scholarly journals Octonauts - National Identity and Attribution Theory in Children Learning About Nations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Barraclough-Brady
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Moral Development ◽  
Attribution Theory ◽  
Children's Television ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Geographic Knowledge ◽  
The Media ◽  
Potential Impact

Children develop a sense of their own national identities, and knowledge of and attitudes towards other nations, around five to seven years old, with the media facilitating such learning. Though multiple psychological studies in this area exist, they must continue given the growing accessibility of media content and its potential impact upon children's attitudes towards people from other nations, and to better relate culture to attribution theory. To address this, content and discourse analyses, and an adapted version of Kelley's covariation model of attribution theory were applied to the children's television series Octonauts to determine how character behaviours were explained to children, how these behaviours relate to character national identities, and the potential representational impact of these relationships. Findings show the majority of behaviours were explained through internal attributions, fitting the series' educational focus, with some national identities being assigned to explain character behaviours or relationships between characters whilst also propagating negative representations of some nations. Findings also discuss missed opportunities for the series to enhance the geographic knowledge of child audiences, and how efforts to change behaviours within episodes potentially influence the moral development of children. Corresponding address: [email protected]

The Rise of Majorities and Emerging Existential Threats to India and China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Castellino
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
State Building ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
China And India ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Action Measures ◽  
India And China

Abstract China and India are comparable in size, complexity, and their relatively recent State-building histories. Commencing in 1947 and 1949 respectively, the relatively recent foundations of India and China highlighted a ‘unity in diversity’ message. The significance of this lay as much in ideology as in a pragmatism that was both central and relatively successful in bringing what could be argued as many civilizations into singular modern States. While the messages about diversity have always been contested in some quarters by rival ethno-nationalists, they remained significant in laying the foundations for a strong ‘national’ identity. To the majority populations, Hindu in India and Han in China this called for restraint to any triumphalism or chauvinism; to the minorities, they called for unshakeable loyalty in return for full citizenship rights. In both cases, these messages were backed by constructive affirmative action measures that, irrespective of their efficacy, served to emphasize the ‘unity in diversity’ message, sowing a degree of fealty towards the State over what may have been more prominent and compelling ethno-religious or ethno-linguistic cleavages. In recent years, however, this message has been significantly altered, as political majoritarianism has begun to oust legally or administratively determined minority protections. This article seeks to offer an assessment of the potential impact on this phenomenon on each country, arguing that it has contributed to instability, sowing seeds for the rise of opposing sub-national identities that the founding parents of each State actively sought to counter in their statecraft.

A Twist of Race: Ben Johnson and the Canadian Crisis of Racial and National Identity

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Politics Of Identity ◽  
Canadian Identity ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Media Discourses ◽  
Racial Discourses ◽  
Fast Lane

This study maps the media discourses surrounding Ben Johnson’s life “in the fast lane” to further understand one particular aspect of a contemporary crisis of identity (or, more accurately, identities) in Canada. Specifically, this study provides: (a) a context within which to locate Johnson’s rise and fall from hero to scapegoat as articulated to the 1988 crisis of Canadian identity; (b) a chronology of the twist of race, or changing racial discourses which serve to define and redefine Ben Johnson’s racial and national identities; and (c) a discussion of the politics of identity in relation to multiculturalism and the representation of Ben Johnson as the “other” in Canada. The results reveal that Ben Johnson’s identity was the subject of a range of representations including those linked to racist stereotypes. Moreover, the results suggest that the discourses defining Ben Johnson are constituted by, and constitutive of, broader debates about identity in Canada.

Suicide and the Media

Crisis ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Warwick Blood ◽  
Jane Pirkis
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Causal Association ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
Media Portrayal ◽  
The Media ◽  
Actual Suicide ◽  
Multiple Meanings

Summary: The body of evidence suggests that there is a causal association between nonfictional media reporting of suicide (in newspapers, on television, and in books) and actual suicide, and that there may be one between fictional media portrayal (in film and television, in music, and in plays) and actual suicide. This finding has been explained by social learning theory. The majority of studies upon which this finding is based fall into the media “effects tradition,” which has been criticized for its positivist-like approach that fails to take into account of media content or the capacity of audiences to make meaning out of messages. A cultural studies approach that relies on discourse and frame analyses to explore meanings, and that qualitatively examines the multiple meanings that audiences give to media messages, could complement the effects tradition. Together, these approaches have the potential to clarify the notion of what constitutes responsible reporting of suicide, and to broaden the framework for evaluating media performance.

Multiculturalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasar Meer
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Core ◽  
National Question ◽  
Multicultural Citizenship ◽  
Future Status

The purpose of this chapter is to locate the discussion about Muslims in Scotland in relation to questions of national identity and multicultural citizenship. While the former has certainly been a prominent feature of public and policy debate, the latter has largely been overshadowed by constitutional questions raised by devolution and the referenda on independence. This means that, while we have undoubtedly progressed since MacEwen (1980) characterised the treatment of ‘race-relations’ in Scotland as a matter either of ‘ignorance or apathy’, the issue of where ethnic, racial and religious minorities rest in the contemporary landscape remains unsettled. One of the core arguments of this chapter is that these issues are all interrelated, and that the present and future status of Muslims in Scotland is tied up with wider debates about the ‘national question’. Hitherto, however, study of national identity in Scotland has often (though not always) been discussed in relation to the national identities of England, Wales and Britain as a whole.

TV Debates in Media Contexts: How and When Do TV Debates Have an Effect on Learning Processes?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aiko Wagner ◽  
Elena Werner
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Learning Effect ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Content Analyses ◽  
The Media ◽  
Panel Survey Data

This chapter examines the effect of TV debates on political knowledge conditioned by the media context. We argue that TV debates take place in a wider media context and the extent of citizens’ learning processes about issue positions depends also on the informational context in general. We test four hypotheses: while the first three hypotheses concern the conditional impact of media issue coverage and debate content, the last hypothesis addresses the differences between incumbent and challenger. Using media content analyses and panel survey data, our results confirm the hypotheses that (1) when an issue is addressed in a TV debate, viewers tend to develop a perception of the parties’ positions on this issue, but (2) only if this issue has not been addressed extensively in the media beforehand. This learning effect about parties’ positions is bigger for the opposition party.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics during the Campaign Period

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Partheymüller
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Agenda Setter ◽  
Memory Decay ◽  
The Media

It is widely believed that the news media have a strong influence on defining what are the most important problems facing the country during election campaigns. Yet, recent research has pointed to several factors that may limit the mass media’s agenda-setting power. Linking news media content to rolling cross-section survey data, the chapter examines the role of three such limiting factors in the context of the 2009 and the 2013 German federal elections: (1) rapid memory decay on the part of voters, (2) advertising by the political parties, and (3) the fragmentation of the media landscape. The results show that the mass media may serve as a powerful agenda setter, but also demonstrate that the media’s influence is strictly limited by voters’ cognitive capacities and the structure of the campaign information environment.

scholarly journals ‘A Most Select Gathering’. Mexican National Pilgrimages to Rome during the Papacy of Leo XIII

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Ramón Solans
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Holy See

The objective of this article is to analyse Mexican national pilgrimages to Rome that took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903). These pilgrimages occurred in the context of a global Catholic mobilisation in support of the papacy, during the so-called Roman Question. This paper’s analysis of these pilgrimages draws from historiography about national pilgrimages, as well as studies on Catholic mobilisation in support of the pope in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is fundamentally based on primary sources of an official nature, such as reports and other printed documents produced on the occasion of the pilgrimage. The study’s primary conclusion is that national pilgrimages to Rome had a polysemic character since they brought together various religious and national identities. The pilgrimages contributed simultaneously to reinforcing the link between Catholicism and Mexican national identity and the global dimension of Catholicism and allegiance to the Holy See.

scholarly journals The Role of Religious Fundamentalism in the Intersection of National and Religious Identities

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susilo Wibisono ◽  
Winnifred Louis ◽  
Jolanda Jetten
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
National Identification ◽  
The Way

Indonesia has seen recent expansions of fundamentalist movements mobilising members in support a change to the current constitution. Against this background, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we explored the intersection of religious and national identity among Indonesian Muslims quantitatively, and in Study 2, we qualitatively examined religious and national identification among members of moderate and fundamentalist religious organisations. Specifically, Study 1 (N= 178) assessed whether the association of religious and national identity was moderated by religious fundamentalism. Results showed that strength of religious identification was positively associated with strength of national identification for both those high and low in fundamentalism. Using structured interviews and focus group discussions, Study 2 (N =35) examined the way that self-alignment with religious and national groups develops among activists of religious movements in Indonesia. We found that while more fundamentalist activists attached greater importance to their religious identity than to any other identity (e.g., national and ethnic), more moderate activists represented their religious and national identities as more integrated and compatible. We conclude that for Indonesian Muslims higher in religious fundamentalism, religious and national identities appear to be less integrated and this is consequential for the way in which collective agendas are pursued.

The Traitor and the Hedonist: The Mythology of Motherhood in Two New Zealand Child Abuse Cases

2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Jean Kenix
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Local Media ◽  
The Media

Two recent child abuse cases in New Zealand flooded the local media spotlight and captured the public's attention. In both cases, the mothers were not charged with murdering their children. Yet both mothers received extensive scrutiny in the media. This qualitative analysis found two central narratives in media content: that of the traitor and that of the hedonist. In drawing upon such archetypal mythologies surrounding motherhood, the media constructed these women as simplistic deviants who did not possess the qualities of a ‘real’ mother. These framing techniques served to divert scrutiny away from civil society and exonerated social institutions of any potential wrongdoing, while also reaffirming a persistent mythology that remains damaging to women.

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