Hard Lessons in Hollywood Civics

Author(s):  
Joshua Glick

As Wolper Productions continued to make documentaries and experiment with fiction, the studio provided a professional entry point for promising talent and off-and-on employment for filmmakers involved with New Hollywood features. This chapter investigates Wolper Productions’s output during a period in which the film and television industries faced a precarious financial situation. The studio helped create a political imaginary for Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. Additionally, Wolper Productions’s forays into programs with Jacques-Yves Cousteau charted a fresh path for nonfiction. Packaging American history or capturing recent events, however, soon proved to be a troublesome venture. Wolper Productions’s prospective adaptation of William Styron’s novel The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) was one of the earliest attempts by a major studio to make a commercial film about black power themes and figures. The opposition to the film, however, resulted in a public relations disaster for Wolper Productions. Wolper and his circle came to understand the importance of having community support from the minority group the studio sought to represent.

Daedalus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Chafe

Nearly four centuries of American history have witnessed the evolving conflict between two competing sets of values: a belief that acting on behalf of the common good should guide social and political behavior, and a belief that unfettered individual freedom should dominate political and social life. Tracing this conflict from Puritanism through the American Revolution, the Civil War, the rise of industrialism, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society, and the conservative revival of the Nixon/Reagan era, the essay reveals this clash of values as pivotal to understanding the narrative of American history, with contemporary political battles crystallizing just how basic this conflict has been.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Cielito Caneja

Background: SARS-COV-2 the cause of COVID-19 has sparked a global pandemic with devastating consequences on health, wellbeing, and the economy. Healthcare workers from the frontline of defence, yet, the pandemic affects not only healthcare workers but also their families. There is growing awareness of the benefits of COVID-19 support groups, for professionals and for the wider community. Migrant professionals make up a significant proportion of the human resources in delivering health care globally, as in the UK. Therefore any such initiative, should be culturally tailored to address their needs. Aim: To outline the development of a community support initiative, in the form of a non-profit organisation, for migrant minority Filipino healthcare professionals and their communities. Method: A mixed-method study with retrospective data collection.  A dedicated helpline was set up during the pandemic. A Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method was adopted. The cohort was divided into two groups, health care professionals and non-healthcare group, with interventions delivered by four divisions, which were health care, non-healthcare, information governance and public relations - social media divisions. Interactive focus group and webinars were facilitated and data collected via Emotions Behind the Mask questionnaire. Results: PDSA outcomes, the dedicated helpline responded to 40 phone calls in 6 weeks, calls were linked to basic needs of daily living or work-related issues. In 5 months, the organisations collaborated with 25 local, national, and international organisations delivering community and professional support. The online platform audience reached an audience of 27,795. Conclusion: The combined professional healthcare and community support initiative demonstrated an impact on healthcare staff with possible benefits in workforce retention. Further studies are required in a larger population exploring mental health and well-being specific to minority ethnic groups.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Paula Kele-Faiva

<p><b>Tokelau is a minority group within New Zealand's larger Pacific community. New Zealand has a special relationship with the three small and very isolated atolls groups which make up Tokelau. The Tokelauan population in New Zealand is nearly five times that of the homelands. As a contribution to the global 'Youth Choices Youth Voices' study of youth acculturation, this research also contributes to the experiences of Pacific youth in New Zealand. The focus of this study is on Tokelauan youth and explores the perceptions of a group of Wellington based Tokelauan youth on their identity, sense of belonging, connectedness and hopes for the future. Also, the views of a group of Tokelauan elders are presented to set the background for the youth voices to be understood. The aim of this qualitative study was to capture the unheard voice of the Tokelauan youth, to explore their stories and experiences so that the information provided will inform policy and programme planning for Tokelauan youth, as well as Pacific and other minority groups in New Zealand.</b></p> <p>Using talanoa methodology, a combination of group maopoopoga and individual in depth interviews, valuable knowledge was shared giving insights into the experiences, needs and future aspirations of Tokelauan youth in New Zealand. Feelings of how Tokelauan youth construct their identity and sense of belonging in this new homeland were also explored. The findings were that while youth each have their own experiences, shaped by their own environment in New Zealand, all strongly identified themselves as Tokelauan revealing a strong physical, emotional and spiritual connection to the homeland. The shared stories of their families journeying to New Zealand in search of better life for their children and for Tokelau, strongly influence their sense of identity and belonging. Regarded by the elders as 'the lucky generation' and 'future of Tokelau' they felt a sense of responsibility to pass on the fakaTokelau to the next generation. The main agencies these youth connected with were the family (the core group), the Kaiga Tokelau Porirua (community group) and the Mafutaga Tupulaga (youth) sports groups, church and schooling. They expressed a real passion for cultural engagement, but raised questions about the lack of youth participation in decision making, and how this might influence future cultural security. Education was important to these youth andfor the future of Tokelau. Their lack of connection to schooling and education was of most concern to them and they strongly emphasised their desire and need for more family and community support in their education. Finally, all involved in the talanoa saw the need to engage in further studies.</p>


Author(s):  
Joel Penney

This chapter examines the use of platforms such as Twitter to link to news articles about favored political issues and argues that the selective sharing of journalism on social media positions citizens in a public relations–like capacity, helping raise awareness for some truths and narratives over others. In the contemporary environment of information surplus, the grassroots curation of news serves as an entry point for citizens to participate in agenda-setting processes that are subtly, yet undeniably, persuasive in intention. The increasingly partisan character of political information itself, from ideologically charged news and satire to activist-oriented citizen journalism, fuels the marketing-like orientation of citizens who publicize and promote this content to peers. The chapter concludes with an analysis of for-profit news sites that depend on social sharing for their financial livelihood and addresses broader risks of political trivialization as journalistic content is shaped to “go viral” across like-minded peer networks.


1972 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia K. Barg ◽  
Carl Hirsch

Experience in research and community outreach work with low-income urban aged led to the development of a multifocal program approach. The program approach includes case referral and advocacy work with the target population as well as the organization of neighborhood-based groups of elderly residents. The two approaches are intended to achieve both treatment of extant social symptoms of age discrimination and social and political power by the aged to eliminate discrimination on the basis of age. The two approaches provide mutual reinforcement for the success of each, and are based on tenets of social interaction theory as well as an analysis of the social and political powerlessness of the aged in the Model Cities Neighborhood of Philadelphia. Experience in the Model Cities Senior Wheels East has led to considerations involving cross-generational ties between worker and client to achieve senior power, the role of indigenous community workers in social welfare agencies working with the aged as well as the successful application of the approach to the black, Puerto Rican, and foreign-born white aged residing in the area. Although perfection in program operation is not claimed, the validity and appropriateness of the approach is raised for consideration following the National Conference of the National Caucus on Black Aged and the White House Conference on Aging.


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