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I aim to move the viewer through a system that consists of science fiction, of world building, with themes of nature, technology, and a subtle allusion to comic book aesthetics. Removing customary sci-fi and comic book narrative in favor of concept, self-awareness, and open-ended exploration, the outcome creates a complex setting. The report herein documents the various methods used to create this multifaceted installation space, which was the focus of my selected project.

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Many people assume that editorial cartoons are easily understood by the bulk of the population. For this reason, editorial cartoons are often used as teaching materials in the classroom. Recent research, however, raises doubts as to the effectiveness of this practice. Investigations by Bedient (1971) and DeSousa & Medhurst (1982) determined that the majority of students (grade 5 through college) could not interpret editorial cartoons. These investigators went on to suggest that a logical next step would be to determine if editorial cartoon literacy can be taught. The cognitive style of the participants was examined to determine if the different teaching strategies were differentially effective vis-a-vis field dependence and field independence. Two presentations (treatments) were designed to model methods of reading editorial cartoons. The Whole Cartoon Analysis presented 25 editorial cartoons along with a 100-200 word interpretation of each cartoon. The Parse Analysis Treatment was accomplished in three steps rather than the one for the Whole method. In step one, the whole cartoon is presented with a short gloss of the meaning. In step two all of the cartoon is visually suppressed except for one visual meaning element. This element of the cartoon is discussed and then the next element of the cartoon is added, and so on until the entire cartoon is back on the screen at which point the overall meaning is discussed. The dependent variable of the investigation was the two-part Editorial Cartoon Interpretation Task. Part A asked each participant to enumerate the symbols in the cartoon and define them as to meaning. Part B asked the participant to write a short thematic interpretation of the cartoon. A two-way Analysis of Variance on the data revealed no significant differences in either the main effects or the interaction. / Ed. D.

The mass media have been widely studied because of their pervasiveness and effect on society. The comic strips, as part of the newspaper, are widely read. By their very existence and pervasiveness they mold our culture. The purpose of this study was to examine marriage and the family and how it is portrayed in the comic strips. A historical overview of significant family comic strips was done using comic strip texts. A content analysis of contemporary family strips was also done. The strips were analyzed to determine how often demonstrated affection and/or abuse occurred. In addition, the strips were analyzed to determine the quality and quantity of parent-child, sibling, and husband-wife relationships. Two month samples of 15 different comic strips were analyzed. The comic strip family emerged as a stereotyped group that was white, lower-middle class, with a father who worked at a white collar job and a mother who was a housewife. The family included several school-aged or teen-aged children. Neither demonstrated affection nor abuse was found to occur often in comic strip families. Parent-child interactions and interactions among siblings were judged to be more positive than negative. Husband-wife interactions were more often negative than positive, although there was a wide variance among individual strips. Interactions about leisure time and its use occurred more often than any other category. Household tasks, food, finances, in-laws or parents, dress and health comprised the other major categories of interactions. / Master of Science

The problem under consideration attempts to answer the question: Will an original comic cartoon story used in classroom study of sixth grade arithmetic influence the amount of learning as much as the use of the ordinary text book?

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The licensed character of DC Comics known as Superman has been a beloved pop-culture icon for nearly seven decades. This research examines the cultural and historical relevance of the character of Superman, as well as analyzes the character himself as he is portrayed in various comic books and graphic novels since 1938. Ten comic books featuring Superman as a central character have been examined from each decade starting from the l 930s through the 2000s for a total of 70 comics. The comics were read and analyzed to find possible changes in the character of Superman over time, as well as the roles of Lois Lane, alter-ego Clark Kent, members of Superman's family, emerging enemies, and other interesting aspects of Superman culture. The data collected showed that Superman remains relevant despite significant cultural and historical changes over the past seven decades. Further, much of his popularity lies in his ability to be retooled to meet the needs of the current culture while remaining true to his traditional values. Reviewed research also shows that Superman has educational value as a tool to be used by elementary school teachers.