Is a picture worth a thousand words? Using films and television shows to teach public relations

While a number of studies have looked at the image of public relations practitioners as portrayed in films and other media, few if any of those studies have focused primarily on the pedagogical perspective of using films. Therefore, a benchmark international survey of public relations educators was undertaken to answer questions about how (or whether) to use films as a teaching tool. Among other things, the findings of the study shed light on how often PR instructors use films in the classroom; the value that films provide; why some professors decline to use them; which specific films and television shows are being used; and guidelines for utilizing movies and television programs as an effective pedagogical technique.     

‘The Machine that Creates Slovenians’: The Role of Slovenian Public Broadcasting in Re-affirming and Re-inventing the Slovenian National Identity

This article illustrates how Slovenian national public television came to serve as a central site of contention where fundamental issues of identity, politics and national culture were challenged, negotiated and defined. The Slovenian case offers an interesting laboratory for an analysis of the role of journalism in creating and asserting a particular version of national identity. This article explores how Slovenian television's elites (journalists, editors and officials) articulate the importance of public television as the ‘machine that creates Slovenians’. Based on an analysis of roughly twelve interviews with journalists of Slovenian national television, I argue that one of the most important cultural and political institutions in the creation, maintenance and reinforcement of Slovenian national identity was, and continues to be, national public television.     

Teaching about science

Science is one of the most exciting frontiers of human endeavor and yet is often poorly understood. In this article I argue that improved education of both our children and our adults is key for the future. It is incumbent on all scientists to help educate our citizenry. In addition to the traditional methods we should make better use of television for this purpose. I strongly advocate permeating regular news programs with science news and education.     

电视文化传播及其在新农村建设中的作用 ———来自全国27 个省市区农户的调查报告

文章采用面对面进行问卷调查的方法采集数据,了解农村电视信息服务需求、现状和存在的问题,为探究电视文化传播在新农村建设中的作用提供第一手资料。研究结果表明,农民最需求的信息是新技术类信息,但电视传播农业新技术的效果欠佳;而通过电视媒介传播“文化信息”对农民的观念改变、乡风文明建设发挥着举足轻重的作用。文章提出电视虽是农民获取信息的主要渠道,可电视不是万能的,应正视电视传播信息的功能;电视的单向信息服务模式不能满足农民的科技信息需求。建议利用电视媒介自身的传播优势,充分发挥电视文化信息传播的职能作用;提高电视媒体采编人员的乡村传播素质,重视农村电视节目议程设置,不同级别的电视部门应根据不同地区不同类型农民所需,提供贴近性科技信息;同时,增加对农节目的播出时数,重视农民受众的主体地位,加强对农节目的参与性等。     

Staging Gender and Sexuality in Experimental TV Entertainment

ABSTRACT

Via examples from recent Norwegian experimental TV shows, this article explores the function of “eye-catchers,” parodic (hetero)sexualization, female masquerade and neo-masculinization as strategies for “repetitions with a difference” of traditional styles and motifs by female show hosts, as well as the queer gendering and sexualization of men and masculinities by their male counterparts. Both formats represent innovative renegotiations of gender and sexuality that illustrate the relationship between post-modernism and queer aesthetics.     

‘New concepts for unknown lands’: Deleuze and Guattari's non-nationalitarianisms

This article responds to the arguments of Hardt and Negri through the work of Deleuze and Guattari, seeking to show that the latter offer a range of concepts that reveal the diminishing role of the nation-state and national identity in the contemporary world.     

TV VIEWING AS GOOD CITIZENSHIP? POLITICAL RATIONALITY,ENLIGHTENED DEMOCRACY AND PBS

This article draws on theories of political rationality, governmentality and cultural policy as well as historical analysis to examine how a philosophy of ‘enlightened democracy’ informed the historical formation of PBS. I analyse its early campaign to turn TV viewers into active citizens and show how the citizen subjectivities constructed presupposed a set of knowledge-power relations defined and managed by ‘opinion leaders’. Following a cultural studies approach I analyse policy and popular discourses to show how requirements of professionalism, reason, civility and detached objectivity served as a means of differentiating good citizens and as a form of social control.     

蒙古族题材电视剧中的仪式符号传播——以电视剧《东归英雄传》为例

蒙古族题材电视剧中,仪式活动既是承载蒙古民族文化信息的符号,更是蒙古民族文化传播的媒介,是一种巨大的力量,提升和宣扬了蒙古族文化精神。仪式活动是蒙古民族文化的贮存器。电视剧《东归英雄传》中运用大量的蒙古族仪式符号,表现了仪式对于一个族群的重要性。在文化共享的过程中,仪式成为维系一个民族的集体记忆、塑造群体认同感的文化象征体系。     

Network dynamics of television use in school classes

Seventy years ago Paul Lazarsfeld and colleagues found empirical evidence for a significant influence of the social context on media effects by interpersonal communication. Subsequently various theories in mass media science incorporated the social context as an independent or dependent variable. However, there is little empirical research that addresses the dynamics of media use within a social context using network analytic methods. This study considers the social context as both an independent and dependent variable in a dynamic network process in order to disentangle social selection and influence processes. Hence, on one hand it tests whether the intensity of TV use and the use of specific TV genres predict the selection of conversation partners in social groups (social selection process). On the other hand it tests if individuals’ social context predicts their TV use (social influence process). Here, social context is defined as the conversation structure as well as the media use of all other persons in the social group.     

Corporate actors in Western European television news

News about corporations can be understood as an interdependent relationship among the public relations function, organizational logic and the logic of the media. This research addresses the visibility and role of corporate actors in Western European public television news. A quantitative content analysis was conducted of a representative sample of six primetime news programs (N = 139) in 2006. The results show that corporate actors do not appear very often in the news, that they are part of a civil-economic coalition and join the public debate about issues. Promotion of products, brands and organizations is hardly visible.