Neutralizing Protest: The Construction of War,Chaos, and National Identity through US Television News on Abortion-Related Protest, 1991

This paper examines how US TV news on abortion-related protest forecloses possibilities for democracy and political action. Representing abortion-related activism as a battle, news segments portray activists, correspondents, and viewers as villains, witnesses, and victims in a tale of a nation decimated by civil war. While activists describe their work militaristically, the news's war is not the war that activists describe. News discourse represents activists as threatening the American family/community/nation. Applying Hannah Arendt's and Mary Douglas's work shows how the news eclipses public spheres by mapping a pollution narrative onto those who threaten myths of national homogeneity and proper citizenship.     

The Invisible Woman?

While the coverage of women's sport in UK media rises to comparable levels to men's sports during large sporting events like the Olympics, academics agree that “routine” women's sports coverage is under-represented. According to the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation, “81% of people think that the female athletes at London 2012 make better role models for young girls than other celebrities.” This article examines the representation of women in sport and compares routine coverage of women's sports in the UK national press across a week in February 2012, six months before the London Olympics, with coverage in a week in February 2013, six months after the Olympics, to see if there has been an Olympic “legacy” that increased coverage. It also examines coverage at the same time of year a decade earlier, to see how far, if at all, women's sports coverage in newspapers has progressed. The results suggest that there has been minimal change in everyday coverage of women's sports after the Olympics, and that female athletes continue to be hugely under-represented in the UK press.     

Deadline 2025: AIATSIS and the audiovisual archive

ABSTRACT

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Australia’s archival repository for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage, is the nation’s peak body for collecting, recording, archiving and returning Indigenous-related knowledge and information. Since 1964 AIATSIS has amassed the world’s largest collection of print, audio and film materials on Australian First Nations peoples. This paper canvasses the Deadline 2025 campaign for audiovisual collections at risk and the complexities of preserving audiovisual archives. It argues that while the Plan’s institutional focus is essential, equally essential is institutional leadership in establishing integration with community-held archives, supported by appropriately resourced and skilled community-based partnerships.     

Remembering and Disremembering in Africa

Abstract In remembering the attainment of political emancipation, post‐independence African countries have learned to narrate the official national narrative and to forget other stories. Commemoration of the nation’s past almost always goes hand in hand with officially decreed national amnesia. Therefore, the story of the nation has to be narrated and remembered by forgetting certain aspects of the colonial past. By implication the dual act of remembering and forgetting sets the pattern for how the postcolonial African nation narrates itself in the postcolonial moment. Focusing on Kenya as an example, this paper argues that the national commemoration of political emancipation from colonial rule tends to silence narratives of opposition and political incarceration that emerge in the postcolonial moment. The outcome is a remembering‐and‐forgetting battle that has implications for how diverse individuals conceive of themselves collectively as a nation and how they forge or fail to forge a coherent collective memory.     

Movement as memory: Significant form in eyes on the prize

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years ranks as one of the most successful public television documentaries ever produced. Although it originally aired in 1987, the series has since been shown widely in school and college classrooms, where it arguably has influenced many students’ understanding of the civil rights struggle and, more fundamentally, of the nature and form of “social movement” itself This essay draws upon Kenneth Burke's concept of “significant form” to examine how the documentary's design works to shape public memory of the civil rights struggle as a social movement. In addition to yielding insight into the rhetorical structure of a landmark television documentary, the analysis of form in Eyes on the Prize illumines how public consciousness of “social movement” can be created and perpetuated through narrative form.     

A Short History of the History of Objectivity

This article provides a broad overview of how American journalism historians have treated the concept of objectivity in the latter part of the 20th century. In following the narrative of objectivity's history, the author finds that historians’ narratives have shifted as intellectual attitudes toward objectivity have changed. Now that objectivity no longer plays as central a role in journalism as it once did, histories of the concept may shift once again.     

The Evolution and Fragmentation of Olympic Media Consumption and Its Impact on the Entertainment Value of the 2018 Winter Olympics

This fragmentation of Olympic media is a fascinating trend to explore on an international level to examine if there are similarities in how citizens of different countries consume Winter Olympic media. Another curiosity is the amount of entertainment value different media platforms add to the experience of the Winter Olympics. Using an international sample of 2,245 participants across six countries, a survey was conducted to explore the differences in media consumption during the 2018 Winter Olympics among citizens in six countries, as well as what media consumption habits predict one’s perception of the entertainment value of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Results showed that while participants are adopting more digitally based means to consume Olympic media, television and print media were the strongest predictors of entertainment value.     

In the company of citizens: the rhetorical contours of Singapore's neoliberalism

ABSTRACT

This essay explores how the language and priorities of the corporate world seep into the halls of government, and the ensuing implications of such rhetoric. Situating my analysis in Singapore's National Day Rally addresses from 1960 to 2018, I uncover two rhetorical signatures unique to Singaporean neoliberalism: the location of national character in economic performance, and the act of packaging and selling the nation to its people. I conclude by examining the implications of a corporate constitution of the nation for evoking affective ties to the nation, and by considering the value of Singapore's case to broader critiques of neoliberalism.     

被“标识”的国家:撤侨话语中的国家认同与家国想象

"想象的共同体"确立了论述国家的话语方式,书写(论述)国家的行动本身,就是通过想象(叙事)来弥补在多元复杂的社会力量中所遗失的国家"同一性",从而将宏大的民族国家叙事和细碎而弥散的日常生活建立起勾连。本文从想象国家的理论脉络出发,以新世纪以来《人民日报》对海外撤侨行动的报道为研究对象,对报道中所呈现的"国家"话语进行文本分析。研究发现,建构主义范式与原生主义范式共同作用于国家想象的生成与可见,从而"标识"国家。由此,撤侨话语成为一种展现国家力量与国家意识的权力书写,通过英雄原型叙事、建构集体记忆的话语互文、塑造"家国一体"的概念隐喻以及话语互动,实现国家情感的表达与国家认同的凝聚。     

“Roy's Turkish Delight”: Football,Nationalism and the Representation of Turkey in the British Sports Media

ABSTRACT

A large body of literature in representational studies reflects a deep professional concern over the negative effect of the role of the media in representing significant Others. Western media's coverage of an international event, in this case, a football competition, raises some ethical questions about the choice of specific lexical items and textual contents. Drawing on the work of Stuart Hall's representation theory, this article examines how Turkey, a nation located on the semi-periphery of Europe, is represented in Western media outlets. By looking at the role that sections of the British sports press plays in their construction of the Turkish national identity, I evaluate the Euro 2016 and Euro 2004 reporting of the UEFA European Championship qualifying matches between Turkey and England. I apply a combination of lexical and narrative analysis, and I question the way that Turkey is represented in the British sport texts. The style and language used in the presentation of football games reveals that British media outlets are prone to present England's politically and economically powerful position, and its cultural superiority over Turkey. Findings also suggest that the discourse of the “West and the Rest” is alive in the modern world.     

A dream deferred: The failed fantasy of Norman Lear's a.k.a. Pablo

Norman Lear's return to commercial network television in 1983 after an absence of five years resulted in the first prime time series about and starring Hispanic‐Americans. The lack of a coherent and sustained rhetorical vision resulted in the failure of the series. This essay uses fantasy theme analysis to examine the series’ narrative and production discourse and suggests how Pablo might have achieved success.     

Cinematic Jujitsu: Resisting White Hegemony through the American Dream in Spike Lee's Malcolm X

Spike Lee's film Malcolm X (1992) presented Malcolm X's life story using the narrative framework of the American Dream myth central to liberal ideology. Working from Gramsci's notion of common sense in the process of hegemony, I explain how Lee appealed to this mythic structure underlying American popular culture to give a platform to Malcolm X's controversial ideas. By adopting a common sense narrative to tell Malcolm X's life story, this movie functioned as a form of cinematic jujitsu that invited critical consciousness about the contradictions between liberal ideology and the life experiences of racially excluded groups. Other formal devices in Lee's film incorporated Malcolm X's rhetoric within the common sense of mainstream politics and connected Malcolm X to more contemporary racial struggles. This analysis suggests that common sense framings of controversial figures may provide a limited space to challenge institutionalized forms of racism within popular culture.     

Not Just Crazy: An Explanation for the Resonance of the Birther Narrative

In this essay I use an updated approach to Richard Hofstadter's paranoid style to analyze the contemporary birther movement. While the paranoid style provides a set of characteristics that describes paranoid narratives, it does not account for why some narratives ring true for certain audiences. Thus, in order to explain how and why the birther narrative resonates with a substantial portion of Americans, I argue that the resonance of the birther narrative can be explained through Kenneth Burke's scapegoating process, which activates the conspiratorial story for the birther audience. I use an analysis of a popular birther film, materials on the birthers' website, and media commentary on the group to illustrate this position.     

“A Large Object with a Small Museum”: A Narrative Analysis of Tlotlo's Experience of an Astronomy Science Center

Abstract This paper presents a narrative analysis of an elementary school student's view of his visit to an astronomy science center in South Africa. We illustrate the power of narrative in illuminating the importance of the student's perspective in understanding the conditions for learning in a museum setting. Using principles of narrative presentation, the paper describes Tlotlo's thinking throughout his participation in a school visit to the visitors' center at a radio telescope. The paper discusses six features of the visit: student misconceptions; inadequate preparation and followup; memories and imaginings; enjoyment; discussing the visit afterwards; and socioeconomic constraints on visits. These features are examined within the context of a developing country: both confirming previous research on school visits and providing new insights into how such visits can be interpreted. The significance of narrative analysis for science center educators is discussed and suggested as appropriate for current research in museums.     

Henning Mankell: European Translation and Success Factors

This article examines how and why the work of the Swedish crime writer, Henning Mankell, travelled successfully across Europe. It informs strategies enabling small nation authors to navigate the international platform and access global markets. Research includes a series of original interviews with publishing figures contributing to the international status of Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series. Their views are presented across an author case study detailing: initial reception, original publisher, move into the international sphere, English-language publisher and narrative content. Findings determine that a committed and well-respected network of publishers, in key markets, is vital when bringing a good story to readers across the globe.     

THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN

Erin Mackie explores how Mr Spectator became one persona through which James Boswell represents himself in his London Journal (1762–63), providing an antitype of the ‘rake’ persona which Boswell derives in part from Macheath in The Beggar's Opera. In this antithesis most attention falls on Macheath, but Mackie notes that in Tatler 27 Richard Steele creates a sentimental portrait of the rake as ‘the most agreeable of all Bad Characters’. Thus Boswell finds in the Tatler's rake an image of himself which stands in relation to the disapproving Mr Spectator. With this in mind, Mackie notes that the Spectator papers which describe the Mohock riots of March–April 1712 also characterize such displays as innocuous theatrical expressions of youthful ebullience. Boswell, then, finds acceptable dress for his criminal masculinity by casting himself into a ‘mock-heroic impersonation’ whilst using the narrative position provided by Mr Spectator to give himself ‘spectatorial immunity’.     

Character sketches: The curious propaganda careers of Mary,Jane, and Willie

This article draws on the concepts of narrative interactivity and closure to investigate three World War II-era print media characters. The analysis details how Al Parker’s Mary & Jane and Norman Rockwell’s Willie Gillis developed a perceived authenticity that invited fans to envision the propaganda drawings as having lives beyond their artistic origins. The essay concludes that the narrative arcs of these characters prefigured the imagined relationships that subsequent generations developed with televised characters.     

More than Monsters: Dark Fantasy,the Mystery-Thriller and Horror's Heterogeneous History

This article critically examines the golden age radio mystery-thriller genre in order to rectify the history of the horror genre and contribute to the history of radio horror. An excavation of the mystery-thriller's generic roots and an analysis of the program Dark Fantasy illustrate how this genre included, but was not limited to, horror. It offered a broad variety of narrative types that are not addressed in histories of the horror genre or radio horror. Such generic and narrative diversity suggests fruitful connections with radio's science fiction, noir, and mystery genres, and with fantastic television anthologies like The Twilight Zone.