Popular Series Research Articles

Panna Addams: współczesna tożsamość „z pogranicza”. O postawie głównej bohaterki serialu Wednesday

The article is a part of qualitative interpretive research conducted as part of a doctoral thesis addressing the portrayal of femininity in contemporary selected film fairytales. The aim of the analysis was to present fairy tale heroines as an audiovisual representation of expectations, norms, and values stemming from gender and inscribed in the prevailing socio-cultural order. The qualitative interpretation of the active stance of the main character in the popular series Wednesday serves as an exe mplification of cultural contestation between the traditional understanding of femininity and its androgynous redefinition, not constrained by widely accepted social norms.

The Power of a Brand: Paramount, Heartland Narrowcasting, and Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone

Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone is, above all, the story of a brand. By situating the popular series in relation to both the streaming and culture wars, as well as a related schism in academic media studies, this article proposes that the political economy of media corporations and the narrative aesthetics of media texts must be understood in tandem. As the Paramount Network’s signature property, Yellowstone manifested the channel’s demographic mission to include women and “narrowcast” to heartland viewers. By sophisticated generic and narratological innovations, Yellowstone went further to create an aesthetic protocol of brand loyalty where the process of branding, at once ancient and modern, physical and symbolic, was made self-consciously central to the show’s redescription of rural cowboying as a cultural identity and marketable lifestyle. The show’s intertwining of branding and belonging, as well as its vigorous use of product placement and merchandising, modifies prior assumptions in the field of franchise studies. In the gap between brand synergy and brand dilution, Yellowstone presents itself as a paradigmatic case study for the new imbrications of narrative entertainment, commodity fetishism, and identitarian politics.

A Study of Korean Language in Animation Programs for Young Children : Analysis of the Scripts of the Top 5 Popular Series

A Study of Korean Language in Animation Programs for Young Children : Analysis of the Scripts of the Top 5 Popular Series

Dynamic Verbs in Peaky Blinders Season 1

The need to be able to understand what other people convey is very important for humans as social beings. Humans communicate through words that have forms and meanings that contain ideas, intentions, or emotions. This research was written to find out the meaning in the form of an action of a word form, namely a dynamic verb when it is associated with the whole sentence. Dynamic verbs and their types that will be analyzed are taken from the popular series, Peaky Blinders Season 1 Episode 1 and Episode 2. The writer took thirty data to be the object of the analysis. The qualitative method is the method used in the preparation of this study based on Saeed (2016) who divides dynamic verbs into four types namely, durative-punctual and telic-atelic as the main theory. The findings were: three data were declared as durative-atelic with a percentage of 10%, ten data were declared as punctual-telic with a percentage of 33.3%, and seventeen data were declared as durative-telic with a percentage of 56.7%. There are three positions from the findings, namely durative-telic as the most type, punctual-telic in the middle position, and durative-atelic as the least.

Representation of women and work in the most popular series in the UK and Spain

This study provides a portrait of the occupational roles in the series most watched on the generalist DTT channels in the United Kingdom and Spain. The media representations of gender role attitudes in the workplace, especially in fiction, influence the popular culture and social imaginary of the audiences. In this context, the study of the series with the largest audience is important to discover the patterns that these fictions show about work environments. This article analyzes 40 popular series broadcasts on generalist television channels in the United Kingdom and Spain. A sample of more than 400 characters reveals the representation of women and men in the workplace, highlighting the similarities and differences regarding job profiles, leadership, and prestige. The comparison between both markets allows us to find relevant concepts on the current representation of women and work. While in the UK the differences are minor, the results in Spain confirm the differences between male and female characters associated with various aspects of the workplace such as the prestige and positioning of the most qualified jobs.

From Niche Narrative to Audio Blockbusters

From Niche Narrative to Audio Blockbusters

Playing with words across visual humor in an Iranian EFL context with Arab students: Pedagogical translanguaging for enhancement of multicultural spaces in language education

This study focuses on how translanguaging in language instruction with the aid of audiovisual materials can teach Iranian EFL students with Arab ethnicity wordplay in English . Given the significant role wordplay plays in generating humor within TV shows, it can provide a challenge for EFL learners to understand both the humor and cultural nuances of such audiovisual materials. To this end, this study initially selected two popular series, Friends and The Simpsons, translated into Persian. The researchers taught linguistic and translation models to 15 EFL students with Arab ethnicity to identify and categorize the diverse types of wordplay and strategies used to translate them from English to Persian. Students participating in the action research found that the most commonly utilized wordplay and translation strategy were lexical-semantic wordplay and no wordplay strategy, respectively. They also reported that the equivalents were not appropriate in many instances. Interview results with these learners demonstrated the participants' enhanced understanding of wordplay, with translanguaging through translated audiovisual materials identified as a motivating and effective approach for language learning. Ultimately, this research has important implications for teaching English within the expanding cycle of world Englishes with the possibility of promoting translanguaging and intercultural competence.

The Influence of Love View on Young People in Chinese Idol Dramas A Case Study of the Costume Idol Drama Lost You Forever

This paper presents a detailed investigation into the influence of love perspectives conveyed through Chinese costume idol dramas, with a specific focus on the popular series, Lost You Forever. Targeting a predominantly youthful audience, these dramas hold a significant role in shaping the views and values of young people regarding love and relationships. Using an extensive survey approach with 134 respondents, predominantly young females, this study delves into the demographic profiles of viewers, their motivations for engaging with Lost You Forever, and the subsequent impact on their perceptions of love and relationships. Results reveal that Lost You Forever effectively engages its target audience, with most viewers ardently following the series. Beyond entertainment, viewers seek relaxation and social bonding. Significantly, the drama influences respondents views on romance, increasing their emphasis on qualities such as personality, shared interests, trust, respect, and emotional connection when considering partners. This suggests a positive impact on relationship values. However, its vital to recognize the potential for unrealistic expectations, especially if viewers idealize certain character dynamics. Thus, encouraging media literacy and critical thinking regarding portrayals of love and relationships becomes crucial.

The White Lotus TV Series Season 2: Deconstructing Italians Stereotypes

Modern mass media serve as both a "magic window" into the world and a "door" to new ideas. It is important to look at how the steady growth of media affects the way racial and cultural stereotypes are pushed forward. Stereotypes themselves can influence how people view facts and social events and one of many examples of stereotypes is Italian stereotypes. This study analyzes HBO's popular series, The White Lotus season two, employing Fairclough's model critical discourse analysis to deconstruct Italian stereotypes through the characters' portrayals. This study also examines the sociocultural aspect and physical appearances of the Italian characters portrayed by American television. The findings of this study show the physical portrayal of Italians mostly they have the same features and are known for their fashion sense and attention to appearance. Moreover, Italian characters are portrayed with speak loudly and having the urge to cause some disturbance. The last stereotype is quite expected but debatable, which is the portrayal of Italians being middle-class workers and mafia. This stereotype had some audience feeling disappointed and others pleased enough. Western films' mafia stereotypes could affect how people learn about the culture, and think all Italians are dangerous, poor, and do drugs. Mafias exist and should not define Italian identity, especially in mainstream media.

The Magic of Media and Culture

The Magic of Media and Culture

Watching Doraemon: Dismantling hegemony in a Japanese popular series

This article examines hegemony spread through Japanese popular series, Doraemon. In 2008, the character Doraemon was made the Anime Ambassador and was sent around the world to campaign for Japanese popular culture. This appointment is part of the Japanese government's public diplomacy strategy. Doraemon is then synonymous with the perfect character figure, which has become one of the symbols of the progress of the Japanese state. Hegemony theory is used to dissect how ideology works through characters that have become state icons and are widely accepted with a very positive image. The results of the analysis show that patriarchal hegemony works through the depiction of scary female characters, male superiority, and the role of the media as a means of ideological dissemination. The Doraemon series preserves the patriarchy wrapped in a beautiful dream story of a future with Japan's advanced technology.

Revision and retranslation of children's classics in modern-day UK and Spain: The case of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five and Malory Towers

ABSTRACT Despite the commercial success of Enid Blyton's books in Spain, researchers have not paid much attention to the Spanish revisions and retranslations of her work. This paper focuses on two of Blyton’s most popular series, The Famous Five and Malory Towers. They were first translated into Spanish in 1964 and have been recently republished in Spain, partly because from 2010 onwards the STs have been thoroughly revised. We analyse which (para)textual aspects of both the original texts and their first translations into Spanish have been modified allegedly to fit the preferences of modern readers. Findings show that two different strategies, revision and retranslation, have been used by publishers for the same purpose: the revamping of Blyton’s works in modern-day UK and Spain.

"Nothing will come of nothing": King Lear and the Paradoxical Debasement of Whiteness in HBO's Succession

Abstract: This essay examines the central role of racial whiteness in the self-construction and widespread reception of HBO’s popular series, Succession , as King Lear ’s twenty-first-century heir. Drawing on Christina Wald’s analysis of Succession as “serial Shakespeare,” conversations about the show in digital culture, and work in critical whiteness studies including several recent discussions of race in King Lear , I trace Succession ’s representation of the four Roy children’s battle for control of their father’s global media empire to the racialized portrayal of key characters in Shakespeare’s arguably grimmest tragedy. My focus is the Roy empire’s heir apparent, Kendall Roy, and his affinities with Edgar, Goneril, Cordelia, and Lear himself as figures of early modern racial ideologies. Kendall’s association with these characters in King Lear not only sheds light on the roles of race and gender in HBO’s flagrantly white drama, but also exemplifies what Arthur L. Little, Jr. describes as Shakespeare’s underappreciated but “prodigious contribution” to the making of white people. Succession ’s repeated exposures of the Roy siblings’ toxic, privileged whiteness, along with Kendall’s repeated, failed efforts to be crowned head of his father’s company, resonate with King Lear ’s oft-discussed emphasis on “nothing,” as well as its ambivalence about the future of a unified white nation. What Succession finally reveals about King Lear is a paradox fundamental to both dramas’ constructions of racial whiteness: debasement only adds to its power.

Grofilia. Omówienie zjawiska na przykładzie wybranych seriali platformy Netflix


 
 
 The article discusses the communicative and artistic practice grophilia, which is appropriate for the culture of participation. It consists in the transfictional use of the structures and poetics of digital games in the field of various arts. The points of reference for the analysis of grophilia are three popular series distributed on the Netflix streaming platform: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Arcane and Love, Death + Robots. The author analyzes these works, focusing on the systemic character of grofil practices, the aesthetics of grofil texts and their transmedia and transdiscursive specificity. She indicates that grophilia, like genres, can be treated as an artistic strategy that precedes realizations, creates new forms of narration and guides how the work is received.
 
 

Surface Modification on Magnesium Alloys’ Hardness and Microstructure Using Friction Stir Processing – A Review

Low density of magnesium-based alloy is one potential as the lightest structural material for light weight-high strength applications for automotive and aerospace. Severe plastic deformation (SPD) together with thermomechanical processing are proved to be a successful method for attaining desired microstructural modifications through achieving fine and highly misoriented microstructures and creating various structures to the bulk properties of magnesium alloy. The material's deformation can result in an altered microstructure that is gainful to the material's requirements. However, the poor deformability of magnesium and its alloys limits the application of the thermomechanical approach. Controlling over temperature and deformation rate is hard to achieve. Among the thermomechanical processes, friction stir processing (FSP) offers an easy way to achieve process stability and mechanical properties enhancement by heat treatment which results in the closure of porosity and refined grain size. During this process, heat is generated by the rotation of the FSP processing tool. Few process parameters such as rotational and traverse speeds should be controlled to make FSP stay within the defined processing condition. It is critical to set the right tool rotational speed as well as traverse speed to ensure adequate heat generation. As there are no established standards for operating the FSP, the only solution is to experiment with different settings to find the best parameter which will produce better quality on processed magnesium alloy workpiece. This paper explores earlier studies on surface modification via FSP technique to improve the mechanical properties strengthening of magnesium alloy mainly on grain size and hardness. The surface modification was done mostly on popular series of magnesium alloy (AZ series) using different tool material, tool geometry and different parameters combination. A comprehensive view of surface modification on magnesium alloys which includes the FSP tool and workpiece material used, variations of FSP parameters settings as well as the effect on hardness and microstructure analysis will be discussed.

Narrative Time in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games: A Genettian Perspective

This article utilizes Gérard Genette’s (1972/1980) narrative discourse theory in order to explore the temporal narrative strategies deployed in The Hunger Games (2008), the first novel in the popular series by the American writer Suzanne Collins. Though Genette’s comprehensive theory includes such elements as time, mood, and voice, the main focus of the study will be narrative time, whose elements order, duration, and frequency and their subcategories are first defined and then applied to the analysis of this novel. Genette’s theory of narrative discourse has almost invariably been considered as a purely formal one, a highly systematic classification of terms designed to describe narrative structures, without focusing on the social and cultural factors. In contrast, the present analysis aims at exploring both the formal and the communicative components of Genette’s theory, with a view to bridging the gap between old classical and current postclassical narratology.

Ugo Tognazzi, Raimondo Vianello, and Un, due, tre: Establishing Italian Television Audiences, Genres, and Expectations in the 1950s

ABSTRACT During the 1950s, comedy actors Ugo Tognazzi and Raimondo Vianello were the famous faces of Italian variety television thanks to their roles as hosts of the popular series Un, due, tre (1954-1959). In addition to proving popular with audiences, the programme played an important role in establishing the nature of variety television in this period, and the expectations of Italian television more broadly, given the regular focus in each episode on the nature of the medium itself. This article explores this focus on television and the wider role played by Tognazzi and Vianello as hosts of Un, due, tre as a way of exploring the nature of Italian variety television in the 1950s. In particular, it examines how the two stars appealed to and connected with viewers in a way that established a nascent national television audience and expectations regarding entertainment programming and television broadcasting in this period.

THE USE OF PARALINGUISTICS IN JIM BUTCHER'S WORK

In this article, we explore the use of paralinguistics in Jim Butcher's work, specifically in his popular series, The Dresden Files. Through a comprehensive analysis of various paralinguistic cues used in his writing, we delve into how Butcher creates a rich and immersive reading experience for his fans.

The use of ‘poisonous insecticidal solutions’ in bookbinding: coping with historic pesticide treatments in the archive

Records from a popular series at The National Archives were found to bear warning labels that they have been bound using a ‘poisonous insecticidal solution’. Research into historic sources suggested that the agents used by bookbinders in the early twentieth century were mercuric chloride, copper sulphate, and beechwood creosote; these may have been replaced by organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) mid-century. Analysis by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy confirmed the presence of mercury in labelled, bound items. A number of OCPs were detected using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS) including DDT, gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (Lindane, γ-HCH), Dieldrin, pentachlorophenol (PCP), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), and 1-chloronaphthalene (1-CP). Tests confirmed the presence of these agents on all items tested regardless of format (e.g. tagged files and bound volumes) or period of creation, suggesting the OCPs were introduced to the items after the binding process. An occupational hygienist (OH) consultancy was engaged to carry out in-situ air monitoring during production, digitisation, and general handling of the items. Risk assessments were developed based on the results, allowing readers and staff to once again access the collection with safety measures including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Original Contents, Celebrities and Proximity. How Netflix Spain used Instagram to Bring its Catalogue to Young People during the Pandemics

This study focuses on how Netflix Spain harnessed Instagram to acquaint young people with its catalogue during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the sudden increase in OTT consumption. This led Netflix Spain to adapt its social media strategies and production release dates to a situation without parallel and in the face of intense competition. We analyze the messages during the state of alarm in Spain (from 15 March to 21 June of 2020), when Netflix was the most consumed OTT service. Netflix promoted recently released productions and used proximity strategies, both to GenZ and to Spanish audience, such as toning down with humor the daily problems of lockdown, using juvenile slang (“crush”, “shipping”), referring to the habits of young people (taking selfies, sending audio messages) and using the social media of the cast of their most popular series, promoting them as “Netflix celebrities” and emphasizing their good-looks and sexual attractive.