This research synthesis investigates the effects that popular culture and new forms of mediation have had on the teaching and learning of English. Further, it examines some key aspects worth consideration when applying these types of texts in an educational context. The English syllabus for upper secondary school advises teachers to make use of the outside world for resources, and teach the students how to access, gather, analyze and use information found in different types of texts. After initial struggles, due to teachers’ reluctance, popular culture and modern media has found its way in to most classrooms and studies have shown different effects that the introduction of these texts have had on teaching and learning of English. Firstly, there has been a shift in how many teachers approach texts by letting students take more responsibility by participating in the selection process of different texts. Moreover, some studies have shown the effects popular culture and digital media have had on the acquisition of literacy skills. Study results suggest that primarily, students critical skills have developed, and that “out of school literacies” have helped students develop more traditional literacy skills such as reading and writing. However, this research synthesis concludes by saying that more research measuring the acquisition of traditional English using popular culture and digital media skills over longer periods of time involving more students would allow one to answer more accurately what effects they have had.

The theory of evolution is the central combing theory that brings together all the tenets of biology that bring about a solid understanding of life. It is also one of the most controversial scientific theories of all time and is widely rejected by about 40% of the general public in the United States. One of the biggest reasons for low evolution acceptance is the perceived conflict between evolution and religious beliefs. Educators and researchers have been working hard to improve how we teach evolution in the classroom; some methods, such as focusing on evolution knowledge, have shown to be mixed. Sometimes it works; other times, it does not, especially with highly religious students. Other methods have shown promising, such as using culturally competent approaches when teaching highly religious students. This is where we have focused our research on reconciling religious beliefs and evolutionary theory. First, in Chapter 1, we strengthened our understanding of the theory of evolution by studying a genus of damselfly in the South Pacific. Through our molecular analyses, we described a new genus, Nikoulabasis. In Chapter 2, we studied a unique of teaching evolution to religious students. We highlighted three of the most compelling reasons students changed their minds about evolution and gave suggestions for improving evolution education in the classroom. In Chapter 3, we created and validated the predictive Factors of Evolution Acceptance and Reconciliation (pFEAR) survey tool as a way for educators to better understand what worldview factors influence students' evolution acceptance. This chapter also gives suggestions to educators on how to use the pFEAR in their classrooms. In Chapter 4, we reviewed the literature to determine the influence of popular media on students learning evolution. Evolution misconceptions come from various sources such as social interactions, religious settings, textbooks, and even teachers. But few studies looked at the influence of popular media on evolution misconceptions. In Chapter 5, we viewed and watched student mentioned evolution references and determined the accuracy with which they depicted evolution. Of the 99 references we viewed, 94% of them depicted evolution accurately.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:13:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vanessa Ferreiro Pessoa de Assis.pdf: 6616240 bytes, checksum: 9447cd82bf937bdbf6c70a47d90bed3d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research investigates the characteristics of popular journalism and discusses the differences in the speeches of newspapers Agora São Paulo and Extra. The choice of these vehicles is justified because both of them call themselves popular media and they are sales leaders in the newsstands of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro respectively. The goal is to help identify systems of signs of popular newspapers and point singularities of each publication. The methodology used is the comparison of discursive editorial content and graphics on both vehicles. For the theoretical foundation it begins with the concept of fait divers by way of Roland Barthes, theory of narrative in Muniz Sodré and Jerusa Pires Ferreira cultura das bordas concept. The analysis focuses on the first pages of texts between June 2012 and October 2012, a period that includes the beginning of the coverage in the newspapers of the assassination of the executive Marcos Matsunaga Yoki by his wife, a crime which was widely covered in the press. The month of October ends the research by understanding the end of TV Globo s soap opera Avenida Brasil which had repercussions in the newspapers. There were also interviews conducted with editors responsible for the publications. Taking into account these analyzes it carries out a study of the characteristics of the two newspapers, pointing that by resorting to the use of fictional elements and treating them as news and by using of constant promotions that offer free gifts to readers of the newspaper Extra makes its language point of view attractive to its intended reader. The Agora São Paulo resorting to the service journalism often exhaustively as seen in monothematic headlines about retirement, waives fictional connections and seeks to approach the reader by having as its main attraction the use of the guides and almanacs language with overuse of headlines with imperative verbs, and transformed narratives that take the reader to the to do state / Esta pesquisa investiga as características do jornalismo popular e discute as diferenças presentes nos discursos dos jornais Agora São Paulo e Extra. A escolha desses veículos justifica-se porque os dois intitulam-se populares e são líderes de vendas nas bancas de São Paulo e do Rio de Janeiro, respectivamente. O objetivo é contribuir para identificar sistemas de signos dos jornais populares e apontar as singularidades de cada publicação. A metodologia utilizada é a comparação discursiva dos conteúdos editorial e gráfico dos dois veículos. Para a fundamentação teórica, parte-se do conceito de fait divers, pela via de Roland Barthes, da teoria da narratividade em Muniz Sodré, e o conceito cultura das bordas de Jerusa Pires Ferreira. A análise se concentra nos textos das primeiras páginas, entre junho de 2012 e outubro de 2012, período que compreende o início da cobertura nos jornais do assassinato do executivo Marcos Matsunaga Yoki pela esposa, crime que teve ampla cobertura da imprensa. O mês de outubro encerra a pesquisa por compreender o fim da telenovela da TV Globo, Avenida Brasil , que teve repercussão nos jornais. Foram também realizadas entrevistas com editores responsáveis pelas publicações. Com base nessas análises, realiza-se uma reflexão sobre as características dos dois jornais, apontando para o fato de que, ao recorrer a elementos ficcionais e tratá-los de forma noticiosa, dependendo de constantes promoções que oferecem brindes aos leitores, o jornal Extra se torna, do ponto de vista da linguagem, atrativo para o leitor a que se destina. Já o Agora São Paulo, recorrendo ao jornalismo de serviço, muitas vezes à exaustão, como se vê nas manchetes monotemáticas sobre aposentadoria, abre mão de conexões ficcionais e procura se aproximar do leitor tendo como apelo central a linguagem de guias e almanaques, com abuso de títulos com verbos no imperativo, e de narrativas transformadoras que levam o leitor ao estado de fazer

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In this work, I focus on the propagation of environmental issues through sitcom and comparison of the perception of these topics by Czech and Dutch audiences. I report on the results of focus group research of the American show The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019), from which artefacts were pre-selected with the assistance of thematic analysis. These findings suggest different perception of the environmental contents included in the researched series, the same as the varying perception of hypothetical promotion of the environmental issues in the future series. Generally speaking, the global sample perceives the promotion of environmental issues in popular media positively, though the degree and the form of the accepted usage of these topics vary. Czech audiences perceive the topics more negatively than the Dutch audience, showing a lower sensitivity threshold for a possible attack on their own opinions and identity. The most significant differences were observed in the perception of the concept of nature, the person interested in the environment, and the individual impact on the improvement/deterioration of the environment. A suitable tool for communicating environmental issues in the sitcom is corrective irony (allowing to emphasize the contrast between environmental awareness and personal actions to...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:31:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Maria Straube.pdf: 532976 bytes, checksum: 70d59e38539fc6e4752f1eee44d50a2e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-31 / Investigation on the left-wing weekly newspaper Brasil de Fato, built by a group of leaders of social movements and representatives of civil society organizations, journalists, lawyers, artists, politically identified and joint to discuss a proposal submitted by the Landless Rural Workers Movement. Brasil de Fato was launched in January 2003 with the prospect of becoming a mass vehicle and completed six years of existence resisting adversities. The central objective is to analyze the process of construction and consolidation of this popular alternative newspaper since its design. Its trajectory is recovered in order to understanding not only the difficulties of maintaining a project with this profile, but also to analyze the internal and external contradictions that caused the changes in its original proposal. The methodology used for this purpose was bibliography research, semi-structured interviews with leaders and analysis of content. It was concluded that while the newspaper has faced a series of adverse conditions that justify the failure of its original proposal, but the characteristics of a social movement newspaper was already present in Brasil de Fato since its formation, especially regarding Landless Movement's conceptions for the newspaper.(AU) / Pesquisa sobre o semanário de esquerda Brasil de Fato, construído por um coletivo de dirigentes de movimentos sociais e representantes de organizações da sociedade civil, jornalistas, advogados e artistas, identificados politicamente e reunidos a partir de uma proposta apresentada pelo Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra. Lançado em janeiro de 2003, com a perspectiva de se tornar um meio de comunicação de massas, completou seis anos de existência resistindo às adversidades. O objetivo central é analisar o processo de construção e consolidação deste jornal popular-alternativo desde a formulação de seu projeto. São resgatados os caminhos percorridos para compreender não só as dificuldades inerentes à manutenção de um projeto com este perfil, mas também para analisar as contradições internas e externas que causaram as transformações em sua proposta original. A metodologia utilizada para este fim consistiu em pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas semi-estruturadas com lideranças e análise de conteúdo. Concluiu-se que, apesar de o jornal ter enfrentado uma série de condições adversas que justificam o não cumprimento de sua proposta original, o caráter de jornal de movimentos sociais já estava presente no Brasil de Fato desde a sua formação, principalmente no que tange as concepções do MST para o jornal.(AU)

There is abundant anecdotal evidence substantiating Mori’s initial observation of the "uncanny valley", a point at which human response to non-human entities drops sharply with respect to comfort (Mori, 1970), and the construct itself has a long-standing history in both Robotics and Psychology. Currently, many fields such as design, training, entertainment, and education make use of heuristic approaches to accommodate the anticipated needs of the user/consumer/audience in certain important aspects. This is due to the lack of empirical substantiation or, in some cases, the impossibility of rigorous quantification; one such area is with respect to the user’s experience of uncanniness, a feeling of "eeriness" or "wrongness" when interacting with artefacts or environments. Uncanniness, however, continues to be defined and measured in a largely subjective way, and often after the fact; an experience or product’s uncanny features are pointed out after the item has been markedly avoided or complained about by the general public. These studies are among the first seeking to determine a constellation of personality traits and physiological responses that incline the user to have a more frequent or profound "uncanny" reaction when presented with stimuli meeting the criteria for a level of "eeriness". In study 1, 395 adults were asked to categorize 200 images as uncanny, neutral, pleasant, or other. In Study 2, physiological and eye-tracking data was collected from twenty two adults as they viewed uncanny, neutral and pleasant images culled from study 1. This research identifies components of the uncanny valley related to subjective assessment, personality factors (using the HEXACO and Anthropomorphic Tendencies Scale), and biophysical measures, and found that traits unique to Emotionality on the HEXACO inventory, compounded with a form of anthropomorphism demonstrates a level of relationship to the subjective experience of uncanny stimuli. There is evidence that HEXACO type and forms of anthropomorphic perception mediates the biophysical iv expression and the subjective perception of the stimuli. In keeping with psychological hypotheses, stimuli to which the participants had greatest response centered on death, the threat of death, or mismatched/absent facial features.