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Soap Opera
Get PDF\u27Just a few years ago, television viewers in many countries wanted only to know the answer to one question -- Who shot J.R?\u27
This quote from the March 1987 issue of Time magazine illustrates the powerful hold soap operas like Dallas have on the popular imagination. Yet, television and radio soap operas have more often been despised than studied. Their origins are in the continuous radio serials of the early days of US commercial radio, serials designed by conglomerates such as Procter and Gamble to convey their messages to large numbers of housewives. Indeed, the very term soap opera is derived from the fact that washing powder was one of Procter and Gamble\u27s major products.
Today what do serials such as the Australian Flying Doctors, the British East Enders, the German Schwarzwald klinik, the Japanese Machigai-darake no Onna-migaki or the Indian Buniyaad - have in common that characterizes them as soap operas? Are their audiences similar? Are there themes, situations and plots common to all soap operas? What is the future for the soap opera now that serials like Dallas and Dynasty have passed their peak of popularity?
This and the following issue of Trends examine research on soap opera and their viewers which may help to provide a few answers to these and other questions
Communication and Development
Get PDFIn the mid-1970\u27s, a long-time career officer with the United States Agency for International Development evaluated his experience in a book entitled We Don\u27t Know How To Do It. This title summarises well the present-day quandaries in the field of development communication.
The drive for world development began after World War II with great optimism. The United States, flushed with a recent crusading victory, looked back proudly at its own :ndustrial and agricultural development and was convinced that this was just a new challenge for \u27American know-how\u27. Europe, too, though rebuilding from war, was conscious ofitself as the apex of Western civilization. Economists now had the tools to eliminate depressions and to ameliorate recessions. Scientists were perfecting miracle wheat and com. Development would be just a rapid transfer of the technology and modem organization of the North Atlantic nations to the \u27backward non-Western world\u27.
Techniques of communication and good use of mass media were seen to be at the heart of this \u27technology transfer\u27. The relatively new science ofhow to \u27get effects\u27 with mass media seemed to unlock great power for reaching isolated villages and overcoming the resistance of traditionalism. Thus, communication sciences found themselves at the centre of this new crusade.
At the outset, researchers in the industrial nations saw development as largely a matter of economic investment, technology and education. For the new nations emerging in this period, however, the priority was political, economic and cultural independence. It became increasingly clear to many in the developing world that transfer of Western modernity meant a continuation of the same old colonial dependence. For them, development was increasingly defined as self-reliance, non-alignment and the buildingofa New World Economic and Information Order.
Meanwhile peasants and immigrants to the new cities saw that development was creating a technological elite who were the midwives of the transfer from the industrial nations. The poor, who remained poor, asked what development might mean for them.
This review of the field of development communication is very largely a story of how leaders in developing countries and the poor of those countries have struggled to become the protagonists of development - and to get the communication sciences to recognise this
Television as Myth and Ritual
Get PDFMain issue abstract:
Every nation and culture finds a way to continually retell its folktales and myths. If once we did this around camp-fires and through wandering bards, today we recast our traditional stories in modem clothes through our most popular medium, television. Throughout the world the highest audience ratings are for folktale- like soap operas that embody our historical contests, heroes and villains, and, usually, happy endings. The American-produced Dallas and Dynasty are set in the old \u27wild West\u27 states ofTexas and Colorado - but extended into new frontiers of high finance and international intrigue. The BBC\u27sEastEnders celebrates the mythic Cockney, working class community of East London. In the telenovelas of Mexico and Brazil one detects a continuation of classical Latin American folktale themes.
In recent years, media researchers have focussed more on the role of TV myth and folktale forms in creating whole national cultures. The broad mythic dimension of TV is the context for understanding TV\u27s influence on individual attitudes and behaviours. While TV violence, for example, may influence direct imitative behaviours in some individuals, reproducing myths of violent national expansion or male dominance may shape the values of virtually everybody in the society. To study whole cultures, media studies are borrowing concepts such as myth, folktale and ritual from cultural anthropology and applying these to TV.
This issue reviews research on television as myth and ritual at three levels: 1) the mythic functions of television in a culture, 2) the folktale and mythic structure of television programming, and 3) the audience\u27s experience of television as a quasi-religious ritual
Gould, Jill Goodman, English, interviewed by
No full textIn this engaging and heartfelt interview, Dr. Jill Goodman Gould reflects on her journey from growing up in the small university town of Corvallis, Oregon, to becoming a deeply influential professor at Santa Clara University. A University of Oregon graduate and former Fulbright Scholar, she shares powerful stories from her time teaching American literature in post-communist Poland, where she opened the minds of students who had little access to books. Returning to the U.S. brought its own form of culture shock, but she eventually found a home in SCU’s English Department, where she created and led courses for students struggling with English, as well as first-generation college students through the Bridge (now LEAD) program. Dr. Goodman’s compassion and dedication to supporting vulnerable students left a profound and lasting impact—she calls these classes her favorites, as she was inspired by her students’ passion and drive. A gifted storyteller and oral historian, she has also created powerful courses on the Holocaust that have challenged students across campus. Ultimately, Dr. Goodman has made a lasting mark on the SCU community. Dr. Jill Goodman’s brilliance, compassion, and sharp wit shines throughout this interview. Click above to hear her story
Journalism, The Press and New Technology
Get PDFIn Japan, the newspaper Ashai Simbun has installed a computer system which transfers newsprint to the presses, photosets the print, automatically bales the 12 million copies in the required numbers for each district of the country, and loads them on to waiting lorries; all without the help of a single human being.
Though the degree of automation at the Ashai Shimbun is exceptional, newspapers throughout the world are beginning to exploit the power of the computer to revolutionize the work ofj ournalists and printers. And not only the computer. The use of satellites for remote site printing and facsimile transmission, the replacement of news fihn by videotape, and the emergence of videotex all herald a profound transformation in the practice and organization of newsmaking.
As yet the implications of this technological change are but poorly understood. As always there is optimism on the part of some that technical developments will lead to significant improvements in the extent and quality of news coverage; others see the same developments leading to more standardization, more superficiality in reporting, and an increase in the power of a few media barons.
This issue of Trends highlights research that has begun to explore some of these is\u3c.ues. The following sections consider 1) the general implications for journalism and the press; 2) the impact of the computer on the organization of the newspaper and the work of journalists; 3) the consequences of technological change for newspaper print workers; and 4) the emergence of the \u27electronic newspaper\u27 and its challenge to the established press
Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet: African Indigenous Cosmologies Informing Christian Environmental Ethics
Get PDFChristian social ethics is at the crossroads of its most significant challenges, the environmental crisis which embraces almost every aspect of life: religion, politics, economics and the human person. At a time when global food insecurity is on the rise and calling for an urgent increase in food production, so too is our common home being threatened by our very global food system. In this thesis, l present the African Indigenous cosmologies, more precisely the Shona cosmology, as a complex web of life, within which is embedded Indigenous food systems that can reasonably respond to the ever-alarming food insecurity worsened by the environmental crisis. More so, I explore these cosmologies through their food systems to see how they can inform the making of Christian environmental ethics at a time we are coming to realize that the global food system is the principal cause of environmental degradation.
In the context of food insecurity and environmental crises, with Africa being the most affected, I navigate through questions like food systems, cosmologies and theology. This thesis can therefore be characterized as contributing to a constructive Christian environmental ethics, building from the ethics of relationality expressed through African Indigenous cosmologies
The Ecclesial Paradigm of Pope Francis: The Good Samaritan Church (El Paradigma Eclcsial del Papa Francisco: La Iglesia Samaritana)
No full textEsta tesis presenta el “paradigma eclesial del papa Francisco”, es decir, su particular comprensión de la identidad y misión de la Iglesia. Un paradigma significa que algo nuevo surge en un contexto determinado. Entonces, ¿en qué consiste el paradigma eclesial de Francisco? Su base está en el Evangelio: la parábola del buen samaritano (Lc 10: 25- 37). Esta parábola es el paradigma desde el cual se configura su comprensión eclesiológica, entendida de ahora en adelante como Iglesia Samaritana. El buen samaritano es el principio hermenéutico desde el cual se plantean tres criterios ineludibles: A) Primacía de la realidad: la misión de la Iglesia ha de estar dirigida y volcada hacia la vida real de las personas, dando prioridad a los heridos y excluidos de la historia. El mundo real es el lugar por antonomasia de la acción evangelizadora. B) Primacía de la praxis: la identidad de la Iglesia ha de estar definida fundamentalmente por “lo que hace”, como el buen samaritano. El Reino de Dios se realiza no sólo escuchando la Palabra, sino sobre todo poniéndola en práctica (Lc 6: 47). C) Primacía del amor: la Ley perfecta de la Iglesia es la praxis del amor (Rm 13: 10). De tal manera que quien ama, conoce a Dios porque Dios es amor (1Jn 4:8). Sin amor, no hay Iglesia de Jesucristo. Por eso, la teología que busca conocer y entender a Dios ha de ser intellectus amoris, búsqueda de la inteligencia del amor.
En definitiva, sólo el amor es digno de fe. Los que aman son los que más saben de Dios. La Iglesia samaritana debe definirse por sus actos de amor y, amando al prójimo, es como ama y conoce a Dios
Television\u27s Influence on Cultures
Get PDFIt is widely assumed by the public, broadcasters and some communication researchers that television has caused major shifts in contemporary world view and values. McLuhan introduced the notion that the form of the medium itself- the simultaneous sound and vision - has brought about a new intuitive, holistic pattern of thinking. For McLuhan, the generation gap is the product of a television generation. Gerbner sees television as the central cultural arm of American society. Like a religion, it is the chief source of repetitive and ritualised symbol systems cultivating the consciousness of mass publics.
Others think that the process is more complex. For them television picks up images and themes from popular culture and reflects these back to an agreeing public.
Does television cause cultural trends or simply mirror them? Disagreements on how television influences culture and how to determine this influence have produced some of the most fiery debates among communication researchers of the last two decades.
This issue outlines four approaches to explaining the role of television in national culture and some of the major points of disagreement among them
The Telematics Society
Get PDFFor most of us, getting information is still a matter of seeking out some expert or a trusted friend . Or we pore through books, newspapers, and professional reports hoping to find the precise information we need. Now the linking of computers to a television screen promises an information revolution in our lives. Sitting in the comfort of our homes or offices with a keypad in hand, we will be able to call up on the screen literally any sort of information from any part of the world.
Like the initial stages of cinema, radio and television, the next ten years will be critical in deciding the basic formats of telematics and how this technology will fit into our lives. What will happen to libraries? What will we do with this flood of information? Will it be essentially a commercial, advertising medium more useful for the affluent? Or will it present a broad spectrum of cultural enrichment and provide social opportunity for the information poor. What about privacy, editorial control and transborder data flows ? This issue reviews research on these policy questions