Book Review of "The Image Factory: Consumer Culture,Photography and the Visual Content Industry," by Paul Frosh

Computer games such as JFK Reloaded and 9-11 Survivor not only aim at an accurate documentation of particular events—such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Twin Towers attack—but also at the playful re-enactment of these traumatic events. In this article, I discuss whether the phrase "documentary computer games" is useful in defining these games. These "docu-games" try to combine the facts of documentaries and the fiction of computer games—elements that seem hard to reconcile at first sight. Do these games create a harmonious "space of communication" in which feelings of mutual understanding occur between designers and players?     

Narratives about the Media,Diet, and Body Image: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between Young Female Adults in the Midwestern United States and South Korea

This paper focuses on analysing college women’s narratives to discover their interpretations of thin ideals and dieting experiences and to compare cultural differences between the USA and Korea. Narrative analysis revealed that US women and Korean women have a different understanding of thin ideals. Both groups experienced social comparisons, social pressure to be thin, and emotional distress regarding appearance. Similarly, they revealed their emotional fluctuations associated with changes in weight. However, there were cultural differences in both groups’ ultimate goals for weight control. Consequently, this study suggests that feelings towards weight control have culturally grounded implications. Future directions are discussed.     

Steven Soderbergh's The Limey: Implications for the Auteur Theory and Industry Structure

In this article, I present an analysis of Steven Soderbergh's The Limey that is informed by auteurism and an effort to unpack the film's antinomies. Although it was not as high profile as subsequent Soderbergh films, The Limey presents an interesting entry in the director's corpus for its stylistic signature and its "liberal" politics; a political posture that, nonetheless, only extends so far in entertaining a critical discourse about the society that produced it. I begin the investigation by filling in the background. First, I unpack the newer formulations of auteur theory and emphasize themes, stylistic signature, and social determinations in constituting auteurs. Second, I characterize the independent sector of U.S. film production and its relation to the major studios while positioning Soderbergh as a chimerical case between an independent and a studio director. Thereafter, I orient to the film and its place within Soderbergh's corpus. I analyze Soderbergh's striking and acclaimed stylistic signature (notably with respect to editing). Proceeding to the themes embedded in the film, I examine some of the antinomies in The Limey and their political valence. In particular, I discuss The Limey's class antinomies, its presentation of the United Kingdom in contrast with that of its former colony, the US, and the tropes of femininity that circulate within the film. On the view developed here, Soderbergh's The Limey entertains some fundamental criticisms of the United States, class striation, masculinity and femininity, before making a partial and uneven retreat.