Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Film And Television After 9/11 [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

One of the necessary compromises a book such as Film and TV After 9/11 must make is the amount and variety of examples it can provide. In order to be the first book to cover the subject, the book sacrifices the types of materials covered and the variety of themes they depict. Although the editor, Wheeler Winston Dixon, does not do so, the book’s twelve essays slot into four basic categories: analogies, productions altered to suit the "post-9/11" mindset, post-9/11 productions with metaphorical rather than literal linkages to the event and pre-9/11 productions whose viewing must now take that day …

Screenplay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Recognizing the growing importance (at least for consumers) of video games as a popular form of narrative fiction, Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska situate their collection, ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces as a text which is corrective, informative and explorative. In the first case, the editors sought essays which would move the critical discourse on video games away from the more familiar but reductive debates surrounding the "effects" of video games (especially on children) and their modes of representation (especially of the female form and violence). Indeed, these have become the sine qua non of video game criticism and one feeds the other …

Chw Productions: A Study To Determine Market Potential For Missionary Videos, Shalayne Packer, Francisco Pascual, Jed Lloyd

Student Works

At the request of the CHW Productions, Shalayne Packer, Jed Lloyd, and Francisco Pascual, students of the Marriott School of Management located at Brigham Young University, were commissioned to determine the market potential for LDS missionary videos. PPL Consulting is comprised of Shalayne Packer, Francisco Pascual and Jed Lloyd.

Out Of The Blue: Re-Evaluating Electra-Glide In Blue, William Blick

Publications and Research

The 1970s was a time of moral ambiguity for the cinema. The cult- favorite, Electra Glide in Blue demonstrates the polarization of ideologies in America at the time. In this film, there are several conflicting views of the Vietnam War, "Hippies", drugs, conservatism, communes, and the mistrust of authority that made up a zeitgeist of the time. This short article defines the film as a examination of the ambiguity of the 1970s.

On Ethan Watter's Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family And Commitment, Danny Mayer

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Outside of the 60s generation, there are few if any generational groupings as well known and discussed as Generation X, the term coined by Douglas Copeland to describe the generation approaching adulthood in the post-Reagan boom-years of the 1990s. As the subject of books (Generation X), movies (Reality Bites, Clerks, Slacker), TV dramas and sitcoms (Seinfeld, Friends, Ally McBeal, Sex and the City), and Prime Time news specials, there is seemingly little new to say about Gen X. It has long since been tagged as a generation …

Discovering Your Cinematic Cultural Identity, John Shelton Lawrence, Marty S. Knepper

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paired set explores the experience of cultural identities constructed by and experienced through popular film. The essay “Discovering Your Cinematic Cultural Identity” reflects the authors’ decades of residence in the state of Iowa and their personal irritation with the stereotypes that Hollywood regularly calls upon in evoking the American rural. We gained a new perspective on this sort of imagery when it surfaced again in Field of Dreams (1989) and The Bridges of Madison County novel (1992) and film (1995). Each of these films triggered unprecedented film tourism for the state. Through an exploration of these films and others …

Review Of Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, And Sopranos, By Peter Bondanella, Marilyn Yaquinto

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Play And Technology:A Study Of Icts In Play Activities Of Irish Children (4-8 And 8-12), Brian O'Neill, Noirin Hayes, Stella Downey

Conference Papers

Defined in the Ireland’s national play policy as ‘freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated behaviour that actively engages the child’ (NCO, 2004, p.10), play now more often than not is a technologically-mediated activity. This paper focuses on the role of technology in play and explores the impact of technological change on children’s play activities. Drawing on our study commissioned by Ireland’s National Children’s Office, we present a detailed exploration of the play activities of Irish children, identifying the range of technologies accessed by children and how they are used in their daily play patterns. The project provided children with an …

Does The Internet Fundamentally Change Anything?: European Research And The Cost A20 Action On The Impact Of The Internet On Mass Media (Television, Newspapers And Radio), Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

The subject of this paper represents one attempt at a more balanced approach and consists of the research undertaken under the COST A20 action, ‘The Impact of the Internet on Mass Media’. The paper presents a brief overview of some of the principal themes under discussion in relation to radio, television and newspapers as well as offering some reflections on the emerging issues for communications research at a cross media level. The central theme is whether there the Internet (with a capital ‘I’) has had the transformative effect its proponents might once have claimed or whether there has been a …

Nothing's Gonna Give? Age, Gender, And Cultures Of The Screen, Christine Scodari, Becky Mulvaney

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Christine Scodari's and Becky Mulvaney's Nothing's Gonna Give? Age, Gender, and Cultures of the Screen investigates the 2003 romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give, written and directed by Nancy Meyers as exceptional in its featuring a fifty-something woman as leading actress. Beginning with an analysis of the filmic text itself, the authors do not confine themselves to it, but go on to critically engage with its reception in both the press and academia. While the focus is thus shifted from the film to the meta- and para-texts produced in the course of its reception and promotion, the underlying questions asked …

Reality Tv Game Shows, Neveen Hosny Ebrahem Gad

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Public And Relational Communication Ethics In Political Communication: Integrity, Secrecy, And Dialogue In ‘The Contender’, Jon A. Hess, Joy Piazza

Communication Faculty Publications

There is no denying the omnipresence of media in the twenty-first century. One form of media that is particularly influential is film. Unlike print forms of entertainment, in which age and reading ability dictate accessibility, movies are accessible to virtually everyone. And, regardless of the producer's purpose for making the film, all movies provide an insight into our culture and the individuals who reside within it. Some movies are produced solely for entertainment value, but others seek to convey some type of message or to stimulate thought on the part of the viewer (Good & Dillon 2002; Kupfer 1999; Lipkin …

Irish Journalist’S Attitudes Towards, And Use Of, Internet Technology, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper explores the effects of Internet technology on the occupational culture and work practices of Irish journalists. There is a common view that the Internet, as an alternative source for news is challenging professional journalists. Increasingly amateurs may produce and disseminate stories to a potentially global readership. This paper presents results from a qualitative pilot study exploring Irish journalist’s reactions to this perceived threat. It reveals that the economic, social and legal features of the Irish journalistic field greatly mitigate any potential threat from the Internet. The research did reveal, however, that the Internet may have some unforeseen and …

Accent, Linguistic Discrimination, Stereotyping, And West Virginia In Film, Teresa L. O’Cassidy

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examines connections between accent, linguistic discrimination, and stereotyping in portrayals of West Virginia film characters. Ten films featuring West Virginia characters were examined for accent and stereotyping: The Right Stuff (Kaufman, 1983), Matewan (Sayles, 1987), Blaze (Shelton, 1989), The Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991), October Sky (Johnston, 1999), Hannibal (Scott, 2001), A Beautiful Mind (Howard, 2001), The Mothman Prophecies (Pellington, 2002), Wrong Turn (Schmidt, 2003), and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (Luketic, 2004). Coders were employed to score character accents. Stereotyping data was gathered by comparing portrayals with stereotypical traits associated with Appalachian and/or hillbilly characters. …

Where The Past Comes Alive’: Television, History And Popular Memory, Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

No abstract provided.

Shifting Representations Of Aboriginality In Australian Cinema : Re-Presenting From An Anti-Colonial Perspective, Kylie Solonec

Theses : Honours

Recently there has been a significant shift in the way that Aboriginal people are being represented in Australian cinema. Some would argue that the social and political movements that have occurred since the 1960s through until today have had a significant effect and in turn have produced a third wave of Australian cinema. Concurrently with this process, there have been a number of Indigenous politicians, academics and filmmakers who have actively been striving to gain better resources and opportunities for Indigenous filmmakers to be able to tell their stories. A combination of these two projects has seen a shift in …

Conglomeration, New Media, And The Cultural Production Of The "War On Terror", James Castonguay

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Comments on the role of the mass media in promoting the war on terrorism launched by United States President George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Eagerness of the U.S. film industry to participate the war on terrorism; Support of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency on intelligence-related television programs and film projects; Role of the Internet in disseminating information regarding the war on terrorism.

'Who Are You?': Alien/Woman As Posthuman Subject In Alien Resurrection, Ximena Gallardo C.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

Traditionally considered a monster in outer space series, the four films comprising the Alien saga: Alien, Aliens, Alien³, and Alien Resurrection, contain a vision of the Alien creature as an agent of human evolution that, taken to its logical extreme in Alien Resurrection, produce an uncommon posthuman subject: the Alien/Woman protagonist named Ripley. In the following article, Ximena Gallardo C. explores the introduction of the series' conception of human evolution through fusion with the Alien as a driving theme in Alien. It then briefly follows through Aliens and Alien^{3, …}

From Butler To Buffy: Notes Towards A Strategy For Identity Analysis In Contemporary Television Narrative, Rob Cover

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Given the increasing significance of questions of identity, subjectivity and selfhood in contemporary postmodern western cultures, it is important to begin acknowledging how these questions are reflected in contemporary media and television and to develop new strategies by which to analyse television characters in terms of identity and subjectivity. The scope for analysing television series' characterizations through recent postmodern and poststructuralist theories of non-essentialist, non-foundationalist subject/identity performativity has not yet been considerably explored. It is my contention here, however, that such a method both reflects the representation of self and identity transformation in new television series as well …

Nothing Can Replace Our Son, Ian Kilroy

Articles

‘Nothing Can Replace Our Son’ is about US casualties in the war in Iraq that began in March 2003. It features parents who have lost children fighting for the US side.

Teaching 9/11 And Why I'M Not Doing It Anymore, Louise Spence

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Offers information on Reading Seminar in Media and Cultural Theory, a course which tackles advanced work in the theoretical and critical context of the mass media as a social phenomenon. Issues about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. covered in the course; Psychological implications of the terrorist attacks; Social relevance of the course and the instructor's reasons for ending the course.

Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in the book's …

Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The editors of Reel Baseball begin by acknowledging the roots of their collection, which explores the intersection between movies and baseball. Since 1989 the National Baseball Hall of Fame has hosted the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. Since 1997, McFarland has published all papers presented at the symposium. Reel Baseball, then, functions both as a document and as an artifact of the "integral" place of baseball movies in American culture. Indeed, the book not only includes essays presented at the symposium, it has two foreword sections: one written by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey and the …

"Two Guns, A Girl And A Playstation™": Gender In The Tomb Raider Series, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This article considers the combination of game play and narrative which combine to produce cross-gender identifications in video games, a previously underexamined potential for the production of alternate genders, one which calls into question the stability of gender, particularly masculinity, as a construct.

On Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film And Stephen C. Wood And J. David Pincus's Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in …

Of Technology And Apocalypse, Or Whose Independence Day?, Christopher Keep

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The scene is now familiar. The cities of the world are in ruins. The Empire State Building obliterated. The White House reduced to rubble. The remnants of humankind gather in the desert, scrounging together what remains of their air defence systems for one last effort to repulse the alien invaders. Haggard but determined, the last American President prepares to lead his motley crew of resistance fighters into the fray. He takes the hand mic, tests it once or twice, and his voice crackles over the speakers. In less than one hour, he announces, aircraft from here will join …

Review Of How A Film Theory Got Lost And Other Mysteries In Cultural Studies, By Robert B. Ray, Alan Clinton

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Media, Message And Meaning: The "Queer As...What?" Symposium, Andrew Ingall

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On October 11, scholars, journalists, media watch activists, and community intellectuals examined depictions and productions of LCTBQ people in television, the World Wide Web, and print journalism at a CLAGS symposium with the wily title, "Queer as . . . What?"

High Concept, Small Screen: Reperceiving The Industrial And Stylistic Origins Of The American Made-For-Tv Movie, Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Gary Edgerton's contribution to "Hilmes, Michele. Connections: A Broadcast History Reader. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2003".

Sojourner Truth: A Video Essay, Christina Laemers

Honors Theses

To hear people talk about Sojourner in areal context, with real stories from her days in Battle Creek gives the story the human element that eluded me for quite a time. Though my story changed its focus several times, the meaning of the project was always in the back of my mind. I really had to struggle to keep it in focus as time went on and the project began to grow exponentially.