Novel Applications Of Music And Digital Media In Global Health Intervention And Education Initiatives During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study Of Bts And Army

The Korean musical group BTS (full name Bangtan Seoyeondan/방탄소년단) is one of the world’s most commercially and artistically successful entertainment acts. BTS is primarily known for their domination of both Western and Korean musical markets, impressive digital media presence, major role in supporting the South Korean economy, and highly mobilized 400,000 member fandom known as ARMY. BTS and their parent company HYBE’s artistic creation and marketing model has long focused on creating “Music and Artists for Healing,” or using music and various forms of primarily digital content to connect with and improve health outcomes for fans. In response, ARMY have developed significant grassroots public health organizing to improve health of other fans and general populations. Both BTS and ARMY’s intervention work regularly reaches global audiences of millions through primarily digital media delivery mechanisms.This interdisciplinary, mixed methods study uses qualitative analysis of BTS’ digital content (n = 478) and an introductory exploration of ARMY public health organizations to demonstrate that BTS’ music, HYBE’s digital content production and dissemination strategies, and ARMY’s community grassroots organizing produced one of the largest-reaching public health interventions in response to the early COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020- December 2021). Major intervention strategies included mitigating negative mental health outcomes, distributing health information, modeling safe behaviors, and engaging in both mutual aid and anti-racist health equity work. This exploratory research illuminates new directions in effective, novel public health intervention and education practices and posits that critical, nuanced study of BTS and ARMY’s impact on public health may hold important keys to re-imagining digitally delivered health interventions and their subsequent economic profitability

Sensuous proximity in research methods with expert teams, media sports, and esports practices

This paper examines epistemological issues in game studies research, specifically exploring qualitative research approaches to networked, expert computer game teams who engage in esports practices. Expert teams deliver their expert practice in part through interembodied sensitivities to sensorial team-based phenomena, which is made across multiple bodies and machines in the process of play. Drawing on fieldwork with World of Warcraft Arena tournament esports teams and research methods orientations from games studies, sensuous ethnography, and sports studies, a position of sensuous proximity in games research is explored and developed as a suite of research guidelines for engaging with esports teams high performance practices. I suggest a research approach that involves differing lenses and stances in the study of embodied team play, and varying scales of sensuous proximity to the layers of expert team practices that augmens the notion of playing research in game studies.This paper examines epistemological issues in game studies research, specifically exploring qualitative research approaches to networked, expert computer game teams who engage in esports practices. Expert teams deliver their expert practice in part through interembodied sensitivities to sensorial team-based phenomena, which is made across multiple bodies and machines in the process of play. Drawing on fieldwork with World of Warcraft Arena tournament esports teams and research methods orientations from games studies, sensuous ethnography, and sports studies, a position of sensuous proximity in games research is explored and developed as a suite of research guidelines for engaging with esports teams high performance practices. I suggest a research approach that involves differing lenses and stances in the study of embodied team play, and varying scales of sensuous proximity to the layers of expert team practices that augmens the notion of playing research in game studies

The age of hybrid events: amplifying the power of culture through digital experiences (Music Festivals feat. Technology)

Music festivals represent a significant part of culture as identity shapers and experience providers. With the growing use of technology in all structures of society, music festivals are not aside and have been embracing technologies as a way of creating a value offer and differentiation factor. Livestreams, cashless systems, digital events along with the use of virtual reality and social media have been ways to create a meaningful and immersive experience to the attendees and promote engagement and commitment with the music festival as a brand. This study demonstrates exactly how the implementation of technology in music festivals, thus making them hybrid, affects the overall experience of the attendee. It shows the advantages, challenges and in what specific ways it can affect the event for the promoters and the attendees, along with what aspects organizers need to acknowledge when considering embracing hybrid experiences in their festivals. It creates awareness and raises debate about this increasingly reality, providing the organization trustworthy insights about the topic of digital and/or virtual experiences

Let's Play Together through Channels: Understanding the Practices and Experience of Danmaku Participation Game Players in China

Live streaming is becoming increasingly popular in recent years, as most channels prioritize the delivery of engaging content to their viewers. Among various live streaming channels, Danmaku participation game (DPG) has emerged in China as a mixture of live streaming and online gaming, offering an immersive gaming experience to players. Although prior research has explored audience participation games (APGs) in North America and Europe, it primarily focuses on discussing prototypes and lacks observation of players in natural settings. Little is known about how players perceive DPGs and their player experience. To fill the research gap, we observed a series of DPG channels and conducted an interview-based study to gain insights into the practices and experiences of DPG players. Our work reveals that DPGs can effectively synergize live streaming and online games, amplifying both player engagement and a profound sense of accomplishment to players

The Grizzly, October 22, 2020

Tie-dye a Face Mask with U-Imagine • Radio Plays • RBG\u27s Impact on Hillel • Daily Practice of Yoga • Opinion: Ursinus or Urscience?; Heteronormative Education is Not Inclusive • Ursinus\u27 New Partnership with F45 • Patterson Misses Footballhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1942/thumbnail.jp

Limelight: Cardiff Contemporary & Llangattock Lime Kiln

Limelight (2016-20) aims to establish terms through which limestone as a geological material with industrial application, presents and holds agency. It aims to determine how exposures of limestone’s material agency are intrinsic to understanding the representations and experiences of its landscapes. It considers this in relation to the transforming phases of industrial limestone landscapes in the UK. Limelight (Cardiff Contemporary & Llangattock Lime Kiln) was one of ten commissioned exhibitions for Cardiff Contemporary, a biennial of contemporary art. It was funded by PEAK and Cardiff Contemporary, and developed and delivered in partnership with the BBC and Arts Alive Wales through a Digital Innovation Fund For Arts In Wales and NESTA grant. A limelight illumination, at a restored lime kiln at Llangattock in the Black Mountains Welsh National Park, using an apparatus developed by the artists, was broadcast by the BBC through the internet and into an exhibition space in Cardiff. The duration of the limelight illumination at Llangattock was contingent to the material behaviour of quicklime as it was heated to temperatures in excess of 2000ºc emitting a bright white light. The limelight illumination in Llangattock provided a real-time base for a performance event in Cardiff. The two artists live-mixed pre-recorded video and sound from extraction and industrial infrastructure limestone sites in the Black Mountains, and two performers projected and moved these images around the space and through the audience through rehearsed choreography. A film work of the live event was presented for the remainder of the exhibition

Rethinking Social Media and Extremism

Terrorism, global pandemics, climate change, wars and all the major threats of our age have been targets of online extremism. The same social media occupying the heartland of our social world leaves us vulnerable to cybercrime, electoral fraud and the 'fake news' fuelling the rise of far-right violence and hate speech. In the face of widespread calls for action, governments struggle to reform legal and regulatory frameworks designed for an analogue age. And what of our rights as citizens? As politicians and lawyers run to catch up to the future as it disappears over the horizon, who guarantees our right to free speech, to free and fair elections, to play video games, to surf the Net, to believe ‘fake news’? Rethinking Social Media and Extremism offers a broad range of perspectives on violent extremism online and how to stop it. As one major crisis follows another and a global pandemic accelerates our turn to digital technologies, attending to the issues raised in this book becomes ever more urgent

Mythcon 52 - The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

To work toward being stewards of a more sustainable world, the Mythcon 52 Organizing Committee has chosen to promote digital materials and print only a few hard copy versions of our program book that will be for sale during the conference. Paper, ink, printing press machinery, and other resources involved in producing materials we can hold in our hands damage the world around us. As much as we love physical items for their representations of experiences, our Mythcon 52 organizers think many of the authors we love and admire would appreciate our desire to reduce our environmental impact on the world around us and preserve resources so that future generations can continue to take part in Mythcons. Since we recognize that some attendees may be less able to navigate digital versions of materials, we will have committee members and volunteers available at the Registration table willing to assist attendees who want to use our free digital materials throughout Mythcon 52 and help us be better stewards of the natural world