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Mest 96 Syllabus, Carlos Cruz

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for MEST. 96 (Television, Society and the Individual).

Introduction (To Emotional Expressionism), E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Publications: Communication

The primary purpose of Emotional Expressionism: Television Serialization, The Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality is to explore the forms, functions, and nuances of emotions in popular, mediated narratives. Clearly, emotions constitute a key means by which audiences experience and make sense of narrative media, in that mediated stories make compelling arguments or take up resonant positions through their emotional methods and meanings. The value of developing an emotional template for screen media lies in generating new analytical and interpretative approaches to narrative aesthetics, especially in terms of their pains and pleasures. As this study seeks to demonstrate, emotional analysis opens up …

Letting The Narrative Unfold: Black Female Storytellers Of The 21st Century, Jalila Waller

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The important aspects of film and television are the stories that are portrayed. Everyone has a story to tell. However, who tells the story is equally important as who portrays the story. This thesis analyzes three Black female auteurs and the work they have created with Black women at the center of those narratives. Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, and Issa Rae are Black female auteurs because they are Black female storytellers each with their own story to tell. They each have created and produced content that portrays Black women in a three-dimensional light.

The Challenge Of Measuring Traditional And Digital Audiences In A Global Market, Jorge Gallardo-Camacho, César García, Belén Puebla-Martínez

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Arts and Humanities

This monograph titled Audiences and new forms of broadcast: linear, on-demand, streaming and/or social has five articles that represent the complexity of the phenomenon of audiences across fields and from different perspectives: Traditional television consumption, viewing of Netflix, the social audience of video platforms, the new tastes of viewers for vertical formats driven by mobile phones, and the relationship of influencers with their audiences. This number raises the problem of audience measurement, quantification, and comparison in the new digital age. The measurement of audiovisual audiences faces the problem of the lack of a measurement system accepted in all regions and …

Does Watching Television Correlate With Self-Esteem In College Students, Lauren Cervenak

Student Conference Abstracts

The correlation between self-esteem and television in college students was studied. It was hypothesized that younger students would report lower self-esteem than older students (hypothesis 1); students who report higher levels of television viewing will report lower self-esteem (hypothesis 2); and students who see themselves represented more often in television will report higher levels of self-esteem and students who see themselves less represented in television and tv shows would report lower levels of self-esteem (hypothesis 3). Participants consisted of 104 people between the ages of 18 and 65. Many participants were undergraduate students from Dominican University of California. Participants filled …

If A Tree Falls In The Forest: Presidential Press Conferences And Early Media Narratives About The Covid-19 Crisis, Masha Krupenkin, Kai Zhu, Dylan Walker, David Rothschild

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, as we confronted questions about social distancing, masking wearing, and vaccines, public safety experts warned that the consequences of a misinformed population would be particularly dire due to the serious nature of the threat and necessity of severe collective action to keep the population safe. Thus, the media and the political elites (e.g., President of the United States) who possess the power to set the information agenda around COVID-19 bear a huge responsibility for the general welfare. Through automated text analysis of complete transcripts of national cable, network, and local news, we explore their narratives surrounding …

Public Administration And Jokes: We Need To Vent, Laila El Baradei

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Information Management In Television Media Library: A Study Conducted In Pride East Entertainments Private Limited, Assam, Rosy Chakraborty, Sanjay Kumar Singh Professor

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

In the year 1959, Television media has started as an experiment and since then it is a part of media in India. This paper examines the information archives management of Television media from a technical as well as an intellectual point of view and discusses how they organize and manage the information in these organizations. (“Television”,2021) Television media are very rich in providing digital information, which is electronically accessible, and therefore for an effective information cycle, archives were developed in such places. Here, information can be found in different formats i.e. .mpeg, .mp3, .mp4, .mov, etc., and in different types …

Transgendering Viewers Of Television, Arianna S. Goodhand

Honors College Theses

In response to the growing number of transgender characters on television, I explored how witnessing transgender representation on television is associated with an increase in viewers’ knowledge about the trans community, their empathy and understanding for the trans community, and their likelihood to advocate for the trans community. I hypothesized that witnessing trans representation on television is associated with greater understanding and empathy for the trans community, knowledge about trans experiences, and motivation to advocate for the trans community. The trans community specifically is becoming more visible thanks to television shows like Fox’s Pose. Gender and gender identity frameworks …

"Living In The After": Examining How "Grey's Anatomy" Portrays Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily A. Grant

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Over seventeen seasons, Grey's Anatomy (2005) has tackled rare physical conditions, medical miracles, and mental illness, including PTSD. Previous research on mental illness representation in television suggests that oftentimes, through pejorative or romanticized stereotypes, portrayals enhance stigma and have detrimental effects on viewers. Using inductive research, focused on PTSD-centric episodes regarding two main characters, this study revealed that Grey's Anatomy emphasizes a mostly empowering portrayal of PTSD. These findings suggest that future representations of mental illness like those in Grey's can eradicate stereotypes and stigmas as the norm and replace them with representations that encourage acceptance, openness, and communication.

Law Library Blog (September 2020): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

More Man Than A Horse? Bojack Horseman And Its Subversion Of Sitcom Conventions In Search Of Realism, Bradley Simpson

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

As the television market diversifies and fragments, TV show creators in the postmodern era have been pushed to subvert the conventions of various genres to stay relevant. This research uses a combination of genre analysis and close content analysis of the Netflix original series BoJack Horseman to identify several conventions of the situation comedy genre that the show subverts. Through an unconventional handling of irony, tone, unique form, and subject matter, BoJack Horseman manages to transcend generic expectations by portraying a dark, realistic worldview. Contrary to the traditional view of the situation comedy as a media oriented towards escapism, BoJack …

Please, Hold Your Toothpicks: An Analysis Of Autism On Contemporary Television, Kellie N. Veltri

Haslam Scholars Projects

In the past decade, there has been a boom in representations of varied identities on entertainment television, including characters with mental illness and disabilities. There has particularly been an increase in television representations of autism spectrum disorders, which has coincided with the reframing of autism in the DSM-5. Exposure to these characters has increased public awareness of what autism actually looks like, but their characteristics are still very narrow and do not represent the full range of people with autism and what their experiences with the condition are actually like. In this thesis, I will explore historic representations of autism …

How Much Do You Love Grey’S Anatomy?, Katherine Baldwin

Honors College Theses

Does the prominence of medical Television Shows impact people’s decision to pursue a medical career?

We are constantly told that the things we see in media and entertainment influences how we think about things, but not much research has been done regarding its ability to impact major life choices such as career choice. This paper investigates this by examining the causal relationship between television and interest in the pursuit of a medical career. An ordinary least squares model, created using time series data over the last 24 years, tested specifically the effect of the number and quality of medical television …

Expanded Cinema: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition [ Table Of Contents], Gene Youngblood

Cinema & Media Studies

Fiftieth anniversary reissue of the founding media studies book that helped establish media art as a cultural category.

First published in 1970, Gene Youngblood’s influential Expanded Cinema was the first serious treatment of video, computers, and holography as cinematic tools. Long considered the Bible for media artists, Youngblood’s insider account of 1960s counterculture and the birth of cybernetics remains a mainstay reference in today’s hypermediated digital world. This fiftieth-anniversary edition includes a new Introduction by the author that offers conceptual tools for understanding the sociocultural and sociopolitical realities of our present world.

A unique eyewitness account of burgeoning experimental film …

Fertility And Rural Electrification In Bangladesh, Tomoki Fujii, Abu S. Shonchoy

Research Collection School Of Economics

We use contemporaneous and retrospective panel datasets to examine the household-level relationship between fertility and access to electricity in Bangladesh. We find that access to electricity reduces fertility by about 0.2 children over a period of five years or total fertility rate by about 1.2 in most estimates. This finding is robust with respect to the choice of the estimation method, the choice of sample, and potential presence of endogeneity. The finding also corroborates the theoretical predictions on time use and consumption pattern derived from our model of electrification and fertility. The results also suggest that television is an important …

Victims, Heroes, And Villains: Imaginary Beings In Contemporary Television Serials, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Publications: Communication

This chapter traces melodrama’s historical triumvirate of characters – victims, heroes, and villains – to examine how they are applied in contemporary television serial dramas. Looking in particular at the examples of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the author argues that the characterological trio now often exists within singular protagonists who follow a narrative trajectory from victim through hero to arrive, ultimately, at villainy. Collapsing the characterological triad into single protagonists marks a late modern version of melodrama in which the possibilities for heroism are circumscribed, leaving characters able to opt only for victimization or villainy.

Ensemble Storytelling: Dramatic Television Seriality, The Melodramatic Mode, And Emotions, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Publications: Communication

This chapter considers seriality in contemporary television dramas in light of arguments that most popular culture falls within melodrama as modality (to include legal shows, police and detective programs, westerns, and medical series), instead of narrow genres, such as soap operas. The recent success of fully serialized dramas is a noteworthy development, producing highly popular and highly regarded programming. The traditions of melodrama, including its deep commitment to the uses of emotionality, address story worlds and audiences in terms of social relations, in contrast to psychological realism’s more individualized and inward turning tendencies. “Ensemble Storytelling” explores three specific strategies available …

Adolescent Perspectives On Media Use: A Qualitative Study, April Fiacco

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study looks at adolescents’ engagement with media and explores their perceptions of how media plays a role in their lives. For the purpose of this study, media includes watching television shows, watching and reading the news, and involvement in various types of social media. The influence of parents and peers is also explored to examine adolescents’ views of whether parent and peer opinions affect the types of media with which the adolescent participants choose to engage. The study used a semi structured interview to collect data with participants from a Massachusetts public high school. The data were analyzed …

Traffic Stops, Television, And Trauma: Investigating Police Brutality, Alexandria Nuccio, Ashley M. Stripling, John E. Lewis

Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches and Lectures

No abstract provided.

Moral And Existential Lessons From Chernobyl, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

HBO’s five-part mini-series documenting the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster in the Soviet Union is powerful because of the existential and moral messages it conveys—critical messages for our time.

Free Speech And Good Omens, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

On May 13th, a Christian group called Return to Order began circulating an online petition to “Tell Netflix: Cancel Blasphemous ‘Good Omens’ Series.” So far, the petition has received over 21,000 signatures and has attracted the attention of many more. It generated substantial buzz in news sources and on social media, but perhaps not for the reasons that those who started it had hoped—Good Omens, an adaptation of a book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, was produced as a collaboration between Amazon and the BBC. The series was not made by nor is it hosted on Netflix. There …

What Technological Dystopias Can Tell Us About Human Values, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

On June 5th, Season Five of the popular television show Black Mirror became available for streaming on Netflix. The series isn’t for the faint of heart—most of the storylines are about as existential as television can get. The name “Black Mirror” is a reference to the idea that when one stares into a dark cell phone or computer screen one sees one’s own reflection. Aptly, the series explores the human relationship with technology.

Sanders, William Willard "Whitey," 1930-2021 (Mss 659), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 659. Correspondence, articles and miscellaneous material documenting the career of newspaper editorial cartoonist Bill “Whitey” Sanders. Includes letters from readers, public figures and fellow cartoonists, video of programs and appearances, and material related to Sanders’ books and his participation in professional organizations.

Contributions Of Mainstream Sexual Media Exposure To Sexual Attitudes, Perceived Peer Norms, And Sexual Behavior: A Meta-Analysis, Sarah M. Coyne, L. Monique Ward, Savannah L. Kroff, Emilie J. Davis, Hailey G. Holmgren, Alexander C. Jensen, Sarah E. Erickson, Lee W. Essig

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Decades of research have examined the impact of exposure to nonexplicit portrayals of sexual content in media. There is only one meta-analysis on this topic, which suggests that exposure to “sexy media” has little to no effect on sexual behavior. There are a number of limitations to the existing meta-analysis, and the purpose of this updated meta-analysis was to examine associations between exposure to sexual media and users' attitudes and sexual behavior.

Methods: A thorough literature search was conducted to find relevant articles. Each study was coded for associations between exposure to sexual media and one of six outcomes …

Young Parents’ Experiences And Perceptions Of ‘Teen Mom’ Reality Shows, Devon Greyson, Cathy Chabot, Jean A. Shoveller

Communication Department Faculty Publication Series

MTV’s hit reality shows 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom were produced with an agenda of preventing teen pregnancy. Researchers have examined their effectiveness as behavioral interventions, yet little attention has been paid to experiences of young parents themselves with these shows, nor to their ethical consequences, including the potential for compounding of stigma against young parents. This analysis qualitatively examines the experiences of young parents in British Columbia, Canada, with the media phenomenon referred to as ‘Teen Mom shows.’ Interview and observation data from a large, longitudinal, mixed-methods ethnographic study of young parents was analyzed using hybrid deductive-inductive qualitative …

The Role Of Regional Media In Shaping Political Awareness Of Youth: Evidence From Egypt, Amany Khodair, Mostafa Aboelsoud, Mahmoud Khalifa

Political Science

This is an exploratory study that aims to answer the question of whether and to what extent regional media are influential in shaping political awareness and its role in influencing public opinion, especially that of young people. We examined regional media in Egypt, more precisely in the Suez Canal Region. To ensure the validity of our results, we deployed a number of different data collection methods: the collection, analysis, and integration of quantitative and qualitative research. The results reveal that regional media have the potential to contribute effectively in raising youths’ political awareness of the public policy-making process. The recommendations …

Consortium Benefits: Using Tv To Increase Library Consumption, Alicea Peyton

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This experiment was performed to determine if factors exist between increasing the consumption of independent libraries through the use of television; and the consideration of cutting related advertisement expense through the cost-sharing benefit of consortium membership. This paper examines a historical report provided by the American Library Association (1949) on the use of television by public libraries. In conjunction, two other research studies are examined on the subject of 1) consortium membership and benefits, and 2) whether the use of advertisement on cable television has a direct impact in increasing library consumption.

From Slut Shaming To Cultural Commentary: What Live Tweeting Practices Of Viewers Of Abc’S The Bachelorette Reveal About Gender Policing And Digital Activism On Twitter, Melissa Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Electrification On Children's Nutritional Status In Rural Bangladesh, Tomoki Fujii, Abu S. Shonchoy, Sijia Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Access to electricity has the potential to improve the nutritional status of children by a variety of pathways such as increased wealth, reduced fertility through the change in time use, spread of information through technology such as TV, and improved health care services. Yet, the relationship between electrification and children’s nutritional status is rarely explored in the literature. We attempt to fill this lacuna by offering microeconometric evidence from rural Bangladesh, where a rapid expansion of electrification and significant improvement in children’s nutritional status were observed in the past two decades. We find that access to electricity has a positive …