For the past 50 years, various moral panics have emerged in response to concerns about children and teens. In particular, interest in entertainment appealing to youth has been the focus of social and legislative changes aimed at protecting youth from increased sexual and violent content associated with comic books, music lyrics, Internet content, and film and television. The intent of this study is to compare the emergence and progression of moral panics related to entertainment appealing to youth, such as comic books, music lyrics, the Internet, and film and television, since 1938 to 2010 to better understand the ways we construct youth in the context of moral panics. Cohen's 1972 model of the progression of moral panics was used to compare reactions to entertainment appealing to youth over a 50-year period of time to determine if they followed similar patterns. Cohen's 1972 model was also used to examine the various ways youth is constructed during moral panics. The model clearly exemplifies that reactions to the entertainment genres examined in the study do follow Cohen's (1972) pattern. Whereas the comic book and music lyrics were easier to track, technology complicated tracking of responses when examining reactions to Internet and film and television. Conclusions are drawn that how youth is constructed in the context of moral panics is closely related to how adulthood and parenthood is constructed. When parenting habits come under scrutiny, it appears that youth are viewed with suspicion as delinquents; on the other hand, when outside issues or events are targeted as problematic, youth are viewed as in need of protection. Thus, the construction of youth in the context of moral panics appears to be as focused on parenthood as it is on childhood or adolescence.

Eighteenth-century English men and women ventured to the playhouse for a night of festive revelry and entertainment. Despite the raucousness (compared to our vision of a night at the theatre), theatergoing was a polite endeavor and as such equipped with the material pleasantries of bourgeois society. But unlike other spaces reserved for the middle and upper classes, all manner of people could and did attend the theatre. Thus, particular methods of physically and visually separating social classes arose within the eighteenth-century playhouse. In this thesis, I investigate these material phenomena, particularly the ways in which theatre managers, players, as well as audience members interacted with, interpreted, and created the physicality of the eighteenth-century playhouse. Moreover, I show how eighteenth-century theatrical space -- its appearance, its seating arrangement, its lighting -- shaped intensifying class antagonisms, the bourgeois demand for comfort, luxury, and exclusivity, and finally the role of women in public, heterosocial venues. Though not an exhaustive study of playhouse material culture, this work focuses upon those material and architectural attributes of the theatre that reveal subtle yet widespread cultural changes taking place in the eighteenth-century English Atlantic world.

Hollywood: The Sequel provides an historical account of film sequelization and its importance to the domestic entertainment industry from a marketing standpoint. Based on an extensive literature revenue, it was conjectured that the ratio of domestic sequel‐generated revenue to overall domestic revenue from the 1950s‐2000s would follow a classic diffusion pattern. Utilizing historical trade data from Variety magazine, Excel and SPSS databases were developed to determine the percentage of sequel‐generated domestic box office revenue from 1954‐2006, relative to overall revenue. The formal hypothesis was that from the 1950s‐2000s the adoption of sequels in the 70‐highest‐performing films follows a diffusion s‐curve. The goodness‐of‐fit of the historical dataset (N=3,710) with the s‐curve estimation‐algorithm was measured against the goodness‐of‐fit of other widely utilized curve estimation‐algorithms and the linear‐regression model— the curve estimation algorithms utilized included logarithmic, inverse, quadratic, cubic, compound, power, growth, exponential, and logistic. Several content‐analysis intensive research questions were asked and explored in the dissertation including the following: Do Epstein‐scores for sequels in the 70‐highest‐performing titles per year increase from the 1950s‐2000s? In the event Epstein‐scores for sequels in the 70‐highestperforming titles per year increase from the 1950s‐2000s, what growth model provides the best fit with the historical data? What is the growth rate associated with minority representation in lead roles in sequels from the 1950s‐2000s? How have sequels with minority leads fared in terms of box office performance, versus sequels overall from the 1950s‐2000s? What is the growth rate associated with female representation in lead roles in sequels from the 1950s‐2000s? And, finally, how have sequels with female leads fared in terms of box office performance, versus sequels overall from the 1950s‐2000s? / text

This thesis is a critical comparative study of the ways in which music is being used as an educational tool for HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, India, China, the U.S., and Canada. Music for education is an aspect of a number of academic disciplines. I introduce the principles of Entertainment-Education and Participatory Communication, which are two methods of conveying education through entertainment. Music cognition, music philosophy, ethnomusicology, sociomusicology, and communication theory offer perspectives on why music is persuasive, emotive, and mnemonic. I present analyses of music HIV/AIDS education efforts from many different regions that employ different methods of music transmission and different musical genres. Some are grassroots interventions, whereas others are large-scale, mass media efforts. I identify a number of high-level themes that emerge from the case studies: music involves the audience, music engages the emotions, music is culturally relevant, music is therapeutic and empowering, and music enhances memory. The case studies highlight a number of specific elements that significantly enhance HIV/AIDS education efforts, elements that should be applied to Canadian efforts. The initiatives that are currently taking place are remarkable, but more efforts are needed to effectively combat the AIDS pandemic.

SUMMARY Master’s Thesis “Equipment of Seasonal Entertainment Complex Made out of Portable Constructions” encompasses several objects. This is a work of complex design where a sense of ensemble and harmony is very important. While creating the parts of the complex, unfailing resources of bionic forms were the base for it. Improvised forms of animate nature enable to create unusual objects which have specific stylistics, tectonics, rhythmic and character. Exactly nature is the unfailing source of new ideas according to both functional and aesthetical points of view. Light constructions and dynamic bionic forms integrate the entertainment complex into a natural environment organically. Moreover, it functions as equipoise to hard and cold stylistics of blocks of flats. The complex is a seasonal one; that is why an idea of portable constructions was chosen. Thanks to this a seasonal and complex space for entertainment and recreation is formed. Even an elementary object of architecture cannot be imagined without a structural constructional framework. In modern architecture, structure is one of the elements of plastic expression (Mogilnickas (1995) Techninės estetikos pradmenys / Basics of Technical Aesthetics [in Lithuanian]). Portable metal constructions and modern textile architecture form an impression of lightness and provide the entertainment complex with an exceptional character. When operating with the material and creating a material, functional form, professionalism... [to full text]

This thesis investigates the historical American medicine show of 1880-1900 through the lens of contemporaneous social and cultural debates, primarily regarding class and race relations. The medicine show pitchmen, the central figure of the medicine show, is the progeny of the confidence man of the mid to late-nineteenth century, best personified through the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and P.T. Barnum and novels of Herman Melville and Mark Twain. The confidence man utilized a performative identity directed towards the assumed needs and desires of his audience, which gave him a purely pragmatic orientation. As the confidence man filtered through emerging forms of popular entertainment, he found his place in the traveling medicine show in the figure of the medicine man. In many ways, the medicine show functioned as a cultural arena in which the concerns of rural audiences about the ongoing professionalization of the classes, specifically within the medical profession, were investigated and manipulated.

This essay examines on what kind of Muslim stereotypes exist in entertainment movies which are being produced in the West and particularly the United States. First, the focus will be on explaining the concept of stereotypes and Islamophobia and what role the media has in the movies' production of its contents. The incident at the World Trade Center will also be discussed briefly. By using semiotic and narrative analyses the essay investigates if a stereotyped image is being used about Muslims and how Muslim main characters that have the role of being protagonists, are visualized in entertainment movies. The material that is included in the empirical analysis consists of three selected movies. The purpose of this essay is to create a broader understanding on how stereotypes of Islam and Muslims are being used within the entertainment industry with particular focus on movies that are produced in the West. The results in this paper show that stereotypes of Islam and Muslims lives on in the 21st century movies and that Muslims who are characterized as protagonists are illustrated with traits and appearance that reminiscent of the West. However, Islam and Muslims is not a frequent content in movies produced in USA.

The desire of every marketer is to develop and maintain strong customer relationships. One way this can be accomplished is through effective advertising. Marketers have recently begun to brand flash mobs as a way to effectuate strong brand relationships. Even so, it is unclear whether or not the branding of flash mobs supports or frustrates this pursuit. Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to help marketers understand the potential impact that branded flash mobs may have on consumer behaviour and brand relationships. Since these interactions are complex we need to observe the convoluted whole from untangled vantage points. Marketing scholars and researchers must then attempt to understand the latent opportunities and unsuspecting dangers when branding a flash mob. Toward answering this end, four distinct research studies were used to examine the phenomenon from four different perspectives. The aim of the first paper is twofold. First, it deductively seeks to understand how to categorize branded flash mobs within the marketing literature through an historical and cultural analysis of the phenomenon. Exploratory in nature, this study then employs a mixed methods approach to understand how marketers are currently using flash mobs, and more importantly, if branded flash mobs are an effective tool of communication and persuasion. In the second paper, a field experiment was conducted to assess the impact of a branded flash mob on consumers’ emotions, consumer experience and connectedness in a public market. Qualitative interviews were used to capture the data. Shifting perspectives, the third paper seeks to understand why some branded flash mobs fail to ‘go viral’. Using of a number of focus groups, participants were asked to watch several branded flash mob videos and discuss their willingness to share them online (e.g., email, Facebook, or Twitter). Toward a better understanding of the impact of branded flash mobs on brand equity, the final paper evaluates viewers’ attitude toward the ad. Using netnographic techniques (Kozinets, 2002) 2,882 YouTube comments from three virally successful branded flash mobs ads were examined to understand how branded flash mobs affect brand equity. Responses grouped into one of four archetypical attitudes, each of which has a distinct impact on brand equity. Motivated by the potential for widespread exposure at a relatively low cost, marketers continue to produce branded flash mobs. Sometimes they are fresh and creative, while at others they are out of tune with the spirit of the phenomenon. This thesis uncovers the impact of these efforts on consumer behaviour and brand equity, and concludes with a guide for managers to consider when planning their next branded flash mob. An acknowledgement of the limitations and an outline for directions of future research are also presented. / <p>QC 20140521</p>

This thesis is a critical comparative study of the ways in which music is being used as an educational tool for HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, India, China, the U.S., and Canada. Music for education is an aspect of a number of academic disciplines. I introduce the principles of Entertainment-Education and Participatory Communication, which are two methods of conveying education through entertainment. Music cognition, music philosophy, ethnomusicology, sociomusicology, and communication theory offer perspectives on why music is persuasive, emotive, and mnemonic. I present analyses of music HIV/AIDS education efforts from many different regions that employ different methods of music transmission and different musical genres. Some are grassroots interventions, whereas others are large-scale, mass media efforts. I identify a number of high-level themes that emerge from the case studies: music involves the audience, music engages the emotions, music is culturally relevant, music is therapeutic and empowering, and music enhances memory. The case studies highlight a number of specific elements that significantly enhance HIV/AIDS education efforts, elements that should be applied to Canadian efforts. The initiatives that are currently taking place are remarkable, but more efforts are needed to effectively combat the AIDS pandemic.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris IV (Sorbonne), 1996. / Includes bibliographical references and index.