Browsing by Author "Ozog, Cassandra Anne"

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Open Access
"Call him what he is—a cannibal killer": Representations of mental illness in Canadian news and social media through a case study of the Greyhound bus attack
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-10) Ozog, Cassandra Anne; Rogers, Randal; Fletcher, Amber; Jurdi-Hage, Rozzet; Marsh, Charity; Collins, Rachael
Using the 2008 Greyhound bus attack in Manitoba, Canada, as a case study, this project explores representations of mental illness in the media. The study analyzes news coverage of the case from 2008 to 2017, public Facebook comments on stories posted via news agencies’ Facebook profiles, and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, professionals, and subject matter experts. The data were analyzed through a combined and updated theoretical framework of C. Wright Mills’ sociological imagination and Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model of communication, and an interpretivist approach to data analysis using sociological discourse analysis. The findings of this project demonstrated significant gaps in public understanding of illnesses such as schizophrenia, particularly when connected to ongoing coverage of violent crimes in news media. Other major themes found in the analysis included fear of the dangerous/monstrous Other and a mistrust of public institutions such as the health care system and government. Critically, the levels of public mistrust identified in this project led to the development of what I present as “the trust paradox,” wherein public commenters expressed both outrage at the perceived failings of social systems to maintain public safety, and a demand that such systems continue to be utilized as a means of control and surveillance. This project demonstrates that extreme cases such as the Greyhound bus attack still portray mental illness as dangerous in media narratives. This research adds to the current discourse on representations of mental illness in the media by providing an update on previous studies, suggestions for future areas of inquiry for social media research, and new target areas for consideration in public awareness and anti-stigma campaigns.
Open Access
Fear Rises from the Dead: A Sociological Analysis of Contemporary Zombie Films as Mirrors of Social Fears
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-01) Ozog, Cassandra Anne; Conway, John; Jaffe, JoAnn; Stevens, Andrew; Ruddick, Nicholas
This thesis explores three contemporary zombie films, 28 Days Later (2002), Land of the Dead (2005), and Zombieland (2009), released between the years 2000 and 2010, and provides a sociological analysis of the fears in the films and their relation to the social fears present in North American society during that time period. What we consume in entertainment is directly related to what we believe, fear, and love in our current social existence. Thus, this paper argues that the rise in popularity of zombie films, and zombies in general, is directly connected to our fears and anxieties as a culture, and that the decade 2000-2010 was one of particularly heightened social fears and apocalyptic anxieties. The theories used in this research demonstrate the cycle where our cultural beliefs and values inform our daily fears and understandings of the world, which are then represented in our entertainment and re-interpreted in our consumption of it. The films are dissected using the theories of film critic Sigfried Kracauer, political economist C.B. MacPherson, and film theorist Kirsten Moana Thompson and a process of qualitative content analysis to identify, analyze, and connect the fears in the films with those in the social climate of the decade studied. This paper argues that the drastic increase in popularity of the zombie at the turn of the millennium directly reflects major fears in the decade: of pandemics, of untrustworthy authority, and of the total collapse of social order. We need to pay special attention to our forms of entertainment, as they speak volumes about the social climate in any particular epoch in our history. We may use what we learn in future research and social analysis.