What am I seeing? What does it mean? This thesis addresses the transformations in cultural life in the 21st century due to the cultural dominance of the image, which resulted from the radical change and enormous progress in the media, communication and the development of information systems in the world. All this has led to changes in the intellectual structure, and an increased tendency to drift in all areas, and the emergence of a society and a culture governed by the culture of shock. The fundamental issue concerning the image is an epistemological issue, as we cannot distinguish between the visual image and the semantic product. We live in a world surrounded with stunning and spectacular visual images. We are overloaded with images from all types in our everyday life. We probably see images more than we read words. This thesis provides an analytical framework for understanding how images produce meanings using the semiotic approach. Semiotics is the most important approach that can be used to analyze all types of images. Semiotic analysis addresses images as signs which communicate meaning. The symbols used in signs are often culturally specific. This thesis indicates the focus of the receiver to adapt to this visual cultural situation, to be able to grasp the content of the new cultural discourse as it is present in all the details of the receiver’s daily life. There have been a number of questions that pushed me to accomplish this research, including: what are the elements of the culture of the image? What is its impact on the mental perception and production of semantic meaning? What is its reflection on the nature of social networking in general? The thesis discussed all of these issues.

This thesis examines the history of Black representation on British television from 1936 to the present day. Through archival research, it traces Black people's involvement in British television, both on and off screen. The study involves a detailed review of various debates around the history and future of race and representation on television. It also focuses on various issues related to British race relations, the structure of British broadcasting, television policy and the ideological and social construction of 'race'. Although the project is a historical survey with a social and cultural emphasis, it also considers the future of television images of Blackness within the context of deregulation, globalisation and the move towards a federal Europe. As such, the thesis brings us up to date and intersects with aspects of sociology, cultural and media studies and studies of race and ethnicity. The project draws, in part, on a number of original interviews conducted by the author with key Black people involved in the British television industry (actors, commissioning editors, producers, academics, film-makers). It also provides a number of detailed case studies of selected television programmes. The genres discussed include documentary, news, comedy, sport, variety, drama and film. The central thesis suggests that the portrayal of Black people on-screen has been marginalised and confined to a narrow repertoire of (stereo)types underpinned by popular assumptions of what 'Blackness' or 'Black-Britishness' constitute. It argues that the programmes in which Black people have appeared, have signified key moments in the 'racialisation' of British society; moments when the presence of 'race' itself has been realised. But it also argues that, far from being passive to these exclusionary and limiting processes, Black people in Britain have actively mounted a series of individual and collective strategic interventions in order to tackle institutional discrimination and gain media representation, employment and access. The project has been supervised by Professor Stuart Hall (formerly of the Open University's Sociology department) and June Givanni (former Head of the African-Caribbean Unit at the British Film Institute). It draws on, and is an extension of, earlier research conducted as part of the British Film Institute's 'Black and White in Colour' Project in 1992.

Law Wing-Man Rita. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-33). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract / English version --- p.v / Chinese version --- p.vi / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction / Importance of Relationships and Avoidance of Interpersonal Harm --- p.1 / Regulation of Hostility by Cognitive Adjustments --- p.2-3 / Plausible Psychological Mechanism Behind the Regulation of Hostility --- p.3-6 / Purposes and Design of the Present Study --- p.6-7 / Cross-Cultural Examinations --- p.7-8 / Hypotheses of the Present Study --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Method / Participants --- p.9 / Procedure --- p.9 / Measurement scales --- p.9-12 / Overview of the Data Analyses --- p.12-14 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Results / Means and Zero-Order Correlations --- p.15-18 / Testing the Measurement Model Across Cultures --- p.18-19 / Testing the Validity of the Original Models Across Cultures --- p.23-24 / Testing Model A with Familiarity Across Cultures / Chapter ■ --- Testing Factor Invariance --- p.19-20 / Chapter ■ --- Testing Path Invariance in the Final Model --- p.20-22 / Explained Variances for Hostility --- p.23 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Discussion / Rejecting Model B Across All Cultures --- p.2 / Accepting Model A Across All Cultures --- p.24-25 / Pancultural Model of Interpersonally triggered Hostility --- p.25 / Culture-Specific Properties of the Model --- p.25-26 / The Role of Familiarity --- p.26-27 / Relationships Among Variables From Original Model A --- p.27-28 / Implications of Cultural Effects --- p.29 / Limitations and Implications for Further Studies --- p.29-30 / Closing Remarks --- p.30-31 / References --- p.32-33 / Tables / "Table 1: Means and Standard Deviations of Variables, Along With Scale Properties" --- p.16 / Table 2: Correlations Among Variables in the Four Cultural Groups --- p.17 / Table 3: Findings of Tests for Path Invariance --- p.21 / Figures / Figure 1: Model A (with Modified Measures) --- p.4 / Figure 2. Model B (with Modified Measures) --- p.5 / Figure 3. Model A with Familiarity --- p.13 / Appendix / Items on the Questionnaire --- p.34-36

Emotion theories from social and functionalist perspectives have greatly emphasized the importance of relationship contexts for emotions (Carolyn, 2004; Lazarus, 1991), yet relatively few empirical efforts have been spent on exploring whether and how individuals differentially deal with anger under different relationship contexts. Study 1 investigated how individuals' anger responses might vary with relationship contexts across cultural contexts. Two hundred and sixty-six participants from America, Hong Kong and Mainland China reported their responses toward anger-eliciting scenarios that were elicited by a kin, a close or a casual friend. Results indicated that, after controlling for demographic variables, personality, and relationship qualities, individuals displayed a higher level of direct and replaced aggression but a lower level of cognitive reappraisal and indirect aggression in kinship than in the two types of friendships across the three samples. While Hong Kong Chinese displayed a higher level of fractious motives in kinship than in two types of friendships, Mainland Chinese displayed a lower level of malevolent motives in kinship than in two types of friendships. / To resolve the controversy between two interpretations for the above relationship effect on anger response, we conducted an experiment to examine the roles of approach and avoidance motives in determining relationship effects on anger responses in Study 2. One hundred and fifty two Hong Kong Chinese female participants' anger responses during emotion recalling tasks were assessed in terms of subjective feeling, physiological arousal and facial expression, after approach and avoidance motives were manipulated. Results revealed that, even after controlling for relevant personality traits, demographic variables, and relationship qualities, individuals displayed a higher level of anger-related subjective feeling and facial expression in kinship than in friendship. Such relationship effects were reversed and disappeared when approach and avoidance motives. In addition, we found that approach motives reduced individuals' sympathetic activation to anger-eliciting events in kinship, and avoidance motives lowered individuals' parasympathetic activation to happy events in friendship. The above findings have great implications for anger regulation and health promotion under relationship contexts. / You, Jin. / Adviser: Helene H. L. Fung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-01, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-92). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Chan Kit Sze Amy. / "June 2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 332-354). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Thesis ( M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / Refer to document

This thesis aims to re-categorize Chinese independent films from a region-based perspective as a critical response to existing literature on Chinese independent films. This thesis analyzes three independent films made in three different regions of China in order to investigate regional Chinese independent cinema as a recently rising phenomenon: respectively, Jia Zhangke’s Xiaowu (1997) made in Shanxi Province, Ying Liang’s Taking Father Home (Bei yazi de nanhai, 2006) in Sichuan Province, and Robin Weng’s Fujian Blue (Jinbi huihuang, 2007) in Fujian Province. By using Bakhtin’s concept of chronotope (literally time-space) as the fundamental framework and exploring the many aspects of it, I will develop three major theoretical points to study selected regional Chinese independent films: first, chronotope enables the evaluation of texts of Chinese independent films; second, the documentary impulses prevailing Chinese independent films serve as the chronotopic linkage between the world in the film text and the world the film text represents; three, the mediation function as one aspect of chronotope is characterized by the negotiation between regional Chinese independent films and many social relations, for example, filmmakers, casting, audiences. This thesis also explores many issues related to Chinese independent films, for example: How do we value the unique film practice of Chinese independent filmmakers instead of viewing them as a unified whole? How do we relate Chinese independent films as aesthetic practices to the region-specific reality they are embedded in? How can Chinese independent cinema as a social practice play an effective role in society? The exploration of these questions does not only enlighten new research perspectives on Chinese independent films, but also provide reflections on the geographical, cultural and social diversity of Chinese regions.

本论文针对 1990 年代以来中国社会在经济文化方面的巨大改变，归纳并指出一种新的“消费意识形态”在中国业已历史地形成并取代日渐式微的传统 意识形态，成为宰制当代中国社会的主导力量。论文批判地回顾了1949 年以后中国大陆语境中意识形态涵义的历史嬗变，以四个具有典型意义的时尚报刊和广告案例、广告事件为例，从不同侧面解析了广告形象以及广告产业如何作为 中介与以时尚报刊为代表的文化工业一起，参与当代中国“消费意识形态”建 构的社会过程。 论文通过对“消费意识形态”所遮蔽的当代中国社会问题的揭示，对“消费意识形态”在当代中国社会发生影响的深度和广度的阐释，回应了九十年代以来在中国思想界有较大影响的“后六·四”文化论争中的一些重要问题，展现了文化研究在中国大陆介入现实社会思考和批判的可能空间。

For many years industrial buildings in Hong Kong have formed some of the city’s most vibrant cultural clusters by providing local artists with low-cost space to pursue their creative work. However, recent efforts by the government also targeted these areas for commercial revitalization. By 2020 the industrial part of Kwun Tong, a densely populated district in Kowloon East, will not only have been transformed into the city’s second Central Business District, but also seen the majority of the current cultural workers leaving due to the rapid valorisation of land. Nevertheless, these ongoing struggles over spatial power have also opened up a new space for a critical debate on Hong Kong’s urban planning and cultural policy strategies. This research uses the non-compliant Kwun Tong livehouse Hidden Agenda as a case study to shed light on the prospects for Hong Kong’s cultural diversity in its material, social and symbolic form of cultural clusters. By critically investigating research across different disciplines, I argue that—although the mere exposure of the contradictions between cultural planning and urban creativity discourses is significant—the governmental conditions that have been enabling the emergence of such spaces in the first place are often neglected by scholars and planners alike. Therefore, in order to understand both the destructive and productive impact of spatial power on Hong Kong’s cultural production, this thesis aims to examine the room for maneuvers within planning and policy discourses by expanding the Foucauldian approach of cultural policy studies to the domain of space.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur projektet Kulturkompis konstrueras inom ramarna för integrationstänkande och kulturupplevelser. Både utifrån de deltagandes perspektiv och upplevelser men också utifrån verksamhetens interna syn och arbete. Bland annat fokuserar studien på hur maktpositioner, föreställningar och normer produceras och reproduceras. Uppsatsen bygger på fem stycken kvalitativa intervjuer. Frågeställningarna jag sökt svar på är vilka normer om integration, kultur och gemenskap som kommer till uttryck i projektet. Analysen har utgått från konstruktivistiska perspektiv och begrepp som kultur, makt och klass.