Space at the Con : Conversations About Representation in Popular Culture at Comic Conventions
white , straight , cis-gender , male is other and the media teaches them clearly what roles to play . 5 As Douglas described it , “ The mass media raised us , socialized us , entertained us , comforted us , deceived us , disciplined us , told us what we could do and told us what we couldn ’ t ” ( Douglas , 13 ). This is especially unfortunate , as scholars agree that mass media representations are full of stereotypes , shortcuts , and misinformation ( Holtzman and Sharpe ). The media helps to define our surroundings and our selves . And for geeks , the place they gather to better understand media , their community and themselves , is a comic con .
To better understand the experiences of people who participate in comic con panels about diversity and representation in media and popular culture , this project asked the following research questions :
What themes are present in discussions of representation of marginalized groups at comic con panels ?
Who participates in these panel discussions ? What are the goals and motivations of these participants ?
METHOD
To answer the research questions , interviews were conducted at a comic con in Salt Lake City in March 2016 . The researcher attended all panels with a title that suggested diversity or representation would be a specific topic of discussion . After the panel , individual panelists were approached about an interview . 6 A total of 17 individual interviews were conducted with more than 12 hours of recording to transcribe . The only demographic questions asked of respondents were their proper pronouns and their profession . Of the 25 participants , 16 identified as female , 6 identified as male , and 3
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