Källkritik och informationssökning är en viktig del av en digital kompetens och därav även en stor del av revideringen av LGR11 (Skolverket, 2018a) som fokuserat på att digitalisera skolan. Tidigare forskning tyder på att minst undervisning inom området ges i grundskolans tidiga år. Syftet med denna studie är således att få en ökad insikt i hur undervisning i och om området ser ut i årskurserna F-3. Vi valde att främst se till lärarnas egna resonemang och tolkningar, därav har våra metoder utgått från en kvalitativ ansats och ett pragmatiskt perspektiv. Genom surveyundersökning och semistrukturerade intervjuer har vi kunnat se över 38 F-3 lärares tankar om undervisning i källkritik och informationssökning. Lärarna i studien ser området som en självklar del av det vardagliga arbetet i skolan och en viktig kunskap i det digitaliserade samhället som bör arbetas med från förskolan och i alla skolans ämnen, däremot uteblir undervisningen ofta trots att lärarna ser sina egna kunskaper i området som tillräckliga. Lärarna uttrycker ett behov av kompetensutveckling inom området då de upplever osäkerheter kring den didaktiska aspekten. Faktatexter och diskussioner i helklass blir därför de vanligast förekommande arbetsmetoderna oavsett årskurs och skolbiblioteket ses inte som en resurs i undervisningen vid källkritik och informationssökning. Området har en tendens att prioriteras bort med anledning av brist på tid, både vad gäller planering och undervisningstid, och digitala verktyg. / Source criticism and information literacy is a major part of the knowledge and skills needed in a digital era and therefore an important component in the revise of the Swedish curriculum of the compulsory school (Skolverket, 2018a) that targets the digitalization of the Swedish school system. Thus’, previous studies show that less education is provided for pupils in compulsory school in the subject of source criticism and information literacy, than in any other grade. The purpose of this study is to get additional insight in the education of source criticism and information literacy in compulsory school. We chose to study the teachers’ interpretations of the subject and how they implement the subject into their own classroom. Therefore, we have chosen a qualitative approach with a pragmatic perspective. Through a survey and multiple semi-structured interviews, we have been able to inquire about the reasonings of 38 compulsory school teachers. The teachers in this study view source criticism and information literacy as a natural part of their daily teaching and as an important societal based knowledge or ability in a digital society. A subject that is both important to introduce in pre-school and should be included in every school subject. Yet the teachers express a need for competence development as a result of an uncertainty with the didactic features of the pupils’ education. Factual texts and discussions held with the whole class, in the classroom, is therefore the most common approach regardless of grade. The school library is not seen as a resource for learning about source criticism and information literacy. The subject tends to get lower priority compared to other subjects due to the lack of time in both planning and teaching-hours and also due to the lack of digital tools available.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:16:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Audrei Aparecida Franco de Carvalho.pdf: 19498370 bytes, checksum: 9ed446b71a9cde11a0ddae501835378d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The dialog between Augusto de Campos work and available medias in each period, it is de start point for this research. This affirmation suggests the investigation about poetic procedures put in practice by Augusto de Campos at the possibility of translation to electronic-digital support. The work hypothesis are: a) Augusto de Campos poetry is intersemiotic; b) the intersemiotic features of Augusto de Campos poetry, always connected at new media technologies, presume unexpected concepts of translation and poetry; c) these features presume a translation in constant process. The theorical and methodological foundations are divided in three parts: the concrete poetry and Augusto de Campos poetry will be analysed through the critical studies about concrete poetry, that was done by the concrete poets in: Teoria da Poesia Concreta (1987). The second part is formed by studies of the procedures used to the translation of concrete poems to digital media, it was found at: Ertho Albino de Souza, Ricardo Araújo, Julio Plaza, Melo e Castro s work. The last part of this research is formed by the translation of poetamenos poems (1953) to digital media, they are: poetamenos, paraíso pudendo, lygia fingers, nossos dias com cimento, eis os amantes and dias dias dias. The selection of these poems isn t by chance. Since the 1950 s, Augusto de Campos indicated the need of using new medias in the artistic development: Mas luminosos, ou filmletras, quem os tivera! The translation practice from this research appeals to Julio Plaza s studies in: Tradução Intersemiótica (1987) and Processos criativos com os meios eletrônicos: poéticas digitais (1998). Besides, we use the Walter Benjamin s critical study: A Tarefa do Tradutor (1923), and Haroldo de Campos studies about creative translation, with these studies we intent to understand how a creative text reacts at a translation to another support. This research is important to Communication Studies because it brings the light to the relation among art, communication and technology, they are currently at Augusto de Campos work. The relation among these fields happens by the incorporation of elements and procedures found in the press, magazines, bright displays, Internet, and other places. It s important to remember the relationship between Brazilian concrete poetry and artistic moviments found all over the world. The conclusions achieved show the existence of the relation between Augusto de Campos poetry and electronic poetry. We notice, for example, the concern of both with the receiver, the moviment, the connection between image and sound, etc / O ponto de partida dessa pesquisa é o diálogo entre os textos poéticos de Augusto de Campos e as mídias disponíveis em cada período. Tal afirmação sugere a investigação do que ocorre com os procedimentos poéticos colocados em prática por este poeta diante da possibilidade de uma tradução para o suporte eletrônico-digital. As hipóteses de trabalho são: a) a poética de Augusto de Campos é intersemiótica; b) as características intersemióticas dessa poética, sempre ligadas às invenções tecnológicas das mídias, supõem desdobramentos no conceito de tradução e poética; c) essas características pressupõem uma tradução em constante processo. A base teórica e metodológica divide-se em três partes: a poesia concreta e a poética de Augusto de Campos é analisada através dos estudos críticos sobre a poesia concreta feita pelos próprios poetas em Teoria da Poesia Concreta (1987). A segunda parte é formada pelos estudos dos procedimentos empregados nas traduções de poemas concretos em mídia digital, encontrados nos trabalhos de Erthos Albino de Souza, Ricardo Araújo, Julio Plaza, E. E. de Melo e Castro, entre outros. A última parte dessa pesquisa é formada pela tradução para a mídia digital, dos poemas da série poetamenos, de 1953; são eles: poetamenos, paraíso pudendo, lygia fingers, nossos dias com cimento, eis os amantes e dias dias dias. A escolha desses poemas não se dá ao acaso, pois, já na década de 1950, Augusto de Campos sinalizava para a necessidade das novas mídias na criação artística: mas luminosos, ou filmletras, quem os tivera! A prática tradutória dessa pesquisa recorre aos estudos de Julio Plaza encontrados em Tradução Intersemiótica (1987) e Processos Criativos com os Meios Eletrônicos: Poéticas Digitais (1998). Além disso, utilizamos o estudo crítico de Walter Benjamin, A Tarefa do Tradutor (1923), e os textos de Haroldo de Campos sobre tradução criativa, na tentativa de compreender como um texto criativo reage a uma tradução para outro suporte. Esta pesquisa é importante para o campo da Comunicação porque traz à luz a relação entre arte, comunicação e tecnologia, que estão presentes no trabalho de Augusto de Campos. A relação entre esses campos se dá pela incorporação de elementos e procedimentos encontrados no jornal, na revista, no uso de luminosos, na Internet, entre outros. Lembre-se da relação entre poesia concreta brasileira e movimentos que se desdobravam em todas as partes do mundo. As conclusões obtidas apontam para a existência da relação entre a poesia de Augusto de Campos e a poesia eletrônica. Nota-se, por exemplo, a preocupação de ambas com o receptor, com o movimento, com a conexão entre imagem e som, etc

Cinema, as a complex social and cultural phenomenon, has been recently challenged by digital media cultures and aesthetics since the 1990s. In this study, Hong Kong cinematic productions, blending the West and the East, and flexibly manoeuvring production and post-production with limited resources, are used to demonstrate the advent of new digital cinematic aesthetics and productions in the era of globalization and digitalization. The production culture and aesthetics of local cinema has been, to a great extent, internally modified by the impacts of digital media cultures and technologies, especially digital effects and computer animation of unprecedented imaginary spaces and perspectives for creative productions. The increasing complexity of digital cinematic productions and the rapidly changing cultural production systems bring in newcomers of alternative modes/choices of thoughts and interpretations, thus facilitating production/product differentiation and de-differentiation to cater for the increasing and changing demands of active audiences. The vigorous struggle for cultural representations in digital cinematic aesthetics by producers and consumers of disparate repertoires is the focus of analysis in this research. Empirical evidences suggest a new paradigmatic model to study cultural representations of digital cinematic aesthetics within contemporary creative systems of production and consumption. / The findings generally support the advent of the ten new aesthetics of digital cinema as a global trend as well as a new glocalism in the Hong Kong cases. While most interviewed producers and audiences articulate the new characteristics of digital cinematic aesthetics, many audiences show disjunctive judgments toward those local filmmakers' treatments to cross-fertilize video game with their cinematic productions. This reveals the inevitability of internal modifications of organization cultures and representational practices to create new digital cinematic aesthetics and productions within new dynamics of digital media cultures and technologies in the fast changing media ecology. Hong Kong filmmakers and computer animators show their strength and flexibility to glocalize digital cinematic aesthetics and productions by integrating digital visual effects with local film and production cultures, especially in comedic and martial arts cinematic productions. However, it seems that there are larger discrepancies concerning the tastes and aesthetic judgments toward cultural representations in digital cinematic aesthetics by cross-fertilization with video game between general audiences and professionals. This study reflects that the rigid, director-oriented Hong Kong film production system is too demanding on the film director's independent ability of coordination and greatly influences the development of cultural representations in digital cinema by collective imaginative inputs of increasing complexity and flexibility. Producers and consumers of disparate repertoires of cultural practices contribute to the meaning construction of multiple layers of digital effects and computer animation by systematic coordination and collaboration. In other words, the "spectrum of cultural representations", as a framework, helps us understand the complexity and creativity of the new digital cinematic aesthetics from production to consumption practices. / This study is a multidimensional investigation of the moments of creativity and struggles over organization cultures and representational practices by both cultural producers and audiences. There are case studies of the general trend of digital cinematic productions in Hollywood and the specific development of digital cinema in Hong Kong, as well as in China. From these empirical analyses, ten new characteristics of digital cinematic aesthetics are generalized. They include (l) amplification, (2) free referencing, (3) seamlessness and believability, (4) multiple-layered composition, (5) patterning, (6) imaginary perspectives, (7) collective imaginative inputs, (8) cross-fertilization with comic, (9) cross-fertilization with video game, and (10) cross-cultural, cross-historical, cross-genre production. Such inductive findings are also deployed to study the social functions of both producers and audiences in the meaning construction of digital cinematic aesthetics and productions within the dynamics of digitalization and globalization. Eighteen in-depth interviews of production insiders, five focus groups of disparate generations of movie audiences and amateurs, and eleven case studies of Hong Kong digital cinematic productions have been examined. The empirical validity about the ten new forms of digital cinematic aesthetics and their production and consumption is investigated, and also achieved by intensive and interactive case studies, production studies and audience studies, combining textual and discourse analyses and production and reception analyses. / Lam, Sui Kwong Sunny. / Advisers: Anthony Y. H. Fung; Eric K. W. Ma. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 536-562). / 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.

Este estudo tem como objetivo principal avaliar a formação do mercado de agências digitais no Rio Grande do Sul a partir de relações sociais e econômicas desencadeadas pelo empreendedorismo institucional coletivo de empresários, reunidos em uma associação de negócios (business association). O estudo fundamenta-se teoricamente nos pressupostos da Sociologia Econômica dos Mercados. A tese busca evidenciar a relevância de estudos sociológicos sobre a atividade empresarial, notadamente das associações de negócios, com ênfase sobre as ações que uma organização do tipo desenvolve na tentativa de conferir identidade, normas, padrões e fronteiras de atuação comercial e também profissional a um mercado de origem recente, isto é, o mercado de serviços de empresas designadas como agências digitais e que possuem matriz em território gaúcho. Por agências digitais entendemos todas aquelas companhias que têm projetos de Internet como atividade-fim, bem como conteúdo para outras mídias/plataformas digitais (celulares, TV digital e games), e que se situam na interseção de áreas de criação e Comunicação Social, como a Publicidade e Propaganda, e de base técnica, no caso de Tecnologia da Informação (TI). Como resultado desta tese, apontamos qual papel que uma associação de negócios (Agadi / Abradi-RS) desempenha no mercado de agências digitais do Rio Grande do Sul e qual o estágio em que se encontra a formação desse mercado, que possui caráter híbrido, reunindo mais de uma expertise. / This study aims at evaluating the market creation of digital agencies in Rio Grande do Sul privileging the social and economic relations triggered by the collective institutional entrepreneurship within a business association. The study is based on theoretical assumptions of the Economic Sociology of Markets. The study seeks to demonstrate the relevance of sociological research on entrepreneurial activity, particularly related to a business associations, emphasizing the actions of an organization created to give identity, norms, standards and boundaries for the commercial operations as well as to a recent professional market, that is, the market for services companies designated as digital agencies with headquarters in RS. For digital agencies it is understood all those companies that work with Internet projects, as well as with content for other media / digital platforms (mobile phones, digital TV and games), and which lie at the intersection of areas of creation and the Media, as Advertising and Propaganda, and technical basis, in the case of Information Technology (IT). The study examines the role the association plays for the creation of the market for digital agencies do Rio Grande do Sul and the stage it is in the formation of this market, which has hybrid character, gathering more than one expertise.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:43:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Kei Ohashi Sato.pdf: 1422574 bytes, checksum: 540e2341a2b34d4eca47c4af926c8a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-14 / This work intends to analyze design as the object that generates answers to the user's (gamer's) expectations based on the collective imaginarium. In turn, this imaginarium originates in a specific social-cultural context. Considering men as symbolic beings, they look for the reason of their existence by attribuing meaning to objects. Those meanings are interpreted by society, creating values, behaviors and cultural references. This work presents fundamental concepts about design and its presence in the social-cultural context, being design the language that interprets and re-signify the electronic game based on the collective imaginarium. / A presente pesquisa procura analisar o design como objeto gerador de respostas às expectativas do usuário (jogador) a partir do imaginário coletivo. Por sua vez, este imaginário, tem a sua origem em um determinado contexto sócio-cultural. Considerando o homem como um ser simbólico, este busca o sentido para sua existência por meio da atribuição de significados aos objetos. Tais significados são interpretados pela sociedade criando seus valores, comportamentos e referenciais culturais. Ao longo deste trabalho são apresentados conceitos fundamentais sobre o design e sua presença no contexto sócio-cultural, sendo o design, a linguagem que interpreta e resignifica, a partir do imaginário coletivo, um jogo eletrônico.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:17:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Isabelle Cordeiro Nogueira.pdf: 1419586 bytes, checksum: 83173474c25847dbf99eaf155843b578 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Different ways of communication relate to different ways of social organization. The historical and evolutionary process of the cultural production developed a context where digital media promote important transformations and where relationships in new space-time structures bring changes to the environment. In this conjuncture of change emerge the artistic production that is named here as Poetics of Multitude. In this poetics, the media assume a central role in the net collaborative autonomies that characterize them. For understanding them, it is necessary to identify new forms of living together with the writings of Bauman (2000, 2003), Santos (2005) e Souza Santos (2005, 2006), and with them, to reflect about globalization. In the perspective presented in this thesis, the body is treated as a primary media in accordance to the Bodymedia Theory, developed by Katz (2005) and Greinner (2005). Understood as a response to capitalism, the poetics of multitude is understood as a symptom of the contemporary society. The theory of Negri and Hardt (2004), and Virno (2002) sustains the research. In multitude - this new form of existence that contrasts to the ideas of folk or mass the poetics is related to autonomies in forms of net collaboration. And is present also in the creation and distribution of new ways of thinking dance. An interaction of neighbors , without the traditional practices of leadership and hierarchy promotes a kind of authonomy theoretically supported by concepts of evolution, co-adaptation and co-dependence (Dawkins (1976, 1978, 1998, 1999) and Dennett (1995). Such social systems auto-organize themselves through indirect control resembling what happens in other live systems (Gordon (2002) and Johnson (2003). Actions of the body in the world produce poetic emergences. We propose that the new forms of social organization that are being put in the world produce new ways of addressing knowledge and a new position to the subject / Diferentes formas de comunicação se dão em novas formas de organização social. O processo histórico e evolutivo dos modos de produção cultural desencadeou um contexto em que as mídias digitais ocupam um importante papel transformador e onde novos relacionamentos na estrutura espaço-tempo fazem emergir mudanças no ambiente. É na conjuntura desses fenômenos de mudança que emergem o que aqui denominamos Poéticas de Multidão. Nestas poéticas, as mídias desempenham papel central autonomias colaborativas em rede que as caracterizam. Para entendê-las, faz-se necessário identificar uma nova forma de convívio, recorrendo aos estudos de Bauman (2000,2003), Santos (2005) e Souza Santos (2005, 2006) para, com eles, refletir sobre a globalização. Na perspectiva apresentada nessa tese, o corpo é tratado como mídia primária, em acordo com a teoria corpomídia, desenvolvida por Katz (2005) e Greinner (2005). Entendidas como uma resposta ao capitalismo, as poéticas de multidão são tratadas como um sintoma da sociedade contemporânea. A leitura teórica de Negri e Hardt (2004), e Virno (2002) sustentam a pesquisa. Em Multidão - esse novo modo de existir, contrastando com a idéia de povo ou massa - essas poéticas se relacionam na forma de redes colaborativas. E isso é também apresentado na criação e distribuição de novos tipos de pensamento de dança. A interação entre vizinhos , sem as práticas tradicionais de liderança e hierarquia, promovem uma espécie de autonomia teoricamente apoiada em conceitos evolutivos de co-adaptação e co-dependência Dawkins (1976, 1978, 1998, 1999) e Dennett (1995). Tais sistemas sociais se auto-organizam por controle indireto resembling o que acontece em outros sistemas viventes, como nos atestam Gordon (2002) e Johnson (2003). O corpo em suas ações no mundo, produz emergências poéticas. Propomos que as novas formas de organização social que estão sendo postas no mundo produz novos modos de construir conhecimento e uma nova posição do sujeito

O objeto desta dissertação de Mestrado é composto pela série Auto-Retrato Coletivo de Nardo Germano. Organizada artisticamente como repositório crítico de uma identidade coletiva seu tema central , a série constitui-se de auto-retratos híbridos entre o Indivíduo e o Coletivo, questionando a construção identitária marcada por estigmas sociais. As obras que compõem a série são: 1)Auto-Objeto; 2)Sujeitos; 3)Auto-Retrato por Metro Quadrado; 4)Cabeça Defronte; 5)Auto-Retr_Ato_Coletivo; 6)Especulares #7; 7)Corpo Coletivo; 8)AlterEgo; 9)ANDROMAQUIA on-line; e 10)Doe Seu Rosto/Give Me Your Face. A atual pesquisa artística dá continuidade a Auto-Objeto(1987), uma obra composta por painéis de auto-retratos sem negativo obtidos em cabine Fotomática, e articula-se a partir da digitalização de um conjunto imanente da obra Sujeitos(1987), colagens realizadas com auto-retratos acéfalos, recortes de textos, imagens e manchetes de jornal. Com o objetivo de, nesta fase, estabelecer novos contrapontos ao discurso monológico identitário oficial bem como ao conceito de uma autoridade do artista como autor que controla os sentidos da obra, a criação partiu da hipótese de que o investimento nos graus de abertura à recepção podem promover o dialogismo e polifonia almejados, com a inclusão da alteridade, das expressões e dos pontos de vista dos espectadores na noção de identidade coletiva veiculada nas obras, considerando os conceitos de obra aberta de Umberto Eco bem como de dialogismo e polifonia de Mikhail Bakhtin. A presente dissertação discorre sobre aquelas obras originais como paradigmas internos da criação e sobre as obras produzidas durante esta pesquisa artística, focando nas proposições dialógicas de poéticas abertas, bem como nas estratégias de participação e interatividade então implementadas, realizadas em ambiente real e/ou através dos meios tecnológicos. O texto explicita e reflete sobre as poéticas de abertura envolvidas na recepção, comprovando por fim a hipótese de trabalho. Em suma, no que tange aos resultados sobre o tema proposto, conclui-se que Auto-Retrato Coletivo promove um movimento contínuo de construção e desconstrução identitária possibilitado pela abertura poética aos espectadores que, convertidos em participantes e/ou interatores, cumulativamente renovam, expandem e problematizam a identidade coletiva, inscrevendo-a na dimensão Utópica de Identidades Abertas. / The object of this dissertation of Master\'s degree is composed by Nardo Germano\'s series Collective Self-Portrait. Organized artistically as critical repository of a collective identity its central theme , the series is constituted of hybrid self-portraits between the Individual and the Collectivity, discussing the construction of identities characterized by social stigmata. The works that compose the series are: 1)Auto-Objeto; 2)Sujeitos; 3)Auto- Retrato por Metro Quadrado; 4)Cabeça Defronte; 5)Auto-Retr_Ato_Coletivo; 6)Especulares #7; 7)Corpo Coletivo; 8)AlterEgo; 9)ANDROMAQUIA on-line; e 10)Doe Seu Rosto/Give Me Your Face. The current artistic research gives continuity the Auto-Objeto(1987), an art-work composed by panels of self-portraits without negative obtained at Photomaton Cabin, and organized through a process of scanning an immanent group of the art-work Sujeitos(1987), collages accomplished with acephalous self-portraits, cuttings of texts, images and newspaper headlines. With the objective of, in this phase, to establish new counterpoints to the monologic official speech about identity as well as to the concept of an authority of the artist as author that controls the meanings of the art-work, the creation worked with the hypothesis that the investment in the opening degrees to the reception can promote the necessary dialogism and polyphony, with the inclusion of the spectators\' alterity, expressions and points of view in the notion of collective identity in the art-works, considering the concepts of Umberto Ecos open work and Mikhail Bakhtins dialogism and polyphony. The present dissertation describes those original art-works as internal paradigms of the creation and the art-works produced during this artistic research, focusing in the dialogical propositions of open poetics, as well as in the strategies of participation and interactivity implemented, in real ambience and/or through the technological media. The text explicits and reflects the poetics of opening to the spectator involved in the reception, proving finally the work hypothesis. In short, with respect to the results on the proposed theme, the conclusion is that Collective Self-Portrait promotes a continuous movement of construction and deconstruction of identities, possible by the poetical openness to the spectators who, converted in participants and/or interactors, cumulatively renew, expand and problematize the collective identity, enrolling it in the Utopian dimension of Open Identities.

Digital forms of media are monopolizing individuals' attention spans, utilizing visual strategies that demand our interactions. Throughout the history of media technology, mediums have become increasingly immersive, presenting more information than ever before. The user interface designs of digital platforms can damage our ability to focus and distribute attention in meaningful ways. Through analysis of our digital media consumption, this capstone project ultimately proposes mindful practices that help us lead more balanced lives and thrive in the digital age. The second half of this capstone project is a digital zine with digital illustrations, animations, and editorial-style articles. The digital zine emphasizes and subverts the elements of digital platforms that are specifically damaging to users’ patterns of behavior.

In 2016, the Walt Disney Company launched Shanghai Disneyland--the company’s first theme park in mainland China. Entering mainland China poses significant political and cultural challenges for American companies. To address these challenges, Disney pursued a “glocalization” strategy -- it accounted for local norms and values in launching Shanghai Disneyland. This paper examines how Shanghai Disneyland constructed its brand narrative to negotiate tensions in this glocalization process. A semiotic analysis of two Shanghai Disneyland commercials illustrates the ways in which Disney tapped into culturally meaningful themes of harmonic balance and collective identity to produce the park’s brand narrative--“China’s Disneyland.” A thematic analysis also considers how Chinese citizens engaged with that brand narrative on the popular Chinese social network, Weibo. Citizens engaged with this brand narrative in ways that deviate somewhat from Disney’s messaging, such as by avoiding depictions of people in the park. Still, even these deviations aligned with and reinforced the cultural values in the “China’s Disneyland” brand narrative. The study underscores the importance strategically adjusting brand narratives for new markets and accounting for users’ engagement with those narratives.

Modern technological innovations are constantly seen throughout every aspect of life, and higher education is no exception. To this end, this article sheds some light on the types of and pedagogical value of new media adopted by academics to promote self-directed learning at the University of South Africa. The study answers the following questions: Which new media approaches have been adopted by academics to enhance self-directed learning? What is the pedagogical value of new media in an ODL environment? A qualitative approach was employed and data was collected through face-to-face interviews with 30 purposively selected Unisa academics. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model was found relevant to this study. Thematic categorisation was employed for data analysis. The findings depict that a variety of new media have been adopted to promote self-directed learning at Unisa. The study also found that new media are playing a pivotal role in promoting self-directed learning in an ODL landscape. It is therefore important to note that new media have emerged as strong catalysts in fostering pedagogical transformation. / College of Education / M. Ed (Open and Distance Learning)