In this fast-paced, globalized world, certain online sites represent a hybrid personal-public sphere'where like-minded people commune regardless of physical distance, time difference, or lack of synchronicity. Sites that feature chat rooms and forums can offer a deep-rooted sense of community and facilitate the forging of relationships and cultivation of ideologies. This dissertation investigates whether this trend is relevant to web sites concerning hip-hop. This genre is arguably one of the most pervasive and influential global cultural forms, yet it is markedly different from most other forms of globalized culture because it emerged within and is still embedded in a distinct subculture. The notion that the Internet could become a bastion for hip-hop fans is quite paradoxical: hip hop is a cultural form so deeply rooted in the sense of place and so invested in its relationship to spatiality that it could potentially pose a particular challenge to the notion of virtual communities. This research examines the virtual hip-hop experience in the UK in order to assess whether this music and the culture that surrounds it have been adopted in their original American form or whether they have been adapted to make them more relevant to their new locale. In particular, the study probes how the ideology, values, behaviors and attitudes that bestride American hip-hop are represented, consumed, and reproduced on the mediated world of web sites.

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Doctor of Philosophy / Family Studies and Human Services / Duane W. Crawford Jr / Farrell J. Webb / This investigation sought to examine the role of acculturation and generational theory and influenced social and cultural practices among Saudi Arabian students who were currently residing in the United States. Theoretically, it sought to answers questions that help determine how Americanization—the adaptation and acculturation of a visiting culture to absorb and incorporate the host culture into their lives, customs, and social practices, and in this case savings behavior. A comprehensive model was developed to test the idea that living in America can and does have an influence on social and cultural practices. What was of interest in this study was whether or not these same influences could have an impact on particular cultural practices, in this case how people felt about, reacted to, and addressed the concept of savings—the stockpiling of funds for future needs. Information was gathered from a sample of over 500 Saudi Arabian students living in the United States. The model as structured was tested using SEM analytic techniques in an effort to fully explore and expose the nuanced and subtle differences among the respondents. The concept of savings behavior being influenced by Americanization as originally discussed was not substantiated by the model even though some of the indicators were within expected parameters (χ² = 217.241, p < .001; CFI = 0.839, TLI = 0.732, RMSEA = 0.034). Despite the general problems the overall model revealed that at least 17% of what was termed as savings behavior could be explained by the model. The study still retained its value because it has made inroads into an area that has not yet been explored. Future investigations should take care to find better ways to incorporate some of the cultural elements of savings behavior directly into the instrument based on the perspective of their test populations rather than assume value in and use instruments tested and normed with US samples.

This thesis argues that Edith Wharton’s assessment of American ways and their meaning in her post-war fiction has been widely misread. Its title derives from French Ways and Their Meaning (1919), which she wrote to educate her countrymen about French culture and society. Making sense of America was as great a challenge to Wharton. Much of her later fiction was for a long time dismissed by critics on the grounds that she had failed to ‘make sense’ of America. Wharton was troubled by American materialism and optimism, yet she believed in a culturally significant future for her nation. She advocated – and wrote – an American fiction that looked critically at society and acknowledged the nation’s ties to Europe. Sometimes her assessment of American ways is reductive, and presented in a tone that her critics, then and since, found off- putting and snobbish. But her skepticism about American modernity was penetrating and prophetic, and has not been given its due. In criticism over the last two decades, a case for the place of Wharton’s post-war fiction in canons of feminism and modernism has been persuasively made. The thesis responds to these positions, but makes its own argument that the post-war writing reflects broader shift in American identity and ideology. The thesis is broadly historicist in its strategy, opening with a discussionofthereputationofthesetextsandthatoftheauthormoregenerally. Afterthat entry-point, it is organized thematically, with four chapters covering topics that are seen as key components of American ideology in Wharton’s post-war writing. These include modernity, gender equality, the American Dream of social mobility, and American exceptionalism. The thesis concludes with an assessment of Wharton’s prognostications in the context of twenty-first century America.

This thesis titled The Media Images of Political Leaders - 2010 Elections focuses on descriptions and depictions of Czech political leaders, Vojtěch Filip, Jiří Paroubek, Petr Nečas, Radek John and Karel Schwarzenberg in printed press. The thesis contains an introduction of the leaders and the parties which they led during the 2010 parliamentary elections. The thesis shows the differing images of the leaders in various media. It contains a quantitative content analysis of MF Dnes, Lidové noviny, Hospodářské noviny, Právo and Blesk daily newspapers in the pre-election period between 1 April and 27 May 2010, examining the frequency of informing about the leaders, differences in their presentation and attention given to each of them. The content and tone of individual articles has been examined as well. The thesis also analyses the ratios between informing about the individual leaders and other topics in each newspaper. The theoretical concept of the thesis is media communication in relation to politics. Political communication is examined from the view of the theory of political parallelism and the influence of media on politics.

Throughout America’s history the call for laborers has been filled by influxes of immigrants. Coinciding with the arrival of the first non-Anglo Saxon immigrants were negative attitudes about them, as they were deemed inferior and classified as lowerranking “others” by the dominant culture that needed them. Thus, the cycle of need and resentment was born to be repeated throughout the Nation’s history. In the first half of the twentieth century a shift occurred in American public perception of, and attitudes towards, immigrant groups including eastern European Jews, Italians and the Irish among others. This shift was marked primarily in terms of race: Some immigrants went from being considered black to white -- from illegitimate to legitimate by the dominant culture. One reason for the increased acceptance of these ethnic groups was a concerted campaign sponsored by the United States Government to promote an extended identity to groups that had previously been excluded from the mainstream. In particular, the goal was to create a sense of nationalism, or “Americanism,” among diasporic immigrant groups, thus encouraging their participation in the war effort. The result of such campaigns was a re-imaging of ethnic groups previously classified as non-white and a path to perceived whiteness, and thus inclusion, for them. These campaigns, formulated by the Office of War Information and executed largely by the War Advertising Council, led to a marked increase in acceptance for immigrant groups by the dominant culture. By examining social messages through visual cultural artifacts this study explores notions about race, ethnicity, whiteness and the role of communication theory and practices in constructing (imaging) an identity of otherness.” This study delineates the historical formation and subsequent partial de-construction (re-imaging) of negative depictions and some stereotypes of ethnic Americans. This research explores the sources of these attitudes and behaviors and how misconceptions, misrepresentations and centuries-old stereotypes of non-Anglo ethnic Americans have been fluid through changing social perceptions fueled, in part, by government interventions. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Existe um sem número de obras que tratam da Economia Global (ou Globalização), analisando-a quanto aos aspectos econômicos, sociais, culturais, etc. Neste trabalho, utilizando-se as teorias de Gramsci, Althusser e outros sobre os Aparelhos Coercitivos de Estado, os Aparelhos de Hegemonia (Gramsci), os Aparelhos Ideológicos de Estado (Althusser) e a Indústria Cultural, partiu-se para uma perspectiva de Estado Transnacional Ampliado, liderado pelos Estados Unidos da América com as inevitáveis conseqüências para os países Latino-Americanos, no que tange aos aspectos econômicos e culturais. A necessária resistência a esse processo é enfatizada como a única saída possível para a América Latina, se quiser manter sua identidade perante a chamada \"Americanização\" econômico-cultural. / There are innumerable works on the issue of the Global Economy (or Globalization), analyzing the theme from economic, social and cultural aspects, etc. This work uses the theories of Gramsci, Althusser and others of the Coercive Apparatus of the State, the Hegemonic Apparatus (Gramsci), the Ideological Apparatus of the State (Althusser) and the Cultural Industry to move towards the perspective of an Enlarged Transnational State led by the United States of America and its inevitable consequences for Latin American nations on both the economic and cultural levels. Necessary resistance to this process is stressed as the only possible way out for Latin America, if it is to maintain its identity before this so-called economic/cultural \"Americanization\".

Les entreprises américaines implantées en France ont été étudiées de 1890 à 1990 à partir des archives de la Chambre de Commerce américaine en France (AmCham). Cette source permet d’analyser les actions collectives qu’elles ont menées et l’influence qu’elles ont eue sur le milieu des entreprises françaises, dans cinq périodes successives où la cohérence entre leurs actions et celles des autorités américaines a été plus ou moins étroite. Dans la première période (1890-1914), l’AmCham est un club de riches hommes d’affaires dans un environnement prestigieux. Dans la deuxième (1914-1945), elle est une association d’entreprises, plus nombreuses mais placées dans un contexte de guerre et de crise, sans stratégie commune. Dans la troisième (1945-1970), elle est un outil efficace du Plan Marshall puis du « défi américain ». Dans la quatrième (1970-1990), les implantations se multiplient mais la montée en puissance de l’union européenne, les réticences américaines sur l’investissement à l’étranger et la francisation des filiales américaines font apparaître des facteurs de fragilité et finalement dans la cinquième (après 1990), l’AmCham, dont l’influence a décliné, cherche, avec difficulté, des éléments de solidarité entre ses adhérents dans le contexte nouveau de la mondialisation. A partir de cette source, on a étudié les interactions culturelles entre l’AmCham et son milieu et la diffusion du modèle de management américain, qui a conduit à une forte francisation des filiales américaines en France. / American firms in France have been studied from 1890 to 1990, from the archives of the American Chamber of Commerce in France (AmCham). This source provides the elements of an analysis of the collective actions they implemented and the influence they had on French firms over five successive periods where there was more or less a consistency between their actions and the US government’s decisions. In the first periode (1890-1914), AmCham was a club of wealthy businessmen in a prestigious environment. In the second one (1914-1945), it was an employer’s association, with more members but in a context of wars and crisis, without a common strategy. In the third one (1945-1970), it was an efficient instrument of the Marshall Plan and later the « American challenge ». In the fourth one (1970-1990), with a growing number of firms, with the European project gaining ground, US policy’s reluctance to FDI and US firms becoming more and more « frenchized », significant factors of fragility appeared and finally in the fifth one (after 1990), AmCham, whose influence has diminished, is trying painfully to identify new elements of solidarity between its members in the new context of globalization. From this source, the study focuses on cultural interactions between AmCham and its environment and the spread of the American management model, which led to a large « frenchization » of American subsidiaries in France.

This thesis concerns the development of Swedish ice hockey as a national phenomenon during the period 1920–1972. The dissertation explores how the sport of ice hockey in just over half a century was transformed from a rather insignificant North American cultural import to one of Sweden’s most treasured pursuits by and large, and harbouring a national team (known as “Tre Kronor”) that at the height of its popularity in 1970 gathered almost the whole nation (82 percent of the adult population) in front of TV-sets during national game broadcasts. The analytical approach of the study is grounded in the theoretical assumption that “to be Swedish” is something you “learn” on a daily basis, and that an investigation of how “the nation” is constructed as an imagined community must see to the interplay between national rhetoric on the one hand and national practice on the other. This means that the analysis moves on two different levels, where the first is comprised of the sporting practice in itself (teams, games, players etc.), while the other deals with the conception of ice hockey in relation to national identity. The empirical investigation shows that the introduction of ice hockey in Sweden was “launched from above” under the influence of unbridled nationalistic sentiment in Sweden at large at the turn of the 20th century. The study also shows that during the inter-war era the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation promoted the spread of ice hockey in Sweden by stressing the game’s benefits as a more practical sport than the similar and already established winter sport, bandy. It is also argued that in most cases it was not so much a genuine passion for the game itself, but instead prosaic factors (economical considerations, sporting success and maintenance of ice surface etc.) that made sporting clubs take up ice hockey. After World War II the public interest in ice hockey exploded in Sweden. In the cold war era, Tre Kronor came to function as a thermometer of how the so called Swedish model stood up in comparison to the superpowers of the world. The analysis also underlines the importance of the comprehensive organizational and moral rearmament of Swedish ice hockey at large conducted by the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation in the post-war era, since it helped its cultural incorporation in the Swedish welfare state and its connection to Swedish national identity

Nel contesto italiano, molti prodotti mediali sono di origine straniera: diffusi o trasmessi insieme a quelli di produzione nazionale, al tempo stesso cambiano spesso forma, per andare incontro al pubblico italiano, e diventano, almeno in parte, diversi dall’originale. La tesi vuole, pertanto, porre le basi teoriche per uno studio sistematico dei processi di “mediazione” che intercorrono nel passaggio di un testo mediale da un Paese all’altro: l’appropriazione nazionale (“italianizzazione”), l’adattamento, la distribuzione, la circolazione e la messa in pagina di contenuti e prodotti. Tali strumenti trovano poi applicazione (e insieme conferma) nell’analisi delle vicende italiane della sitcom americana, e di alcuni titoli in particolare, sotto tre punti di vista: la ricostruzione della storia del genere, che segue le evoluzioni del sistema televisivo e mediale nazionale e da questo è mediato; la definizione delle oscillazioni e variazioni che il testo affronta, senza limitarsi alla traduzione ma seguendone l’adattamento e la traslazione; infine, il racconto dei percorsi tra mercati, doppiaggi e reti che compongono la filiera della sitcom, mettendo in evidenza il ruolo intermedio svolto dalle routine produttive e dagli addetti ai lavori coinvolti nella distribuzione internazionale (e poi, nel nuovo contesto, nazionale). / In the Italian context, several media products have foreign origins: diffused or broadcast together with the national productions, they often change their nature in order to reach the Italian audience, and consequently become partially different products. Therefore, this dissertation aims to put the theoretical basis of a systematic study of the “mediation” processes that take place in the passage of a media text between two countries: national appropriation (“Italianization”), adaptation, distribution and circulation of different contents and products. Subsequently, these tools are applied on (and confirmed by) the analysis of the Italian vicissitudes of the US-made situation comedy, focusing on five titles, in order to study three aspects: the genre history on Italian TV, connected with the evolution of the national TV and media system; the variations and gaps that every text has to face, thus expanding the concept of translation into adaptation and transposition; in conclusion, the US sitcom chain in Italy, including TV markets, dubbings and broadcasting, highlighting the intermediary role played by production routines and professionals involved in the national and international distribution.