The Sound of Silence

Abstract

In spite of professional association leadership, public schools have been reluctant to accept responsibility for protecting sexual minority students against acts of harassment and discrimination. Study results show attitudes of students and educators toward homosexual youth have changed little over the past ten years. It is proposed that active involvement of educators in the creation of safe and supportive environments for gay and lesbian students is no longer optional due to recent court decisions. Problem areas and suggestions for developing gay supportive school environments are provided.     

声音

我们正进入一个“男盈女亏”的时代。一一据国家统计局人口统计资料推算,目前我国0～19岁年龄段人口中,男性比女性多2377万。中国人民大学社会与人口学院院长翟振武作出如上描述。不早操,不早读,不晚修,五个食堂任意吃,洗澡方便,交通便利,冬有暖气,夏有空调,女生宿舍独立卫浴。出门有天桥,男女厕所按比例分配,校长有信箱,书记有微博,选择自由,性取向自由,不禁校园亲热,师哥疼爱师弟,师姐爱护师妹。     

Sound

“最苦金饭碗”？这就对了!——2013年国家公务员考试具体职位近日公布。虽然2013年招录公告已经表示“岗位将向基层倾斜”,但职位表上一半岗位都加了“常年出差”、“职位需要晚上值班”等条件限制,令众多考生叫苦不迭。     

Sound

我知道,有些还提前安排好能说会道的贫苦户,然后在电视里把政府的工作都表扬一遍,这是不妥的。——1月3日,中共中央政治局委员、广东省委书记汪洋说：“年关要到了,大家都要去访贫问苦,但不能忘记这种形式所承载的实际内容,否则就变成了形式主义,甚至成为一些领导上电视的渠道。”你活,也让别人活。     

声音

与其“良心入法”,不如用法律扶起鼬心。——“良知入法,要把良知写入法律总则!”在近日举行的第四届“法治政府·南岳论坛”上,湖南省宁乡县人民法院院长马贤兴抛出一个独特观点。但很快就受到了多方质疑,于是才有了上述媒体的声音。     

声音

01 作为中国改革开放最前沿的桥头堡,如今竟显得像一个刚刚遭到敌对势力袭击的封闭边城。多大的事啊,不就是个大运会嘛,至于吓成这样子嘛。——深圳市规定,大运会开幕期间,场馆周边的小区居民,不得在家逗留,实在不愿离家,政府派出安保人员到其家中陪伴。时评人石述思评论道。     

The Rhetoric of Violence in Rap and Country Music

This study is a semiotic ethnography and ethnomusicological comparison of the rhetoric of violence found in two increasingly popular musical forms, rap and country. Based on the production-of-culture perspective, musical genres are considered socially constructed organizing principles and lyrics, the primary data, are viewed as ensembles of texts. The strategy is to address rap and country songs as they present claims concerning the focal concerns of trouble and toughness. First, analysis is framed in terms of three violent crimes–murder, manslaughter, and assault. Second, dimensions of toughness are specified–physical prowess and masculinity. This study illustrates the hidden resemblances between rap and country and highlights parallels between these essentially incompatible musical domains.     

The Impact of Sound in Modern Multiline Video Slot Machine Play

Slot machine wins and losses have distinctive, measurable, physiological effects on players. The contributing factors to these effects remain under-explored. We believe that sound is one of these key contributing factors. Sound plays an important role in reinforcement, and thus on arousal level and stress response of players. It is the use of sound for positive reinforcement in particular that we believe influences the player. In the current study, we investigate the role that sound plays in psychophysical responses to slot machine play. A total of 96 gamblers played a slot machine simulator with and without sound being paired with reinforcement. Skin conductance responses and heart rate, as well as subjective judgments about the gambling experience were examined. The results showed that the sound influenced the arousal of participants both psychophysically and psychologically. The sound also influenced players’ preferences, with the majority of players preferring to play slot machines that were accompanied by winning sounds. The sounds also caused players to significantly overestimate the number of times they won while playing the slot machine.     

A Comparison of Ambient Casino Sound and Music: Effects on Dissociation and on Perceptions of Elapsed Time While Playing Slot Machines

This research examined the effects of a casino’s auditory character on estimates of elapsed time while gambling. More specifically, this study varied whether the sound heard while gambling was ambient casino sound alone or ambient casino sound accompanied by music. The tempo and volume of both the music and ambient sound were varied to manipulate temporal engagement and introspection. One hundred and sixty (males = 91) individuals played slot machines in groups of 5–8, after which they provided estimates of elapsed time. The findings showed that the typical ambient casino auditive environment, which characterizes the majority of gaming venues, promotes understated estimates of elapsed duration of play. In contrast, when music is introduced into the ambient casino environment, it appears to provide a cue of interval from which players can more accurately reconstruct elapsed duration of play. This is particularly the case when the tempo of the music is slow and the volume is high. Moreover, the confidence with which time estimates are held (as reflected by latency of response) is higher in an auditive environment with music than in an environment that is comprised of ambient casino sounds alone. Implications for casino management are discussed.     

Soundtracking Everyday Life: The Use of Music in Redefining Situations*

As a result of technological advances, music is presently widely available as a means of modifying social occasions. As with other artifacts, the use of music requires technical knowledge. Leaving aside the more crystallized segments of this knowledge, such as musical therapy and movie soundtracking, the study sought to explore the functional correlation college students established between types of music and social occasions. The existence of a body of consistent, though uncodified, technical knowledge is confirmed. This knowledge prescribes types of music appropriate for social occasions, and specifies the particular effects that can be obtained and the role played by some of the music's elements.     

"五四"运动对音乐艺术的影响

在以科学、民主为旗帜的"五四"运动猛烈冲击着封建思想与文化的同时,也掀起了探求新思想、新道德、新文化的潮流.这场伟大的运动,对我国音乐艺术同样也产生了深刻的影响,并对音乐艺术的发展起了重要的指导作用.     

流行音乐的强势与大学生的成长

当今高校流行音乐的强势文化特征对大学生必然产生不容忽视的影响,探讨流行音乐的价值与导向,亟待成为当前高校校园文化建设的重要课题。流行音乐的非主流意识特征与当前高校教育目标的相对悖离,迫切需要我们更加关注它的审美和教育价值,并积极探寻高校流行音乐教育的主题方向和原则。只有如此,流行音乐的文化强势才能符合教书育人的要求,并进而转化为促进大学生健康成才的有效动能。     

The Meanings of a Star: Interpreting Music Fans' Reviews

This article both elaborates on and empirically supports Norman Denzin's thesis on the political aesthetics of interpretation. Through a reading of consumer reviews, I discuss both the image and the music of the contemporary pop star Avril Lavigne by combining analytic tools derived from dramaturgy and social semiotics. Specifically, I present consumer reviews of Avril Lavigne's public persona as interpretive acts that decode the practices of production, distribution, and consumption of her alleged subcultural authenticity. I discuss the importance of understanding interpretation as a practice of cultural resistance against the pervasive force of consumerist ideologies and hegemonic mass media discourses. In addition, I reflect on the usefulness of a symbolic interactionist approach to a cultural studies based on Peircean semiotics and Goffmanian dramaturgy. We are losing control of the very means of cultural production itself. … More and more culture becomes an adjunct of marketing, or of the bureaucratic ethos, or of both. — C. Wright Mills (1963 :226)