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- Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture - Volume 10, Issue 1-2, 2019
Volume 10, Issue 1-2, 2019
- Editorial
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- Articles
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The political message of non-politician presidential candidates: A framework for analysis
More LessDonald J. Trump’s unlikely ascension to the US presidency has highlighted the scholarly need to study the political messaging of non-politician presidential candidates, as his successful run seems likely to inspire additional non-politicians to launch presidential bids in the future, both in the United States and in other polities, with unforeseeable consequences for political messaging – particularly the limits of what is permissible political speech, the electoral process and voter representation. This article makes a contribution to filling this gap that exists in the literature by developing a framework for analysing the political message of non-politician presidential candidates. While the article focuses on non-politician presidential candidates in the United States, the theory it develops is general and should be applicable or adaptable to other presidential, and possibly non-presidential, regimes as well.
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Trick film: Neil Brand’s radio dramas and the silent film experience
More LessAt first glance, silent film and audio drama may appear antithetical modes of expression. Nevertheless, an interesting tradition of silent film-to-radio adaptations has emerged on BBC Radio Drama. Beyond this link between silent film and radio drama, Neil Brand, a successful silent film accompanist, radio dramatist and composer, links the silent film experience and audio drama in two of his plays, Joanna and Waves Breaking on a Shore. Using theories of sound and narrative in film and radio, as well as discussing the way radio in particular can stimulate the generation of imagery, this article examines layered points of view/audition as ways of linking the silent film experience and the use of sound within radio drama.
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Alive inside, dead outside: Cultural implications of the documentary Alive Inside
Authors: Amy Clements-Cortes and Liza FutermanThis article reflects on the cultural discourse of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) that has rooted the disease in numerous metaphors preserving the unknown aspects of AD and supporting its status as a ‘social death’. Through engagement with Michael Rossato-Bennett’s documentary film, Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, a number of scenes from the film are discussed. Through qualitative discourse analysis, we challenge the cultural discourse of AD highlighted throughout Alive Inside, and outline some cautions on the iPod project for persons with AD, in particular isolation caused by using headphones to engage with the music. While there are numerous benefits in music listening for persons across the lifespan; for an individual with AD it is important for a healthcare professional or caregiver to monitor the listening experience, and to consider sharing the music with them via speakers. This is a responsible and effective way of including music in the overall care plan for an individual with AD. Further, the benefits of music experiences can be more fully realized in many cases when they are implemented by a credentialed music therapist in working with vulnerable populations.
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Unmanned: Brave New Films’ screen intervention into America’s drone wars
By Kevin HowleyDrawing on the long history of politically committed documentary, Brave New Films combines traditional and emergent production methods with innovative approaches to online distribution and grassroots exhibition aimed at ‘creating media that makes an impact’. In what follows, I argue that Unmanned, Brave New Films’ screen intervention into the highly circumscribed debate over drone warfare, opens discursive space for human rights lawyers, international relations experts, and witnesses of drone strikes to alert the American people of the legal, strategic and ethical implications of the targeted killing programme. Whether or not Unmanned effects lasting or substantive policy change is, for present purposes, beside the point. Rather, my principal concern is to demonstrate the film’s achievement in subverting the dominant discourse surrounding the precision, accuracy and efficacy of US drone strikes.
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Rainbow Flags Over Margaret Court Arena: Commemoration vs. grassroots LGBTQ social activism at the Australian Open tennis championships
More LessAt the 2012 Australian Open tennis tournament, fans created a social movement in response to Margaret Court’s stance against marriage equality that she publicly stated in December 2011. ‘Rainbow Flags Over Margaret Court Arena’ was a loosely formed collective of people who used a Facebook page to organize. Court, now a fundamentalist minister with her own church, has, like so many fundamentalist Christians, likened homosexuality with sin. The actions of the ‘Rainbow Flags Over Margaret Court Arena’ group primarily involved being spectators at the Australian Open, in Margaret Court Arena, while waving or being adorned in rainbow flags. The enthusiasm and actions from this group compelled Laura Robson and Martina Navratilova to wear a rainbow headband and rainbow-adorned polo shirt, respectively, during their matches, and compelled Court and Navratilova to post full-page responses in the Melbourne newspaper. The friction between Court, Navratilova and Billie Jean King has its origins in the 1960s. The historical underpinnings of this social movement include the squabbles between Billie Jean King, and later Martina Navratilova, lesbian icons of women’s tennis, and Margaret Court, a top player who was a contemporary of King.
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From re-viewers to me-viewers: The #Bookstagram review sphere on Instagram and the uses of the perceived platform and genre affordances
More LessThis study looks at the emerging forms of reviewing cultural products by investigating #bookreviews on Instagram. The multiple-case study focuses on characteristics of book-review posts in global and national contexts. First, the global community is outlined, with the help of quantitative data (N = 163,269 entries). Second, a local book-reviewing community (N = 645 entries) is studied, with a thematic analysis of platform and genre affordances. Instagram-native formats identified include textual reviews, metacoverage of reviews, video reviews, reviews with visual effects and facilitated reviews. The findings have implications for the conceptualization of user-generated reviewing as part of cultural critique, which requires the incorporation of the consumption/prosumption paradigm into the understandings of cultural intermediation.
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How social media and technology are challenging journalists’ perceptions of their role
More LessProfessional ideology and newsroom culture have become deeply embedded and codified in Anglo-American journalism since the late nineteenth century. Despite constant questioning by professionals and scholars, they have remained stable, resisting the repeated challenge of technological, societal and cultural changes. The antagonism between professional journalists and the boundaries they are erecting to distinguish themselves from ‘citizen journalists’, or those they regard as ‘amateurs’, is arguably reinforcing existing ideology. But are there other disruptive factors ushered in by the social media revolution that may finally lead to a breakdown of these norms? Using a qualitative research methodology involving semi-structured interviews with journalists from leading established news outlets, this article examines two changes to practice now becoming commonplace in the newsroom. Firstly, it explores the growing requirement for journalists to use Twitter and other social media tools to promote their own news output or their news organization; and secondly it examines the introduction of social media ‘hubs’ in which journalists trawl the Internet for user-generated content to complement their own. To what extent are these two developments changing journalists’ perception of their role and the culture of the newsroom? And is the broadly consensual view of their professional ideology becoming more diffuse?
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Towards a new understanding of information effects on discourses and practices: The role of online newspapers in sustainable household changes
Authors: Martina Ferrucci and Lars Kjerulf PetersenClimate change mitigation is one of the most important societal challenges, but it is often inaccessible to direct human experience. Hence, climate change and related issues are largely constituted in the public mind from media narrations, which have the potential to push people towards new sustainable practices. This article identifies how media, in this case online newspapers, can affect pro-environmental practice changes. Firstly, we will outline a conceptual framework connecting mediatisation theories to practice theories. Secondly, we will present empirical findings for establishing connections between online news effects and sustainable practice changes and their respective recurring patterns and models.
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