Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Reviving Revive. Is The Notion Of An Independent Artist An Outdated Concept?, Richard C. Moore Mr

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This article published in Spectator Magazine - online - is a reflection on whether or not a cultural policy is a means of controlling the artistic community and whether there is still such a being as an independent Australian artist. It was published as the 2026 submissions for an update to Australia's cultural policy REVIVE -  were closing.

Red, White, And Quahog: An Analysis Of Political Satire In Family Guy, Kendall Swaim

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This study examines how fictional television shows use satire to portray politics. Specifically, it analyzes irony, exaggeration, and humor styles identified by Martin et al. (2003) in the television show Family Guy. Additionally, this study explores how references to real political figures and events contribute to the show’s satirical framing of politics. The qualitative content analysis of 10 politically centered Family Guy episodes to address the question: "How does the fictional television show Family Guy use satire (humor, irony, and exaggeration) to portray politics?" The analysis revealed three key themes: the portrayal of politics as idiotic, the use of timely …

Netflix, Between Intercultural Exchange And Monopolizing Tendencies: Streaming Consumption, Production, And Distribution In Romania, Ana-Maria Calancea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the development and involvement of the SVOD platform Netflix in Romania in the context of a global media corporation engaging with a local market. Romania’s status as a former communist country acts as a good case study highlighting the long-term consequences of diverse content deprivation. I argue that in a country such as Romania, a service like Netflix can provide a so-called indirect intercultural exchange through the production and distribution of easily accessible diverse content, whether that diversity stems from nationality, ethnicity, race, sexuality, or any unconventional form of expression that was restricted or censored in the …

Lost & Found: The Postmodernism Of Japan's "Lost Decades" In Kamen Rider Decade, Andrew K. Barrow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As a franchise, Kamen Rider is underrepresented in anglophonic scholarship despite its potential to relate postmodern texts, nostalgia, and history. In making these relations, Decade in particular challenges postmodern critiques that were prevalent in its time and during the time of the material it references, from 2000 to 2008. Scholars critical of postmodernism such as Fredric Jameson and Hiroki Azuma situate themselves as such because of postmodernism’s perceived detachment from history and lack of depth, creating a cultural logic of artworks that pales in comparison to older logics and eras. By teaching himself and another Kamen Rider morals and lessons …

Framing Affect: Close Up To Feeling With Women At The Eighteenth-Century Theatre On The Twenty-First Century Screen, Ros M. Ballaster Professor

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Period films and television dramas of the twenty-first century use scenes of attendance at the theatre by women in the (long) eighteenth century as a test of their capacity to feel. Such scenes provide an opportunity to measure the competing affordances of screen and stage regarding affect in the eighteenth century and our present moment. Explored are scenes of theatrical affect from Dangerous Liaisons (1998) to The Duchess (2008), Harlots (2017), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Bridgerton (2020). The figure of the liberated, educated, and aesthetically sensitive woman serves in period fiction on stage, screen and page more …

Roaming Pixels: Clipping The Operative Close-Up, Vanessa Gravenor

Artl@s Bulletin

Abstract: This essay examines the disseminated war image as it takes off at the speed of light. It seeks to challenge the legacy of the post-structuralist spectator who watches war by complicating this figure with post-colonial perspectives where the distanced, global war dissemination collapses into the intimate, subjective gaze. Focusing on artist–theorist perspectives, it traces strategies for working with the digital broadcast of war, specifically from the 2000s and 2010s, and artists who peer into uncertain pixels and the cruelty of the close-up.

Zusammenfassung: In diesem Essay wird das verbreitete Kriegsbild untersucht, das mit Lichtgeschwindigkeit abhebt. Er versucht, das Erbe …

Think Piece: New South Korean Framework For Conceptualizing Nonkoreans?: Taehanoegugin And The Politics Of National Boundary-Making, Min Joo Lee

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Taehanoegugin is a newly coined Korean term that gained popularity around 2018 when a television program of the same name began airing on one of the Korean cable networks. It is a mixture of two independent and preexisting terms: the first part of the word, Taehan (대한), refers to the Republic of Korea; the latter part of the term, Oegugin (외국인), means foreigner. Hence, translated, the term means the Republic of Korean-foreigners. The term gained popularity enough to be adopted by other television entertainment programs and a sector of the government. What can we make of the term’s popularity? Does …

Reparative Cuteness: Summer Camp Island’S Obfuscated Streaming Distribution Reveals Our Dependence On Monetary Care, James R. Hanjian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Summer Camp Island exhibits the culmination of the animation styles and ethics of dependent care produced within contemporary Cartoon Network animations. As part of the production cycle of Warner Bros. animated television programs following Adventure Time, Julia Pott’s animated program depicts networks of collaborative care informed by the lived realities of the creator-animators. By employing a reparative reading of the narratives and cute aesthetics which appear in the program, I maintain that the care networks presented within the diegesis of Summer Camp Island depict alternatives to the precarious economic and industrial realities that actively shaped the show’s production and distribution. …

Sacred Connections In Cartoonish Places: Exploring The Implications Of Teotl In Avatar: The Last Airbender (2008), Makenzie P. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Taking Avatar: The Last Airbender (2008) seriously, Sacred Connections in Cartoonish Places explores the animated children’s series and how it is understood through the monistic Nahua (Aztec) concept of teotl. Relying on James Maffie’s text Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion (2014), this thesis determines that Avatar: The Last Airbender benefits from monistic analysis. This analysis results in a breakdown of the show into four body chapters. These chapters respectively explore Aang’s role as a monistic representative, the differences between the physical and spirit worlds presented in the show, the kind of relationships that appear in the series, and …

A Historical Analysis Of Saturday Night Live's Engagement In American Presidential Politics, Isabel Fox

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In October 1975, Saturday Night Live began its journey of changing not only television but the ways in which Americans understand political discourse. When the production first aired it introduced the world to Chevy Chase’s Nixon impersonation and has continued that tradition with Will Ferrel’s George Bush, Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump—and many more. But between these comedic impersonations the show also introduced the world to a satirical newsroom in Weekend Update and hosted numerous politicians. From the way this all sounds it would seem as though Saturday Night Live is akin to network news and yet …

Severance As Metaserial Dystopia: Penal Spectatorship And Critical Reintegration, Sofia Buntz

Scripps Senior Theses

Typical prison media, while purporting to represent incarceration and its social meaning to the public, transforms lived realities of state-sanctioned violence into entertainment spectacle and operates under strict material and ideological constraints that prevent it from meaningfully questioning the legitimacy and function of the prison as a built institution. The television series Severance (2022), however, represents incarceration in the form of the dystopian office-prison where the innies are trapped, employing metaserial and science fictional narrative mechanisms to critically implicate the spectator. The show’s science fictional premise links the explicit violence of incarceration to the more subtle form of disciplinary control …

The Romanticization Of Human-Vampire Relationships: How 'Twilight' And 'The Vampire Diaries' May Prime Young Women To Accept Dating Violence, Natalie M. Bowen

UROP Posters

The first literary vampire can be traced back to 18th century Germany, with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Die Braut von Korinth,” but the stereotypical features of a vampire are traditionally accredited to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Modern vampires, such as Edward Cullen and Stefan Salvatore of the Twilight and The Vampire Diaries series respectively, have managed to win the hearts of teenage girls all across America with their sex appeal and charismatic nature. According to Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, individuals learn new behaviors by modeling and imitating the actions of those around them. This comprehensive literature review investigates the connection …

Translating A Culture: How Subtitles In Popular Tv Shows Friends And La Que Se Avecina (The One That Looms) Maintain National Culture Within Translations, Abigail Lamkin

Undergraduate Theses

This study aims to determine the best ways for comedy-based TV shows to be translated so their cultural significance can be maintained while also becoming a piece of media that is enjoyed across linguistic barriers. Data was gathered from the TV shows Friends and La que se avecina and analyzed through comparison with one another. Analysis reveals both shows use unique techniques as a result of the specific challenges subtitle translators faced for the shows, but in general, focusing on one aspect of the translation over another would prevent the audience from enjoying the show. Friends's translations rely on …

Bad Girls: Agency, Revenge, And Redemption In Contemporary Drama, Courtney Watson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Cultural movements including #TimesUp and #MeToo have contributed momentum to the demand for and development of smart, justified female criminal characters in contemporary television drama. These women are representations of shifting power dynamics, and they possess agency as they channel their desires and fury into success, redemption, and revenge. Building on works including Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, dramas produced since 2016—including The Handmaid’s Tale, Ozark, and Killing Eve—have featured the rise of women who use rule-breaking, rebellion, and crime to enact positive change.

A Gendered Perspective On Policing Violence In Happy Valley And Fargo, T. Allen Culpepper

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Portrayal of a police officer determined to fight crime and execute justice in a harsh, isolated environment has become a television and film subgenre, often featuring women facing gender-related challenges. The issues raised in Sally Wainwright’s British television series Happy Valley, can be made more accessible, particularly to American undergraduate students, via its commonalities with the Coen brothers film Fargo. In both, a tough but compassionate policewoman pursues the more sociopathic of a pair of criminals involved in a botched kidnapping attempt instigated by an inept businessman, taking on the case for personal and professional honor, and as …

Science Fiction, Eng 2420, Syllabus And Course Outline, Jason W. Ellis

Open Educational Resources

This Science Fiction, ENG2420 syllabus and course outline was written for an online, asynchronous class taught in the Department of English at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY. It was designed to compliment the OER Yet Another Science Fiction Textbook (YASFT) and have a Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) approach with readings and viewings found primarily through the Internet Archive. The course follows a historical approach to the science fiction genre covering the Origins of Science Fiction, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Proto-SF, Pulp SF, SF Film Serials, Golden Age SF, SF Film Through the 1950s, New Wave …

Review Of Beltran, Latino Tv, Kate L. Flach

Journal of 20th Century Media History

A review of Latino TV: A History, by Mary Beltran

Queering Tv In The Age Of Tiktok, Greta Reel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

This thesis asks how fans have created their own queer representation on the social media platform TikTok. It looks at the tools afforded by TikTok that fans have used to “ship” non-canon woman-loving-woman couples and to “queer” television show characters. It also examines how fans on TikTok have reacted to television plotlines they were unhappy with, such as the “bury your gays” trope. Four shows, all after the year 2000, are used as case studies. These shows are Wednesday (2022-present), Criminal Minds (2005-present), Stranger Things (2016-present), and Killing Eve (2018-2022). Numerous TikTok videos and comments revolving around each show are …

That Girl Vs. New Girl: The Perils Of Choice Feminism, Katherine Noble

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

In recent years, Elizabeth Meriwether’s television show New Girl has begun to reach the status of a cult classic. The show’s sharp humor and quirky protagonist have captured the hearts and minds of many. But is this all for the good? New Girl features a controversial protagonist, Jessica Day, whose personality grates on some and resonates with others. Jessica represents stereotypically feminine interests and ideals yet takes on a leading role and independence not always afforded to female characters. This opens her, and the larger show, up to feminist readings and critiques. Surprisingly, little scholarly research has been conducted on …

Dark As Day, Rachel Keady

CMC Senior Theses

“All works, no matter what or by whom painted, are nothing but bagatelles and childish trifles... unless they are made and painted from life, and there can be nothing... better than to follow nature." - Caravaggio

In the fall of 2021, I registered to take “Italian Baroque Art” with Professor Gorse at Pomona College, for the spring of 2022. Professor Faggen, one of my advisors, encouraged this and piqued my interest in the characters of this world. After some casual online research, I was transfixed by one artist in particular: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. How could I not be struck …

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

Communications: Faculty Publications

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 …

Review Of Berke, Their Own Best Creations, Cynthia Meyers

Journal of 20th Century Media History

Review of Their Own Best Creation: Women Writers in Postwar Television, by Annie Berke.

“America’S Nervous Breakdown”: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Popular Psychology, And The Demise Of The Housewife In The 1970s, Kate L. Flach

Journal of 20th Century Media History

In 1976, soap opera satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (MH, MH) debuted and reached an estimated 55 million households. Produced by Norman Lear, the central storyline developed during the first season involved the mental breakdown of Mary Hartman (Louise Lasser), a typical consumer housewife who Lear claimed metaphorically represented the United States. Portraying a discontent housewife with mental illness as a proxy for the nation reflects how ubiquitous popular psychology became in explaining American anxieties over the transformations of the family and politics. An analysis of tape-recorded writers meetings reveals that the show’s creators pulled from contemporary books, theories, and …

The Meaning Of The Mask: Darth Vader On The Screen And The Page, Brenna Renfroe

Honors Theses

Masks can be found throughout popular culture, and their roots trace back through history. Whether on the screen, the page of a comic book, the stage, or in the halls of a Comic-Con, masked faces are intriguing. Among the numerous masked faces that populate our imagination, few are as iconic and instantly recognizable as Darth Vader from Star Wars. Despite his popularity, most of the research devoted to masked characters has been interested in why heroes such as Batman wear masks. There is little research on why a tragic hero turned villain does so, since the connotation of masks seems …

Representations Of Time In Time-Based Media: An Exploration Of The Human Experience Of Temporality In Film And Tv, Nelea Fong

Honors Thesis

Time is an aspect of the human experience that fascinates us but eludes our understanding. Humans have turned to science, philosophy, and theology in our endeavor to understand time, but our shared love and history of storytelling drives us to explore temporality through visual medias that have a structural foundation in time. Expanding our understanding of the human experience of time through time-based media such as movies and TV can point us toward comprehending various forms of time and how each person can perceive said time differently. Using film and TV theory, informed by scientific and philosophical explorations in the …

Bozo The Clown: An Icon As American As An Apple Pie In The Face, Gregory Kent Oswald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is no single path toward the creation of an American icon, a person or item with resonance to all in the country as well as having an ability to serve as a symbol of America itself for those outside the borders. This thesis considers certain elements that propelled the journey of the entertainment for children, Bozo the Clown, into a representational figure in the minds of young and old. Like all things American, his roots include many elements from outside the country: the name derives from foreign tongues mostly in derisory terms, but in at least one instance as …

Queering Marianne: Witchcraft As A Means Of Sexual Freedom, Amber Guerena

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis is divided in three parts to argue that Emma in the series, Marianne, is homosexual. The first section explains that the witch, Marianne, embodies Emma’s repressed homosexual desires and that her reintroduction to Emma’s life signifies her break away from heteronormative expectations. The second section centers on how religion contributes to Emma’s internal conflict regarding her sexuality. She struggles with choosing which religion to embrace: Christianity, which doesn’t support homosexuality, or witchcraft, which does support homosexuality. The third section explains the strategic choices that the series took to portray Emma’s acceptance of herself and witchcraft. The series …

“Good War” On The Cool Medium: The Cold War's Influence On The Portrayal Of World War Ii On American Television, Michael A. Losasso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a cultural history of the Cold War’s influence on the portrayal of World War II on American television. In it, I chronicle the production, reception, and presentation of the war of three prominent American-produced documentary series from three periods of the Cold War – Victory at Sea (1952-1953), The Twentieth Century (1957-1966), and The Unknown War (1978). The dissertation posits that from the 1940s-1960s, the television portrayal of World War II was an embodiment of the values- that the United Sates was “fighting” for through a “triumphalist” narrative of a “just war” which recast the role of …

Glass House S1:E1 “Sweet Temptations”, Taylor Middleton

Honors Theses

Sweet Temptations tells the story of the Price family navigating their new lives in Cape Huron. Enticed by the opportunity of a new job with great benefits, the Price family moves to Cape Huron, Maine, a small town with mysterious goings-on. While father, Paul, starts work at the factory in town, twins Seth and Samantha start their senior year of high school. Everything in the town is perfect at surface level, the houses are all the same cookie-cutter design with the exception of the different color palettes and furniture styles. The perfect All-American façade comes crashing down when Seth and …

Persian Squares, Natasha Sabour

LMU Theses and Dissertations

After moving to Los Angeles, California, polar opposite sisters Sahar and Roxana struggle to find jobs, husbands, and their Persian identity. Here’s hoping they can find the 405!