Abe Road: Kuwata Keisuke’s Beatles Parody

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noriko Manabe
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
International Phonetic Alphabet ◽  
Japanese Politics ◽  
Rock Band

In May 2009, when the Japanese LDP government was in a weakened position, Kuwata Keisuke, lead singer of popular rock band Southern All Stars, performed a parody of the Beatles’ Abbey Road on his weekly television show. Backed by a band performing an uncanny cover of the album, he rewrote the lyrics into commentary on corruption in Japanese politics, fiscal problems, the death penalty, and other political issues. This performance was highly unusual: Japanese recording artists rarely engage in politics. The recording and broadcast industries disallow lyrics on controversial topics, and management discourages artists from engaging in politics. Kuwata staged his rebellious gesture as a “mishearing” of a well-known album. Kuwata transformed Abbey Road into political parody through linguistic sleight of hand. Kuwata chose Japanese lyrics with similar vowels and consonants (as demonstrated by their proximities on the International Phonetic Alphabet) to make them sound like the original English lyrics. By presenting his acrid commentary as a parody of this much-loved album and thus framing it as humorous entertainment, Kuwata was able to publicly criticize Japanese politicians.

Introduction: Six Paradigmatic Cases

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Daniel Pascoe
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Human Interest ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Set Up

The function of the Introduction is to set up the puzzle that the book will solve: why Thailand grants clemency to so many death row prisoners (95 per cent or more), why Singapore grants clemency to so few (0.6 per cent), and why Indonesia and Malaysia fall at points somewhere in between. The Introduction briefly describes the origins of this research project, states why it is necessary and important to compare death penalty clemency among these four jurisdictions, and ends with six short vignettes of paradigmatic cases symbolizing Southeast Asian clemency practice since 1991. These are the cases of Tong Chieng Mun in Singapore (an eighteen-year-old female rejected for clemency and executed in 1995); fishermen Leung Chi Fai, Ng Shun Wa, and Leung Kam Chuen in Thailand (each granted royal pardon in 2013); Kenneth Lee Fook Mun and Michael McAuliffe in Malaysia (providing examples of prisoners granted and denied clemency, respectively); and finally Asep Suryaman and Rodrigo Gularte in Indonesia (likewise providing examples of contrasting outcomes). These six vignettes are an important means of introducing the reader to the legal and political issues involved in death penalty clemency, through human interest stories representative of each state’s recent practice.

Justice for Alan Kurdi?

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-333
Author(s):  
Ellen T. Armour ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Political Issues

Photographs of the body of a drowned three-year-old Kurdish boy from Syria washed up on a Turkish beach encapsulated the plight of refugees fleeing the (so-called) civil war in Syria with particular pathos and power. Through what these photographs index, this essay considers what they open up and open on to: the philosophical problematics embedded in the political issues the refugee crisis raises. These issues and problematics are rendered legible in Jacques Derrida’s recently published seminar on the death penalty and in his reflections on cosmopolitanism. Together, they prompt further reflections on what I call spectatorial responsibility as a potential cosmopolitical site.

Violence and Sex as Advertising Strategies in Television Commercials

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 304-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Ferguson ◽  
Amanda M. Cruz ◽  
Daniel Martinez ◽  
Stephanie M. Rueda ◽  
Diana E. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Sexual Content ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Television Commercials ◽  
Brand Recall ◽  
Violent Content ◽  
Willingness To Buy ◽  
Advertising Strategies ◽  
Television Violence ◽  
The Impact

Despite several studies investigating the impact of sex and violence in television on consumer behavior and memory for products in commercials, results remain inconsistent and debated. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of television violence and sex on memory for commercials and willingness to buy products. Two hundred twelve young adults were assigned to watch either a sexual, violent, combined sexual and violent or neutral television show. Within each show were embedded 12 commercials, four violent, four sexual, and four neutral. Results indicated that violent or sexual content of the television show did not impair memory for commercials or willingness to buy products, and that sexual or violent content in the commercials themselves increased memory for those commercials. Implications for the current study are that violent or sexual shows may adequately function in attracting viewers’ attention, with sexual and violent content in the commercials themselves improving viewers memory for products. Use of violent or sexual content in commercials may thus be useful in advertising for brand recall.

Assessments of User Comments With “Alternative Views” as a Function of Media Trust

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Marlene Kunst
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Argument Quality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
User Comments ◽  
Media Trust ◽  
Heuristic Information Processing

Abstract. Comments sections under news articles have become popular spaces for audience members to oppose the mainstream media’s perspective on political issues by expressing alternative views. This kind of challenge to mainstream discourses is a necessary element of proper deliberation. However, due to heuristic information processing and the public concern about disinformation online, readers of comments sections may be inherently skeptical about user comments that counter the views of mainstream media. Consequently, commenters with alternative views may participate in discussions from a position of disadvantage because their contributions are scrutinized particularly critically. Nevertheless, this effect has hitherto not been empirically established. To address this gap, a multifactorial, between-subjects experimental study ( N = 166) was conducted that investigated how participants assess the credibility and argument quality of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. The findings revealed that media-dissonant user comments are, indeed, disadvantaged in online discussions, as they are assessed as less credible and more poorly argued than media-congruent user comments. Moreover, the findings showed that the higher the participants’ level of media trust, the worse the assessment of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. Normative implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Review of The Death Penalty: Issues and Answers.

1988 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-175
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty

The Future of the Death Penalty in America

1988 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 573-575
Author(s):  
Hugo Adam Bedau
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
The Future
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