Aaron E. Bledsoe - The Man Behind the Mask: The Progression of Masculinity in African American Male Characters as seen in films Awarded the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Pictur

This qualitative study will examine the way in which the masculinity of African American men is portrayed in films through a textual analysis of the leading male character in movies that have been awarded the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. I’ll be performing a textual analysis of the following movies: “Flight”, “Book of Eli”, and “The Great Debaters”. Through the analysis of the main character, I discuss the following: types of marginalization experienced in the film, interactions/relations with (African American) women, as well as the importance that his education and/or occupation will play in his identity as a man. Using these factors, I argue that these characters are able to preserve their masculinity as a means of escaping the emasculation created in a society that marginalizes men of color in film. Donald Bogle points out that in the past, Black men have been portrayed as either “childlike, docile or happy as the role of a servant,”, or as an extremely violent threat to society. Using the studies of Stuart Hall, I’ll be able examine the extent to which representation affects the portrayal of a cultural group and how organizations like the NAACP Image Awards help in providing more of a positive acknowledgement of people of color in the media.https://epublications.marquette.edu/mcnair_2013/1009/thumbnail.jp

Toni M. Conley - An Empirical Analysis of How Purchase Decision Makers Arrive at a Fair Price for Subscription-Based CRM

Internet based technologies have played an important role in the development of modern CRM applications over the last several years. They have been the critical driving force behind the rise of on-demand CRM, and have also enabled on-premise CRM vendors to dramatically simplify deployment and administration. As a result of this, business purchase decision makers are in the midst of a recent and accelerating shift in how they acquire marketing support solutions for their enterprises. They are moving from a CAPEX (capital expenditure) to an OPEX (operational expenditure) model. Many time, marketing support solutions acquired via an on-demand model (OPEX) are called hosted or cloud-based solutions, where service providers own, maintain and upgrade the software applications on their servers at their locations. Customers then access the solutions using web browsers and broadband Internet connections at their offices. This research is an analysis of how purchase decision makers actively weigh a cloud-based approach to CRM versus a premises-based approach. It’s an exploration of how IT and marketing decision makers optimize the profitability of acquiring marketing support solutions using price analysis for these two approaches? Out of the criteria used to select an approach, we want to know how important is price in that decision. We have interviewed 5 executives in the greater Milwaukee area, who have recently deployed a CRM solution for their businesses to better understand the role of price in their decision.https://epublications.marquette.edu/mcnair_2013/1010/thumbnail.jp

Making Waves: Media's Potential for Girls in the Global South

There are around 600 million adolescent girls living in developing countries. Doubly marginalised because oftheir gender and age, many live a bleak existence -- excluded from access to basic public services, unable to shape the decisions that affect their lives and vulnerable to violence at home and on the street. Their voices often go unheard.Slowly, this is beginning to change. Over the past two decades girls have become a growing priority for the international development community. Investing in their health education and employment prospects is nowwidely considered to have an important ripple effect on other development outcomes such as economic growth and social equality. As a result, development assistance programmes that support girls' empowerment are now seen by many as not just the "right" thing to do, but a necessity Less well understood is where media fits into this equation The interplay between media and gender norms has long been recognised and a substantial literature explores how media affects girls in the Global North But against a backdrop of rapidly changing media landscapes -- characterised by increasing competition for audiences sensationalism and expanding access to new technologies -- the role that media plays in girls' lives in the Global South demands further examination.Drawing on expert interviews as well as insights from the media and development literature, this policy briefing seeks to fill this gap. It argues that media -- whether traditional or online -- matters a great deal in the lives of girls in the developing world. It matters because it has the ability to be harmful to girls' interests and self-esteem, and it matters because it can also be so effective in playing a positive role in girls' lives. Specifically, media can influence girls' aspirations and behaviours around their health and livelihoods open the door to greater participation in society and ensure that girls' issues move higher up the public agenda. If challenges around media access and control and the extent to which media organisations value girls as part of their audience, are addressed head on, media can play a vital role in helping to advance the wellbeing of adolescent girls in regions of the world where their interests have traditionally been most neglected

How to find and share community owned solutions

The main aim of this handbook is to promote community owned solutions by proposing approaches that respond to current and future challenges to sustainability, natural resources management and biodiversity conservation. The handbook introduces key concepts and techniques which underpin a participatory and systems approach to community engagement. It helps a community build up practical skills for exploring, recording and disseminating their own community owned solutions

State of the Artist: Challenges to the New York State Arts & Entertainment Industry and its Workforce

[Excerpt] In 2009, with support from Empire State Development (ESD), the Cornell University ILR School published its first report on the state of the New York arts and entertainment (A&E) workforce, Empire State’s Cultural Capital at Risk? Assessing Challenges to the Workforce and the Educational Infrastructure for New York State’s Arts and Entertainment Industry. The report analyzed a number of key characteristics of the A&E workforce across electronic media, live performing, and visual arts, identifying the most pressing issues for New York A&E workers and the support structures in place to protect their interests. The report concluded by proposing a number of questions to policymakers to be considered in future legislation. State of the Artist both updates this analysis of the State A&E workforce and analyzes trends in recent years based on comparable data presented in the 2009 report. The current report draws from government surveys, industry reports, and interviews with key stakeholders to assess the condition of the NYS A&E industry and its workforce, identifying key issues faced by workers in each sector of the industry. In addition to an extensive review of current literature, data from primary and secondary sources was analyzed to assess the state of the industry and major trends by sector. Survey data from the US Census Bureau and Department of Labor, notably from the American Community Survey (ACS), were retrieved to isolate trends in A&E workforce employment patterns, demographics, and income by occupational group. This analysis, including a conference attended by industry leaders and representatives to assess reactions to preliminary findings, served to identify current challenges facing this vital workforce to the state economy. Often left out of discussions about precarious workers, many working within the A&E industry continue to face high rates of contingent and project-based employment, low average income, and inadequate employment protections—all of which are explored here. State of the Artist concludes with a summary of public policies currently in place as well as those under consideration, providing an updated set of questions for New York policymakers

Sex differences in emotional concordance.

Emotions involve response synchronization across experiential, physiological, and behavioral systems, referred to as concordance or coherence. Women are thought to be more emotionally aware and expressive than men and may therefore display stronger response concordance; however, research on this topic is scant. Using a random-order film-average design, we assessed concordance among experiential (arousal, valence), autonomic (electrodermal activity, heart rate, preejection period, respiratory sinus arrhythmia), respiratory (respiratory rate), and behavioral (corrugator and zygomatic electromyography) responses to 15 two-minute films varying in valence and arousal. We then calculated for each participant and pair of measures a within-subject correlation index using averages from the 15 films. Pronounced individual concordance of up to 0.9 was observed. Arousal-physiology and valence-behavior concordances were particularly pronounced. Women displayed higher concordance than men for almost all pairs of measures. Findings indicate stronger psychophysiological response coupling in women than men and provide novel insights into affective differences between the sexes