The first decade of this century marked a moment of hypervisibility for lesbians and bisexual women on British television. During this time, however, lesbian hypervisibility was coded repeatedly as hyperfemininity. When the BBC and ITV adapted Sarah Waters’s novels for television, how, I ask, did the screen versions balance the demands of pop visual culture with the novels’ complex, unconventional – and in some cases subversive – representations of lesbianism? I pursue this question with an interdisciplinary methodology drawn from queer and feminist theories, cultural and media studies, and film adaptation theory. Chapter Two looks back to Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (BBC 1990). I examine this text – the first BBC television serial to feature a lesbian protagonist – to establish a vocabulary for discussing the page-to-screen adaptation of queer identities throughout this dissertation. Chapter Three investigates Waters’s first novel Tipping the Velvet (1998) and its complex intertextual relationship with Andrew Davies’s serialized version (BBC 2002). I also examine responses to the serial in the British press, tracing the ways in which dominant cultural forces seek to domesticate non-normative instances of gender and sexuality. Chapter Four examines Waters’s novel Fingersmith (2002) in relation to Peter Ransley’s adaptation (BBC 2005) to situate adaptations of Waters’s retro-Victorian texts amid the genre of television and film adaptations of Jane Austen novels. I argue that Ransley’s serial interrogates the notion of Austen as a “conservative icon” (Cartmell 24) and queers the Austen adaptation genre itself. To conclude this study I address Davies’s television film (ITV 2008) of Waters’s second novel Affinity (1999). In this chapter I examine how the adaptation depicts the disruptive lesbian at the centre of the text. I argue in particular that by casting an actress who does not conform to dominant televisual norms of femininity, the adaptation is able to create a powerful audiovisual transgendered moment which adds to the novel’s destabilization of Victorian hierarchies of gender and class. This chapter considers, finally, how Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith and Affinity have contributed to lesbian visibility on British television. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2009-05-27 11:26:42.504

Ken Russell (1927-2011) was a renegade talent and the self-styled enfant terrible of British cinema. His legacy as a film-maker consists of a large number of films on the lives of artists, mainly composers. But Russell’s approach to artist biography was highly unorthodox: rather than reconstruct a factual account he offered a deeply personal interpretation of artists’ lives based on his own understanding of their work. In a programmatic text for his film on Mahler (1974), Russell explained that his films ‘evolve through a stream of consciousness in which the man and the myth, the music and its meaning, time, place, dream and fact all flow and blend into the mainstream of the film itself’ and that ‘my film is simply about some of the things I feel when I think of Mahler’s life and listen to his music’.This book is an attempt to explain what that statement means and to unpack its implications for the practice of life writing. It takes a baroque approach to performance and performativity to show how Russell not simply made highly inventive films on other artists, but also constructed those films as a kind of self-portrait. Russell’s work then becomes a performance of self through art. In four chapters of detailed analysis this book reconstructs Russell’s method, from the very first films he made for the BBC in the early 1960s through his major feature films of the 1970s and 1980s. / Doctorat en Histoire, histoire de l'art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In a global media environment characterized by change and conflict, narratives are especially useful to understand how the media form and distribute shared understanding of how the world works and who the important actors are. As the borders between local and global politics are blurred in the digital media landscape, protesters are in increased rate turning their placards to global broadcasters’ cameras, especially when political movements such as the U.S.-based Black Lives Matter movement get international counterparts. The scholarship concerned with the framework through which the media report protests argue the protest paradigm offers useful variables for the study of protests, while problematizing the lack of research on global broadcasting media. Global broadcasters, International Relations scholars argue, need to be understood as resources of soft power that distribute strategic narratives, but they have yet to develop a methodology for how broadcasts can be empirically studied. With this research gap as a point of departure, the chosen case study is the unrest in Ferguson in August 2014. A quantitative mapping and a comparative narrative analysis focusing on the narrative structure were conducted on 16 days of news bulletins from Al Jazeera English, BBC World News and RT. The results show several differences in the reports, the first concerns the amount of attention that was given to Ferguson by each broadcaster, where RT gave almost twice the amount of attention as the other two broadcasters. Further differences were found in the sources each broadcaster used and how they used violence as an entry-point to what their narratives where about, which in the case of AJE was the effects violence has on a society; BBCW’s narrative was of a political issue of high importance that concerns people of color; whereas RT’s narrative was about the militarization of the U.S. police force. The results imply the global broadcasters offer distinctive narratives, which through different storytelling techniques convey different attitudes and morals.

Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, has captured readers' imaginations for almost three hundred years, spawning countless adaptations over several different mediums. As different means of communicating and transforming art have been invented, these adaptations have grown to fill the new mediums and make use of the various possibilities each form has created. Film in particular has created an enormous opportunity to re-imagine Gulliver's Travels, since it can directly show the audience the fictional foreign locations in which Gulliver finds himself. In this study, I examine seven screen adaptations of Swift's novel to determine what our current culture views as the core of the work, or what we see as the important pieces to pass on to current and future audiences. The seven chosen adaptations were selected based on how well they have survived over the last century; adaptations which are no longer available for commercial purchase and/or viewing were excluded from the study. I have also only included works which maintain a resemblance to the original story in structure, even if merely loosely, and have excluded works which bear only a thematic tie; I based my choices on the works which make an overt claim to be interpretations of the original text. This study examines only the works which seek to directly represent the original novel. By looking at Swift's work through the lens of adaptation, this study will show how Swift's work is currently perceived, and examines what that may mean for the future of Swift's legacy. As cultural views and connotations of language have changed, the directors of the adaptations have used different means to achieve sometimes similar, sometimes different messages. Gulliver's Travels was originally a satiric work that addressed social problems of eighteenth-century England. Popular views on society have changed, however, as have the politicians holding office. Certain events in Gulliver's Travels, such as the reading of Gulliver's offences in Lilliput, no longer have nearly the same relevance. Therefore, it is important to examine how the directors address these changes to determine what will retain relevance over time.

Byggmaterialmarknaden i Sverige uppfattas idag som oligopolisk där ett fåtal företag dominerar en stor del av marknaden. Nya inköpsvägar för material kan öka konkurrensen och förändra villkor för aktörer i branschen. Flera utredningar menar på att import är en sådan inköpsväg som kan förändra den nuvarande prisstrukturen. Men för företag som ser import som en möjlighet kommer även ny problematik som måste hanteras. Företaget Midroc har ett stort intresse i att utreda möjligheten för att köpa in färdiga betongstommar från andra sidan Östersjön. Rapporten syftar främst till att undersöka och utvärdera olika leverantörer av betongelement i utlandet och på så sätt samtidigt undersöka möjligheterna för import. Genom intervjuer, litteraturstudier och enkäter till inköpare samt lokala leverantörer har kritiska faktorer tagits fram. Dessa innefattar bland annat teknisk standard, garantier, transport och risker. Det kom fram tidigt i studien att det finns en diskrepans mellan de tekniska standarder som tillämpas i Sverige jämfört med andra länder. Detta måste naturligtvis tas i särskild hänsyn så att produkterna som köps in är godkända att användas i Sverige. Ett sätt att säkerställa detta är att köpa betongprodukter som är certifierade med BBC-märket. Ett formulär med frågor upprättades, frågorna var menade att ge en inblick i vad företagen erbjuder och hur de arbetar. Prisfrågor har inte tagits med då det var omständigheterna kring ett internationellt inköp som var av störst intresse. Det har dock kommit fram att priset för betongstommar i Baltikum kan vara 20-30 % lägre än de nationella priserna. Företag i Polen och Baltikum kontaktades via telefon och på mejl, dessa fick möjlighet att svara på frågeformuläret. Företagen som svarade hade aktuella projekt i Sverige och hade fortsatt intresse av att utveckla sin marknad. Utifrån svaren som gavs har en leverantörsvärdering tagits fram för att värdera de leverantörer som passar företaget. Syftet var att försöka avgöra om det var lämpligt att gå vidare med leverantören. Det faktum att alla företagen redovisade ett pågående samarbete med flera byggföretag i Sverige, att flera av företagen är både vana och villiga att arbeta enligt allmänna bestämmelser, att de erbjuder helhetslösningar osv. visar på att möjligheterna för lyckad import är goda. / The construction material market in Sweden is considered today to be oligopolistic where few companies dominate the market. New ways of procuring materials could increase the competition and change the terms for all the actors. Studies have shown that import is one of those new ways of procuring materials, thus altering the current price structure. But companies that consider importing materials will face problems that need solving. The company Midroc has shown great interest in investigating the possibility for purchasing precast concrete structural elements from overseas. The main purpose of this report is to investigate the possibilities of importing and evaluating potential suppliers. Through interviews, literature and inquiries to sales managers and local suppliers, important factors have been identified, such as standards, warranties, transportation and financial risk. A significant finding was that there are technical standards that differ between countries which can impede import. One way to surpass this is to look for concrete products which are certified with the BBC mark. A questionnaire was made which was meant to give useful information about what the company offers and how they work. Price was not included due to the fact that the main interest was the circumstances around an international purchase. However, it has emerged that concrete structural elements in the Baltic States could be 20-30 % cheaper than Swedish products. Suppliers in Poland and the Baltic states were phoned and e-mailed. The suppliers that answered were all currently working in Sweden and interested in increasing their export. A supplier assessment was made which is based on the answers. The fact that all companies were currently cooperating with construction companies in Sweden, show that they are familiar with Swedish regulations and often are able to offer an overall solution. This indicates that the possibilities of importing precast concrete elements to Sweden are good.

This thesis considers strategic change from the novel perspective of a manager practically ‘activating’ it within a complex organisation. It involved 18 months of action research and participant observation within BBC Global News, where joint processes were developed across two converging businesses. A journal was maintained of meetings and events, access was granted to internal documentation, and 12 interviews were conducted. One contribution of this thesis is a new conceptualisation of the developing elements of organisational strategic posture and related environmental events as ‘stremes’: strategic memes representing relevant subsystems, ideas, and subcultures. The posture is depicted as a construction of multiple voices, often combining, sometimes clashing, as ideas compete for legitimacy. This allows the practitioner outlook to be presented through three linked perspectives. A ‘process’ approach maps the unfolding streme system; a ‘people’ approach considers the building of consensus to legitimise stremes; and a ‘practice’ approach considers the efficacy of action research in helping to craft change. It is found that not only do the actions of people shape the streme network; the complex, interdependent network also partially shapes their actions. This research builds on previous work on strategic change, but provides new narrative insight from a practitioner’s outlook. It also created ‘practical knowledge’, since many outputs of the process were implemented within the BBC, and may have relevance elsewhere.

This thesis considers the role of the Information Research Department (IRD) in countering Arab nationalist and Communist propaganda directed at British interests in the Middle East and Africa between 1954 and 1963. It argues that the 1956 Suez Crisis and its fallout was the catalyst that drove a significant expansion of IRD's remit and responsibility. From 1956 the department – which up to this point had had a purely anti-Communist function – was given the responsibility of countering the increasing flow of Arab nationalist propaganda emerging from Egypt. The same year, the Communist powers mounted a renewed and concerted effort to culturally and ideologically penetrate Africa. IRD, who to this point had been excluded from directly operating in Africa, began counter-Communist work in the face of stiff Colonial Office resistance. Analysis of IRD in the Middle East has rarely considered events beyond the immediate aftermath of Suez. IRD's work in Africa is almost wholly unexplored. It is a central contention of this thesis that the two regions cannot be viewed in isolation post-Suez. Egypt's standing was buoyed by the propaganda capital of victory over Suez, and Nasser's position as the figurehead of Arab nationalism was assured. In seeking the removal of colonial influence from the Middle East and Africa, Arab propaganda – particularly the Voice of the Arabs programme of Cairo Radio – ties the regions together. Communist and African nationalist propagandists were drawn to Cairo in the wake of the Suez Crisis. The former, building relationships through aid, sought to leverage Cairo's expanding influence to their own advantage. The latter sought facilities and support for their own propaganda efforts. After Suez, IRD sought to manage Egyptian propaganda whilst avoiding direct confrontation, seeking to normalise relations. In Africa, the department sought to build an infrastructure for information work aimed at influencing future leaders, their efforts constrained by the timetable of British decolonisation. In both regions, through developing relationships with local agencies and the BBC, and from initiatives such as the Transmission 'X' news commentary service, IRD continued to address Arab nationalist and Communist propaganda with a flexibility and responsiveness not recognised in the current literature on IRD.

Les bâtiments à très basse consommation d'énergie bénéficient d'une isolation thermique performante et d'une bonne étanchéité à l'air, souvent couplées à une conception bioclimatique du bâtiment. L'apport d'énergie nécessaire au chauffage et au rafraîchissement de l'ambiance s'en trouve considérablement réduit. Dans ce contexte, il devient possible d'utiliser l'air comme unique vecteur d'énergie, à des débits suffisamment faibles pour permettre son intégration dans le système de ventilation sanitaire, et avec un écart de température réduit entre l'air soufflé et l'ambiance. Une unité terminale de soufflage, ou diffuseur d'air, a alors pour rôle d'assurer un mélange optimal de l'air neuf avec l'air ambiant, de façon à obtenir une répartition homogène de température et de vitesse dans les pièces d'habitation, et un bon renouvellement de l'air intérieur. Ce travail de thèse propose une étude du confort thermique et de l'efficacité de ventilation dans une cellule climatique à échelle 1 en conditions contrôlées, dans le contexte d'utilisation d'un système combiné de ventilation, chauffage et rafraîchissement. Une stratégie de ventilation par mélange est mise en œuvre à l'aide d'un diffuseur d'air composé de douze buses lobées de géométrie complexe, et l'occupation est prise en compte par des mannequins cylindriques, qui constituent des sources de chaleur sensible et de dioxyde de carbone. La vitesse d'air, la concentration en CO2 ainsi que les températures d'air, de globe noir et des parois de la cellule sont suivies expérimentalement pour différentes conditions de soufflage d'air chaud et froid. Les mesures expérimentales sont complétées par des simulations numériques de mécanique des fluides (CFD), qui visent à caractériser l'écoulement dans la cellule. Cette approche fait intervenir une méthode de modélisation en deux temps afin d'intégrer correctement la géométrie complexe du diffuseur d'air dans les simulations. Des études paramétriques sont ensuite proposées pour des conditions non testées expérimentalement. Celles-ci visent à mettre en évidence l'impact des conditions de soufflage et des charges internes sur l'écoulement et sur le confort, pour les conditions spécifiques aux bâtiments à très basse consommation d'énergie.

Main focus of my Master's Thesis is to conduct a research of mythological elements and themes that appear within the narrative structure of selected episodes of BBC television series Doctor Who, deriving from the initial hypothesis that such mythological patterns are still recurring and repeating even in the structure of stories produced by modern show-business industries, which renders their content intrinsically more attractive for any audience. We analyse selected episodes from both arks of the Doctor Who's story individually - the old one, which began in the sixties, and the new one, which is considered to be a reboot of the original series and aired in 2005. The originally intended educative element of the series and its sudden disappearance is also a part of our research. Main analysis of our paper consists of a semiotic analysis of the text of the television series utilizing the point of view of the critical reader that was introduced by Umberto Eco, and deriving from the definition of modern myth that appears in works of Roland Barthes, archaic myth, studied for example by Carl Lévi- Strauss, and Jungian archetypes.

This thesis describes the phenomena of interactive television, focusing on the development of this technology in the United Kingdom which is considered the country with the largest development of this technology. The thesis starts by defining interactive television as such, dividing it into three main categories. Aside of that a short overview of the evolution of television broadcasting in the United Kingdom is presented, and the term Convergence is explained as it is a crucial one for many of the interactive applications. The second part consists of a case study of evolution of interactive television in the United Kingdom. As it tries to answer the main research question - which technological phases must have happened in the transition from linear to interactive television - the thesis divides interactive television into five main phases. The first phase occurs in the analogue broadcasting era, with Teletext as the first instance of "on demand", and first instance of convergence by using telephone. The second phase starts around 1998 with the start of digitalisation. The new technology allows the providers to launch several new forms of interactivity, such as the walled garden, first applications and others. The third phase, starting around 2002 can be seen as the acceptance of interactivity as a...