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Interview with Carleigh Baker Author of ‘Bad Endings’ a short story collective: Author of ‘Bad Endings’ a short story collective
No full textAn Interview with Author Carleigh Baker
The History of The Walt Disney Company and Its Context in the Study of the Political Economy of Communication
Get PDFIn a world dominated by the mass production, distribution, and consumption of media, the Walt Disney Company stands out as one of the most prominent media conglomerates operating within the mass media industry. Thus, the company is compellingly relevant in the context of the study of the political economy of communication which, as defined by Vincent Mosco, involves the social relations, particularly the power relations, that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources. Topics of discussion regarding Disney that will be explored in this paper include how it operates within and contributed to the rise of the culture industry, how the concept of the audience commodity is implemented by the company in its multitude of mass media–oriented products, and its relevance in the theories of cultural imperialism and media imperialism
Keep Your Eyes on China’s Metaverse: Another Tool for Maintaining its National Security
Get PDFWhile many people have been discussing the security implications of the development of the metaverse from a civilian or business perspective, very few discussions analyse the implications from a national security perspective. Thus, this article contributes to the security discussions by exploring how China can make use of the metaverse to maintain stability and international influence. This article argues that the metaverse provides an immersive and integrated environment, thus, facilitating the Chinese government’s spread of propaganda and invasion of the privacy of netizens accessing China’s Internet. This article will discuss China’s emphasis on Internet security; then, this article discusses how the metaverse assists China in influencing people’s mindsets and monitoring people’s behaviours. Finally, this article discusses the implication of China’s metaverse on individuals. As we sail into a new era of the digital world, everyone should maintain their independent thinking and be aware of their data security to enhance their resilience to government abuses.
Received: 2022-07-05Revised: 2022-07-2
The Plague in our Criminal Justice System: A Cross-National Analysis of Wrongful Convictions
No full textCriminal justice systems around the world depend on their ability to accurately convict the guilty, yet wrongful convictions still occur regularly. The current study compares the causes of wrongful convictions in Canada, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, and New Zealand. These countries were chosen because they have established Innocence Projects as well as public legal databases that allow for a retroactive legal analysis of criminal cases in each of these countries. This study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods with a greater focus on quantitative methods. Data will be collected through a content analysis coding sheet, allowing for themes to emerge throughout the data collection process. The data will then be analyzed to determine the most common causes of wrongful convictions in each of the given countries. Secondly, any recommendations that arise from the cases in any of the countries will be analyzed. The goal of this second portion of the study is to see if any successful recommendations could be implemented in the Canadian criminal justice system. The ultimate objectives of this research are to a) determine the main causes of wrongful convictions in the countries being studied, b) compare these rates to the other countries in the study, c) determine what, if any, recommendations arose from these cases, and d) lastly, if any of these recommendations could be implemented in a Canadian setting to reduce the number of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice in the future.
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Gail Anderson, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser Universit
Print Media and Public Opinion: Indigenous Child Removal in Saskatchewan
Get PDFBetween the 1960s and 1980s, thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and placed into the Canadian child welfare system. Infamously known as the Sixties Scoop, the event received minimal backlash and instead had a predominantly positive impression across the Canadian public. Despite its devastating consequences, many believed child welfare intervention was needed to “rescue” Indigenous children from suspected insufficient parental care or unsuitable living conditions. Thousands of Indigenous children placed for adoption were advertised in newspaper publications in an attempt to reduce over-representation in the child welfare system. Although the promotion of Indigenous adoption occurred across Canada, Saskatchewan’s Adopt Indian and Métis program became the only adoption program in Canada that targeted solely Indigenous children. By focusing my research on two newspapers—Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix—I will explore how print media played a crucial role in influencing, manipulating, and persuading public attitudes. My presentation will include a collection of advertisements published between the 1960s and 1980s that displayed Indigenous children available for adoption. In addition, I will discuss both settler and Indigenous narratives published in the periodicals to illustrate what editors chose to include. As awareness of Indigenous injustices continues to increase in our present-day, it is important for Canadians to educate themselves on how events such as the Sixties Scoop occurred with minimal opposition. Through this focused research, my project will aid in growing awareness by enriching our understanding of print media’s instrumental role in building the Canadian public’s acceptance of Indigenous child removal.
Faculty Supervisor:Dr. Nicholas May, Department of History, Simon Fraser Universit
Investigating Contact Interactions in Simulations of Unilateral Contusion Models of Simplified Non-Human Primate Spinal Cord Injury
No full textComputational models of spinal cord injury (SCI) emerge as complementary tools used alongside in vivo experiments in non-human primate (NHP) studies, where the number of subjects is low due to ethical, logistical, and financial challenges. This exploratory study developed a sensitivity analysis comparing different simulation techniques in a spinal cord injury computational model. The dimensions and material properties were obtained from our previously published experiments. Two different techniques were used to model the interactions between the impactor that causes the injury and the outermost layer of a spinal cord, also called the dura, in a finite element software: (1) various configurations of general contact and (2) surface-to-surface penalty contact (the method used in previously published work). Simulation times, predicted peak forces, and simulated tissue penetrations were compared to determine the most accurate and time-efficient method. The results for the penalty contact model are 34-hour simulation time, 11.6N peak force, and a cord/impactor tissue penetration of 0.49mm. The various general contact models’ results are 27-51 hours simulation time, 12.9-38.6N peak forces, and the vast majority had no cord/impactor tissue penetration. The simulations demonstrated that contact interactions between the dura and impactor significantly affect the biomechanical outcomes of an NHP SCI computational model. Additionally, specific configurations of general contact can achieve similar in vivo experimental peak forces (10.54-23.19N) with no cord/impactor penetration. This study highlights the importance of contact interactions in computational models and the need to document them to help improve these models and facilitate their implementation for researchers.
Faculty Supervisor:Dr. Carolyn Sparrey, Mechatronic Systems Engineering, Simon Fraser Universit
Judicial Response to the claims of Systemic Racism in the Canadian Criminal Justice
No full textDespite various socio-legal attempts to promote equity, the Canadian legal system continues to be critiqued for sustaining racism and implicitly preserving existing socio-economic inequalities. Racial profiling, over-policing, harsher arrest and bail conditions, and targeted sexual violence all evidence deeply problematic experiences of racialized individuals in Canadian society. In this presentation, I will report on my recent research analyzing how the Supreme Court of Canada has addressed systemic racism. The themes discovered through the research findings will be analyzed using a critical lens to examine the influence of power relations and the social construct of race in legal proceedings and judicial decisions making.
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Tamara O’Doherty, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser Universit
Who is Canadian? Beauty standards and national identity among women of colour
Get PDFThe association of beauty with whiteness negatively impacts young women of colour’s self-esteem and identity. While these effects have been widely studied, my presentation aims to explore whether white beauty ideals affect young women of colour’s national identity. Although Canada’s multicultural policy promotes a unified Canada where everyone belongs regardless of race or country of origin, critical scholarship as well as the lived reality of people of colour negates this policy. Bringing these two ideas together, through six interviews with 1 ½ and second generation immigrant women of colour, my project explores the ways in which young immigrant women of colour articulate and experience beauty ideals, Canadian national identity, and belonging.
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Amanda Watson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Simon Fraser Universit