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Harding University Student Publications

I have written regularly for the Bison Newspaper since 2013.

I was featured in the Petit Jean while a class writer during the 2013 Fall semester.

Undergraduate Research Thesis

What's in a Face: A Content Analysis of

Time Magazine's Person of the Year Since 1927

Background:

• Originally called “Man of the Year,” TIME began the tradition of selecting a person who was a newsmaker of the year “for better or for worse.”

• In 1927, the original cover of Charles Lindbergh was an attempt to resolve a mistake earlier that year were Linbergh was snubbed a cover story after his famous trans-Atlantic flight.

• The title was changed to Person of the Year in 1999.

• The selections are based on what the magazine describes as who has had the largest influence on history and who best represented the year.

• The Title of Person of the year has been given to some world’s most controversial figures.

• Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Nikia Kruschchev and Ayatollah Khomeini have all been received the title.

Age Breakdown:

• The mean age was 56 years, the median was 56, and the mode was 57.

• There were 16 recipients that do not have recordable ages, leaving 76 for analysis.

• The youngest recipient was Charles Lindberg at the at of 25.

• The oldest recipient was Pope John XXII at the age of 81.

Racial Breakdown:

• After Caucasian, the first race represented was Indian. Mahatma Ghandi was awarded the title in 1930.

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barack Obama are the only two African-American U.S Military and Political Leaders.

• President Obama has received the title twice, the only racial minority to do so.

Gender Breakdown:

• Only three women have received the title as individuals: Wallis Simpson in 1936, Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, and Corazon Aqino in 1986.

• For the 1975 issue, the title was changed to Woman of the Year and was awarded to The American Woman.

• In this study, Soong May-ling, The American Woman, The Whistleblowers and The Protester were all considered female due to a woman being the dominate feature of the cover picture on their respective issues.

Categorical Breakdown:

• Some of the magazine’s more controversial covers have not depicted people but ideas.

• “You” won the title in 2006 for being the content creators for the World Wide Web and advancing the Information Age.

• Twenty of the indiviuals that are categoriezed as International Leaders are Caucasian.

The thesis can be read in its entirety here.