<p> Newspapers rely on content-based documentary photography to visually communicate current news events. As circulations declined in the mid-1980s, media owners persuaded editors into mixing traditional hard news on their front pages with reader-friendly soft news features. Content-based visual journalism was challenged by the encroachment of visual fluff, altering the character projected to readers.</p><p> Today, newspapers struggle to evolve into online &ldquo;news organizations&rdquo; and visual journalism competes with entertainment, advertising, and marketing to attract viewers. The central question for the future is, will the marketing pressure continue to dilute visual journalism and overload viewers with visual distractions? And, how will design and organization influence the viewers&rsquo; perception of credibility?</p><p> Through a series of elicitation interviews, this research examined how the visual choices that online newspapers make &mdash; their &ldquo;visual character&rdquo; &mdash; influence audience perceptions of news credibility. The responses showed that readers&rsquo; perceptions of credibility are influenced by the visual content on a newspaper Web site. The study participants gauged credibility based on factors like photography use, competing advertising, and design organization. The study also found that linking visual branding to the newspaper print version could add to credibility.</p><p>

Since the digital revolution, media studies has repositioned celluloid in media archaeology while drawing attention to new media, new visual, and new spectatorship. We could then conceive 'what is/was cinema?' by 're-placing' rather than replacing such film theory concepts as apparatus, image, and subjectivity in a feedback circuit between past and present. In this context, the new media term interface seems inspiring; its notion of contact surface between humans and/or machines has evolved in various ways to redefine cinema, screen, and body. But I find interfacial elements or aspects to be inherent in film (studies), given the term's specificity (compared to 'apparatus'), flexibility (applicable to 'sur/face'), universality (implying 'relationality''), and intermediality (rooming 'interdisciplinarity'). A creative adaptation of interface could then serve to discover and invent a synthetic, multi-faceted notion of interfaciality that seems to underlie both image and subjectivity. For this project, I rearticulate a variety of film and interdisciplinary theories such as ontology of image, narratology of material, psychoanalysis of the real, phenomenology of body, cognitivism of mind, ethics of the other, aesthetics of appearance, and sociology of the digital. Ultimately, I propose to remap film studies through the prism of this interface theory. / I introduce cinematic interface as any contact surface mediating two sides through spatial difference (object/medium/subject) and temporal deferment (recording/editing/projection). Then, the cinematic apparatus appears as a conveyer belt of interfaces from the single surface (object) through the triple medium-interface (camera/film/screen) to the double body-interface (eye/mind). This model allows us to combine Sigmund Freud's and Henri Bergson's still resonating ideas on perception and memory in a way of reshaping the former theories of apparatus, ideological or analytical. / Drawing on a wide range of films, five chapters then investigate the interfaces on screen: (1) the direct appearance of a camera/filmstrip/screen, (2) the character's bodily contact with such a medium-interface, (3) the object's surface and (4) the subject's face as 'quasi-interfaces,' and (5) image and subjectivity as such. In each chapter, interfaciality leads us beyond its basic notion of neutral mediation or transparent communication toward the inherent disequilibrium, intrinsic dialectics, inhuman dimension, and implosive dynamics between two sides of an interface, between object and subject. I elaborate on these inner qualities in terms of ''asymmetrical mutuality,' 'ambivalent tactility,' 'immanent virtuality,' 'multiple directionality,' and 'para- index'/'indexivity'--- five keywords correspondent to five crucial concepts in film theory: suture, embodiment, illusion, signification, and indexicality , which I continue to reframe through different methodologies, unearthing hidden niches and latent constellations between them. / Opening with Michael Haneke's Cache, Chapter 1 not only argues that its video-interface 'desutures' classical seamless narrative, but also locates the multiple suture/desuture dialectics in semiotic suture theory, renewed psychoanalysis, enunciation theory, narratography, etc. This process then leads to interfaciality not just before, but also immanent in the eye asymmetrically related to the inhuman Gaze in matter, while moving from the Lacanian to Deleuzian ontology of perception. Likewise, Chapter 2 takes Rossellini's Virginity as a springboard for rethinking the touch of the screen in the history of spectatorship theory: from psychoanalysis through early Rube film study to phenomenology of embodiment. Ambivalently tactile, embodied interfaciality is here found in the skin in terms of 'screen as body' and 'body as screen.' / Chapter 3 examines how the surface of an object can appear like a pseudo-camera, a virtual filmstrip, and a flat/fluid/fluorescent screen, as suggested in Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century. Questioning the aesthetics of illusion, I here shed light on illusion of interfaciality immanent in the world, the cognitive effect of 'as if it is becoming interface.' On the opposite side, after looking at Kim Ki-duk's Time, Chapter 4 analyzes how the face can function as a multi-directional interface: a 'readerly window' to the character, a 'writerly mirror' for the viewer, a 'machinic simulacrum' of asubjectivity, and an 'uncanny icon' toward otherness. I accordingly trace the notion of signification from semiotics to phenomenology to ontology to ethics. / In the final chapter I readdress indexicality in two ways: the image as 'para-index' that only partially, impossibly indicates the absent but immanent Real, and subjectivity as 'indexical activity,' the act of indication for information or participation through our digits' tactile experience of digital interfaces. In this way, my upward trajectory from the infrastructure of apparatus through the superstructure of onscreen images to the apex of image itself goes back down to the actual ground of interface, geared up to our new media world. In so doing I suggest that interface might serve for a general theory of image and subjectivity through a meta-critical reengagement with film theory.

The impact of media on older women| Ageist attitudes towards biological, psychological, and social aging

<p> <i>Musica Speculativa</i> is a final project in two parts in which I explore, through both theory and practice, the role of metaphors in our understanding of reality with special attention given to the use of visual representation in multimedia concert works that employ electroacoustics. Part I, entitled, "Imaginary Cognition: Interpreting the Topoi of Intermedia Electroacoustic Concert Works," explores how metaphors play a core role in our musical experience and how aural metaphors can be enhanced by and ultimately interact with visual metaphors to create a contrapuntal intermedia experience. Part II, "<i>Musica Speculativa:</i> A Multimedia Concert in Five Movements and Three Intermezzi," for mezzo-soprano, flute, B-flat bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, a percussionist performing an array of lightning bottles, a dancer with a gesture-sensing wand, and a technologist operating interactive audio and video processing, focuses on the medieval philosophy of <i>Musica Speculativa</i> and how it relates to our current understanding of the world. </p><p> In part I explore the heightened experience of metaphorical exchange through the utilization of multimedia. The starting point is the expansion of visual enhancement in electroacoustic compositions due to the widespread availability of projection in concert halls and the multimedia expectations created through 21st-century Western culture. With the use of visual representation comes the potential to map musical ideas onto visual signs, creating another level of cognition. The subsequent unfolding of visual signifiers offers a direct visual complement and subsequent interaction to the unfolding of aural themes in electroacoustic compositions. The paper surveys the current research surrounding metaphorical thematic recognition in electroacoustic works whose transformational processes might be unfamiliar, and which in turn create fertile ground for the negotiation of meaning. The interaction of media and the differences created among the various signs within the music and the visual art create a heightened concert experience that is familiar to and in many ways expected by contemporary listeners. </p><p> Composers such as Jaroslaw Kapuscinski have sought to use multimedia as a means to enhance the concert experience, giving movement to the acousmatic presence in their electroacoustic works. In turn, these works create a concert experience that is more familiar to the 21st-century audience. Through examining Kapuscinski's recent work, <i>Oli's Dream,</i> in light of cognitive research by Zbikowski (1998 &amp; 2002), topic theory by Agawu (1991 &amp; 2009), and multimedia research by Cook (1998), I propose a theory for analyzing contrapuntal meaning in multimedia concert works. </p><p> The themes explored in Part I, regarding the use of metaphor to interpret both visual and aural stimuli, ultimately creating a metaphor for a reality never fully grasped due to the limits of human understanding, are further explored artistically in the multimedia concert work, <i>Musica Speculativa. </i> The medieval philosophy of Musica Speculativa suggests that music as it is understood today (<i>musica instrumentalis</i>) is the only tangible form of the metaphysical music ruling human interactions (musica humana) and ordering the cosmos (<i>musica mundana</i>). I found the concept of <i>Musica Speculativa</i> to be a fitting metaphor for how music and art allude to our own perception of reality and our place within that world. The project as a whole re-examines the concept of <i> Musica Speculativa</i> in light of our current technological landscape to gain a deeper understanding of how we interact with the world around us. </p>

M. Tech. Electrical Engineering / In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in real-time and delay sensitive applications. This is partly due to the increase in the use of video and audio streaming services. Most of these services depend on the User Datagram Protocol which is known as a fast and best effort protocol. However, there is no guarantee that packets sent via User Datagram Protocol will be received in their entirety. This is due to the absence of any packet error recovery mechanism in User Datagram Protocol. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to investigate and evaluate the performance of raptor codes in packet based wireless networks.

<p> This dissertation investigates issues of representation surrounding the American Indian (NDN) and the mixedblood. By conflating images of the trickster as described by NDN scholars with the postmodern theories of Donna Haraway, I explore in my dissertation how the trickster provides a way of viewing formerly accepted boundaries of identity from new perspectives. As cyborg, the trickster is in the "system," but it is also enacting change by pushing against those boundaries, exposing them as social fictions. I create a cyborg trickster heuristic, using it as a lens with which to both analyze how NDNs construct online identities and the rhetorical maneuvers they undergo. Moving beyond access issues, I show how NDNs are strengthening their presence through social media. Ultimately, I argue that the cyborg trickster shows how identities (NDN and non-NDN alike) are multiply-created and constantly in flux, transcending the traditional boundaries of self and other, online and offline, space and place, to allow for a new understanding of the individual in society and society within the individual.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-128).

No description available.

<p> This dissertation explores the role that intellectual property law plays as it influences the circulation and use of religious goods in contemporary religious organizations in the United States. The coherence of many modern spiritual communities no longer lies in a centralized institution like the church but instead in a shared dedication to sacred texts and other religious media. Thus, intellectual property law has become an effective means to administer the ephemeral beliefs and practices mediated by these texts. I explore a number of cases to demonstrate how intellectual property law can be used to maintain and adjudicate social relations rather than simply determining the proper allocation of ownership over a contested good. This project uses a number of select case studies &ndash; the legal battles of the Urantia Foundation and Worldwide Church of God, Scientology&rsquo;s lawsuits against Internet Service Providers, the practice of sermon-stealing as it relates to the growth of sermon databases &ndash; to examine how religious communities ethically justify forms of ownership in religious goods and to highlight the incongruities between theories of authorship, originality and ownership within spiritual communities and those embedded in the law. I conclude that religious property owners construct innovative strategies for knowledge production and distribution as they mobilize IP to organize social and spiritual communities, care for and protect sacred goods, produce new articulations of spiritual identity, and even use the prohibitions of law to enchant material forms. </p>

<p> The purpose of this research is to critically analyze Orange is the New Black (OITNB) by conducting an intersectional analysis of seasons 1 and 2. Imprisoned women are excluded from discussions about their oppression. Incarcerated women lack: 1) the four domains of power, which are hegemonic, interpersonal, disciplinary, and structural; and 2) control of their representations. Media&rsquo;s representations about imprisoned women are accessible through movies, television news, television shows, and newspapers; which have consistently depicted women in prison inaccurately as &ldquo;bad&rdquo;, violent, and sexually insatiable. The women who write prison narratives books are not representative of the female prison system, often reflecting their personal experience. </p><p> OITNB is an internationally famous and award-winning show with a readily accessible and influential platform (Netflix). OITNB is relevant to the current discussion of imprisoned women and their representation of females; thus, it is important to ask how the show presents and depicts the women&rsquo;s Federal prison system. An intersectional analysis will examine how women of different racial/ethnic groups and criminal offenses are represented in OITNB. To establish whether OITNB is disrupting or reinforcing these images for women imprisoned as a whole, or for specific racial/ethnic groups, or criminal offense types.</p>