Student Research

Retro televisions
The following master's theses have been completed by students in the MA in Media Studies program to date.

( Note: hyperlinks are included for theses that were submitted to Scholarship@Western and are now available through Western's Electronic Theses & Dissertation Repository. Those without hyperlinks are not currently available through the e-repository).

Titles

Jenkins, Amanda. Instagram Influencers and their Youngest Female Followers.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2022
Supervisor: Tom Streeter
Mirzazadeh, Farzan. A descriptive analysis of sport nationalism, digital media, and fandom to launch the Canadian Premier League.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2022
Supervisor: Daniel Robinson
Warlow, Aidan Joseph. Radiant Dreams and Nuclear Nightmares: Japanese Resistance Narratives and American Intervention in Postwar Speculative Popular Culture.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, February 2022
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Schroeder, Ryan. Dead Men Walking: An Analysis of Working-Class Masculinity in Post-2008 Hollywood Film.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2019
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Logie, Alyssa Erin. Trauma, Creativity, And Bearing Witness Through Art: Marian Kołodziej's Labyrinth.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2019
Supervisor: Amanda F. Grzyb
Panneton, Charlotte. Appropriating Play: Examining Twitch.tv as a Commercial Platform.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2019
Supervisor: Alison Hearn
Gibson, Lydia Joy. Unwrapping the Toronto Christmas Market: An Examination of Tradition and Nostalgia in a Socially Constructed Space.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, May 2019
Supervisor: Sandra Smeltzer
Shi, Kelly (Yinuo). Glocalization in China: An Analysis of Coca-Cola’s Brand Co-Creation Process with Consumers in China.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, May 2019
Supervisor: Alison Hearn
Allison, Kristen Leslie. Resistant Vulnerability in The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Captain America.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, February 2019
Supervisor: Susan Knabe
Del Pino, Alan. The Representation of the Canadian Government's Warrantless Domestic Collection of Metadata in the Canadian Print News Media.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, October 2017
Supervisors: Jacquie Burkell and Pam McKenzie
Rashid, Shahad. Mapping the Arab Diaspora: Examining Placelessness and Memory in Arab Art.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, October 2017
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Griffin, Darcy. (Not) One of the Boys: A Case Study of Female Detectives on HBO.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2017
Supervisor: Susan Knabe
Pieber, Darryl A. A Place for Locative Media: A Theoretical Framework for Assessing Locative Media Use in Urban Environments.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2017
Supervisor: Anabel Quan-Haase
Fanning, Jessica. Shifting Temporalities: The Construction of Flexible Subjectivities through Part-Time Retail Workers' Use of Smartphone Technology.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, October 2016
Supervisor: Sarah T Roberts
Campbell, Jaime. Law and Abuse: Representations of Intimate Partner Homicide in Law Procedural Dramas.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2016
Supervisor: Sasha Torres
Britten, Charlotte. Finding Your Way: Navigating Online News and Opinions.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2016
Supervisor: Jacquie Burkell
Ritter, Stephanie L. Heating Up the Debate: E-cigarettes and Instagram.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, December 2015
Supervisor: Daniel Robinson
Leclerc, Roberto. Satirical News and Political Subversiveness: A Critical Approach to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2015
Supervisor: James Compton
Colbeck, Kristen. Navigating the Social Landscape: An Exploration of Social Networking Site Usage among Emerging Adults.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2015
Supervisor: Anabel Quan-Haase
Madrenas, Clara. Media Literacy and the English as a Second Language Curriculum: A Curricular Critique & Dreams for the Future.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, November 2014
Supervisor: Amanda F. Grzyb
Bayer, Alanna. Evangelizing the "Gallery Of the Future”: A Critical Analysis of the Google Art Project Narrative and its Political, Cultural and Technological Contradictions.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2014
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Spence, Jennifer. Labours Of Love: Fan Labour, Cultural Products, and the Monetization of Fandom.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2014
Supervisor: Susan Knabe
Eisner-Levine, Amy. Man Versus Food: An Analysis of ‘Dude Food’ Television and Public Health.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2014
Supervisor: Daniel Robinson
Almon, Trevor. The Imaginary Life of Revolt: Alienation, Nostalgia, and the Digital Mediation of the Radical Subject.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2014
Supervisor: Alison Hearn
Devlin, Matt. Cultivating Better Brains: Transhumanism and its Critics on the Ethics of Cognitive Enhancement Via Brain-Computer Interfacing.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2014
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Macklem, Lisa. We're on This Road Together: The Changing Fan/Producer Relationship in Television as Demonstrated by Supernatural.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, December 2013
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Elias, Gabe. Manufacturing Legitimacy: A Critical Theory of Election News Coverage.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, October 2013
Supervisor: James Compton
Chiang, Sam. Anonymous: Exploring Polemics and Non-Identity.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2013
Supervisor: Nick Dyer-Witheford
Morgan, Danielle. Money, Morals, and Human Rights: Commercial Influences in the Marketing, Branding, and Fundraising of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2013
Supervisor: Daniel Robinson
Blazevic, Charles. Distinguishing the “Vanguard” from the “Insipid”: Exploring the Valorization of Mainstream Popular Music in Online Indie Music Criticism.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2013
Supervisor: Matt Stahl
Rotstein, Cari. Online Social Breast-Working: Representations of Breast Milk Sharing in the 21st Century.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, December 2012
Supervisors: Pam McKenzie and Romayne Smith Fullerton
Viteo, Kayley. Day of the Woman?: Feminism and Rape-Revenge Films.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, December 2012
Supervisor: Alison Hearn
Butosi, Craig. Social Net-working: Exploring the Political Economy of the Online Social Network Industry.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2012
Supervisor: Samuel E. Trosow
Baxter, Sarah. Watching High School: Representing Disempowerment on Teen Drama Television.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2012
Supervisor: Paulette Rothbauer
Lukacs, Veronika. It's Complicated: Romantic Breakups and Their Aftermath on Facebook.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2012
Supervisor: Anabel Quan-Haase
Phippard, Trisha Marie. The (m)Health Connection: An Examination of the Promise of Mobile Phones for HIV/AIDS Intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2012
Supervisor: Sandra Smeltzer
Raymond, Justin. Born Again Hard: Transgender Subjectivity in Paul Chadwick's Concrete.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2012
Supervisor: Susan Knabe
Harvey, Daniel. The Invisible Genocide: An Analysis of ABC, CBS, and NBC Television News Coverage of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, February 2012
Supervisor: Amanda F. Grzyb
Lai, Jessica. A Frame Analysis of NGO Literature on Internet Censorship in China: The Case of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, November 2011
Supervisor: Sandra Smeltzer
McGuigan, Lee. Commodity Audience,Commodity Everything: Interrogating T-Commerce in the United States Cable Industry.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2011
Supervisor: Edward Comor
Armstrong, Breanne. Watching You, Watching Me: Representations of Female Fans and Fan Communities in Academia, News Media and Popular Culture.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2011
Supervisor: Susan Knabe
Martin, Channelle. A Black Girl Named After a Plantation: The Case of Tara Thornton and Ironic Racism in Alan Ball’s True Blood.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2011
Supervisor: Sasha Torres
Hiltz, Emily. A Force of Nature: The Maternal Appetite of Good and Evil Women in "Snow White," "Hansel and Gretel," and "Rapunzel.".
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2011
Supervisor: Romayne Smith Fullerton
Hunt, Daryl. Terror Out of Context: Jacques Ellul's Technique Applied to National Security Problems from the Red Scare to 9/11.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, October 2010
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Kjosen, Atle Mikkola. An accident of value: A Marxist - Virilian analysis of digital piracy.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2010
Supervisor: Bernd Frohmann
Afsahi, Nazgol. A Discourse Analysis of Transsexuality Through Three Fields: Expert Knowledges in Legal, Medical and News Texts.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2010
Supervisor: Amanda F. Grzyb
McGeagh, Brendan. From Canada For the World: National Myth and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2010
Supervisor: Sharon Sliwinski
Pedri, Jennesia. The limitations of fidelity in the novel-film adaptation of Peter Pan, Where the Wild Things Are, Alice in Wonderland, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Twilight Saga.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2010
Supervisor: Lynne McKechnie
Wheal, Stacey. What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks?: Exploring Literacy Discourse via 'Net Gen' Adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2010
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Rogers, James. Killer Vacations' and 'Murder Music: The Discourses of Gay Identity, Consumerism, and Race in the Gay-Dancehall Confrontation.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, May 2010
Supervisor: Susan Knabe
Pirie, Maeghan. Collaborating Dialogues: Filmmaking Practices of Barb Cranmer, Shelley Niro, and Alanis Obomsawin.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2010
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Preston, Melanie. Situating the Stage, Playing the Field: The Politics of Location in Leaky Heaven's Ziggurat.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2010
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Cornell, Kerstin. The Antioch Debacle: A Corporatist Misadventure in Higher Education.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, December 2009
Supervisor: Sasha Torres
Cohen, Dustin. Objet Petit (a)vatar: Psychoanalysis, Posthumanism and the Question of the Self in Second Life Student.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, November 2009
Supervisors: Alison Hearn and Sharon Sliwinski
Nelson, Craig Harris. Adult Swim: Reflexivity as an Entertainment Television Brand.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2009
Supervisor: Amanda F. Grzyb
Carrocci, Lindsay. Representing the Promotional University: Undergraduate Student Recruitment Strategies in Ontario, 1997-2007.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2009
Supervisor: Daniel Robinson
Gladstone, Lia. Locating the 'Act' in Activist Art: Exploring the Pedagogical Possibilities of 'My Life in 5 Minutes' For Feminist Students.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2009
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Murray, Cameron. Multiform Narratives in the Heterotopic Space of Technoscience: A Critical Instance Case Study of a Western Canadian Genomics Research Facility.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2009
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Luedecke, Patricia. The Guilded Goddess at the Gate: Idyllic Industry, Blooming Myths and Cybersilence in the Garden.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2008
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Noon, Derek Robert. Machines for Living: The Situationist International and Videogames.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2008
Supervisor: Nick Dyer-Witheford
Schmalz, Michael. The Not-So-Long Tail of Digital Play.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2008
Supervisor: Nick Dyer-Witheford
Williams, Sherilyn. Crafting Resistance: Handmade Culture as Third-Wave Feminist Response to Consumerism.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2008
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Young, Alyson. Defacing the 'Book: Examining Information Revelation, Internet Privacy Concerns and Privacy Protection in Facebook.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2008
Supervisor: Anabel Quan-Haase
Black, Toban. Hypermodern Ecological Degradation: An Innisian Critique.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2008
Supervisor: Robert E. Babe
Preston, Jeffrey Michael. Augmented Ability, Integrated Identity: Understanding Disability, Adaptive Technology and the Construction of Identity.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2008
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Svec, Henry Adam. The World Can’t Tell You How You Are: The Actors’ Studio, Inside the Actors Studio, and the Performance of Being.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2008
Supervisor: Alison Hearn
Arntfield, Michael. Version 5.0: A Genealogy of Technological Determinism in Modern Law Enforcement & the Rise of the Television Police Drama.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2007
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Kish, Zenia. In the Eye of Hurricane Katrina: How a Media Storm Brought America’s Third World into Public View.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2007
Supervisor: Sasha Torres
Pietrzyk, Kamila. Exit from the Myopic Impasse: Social Movement Strategy in the Age of the Internet.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2007
Supervisor: Edward Comor
Cruz, Trent. Gaming the Good War: Playing World War II Video Games in the Shadow of the War on Terror.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2007
Supervisor: Nick Dyer-Witheford
Zomer, Arielle. Tuning Into CFPL: The Role of CFPL-AM and CFPL-FM Radio Stations in Building and Maintaining a Local Community Identity in London, Ontario 1922-2007.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2007
Supervisor: David Spencer
Timmins, Rachel. Crisis, Collapse, Creation: A Virilian Examination of Technological Penetration and Its Effect on Identity.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, June 2007
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Armstrong, Matthew. Is Terrorism Dialogue?.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2007
Supervisor: Sasha Torres
Dick, Maren. Cross-media Youth Programming, Critical Pedagogy and the Case of RENEGADEPRESS.COM.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2007
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Shepherd, Tamara. Identity, Embodiment and Subversion in Pro-Anorexia Weblogs.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2007
Supervisor: Alison Hearn
Swain, Stephen. Mediated Heroism: A Discourse Analysis of the Hero Image of Pat Tillman.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2007
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Ward, Kadie. The Creative City and the Creative Class(es): How they restructure the local in the city of London, Ontario.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2007
Supervisors: Tim Blackmore and Joy Parr
Elias, Rebecca. Democratic Illusions: Mythic Heroism and National Fantasy in Post-9/11 Superhero Films.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, December 2006
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Arbour, Joe. Bring Us Back to the Future, Not Forward to the Past: The Modernist Sensibilities and Postmodern Anxieties of Exclaim! Magazine.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, November 2006
Supervisor: Keir Keightley
Jacques, Alison. The Pretty Accused: Evelyn Dick in the Press and Popular Culture, 1946-2006.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2006
Supervisor: Daniel Robinson
Manzerolle, Vincent. The Consumer Database, Consumer Sovereignty, and the Commercial Mediation of Identity in the United States.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2006
Supervisor: Edward Comor
Schach, Emily. Icon of Consumption: The Cosmo Girl and the Commodification of Femininity, 1965-1975.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2006
Supervisors: Alison Hearn and Daniel Robinson
Song, Melody (Chang). Editing Culture: Chinese-Made Movies' Exoticization of Chineseness.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2006
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Micheti, Anca. Epidemics and their Meanings: Representations of SARS in Canadian Newspapers.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, July 2006
Supervisor: Jacquie Burkell
Harris, Rhea. America in the End Zone: Football, Nationalism, and the New England Patriots.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2006
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Kudirka, David. Shooter: Character in Video Games.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, April 2006
Supervisor: Nick Dyer-Witheford
Carr, Ryan. Insubstantial Life: Theoretical Conversations on Media and their Role in Determining (?) Culture.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2005
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Papayanis, Alena. Soldiering for President: John Kerry’s Vietnam Veteran Campaign in the Age of the Iraqi Frontier.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2005
Supervisor: Tim Blackmore
Wong, Anna. Representation of the Self in Online Chat Rooms: Identity Play.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2005
Supervisors: Jacquie Burkell and Catherine L. Ross
van der Veen, Jon. Information and the Mind-Matter Divide: Unpacking the Works of Gregory Bateson and Kenneth Boulding.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, May 2005
Supervisor: Robert E. Babe
Zeffiro, Andrea. Ready-to-Where?: The Cultural Politics of the Runway Space.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, November 2004
Supervisor: Carole Farber
Kerr, Kate. Living to die': The Culture of Hip Hop Death.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2004
Supervisor: Sasha Torres
Solursh, Catherine. Claiming our Groove: Female Club DJs and an Exploration of Gender and Technology.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2004
Supervisors: Carole Farber and Keir Keightley
West, Peter. Perceptions of 'Anonymity' Online: Exploring the Concept of Anonymity in an Online Context from the Perspective of the Individual Experiencing It.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, September 2004
Supervisor: Jacquie Burkell
Adams, Kristin. Melodrama as an Educational Tool: Children’s Television and the Case of Degrassi Junior High.
Master of Arts in Media Studies, August 2004
Supervisor: Sasha Torres