Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Book Review: Thinking Like A Generalist: Skills For Making Sense Of A Complex World, Oluwakorede Ajibona

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Let The Monsters Out Of The Closet: Overt Queer Depictions In Hollywood Horror Films, Miles D. Noecker

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

According to Harry M. Benshoff in his book Monsters in the Closet, Hollywood has a long history of demonizing queer people in horror films with what he refers to as the “monster queer.” The monster queer can be read as a key fixture of most horror narratives as a destabilizing force to heteronormative society which must be vanquished. As a gay man and avid horror enthusiast, I find myself drawn to overt (rather than connotative) examples of monster queers, from Norman Bates to Buffalo Bill to Megan Fox’s Jennifer Check. I seek to analyze Hollywood horror films for the …

Police Cartoon Series: Between Learning And Awareness Of Deviance And Crime (Comparative Study), Khawlah Al-Tkhayneh, Arwa Alchamali, Marwa Nazar

Journal of Police and Legal Sciences

This study aimed at detecting the impact of watching police cartoon series introduced by different communication channels, such as TV, YouTube, etc. on children's behaviour by conducting a comparative study between two well-known police cartoon series in order to identify which one of them behaved based on promoting children's awareness about delinquency and crime and which one used the educational method about crime and delinquency (intentionally and unintentionally) as well as identifying the most prominent differences between the methods of introducing the cartoon series in each series. In order to achieve the study objectives, the researchers used the comparative approach …

Myth, Fiction And Politics In The Age Of Antiheroes: A Case Study Of Donald Trump, Igor Prusa, Matthew Brummer

Heroism Science

In this article, we demonstrate that the antihero archetype informs our understanding of Trump in important ways, including his rise to and fall from power. We introduce an analytical framework for analyzing Trump’s antiheroic traits based on his social positioning, individual motivation, and personal charisma. We argue that Trump is fascinating because he is powerful, amoral, and charismatic, and suggest that the American public was primed for Trumpism through a zeitgeist hospitable to antihero worship. That is, Trump’s dogged popularity with nearly half of the American public was foretold by decades of pop-cultural obsession with, and adulation for, the antihero.

The Message Design Of Raiders Of The Lost Ark On The Atari 2600 & A Fan’S Map, Quick Start, And Strategy Guide, Miguel Ramlatchan, William I. Ramlatchan

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Books

The message design and human performance technology in video games, especially early video games have always been fascinating to me. From an instructional design perspective, the capabilities of the technology of the classic game consoles required a careful balance of achievable objectives, cognitive task analysis, guided problem solving, and message design. Raiders on the Atari is an excellent example of this balance. It is an epic adventure game, spanning 13+ distinct areas, with an inventory of items, where those hard to find items had to be used by the player to solve problems during their quest (and who would have …

Misinformation And Disinformation: Detecting Fakes With The Eye And Ai, Victoria Rubin

Data and Test Instruments

How do we detect, deter, and prevent the spread of mis- and disinformationwith the human eye and AI? How does theory inform the practice, and how do theevidence-based research and best practices in lie-catching and truth-seekingprofessions—inform AI? The book looks into well-established human practicessuch as the routines and processes used in detective work, journalism, and scientificinquiry, and how they contribute toward innovative AI solutions. The book explainsthe principles, inner workings, and recent evolution of five types of state-of-the-artAI technologies suitable for curtailing the spread of mis- and disinformation:automated deception detectors, clickbait detectors, satirical fake detectors, rumordebunkers, and computational fact-checking tools.

Trauma, History, And Terror In The Poetry Of Yusef Komunyakaa And Sinan Antoon, Reema Binghadeer

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her comparative study “Trauma, History, and Terror in the Poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa and Sinan Antoon,” Reema Binghadeer considers the work of the African American poet Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1941) and the (Arab) Iraqi poet Sinan Antoon (b. 1967) through the lens of trauma theory of some notable theorists including; Freud, Cathy Caruth, Jean Laplanche, Roger Luckhurst, and Shoshana Felman—have negotiated in this field. The article explores the literary manifestations of trauma in two distinct historical periods and geographical settings to show the specificities of each prototype and how the historical-cultural significance and textual meanings of trauma have intertwined …

Poetics Of The Crystal-Image: Dreams In Mirror And Ashes Of Time Redux, Yuh-Yi Tan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This paper delves into recurrent dreams and related recollections in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror and Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time Redux. Gilles Deleuze has called Mirror a film of “turning crystal” because it reflects the two sides of the protagonist’s relationship with his mother and ex-wife by juxtaposing them in a mysterious labyrinth of past-present-future. The crystal imaging refracts four sides of two couples by showing the bonding of the parents along with the connection to his ex-wife and son. The same structure is apparent in Ashes of Time Redux where another set of two bilateral symmetries is initiated between …

Precarity In The Times Of Partition: Personal Vs Communal Love In Khushwant Singh’S Train To Pakistan And Saadat Hasan Manto’S “Gurmukh Singh Ki Wasiyat”, Ayesha Perveen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

The paper studies how various shades of love respond to precarity in anarchic times by comparing the narrative representation of the aftermath of the Partition of the British colonized Subcontinent into independent countries of India and Pakistan in 1947 with particular focus on Sikh-Muslim relationships in Punjab as presented in Khushwant Singh’s novel Train to Pakistan and Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story “Gurmukh Singh ki Wasiyat.” Employing Judith Butler’s concept of precarity, the paper analyzes how both the writers sketch precarity in partition times ensuing in post-Partition communal violence and effacement of love. The selection of the texts is significant …

Through A Glass Too Brightly: A Long History Of Media, Social Expectations And Loneliness, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper looks at how media, social expectations, and chronic loneliness are intertwined. It uses a historical and cultural approach. Loneliness—a painful gap between the social connections that people have and those they expect to have—has always existed. However, modern life and new media technologies have changed how loneliness feels. Using examples from the telephone, radio, television, and social media, the paper shows that society regularly has greeted new technologies through a polarised hopes and fears discourse. A more long-term history, however, reveals that while media may have positive and negative effects on social connection, the relationship between media and …

Cinema Exhibition In St. Louis, 1920: A Thriving Business, Sarah E. Boslaugh

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In 1920, St. Louis was the 6th largest city in the United States, with a population of 772,897, and density of 11,684/square mile (twice today's density). The population was primarily (90.9%) white, with 14.7% of the white population foreign born. The city had a dense trolley network, while private ownership of automobiles was relatively rare (15.8 residents per car). Cinema exhibition was a thriving business in the city, with 120 cinemas and 29 film exchanges (as compared to, for instance, 12 live theatres in the same year).

Cinemas were located throughout the city, primarily on or near trolley lines. This …

Time And Power: The Will To Temporalize In Digital Culture, Talha Issevenler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I analyze the new forms of temporalization of social media in relationship to arrangements of power through nonhuman agency of the algorithm. The new social media industry refers to the entities that make up its circulatory movement, simply as ‘content’. This suggests that scientific or empirical study of social media should deal with content and analyze this as the data of research through sampling (Manovich, 2020, p. 93-94). Yet the forms and the temporality in which the content is presented not only are open to empirical research but should be central to our understanding of the organization …

Norm And The People, Jacqueline N. Wade

Theses and Dissertations

Norm and the People is a 90-minute hybrid film about the Minister and activist Norman Eddy and the work he and other activists did in Spanish Harlem from the 1940s through his death in 2013. The film is told through interviews, archival photos and videos, reenactments, and puppets.

Inaccessible Interpolated Imagery: How Coffee Farmers In The State Of Chiapas Might Access Political Economic Opportunity Through Representation, Paolo Fiann Bicchieri

Master's Theses

Here is a useful parable to boil down the idea of this project and set the tone: when one goes to the bar to tell a story about a fight at the bar, they would never venture to place themselves as the hero of the brawl, taking out three drunkards in a single punch, unless they were really in the bar, at that time, fighting a good fight. One would never do this as the bartender, locals, and regulars would all know if this were the case or not. Yet transnational corporations, governments, and even consumers do this all the …

Because Potato, Candice Evers

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This thesis project explores the phenomenological qualities of the internet; asking, since the internet is difficult to grasp, what other modes of investigation might we have available? Using an investigative framework set forth by Jack Halberstam, this thesis declines to come to knowledge solely through understanding the formal, the structural, the highly visible and mainstream. The literature that I have gathered provides a range of modes for interrogating the simultaneously central and inconsequential subject of my thesis itself: the potato. Juxtaposing the physical, political and material conditions of the potato the internet’s least academic mode of knowing: the meme. Analyzing …

Reporting On Athletes And Mental Health: An Evolution In Language And Lexicon From 1970 To 2019, Vivian Ferris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the spring and summer of 2021, several athletes made headlines for seemingly prioritizing mental health over the status quo of sports society. For example, in May 2021, during the French Open, professional U.S. tennis player Naomi Osaka announced she would not appear at press conferences, despite threats of fines, citing on social media it was for her mental health. The controversy surrounding Osaka and others led to further questions. Looking through the lens of agenda setting and framing theories, the purpose of this study is to better understand the frequency, variety, and evolution of language in journalistic coverage of …

Fantasized Masculinity Performed In American War Narratives, Shea O'Scannlain

English Honors Theses

In this thesis I wanted to explore the ways that masculinity has been written in history through the genre of fiction. The first chapter discusses traumatized white masculinity in Kurt Vonnegut's novel SlaughterHouse Five and Oliver Stone's film Born On The Fourth of July. The second chapter deals with the female Black experience in response to the white patriarchy in Toni Morrison's novel Home and HBO's television series LoveCraft Country. And finally chapter 3 deals with mythologized masculinity redeemed through violence in Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver and Frank Miller's comic book series The Dark Knight Returns. …

A More Equitable Film Pedagogy: Including Media Literacy In Higher Education Film Classrooms To Result In Better Media Practitioners, Alexis Romero Walker

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article explains the importance of including critical media literacy practices in skills-based classrooms in film education. Students continue to use methods of filmmaking that are inherently biased because they continue to be taught an age-old set of skills that do not engage in critical analysis. With the convergence of contemporary film theory in the classroom, educators can help students learn new methods of filmmaking that are representative for all communities and people. Through textual analysis of three films, this article shows why educators in higher education film programs must include critical media literacy in the skills course curriculum and …

Creative Citizen Peacebuilding: Japanese Artists And Audiences Respond To The Vietnam-American War, Long T. Bui, Ayako Sahara

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article explores two case studies related to South Vietnam and Japan, relating them to the controversial history and legacy of the Second Indochina War. The first is the Japanese adoption and adaptation of South Vietnamese antiwar music. The second is a Japanese film, uncovered decades later after the war, exposing the role of Japan in South Vietnam. Cultural productions, from nations allied with the United States, sought to expose the popular struggle for peace against the rising tide of Cold War military violence and corporate capitalist exploitation. Through interviews, archival research, and textual analysis, the article argues for a …

Long Live The Queer: Demystifying Noncitizenship In Uncle Frank And Pain And Glory, Andrew D. Manker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the ways in which a nation infantilizes its citizens, and how family dynamics internalize this infantilization. Queer family members and citizens are treated as threats to the family and by extension the nation because to live into queerness is to refuse the nations infantilization. Additionally, this thesis shows how queer people can cultivate a hopeful future for themselves and the family-as-extension-of-nation by radically redefining what citizenship looks like in a family and nation.

Contributing To A Richer View Of Korean Queer Popular Culture With Jungmin Kwon, Jungmin Kwon

PDXPLORES Podcast

Jungmin Kwon is an associate professor of film and digital culture. Kwon studies film and digital media through a lens of queer and feminist perspectives, focusing on how non-normative identities challenge and disrupt existing hierarchies in Korean culture.

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio transcript.

The Shape Of Things: A Theatrical Examination Of The Progression Of Emotional Manipulation, Kylee Lorio

Honors Projects

In Neil LaBute's work, The Shape of Things, graduate art student Evelyn Thompson meets security guard and future muse, Adam Sorenson, in an art museum during his late-night shift. Their meeting poses the question of just how far humans are willing to go for love. In less than two hours, LaBute’s insight regarding manipulation between intimate partners calls the integrity of our own interpersonal relationships into question. This project encapsulates the materials of Bridgewater College student Kylee Lorio while directing this production during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Cross-Cultural Trek Of Nomadism Through Metaphoric Criticism, Gabrielle Wilkosz

All Theses

How has the worldwide phenomenon of nomadism—present day, recent past, and ancient past—been characterized through metaphor by writers, orators, and auteurs? Using metaphoric criticism, I show how the rhetoric of twenty-first-century "van-lifers" builds on a long global history of displacement that ranges from Central Asia to Malaysia to the Grand Canyon. This project’s three case studies span two decades each, comprising the Kitan people of Central Asia (1207-1227); Bukat people of Borneo in Malaysia (1930-1950), and contemporary "van-lifers" of the US (2001-21). This MA thesis parses a newfound connection between the language of nomadism and Burkean “truth”; the language of …

0875: Mike Jones President Barack Obama Media Collection, 2008-2013, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection is predominantly newspapers from 2008-2011 and magazines from the same time period. Other items include campaign paraphernalia such as a t-shirt, campaign signs (one covered in anti-Obama graffiti), campaign buttons, bumper stickers, and an advertisement for the coverage of the 2008 election by Arizona Daily Star, and VHS recordings of the election, inauguration of President Obama, and President Obama’s first 100 days in office

The Great Resignation: A Content Analysis Of News Sources' Portrayals Of The Covid-19 Labor Shortage., Mackenzie Williams

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

When workers left the labor market in large numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, proclamations of a labor shortage emerged extensively throughout the news. In this study, I analyze the coverage of the worker shortage among three news sources with different political orientations. Several themes emerged from analyzing a total of 75 articles. The findings showed that the perspective shown in the article, the cause of the labor shortage, restaurant worker portrayal, support of solutions, and opinion of the labor shortage all differed based on the political identity of the news source. This research supports previous findings that show there is …

As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States is one of the last western nations still practicing capital punishment. A history of and commitment to vigilantism and its ideals offers an explanation of America’s retention of capital punishment. Employing scholarship on law and popular culture and vigilantism, this thesis finds that pro-death penalty frames are prevalent in vigilante films while anti-death penalty frames are prevalent in films that focus specifically upon capital punishment. Since the 1960’s however, there has been a gradual shift towards anti-death penalty frames and away from pro-death penalty frames as well as changes in the themes presented in the two genres …

A Study Of The Impact Of Us Department Of Defense And Movie Industry Cooperation On Military Application Rates, Lindsay Varzarevsky

Honors College Theses

Using data from the Military Entertainment Media Liaison Office and the US Center for Naval Analyses, this paper examines the impact of cooperation between the Department of Defense and movie producers on military application rates. Multiple regression model results determine that movies which utilize the entertainment liaison facilities of the Department of Defense generate an increase in male and female applicants in the movies’ release year. In addition, applications from individuals from the Black population increase with a two-year lag after the movie release year. This study establishes that government institutions have an effect on media, which influences perceptions and …

“And We’Re Happy, So Happy, To Be Modern Women”: Dissociative Feminism On Screen And In Literature, Michaela Elizabeth Flaherty

Honors Scholar Theses

On-screen and literary works have increasingly represented a new, digital-age wave of postfeminism: dissociative feminism, which rejects happy-go-lucky, sex-positive fourth-wave feminism, instead embracing nihilism. Fleabag, the titular character of the hit BBC miniseries Fleabag (2016–9), embodies dissociative feminism, though she ultimately comes to reject this darkly relatable perspective. However, social media largely ignores this latter, essential aspect of her character arc and has taken to romanticizing Fleabag’s feminist ideology, effectively constructing a harmful and dangerous virtual echo chamber of dissociative feminism. Participants in this online discourse should instead turn to the HBO limited series I May Destroy You (2020) for …

Ecologies Of (Domestic) Trauma, Ecologies Of (Domestic) Violence: A Rhetorical Procession Toward Mourning, Charlotte E. Lucke

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, I posit that intimate partner violence is entrenched in an often-overlooked historical and rhetorical legacy of patriarchal cultural, structural, and direct violences. Many scholars in and outside of rhetorical studies have analyzed and critiqued public representations of trauma and violence, including intimate partner violence. Joining this conversation, I focus on the limitations in the ways influential rhetorical domains both represent and respond to people who abuse their intimate partners. Often, mass media represents people who abuse their intimate partners as individuals void of contexts. Similarly, the criminal justice system holds individuals responsible through law enforcement and incarceration. …

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes, Andrew Demczuk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes examines the ways we encounter environments as readers/viewers of operas, literature, film, and sound recordings, and how each medium requires different detail-gathering techniques. Respective to the previously mentioned mediums, Sun & Sea (2017), Mount Analogue (1952), El Mar La Mar (2017), and Energy Field (2010) are analyzed by engaging with environmental media studies and invention. Reflecting the nature of each landscape—summits of mountains, aporias of deserts, and mysteries of waterscapes—an elemental approach is taken in investigating how these spaces may be noticed, internalized, recorded, and traversed by both the artist and viewer. …