This dissertation examines the role that animation plays in the formation of transcultural fan communities. A “transcultural fan community” is defined as a group in which members from many national, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds find a sense of connection across difference, engaging with each other through a mutual interest in animation while negotiating the frictions that result from their differing social and historical contexts. The transcultural model acts as an intervention into polarized academic discourses on media globalization which frame animation as either structural neo-imperial domination or as a wellspring of active, resistant readings. Rather than focusing on top-down oppression or bottom-up resistance, this dissertation demonstrates that it is in the intersections and conflicts between different uses of texts that transcultural fan communities are born. The methodologies of this dissertations are drawn from film/media studies, cultural studies, and ethnography. The first two parts employ textual close reading and historical research to show how film animation in the early twentieth century (mainly works by the Fleischer Brothers, Ōfuji Noburō, Walt Disney, and Seo Mitsuyo) and television animation in the late twentieth century (such as The Jetsons, Astro Boy and Cowboy Bebop) depicted and generated nationally and ethnically diverse audiences. Exactly how such diversity was handled varied according to the specific animation producers, distributors, and consumers involved. And yet, all of these cases exemplify models of textual engagement and modes of globalization that have a continuing influence today. Building on the basis of twentieth-century animation, the third part of the dissertation illustrates the risks and potentials that attend media globalization in the Internet era of the early twenty-first century. The web media texts There She Is!! (2003) and Hetalia: Axis Powers (2006) are analyzed alongside results from a survey of animation fans conducted online and at fan events in Canada, the United States, and Japan between July 2009 and September 2010. This dissertation thus demonstrates the different ways of living together in the world generated by the global crossings and clashes of social life and mediated imaginaries today.

The rapid penetration of the Internet and the prevalence of various social media facilitated by new technologies provide new opportunities for how marketing techniques are developed and refined. The creation of viral marketing has been driven by technological innovations and cultural changes. Responding to marketing trends and catering to consumers’ psychological demands and behavioral changes, viral marketing represents the latest online customer-centric marketing (Shukla, 2010). Extending the advertising effects of word-of-mouth (WOM) communication and Internet marketing, viral marketing has demonstrated considerable success and utility in a promotional phase and development process of a product and/or service. This study intends to illustrate the benefits and challenges of viral marketing. The effects and concerns with the adoption of viral marketing are reinforced by previous research and findings from marketer and consumer focus groups. This thesis will contribute to building a theoretical and empirical foundation for viral marketing research and professional practice.

Can the female feel at home in nature, myth and on screen, realms where she is so often laid to rest? "Pictures in an Exhibition" is a pastiche that exposes popular culture and art historical tropes in which ambiguous signifiers have become lost in a chain of referents. An installation of videos documents durational performances—filmed, edited and performed by the artist unaccompanied—that are humorous, satirical, aesthetic, historical, philosophical and psychological. Making simultaneous reference to art history, mass media, literature and mythology, "Pictures in an Exhibition" exposes the conflicted condition of a postfeminist 'self' striving to arrive at an exhibition of subjectivity.

Die Thematisierung der Potenziale und Risiken von internetbasierten Technologien und Inhalten im schulischen Bereich ist von enormer Wichtigkeit. Gut ausgebildete Lehrerinnen und Lehrer können ihren Schülern die gewinnbringenden Möglichkeiten näher bringen, ohne die Gefahren außer Acht zu lassen. Leider sind Lehrkräfte die auf diesem Gebiet Kenntnisse besitzen immer noch in der Minderheit. Ihre Kenntnisse haben die meisten privat erlangt, d.h. ohne direkten Bezug auf einen didaktischen Mehrwert für den Unterricht.

How interactive new media art can effectively communicate an indigenous philosophical concept. The sophistication and complexity of the philosophical concept concerning relationships between land and people and between people, intrinsic to the laws and customs of Australian Indigenous society, has begun to be communicated and accessed beyond the realm of anthropological and ethnological domains of Western scholarship. The exciting scope and rapid development of new media arts presents an innovative means of creating an interactive relationship with the general Australian public, addressing the urgent need for an understanding of Indigenous Australian concepts of relationship to land, and to each other, absent from Western narratives. The study is framed by an Indigenous concept of place, and relationships between land and people and between people; and explores how this concept can be clearly communicated through interactive new media arts. It involves: a creative project, the development of an interactive new media art project, a website work-in-progress titled site\sight\cite; and an exegesis, a Novella of Ideas, on the origins, influences, objectives, and potential of creative practices and processes engaged in the creative project. Research undertaken for the creative project and exegesis extended my creative practice into the use of interdisciplinary arts, expressly for the expression of philosophical concepts, consolidating 23 years experience in Indigenous community arts development. The creative project and exegesis contributes to an existing body of Indigenous work in a range of areas - including education, the arts and humanities - which bridges old and new society in Australia. In this study, old and new society is defined by the time of the initial production of art and foundations of knowledge, in the country of its origins, in Indigenous Australia dating back at least 40,000 years.

Pattern is a familiar concept ever present in our daily lives, existing in many material forms, observable in varied states, and able to be created from a diverse range of processes and events. Natural pattern forms, such as biological and chemical patterns, have been extensively studied, often within the digital environment because of its capacity to process large amounts of data which aids investigation of not only their characteristics but their potentiality. However, human designed physical patterns, while having been investigated extensively in terms of their historical, geographic and cultural significance and their aesthetic and/or mathematical characteristics, have not been fully investigated in terms of their evolutionary potential. This project explores one example of human designed physical patterns, crochet lace patterns ??? which have remained largely stable and consistent throughout various technological transformations such as the industrial revolution ??? in order to explore pattern as a process and investigate the potential for these patterns to become emergent. This exploration translated the patterns into the digital environment where, as data, the patterns become available for manipulation using a generative art practice approach. By translating the patterns into a digital environment and engaging with the pattern forms at their systematic core, where crochet pattern instructions and software programming scripts operate similarly as ???code???, this research provided a deeper understanding of the patterns and allowed exploration of whether a pattern???s developmental path can be altered to create new emergent patterns. This research draws on systems theory and systems aesthetics and their application within contemporary generative art practice and informs visual arts in several areas including showing how aesthetic values shift as work becomes cross-disciplinary and enters the digital environment, and how the introduction and location of innovation affects the relationship between the original and its copy.

This thesis investigates the potential for radio on the Internet to enhance processes of communication and media practice in the form of new a public sphere. Drawing on the work of Marshall McLuhan, the early stages of this thesis present an enquiry into the unique positive qualities of both radio and the Internet. The argument that follows contends that radio presented on the Internet can draw from the perceived technological benefits of each individual medium, combining as a potential site for public spheres. Both Habermas’s liberal public sphere and contemporary critiques of the concept are examined to define a range of principles that could be tested against relevant examples. The increasing commercialisation of the Internet is presented as a challenge to the normative ideals of a public sphere and counter-balances the optimism of a technologically determinist approach. A series of thematic codes are developed from the relevant theory and combined with qualitative interviews. This forms the framework for a thematic analysis of three individual case studies: Unwelcome Guests, an anti-corporate radio programme, SW Radio Africa, “the independent voice of Zimbabwe,” and NH Making Waves, the radio arm of a community peace activist group. The study investigates opportunities for these three individual case studies to act as public spheres, by examining the interplay that occurs between both Internet and radio practices. As the thematic analysis will demonstrate, placing radio content on the Internet presents new opportunities to diversify content and audiences through collaborative production and improved distribution. Recommendations for further research emphasise the need to pursue the Internet’s role in the public sphere potential of radio.

This is an investigation of the diffusion of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet, by community broadcasting organisations. In order to understand ICT diffusion processes in community radio stations, this study focuses on a particular project which saw a large scale diffusion of Internet technologies across Australian community radio stations at the beginning of 1998. The Community Access Network (CAN) project was an initiative of the Australian government, and saw funding for the provision of an Internet ready computer to every licensed community radio station in Australia. In approaching this subject, this research employed social constructivist assumptions, expecting that ICT use, and in particular the CAN workstations, would vary from station to station, reflecting the cultural and organisational conditions in each environment. As such the study aimed to understand the ways in which ICT technologies have been used and understood by community ralo station management and their participants. Since community radio stations are organisations, this study employed Everett Rogers' framework for understanding diffusion of innovation processes within organisations, acknowledging that organisational variables act on innovation behaviour in a manner over and above that of the aggregate of individual members of the organisation. This approach provided scope for the investigation and comparison of organisational factors, as well as meaning making on the part of individual participants. The research was based on data collected from two case studies, chosen on the basis of their divergent social, cultural and organisational environments; 4EB in Brisbane, a metropolitan, ethnic community radio station; and 2NCR-FM in Lismore, a regional, generalist community radio station. Ethnographic methods of observation and interviews were employed to collect qualitative data, providing insider accounts of community broadcaster's use, experience, and understanding of the new technologies in their day-to-day broadcast practices. By looking at two different community radio stations, this research acknowledges points of similarity and difference across these organisational situations, identifying factors that contribute to variation in technology take-up in particular station programming emphasis, perception of need, organisational resources, role of innovation champions, training, ICT policy and broadcaster variables. Evidence drawn from these case studies, and the specific ICT investigated, contributes to a general understanding of factors in the diffusion of ICT technologies across the community broadcast sector, providing a frame of reference for anticipating subsequent innovation diffusion. In particular, there are implications for future diffusion projects which plan to deploy new technologies across the community radio sector. It also contextualises community broadcasting and ICT use within the field of new technology uptake by broadcast sectors in general.

This dissertation is an intervention into the ongoing revisions of Gerard Genette’s concept of paratexts. Increasingly used in discussions of artifacts other than the literary novels that were Genette’s object of attention, the concept of paratexts has given rise to intense debates regarding the nature and functions of paratextual elements across media. One area of contestation is the relation of paratext to narrative. While Genette’s original paradigm complicates the possibility of a narrative paratext, I show that the liminal zones usually occupied by paratexts—what I call paratextual space—are commonly used for narrative purposes, particularly as popular narratives extend across media. In this dissertation, I analyze the different embodiments of Watchmen with a focus on such a use of paratextual spaces. I argue that studies of narratives presented in these spaces—what I refer to as paratextual narratives—will not only shed light on these narrative strategies, but also give new insights into how popular narratives extend across new media platforms. My first analytical chapter concerns the material that frames the Watchmen graphic narrative, and its roots in the media specific history and paratextual phenomenon known as lettercols. I show how this paratextual space was repurposed in the creation of Watchmen to present narrative material that worked to establish and augment the history of the storyworld and the characters presented in the graphic narrative of the Watchmen comics. I argue that the functions of these materials are influenced by the tradition established by the lettercols and the paratextual spaces in which they are situated. In my second analytical chapter I turn to the Watchmen adaptation, focusing in particular on the digital narratives framing the cinematic premiere of the film. I show how the paratextual nature of these materials occluded their narrative functions, causing them to be excluded from what is regarded the adaptation of Watchmen. I argue that the materials framing the Watchmen film are paratextual narratives that should be seen as integral parts of the Watchmen adaptation. In my conclusion I address the Watchmen prequel-series Before Watchmen and raise questions regarding how paratextual narratives function for media franchising.

O consumo das tecnologias da nova mídia – entre elas, a internet e suas aplicações, o telefone celular e os jogos online – possui um papel especialmente relevante para os jovens. Pode-se dizer que a geração adolescente atual não “adotou” a nova mídia, mas sim que ela sempre foi parte de suas vidas. Estas tecnologias oferecem amplas possibilidades de comunicação e expressão e são mais interativas e imersivas que a mídia “tradicional” – como a televisão, o rádio e o jornal, por exemplo. Além disso, os jovens têm se valido destas novas tecnologias em seus processos de aprendizagem e socialização. Eles se preocupam bastante em cultivar suas relações sociais e em construir sua identidade e, assim, a possibilidade de as novas tecnologias aprimorarem a sua socialização pode ser sua a grande atratividade. Frente a isso, este trabalho se propôs a investigar que papéis a nova mídia desempenha na socialização dos adolescentes. Esta investigação é realizada considerando o amplo domínio tecnológico da nova mídia, e não apenas uma tecnologia específica, a fim de explorar as relações gerais que existem entre elas e as motivações dos adolescentes. Estes, por sua vez, são considerados por seu papel ativo na apropriação da mídia, e não como figuras passivas sujeitas à ação determinista de influências externas. O consumo das tecnologias da nova mídia – entre elas, a internet e suas aplicações, o telefone celular e os jogos online – possui um papel especialmente relevante para os jovens. Pode-se dizer que a geração adolescente atual não “adotou” a nova mídia, mas sim que ela sempre foi parte de suas vidas. Estas tecnologias oferecem amplas possibilidades de comunicação e expressão e são mais interativas e imersivas que a mídia “tradicional” – como a televisão, o rádio e o jornal, por exemplo. Além disso, os jovens têm se valido destas novas tecnologias em seus processos de aprendizagem e socialização. Eles se preocupam bastante em cultivar suas relações sociais e em construir sua identidade e, assim, a possibilidade de as novas tecnologias aprimorarem a sua socialização pode ser sua a grande atratividade. Frente a isso, este trabalho se propôs a investigar que papéis a nova mídia desempenha na socialização dos adolescentes. Esta investigação é realizada considerando o amplo domínio tecnológico da nova mídia, e não apenas uma tecnologia específica, a fim de explorar as relações gerais que existem entre elas e as motivações dos adolescentes. Estes, por sua vez, são considerados por seu papel ativo na apropriação da mídia, e não como figuras passivas sujeitas à ação determinista de influências externas. Por outro lado, ela pode provocar um distanciamento em certos contextos e preocupações quanto à privacidade, além de uma possível dependência da mídia para a socialização. Estes resultados buscam contribuir com o conhecimento na área ao enfatizar o contexto social dos adolescentes e ao promover um entendimento mais holístico sobre o tema. / The consumption of new media technologies – including internet and its applications, mobile phones and online games – has an important role for young people. It is possible to say that the current teen generation has not “adopted” the new media, they were always part of their lives. The main features of these technologies are their wide possibilities of communication and expression, which are more interactive and immersive than “traditional” media’s – such as television, newspapers or radio. Moreover, young people have taken advantage of these new technologies in their learning and socialization processes. Teenagers are very concerned about their social relationships and the development of their self-identity, thus the possibilities offered by new media to achieve these purposes may be their greatest attractiveness. In face of these considerations, the aim of this study is to investigate the roles of new media in the socialization of adolescents. This research is undertaken over the wide technological dominium of new media, not only over a specific isolated technology in order to explore the generic relationships between them and teenagers’ motivations. Young people are considered for their active role in media appropriation, not just as passive individuals under deterministic external influences. This study proposed an exploratory qualitative research under interpretative approach. In first place, it was conducted a review of the literature about adolescents’ consumption behavior and the uses of new media. In second place, it was undertaken a combination of focus groups and depth interviews with 45 adolescents of both genders, between 13-17 years old. As results, the research has indicated connectedness, entertainment, self-expression and image construction as the main motivations involved in new media appropriation. Peers appear to be the most important sources of consumption influences, so as the family, in certain situations. The research has also identified a number of factors guiding teenagers’ selection of specific new media technologies, such as the desired or required immediacy, the use of the medium by interest groups, the communication costs, the presence of aggregated features and the intimacy level of the relationship. Finally, this study also evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of teenagers’ communication through new media and the meanings of this communication in their socialization. More specifically, the new technologies are essential to relationships’ maintenance and intensification and useful for networking expansion and interaction with the opposite gender. In the other hand, communication through new media may induce detachment between young people and concerns about privacy in certain cases, besides the possibility of media dependency for their socialization. The results of this study aim to contribute with the knowledge in the field by the emphasis in the social context of young people and the advancement in a more holistic understanding about this subject.