Video Cultures: Television Sociology in the “New TV” Age

We argue that the most significant and influential research on television over the past five decades positions the medium as a key site for addressing the complex interrelationship between culture and institutional/organizational power. Granting that such work is theoretically and methodologically diverse, we employ an organizational frame that groups political-economic approaches on the one hand and cultural approaches on the other. Political-economic approaches largely attend to issues of power at a macro level, focusing on how ownership and control of television along with the organization of television production practices shape and influence content; cultural approaches focus more on the expressive and symbolic dimensions of television programming and reception. At the same time, contemporary changes in the medium threaten to make past research on television appear quaint and anachronistic. The industry\u27s transformation of television into continually emerging sets of multifaceted digital-interactive technologies challenges researchers to draw enduring perspectives from the older work and assess how they apply to the new-media environment. Consequently, we suggest the term “video cultures” in lieu of “television sociology” as a way of capturing future trends. 10.1146/annurev.soc.32.061604.14312

Refining Explosive Safety Outreach

Explosives safety awareness programs must identify the target audience and communicate easily understood concepts. To be effective, an audience must apply the concepts presented; however, this is not enough. The program and its message must also be adaptable to a variety of audiences based on how they assimilate information. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has at least 100 years of safety education experience. Over this time, explosives safety messages underwent several evolutions

De l’importance d’être ordinaire

Si, aujourd’hui, les chaînes câblées payantes et autres plates-formes de vidéos à la demande proposent de plus en plus de séries au scénario très élaboré, interprétées par les plus grands noms d’Hollywood, à l’opposé du spectre de l’offre télévisuelle on trouve notamment les talk-shows et les programmes de téléréalité. Si les premiers rapprochent l’expérience télévisuelle de celle du cinéma, les seconds semblent l’en éloigner d’autant plus. En effet, ces émissions se caractérisent par le fait qu’elles produisent, mettent en œuvre et vendent de l’« ordinarité » [ordinariness]. Les émissions de téléréalité, tout comme les talk-shows qui sont plutôt diffusés en journée, sont à l’origine de nombreux changements dans l’univers de la production télévisuelle : nouvelles formes de travail, nouvelles stratégies de programmation, nouvelle esthétique, mais aussi des formes plus « ordinaires » de célébrité et surtout – c’est ce qui est au cœur de notre propos dans cet article – de nouvelles définitions du « talent ». Nous proposons donc d’étudier ces programmes fondés sur la réalité, à partir de la manière dont le concept de « talent » s’y négocie. Sachant que ces contenus sont en grande partie définis par leur recours à des personnes ordinaires plutôt qu’à des comédien·ne·s professionnel·le·s, et à des scénarios peu structurés (ou « situations »), plutôt qu’à des scènes écrites et répétées, nous nous demandons en quoi consiste le talent dans cette configuration, comment il est cultivé et (ce) qui en est à l’origine.Pay-for-view cable and other on-demand delivery systems are increasingly populated by high-concept dramatic series featuring some of the biggest names in Hollywood, whereas, on the other side of the tracks, we find, among other things, talk shows, and reality programming, which trade in the production and performance of “ordinariness.” While the former moves us closer to a cinematic experience, the latter presumably moves us farther away. Reality programs, like daytime talk shows before them, have generated new labor practices, new programming strategies and production aesthetics, more “ordinary” forms of celebrity, and, most important for our purposes here, new definitions of “talent.” Our interest in these genres turns on the concept of “talent” and how talent is brokered in the context of reality-based media. If such media are largely defined by the use of ordinary people instead of professional actors, and by loosely structured scenarios or “situations” in lieu of formal scripts and rehearsals, then of what does talent consist, and who/what is responsible for cultivating it?Hoy en día, los canales pagados de televisión por cable y otras plataformas de video a la carta ofrecen cada vez más series con un guión muy elaborado, interpretado por las figuras más importantes de Hollywood, en contraposición al espectro de la oferta televisiva, donde encontramos talk shows y reality shows. Si los primeros acercan la experiencia televisiva a la del cine, los segundos parecen alejarla aún más. En efecto, estos programas se caracterizan dado que producen, implementan y venden «ordinariedad». Los reality shows, como los talk shows, que se emiten durante el día, son el origen de muchos cambios en el mundo de la producción televisiva: nuevas formas de trabajo, nuevas estrategias de programación, una nueva estética, pero también formas más «ordinarias» de celebridad, y sobre todo –y es esto lo que constituye el centro de nuestra discusión en este artículo– nuevas definiciones de «talento». Por ello nos proponemos estudiar estos programas basados en la realidad, partiendo de la forma en que se negocia el concepto de «talento». Sabiendo que estos contenidos están definidos, en gran medida, por el uso de gente común y corriente en lugar de actores profesionales y escenarios (o «situaciones») no estructurados en lugar de escenas escritas y repetidas, nos preguntamos ¿qué es el talento en esta configuración, cómo se desarrolla, qué y quién está detrás de él

Moyo Vol. VIII N 2

Durica, Paul. Editor\u27s Letter . 4. Fisher, Dan. Heaven for Thunder (Thoughts on the Last Execution) . 5. Anshuman, Karan. Return to Sender (Mail-Order Brides Log-On Love) . 6. Grindstaff, Michelle. Madonna or Whore (Language Traps Female Sexuality) . 7. Thackeray, Alex. Strike Against the Right (Canada Collegians Take Action) . 8. Dotson, Dorothy. Tori Listening to Mullet Boy . 10. Stine, Alison. Tori Story (Secrets of a Toriphile: Good Girl Gets Plugged) . 11. Barret, Laura. Late Night Crush (Girl Crazy for Conan) . 15. Hankinson, Tom. Environmentally friendly, or Else (DURP tough on DU Junk) . 16. Bussan, David. Fantasy\u27s Island (Alums Find Paradise in Northern Cyprus) . 18. Burt, Kara. Innocents on Break (Students Exercise Alternatives in New York) . 21. Werne, Kirsten. Two Turntables and a Ten-Gallon Hat . 23. Million, Chris. Friendship a Modem Away, Sigh (AOL Alters Denison Social Scene) . 34

Hands on Hips, Smiles on Lips! Gender, Race, and the Performance of Spirit in Cheerleading

Cheerleading has long been synonymous with “spirit” because of its traditional sideline role in supporting school sports programs. In recent decades, however, cheerleading has become more athletic and competitive - even a sport in its own right. This paper is an ethnographic exploration of the emotional dimensions of cheerleading in light of these changes. We argue that spirit is a regulating but also flexible concept that is deployed in order to manage and uphold ideologies of emotion, and that these ideologies are central to how cheerleading reproduces racialized gender difference. On the one hand, the performance guidelines for spirit stabilize the emotional dimensions of cheerleading in the face of the activity\u27s shifting priorities. On the other hand, the performance framing encourages participants to distance themselves from cheerleading\u27s emotional script, allowing them to abdicate responsibility for it. The ambiguity surrounding the performance of spirit - whether it should be read as real or play - facilitates this dynamic

Cheerleading and the Gendered Politics of Sport

Cheerleading occupies a contested space in American culture and a key point of controversy is whether it ought to be considered a sport. Drawing on interviews with college cheerleaders on coed squads as well as five years of fieldwork in various cheerleading sites, this paper examines the debate over cheerleading and sport in terms of its gender politics. The bid for sport status on the part of cheerleaders revolves around the desire for respect more than official recognition by athletic organizations; cheerleaders recognize the prestige associated with sport, a function of its historic association with hegemonic masculinity, and they claim that prestige for cheerleading by highlighting its recent transformation into a more athletic, competitive activity that is no longer “just for girls.” However, the support function of college cheerleading, combined with its “feminine” performance-demands, make the bid for sport status controversial. Male cheerleaders in particular distance themselves from the feminine elements of cheerleading because they want to avoid being perceived as gay. The gender politics at work here illustrate both the elasticity of gender categories and the limits of that elasticity, as gendered boundaries are drawn and redrawn between what gets to count as sport and what does not, and as cheerleading simultaneously challenges and reinforces the notion of sport as a male preserve. Because masculinity and femininity are performed side-by-side in coed cheerleading, this research underscores the importance of relational analyses for examining and critiquing the construction of gender and sexuality

Cheerleading and the Meaning of Spirit

“Ready. Okay.” Anyone familiar with American cheerleading is likely familiar with the idea of spirit. Because the cheerleader is a longstanding icon of American femininity, spirit communicates ideas about how young women should behave and express emotion in public life. However, cheerleading has changed, growing more athletic and competitive over time (consider the film Bring It On). As a result, more boys and young men are getting involved. What, then, is the meaning of spirit in this new context? We argue that as cheerleading has changed, the expression of spirit has become more scripted--more routine--than it was in the past. This allows cheerleaders to continue communicating traditional meanings of spirit regardless of who they are or how they really feel

Hegemonic Masculinity on the Sidelines of Sport

Nearly a quarter of a century old, the concept of hegemonic masculinity as developed by R. W. Connell remains both influential and contested among gender scholars. In this essay, we use our research on coed cheerleading in the United States as a springboard to explore the bounds and limits of hegemonic masculinity as both cultural script and analytic construct. Cheerleading constitutes a public stage for ‘doing gender’ in ways that highlight normative, taken-for-granted notions of gender difference; consequently, we use cheerleading as a vehicle for asking under what circumstances and to what degree heterosexuality remains central to the enactment of hegemonic masculinity, which reflects a larger question about the flexibility of the concept and its openness to contestation and change. Building on the work of Connell and others, we stress the need for relational analyses of gender when studying both masculinities and femininities, as well as the importance of linking individual-level data to broader structures of gendered power and inequality

Role of αPhe-291 Residue in the Phosphate-Binding Subdomain of Catalytic Sites of Escherichia Coli ATP Synthase

The role of αPhe-291 residue in phosphate binding by Escherichia coli F1F0-ATP synthase was examined. X-ray structures of bovine mitochondrial enzyme suggest that this residue resides in close proximity to the conserved βR246 residue. Herein, we show that mutations αF291D and αF291E in E. coli reduce the ATPase activity of F1F0 membranes by 350-fold. Yet, significant oxidative phosphorylation activity is retained. In contrast to wild-type, ATPase activities of mutants were not inhibited by MgADP-azide, MgADP-fluoroaluminate, or MgADP-fluoroscandium. Whereas, 7-chloro-4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD-Cl) inhibited wild-type ATPase essentially completely, ATPase in mutants was inhibited maximally by ∼75%, although reaction still occurred at residue βTyr-297, proximal to αPhe-291 in the phosphate-binding pocket. Inhibition characteristics supported the conclusion that NBD-Cl reacts in βE (empty) catalytic sites, as shown previously by X-ray structure analysis. Phosphate protected against NBD-Cl inhibition in wild-type but not in mutants. In addition, our data suggest that the interaction of αPhe-291 with phosphate during ATP hydrolysis or synthesis may be distinct