Living no girls' teenage dream : young motherhood in MTV's teen pregnancy franchise

textThis thesis explores theories of postfeminism and discourses of “can-do” and “at-risk” girlhood as they are enacted in MTV’s teen pregnancy franchise, which I define as including 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Teen Mom 2. Specifically, this project examines how MTV frames the young mothers featured across this franchise as what I label “postfeminist failures.” Within its teen pregnancy programming, MTV exploits the shortcomings of the featured teen mothers. These failures include broken relationships, prison sentences, and subsequent pregnancy scares and pregnancies. Furthermore, these failures all stem from the teen mothers’ initial failure to adequately manage her sexuality, as evidenced by getting pregnant at age sixteen. These failures constitute much of the plot of MTV’s docu-dramatic series and have also spilled over into paratexts related to MTV’s franchise. I contest in this thesis that the rhetoric of postfeminist failure, first articulated and exploited in 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Teen Mom 2, is then reproduced in the franchise’s paratextual materials. These paratexts range from reunion shows hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky to tabloid magazine coverage. I also interrogate the celebrity status of MTV’s featured teen mothers, especially those on Teen Mom and Teen Mom 2, and problematize publicity and fame rooted in the failure of these girls to adhere to normative standards of postfeminist womanhood. MTV’s teen pregnancy franchise is categorized as reality television, a genre derided by many scholars as lowbrow and devoid of substance. In order to combat these assumptions about reality television, particularly because this teen pregnancy franchise is promoted as educational for its audience, MTV has fostered strategic partnerships with The Kaiser Family Foundation’s “It’s Your (Sex) Life Campaign” and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Through these partnerships, MTV has infused its reality content with pathways to information-rich websites about contraceptives and pregnancy prevention sponsored by each non-profit. Through analyzing these partnerships and cultural discourses surrounding teen pregnancy, I question the assumption by many proponents and critics of the franchise that the content must either be educational for its viewers or purely entertaining programming.Radio-Television-Fil

Riskier Business: How Consumer Perceptions of Corporate Political Advocacy Have Evolved

Historically, companies have largely avoided taking sides on political issues due to their risky polarizing nature and focused their efforts on business operations and controlling what impacts the bottom line. However, in the past decade companies have increasingly taken very public stances on politically charged social issues, referred to as corporate political advocacy (CPA). With the increasingly polarized political nature of the population coupled with consumers’ desire for organizations to help drive social change, abstaining from CPA is becoming less of an option for organizations. The purpose of this research is to investigate how consumer perceptions of CPA have changed and which social issues have the strongest influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions. Using comparative analyses from two datasets collected nearly 10 years apart, we find that CPA has had an increasingly significant impact on consumer purchase decisions but mostly when an organization takes a stand on a social issue consumers care about. The data revealed that COVID-19 and healthcare are the most influential social issues currently impacting consumer perceptions

High-growth firms: introduction to the special section

High-growth firms (HGFs) have attracted considerable attention recently, as academics and policymakers have increasingly recognized the highly skewed nature of many metrics of firm performance. A small number of HGFs drives a disproportionately large amount of job creation, while the average firm has a limited impact on the economy. This article explores the reasons for this increased interest, summarizes the existing literature, and highlights the methodological considerations that constrain and bias research. This special section draws attention to the importance of HGFs for future industrial performance, explores their unusual growth trajectories and strategies, and highlights the lack of persistence of high growth. Consequently, while HGFs are important for understanding the economy and developing public policy, they are unlikely to be useful vehicles for public policy given the difficulties involved in predicting which firms will grow, the lack of persistence in high growth levels, and the complex and often indirect relationship between firm capability, high growth, and macro-economic performance

Developing a Normative Framework to Access Small-Firm Entry Strategies: A Resource-Based View

The decision to pursue growth opportunities is often complex and multidimensional. Small businesses pursuing these opportunities must consider many important criteria, such as resource requisites, timing and how to enter new markets. Unfortunately, there are not many systemic tools available to make these difficult decisions. One area of literature that may assist small businesses in deciding how to enter new markets is the resource-based view of a firm. The resource-based view of a firm complements current strategic management thought by refocusing efforts on the long-term accumulations of assets rather than short-term resource allocations. We synthesize concepts from the resource-based view with the literature on alternative entry strategies to develop a normative framework for small-business decision makers. Specifically, from the resource-based view, we consider: I) different types of distinctive competencies - tangible/intangible resources owned by a firm and capabilities/processes used by a firm; 2) the degree to which these distinctive competencies can be sustained given certain environmental attributes, such as ease of imitation, abilities of competitors and industry dynamism. The interrelationships between distinctive competence and environmental sustainability are then used to identify appropriate strategies to enter new markets

Stopping the UN’s Agenda 21 policy on sustainable development has become a rallying cry for the Tea Party across the U.S.

In recent years the United Nation’s Agenda 21 policy has become the rallying cry for many in the Tea Party who believe that the U.N. threatens American sovereignty. This concern led the introduction of anti-Agenda 21 legislation in 26 states in 2012 and 2013. Karen Trapenberg Frick, David Weinzimmer and Paul Waddell find that conservative states were more likely to see the introduction of anti-Agenda 21 legislation. They writes that the widespread outbreak of introducing legislation may indicate a longer-term situation whereby sustainability opposition becomes part of the state agenda with continued public discussion and media attention. In light of this, planning communities must consider new methods of public engagement that encourages genuine dialogue

Moral Distress in Critical Care Nursing: The State of the Science

Background: Moral distress is a complex phenomenon frequently experienced by critical care nurses. Ethical conflicts in this practice area are related to technological advancement, high intensity work environments, and end-of-life decisions. Objectives: An exploration of contemporary moral distress literature was undertaken to determine measurement, contributing factors, impact, and interventions. Review Methods: This state of the science review focused on moral distress research in critical care nursing from 2009 to 2015, and included 12 qualitative, 24 quantitative, and 6 mixed methods studies. Results: Synthesis of the scientific literature revealed inconsistencies in measurement, conflicting findings of moral distress and nurse demographics, problems with the professional practice environment, difficulties with communication during end-of-life decisions, compromised nursing care as a consequence of moral distress, and few effective interventions. Conclusion: Providing compassionate care is a professional nursing value and an inability to meet this goal due to moral distress may have devastating effects on care quality. Further study of patient and family outcomes related to nurse moral distress is recommended

Psychometric properties of the revised children’s anxiety and depression scale (RCADS) for autistic youth without co-occurring intellectual disability

Autistic youth often present with comorbid anxiety and depression yet there is a dearth of validated assessment tools. The Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) assesses internalizing symptoms but there is little psychometric data in autistic youth. Treatment-seeking autistic youth with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive symptoms (N = 74; age 6–14 years), and caregivers, were administered the RCADS-Parent, RCADS-Child, and assessments of internalizing, externalizing symptoms and social impairment indicative of autism. RCADS-Parent and RCADS-Child total anxiety scores demonstrated excellent internal consistency, and the six subscales demonstrated acceptable-to-good internal consistency. The RCADS-Child and Parent total anxiety scores were weakly correlated, and neither child age nor gender altered the strength of this association. Convergent validity was supported by moderate-to-strong correlations with clinician and parent-reported anxiety symptoms. Support for divergent validity was mixed. Results provide support for the RCADS-Parent and RCADS-Child as reliable, valid measures of internalizing symptoms in autistic youth

Effect of traffic noise on perceived visual impact of motorway traffic

Visual impact is one of the major environmental impacts of motorways and requires adequate assessment. This study investigated the effect of traffic noise on the perceived visual impact of motorway traffic by comparing impact with sound to impact without sound. Computer visualisation and edited audio recordings were used to simulate different traffic and landscape scenarios, varying in four traffic conditions, two types of landscape, and three viewing distances. Subjective visual judgments on the simulated scenes with and without sound were obtained in a laboratory experiment. The results show that motorway traffic induced significant visual impact. In both sound conditions, increases in traffic volume led to higher visual impact and changes in traffic composition changed the impact significantly when traffic flow was low. Visual impact was significantly higher in the natural landscape and the increment was largely constant and independent from the effect of traffic condition in both sound conditions. The effect of viewing distance was also significant and there was a rapid-to-gentle decrease of visual impact by distance both with and without sound, but the decrease with sound was less rapid and the decrease pattern less clear. Overall, introduction of traffic noise increased the visual impact by a largely constant level which did not show clear dependence with noise level, traffic condition, landscape type, or viewing distance, although there was a possible effect of viewing distance on the increase. It suggests that the additional impact caused by traffic noise should be considered in visual impact assessment of motorway projects