Serial Character Research Articles

Oreonectes yuedongensis (Cypriniformes, Nemacheilidae), a new freshwater fish species from the Lianhua Mountains in eastern Guangdong, China.

In this work, we describe a new species of the genus Oreonectes, Oreonectes yuedongensis sp. nov., collected from the Lianhua Mountains in eastern Guangdong, China. Phylogenetic trees constructed based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene showed that this new species represents an independent evolutionary lineage, with uncorrected genetic distances (Kimura 2-parameter model) from congeners ranging from 5.1% to 8.3%. In addition, nuclear DNA analysis indicated O. yuedongensis as an independent lineage separate from its closely related species. Morphologically, the new species can be distinguished from other six species in the genus Oreonectes by a combination of serial characters. The description of this new species suggests that it is necessary to reassess the biodiversity of Oreonectes platycephalus as a complex, especially in the middle reaches of the Pearl River near the border between Guangdong and Guangxi. Morphological and genetic evidence supports O. yenlingi as a synonym of O. platycephalus.

Traditional Figures Marketing Communication Activation on Is Yuniarto's Digital Wayang Design

Is Yuniarto is a comic artist and art illustrator who uses digital platform for sharing his digital comics or designs into the digital world. His works can be seen on Instagram @is.yuniarto where he redesigns fictional hero characters from abroad by adding a traditional Indonesian touch and making the results even better.
 This study aims to find Discourse of Traditional Figure Marketing Communication Activation on Is Yuniarto’s Digital Wayang Designs. The type of research used is descriptive research with a qualitative approach. The method used is semiotics. 
 The result is the theme of wayang design by Is Yuniarto is 'Adiwira Kalangga VS para Adidurja’. Adiwira Kalangga is Hero form Country Kalangga. Kalangga is like Trowulan by making a local name that is similar to Marvel serial characters universally. Figure seven Adidurja is powerful and intelligent supernatural.The characters depicted by isyuniarto actually want to match the characters in the Marvel series and then use local terms as a form of character similarity. Figures that are marketed include, among others, Kalangga, Kalawisa, Kalagetih, Biawak, Khageswara, Ki Astapadha, Bajra and Tuyul ijo. The depiction of figures through character traits, supernatural powers, colors, and weapons ownership. Is Yuniarto branding new figure of wayang design. His digital content communication competence in design is uniqueness.Philosophy in design activation its his strength.

An efficient method to detect series of fraudulent identity documents based on digitised forensic data

Document fraud is a transnational form of crime, and its serial character has already been highlighted. To combat this phenomenon, the Interstate Database of Fraudulent Identity Documents (BIDIF) has been created and implemented in Switzerland. It supports the comparison of documents and the detection of series, i.e., documents that share a common source. To efficiently use such a system, forensic document examiners would benefit from a harmonised and proven profiling method. Thus, the aim of this study is to develop a method for comparing documents and establishing series. The method is meant to improve the detection capabilities of forensic document examiners operating BIDIF or engaged in the profiling of fraudulent documents. First, a method based on the visual characteristics of digitised images of fraudulent identity documents has been developed. Subsequently, the method was qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated using four tests. The first test verified the ability of the method to detect pre-existing series. The second test checked the capability of the method to detect links amongst isolated documents. Finally, two further tests were carried out to compare the method impact on the successful detection of series. These tests were carried out by professional forensic document examiners and Master students in forensic science, respectively. This allowed a comparison of the method influence on series detection. The method allowed a significant increase in the number of series and links detected, while also decreasing the occurrence of false negatives and false positives. Furthermore, links were more rapidly detected.

The Politics of Pre-Narrative Seriality

This contribution examines Uncle Sam's development during the nineteenth century as an interesting case study for transmedial character theory, an increasingly common approach to the study of fictional characters. However, as Scolari, Bertetti, and Freeman have argued, "older forms of transmedia franchises were constructed on character sharing rather than on the logics of a particular world" (17). Characters were and still are in many cases the nodal points and intersections of various processes discussed as media convergence, yet the distinctions between "actual" characters and related terms such as "cultural icons" (Brooker) or "serial figures" (Denson and Mayer) remain somewhat contested and often hard to draw in practice. This contribution addresses these issues by investigating the nineteenth-century emergence and transformation of Uncle Sam as a recognizable figure within political cartoons. Without any overarching creative authority or any consistent "storyworld" to speak of, these cartoons lend themselves to recontextualizations by any artist able to uphold a recognizable iconography. In media-historical terms, political cartoons that did not merely comment upon actually existing public persons but instead developed their own inventory of allegorical figures are an important link between earlier, more "static" pictorial personifications of—and symbols for—countries and ideas and the later emergence of serial characters within comic books and other narrative media.

Material Practices and Semiotic Objects: A Response to Shane Denson

This contribution examines Uncle Sam's development during the nineteenth century as an interesting case study for transmedial character theory, an increasingly common approach to the study of fictional characters. However, as Scolari, Bertetti, and Freeman have argued, "older forms of transmedia franchises were constructed on character sharing rather than on the logics of a particular world" (17). Characters were and still are in many cases the nodal points and intersections of various processes discussed as media convergence, yet the distinctions between "actual" characters and related terms such as "cultural icons" (Brooker) or "serial figures" (Denson and Mayer) remain somewhat contested and often hard to draw in practice. This contribution addresses these issues by investigating the nineteenth-century emergence and transformation of Uncle Sam as a recognizable figure within political cartoons. Without any overarching creative authority or any consistent "storyworld" to speak of, these cartoons lend themselves to recontextualizations by any artist able to uphold a recognizable iconography. In media-historical terms, political cartoons that did not merely comment upon actually existing public persons but instead developed their own inventory of allegorical figures are an important link between earlier, more "static" pictorial personifications of—and symbols for—countries and ideas and the later emergence of serial characters within comic books and other narrative media.

Historicizing and Theorizing Pre-Narrative Figures—Who is Uncle Sam?

This contribution examines Uncle Sam's development during the nineteenth century as an interesting case study for transmedial character theory, an increasingly common approach to the study of fictional characters. However, as Scolari, Bertetti, and Freeman have argued, "older forms of transmedia franchises were constructed on character sharing rather than on the logics of a particular world" (17). Characters were and still are in many cases the nodal points and intersections of various processes discussed as media convergence, yet the distinctions between "actual" characters and related terms such as "cultural icons" (Brooker) or "serial figures" (Denson and Mayer) remain somewhat contested and often hard to draw in practice. This contribution addresses these issues by investigating the nineteenth-century emergence and transformation of Uncle Sam as a recognizable figure within political cartoons. Without any overarching creative authority or any consistent "storyworld" to speak of, these cartoons lend themselves to recontextualizations by any artist able to uphold a recognizable iconography. In media-historical terms, political cartoons that did not merely comment upon actually existing public persons but instead developed their own inventory of allegorical figures are an important link between earlier, more "static" pictorial personifications of—and symbols for—countries and ideas and the later emergence of serial characters within comic books and other narrative media.

Who is Uncle Sam? 19th Century Pre-Narrative Figures and the Emergence of Transmedia Character Culture

This contribution examines Uncle Sam's development during the nineteenth century as an interesting case study for transmedial character theory, an increasingly common approach to the study of fictional characters. However, as Scolari, Bertetti, and Freeman have argued, "older forms of transmedia franchises were constructed on character sharing rather than on the logics of a particular world" (17). Characters were and still are in many cases the nodal points and intersections of various processes discussed as media convergence, yet the distinctions between "actual" characters and related terms such as "cultural icons" (Brooker) or "serial figures" (Denson and Mayer) remain somewhat contested and often hard to draw in practice. This contribution addresses these issues by investigating the nineteenth-century emergence and transformation of Uncle Sam as a recognizable figure within political cartoons. Without any overarching creative authority or any consistent "storyworld" to speak of, these cartoons lend themselves to recontextualizations by any artist able to uphold a recognizable iconography. In media-historical terms, political cartoons that did not merely comment upon actually existing public persons but instead developed their own inventory of allegorical figures are an important link between earlier, more "static" pictorial personifications of—and symbols for—countries and ideas and the later emergence of serial characters within comic books and other narrative media.

What if? Epidemic discourse and serial narration in the alternate history series La Révolution (2020)

The article examines the formal and thematic manifestations of seriality in the Netflix series La Révolution, which justifies the revolutionary outbreak in a counterfactual plot with a viral outbreak that turns the nobles into zombie-like monsters. While, on a macrostructural level, the generic frame of alternate history promotes the serial character through the varying repetition of the historical event, the microstructural level of the narration evokes seriality by exponential contagion and spread of the disease as well as an increasing spiral of violence. First, the focus is on the representation of the aristocrat as a monster in pamphlets and caricatures of the revolutionary era. Subsequent to a contextualization of seriality in the age of streaming platforms, the analysis then discusses the medium-specific implementation of the epidemic discourse based on selected sequences of the series. Finally, it gives a hypothetical outlook on the implied motivations regarding the fictional development of the revolutionary event: through its contrasting exaggeration, the alternate-historical narrative can shed new light on the real historical events.

Game of Thrones as a Gothic Horror in Quality Television

Abstract Quality television at its heart is designed to reward sustained viewing and involvement on the part of the audience. It has distinctive visual styles, serial characters and storylines and a filmic quality, all of which is evident in Game of Thrones (2011–2019). This article discusses how the scale and cinematic production values of quality television, adds value to the Game of Thrones series through the enhancement and articulation of the Gothic horror.

Embryo ecology: Developmental synchrony and asynchrony in the embryonic development of wild annual fish populations.

Embryo–environment interactions are of paramount importance during the development of all organisms, and impacts during this period can echo far into later stages of ontogeny. African annual fish of the genus Nothobranchius live in temporary pools and their eggs survive the dry season in the dry bottom substrate of the pools by entering a facultative developmental arrest termed diapause. Uniquely among animals, the embryos (encased in eggs) may enter diapause at three different developmental stages. Such a system allows for the potential to employ different regulation mechanisms for each diapause. We sampled multiple Nothobranchius embryo banks across the progressing season, species, and populations. We present important baseline field data and examine the role of environmental regulation in the embryonic development of this unique system. We describe the course of embryo development in the wild and find it to be very different from the typical development under laboratory conditions. Development across the embryo banks was synchronized within and across the sampled populations with all embryos entering diapause I during the rainy season and diapause II during the dry season. Asynchrony occurred at transient phases of the habitat, during the process of habitat desiccation, and at the end of the dry season. Our findings reveal the significance of environmental conditions in the serial character of the annual fish diapauses.

ПСИХОАНАЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ ДИСКУРС В ЖИЗНИ СОВРЕМЕННОГО ПОДРОСТКА – ПЕРСОНАЖА СЕРИАЛА («SEX EDUCATION», США, ВЕЛИКОБРИТАНИЯ, 2019)

The article discusses the problem of psychoanalytical discourse of teenagersin a foreign youth serial. The main task is to find and study the meaning of psychoanalytical discourse in the life of a modern teenager – a character of « Sex education». The results of purposeful culturological analysis of psychoanalytical discourse is shown as the basis of artistic world of « Sex education»(2019)(USA, Great Britain, Netflix, directors – K. Herron and B. Tailor) on the material of 8 series of the first season. The main attention is given to the study of therapy sessions which the teenagerthe main character – gives to other teenagers. The scientific value of the article is defined both by culturological algorithm of psychoanalytical discourse analysis as the essence of the serial and by the introduction in the scientific use of modern culturalogically new and topical empirical material. A key angle of the research is studying of the psychoanalytical discourse realization as the plot essence of the serial, as for psychotherapy – as a method of teenage problems solving by teenagers themselves. The article also reflects shown in the serial psychoanalysis method, a circle of main problems which teenagers- serial characters face, as well as key meanings of psychoanalytical discourse realization in the serial. The authors give a classification psychotherapy sessions from the viewpoint of their effectiveness: unsuccessful, controversial, successful sessions. The research concludes that some principles of psychoanalysis and age teenage-youth psychology are seen in the artistic world of a serial and a complex of problems shown by the characters has variegated base and hides under the format of sexuality.

A Discussion on Shirakawa Shizuka’s Misinterpretation of Serial Characters of ‘Kou (口)’ by Exemplifying the Original Meaning of ‘Gao (告)’

A Discussion on Shirakawa Shizuka’s Misinterpretation of Serial Characters of ‘Kou (口)’ by Exemplifying the Original Meaning of ‘Gao (告)’

Transmedia Serial Narration: Crossroads of Media, Story, and Time

Transmedia Serial Narration: Crossroads of Media, Story, and Time

System of knowledge in track and fi eld (reformation, current state)

Modern trends in track and field competition system influencing the improvement of training and competitive activity have been determined: expansion of sports calendars, network of competitions and the geography of their holding at all continents; serial character of competition holding with short intervals between them (3–7 days) with encouragement of athletes’ continuous participation; reduction of invitational competition program.

Period Drama Men e altri oggetti del desiderio. Fanvidding 2.0

The essay tackles one of the most widespread and interesting phenomena within media fandom, that is, fanvidding, and its relation with seriality. Fanvidding is a grassroots practice of remix, a form of video production where fans cut short sequences of mainstream audiovisual sources (films and television series) and reedit them, often on a pop music song. The videos – which are usually uploaded on some videosharing platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo – explore the source(s) in new ways.After a survey aimed at highlighting the structurally serial character of fanvidding, retracing its genesis, and showing its more recent developments, alongside with the transformations which have hit both fandom and digital technologies in the last years, the essay takes as its reference corpus the fanvideos which gravitates around one specific kind of source, period drama. After calling into question some of the current typologies and classifications (fake/fan trailer, redub, supercut…), and partly drawing on the categories that Gerard Genette outlined in Palimpsestes, I propose three main criteria – relation to the source, regime, and logic – through which it is possible to analyse fan-produced videos. Those criteria point to some crucial issues, such as users/producers’ attitudes towards the source, that is, the remixed material, the potential effects of the fanvideos on the source’s reception, the function of the musical commentary in the hybridization of genres, repetition as a fundamental way to express desire and at the same time develop a critical reading of the source, the implications (and contradictions) of what has been called by Kristina Busse «[meta]affective aesthetics».

Translating the television ‘treatment’ genre: Be’Tipul and In Treatment

In Treatment (2008–2010) was the first Israeli series to be remade for US television, and its largely positive critical reception established a reputation for Israel as a home for quality drama – setting the stage for the remake of Hatufim (Prisoners of War, 2009–2012) into Homeland (2011–). This article takes up the case of In Treatment to examine how the process of transnational television remaking can illuminate the concept of US quality television in the millennial era. Arguing that the aesthetic and industrial brand of ‘quality’ is defined by the theme and device of transformation, the article analyses how the American remake gradually diverges from the original series Be’Tipul (2005–2008) to accentuate this concept in its stories and narrative style. The resulting text presents the quintessential contemporary example of what I call the television ‘treatment’ genre: a mode of programming that operates by centripetal narrative complexity to present ‘serial selves,’ or characters whose time in therapy produces progressive or regressive modifications in their emotional state. When read against the more halting and circular narratives of Be’Tipul, this format demonstrates a clear socio-cultural remapping of its topic: where therapeutic culture in America is presented as a site that is underpinned by contested neoliberal ideologies on the government of subjectivity.

“Tap, tap, flap, flap.” Ludic Seriality, Digitality, and the Finger

This article tries to answer the question, “What is ‘digital’ about digital media?” Building on the concept of ludic seriality as proposed by Shane Denson and Andreas Jahn-Sudmann and taking as an example the popular mobile Game Flappy Bird, it discusses the serial character of gameplay, in particular the intra-ludic serialization of in-game and operator actions. The article argues that the principle of digitality relates to the fingers of the human hand and the corresponding cultural techniques, from the ancient art of finger-counting which brought forth the abstract number concept to our current every day use of buttons and keys to operate digital devices.

Persona to Persona Studies

A foundational review and study of the emergence of persona studies from online culture and the concept of persona, the article explores the past and current directions in research. It serves as a form of introduction to the concepts of both persona and persona studies.

Seriality and Persona

Persona is a public presentation of identity. One of the key values of a persona is its consistency in its presentation of the self. This article is designed to be the first exploratory steps and overview in charting the idea of seriality in relation to persona and its utility as a concept to describe the constancy and transformation of identity that is now elemental to understanding contemporary persona or the public presentation of the self and its online manifestations. Seriality in terms of persona is first investigated from its entertainment culture origins – with its use in the constitution of characters in fiction in novels, films, games and most prevalently in television. Several examples of serial persona will be analysed with an emphasis on how television has constructed often the most powerful personas: Kevin Spacey’s persona as Frank Underwood in House of Cards is discussed in greater detail in terms of the economic, cultural and affective value of serial persona and its associated formations of risk. It then explores the blending of the fictional and the real in seriality through how popular music performers – in particular Eminem - construct an authentic register of persona to allow for the exploration of the self through emotion and connection. The article concludes with thinking how seriality is connected to the constitutions of online identity and links the concept with aspects of virality and meme culture and their constructions of value, patterns and constancy as it relate to the presentation of the public self.

An Evaluation about Television Serials in Turkey in the Context of Parasocial Interaction

Parasocial Interaction consists of an important part of interaction realized by using media. Audience’s interaction with characters in fiction of serials is called as parasocial interaction. Audiences usually identify themselves with characters of popular television serials and they accept these characters as members of their own family. Because of having difficulty in separation of temporal and spatial borders in their own real life, such masses’ discourse and conscious is determined by media. At this point, television serials have become a common place in which parasocial interaction is experienced mostly. These serials have a scheduled broadcasting policy and audiences are turned to addiction by using some kinds of textual and narrative methods. Consequently, by identifying themselves with serial characters, audiences are not able to realize the line between reality and fiction. In the content of this study, serials broadcasted in Turkish televisions will be evaluated in the context of parasocial interaction by using current examples. As from acceptance that serials as popular culture material reduce the possibilities of social interaction in society, this study aims to show main lines and dimensions of the relation between television and person who is so lonely in modern society. By resting literature review as scientific method, this study states that how Turkish audiences are retreated into the process of popular culture by using television serials in terms of parasocial interaction concept. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p767