title: Method or Madness? Textual analysis in media studies

authors: Havemann, Leo

abstract: Scholarly analyses of media have tended to view the media text (e.g. film / programme / article) as the logical site of enquiry. However, this focus on the text has often resulted in a privileging of the text as the locus of meaning. The validity of textual analysis as a research method has increasingly been called into question due to the influence of poststructuralist theories and the critique of textually-based research emerging from the ‘new audience studies’. In this paper I examine the debates surrounding texts, audiences and meanings from a poststructuralist perspective. I argue that the rethinking of subjectivity achieved by discourse theory provides the key to a new conception of textual analysis, which remains a vital and rewarding approach to the study of media and culture.

text: Method or Madness? Textual analysis in media studies Scholarly analyses of media have tended to view the media text (e.g. film / programme / article) as the logical site of enquiry. However, this focus on the text has often resulted in a privileging of the text as the locus of meaning. The validity of textual analysis as a research method has increasingly been called into question due to the influence of poststructuralist theories and the critique of textually-based research emerging from the ‘new audience studies’. In this paper I examine the debates surrounding texts, audiences and meanings from a poststructuralist perspective. I argue that the rethinking of subjectivity achieved by discourse theory provides the key to a new conception of textual analysis, which remains a vital and rewarding approach to the study of media and culture.

year: 1999

title: Geomorphic development of White Island Volcano based on slope stability modelling

authors: Moon, Vicki G.

subjects: White Island

abstract: White Island shows many geomorphic features associated with stratovolcanoes that have undergone major sector collapse, most notably the flat-floored amphitheatre comprising the present crater. ArcGIS is used to develop a reconstructed pre-failure cone and 2D limiting-equilibrium stability analysis is undertaken of the reconstructed cone. Water table ranges from 0% (dry) to 100% (saturated) are assumed and earthquake accelerations of 0–0.5 g bracket the likely range of accelerations expected in a volcanic setting; geotechnical data from Moon et al. [Moon, V., Bradshaw, J., Smith, R. and de Lange, W., 2005. Geotechnical characterization of stratocone crater wall sequences, White Island Volcano, New Zealand. Engineering Geology, 81: 146–178] are used. The models suggest that flank failure is a feasible explanation for the present-day geomorphology, and indicate that there were at least two retrogressive failures. The best model sees a core of hydrothermally altered material overlying relatively unaltered andesite lavas and breccias, where accelerations of 0.17 g (saturated slope) to 0.45 g (dry slope) are required to initiate failure (F = 1.0). The failure modelled was relatively small (volume of 0.21 km3), and would have mostly involved hydrothermally altered materials with some fresh rock mass. Two toreva blocks are recognised occupying the seaward margin of the amphitheatre, with a lobe of debris offshore suggested as the debris avalanche deposits. Modification of both the outer slopes of the island and the inner crater walls has occurred since the failure event, especially on the southwestern margin of the crater. Modelling suggests that further failure of the inner walls is likely and poses a significant hazard to tourists visiting the island; further outer slope failures are unlikely.

text: Geomorphic development of White Island Volcano based on slope stability modelling White Island shows many geomorphic features associated with stratovolcanoes that have undergone major sector collapse, most notably the flat-floored amphitheatre comprising the present crater. ArcGIS is used to develop a reconstructed pre-failure cone and 2D limiting-equilibrium stability analysis is undertaken of the reconstructed cone. Water table ranges from 0% (dry) to 100% (saturated) are assumed and earthquake accelerations of 0–0.5 g bracket the likely range of accelerations expected in a volcanic setting; geotechnical data from Moon et al. [Moon, V., Bradshaw, J., Smith, R. and de Lange, W., 2005. Geotechnical characterization of stratocone crater wall sequences, White Island Volcano, New Zealand. Engineering Geology, 81: 146–178] are used. The models suggest that flank failure is a feasible explanation for the present-day geomorphology, and indicate that there were at least two retrogressive failures. The best model sees a core of hydrothermally altered material overlying relatively unaltered andesite lavas and breccias, where accelerations of 0.17 g (saturated slope) to 0.45 g (dry slope) are required to initiate failure (F = 1.0). The failure modelled was relatively small (volume of 0.21 km3), and would have mostly involved hydrothermally altered materials with some fresh rock mass. Two toreva blocks are recognised occupying the seaward margin of the amphitheatre, with a lobe of debris offshore suggested as the debris avalanche deposits. Modification of both the outer slopes of the island and the inner crater walls has occurred since the failure event, especially on the southwestern margin of the crater. Modelling suggests that further failure of the inner walls is likely and poses a significant hazard to tourists visiting the island; further outer slope failures are unlikely.

year: 2009

title: Unorthodox assistance: Novalis, Māori, scientism, and an uncertain approach to 'Whakapapa'

authors: Mika, Carl Te Hira

abstract: The reductionism of Western science is well noted among several Maori academics, who describe in various ways its methodical tendency to dissemble an organism and isolate its parts. The reductionist nature of the method of science then informs the practice, so that the manifestations of science - its latest innovations, evidenced in biotechnology, cloning, stem cell therapy and so on - become an overriding concern for these academics. Rightly, the effects of those innovations on Maori spiritual and phYSical realms are addressed, to the extent that they may constitute extensive submissions to governmental bodies. How effective these submissions are is open to considerable speculation, particularly when it is acknowledged by many of these same writers that those ministerial and judicial bodies are incapable of understanding the dilemmas posed by the effects of reductionist scientific practice on the Maori world. The Maori world, in the main, is left to wait until it is confronted with yet another scientific advancement or technology, and the rush to counter its modus operandi begins again.

text: Unorthodox assistance: Novalis, Māori, scientism, and an uncertain approach to 'Whakapapa' The reductionism of Western science is well noted among several Maori academics, who describe in various ways its methodical tendency to dissemble an organism and isolate its parts. The reductionist nature of the method of science then informs the practice, so that the manifestations of science - its latest innovations, evidenced in biotechnology, cloning, stem cell therapy and so on - become an overriding concern for these academics. Rightly, the effects of those innovations on Maori spiritual and phYSical realms are addressed, to the extent that they may constitute extensive submissions to governmental bodies. How effective these submissions are is open to considerable speculation, particularly when it is acknowledged by many of these same writers that those ministerial and judicial bodies are incapable of understanding the dilemmas posed by the effects of reductionist scientific practice on the Maori world. The Maori world, in the main, is left to wait until it is confronted with yet another scientific advancement or technology, and the rush to counter its modus operandi begins again.

year: 2011