Cross media promotion: entertainment industries and the trailer

The turn of the millennium bore witness to a phenomenon: the use of promotion trailers for a variety of products. Both stage theatre and the publishing industries came under the media spotlight for using trailers to promote their wares throwing into sharp contrast the normativity of film trailers. Despite increased academic study of the film trailer, few have considered the trailer outside the industrial context of the film industry. Coupled with this trend in focus, is the tendency within the literature to suggest that the trailer exists as a unique form because they exist in the same medium as the product that promote. Added to this is the tendency to rely on an a priori definition that is not explored fully. By way of intervention with these key issues, this thesis considers the aesthetics and emergence of the trailer in entertainment industries other than film and serves as a counterpoint to the cinema centric imbalance within the study of the trailer. Using a corpus of audiovisual texts identified as trailers through UK press websites, this thesis draws from the popular understanding of the trailer in order to explore the historical and industrial trajectory of these other forms of trailer. Taking the form of case studies organised by the industry in which the trailer's product operates this thesis explores the historical context in which the trailer emerged and the aesthetic trends at work in the current trailer therein. In exploring both the history and the aesthetic representation of the trailer in the industry this thesis moves the study of trailers away from repetitive debates surrounding the film industry and opens up the possibility of trailers as a cultural phenomenon and simultaneous marketing trend. Through providing a grounded understanding of the trailer's use within contemporary entertainment industries, the thesis argues that the term 'trailer' has moved beyond advertising for films. It suggests the trailer has come to typify promotion for any product that is at its core, is an experience. In doing so thesis presents a much needed counterpoint and challenge to cinema-centric analysis of the trailer

Transforming English as a Second Language Story Readers into Storytellers: Examining Learners\u27 Experiences in a Video Book Trailer Project

Reading is a challenging task for English as a Second Language (ESL) students (Pang, 2008; Nassaji, 2011). Instructors and researchers have explored various ways to promote ESL students\u27 reading development. Since research on story-based pedagogy has shown benefits in the area of language development, stories can be used to promote ESL reading development. Furthermore, research on Digital Booktalk shows that when students engaged in after-reading video production activities they found a new purpose in reading (Gunter & Kenny, 2012). Additionally, digital storytelling (DST) research has revealed that DST can foster learner motivation and autonomy (Hafner & Miller, 2011; Kim, 2014). In this study, ESL instructors engaged adult ESL students in a video book trailer (VBT) production project. ESL students learned story structural elements, drafted story summaries, and used Web 2.0 tools to produce a VBT to retell the stories they read. This phenomenological study investigated ESL students\u27 experiences in the VBT project. Data was gathered from questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, and student assignments. Student interviews, classroom observations, and open-ended questions in questionnaires were coded. There were two cycles of coding where codes and pattern codes were developed. Data from questionnaires, classroom observation recordings and student assignments triangulated findings from interviews. This study revealed participants\u27 learning benefits, challenges, and their comparisons with their earlier educational experiences. First and foremost, it is suggested that a VBT project could provide integrated and implicit English learning opportunities for reading, vocabulary, writing, pronunciation and speaking. The primary obstacles reported by participants were insufficient time and energy as well as demanding linguistic expectations. When comparing this project with their earlier learning experiences, participants identified that digital production tasks were somewhat familiar. While learning to produce their own VBTs, They developed their digital skills for English learning purposes and mastered video editing skills. Project completers reported that they were excited that they were reading for a brand-new goal and increased their self-efficacy in using English and working on academic projects. Pedagogical implications were provided for future implementation in second language classrooms

Toward A Theory of Media Reconciliation: An Exploratory Study of Closed Captioning

This project is an interdisciplinary empirical study that explores the emotional experiences resulting from the use of the assistive technology closed captioning. More specifically, this study focuses on documenting the user experiences of both the D/deaf and Hearing multimedia user in an effort to better identify and understand those variables and processes that are involved with facilitating and supporting connotative and emotional meaning making. There is an ever present gap that defines closed captioning studies thus far, and this gap is defined by the emphasis on understanding and measuring denotative meaning making behavior while largely ignoring connotative meaning making behavior that is necessarily an equal participant in a user\u27s viewing experience. This study explores connotative and emotional meaning making behaviors so as to better understand the behavior exhibited by users engaged with captioned multimedia. To that end, a mixed methods design was developed that utilizes qualitative methods from the field of User Experience (UX) to explore connotative equivalence between D/deaf and Hearing users and an augmented version of S. R. Gulliver and G. Ghinea\u27s (2003) quantitative measure Information Assimilation (IA) from the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to measure the denotative equivalence between the two user types. To measure denotative equivalence a quiz containing open-ended questions to measure IA was used. To measure connotative equivalence the following measures were used: 1) Likert scales to measure users\u27 confidence in answers to open-ended questions. 2) Likert scale to measure a users\u27 interest in the stimulus. 3) Open - ended questions to identify scenes that elicited the strongest emotional responses from users. 4) Four- level response questions with accompanying Likert scales to determine strength of emotional reaction to three select excerpts from the stimulus. 5) An interview consisting of three open- ended questions and one fixed - choice question. This study found that there were no major differences in the denotative equivalence between the D/deaf and Hearing groups; however, there were important differences in the emotional reactions to the stimulus that indicate there was not connotative equivalence between the groups in response to the emotional content. More importantly, this study found that the strategies used to understand the information users were presented with in order to create both denotative and connotative meaning differed between groups and individuals within groups. To explain such behaviors observed, this work offers a theory of Media Reconciliation based on Wolfgang Iser\u27s (1980) phenomenological theory about the \u27virtual text\u27

Literary Practices and the Curriculum Context: Exploring the Production of Assignments in a South African Vocational Higher Education Institution

This thesis explores curriculum construction and the production of assignments in two courses at a vocational higher education institution in South Africa, namely Film and Video Technology and Graphic Design. The influence of the vocational curriculum context on student and lecturer practices is examined through two analytical frameworks, literacy as social practice and Bernstein's concept of recontextualisation. An ethnographic methodology was used to investigate the broader curriculum context and literacy practices engaged in by students and lecturers. Fieldwork was carried out over a six-month period, while generating and collecting fieldnote, interview, documentary and photographic data. The analysis is presented as two separate case studies, one in each department. The study's interpretive approach is used to bring together the Bernstein focus on recontextualisation and curriculum with the Academic Literacies notion of literacy practice. The significant role of the curriculum context in the patterning of the literacy practices students engage in when producing their assignments is therefore recognised. The findings highlight the way the university of technology sectoral domain operates as a third aspect in the recontextualisation process alongside the professional and disciplinary domains, resulting in conflicting messages. Primacy is given to texts and literacy practices that resemble those in the professional domains. However, essayist literacies are also foregrounded and reflect generic and decontextualized understandings of writing that function as an important mechanism through which the sectoral domain asserts its position in the academy. The research demonstrates that the Academic Literacies and Bernsteinian frames can successfully be combined in empirical research, allowing the individual students' experiences to be located within broader institutional and sectoral structures in a way that challenges deficit views of the student. A further conclusion drawn is how an Academic Literacies lens can help to identify the workings of the sectoral domain thus broadening the analytical frame beyond individual institutional conditions

Technology in Education

This comprehensive project examines how overexposure to technology impacts the learning styles of students, and how teaching strategies need to be adapted to meet the changing learning needs of this generation. David Jukes (2010) book, Understanding the Digital Generation (Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape), discusses how students learning styles have evolved and changed over the years due to them being inundated with technology from a young age. This paper will examine Jukes claims, discuss how modern teachers need to adapt their teaching styles to reach students of the Digital Generation, and will offer practical lessons that teachers can use in their classrooms to help promote student engagement in class activities. There second part of the paper is a comprehensive unit on folktales. The unit consists of 11 lessons, and several of the lessons incorporate the technology strategies that have been discussed in the paper. Students will conduct several writing assignments: using word processors, online writing applications, and websites. Students will engage in collaborative group projects. The final assignment in the unit will ask students to compose an original folktale with illustrations. This final assignment will need to be turned in in a professional format. Students will either have their book bound, or it will be turned in in a binder or portfolio. These lessons will also adhere to the New York State Common Core English Language Arts Learning Standards

The development of lexis and critical thinking through movies and task-based descriptive writing

159 páginas incluye diagramas.Esta investigación cualitativa pretende mejorar el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico y la escritura en tres grupos de estudiantes del Colegio Cundinamarca a través de la implementación del enfoque basado en tareas y la utilización de videos cortos de películas. La población seleccionada para éste estudio incluye tres cursos con tres diferentes niveles de lengua: tercero, sexto y onceavo grado. Sin embargo, todos ellos pertenecen al nivel A1 de acuerdo al Marco Común Europeo de referencia para las lenguas (MCE). Como estudiantes de una institución bilingüe los estudiantes han adquirido ciertas habilidades para comunicar sus ideas, expresar sus sentimientos y entender instrucciones en la lengua inglesa. Sin embargo, se han identificado dificultades en el proceso de escritura de los estudiantes y en las habilidades del pensamiento crítico, particularmente en la construcción de oraciones y su significado evidenciadas durante la etapa de análisis de necesidades. En consecuencia, en la implementación pedagógica se usaron cortos de películas para el diseño de clases basadas en tareas, con el fin de desarrollar habilidades de pensamiento crítico a través de la escritura y así lograr un proceso de comunicación efectiva. Los instrumentos empleados para la recolección de datos fueron: talleres, rúbricas y artefactos (muestras escritas)