Third-Person Effect,Religiosity and Support for Censorship of Satirical Religious Cartoons

The violent attack on the staff of Charlie Hebdo and an earlier plot to kill cartoonists from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten raise the issue of censorship of satirical religious cartoons to avoid potential retaliatory violence from those offended by the cartoons. With third-person effect (TPE) as the theoretical underpinning, this study examined the relationship among TPE, religiosity, and support for censorship of religious satirical cartoons. Data were collected in May 2015. A national sample of participants (N=374) was acquired through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The results show that individuals with a higher degree of religiosity are more likely to support censorship of satirical religious cartoons, and though TPE is not positively correlated to support for censorship, respondents’ perception of the effect of the cartoons on themselves may indicate an increased propensity for supporting censorship.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of four Hong Kong antismoking cartoon posters with humor and threat elements

Although cartoons are widely used in health communication, their effectiveness has seldom been tested. In this study, the effects of four humor–threat antismoking cartoon posters are evaluated in a sample of 12- to 15-year-olds (n = 183) in Hong Kong. The five-group comparison (including the control group) revealed that these posters did not increase antismoking attitudes in the sample but did decrease antismoking behavioral intentions. The better liked, more humorous, and more frightening posters did not produce increased antismoking attitudes or behavioral intentions. These findings warrant the development of theories to clarify the role of humor in health communication. Although cartoons are well liked by adolescents, practitioners must be aware of the possible negative effects of humor in cartoon-based messages.     

Further Evidence for Infants' Preference for Prosocial Over Antisocial Behaviors

This study extends the findings that young infants prefer prosocial to antisocial others (Hamlin & Wynn, Cognitive Development 2011, 26, 30; Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, Nature 2007, 450, 557) to older infants (12–24 and 24–36 months) with a novel display. We presented infants with short cartoons in which a character (the “Protoganist”) engaged in a ball play with two others, one acting prosocially (the “Giver”), and the other antisocially (the “Keeper”). Afterward, infants were presented with the Giver and the Keeper characters and encouraged to reach for the one of their choices. We found that infants exhibited robust choice for the Giver. In addition, infants' preference for the Giver persisted despite changes in facial features (dark skin, scrambled face). These findings provide further evidence for infant's preference for prosociality.     

FROM RACISM TO TOKENISM: THE CHANGING FACE OF BLACKS IN NEW YORKER CARTOONS

Cartoons published in the weekly magazine New Yorker duringthe years 1946–87 were analyzed to determine how oftenblacks appeared as characters and whether the proportion ofblacks portrayed had changed over time. Cartoons were furtherexamined for possible changes in the styles of characterizationof U.S. blacks since the post-Word War II period. Although blackcharacters were extremely rare throughout the 42 years, therelative numbers of blacks depicted decreased with the passageof each time period. Styles of portraying black characters alsochanged markedly over the years, in keeping with the changingstatus of blacks in the United States. All cartoons from theearliest period presented U.S. blacks in stereotypic occupationalroles, cartoons in the late 1960s and early 1970s were dominatedby racial themes, and blacks appeared in "token" roles in themajority of cartoons from the most recent period investigated.In the entire 42 years, only a single U.S. black appeared asa main character in a cartoon in which race was completely irrelevant.     

Cultural analysis through semiotics: Len Norris' cartoons on official bilingualism*

Les caricatures éditoriales forment un métalangage pour parler de l'ordre social. Elles créent des mondes imaginaires qui permettent une nouvelle perspective sur le monde actuel en renversant certains de ses traits. Les dessins de Len Norris sur le bilinguisme montrent un monde carnavalesque. Dans les légendes ses personnages offrent des commentaires sur notre monde et captent le parcoureur, qui doit avouer que ces bouffons ont remarqué ce qui nous avait échappé. Les optiques sémiologiques de Greimas et d'Angenot permettent d'éclairer et de situer le modèle linguistique de Norris, et son avertissement qu'une nouvelle lingua franca fédérate est en train de remplacer symboliquement et le français et l'anglais. Editorial cartoons are a metalanguage for discourse about the social order. They create imaginary worlds which allow a fresh perspective on the present world by inverting certain of its features. Len Norris' cartoons on bilingualism portray a zany imaginary world, whose characters comment in the captions on our world and trap the skimmer into admitting that these fools have noticed something which we have missed. Greimas' and Angenot's semiotic approaches serve to elicit and situate Norris' elaborate model of language skills, and his message about the symbolic replacement of both French and English by federal bilingualese.     

DIRTY OLD WOMEN: BUCK BROWN'S CARTOONS*

Une portion importante des écrits contemporains féministes étudie des mythes au sujet de la femme. L'analyse des mythes oraux classiques et l'analyse des mythes littéraires et des images de la femme dans la presse, la radio, et la télévision contribuent à une compréhension de l'élaboration des stéréotypes masculin/féminin dans notre société. L'article analyse une série de caricatures portant sur une ‘dirty old woman’ qui ont paru dans la revue Playboy. Myths about women are examined in an important segment of contemporary feminist writings. Analyses of classical oral myths, of literary myths, and of images of women in the press, radio, and television contribute to our understanding of the construction of male/female stereotypes in our society. This paper analyses a series of cartoons in Playboy magazine which focus on a ‘dirty old woman.’     

Paradigm Warriors: Regress and Progress in the Study of Contentious Politics

Paradigm warfare is a well-worn way of engaging in the polemics of research, but it frequently reduces paradigms to caricatures and turns complex reports of empirical research into cartoons. This is illustrated by two one-sided accounts of the Chiapas rebellion: one based on a simplistic political opportunity cartoon and the other on a foreshortened culturalist one. Reducing the many-sided (and in some ways ambiguous) approaches of the political process model to a supposedly hegemonic paradigm neglects many substantive contributions and cuts with too broad a stroke at social movements while ignoring the many-branched contributions of research and theory on contentious politics.     

The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History,Theory and Aesthetics

How do editorial cartoons represent gambling? What can visually oriented thinking give to gambling research? The answers are rooted in the expanding research about visual culture, methodologies and data in social sciences and cultural studies. The discussion about 170 editorial cartoons from the Finnish print media, from 1961 to 2005, shows how the cartoons profile the Finnish gambler and what emotions are associated with gambling. The discussion then turns to Finnish gambling culture and gambling's role in society. Space, communication, power relations, and the use of gambling as a political metaphor are highlighted. The assessment demonstrates the value of popular-cultural data for gambling studies. The examination complements the existing cartoon research and visual-cultural studies and has interdisciplinary pedagogical potential.     

Leunig Cartoons As Therapeutic Letters Crafting a Viable Therapeutic Focus for Change

This paper describes the use of Leunig cartoons as therapeutic letters. The paper proposes the use of the cartoons in the facilitation of establishing a viable therapeutic focus. The method illustrates principles focused on avoiding expert/non-expert dichotomies while crafting an appropriate focus for the therapy. The paper illustrates how the cartoons can be used to add complexity to the understanding of relevant therapeutic themes, while avoiding some of the change-inhibiting processes involved in identification of problematic cognitive processes and frames of meaning.     

Framing and Temporality in Political Cartoons: A Critical Analysis of Visual News Discourse*

Les caricatures politiques constituent une forme visuelle du discours des médias. Les sociologues rejettent généralement leur valeur idéologique en raison du fait qu'elles offrent aux lecteurs des exposés absurdes des conditions du « problème » putatif et ne doivent pas être prises au pied de la lettre. Toutefois, c'est par l'humour que les caricatures se sont emparées du bon sens et l'ont renfoncé, et par conséquent ont permis au public de classifier, d'organiser et d'inter‐préter activement ce qu'ils perçoivent ou vivent relativement à l'actu‐alité dans le monde à un moment donné de façon significative. Dans le cadre des théories interactionnistes de Goffman et de Mead, deux caricatures illustrant la dernière « crise » des « vagues d'immigration » déferlant au Canada seront étudiées. Political cartoons are a form of visual news discourse. Sociologists normally dismiss their ideological import on the grounds that cartoons simply offer newsreaders absurd accounts of putative “problem” conditions and are not likely to be taken very seriously. Nevertheless, it is through comedic conventions that cartoons seize upon and reinforce common sense and thus enable the public to actively classify, organize and interpret in meaningful ways what they see or experience about the world at a given moment. Informed by the interactionist theories of Goffman and Mead, two cartoons illustrating the recent “crisis” of “migrant waves” to Canada will be examined.     

Mothers behaving badly: chaotic hedonism and the crisis of neoliberal social reproduction

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the significance of the plethora of representations of mothers ‘behaving badly’ in contemporary anglophone media texts, including the films Bad Moms, Fun Mom Dinner and Bad Mom’s Christmas, the book and online cartoons Hurrah for Gin and the recent TV comedy dramas Motherland, The Let Down and Catastrophe. All these media texts include representations of, first, mothers in the midst of highly chaotic everyday spaces where any smooth routine of domesticity is conspicuous by its absence; and second, mothers behaving hedonistically, usually through drinking and partying, behaviour that is more conventionally associated with men or women without children. After identifying the social type of the mother behaving badly (MBB), the article locates and analyses it in relation to several different social and cultural contexts. These contexts are: a neoliberal crisis in social reproduction marked by inequality and overwork; the continual if contested role of women as ‘foundation parents’; and the negotiation of longer-term discourses of female hedonism. The title gestures towards a popular British sitcom of the 1990s, Men Behaving Badly, which popularized the idea of the ‘new lad’; and this article suggests that the new lad’s counterpart, the ladette, is mutating into the mother behaving badly, or the ‘lad mom’. Asking what work this figure does now, in a later neoliberal context, it argues that the mother behaving badly is simultaneously indicative of a widening and liberating range of maternal subject positions and symptomatic of a profound contemporary crisis in social reproduction. By focusing on the classed and racialised dynamics of the MBB – by examining who exactly is permitted to be hedonistic, and how – and by considering the MBB’s limited and partial imagining of progressive social change, the article concludes by emphasizing the urgency of creating more connections between such discourses and ‘parents behaving politically’.     

Myth,Romance, Philosophizing,and Irony,and the Social Studies Curriculum

Sixth-grade students are challenged in understanding social studies content relevant to particular contexts, then connecting the content and context to their contemporary lives while communicating new knowledge to peers and teachers. Using political cartoons published after September 11, 2001, one sixth-grade social studies teacher designed probing questions and developed meaningful learning experiences relating historical events to current concerns of the students supplementing their curriculum and textbook. Through verbal and written interactions, the students demonstrated in-depth understanding of September 11, 2001, and consequential global ramifications. Subsequently, this teacher used the same strategy to engage learners in additional historical events effectively integrating social studies and literacy to introduce conflict analysis, increase critical thinking, expand text connections, and enhance literacy skills.     

The Disneyfication of Dr Seuss: faithful to profit,one hundred percent?

This essay takes a critical look at the Disneyfication of Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904–1991), examining how a man whose books encourage critical thinking became a brand name, and is increasingly becoming an affirmation of consumer culture. Since his death, Dr Seuss’s name and characters have been used to promote cereal, credit cards, and action figures (among other things); this strategy has led many to cite Suess’s indifference to money and his reluctance to exploit his characters for commercial gain. And, as this article points out, posthumously licensed products are more likely to encourage consumption for its own sake, whereas ones licensed during his lifetime tend to encourage creative or imaginative play. However, the Disneyfication of Dr Seuss is not strictly a posthumous phenomenon. After losing a 1968 case against companies that marketed ‘Dr Seuss’ products based on his 1932 Liberty Magazine cartoons, Dr Seuss accepted his lawyers’ (and the court’s) conclusion that trademark is more powerful than copyright, and approved the production of a vast array of Seussiana. Drawing on legal research, analysis of the products themselves, conversations with Dr Seuss Enterprises and with his biographers, the article concludes that Seuss’s Disneyfication is a symptom of a legal system designed to benefit capitalism more than moral or artistic values.     

Notions of equal,or equivalent,opportunities

We formulate and study three concepts of equity designed to capture certain notions of equal, or equivalent, opportunities. The central concept is that of a family of choice sets. Given such a family , a feasible allocation z is alternatively required to be such that (i) there is B such that each agent i maximizes his satisfaction in B at z _i , (ii) there is B such that each agent i is indifferent between z _i and the maximizer of his satisfaction in B, (iii) for each agent i there is B _i such that z _i maximizes agent i's satisfaction in the union of the B _j and z _i is in B _i . Most of the standard concepts of equity can be obtained as particular cases of these general definitions by appropriately choosing . We identify conditions on guaranteeing that the resulting allocations be efficient. We apply the definitions to economies with only private goods, and to economies with public goods.This is a revised version of an earlier paper circulated under the title of Notions of equal opportunities. Early drafts were presented at the Conference on Economic Models and Distributive Justice, held in Bruxelles and Namur, January 1987, and at the Public Choice Society meeting in Tucson, Arizona, March 1987. The author thanks the participants, in particular T. Schwartz, for their comments, and NSF for its support, under grant No. 85 11136 and 88 09822. The suggestions of two anonymous referees, D. Diamantaras, L. Gevers, and H. Konishi are also gratefully acknowledged.     

Disability studies as a framework to design disability awareness programs: no need for ‘magic’ to facilitate children’s understanding

Abstract

This paper presents and critically discusses a disability awareness program that was addressed to non-disabled children aged between 6-8 years old in Cyprus. The main aims were to explore how disability studies and anti-oppressive pedagogies could inform decisions on structured activities and materials to support children understand disability as condition of life, and recognize disabling practices. Artefacts from children’s work and narratives are presented throughout the paper to inform decisions and choices in relation to the program. The discussion draws on international literature and critically examines: a. how disability feminists’ focus on experiences of disability can have a central place in awareness raising programs, and can be further strengthened by a social model understanding of disability, b. the local context and the use of language as raised by postmodernists/poststructuralists, and c. the use of cartoons as a form of art that can help recognize and challenge dominant disability stereotypes.     

Powers of subgroups in voting bodies

This paper discusses the power p _n of an n-member subgroup B _n of an N-member voting body, N odd and 1 n N. In contrast to bloc voting, we assume that the members vote independently with equal probability for and against a given issue. Power p _n is defined as the probability that the outcome of a vote changes if all members of B _n reverse their votes. Theorems: p _{n + 1} = _n for odd n < N; p _n + p _{N – n} = 1; P _m + p _n > p _{m + n} if m + n < N; p _{n + 1}/p _n (n + 1)/n as N for fixed even n; for rational 0 > > 1, p _N 2^–1 sin^{–1 1/2} as N . A simple summation formula is given for p _n .     

Social choice theory in the case of von Neumann-Morgenstern utilities

Part I of this paper offers a novel result in social choice theory by extending Harsanyi's well-known utilitarian theorem into a multi-profile context. Harsanyi was contented with showing that if the individuals' utilities u _i are von Neumann-Morgenstern, and if the given utility u of the social planner is VNM as well, then the Pareto indifference rule implies that u is affine in terms of the u _i. We provide a related conclusion by considering u as functionally dependent on the u _i, through a suitably restricted social welfare functional (u ₁,...,u _n)u=f(u ₁,...,u _n). We claim that this result is more in accordance with contemporary social choice theory than Harsanyi's single-profile theorem is. Besides, harsanyi's initial proof of the latter was faulty. Part II of this paper offers an alternative argument which is intended to be both general and simple enough, contrary to the recent proofs published by Fishburn and others. It finally investigates the affine independence problem on the u _i discussed by Fishburn as a corollary to harsanyi's theorem.The authors are indebted to L. Haddad, A. Sen and two anonymous referees for useful written comments. They also benefited from stimulating remarks in seminars and helpful conversations with their colleagues. The usual caveat of course applies. One of the authors acknowledges partial financial support from the ARI Communication of the C.N.R.S., Paris.     

The poetry of Hayyim Lensky and its affinity with minor Russian humorous folk genres

Hayyim Lensky was one of a small number of Russian Jewish poets who wrote in Hebrew in the Soviet Union. This article examines how his poetry was influenced and shaped according to the characteristics of minor humorous genres of Russian folklore: chastúshka, pestushka, poteshka, skorogovorka, pribautka, zaklichka, schitalka. That is not to say that he incorporated these genres with their forms and content intact into his poetry; on the contrary, many times he reshaped their forms and introduced unexpected and surprising content.