Matching Items (24)
Description
Simultaneously culture heroes and stumbling buffoons, Tricksters bring cultural tools to the people and make the world more habitable. There are common themes in these figures that remain fruitful for the advancement of culture, theory, and critical praxis. This dissertation develops a method for opening a dialogue with Trickster figures. It draws from established literature to present a newly conceived and more flexible Trickster archetype. This archetype is more than a collection of traits; it builds on itself processually to form a method for analysis. The critical Trickster archetype includes the fundamental act of crossing borders; the twin ontologies of ambiguity and liminality; the particular tactics of humor, duplicity, and shape shifting; and the overarching cultural roles of culture hero and stumbling buffoon. Running parallel to each archetypal element, though, are Trickster's overarching critical spirit of Quixotic utopianism and underlying telos of manipulating human relationships. The character 'Q' from Star Trek: The Next Generation is used to demonstrate the critical Trickster archetype. To be more useful for critical cultural studies, Trickster figures must also be connected to their socio-cultural and historical contexts. Thus, this dissertation offers a second set of analytics, a dialogical method that connects Tricksters to the worlds they make more habitable. This dialogical method, developed from the work of M. M. Bakhtin and others, consists of three analytical tools: utterance, intertextuality, and chronotope. Utterance bounds the text for analysis. Intertextuality connects the utterance, the text, to its context. Chronotope suggests particular spatio-temporal relationships that help reveal the cultural significance of a dialogical performance. Performance artists Andre Stitt, Ann Liv Young, and Steven Leyba are used to demonstrate the method of Trickster dialogics. A concluding discussion of Trickster's unique chronotope reveals its contributions to conceptions of utopia and futurity. This dissertation offers theoretical advancements about the significance and tactics of subversive communication practices. It offers a new and unique method for cultural and performative analyses that can be expanded into different kinds of dialogics. Trickster dialogics can also be used generatively to direct and guide the further development of performative praxis.
ContributorsSalinas, Chema (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis advisor) / Carlson, Cheree (Committee member) / Olson, Clark (Committee member) / Ellsworth, Angela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
In the delivery of a public service, meeting the needs of its users through cocreation has generated considerable research. Service users are encouraged to engage with public services through dialogue, sustained interaction, and equal partnership, wherein the role of the user changes from passive to active. As the relationship between service provider and service user evolves, researchers have sought to explain how resources, time, accessibility, and bandwidth may affect such relationships, specifically concerning the economically disadvantaged. While many researchers have focused on the logistical barriers that inhibit cocreation among the economically disadvantaged presented by such factors as cost and transportation, limited research has examined the relationship between the service provider and economically disadvantaged service user. Combining previous research, this study examines what economically disadvantaged service users actually do when they cocreate value with a public service by conducting 12 in-depth interviews with participants of SNAP-Ed, nutrition education for persons eligible for government assistance. The study's findings suggest that cocreation exists through relational characteristics of collaboration, isolation, acceptance, connection, and guidance that help in the development and maintenance of relationships, and that a relationship between service provider and user could be further typified by equality. This finding suggests that equality is an independent construct not necessary in the process of cocreation--a departure from previous research--but rather a way to approach the service provider/user relationship. This study is intended as a step toward examining cocreation through the development of organization-public relationships.
ContributorsCandello, Elizabeth J (Author) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Thesis advisor) / Matera, Fran (Committee member) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Perez, Adriana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
U.S. television is about earning profits, but European broadcasting has historically been governed as public service, indirectly or directly operated by the government. Substantial changes occurred in the 1990s. Privatization and the United Kingdom’s Independent Television franchise auction stimulated commercial developments throughout Europe. Even public service broadcasters lost their traditional characteristics, adopting routines making them almost indistinguishable from commercial competitors.
Television remains the number one news source overall. Research shows news adheres to similar, recurring and predictable elements; an anchor team balances the broadcast and its various elements, following a formula of friendly personalities, visuals and sound bites.
This study examined American news consultants’ role in the development of television news in the UK in the 1990s. American news consultants’ work abroad is important because they spread the U.S. model - the origin of today’s on-air news style – and changed television news on a global scale.
Limited research has been conducted on the consultants’ European work and how they operated, largely because of proprietary material. This study was based on 2359 pages of archival material from Frank N. Magid Associates’ European archives. In addition, 24 interviews with Magid staff and UK journalists allowed for a comprehensive examination.
Magid truly infiltrated UK television - from the headquarters of the BBC and ITN, to the regions. A major finding is the extent of Magid’s penetration with research services, storytelling and performance training. During the franchise auction, Magid worked with ITV clients in 11 of the 16 regions.
This study examined how Magid played a role in the development of television news. It analyzed key concepts integrated into UK news and how those are similar or different from the U.S. The importance of good storytelling permeated the findings. Tell a story well – tailored to the culture, medium and viewers – and it will attract an audience. In turn, that attracts advertisers, making news profitable. Change theory guided an analysis of societal forces. Driving forces, such as privatization and technology, spurred on development of television news; restraining forces, such as fear of Americanization, slowed it down.
Television remains the number one news source overall. Research shows news adheres to similar, recurring and predictable elements; an anchor team balances the broadcast and its various elements, following a formula of friendly personalities, visuals and sound bites.
This study examined American news consultants’ role in the development of television news in the UK in the 1990s. American news consultants’ work abroad is important because they spread the U.S. model - the origin of today’s on-air news style – and changed television news on a global scale.
Limited research has been conducted on the consultants’ European work and how they operated, largely because of proprietary material. This study was based on 2359 pages of archival material from Frank N. Magid Associates’ European archives. In addition, 24 interviews with Magid staff and UK journalists allowed for a comprehensive examination.
Magid truly infiltrated UK television - from the headquarters of the BBC and ITN, to the regions. A major finding is the extent of Magid’s penetration with research services, storytelling and performance training. During the franchise auction, Magid worked with ITV clients in 11 of the 16 regions.
This study examined how Magid played a role in the development of television news. It analyzed key concepts integrated into UK news and how those are similar or different from the U.S. The importance of good storytelling permeated the findings. Tell a story well – tailored to the culture, medium and viewers – and it will attract an audience. In turn, that attracts advertisers, making news profitable. Change theory guided an analysis of societal forces. Driving forces, such as privatization and technology, spurred on development of television news; restraining forces, such as fear of Americanization, slowed it down.
ContributorsLiseblad, Madeleine Sonja (Author) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Thesis advisor) / Casavantes, Michael (Committee member) / Delmont, Matthew (Committee member) / Silcock, Burton William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Broadcast journalists often report on people dealing with illness or physical hardship, their difficulties and triumphs. But what happens when journalists personally experience those kinds of health-related issues? This study explores how 24 local and national on-air journalists share how they manage life with illness and hardship using personal narratives shared on their professional social media pages, detailing how the journalists navigate sharing a deeply personal experience while maintaining a professional journalistic persona. Thematic analysis found the journalists’ performed three acts when sharing personal health information in a public forum: they reported on their illness, they were transparent, and they justified their actions. Within the three themes a range of expression – from personal to professional – and influences over content were found, leading to the final overarching theme, implications and consequences on content creation. This dissertation finds a complicated struggle to maintain a professional self while acknowledging the urge to connect with others through a deeply personal experience.
ContributorsPellizzaro, Kirstin Nicole (Author) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Thesis advisor) / Silcock, Bill (Committee member) / Kwon, K. Hazel (Committee member) / Cheong, Pauline (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Scholars argue that masculinity and war are united because masculinity is best observed through male-dominated arenas, such as the military. Moreover, film can serve as a medium to not only establish what is socially acceptable, but play an active role in the creation of one’s identity. Filmmakers past and present have employed the motif of masculinity in their war films, which put it at the center of the social structure and creates an overall acceptable cultural ideology. These filmmakers have established the overall rules, themes, and methods used as part of the war film genre. These rules, themes, and methods served well for pre-1970 American war cinema, when women were not allowed in the military as soldiers. However, as of 2003, female soldiers have grown to comprise twenty percent of the active soldiers and officers in the military. Studies on masculinity construction are well documented in World War II, Vietnam, and Gulf War-era combat films; however, little has been studied on post-9/11 American war films involving the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Using literature on masculinity constructs, both inside and outside of film, as well as social construction theory, identity theory, genre theory, and auteur theory, this dissertation textually examines masculinity construction in six post-9/11 American war films. This dissertation finds that the contemporary war genre continues to construct masculinity similar to past eras of war film. Comradery, the warrior image, not showing emotion, having a violent demeanor, and the demonization of women and cowardice were all prevalent in one or more of the films analyzed in this study. However, there were many nontraditional masculine ideals that were implemented, such as women being present and taking an active role as soldiers, as well as women being portrayed in the warrior image. The films analyzed demonstrate that the war film genre is still depicting and therefore socially constructing masculinity in a way that was prevalent in pre-1970 war films. However, the genre is evolving and nontraditional masculinity constructs are starting to present themselves.
ContributorsBowen, James (Author) / Russell, Dennis (Thesis advisor) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Committee member) / Craft, John (Committee member) / Giron, Angela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Long before “fake news” dominated the conversation within and about the media, media literacy advocates have championed the need for media literacy education that provides the tools for people to understand, analyze, and evaluate media messages. That the majority of U.S. adults now consume news on social media underscores the importance for students of all ages to be critical users of media. Furthermore, the affordances of social media to like, comment, and share news items within one’s network increases an individual’s responsibility to ascertain the veracity of news before using a social media megaphone to spread false information. Social media’s shareability can dictate how information spreads, increasing news consumers’ role as a gatekeeper of information and making media literacy education more important than ever.
This research examines the media literacy practices that news consumers use to inform their gatekeeping decisions. Using a constant comparative coding method, the author conducted a qualitative analysis of hundreds of discussion board posts from adult participants in a digital media literacy Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to identify major themes and examine growth in participants’ sense of responsibility related to sharing news information, their feeling of empowerment to make informed decisions about the media messages they receive, and how the media literacy tools and techniques garnered from the MOOC have affected their daily media interactions. Findings emphasize the personal and contextual nature of media literacy, and that those factors must be addressed to ensure the success of a media literacy education program.
This research examines the media literacy practices that news consumers use to inform their gatekeeping decisions. Using a constant comparative coding method, the author conducted a qualitative analysis of hundreds of discussion board posts from adult participants in a digital media literacy Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to identify major themes and examine growth in participants’ sense of responsibility related to sharing news information, their feeling of empowerment to make informed decisions about the media messages they receive, and how the media literacy tools and techniques garnered from the MOOC have affected their daily media interactions. Findings emphasize the personal and contextual nature of media literacy, and that those factors must be addressed to ensure the success of a media literacy education program.
ContributorsRoschke, Kristy (Author) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Thesis advisor) / Chadha, Monica (Committee member) / Halavais, Alexander (Committee member) / Silcock, Bill (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The purpose of this study is to explore the shifting cultural norms of copyright law, and that concept’s impact on the performance and practice of artists producing original works of authorship. Although related concepts predate it, and today it exists as a subset of a broader category known as intellectual property, the purpose of copyright beginning with the United States Constitution was to allow for a temporary economic monopoly to an author of a fixed creative work. This monopoly was meant to incentivize authors to contribute to the public good with works that promote progress in science and art. However, increases over time in the scope and duration of copyright terms grant broader protections and controls for copyright owners today, while advances in technology have provided the public with the potential for near-limitless low-cost access to information. This creates a conflict between proprietary interest in creative works and the public’s right and ability to access and build on those works. The history of copyright law in America is rife with efforts to balance these competing interests.
The methodology for this study consisted of flexible strategies for collecting and analyzing data, primarily elite, semi-structured interviews with professional artists, attorneys, and others who engage with the cultural and legal norms of intellectual property regimes on a regular basis. Constant comparative analysis was used to maintain an emic perspective, prioritizing the subjective experience of individuals interviewed for this research project. Additional methods for qualitative analysis were also employed here to code and categorize gathered data, including the use of RQDA, a software package for Qualitative Data Analysis that runs within the R statistical software program. Various patterns and behaviors relevant to intellectual property reforms as they relate to artist practices were discussed in detail following the analysis of findings, in an effort to describe how cultural norms of copyright intersect with the creation of original works of authorship, and towards the development of the theory that the semiotic sign systems subject to intellectual property laws are not themselves forms of real property, as they do not meet the categorical requirements of scarce resources.
The methodology for this study consisted of flexible strategies for collecting and analyzing data, primarily elite, semi-structured interviews with professional artists, attorneys, and others who engage with the cultural and legal norms of intellectual property regimes on a regular basis. Constant comparative analysis was used to maintain an emic perspective, prioritizing the subjective experience of individuals interviewed for this research project. Additional methods for qualitative analysis were also employed here to code and categorize gathered data, including the use of RQDA, a software package for Qualitative Data Analysis that runs within the R statistical software program. Various patterns and behaviors relevant to intellectual property reforms as they relate to artist practices were discussed in detail following the analysis of findings, in an effort to describe how cultural norms of copyright intersect with the creation of original works of authorship, and towards the development of the theory that the semiotic sign systems subject to intellectual property laws are not themselves forms of real property, as they do not meet the categorical requirements of scarce resources.
ContributorsBillingsley, Evan (Author) / Russomanno, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Anderson, Douglas (Committee member) / de la Garza, Amira (Committee member) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
In Arizona, people flock the streets of Tombstone in droves, chatting in period costume while gunshots ring down the street. Others in Bisbee walk in the Queen Mine, listening to the tour guide discuss how the miners extracted ore. Still others drive up the precarious road to Jerome, passing through the famed Grand Hotel. As former Arizona mining towns, Tombstone, Jerome and Bisbee have a shared identity as former mining boomtowns, all of which experienced subsequent economic and population decline. Left with the need to reinvent themselves in order to survive, the past takes on a different role in each city. In Jerome, visitors seem content to "kill a day" against the backdrop of the historic town. In Bisbee, time seems stuck in the 1970s, the focus having shifted from the mining to the "hippies" who are considered to have resuscitated the town from near-extinction. Tombstone seem to inspire devotion, rooted in the influence of the 1993 film titled after the town. By memorializing portions of their past, these three towns have carved out new lives for themselves in the twenty-first century. As visitors are informed by the narrative of the "Old West," as shaped by the Western movie and television genre, they in turn impact how the towns present themselves in order to attract tourists. In all these sites, the past is present and like a kaleidoscope, continually recreated into new formations. While the designation of Jerome, Bisbee and Tombstone as "ghost towns" is disputed by individuals in each site, these stories of visitors and residents reveal the intricate ways in which these towns have acquired new life.
ContributorsLemme, Nicole Lee (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Paulesc, Marie Louise (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, is frequently in the national media's spotlight for negative news such as violence or failed gun laws. The city is hardly ever talked about in a positive light. This study aims to inform and educate outsiders of what the city is like through the perspective lens of Chicago residents. To grasp a general understanding of Chicago, this creative project was completed through a narrative and interview-driven podcast series and split up into different topic categories. These categories were Chicago food, Chicago neighborhoods, Chicago's Southside, and Chicago sports. These topic areas are some of the things Chicago is most known for and give an adequate representation of what the city is like. Researching and putting this creative project into a podcast form proved how podcasts can be an alternative to in-depth and long-form journalism projects. The Chicago food episode called "Harold's v. Uncle Remus" explains the delicious food culture and showed two of the popular black restaurant chains that cater to the city. These two chicken spots are always a hot topic in heated debates of what place has the best chicken. The neighborhoods episode called "Won't You Be My Neighbor" highlights some of Chicago's interesting neighborhoods that tourists may not have on their attractions lists. This episode talks about the Pill Hill, Printers Row, and Little Italy neighborhoods, which all have unique histories. "Southside With You" explores the infamous region of Chicago, tells its history, and gives a theory as to why it continues to be the area it is known for in the media. Lastly, the sports episode "Sports: A History Lesson" is a full interview with a Chicago resident who has been a Chicago sports fan since the mid-60s and who has experienced the effects of racial divisions in sports. The episodes give only a peak of what the large city is like, but they demonstrate that Chicago is not this scary place, but a place with a complicatedly fascinating history.
ContributorsCarter, Jade (Author) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Thesis director) / Gatewood, Kira (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Comm (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
This study looked at the Women's March's use of social media to communicate their organization's mission. Data was collected from their official Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. Facebook posts were collected manually, Twitter data was collected with a Google Sheets add-on and Instagram was collected by Picodash. All the posts were shifted through multiple times to identify the key narratives of the Women's March. These narratives were then compared to the stated "Unity Principles" of the organization to see if they aligned with what the Women's March attempted to fight for. The five narratives were "everyone should have access to affordable health care," "women should have access to positions of power and be respected," "immigrants should be welcomed within the United States," "society will be stronger if it addresses issues intersectionally," and "everyone should be safe in the world and treated as equals." Analysis showed that each of these narratives reflected the "Unity Principles" in some form. While certain narratives were related to more principles than others, it does not diminish the importance of each message.
ContributorsLuckey, Alessandra Noel (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05