ABSTRACT Treating the concept of culture as a heuristic allows us to analyze multiple contexts involving culture as continuously changing with or without exterior contact. The productions from such system have the potential to develop identities through ideological materials produced by specialized rhetoric. This paper then focuses on how figurative language and structure affect the ways in which rhetoric, ideology, and identity are formed within the context of film reviews. In particular, I analyze reviews from the films Birdman and The Revenant, both directed by Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu, to detail how the use of metaphors influences the production of rhetoric. I use cross-cultural rhetoric and identity frames in each review as a way to identify the implications of the use of metaphors in film reviews and what this choice details about the writers and the agencies for which they work.

The discussion about high culture and popular culture in our society has been going on for decades. In few places is it as loud as within culture journalism and the critics’ society, where the question of what is good taste and what is dumb entertainment constantly gets brought to the surface. Film is a particularly vulnerable area, since it is such a universally appealing and rather young medium. In America and England several studies have been performed of the reviewing society and reveiwers’ use of high and low art-discourse in their writing. The Swedish market is sorely lacking in this area.   This study is an attempt to shed some light on the way Swedish culture journalism works, with the focus being Swedish film reviews. The goal is to explore the use of high culture and popular culture discourse within Swedish reviews by examining the movie reviews published in the two large Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet in 2013. The reviews were studied using a number of variables, some of which represented the high culture discourse, and some of which represented the popular culture discourse. The study showed that the reviewers of these newspapers tended to use both high art discourse and popular culture discourse within their reviews to almost the same extent. The news papers were also very similar in the way they used the variables for high culture and popular culture discourse.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo a análise dos adjetivos em funcionamento no gênero crítica de cinema. Por meio dos pressupostos teóricos da Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional, argumentamos que a gramática deve ser estudada em conjunto com textos. Argumentamos ainda que os adjetivos têm importante papel na expressão de significados interpessoais, especialmente na expressão de avaliações, dados os contextos de situação em que estão inseridas as críticas de cinema. A partir de uma revisão crítica do conceito de adjetivo presente nas gramáticas tradicionais e nos trabalhos de orientação semântico-discursiva, e apoiando-nos em classificação de Moura Neves (2011), identificamos uma ocorrência diferenciada de tipos de adjetivos (qualificadores e classificadores) em movimentos retóricos distintos da crítica de cinema e argumentamos pelo seu papel na construção de posicionamentos em interações comunicativas. Nosso corpus é composto por críticas de cinema publicadas em dois veículos distintos - jornal de grande circulação e revista eletrônica especializada. Sendo assim, além de um estudo dos adjetivos no discurso, elaboramos um material de referência do gênero crítica de cinema a partir das noções de a) variáveis do contexto de situação (campo, relações e modo); b) estrutura potencial de gênero (Hasan, 1989), relevantes para a linha teórica que escolhemos / This research aims at analysing the use of adjectives in film reviews. Drawing on the principles of hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics, we argue that grammar should be studied together with texts. We also argue that adjectives have an important role to play in the expression of interpersonal meanings, particularly in the expression of evaluation, given the context of situation of the film reviews. Taking as a point of departure a critical review of the concept of adjectives in traditional grammars, we review their treatment in semantic-discursive approaches, and adopt Moura Nevess classification of adjectives into types (2011). This enabled us to identify correlations between adjective types and distinct rhetorical movements in film reviews. We have also dealt with the role of adjectives in the construction of positioning in text. Our corpus is made of film reviews published in two different media - major newspapers and specialized electronic magazines. Thus, besides a study of adjectives in use, our research can also be seen as reference material for the study of film reviews, drawing on the notions of context of situation (field, tenor and mode), and of Generic Structure Potential (Hasan, 1989)

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo a análise dos adjetivos em funcionamento no gênero crítica de cinema. Por meio dos pressupostos teóricos da Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional, argumentamos que a gramática deve ser estudada em conjunto com textos. Argumentamos ainda que os adjetivos têm importante papel na expressão de significados interpessoais, especialmente na expressão de avaliações, dados os contextos de situação em que estão inseridas as críticas de cinema. A partir de uma revisão crítica do conceito de adjetivo presente nas gramáticas tradicionais e nos trabalhos de orientação semântico-discursiva, e apoiando-nos em classificação de Moura Neves (2011), identificamos uma ocorrência diferenciada de tipos de adjetivos (qualificadores e classificadores) em movimentos retóricos distintos da crítica de cinema e argumentamos pelo seu papel na construção de posicionamentos em interações comunicativas. Nosso corpus é composto por críticas de cinema publicadas em dois veículos distintos - jornal de grande circulação e revista eletrônica especializada. Sendo assim, além de um estudo dos adjetivos no discurso, elaboramos um material de referência do gênero crítica de cinema a partir das noções de a) variáveis do contexto de situação (campo, relações e modo); b) estrutura potencial de gênero (Hasan, 1989), relevantes para a linha teórica que escolhemos / This research aims at analysing the use of adjectives in film reviews. Drawing on the principles of hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics, we argue that grammar should be studied together with texts. We also argue that adjectives have an important role to play in the expression of interpersonal meanings, particularly in the expression of evaluation, given the context of situation of the film reviews. Taking as a point of departure a critical review of the concept of adjectives in traditional grammars, we review their treatment in semantic-discursive approaches, and adopt Moura Nevess classification of adjectives into types (2011). This enabled us to identify correlations between adjective types and distinct rhetorical movements in film reviews. We have also dealt with the role of adjectives in the construction of positioning in text. Our corpus is made of film reviews published in two different media - major newspapers and specialized electronic magazines. Thus, besides a study of adjectives in use, our research can also be seen as reference material for the study of film reviews, drawing on the notions of context of situation (field, tenor and mode), and of Generic Structure Potential (Hasan, 1989)

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T14:46:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 5051528 bytes, checksum: 0f117f4f45a3a652cdb678e36a5037e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Mediatization arises as an unfinished phenomenon, but with the analysis of some film reviews on audiovisual and textual aspects, and also, viewers comments, we want to understand how the latter, in a given site, has been part of a mediatization process, revealing the overflow of social relations to a means that is increasingly becoming a space, and thus generating the concept of "web-review." Our goal is to discover how this relationship between naturally complex and impure review and Web is generating new media practice, how this influences new production of the message, but also experiences with reviews. As for our method, we have the content analysis, the means and the message, but used in a somewhat formalistic way, allowing a type of analysis that took place according to what our objective is, bringing their problems without an excessively rigid structure. The fact is that we find that this new form of review is not limited to "online textual review" or " online audiovisual review ", but it includes all the Web inset and all the resulting human experiences - this contact with hypermedia and interactive possibilities. Finally, we explain that we analyzed two aspects, and the main message and the return messages from the interacting public, facing a process the process of mediatization of underway reviews, and we have shown that the dimension of "web-review" is not a process that comes after the "online reviews", but that both characterizations coexist, as different dimensions of the same phenomenon. / A questão da midiatização nos surge como um fenômeno inacabado, mas, com a análise de algumas resenhas cinematográficas, em seus aspectos audiovisuais, textuais e os comentários do público, pretendemos entender como elas, em um determinado site, vêm sendo parte de um processo de midiatização, revelando o transbordamento das relações sociais para um meio que vem se tornando cada vez mais um espaço, e com isso gerando a noção de web-resenha . Nosso objetivo está em descobrir como essa relação naturalmente complexa e impura entre resenha e Web está gerando novas práticas midiáticas, como isso influencia novas formas de produção da mensagem, mas também de experiências com a resenha. Quanto ao nosso método, temos a Análise de Conteúdo, do meio e da mensagem, mas usada de uma forma pouco formalista, permitindo um tipo de análise que ocorreu de acordo com o que o nosso objeto e sua problemática vêm nos trazendo, sem que os tenhamos colocado numa estrutura demasiadamente rígida. O fato é que descobrimos que essa nova forma de fazer resenha não se limita à resenha textual online ou à resenha audiovisual online , mas inclui todo o entremeio da Web e toda a experiência humana resultante disso, desse contato com hipermídia e possibilidades interativas. Enfim, devemos explicar que analisamos dois aspectos, o da produção da mensagem principal e a das mensagens de retorno do público interagente, frente a um processo de midiatização das resenhas ainda em andamento, e que nos tem revelado que a dimensão da web-resenha não é um processo que vem depois das resenhas online , mas que ambas as caracterizações coexistem, sendo dimensões diferentes de um mesmo fenômeno.

The divide between popular culture and high culture has been a subject of discussion since the early days of media research. Even though popular culture has a somewhat higher status today than in the early 1900’s, the division between the two cultural forms still exists. For example, the movies that appeal to the great masses are rarely awarded the most prestigious European film prices. The aim of this study was to examine how these two cultural practices is separated in film reviews on the Swedish film site MovieZine with the use of the socio-cultural theories of Adorno, Horkheimer and Bourdieu. The main issues consisted of what types of rhetorical arguments the critics use to value the film, and what types of cultural references they make in the different reviews The selection of the movie reviews for this study was based on the ten most viewed movies in Swedish cinema in 2016, and ten movies that were awarded some of the most prestigious and refined American and European film prices in the same year. The general result showed that the film critics used different types of rhetorical arguments based on what type of films they reviewed. In their reviews of the more high cultural films, the citric based their arguments on matters that are considered to be of a more intellectual and analytical kind, than in the reviews of the films that appeal to the masses. The critics often referred to movies or other cultural phenomenon that could be placed on the same side of the cultural spectrum as the movies they reviewed.

The state of cultural journalism has been a subject of discussion within journalism research for a long period of time. The core of the discussion is that cultural journalism differs from journalism in many ways, which creates friction. Some researchers illustrate this friction as a battle between two separate paradigms – the journalistic paradigm and the aestethic paradigm – and their values. The aesthetic paradigm strives for values such as subjectivity, pedagogicality and expertise, while the journalistic paradigm focuses on effectivity, objectivity and ethics. The research concerning this has mostly been aimed at literature and music, but not film to the same extent. This study aimed to fill that gap by investigating the changes within swedish film criticism during the time between the late ‘90s and today. The platforms that we analysed are Moviezine, Barometern and Aftonbladet and the film reviews from them were analysed from the perspective of language, method of production and the values of the two paradigms. The study showed that these three platforms took their own paths; some of them have moved towards the aesthetic paradigm, while others have gone in the opposite direction. 2016 is the most divisive year of the analysed years.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to examine how cultural art journalistic critique manifests on different digital platforms today. I chose to focus on film criticism as it not only tells a story about the movies but also about the society. The bachelor thesis also aims to examine if there are any differences in how amateurs and professional journalists frames film criticism and in extension the society. The research questions examined were:How are the reviews composition and content arranged? How does the reviews rhetoric get constructed? How do the writers approach appraisements in their texts and how do these get framed? Do the texts have an inclination towards the aesthetic or the journalistic paradigm? I used Hulténs mass media rhetoric analysis which is a form of qualitative media content analysis in order to find differences and similarities in the texts. By closely examining the reviews, I found that references to popular culture were of great significance in the field of journalistic film criticism. They do not only show the journalists habitus but also their position in the field and the fields doxa. The study shows that the amateurs often emulates and are inspired by the professional journalists. The amateurs also largely depend on the aesthetic paradigm whilst the professionals strives for an equiponderant relation to both paradigms. My conclusion is that the amateurs compose a heterodox rebellion towards the current doxa on the field and that the professionals reigns the field with their knowledge and their complex and critical portrayal of movies and the society.

This study takes a closer look at the screenplay of the 2019 coming-of-age film, Booksmart. Using critical discourse analysis, and Fairclough’s three-dimensional method, it examines the way girls are portrayed based on the screenplay and its audience reviews. The main theories used in order to find the right perspective for this analysis, are Steiner’s (2014) feminist media theory. Gendered Language theories are also taken into account in order to find the right components in the text, such as word choices in the dialogue. Previous studies used to guide this study include Henesy (2020), Yue (2019), Shapiro (2017), Edwards (2016) and Nairn et. al. (2014). Using gendered language, performed gender and feminist values to decode the screenplay, the findings of this study show that the choices made in the screenplay of Booksmart (2019) are to distinguish the difference between the two female protagonists. The main component being how they deliver their dialogue and how certain characteristics in both conversation and personality can change the power dynamic between the two protagonists. The film also manages to split its audience into two groups: the ones who hate it, and the ones who love it.