Connecting the Dots: Leveraging Social Network Analysis to Understand and Optimize Collaborative Dynamics Within the Global Film Production Network

In recent years, the global film industry has observed a notable surge in international cooperation and cross-border investments. However, a comprehensive overview of these collaborative investments within the industry is lacking. This study employs social network analysis to delve into the possibilities that lie in collaborative efforts and joint investments within the film sector. The research constructs a network of 150 countries based on shared creative elements in their film productions, comprising over 7800 interconnected links. Employing measures of centrality, certain pivotal nations such as the United States, China, and England emerge as influential nodes, showcasing a strong potential to steer industry growth through collaborative engagement. Through a more detailed exploration involving community identification, distinct clusters centered around thematic commonalities that have converged through joint creative endeavors become evident. For example, the "Global Thrill Seekers" community focuses on action films, whereas the "Cultural-Social Cinema Group" addresses worldwide cultural and social issues. Each of these communities presents distinctive perspectives for international cooperation and the collaborative creation of content. This analysis significantly enhances our understanding of the global film network's structure and dynamics, while concurrently highlighting promising pathways for future investment and collaborative initiatives. The research underscores the critical role of leveraging social network analysis methodologies to optimize informed decision-making concerning collaborative investments, thereby paving the way for anticipatory outcomes. This study not only contributes insights but also serves as a model for investigating data-centric participation within the creative industries

Growing the future of agriculture: an examination of knowledge-sharing and community building in the fresh produce and floral council

This study examines knowledge-sharing practices within a community of practice (CoP) through a case study of the Fresh Produce and Floral Council (FPFC). The study sought to investigate how the FPFC promoted agricultural knowledge and expertise, impacted its members\u27 social relationships and knowledge-sharing practices, communicated clear roles and expectations, and provided valuable and accessible resources. A mixed-methods approach was employed to investigate the research questions, which involved conducting a survey and utilizing descriptive statistics, frequencies, and Spearman correlations to analyze both the Likert scale and open-ended responses. The findings suggested that the FPFC has a knowledge-sharing culture promoting active participation and collaboration among members, with room for improvement in knowledge-sharing practices. Additionally, FPFC positively impacts members\u27 social relationships and prioritizes knowledge-sharing, with a need for further education and promotion of these benefits. Also, clear communication of roles and expectations is essential in any CoP. There may be a need to further clarify the community\u27s goals and purpose to ensure member engagement and alignment. Finally, members perceived FPFC\u27s resources as valuable and relevant, but there is a need for improvement in their accessibility and availability. Overall, the study provided valuable insights for developing new methods of knowledge-sharing and onboarding within the agriculture industry to address the aging crisis and ensure the industry\u27s future. Thus, it was essential to explore the value of knowledge-sharing practices and technology for communication within the community to contribute to developing virtual CoPs enabling knowledge transfer and relationship building for agriculture professionals

The Rise of Korean Sci-Fi: A Critique of the Development of Films and Web Series in South Korea and America

This study delves into the unique qualities that make Korean SF stand out and explores the shortcomings of American productions. By examining the complex themes, stunning visuals, and intricate narratives of selected Korean SF films and web series, this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the genre’s current state. My study also highlights the need for a re-evaluation of the traditional formulaic approach to American science fiction and a renewed focus on creative storytelling and thought-provoking concepts. Therefore, through this paper I tried to critically analyze Korean Science Fiction (SF) films and web series from the last decade like Hellbound (2021), Monstrous (2022), Kingdom (2019), Train to Busan (2016), The Host (2006) to keep the study specifically contemporary and relevant, examining their superior plots and how they differ from Western SF films and Web Series. A comparative study is conducted between films and web series in South Korea and America, while trying to answer certain questions linked with the success of South Korean SF films and web series regarding their declining stage of American SF. Moreover, the analysis offers insights into gender and sexuality issues and the influence of neoliberalism in Korean SF. The importance of cultural specificity and originality in SF storytelling is also taken into consideration, adding valuable contribution to the field of SF studies. I’ve based my paper on theories like the reception theory, which allows me to analyze how the audience interprets and engages with literary and media texts which eventually leads me to study reasons behind the success of Korean SF. I’ve also considered the Narrative theory, the Genre theory along with certain generic understandings of cultural studies and postmodernism. The paper uses thematic and cultural analytical processes as its methodology for which the focus throughout, remains highly ideological and at the same time, tries to consider how a story relates to the society and culture from where it originates

Digitally enhanced: Adorno for the 21st-Century

Theodor Adorno is an influential figure in cultural studies, philosophy, and musicology. However, a re-examination of Adorno\u27s framework in the context of contemporary media studies is necessary because audio production and distribution technologies have changed dramatically since Adorno\u27s time of writing. In this thesis, I apply Adorno\u27s critical framework to the electronic artist Owl City. In doing so, I enhance Adorno\u27s model of analysis in order to allow for both regressive and progressive interpretations of contemporary music culture. I argue that social media facilitate a more efficacious culture industry, and that digital media facilitate a progressive form of escaping from the culture industry\u27s oppression

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: The Movie Industry\u27s Influence on Its Stigma

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is a concerning behavior disproportionately affecting adolescents today. Rates of NSSI have increased, as have depictions of NSSI in the media. Therefore, some researchers believe that increased media exposure is contributing to increased rates of NSSI. Research has shown that NSSI is a coping mechanism and/or a cry for help among those who display such behaviors. However, studies also show that many adolescents with this behavior do not seek help. This may be because persons engaging in NSSI feel that their behavior, thoughts, or feelings are stigmatized by the general population. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to describe the level of stigma that currently exists among a college population; and second, to examine the relationship between popular media exposure to NSSI and perceptions, or stigma, toward NSSI. Seventy-eight college students completed a survey including a stigma measure, an exposure measure, and reacted to a vignette describing a scene from Catherine Hardwicke’s movie, Thirteen (2003). Analyses revealed the level of stigma was at a mid-level, and that it was not significantly related to reported level of movie media exposure

Women In The Web of Secondary Copyright Liability and Internet Filtering

This Essay suggests possible explanations for why there is not very much legal scholarship devoted to gender issues on the Internet; and it asserts that there is a powerful need for Internet legal theorists and activists to pay substantially more attention to the gender-based differences in communicative style and substance that have been imported from real space to cyberspace. Information portals, such as libraries and web logs, are gendered in ways that may not be facially apparent. Women are creating and experiencing social solidarity online in ways that male scholars and commentators do not seem to either recognize or deem important. Internet specific content restrictions for the purposes of protecting copyrights and protecting children jeopardize online freedoms for women in diverse ways, and sometimes for different reasons than they do for men. Disparities in the ways women and men use, experience and communicate over the Internet need to be recognized, studied, and accommodated by those who would theorize cyberspace law and advocate directions for its evolution

From Serials to Blockbusters: Media Industry Approaches to Comic-to-Live-Action Adaptations and Race.

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between comic-to-live-action adaptations and race from the 1940s through the present. Comic-to-live-action adaptations are increasingly lucrative and appeal to mass audiences, and as such the representations of race contained in these texts circulate widely and impact and interact with other media representations. Multiple media industries, including the comics, film, and television industries are involved in the live-action adaptation process. Each of these industries has its own set of expectations about the adaptation and its intended audience, and these assumptions circulate throughout the industries. I consider historical examples of comic-to-live-action adaptations, archival material from Marvel Comics relating to ideas about live-action adaptation of their characters, interviews with comics professionals and promotional materials from other industry workers involved with adaptations, and contemporary representations of Asian American and Latina/os in comic-to-live-action adaptations. Comics professionals often feel disrespected by the live-action industries, experience a lack of agency in the adaptation of their work, and choose not to have their work adapted. This diminishes the pool of available representations in comics, which in turn results in less diverse live-action adaptations. The historical status of live-action comic adaptation as a lowbrow genre and how industries react to its increased prominence in the present day have also impacted how race is represented. Racial difference is often represented in higher-profile adaptations, but nuanced discussion of race and its meanings is rare. This dissertation contributes to existing work in media studies, ethnic studies, and media industry and production studies, particularly in examining how the processes involved at various levels of media production impact representations of race in media.PhDCommunication StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113288/1/katmf_1.pd

Sentiment analysis – an overview of a technique which can be used in marketing activities

A sentiment analysis, a form of artificial intelligence, is a technique which uses natural language processing (NLP) to ascertain the opinions and emotional tone of the user written content on the online platform. It can be used in any form ranging from determining the sentiments of consumer’s reviews, employee’s feedback, and their social presence for effective marketing of their products and services. Through this article we wish to analyse the existing literature in sentiment analysis field to ascertain it usefulness in the marketing activities

Reconceptualizing Sexual Harassment, Again

Sexual harassment has always been more about sexism than it is about sex. Nearly twenty years ago, Vicki Schultz pioneered a new understanding of sexual harassment that recognized and theorized this empirical reality. The framework she developed in two articles published in the Yale Law Journal- Reconceptualizing Sexual Harassment and The Sanitized Workplace -still holds important lessons for today. The emergence of the #MeToo movement has brought about a welcome, renewed focus on sexual harassment and motivated long-overdue terminations of accused harassers across industries. Yet pervasive narratives still narrowly emphasize sexualized forms of harassment and assault -at the expense of broader understandings of harassment and its causes. This Essay revisits and expands on Schultz\u27s previous work in the contemporary context, drawing on the technology and film industries as case studies and showing that sex segregation and unchecked, subjective authority are central institutional causes of sex-based harassment. To end harassment will thus require more than firing individual harassers. It will require structural reform to eliminate arbitrary authority and sex segregation at work. Bold solutions are needed if we are to ensure sexual harassment isn\u27t still prevalent twenty years from now

The impact of Vogue germany’s fashion images on female reader’s well-being

This internship report will discuss my experience as a trainee in the magazine Vogue Germany in Paris between September 2020 and May 2021. As an operational assistant in the fashion department, I was directly involved with the production of Vogue Germany’s fashion images, mostly picturing women. During the preparation for the shoots, the contact with multiple experts in the fashion industry made me aware of and impressed by the impact fashion paper magazines have on the configuration of women’s identity, and consequently, on their well-being. In this report I seek to understand how the processes underlying the production of fashion images representing women have psychological and behavioral implications for female readers. Drawing on neurological and sociological principles, I focus particularly on how images can reinforce society’s preconceived representations of and prejudices against women. Neurological principles have demonstrated the potential impact of images on well-being. Thus, through a selection of case studies found in the issues of Vogue Germany published during periods of confinement due to Covid-19, I examine how and to what extent the representation of women in the production of fashion images can lead to psychological changes in female readers, thereby impacting their well-being. To understand how women would like to be represented in fashion photography, I adopted the use of qualitative research through focus group interviews. Neuropsychological principles of mental imagery informed the causal link between the representation of women in fashion magazines and their impact on women’s identity.O presente relatório de estágio visa discutir a minha experiência como estagiária na revista Vogue Germany em Paris, de setembro de 2020 a maio de 2021. Como assistente operacional no departamento de moda, estive diretamente envolvida com a produção das fotografias de moda da Vogue Germany, a maioria das quais representando mulheres. Na preparação das sessões fotográficas, o contacto com vários especialistas da indústria da moda tornou-me consciente do impacto que as revistas de moda em suporte de papel tem na configuração da identidade das mulheres, e, consequentemente, no seu bem-estar. Neste relatório, procuro compreender como os processos subjacentes à produção de imagens de moda que representam mulheres têm implicações de ordem psicológica e comportamental para as leitoras. Lançando mão de princípios neurológicos e sociológicos, examino como as imagens podem reforçar representações sociais pré-concebidas e preconceitos vários contra as mulheres. Os princípios neurológicos têm demonstrado o potencial impacto das imagens sobre o bem-estar. Assim sendo, através de uma seleção de estudos de casos retirados dos números da Vogue Germany, que foram publicados no decorrer dos períodos de confinamento devido a Covid-19, reflito sobre como e em que medida a representação das mulheres na produção de imagens de moda pode levar a alterações psicológicas nas leitoras, com implicações no seu bem-estar. Para compreender como as mulheres gostariam de ser representadas nas fotografias de moda, utilizei como instrumento metodológico a investigação qualitativa através de entrevistas em focus groups. Princípios neuropsicológicos relativos a imagens mentais informaram o elo causal entre a representação das mulheres nas revistas de moda e o seu impacto na identidade das mulheres