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"Thank You for Sharing this Fantastic Performance": Meaning and Form in Transmedia Persona Construction of YouTube Drummers
Full text linkYouTube is one of the most important music media in the world today. Musical practice is reflected there in a variety of forms, from sound recordings to music videos to tutorials. The media environment that YouTube creates as a platform inscribes itself – to some degree – in the actions of those who use it. This is also the case with the YouTube drummer phenomenon, which this article examines in more detail in terms of the interplay between persona construction, music-making, media presentation, and transmedia content concatenation. The thesis is pursued that the practice of YouTube drummers creates a singular interference space of conventions, modes of action, and social roles, which in some places has novelty value with regard to music-related persona constructions and their implementation in platform-based audiovisual media, and which transcends media boundaries. The specificity of the persona construction essentially results from the mediating position of the drum-playing actors: they are not only performers who, like social media influencers, push into the light of publicity, but at the same time musical experts and instructors, quasi-curatorial music communicators who select, prepare, and present music of the past, and intermediaries of the corporeality of popular music. The analyses presented are based on exploratory investigations of the YouTube drummer field itself and a case study
Stars, Anti-Stars, Anti-Star-Stars: Transmedia Texts and Contexts of Popular Music and Media. Some Theoretical Assumptions
Full text linkThe phenomenon of stars and celebrities in media cultures – and especially in popular music cultures – seems to be omnipresent. At the same time, there is an astounding lack of analysis and research on these media personalities and personas, and international celebrity studies only recently a developing new field. Similarly, these kinds of observations are still very rare especially in German sociology as well as communication, media, culture and popular music studies. In this article, I therefore want to concentrate on the foundations of studying stars and celebrities within the attention economies by undertaking a theoretical transmedia-cultural framing of media personas and suggesting a typology. This ensuing typology of stars, anti-stars, and anti-star stars – especially within popular music cultures – demonstrates how stars and celebrities and their quantities and qualities of success and peer-group specific values coming form programs of (media and music) culture can serve as persona-seismographs of socio-cultural change between tradition and innovation
INTER(FACING) PERSONAS
Full text linkIn this introductory essay to the special issue on “Persona and Inter(face)”, the problem of collapsing or imploding inter(faces) is explored. The basic argument is that the inter(face) needs to remain in-between or mediating between face and persona on the one hand, and digital technology on the other hand, for inter(facing) as an encounter to exist. The dilemma of the imploding inter(face) is discussed through the examples of the outdoor mirror selfie and the data-driven persona. By doing so, the politics involved in the dissipation of the mediating gap is exposed. In short: it is proposed that inter(face), as unpacked here, may contribute to future debates and concerns in persona studies
The value of employability-focused assessment: Student perceptions of career readiness
Full text linkPost-graduation employment outcomes remain a central focus for students, tertiary institutions, and governments. This interest has seen universities now aiming to provide students with a wide variety of authentic employability or career readiness opportunities to support each student’s work-ready preparedness, in a scalable and transferrable manner. This study explored the extent to which students perceive and value career readiness opportunities undertaken within their undergraduate degrees. Scaffolded opportunities and assessments were undertaken by students enrolled in professional and generic degrees within a Health Faculty. The activities and their assessment design aimed to support student career planning and readiness for future employment. This research affirmed the importance of embedding employability-focused curriculum throughout the degree, especially in first-year subjects within both professional and generic degrees. Whether the employability activity was a stand-alone assessment task, or intentionally designed to explicitly address employability and career readiness over the entire semester, students appreciated it. They recognised the value of these initiatives in enhancing their career readiness and facilitating their transition to employment. Multiple employability assessments scaffolded within subjects and throughout degrees can effectively cater to diverse student groups, providing opportunities to enhance their skills and confidence as they navigate the path to employment
Acknowledgement of Country
Full text linkThis includes the front cover of the general issue, Acknowledgement of Country, ACTA Statement, and TESOL in Context editorial team details
Facilitating and supporting employability in law: Reflections on the need for agile communication
Full text linkThere is an increasing focus on enhancing employability for students in higher education. Yet academics who facilitate and encourage opportunities to support student employability are often doing so with a quiet agility. This paper reflects on my first year coordinating a work-integrated learning program and the development of skills necessary for such roles in a tertiary law context. Grounded in the well-recognised literature on positive professional identity and contemplating the concept of ‘pracademic identity’, these reflections offer insights on the experience of traversing across multiple professional spheres to enhance employability for students. In particular, this reflection piece seeks to uncover and highlight the skills essential to roles facilitating employability for law students
AMEP and the Burden of Compliance
Full text linkThis article explores the ‘burden of compliance’ experienced by providers and teachers in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), a large national English as an Additional Language (EAL) program in Australia. It shows how compliance requirements have been shaped by the relationship between two groups, those who make and operationalise relevant policies (mainly politicians and public servants) and those engaged in the practice of developing and teaching English courses (mainly teachers, program providers, and academics). These two groups are engaged in a struggle for the control of a metaphoric ‘pedagogic device’ (Bernstein, 2000) which shapes curriculum documents such as the frameworks, scales and teaching resources used in the AMEP. The article examines three key teaching and assessment documents and shows how the compliance requirements attached to each have been shaped by the relationship between these two groups over time. A crucial dynamic governing this relationship is the level of trust between and within them. The article argues that changes in levels and types of trust account for many of the tensions within the AMEP. It begins by describing how compliance was raised as an issue and introduces the key concepts that inform the discussion. The second part of the article tracks changes in approaches to compliance as manifested in three AMEP curriculum documents over 75 years. The third part identifies three policy trends that contributed to compliance becoming the burden currently experienced by providers and teachers. The article concludes that there are signs that trust between stakeholders may be changing, with a potential reduction in the burden of compliance
Personal Storyworlds: Retrospection, Reinvention, and Transmediality in Pop Music
Full text linkBy combining perspectives from transmedial narratology and musicology, this article explores how the notion of a “personal storyworld” can offer new opportunities for understanding the transmedial processes whereby pop artists’ personas are continually (re-)constructed and (re-)negotiated through and across myriad points of contact between artists and audiences. Emphasis is placed on the performative potential of audiovisual aesthetics and public posturing, on the one hand, and on audiences’ interpretive flexibility, on the other. These related themes are addressed through a case study of an artist who aptly exemplifies the continual transfiguration of pop personas, namely Justin Bieber. The main part of the case study concerns how Bieber’s sixth studio album, Justice (2021), and associated material (music videos, live performances, interviews, promotional material, social media posts) related to and formed part of his broader personal storyworld. This sets up an exploration of how the dynamics between retrospection and reinvention shape the reframing of personas, which raises a series of questions concerning the dialectic between continuity and change, artist-audience dynamics, and transmedial processes of interpretation
Student Perspectives on Employability Skills in Liberal Arts Programs: A Canadian Case
Full text linkThe purpose of the study was to gain further understandings of undergraduate students’ perspectives on employability skill development in the liberal arts programs, as well as the perceived influence of the identification of employability skills in course curricula on undergraduate students’ self-efficacy. Building on the results of a prior study on faculty perspectives in the liberal arts on employability skills, we also explored the ways students’ and faculty members’ perspectives were in alignment. Purposive sampling was used to select the undergraduate courses from three different undergraduate programs at the research site. Three relatively high enrolment courses were selected based on two key criteria: must be a second or third level undergraduate course and must be in a non-professional program in the liberal arts. Non-professional programs were considered programs where the students do not graduate with a specific professional designation or applied program. Two methods were used to collect the data for this project: an employability skill inventory and a survey distributed to students (N = 131). Course syllabi were also obtained to map employability skills. The findings of this study provide further insights with respect to the ways that employability matters to students and the ways in which students expect their instructors and institution to play a role in their employability development. Conclusions of this study underscore the need to consider bridging the disconnect between expectations of the students, the institution, and the faculty regarding employability development
Employability of forestry graduates: evidence from a state university in the Philippines
Full text linkEmployability is a measure of the effectiveness of an academic program in the quality of its graduates.
However, insufficient data on employability of forestry graduates are still observed, particularly in northern Philippines. Hence, the study aimed to trace the employment of BS Forestry (BSF) graduates in DMMMSU from 2015 to 2022. The study used descriptive research design to describe the BSF graduates' socio-demographic characteristics, educational background, and initial employment profile. Survey was employed as data collection method, and quantitative techniques were used for analysis. Results revealed that majority of graduates were female and had been awarded college scholarships; some graduated with honours and awards. Majority were licensed foresters, while very few had other professional eligibilities. Most were employed at least once after graduation and were professional contractual employees of companies, mainly in agriculture, hunting, and forestry. Salaries and benefits were the primary reason for acceptance of jobs, while most secured forestry-related jobs within six months after their graduation. The gross monthly income for a great majority of the initial forestry-related jobs reported was less than PhP 15,000.00. Most employed graduates agreed that their program and curriculum were related and relevant to their jobs. However, regular updating of curriculum and instruction is the major suggestion of graduates to improve the program. The likelihood of gaining employment after graduation significantly increases when school support services are provided for career and job placement. Honours and awards in college were seen to be significant factors contributing to the employability of forestry graduates