Interactivity, Ethical Behaviors, and Transmediation in Esports: An Analysis of Pokémon Through Uses and Gratifications Theory

Nintendo’s Pokémon is a family-friendly transmedia franchise that recently added esports to its diverse forms of entertainment. This thesis analyzes how the esports practices of Pokémon maintain an inclusive community along with the cultural values and ideology of its company. Elihu Katz et al.’s framing of uses and gratifications theory is used to analyze Pokémon esports practices and its transmediation because it emphasizes the importance of fulfillment and belonging for media consumers based on their needs. By examining Pokémon esports competitions through uses and gratifications theory, I argue Pokémon increases interactivity, promotes ethical behaviors, and expands its brand value across media to address its community’s specific needs. My research furthers the work of media studies scholars Yu-Ling Lin et al., Tanner Higgin, Henry Jenkins, and others. By examining how Pokémon’s gaming franchise is inclusive and accessible to players, the thesis broadens existing scholarship on the social, ethical, and entertainment aspects of esports

Exploring Deviant Behavior in Customers: The Role Emotional Branding Plays with a Customer’s Perception of Injustice and Anti-Branding

Utilizing moral disengagement (MD) and social exchange theories, this paper proposes that perceived injustice can lead to customers actively participating in antibranding activities through a process of MD. However, emotional branding might be an effective intervention tool that mitigates the anti-branding behavior in morally disengaged customers due to the positive feelings that relationship marketing endues. This paper will explore the relationship between the customer’s perception of injustice and their anti-branding behavior using MD as an explanatory mechanism. Additionally, emotional branding will be explored as a possible boundary condition that weakens the relationship between MD and anti-branding behavior

The Cosmological Liveliness of Terril Calder\u27s The Lodge: Animating Our Relations and Unsettling Our Cinematic Spaces

I first saw Métis artist Terril Calder\u27s 2014 stop-frame feature, The Lodge, an independently made, relatively small- budget film, at its premiere at the ImagineNative Film + Media Arts festival, held annually in Toronto, Canada. The feature-length animation played to a full house at the Light-box Theater downtown. Many were there to attend the five-day festival, which is dedicated to Indigenous media made by and for Indigenous people. Others were there because as members of Toronto\u27s general public they wanted to catch a movie during a night out in the city. Since then The Lodge has shown at various other independent venues. It isn\u27t what you might think of as commercial fare. Its audiences are not huge. However, for those who do view The Lodge, the film presents a creative space to rethink our sense of boundaries in a number of ways: boundaries between human/nonhuman, white/Indigenous, male/female, spectator/film-object. In this essay, I argue that the film is thus an invitation to question the naturalness of hegemonic identity assumptions that demarcate such boundaries. I interviewed Calder (via Skype and subsequent email correspondence) soon after I saw the film, and I situate a close textual analysis of the film within the context of her intent and the burgeoning scholarly dialogue between Indigenous studies and ecocritical studies. The scholarly dialogue, as Joni Adamson and I write in the introduction to our recent anthology, Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies: Conversations from Earth to Cosmos (2016), argues for clear sighted understandings of multi-faceted human/more-than-human relationships that exist outside of binaries imposed by Western notions of progress . Similarly, Steven Loft, coeditor of Coded Territories: Tracing Indigenous Pathways in New Media Art, writes of an Indigenous media cosmology that is replete with life and spirit, inclusive of beings, thought, prophecy, and the underlying connectedness of all things and that is not predicated on Western foundations of thought (xvi). Calder extends such Indigenous worldviews of connectedness to cinema and animation in particular

Impact of Augmented Reality on Purchase Intention of Foreign Products Online

Augmented reality (AR) is a significant technology that holds the promise to transform how consumers interact with products before purchasing. It creates immersive experiences that enable people to engage with digital material in a more intuitive and straightforward manner. When used effectively, AR can be influential in every stage of customer journey including purchase intention stage. Assessing purchase intention of international consumers is critical for organizations because it allows them to plan and make choices about marketing, inventory, and expenses. Purchase intent provides international companies with information on what their global consumers are willing to purchase enabling them to modify their marketing and goods to better fit their customers' demands.  This research examined how augmented reality increase the purchase intention of global customer using the data, which includes data for 810 different overseas visitors of an e-commerce site.  We collected these data from visitors of a global e-commerce shop that integrated augmented reality (AR) into their smartphone app to enable users to imagine how they would appear with various items.  The study performed a Robust Least Squares Method-estimation. Our research's findings provide some early proof that using AR increases the level of purchase intention of foreign products.  The findings also indicate that price, and the number of positive reviews increase the purchase intention of foreign products.  Customers' buying intentions may help firms predict future trends and organize their strategy appropriately. Businesses must also understand the elements that drive purchase intent, such as immersive experience with AR, consumer demographics, nationality, product attributes, pricing, and customer experience. &nbsp

Exploring digital stories as research in higher education

The use of digital storytelling (DST) as a research methodology is gaining momentum. This approach is described as a visual methodology which can be positioned as a form of narrative inquiry and an alternative to an interview. This article explores the use of DST to capture student voices within higher education by outlining recent literature in this area and implications for researchers. It concludes by suggesting that there is significant room for more discussion of how digital storytelling can be used as a method of research to gather the feedback and voices of students. The implications for future researchers concern the complexity of both the method and the analysis, alongside the need for stringent ethical practices concerning the use of images and the potential impact of the storytelling on the research participant

Mainstreaming Ethics in Higher Education. Vol.2, The teacher : between knowledge transmission and human formation

The 18 chapters of this book are a result of a Globethics.net conference in March 2018 at the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) in Kenya, focused on the integration of Ethics in Higher Education. The book captures the potential for sharing of knowledge, and triggering interdisciplinary collaboration and research across a wide variety of issues ranging from research practice, religion, entrepreneurship, leadership, fundraising and corruption. While some of the chapters focus on the understanding of ethics and its relationship with the various other aspects of life, others concentrate on the methods and strategies of effectively teaching ethics

Serialized participatory culture: the digital transformation of youth audiences

Digital technologies are transforming audiences and media practices. In a context of serialization this paper wants to make the case for television series as much of the attention from the industry and the academy is drawn by music and cinema neglecting the effects on television viewing. Lawrence Lessig has proposed “remix” as one of the main outcomes of social and cultural practices enabled by new technologies that allow for easy production and sharing. Henry Jenkins talks of a "convergence culture" and many other authors refer a participatory turn. But this surge of creativity and participation poses new challenges to the industry and to the study of audiences. With the surge of transmediality and new platforms such as mobile phones and tablets, as well as enabling tools for massified DYI, the experience of television series consumption has been completely changed. This is particularly notable in youth audiences where television is still pervasive but networked media practices are gaining ground, namely a serialized participation culture characterized by immediacy, anticipation, control, emotional affordance and freedom. Based in a mixed methodology, composed of a quantitative online survey and a qualitative focus group approach, this paper will offer a case study of Portuguese College students’ serialized participatory culture regarding television series.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Can Computers Create Art?

This essay discusses whether computers, using Artificial Intelligence (AI), could create art. First, the history of technologies that automated aspects of art is surveyed, including photography and animation. In each case, there were initial fears and denial of the technology, followed by a blossoming of new creative and professional opportunities for artists. The current hype and reality of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for art making is then discussed, together with predictions about how AI tools will be used. It is then speculated about whether it could ever happen that AI systems could be credited with authorship of artwork. It is theorized that art is something created by social agents, and so computers cannot be credited with authorship of art in our current understanding. A few ways that this could change are also hypothesized.Comment: to appear in Arts, special issue on Machine as Artist (21st Century

Culturally Responsive Diabetes Interventions within the Context of American Indian and Alaska Native Health

This inquiry examined culturally responsive diabetes interventions within the context of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health. The role of history, culture, and resilience in shaping these approaches was determined. Additionally, past instances of abuse from healthcare workers and researchers highlighted the need for culturally competent education. A combination of a literature review and ethnography from events hosted by the local Portland, Oregon AI/AN community helped to address these questions and concerns. This study found that identifying determinants of health using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is the most effective. The health disparities experienced by AI/AN peoples today are predominantly due to a history of forced removal, genocidal tactics, and detrimental environmental policies. The main elements of a diabetes intervention that takes this history into account includes, connection to culture and the land, education on historical/intergenerational trauma, and focusing on resilience and tribal sovereignty. The use of traditional foods, community gardens, and holistic fitness programs are some examples of strategies being used to treat diabetes by AI/AN peoples today. Future research should examine how the experiences of Indigenous peoples can better guide those in the field of public health working to achieve health equity for all

Gamification in Ethics Education: A Literature Review

Ethical literacy plays a significant role in human beings’ decision-making, influencing the quality of interpersonal relationships, harmony, well-being, and the sustainable development of society, economy, and technology. Among various pedagogical techniques, gamification, simulations, roleplay, and other game-based approaches have been recognized as potential avenues for experience and interactive-based pedagogy for ethics education. Although there is a rapidly increasing number of studies on game-based learning, the effect of gamification on the success of ethics learning is still unclear. Therefore, by conducting a systematic review of the extant empirical literature (N=101), this study aims at exploring the state of the art of gamification in ethics education, considering research design, adopted theories, gamification interventions, dimensions of ethics learning and effects of gamification. The literature synthesis revealed a variety of utilizing gamification for ethics learning in different facets with mostly positive outcomes. Based on the discussion of the main findings, seven different directions for future research are further proposed