A 'manual on masculinity'? The consumption and use of mediated images of masculinity among teenage boys in Ireland

Most of the research on masculinity in Ireland stresses the influences of family, work and education in the construction of gender (Ferguson, 1998; Ferguson and Synott, 1995; Ferguson and Reynolds, 2001; McKeown et al., 1998, Owens, 2000). Although the impact of the entertainment media is regularly alluded to, there is a dearth of empirical work in this area. While it is generally agreed that mediated images play a highly influential role in young people's lives, both the nature and the scope of this influence remain unclear in the absence of concrete ethnographies of reception. This paper discusses the findings of a quantitative and qualitative investigation into Irish male teenagers’ consumption and reception of a broad range of media texts and discusses these findings in relation to the relevant literature. It points to the shortcomings of both 'hypodermic needle' theories, which claim direct media influence, and of some active audience theories, which posit consumers as impervious to ideological influence. Contrary to popular discourses which frame the media as an autonomous, regressive force that lags behind a more progressive reality, the findings presented here suggest that mediated fictions are part of wider 'gender scripts' (Nixon, 1996) that both inform and are informed by the social structures within which (male) viewers are immersed

The first global entertainment company: Explaining Pathe's dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathe towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50-70%. Pathe was the first global entertainment company. This paper analyses its rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, which provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance and in this case the film industry. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathe "fits" the expected theoretical model of a dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality-based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best performing firms to consistently outperform rivals

Colorful worlds : the West German revue film of the 1950s

On the following pages you will meet a strange cast of characters: field slaves from Mississippi, steel bands from Trinidad, sheriffs from Puerto Rieo. Mexican campesinos and senioritas, and, of course, the European musical stars who performed these American stereotypes in one of the most disparaged genres of German cinema, the 1950s West German revue film

DVFx, and modernization of technology: audience’s changing taste in the 21st century

The changes from analogue to digital in the film industry occurred rapidly and triggered a change in the landscape, especially in the usage of digital visual effects (DVFx). Thus, films that use the digital visual effects have developed a demand for technology exploitation among audiences. The most powerful effect afforded by digitization is the changes in the relationship between film and audience, especially in the aspect of cinema spectacle. Previously, the use of digital visual effects served merely to fix or modify damaged or negative elements in the post-production process, but it also has contributed to transformation of the tastes of audiences in 21st century cinemas. Tastes and aesthetic judgments are manifestations of aspects of class inequality and social, cultural and reproduction ideology. To evaluate tastes especially within different systems of society is not a simple matter as there has been a change in various aspects of society due to technological advances. This judgment involves complex processes and variables. This paper explored how globalization impacts audiences’ changing tastes with the juxtaposition of the digital visual effects revolution. The research used qualitative research methods, which is focus group discussions involving three groups of moviegoers from Malaysia, India and Australia. The analysis of the findings is divided into two main themes: modernization and technology. In general, the findings show that taste among movie audiences is a typical representation of the middle class society

Local flavors and regional markers : The Low Countries and their commercially driven and proximity-focused film remake practice

The practice of Dutch-Flemish film remaking that came into existence in the new millennium quickly appeared to be of great importance in the film industries of Flanders and The Netherlands – and consequently of Europe. Inspired by methods used in television (format) studies, this article conducts a systematic comparative film analysis of nine Dutch-Flemish remakes together with their nine source films. Considering the remake as a prism that aids in dissecting different formal, transtextual, and cultural codes, and subsequently embedding the practice in its specific socio-cultural and industrial context, we found several similarities and differences between the Dutch and Flemish film versions and showed how these can be made sense of. More generally, we distilled two encompassing principles that administer the remake practice: even though a great deal of the remake process can be explained through the concept of localization – or, more precisely, through the concepts of ‘manufacturing proximity’ and ‘banal aboutness’ – we found that it should certainly not be limited to these processes – as both (trans)textual, such as the mechanism of ‘filling in the gaps’, and contextual elements were found

A Study of the Experience of Listening to Music in World War Two Britain

This thesis provides new insights into the experience of listening to music during the Second World War in Britain. It explores the different types of listening practised by individuals who encountered a variety of ‘serious’, ‘light’ and ’popular’ music in diverse wartime circumstances, both live and via technological media. The thesis analyses unpublished diaries and letters written during the war, in which listeners reported on and interpreted their listening experiences. It examines letters written to the BBC about broadcast music; the ‘bulletins’ written by Lionel Bradley about classical concerts in London; and diary entries about popular music, dancing and the cinema written by Frank Lewis and several Mass Observation diarists. These analyses are complemented by the examination of professional reviews of popular and classical music published in Melody Maker, The Times, The Listener, The Observer and The Manchester Guardian. Three central questions guide the research: how did people experience listening to music during the Second World War? To what extent were these different listening experiences shaped and influenced by the war? How did the listeners relate to a variety of notions, including musical taste, the judgement of musical value, musical community and identity? This study focuses on a period previously overlooked by histories of listening; and provides a new listener-oriented perspective on musical culture on the Home Front in World War Two Britain. It argues that the war had a considerable material effect on the circumstances of the listeners’ experiences, but that wartime did not necessarily affect their engagement with or response to the music. It therefore provides new insights into historical listening experiences and the musical landscape of the Second World War, while also making a significant contribution to the methodology of historical listening studies

Transnationalism and the Decentralization of the Global Film Industry

As in other aspects of society (politics, economics), the film industry appears to be undergoing a process of decentralization (still in its infancy) by which Asia is, if not overtaking, at least matching its level of influence with that of European and American powers. Much of the impetus shifting this balance corresponds to China. The spectacular growth of China‟s domestic market is concentrating a substantial part of the global film business within this Asian giant, resulting in the still sector leader, the United States, conditioning its production in order to maximize profits in that territory. Resolute internationalization policies are also helping Chinese companies gain a foothold in Western countries conditioning film content there, although paradoxically their audiences remain unwilling to consume cinema that is culturally foreign. This essay will attempt to explain how all this has occurred

Understanding the hobbit: the cross-national and cross-linguistic reception of a global media product in Belgium, France and the Netherlands

The Hobbit franchise, as many global media products, reaches audiences worldwide. Audience members apparently consume a uniform media product. But do they? The World Hobbit Project offers a new and exciting opportunity to explore differences and similarities, for it provides us with audiences' understandings of the trilogy across languages and nationalities. In this paper we conduct a statistical analysis on differences and similarities in understandings of The Hobbit trilogy between Belgium, the Netherlands, and France – both in what audiences do and do not feel The Hobbit films to be. Analyzing this particular region in Europe provides an extraordinary opportunity, for The World Hobbit project allows us to compare on the language level (the Dutch and French-speaking Belgian regions with respectively the Netherlands and France), as well as on the level of national identities (comparing the three countries amongst each other). In doing so, we are able to further understand what informs geographical and linguistic differences in the consumption of a uniform media product. As such, this paper touches upon cultural hegemony, cross-border flows of fiction, language and cultural proximity