1,720,988 research outputs found
Children's Awareness of and Perceptions About LGBTQ Characters in Selected Animated Children's Shows
No full textIn recent years, a large number of movies and television shows created have
featured the addition of LGBTQ characters. This step to diversify and increase
representation has reached into media made for children as well, however, this has been
highly controversial. The representation of LGBTQ people for children has become a
major topic of political debate, concerning whether this representation is promoting
inclusivity or sexualization to children. Interestingly, despite the controversy, the impact
of including LGBTQ characters in children’s media is mostly unexplored, likely due to
its novelty. Do children even recognize that they are seeing LGBTQ characters,
especially when in parental roles? There is little previous research as to whether children
can understand and have reactions to LGBTQ characters. Additionally, there is little
research that is able to connect the attitudes of the parents with the child’s attitudes.
Because parental attitudes towards LGBTQ people are one of the best predictors of the
child’s attitude, it is important to examine the child and parent in juxtaposition when
investigating this social phenomenon. Thus, this study consists of observing children
while they watch clips from four selected children’s animated shows, conducting
interviews to learn about the child’s understanding of LGBTQ characters, and collecting
surveys from parents regarding the parents’ attitudes towards homosexuality,
demographics, and child’s media consumption behavior.Embargo status: Restricted until 06/2025. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link to the left
(De)centering and (De)colonizing the Dominant Sphere: A Critical Study of Politics and Language in India
No full textThis thesis aims to scrutinize the power at the center in an Indian context and it does so via a critical cultural rhetorical analysis of a widespread cricket campaign and also a self-reflexive autoethnographic inquiry into my own experiences with the language of the colonizer in both my upbringing and as an international student/scholar. The first paper focuses on how the interpellated right-wing, anti-Muslim hegemonic sentiments of the ruling government were leveraged by India’s leading sports broadcaster to create one of the most popular cricket campaigns, Mauka Mauka. By interweaving the lenses of hegemony and interpellation, in this paper, I conduct a critical cultural rhetorical analysis through an in-depth reading of the socio-political discourses pervading the country throughout the duration of the campaign. In this paper, I intend to present an informed interpretation of Mauka Mauka as a counterhegemony to Modi. The second paper is a performative postcolonial autoethnography where I examine the hegemony of the English language and how the language disciplines and regulates the social aspirations of the subordinate Indian middle class both locally and globally.Embargo status: Restricted until 09/2173. To request the author grant access, click
on the PDF link to the left
“I’ll Just Be Me”: Immersive Virtual Reality User’s Perceptions of Social Virtual Reality
No full textThis thesis inspects immersive virtual reality users’ perceptions of social virtual reality platforms, including how relationships and communities are formed on these platforms. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews and iterative analysis, several themes emerged. Immersive VR users perceived social VR to be easier to navigate socially, and generally thought that design and layout of virtual spaces affected their interactions. All users enjoyed the social aspect, many using the platforms as a social “supplement”, and many users did not perceive negative aspects of the platform to greatly affect their use. Interestingly, most respondents, regardless of gender, did not perceive their gender to affect their VR use or gameplay and interactions, but their responses indicated highly gendered social effects. Sexuality was perceived as having a greater impact on the respondent’s VR use and interactions for cis-gendered folx than their gender, and most respondents perceived community in VR. Even those critical of VR communities noted seeing it, even if they did not believe it was authentic or going to be long-lasting. Implications for game developers and designers are discussed.Embargo status: Restricted until 06/2025. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link
to the left
“It’s Even Better Than I Pictured It”: Sensory Authenticity in Theme Park Design as a Mechanism for Deepened Immersion
No full textThis study conceptualizes sensory authenticity in relation to theme park design by analyzing the five senses in connection with experiential and immersive capabilities. This research utilized both a thematic analysis of Google Reviews and survey responses regarding how the five senses are presented and comprehended at Disney California Adventure’s Cars Land. Findings reveal consistency with the notion that sight and sound are prominent senses in connection to film but further explain how the usage of feeling is highly transportive in connecting to the storyworld. Notably, knowledge of the film plot plays a role in advancing sensory authenticity and immersion through more detailed sensory descriptions. Results further clarify that sensory authenticity is an experiential and kinesthetic representation of the five senses in a themed environment in connection to the source material being adapted.Embargo status: Restricted until 06/2030. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link to the left
Gaming Democracy: How Silicon Valley Leveled Up the Far Right by Adrienne L. Massanari (The MIT Press, 2024): Book review
No full textA Review of Adrienne L. Massanari’s Gaming Democracy: How Silicon Valley Leveled Up the Far Right. Published by The MIT Press, 2024. ISBN: 9780262380331, 238 pages
Assessing the Effects of Presence and Sense of Place on Exercise Enjoyment in a Virtual Environment
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine relationships between presence and sense of place, and exercise enjoyment, in virtual environments. Interactive fitness equipment users were asked to complete an online survey comprising items from established measures of motivation, personality, exercise enjoyment, and the media phenomena transportation and sense of place. Hierarchical regression analysis was employed to assess whether transportation or sense of place explained more of the variance in virtual exercise enjoyment, when controlling for demographics, exercise enjoyment and habits, motivation, and personality. When controlling for the other variables, the two media phenomena significantly increased the amount of variance in virtual exercise enjoyment explained. However, only sense of place was a significant, positive predictor of virtual exercise enjoyment. The results of this study suggest interactive fitness devices that allow users to experience a sense of place in virtual environments can facilitate a more enjoyable exercise experience, and as such can be a promising intervention tool to encourage behavior change.Embargo status: Restricted until 06/2024. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link
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Chapter 9 Hateful Games: Why White Supremacist Recruiters Target Gamers and How to Stop Them
Full text linkDigital Ethics delves into the shifting legal and ethical landscape in digital spaces and explores productive approaches for theorizing, understanding, and navigating through difficult ethical issues online. Contributions from leading scholars address how changing technologies and media over the last decade have both created new ethical quandaries and reinforced old ones in rhetoric and writing studies. Through discussions of rhetorical theory, case studies and examples, research methods and methodologies, and pedagogical approaches and practical applications, this collection will further digital rhetoric scholars’ inquiry into digital ethics and writing instructors’ approaches to teaching ethics in the current technological moment. A key contribution to the literature on ethical practices in digital spaces, this book will be of interest to researchers and teachers in the fields of digital rhetoric, composition, and writing studies
She Was a Beautiful Girl and All of the Animals Loved Her: Race, the Disney Princesses, and their Animal Friends
No full textDisney Princesses are well-known for their magical relationship to animals. They can charm the beasts with nothing more than a smile and a song, and they count on the animals’ help and protection when they get into trouble. However, this special relationship is imagined differently depending on the race of the princess in question. How does the Disney Princess Line teach audiences about their own subjectivity, about their gendered, racialized bodies, through these human/animal relationships? I contend that, in keeping with the historical linkage of people of color and animals, the Disney Princess Line presents two mirrored images of the ideal woman. White princesses are shown in positions of authority over a happy servant class of animal “subjects” who labor in their stead. Princesses of color are shown alongside animal “sidekicks” who are portrayed as being of equal stature and importance and with whom they must work in tandem to achieve their aims. While Disney’s definition of princesshood initially seems to be welcoming to girls of all races, it actually sorts its aspirants into different categories. Thus, while the gestures towards diversification in the Disney Princess line seems designed to allow the Disney corporation to reassure its audience that the company in inherently inclusive and progressive at heart, the text of the Disney Princess films continues to imagine what it means to be a “good girl” differently depending on race. Animal characters serve to illustrate these differing registers of “goodness,” different ways of relating to the world that, the films suggest, are appropriate for different types of girls
The politics of gamers: identity and masculinity in the age of digital media
Full text linkContrary to the popular belief that the Internet is a bodiless utopian space, I argue that gender is actually the most important tool of social organization in video game culture. I gather an archive that includes games, novels and films about gamers, press releases made by game developers, and blog and forum posts made by players to reveal how the gaming subculture rewards masculine presentations that emphasize control over the self, the environment, technology, and the effeminate “other.” On the other hand, women and queer gamers often find themselves occupying unexpected positions and forming strategic alliances with game producers to carve out spaces of their own on the masculinized virtual frontier. As gaming becomes embedded within in mainstream culture, the gendered system of self-representation enacted by gamers will shape popular ideas about what kinds of bodies are thought to be competent, legitimate actors.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2017-05-01The student, Megan Condis, accepted the attached license on 2015-04-04 at 14:08.The student, Megan Condis, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2015-04-04 at 14:15.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2015-04-10 at 16:17.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #7789 on 2015-07-22 at 14:24:14Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T22:45:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
CONDIS-DISSERTATION-2015.pdf: 1892864 bytes, checksum: 8717f703d597d86ed75dc0ec51b023c5 (MD5)
LICENSE.txt: 4209 bytes, checksum: 1ec122c4b754be1140f037268d790c8d (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2015-04-10Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 79963
Lift date: 2017-07-22T22:46:21Z
Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemLimited Restriction Lifted for Item 79963 on 2017-07-23T09:15:24Z
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