The innate correlation between media and memory is widely acknowledged, but less attention has been devoted to how the complex relationships between media themselves contribute to the formulation of mediated memory. Drawing on contemporary representations of World War 11 in American media from the last two decades, this thesis explores the different ways in which media texts and industries connect and interact, and how such relationships shape and define the memory of conflict. The American experience of World War 11 was refracted first through the multifaceted lens of the wartime generation's mediascape and later through that of their progeny, the Baby Boomers. Each generation's media established layers of meaning for subsequent generations to encounter, challenge, reformulate or preserve. These sedimentary layers of meaning form a 'dark glass' through which the past is viewed; colored by each generation's values, perceptions and experiences. This thesis excavates the stratifications of meaning within generational mediated memories of World War 11 in America, exposing both continuities and changes, in order to facilitate a deeper understanding of the configuration of the memory of the conflict in the media of the current generation. Approaching the construction of the mediated memory of World War II as an ongoing process within a dynamic cultural system involving mass media industries, texts and individuals, this thesis concentrates on the nodes of connection between the component parts of the system of memory as means of illuminating the structural design underpinning current representations of the conflict in film, television and digital games. Exploring the evolution of World War 11 mediated memory in the first decade of the new millennium provides insight not only into how mass media technologies combine to color the memory of past conflicts, but also into how war itself is understood in the present. l
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:606267 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Ramsay, Debra |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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