scholarly journals «Elementary units» in Multimedia: Cinemagraphy in Mass Media and Blogs in the 2010s

Author(s):  
Maria Romakina

The article studies peculiarities of cinemagraphies - special types of images that appeared due to the development of digital technologies in the early 2010s and combine features of photography and video/cinema. Cinemagraphies are positioned as elementary multimedia units, and perception of these is technologically dependent: the viewer actively perceives not only the depicted image, but also the image-generating technology. Cinemagraphic way of seeing is not peculiar to human vision, its a «machines view». The author suggests defining the properties of these units, namely, multimediality, multimodality, affectivity of technological items, segmentary actuality and segmentary iconicity, hybrid temporality, visual variability; soundlessness; and poetic character, orientation to sensory perception. The duration of one cycle of cinemagraphies, according to the analysis, falls within the interval of 4-10 seconds. The effect exerted on the viewer is largely determined by the percentage of the animated area: if < 25 % of the frame area is animated, the focus is on the movement, while if > 50 %, it is on static objects perceived as «anomalous» in the flow of life. The use of cinemagraphies in the media as illustrative material has a precedent character nowadays. The author managed to detect 151 such cases. The article analyzes in detail some examples of cinemagraphies, published in The Guardian, The New York Times and other media, as well as in blogs in the period 2011-2019. The author defines the following criteria for the analysis: substantive, genre, structural, visual characteristics, functions and distribution channel.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-124
Author(s):  
Aji Susanto Anom Purnomo ◽  
Novan Jemmi Andrea ◽  
Monica Revias Purwa Kusuma

2020 is the year when the world is faced with a health crisis, namely the Covid-19 pandemic or also known as the Corona Virus. All aspects of life are affected by this crisis, the joints of humanity are faced with limitations. The mass media are intensively reporting various incidents regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. The stories are often accompanied by journalistic photos. One of the functions of photojournalism is to strengthen the story of what the media wants to convey. Journalistic photos during this pandemic usually feature scenes from medical activities, government policies and large narratives that are cold on empathetic human relations. However, different from most photojournalism in most mass media, The New York Times publishes "Still Lives" photography projects that are done by its photographers. The project presents a different narrative from this time of the pandemic. The “Still Lives” photography project is important because it presents journalistic photos that tell a domestic narrative that is close to the sides of universal humanity, namely the stories of the photographers' homes and families. This study aims to describe and interpret the “Still Lives” photography project as an alternative in creating a different narrative from photojournalism during the pandemic. This study used a descriptive qualitative research method based on phenomenology with Roland Barthes' main theory of semiotics and supported by journalistic photography theory and representation theory. The research results obtained a complete explanation and meaning of the “Still Lives” Project from The New York Times. The project according to the theory of photo journalistic is photo story based on personal experiences. From the analysis through the theory of semiotics from Roland Barthes and representation theory successfully obtained a result that basically projects “Still Lives” can be understood as a representation of the universal experience and feeling by mankind. Project “Still Lives” provides the representation of covid-19 pandemic through the mass media journalistic that show an alternative offer to journalistic practice to use lyrical narratives and personal experience in the story and more empathy in the mass publication of pandemic covid-19.


Author(s):  
Michelle J. Lee

AbstractIn 2017, the long-festering discriminatory treatment to the Rohingyas in Myanmar, both in law and practice, resulted in the largest cross-border humanitarian crisis in Asia. During the 2016‑2017 Rohingya refugee crisis, the aerial shots of burnt villages and images of people trudging toward the horizon in search of refuge in neighboring nations dominated the Western media. However, for humanitarians, the question of whether the media helps with humanitarian crises remains complicated and unclear. This study examines the effects of media coverage on the Rohingya refugee crisis based on articles from two liberal, elite newspaper sources, The New York Times and The Guardian between 2010 and 2020. The study reveals that the attempts of international pressure to stop the crisis have increased through media coverage and political pressures; however, the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar intensified due to worsening violence and human rights violations committed by the Myanmar army. Findings are discussed using the lens of cultural and ideological context. The study suggests that in Myanmar, where authoritarian military culture is pervasive, there is a limited influence of the international press on the state-sponsored ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population and questions whether consistent international pressure could have changed the outcome.


2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-78
Author(s):  
Ayo Osisanwo

Existing studies on viruses with bias for COVID-19 have mainly been carried out from non-linguistic fields. Linguistics-related studies have not examined the media representation of COVID-19 since it is a recent development. This study, therefore, identifies the representational strategies, discourse structures and discourse strategies deployed by selected newspapers in representing COVID-19 and associated participants. Data were retrieved from selected COVID-19-related editorials from four purposively selected countries and continents across the world: New York Times (USA, North America), The Guardian (UK, Europe), China Daily (China, Asia) and The Punch (Nigeria, Africa), published in the early periods of the pandemic, and precisely from January 1 – March 31, 2020. Guided by aspects of van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of critical discourse analysis on ideological discourse structures, data were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The newspaper editorials unusually converged to negatively represent an issue – COVID-19 – because it is largely negatively viewed by all. Ten representational strategies (like economic cankerworm, threat to humans, common enemy), six discourse strategies (like demonising, criminalising, condemnation) and twelve ideological discourse structures (like Actor Description, Authority, Burden) and different participant representations and roles (like solver, potential super spreader) were identified in the study. The newspapers largely set the agenda on the negative representation of the virus and its potential havoc on all facets of human endeavours, thereby giving emotional and informational appeal to all to join hands in earnestly silencing the epidemic. Keywords: COVID-19, media representation, newspaper editorials, discourse strategies, discourse structures


2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
ELENA V. ILOVA ◽  
◽  
ELENA N. GALICHKINA ◽  
RUFINA ZH. IZMAILOVA ◽  
◽  
...  

The article describes distinctive features of a film review as a speech genre which is now one of the most popular genres of the mass media net discourse. The article proves its intertextual character and analyses its lexical and semantic features. Film reviews taken from the following sources: sites of cinema goers: www.imdb.com, www.empireonline.com, www.pluggedin.com ; official sites of film critics (e.g. R. Ebert) https://www.rogerebert.com; official sites of the newspapers: The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/reviews/movies, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film+tone/reviews and other sites: https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=movie-review, https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/. The material for analysis comprises about 100 film reviews released in 2020. The reviews are in open access in the Internet. The volume of the analysed material is about 200 pages. The method used to achieve the main objective is interpretation analysis of film reviews. As a result of the theoretical material analysis main directions in the genre research were specified; key distinctive features of a film review were studied. The actuality of the research is determined by the rising interest to net mass media discourse genres. The main objective is to elicit and describe lexical and semantic features of film reviews as a speech genre. The conducted research made it possible to prove the interdiscoursive and poly-discoursive nature of the genre in question and to systematize its lexical and semantic features. The analysis disclosed that intertextuality of a film review is actualized in the interaction of three types of discourse: that of the critic, that of the film and that of other people. Poly-discoursive nature of a film review is expressed through the combination of publicistic, literary and scientific styles features. Another important characteristic is evaluativity represented in emotionally coloured vocabulary. Among other lexical and semantic features are the following: usage of non-specific terms, cliches, rhetorical questions with precedent names, intertextual inserting, various stylistic devices, among which epithets and metaphors are most often used. It’s been observed that a film review is filled with bookish vocabulary as well as stylistically low words and expressions.


Author(s):  
Albena Yaneva

I will begin with this provocative, and quite unusual image, of an iconic building that we all know – the Eiffel Tower.  Some of you might have heard about the media debates surrounding the “new design for the restructuring of the public spaces of the Eiffel Tower” announced by the French architect David Serero in March 2008. He suggested doubling the size of the tower’s highest observational platform. The architect claimed that “his firm’s proposal was accepted after an open call, and that the structure is expected to be assembled for the 120th anniversary of the tower construction.” But shortly after that, the government-contracted firm that manages the tower – la Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel – stated that the claims of the architect are a “hoax.” The communication chief denied that there was ever any call for architects regarding plans to redevelop the top of the monument and that Serero Architects never presented themselves as candidates for such a competition. The media outlets that ran with the story included: The Guardian, The New York Times, Architect, Bustler, The Daily Telegraph and Belfast Telegraph.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Hawdon ◽  
James Hawdon ◽  
Atte Oksanen ◽  
James Hawdon ◽  
Atte Oksanen ◽  
...  

Abstract Although considerable research analyzes the media coverage of school shootings, there is a lack of cross-national comparative studies. Yet, a cross-national comparison of the media coverage of school shootings can provide insight into how this coverage can affect communities. Our research focuses on the reporting of the school shootings at Virginia Tech in the U.S. and Jokela and Kauhajoki in Finland. Using 491 articles from the New York Times and Helsingin Sanomat published within a month of each shooting we investigate how reports vary between the nations and among the tragedies. We investigate if one style of framing a tragedy, the use of a “tragic frame,” may contribute to differences in the communities’ response to the events.


Author(s):  
С.Б. Фомина

В статье рассматриваются лексико-семантические характеристики сокращений современного англоязычного газетного дискурса на материале англоязычных электронных изданий The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday-Times, особенности их функционирования. Газетный дискурс представлен как сфера функционирования различных сокращений, а именно контракций, усечений, блендинга, аббревиаций. Предметом выступают сокращенные лексические единицы, их функционирование в современной прессе и стратегии их передачи с английского языка на русский. Обработка фактического материала позволяет произвести количественный анализ лексики и определить наиболее характерный тип аббревиаций для текстов СМИ, определить их функции. Анализ материала позволяет фиксировать тот факт, что среди рассмотренных лексических единиц, именно аббревиатуры преобладают в современном газетном дискурсе, что подтверждает влияние событийности на изменение лексического состава языка и является мощным средством его пополнения. Функционирование образно-оценочных и культурно-маркированных сокращений в газетном дискурсе может как облегчать, так и усложнять восприятие информации. Однако сокращенные лексические единицы содержат широкий информационный потенциал, что позволяет фиксировать основное значение текста в памяти получателя и влияет на восприятие информации в нужном автору направлении. Словарь, включенный в текст, приобретает как информативное, так и эмоционально-оценочное значение. ____________________________ © Фомина С.Б., 2021 The article observes the lexical and semantic characteristics of abbreviations of the modern English-language newspaper discourse based on material of the English-language electronic publications from of The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday-Times, discusses the functioning of abbreviations. Newspaper discourse is presented as the sphere of functioning of various abbreviations, such as contractions, clipping, blending, abbreviations. The subject is abbreviated lexical units, their functioning in the modern press and strategies for their transfer from English into Russian. Factual material analysis allows carrying out a quantitative analysis of the vocabulary and determine the most typical type of abbreviations for media texts, their functions. The analysis of the material proves quantitative superiority of abbreviations that prevail in modern newspaper discourse that confirms the influence of eventfulness on the change in the lexical composition of the language and is a powerful means of replenishing it. The functioning of figurative and evaluative and culturally-marked abbreviations in newspaper discourse facilitates and complicates the perception of information at the same time. However, abbreviated lexical units contain a wide information potential, which allows fixing the main meaning of the text in the receiver's memory and affects the perception of information in the direction the author needs. The vocabulary included in the text acquires informative and emotionally evaluative value as well.


Author(s):  
Steven Casey

From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a group of highly courageous correspondents covered America’s war against Japan. Based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, War Beat, Pacific provides the first comprehensive account of what these reporters witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front’s perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American history. In a dramatic and fast-paced narrative, the book takes us from MacArthur’s doomed defense on the Philippines and the navy’s overly strict censorship policy at the time of Midway through the bloody battles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte and Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, detailing the cooperation, as well as conflict, between the media and the military as they grappled with the enduring problem of limiting a free press during a period of extreme crisis. At the heart of this book are the brave, sometimes tragic stories of reporters like Clark Lee and Vern Haugland of the Associated Press, Byron Darnton and Tillman Durdin of the New York Times, Stanley Johnston and Al Noderer of the Chicago Tribune, George Weller of the Chicago Daily News, Keith Wheeler of the Chicago Times, and Robert Sherrod of Time magazine. Twenty-three correspondents died while reporting on the Pacific War. Many more sustained serious wounds. War Beat, Pacific shows how both the casualties and the survivors deserve to be remembered as America’s golden generation of journalists.


Author(s):  
N.S. Pivovarova

This paper investigates the features of the US mass media approaches in creating the image of Hugo Chavez on the eve of the Venezuela 1998 Presidential Elections. The paper studies the historical context, which influenced the creation of Chavez's image. The socio-economic and political development of Venezuela in those days is analyzed. The key traits of Chavez’s image highlighted during the period under study, as well as the emotional background of the publications, are analyzed. Although both the domestic and foreign historiography has paid a most sufficient attention to the history of Venezuela, the biography and political activity of Hugo Chavez, his image as a presidential candidate in the 1998 Venezuela elections remains unexplored. This work aims to fill this gap. The paper systematically examines the materials of the three major US newspapers, namely, the “New York Times”, the “Wall Street Journal”, and the “Los Angeles Times”, published from July to December, 1998. The established methodologies of document analysis and quantitative content analysis are applied. The study leads to the conclusion that the USA mass media created a negative image of Hugo Chavez during the pre-election period, implementing understatements and a negative emotional background in their publications.


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