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Student Number : 0210516V - MA research report - School of Literature and Language Studies - Faculty of Humanities / This study represents a case study of translation in the popular media, with reference to two South African magazines, You and Huisgenoot. The aim is to investigate the translation processes and policies in the growing area of translation in the popular media in South Africa. As such it aims to examine: What is translated? Why it is translated? How is it translated? and Who translates it?, as well as whether the two readerships have common interests. The study contextualises the research in terms of the history of Huisgenoot and You and examines the translation practices in relation to theoretical issues associated with the popular media and translation. It was concluded that only material that is culturally relevant to the readerships of both magazines is translated in order for the subject matter of each magazine to be of interest to their respective audiences; translation is informed by instinct rather than formal translator training or theory; currently the bulk of translation is handled by Huisgenoot as the majority source of material is generated in English and the majority of translated material has South African-based content. The research report concludes with a discussion of how the translator’s ethical persuasions affect the translation process.

Prior research has shown that negative attitudes toward mathematics are linked to decreased achievement and participation, but it is unclear what factors influence children’s attitudes toward mathematics. Thus, the overarching goal of this study was to understand the relationship between outside sources and children’s views. Specifically, this study investigated elementary students’ experiences with and views of mathematics and mathematicians, and the ways that their views may be influenced by popular media representations, parents’ views, and teachers’ views of mathematics and mathematicians. Additionally, the study examined whether there were differences between girls’ and boys’ views and between younger (Grade 4) and older (Grade 8) elementary students’ views of mathematics and mathematicians. Framed by a social constructivist and feminist epistemological stance, the study employed a multi-method framework comprised of questionnaires (n = 156), drawings of mathematicians (n = 94), and focus group interviews (five interviews, involving 21 participants) with students; an analysis of children's media (43 examples across five media types); interviews with parents (11 interviews, involving 13 participants); and interviews with teachers (nine interviews, involving 10 participants). In terms of their relationships with mathematics, the student, parent, and teacher participants’ views were encouraging, both in terms of perceptions of themselves as learners of mathematics and of the utility of mathematics. However, the manner in which the participants conceptualized mathematics tended to lack breadth, often focusing on arithmetic and financial mathematics. Similar conceptions of mathematics were evident in the media representations. Moreover, media portrayals of mathematicians and mathematically proficient people tended to perpetuate stereotypes. Despite their awareness of these stereotypes, the participants often lacked alternative representations to challenge these views. Indeed, the lack of exposure to a variety of representations of both mathematics and mathematicians contributed to the participants’ reliance on views that were often narrow and stereotypical.

'Trad.' is a collection of short stories and a critical essay that explores a number of issues involved in the adaptation of stories from one popular medium to another. Some problems of adaptation involve questions of the integrity or authenticity of both the original and adapted works. These problems are often made more difficult when the adaptation is made across different media forms. This thesis explores the transformation from popular song to short story in a popular mode in two ways. The first way is based on the recognition of the problems of determining authenticity when the processes of transmission are subject to such great variety as in popular song. The second way is to explore the question of the available popular forms of narrative for the adapted product. In each case, this thesis attempts its investigation in a practical mode through the variety of stories and the way in which they utilise contemporary narrative strategies.

Prior research has shown that negative attitudes toward mathematics are linked to decreased achievement and participation, but it is unclear what factors influence children’s attitudes toward mathematics. Thus, the overarching goal of this study was to understand the relationship between outside sources and children’s views. Specifically, this study investigated elementary students’ experiences with and views of mathematics and mathematicians, and the ways that their views may be influenced by popular media representations, parents’ views, and teachers’ views of mathematics and mathematicians. Additionally, the study examined whether there were differences between girls’ and boys’ views and between younger (Grade 4) and older (Grade 8) elementary students’ views of mathematics and mathematicians. Framed by a social constructivist and feminist epistemological stance, the study employed a multi-method framework comprised of questionnaires (n = 156), drawings of mathematicians (n = 94), and focus group interviews (five interviews, involving 21 participants) with students; an analysis of children's media (43 examples across five media types); interviews with parents (11 interviews, involving 13 participants); and interviews with teachers (nine interviews, involving 10 participants). In terms of their relationships with mathematics, the student, parent, and teacher participants’ views were encouraging, both in terms of perceptions of themselves as learners of mathematics and of the utility of mathematics. However, the manner in which the participants conceptualized mathematics tended to lack breadth, often focusing on arithmetic and financial mathematics. Similar conceptions of mathematics were evident in the media representations. Moreover, media portrayals of mathematicians and mathematically proficient people tended to perpetuate stereotypes. Despite their awareness of these stereotypes, the participants often lacked alternative representations to challenge these views. Indeed, the lack of exposure to a variety of representations of both mathematics and mathematicians contributed to the participants’ reliance on views that were often narrow and stereotypical.

As the deities known as Inari, foxes are vital to the religious and cultural landscape of Japan. Inari are given little consideration in the academic study of Japanese religions in English, despite their overwhelming presence and popularity in Japan. This is, in large part, due to the privileging of a Protestant definition of religion in the academic study of religion. Animating Inari addresses this lack of consideration by seeking to better understand Inari in Japan, particularly through the contexts of contemporary Shintō and popular worship (which are also severely underrepresented in scholarship). In order to explore Inari on the ground, this project is situated in the context of Fushimi Inari Taisha, the headquarters of Inari worship located in Kyoto. This project investigates the anime (animated television series), Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha (or Inakon), which depicts Fushimi Inari Taisha through the life of a young girl, named Inari, and her relationship with the deity, known as Uka. In conjunction with my own experience at this shrine, I use Inakon as a tool with which to consider the popular aspects of Shintō, particularly as visible through Inari worship. By examining Inari worship, the characters and themes of Inakon, and the presence of fox characters in other Japanese popular media, it is apparent that Inari’s popularity is in large part due to the warm relationships they have with Japanese people and how they respond to their everyday concerns. This is in direct contrast to the more nationalistic leanings of the Jinja Honchō (National Association of Shintō Shrines), which is too often privileged in the academic study of Shintō at the expense of popular worship. Inari reflect the more popular concerns of contemporary Shintō: the connections and intimate bonds that exist between people, as well as the deities. By highlighting the functions of and attitudes towards Inari, especially in contrast to Jinja Honchō, it becomes clear that Inari resonate with Japanese on a profound level.

How do popular media genres reinforce or provide alternative perspectives to circulating official political discourses, as well as articulate issues of social concern? In what ways do such media offer insights into aspects of cultural practices that inform and represent matters of key significance in people's quotidian lives? This dissertation investigates these two general questions within four distinct Ghanaian popular visual media genres: popular video-films, political cartoons, death announcement posters, and vehicle inscriptions (`mottonyms'). Regarding the Ghanaian popular video-films, I examine how the films (re)present the issue of cyberfraud (`sakawa') in Ghana. I contrast the films' (re)presentation of this phenomenon vis-a-vis that of certain official pronouncements on the issue, and argue that a critical approach to the `sakawa film series' reveals a robust counter discourse to official denunciations. My investigation of political cartoons, examines some of the works of the artist Akosua in the Ghanaian newspaper, Daily Guide. Here I focus on how Akosua's works, utilizing popular cultural allusions, function as an alternative media discourse in contemporary Ghanaian sociopolitical debates. As regards the death-announcement posters, I investigate how, situated as they are within certain well-known Ghanaian cultural values and practices, including funerary caskets, these posters remediate these cultural mores in the context of rapid social change. Lastly, regarding the mottonyms, I explore, through interviews with vehicle owners, the interactions between specific life experiences that spurred them to coin these inscriptions and the cultural fabric within which they have done so. Conceptually, this dissertation draws not only from cultural anthropology and its subfields of visual culture, and religion, media and culture, but also significantly from global/international media studies and from emergent works on African cultural and media studies. The harnessing of interdisciplinary conceptual frameworks, such as phenomenological and social constructionist approaches, to interrogate Ghanaian popular visual media in this dissertation advances our current thinking in the above-mentioned fields in several ways. For example, the social constructionist (Lee-Hurwitz 1995; Morgan 2005) and phenomenological approaches (Langsdorf, 1994; Lanigan 1998) that guide the investigation of vehicle inscriptions and death-announcement posters reveal purposeful intentionality in human communication. Furthermore, this dissertation, with its focus on popular video-films, press cartoons, death-announcement posters and vehicle inscriptions concretely elucidates recent expansive theorizations of `media'. Here `media' is understood as practices of mediation (de Vries 2001; Meyer 2003; Zito 2008), and broadly conceived to transcend narrowly defined traditional mass media formats (Downing 1996). In the latter case, I advocate for global/international media scholars to begin to pay equal `field service' to popular media artifacts within the current ambit of the `practice paradigm' in global/international media studies (Postill 2010:4; Couldry 2004).

abstract: Few studies focus on the MOVE Organization (MOVE), let alone its presences in popular media during the years prior to the MOVE-Philadelphia Conflict (1978-1985), or pre-Conflict. To date, most information about MOVE derives from Conflict research which utilizes archival materials from the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (MOVE Commission) hearings. Generations of dominant representations about MOVE and its members, consequently, are mainly constructed by popular media from the MOVE Commission hearings, including video broadcasts of the proceeding. Using a Conflict documentary, I highlight concerns scholars face when heavily using archival materials from MOVE Commission hearings: (a) Archival materials from MOVE Commission hearings lack active MOVE members' voices and (b) Archival materials from MOVE Commission hearings include limited pre-Conflict information about MOVE members. Influenced by Kimberly Sanders and Judson Jeffries' (2013) work about the 1985 bombing newspaper reports' favorability, this project explores pre-Conflict popular media representations of MOVE to understand how the collective first got represented to Philadelphians and the ways which MOVE used popular media to respond to these dominant portrayals. This mix-methods project utilizes 67-piece dataset materials of various popular media texts by MOVE members and non-MOVE members. It focuses on 48 Philadelphia Tribune newspaper entries as its main text dataset, with an emphasis on the 1975 "On the MOVE" editorial column space. This investigation employs a combination of Black feminist and critical discourse analysis (CDA) methods, with Sanders and Jeffries' (2013) favorability categorizations process, to explore the racialized, gendered, and classed aspects pre-Conflict representations of MOVE. Quantitative findings suggest that MOVE got generally represented in favorable manners during the pre-Conflict years, with over 50 percent of pre-Conflict texts about MOVE portraying the collective in positive tones. Additionally, qualitative findings propose that MOVE members' authorship and presence in pre-Conflict texts within the Philadelphia Tribune functioned as a site of resistance against dominant portrayal of the collective. CDA findings propose that MOVE's racial attribute, beliefs, and culture, specifically related to self-determination, were central discussions within most pre-Conflict by MOVE members. Unlike Sanders and Jeffries (2013), this project concludes that overall pre-Conflict popular media depictions portrayed MOVE as a positive Philadelphia collective. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Justice Studies 2014

Among the American population, there is a general misunderstanding of human evolution and human life in the Paleolithic. Beyond the mechanics of biological evolution, there is confusion over what sorts of modern-day behaviors are vestiges from humans’ evolutionary past. My master’s thesis explores what kind of misconceptions about Paleo-life and human evolution circulate in popular discourse and where these misconceptions stem from. Drawing on the experiences of community members in upstate New York, I conducted a multimodal discourse analysis via surveys, interviews, and a reflexive media analysis to triangulate my findings. Through these two discourses – that of the everyday understanding of human evolution and Paleo-life versus what kinds of messages popular media portrays on these same issues – I determined that popular media constitutes a large resource of information gathering for the general public. Furthermore, the media highlighted by my research participants to exhibit themes of human evolution had clear messages on race, gender, and violence that research participants largely believe to be successful modes of “survival of the fittest” and thus cultural “survivals” from when we were evolving to our modern form. Participant and media messages regarding race, gender, and violence mirror the logics behind white American Exceptionalism; though these everyday epistemologies are argued by my participants to be biological in nature, they merely reflect today’s values and are logics used to successfully participate in American society. That is to say, the repetitive, naturalizing messages portrayed by popular media on human evolution and paleo-life both construct and reify the popular understanding that modern concepts of race, gender and violence are biological and have led to the success of our species. With these findings, I offer science educators recommendations on how to best utilize edutainment to correct these outdated narratives. / Graduate

This study was an effort to construct and validate an instructional design framework for media content selection that incorporates re-purposing popular media to enhance mathematics and science instruction. The study resulted in the development and validation of a framework that was applicable with novice and expert instructional designers to be used as a stand - alone model or as a supplement to widely-used instructional design models. The framework was developed based on the literature review of four constructs: instructional design models, re-purposing popular media, learning theories and the new generation learners' characteristics, and multidisciplinary or integrated approaches to instruction. The findings of the literature review were used as the theoretical foundation for the construction of the framework for media content selection. During the final step of the study's Phase One, the researcher used the first iteration of the framework to develop a short instructional module that incorporated the re-purposing of popular media. This instruction focused on early mathematics (K-2) and the re-purposing of full-feature children animated films. The goal of this step was the development of documentation to record the process for media content selection that was later used to modify and revise the framework. As the next step, the framework was validated by subject matter experts in the field of instructional design. The framework was then further revised and modified. The findings of this study have implications on the areas that pertain to (a) instructional design models, (b) media selection, (c) media content selection, and (d) curriculum integration. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations to practitioners choosing to use the framework for media content selection were suggested and suggestions for future research were provided. / Ph. D.