Not in front of the children? An analysis of sex on screen in Italy

Despite the fact that both state owned (RAI) and privately owned (Mediaset) Ital-ian television channels habitually adopt scantily dressed women in provocative poses to fulfill a purely decorative function on daytime television, a closer look at Italian TV reveals that it is far less liberated than it seems. In fact, in stark contradiction to the apparent unrestraint of autochthonous studio productions, references to sex and sexuality in imported fictional products tend to be severely mitigated in their translated forms. Furthermore, it also appears that sexual behaviour beyond traditional male/female ‘mainstream’ sexual practices becomes in-creasingly taboo in translation, as they too are either toned down or totally eliminated. Relegated to cable and satellite channels or late-night/early morning viewing on one of the privately owned Mediaset channels, programs containing very explicit sexual content such as US produced ‘Sex and the City’ are moderated quite significantly for Italian audiences, not only in terms of the pervasive use of strong, taboo language, but also for explicit references to a variety of sexual practices.This paper will discuss the norms which govern the translation of ‘adult’ materials for Italian TV both from an examination of the linguistic content of the programs themselves and from the point of view of operators involved in the dubbing process.

Feminist Perspectives on Criminal Justice in Popular Culture

A discussion of feminist perspectives on crime and criminal justice in popular culture has to begin by pointing out that pop culture itself has traditionally been gendered as feminine. As epitomized by abstract visual art, nonnarrative poetry, and auteur cinema, high culture is still regarded in some critical circles as the opposite of popular culture, which is associated with the seductive and immersive qualities of mass media. Resulting from a masculinist aesthetic that privileged difficulty and abstraction as in Modernist poetics, so-called feminine forms have traditionally been considered to be less valuable than ones associated with masculinity. Media vehicles associated most readily and negatively with popular culture are those directed primarily at women audiences, such as daytime television, romance novels, and women’s magazines. Associated with the domestic space, leisure time, and unemployment, television itself was until recently viewed as a less-valuable, feminine medium. For these reasons, and because of television’s preoccupation with crime, this article concentrates on television as a formally feminized medium that has for technological and social reasons now become more highly valued. Critiquing the conjoining of masculinity and cultural value is a feminist task. As viewers watch their favorite series in public spaces on handheld devices, and certain series are considered novelistic and complex enough to supersede other cultural forums, television has gained new cultural credence and is a premier space in which to relate popular images about women and criminal justice.

Content analyses of alcohol-related images during television broadcasts of major sports events in New Zealand

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature, frequency, and duration of alcohol-related promotions and crowd alcohol consumption during major sports events broadcasted on the SKY Sport network between September 2011 and February 2012. Design/methodology/approach Content analyses for various categories of alcohol-related images were conducted, including a novel inclusion of analysing crowd alcohol consumption. Findings The results provide empirical evidence that sponsorship and activation-related activities of alcohol brands subvert national regulations that ban alcohol advertising during daytime television programming. Originality/value The results serve to sensitise researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and regulators to the prevalence of incidental alcohol promotional material within the overall televised alcohol advertising mix and the broader societal exposure to such images. This research also informs readers that alcohol companies and media outlets produce alcohol-related marketing that may not be in-line with the meaning and/or intent of laws.

Transformation in Daytime Television Programs in Turkey since 2000

The research conducted in Turkey indicates that the television viewers usually spend their leisure daytime watching television programs such as health, cooking, beauty, fashion, shopping, and competitions. These programs that mostly refer to entertainment function enable viewers to learn as well as have an enjoyable time. Among the reasons why the television viewers prefer to watch these programs are migration to larger cities and the need of the viewers, who spend more time together at home with the family and have nothing but the television at home as the neighborhood culture has disappeared, to see their equivalents and communicate their troubles. This chapter discusses the changing program preferences of the television audience and the causes affecting the transforming program contents since the early 2000s in Turkey, which is one of the countries with the highest television-viewing rate and uses the method of in-depth interview with the experts in the field.