scholarly journals Understanding the USA through Late Night Comedy

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 150-165
Author(s):  
E. Yu. Kunitsyna ◽  
R. I. Pegov

Purpose. The article addresses the issue of media discourse hybridization, the latter being the result of discourse-and-genre transgression and the source of new discursive practices, particularly, infotainment. The growing demands of society for information and the increasing worldwide popularity of humorous programs (especially stand-up comedies) have triggered the emergence of a unique media product – The Jim Jefferies Show. The salient feature of the talk show is that its host and producer is a famous stand-up comedian. Jim Jefferies’ versatile, controversial, belief-challenging and thought-provoking satirical comedy has won him admiration and respect across the USA and abroad. Results. Adopting an interdisciplinary, integrated approach, we explore the problem of media discourse technologization and game-ization. The research is based on the premises of theory of discourse, pragma- and sociolinguistic discourse studies, critical discourse analysis, philosophy of discourse and philosophy of play and games. We argue that incorporating stand-up technologies, also referred to as attractions, into informational discourse brings about a powerful discursive shift and comprehensive hybridization manifested in multiple interdiscursivity (with a variety of types and kinds of discourse involved: informational and entertaining, institutional [status bound] and personal [personality bound], existential and habitual; critical, political, comical; simulative), multiple destination (along with information-offering [news] and entertainment [fun], opinion, critique, subversion, shock) and multiple functions (informational, orientational, that of solidarity vs. agonistic, actional, axiological and “ludenic”). Conclusion. The new discursive practice as an extension of media and man, homo ludens, meets demands and values of the consumer society, agrees with the postmodernist Zeitgeist and reveals a carnivalesque mediachronotope.


2001 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. A16-A16 ◽  
Author(s):  
N VAKIL ◽  
S TREML ◽  
M SHAW ◽  
R KIRBY

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 160-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Senokozlieva ◽  
Oliver Fischer ◽  
Gary Bente ◽  
Nicole Krämer

Abstract. TV news are essentially cultural phenomena. Previous research suggests that the often-overlooked formal and implicit characteristics of newscasts may be systematically related to culture-specific characteristics. Investigating these characteristics by means of a frame-by-frame content analysis is identified as a particularly promising methodological approach. To examine the relationship between culture and selected formal characteristics of newscasts, we present an explorative study that compares material from the USA, the Arab world, and Germany. Results indicate that there are many significant differences, some of which are in line with expectations derived from cultural specifics. Specifically, we argue that the number of persons presented as well as the context in which they are presented can be interpreted as indicators of Individualism/Collectivism. The conclusions underline the validity of the chosen methodological approach, but also demonstrate the need for more comprehensive and theory-driven category schemes.


2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Yordanova ◽  
Rolf Verleger ◽  
Ullrich Wagner ◽  
Vasil Kolev

The objective of the present study was to evaluate patterns of implicit processing in a task where the acquisition of explicit and implicit knowledge occurs simultaneously. The number reduction task (NRT) was used as having two levels of organization, overt and covert, where the covert level of processing is associated with implicit associative and implicit procedural learning. One aim was to compare these two types of implicit processes in the NRT when sleep was or was not introduced between initial formation of task representations and subsequent NRT processing. To assess the effects of different sleep stages, two sleep groups (early- and late-night groups) were used where initial training of the task was separated from subsequent retest by 3 h full of predominantly slow wave sleep (SWS) or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In two no-sleep groups, no interval was introduced between initial and subsequent NRT performance. A second aim was to evaluate the interaction between procedural and associative implicit learning in the NRT. Implicit associative learning was measured by the difference between the speed of responses that could or could not be predicted by the covert abstract regularity of the task. Implicit procedural on-line learning was measured by the practice-based increased speed of performance with time on task. Major results indicated that late-night sleep produced a substantial facilitation of implicit associations without modifying individual ability for explicit knowledge generation or for procedural on-line learning. This was evidenced by the higher rate of subjects who gained implicit knowledge of abstract task structure in the late-night group relative to the early-night and no-sleep groups. Independently of sleep, gain of implicit associative knowledge was accompanied by a relative slowing of responses to unpredictable items suggesting reciprocal interactions between associative and motor procedural processes within the implicit system. These observations provide evidence for the separability and interactions of different patterns of processing within implicit memory.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gino Casale ◽  
Robert J. Volpe ◽  
Brian Daniels ◽  
Thomas Hennemann ◽  
Amy M. Briesch ◽  
...  

Abstract. The current study examines the item and scalar equivalence of an abbreviated school-based universal screener that was cross-culturally translated and adapted from English into German. The instrument was designed to assess student behavior problems that impact classroom learning. Participants were 1,346 K-6 grade students from the US (n = 390, Mage = 9.23, 38.5% female) and Germany (n = 956, Mage = 8.04, 40.1% female). Measurement invariance was tested by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) across students from the US and Germany. Results support full scalar invariance between students from the US and Germany (df = 266, χ2 = 790.141, Δχ2 = 6.9, p < .001, CFI = 0.976, ΔCFI = 0.000, RMSEA = 0.052, ΔRMSEA = −0.003) indicating that the factor structure, the factor loadings, and the item thresholds are comparable across samples. This finding implies that a full cross-cultural comparison including latent factor means and structural coefficients between the US and the German version of the abbreviated screener is possible. Therefore, the tool can be used in German schools as well as for cross-cultural research purposes between the US and Germany.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 670-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojana M. Dinić ◽  
Aleksandar Vujić

Abstract. The aim of this research was to explore measurement invariance across samples from Serbia and the USA (Study 1) and to further validate the Serbian adaptation of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory – PNI (Study 2). The results supported the original seven-factor first-order structure as well as the hierarchical structure of the PNI with Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability as the second-order factors. Further, scalar invariance between the two versions of the PNI was achieved. Relations between Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability and other measures of grandiose and hypersensitive narcissism supported the validity of their scores. Among HEXACO traits, both Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability showed substantial negative correlations with Honesty-Humility. The main distinctions between the two aspects of narcissism lie in the positive relations with Neuroticism and negative relations with self-esteem, both of which are higher for Narcissistic vulnerability. The results support good psychometric properties of the PNI scores and add to the PNI’s cross-cultural validity.


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