Film criticism has changed since its inception and will continue to change moving forward. The evolution of film criticism has largely been a story of the shift from an elite field of intellectual exploration by a few knowledgeable experts to a democratic phenomenon where expert analysis is aggregated and averaged, and the lines are blurred between true expertise and the random opinions of the masses. This paper will address the transition from the birth of film criticism to its popularization through the 90s, to what it has become today. By exploring the nature of film criticism historically and reviewing the key elements of its growth from Victorian times through its emergence as an established field in the 1930s, 40s and 50s and its heyday in the 60s and 70s, we can understand the context of its evolution. This will provide a perspective to view today’s approach to film criticism with a clearer eye and a thorough analysis of film criticism in the digital age. It will demonstrate that more is not always a good thing, and the democratization of film criticism has not necessarily been all good.

As livestreaming has become more ubiquitous in recent years with its expansion over social media platforms, and as mainstream media outlets begin to take advantage of the medium, it is important to recognize that the technology has important roots in the hands of marginalized communities. Specifically, livestreaming has historically been an outlet used by activists in protest settings in order to counter the narratives of mainstream media. This paper seeks to evaluate the counternarrative potential of livestreaming by looking into footage from both the 2012 student protests in Montreal and the 2014 protests in Ferguson in direct comparison to traditional broadcast coverage from these events. Ultimately, I argue that while there are dangers that inherently accompany the use of livestreaming, it nonetheless has the potential to be a powerful and practical tool in the hands of protesters.

"Royalty Free" is a video game that looks like a gallery, containing a curated selection of custom plant objects made by fans of The Sims franchise. By exploring the visual style and social-technical activities of players outside the game, it both appreciates and speculates about the potential future of 3D computer graphics as an expressive medium.

Entertainment is an ever-changing medium, and television specifically has gone through many technological innovations since its bright beginnings. These innovations have consistently changed the way stories are told. Stylistic shifts in key elements ranging from shot format to the way shows are constructed can be seen especially clearly in horror which does not have the same narrative constraints as many other genres, and therefore more room to experiment. By tracking changes in the narrative formats of serialized and anthology horror shows, I define a new era of television brought about by the prevalence of streaming, and the rise of binge culture.

Sports presents one of the most popular forms of entertainment in society, and sports media continues to expand its billion-dollar influence through new television deal and broadcasting rights. But with a population of journalists who are overwhelmingly white, straight, and male, sports media is promoting the hegemony of said image by reproducing stereotypes in its broadcasts to audiences around the country. Mainstream media regurgitates these stereotypes in their coverage of minority athlete by portraying black players as unintelligent or “thug”-ish, women as “butch”, and gay athletes as effeminate. These representations allow for the perpetuation of the white, heterosexual male narrative throughout society while sidelining those who do not fit the description. But just as sports media is growing in popularity, so too is the athlete activist. Starting in 2013, today’s athletic superstars are now using their exalted platforms to address societal issues and speak on behalf of marginalized groups that are often ignored or misrepresented by traditional media narratives. The efforts of Colin Kaepernick, Billie Jean King, and Jason Collins in fighting against the system and these stereotypes will reveal how certain athletes are represented in the media and their unique position of changing the discussion and inspiring others to challenge societal norms. The growing popularity of social media and its use as a tool for social activism will also be examined, particularly as it has revolutionized the culture of athlete activism.

In this paper I will describe the creative process throughout the making of my short film thesis GRAND. I will describe this in three parts: pre-production, wherein I will detail developing the concept, writing the script, and funding/preparing for production; production, wherein I will detail the set construction, visual planning, and the day-to-day operations on set; and post-production, wherein I will detail the editing of the film and the composition of the score. All of this will be framed in reference to the proposed theme of the film, and I will conclude by evaluating whether or not the finished short film achieves what I initially set out to achieve.

In this thesis, I outline the changing shape of the reenactment in the contemporary true crime documentary to illustrate a burgeoning crisis of epistemology and anxieties about the authority of evidence in the Digital Age. I examine two works—The Jinx and The Imposter—that deal with evidence in formally similar but ideologically opposite ways. Logic in the Digital Age prioritizes an ever-widening collection of increasingly more precise artifacts and details, which supposedly paint a more complete picture but end up highlighting what is unknown more often. Key to this examination is the adoption of classic Hollywood thriller techniques (e.g., non-traditional narrative structures that emphasize subjectivity, twist endings that create uncertainty and doubt, etc.) which indicate a shift away from the traditional “cool” rhetorical control of social realist documentaries towards the emotionally charged manipulation of the thriller. This shift cannot be sufficiently explained by the overarching progression of the documentary towards more reflexive and performative modes. Rather, at the center of this shift is the use of stylized reenactments that share both the thriller’s preoccupation with subjectivity and uncertainty and digital logic’s pervading heterogeneous makeup. This shift troubles the mastery true crime docs implicitly claim to offer through evidence and the authority of the American criminal justice system in a different way than the more self-reflexive modes of documentary. To resolve the trouble, these films appeal less to evidence and more to emotional certainty and pathos as a way of judging guilt and innocence, shifting the way concrete evidence is understood.

ABSTRACT BETWEEN MEN: A FIRST PERSON DOCUMENTARY VIDEO May 2014 THOMAS C. PRUTISTO, B.S., ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Directed by: Professor Susan E. Jahoda

Jane the Virgin debuted on the CW in 2014 at a time when anti-immigrant, particularly anti-Mexican and anti-Latinx, sentiment in the U.S. felt very prevalent. This TV show was the latest to offer representations of Latin@s at the forefront and advanced a distinct political stance on immigration by calling for #immigrationreform. The series has not only been a ratings hit amongst the Latinx community, but has garnered wide acclaim from other races, ethnicities, and gender identities across the United States. This thesis explores the representation of the character of Alba (Ivonne Coll), through an investigation of the various physical and linguistic spaces which she occupies within the narrative of Jane the Virgin, and investigates how these spaces facilitate character growth, transformation, and a challenge to pre-established notions of Latinidad in U.S. mainstream television. It also questions the genre of Jane the Virgin itself, showing how the show’s unique hybridization of the televenovela genre and the sitcom contribute to its diverse spectatorship, both welcoming the dominant American viewer without alienating the Latinx viewer. Lastly, it brings attention to the usage of social media within the show’s narrative as well as outside of it. Building off of Mark Prenski’s generation of “Digital Natives” (2001), I call for a pedagogical shift and literacy in social media from scholars today to effectively engage and dialogue with what I coin “Social Media Natives.” In exploring these various facets of representation in Jane the Virgin, I show how the occupation of “safe spaces” and “non-safe spaces” affects development– whether that be of Alba’s character, the dominant American spectator, or the “Social Media Immigrant” scholar. This work is informed by Michel de Certeau’s concept of “space” in The Practice of Everyday Life (1984), and utilizes Moira Kenney’s identification of “safe space” in Mapping Gay L.A., (2015). Intended to contribute to intersectional feminist race studies, this work also uses Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity to negotiate identity (1990), Kimberlé Crenshaw’s notion of intersectionality (1989), and engages with somatic racialization and shaming proposed by Stephanie Fetta in her recent publication Shaming into Brown (2018).

Humans are social creatures. Yet when the pandemic forced the world into lockdown, social interaction became limited and more intentional. I explore the forms of communication people turned to during this time through a series of podcast episodes. I interview people who can provide first-hand experiences of how major areas of life changed. The areas I focused on are digital literacy in the elderly, online connections versus in-person ones, telehealth, education, journalism, and social media. The episodes can be listened to on the Disconnected website.