YouTube is the second largest social media platform in the world, with a multitude of popularchannels which combine politicised commentary with news reporting. The platform providesdirect accessibility to data which makes it possible for the commentators to adjust theircontent to reach wider audiences, however done to an extreme could mean that the creatorspick topics which are the most financially beneficial or lead to fame. If this were the case itwould highlight populist newsmaking and the mechanisms behind it. To investigate theproduction-consumption interaction, data from the 10 most popular channels for 2021 wascollected. Using latent Dirichlet allocation and preferential attachment analysis, the effect ofcumulative advantage, and whether topic choice was driven by views were measured. Apositive feedback loop, where prevalent topics become more prevalent, was found in all buttwo channels, but picking topics which generated more views was only present for onechannel. The findings imply that the top political news commentators over a year have a set oftopics which they return to at a high degree, but choosing the topics which simply are themost popular for the time is not a general feature.

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This study represents an investigation into the effect of multiple production techniques on the recall and retention of information of university students. The purpose of the study was to determine how the ‘Voice of God’ narration affects recall and retention of information compared to an on-camera interview. In documentary video, conveying information is one of the key goals of the director. In most cases, the conveyance of information in itself is insufficient. The director seeks the emotional participation of the audience so that they can become aware of a specific issue. In this mediated environment, the producer’s attempts at reaching the audience are interwoven with the producer’s capability to facilitate the audience’s recall of information. By using the ‘Voice of God’ narration, a director can enhance the narrative and make the information more understandable. Theory suggests that the use of multiple production techniques can either have a negative or positive impact on the processing of information. This statement is based on different experiments that were done by researchers on how various production techniques affect the information processing of an individual. The theoretical basis of the study is rooted in the metatheory, cybernetics. Within cybernetics, the narrative theory explains the structure of the story and how it is conveyed to an audience. Voice-over in documentary video is situated in the narrative theory because the structure of the information the voice-over gives to an audience is of utmost importance. From the theoretical basis, this study uses Lang’s (2000) limited capacity model of mediated message processing to investigate the effect of narration (voice-over) as embedded in documentary video. Specifically, it addresses the mediator’s (in documentary video, the producer’s) goal of maximum information recall by the receiver of the message. The application of Lang’s model is outlined in an empirical design that explores recall of message content and the retention of information in two ways; the recall and retention of information presented through an on-camera interview and the recall and retention of information presented by a narrator whilst images are shown that do not include an image of the narrator him/herself (Voice of God narration). Two experiments were designed for the purpose of this study in which 37 students from the North-West University’s Potchefstroom campus participated. The students were divided into two groups; group one watched the video where the information is presented by an on-camera-interview, and group two watched the video where the information is presented by a ‘Voice of God’ narrator. Two questionnaires were given to the groups at two different times. The results obtained suggest that there is no significant difference in the production techniques and the recall and retention of information. Based on the results, certain recommendations are made for future research, which include modifying the message and research design. / MA (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The life of Elisha P. Hurlbut (1807-1889) has been mostly forgotten since his death. This examination of his personal journal, which he wrote from 1858 to 1887, brings back to the forefront an influential figure that lived most of his life in and around Albany, New York. Prior to beginning the journal, Hurlbut was a lawyer and then a Supreme Court justice in New York. Seven years after retiring from public life in 1851, he commenced work on the journal that provided a detailed social and political commentary on New York, the United States, and the world as a whole. While the journal offers detailed insight into many specific subjects, this thesis focuses on Hurlbut’s views and expertise in civil rights, religion, and phrenology. This body of work will demonstrate how he shaped arguments for equality for all people, despised the influence of organized religion, and was a leader in phrenological studies.

In a broad sense, cultures undergo a metamorphoses due to the external influences and systems impacting the evolution of internal identities. Conversely, Individuals within cultures react to those external influences and systems.The act of hacking a culture is an opportunity to challenge an existing or imported system in order to bring about change and improvement. An aspect of culture hacking is to create messages of satire or irony in order to criticize, or completely reject established systems within cultures. Post Arab spring, Egyptians practiced culture hacking by applying their cultural tools to external systems and influences, producing a process of ‘Egyptianization’. This investigation examines the MFA program’s culture at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar as a case study, and adapts those Egyptianized tools to hack the culture. The program has its own values, rituals, traditions, imported systems, influences and dominant symbols. The aim of this thesis is to generate customized hacking methodologies that identify cracks within this culture and develop an innovative framework to critically analyze them through visual representation.

This diploma thesis is focused on the live-broadcast sports events commentary which is a strictly specific journalistic profession and also one of the most challenging news disciplines of them all. It mainly concentrates on the professional commentators ("play-by-play") in the television environment. To define differences between performances of commentators in public and private television stations using linguistic and quantitative context analysis is the main goal of this thesis. The gender issues in the live-broadcast sports events commentary as a field - which are very rare in the Czech academic environment - are also being evaluated here. Transcripts of commentaries of previously chosen ice hockey matches are the main source for practical chapters of this publication. In both theoretical and practical parts of the thesis, author also considers his own interviews conducted with commentators and other professionals from selected field.

Ce travail consiste en une édition commentée des Grenouilles, comédie présentée par Aristophane en 405 avant notre ère, et ayant obtenu une seconde représentation l’année suivante. Aristophane y présente la descente aux Enfers de Dionysos en quête du poète Euripide, et la dispute entre ce dernier et Eschyle pour la suprématie tragique. Notre édition comporte une introduction générale qui resitue les deux représentations dans leur cadre – historique, idéologique et littéraire – et montre comment le contexte immédiat, notamment la représentation des Bacchantes d’Euripide et la mort de celui-ci et de Sophocle, a influencé la structure de la pièce et ses thématiques ; ainsi que la nature et les causes des modifications apportées au texte entre la première et la seconde représentation. Le cœur de l’introduction analyse l’intrigue de la comédie de manière plus ou moins linéaire, montrant comment Aristophane utilise dans la première partie les motifs traditionnels de la catabase et du voyage initiatique, et comment, dans la deuxième partie, il détourne et critique les théories sophistiques du langage pour mettre face à face Euripide et Eschyle et en dégager une réflexion sur la fonction du théâtre dans la cité. Un chapitre est consacré aux hypothèses concernant la mise en scène originelle, et un autre à la transmission du texte depuis l’Antiquité. Le commentaire vers à vers aborde les questions d’établissement du texte, de vocabulaire, de grammaire, de métrique, de mise en scène et d’intertextualité. Le texte est accompagné d’un apparat critique faisant état de quatre manuscrits parmi les plus anciens (ainsi que d’autres de manière ponctuelle), et d’une traduction originale. / This work consists of an edition and commentary of the Frogs of Aristophanes, a comedy performed in 405 BC and a second time the following year. In it, Aristophanes shows the descent to the Underworld of Dionysos as he searches for the poet Euripides, and the latter’s contest with Aeschylus over tragic supremacy.. This edition contains a general introduction replacing both performances of the play in their historical, ideological and literary frame, and showing how immediate context – mainly the performance of Euripides’ Bacchae and his and Sophocles’ death – influenced the play’s structure and themes. It also shows the nature and causes of the revisions that Aristophanes made between the first and the second performance. The central part of the introduction analyses the plot in a mostly linear way, showing how Aristophanes uses the traditional narratives of catabasis and initiatic journey in the first part of the play, and how, in the second part, he appropriates and criticises the sophists’ theories of language in order to oppose Aeschylus and Euripides and consider the role of theatre in the city. One chapter is dedicated to hypotheses concerning the original stage performance, and another to the transmission of the text between Antiquity and modern times. The line-by-line commentary preoccupies itself with matters of textual criticism, vocabulary, grammar, metric, performance and intertextuality. The text is completed by a critical apparatus that reports the readings of four of the oldest mediaeval manuscripts (and some others when the need arises) and an original French translation.

This work takes off in earlier studies concerning motivational factors to interact in various social media in relation to societal and political discussions. The aim for this study is to garner a deeper understanding about how users on Twitter are motivated to take part in debates beneath the hashtag #svpol. Also, this work contributes with the personal experience of entering the Twittersphere as a new user without the capital of trust or knowledge prerequisite to the participation in the community of #svpol. Through semi-structured interviews six respondents shared their experiences of political dialogue on Twitter. Further, this study presents a new form of gathering data by using Twitter as a channel for textual responses through the function of Direct Messages where 3 respondents answered in text. The results presented confirms earlier theory in some respects regarding motivational factors to engage in political commentary and debate on Twitter. Also, this study presents nuances which can be recognized as pre-dispositioning motivational factors addressed in earlier research. The respondents in this work show differences in their social orientation displaying both relation orientation and antagonistic features in the community of #svpol. Their motivation and gratifications differ, and the result are discussed and concluded in the final chapter. This study does not generalize by the findings presented, rather it describes a small window of the community of #svpol and political commentary on Twitter. Rather than posing any absolute truths or widely held conceptions, this study contributes by giving some depth to the notion of nine Twitter users and their perception of the activity beneath #svpol on the Twitter platform. This work also shines light hardships which a researcher might encounter on the way to a qualitative approach to Twitter users in a general, largely anonymous, network within a national setting.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka kommentarsfälten på svenska litteraturbloggar, och diskursanalys används för att avgöra hur diskursen ser ut. Diskussionen i kommentarsfälten ställs i relation till forskning om traditionella läsgrupper, för att se om och hur fenomenen kompletterar varandra. Uppsatsens frågeställning är ”Hur diskuteras och tolkas litteratur i bloggkommentarer?”.Uppsatsens resultat visar att en tiondel av de 165 kommentarer som studerats innehåller tolkning. Detta innebär att de läsare som söker sig till de studerade litteraturbloggarnas kommentarsfält inte huvudsakligen gör det för att tolka litteratur. Diskursen präglas av utvärdering av böcker och läs-ning. Kommentatörerna har ett behov av att uttrycka sina känslor om litteraturen de läser snarare än att söka efter verkens betydelse eller författarens intention.Det finns en livlig interaktion mellan olika kommentatörer, vilket gör att relationer skapas mellan kommentatörer och även mellan olika litteraturbloggar. Traditionella läsgrupper består ofta av en bestämd grupp som träffas vid bestämda tider, medan vissa av kommentatörerna i undersökningen endast deltagit med en enda kommentar. Det finns samtidigt kommentatörer som återkommer i flera kommentarstrådar. Kommentarsfälten kan knappas anses vara en ersättning till den traditio-nella läsgruppen, men dock ett komplement för läsare som vill diskutera sin upplevelse och söker ett socialt utbyte i flera gemenskaper. / The aim of the essay has been to examine commentaries on Swedish literature blogs. Discourse analysis has been used to determine the nature of the discourse. The discourse has been compared to research on traditional reading groups, in order to determine if and how the phenomena sup-plement one another. The question of the essay is: “How is literature discussed and interpreted in blog commentaries?”The results show that one tenth of the 165 commentaries that have been studied contain interpre-tation. This means that the readers who visit the blogs do not mainly do this to interpret literature. The discourse is characterized by evaluation of books and reading. The commentators have a need to express their feelings about the literature they are reading rather than search for the meaning of the work, or the intention of the author.Among commentators, the interaction is active. As a result, relationships are created amongst commentators and different literature blogs. Traditional reading groups often consist of a set mem-bership that meet on fixed times, while some of the commentators in the study have participated only with one entry. The blog commentaries can hardly replace the traditional reading group, but it can however be a complement for the reader who wants to discuss his or her experience and search for a social community in which to do so.