scholarly journals “But in the Thunder, I Still Hear Thor”: The Character Athelstan as a Narrative Focal Point in the Series Vikings

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Margaret Steenbakker
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Television Series ◽  
World Views ◽  
Negative Picture ◽  
Popular Television ◽  
Medieval Christianity ◽  
Eventual Death ◽  
The Way

This article explores the way the character Athelstan serves as a narrative focal point in the popular television series Vikings. Using this series as its main case study, it addresses the question of the ways in which the character functions as a synthesis between the two opposing world views of Christianity and Norse religion that are present in the series. After establishing that Vikings is a prime example of the trend to romanticize Viking culture in popular culture, I will argue that while the character Athelstan functions as a narrative focal point in which the worlds can be united and are united for a while, his eventual death when he has reverted back to Christianity shows that the series ultimately favors Viking culture and paints a very negative picture of (medieval) Christianity indeed.

Voice Change in Pop Culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 77-132
Author(s):  
Bridget Sweet
Keyword(s):  
Pop Culture ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Voice Change ◽  
Media Portrayals ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Music Television ◽  
Adolescent Voice ◽  
Popular Television ◽  
The Way

The chapter discusses the way popular understanding and misunderstanding of voice change is largely perpetuated by mainstream media. Portrayals of voice change distributed via music, television, and movies have contributed to a simulacrum of adolescent voice change, a situated reality not based in fact but accepted in pop culture. The generally embraced perception of voice change is that it is a time of humiliation, anxiety, turmoil, and dread. Voice change is not always pleasant, but students and music educators perceive and approach the experience with such angst and trepidation well before it begins that is rarely given the opportunity to be something positive or exciting. The chapter examines and distills episodes of The Brady Bunch, The Wonder Years, and The Goldbergs, popular television series that spanned a period of more than 40 years, each with an episode focused on the adolescent changing voice.

Benign Violations in the Suburban Ensemble Dramedy

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-125
Author(s):  
Wyatt Moss-Wellington
Keyword(s):  
Television Series ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
American Beauty ◽  
Family Guy ◽  
The Way

Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren’s benign violation theory (BVT) argues that humor is produced when three conditions are met: we perceive a situation as potentially violating, we perceive it also as benign, and the two perceptions occur simultaneously. This chapter mobilizes BVT in describing the cognitive dissonances inherent in comedy spectatorship, using a particular case study in dramedy cinema: the suburban ensemble film, including such works as The Kids Are All Right, Little Miss Sunshine, and American Beauty. After surveying some of the key humorous stimuli recurrent across the genre, I turn to other comedic texts that deal with family and domestic studies with a striking lack of pathos—in particular the television series Family Guy. This comparison underscores an analysis of the ethics of benign violations in narrative media that is centered on the resolution of its fundamental affective incoherence and the way this resolution might guide later critical thought. The chapter ultimately demonstrates the uses of BVT as a hermeneutic tool, and one that might help us isolate an ethics of comedy in media.

scholarly journals Between neo-Ottomanism and Ottomania: navigating state-led and popular cultural representations of the past

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 33-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murat Ergin ◽  
Yağmur Karakaya
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Television Series ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ottoman History ◽  
Historical Truth ◽  
Popular Television ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractIn contemporary Turkey, a growing interest in Ottoman history represents a change in both the official state discourse and popular culture. This nostalgia appropriates, reinterprets, decontextualizes, and juxtaposes formerly distinct symbols, ideas, objects, and histories in unprecedented ways. In this paper, we distinguish between state-led neo-Ottomanism and popular cultural Ottomania, focusing on the ways in which people in Turkey are interpellated by these two different yet interrelated discourses, depending on their social positions. As the boundary between highbrow and popular culture erodes, popular cultural representations come to reinterpret and rehabilitate the Ottoman past while also inventing new insecurities centering on historical “truth.” Utilizing in-depth interviews, we show that individuals juxtapose the popular television seriesMuhteşem Yüzyıl(The Magnificent Century) with what they deem “proper” history, in the process rendering popular culture a “false” version. We also identify four particular interpretive clusters among the consumers of Ottomania: for some, the Ottoman Empire was the epitome of tolerance, where different groups lived peacefully; for others, the imperial past represents Turkish and/or Islamic identities; and finally, critics see the empire as a burden on contemporary Turkey.

scholarly journals Media Portrayals of People with Disabilities: An Analysis of Malaysia’s Television Series,“Kerana Cintaku Saerah” (Because of My Love, Saerah)

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-84
Author(s):  
Aina Razlin Mohammad Roose ◽  
Ross Azura Zahit ◽  
Sheilla Lim Omar Lim
Keyword(s):  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Individuals With Disabilities ◽  
Media Portrayals ◽  
The Media ◽  
Self Acceptance ◽  
Popular Television ◽  
The Way

The media has a powerful ability to influence and shape society’s perceptions towards people with disabilities. The portrayal of individuals with disabilities within the media can often have an enormous impact on the way that are perceived by viewers. In Malaysia, people with disabilities are frequently viewed as pitiful, thus medias are more likely to use the element of sympathy in order to garner support from its targeted audience. The focus of this article is on the portrayal of people with disabilities in a popular television series in Malaysia, Kerana Cintaku Saerah (Because of My Love, Saerah) through the analysis of; self-acceptance by the characters with disabilities, family and society’s acceptance, and disability stereotypes in the Malay society. The findings revealed the ideation of how people with disabilities are treated, as well as exhibits disability stereotypes that exist in the Malay society.  

‘Dance drills, faith spills’: Islam, body politics, and popular music in post-Suharto Indonesia

Popular Music ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW N. WEINTRAUB
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Body Politics ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Dialogic Space

AbstractIn February 2003, a woman’s body became the focal point for public debates about religious authority, freedom of expression, women’s rights, and the future of Indonesia’s political leadership. At the centre of these debates was Inul Daratista, a twenty-four-year-old popular music singer/dancer from East Java, whose dancing was described as ‘pornographic’ and therefore haram, forbidden by Islam. In this essay, I describe how and why Inul’s dancing body became a central symbol in debates about religion, culture and politics in the years following the fall of Indonesian ex-president Suharto in 1998. In the highly mediated sphere of popular culture, ‘Inulmania’ contributed to a new dialogic space where conflicting ideological positions could be expressed and debated. Inul’s body became a stage for a variety of cultural actors to try out or ‘rehearse’ an emergent democracy in post-Suharto Indonesia. A case study of popular performer Inul Daratista illuminates contemporary ‘body politics’, in which human bodies invested with diverse meanings and values have powerful implications for discourses about Islam, pornography, women’s bodies, state/civil relations in Indonesia, and changing forms of media.

“Dressed in an Angel's Nightshirt”: Jesus and the BBC

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Veldman
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Cultural Influence ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Radio Drama ◽  
Religious Broadcasting ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Popular Religiosity ◽  
Popular Television

AbstractThis article examines images of Jesus broadcast on the BBC from the 1930s through the 1950s. During these years, the BBC sought to use its cultural influence to replace popular religiosity with what the clerics who staffed its Religious Broadcasting Department (RBD) regarded as a more masculine, modern, and vigorous national religious faith. To achieve this aim, the RBD marshaled the might of British New Testament scholarship and its image of a warrior-like, apocalyptic historical Jesus. Yet the RBD's hopes of bridging the gap between popular religiosity and its own vision of Christianity went unrealized. Programs on Jesus that reached a genuinely national audience—The Man Born to be King, Dorothy L. Sayers's wartime radio drama, andJesus of Nazareth, a popular television series from the 1950s—instead featured Anglicized and ahistorical images deeply embedded within British popular culture. The story of Jesus on the BBC highlights both this popular culture's strength and Christian Britain's fragmentation.

Development and regional planning within the decentralized administrative frame: case study (the Jordanian Experiment)

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Mansour Safran
Keyword(s):  
Regional Planning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
The Way

This aims to review and analyze the Jordanian experiment in the developmental regional planning field within the decentralized managerial methods, which is considered one of the primary basic provisions for applying and success of this kind of planning. The study shoed that Jordan has passed important steps in the way for implanting the decentralized administration, but these steps are still not enough to established the effective and active regional planning. The study reveled that there are many problems facing the decentralized regional planning in Jordan, despite of the clear goals that this planning is trying to achieve. These problems have resulted from the existing relationship between the decentralized administration process’ dimensions from one side, and between its levels which ranged from weak to medium decentralization from the other side, In spite of the official trends aiming at applying more of the decentralized administrative policies, still high portion of these procedures are theoretical, did not yet find a way to reality. Because any progress or success at the level of applying the decentralized administrative policies doubtless means greater effectiveness and influence on the development regional planning in life of the residents in the kingdom’s different regions. So, it is important to go a head in applying more steps and decentralized administrative procedures, gradually and continuously to guarantee the control over any negative effects that might result from Appling this kind of systems.   © 2018 JASET, International Scholars and Researchers Association

Investigating English Teacher Candidate’s Use of Instructional Media During the Teaching Practicum: A Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Ratih Ayu T ◽  
Zakiyah Tasnim ◽  
Annur Rofiq
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Teacher Candidate ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Instructional Media ◽  
Teaching Practicum ◽  
Case Study Design ◽  
The Way

This study analyzes the English teacher candidate’s use of instructional media in the teaching practicum. The English teacher candidate who became the participant in this study was doing their teaching practicum in MTsN 5 Jember. This study applied the qualitative case study design. Interview and observation were done one time to select the participant. The four-times classroom observations and questionnaires were used in order to collect the data. This study employed the model of Creswell in analyzing the data. The findings of this study showed that the English teacher candidate applied one type of instructional media namely Visual Media. Those were Picture and Whiteboard. The way the teacher candidate implemented the instructional media was almost the same in each meeting of the teaching and learning process. However, the students’ participation and response were not always the same in every meeting. It depended on the way the teacher candidate managed the class activity.

Are They Ready for Their Close-Up? Civil Servants and Their Portrayal in Contemporary American Cinema

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C. Pautz ◽  
Laura Roselle
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
American Cinema ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Narrative Forms

Perceptions of government and civil servants are shaped by a variety of factors including popular culture. In the public administration literature the significant role that film and other narrative forms have on citizens’ perceptions is duly noted, and there is ample research on politicians and military heroes in film, but a focus on civil servants remains largely elusive. Among the sparse literature centered on civil servants are studies that employ a case study approach or focus on a few films. In contrast, our research employs a large sample of 150 films. These films comprise the top ten box-office grossing films from 1992 through 2006; therefore we examine the films most likely to have been seen by a majority of movie-watching Americans. More than 60 percent of the films in our sample portray government as bad, inefficient, and incompetent. However, the data on more than 300 civil servants yield intriguing findings. Surprising, in light of the negative depiction of government, is the positive depiction of individual civil servants. Half of civil servants were positively portrayed, and only 40 percent were negatively depicted. Americans may view government negatively, but they see in film positive depictions of how individual civil servants can and do make a positive difference.

Case study 3

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Management Consulting ◽  
Organizational Redesign ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Management Knowledge ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
The Way

The chapter discusses management consultants and consulting knowledge in health care, highlighting significant expenditure on consultancy and how consultants have shaped thinking in public services, which some critics suggest has served consultants’ own (financial) interests. The chapter then discusses the way consultants mobilize management knowledge and frame clients’ problems and solutions. It discusses an empirical case study of a consultancy project to redesign NHS organizations to make substantial ‘efficiency savings’. Here, consultants framed the NHS’s problem and solution, and then imposed an organizational redesign. Local NHS managers and clinicians framed the NHS’s problem differently, doubting the consultants’ framing and proposing redesign, but feeling unable to engage in dialogue about these concerns. Consequently, they engaged with the project in a calculated and defensive way, superficially accepting the redesign while waiting for its implementation to fail. Thus, the chapter demonstrates framing politics surrounding management consulting knowledge.

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