Sailing on the Silicon Sea – The Design of a Virtual Maritime Museum

Following the development of a virtual museum this paper theorises the implications this has had for the Western Australian Maritime Museum (http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/). It is an opportunity to explore the relationship between both theory and praxis. The context for the analysis is the Diving into Shipwrecks internet project (http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/Museum/excavate/intro/intro_frame.html) developed as a constellation of shipwreck excavations. The success of the project is highlighted through an assessment of statistical data and more qualitative forms of feedback. Having established one model in a virtual museum this paper then reflects upon other forms of the web museums that are appearing on the internet. The discussion has implications for cultural organisations that seek to create on-line environments.     

The vortex of multiculturalism in South Korea: a critical discourse analysis of the characterization of “multicultural children” in three newspapers

This study investigates how multicultural children have been portrayed by the Korean media, where the term is typically used to mean a child of an underprivileged Korean man and a female marriage migrant from a less industrialized neighboring country. Adopting the theoretical lens of critical discourse analysis, I examine news articles published from 2009 to 2013 in the Hankyoreh, the Hankook Ilbo, and the Chosun Ilbo: three daily newspapers representing a full range of progressive, moderate, and conservative political perspectives within society. Analysis reveals that multicultural children have been characterized as a marginalized group, as a threat to the future Korean society, or as global human resources. Given that these discourses are manifestations of underlying ideology, I also explore how these three discourses are conjoined with three competing ideologies in Korea; namely, democracy, nationalism, and neoliberalism. This study concludes by discussing how multiculturalism serves as a discursive framework through which democratic, nationalist, and neoliberal ideas gain their effectiveness.     

“The Rising Tide of War”: Cambodian Bombings and the Discourses of American Military Power in Time

During the Vietnam War, American planes dropped more bombs on Cambodia than had fallen in all of Europe during World War II. The event marks a key moment in the secretive expansion of U.S. military power, and this article looks at how mainstream journalism helped create the discursive conditions that abetted this expansion. After an explication of the historical and theoretical rationales for studying the relation between journalism and U.S. military power, this article analyzes Time magazine's coverage of Cambodia from 1969 to 1973 and finds that the American press at the time was not discursively configured to critique the U.S. military-diplomatic apparatus. The article analyzes the depiction of Cambodia as a theater of war and argues that most critiques of the bombing were limited to President Richard Nixon's quality of character, providing a locus that prevented more systemic critiques from emerging.     

“The Best Minute and a Half of Audio”

In the introduction to a police audio recording of Bristol Palin describing her family’s involvement in an Alaska house party brawl, CNN anchor Carol Costello commented: “This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across.” The incident, however, involved an alleged assault—an act that mainstream journalism generally reports in a serious manner. Costello’s glib treatment of the event could therefore be seen as potentially breaching the boundaries of professional practice, which brought a widespread media response from both mainstream organizations and right-leaning blogs. Through textual analysis of these items, this study illustrates the challenge of conducting media boundary work—and the role strain that results—when the subject of a story occupies space within both entertainment and news spheres.     

The “madness” of market logic: mental illness and late capitalism in The Double and Nightcrawler

This paper examines representations of mental illness in popular film, particularly Richard Ayoade’s The Double and Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler. As I argue, both films trouble typical Hollywood narratives of mental illness by situating schizophrenia and psychopathy, for instance, within a socioeconomic context, specifically relations of production under late capitalism and the unfettered self-interest of neoliberalism. If mental illness is a product of the postindustrial workplace in The Double, it becomes a prerequisite for success in Nightcrawler, providing a cinematic depiction of mental illness at odds with the “personal pathology” paradigm that dominates the current neoliberal landscape.     

The construction of the theoretical system of chinese reading history: After the publication of the reading history of china北大核心CSSCI

The Reading History of China, edited by Professor Wang Yuguang , was published by Anhui Educational Press at the end of 2017. This book is the first book on general history of reading in China and fills in the blank of the research field of reading history. The scientific research team headed by Professor Wang Yuguang has been working for many years to establish and improve the theoretical system of the study of Chinese reading history. Through translating and introducing the research achievements of foreign reading history compiling the compilation of reading historical materials and launching case studies they attempted to establish the theoretical system of Chinese reading history. This book is divided into ten volumes. The first volume is “Theory Volume". It discusses many theoretical issues in the study of reading history , including the research progress of reading history at home and abroad the research contents of Chinese reading history and reading culture the national era and regional characteristics of reading history and reading culture; the interaction between reading activities and text changes , social environment and education , social consciousness and religion , academic changes and other factors. China's long-standing reading culture and traditions were refined and summarized. Volume 10 is “the Record of Pictures", which compiles representative pictures related to reading activities in successive dynasties. Volumes 2 to 9 are divided into eleven relatively independent historical stages according to the development of reading history and the main characteristics of each period. On the basis of fully absorbing the theoretical research achievements of reading history at home and abroad and comprehensively grasping the research materials of reading history in China , the book puts forward the core view that reading is a universal social and cultural phenomenon. It holds that reading is not only an individual behavior , but also an important part of human civilized life. Therefore , the reader's reading behavior is inevitably affected by both internal and external factors and the study of reading history should be placed in the overall environment of social history. According to this idea , the book decomposes the internal and external factors affecting reading behavior one by one establishes a research system of Chinese reading history from the perspective of social culture and summarizes the research contents of Chinese reading history into three aspects and eight main topics 1 Discipline foundation and theoretical research , aiming at the construction of theoretical system and basic information; 2) External factors affecting reading , including the relationship between reading activities and text changes social environment and education social consciousness and religion academic and knowledge system , publishing and dissemination of environmental factors; 3) Internal factors affecting reading. It includes reader,s reading behavior , reading environment , reading content, reading concept , reading thought and theory and social reading tradition etc. which shape and influence the reading behavior. The writing of each sub-volume revolves around the above-mentioned framework , focusing on reflecting the characteristics of the times regions and nationalities in each stage of the history of reading. On this basis , the tradition and spirit of ancient Chinese reading are condensed into five aspects. Finally , combined with the compiling experience of The Reading History of China, some topics are put forward for further study such as the collection and publication of reading historical materials the methodology of reading history the contemporary value of research on reading history and reading culture the reading history of a region or ethnic group the study of reading population and the case study of representative readers. 12 refs. © 2019, Editorial Office of Journal of Library Science in China. All rights reserved.     

“This is a test”: The evolution of the emergency broadcast system

This paper presents a historiographical analysis of documents related to the development of the Emergency Broadcast System. The study concludes EBS replaced the earlier CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) system when CONELRAD's primary purpose, to deny navigational aid to enemy aircraft, became obsolete in 1961. EBS continued CONELRAD's secondary purpose of warning the public of an impending attack. Both programs have been used only for severe weather alerts. EBS may today be as obsolete as CONELRAD.     

Soft-Core in TV Time: The Political Economy of a “Cultural Trend”

This essay deconstructs popular notions that “sex sells” in an increasingly sexualized U.S. popular culture by examining the specific political, social, and economic forces behind the creation and expansion of Girls Gone Wild, a home video series marketed through television infomercials. The crackdown on hard-core pornography, followed by the opening of television infomercial markets, paved the way for the series’ creator to bring together the structural organization of a new soft-core video industry with the marketing aims of a cable industry eager to sell young, male ratings.     

“The Paradox of Narcissus and Echo in the Instagram Pond” in Light of the Selfie Culture from Freudian Evolutionary Psychology: Self-Loving and Confident but Lonely

Drawing from the Freudian evolutionary psychology of narcissism and the literature on social media popularity, this article addresses the central theme revolving around “The Paradox of Digital Narcissists in the Instagram Pond” in light of the selfie/groupie culture. A cross sectional survey was conducted among 398 Instagram users (236 males and 162 females) recruited from Amazon M-Turk. Structural equation modeling analyses using Mplus 7.4 propose an integrative model of narcissism and reveal dynamic relationships among users’ narcissism, self-discrepancy, self-confidence, intrasexual competition for mates, need to belong, need for popularity, loneliness, number of selfie/groupie posts on Instagram, and number of Instagram followers/followings.     

Academic Libraries: “Social” or “Communal?” The Nature and Future of Academic Libraries

The apparent death of academic libraries, as measured by declining circulation of print materials, reduced use of reference services, and falling gate counts, has led to calls for a more “social” approach to academic libraries: installing cafés, expanding group study spaces, and developing “information commons.” This study compares these social models with the traditional academic library, whose spirit is best understood as “communal.” It argues that this communal spirit is unique and greatly valued by academic library users. Efforts to create a more social academic library threaten this communal spirit and may do more harm than good.     

Exploring the “awakening effect” in knowledge diffusion: a case study of publications in the library and information science domain

Inspired by “sleeping beauties in science”, we proposed that the awakening effect in knowledge diffusion is ubiquitous, whereas the “prince” paper has the strongest effect. To test this hypothesis, a three-layer super-network model depicting the knowledge diffusion trajectory is designed and the diffusion path of the awakening effect (defined on the basis of influential strength) is simulated. In detail, the model is built based on the citation network and collaboration network of 63785 publications in the library and information science domain. Through meta-paths in this super-network, the influential strength of a paper and the awakening effect from neighboring papers can be quantified into 36 numerical features. By testing the effectiveness of these features in citation counts prediction, we try to prove our hypothesis. Thus an effective predictor in machine learning is trained upon these features. Using this predictor, we showed that most neighboring papers in the super-network had effects on future citation counts. The effectiveness of these features is again demonstrated through experiments on papers with different publication years. We also did a case study on papers that were significantly affected by the awakening effect, and found that the model proposed in this paper can also be used to explain some common phenomena in knowledge diffusion. All results show that the awakening effect could be not only ubiquitous but also quantifiable.     

“Disarticulations” in the Information Society: Barriers to the Universal Access to Information Highways in Developing Countries

The author supports the opinion that full benefit may be derived from the technological potential on condition that serious attention is given to the social, political and ethical aspects, which are often barriers to the free and multi-directional access to information, especially in developing countries. Causes of these barriers — “disarticulations” within a society — are listed and their importance in developing countries emphasized. Possible different communication structures in a society and their effects are examined. The author concludes that the traditional, principle of free flow of information is not sufficient in the advancing information society; there is a need for a, principle which deals more specifically with the “activation”, “mediation”, and “networking” of the needs and opinions at the different levels of society.     

Plain journalism: The maintenance of a “vocabulary of kinship” in an Amish newspaper

Media may serve as avenues for the expression of common ideals and values that help individuals place themselves in a community of like-minded people. Using Benedict Anderson’s notion of a mediated “vocabulary of kinship” that binds individuals together, this study illustrates the ways the very structure of media content can encourage feelings of commonality. The vehicle for this inquiry is The Budget, a weekly newspaper produced by and for a North American audience of Amish and Mennonite readers. The research suggests that structural aspects of dispatches in The Budget, such as conversational and intentionally informal writing styles, the encouragement of dialog, and use of particular dialects and phrases, reinforce values of familiarity and intimacy that are central to Amish and Mennonite culture.     

The “Most Thrilling Invention Since the Radio Itself!”: The Evolution of the Radio Remote Control in the 1920s and 1930s

This article examines the early history of the media remote control, focusing on the technical development of radio remotes in the 1920s and 1930s. Using a co-evolutionary model of technical change, it considers the technical and social conditions that served as the foundation for the first radio remotes. Drawing on patent records, it then examines the development, firstly, of wired radio remotes and, secondly, of wireless radio remotes, offering evidence of a direct patent-based link between the latter and the earliest successful wireless television remote of the 1950s.     

“Feeling caught” as a mediator of adolescents' and young adults' avoidance and satisfaction with their parents in divorced and non-divorced households

Numerous researchers have argued that divorce may not have as much of an impact on children's relationships with their parents as the degree of interparental con.ict (e.g., Ahrons & Rodgers, 1987; Amato, Loomis, &Booth, 1995). In the current model the degree to which adolescents and young adults felt caught between their parents was tested as a mediator between divorce and children's avoidance and satisfaction with them. The results revealed that divorce was largely associated with avoidance and satisfaction through children's feelings of being caught, which were a function of their parents' demand—withdraw patterns, communication competence, and other variables. When divorce was removed from the model, the specific relationships in the model applied to children of divorced and non-divorced households. Nevertheless, children of divorce reported greater avoidance, feelings of being caught, greater parental demand—withdraw patterns, less parental communication competence, less closeness, and less satisfaction than children from first marriage families. The. t of the model as a function of the age of the child is also discussed.     

The media and the crisis of democracy in the age of Bush‐2

In this study, I demonstrate the consequences of the triumph of neoliberalism and media deregulation for democracy. I argue that the tremendous concentration of power in the hands of corporate groups who control powerful media conglomerates has intensified a crisis of democracy in the United States and elsewhere. Providing case studies of how mainstream media in the United States have become tools of conservative and corporate interests since the 1980s, I discuss how the corporate media helped forge a conservative hegemony, failed to address key social problems, and promoted the candidacy of George W. Bush in the 2000 US presidential election.