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This work considers the relationship between music and silent film focussing particularly on the areas that inform the composition of a new score for the film Pandora’s Box (Pabst, 1929). The paper begins with a consideration of the origins of the narrative and a discussion about the relationships between Wedekind’s originating plays and Pabst’s film. The discourse explores the way in which the new score is informed by the understanding of Pabst’s work as being both modernising and reductive. Through an examination of the organisation of the plot, it establishes the rationale behind the organisation of the score. Part 2 of the paper focuses more closely on aspects of the relationship between music and image. It discusses all aspects of the techniques employed within the score including the use of referential music and sound, the application of cliché, the employment of the rhythm of inter-title ‘speech’ and synchrony. As an original contribution to knowledge, the paper establishes the novel idea of the organisation of music and sound as Layers of Synchrony and with reference to examples within the new score explains how the composer may view the various layers within an arrangement as having additional function through their purposeful, synchronous distribution in relation to the moving image. With reference to the historical and theoretical contexts surrounding the application of music and sound to silent film, and additional reflection on the role and impact of current technology on the compositional process, the paper sets out to establish that the new score for Pandora’s Box is both reflective of the advantages of 21st century technology and the 1930s hybrid form known as the film sonore.

This project examines four dimensions of journalism in Mexico: historical development, journalists’ professional mindsets, conditions of freedom and autonomy, as well as sourcing patterns, narratives and reporting practices. By looking at individual, organisational, political, economic, and historical factors, we attempt to identify patterns of change and continuity—as well as areas of ambiguity—embedded in the culture of journalism after political democratisation. Previous accounts of media transformation in the country have noted that an American style of journalism has slowly gained a foothold as a result of economic liberalisation, and has allegedly replaced the passive, authoritarian traits that characterised press-state relations during the 20th century. We interrogate such narratives by arguing that rather than a progressive media transition, a hybridisation of journalism traditions has occurred, wherein the liberal discourse of professionalism has blended with continuing authoritarian practices, while commercial interests of the media have all re-accommodated and adapted to a mutating political environment. We first trace the development of journalism and the various factors that have shaped it. In the individual and organisational aspects of journalistic culture, we examine the way Mexican journalists notionally disengage from their authoritarian past and pay lip service to liberal press values and roles. Likewise, we look at the way they assimilate organisational demands, daily pressures, and newsroom hierarchy. In the analysis of conditions of autonomy, we survey the state of freedom of speech and censorship under the two consecutive PAN governments, as well as the role of political and private advertisers as agents of pressure. Moreover, the thesis analyses the way in which the collection and dissemination of political messages, sourcing patterns and the resulting narrative reflect a continuity of a passive style of journalism. Finally, we evaluate the interplay of these dimensions of Mexican journalistic culture in relation to a specific political conflict, notably the presidential elections of 2006. The study, ultimately, aims to highlight the flaws and limitations of liberal accounts of media transformation in the context of a transitional democracy.

This thesis explores the expansion of British television in the 1950s and 1960s and its relationship to social and cultural change. During this period, television developed into an industry and mass medium and this coincided with a cultural shift from a seemingly consensual society of post-war austerity to a society characterised by fragmentation, individualism and consumerism. By combining a re-examination of existing histories of British television with a discussion of television programmes and sociological theory, this thesis explores the complex relationship between the expansion of television and that social and cultural change. The thesis shows how television represented these changes, and how it presented competing discourses about consumer culture in a range of programmes including action adventure series, pop music and women's programmes. It also demonstrates how television promoted class and cultural conflict in its individual programmes such as situation comedies and dramas, and through juxtaposition of high and low cultural vales, themes and forms in its mixed programme schedule. By looking at issues such as intimacy, performance, authenticity and sociability, the thesis argues that television promoted its own status as an increasingly centralised cultural form. It proposes that television established social categories which became embedded and naturalised over time, and this created the potential to define social experience. The thesis therefore concludes that the examination of the expansion of television in the 1950s and 1960s is of importance for understanding the operation of media power today.

This research is concerned with the development of a set of novel sketch-based skeleton-driven 2D animation techniques, which allow the user to produce realistic 2D character animation efficiently. The technique consists of three parts: sketch-based skeleton-driven 2D animation production, 2D motion capture and a cartoon animation filter. For 2D animation production, the traditional way is drawing the key-frames by experienced animators manually. It is a laborious and time-consuming process. With the proposed techniques, the user only inputs one image ofa character and sketches a skeleton for each subsequent key-frame. The system then deforms the character according to the sketches and produces animation automatically. To perform 2D shape deformation, a variable-length needle model is developed, which divides the deformation into two stages: skeleton driven deformation and nonlinear deformation in joint areas. This approach preserves the local geometric features and global area during animation. Compared with existing 2D shape deformation algorithms, it reduces the computation complexity while still yielding plausible deformation results. To capture the motion of a character from exiting 2D image sequences, a 2D motion capture technique is presented. Since this technique is skeleton-driven, the motion of a 2D character is captured by tracking the joint positions. Using both geometric and visual features, this problem can be solved by ptimization, which prevents self-occlusion and feature disappearance. After tracking, the motion data are retargeted to a new character using the deformation algorithm proposed in the first part. This facilitates the reuse of the characteristics of motion contained in existing moving images, making the process of cartoon generation easy for artists and novices alike. Subsequent to the 2D animation production and motion capture,"Cartoon Animation Filter" is implemented and applied. Following the animation principles, this filter processes two types of cartoon input: a single frame of a cartoon character and motion capture data from an image sequence. It adds anticipation and follow-through to the motion with related squash and stretch effect.

This thesis investigates a variety of uses of actuality (recorded speech), oral history and folklore (vernacular culture) in radio broadcasting in Britain and Newfoundland (Canada). The broadcasting of vernacular culture will be shown to foster intimate and interactive relationships between broadcasters and audiences. Using a theoretical framework that draws upon the work of communications theorists Harold Innis and Walter Ong, the thesis will explore the (secondary) orality of radio broadcasting, and will consider instances in which the normative unidirectional structure and 'passive' orality of radio has been (and can be) made reciprocal and active through the participation of listeners. The inclusion of 'lay voices' and 'vernacular input' in radio broadcasting will be charted as a measure of the democratization of radio, and in order to demonstrate radio's role in disseminating oral history, promoting dialogue, and building and binding communities. The thesis will predominantly focus on local and regional forms of radio: the BBC Regions in the post-war era; regional radio programming serving the Canadianprovince ofNewfoundland both pre- and post-Confederation (which took place in 1949); and the community radio sector in the UK during the last five years. A common theme of many of the case studies within the thesis will be the role of citizen participation in challenging, transgressing or eroding editorial control, institutional protocols and the linguistic hegemony of radio production. Conversely, close attention will be given to the ways in which editorial control in radio production has circumscribed the self-definition of participants and communities. These case studies will provide evidence with which to investigate the following research question - is the democratization of radio possible through the incorporation of citizen voices or messages within radio production or programming, or is it only possible through changing the medium itself through citizen participation in democratic structures of production, management and ownership?

The news media are considered a significant force in conflict situations, capable of influencing antagonists and their actions. Whether this influence is constructive or destructive is determined by the nature of journalism presented to the warring sides. News content that holds the other side responsible for the strife and focuses on violence is likely to exacerbate the situation. Sustained reportage on the possibilities and need for peace, on the other hand, could contribute to a political climate suited for peace negotiations. This India-centric study examines the Kashmir conflict in this context. While the coverage of more recent conflicts such as the Gulf Wars and the 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan has evoked sustained scrutiny from media scholars, there is little empirical work on the news on Kashmir. The objective here is to profile the nature of coverage the Indian and Pakistani press accorded the conflict, which could provide an empirical foundation for future discussions and research on Kashmir. Selected news reportage of 10 major events that appeared in two national Indian newspapers and one Pakistani daily is examined for this purpose. By utilising an original coding scheme that draws on conflict journalism, media effects and agenda-setting theories, this study arrives at an indicative overview of the journalism on Kashmir presented to the two publics over the years. The analysis is more reliant on what appeared in the Indian press, and has been contextualised by data drawn from personal interviews with Indian policymakers. Hence it is largely from an Indian perspective. However, the inquiry provides insights into the Pakistani coverage as well. The conclusion, based on patterns that emerged from the news presented to the two warring societies, is that the coverage was vigorously government-led and intensely 'negative'.

This thesis investigates a framework for generating reliefs. Relief is a special kind of sculptured artwork consisting of shapes carved on a surface so as to stand out from the surrounding background. Traditional relief creation is done by hand and is therefore a laborious process. In addition, hand-made reliefs are hard to modify. Contrasted with this, digital relief can offer more flexibility as well as a less laborious alternative and can be easily adjusted. This thesis reviews existing work and offers a framework to tackle the problem of generating three types of reliefs: bas reliefs, high reliefs and sunken reliefs. Considerably enhanced by incorporating gradient operations, an efficient bas relief generation method has been proposed, based on 2D images. An improvement of bas relief and high relief generation method based on 3D models has been provided as well, that employs mesh representation to process the model. This thesis is innovative in describing and evaluating sunken relief generation techniques. Two types of sunken reliefs have been generated: one is created with pure engraved lines, and the other is generated with smooth height transition between lines. The latter one is more complex to implement, and includes three elements: a line drawing image provides a input for contour lines; a rendered Lambertian image shares the same light direction of the relief and sets the visual cues and a depth image conveys the height information. These three elements have been combined to generate final sunken reliefs. It is the first time in computer graphics that a method for digital sunken relief generation has been proposed. The main contribution of this thesis is to have proposed a systematic framework to generate all three types of reliefs. Results of this work can potentially provide references for craftsman, and this work could be beneficial for relief creation in the fields of both entertainment and manufacturing.

The aim of this thesis is to provide a contribution to knowledge in two areas. Firstly, it seeks to further our understanding of the historical conditions of British television drama production; in particular the constraining and liberating influences of production space on the role of the director, and their decision-making process to bring script to screen. Secondly, the work develops the concept of re-enactment as a practice-based augmentation for archive-based textual reconstruction. As such, the thesis offers deeper discussions on the human context missing from current historiographic approaches to broadcast research. The thesis develops a re-enactment methodology that, via practical realisation, allows researchers to gain insight into the production dynamics of a particular era in history to learn about ‘in the moment’ directing decision-making. This is applied to a practice based experiment that includes creating a simulation of 1960s production conditions in order to explore the following research question: how would the decision-making process of producing contemporary television drama be affected by the conditions of 1960s production space? I argue that contemporary location-based production is as constraining as the studio it purports to rise above, yet without the same possibilities for creative reaction to counteract the limitations that historical conditions allowed. As a flagship BBC series reflecting contemporary industry practice, Doctor Who is used as the vehicle for analysis. The experiment focuses on a historical re-enactment of a 2006 episode of Doctor Who, “Tooth and Claw”, written by series executive producer Russell T Davies. The re-enacted audio-visual text is provided on DVD along with artefacts that encapsulate the process of production, informing analysis and reflection.

Generating natural-looking motion for virtual characters is a challenging research topic. It becomes even harder when adapting synthesized motion to interact with the environment. Current methods are tedious to use, computationally expensive and fail to capture natural looking features. These difficulties seem to suggest that artificial control techniques are inferior to their natural counterparts. Recent advances in biology research point to a new motor control principle: utilizing the natural dynamics. The interaction of body and environment forms some patterns, which work as primary elements for the motion repertoire: Motion Primitives. These elements serve as templates, tweaked by the neural system to satisfy environmental constraints or motion purposes. Complex motions are synthesized by connecting motion primitives together, just like connecting alphabets to form sentences. Based on such ideas, this thesis proposes a new dynamic motion synthesis method. A key contribution is the insight into dynamic reason behind motion primitives: template motions are stable and energy efficient. When synthesizing motions from templates, valuable properties like stability and efficiency should be perfectly preserved. The mathematical formalization of this idea is the Motor Invariant Theory and the preserved properties are motor invariant In the process of conceptualization, newmathematical tools are introduced to the research topic. The Invariant Theory, especially mathematical concepts of equivalence and symmetry, plays a crucial role. Motion adaptation is mathematically modelled as topological conjugacy: a transformation which maintains the topology and results in an analogous system. The Neural Oscillator and Symmetry Preserving Transformations are proposed for their computational efficiency. Even without reference motion data, this approach produces natural looking motion in real-time. Also the new motor invariant theory might shed light on the long time perception problem in biological research.