bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
TNFR2 Is Critical for the Stabilization of the CD4+Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cell Phenotype in the Inflammatory Environment
Authors: Chen Xin , Wu Xueqiang , Zhou Qiong , Howard O. M. Zack , Netea Mihai G. , Oppenheim Joost J.
Published: January 2013

Several lines of evidence indicate the instability of CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). We have therefore investigated means of promoting the stability of Tregs. In this study, we found that the proportion of Tregs in mouse strains deficient in TNFR2 or its ligands was reduced in the thymus and peripheral lymphoid tissues, suggesting a potential role of TNFR2 in promoting the sustained expression of Foxp3. We observed that upon in vitro activation with plate-bound anti-CD3 Ab and soluble anti-CD28 Ab, Foxp3 expression by highly purified mouse Tregs was markedly downregulated. Importantly, TNF partially abrogated this effect of TCR stimulation and stabilized Foxp3 expression. This effect of TNF was blocked by anti-TNFR2 Ab, but not by anti-TNFR1 Ab. Furthermore, TNF was not able to maintain Foxp3 expression by TNFR2-deficient Tregs. In a mouse colitis model induced by transfer of naive CD4 cells into Rag1−/− mice, the disease could be inhibited by cotransfer of wild-type Tregs, but not by cotransfer of TNFR2-deficient Tregs. Furthermore, in the lamina propria of the colitis model, most wild-type Tregs maintained Foxp3 expression. In contrast, an increased number of TNFR2-deficient Tregs lost Foxp3 expression. Thus, our data clearly show that TNFR2 is critical for the phenotypic and functional stability of Tregs in the inflammatory environment. This effect of TNF should be taken into account when designing future therapy of autoimmunity and graft-versus-host disease by using TNF inhibitors.
Cutting Edge: Endothelial-Specific Gene Ablation of CD99L2 Impairs Leukocyte Extravasation In Vivo
Authors: Seelige Ruth , Natsch Christiane , März Sigrid , Jing Ding , Frye Maike , Butz Stefan , Vestweber Dietmar
Published: January 2013

CD99-like 2 (CD99L2) is a membrane protein with moderate sequence homology to CD99, which initiates cell aggregation of transfected cells and that is strongly expressed on endothelial cells, neutrophils, and lymphocytes. We showed recently that Abs against CD99L2 inhibit neutrophil, but not T lymphocyte, recruitment into inflamed tissues. In this study, we have generated conditional gene–deficient mice for CD99L2 and show by analyzing them in various inflammation models several results. First, gene ablation of CD99L2 impairs neutrophil recruitment into inflamed cremaster and peritoneum. Second, despite the strong expression of CD99L2 on peripheral neutrophils, only gene ablation on endothelial cells but not on myeloid cells affects neutrophil extravasation. Third, in contrast to our previous Ab-based results, recruitment of activated T cells into inflamed skin was impaired in mice lacking CD99L2 on endothelial cells. We conclude that CD99L2 is an essential endothelial Ag for leukocyte extravasation, which does not require homophilic interactions with CD99L2 on leukocytes.
Effect of hyperglycemia on conduction parameters of tibial nerve’s fibers to different muscles: A rat model
Authors: Erdoğan Çağdaş , Cenikli Utku , Değirmenci Eylem , Oğuzhanoğlu Attila
Published: January 2013

Introduction: Routine conduction studies reflect the summation of all nerve fibers in a peripheral nerve. Nerve fiber groups to distal, small muscles have smaller diameters than the ones to large proximal muscles. There may be minimal differences between the diameters of nerve fiber groups innervating different muscles; even they are all same type of fibers. So, in neuropathic processes some nerve fiber groups may be more seriously affected. Materials and Methods: 14 rats ( 7 diabetic, 7 control) were studied. Tibial nerve was stimulated from two points and while recorded from a distal (foot intrinsic muscles) and a proximal (gastrocnemius) muscle. Results: There was a significant difference between the proximal and distal recorded conduction velocities. Both proximal and distal recorded conduction velocities decreased during the hyperglycemic process. Discussion: Our method successfully demonstrated different nerve fiber groups; but, the neuropathic process seemed to be homogeneous in both fiber groups.
Injection nerve palsy
Authors: Kakati Arindhom , Bhat Dhananjaya , Devi Bhagavathula Indira , Shukla Dhaval
Published: January 2013

Objective: To study the clinical profile and outcome of surgery for injection nerve palsies. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients with INP who were treated at our institute during May 2000 to May 2009. Clinical, electroneuromyography (ENMG), and operative findings were noted. Intraoperative nerve action potential monitoring was not used in any case. Outcome of patients who were followed was reviewed. Results: INP comprised 92 (11%) of 837 nerve injury patients. Seventy one patients were children less than 16 years. The nerves involved were sciatic in 80 patients, radial in 8, and others in four. Fifty seven patients had power, grade 0/5. ENMG studies revealed absent compound muscle action potential in 64 and absent sensory nerve action potential in 67 patients. Thirty nine (42.3%) of 92 patients underwent surgery. The mean duration since injury in these patients was 5.2 months (3 months to 11 months). All underwent neurolysis. Only 18 patients who underwent surgery had a follow up of more than 3 months. Ten (55.5%) patients had good or fair outcome after surgery. Except for grade of motor deficit prior to surgery, none of the variables were found to significantly affect the outcome. Conclusion: The outcome of INP is generally good and many patients recover spontaneously. The outcome of surgery is dependent on preoperative motor power.
Initial management of traumatic brain injury in the rural setting
Authors: Honeybul Stephen , Woods Paul
Published: January 2013

Healthcare workers in the rural setting face unique problems when dealing with head injured patients however the basic principle of medical management are the same in any situation. The key initial elements remain aggressive early resuscitation followed by a comprehensive assessment of conscious level and either early consultation or transfer to a neurosurgical facility. What has improved considerably over recent years is the understanding of the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury and as such some of the medical management strategies have changed. A basic understanding of some of these concepts is useful in the clinical setting and serves to emphasis the importance of effective early medical management. Thereafter consideration must be given to which patients require radiological investigations and possible discussion with or transfer to a neurosurgical facility.
Wernicke’s encephalopathy and central pontine myelinolysis in hyperemesis gravidarum
Authors: Sutamnartpong Panee , Muengtaweepongsa Sombat , Kulkantrakorn Kongkiat
Published: January 2013

A pregnant woman, who had been suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, presented with alteration of consciousness, ocular nystagmus and ataxia. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the brain showed typical findings of Wernicke’s encephalopathy and central pontine myelinolysis. The clinical features responded dramatically to thiamine supplementation.
Limb‑shaking transient ischemic attack
Authors: Das Abhijit , Baheti Neeraj N
Published: January 2013

Limb shaking Transient Ischemic Attack is a rare manifestation of carotid‑occlusive disease. The symptoms usually present with seizure like activity and often misdiagnosed as focal seizures. Only on careful history the important clinical clues‑which may help in differentiating from seizure‑are revealed: Lack of Jacksonian march or aura; precipitation by maneuvers that lead to carotid compression. We present the case of an elderly gentleman with recurrent limb shaking transient ischemic attacks that was initially diagnosed as a case of epilepsy. His symptoms responded to optimization of blood pressure. The case report highlights the importance of accurate diagnosis as the treatment of the associated carotid artery occlusion may not only abolish the attacks but also reduce the risk of future stroke.
A Historical Look at the First Reported Cases of Lassa Fever: IgG Antibodies 40 Years After Acute Infection
Authors: Bond Nell , Schieffelin John S. , Moses Lina M. , Bennett Andrew J. , Bausch Daniel G.
Published: January 2013

Lassa fever is an acute and sometimes severe viral hemorrhagic illness endemic in West Africa. One important question regarding Lassa fever is the duration of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody after infection. We were able to locate three persons who worked in Nigeria dating back to the 1940s, two of whom were integrally involved in the early outbreaks and investigations of Lassa fever in the late 1960s, including the person from whom Lassa virus was first isolated. Two persons had high titers of Lassa virus-specific IgG antibody over 40 years after infection, indicating the potential for long-term duration of these antibodies. One person was likely infected in 1952, 17 years before the first recognized outbreak. We briefly recount the fascinating stories of these three pioneers and their important contribution to our understanding of Lassa fever.
Study on the fecundity of Salmo trutta fario (Brown trout) in Kashmir
Authors: Rasool Nusrat , Jan Ulfat
Published: January 2013

The study has been carried in the year 2004 and describes fecundity, spawning season and sex ratio of brown trout, Salmo trutta fario. A total of 121 brown trout (67 males and 54 females) were captured by angling. Gonad somatic index (GSI) confirmed that spawning lasted from October to December. The left ovary, with some exceptions, was found to be longer and heavier producing more eggs than the right one. The absolute fecundity of sampled population varied from 527 to 2445 and the relative fecundity had a mean value of 2.56. Fecundity was positively co-related with the total fish length (r=0.865), fish weight (r=0.9426) ovary weight (r=0.952) and ovary length (r=0.845).
Problem-based learning in Gross Anatomy: Assessment Outcomes and Student Perceptions
Authors: Chen Chunhua , Zhang Weiguang , Qin Lihua , Cui Haimeng , Linghu Dandan , Guan Youfei , Wang Xian , Zhou Changman
Published: January 2013

This study aimed to study whether the problem-based learning (PBL) as an educational strategy can be of great help in improving the quality of gross anatomy and the attitude of students towards the learning method in China. It was performed in Basic Science of Peking University Health Science Center. The study sample included 200 students and they were assigned to 20 groups. Data collection was done by a questionnaire survey and interview to examine the students’ learning attitudes and perceptions toward this platform as a possible learning tool. Data obtained were compared and the main themes were determined. At the end of data analyses, we gave feedback and evaluation. We found out the satisfaction of students with this learning method and the students’ interest and ability improvement after this teaching method. Also, we showed the problems and largest obstacle that the students face in this learning mode and their expectant evaluation method. The study clearly pointed out that the PBL benefits a lot for the students in the study of gross anatomy despite of the existing problems. In the future, we should implement PBL combined with the characteristics of traditional anatomy teaching in China.
The Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention and Recommendation, 2011
Authors: Blackett Adelle
Published: January 2013

The international landscape on the regulation of domestic work is changing dramatically. At the hundredth session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2011, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted the historic Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) and accompanying Recommendation No. 201. These new international labor standards come sixty-three years after the ILO adopted its first resolution on the conditions of employment of domestic workers and forty-six years after its second such resolution, which recalled the "urgent need" for standards "compatible with the self-respect and human dignity which are essential to social justice" for domestic workers. The robust, comprehensive international norms were adopted after two decades in which the ILO's standard setting has been deeply criticized and its tripartite structure repeatedly challenged to become more representative. Since additional critique of the ILO standards system emerged at the ILC's 101st session in 2012, it would be an overstatement to suggest that the new instruments reflect an unequivocally positive trend in standard setting. Even so, they offer a critical realist basis for considering that ILO standard setting remains salient and that international social dialogue remains possible.
Influence of Surface Treatments on the Bioactivity of Ti
Authors: Lindahl Carl , Engqvist Håkan , Xia Wei
Published: January 2013

Several techniques have been described to modify the surface of titanium to make it more bioactive. Heat treatment (HT) and sodium hydroxide treatment (NaOH) have been used and can change the crystallinity and surface chemistry of titanium implants. However, no studies have systemically focused on comparing these different methods and their effect on the bioactivity of Ti. Therefore, in this study, Ti substrates were systematically treated using HT, NaOH, and a combination of HT and NaOH. The Ti plates were heat treated at various temperatures, and the plates were subjected to HT followed by soaking in NaOH or first soaked in NaOH and then heat treated. The morphology, crystallinity, hardness, water contact angle, and surface energy of the samples were analyzed as well as the bioactivity after immersion in PBS. Morphology and crystallinity changed with increasing temperature. The difference was most pronounced for the 800°C treated samples. The water contact angle decreased, and the surface energy increased with increasing temperature and was highest for 800°C. The rutile surface showed faster hydroxyapatite formation. NaOH treatment of the HT Ti samples increased the surface energy and improved its bioactivity further. Also, HT of NaOH samples improved the bioactivity compared to only HT.
Striga Infestation in Kenya: Status, Distribution and Management Options
Authors: Atera Evans Atuti , Ishii Takashige , Onyango John C. , Itoh Kazuyuki , Azuma Tetsushi
Published: January 2013

Striga spp. is considered to be the greatest biological constraint to food production in sub-Saharan Africa, a more serious problem than insects, birds and plant diseases. They are among the most specialized root-parasitic plants inflicting serious injury to their host depriving them water, minerals and photosynthate. The greatest diversity of Striga spp. occurs in grassland. However, Striga hermonthica mainly occurs in farmland infecting grasses. The parasite devastating effect is accomplished prior to its emergence from the soil. It may cause yield losses in cereals ranging from 15% under favourable conditions to 100% where several stress factors are involved, thereby affecting the livelihood of millions of resource-poor farmers. Piecemeal approach to address one aspect of Striga problem at a time has been a setback in technology transfer to producers. Future Striga control programs should not be conducted separately, but should rather be conducted in an integrated approach that combines research talents of various institutions. This will facilitate collaborative research and achieve qualitative interaction between stakeholders, which can easily produce reliable technologies that are practical and available to farmers. Striga being a pervasive pest, time is of essence in controlling it. There is an urgent need for the establishment of policies to promote, implement, and ensure a long-term sustainable Striga control program.
Power, Control, and Marital Violence; Beliefs vs. Behavior. A Test of the Graham-Kevan Archer Measure
Authors: Emery Clifton , Wu Shali , Lee Hotaek , Yang Hyerin , Trung Hai Nguyen , Kim Jaeyop
Published: January 2013

We argue that Western conceptualizations of a common couple violence/intimate terrorism divide in domestic violence categories may be ill-suited to the Korean context because they are rooted in psychopathological explanations of control motivation (Holtzworth-Munroe & Stuart, 1994; Johnson, 2008). Control motivation in Korea may be more related to the cultural necessity of keeping face in a normatively patriarchal context rather than the attachment issues suggested by Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994). To examine the power and control context of domestic violence in Korea, we implemented Graham-Kevan and Archer's (2003) measure on a sample of 77 Korean students at an elite university in Seoul. We used cluster analysis to separate the sample into high and low control cluster families. The high control cluster was associated with more domestic violence, more violence by the husband, more injuries from violence, and marginally more child abuse. Contrary to our prediction, being in the high control cluster appears to be a more important predictor of domestic violence than patriarchal beliefs. Implications and limitations are discussed.
Successive Oligopolies in a Pure Exchange Economy
Authors: Lahiri Somdeb
Published: January 2013

Abstract: In this paper we assume a market structure in which there are whole-sellers, retailers and consumers. The product sold to the consumers is initially endowed with the whole-sellers. The whole-sellers value both the product and money. The retailers are not endowed with anything at all. The retailers submit bids in units of money to the whole-sellers from the revenue earned by selling the product to the consumers. The whole-sellers offer the product to the retailers who in turn sell it to the consumers. The retailers care only for money. In this model there is a trivial equilibrium with no bids or offers being submitted. In addition we establish that a unique non-trivial equilibrium exists in which every trader participates in the market. Further, such an equilibrium is symmetric- all whole-sellers offer the same quantity of the product and all retailers bid the same quantity of money. We also obtain some comparative static results.
APPLICATION OF GPU SMOOTH PARTICLE HYDRODYNAMICS: WAVE RUNUP AND OVERTOPPING ON COMPOSITE SLOPES
Authors: Edge Billy L. , Overton Margery F. , Dalrymple Robert A. , Hérault Alexis , Bilotta Giuseppe , Kurum M. Onur , Gamiel Kevin
Published: January 2013

Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics is a Lagrangian meshless numerical method with substantially improved capabilities in simulation of both fluid dynamics and solid mechanics due to its meshless nature. GPUSPH is an implementation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) on Nvidia CUDA-enabled (graphics) cards. In this paper the GPUSPH is applied to runup and overtopping applications and compared with experimental results from Roos and Battjes for a plane slope and Oaks, Edge and Lynett for complex bathymetry representing a complex levee transition. Results for both models show good comparison with experimental data and suggest GPUSPH as a reasonable tool for complex runup and overtopping problems.
Approaches to Gender and Sexuality in Media History
Authors: Soderlund Gretchen
Published: January 2013

This chapter surveys scholarship that lies at the intersection of media history, gender history, and the history of sexuality. Work that cuts across these three areas serves as a necessary corrective to the masculine bias found within conventional media histories. However, much of the scholarship surveyed focuses narrowly on “women” as a biological category, ignoring the critical role commercial and social‐movement media have played in producing, reinforcing, and challenging historical understandings of gender and sexuality. Much work remains to be done in this important field. In particular, there is a paucity of works within media history that consider the cultural production of gender, race, and sexuality in relation to one another and within fields of power.
The History of the Book
Authors: Zboray Ronald J. , Zboray Mary Saracino
Published: January 2013

Since most media historians have yet to engage fully the history of the book (HOB), this essay provides a critical introduction to the approach. It discusses the approach's problematical object of study and characterizes its current practice as a postmodern performance of liberal “cultural poetics” rejecting grand narratives, whether the radical history of capitalism's emergence or the conservative history of ideas. We explain HOB's dynamics in terms of its emergence in the 1980s, which coincided with that of the history of the American book (HOAB). Both HOB and, particularly, HOAB were part of a “cultural turn” deployed by displaced intellectual historians against the New Social History (NSH), associated with quantitative or even systematic inquiry present in other national HOB traditions, especially in France'sAnnalesSchool. Adopting the cultural history spirit of that tradition while replacing its research techniques with almost exclusively qualitative interpretation, HOAB also occluded a range of North American antecedents in journalism and literary studies, including bibliography, but in a way that put the latter to the service of cultural ends. As the new millennium approached, the HOB landscape shifted with the rise of reader‐and‐reception studies that reset the approach's course from books themselves to what books meant to specific end‐users as evidenced in their literary practices. The essay concludes with an overview of approaches to print production (especially publishing and authorship), distribution, and consumption, in light of HOB's move from a producer to a reader orientation, as well as indications of – and recommendations for – the future direction of the approach.
Journalism History
Authors: Kaplan Richard
Published: January 2013

Newspapers emerged in colonial British North America in the early 1700s. By the time the first muskets were fired in the American revolt against King George III in 1775, a powerful new cultural imagining of the press's central role in the public debates of citizens and the functioning of modern democracy defined journalism. Newspapers were seen as essential to liberty, spreading information and opinion among “free‐born citizens.” Indeed, across three centuries this notion of the press's service to a broad deliberating public has permanently informed and justified the press's public mission, its political rhetoric, and its claims to special authority in the contentions of the democratic public sphere. From partisan journals to independent, professional dailies, from small struggling print shops to giant media conglomerates, from a few pages of cotton rag to today's electronic websites, a public ethic of service to democracy has informed the North American press's proudest moments and rationalized its worst practices.
“Quickening Urgency”
Authors: Rantanen Terhi
Published: January 2013

This chapter argues that the history of wire services cannot only be written in a national context. In order to gain a fuller understanding of the origins of wire services and telegraph and submarine cables in any country, we need to include their relationships with their counterparts in other countries. Wire services, by their very nature, were interwoven with one another through the technology they used and across national boundaries. The chapter explores the early stages of development of the telegraph and wire services in the United States and Europe that led to monopolies that were all interconnected: the New York Associated Press's monopoly on the domestic news market, Western Union's hegemony on the US market, the European news cartel's monopoly on the world's news market, and the cable monopoly over the Atlantic submarine cable.
Moving Images
Authors: Wasson Haidee
Published: January 2013

This chapter surveys the ways in which the history of film exhibition has been conceptualized and elaborated by film historians, with special attention paid to the possibilities of an expanded current historiographical approach that includes small film technologies, in particular, portable film projectors. Like theatrical exhibition, the portable projector exemplifies the nineteenth‐century marriage of mechanical movement, chemistry, and projected light. Yet, the portable projector is a distinct iteration of these technological foundations, leaving behind the theatrical armature of the movie house and emulating more the other small, audiovisual technologies that together reshaped cultural life in the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries. Charting a neglected area of film and media history, this chapter considers the dynamics of portability for a history of seeing movies, concluding with some larger research questions posed as directions for future work.
Advertising and Consumer Culture
Authors: Stole Inger L.
Published: January 2013

This chapter argues that the proliferation of advertising has been key to the creation and expansion of a modern consumer society. It explores literature on the growth of advertising with an emphasis on developments in the early part of the twentieth century. Using an institutional approach, it discusses the impact of advertising on discourses surrounding the emerging culture of consumption. Throughout the twentieth century, advertising and the consumer society it commanded were challenged, testing the political powers of marketing forces and their supporting institutions in both the cultural and political arenas. Commercial forces won most of these battles but were unable to eliminate a general uneasiness with commercialization.
The New World Information and Communication Order
Authors: Nordenstreng Kaarle
Published: January 2013

This essay recounts the history of the movement for a new world information and communication order (NWICO) as it emerged in international arenas and particularly in UNESCO. An expression of the global movement for decolonization spearheaded by the Non‐Aligned Movement, NWICO encountered strong opposition from Reagan's United States and Thatcher's Great Britain, and failed to achieve its immediate goals. It had a formative impact on the field of international communication research, and, although it has yielded to topics such as media globalization, its concerns continue to echo in the field.
Text, Translation, and the End of the Unified Press
Authors: Grier David Alan
Published: January 2013

Few industries were as thoroughly transformed by computerization as the newspaper business. Computer composition and computer typesetting restructured the basic organization of the newspaper, refactored control, and encouraged the flourishing newspaper chains of the 1970s and early 1980s. However, electronic distribution radically changed the relationship between advertiser and publisher, and thereby started a decline of the traditional regional paper. As publishers adopted computer systems to manage the flow of information, they generally saw the new technology not as something that would expand the scale or scope of their work but as tools that would translate information from one form into another.
Propaganda Studies
Authors: Collins Sue
Published: January 2013

The interim between World War I (1914–1918) and the onset of World War II (1941–1945) illustrates the discursive struggle over evolving conceptions of propaganda. Propaganda meant different things to different observers, but for the most part, everyone agreed that its conditions were worth debating, and most people believed that, left unchecked, it posed some kind of threat to democracy. In intellectual, political, and social senses, propaganda became the subject of protracted study and deliberation concerning how best to understand its various incarnations in relation to democratic capitalism. Discourses generating stringent critiques of propaganda's dangers to democracy gradually shifted toward a new focus on mass persuasion and social influence informed by scientific behavioralism and quantitative methodology in relation to media effects. As the field of communication took hold, propaganda's political significance was overshadowed by more apolitical projects, such as public opinion and marketing research, which contributed to the distinction between political propaganda and social influence and the eventual subsumption of propaganda to mass persuasion.
The Rise and Fall of the Limited Effects Model
Authors: Simonson Peter
Published: January 2013

This chapter revisits the history of the so‐called “limited effects model” of mass communication, associated with Paul Lazarsfeld and Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research. It argues that the model was in part a rhetorical invention of its critics in the 1970s and 1980s, when critical and cultural approaches to media studies were gaining widespread traction and a new generation of objectivist social scientists were carving out alternatives to inherited understandings. Pivoting from that moment of invention, it returns to Columbia research of the 1940s and 1950s, traces the rise and alternate understandings of the model, and contextualizes it in relation to competing approaches to media at Columbia frequently occluded in collective memories of the field.
The Slippery Slopes of “Soft Power”
Authors: Burston Jonathan
Published: January 2013

The nexus conjoining sites within American entertainment, media, and communications industries to the US military has been called many names. This chapter deploys the phrase “military industrial media complex” (MIM‐plex) to describe this burgeoning political–economic formation, and it argues that, despite existing work, larger questions on the MIM‐plex remain unasked and unanswered about how studies of media production might matter to other disciplines, to the wider world, and to the field of international relations (IR) in particular. Using the Hollywood–army think tank – the Institute for Creative Technologies – as an example of how media studies and IR might communicate, this chapter also suggests that participants in such a dialogue pay careful attention to the influence of dominant masculinist discourses inside both IR and media studies. These discourses often posit “hard” working concepts against “soft” ones – an increasingly questionable practice that has often diluted both the significance of entertainment and the role of entertainment labor inside discussions of media power.
Television‐Set Production in the Era of Digital TV
Authors: Castañeda Mari
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines the transcultural political economy of television‐set production as the US and other countries made the transition to the digital television platform. The complexity of technical standards for digital television, the proliferation of free‐trade policies, and the globalization of production have reconstituted the context of consumer electronics manufacturing and thus have deeply impacted the making and consumption of TV sets. The chapter will focus on the emerging “Silicon Border” along the US–Mexico divide and on the ways in which labor, trade, and new technologies continue to intersect with the material conditions of race, gender, and immigration in the digital era.
Whither the Professional Book Publisher in an Era of Distribution on Demand
Authors: Miller Laura J.
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines changing organizational, economic, and cultural practices of book production by analyzing the breakdown of several once firm distinctions in the book industry: between production and distribution; between professional publishing and self‐publishing; and between amateur and commercial authorship. The development of online storefronts that sell physical books, electronic devices that make it possible to read digital books, and a focus on content as intellectual property that can be detached from form have made it easier than in the past to bypass professional publishers and their traditional roles as gatekeepers, editors, and coordinators of the book production process. The result has been a huge increase in self‐publishing, a phenomenon facilitated by for‐profit companies that provide a mechanism for distributing these books. The argument is made that the growth of self‐publishing reinforces a shift in power relations within the book industry, from publishers to distributors, and helps to make authorship into a recreational choice that can be purchased.
The Production of Mediated Performance
Authors: Ytreberg Espen
Published: January 2013

This chapter overviews and discusses scholarly contributions to how media production can be understood as an act of thinking about and planning communicative performances in the media. The core features of large‐scale media production – advanced technology, complex organization, extensive divisions of labor – can be understood in terms of how they enable and shape performances for absent, multiple, and mass audiences. This chapter draws a rough framework of forms and levels of planning performances within media production; it also looks at some concrete examples in the production of news, talk shows, and reality programs. Finally, the relationship between performance, identity, and society is addressed via discussions of the concepts of “discipline” and the “persona.”
Distributed Creativity in Film and Television
Authors: Caldwell John T. , Clarke M. J. , Hill Erin , Vanstrom Eric
Published: January 2013

This chapter will examine the systematic ways in which cultures of facilitation and “distributed creation” fuel Hollywood corporate, labor, and creative practices. The study brings together three substantial but largely invisible, ignored, or camouflaged sectors of Hollywood that are fundamentally important in the creation of film/TV screen content, yet have received scant attention from either scholars or critics: assistanting, marketing research rituals, and content development outsourcing. All three areas help constitute the industry's production infrastructure, which can be thought of, alternately, as interpersonal and inter‐organizational networks through which the task of content creation is “distributed,” or as “catalytic” sites of mediation and negotiation that are subsequently erased by above‐the‐line creative executives: these habitually highjack credit for Hollywood's content creation on the basis of professional postures of managerial or personal exceptionalism.
Queer Broadcasts
Authors: Miller Quinn
Published: January 2013

This chapter outlines critical tools for examining queer elements of production manifest in comedy texts. Building on the basics of queer theory and scholarship on camp, it reviews a set of methods for queer analysis of production details appearing in quasi‐fictional television programs about the entertainment business. Referencing examples from US series, it employs the terms “insider,” “camp,” and “queer” to demonstrate how scholars can extract historical evidence about the industry from images of television production. The chapter considers the industrial, intertextual, and social dynamics that have contributed to the queer content evident in TV culture by looking at backstage series that represent queer work as an obvious aspect of the media industries as a whole, rather than as something specific to gender and sexual minorities. It argues that we can better understand the creation of queer media by analyzing satirical depictions of the production process.
Youth as Cultural Producers / Cultural Productions of Youth
Authors: Taub‐Pervizpour Lora
Published: January 2013

This chapter offers an introduction to the diverse field of youth media production and practice. To do so, it begins with a consideration of the “crisis of voice,” identified by Nick Couldry in his bookWhy Voice Matters: Culture and Politics after Neoliberalism(2010). In relation to this crisis and to the systematic silencing of young adults from low‐income communities and from communities of color, media making is explored as a field of practice within which young people gain access to critical resources for raising their voices. The chapter brings these issues into focus through an ethnographic study of a youth media program for economically and racially diverse adolescents in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“What'sTVGood For?”
Authors: Lemish Dafna
Published: January 2013

This chapter analyzes the goals of producing quality television programs for children around the world as they pertain to issues of culture and gender in a world of profit‐driven globalized market. It is based on interviews, conducted between 2004 and 2008, with 135 producers from 65 countries. The main themes highlighted are: the tension between the preservation of local cultural identities by television programs and the highly successful Western programs disseminated by globalized networks (such as Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network); and the crafting of strong, complex, and diverse characters to serve as role models for children and to provide them with a vision for an improved self and a better future. Television, according to the study, is expected to be a safe and relevant space for children.
Changes in the News Representation of Minorities Over the Course of 40 Years of Research
Authors: Avraham Eli
Published: January 2013

Much attention has been given by media researchers to the news representation of minorities over the last four decades. Numerous studies over the years have shown that the coverage of minorities in the news is rife with negative stereotypes and generalizations. This chapter aims to discuss major issues and questions raised by analyzing trends in 40 years of studies of news representation of minorities. These include: What is the image of minorities in the news? Why is the news coverage of marginal groups so biased and which factors explain their coverage patterns? How and why has the image of minorities changed over the years? Which theories and research methods were used in order to analyze the news representation of minorities? And how do the leaders of minority groups and regulators work to change the negative stereotypes and the problematic images of minority groups in the news?
Queer Gazing and the Popular
Authors: Van Bauwel Sofie , Dhaenens Frederik , Biltereyst Daniel
Published: January 2013

In this chapter, we elaborate on the construction of queer representations in popular television fiction. In spite of the critical and commercial success of “queer” television fiction series (e.g.,Queer as Folk,The L Word,Six Feet Under), queer representations are sometimes still seen as controversial. The aim of this chapter is to obtain a better insight into the social and emancipating role of queer representations in contemporary popular culture. A theoretical integration and a translation of the concept of queer theory offer a conceptual framework for this study on media representations. In particular, this chapter relies on this framework for the analysis of television as a popular discourse machine in relation to the production of queer representations in global popular television series. Our textual analysis stresses the different strategies of queer representation in popular television fiction. We discuss the potentiality, limits, and restraints of this diversity of strategies and explore the limits of representing queer within the realm of contemporary popular culture.
Mediated Portrayals of Masculinities
Authors: Hundley Heather L.
Published: January 2013

The focus of this chapter is specifically on how researchers have studied and written about the portrayal of masculinities in US media. The chapter opens by tracing the evolution of academic study of masculinities in US media beginning with stereotypical representations that led into identifying three key types: hegemonic masculinity, hypermasculinity, and metrosexual masculinity. The chapter then reviews how scholars have written about the portrayals of masculinities in specific US media such as film, television, and print. While this literature review is by no means exhaustive, it demonstrates the range of research in the past four decades, illustrating media's increased portrayals of masculinities over time, and offers suggestions for future directions.
Portrayals of Female Scientists in the Mass Media
Authors: Steinke Jocelyn
Published: January 2013

Scholarly interest in media portrayals of female scientists has emerged as a focus of media studies research because such portrayals (1) reflect cultural views and trends related to the status and roles of women in the workforce and society, and (2) are potential sources of information and influence about future professional roles for children and young adults. This chapter traces the historical underrepresentation and gender stereotyping found in portrayals of women scientists in the mass media and describes the role these media portrayals play as factors that can limit the representation and status of women in the science, engineering, and technology (SET) workforce. This chapter also explores contemporary portrayals of female scientists that challenge gender‐stereotyped claims of science as a masculine domain and examines the potential of these more progressive portrayals to broaden the participation of women in SET.
“She's the Real Thing”
Authors: Bui Diem‐My T.
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines three US‐produced films about Vietnam released post‐embargo:Heaven and Earth(1993),The Quiet American(2002), andThree Seasons(1999). By considering the discursive construction of the films, including how the actresses participate or are represented in them, I explore variations on Trinh T. Minh‐ha's question on the Other: Who speaks? What speaks? How does the speaker establish knowledge about Vietnamese women when “speaking about” a story? Following the films' releases, the United States and Vietnam underwent economic and political changes in their relationship that made Vietnam more accessible to multinational corporations and tourists. By constructing Vietnamese womanhood and women as available for discovery by the West in these films, Vietnam and Vietnamese women became part of the renewed accessibility and the reenactment of transnational mobility stories. The films suggest that the women's bodies are the means of returning to an idyllic past untainted by war and global capitalism.
Blogging Culture
Authors: Papacharissi Zizi , Meraz Sharon
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines the evolution of blog content, from the early stages of personal home pages, to the development of the blog format, to A‐list blogs that influence other media and public opinion. Blogging content is examined, with a focus on blogging norms, patterns, and dominant trends the form of blogging takes on. As the blogosphere is vast and diverse, the authors consider the plurality of blog content and the functions it serves for multiple bloggers and potential audiences. Blogging content is examined as a form of sociocultural expression, with an analysis of its function and place in contemporary societies. The chapter concludes with a look at what the future holds for blogs and associated, emerging web platforms, in the context of converging media and reflexive societies.
Videogame Content
Authors: Consalvo Mia
Published: January 2013

This chapter surveys the most recent scholarly work done on videogame content. It identifies several lines of research that have emerged in this area, including debates over the best methods for studying game content, representation‐based versus gameplay‐based approaches, and theoretical foundations for studying games. In addition to providing a broad overview of recent work in such areas, the essay also provides a more detailed account of how such research works, through an examination of the author's past videogame studies. These include studies that have examined titles such asThe SimsandPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, among other examples. These studies demonstrate how theory may and may not be useful in studying games, how methods must be adapted to best scrutinize dynamic content, and the many meanings that can be taken from contemporary games. The essay ends with a discussion of how future research on games should proceed, and the identification of the areas most pressing in terms of investigation.
Rethinking Violent Videogame Content
Authors: Lachlan Kenneth A.
Published: January 2013

Numerous empirical studies have attempted to quantify the frequency and context of violence in popular videogames. While these studies have proven valuable, they overlook recent research suggesting that videogame content is far more complicated than that found in linear media. In particular, individual user characteristics, varying levels of gameplay, familiarity with the gaming environment, and length of time immersed in the game have been overlooked. But research suggests that these factors will play a critical role in how players use and respond to videogame violence. This chapter synthesizes the videogame content literature with recent behavioral research. It concludes by offering an updated conceptual model of violent content that includes not only the game, but also user and situational variables that may mitigate this content. Suggestions for future content‐analytic methods are discussed in light of this conceptual model.
Transmedial Aesthetics
Authors: Krzywinska Tanya
Published: January 2013

Videogames may offer new ways of telling stories and engaging players by virtue of their interactive characteristics, but do they offer any differences from cinema in terms of content and representation? While videogames are formally distinctive, this chapter shows that, to a lesser or greater degree, they nonetheless draw on vocabularies developed within cinema. Through an examination of
Final Fantasy XII
, as well as with reference to a range of other games, this chapter analyzes how, through an interlacing of form, content, and representation, videogames work in convergent and divergent ways to create for the player an emotionally resonant aesthetic experience.
Recent Trends in Research on Health Portrayals in the Media
Authors: Robinson James D. , Thompson Teresa L. , Turner Jeanine Warisse , Agne Robert R. , Tian Yan
Published: January 2013

Health information may be obtained in a variety of ways, but the data indicate that the media are a key source for most people. Key topics related to health information in the media include those focusing on various addictions (drugs, alcohol, tobacco), cancer information (focusing on screening, treatment, and coping), direct‐to‐consumer ads, coronary heart disease, weight concerns, misdiagnosis, mental health portrayals, seizures, steroids, asthma, and genetic issues. Much work examines the accuracy of health information reporting as well as the usability/accessibility/readability of health information. Risk issues are an important component of work in this area. Additionally, nutrition and food safety information is frequently featured. More recent research is most likely to be theoretically based, to focus on unusual health concerns or unusual media, and to provide an international focus. This essay addresses these issues as well as differences amongst various media in the presentation of health information. It concludes with innovative directions for research on health portrayals in the media.
Canadian (Re)Presentation
Authors: Brady Miranda J.
Published: January 2013

This chapter explores relationships between media and Indigenous identity construction in the Canadian Museum of Civilization's (CMC) First Peoples Hall (FPH) through an analysis of place‐based media and archival research. It explores the specific historical, economic, and pedagogic contexts influencing media adoption in the CMC and FPH, and argues that while the museum attempts to forward a progressive curatorial agenda through Indigenous collaboration and new media adoption, the CMC has yet to fully explore the contemporary implications of Indigenous representation. Finally, this chapter questions celebratory discourses of new media as a panacea for representational maladies and the idea of representation itself as a panacea for Indigenous concerns.