1,572 research outputs found

    An End, Once and for All: Mass Effect 3, Video Game Controversies, and the Fight for Player Agency

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    Since the success of the player-led Mass Effect 3 ending controversy, player-led video game controversies have become mainstream sites of industrial and ideological contention between developers, players, and the culture itself. This dissertation focuses on the history of the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy, the game’s specific textual qualities that encouraged player protest, and the negotiations between players and developers in online spaces that persuaded developers to alter the game’s ending based on player demands. Using the Mass Effect 3 as its primary object, this dissertation argues this controversy—as well as subsequent player-led video game controversies—was not simply the result of dissatisfaction with a single plot point or representation in the text or video game community, but the complex negotiation of creative differences between players and developers over the production and control of video game texts and culture. Video games and their controversies are rooted in the medium\u27s intrinsic qualities of interactivity, choice, labor and the need for shared production between developers and players to progress and produce a video game text, which encourages the development of a sense of agency and ownership over the text for both groups. This dissertation argues that video games are not just texts that developers create and that players play, but rather texts produced through the co-creative production practice that Axel Bruns has defined as “produsage”—texts where producers act in dual roles as users while users to also act as producers—that allow players a creative stake in the outcome of a video game text, encourages a sense of agency and ownership, and collapses traditional boundaries between developers and players. Video game controversies naturally arise when players perceive a loss of agency and control over the video game text and attempt to reclaim control over ownership of the text through controversy

    Subjective Excess: Aesthetics, Character, and Non-Normative Perspectives in Serial Television After 2000

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    This dissertation aims to fill gaps in contemporary television scholarship with regards to aesthetics and character subjectivity. By analyzing eight series that have all aired after 2000, there is a marked trend in series that use an excessive visual and aural style to not only differentiate themselves from other programming, but also to explore non-normative perspectives. Now more willing to explore previously taboo topics such as mental health, addiction, illness, and trauma, the shows featured in this dissertation show how a seemingly excessive televisual aesthetic works with television’s seriality to create narrative complexity and generate character development. Chapters are arranged by mode of production with the first chapter focusing on the series Grey’s Anatomy and Hannibal as a means of exploring the production and distribution practices surrounding network TV. The second chapter examines the basic cable series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Legion and posits how the narrowcasting of cable allows for more nuanced character representations through aesthetics. In the third chapter, the impact HBO has had on the television medium is explored through Carnivàle and Euphoria. The final chapter looks at contemporary series The Boys and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as a way to better understand how the medium’s production and distribution has shifted during the convergence era. Ultimately, this dissertation will argue that in addition to further explorations of aesthetics, television studies is in need of a medium specific vernacular for creating meaningful textual analyses that avoid an overreliance on cinematic terminology

    Writing Facts: Interdisciplinary Discussions of a Key Concept in Modernity

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    "Fact" is one of the most crucial inventions of modern times. Susanne Knaller discusses the functions of this powerful notion in the arts and the sciences, its impact on aesthetic models and systems of knowledge. The practice of writing provides an effective procedure to realize and to understand facts. This concerns preparatory procedures, formal choices, models of argumentation, and narrative patterns. By considering "writing facts" and "writing facts", the volume shows why and how "facts" are a result of knowledge, rules, and norms as well as of description, argumentation, and narration. This approach allows new perspectives on »fact« and its impact on modernity

    The Evolution of Political Moments on Network Late Night: From Cautious Big-Tent Entertainment to Biting Narrowcast Infotainment

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    Late night talk shows have been an integral part of U.S. television since the 1950s, and the genre continues to thrive today in an ever changing media landscape. In my dissertation, I argue that the contemporary programs of Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! make up a category of late night talk shows that I term as satirical network late night. From a visual standpoint, these programs look almost identical to past programs like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson or the Late Show with David Letterman with their sets, house bands, monologues, sketches, desk pieces, and guest appearances. However, these satirical network late night programs produce political content that differs vastly from their predecessors. I assert that these programs are steeped in brazen partisanship, amplify the news media, and function as a sensationalized form of infotainment. This is not the big-tent and “least objectionable programming” offered on past network programs like Carson’s Tonight Show. Additionally, this is not what was offered on cable parody news programs such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that presented a veiled partisanship, served as a watchdog over the media and political spheres, and lambasted the entertainment-laden modes of modern news reporting and punditry. In less than a decade, satirical network late night has disrupted genre conventions that existed on network television for over sixty years. This research breaks down what makes these new satirical network late night programs’ political content distinct and helps to decipher why these changes took place in mid-2010s

    On Income Inequality and Poverty in Egypt: Is Prosperity Immoral?

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    There are varying perspectives on, and divergent solutions to, the phenomena of income inequality and poverty. There seems to be polarizing views on both of these sensitive topics. One side of the argument believes income inequality should in itself be mitigated through redistribution measures, while the other argues that this should not be the focus of policy makers, as it deters them from facing the more pressing issue facing society – which is absolute poverty. The relationship between income inequality, poverty, and citizen well-being in Egypt is one that warrants further research, and this paper aims to fill this lacuna. After analyzing the empirical data through quantitative tools, this paper shows that the relationship between these variables is rather blurred in the country, and that a decrease in Gini levels for instance are not necessarily a cause for celebration. Qualitative research was also conducted, and showcased that the sentiment of policy makers and policy influencers in Egypt was rather clear. Interviewees painted a vivid picture regarding the fact that income inequality should not be the focus of the government, rather the focus should be on absolute poverty – albeit through a multidimensional lens. There is indeed a massive effort in Egypt in order to drive down the poverty rates in the country, and these efforts have also been reflected upon in this research piece. However, there is room for additional measures, and this paper proceeds to provide a number of suggested policy tools that may help drive down these persistently high poverty rates in Egypt, rather than dwell on the incomes of the wealthy. Recommendations of this research are to 1) establish a national committee that is tasked with reducing multidimensional poverty in Egypt; 2) supplement income poverty with a multidimensional poverty index; 3) define equality of opportunity and then champion it across the board; 4) support primary economic sectors in Egypt; 5) heavily engage the private sector; 6) foster a culture of entrepreneurship; and 7) augment the labor force via including women
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