Patterns of Involvement in Television Fiction: A Comparative Analysis

This article analyses discussions of an episode of Dallas by focus groups of different ethnic origins in Israel and the United States. It identifies four rhetorical mechanisms by which viewers may \u27involve\u27 themselves in or \u27distance\u27 themselves from the story: referential v. critical framings; real v .play keyings; collective\u27 or universal v. personal referents; and normative v. value-free evaluations. Use of these mechanisms varied across the groups, and when the cultures were arrayed along a multidimensional involvement scale overseas viewers appeared to be more involved in the programme than Americans. Possible roles for involvement in the process of viewer susceptibility to programme messages are then discussed

Staging Peace: Televised Ceremonies of Reconciliation

The visit of Egypt\u27s President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem was the model for Dayan and Katz\u27s conceptualization of the genre of media events, as live programs which have the power to transform history. Fifteen years later, a series of televised reconciliation ceremonies, which marked the stages of the peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors (the Palestinians and the Jordanians), are used to re-examine the model. We demonstrate (1) how the effectiveness of these ceremonies depends on the type of contract among the three participants-leaders, broadcasters and public-each of whom displays different kinds of reservations, and (2) how the aura of the ceremonies draws on the prior status of the participants (Hussein), but also confers status (Arafat)

Once Upon a Time, in Dallas

American television programmes manage to cross cultural and linguistic frontiers with great ease. This phenomenon is so taken for granted that hardly any systematic research has been done to explain the reasons why these programmes are successful or, even more fundamentally, whether and how such quintessentially American products are understood. The often heard assertion that this phenomenon is part of a process of cultural imperialism presumes, first, that there is an American message in the content or the form; second, that this message is somehow perceived by viewers; and, third, that it is perceived in the same way by viewers in different cultures

Viking Lander Atlas of Mars

Half size reproductions are presented of the extensive set of systematic map products generated for the two Mars Viking landing sites from stereo pairs of images radioed back to Earth. The maps span from the immediate foreground to the remote limits of ranging capability, several hundred meters from the spacecraft. The maps are of two kinds - elevation contour and vertical profile. Background and explanatory material important for understanding and utilizing the map collection included covers the Viking Mission, lander locations, lander cameras, the stereo mapping system and input images to this system

Strong gravitational lensing across dilaton anti-de Sitter black hole

In this work we investigate gravitational lensing effect in strong field region around a dilaton black holes in an anti de Sitter (ADS) space. We also analyse the dependence of the radius of the photon sphere and deflection angle on dilaton coupling and cosmological constant in this black hole space time. Finally the values of minimum impact parameter, the separation between the first and the other images as well as the ratio between the flux of the first image and the flux coming from all the other images are determined to characterize some possible distinct signatures of such black holes.Comment: 8 pages and 3 figures. Accepted in Physical Review

Treatment Of Cancer Using The Sodium Salt Of A Benzoic Acid Derivative

The present invention provides a method of treating cancer using the sodium salt of a benzoic acid derivative, alone or in combination with standard treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy