This research looks at the way Australia is portrayed in the Western European press, particularly in the light of Australia's recent emphasis on being a clever country, within the Asia Pacific region. The research is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of all articles explicitly referring to Australia, in seven newspapers from Belgium (2), France (2), Germany (1) and the United Kingdom (2), over a 6 month period. The main hypothesis was that those newspapers without Australian based correspondents or stringers picture Australia in a stereotypical way and that "news" in those papers, instead of giving "news", reinforces existing ideas and images held of Australia. My research supports the hypothesis, but also uncovers the very important role played by editors at home. They decide what is important, what is news and their choice will go to consonant "news". The research shows that newspapers in Europe largely portray Australia's older images, with its kangaroos, koalas and beaches peopled by sportsmen. Australia is largely portrayed as an almost untouched country inhabited by animals to be found nowhere else, and by people (mainly white Anglo- Saxon males) reputed for their friendliness, as well as for their laziness and sometimes their strangeness. "Newer" images of Australia promoted by the Australian government (e.g. Australia as a clever country and part of the Asia-Pacific region) get relatively little coverage in the Western European press.

Media has a big impact on our lives and is one of the main channels for people to recieve information. When recieved, the messages creates a meaning for the people that read, hear or see them. In other words, media could be seen as a source for people on how to perceive the world and it gives a certain picture of what is ”normal”. We chose to do this study to get a deeper knowledge of how men and women are being portrayed in a Swedish lifestyle magazine and what messagest that sends out to the readers. In this study we have examined how men and women are being portrayed in the Swedish magazine Café, both in photographs and in text. We have used qualitative, rhetorical and semiotic methods to detect the differences and similarities in the four articles examined. The theoretical framework in this study is mainly based on Laura Mulveys ”The Male Gaze”, Anja Hirdmans theory about homosociality and Anthony Giddens well-known theory about structuration. Also, we have used radical feminism and Judith Butlers theory ”The Heterosexual Matrix”. The main findings show clear differences connected to the typical normative ideas that has long existed for the male and female gender. In the articles examined in this study, men are being described as independent and strong with no need to lean on other people to be successfull. Women on the other hand, are being presented as sensitive, dependent and weak sexual objects. According to the articles, they have no capacity to succeed on their own and their role is merely to please and obey the men. The findings on how the genders are being portrayed, and that men are given the main attention and focus show us that Café doesn´t at all favor the developement for the equality between the two genders. That is an important issue and shows that more research needs to be done within the gender field.

No description available.

There are many ways that people can form an opinion about law enforcement even if they have had a personal interaction with someone who works in the field. This idea has always been interesting as there needs to be some type of understanding when it comes to this certain viewpoint. There can be many factors that result in having a certain perspective on law enforcement in general like their background growing up, hearsay from close relatives, friends, and whatever they have seen up close in person. This study is going to aim at a specific area of how people view law enforcement from being exposed to certain types of movies, television shows, and news outlets. This idea has been discussed but it does not really dominate too much of the political arena. This study is designed to examine the perceptions of college students, good or bad, in regard to what they were exposed to growing up watching on television that included law enforcement. Data were obtained via surveys that were given out to 104 students at East Tennessee State University. Analysis revealed that there was no significant relationship between the types of media that the college students watched that shaped their current perceptions of policing.

American adolescents watch an average of 3.5 hours of television and movies everyday; many attend more than one movie a month. Adolescents as a group watch more movies than any other group of the population, yet little research has been done on what is shown in teen movies. Adolescence is a time when values, beliefs, and opinions are formed and the media has been found to be a place that adolescents find information that can influence the construction of these identities. While there has been a vast amount of research looking at the family as portrayed on television shows, there has been little research done on film families. More specifically, there has not been an examination of the family as seen in movies targeted towards the teen audience. Through the use of a content analysis, this thesis reviews three decades of families as depicted in teen films, focusing specifically on five areas: family structure, ethnicity, occupation and children, socio-economic status, and parental depictions. This thesis includes a sample of the 90 top-grossing teen movies made during the 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s (2000-2007) and includes a total of 139 different families. Results indicate that the typical family as depicted in a teen movie, is a middle-class, Caucasian, dual or single-parent family with one or two children; dad is a working professional and mom stays at home. The parents are adequate in their parenting skills and are authoritative in their parenting style. The results of this thesis are compared to findings of past studies regarding television families and against U.S. census data. The implications of the results of this thesis are discussed through the lens of cultivation theory.

Forskare menar att mediers alltmer betydelsefulla roll i ungdomars liv kan bidra till att stärka och sprida fördomar om olika religioner. Det finns dock begränsad forskning om hur mediers skildringar av religioner och dess utövare kan hanteras i religionsundervisningen. Studien syftar således till att undersöka på vilket sätt  mediers skildringar av olika religioner och dess utövare hanteras i religionsundervisningen i årskurs 4-6. Studien är inspirerad av en fenomenologisk ansats och utgörs av semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem religionskunskapslärare i årskurs 4–6. Intervjuerna har spelats in, transkriberats och sedan analyserats med inspiration från en fenomenologisk analysmodell. Ur resultatet framkommer att alla lärare enbart diskuterar religiösa företeelser i medier som kopplas till islam, exempelvis IS terrordåd och den pågående flyktingkrisen. Studien visar också att lärarna inte använder sig av specifika tillvägagångssätt för att analysera mediers skildringar av religioner utan behandlas främst genom diskussioner med eleverna, där diskussionerna inte enbart sker i religionsundervisningen. Lärarna är eniga om vikten av att diskutera mediers skildringar av religioner eftersom det annars finns risk för att eleverna generaliserar och relaterar alla muslimer till de våldsamma konflikter som skildras i medier idag. / The media's increasingly important role in young people's lives can according to scientists help to strengthen and spread prejudices about different religions. However, there is limited research on how media portrayals of religions and its practitioners can be handled in religious education.  The study thus seeks to examine how media portrayals of different religions and its practitioners are handled in religious education in grades 4-6. The study is inspired by a phenomenological approach and consists of semi-structured interviews with five religious teachers in grades 4–6. The interviews have been recorded, transcribed and then analyzed with inspiration from a phenomenological analysis model. The result shows that all teachers only discusses religious media phenomena linked to Islam, such as the IS terrorist attacks and the ongoing refugee crisis. The study also shows that the teachers do not use specific approaches for analyzing media depictions of religions, but is treated primarily through discussions with the pupils, where the discussions do not solely take place in religious education. Teachers agree on the importance of discussing the media´s portrayals of religion as otherwise there is a risk that students generalize and relate all Muslims for the violent conflicts depicted in the media today.

No description available.

abstract: Disability is a label accompanied by a multitude of misconceptions and stereotypes. During various periods in Germany, attitudes towards disability have ranged from disgust and fear, to acceptance and inclusion. Being disabled in Germany once meant certain isolation; at the hands of the Nazi regime, it was met with almost certain premature death. Since those darker days of Germany's history, the country has become one that now affords its disabled citizens with the same rights as the non-disabled population and seeks to create a barrier-free environment. This study examines these perceptions of disability in Germany from the 1920s through the first decade of the 21st century. In order to accomplish this goal, cinema is used to provide insights into contemporaneous ideas about disability. By drawing upon analyses of six films that span the course of nearly 80 years, careful examination of disability portrayals reveal philosophical shifts in how the German people interpret disability. When analyzing these films, aspects of physical and mental disability are brought to the surface and discussed in terms of their sociopolitical and philosophical implications. To provide a social and cultural framework that gives significance to the changes in these cinematic roles, a historical survey of the German disability rights movement is folded into the discussion. The films explored in this study serve as culturally important visual aids that illustrate positive changes for the disabled living in Germany. Although not directly influencing cinematic portrayals of disability, the German disability rights movement that arose in the postwar period shaped ideas about disability and allowed disabled Germans to be accepted and included in society. With these rights now available disabled Germans are able to lead a self-determined life and portray themselves as equals. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. German 2010

Work is a significant part of everyday life for many, so it is not surprising that it would be included in the storylines of many Hollywood films. Movies incorporate elements from everyday life, real or imagined. There is a plethora of research making connections between film and the social world, but not regarding workplace bullying. This study takes a close and in-depth look at workplace bullying as it is depicted in scenes from a sampling of 100 Hollywood films released 1994-2016. It is interpretive in nature and guided by the theoretical underpinnings of film theory, social construction of reality theory, and symbolic interaction theory. Qualitative media analysis (synonymous with ethnographic content analysis) and grounded theory, in concert with Hymes Ethnography of Communication SPEAKING Model methods, blended and facilitated data collection and analysis. The advent of a theoretical frame highlighting the delicate interplay within the depictions of workplace bullying became evident; herein named the paradoxical web of workplace bullying. Within this paradox are tragedy and comedy; from which ambivalence resilience theory emerges. This research contributes to the literature of conflict studies and more specifically the scholarly research and professional practice dedicated toward greater understanding and eradication of this horrific phenomenon, workplace bullying

Using a quantitative coding method, the current study analyzed cinematic productions between the years 1989 and 2019 (N = 79) for presence of supercrip and victim stereotypes among portrayals of the physically disabled. A series of One-way ANOVA - Bonferonni and Bivariate Correlation tests were performed, and results indicated that while negative and supercrip stereotypes of the physically disabled have decreased over this 30-year period, simultaneously, very positive and victim stereotypes have risen. Results showed negative (F = 3.215, p = .046) portrayals decreased over time, but that simultaneously victim (F = 8.044, p = .001) and very positive (F = 3.43, p = .037) portrayals rose. For supercrip the results were not significant. Significance was found in neutral portrayals in the 90s (M = 0.48) and both the 00s (M = 0.77) and the 10s (M = 0.88). This indicated a notable increase in the number of neutral portrayals over time. Findings suggest that while there is some decrease in the number of negative and supercrip portrayals, portrayals seem to have shifted towards the other extreme with an increase in very positive and victim portrayals. Future research could examine what attitudes exist towards the physically disabled and how much media influenced the development of these attitudes. They could also look into how constructs of attitudes and subjective norms contribute to the perceptions of others towards the physically disabled, and how the "interactive process" impacts the development of these attitudes.