Exploring the Othering Discourse in the Australian Press

Recent research has revealed that the ‘othering’ discourse regarding Islam and Muslims has been increased significantly in the international media. Findings of the latest research provide considerable evidence that Islam and Muslims have been constructed and portrayed in a predominantly stereotypical and problematic way wherein they have been Othered by the Western media. This research paper is set to explore the existence of ‘othering’ discourse in the editorial coverage of Islam and Muslims-them by the two nominated Australian newspapers during January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016. This study has incorporated lexicalization and ideological square strategies within the CDA paradigm proposed by Van Dijk to analyze the editorials published on Islam and Muslims in The Age and The Australian. The results have confirmed that both the newspapers have Othered Islam and Muslims in their editorial contents quite explicitly thus produced the ‘Othering’ discourse during the period under study.

Why Do Cash Cow Movies Work?

This research study aims to investigate all possible reasons that lead to the success of Cash Cow movies in Hollywood. We examine diverse elements used to produce these movies to identify the key factors that ensure the consistent success of cash cow movies since the beginning. It is evident from the box-office records that these movies have tested the tides of time yet have always been in public demand for decades. This study also examines why movie critics have hardly applauded these commercially hit movies as the jury never nominates them for any significant accolades, including Academy or Oscar Awards. Further, this research analyzes the duration of the success of cash cow movies. As the Top Lifetime Grosses (2020) indicate, cash cow movies have almost always been stood out as the 'highest-grossing movies of the year for the past two decades, and they barely suffer box office fatigue for long. While examining these diverse aspects, we also try to determine the dynamic effects these movies have created on the global cinema industry regarding the nature and quality of content being created and the revenue generated.

Teacher’s Perception towards Usage of Social Media To Enhance Teaching Performance

The study directs to analyze the perception of teachers towards the adaption of social media as a new technology for the enhancement of teaching performance. The collected data contains a sample of n=130 faculty members of two public universities of Sindh province of Pakistan. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used in the framework of the study. The data were analyzed by the Smart Partial Least Square (PLS) software version 3. The aggregate response from the teacher's rate is 94.7% for the current study. More than an average social networking source, Whatsapp mostly used 58.46% by the teachers of public universities. The teachers of public universities use 92.31% of Facebook and 67.69% of Whatsapp less than four hours per day. Acceptable scores of Cronbach’s Alpha through reliability values appear greater than 0.70 up to 0.987. Moreover, both AVE and CV are indicating acceptable scores. A value of SRMR below 0.08 is a depiction of good fit. The study confirmed all the established hypotheses indicating the factors including Perceived Usefulness and the Perceived Ease of Use and towards teachers’ performance and satisfaction are significantly affected by the use of social media. Therefore, the study finds a stronger association of social media use to Perceived ease of usefulness. It is also observed that the Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use appear crucial factors to make a significant prediction about teachers’ performance after using social media in Pakistan.

Social Media in Lives of Parents and Children: Exploring Effects on Parents-Children Relationships

Social media and its usage are one of the essential activities of this century. Many social media sites are there in the world, and they have millions of users. This research aims to explore the effects of social media usage on parents and children interpersonal relationships. Relationships among parents and children are an essential factor in having excellent bonding of family. The total numbers of respondents were 384, who were selected according to Morgan and Krejcie’sformula. Islamabad was the city where the survey was conducted. Probability sampling was used for this study. The study was based on the theory of Time displacement by Robert Putnam (1970). He argued that when we give more time to our virtual world, our time to our real-world will be less. Two hundred children and 184 parents were the respondents of this study. Results showed that most of the users are heavy users; they use social media more than 4 hours on a daily basis. The outcome revealed that Facebook is much admired social media site among users. According to results, 65% of respondents elaborated that social media unite families, and the rest of 35% said that they are against this statement. Furthermore, 73% of the total population responded that social media decreased face-to-face interaction between parents and children. On the other hand, 14% were neutral, and 11% were against this statement. According to results of hypothesis it has been found that both parents and children support positive aspects of social media usage. This study also finds out that heavy social media usage causes many troubles like sleeplessness, interest in the virtual world, and face-to-face interaction between children and parents. This study recommends the less usage of the virtual world and social sites to make strong relations in real life.

Reporting of Kashmir Conflict in Elite press of Pakistan. A Descriptive Analysis

The study attempts to analyze the coverage of Jammu and Kashmir conflict through peace and war journalism along with understanding how the ideals of peace journalism can be translated into conflict reporting. The descriptive analysis of news stories published fromAugust 5, 2019 to Dec 5, 2019in the mainstream contemporary English press of Pakistan (Dawn and The Nation) and India (Times of India and The Hindu) is carried out through content analysis. The time period is significant because of the scrapping of Article 370 and its violent effects on the region. The approach of peace and war journalism is explored through in-depth interviews of Pakistani and Kashmiri journalists. The study concluded that both Pakistani and Indian press employed war framing more dominantly than peace framing while reporting Kashmir conflict. A higher instance of peace journalism was recorded in the Pakistani press in comparison to the Indian press. The ideals of peace journalism can be achieved by not justifying human rights violations and by refraining from becoming part of propaganda paradigm.

Will Rogers’ 1920s (1976), An American Family (1973) and The War Room (1993): A Cowboy’s Guide to the Pristine Sunshine and Wars in the Name of Peace

The study compares the responses of an artist, a common man and an American president to the times by analyzing the content of three documentary films: Will Rogers’ 1920s: A Cowboy’s Guide to the Times, An American Family (1973) and The War Room (1993) from the twentieth century. Will Rogers’1920s gives an insight into the simple life of a jongleur and a troubadour, cowboy cum actor, Will Rogers who was famous for topical humor in 1920s and whose life size sculpture occupies space in the American White House to keep an eye on the deeds of the greatest world leaders. An American Family, the world’s first ever reality show, documents real life events of seven members of a common American family and provide a contrast to the perfect Hollywood family portrait in 12 episodes. The War Room focuses on the president Clinton’s political agenda during his 1992 election campaign. The authors reviewed literature on the said documentaries and history of documentary film, American institutions and movements by Jack C. Ellis and Betsy A. McLane, Jeffrey Ruoff, Peter C. Rollins, Peter Ian Crawford, Klin Richard, Chris Hegedus, Shawn J. Parry-Giles and Trevor Parry-Giles. The study finds that Will Rogers learned to share his inherent happiness with the American audience by mollifying and disciplining many of their anxieties in the context of industrialization and the world war in 1920s. An American family is disturbing yet hilarious and presents a real portrait of the American family against 70s “culturally polyglot confluence backdrops” (Ellis and McLane 254). Pat Loud divorces her husband on air and their son Lance Loud becomes the first gay icon of the ‘gay decade,’ as several feminist, gay/lesbian, and civil rights, antiwar, ecology, and environmental protection movements takeover America. An American Family shows the mundane truth of everyday life in its social context. Its controlled realism reflects the filmmaker’s social conscience for audience’s identification and political action. The War Room celebrates the ideology of war during the president Clinton’s election campaign.

Public views about media role in women empowerment

The focus of this study is to measure public view regarding the role of media in women empowerment. The deductive approach was employed to assess views of female and male members of society regarding the issue. The survey method was used to collect data from sample sites. One hundred thirteen samples were collected from cities, small towns and remote areas of KhairpurMirs district. The views of respondents were measured by using t-test. Results reveal that social media, TV and newspapers have a significant role to help women empowerment while radio, magazines and books were identified having insignificant role to improve women empowerment. The overall results showed that, electronic media is more participative as compared to the print media to help women empowerment in the society.