This essay considers the interplay between character narrators, the implied author, and the authorial audience in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents. The aim of the study was to investigate how narrators, the implied author, and readers position themselves in relation to each other and in relation to the novel’s ethical dimensions. The theoretical framework is based on James Phelan’s theories on the rhetorical and ethical aspects of fiction. The essay argues that the implied author’s communication to the authorial audience is one of the reasons that the novel, like its prequel Parable of the Sower, often succeeds to function as warnings to the audience of dangers ahead. This is especially true regarding one of the implied author’s most consistent messages to the audience throughout the Parable novels: every choice has consequences, and those consequences need to be considered when we decide how to act and react in different circumstances, both as individuals and as a society.

The Dallas Morning News is a leader in using engagement journalism to increase and retain digital subscribers. This ethnography examined the efficacy of the engagement journalism work by the News in rebuilding trust and forming relationships with its audience. This research is exceptionally timely as more newsrooms are erecting paywalls to their content and asking their audiences to offer monetary support in exchange for greater access and engagement by journalists. This work is examined through two mass communications theories: functionalism, which says a society can be viewed like an ecosystem as a "system in balance" consisting of complex sets of interrelated activities, each of which supports the others in maintaining the system as a whole; and the dual responsibility model, which says that companies should operate in the best interests of all in the community who depend on them, not only those who benefit financially. Additionally, the work is considered from a human-interaction design standpoint to evaluate whether the News has created affordances that enable the journalists and the readers to communicate, and whether the journalists are effectively practicing service design when publishing news and information for the audience.

Keywords music, immigration, asylum seekers in Czech republic, audience, theatre, cultural and medial studies, identity, globalization, postmodernism, cultural antropology, semiotics Summary The aim of this thesis is analyse a music, which cohere with the refugees and the other forms of immigration in Czech republic. Concretely is about the music, which originate from Archa Theatre,which is few years attending to this theme. In this music performance cooperate the asylum seekers and the czech and foreign professional artists altogether. I want to analyse how this artistically cooperation is proceeding, which meanings the particular musicians consider in this concept and which message of this music should be adress to audience. This music is set in the context of the complex artistic production with the immigration themes of Archa Theatre. The related intention of this thesis is to show, which meanings of this music and the relative artistic production find the audience.

The author aims to focus the work on the formation of audiences from the early days of television. The key is to introduce readers to the beginnings of broadcasting from the perspective of the viewer, not just the overview of the history of television broadcasting in Czechoslovakia. The studied time period is mainly the 50s of 20th century with a brief insight into the interwar period. In the end the author compares the past with current state of television entertainment. The work is methodologically processed by archival research and professional literature in combination with the oral history method using real interviews with narrators. This leads to a comparison of officially available information about the beginnings of television broadcasting with the testimony of their direct audience.However, the result of the research is a mutual agreement in the field of television technology (first receivers), as well as in the sphere of program distribution, in the social area and also it presents how popular was the television in leisure activities of population in the 50s­60s of 20th century.

This thesis examines the role of mediators in WTO trade negotiations and the impact of individual mediation strategies on the outcome of these negotiations. It seeks to answer the question how mediators can help negotiators to overcome the bargaining problem and reach an agreement. The thesis first presumes that mediators who frequently apply more interventionist and inclusive tactics can increase the likelihood of a successful outcome of negotiations. Secondly, it presupposes that particular mediation tactics enable negotiators to save their face not only in front of their opponents, but more importantly also in front of domestic constituencies. Using the case of Geneva-based negotiations and the Bali Ministerial Conference, the thesis tracks individual mediation strategies which were employed by WTO chairs or the Director-General to determine their impact on the final adoption of the Bali package, representing the first multilateral trade agreement concluded under the auspices of the WTO. The analysis indicates that mediators who actively intervene in the bargaining process and assist negotiators in decreasing their audience costs may positively influence the chances of reaching an agreement. Contrarily, it shows at the same time that the effects of inclusive mediation are varied and...

Texas has a rich tradition of Early Music ensembles that dates back to 1969. However, there is little reliable information based on statistical data collection and analysis concerning Texas Early Music consumers. Little is known about why they attend Early Music performances or other important factors that affect the Early Music industry. Through the use of an extensive survey and accompanying statistical analysis, this study answers many questions regarding Early Music consumers in the State of Texas. This study collected demographic and psychographic data in January 2020 about the Early Music concert-going public in three major Texas cities - Dallas, Austin, and Houston. Other factors were identified in two primary areas: audience characteristics and ticket pricing practices.

[pt] Ao contar uma história, o narrador usa toda sua habilidade para entreter a audiência. Esta tarefa não define apenas o ato de contar uma história, mas também a capacidade de compreender as reações do público durante a narração da história. Não é muito difícil adaptar uma história para um único individuo baseando-se em suas preferências e escolhas anteriores, porém, a tarefa de escolher o que é melhor para um grupo torna-se bastante complicada. A seleção por votação de uma maioria pode não ser eficiente pois descarta alternativas que foram consideradas secundárias por alguns indivíduos, mas que funcionariam melhor para o grupo em questão. Desta forma, a seleção descuidada dos eventos em uma história poderia causar a ruptura do grupo, fazendo com que algumas pessoas desistam de continuar assistindo pois não foram agradadas. Esta tese propõe uma metodologia para criar histórias adaptadas para a audiência com base em traços de personalidade e preferências de cada indivíduo. Como uma audiência pode ser composta de indivíduos com preferências semelhantes ou mistas, é necessário considerar uma solução de meio-termo com base nas opções individuais. Além disso, os indivíduos podem ter algum tipo de relação com os outros que influenciam suas decisões. O modelo proposto aborda todas as etapas da missão de agradar ao público. Deve inferir quais são as preferências, calcular a recompensa das cenas para todos os indivíduos, estimar as escolhas de forma independente e em grupo, e permitir sistemas de Storytelling Interativos encontrar a história que maximiza a recompensa esperada da audiência. O modelo proposto pode ser facilmente estendido a outras áreas que envolvem usuários interagindo com ambientes digitais. / [en] To tell a story, the storyteller uses all his/her skills to entertain an audience. This task not only relies on the act of telling a story, but also on the ability to understand reactions of the audience during the telling of the story. It is not so difficult to adapt a story for a single individual based on his/her preferences and previous choices. However, the task of choosing what is best for a group becomes quite complicated. The selection by majority voting cannot be effective because it can discard alternatives that are secondary for some individuals, but that would work better for the group in question. Thus, the careless selection of events in a story could cause audience splitting, causing some people to give up keep watching because they were not pleased. This thesis proposes a new methodology to create tailored stories for an audience based on personality traits and preferences of each individual. As an audience may be composed of individuals with similar or mixed preferences, it is necessary to consider a middle ground solution based on the individual options. In addition, individuals may have some kind of relationship with others who influence their decisions. The proposed model addresses all steps in the quest to please the audience. It infers what the preferences are, computes the scenes reward for all individuals, estimates their choices independently and in group, and allows Interactive Storytelling systems to find the story that maximizes the expected audience reward. The proposed model can easily be extended to other areas that involve users interacting with digital environments.

Research shows that students may be proficient in solving physics problem mathematically but still lack a fundamental understanding of the phenomena in question. One reason may be that a traditional approach to physics instruction emphasises instructors transfer of material to the students and problem-solving, sometimes at the expense of conceptional understanding. This master thesis combines socio-cultural and behaviouristic perspectives to analyse the effects of audience response systems in learning environments, in particular physics instruction. An audience response system is a tool that collects responses from the participants. It is commonly used to create interaction, thus moderating the approach of pure transmission of information. The current state of research shows that the effects of audience response systems depend on how it is used by the instructor. Audience response systems have been popular for use in peer instruction in physics and part of this study was to evaluate the design of conceptual problems. Using a mix-methods approach with interviews, observations, and tests, this thesis explores teachers’ experiences from using audience response systems to stimulate thinking and discussion on conceptual questions. Different modalities of systems are also compared. The study was affected by the school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however the remote teaching situation also makes the topic even more important. The findings confirm what is previously established about the role of the instructor and that the effects depend on their intention. This study demonstrates that an audience response system can be used for formative assessment, initiate discussions, simultaneously engage multiple participants, prompt instructors to reconsider their methods and support a productive learning environment. Important features of an audience response system are ease of use, clear display of responses, synchronous participation, and anonymity. / Tidigare forskning visar att studenter kan vara skickliga i att lösa fysikproblem matematiskt men ändå sakna en grundläggande förståelse för fenomenen i fråga. En möjlig förklaring är att fysikundervisning traditionellt fokuserar på överföring av material från lärare till elev med ett fokus på problemlösning, ibland på bekostnad av den konceptuella förståelsen. Detta examensarbete kombinerar sociokulturella och beteendemässiga perspektiv för att analysera effekterna av publiksvarssystem i lärande miljöer, primärt i fysikundervisning. Ett publiksvarssystem är ett verktyg som samlar in respons från deltagarna. Det används vanligen för att skapa interaktion, och därmed reducera fokuset på ren överföring av material i undervisningen. Det aktuella forskningsläget visar att effekterna av publiksvarssystem beror på hur det tillämpas av läraren. Publiksvarssystem har populärt använts i peer instruction (kamratlärande) i fysik och en del i denna studie har varit att utvärdera design av konceptuella frågor. Med hjälp av kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder (intervjuer, observationer och tester) undersöker detta arbete lärares erfarenheter av att använda publiksvarssystem för att stimulera tänkande och diskussioner om konceptuella frågor. Vidare jämförs modaliteten hos olika system. Studiens utformning påverkades av skolstängningarna till följd av COVID-19-pandemin, dock ger de förutsättningar som kommer med distansundervisning ytterligare relevans för ämnet. Resultaten bekräftar vad som tidigare har fastställts om lärarens roll och att effekterna beror på dennes intentioner. Studien visar att ett publiksvarssystem kan användas för formativ bedömning, initiera diskussioner, engagera flera deltagare simultant, uppmuntra lärare att ompröva sina metoder och hjälpa till att skapa förutsättningar för en produktiv inlärningsmiljö. Viktiga funktioner i ett publikresponssystem är användarvänlighet, tydlig presentation av svar, möjlighet till synkront deltagande för många personer samt anonymitet.

Solicitud de embargo por publicación en revista indexada. / Este trabajo analiza las emociones que la música chicha como recurso publicitario despierta en los estudiantes de la Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina respecto al anuncio publicitario ¡El Perú tiene Sabor De Oro! de la gaseosa Sabor de Oro emitido en Facebook. El poder de la música en la publicidad potencia el mensaje y genera un vínculo emocional con el consumidor; especialmente, en el caso, la música chicha expresa identidad, creatividad, superación y mestizaje, por ello, cada vez más marcas la emplean en sus campañas y se dirigen al moderno neo limeño, descendientes de migrantes orgullosos de su origen y la cultura chicha. La investigación se posiciona en el paradigma interpretativo, de metodología cualitativa cuyo enfoque es estudio de caso; para ello, el tipo de muestreo es no probabilístico de conveniencia y la técnica será a través de entrevistas semi estructuradas. / This paper analyzes the emotions that chicha music as an advertising resource arouses in the students of the La Molina National Agrarian University regarding the spot: Peru has a Golden Taste! of the soda Sabor de Oro issued on Facebook. The power of music in advertising enhances the message and generates an emotional bond with the consumer; especially, in this case, chicha music expresses identity, creativity, improvement and miscegenation, therefore, more brands use it in their campaigns and are targeting the modern neo-limeño, descendants of migrants proud of their origin and Chicha culture. The research is positioned in the interpretive paradigm, a qualitative methodology is used, and the approach is a case study; hence, the type of sampling is non-probabilistic of convenience and the technique will be through semi-structured interviews. / Trabajo de investigación

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