Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Reconciling Ethnicity, Subalternity And Chinese Eco-Aesthetics: Human And Animal Subjects In Lu Chuan's Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, Chia-Ju Chang

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

An ecological discourse has not yet arisen in the mainstream of Chinese film studies. Lu Chuan's Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2004) is the first transnational feature film in China about the endangered Tibetan Antelope. This "eco-thriller" is based on a true event and is about a group of Tibetan volunteers trying to capture the leader of a poaching group who is responsible for mass-slaughtering and skinning the endangered Tibetan Antelope. The film engages a complicated politics of transnational capitalism, ethnicity, animal rights and aesthetics. In this paper, I first survey the history of animal poaching in the Kekexili area and the …

Bird Watching: Global-Natural Worlds And The Popular Reception Of Winged Migration, Lisa Uddin

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper examines the contemporary visual cultures of economic globalization and natural history by considering the popular French wildlife film, Winged Migration (dir. Perrin 2001). Through the small-scale of a single film's reception, the paper offers a critique of the Euro-American tendency to conceptualize the global world and the natural world in totalizing and mutually constitutive terms. How have images of a timeless and universal global world become a way of imagining the natural world, and vice versa? How has Winged Migration's circulation amongst an American popular audience reproduced, but also undermined, these joint constructions? Analyzing the film's central theme …

Portraying Domestic Violence In Egyptian Films, 1950-2000, Maie Shawky

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Bridging The 'Generation Gap' : Understanding Cross-Generations' Views Through The Visual Media Of The 1960s, Kit Ling Luk

APIAS Working Paper 工作論文

This working paper is based on the findings of the 2002 film screening cum focus group discussions amongst the young and the old organized by APIAS. Using the visual media: Hong Kong film in the 1960s as a media, the present project intends to explore the family as the social arena in addressing parent and children’s contrasting views on love, marriage and its impact on their parent-child relationships. The project also aims to shed light on ways in promoting intergenerational communications via structured intergenerational programmes.

Project Objectives

1. To explore the ‘gap’ between the young (born in the 1980s) and …

Movie Poster Advertisements: A Relevance Theory Persepctive, Steven Lawrie Forrett

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this thesis is to examine ten movie posters while hypothesizing whether or not their tagline texts could interest a reader. A linguistic framework Relevance Theory, is used in the analysis of this project.

A Wave Of The Magic Wand: Fairy Godmothers In Contemporary American Media, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The increased personification of fairy godmothers in contemporary American media corresponds to an aspect of the American worldview that emphasizes "magical" quick fixes and solutions. The two fairy-tale pastiche works informing this study are a novel, The Fairy Godmother, by fantasy author Mercedes Lackey, and a movie, Shrek 2. Both of these works feature fairy godmother characters that depart from canonical folktale and fairy-tale depictions. Associated with fate and wisdom, fairy godmothers act much as folklorists do by rewarding traditional behavior with gifts. Recent fairy godmother roles are hybrid and multivocal, illuminating ideologies and power structures in both society and …

Televising 9/11 And Its Aftermath: The Framing Of George W. Bush’S Faith-Based Politics Of Good And Evil, Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

For most of the four days following 9/11, TV viewers around the world were mesmerised by unthinkable images. Television brought home to Americans especially the polarising effects of the post-Cold War world, including the backlash of Islamic fundamentalism and the imminent threat of future terrorist attacks. A formulaic narrative quickly emerged; ordinary police and firefighters took the lead as America’s national heroes, while Osama bin Laden and the rest of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rose up as villains. On September 12, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush gave voice to this mythic small-screen storyline as “a monumental struggle of good …

This Time He Moves! The Deeper Significance Of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Radical Break In Good Men, Good Women, James N. Udden

Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Publications

Following the recent success of Taiwanese film directors, such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwanese film is raising its profile in contemporary cinema. This collection presents an exciting and ambitious foray into the cultural politics of contemporary Taiwan film that goes beyond the auterist mode, the nation-state argument and vestiges of the New Cinema.

Cinema Taiwan considers the complex problems of popularity, conflicts between transnational capital and local practice, non-fiction and independent filmmaking as emerging modes of address, and new possibilities of forging vibrant film cultures embedded in national (identity) politics, gender/sexuality and community activism. …

Another Look At Gender In Prime-Time Television, Jan Carolyn Kircher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Television has become an important agent of socialization in society today. Social interaction on prime-time television was examined 24 years ago by members of the Sociology Department at South Dakota State University. That study was similar to this research project that investigates gender roles on prime-time television. The earlier study used a modified version of the Bales Interaction Scale to code male and female behavior to assess the extent to which prime-time television presented traditional or nontraditional gender roles. This study used research methods similar to those of the previous study to see if traditional gender roles depicted on prime-time …

The Body Of The Terrorist In Contemporary Cinema, Robert Duggan, Páraic Finnerty

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This article will explore the presentation of the body of the terrorist in a range of British and American films with a particular emphasis on how these films combine political and romantic plotlines. As part of a broad consideration of how the terrorist is presented, this essay will concentrate in particular on Cal (1984), The Crying Game (1992), The Dancer Upstairs (2002) and The Quiet American (2002). Rather than fully engage with the more complex discourse of politics, often these films ask audiences to conceptualize the transgressive figure of the terrorist through the very familiar vocabulary of love and sexual …

中国大陆九十年代以来独立电影文化的构成与城市青年文化实践, Xiaodao Liang

Lingnan Theses

本论文主要考察中国大陆九十年代出现的独立电影的特性，首先从一批年轻的独立电影导演及其作品出发，将它们放在当代大陆城市青年文化的历史脉络中，着重考察独立电影的特殊生产机制以及对“青年”的再现，与“青年”在社会建构中出现的变化之间的关系。然后通过使用民族誌的研究方法，重点考察大陆本土年轻观众对独立电影的接受情况，试图解释为何“边缘”成为当下论述大陆独立电影文化特性的重要话语。本文的主要立论是，“边缘”是由独立电影与城市青年文化在不同层面上互构而成的。

这种互构关系的建立，表现在几个方面：首先，大陆进入商品经济时代，具有整合性的建构青年身份的国家意识形态话语失效，导致了年轻人的迷茫和失落，他们断裂和破碎的身份，通过独立电影在国家制片体系之外的生产和制作模式中被再现出来，被称为“边缘”的特殊个体。其次，大陆独立电影被部分青年影迷用来对抗互联网上出现的话语资源垄断和话语权威，从而确立“业余爱好 者”、“草根”等被称为“边缘”的身份。最后一个方面，即是作为影迷的城市青年对不同观影场所和对独立电影不同消费方式的选择，建立了在电影院线、个人在家庭观看影碟等主流渠道以外的，被称为“边缘”的观影方式，但这种方式又不可避免的会引起影迷的身份焦虑。

Digital Radio Cultures In Europe: Progress To Date And Prospects For The Future:A Review Of Research Produced By Drace, Brian O'Neill, Stephen Lax

Conference Papers

Digital Radio Cultures in Europe (DRACE), was established in 2004 under the COST Action A20 “The Impact of the Internet on Mass Media in Europe”. The original configuration of the COST A20 group included provision for an internet and music research group but this was re-focussed following a re-organisation in which DRACE was more formally incorporated. The group comprises 14 researchers with specific interests in radio from Norway, Finland, Denmark, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Croatia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The objective of the research group is to be at the forefront of empirical research on changes in radio cultures …

Towards A Bibliography Of Critical Whiteness Studies, Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

As the title implies, this book offers a multi-disciplinary overview of the explosion of work in scholarly critical whiteness studies. The contributing bibliographers acknowledge that this work follows and builds upon a great deal of whiteness critique previously provided by African American writers, and by those writing from other racialized positions. Each section provides a solid introduction to key concepts and practices regarding whiteness in a particular field, including: philosophy, history, literature, cinema, the visual arts, psychology, education, media studies, qualitative inquiry, personal narratives, and international and comparative approaches.

Experiences Of Interaction And Participation In Media Communication In A Digital Environment, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

Digital technologies, it is claimed, provide enhanced opportunities for interactivity and participatory engagement in media communication for ordinary audience members. Whether arising simply from the enhanced functionality offered to media consumers, or through utilising the various channels available to audiences to talk back to media providers, it would appear that audiences are empowered in new ways, previously unavailable in the analogue era. This paper examines what use ordinary audience members make of such opportunities. Drawing on a comparative study of layperson participation in broadcast media in three European countries (Norway, Portugal and Ireland), this paper presents findings from the study …

Information Professional Or Caretaker Of "Old Stuff", Daniel Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Do archivists emphasize their role as technicians with specialized skills and knowledge or do they emphasize their role as sort of "semi-pro" historians? This debate has been around since the 1930s and is not likely to be decided any time soon. My argument is that young archivists cannot afford to take an either/or approach and must incorporate elements of both paths or risk obsolescence and/or continued low salaries.

Entertaining Politics And The College Student, Alexandra Rubin

Senior Honors Projects

Mass media is crucial in forming and reflecting opinion in society. Newspaper, television, and the internet all play a critical role in the daily lives of Americans; disseminating information that shapes views of life, culture, and politics. It seems like all forms of media communication, either subliminally or blatantly, reflect the political climate of the day. The news media flood American homes with images, audio, and commentary on political happenings. My questions are as follows: How much basic political knowledge does an average college student possess? Where does the average college student receive his or her political knowledge? Does celebrity …

Layperson Participation On Radio And The Internet In Three European Countries, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

Digital Radio Cultures in Europe (DRACE), the radio panel of the COST A20 action on The Impact of the Internet on Mass Media, has launched a qualitative research project in a number of European countries about participation in broadcast media among the public. The project involves a reception study and analysis, with a focus on experiences of interaction with the media, attitudes towards media participation and evaluations of the context for interactivity provided by digital technologies. This paper introduces the methodology and rationale of the study in the context of previous European studies. We start from the broad category of …

Digital Technologies And The Future Of Radio: Lessons From The Canadian Experience, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

This paper reports on an ongoing comparative study of the development of digital radio in Europe and Canada. Focussing on the Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) platform in Canada, of which it was an early adopter, the paper examines the complex interaction of industry, government regulation and the difficulty of policy formation matching the pace of technology development. Based on interviews with leading radio professionals, the paper presents a critical review of the ‘transitional policy’ towards the digitalisation of radio and examines the international market pressures that led Canada to largely abandon this approach in favour of the current …

Too Many Options Dilute Shared Experience, David E. Drew, Hedley Burrell

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Despite the red carpet glitter of the Oscars, it is no secret that Hollywood has had a far from perfect year at the box office.

And unfortunately for Tinsel Town, its problems go beyond the obvious need for more successful films.

The way we experience both movies and television has evolved. We don't do things together the way we once did. We rent movies and watch them at home rather than going to a local movie theater with family and friends. Box office returns suffer and the centrality of film in our lives is weakened.

The same fragmentation is true …

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.

Sources: Encyclopedia Of The Documentary Film (Review), Robin Imhof

University Libraries Librarian and Staff Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Finding The Watermark: A Filmic Response To Domestic Abuse Within Australian Film From 1970 - 2006, Erin Nichols

Theses : Honours

Due to various social, international and economic encumbrances, Australian film has made a limited foray into the representation of domestic abuse. A limited number of films have been made on this topic since the early 1970's, and even then, the depiction of this social issue has been watered down and sanitised for mainstream consumption. It is the author's belief that the filmmaker has an important and highly influential opportunity to present a social commentary on issues and must not shirk that responsibility. The film project supported by this exegesis responds to the above concerns and the priority has been to …

Entre Intertextualité Et Réécriture, Alexie Tcheuyap

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Aesthetic practices have become more and more diversified in contemporary cultures. Although rewritings and adaptations are most common from literature to film, from myth/epic to novels, African filmmakers have recently been inaugurating novelization, that is the literary rewriting of a film. This essay examines the case of the Algerian filmmaker Merzac Allouache, who has written Bab el-Oued City, based on his film Bab el-Oued, in order to escape the technical and practical limitations of cinema. In doing so, he best expresses the challenges of contemporary Algeria, which is permanently threatened by violence and Islamic fundamentalism.

L’Intertextualité Géopolitique Dans Le Petit Chat Est Mort De Fejria Deliba, Sarah B. Buchanan

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In this article, Buchanan examines how Fejria Deliba’s short film, Le petit chat est mort, questions the ideas that conservative members of North African and French communities mobilize to separate themselves from each other. Using theories of intertextuality and geopolitical conscience, Buchanan illustrates how “imagined communities” are always influenced by other national narrations, and how “home” is never isolated, pure or preserved. On the contrary, Buchanan highlights how Deliba presents the French and North African cultures as spaces of intersection and interface, that is, of intertext.

Désir Et Impuissance Dans Halfaouine Et Bye-Bye, Scott Homler

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The experience of adolescence and the trials of Arab and Beur masculinity are explored in the films of Férid Boughédir and Karim Dridi in order to reveal the psychology and the politics of masculinity in evolution. Studying two films, Halfaouine and Bye-Bye, as well as the autobiography of Abdelkébir Khatibi entitled La mémoire tatouée, we see that they reflect a number of discursive stages of an emergent identity of protest that is based on flight and self-destruction.

Problèmes Et Enjeux De L’Adaptation En Algérie, Mehana Amrani

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

As in all postcolonial societies confronted with the question of illiteracy, in Algeria, film adaptations pose a political and cultural stake. Due to the phenomena of political and moral censure and self-censorship, only ten novels were carried over to the screen during one 36-year period. However, with the rebirth of Algerian cinema in the Nineties, screenwriters are once again interested in setting Algerian novels in images. These new adaptations, which are often done in co-production with France and Belgium, introduce the new problems of language. The audience for these films, which are expressed mainly in French, is thus likely limited …

L’Écriture De La Femme Musulmane Dans Loin Demédine D’Assia Djebar, Yvonne-Marie Mokam

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Assia Djebar is one of the most important figures in contemporary African literature. Her views are structured around a critique of the misrepresentation of Muslim women. It is precisely this challenge that is undertaken in Loin de Médine (1991), in which Djebar challenges various stereotypes in order to offer a new image of Asian women.

Le Français D’Origine Maghrébine Face Au Prisme Médiatique, Hassiba Lassoued

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Whether we admit it or not, the mass media manipulates the masses. This fact proves to be especially dangerous in the context of French people of Maghrebian origin. The media presents them as either incapable of being “assimilated” or as models of integration. At any rate, there seems to be no middle ground between these two extremes.