The Portrayal of Powerful Women in the Media

The purpose of this research is to investigate the portrayal of powerful women in the media and to gain a perspective of different ways the media tend to elaborate and focus on gender issues to a greater extent than the general public may think. I intend to demonstrate that powerful women are often portrayed unfairly in the media and that this could affect the progress they make in their careers. I hypothesize that although women are making strides in the right direction, the often negative portrayal of powerful women in the media can be unwarranted and lead to the unfair perception of women in powerful positions. First, I address background information that includes the progress professional and influential women have made in corporate America. I then discuss how many of these advancements, although they are a start, are not as substantial as they should be in the twenty-first century. Next, I investigate the possibility that the media might hinder women’s abilities to move up into positions of power due the influence that the media have on our perceptions and behaviors. To demonstrate that the media do in fact focus on gender issues when portraying powerful women, I investigated how the media portrayed three specific women in power. I chose to examine media portrayals of Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Katie Couric, anchor of CBS Evening News, and Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. By concentrating not only on women in corporate America, but also on a woman in the world of journalism, and one in the political world, I was able to gain a perspective on whether unfair media portrayals of women in corporations are parallel in their portrayals of influential women in general

Talking the Talk: The Effect of Vocalics in an Interview

Our voices carry more than just content. People continuously make assumptions of one’s intelligence, credibility, personality, and other characteristics merely based on the way we talk. As the diversity of individuals in the workplace increases, so too do the differences in how those individuals talk. It is important that we understand how these different ways of speaking are being perceived in the workplace. More specifically, how are individuals being perceived prior to being hired via the interview process? This Honors Capstone project aims to understand the impact that vocal characteristics in an individual have on the interviewer’s perception of the interviewee, and how that impacts the hiring process. This project will offer professionals of all ages tangible advice on ways to increase one’s chances of receiving a job just by altering aspects of one’s voice

Freedom Forum President to Speak at Liberty Series Capstone Event

Ken Paulson will be the keynote speaker for Winthrop\u27s Liberty Tree Series capstone event Nov. 10. Paulson is president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum, Newseum and Diversity Institute

Efficacy in noise of the Starkey Surflink Mobile 2 technology in directional versus omnidirectional microphone mode with experienced adult hearing aid users

The Starkey SurfLink Mobile 2 is a remote microphone accessory. Starkey claims that by placing the SurfLink’s internal microphone in the directional microphone setting, the participant will hear better in noise over the omnidirectional setting. This study aims to test the thisthe claim about the devic

Evaluation of team dynamic in Norwegian projects for IT students

The need for teaching realistic software development in project courses has increased in a global scale. It has always been challenges in cooperating fast-changing software technologies, development methodologies and teamwork. Moreover, such project courses need to be designed in the connection to existing theoretical courses. We performed a large-scale research on student performance in Software Engineering projects in Norwegian universities. This paper investigates four aspects of team dynamics, which are team reflection, leadership, decision making and task assignment in order to improve student learning. Data was collected from student projects in 4 years at two universities. We found that some leader's characteristics are perceived differently for female and male leaders, including the perception of leaders as skilful workers or visionaries. Leadership is still a challenging aspect to teach, and assigned leadership is probably not the best way to learn. Students is are performing well in task review, however, needs support while performing task assignment. The result also suggests that task management to be done in more fine-grained levels. It is also important to maintain an open and active discussion to facilitate effective group decision makings

Rhetorical Democracy: An Examination of the Presidential Inaugural Addresses

Despite the fact that there is nothing in the Constitution requiring it, nor prescribed by any other federal law, the President\u27s delivery of an inaugural address has become a de facto requirement of the official Presidential inauguration. The Presidential inaugural address is an anticipated feature of all inaugural ceremonies because it is where the newly elected president outlines, among other things, his perspective on the manner, conduct and overall form of the American government. Within this outline, the rhetoric utilized by the President during inaugural addresses shapes the way in which the American people understand our system of government on both a theoretical and functional level. This research examines the utilization of the term “democracy” in presidential inaugural speeches as a rhetorical device and the impacts of this terminology upon conceptions of American governance. This rhetorical analysis provides a lens to view the changing dynamics of American political thought

Does Twitter Create Similar Patterns of Positivity/Negativity as Face-to-Face Word-of-Mouth?

Word-of-mouth communication is important to organizations because it is a free form of advertising and has been shown to be influential on consumers’ purchasing decisions. Marketers of course, would like WOM to be positive and thus increase brand reputation and sales. In the past decade, new forms of communication have created different channels for WOM to travel through. Current social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter allow one person to send a message to many almost instantaneously. This study’s objective is to examine the WOM on the networking site Twitter. Previous research has indentified the relative incidence rates of both positive and negative recommendations for face-to-face WOM, but the anonymity of Twitter may result in different rates. Looking at recent box office movies, over 2,000 posts, commonly called “tweets” were collected to examine the valence. The results were unexpected. Every movie examined, despite how critics reviewed them, received overwhelmingly positive results, with the average close to a 9 to 1 ratio

Key Factors for Reaching the Top of the Corporate Ladder

The purpose of this study is to in a succinct manner provide a clear delineation of key factors and primary points for increasing the likelihood of success and upward mobility in corporate America. Numerous facets of the personal and professional lives of corporate executives have been documented, studied, and debated. From the autobiographies of successful individuals such as Jack Welch’s “Winning” to analysis of the widely criticized executives, such as Home Depot’s former CEO Bob Nardelli, the lives of these high ranking corporate managers have been extensively scrutinized. However, despite the numerous studies, and with the study of any behavioral science holding the potential to return an innumerable amount of outcomes, it is obvious that portions of this field lend themselves to further analysis. Since the beginning of my working career, my interest has always centered on upper level management. From wondering how much the store manager at my first job got paid, to pondering the strategic moves of today’s Fortune 500 CEOs, my focus has been on the people driving organizations. Coupling this with my goal to one day attain an executive position, my recent curiosity has turned to how to best position myself to be considered for an executive level management position in the future. To do so, the most effective means appeared to be to interview senior level managers and executives within local companies and see what their experience and success has taught them and more importantly, what information they can pass on to a individual looking to one day earn a similar position