Television Commons^™

Egypt's Police State In The Work Of Idris And Mahfouz, David F. Dimeo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Egypt's Police State in the Work of Idris and Mahfouz" David F. DiMeo examines how two leading twentieth-century authors of politically committed fiction addressed an angry generation's confrontations with former members of the oppressive state police apparatus. Yusuf Idris's The Black Policeman (1962) and Najib Mahfouz's al-Karnak (1974) remain particularly relevant as today's Egyptian activists confront the vestiges of the former regime's security forces. Using Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the carnival as a paradigm for analysis, DiMeo examines how both texts present sharp contrasts between hollow quests for public revenge through purges and a genuine overturning of …

Metaphor Translation As A Tool Of Intercultural Understanding, Ipshita Chanda

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Metaphor Translation as a Tool of Intercultural Understanding" Ipshita Chanda takes up specific cases of metaphor translation as a methodological exercise towards understanding intercultural exchange. Chanda's study is based on a semiotic and linguistic understanding of metaphor as a signifying and cognitive device. When a metaphor is translated from one linguistic-literary field into another, the process of translation itself yields some specific operational steps for studying inter- and cross-cultural relations. Here, translation is not proposed as a framework but as practical method: the translation of metaphor becomes an exercise in strategy for the pedagogy of …

Aesthetics In Gao's Soul Mountain, Mabel Lee

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Aesthetics in Gao's Soul Mountain" Mabel Lee analyses Nobel Laureate 2000 Xingjian Gao's aesthetics. Transnational conglomerates today control the book industry from publishing house to bookshop and through aggressive market strategies they exert considerable influence on readers. Nonetheless, there are writers who refuse to capitulate to market demands and seek only to actualize their aesthetic ideas in the creation of literary texts. One such writer is Gao, author of the novel Soul Mountain. Lee posits that Gao's aesthetics is founded on the close interrogation of both Chinese and European models and practices and explores specific …

Nostalgia In Oral Histories Of Israeli Women, Yael Zilberman

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Nostalgia in Oral Histories of Israeli Women" Yael Zilberman explores the narration of nostalgia of elderly women about the city of Be'er Sheva. In their narration, the subjects of the study create textual and spatial practices which are engendered and create analogies between the city, their maturing/ed bodies, and by-gone youth. Further, the grief owing to the perceived condition of the city intensifies the idealized description of the city and the longing for its past. Zilberman's study brakes new ground in that the study of urban experience within folklore is a lesser explored field as the urban …

Victims Of The City In Novels Of Zola And Dostoevsky, Marta L. Wilkinson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Victims of the City in Novels of Zola and Dostoevsky" Marta Wilkinson argues that urbanity in its nineteenth-century setting functioned as the culpable agent in criminal behavior found in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and in several of Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels. Wilkinson an analysis of the novels based on Merlin Coverly's concept of psychogeography which supports the extension of the cityscape as an integral part of the novels' characters. Further, Wilkinson illustrates how in Zola's and Dostoevsky's novels the city reigns triumphant as characters fall victim to disease, drink, or are left with desperate choices: in Dostoevsky's novel …

Contemporary Us-American Satire And Consumerism (Crews, Coupland, Palahniuk), J.C. Lee

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Contemporary US-American Satire and Consumerism (Crews, Coupland, Palahniuk)" J.C. Lee focuses on contemporary satire's potential (or lack thereof) for change, reform, or rebellion through an investigation of works by Harry Crews, Douglas Coupland, and Chuck Palahniuk, all of which target consumerism. The said writers employ satire not to initiate rebellion or cultural change, but to reflect the problematic role of institutions in modern life and, in turn, the potential, even hope, for personal growth. Lee's analysis of texts by Crews, Coupland, and Palahniuk is intended to question satire's potential as a form of cultural critique and institutional …

Memory, Identity, And Narration: A Book Review Of New Work By Assmann And Conrad And Tilmans, Vree, And Winter, Simona Mitroiu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Communications And Media Studies Newletter 2012 Fall, Communications & Media Studies

Communication and Media Studies Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Postmodern Sense Of Nostalgia: Demonstrating Through A Textual Analysis Of Twin Peaks How Cult Membership Can Be Inculcated., Nicholas G. Albanese

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This paper explores a “cult” following in television, by looking at various aspects of the program Twin Peaks. It seeks to answer the questions of how a television show that aired for only two seasons over two decades ago was and still is able to garner such a loyal fandom, and is there some primary factor for developing this cult status? In order to answer these questions, aspects of media studies such as narrative complexity, authorship and the cult status of a show, as well as elements from the show itself, such as postmodernism and manufactured nostalgia must be teased …

Lost In Space No Longer: The Visionary Union Of 'The Wire', Brett Dupré

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In its serial space, David Simon’s The Wire season two relates the seemingly “disconnected” union men, foreign sex worker women, and African-American drug traders and crosses constructed boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, and geography to evoke the possibility of a transnational working class. The Wire’s serialized narrative trespasses the limitations of money and numbers games and of individual characters to build, scene by scene, what Roderick Ferguson calls in Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique “the location for new and emergent identifications and social relations” (108).

Movie And Television Fathers: A Positive Reflection Of Positive Changes, George J. Mcgowan

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Certain films and television programs depicting fathers have both enduring popularity and have reflected the advances in the institution of fatherhood. This has happened because of a symbiosis that has delivered positive results: popular films and television shows that earn money for producers and advertisers have depicted fathers who have changed to reflect the popular example. These depictions have contributed in their way to mending the family dynamic, specifically related to the father’s essential role in the family. Such family-oriented films and television shows have effectively showed fathers (and men that would become fathers) that they could be much more …

The Engage Project, Mark Schenker

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Engage Project is a web series showcasing student experiences in high school with perspectives from different countries around the world. The site is written in html/css and was created using a combination of Dreamweaver and Photoshop CS5. The video used in the project was recorded using a Sony handicam and edited using Final Cut Pro X. The videos are hosted on Vimeo.com and are integrated into the design of the site through the use of iframes.

The purpose of the site is to share student stories about high school to current high school students, allowing them to see multiple …

A Virtual Tour Of Wku’S Main Campus, Zachary Ryle

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In my WKU Honors College Capstone Experience entitled “A Virtual Tour of WKU’s Main Campus,” my task was to create a virtual tour students across the state, country and even around the world could use to view WKU’s campus without ever setting foot in Bowling Green. Throughout this experience, I filmed myself giving individual tour of over 60 different locations on WKU’s campus, with a total of 72 buildings and locations earning markers on the campus map. This virtual tour was created during the summer of 2011 and was completed by November of that same year. Once completed, Admissions Counselors …

“East Meets West”: Symphony Television Production, Nathanael Hovee

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

“East Meets West”: Symphony Television Production is a multi-camera broadcasting project covering WKU Symphony’s live performance titled “East Meets West” in Van Meter Hall on March 16, 2012. The project involved recording the WKU Symphony’s ninety-minute live performance using seven professional high-definition cameras throughout the auditorium and directing camera operators from the television control booth. The footage from each camera was synced in post-production and edited down for regional broadcast and distribution. The final video includes a majority of the pieces presented during the performance on March 16, as well as brief informative interviews with members of the WKU Symphony. …

Mtv’S Jersey Shore: An Educator On Interpersonal Relationships, Gender Roles And Embracing Manhood, Brooke Swift

Honors College Theses

Throughout the history of research in the media much has been said about the connection to social learning through television. With the rise of popular genre reality television, my findings proved a lack of previous research on reality television. By using Gerbners’ cultivation theory and my own textual analysis of MTV’s Jersey Shore season five, the following research provides direct messages from the show about gender norms, heteronormative relationships and women in the male gaze. This paper presents the audience with connecting past research on social learning through media to the messages that are being conveyed to our younger generations …

Satire And Dissent: A Theoretical Overview, Amber Day

English and Cultural Studies Journal Articles

In an age when Jon Stewart tops lists of most-trusted newscasters and Michael Moore becomes a focus of political campaign analysis, the satiric register has attained renewed and urgent prominence in political discourse. Day focuses on three central contemporary forms: the parodic news show, the satiric documentary, and ironic activism. She highlights their shared objective of circumventing the standard conduits of political information and the highly stage-managed nature of current political discourse. In so doing, she argues, they provide fans with a sense of community and purpose notably lacking from organized politics in the twenty-first century.

Bears, Baby Carrots, And The Colbert Bump: An Analysis On Stephen Colbert's Use Of Humor To Set The Public's Political Agenda, Dominique Mckay

Masters Theses

In recent years, political satire has risen in popularity and recognition as an effective means of transmitting political news to a younger generation of voters. This recent development brings forth new questions about the role of political satire in setting the public's political agenda. Using Agenda-Setting Theory as a framework, this study takes The Colbert Report, one of the most popular satire television shows of this generation, and analyzes it for a possible political agenda. In the end, what this study finds is that in the six weeks leading up to the 2008 U.S. presidential election The Colbert Report chose …

Busting A Gut: Portrayals Of Obesity In Popular Culture, Carly Babel

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

Obesity is America’s number one leading health epidemic, affecting more than 93 million Americans today (OAC). From 1985 to 2010, obesity has gone from affecting an average of 10% of individuals in just about every state to today affecting 33.8% of people within each state. Children and adults alike all over the U.S. are being diagnosed with obesity and encouraged to change their lifestyles. Doctors are prescribing patients to lose weight, exercise, eat healthy, and in extreme cases, go under the knife, but none of these recommendations are making a dent in lowering the rate of obesity. Rather, the number …

Marked Woman (1937) And The Dialectics Of Art Deco In The Classical Gangster Genre, Drew Todd

Faculty Publications

In this article, I analyse the function of Art Deco designs in the 1930s gangster genre and, in particular, Warner Brothers' Marked Woman (Bacon, 1937). Like many gangster films of the period, it associates high-style Art Deco with excess and the criminal underworld. My findings, however, reveal a tension between the film's moralist stance and its visual excess. Compelling visual signifiers of leisure, style and social mobility, the modern designs are free to circumvent the film's critical message and reinforce American capitalist ideologies. My analyses underscore Art Deco as an emblematic style of commercial modernity. Marked Woman and other gangster …

The Civil Rights Movement: The Power Of Television, Amanda Philley

3690: A Journal of First-Year Student Research Writing

Overview: “I am not a nigger” (Thomas). These five words seared through American television screens in May of 1963. James Baldwin, a preacher and novelist, declared his freedom from the chains of discrimination in an interview with Kenneth Clark and forever changed the conscience of black and white television owners. When asked if he was optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the nation, Baldwin made one thing clear: the fate of America lies within the ability to answer the question, why was the ‘nigger’ created? Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin grew up following in his father’s footsteps as …

Relationally Aggressive Media Exposure And Children’S Normative Beliefs: Does Parental Mediation Matter?, Jennifer Ruh Linder, Nicole E. Werner

Faculty Publications

Research indicates that relationally aggressive media exposure is positively associated with relational aggression in children. Theories of media effects suggest that these associations may be mediated by aggressive cognitions. Although parental mediation can attenuate the effects of violent media, it is unknown whether there are similar benefits of parental mediation of relationally aggressive media. The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between relationally aggressive television and movie exposure and normative beliefs about relational aggression, and whether parental mediation moderates these associations. Participants were 103 children (50% female) in grades 3-6 and their parents. The following year, 48 children (52% …

Michelle Birch's Eportfolio, Michelle Birch

ePortfolio Showcase

My ePortfolio best displays my academic and professional achievements as an aspiring producer in the television industry.

Live From New York, It's The Fake News! Saturday Night Live And The (Non)Politics Of Parody, Amber Day, Ethan Thompson

English and Cultural Studies Journal Articles

Though Saturday Night Live's “Weekend Update” has become one of the most iconic of fake news programs, it is remarkably unfocused on either satiric critique or parody of particular news conventions. Instead, the segment has been shaped by a series of hosts who made a name for themselves by developing distinctive comic personalities. In contrast to more politically invested contemporary programs, the genre of fake news on Saturday Night Live has been largely emptied to serve the needs of the larger show, maintaining its status as just topical, hip, and unthreatening enough to attract celebrities and politicians, as well …

Hegemonic Peter?: A Critical Analysis Of Hegemonic Masculinity In Family Guy, Justin Danowski

Masters Theses

Hegemonic masculinity is a constantly evolving and highly nuanced theory. The original definition was designed to study the oppression males exert over females. Later definitions expanded on the original to include young, effeminate or gay men. In the realm of television, hegemonic masculine forces are perpetuated by not only male characters but marginalized groups as well. This creates gender stereotypes to be accepted and embraced as the norm in a culture. This project takes a critical look at the animated television comedy Family Guy and explains how hegemonic masculinity is portrayed throughout the episode "Family Gay". To accomplish this, the …

A Kitchen Of One's Own: The Paradox Of Dione Lucas, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

First appearing on the air in 1947, Dione Lucas was one of the earliest television cooking-show hosts. As a business owner, single mother, influential salesperson, and highly respected professional in her field (Julia Child referred to Lucas as “the mother of French cooking in America”), Lucas was a pioneer and potentially powerful role model. Given this profile, however, she was an anachronism and out of sync with the majority of contemporary women and home cooks. She was likewise out of sync with her television peers, as most homemaking programs were hosted by home economists and were contexts wherein thrift and …

Murrow And Friendly’S Small World: Television Conversation At The Crossroads, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Small World

(1958–60), an Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly television production, brought together political and entertainment figures from around the world, boasting technological innovation and a high level of public affairs discourse. The author discusses critical reception, producers’ ideals, cultural and historical context, and relation-ships to evolving notions of public service broadcasting.

Contribution Of The Film & Television Industry To The Economies Of Oregon And The Portland Metropolitan Area: An Economic Impact Analysis For The Oregon Governor’S Office Of Film And Television, Jeff Renfro, Jenny H. Liu

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Research report on the economic footprint of the TV and Film Industry in Oregon and the Portland Metro Area.

Citizen Bunker: Archie Bunker As Working-Class Icon., Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Archie Bunker, the central character and patriarch of Norman Lear’s “All in the Family,” (1971-1979) has been referred to as an “everyman” and an “angry-man prototype” with “hard had prejudice.” The name Archie Bunker itself has become synonymous with a blue-collar, racially chauvinistic mentality. The title of the show’s pilot and theme song, “Those Were the Days,” emphasized Archie’s dream of a simpler (though idealized) time, a world that he could understand and upon which he could exert some control. In 1970s America, Archie seemed to feel that the world was against him – economically, socially, politically and culturally – …

Television, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Los Fantasmas Queer De La Dictadura Franquista: ¡Toda Una Re-Velación!, Danae Gallo González

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

This paper is part of the academic effort to recover historical memory in post-Civil War Spain and metaphorically applies the so-called Giobert Tincture to Carmen Martín Gaite’s El cuarto de atrás (1978), Dulce Chacón’s La voz dormida (2002) and Pedro Almodóvar’s La mala educación (2004) in order show how these works reveal the ghosts of the repression exerted against the epitome of the abject/obscene by Franco’s dictatorship: the queer collective. This collective continues to suffer from marginalization as well as from the effects of repression. I argue that El cuarto de atrás reveals C.’s repressed hybrid/queer identity and sexual orientation, …