Media Moments Research Articles

Ruminant livestock and climate change: critical discourse moments in mainstream and farming sector news media

AbstractThere is ongoing contestation around greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant livestock and how society should respond. Media discourses play a key role in agenda setting for the general public and policymakers, and may contribute to polarisation. This paper examines how UK news media portrayed ruminant livestock’s impact on climate change between 2016 and 2021. The analysis addresses a gap in the literature by comparing discourses in national and farming sector newspapers using a qualitative approach. Four national and two farming sector news outlets were searched for articles published between 2016 and 2021. A corpus of 996 relevant articles was assembled, from which 154 were selected for in-depth examination using Critical Discourse Analysis. Four ‘Critical Discourse Moments’ (CDMs), each signifying a discursive shift in the debate, were identified over the 6-year studied period: 1) Low salience, diverging discourses, 2) We must eat far less meat, 3) Fighting the anti-meat agenda, and 4) Policy (in)action at COP26. There was a large increase in the number of published articles from January 2019 onward, partly associated with publication of the EAT/Lancet Commission report. CDM 2 (We must eat far less meat) occurred mainly in the national media, while CDM 3 (Fighting the anti-meat agenda) occurred mainly in the farming media. Our findings reveal both opinion polarisation and intergroup polarisation between national and farming sector media, and low engagement with food system power imbalances. Addressing polarisation will be important to enhance capacity for collective decision-making regarding methane emissions from ruminant livestock.

Mutual socialization during shared media moments: U.S. LGBTQ teens and their parents negotiate identity support

AbstractSocial relational theory proposes that children and parents socialize each other, particularly when knowledge, beliefs, and identities diverge. For families with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) teens, identity-relevant media depictions may spark moments of mutual socialization, including attempts to mediate each other’s viewing and discussions of the teen’s identity. U.S. data from 200 LGBTQ teens (aged 13–18) and one of their parents indicated that 83% of dyads reported that media content had elicited identity-related conversations. Both teens and parents perceived teens to mediate more often than parents, though latent profile analyses suggested distinct dyadic profiles. Although all teens were out to their parent, those with more identity certainty engaged in and received more frequent mediation. For parents, the frequency and positivity of “media moments” were associated with greater support for their teen’s identity. For teens, positivity (but not frequency) of such moments was associated with perceptions of more parental support for their identity.

Media moments: how media events and business incentives drive twitter engagement within the small business community.

Twitter is one of the most popular social networking platforms today with nearly 238 million active daily users. While the platform is used by a myriad of individuals for various purposes, businesses both large and small have begun to adopt Twitter into their business strategy to better connect with consumers. Considering the growing emphasis on social media engagement in the business sector, the present study examines some of the fastest-growing American small businesses from the perspective of media events theory. According to media events theory, certain large-scale events will attract excess viewership and attention from the public, both on traditional and digital platforms. We examine how small businesses leveraged media events of 2020, including COVID-19 and the 2020 US presidential election, so as to increase engagement and foster the growth of their businesses via Twitter. Using 35000 tweets based on media event-related hashtags collected throughout 2020, we investigated Twitter engagement among 100 of the fastest-growing small businesses in the USA. Through the use of network analysis metrics, we illustrate that businesses that tweeted about media events often received greater levels of user engagement and exerted greater influence over their respective networks.

After Print: Eighteenth-Century Manuscript Cultures, ed. Rachael Scarborough King

<i>After Print: Eighteenth-Century Manuscript Cultures</i>, ed. Rachael Scarborough King

Building Spectatorial Solidarity against the “War on Terror” Media-Military Gaze

At the dawn of the 21st century the “War on Terror” ushered in an era in which some were besieged by wars and others by war-related imagery. For the fortunate who live outside of war zones, mostly in the Global North and West, the experience of war has been primarily a mediated one. With the advent of digital imagery and its many evolving and developing technological transmutations, the possibilities of reproduction, representation, manipulation, and circulation have grown exponentially in the past twenty years. Yet in the grand scheme of human communication history, the “pictorial turn” is a relatively recent phenomenon that requires further analysis. In this article, I unpack and analyze some of the key media moments from the vast visual lexicon and iconography of the “War on Terror” to reveal its scaffolding and machinations and offer counterstrategies of resistance. I argue that the “War on Terror” is the orchestrated sum of literal and figurative imagery, a coordinated public relations disinformation media campaign designed to hide real wars and their true destruction and costs.

Tickle me on WeChat Moments: the role of brand love

PurposeThis study aims to expand the understanding of the implicit exposure of brands in Web dramas with congruent branding messages shared on social media Moments. This study also aims to examine the mediating role of word of mouth (WOM) and brand love in the relationship between Web-drama connectedness and viewers’ intention to spend and spending per week.Design/methodology/approachA total of 657 usable questionnaires were gathered from Chinese participants who watch the famous weekly drama “My Huckleberry Friends” and make weekly purchases from McDonald’s. Partial least squares regression was used to test the theoretical model of the study.FindingsResults of this study reveal that WOM and brand love mediate the relationship between Web-drama connectedness and intention to spend on the exposed brand. Intention to spend mediates the relationship between brand love and spending. WOM mediates the relationship between Web-drama connectedness and spending.Originality/valueTencent’s WeChat is a well-known Chinese social media platform with a history of forbidding advertising. Users constantly flood social media with Web-drama content, influencing consumers’ spending habits. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is one of the first attempts to develop an understanding of Web-drama connectedness, brand love, WOM and behavioural intention by tracing the spending on advertised brands. This study highlights how brands maintain consumer spending by enhancing brand love via Web-drama advertising and instigating ticklish moments as “print screens” of WOM on social media.

A Media Moment Shot of Entertainment in the Chicago Nights of October 1953

This historical analysis will take you on a journey in time that will give you a glimpse into vibrant attractions of entertainment advertisements that will gradually come to life through the lens and scope of this amplified application of historical examination. “History is about the preservation, recording, systematic analysis, correlation, and the interpretation of events of the past.” (Godfrey, 2011, p.5) The Palmer House held events of entertainment that tell us our story of how pillars of entertainment were put in place and set in motion for us to enjoy the present day. We need a getaway and entertainment can give us just that. “The escapism ideology is related to the idea that people have a part of their lives which they do not enjoy, and, when possible, they should escape from it.” (Heiligmann, 2003, p.166) The purpose of this study is to project the story this ad tells, as the ad symbolized how the Palmer House represented a space where people can escape their daily lives and find access to a Chicago scene that began to custom design cultural standards.

Teachable Moments in News Media—An Analysis of Audience Awareness, Enjoyment, Interest, Opinion Formation, and Understanding (AEIOU) toward Science

In light of the increased time spent by people on watching the news via social media, what might be the communication impacts if science education could help in producing science news media for the public? The present study compared the audience levels of awareness, enjoyment, interest, opinion formation, and understanding (AEIOU) toward science experimentally between two groups: the general science communication (GSC) group (i.e., participants with general daily science news digestion) and the science edu-communication (SEC) group (i.e., participants who watched science news videos produced jointly by science educators, scientists, and news media production teams). As a result, those in the SEC group showed significantly higher levels of “interest”, formed more scientific “opinions”, and had better “understanding” than the GSC participants. In terms of creating an “additional opportunity” to develop science news media sustainably for the public, the present study confirms more salient outcomes when science educators are involved in the production of science news media.

George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays

George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays

Toroidal Metaphotonics and Metadevices

AbstractToroidal moments in artificial media have received growing attention and considered as a promising framework for initiating novel approaches to manage intrinsic radiative losses in nanophotonic and plasmonic systems. In the past decade, there has been substantial attention on the characteristics and excitation methods of toroidal multipoles—in particular, toroidal dipole—in 3D bulk and planar metaplatforms. The remarkable advantages of toroidal resonances have thrust the toroidal metasurface technology from relative anonymity into the limelight, in which researchers have recently centered on developing applied optical and optoelectronic subwavelength devices based on toroidal metaphotonics and metaplasmonics. In this focused contribution, the key principles of 3D and flatland toroidal metastructures are described, and the revolutionary tools that have been implemented based on this topology are briefly highlighted. Infrared photodetectors, immunobiosensors, ultraviolet beam sources, waveguides, and functional modulators are some of the fundamental and latest examples of toroidal metadevices that have been introduced and studied experimentally so far. The possibility of the realization of strong plexciton dynamics and pronounced vacuum Rabi oscillations in toroidal plasmonic metasurfaces are also presented in this review. Ultimate efficient extreme‐subwavelength scale devices, such as low‐threshold lasers and ultrafast switches, are thus in prospect.

An inhomogeneous most likely path formalism for proton computed tomography

PurposeMultiple Coulomb scattering (MCS) poses a challenge in proton CT (pCT) image reconstruction. The assumption of straight paths is replaced with Bayesian models of the most likely path (MLP). Current MLP-based pCT reconstruction approaches assume a water scattering environment. We propose an MLP formalism based on accurate determination of scattering moments in inhomogeneous media. MethodsScattering power relative to water (RScP) was calculated for a range of human tissues and investigated against relative stopping power (RStP). Monte Carlo simulation was used to compare the new inhomogeneous MLP formalism to the water approach in a slab geometry and a human head phantom. An MLP-Spline-Hybrid method was investigated for improved computational efficiency. ResultsA piecewise-linear correlation between RStP and RScP was shown, which may assist in iterative pCT reconstruction. The inhomogeneous formalism predicted Monte Carlo proton paths through a water cube with thick bone inserts to within 1.0 mm for beams ranging from 210 to 230 MeV incident energy. Improvement in accuracy over the conventional MLP ranged from 5% for a 230 MeV beam to 17% for 210 MeV. There was no noticeable gain in accuracy when predicting 200 MeV proton paths through a clinically relevant human head phantom. The MLP-Spline-Hybrid method reduced computation time by half while suffering negligible loss of accuracy. ConclusionsWe have presented an MLP formalism that accounts for material composition. In most clinical cases a water scattering environment can be assumed, however in certain cases of significant heterogeneity the proposed algorithm may improve proton path estimation.

Pushing boundaries and blurring categories in digital media and religion research

AbstractAs religious identity and spiritual practices transform and expand in the digital media moment, this article advocates for more critical scholarship on media and religion that examines the complex ways that individuals make meaning in the digital age. First, I present an overview of foundational media and religion theories that analyze the interactions between these ever‐changing fields, such as the culturalist tradition, mediatization theory, and the social shaping of technology approach. Furthermore, this essay highlights insightful research trends that blur distinctions between media spaces and complicate definitions of religion. Finally, a discussion of gaps in the scholarship will justify an argument for more theories centered in international contexts, as well as analysis of the relationships between media technologies, aesthetics, affect, identity and religious expression. These emerging approaches provide more in‐depth discussions of how the fast‐changing and ever‐complex digital culture is deeply connected to the evolving nature of religion and human existence.

The Fourth Wall

Toni Adeyemi, a senior in media studies at the University of San Francisco, and Karina Hodoyán, an associate professor in the Spanish Studies program and director of the Master's in Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, interview filmmaker Cheryl Dunye. The conversation took place across different media platforms and moments in time, and focuses on both Dunye's past work and her recent directorial transition into new platforms of filmmaking and storytelling, including directing episodic television. Dunye mentions the politicization of the breaking of the “fourth wall,” and the advent of social-media storytelling about identity, race, gender, and queer desire. She also discusses her current project Black Is Blue, a work in progress set in the future about a love affair between a trans couple in Oakland. The figures show a related Instagram project touching on Dunye's many influences as well as instances of fourth-wall breaking in contemporary television.

Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording’s Extensibility to High Linear and Areal Density

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is being developed as the next generation magnetic recording technology. Critical components of this technology, such as the plasmonic near-field transducer and high anisotropy granular FePt media, as well as recording demonstrations and fully integrated drives have been reported. One of the remaining ongoing challenges of magnetic recording in general and HAMR in particular has been the demonstration of high linear density recording, approaching the grain-size (GS) limit of the recording media, and a clear pathway to smaller GSs while maintaining good magnetic properties and distributions. This paper will demonstrate the extensibility of FePt-based media down to the 5 nm center-to-center range. A linear recording density of 3000 kilobits per inch (kbpi), or a bit length of 8.5 nm, approaching the GS limit of this media, has been demonstrated on recording media with a slightly larger GS of 7 nm center-to-center, and using an HAMR head with high thermal gradient >10 K/nm. Key parameters of the media include the microstructure, the thermal design and magnetic properties, most importantly the tradeoff between achievable GS, media moment–thickness product, Mrt, and the distributions of the magnetic switching field and the Curie temperature. Further optimizing the composition, growth, and architecture of the media stack to achieve all the prerequisite magnetic and thermal properties for high signal-to-noise ratios in the smallest demonstrated GS media allows linear recording densities of up to 4000 kbpi, and areal densities in the 3–4 tera-bits-per-square-inch range can be extrapolated based on geometrical scaling.

Constructing the Platform-Specific Self-Brand: The Labor of Social Media Promotion

With the widespread uptake of social media, discourses and practices of self-branding have become a pervasive feature of social and economic life. However, the way in which the digital self-brand gets reproduced across a sprawling social media landscape remains comparatively under-theorized. Our paper therefore draws upon in-depth interviews with 52 online content creators—including designers, artists, writers, and marketing consultants—to examine how cultural workers present themselves across the panoply of social networking sites. As we show, workers’ self-presentation activities were structured through the production of a platform-specific self-brand, which was based upon the imaginations of (1) platform affordances, (2) audiences, and (3) the producer’s own self-concept. Our findings highlight producers’ compulsion to engage in continuous, cross-platform labor—despite widespread uncertainty about its economic outcomes. We conclude by addressing the stakes of a social media moment when workers of all stripes are prodded to incessantly curate, monitor, and ultimately invest in their online personae.

Phony Facts and Eco-media: Fake Nature and the Call for Widespread Media Literacy

ABSTRACTMermaids: The Body Found privileges mythologized creatures in a fictional narrative disguised as a documentary film in order to blur the boundaries between fact and fiction. This franchise’s decisions to value factors of entertainment over educational material are not uncommon in our consumer-driven society, but the film's engagement with fake fact media potentially repositions how audiences think about important conservation issues by overshadowing critical oceanic environmental topics with fake facts. Although today’s viewers are adept in interpreting media, the mermaid franchise’s use of screen genres, corporate websites, and social media saturates viewers with fake facts making it difficult to delineate between authentic science and fictional narrative. Not a quantitative reception study of audiences, this critical analysis of multiple genres of eco-media examines the difference between fake nature documentary and other types of animal programming and mockumentaries emphasizing that the issue is not strictly a question of entertainment factors or even of the subversion of fact and fiction, alone, but that the real issue lies in the franchise’s willingness to participate in an ever-growing media moment in which programming based on fake and alternative facts has the potential to impact how the public thinks about key issues in politics and science.

Representing insect sexualities in Life in the Undergrowth and Green Porno

ABSTRACTWhat does it mean to represent insect sexualities? What are the technologies that one uses to make insect bodies visible? In this article, I examine two series in order to examine representations of insect sexualities. In the documentary Life in the Undergrowth, famed British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough’s hushed tones tell us that new technologies of seeing are making new worlds visible. In the second, Isabella Rossellini stars in the series Green Porno, in which she uses biologically accurate costumes to blow up insect bodies to human size, using the costumes as technologies of seeing to help her audience visualize how insects have sex. Here, the costumes themselves become ways of knowing insect bodies while simultaneously rendering them as spectacular media moments. I rely upon feminist media studies of representations of wildlife to ask how assumptions around gender and sexuality continue to shape contemporary depictions of the insect world in Sir David Attenborough’s series Life in the Undergrowth, whereas I argue that Green Porno represents a queering of traditional documentaries on insects and examine what possibilities this might provide us with for rethinking insect sexualities—from monogamy and heterosexual reproduction to S/M, queer sex, and polyamory.

Zika: Grappling with Prognostic Un/certainty and Open Normativities

In this article, I investigate the logic of prognostic certainty by examining the media's enactment of Zika through four media moments: The Olympics, The Pope, The Senate, and The Millennials. Prognostic certainty refers to the idea that once we diagnose a body (fetus, child, adult) with a condition, we can predict the outcome of that condition on the living subject, regardless of sociocultural circumstances. In utilizing disability theory from Alison Kafer, Eli Clare, and Alexis Shotwell, I propose a politics of prognostic un/certainty in relation to Zika. If we embrace this politics of contagion in relation to Zika, we can enact a radical openness that allows space for Zika-affected children to thrive by providing comprehensive healthcare and creating a social world that eliminates as many barriers to inclusion for disabled bodies as possible. Yet with this comes the need for comprehensive scientific information about Zika and interventions to prevent Zika from affecting some populations more than others; embracing a radical openness about Zika does not mean ignoring its contagion but analyzing where and how it spreads and creating interventions that transcend national borders. Prognostic un/certainty captures the tensions that emerge by holding all of these values simultaneously.

Far from paradise: The body, the apparatus and the image of contemporary virtual reality

The contemporary popularity of virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift has links not just with earlier eras of virtual reality technology, but with recurrent discourse surrounding the moving image and spectatorship. The articulation of the Oculus Rift in public through YouTube ‘reaction’ videos and media moments such as the Oculus Rift Time magazine cover of 2015 links contemporary virtual reality to early cinema discourses of credulous spectatorship, strenuous spectatorship and the cinema of attractions. Through these comparisons, this article argues that the ‘image’ of contemporary virtual reality technology is not that of a simulated exotic paradise enabled by the apparatus, but the apparatus itself, the body of its user and that body’s gender.

More than a Media Moment: The Influence of Televised Storylines on Viewers’ Attitudes toward Transgender People and Policies

Numerous studies have demonstrated the power of entertainment narratives to influence attitudes and behaviors; fewer have examined the effects of TV portrayals on attitudes toward marginalized groups. The present study is among the first to explore how entertainment narratives depicting transgender individuals influence viewers’ attitudes toward transgender people and related policies. The study examines the impact of exposure to a TV storyline on Royal Pains (USA Network) and cumulative effects of viewing other TV series featuring transgender individuals. An online survey of 488 U.S. viewers of Royal Pains was conducted (391 had seen the relevant episode). ANCOVAs revealed exposure to both the Royal Pains’ storyline and other storylines portraying transgender individuals were associated with more supportive attitudes toward transgender people and policies. Mediation models revealed that for viewers of the Royal Pains’ storyline, the relationships between political ideology and attitudes toward transgender people and policies were mediated by identification with the main characters and the emotion of hope. Disgust mediated viewers’ attitudes toward transgender people, but not policies. Post hoc analyses revealed that exposure to transgender narratives reduced the influence of viewers’ political ideology on their attitudes. The attitudes of more conservative viewers became increasingly positive as they saw more media portrayals of transgender individuals. These findings highlight the potential for entertainment narratives to influence attitudes toward marginalized groups, and they demonstrate the importance of emotion in the context of divisive topics. Social, political, and public health implications are discussed.