Story Themes Research Articles

When intelligence meets data: game story generation by compositional creativity

Creative computing concerns itself with theoretical and practical issues in the interdisciplinary study of creativity and computing. This paper covers a variety of preliminary compositional considerations relevant to stories generation, including conceptualising a theme, generating a storyline, and developing story narratives. An interactive game story generation system with compositional creativity as the main technique is proposed in this study. Generally speaking, a story composition process includes two major tasks: story plotting and narrative generation. This paper proposes using compositional creativity to produce credible story characters and consistent stories while addressing the needs and preferences of game players. Stories are generated according to the blind selection of story characters, events and organisations use the story theme as a selective-retention criteria taking into account the temporal, spatial and logical relationships and constraints.

Small Circulation, Big Impact: English Language Newspaper Readability in Bangladesh

Academic studies on newspapers in Bangladesh revolve round mainly four research streams: importance of freedom of press in dynamics of democracy; political economy of the newspaper industry; newspaper credibility and ethics; and how newspapers can contribute to development and social change. This paper looks into what can be called as the fifth stream—the readability of newspapers. The main objective is to know the content and proportion of news and information appearing in English language newspapers in Bangladesh in terms of story theme, geographic focus, treatment, origin, visual presentation, diversity of sources/photos, newspaper structure, content promotion and listings. Five English-language newspapers were selected as per their officially published circulation figure for this research. These were the Daily Star, Daily Sun, Dhaka Tribune, Independent and New Age. The researchers did a content analysis of the front-page contents of five newspapers for a month. In this exploratory, descriptive and quantitative research, the instrument developed by the Readership Institute at the Northwestern University was modified and used. Data gathered were classified in four broad areas namely: 1) story analysis, 2) newspaper structure, 3) listings or types of content and 4) content promotion. The findings help understand the content of the English-language newspapers in terms of demographic and geographic focus, photo diversity, gender balance, news themes, news sourcing and news treatment. It also gives a clear picture of the newspaper structure in terms of space allocation for news and advertisement. In this manner, the newspaper industry will progress as it identifies problems and takes measures to remain relevant in a region where the print media are still on the rise although facing stiff competition from the electronic media and online news portals.

Life Story of Chinese College Students with Perfectionism Personality: A Qualitative Study Based on a Life Story Model

This manuscript aims to explore and delineate the common characteristics of college students with perfectionism, to promote an in-depth understanding of dynamic personality development of perfectionists from the views of life story model proposed by McAdams (1985). The researchers adopted a narrative qualitative research method. The life stories of respondents who had a strong tendency of perfectionism were analyzed. We found out that participants experienced intensive feelings of superiority and inferiority due to fluctuations of academic performance. Most respondents tended to use negative tone in describing their interpersonal relationship. Respondents hold high expectations for their future. Moreover, they tended to believe that some supernatural power controls the world and the lives. Themes of life story of perfectionists normally focused on three themes: self-control, status and success, and love and friendship. The perfectionists with negative tone usually show that they are only pursuing a powerful energy, a sense of control, and status.

Military Life

During World War II, U.S. media outlets cooperated with the government's Office of War Information to incorporate positive war messages into publications, advertisements, books, and films. Public relations officers with the U.S. Naval Women's Reserve (WAVES) took their mission seriously. They developed a media booklet outlining key dates for stepped publicity efforts to coordinate with anticipated needs for increased recruits. The booklet also offered suggestions for story themes or approaches. This study explores how the Navy's desire for increased on-message publicity was manifest in specific mass market publications (general news and fashion magazines). It finds that the publications indeed did follow the Navy's desire for publicity, but that the content and approach of the articles varied depending upon the perceived audience.“At first it would come out, I would say in the movies. And you could see the women marching at Hunter College. And I thought, ‘Gee, that's really something.’”—Dorothy Riley (Dempsey), World War II SPAR1

Seni Jathilan dalam Dimensi Ruang dan Waktu

After the launching of tourism in 1986 by President Suharto jathilan become more varied both in terms of presentation and story themes resources are taken. The development of the presentation is able to shift the initial function jathilan as part of the ritual as Merti village, rasullan, sedhekah sea, and the like are held regularly every year. Jathilan that there transformed into a commodity that is used as a tourist attraction. The presentation function jathilan now able to adapt to the needs of the community aestetic supporters, so that there are currently several categories jathilan; First jathilan ritual that we can only meet once a year for certain ceremonial events. Both jathilan entertainment, which can be encountered at any time when no one had a lavatory. And third jathilan for the festival. Jathilan festival is formatted with choreography and certain rules by the organizers

Developing a Faith-Based Caregiver Support Partnership

Caring Together, Living Better (CTLB), a partnership of nonprofit and faith-based organizations, developed a culturally appropriate regional network of supportive caregiver services in the south suburbs of Chicago, IL. This article describes the findings of a mixed-methods evaluation that included network analysis to track network growth and development, tracking of service delivery, assessment of caregiver-related outcomes using standardized pre-post measures, and analysis of change stories elicited from project partners. Results include documentation of network expansion and statistically significant improvements in caregiving self-efficacy and adequacy of help. Story themes highlight participants’ positive experiences with CTLB and improved caregiver quality of life.

Organizational Sensemaking

This study examined strange experiences in the workplace from an interpretive-empirical framework. The goal of this study was to examine employee interpretation of strange, unusual, and unexpected workplace experiences. Interviews were conducted with 22 employees of a large national insurance firm in the Midwest that were intended to capture the story theme, employee response, attributions or assignments of causes, and degree of organizational change. Results indicated that the most common strangeness experience themes were lapse or lack of professionalism, general uncertainty, threat to the internal organizational environment, and embarrassment. Employee responses to strange experiences included greater efforts toward information seeking, assistance giving, use of humor, and accommodation to others in the organization. Causal attributions revolved around themes of communication, organizational change, and the nature of personal problems in the workplace. Finally, change themes included “no changes,” consequences for employee actions, and improvements (improved communication, teamwork, problem-solving, conflict management).

Lost and Found: The Fall of Grace in SONNY’S BLUES

Suffering, misunderstanding, and brotherly division are some of the most potent themes of James Baldwin's short story “Sonny's Blues.” Set in 1950s Harlem against a backdrop of racial inequality an...

‘Bahasa Rupa’ dalam Komik Perempuan Indonesia Tahun 2000 – 2010

ABSTRACT Indonesia’s girls’ comics introduced in early 2000, mainly developed by girl comic artists, in- tended for girls readers and heavily emphasized girls’ romance as story theme. Girls’ comic is one of pop culture media that creates a unique visual language system through construction of its visual storytelling structure. This is an explanatory research that applies visual storytelling structure anal- ysis in order to depict its visual narrative elements and structure in girls’ comics. This research will extract the uniqueness of girls’ comics’ visual storytelling structure and visual language system. As the result, girls’ comics are amplification of characters, emotional visual backgrounds, and emotional transition which marked by establishing shots as sequence margin in its visual storytelling structure and visual language system. Keywords: girls’ comics, structure analysis, visual storytelling, visual language.

Therapeutic story writing in schools

A therapeutic story is one that heals (Burns, 2005). We use stories to make sense of the world, communicate and influence others. Bettelheim (1975) described how fairy story themes reflect children’s experiences, helping them find meaning and purpose, exciting their curiosity and yet satisfying their sense of enjoyment. Therapeutic stories, told in safety, address an issue and give an element of hope or resolution.

“Ein seltsam Spielen”: Narrative, Performance, and Impossible Voice in Mahler's Das klagende Lied

Abstract A quest, a murder, and musical retribution through a dead body part that sings: these are the elements of the folktale known as “The Singing Bone,” a traditional narrative that appears in numerous versions in both oral and literary European traditions. For decades, this tale has drawn the special attention of folklorists because of the remarkable and indeed sensational role played in it by music: its narrative reflects a fascinating ideology of the cultural power of music as the voice of the oppressed, while its musical interludes, chilling spectral songs sung by the bone of the murder victim, invoke the potent and at times unsettling effects of musical performance. Gustav Mahler's first large-scale work, Das klagende Lied, takes up this extraordinary narrative and translates its exceptional features into poetry and musical sound in a manner that especially foregrounds and amplifies the effects of a performing presence in both textual and musical dimensions. Mahler's narrative ballad is a multivoiced text whose temporal and vocal shifts create oscillations between narrative and drama, telling and enactment, giving rise to a remarkable instability of utterance from which repeated evocations of sound and voice emerge. Its musical setting delivers a discourse that similarly exhibits explicit moments of performance, temporal suspension, and sonic dislocation in both voices and orchestra. This extreme volatility of utterance and its resultant effects of presence become the means of the work's embodiment of its own narrative content, such that, in performance, it evokes an experience of the radical sonic rupture that is the story's theme—a theme that reverberates powerfully throughout Mahler's oeuvre.

DOUBLE-VOICE IN S. Y. AGNON'S “HANIDAḤ”: OVERTURES TO A DEVELOPING DISCOURSE

It is widely acknowledged that S.Y. Agnon's story, “Hanidaḥ” (1919), represents a significant artistic transition for the author. Beyond the transitional and inaugural aspects of the story's themes and structure, I wish to consider how its discursive style itself constitutes a significant development in Agnon's literary work. Particular qualities in the story's narrative discourse, more so than in his previous work, anticipate Agnon's later literary achievements. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of discourse in the novel, I will also seek to demonstrate how the story's dialogic, polyphonic qualities, not only anticipate these later works, but suggest some new hermeneutic avenues to reading Agnon.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: Parenting during adolescence, attachment styles, and romantic narratives in emerging adulthood.

In this longitudinal study, a quantitative and qualitative examination of the associations among parent-child relations, adult attachment styles, and relationship quality and theme in romantic narratives was conducted. Parenting and adult attachment style were assessed through questionnaires, whereas overall quality of romantic relationships (regard and importance), intimacy, and romantic story theme were examined with a life story approach (McAdams, 1993). At ages 17 and 26 years, 100 participants completed a series of questionnaires and also, at age 26, told a story about a "relationship-defining moment" with a romantic partner. Parent-child relations when participants were 17 years old were related predictably to all three attachment styles. About 70% of the sample told romantic stories with a "true love" type of theme. Associations between parent-child relations when the child was 17 and this type of theme in the story told when the participant was 26 were mediated by a more secure (and a less avoidant) attachment style when the participant was 26, as predicted. The implications of these findings for links between attachment models and the life story are discussed.

图示社会：中国大陆纸质媒介的新功能 : 以《新周刊》为例 [Mapping Society: The New Function of Print Media in Mainland China—the Case of New Weekly

Based on New Weekly, one of the most influential illustrated Chinese magazines focusing on social issues and phenomena, this paper deals with the new characteristics and functions of the Chinese print media today. By describing its development and cover story themes, I argue that the Chinese print media represented by New Weekly doesn’t simply demonstrate how such media attempts to attract readers by taking advantage of its own changing appearance and format, including its design, printing quality, level of advertisements, classification of themes, and so on. Rather, this media is manifesting a changing concpetualization of intellectuals in China today. The Chinese print media, then, has new characteristics. It no longer serves simply as an ideological ‘microphone’ or ‘mouthpiece,’ but rather observes and comments on social issues and phenomena in mainland China. In this way it reflects the changing conception and perception of intellectuals in its own approaches and perspectives. By tracing this historical development, I attempt to indicate that new media like New Weekly actively promotes consciousness of social issues, while reflecting how such consciousness has an impact on everyday life. Such new cultural functions indicate that the print media is able to play a major role in influencing, if not determining, Chinese public opinion.

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and Ventricular Assist Devices

ID: 66 Edgar Allan Poe, "The Pit and the Pendulum", and Ventricular Assist Devices Author Information: Authors List: Presenting Author: Cheryl Zambroski Additional Author: Pamela Combs Additional Author: Sherill Cronin Additional Author: Carol Pfeffer Presenting Author: Cheryl Hoyt Zambroski Address: University of South Florida College of Nursing 12901 Bruce B. Downs MDC 22 Tampa, FL 33647 USA Ph: 813-774-6436 Fax: Email: czambros@health.usf.edu Institution: University of South Florida Additional Author: Pamela S. Combs Address: University of Louisville 12901 Bruce B. Downs MDC 22 Louisville, KY 42092 USA Ph: 812-949-7289 Fax: Email: pscombs)1@louisville.edu Institution: University of Louisville Additional Author: Sherill N Cronin Address: Bellarmine University 12901 Bruce B. Downs MDC 22 Louisville, KY 40206 USA Ph: 502-425-5504 Fax: Email: scronin@bellarmine.edu Institution: Additional Author: Carol Pfeffer Address: Bellarmine University 12901 Bruce B. Downs MDC 22 Louisville, KY 40206 USA Ph: 502-425-5504 Fax: Email: scronin@bellarmine.edu Institution: Abstract InformationInformation Presentation Preference: SNRS Poster Presentation Abstract Categories: Interest Group: Researchers in Clinical Settings Thematic Areas: Chronic illness Introduction: Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) are being used with increasing frequency in patients with heart failure. VADs are not without adversity, however, as high post-operative morbidity and mortality are of major concern. For those who survive, little is known about the experience from the patients' perspective. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study was to gain a better understanding of the experience of living with a VAD Method(s): Through the process of open-ended interviewing, data were collected and analyzed on an ongoing basis to generate conceptual categories. A key informant articulated his experience of living with a VAD through his analogy to Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. Furthermore, language of co-informants corresponded closely with themes emerging in Poe's short story. During analysis, a consultant from the English Department provided additional analysis of The Pit and the Pendulum as it related to each theme. Results: Six adults with an average age of 58.8 years participated. Both men were Caucasian; two women were Caucasian and two were African-American. There was wide variation in the length of device implantation. Four key themes: Facing the Unknown, Feeling Confined, Living with Fear, and Hope for the Future emerged. Discussion: Comparison of the experience of living with a VAD to the tale of Poe's Narrator does not provide an easy image for nurses who care for this population. Yet, diagnosis of heart failure can, in fact, be a sentence of sorts: a sentence to an uncertain future, physical decline, even to death. The findings of this study can help clinicians to target interventions toward reducing the uncertainty associated with living with a VAD, providing opportunities to reduce the sense of confinement, recognizing and reducing patient fears, and providing and supporting hope for the future through reduction of symptoms and extending life or through providing a peaceful death. Research Completed : Yes Abstract History: -This material has been presented or accepted for presentation in whole or in part at this or another scientific meeting. -Details: USF (local presentation) Financial Disclosure: Have a financial arrangement or affiliation with commercial companies whose products may be mentioned in this material? No FDA Disclosure: Cleared: Yes Non-Exclusive License: Accepted Terms: Yes Submitted By: czambros@health.usf.edu

Parents Of Children With Ambiguous Genitalia: Stories Of Experiences Of Reconstructive Genital Surgeries And Finding Harmony

PURPOSE To explore and understand parents' experiences of their child's genital abiguity and reconstructive genital surgeries. MATERIAL AND METHODS Narrative inquiry was chosen and data were collected through eighteen in-depth narrative interviews with a purposive non-random sample of fifteen parents of 11 children (aged 0-11 years). Narrative analysis resulted in three keystone stories which contained aggregate stories and foundational stories. The three keystone story themes were parents’ stories about their child, about being a parent of a child with AG and about healthcare professionals. RESULTS Interpretation and synthesis of the three keystone stories revealed three core elements fundamental to parents’ stories; shock, protection and anxiety. The synthesis reveals how even though parents had to cope with shock, protect their child whilst experiencing anxiety they were able to achieve a sense of harmony about their child. When parents were supported by healthcare staff who they trusted, they were able to develop new skills at an earlier stage in their journey. Information and control over the disclosure of information to others was important for parents. Parents believed that reconstructive surgeries were necessary to enable them to protect their child and some felt that the surgeries were necessary to bond with their child. None of the parents kept the AG surgeries secret from their child although they did not all share information openly with family or friends. Harmony is a concept that brought consistency and agreement together resulting in parents embracing their experiences holistically and giving their experiences meaning. CONCLUSIONS Parents overcame the tensions inherent in their experience of their child's AG and found a sense of harmony. Harmony has not previously been described in the literature. To explore and understand parents' experiences of their child's genital abiguity and reconstructive genital surgeries. Narrative inquiry was chosen and data were collected through eighteen in-depth narrative interviews with a purposive non-random sample of fifteen parents of 11 children (aged 0-11 years). Narrative analysis resulted in three keystone stories which contained aggregate stories and foundational stories. The three keystone story themes were parents’ stories about their child, about being a parent of a child with AG and about healthcare professionals. Interpretation and synthesis of the three keystone stories revealed three core elements fundamental to parents’ stories; shock, protection and anxiety. The synthesis reveals how even though parents had to cope with shock, protect their child whilst experiencing anxiety they were able to achieve a sense of harmony about their child. When parents were supported by healthcare staff who they trusted, they were able to develop new skills at an earlier stage in their journey. Information and control over the disclosure of information to others was important for parents. Parents believed that reconstructive surgeries were necessary to enable them to protect their child and some felt that the surgeries were necessary to bond with their child. None of the parents kept the AG surgeries secret from their child although they did not all share information openly with family or friends. Harmony is a concept that brought consistency and agreement together resulting in parents embracing their experiences holistically and giving their experiences meaning. Parents overcame the tensions inherent in their experience of their child's AG and found a sense of harmony. Harmony has not previously been described in the literature.

Recall of News Stories About Mental Illness by Australian Youth: Associations with Help-Seeking Attitudes and Stigma

The aim of the present study was to investigate what news stories about mental illness are recalled by Australian youth and whether these are associated with stigma and help-seeking beliefs. A random sample of 3746 Australian youth aged 12-25 years were interviewed about mental health literacy in 2006. As part of the interview, they were asked whether they could recall any news stories about mental health problems during the past 12 months. Stigma was assessed, as well as willingness to seek help for a mental illness described in a vignette. Common news story themes were entered as predictors of stigma components and willingness to seek help in a series of logistic regressions. Only a minority of youth could recall a news story about mental illness. The most common stories recalled were those involving crime or violence; mental health system failures; or disclosures of mental illness by prominent individuals. Recall of a disclosure by a prominent individual was associated with beliefs that people with mental illness are sick rather than weak, while recall of a story involving crime or violence was associated with greater reluctance to tell anyone about a mental health problem. There were no types of stories that predicted willingness to seek help. There is some evidence that recall of positive or negative news stories is associated with specific components of stigma. Overall, however, recall of news stories about mental illness added little explanatory power to differences in stigma or help-seeking intentions.

The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall! Sustainable Tourism Planning at Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Site, Australia

The Australian National Heritage and Tourism Thematic Interpretation Framework (NHTTIF) is an interpretive framework methodology that can be used to develop an enhanced visitor experience by integrating heritage more effectively in tourism. It was developed for the Australian Department for the Environment and Heritage in response to the ‘telling the story’ opportunity identified by the National Tourism and Heritage Taskforce. The NHTTIF is used to identify a site-specific interpretive theme through to a national or international interpretive theme, as part of an interconnected web of ‘stories’ about Australia. Sites used during the development of the NHTTIF included the World Heritage Australian Fossil Mammal Site at Naracoorte, South Australia, the Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania and the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Victoria. This paper demonstrates the development and application of the NHTTIF at the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Site, with a site-specific story theme of ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall!’, referring to the fossilised extinct Australian mega-fauna. Other themes are demonstrated at a local, regional, state, and national level with implications at the international level as a World Heritage Site. The integration of heritage more effectively in tourism planning, development and management, and the interpretation of heritage sites fosters an understanding and appreciation of heritage, resulting in conservation.

Listen, Just Listen: Professional Storytelling and Interactive Learning as Strategies for Prompting Reflection on the Importance of Taking Time for Self

A story audio-recorded during a physical activity intervention serves as a case study for examining the potential of partnering professional storytelling with interactive learning in a group physical activity intervention. Particular attention is given to exploring the effectiveness of this combined strategy with respect to assisting sedentary hypertensive African-American women to evaluate the significance of taking time for self as a prerequisite for incorporating physical activity and other cardiovascular risk reduction strategies into their lives. Narrative analysis of the transcribed story revealed the presence of several storytelling functions and multiple embedded general story themes, problem-solving themes, and social support themes pertinent to cardiovascular risk reduction. Women's responses indicate that story coupled with small group discussions during the interactive learning period had a synergistic impact on their evaluation of the significance of taking time for self. Specific themes incl...

Transitioning from elementary to secondary school: American pupils’ scary stories and physical education folklore

The purpose of this study was to examine scary stories that young American adults recalled being told about physical education as they transferred from elementary school to secondary school. Participants were 70 undergraduate students. They were required to write about any scary stories concerning (a) secondary schooling in general, and (b) physical education in particular, that they could recall being told when they were about to move from elementary to secondary school. Standard interpretive techniques were used to analyze the data. A number of different scary story themes were identified. These themes were similar to those unearthed by British researchers, in that they were often concerned with the body, indicated that the transition to secondary school paralleled the transition to adulthood, and illustrated differences and similarities in expectations for boys and girls.