No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Giessen. / Includes bibliographical references.

Historical investigation of film audiences and conditions of reception is an underdeveloped area of inquiry, limited by models of spectatorship and mass culture that construct audiences in passive and abstract terms. Current research addressing this problem remains restricted to the years prior to normalization of vertical integration during the mid 1920s, when studio control over exhibition is seen to flatten the contexts of reception and cultural differences between audiences. This dissertation picks up the history of audiences and contexts of reception where current research leaves off by analyzing moviegoing in Springfield, Massachusetts for the period 1926-1932. Starting from the material, social, and discursive contexts within which meanings for moviegoing were constituted, this dissertation locates the historical analysis of film audiences within the framework of cultural studies, which conceptualizes the audience as a nonreductive feature of cultural production. Focusing on the 1926-1932 period, the study recognizes the political economic impact studio integration had on the moviegoing experience throughout America, and assesses the degree to which moviegoing became standardized on the local level. This assessment is made by examining every theater operating in Springfield between 1926 and 1932. Correlating seat capacity with ownership patterns, the study concretely measures the changing proportion of studio dominance over local exhibition. Through an analysis of primary documents and oral histories, the study reconstructs the cultural appeals of each theater, the social geography of the neighborhoods surrounding each theater, and the discourses through which each theater's audiences were constituted and the experience of moviegoing made meaningful. The results indicate significant differences in the social meanings of moviegoing as practiced at different exhibition sites, and suggest the continuing cultural and ideological significance of class and ethnic distinctions in marking out the terrain of exhibition, patterns of attendance, and modes of moviegoing during the early era of vertical integration.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-165). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This thesis examines how and why two amateur videos, broadcast across Canada in 1995, contributed to the disbandment of the Canadian Airborne Regiment. A brief history of the Airborne highlights discipline problems that were known to exist before the videos were broadcast. Common assumptions about images, particularly amateur video images, are explored. The concept of the "media event" is used to show how mediation magnified the videos' impact. A detailed examination of the videos and their constructions as news stories demonstrates how narrative frames and the newsmaking process in general shaped what the public saw. A general content analysis of the media coverage surrounding the videos shows how a moral panic developed when Canadian values were threatened. It is argued that the videos and reaction to them shed more light on attitudes Canadians wanted to keep hidden than they did on any secrets the military harboured.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [447]-477).

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [447]-477).

This thesis investigates the ways in which British and French imperial heroes involved in the exploration, conquest or administration of Mrica between 1870 and 1939 were selected, packaged and promoted to the various sections of the public of their respective countries. It seeks to unveil the commercial, political and personal interests that lay behind the imperial hero-making business. This research analyses the hidden mechanisms, as well as the reasons that led to the appearance of a new type of hero in the context of the 'new' T Imperialism and the 'Scramble for Mrica': private connections, political lobbies (especially colonial advocates and nationalists), commercial interests (journalists, writers, biographers, hagiographers, publishers, film-makers) and personal ambition, the combination of which underpinned the creation and success ofheroic reputations. The first part of the thesis investigates the process through which imperial heroes progressively became widely known in their homelands, and how it was facilitated by the technical and social improvements of the Second Industrial Revolution. Drawing upon a wide variety of printed and manuscript sources, it shows the ever-increasing commercial success of imperial heroes throughout the period, analyses how they could serve political ends, and explains the values for which 'they were held up as examples. The second part examines the case studies of two military commanders in times of Anglo-French rivalry in Africa (the Sirdar Kitchener and Major Marchand before, during and after the Fashoda confrontation of 1898), in order to compare the modalities of the development of these legends, and the different backdrops against which they took shape. This thesis is the first to combine quantitative evidence (such as print run figures) and qualitative sources (such as police records) to demonstrate conclusively the prevalence and complexity of the hero-making process brought about by the conquest of Mrica, and to evaluate the reception of these heroic myths among the public.