Graduate Studies

 

First Advisor

Kristen Hoerl

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Communication Studies

Date of this Version

5-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Citation

A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate College of the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Major: Communication Studies

Under the supervision of Professor Kristen Hoerl

Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2024

Comments

Copyright 2024, Dakota J. Sandras. Used by permission

Abstract

In this dissertation, I observe how white allyship has been (re)constructed in media by analyzing its representations on mainstream television amidst peak moments of racial reckoning in the United States. In light of heightened demands for antiracist solidarity, I interrogate how such popular texts contribute to gaps between the theory and practice of allyship within the white imaginary. By attending to episodic samples from three distinct genres of American television, I dissect how various interactions and characters coded to signify white allyship rhetorically function to create meaning regarding its contested im/possibilities in both media and in the real world. In the process, I have found that the most explicit portrayals of white allyship on both scripted and reality-based programs are conspicuously articulated through hyper-individualized narratives of failure which are imbued with embodied senses of cringe, fear, and shame. While these affective representations can productively, albeit inadvertently, endorse the need for racial solidarity and coalition-building, I argue they ultimately immobilize viewers by emphasizing futility over possibility. In this way, popular television highlights rather than disrupts limitations of the white imaginary, thereby undermining its own potential to offer more generative visions of what relational, collective antiracist work might entail.

Advisor: Kristen Hoerl

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