Industry Discourse Research Articles

In the land of pharma: A qualitative analysis of the reputational discourse of the pharmaceutical industry

The pharmaceutical industry has been battling a negative reputation and has been confronted with accusations such as putting profits before patients and manipulating clinical trial results. In this study, we focus on how pharmaceutical companies address what we define as the Bad Pharma discourse. Drawing on interviews, press releases, corporate documentation and ethnographic fieldwork, we analyse the main themes that are used by the Belgian pharmaceutical industry to construct its reputational discourse, and we focus on how this discourse is shaped by the Bad Pharma discourse. Our results illustrate that on the one hand, the industry contests the Bad Pharma discourse by generating an alternative discourse. On the other hand, they also partly embrace and reframe this Bad Pharma discourse. This way, current societal debates are entextualised in the reputational discourses of the pharmaceutical industry.

Seeing Like a Citizen: Exploring Public Views of Biometrics

Despite its controversial history and significant diffusion of biometrics from institutional settings such as border control and policing to everyday use in commerce and personal devices, biometrics is now being re-positioned as a neutral means to safeguard identity in the digital world. Given this proliferation of uses, we argue that understanding perceptions of biometrics among ordinary citizens is necessary and long overdue. Situating our analysis in the wider context of the views of government and biometric industry experts, we deploy Q-methodology in combination with political discourse analysis to examine the range of positions that have crystallized in ordinary discourse on issues arising from the use of biometrics for identification. Our analysis uncovers four distinctive configurations that put into question a simplistic trade-off between security and privacy that dominates government and industry discourse and underlines the importance of going beyond a narrow view of technology ‘users’ to understand the political and social concerns that arise with and shape the uses of technology in contemporary society.

Oil’s Rural Reach: Social Licence in Saskatchewan’s Oil-Producing Communities

Background This article investigates the unusually robust social licence that the oil industry enjoys in Saskatchewan, where rural oil-producing communities exhibit what Thomson and Boutilier characterize as “psychological identification” with industry. Analysis The authors explore what this psychological identification looks like on the ground by examining the corporate social responsibility practices of the oil industry. They probe the beliefs and perceptions of variously positioned individuals living in oil-producing communities through 25 interviews. Conclusion and implications The research findings point to the need to understand social licence as much more than only the practice of garnering consent for local operations. Rather, the intense identification with industry in the communities studied clearly favoured the reproduction of industry discourses for understanding a wide array of energy issues.

Narratologia transmedia e transmedia storytelling

O termo transmedia storytelling tornou-se viral na área dos media studies. Mas, em que medida é que este termo define um fenómeno verdadeiramente novo e diferente dos conceitos já conhecidos de adaptação e transficcionalidade? O que significa realmente contar uma história através de diferentes media e em que condições isto é uma mais-valia? Neste artigo, serão avaliados vários tipos de projetos que se podem considerar de transmedia storytelling, embora não se enquadrem necessariamente no paradigma transmedia da ‘Costa Oeste’ dos Estados Unidos (i.e. Hollywood), bem como analisados três tipos de discurso associados a este fenómeno – o discurso da indústria, o discurso dos fãs e o discurso académico –, esperando poder diferenciar este último dos outros dois e, assim, definir alguns dos seus objetivos.

House of Netflix: Streaming media and digital lore

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the emergence of a nascent streaming industry. The media industry studies conceptualization of “industry lore” can be read during times of transition for media industries. Streaming lore is a re-articulation of existing industry lore accompanying the advent of streaming technology and distribution. Contemporary streaming acts as a site of rupture, wherein industry discourses related to digital media are rendered visible. The article proposes three categories of emergent streaming lore and analyzes their relation to a growing streaming media industry. These categories include (a) Netflix as “quality” streams, (b) the algorithmic audience, and (c) cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

Essays from the inaugural Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand conference (2016)

The essays gathered in this issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema are selected from, and broadly representative of, the methods and topics brought together at the inaugural SSAAANZ conference. Collectively, the essays speak to a broad conception of screen studies and diverse critical concerns across film and television exhibition and reception, documentary film, pedagogy and screen culture. Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams’ article analyses the cultural history of Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). Tessa Dwyer offers a detailed examination of the acclaimed television series Top of the Lake and the role cultural specificity and the authentic voice play in the context of transnational television. Simon Sigley investigates cinematic shifts in how Western Samoa was represented in three feature-length documentary films. Produced by the National Film Unit (NFU) of New Zealand between 1947 and 1962, the films cover a period during which ‘Samoa was administered as a United Nations (UN) trust territory by the New Zealand government’. Derived from a primary survey, Toija Cinque and Jordan Vincent’s article investigates the use of smart TVs and broadband-enabled mobile media devices for the viewing of movies, television programs and documentaries among other forms of screen content, often concurrently with social media devices, to understand audience practices in an increasingly fragmented mediascape. Vejune Zemaityte, Deb Verhoeven and Bronwyn Coate draw on big data in relation to feature film screenings and box office figures to interrogate the ‘10 per cent rule’ – the often made, but untested, claim in industry discourses that the Australian market represents 10 percent of the theatrical market for Hollywood films. Focussing on both Australian and US screening data from 2013, the article compares the popularity of selected American films in both the Australian and US markets to ‘contrast the differences that emerge in terms of distribution and exhibition’. Finally, Mark Ryan examines the pedagogy of screen content in undergraduate Australian screen studies courses. Together, the essays collected here provide a sense of the vibrancy and diversity of the research from the inaugural conference of Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and anticipate its second conference, The Uses of Cinema: Film, Television, Screen, Monash University, Melbourne, November 21–23, 2018.

Porn Drift: Semantic Discord in the World of Gonzo

Porn Drift: Semantic Discord in the World of Gonzo Laura Helen Marks (bio) Legal Porno is only one of a few fairly new studios from Europe that provides currently the biggest output on real old school gonzo porn. . . . And I’m talking here from gonzo porn that means scene contains: ATM, DP, DAP, TAP, Face Fucking, Balls Deep, Merry Go Rounds, swallowing multiple loads, cum gargling, etc. Why can this work in Europe and not in US anymore? Otherwise I would suggest the American girls to visit Europe if they wanna experience some real hardcore poundings. —ultimate_sperminator, “US Porno is Softcore Compared to Legal Porno,” Adult DVD Talk, October 11, 2015 While ultimate_sperminator, in the epigraph to this essay, is by no means the most articulate member of the fan forum Adult DVD Talk, and indeed was taken to task for the loosely defined terminology in this post, his query regarding Legal Porno handily elucidates the focus of my discussion here: the semantic drift in porn terminology. While many fans responded with questions about what he means by “gonzo,” ultimate_sperminator’s understanding of this term, among others, reflects a larger shift mobilized by industry and fans. Legal Porno specializes in extreme, hyperbolic sex acts—that is, double and triple anal penetration and other so-called circus acts. Not only do fans deploy “gonzo” in fluid ways; Legal Porno itself uses rhetoric in scene titles such as “Jessi Empera is back to Gonzo with DP, DAP & triple penetration [in scene] SZ1826.”1 Contrasting and ambiguous uses of “gonzo” are suggestive of an emerging attitude mobilized by fans and producers that replicates Justice Potter Stewart’s infamous 1964 definition of hard-core pornography: “I know it when I see it.”2 Scholars often invoke this definition with wry humor when explaining the difficulties of defining pornography. Indeed, the history of pornography might be said to be a history of legal definitions, popular terminology, and social taste that shape and determine what [End Page 164] constitutes the genre in a constantly evolving way.3 Indeed, pornography highlights the intersection of genre, legal status, language, and consumption in a way that renders the study of adult film history an academic beacon for understanding the visual arts more broadly. In the years since Stewart’s decision, academics have comfortably settled on an understanding of hard-core porn rooted in industry and fan jargon—that is, constituting unsimulated sex, typically depicting penetration of orifices (whether by a penis, finger, or toy) and ejaculation (male or female, although it is male ejaculation that has come to be seen as a staple of hard core). Meanwhile, gonzo has traditionally been understood as a format popularized by John “Buttman” Stagliano in the late 1980s—a type of cinema verité porn in which the performer(s) acknowledge the camera and typically interact with the cameraperson or director.4 Yet more recent fan and industry usage of the term “gonzo” indicates an understanding of this subgenre as a style—one that connotes extremity, hardness, and, to use antiporn scholar Gail Dines’s phrase, “body-punishing sex.”5 For while the standard definition of “gonzo” porn is indeed simply the filmmaking form, the term is routinely deployed by porn studios, fans, performers, and (usually antiporn) scholars to signal a particular, heteronormative, and rather nebulous sexual aesthetic characterized variously as “hard,” “extreme,” or “nasty.” At some point over the past decade, fan and industry discourse has drifted away from static academic terms that at one time mirrored industry language. This drift has left an awkward chasm in which academics tend to retain a semantic definition rooted in the moment of the terms’ origin while fans and industry producers are merrily conversing with a more flexible set of terms that carry a rather different meaning. The result is semantic discord in discussing pornography that reflects a larger anxiety over the distance between scholar and fan, between those inside and outside of the ivory tower. In this piece, I explore the semantic sphere of this discord with a specific focus on the changing meanings of “gonzo” in the Internet era. A meditation on the word “gonzo” might seem so myopic as to be irrelevant even...

Diesseits der Dematerialisierung

Resource demands of Industry 4.0. In contrast to promises of dematerialization and resource efficiency, digitalized production – also known as Industry 4.0 – and the technologies required for this digitalization will create specific raw material demands. The article introduces the dominant discourses of Industry 4.0 and points out the interlinkages between new technologies, increasing raw materials demands and the social and ecological consequences of mining, particularly in the Gloal South. Furthermore, it demands a democratic and globally just resource politics.

Striving for balance: A look at gameplay requirements of massively multiplayer online role-playing games

Engineering gameplay requirements is the most important task for game development organizations. Game industry discourse is concerned with continuous redesign of gameplay to enhance players' experience and boost game's appeal. However, accounts of gameplay requirements practices are rare. In responding to calls for more research into gameplay requirements engineering, we performed an exploratory study in the context of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), from the perspective of practitioners involved in the field. Sixteen practitioners from three leading MMORPG-producing companies were interviewed and their gameplay requirements documents were reviewed. Interviewing and qualitative data analysis occurred in a cyclical process with results at each stage of the study informing decisions about data collection and analysis in the next. The analysis revealed a process of striving to reach a balance among three perspectives of gameplay requirements: a process perspective, an artifact perspective and a player-designer relationship perspective. This balance-driven process is co-created by game developers and players, is endless within the MMORPG, and is happening both in-game and off-game. It heavily relies on 'paper-prototyping' and play-testing for the purpose of gameplay requirements validation. The study concludes with discussion on validity threats and on implications for requirements engineering research, practice and education.

Inside the whale (and how to get out of there): Moving on from two decades of creative industries research

In keeping with the spirit of this Special Issue, this article takes a retrospective view – analysing two decades of research on local, city-based cultural economies in the dominant context of the ‘creative industries’ policy paradigm. We begin by exploring our own position in the field – as early arbiters for the cultural industries – and the political and economic context which informed our own (shared) efforts to further progressive claims for culture, amidst the transforming post-industrial city of the 1990s. The subsequent rise of a creative industries discourse – in the United Kingdom and beyond – had a transformative effect on those progressive claims, not least in bringing to the fore a more economistic, capital-driven model of urban renewal which served to undermine many of the promises that had been invested in popular urban culture under social democracy. How this shift was played out in the academic literature – and its political consequences – is the theme of the remainder of the article. This article forms part of the Special Issue ‘On the Move’, which marks the 20th anniversary of the European Journal of Cultural Studies. It also heads up a special online dossier on ‘Creative Industries in the European Journal of Cultural Studies’.

Paratexts, Industrial Reflexivity, Affective Labour and King Kong: Peter Jackson’s Production Diaries

King Kong: Peter Jackson’s Production Diaries (2005), a self-contained DVD package released at the same time as King Kong (2005) is an example of paratext and of what John Caldwell calls ‘industrial reflexivity’. While cast as a direct act of communication with fans and as a means of revealing the behind-the-scene workings of Jackson and his crew, the Production Diaries work also as industrial discourse which seek to portray creative labour as a space of enjoyment, of affective investment and of individual fulfilment within a group of highly talented and motivated individuals. The diaries are both the production and the record of the creative labour and its transformation into a commodified media object through the process of affective labour. The Production Diaries provide an image of production for both external and internal purposes.

Integrated Localization Theory of Translation Studies

As with every other discipline, Informatics and Communication Technologies have also begun to affect translation studies. In this context, this study covers a part of my doctoral thesis written on the topic and is based on the debate about whether existing translation theories need to be revised in accordance with current conditions. The study contends that, as with other translation theories developed for specialized translation areas, the ‘localization industry’ that initially became popular in the late 1980s and for which attempts have been made, by those conducting this study and some translation scholars, to include it under the umbrella of translation studies in the belief that it would be a gain for translation studies, requires a new translation theory. Accordingly, this study intends to build a bridge between translation studies and the theory of localization, which has emerged as an industrial discourse. A theoretical proposal called the ‘integrated localization theory’ of translation studies has also been proposed in the study. Furthermore, it is considered that this theoretical proposal will not discredit the existing translation theories that have emerged in different periods and show the characteristics of paradigms, but will instead combine and harmonize them. With this approach, localization may even be transformed into one of the new paradigms of translation studies.

Medscheme Mental Health Programme

Medscheme Mental Health Programme

Script development: Defining the field

Abstract Through an extensive survey of the field, this article asks, what is script development? How is it defined in industry discourse and in screenwriting scholarship? While definitions of script development can be found across the spectrum of screenwriting and screen production resources, ranging from the instructional guidelines offered by funding bodies to references in the how-to market, the article posits that academic scholarship on the practice is still emerging. As such, this article seeks to establish a platform from which we can both define and conceive of further research into script development – however it might be named, practiced and studied – possibly as a sub-discipline of screenwriting studies and/or central to the study of screenwriting practice. The article brings together extant definitions and documented experiences of script development, to offer a basis from which to discuss both academic and practice-based approaches to the phenomenon. While not suggesting that the practice of script development should be standardized or limited by definition, the article does argue for the importance of investigating the available definitions and identifying the gaps in literature. By seeking out the various angles and overlaps of those researching in this field, the article proposes to begin a conversation and invite further research around what script development is and looks like in various international contexts.

The problem with ‘responsible gambling’: impact of government and industry discourses on feelings of felt and enacted stigma in people who experience problems with gambling

Government and industry communications to gamblers often focus on promoting responsible gambling, which incorporate a range of gambler behaviors. These include limit setting, maintaining control, being informed about the chances of winning and self-monitoring. However, there have been no empirical examinations of the effect that responsible gambling discourses have on people with gambling problems. We conducted qualitative interviews with 26 people with experience of gambling problems who were involved in peer support and advocacy activities. A number of themes arose from participants narratives. Participants perceived that responsible gambling discourses contributed to the felt and enacted stigma associated with problem gambling by focusing on personal responsibility. They also perceived that responsible gambling discourses created norms which led to personal blame and shame, and contributed to broader negative stereotypes of people with gambling problems. Participants also perceived that responsible gambling discourses had limited impact on either their own gambling behavior or help seeking. We conclude that discourses which focus on responsible gambling may have a negative and potentially stigmatizing impact for people experiencing gambling problems.

‘Lockout’ laws or ‘rock out’ laws? Governing Sydney’s night-time economy and implications for the ‘music city’

‘Lockout laws’ are not new in Australia – variants exist and have been trialled or continue to operate in Newcastle (since 2008), Melbourne (abandoned in 2008), and Adelaide (since 2013) and Darwin (since 2007). In February 2014, the New South Wales O’Farrell Coalition government introduced 1.30 am lockout and 3 am last drink laws for the Sydney CBD (Central Business District), among a series of other measures. The subsequent controversies about the ‘lockout laws’ in Sydney have provoked a curious and vivid set of debates encompassing crime, medical, moral, social, libertarian, cultural and industrial discourses. In this paper I wish to assess the new regulatory landscape within historical and contemporary perspectives of nightlife economies increasingly privileging cultural and entertainment city uses. Beyond unpacking the ‘lockout’ debate in terms of ‘liveability’ and ‘cultural city’ meanings as practised by Australian cities, this article will focus on the implications for Sydney’s ability to maintain its national and global status as a music city.

The political economy of ‘creative industries’

This article critically examines the fundamental premise of the creative industries discourse: human creativity as a distinctive input in the production process is the core source of economic value generation. It points out that this discourse emerged within the political-economic context of our time where creativity and knowledge are celebrated, while human labour itself as a factor of production and social force is increasingly de-legitimised and marginalised. The article argues that the radical potential in the discourse (the labour-value nexus) has failed to be recognised, and asks how it can be rediscovered and linked to contemporary socio-economic debates. Turning its attention to the creativity residing in the cultural sector, this article also argues that we should better understand its economic characteristics (productivity-low) and social consequences (diversity-high), and their implications for cultural policy.

Особенности промышленного дискурса в СССР во второй половине XX века

Особенности промышленного дискурса в СССР во второй половине XX века

Practical Strategies for Thought Leaders in College Athletics and Higher Education: Developing a “Meaningful Education and Career Preparation as Compensation” Model

Recent discussion amongst scholars and practitioners related to current issues in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college athletics has focused on areas such as the widespread commercialization of amateur sports, consistent corruption within athletics departments at NCAA member institutions, extensive exploitation of student-athletes and the necessity of a “pay for play” employee compensation model for student-athletes (see, for example, Benedict & Keteyian, 2014; Branch, 2011; Huma & Staurowsky, 2012; Nocera & Strauss, 2016; Southall & Staurowsky, 2013; Staurowsky, Maxcy, Karcher, Southall, Berri, & Otto, 2015). However, there has been minimal scholarly and industry discourse on how to leverage some of the revenues generated at the NCAA, conference and individual athletics program levels in order to develop innovative and sustainable higher education solutions that would prepare all student-athletes for career and personal success after participation in college athletics. The primary objective of this journal article is to encourage a more informed conversation about important issues in college athletics in part by proposing several practical strategies that would improve the overall student-athlete experience and further align participation in college athletics with the core goals of institutions of higher education. This research note provides an overview of the college athletics business model at Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institutions within Division I of the NCAA. In addition, this article reviews the current NCAA Division I governance structure. An accurate knowledge of the business and governance realities within college athletics is essential to understanding that paying student-athletes an hourly wage or annual salary is actually not one of the main system issues or central student-athlete wellbeing priorities of advocates for student-athletes, athletics leaders and higher education administrators. This article analyzes the primary issues and areas in which key college athletics stakeholders presently seek change and improvement. This article also spotlights innovative, culturally relevant student-athlete career and professional development programs recently developed by the University of Central Florida, Oregon State University and Vanderbilt University. Finally, this article provides a series of recommendations for all stakeholders involved in college athletics to optimize the student-athlete academic and athletic experience and to improve the level of career preparedness of all student-athletes.

“A Way to Sell Your Records”: Pop Stardom and the Politics of Drag Professionalization on RuPaul’s Drag Race

RuPaul’s Drag Race (Logo TV, 2009–present) tethers drag culture to pop stardom by structuring challenges around host RuPaul’s recording career and eliminations around lip sync contests that promote guest judges’ music. By its fourth season, it began substantially rewarding contestants for using pop music to showcase their own branding and musical skills. By analyzing the program and its surrounding industry discourse, this article identifies a Season 4 infomercial challenge promoting RuPaul’s catalogue as a turning point in the program’s relationship to pop music due to its winner’s ascent as a recording artist. As a result, many white and light-skinned cast members were far better able to mount their own recording careers after appearing on the program than their counterparts of color. Thus, this article argues that Drag Race uses the recording industry as a site for contestants’ professionalization that reinforces pop music’s and reality programming’s entrenched neoliberalism and post-racial politics.