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open access

Exhibit Eh: Canadian Dependency, U.S. Hegemony, and the Amorphousness of English Canadian Culture

Description: This thesis begins by examining the factors that have resulted in the dependent nature of Canada's political and economic structure, and proceeds to examine how this has contributed to the cultural amorphousness of English Canadian identity. The hegemonic authority of American and trans-national interests, established and maintained in the cultural sphere through the extensive monopoly of the distribution of cultural and media products, perpetuates the amorphousness of English Canadian culture … more
Date: August 1999
Creator: McIntosh, Andrew
open access

Girl Power: Feminism, Girlculture and the Popular Media

Description: This project is an interrogation of three examples from recent popular culture of girlculture, specifically texts that target young female consumers: the Spice Girls, Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These examples are fundamentally different than texts from earlier female targeted generic models because they not only reflect the influence of the feminist movement, they work on feminism's behalf. The project's methodology grows out of feminist film theories and cultural studies theories. On… more
Date: August 1999
Creator: Smith, Ashley Lorrain

Harbor: The Act of Autobiography

Description: This written thesis accompanies a sixteen-minute documentary video, Harbor, in which the filmmaker explores her relationship with her father who has suffered a stroke. Detailed accounts of the pre-production, production and post-production of the video allow the reader to understand the challenging and rewarding process of making an autobiographical documentary. Theoretical issues are also discussed, including the validity, criticisms, artistic nature and ethical concerns of autobiographical fi… more
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Date: August 1999
Creator: Doeren, Catherine Wallace

The Luxury of Tears: A Secondary Survivor's Story

Description: As the written accompaniment for The Luxury of Tears, a twelve-minute documentary video exploring the emotional impact of sexual assault on male survivors and their partners, this document examines the visual texts of both the fiction and nonfiction genres. Specifically, I contend that fiction film manufactures male survivorship with regard to rape events in such manner which contributes to the thematization of social silence. Such silence perpetuates the feminization of rape as a social prob… more
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Date: December 1999
Creator: McKinney, Kelli
open access

Gestalt Work For the Actor: A Documentary Video Production

Description: Gestalt Work for the Actor is a documentary about Dr. Renee Vincent's Gestalt acting exercise. Students are trained to recall powerful emotions and then employ the conjured passions into performance. This documentary examines the Gestalt acting exercise and what benefits it affords actors. The accompanying production book explains the production processes: preproduction, production, and postproduction, as well as the theoretical approaches used in the documentary.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Massey, Hugh Richard
open access

Cowboys, Postmodern Heroes, and Anti-heroes: The Many Faces of the Alterized White Man

Description: This thesis investigates how hegemonic white masculinity adopts a new mode of material accumulation by entering into an ambivalent existence as a historical agent and metahistory at the same time and continues to function as a performative identity that offers a point of identification for the working class white man suggesting that bourgeois identity is obtainable through the performance of bourgeois ethics. The thesis postulates that the phenomenal transitions brought on by industrialization … more
Date: August 2000
Creator: Murphree, Hyon Joo Yoo
open access

On Objects and Affections: Contemporary Representations of the Gay Man/Straight Woman Dyad in Popular Film and Television

Description: This project explores the representational strategies used to depict a gay male/straight female dyad across a variety of popular media. The study problematizes and critically evaluates how the narrativization of the dyad both challenges and reinforces stereotypes of gay men and at the same time circulates a troubling image of femininity in the figure of the straight woman. This line of argument is extended to the context of "Lifestyle Television" to demonstrate how the dyad implicitly structure… more
Date: December 2000
Creator: Pillion, Owen L.

Teen ages: Youth market romance in Hollywood teen films of the 1980s and 1990s

Description: This thesis examines the differences between teen romantic comedy films marketed to Generation X teenagers in the 1980s and Generation Y teenagers in the 1990s, focusing on the presentation of gender roles, consumptive behavior, and family. The 1980s films are discussed within the social context of the Reagan era and the conservatism of the New Right. The 1990s films are examined as continuing a conservative sensibility, but they additionally posit consumption as instrumental to achieving an id… more
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Date: May 2001
Creator: Murphy, Caryn E.
open access

"There's A Man With A Gun Over There": Cops And The Counterculture

Description: By 1960, television advertisers recognized the economic potential of American youth, and producers were expected to develop programs to attract them, while still maintaining appeal for the older audience members. This task was to prove difficult as the decade wore on. While continuing to link the nation's cold war concerns to the portrayal of good and evil, some shows, like 77 Sunset Strip, and The Mod Squad, explored alternative lifestyles, but still accepted American values. As the 1960s deve… more
Date: December 2001
Creator: Moellinger, Terry
open access

A New Circle

Description: This reflexive documentary film explores the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribe of Texas and examines questions of cultural identity. The twenty-one minute film uses footage of cultural events, reservation landscape, photographs, and interviews to bring the viewer into the lives of the Alabama-Coushatta people. The written portion of this thesis details the entire processes of making the film, from the proposal stage to the post-production stage. This includes an examination of the film's evolution… more
Date: December 2001
Creator: Shutt, Jason
open access

Two Fingers: Michael's Struggle

Description: This written thesis gives an account of the creative production of Two Fingers: Michael's Struggle, a twenty-nine minute documentary video that explores the life of Michael Alan Rasch who suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. It explains in detail the process of pre-production, production, and post-production of the documentary. It also discuses the integration of theories applied in the documentary. Two Fingers shows that although Michael has lived with the disease almost his entire life, … more
Date: December 2001
Creator: Youm, Mi-jung

Memories of Motherland: Gender, Diaspora and National Identity in 1990s Indian Popular Culture

Description: This thesis examines the role of globalization, an open economy and diasporic experiences on the 1990s popular Indian culture, focusing on discourses of gender, national identity and family. Recent Indian beauty queens and international beauty contests are discussed in the context of gendered nationhood in 1990s India. Several popular films of the 1990s are discussed as narratives expressing longing for an extended family and a homogeneous national identity under the leadership of a traditional… more
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Date: May 2002
Creator: Sapre, Manasi
open access

'Gimme That Ole Time Religion': Traditionalism, Progressivism and Popular Media

Description: This thesis examines the role of Christianity in contemporary American culture using 1990s popular media as cultural artifacts. Building on theories of ideological analysis and hegemony, this project uncovers a balance between progressive and traditionalist ideologies in American culture with progressive ideologies most often superficially acknowledged and incorporated into dominant traditionalist Christian ideologies through hegemonic negotiation. An analysis of the popular Hollywood films T… more
Date: August 2002
Creator: Turner-Reed, Laura
open access

Gender, Identity, and Influence: Hong Kong Martial Arts Films

Description: This project is an examination of the Hong Kong film industry, focusing on the years leading up to the handover of Hong Kong to communist China. The influence of classical Chinese culture on gender representation in martial arts films is examined in order to formulate an understanding of how these films use gender issues to negotiate a sense of cultural identity in the face of unprecedented political change. In particular, the films of Hong Kong action stars Michelle Yeoh and Brigitte Lin are s… more
Date: December 2002
Creator: Castillo, Gilbert Gerard
open access

Hildegard On Rubble Mountain

Description: Hildegard On Rubble Mountain is a cinema verité documentary about Hildegard Modinger's childhood. She grew up in Stuttgart, Germany during World War II and immigrated to the United States at the age of nineteen. This video follows her back to her childhood neighborhood as she recalls memories of that time in her life. The accompanying production book explains the production process: preproduction, production, postproduction, theoretical approaches, style used and a self-evaluation.
Date: December 2002
Creator: Mullins, Michael Bryan
open access

Herb and Life: A Chinese Medical Family

Description: This written thesis examines the process of producing Herb and Life: a Chinese Medical Family, a thirty-minute documentary video that explores the producer's family members' relationship with Traditional Chinese Medicine. This documentary uses interviews, narration, music, and observational sequences to display documentary subjects' career choices and their experiences with Traditional Chinese Medicine. This written thesis reveals the development of this documentary, from the pre-production to … more
Date: December 2002
Creator: Yang, Hongyi
open access

A Wonder Whose Origin is not Known: The Importance of the Orphan Hero in Otherworldly Film

Description: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the importance of the orphan hero in film and his resonance with the American people. It explores the orphan and the American identities, the archetypes found in myths, and the hero in American culture. The three heroes (Batman, Anakin Skywalker, and Harry Potter) represent certain aspects of orphan heroes: the capacity for sacrifice and the need to resist focusing on oneself. The type of hero each becomes has its source in the response he takes to his o… more
Date: May 2007
Creator: Callahan, Sarah Francis
open access

Mama D's 2 Blocks: A Documentary Film

Description: Mama D's 2 Blocks tells the story of a neighborhood home in New Orleans that was transformed into a distribution center and used to assist residents impacted by Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005. Mama D stayed at her home throughout the storm and remained there until the floodwaters had subsided. After the water had drained, socially minded youth from all over the country were drawn to Mama D's home and stayed there while supporting local renewal efforts. The film documents their joining … more
Date: May 2007
Creator: Ferris, Mika
open access

Framing Femininity as Insanity: Representations of Mental Illness in Women in Post-Classical Hollywood

Description: From the socially conservative 1950s to the permissive 1970s, this project explores the ways in which insanity in women has been linked to their femininity and the expression or repression of their sexuality. An analysis of films from Hollywood's post-classical period (The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Lizzie (1957), Lilith (1964), Repulsion (1965), Images (1972) and 3 Women (1977)) demonstrates the societal tendency to label a woman's behavior as mad when it does not fit within the patriarchal m… more
Date: May 2007
Creator: Kretschmar, Kelly
open access

Documentary Film: Accidental Shakespeare

Description: According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, the word “community” derives from the Latin roots: communitas and communis meaning “fellowship” and “common,” respectively. The word “amateur” derives from the Latin roots: amator meaning “lover.” A community of amateurs, who love to put on plays, exists within the Denton Community Theatre. Their first attempt at classical theatre was the January 2006 production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Brad Speck. The film follows two actors (thro… more
Date: May 2007
Creator: Petty, Laurel Ann
open access

The Impact of Ownership, Regulation Issues and Technology Adoption on the Introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television: A Comparison of the United States and Mainland China

Description: This study compares the impact of media ownership, regulation and policy, and technology adoption on the introduction of digital terrestrial television in the United States and Mainland China. Through the use of a case study approach, a qualitative and quantitative examination is given. The results indicate that private group ownership throughout the U.S. digital terrestrial television industry and state ownership in China's television industry lead to the different paths to digital transition.… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Guo, Miao
open access

Born in Beirut

Description: The film starts with another ordinary day, two elderly men playing Backgammon, cars passing by, children playing in the street; scenes anyone anywhere in the world can relate to. Seemingly without warning, as the sun set on that ordinary day, the audience is taken on a perilous journey through war-torn Beirut. Born in Beirut is a thoughtful and poetic examination of war through the eyes of a child who lived through endless conflict in war-torn Beirut. The film examines the futility of war and t… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Khalaf, Tania
open access

Political Agenda-Setting in Cable News as a Possible Technique for Securing an Audience Niche

Description: In an effort to better understand the motivations behind perceived biases in the US cable news industry, 72 hours of CNN, FOX, and MSNBC during the week preceding the 2006 congressional election were analyzed. First- and second-level agenda-setting theories are used to examine how long and in what way federal politicians are portrayed. The results indicate distinct differences in political presentations between the three networks.
Date: August 2007
Creator: Mott IV, W.E.
open access

The reshaping of the traditional television advertising model: An analysis of media agency perceptions and decision-making processes regarding the effects of digital video recorders on television commercial effectiveness.

Description: This research analyzes media agency executives' perceptions and strategic decision-making processes when accessing the impact of digital video recorders (DVRs) on the traditional television commercial spot. Strategic decision-making models, as well as major industry research, forms the theoretical framework used to guide the study. The research takes a quantitative approach using a survey in order to obtain the perceptions and decision-making processes of the media agency executives'. The findi… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Way, Heather C.
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