Television Commons^™

From Here To InFinnerty: Tony Soprano And The American Way, Terri Carney

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As fellow critics have pointed out in a myriad of published studies on the series, The Sopranos challenges the traditional gangster genre formula and brings the mob closer to all of us: Tony and his gang inhabit a recognizable world of Starbucks, suburbia, and SUVs. They discuss issues of the day, the same ones we discuss when we turn off the TV after the episode. In short, they inhabit a quotidian reality that is continuous with our own, and we are prevented from drawing the neat lines that allow us a comfortable remove from the horror of the “criminal world,” …

What We Dreamed To Become, Caroline Clark Moore

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For my honors thesis, I created a documentary film about my experience in India this past summer.

What We Dreamed To Become depicts the journey of two people of the same African heritage: Dr. Pashington Obeng, an African Studies Professor at Harvard, and a native of Ghana; and a young Siddi boy named Budhesab Hussein.

The Siddis are an Indian ethnic group descended from African slaves. Pash has worked extensively with the Siddis for more than a decade, and hopes to create self-sufficiency within the group.

The young Budhesab has severe vision problems, and happens to join Pash on a …

The Lotus Flower, Meghan Couture

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

“The Lotus Flower” is an animation based on the epic story of Shimchong, a girl who overcomes her poverty due to her devotion to her family and later marries into the royal family. This Cinderella story is a famous Korean tale that has been told and re-told for centuries. By bringing this story to an international audience, I hope to bring at least a small awareness of the cultural and historical value of Korea.

The script was adapted and written by me, taking various versions of the folktale into account as well as putting my own details and embellishments to …

American Political Satire: The 20th Century Onward, Michael Contino

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Political satire is an implied freedom enumerated in the first amendment of the Constitution. As a form of political speech, it falls under the category of the most protected form of expression. Now that I’ve got your attention, I can go ahead with the rest of my project. This is a journalistic study of the people who used their freedom of speech to openly criticize the government. More specifically, it’s about the people who openly criticized the government and then became famous for it. Of course, there’s many ways to criticize, many platforms, many audiences, many influences as well.

What …

Style Talk: A Collection Of Interviews On Personal Style, Lauren Dulay

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My concept for this creative Capstone project is to see how much of a correlation there is between culture and fashion. I wanted to speak to people from a variety of backgrounds to see how much a person’s family and culture impacts the way one regards fashion and affects the way one dresses. In order to have a diverse set of interviews, I chose to interview three American female students and three non-American female students who attend Syracuse University.

In the past, I have noticed that many style shows focus on the current trends and do profiles on celebrities and …

Living In Spring, Danielle Peck

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Music is universally recognized as a tool for transcending the natural and cultural boundaries that separate one individual from the next. Living in Spring, a short film built upon Beethoven’s Sonata No.5 in F Major, Op. 24, 1^st Movement (informally referred to as the “Spring” Sonata), introduces this idea as a violin teacher’s advice to his student: “Each of us, we are only inside ourselves, you can only move your own fingers… music is different,” Sasha explains. Eve, the violinist, faces a challenge for her final performance—one that cannot be found in the practice room, no matter how …

Ctrl + Z, Andrew Golibersuch

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In Ctrl + Z, Amanda rides the train to work and tells her new employee the story of a particularly bizarre and life changing day from her early career. While working on her laptop at her favorite coffee shop, she discovers that her computer’s undo function, control + z, affects real life. At first she can’t believe what is happening, so she begins experimenting. Eventually she decides to use the power to her personal advantage, specifically to try to get a guy’s attention. Unfortunately she inadvertently causes some severe problems and is forced to choose between what she wants and …

Dengue Fever: Infectious Hope, Collin Shea

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract Not Included

Producing Sa Today, Lara Rolo

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

After analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of last year’s production of SA Today, I developed a new structure for the show and its purpose. SA Today is a show produced by CitrusTV for the Syracuse University Student Association, (SA). It serves as a broadcast outlet for SA to better inform and maintain contact with Syracuse University and SUNY E.S.F. students. The show’s purpose has grown under my care. With changes in design, structure, writing style and content value, my team and I have been able to create a new product produced by CitrusTV to better serve our campus viewership. The …

"Chance" Screenplay, Simone Laroche

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My Capstone Thesis is a creative screenplay pursuing the complexities of predestination and our innate obsession to control fate. I became intrigued with the idea that our decisions or actions dictate outcomes we may have had the ability to prevent or perpetuate. I recently found it difficult to accept my misfortunes for ineptitude or lack of preparation. Instead I called it “fate” or “destiny” that circumstances were not meant to work in my favor. In hindsight I realized I had allowed my passivity to compensate for my lack of commitment and courage to take risks. Granted, I do believe regardless …

Float Your Boat, Jamian Shapiro

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For the past year, I have served as the Executive Producer for the sketch comedy television show Float Your Boat. Syracuse University students produce this show through the student run television station, Citrus TV. The show is a single camera show shot entirely out of studio and on location. Each episode is composed of several sketches that can range from thirty seconds to five minutes. Each individual sketch is also posted online through a variety of websites visited by college students. Additionally, the complete episode is posted online and screened at the end of each semester. The screening is …

The 'Truthiness' Of The 'Daily Show Effect': A Presidency Study, Holly Thomas

2011 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

News-gathering for the American public changed in the past decade with a decline in trust for journalists and news media (Jones 2009), technology advancement (Haynes and Pitts 2009), and entertainment becoming a priority (Jones 2009; Haynes and Pitts 2009; Baumgartner and Morris 2006; Colletta 2009). Television, radio, and newspapers (the traditional media) are still used today with broadcast and cable television being the dominate news source (Colletta 2009; Haynes and Pitts 2009), however, an increased amount of Americans utilize the internet for their news information through what is known as new media, referring to Web blogs and social networks. Haynes …

“Better Multiculturalism” Through Technology: Dora The Explorer And The Training Of The Preschool Viewer(S), Drew Chappell

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

No abstract provided.

Design Collaboration As A Tool For Developing Diversity In The Work Place, Rees E. E. Shad

Publications and Research

Without a doubt the modern workplace is one made up of numerous working professionals graced with an array of varied abilities who work in tandem to meet a common goal. In this article the author recounts his personal journey to embracing the collaborative process and how he has honed and developed the skill set into an important element of design curriculum in order to prepare students for this fundamental market paradigm.

Social Themes As Reflected In Film: Scholarship, Criticism, And Theory, Leslie M. Kong

Library Faculty Publications & Presentations

As faculty, we strive to develop methodologies to make more meaningful to students the concepts and principles taught in our courses. Over the years, growing literature has developed that supports the use of popular films, as well as documentaries, in college and university curricula. This essay is not intended as an exhaustive or comprehensive study of resources in this area, but rather as a guide to works that faculty will find relevant in supporting various courses.

Homecoming, Sandra Appiah

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The media is a business, but unfortunately has the greatest impact on society. Today, most people get their information from the Media and tend to believe everything it presents without much of a critical analysis or reflection. Africa is a continent filled with many natural resources, a unique culture, a rich history, and more. However when one turns on the Television in the western society, all that is presented is the negative side of Africa. We see the starvation and aids epidemic, we see the tribal wars, corruption, and more. There is always the presentation of the need for charity …

Red Rock: An Original Dramatic Tv Series, Jared Shalek

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The concept of my Capstone Project is a screenplay for an original, dramatic television series. The idea was conceived during the summer going into my senior year, as I examined the script I had just written for TRF 400: Dramatic Writing for Television, a class I took in spring 2009 with Tom Seeley. I had labored over the script for the second half of that semester, and Professor Seeley really liked the idea from the start, but ultimately I did not fare as well I wanted to in terms of the final grade. Thus, I decided that I would redraft …

Amanda Green, Alex Piliouras

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

I have submitted for my Capstone Project three interactive scripts for the series Amanda Green. The series features a fourteen-year-old girl, Amanda Green, who solves mysteries with her friend Jerome relating to school and social life. In the pilot episode, submitted here, Amanda hopes to ask the school heartthrob to the dance, but is robbed of the opportunity when the principal announces that the dance is canceled due to an act of vandalism. After her grandmother regales her with an inspirational story, Amanda decides to head an investigation of the crime scene in the hopes of solving the mystery …

Still Water, Louis Foglia

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Still Water is full-length feature screenplay with the driving premise that vengeance creates suffering. While the script might be characterized as a procedural in that relies heavily on the plot to create suspense and to sustain a dramatic momentum that keeps the audience engaged, I was also interested in adding a layer of provocative depth to the story. Consequently, Still Water explores the themes of guilt, redemption, vengeance, corruption, and Italian-American identity.

Still Water is the story of the Sippilini family. During his campaign for Manhattan District Attorney, the family’s patriarch, Richard, gets involved in a corruption scandal that ultimately …

Memories Cloaked In Magic: Memory And Identity In Tin Man, Anne Collins Smith

Faculty Publications

In Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film [Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995], J. P. Telotte argues that "through its long history, one that dates back to the very origins of film, this genre [science fiction] has focused its attention on the problematic nature of human being and the difficult task of being human." [1-2] The thesis of the book, he states, is "relatively simple—that the image of human artifice ... is the single most important one in the genre. [...] Through this image of artifice, our films have sought to reframe the human image …

Para-Romantic Love And Para-Friendships: Development And Assessment Of A Multiple-Parasocial Relationships Scale, Riva Tukachinsky

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Parasocial-relationships (PSR) are viewers' imaginary relationships with media personae. Despite the growing body of research on PSR, the field is still lacking a clear conceptualization and precise measure of this phenomenon. The present study suggests a novel theorization of PSR as para-friendship and para-love. Study 1 demonstrates construct validity of a new Multiple-PSR scale using the logic of a multi-trait multi-method approach. Study 2 replicates the factorial solution using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, Study 3 provides evidence for the criterion validity of the scales. Together, these findings suggest that PSR encompass several types of relationships that might mediate different media …

Beyond Netflix And Tivo: Rethinking Hbo Through The Archive, Shayne Pepper

Communication, Media and Theatre Faculty Publications

As you read this, someone out there is writing an essay about HBO. We hear them every year at SCMS and NCA, and our inboxes continually receive the CFPs for edited collections on the series of the moment. Though this work is often important and insightful, it is true that as HBO approaches its forty-year anniversary much of this work has focused on the last ten years of programming – all but ignoring the first thirty. As we continually try to keep up with new content, we must not ignore the crucial history of HBO’s early years and all that …

Film Score, Jeff Peters

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My capstone project involves creating an original musical score to an independent film. As the music is so invested in the narrative of the film, all work leading up to the actual composition of the music was on the history of film scoring and possible technical and creative methods, learned in classes on the subject. This knowledge and hands-on practice provided me with some limited experience, but this film was the first practical application of my composing skills.

My extensive background in music allowed me to perform all of the parts heard in the score. It was my job to …

The Lovely Invader: A Documentary On Lonicera Research, Danielle S. Houghton

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For over a year a half, I followed Steve Maheux, a Biology major, throughout his journey to conduct a research study on honeysuckle, an invasive plant. He posed a question regarding the possibility of predicting the occurrence of an invasive plant based on certain environmental factors: soil depth, soil pH, neighboring plants and other aspects that would make up an ideal environment for this menacing plant. The focus of my documentary was to show what true research looks like in all of its tedious glory. Research isn’t fancy. It often doesn’t make for “sexy film,” but it is vital for …

Pickle Jarred, Robert Hetzron

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The concept behind my capstone project was to creative a narrative in which a seemingly apathetic, appropriately disgruntled, teenager is propelled to social activity which will not only benefit himself personally, but his overall community. In order to do so, I set to develop a short-story narrative, entitled “The Pickle Jar,” and then adapt it into a screenplay.

In writing the short story, I set to narrate the drama and provide insight into Neil’s psyche through first-person dialogue. Neil would narrate the drama while allowing the reader to hear his inner-thoughts and opinions throughout the process. The plot would follow …

A Qualitative Assessment Of College-Students’ Functional Health Literacy: A Case-Study At Syracuse University, Thomas D. Wichman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This case study of Syracuse University’s health promotion and student health behavior provides data that may be employed to understand and influence future, functional health literacy. Key components of functional health literacy—self efficacy, independence, institutional services, social influences, gender, etc.—rise to the surface, and are the focus of this analysis. This study was approved by the University’s Institutional Review Board for the Fall 2008 term, and received funding through the Crown Wise Scholarship. The research subjects include a convenience sample of 26 full-time, college seniors. The subjects were divided into four focus groups to provide qualitative data on 21 topics …

Sons Of Liberty, Scott Fluhler

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract not Included

How A Work Changes In Response To The Work Itself: Researching Civil War Photography, A Case Study, Rose Margolis

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This piece combines my two passions of history and television/film. I have been able to combine these two passions by doing two years of research on Civil War photography and sketch artists.

My original intention was to create a documentary about this topic, but due to unanswered questions about copyright I quickly abandoned this idea. I then moved onto writing a screenplay after slightly narrowing my topic to focus on three photographers: Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy H. O’Sullivan. My intent was to focus on how they made the photographs, their relationship to each other, and why Gardner and …

Archbold Stadium The Story Of ‘78, Gordon Christopher Brookes

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Archbold Stadium, The Story of ’78, was inspired by an exhibit at the Syracuse University Admissions Office. The exhibit was a number of old postcards, and one of these was of Archbold Stadium. The stadium was home to Syracuse football from 1907 to 1978, and was home to such greats as Ernie Davis, Jim Brown, Floyd Little, and many others. The 1959 team that played there won Syracuse’s only national football championship, and was home to its only Heisman winner. When it was built in 1907 by John D. Archbold, it was the largest concrete stadium in the world, costing …

Torturing Terrorists For National Security Imperatives: Mediated Violence On "24", Michael D. Sears

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study analyzed mediated violent content as seen on the FOX television program 24. The study covered a seven year period, or six seasons, of 24 , with a sample set of 43 episodes and 445 individual acts ofviolence. Three research questions guided this study. The first research question sought to determine if a relation exists between heroic characters inflicting torturous violence and justifying the act with a national security imperative. The second research question examined the prevailing mode of violence and the use of nonlethal and lethal weapons. The third research question examined the portrayed efficiency of violence on …