published_or_final_version / SPACE / Master / Master of Arts

This dissertation draws from and contributes to many traditions within the (interdisciplinary) discipline of communication studies. Serving the two primary objectives of the examination of the figure of the BMX freestyle cycling Pro and the analysis of the role of the magazines within this particular culture or field in the construction and maintenance of this figure, this project brings together studies of cultural intermediaries, magazine history, advertising history and theory, subcultures, audiences, commodification, cultural industries, celebrity, stars and professional athletes. The culture of BMX freestyle cycling is an interesting and heretofore unexamined phenomenon, and a focused examination allows the exploration and investigation of larger questions within the discipline. As such, this dissertation provides an informed interpretation of the culture of BMX freestyle, allows the examination of a number of other issues concerning the mediation of cultural practices, and suggests a theory of the special-interest magazine, thus contributing substantively to various literatures. / Special-interest magazines are a part of a larger system and industries within which the ultimate goal is the sale of commodities. At the same time, they function as a site of credibility within a larger field, both conferring star status on particular individuals and approving particular commodities that are being offered to the readers. Special-interest magazines construct and sell audiences to advertisers, create star systems, propose candidates for stardom, help build image careers, contribute substantially to a "star currency" within the particular field, negotiate (i.e.; mediate) tensions between the advertisers, the stars, and the readers, help organize the time of a culture and work to infuse it with a sense of vitality through the punctual and ritualistic appearance of novel content, assist the consumer with their desires for commodities and stars by standing as catalogues of commodities (serving to educate newcomers in the protocol of the culture), provide new financial opportunities (such as the commodity form of the photo contingency), and in their complicity with the needs of those that provide their primary source of revenue, give more value to the advertising dollar in the construction of editorial content that could be seen as advertising.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of Communication

No description available.

This qualitative study explores identity formation in contemporary society, through investigating the influence of the media on identity formation. The focus is on identity and what people attribute from the media as defining their view of themselves and their world. Seven people aged 25 to 35 years participated in individual, semi-structured interviews, specifically focusing on the participants’ media usage in their leisure time. The analysis revealed that the participants’ tendency to position themselves as agents that were immune to the media’s influence was reflective of the ideological discourse of the ‘self-contained’ individual. Evidently, the participants were unaware of the way(s) in which they had been interpellated to behave as subjects of an individual kind. The prevailing ideological discourse of individualism was challenged by highlighting the contradictions in the participants’ accounts. The analysis further confirmed that identity formation is a dynamic and contradictory process, and unavoidably shaped (even constituted by) history, culture, politics, and ideology. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

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The primary purpose of this study is the exploration of the theoretical and critical framework of media education. The major paradigms used as rationale for the study of media embody views of media as agents of cultural decline that stress discriminating against the media; media as popular arts, stressing discriminating within the media; media as agents of communication, featuring the behavioral models of media studies; studying the media as representational or symbolic systems; and an exploration of the interaction between the self and the media and the question of whether and how media empower or oppress. Developments in the fields of structuralism, semiotics, theories of ideology and the social context of media production are discussed as the contributing factors to a view of media as representational systems. The study is concluded with a discussion of the significance of the context of meaning and a brief discussion of the educational implications of the field of cultural studies.

No description available.

No description available.