15,000 research outputs found

    Humour as social dreaming:Stand-up comedy as therapeutic performance

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    Stand-up comedy binds dramatic cultural spectacle to ritualised, intimate exposure. Examining ā€˜caseā€™ examples from live comic performance, this paper describes stand-up as a kind of social dreaming. The article proposes a theoretical frame drawing on Thomas Ogdenā€™s notion of ā€˜talking as dreamingā€™ and psychoanalytic accounts connecting humour and melancholia. Locating the stand-up comedianā€™s propensity for humour in a specialist capacity to hone, display and process traumata, the paper characterises stand-up as a performative oscillation evoking paranoid-schizoid and depressive anxieties. A psychosocial gloss places stand-up as a cultural resource in the service of the popular-as-therapeutic. The paper articulates complementarities between Henri Bergsonā€™s formulations on the function of laughter and an emergent object relations account in order to help to recognise ā€˜containingā€™ and ā€˜cultural-restorativeā€™ aspects of much stand-up, understood as contemporary psychosocial ritual

    David Stafford-Clark (1916-1999): seeing through a celebrity psychiatrist

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    This article uses the mass-media career of the British psychiatrist David Stafford-Clark (1916-1999) as a case study in the exercise of cultural authority by celebrity medical professionals in post-war Britain. Stafford-Clark rose to prominence in the mass media, particularly through his presenting work on medical and related topics for BBC TV and Radio, and was in the vanguard of psychiatrists and physicians who eroded professional edicts on anonymity. At the height of his career, he traded upon his celebrity status, and consequent cultural authority, to deliver mass media sermons on a variety of social, cultural, and political topics. Stafford-Clark tried to preserve his sense of personal and intellectual integrity by clinging to a belief that his authority in the public sphere was ultimately to be vindicated by his literary, intellectual, and spiritual significance. But as his credibility dwindled, he came to distrust the cultural intermediaries, such as broadcasters and publishers, who had supported him

    Studying soap operas

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    This present issue of Communication Research Trends will focus on research about soap operas published in the last 15 years, that is, from the year 2000 to the present. This more recent research shows one key difference: the interest in soap opera has become worldwide. This appears in the programs that people listen to or watch and in communication researchers who themselves come from different countries

    Guide to Recruiting Black Men as Mentors for Black Boys

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    Black men are uniquely positioned to help guide black male youth to educational success and a productive future and through the barriers that stand in their way. But there are almost always more black boys to be mentored than black men to mentor them in formal mentoring programs. This guide helps mentoring programs engage in a productive and inclusive recruitment campaign by: 1) addressing program readiness; and 2) providing guidance on an effective social marketing campaign

    ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

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    The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

    Differentiating Theists and Nontheists by way of a Sampling of Self-Reported Sexual Thoughts and Behaviors

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    Numerous researchers have addressed the impact of individual religiosity or spirituality on psychological well-being. However, studies addressing the possible relationship between religiosity and sexuality, specifically in the form of deterrence of certain sexual thoughts or behaviors based upon religious dictates, remain sparse. Individual religiosity may be related to individual sexual self-expression. Built on the framework of cognitive-dissonance theory and self-determination theory, this quantitative, correlational study was designed to examine the relationships between religiosity and sexual attitudes and behaviors of both theist and nontheist population samples comprised of approximately 400 subjects throughout the United States. Study participants completed the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory in addition to a demographic questionnaire designed specifically for the research. A 2-step hierarchical binary logistic regression was performed to address the research questions for this study. Significance was found in the regression model for 3 selected variables--age, drive, and fantasy; research questions 1 and 2 were supported with the model findings. The results also offered support for the 2 aforementioned theoretical frameworks selected for this study. The implications for positive social change include a clearer understanding of the possible relationship between religiosity and sexuality and any differences in sexual behaviors between theists and nontheists. These implications are important in that the findings may result in healthier sex lives for individuals, increased communication among couples, enhanced acceptance of different sexual orientations, and decreased cognitive dissonance among those individuals contemplating or struggling with sexual behaviors that negate the teachings of their religious tenets

    Masculine Foes, Feminist Woes: A Response to Down Girl

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    In her book, Down Girl, Manne proposes to uncover the ā€œlogicā€ of misogyny, bringing clarity to a notion that she describes as both ā€œloadedā€ and simultaneously ā€œpolitically marginal.ā€ Manne is aware that full insight into the ā€œlogicā€ of misogyny will require not just a ā€œwhatā€ but a ā€œwhy.ā€ Though Manne finds herself largely devoted to the former task, the latter is in the not-too-distant periphery. Manne proposes to understand misogyny, as a general framework, in terms of what it does to women. Misogyny, she writes, is a system that polices and enforces the patriarchal social order (33). Thatā€™s the ā€œwhat.ā€ As for the ā€œwhy,ā€ Manne suggests that misogyny is what women experience because they fail to live up to the moral standards set out for women by that social order. I find Manneā€™s analysis insightful, interesting, and well argued. And yet, I find her account incomplete. While I remain fully convinced by her analysis of what misogyny is, I am less persuaded by her analysis of why misogyny is. For a full analysis of the ā€œlogicā€ of misogyny, one needs to understand how the patriarchy manifests in men an interest in participating in its enforcement. Or so I hope to motivate here. I aim to draw a line from the patriarchy to toxic masculinity to misogyny so that we have a clearer picture as to why men are invested in this system. I thus hope to offer here an analysis that is underdeveloped in Manneā€™s book, but is equally worthy of attention if we want fully to understand the complex machinations underlying misogyny

    The civic and social implications of over-the-top television

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    Through the lenses of Apparatgeist Theory and the Theory of Networked Publics, this dissertation examines the civic and social implications of the contemporary television ecosystem, focusing on the phenomenon of binge-watching as it relates to political participation and empathic concern. Results of an online survey, including quantitative and qualitative measures, indicate that binge-watching television is a statistically significant factor in positively shaping political participation, both online and offline, regardless of the genre consumed. That said, news and informational programming served as the most powerful genre in predicting political participation. Additionally, this dissertation considers the role of empathy within the binge-watching ecosystem, as informed by the Theory of Narrative Empathy; most strikingly, results suggest that empathic concern relates negatively with binge-watching, regardless of genre consumed. However, the process of talking about the television shows binged proved to be a positive and statistically significant contributor to political participation, political discourse, as well as other-oriented dimensions of empathy. Implications and potential directions for future research and theory development are discussed
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