihu Katz et al. On Commuting Between Television Fiction and Real Life http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/266 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/266 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:53:18 PDT Elihu Katz et al. Of Mutual Interest http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/265 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/265 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:53:06 PDT Elihu Katz Notes on The Unit of Adoption in Diffusion Research http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/264 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/264 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:52:29 PDT In thinking about the diffusion of innovation, one tends to overlook the obvious fact that not all innovations are adopted by, or are intended to be adopted by, individuals. In the first place, different sorts of innovations may "require" different units of adoption- for example, "it takes two to tango." In the second place, different cultural or situational norms may "prescribe" different units of adoption for an innovation. Most empirical research on diffusion has focused exclusively on the individual as the unit of adoption. This is because the innovations that have attracted modern sociologists have tended to be appropriate for individual adopters. Still, it is altogether obvious that certain recommended contraceptive practices, for example, "require" joint adoption by husband and wife or that middle-class culture "prescribes" a family decision concerning the purchase of a new car. Focusing only on the individual in such cases is misleading if one is to understand the diffusion process completely. Here there is something to be learned from anthropological students of diffusion who often treat the tribe or the group as the unit of adoption even for such ostensibly (to us) individualistic innovations as Christianity in cases where the decision of the chief or the elders is binding upon all. Moreover, many of the innovations in our society are adopted not by individuals or even by families but by organizations. The city-manager idea and the kindergarten were adopted by cities and by school boards respectively; automation is adopted by factories.2 This paper proceeds on the assumption that it is worth exploring the process of innovation front the point of view of the social units which adopt them. As a beginning, let us assume that there are three distinguishable units: individuals, informal groups or collectivities, and formal organizations of all kinds. Innovations can then be classified in terms of the extent to which they "require" one or another type of unit. Culture and subcultures can be classified in terms of their preference among the types of unit for given kinds of innovation.

]]> Elihu Katz Media Events: The Sense of Occasion http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/263 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/263 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:52:16 PDT Elihu Katz Staging Peace: Televised Ceremonies of Reconciliation http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/262 http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/262 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:52:07 PDT The visit of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem was the model for Dayan and Katz's conceptualization of the genre of media events, as live programs which have the power to transform history. Fifteen years later, a series of televised reconciliation ceremonies, which marked the stages of the peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors (the Palestinians and the Jordanians), are used to re-examine the model. We demonstrate (1) how the effectiveness of these ceremonies depends on the type of contract among the three participants-leaders, broadcasters and public-each of whom displays different kinds of reservations, and (2) how the aura of the ceremonies draws on the prior status of the participants (Hussein), but also confers status (Arafat).

]]> Tamar Liebes et al.