This thesis is an account of praxis: it examines Playback conceptually, and portrays a programme of practical work exploring the experience of workplace audiences of five Playback Theatre performances, delivered from 2002-2005. The aim of the performances was to assist multi-disciplinary teams of staff in community health centres in Auckland New Zealand to communicate and work together with more understanding of each other. The thesis describes Playback as a way not only to elicit complex narratives which allow for diverse points of view to be expressed, but also as an aesthetic reworking of these narratives using action, music, dance, gesture and speech, in ways which have been influenced by 20th century avant-garde forms such as surrealism, dada, collage, jazz and poetry. Unlike some forms of theatre, Playback calls on elements of ritual and group method, in that it relies on audience members taking an active part in the performance by contributing narratives from their own lives. The thesis interrogates the notion of audience in theatre, using the words audience, spectator, spectactor, participant, public and polis, and specifically investigates two moments of the theatre as polis, in the French and Russian revolutions, when the potential of theatre to engage with the widest cross-section of the nation led to influential experiments and innovations in theatrical practice, each of which influenced the succeeding century. Some Playback discourse and practice is found to contain simplistic, even nostalgic, concepts of personal narrative, and the potential for performers’ interpretations in Playback to reinscribe social privilege is noted. In spite of its simple structure, Playback demands extremely complex skills from all the performers, not only the facilitator. In addition, the complex setting of the practical work encompasses both local NZ health initiatives and developments in global health. The work in each Healthcare Centre is described in a complete chapter: each containing details of the Centre and the Playback, seen through the findings of the patient focus groups, through comments made in interviews by the staff and through the researcher’s observation and experience. In all three Centres, existential and emancipatory metanarratives surfaced in the performances and in interviews. Professionalism was seen as meaning different things: at Ngākau it was a measure by which people were found to be unsatisfactory; at Oranga, it referred to applying the lessons of the Playback to one’s own practice; while at Pātaka, professionalism was evident in narratives of self care, dedication and seeking clarification and support from peers. While the study revealed limitations of Playback, it also pointed to some unique contributions this form of improvisational theatre can make to a programme of staff or group development. In particular, Playback can open up spaces, people and topics, for non-dogmatic, pluralistic, embodied thinking and reflection, leading people to more nuanced understandings of themselves and each other, and can even affect attitudes and behaviours.

Pacific Islanders have faced discrimination in New Zealand particularly since the 1960s when members of communities, particularly from the Cook Islands, Samoa, Niue and Tonga began to be transplanted from their home nations to Aotearoa as cheap immigrant labour. Subsequently, the New Zealand vernacular has contained references to Pacific Islanders as 'overstayers', 'coconuts', 'bungas' and 'fresh off the boat' [FOB]. However, the legacy of a domineering relationship between the Palagi1 majority group and Pacific2 minorities that is captured by such derogatory terms is still evident in public forums such as the media. Using a quantitative content and qualitative narrative analysis, this first chapter documents portrayals of Pacific Islanders in New Zealand print media reports (n= 65) published over a three-month period. Findings reveal that Pacific people are predominantly portrayed as unmotivated, unhealthy and criminal others who are overly dependent on Palagi support. Consideration of this offered Pacific identity formation is explored and compared with that implied for Palagi, which is active, independent, competent and caring. Issues in coverage are discussed in relation to how Pacific Islanders are encouraged to see themselves, and the health and social consequences of dominant practices in press coverage. The second part of this thesis will take the findings from the investigation of the characterizations of Pacific Islanders in newspaper coverage and consider audience responses to such coverage. Focus group discussions will be used to explore how different New Zealand audiences view and respond to the portrayals of Pacific Island people and health in news media. The focus on audience responses supports the development of a better understanding of how groups can internalise media portrayals and use these as anchor points for understanding their own situations. Qualitative content from the two groups of Pacific Islanders (P1, P2) and two groups of Palagi (NP1, NP2) enabled a comparative analysis of audience interpretations. Findings propose that health issues are predominantly framed from the perspective of the dominant social group - in the local context Palagi - often at the expense of minority groups such as Māori and Pacific peoples. In appropriating aspects of news coverage, audience members do not engage or regurgitate what they are told or shown through the media. It is a rather complex process with audience members interpreting and using fragments of what they are presented with in making sense of issues of concern in their own lives. All the participants (n= 24) were compensated for their time and travel. We offer some suggestions as to how more equitable representations of Pacific people could be fostered in news media and how changes to a more civilised media will impact Pacific health positively. 1 Palagi (pronounced Palangi) is a term used by Pacific Islanders to refer to people of European decent. 2 We use the terms 'Pacific people' and 'Pacific Islanders' to denote a general social category or minority in Aotearoa used by the media. However, we need to qualify the use of these terms because their use can lead to a glossing over of the diversity in languages and cultures that exists between over 20 different Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian communities.

From a media industries, fan studies, and emerging socio-cultural public relations perspective, this project pulls back the Hollywood curtain to explore two questions: 1) How do TV public relations practitioners and key tastemaker/gatekeeper media define, create, build, and maintain fandom?; and 2) How do they make meaning of fandom and their agency/role in fan creation from their position of industrial producers, cultural intermediaries, members of the audience, and as fans themselves? This project brings five influential, working public relations and media professionals into a conversation about two case studies from the 2010-2011 television season – broadcast network CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 and basic cable network AMC’s The Walking Dead. Each of these shows speaks to fandom in particular ways and are representative of the industry’s current approaches in luring specific audiences to TV. This study shows that the relationship between entertainment publicists and media is dynamic, intertwined, complex, and historically hidden.

This M. F. A. thesis exhibition consists of painting, sculpture, and video completed over the last five months. In support of the exhibition, an artist's statement outlines my exploration of the interaction between artist and audience, stylization and mass production of image.

In the past, the main audiences of TV serials in Taiwan are housewives, but less TV serials set youngsters as target audiences. Recently, the appearance of ¡§Taiwan idol dramas¡¨ that plots are close to youngsters¡¦ life styles gives the youngsters a different choice and becomes a popular TV serial type among youngsters. ¡§Love¡¨ is an important element in Taiwan idol drama. For attracting audiences¡¦ attention, the producers will focus on the plots about love and make the contents that fit to the audiences¡¦ favor. The producers and screenwriters pay much attention on the plot-setting, but they ignore how they affect audiences¡¦ values and expectance for love of the society. For finding the relationship between Taiwan idol dramas and female audiences, the research combines cultivation and Use & Gratification, two different ways of audience research. By content analysis, the research defines the love world in Taiwan idol dramas. By questionnaire survey, the research understands the impressions and opinions for Taiwan idol dramas of female audiences with different viewing motives, viewing behaviors, and love experiences. Results show the particular love concept in Taiwan idol dramas will influence love concept of female audiences, and the love concept will be strengthened when they are heavy viewers. With much more motives like entertainment and information-learning, the particular love concept of audiences will be strengthened by the particular love concept in Taiwan idol dramas, but with much more motive like ritual viewing, the particular love concept of audiences will be weakened by the particular love concept in Taiwan idol dramas. No matter the audiences lack love experiences or have blessed love experiences, the love concept in Taiwan idol dramas will not influence love concept of audiences.

The literature on escalation situations and audience costs suggests that democratic executives tend to increase commitment to a foreign policy in response to negative feedback. However, real-world cases from international politics suggest otherwise. Specifically, executives do not appear to respond uniformly to failing situations. While scholars have begun to unravel the audience cost mechanism, up until know, we know little about reasons for the variation in how executives use policy feedback to update commitment to a foreign policy. In this dissertation, I adopt an integrative approach and present a model of sequential decision-making that explains the conditions under which leaders escalate and de-escalate commitment in response to feedback. I attempt to break down the audience cost mechanism to explain why democratic executives do not respond uniformly to negative feedback. While the literature on the escalation of commitment suggests decision-makers tend to increase investment in the face of negative feedback, my theory suggests that under certain conditions, executives may find it politically advantageous to back down from a failing policy. My theory emphasizes the relationship between citizens, executives, and foreign policy effectiveness. Next, I suggest that the foreign policy tool of military intervention provides a suitable test case for a theory of sequential decision-making. I first test hypotheses derived from the theory regarding the preference formation process of democratic citizens during the course of such an episode. Understanding the response of citizens to feedback is an important first step to understanding the updating decisions of democratic executives. While previous work has relied on aggregate survey data, experimentation provides me with the ability to analyze how an individual citizen?s preference over commitment is impacted by policy feedback. The results of the experimental analyses suggest that citizens act as investors: they favor increasing commitment to military interventions when viewing negative feedback, up to a point. I then test the main hypotheses derived from the theory regarding executive decision-making on a dataset of major power military interventions from 1960-2000. Overall, the results support the hypotheses: public approval conditions the manner in which executives use feedback to update intervention commitments. In the conclusion, I summarize the study by highlighting key results, present the broad implications for the study of democratic foreign policy making, and discuss avenues for future research.

Life Style and Behavior of Internet Radio Audience

Mentions of God were omnipresent in the early vernacular texts of thirteenth-century Spain. In this dissertation, I study the mentions of God in three well-known Spanish narrative poems written down in the thirteenth century. These are the Cantar de mio Cid, the Libro de Alexandre, and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora. In particular, I discuss how the representation of God in these works is shaped by each of the three poets' original intended audiences and the message that he wished to communicate to those listeners. I begin by reviewing critical reconstructions of the original intended audiences of the three poems. I then study three aspects of the representation of God in each of the three poems: the words used to reference God, the descriptions of the deity present in the texts themselves, and the roles and functions assigned to God as a character in each narrative. I conclude that the Judeo-Christian God was an expected element in early Spanish narrative poetry, but that his representation could vary widely based on the differing compositions of the audiences for whom the works were conceived. / text

The purpose for this thesis was to explore a dynamic between the news media, their subjects, and their audience. I investigate whether everyday news media frame the information they deliver in such a way as to potentially direct the audience on how to respond to news stories. The setting for this research question is in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and the subject matter deals specifically with agriculture, its practitioners, how they do business, and how the local news media report about it. The issue will be explored from an applied anthropological perspective, basing conclusions on field research and an internship with the Department of Environmental Protection and their agricultural liaison. Several newspaper articles and television news broadcasts were monitored over several years and selected on a basis of their relevancy to the topic. The anthropological value of this study is in discovering how media disseminate this particular subject matter and how a deficiency in information flow could result. I explore a body of literature that is both diverse and germane to the field of media studies to gain a broad perspective on how different news events are mediated. Following the analysis, a qualitative assessment is given to further the understanding of how local news media frame reports related to the practice of agriculture.

Victim precipitated homicide is a phenomenon generally credited to the seminal work of Marvin Wolfgang (1957, 1958, 1967). While a limited number of studies have been conducted supporting this concept, limited understanding exists of the event dynamics of homicidal transactions in general and victim precipitated homicides in particular. In this study, the presence of an audience and alcohol impairment are treated as catalysts that influence the dynamics of the homicide event. It is hypothesized that homicide events are more likely to take shape as victim precipitated transactions when audience members are present. It is further hypothesized that the victim’s consumption of alcohol serves as a moderator between the presence of an audience and victim precipitated homicide. These hypotheses were tested using a dataset of 473 homicides occurring in Dallas, Texas from 1988 to 1997. The author found support for the first hypothesis postulating that the presence of an audience increases the odds of a victim precipitated homicide, but found little support for alcohol as a moderating factor. Potential theoretical and policy implications and future research are discussed.