160 research outputs found
Determinants of impact : towards a better understanding of encounters with the arts
The article argues that current methods for assessing the impact of the arts are largely based on a fragmented and incomplete understanding of the cognitive, psychological and socio-cultural dynamics that govern the aesthetic experience. It postulates that a better grasp of the interaction between the individual and the work of art is the necessary foundation for a genuine understanding of how the arts can affect people. Through a critique of philosophical and empirical attempts to capture the main features of the aesthetic encounter, the article draws attention to the gaps in our current understanding of the responses to art. It proposes a classification and exploration of the factorsâsocial, cultural and psychologicalâthat contribute to shaping the aesthetic experience, thus determining the possibility of impact. The âdeterminants of impactâ identified are distinguished into three groups: those that are inherent to the individual who interacts with the artwork; those that are inherent to the artwork; and âenvironmental factorsâ, which are extrinsic to both the individual and the artwork. The article concludes that any meaningful attempt to assess the impact of the arts would need to take these âdeterminants of impactâ into account, in order to capture the multidimensional and subjective nature of the aesthetic experience
(Un)twisted: talking back to media representations of eating disorders
In 2014-15, there were several news reports about a rise in the diagnoses and treatment of eating disorders (EDs), as attributed to the use of image-driven social media. Such coverage can be situated within a long history of concern in which those diagnosed with an ED are constructed as âespecially vulnerableâ to the power of media images â a subjectivity which is pathologised and devalued precisely through its association with femininity. The most incisive objections to EDs being presented as a response to the âweightâ of media representation have come from Abigail Bray (2005) in her work on how anorexia is constructed as a reading as well as an eating disorder. Indeed, there is a whole history of empirical work in Feminist Media Studies and Girlhood Studies which has challenged the pernicious construction of female subjectivity as âexcessivelyâ invested in, and âdamagedâ by, the consumption of mass mediated forms. Yet the media consumption practices of those with experience of an ED have not been subject to similar feminist re-evaluation â an omission which this research seeks to address. In exploring the results of 17 semi-structured interviews with people who have experience of an ED discussing their encounters with media representations of EDs (material that is often co-opted into debates about the âtoxicâ nature of media culture in this regard), this article seeks to intervene in how such imagined media consumption practices are often defined. In seeking to speak back to historically pathologising constructions, the article seeks to explore the qualitative responses in the context of more âevery dayâ understandings of media engagement, thus working against the gendered othering which has persistently occurred
History, Commemoration, and Belief: Abraham Lincoln in American Memory, 1945-2001
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91765/1/Schuman-History_Commemoration_Belief.pd
'Our foes are almost as many as our readers': Debating the worth of women's reading and writing â the case of chick-lit
After Convergence: YouTube and Remix Culture
The term "convergence" has been used to describe the media developments following digitalization. In this article, I argue that while convergence was a suitable term to describe the first developments, it is no longer fitting. Convergence levelled out the differences between media, allowing for the developments we now see, and for which I propose the term "remix". Using YouTube as an example, I outline how genre developments may be seen as remixes of earlier genres, how remixing has become a widespread creative practice, and how online media also remix power relations between media owners and their audience.
The original publication is available from http://www.springerlink.co
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