Post mortem: death-related media rituals

The purpose of this thesis is to study whether and how death-related media rituals construct and reconstruct a global cosmopolitan community. The performance of the media at the occurrence of mass death events, may cultivate expressions of grief aimed at reinforcing a certain understanding of the social order. These rituals facilitate a sense of unity and solidarity between members of an imagined community. What kind of community does the enactment of death-related media rituals construct? What is the sense of solidarity they foster? By focusing on the performance of transnational media organisations following mass death events, the thesis studies the ways in which these ritualistic performances function as a social mechanism that informs the audience of the boundaries of care and belonging to an imagined community. Drawing on theories from sociology, media anthropology and moral philosophy, the thesis develops the analytics of mediatised grievability as an analytical tool. It aims to capture the ways in which news about death construct grievable death, and articulate the relational ties between spectators and sufferers. The thesis puts the analytics of mediatised grievability in play and employs it in a comparative manner to study and analyse the coverage of three different case studies by two transnational news networks. This comparative research design captures the complexity of the mediatisation of death in terms of geopolitics, cultural proximity, legitimacy of violence and the morality of witnessing death. The analysis of the three case studies by the two transnational news networks enables to account for different propositions that two of the networks make for their audiences in comprehending remote mass death. These propositions contain different ethical solicitations, each articulating a different understanding of the relational ties between spectators and distant others – some promote a cosmopolitan outlook, and others maintain a communitarian outlook

Dynamics of death images in Israeli press

This paper focuses on the journalistic discourse on the representation of death in news reports and the production of death images by the media. The violent reality of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict forced the Israeli press to self-regulate the circulation of death images in news reports. The paper considers the dilemma of Israeli journalists: how to deal with the conflict between the need to report newsworthy death events without violating the respect towards the dead? Analysis of the journalistic discourse around key death events maps the competing values that this issue brings. In addition, analysis of photographs from 21 years of reporting death events in Israeli newspapers traces the changes in the depiction of death along the years, and delineates the norms regulating Israeli media coverage over time. This paper argues that the norms that apply to the representation of death delineate different group membership, with Israeli media routinely distinguishing “us” (Israelis) from the “Others” (Palestinians and non-Israelis).Cette présentation analyse le discours journalistique de la représentation de la mort dans les reportages, et la production d’images de mort par les médias. La violente réalité du conflit israélo-palestinien force la presse israélienne à une auto-régulation de la circulation des images de mort. D’où un dilemme du journaliste : comment traiter du conflit, entre le besoin de rapporter des événements de mort ayant valeur journalistique, et celui de respecter le mort ? Analyse d’événements-clef de ce type permet de cartographier les valeurs qui s’affrontent ici. De plus, l’analyse des photographie de morts sur 21 années de reportages dans les journaux israéliens permet de retracer les changements dans la représentation de la mort, et celui des normes qui régulent la couverture médiatique, sur le long terme. La présentation soutient, que les normes appliquées varient selon l’appartenance au groupe, les médias israéliens distinguant de façon routinière le “nous” (Israéliens) des “autres” (Palestiniens et non-Israéliens)

Patriotism and nationalism, left and right : a Q-methodology study of American national identity

In the current polarized U.S. political environment, what it means to be a “true American” is increasingly contested. Researchers often look to conceptualizations of patriotism and nationalism to account for national identity; but the extent to which these measures capture current understandings of American identity beyond left and right political divides is unknown. In a novel application of Q-methodology, this study investigates the relationship between patriotism and nationalism measures and participants’ subjective understandings of their national identity. Forty-seven U.S. citizens representing a wide range of ideological positions constructed American identity profiles by ranking 56 statements taken from patriotic and nationalistic operationalizations. The two extracted profiles revealed national identities largely along left/right ideological, not patriotism/nationalism, lines. Further analysis indicated that the political left and right also differently interpret items within patriotism and nationalism measures. These findings highlight the intertwining of American national identity and political ideology; they also cast doubt on the ideological independence and descriptive value of patriotism and nationalism measures

Evaluation of flight efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport arrivals

Analysis of punctuality of airport arrivals, as well as identification of causes of the delays within transition airspace, is an important step in evaluating performance of the Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) Air Navigation Services: without knowing the current performance levels, it is difficult to identify which areas could be improved. Deviations from the flight plans is one of the major reasons for arrival delays. In this work, we quantified the impact of the deviations from the flight plans on the fuel burn. One of the main reasons of fuel waste is non- optimal vertical profiles during the descent phase. We calculated how much extra fuel is wasted due to vertical flight inefficiency within Stockholm TMA.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The role of muscle strength on tendon adaptability in old age.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to determine: (1) the relationship between ankle plantarflexor muscle strength and Achilles tendon (AT) biomechanical properties in older female adults, and (2) whether muscle strength asymmetries between the individually dominant and non-dominant legs in the above subject group were accompanied by inter-limb AT size differences. METHODS: The maximal generated AT force, AT stiffness, AT Young's modulus, and AT cross-sectional area (CSA) along its length were determined for both legs in 30 women (65 ± 7 years) using dynamometry, ultrasonography, and magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: No between-leg differences in triceps surae muscle strength were identified between dominant (2798 ± 566 N) and non-dominant limb (2667 ± 512 N). The AT CSA increased gradually in the proximo-distal direction, with no differences between the legs. There was a significant correlation (P < 0.05) of maximal AT force with AT stiffness (r = 0.500) and Young's modulus (r = 0.414), but only a tendency with the mean AT CSA. However, region-specific analysis revealed a significant relationship between maximal AT force and the proximal part of the AT, indicating that this region is more likely to display morphological adaptations following an increase in muscle strength in older adults. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that maximal force-generation capabilities play a more important role in the variation of AT stiffness and material properties than in tendon CSA, suggesting that exercise-induced increases in muscle strength in older adults may lead to changes in tendon stiffness foremost due to alterations in material rather than in its size

Covering the dead

This paper explores the meeting point of photojournalism and death and maps the tensions involved. Most of the literature on news-media and death explores the problematics of covering death during wartime. Less attention has been given to violent death in civic settings (as opposed to war zones) and to mundane deaths. The civic death scenes are not subject to military or governmental censorship, and the moral and professional burden to report such events falls on the journalists' shoulders. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying the representation of death in Israeli news-media. Findings from interviews and a quantitative content analysis shed light on journalistic practices, and show how the news-media self-regulate their working practices. Lastly, the paper identifies breakdowns of this self-regulated mechanism as it points at two different approaches to presenting death images according to the national affiliation of the dead. The paper argues that these practices delineate and maintain the distinction between Israelis and "the Other"

Digital Séance: Fabricated Encounters with the Dead

Digital afterlife is becoming increasingly possible due to advancements in VR, deepfake, and AI technologies. The use of computational photography for mourning and commemoration has been re-integrated into practices of remembrance, farewell, continuity, and disengagement. Two case studies, the Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony and the TV production Meeting You, are analyzed to explore these new possibilities. We show how photography’s new affordances enable interaction while maintaining its essence as a representation of reality and argue that this socio-technological transformation habituates contemporary practices of mourning and commemoration, adjusting images to serve the individual needs and interests of the bereaved and the community