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conceptualizing networked therapeutic culture
This article investigates the therapeutic culture in social media and looks at a Facebook group for spiritually inclined people who seek solutions and remedies to their daily worries and troubles. This study is based on discourse analysis of 498 posts, combined with ethno- graphic observation and interviews. To understand how the therapeutic culture is shaped in social media, I analyse the motives and experiences of people who self-disclose in the group, the discursive framing of problems by both help-seekers and advice-givers, and the progress of self-disclosure. I propose the term networked therapeutic culture to describe the dialogic and interactive therapeutic culture that has emerged on social media and can be characterised by, first, the more accessible platform for speaking out, second, its shaping of the therapeutic discourses and third, how it affords accumulating self-disclosure in return for help.
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“spoofing” destination marketing with political satire
This study attempts to provide initial tentative insights into the audience reception of intertwining political satire and destination marketing imagery by analysing the “America First, the Netherlands Second” video and a student sample audience response. In 2017, a series of YouTube videos named “America First” went viral. The video that started the viral phenomenon was “America First, the Netherlands Second”, responding in a satirical manner to the “America First” message of the inaugural speech of U.S. president Donald J. Trump. They achieved extreme popularity both in number of views and number of new memetic videos with similar satirical messages. These videos were a form of political expression and at first sight did not seem to have much in common with communication in tourism. However, the videos included typical destination marketing imagery, intertwined with satirical representations, thus representing a humorous “spoof” on destination marketing. The study analyses participants’ memory recall, eye-tracking movements and focus group responses in order to provide initial conclusions on how audiences respond to the intertwining of satirical political expression and destination marketing imagery.
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This paper will examine the history of the television series “Amerika”. Upon its airing in 1987, the television project was regarded as one of the most controversial projects in American television history. Made in response to the television spectacular “The Day After” the series “Amerika” portrayed a fictional American town living under a Soviet occupation a decade after a nuclear war forced the American government to sue for peace. The emotional plotline follows the drama of a small Nebraska farming town attempting to survive under the boot of a despotic military occupation. The aim of this paper is to examine “Amerika” within the larger historical context of how the Soviet Union was portrayed in the American mass media and Hollywood television and film productions. This will involve a historical narrative that will challenge the notion of a perpetual “Red Scare” in Hollywood while providing a more subtle alternative view that in terms of cultural and entertainment it can be reasonably argued that the Soviet Union was perhaps given a more sympathetic portrayal than the unvarnished objective historical facts merited at the time. [„Amerika”: Historia amerykańskiego serialu, który kiedyś podzielił naród : Artykuł dotyczy historii serialu telewizyjnego „Amerika”. Po premierze w 1987 r. był on uważany za jeden z najbardziej kontrowersyjnych projektów w historii telewizji amerykańskiej. Stworzony w odpowiedzi na telewizyjną superprodukcję „Dzień po” serial „Amerika” przedstawiał fikcyjne amerykańskie miasteczko pod radziecką okupacją, dekadę po tym, jak wojna nuklearna zmusiła rząd amerykański do kapitulacji. Celem artykułu jest ukazanie serialu „Amerika” w szerszym historycznym kontekście tego, jak Związek Radziecki był przedstawiany w amerykańskich mediach masowych oraz hollywoodzkich produkcjach telewizyjnych i filmowych. Obejmuje to narrację historyczną podważającą tezę o nieustannej „czerwonej panice” w Hollywood, przy jednoczesnym wskazaniu bardziej zniuansowanego poglądu, że jeżeli chodzi o kulturę i rozrywkę, można zasadnie argumentować, że Związek Radziecki był przedstawiany w bardziej pozytywnych barwach, niż wynikało to z nieupiększonych faktów historycznych w tym okresie.]
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“Assessment in Dialogue” (AID) is a model of Joanna Piasta-Siechowicz addressed to the participants of general education: students-teachers-parents. AID reconciles contradictory tendencies of the philosophy and praxis of student assessment: the pursuit of objectivity of the former and the need of individualisation of the latter. It aspires to combine the objectivity of requirements and evaluation criteria with the need of individualisation. It is also well suited to help teachers in systematic planning of their work. “Assessment in Dialogue” refers to the trisubjectivity (student-parent-teacher) in the planning and organisation of student’s activities and, as a result, in informing about his/her achievements during a lesson. Implemented in a primary school since 2012, “Assessment in Dialogue” is popularised at conferences of principals and teachers in Poland and Ireland, workshops for teachers, publications in methodical journals. It is grounded in the official documents of the Ministry of National Education, European Council recommendations and conclusions from ten years of constant evaluation of the psycho-didactic process in schools as well as the functioning of evaluation system in Poland.
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Through this article we aim to present the results of our empirical research concerning the impact of religion on gender representations projected through Turkish soap operas. Since 2000, Turkey aims to become a model of a Muslim but democratic and modern country in the region especially for other Muslim countries. Even if AKP is not an explicitly religious party, the statements effectuated from times to times by its representants indicate an important convergence between the religious values and the party’s political and social priorities. Within this context, Turkish soap operas, function not only as tools of the country’s soft power outside Turkey’s borders and of promotion of its neo-Ottoman political orientation but also as tools for the promotion and the perpetuation of the government’s world view inside the country. The taboo of the sexuality and the importance of motherhood, the underrepresentation of LGBTQ community members, of ethnic or of religious minorities, the “sin” and the attribution of justice are some of the elements we discuss in the present article.
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Castlevania, the Japanese action-adventure digital games series developed by Konami, has enjoyed an exceptional status since its debut in 1986. From early consoles to OTT platforms, the franchise has been widely adapted.
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In societies in mediatization, an increasingly intense process of communicational empowerment of persons and collectives emerges, which can also be seen in the realm of religion. In socio-digital platforms such as Facebook, there are numerous cases of unofficial, non-institutional, alternative religious presences, which may publicly exhibit internal conflicts within religions. In this context, this article analyzes the communicational action of the group “Diversidade Católica” (Catholic Diversity) on Facebook, specifically the process of preparation and divulgation of the 1st National Meeting of LGBT Catholics, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2014. To understand this phenomenon, this paper reflects on the concept of mediatization of religion and the emergence of “lay-amateurs” in digital practices. As a conclusion, it is pointed out that the digital environment becomes an alternative public space for religious minorities, who can also say a “public and networked word” about religions, such as Catholicism, exponentiating its religious “diversity” in the fabric of social relationships. Inside the alleged homogeneity of a religion such as Catholicism, there is the emergence of its pluralism and polysemy in the communicational metamorphosis of practices and beliefs, that are reinvented in relation to what is dominant, hegemonic, traditional and conventional in the Catholic historical context.
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This study explores the roles that similarity and credibility play in the influencer-follower relationship as experienced by followers. The data was collected using face-to-face semi-structured interviews that were conducted with 37 young adults, analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show that there were shifts in how followers translated similarity and credibility, transforming the motives behind following influencers. Followers also do not view themselves as having similar values or personality traits to influencers. The level of trust and perceived credibility were lower versus that of existing literature. The study also shows that similarity plays a part in the decision to unfollow. The findings reflect changes in follower behaviour and ultimately the way they consume content from influencers.
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Almost everyone is familiar with various types of formal forms. The language as well as the structure of such texts differ, however, from the standards and rules of every-day communication, which, in consequence, may lead to many problems. Reading the instructions to the form may not always constitute great help or assistance. It is very common that people, who are obliged to fill in the particular form, come across different terms or sophisticated grammatical structures they do not know or at least do not fully comprehend. Let us add to all these problem a notion of a foreign language, and as a consequence, a foreign culture for which the form is prepared, we may be facing an insurmountable barrier – both linguistic and cultural. This is a matter which, nowadays, modern philologists have to face. Particular intercultural problems or difficulties which may additionally constrain the communication should also be overcome. The first part of the article expounds upon some of the problems that people, who have to fill in the Dutch forms, may encounter. The second part of the article discusses how the official forms may be introduced to the educational curriculum as a didactic means that helps in the process of both language teaching and learning.
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A large number of humorous linguistic expressions in English (and also in other languages)are characterized by such cognitive processes as metonymy, metaphor, and conceptualintegration, or blending. However, these figurative devices are neither sufficient nor necessaryfor humorous effects. Following other researchers, I suggest that in order to account forhumorous expressions we need the notion of conceptual incongruity, or incompatibility insideor between frames of knowledge. In the paper I will take stock of some of the commonlyoccurring types of incongruity, or incompatibility, in my data of humorous expressions. I willaccount for the existence of a large number of metonymy-, metaphor-, and blending-basedhumorous expressions by proposing that these figurative devices create or facilitate thecreation of incongruities. The analyses of a number of humorous expressions will make itpossible to suggest a rough and sketchy cognitive linguistic account of the humorous effect ofthese expressions.
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The Horned Hand as the Emblematic Gesture of the Metal Subculture
The horned hand is a gesture completed by extending the forefinger and little finger, while holding the middle two fingers down with the thumb. In years past it has been a subject of many discussions, held by researchers working in various fields of science. However, to the best of my knowledge, the role it plays in nonverbal communication between members of the metal subculture still remains a rather uncharted area. This article is an attempt to shed some light on this topic. It presents a definition of an emblematic gesture, based on the works of David Efron, Paul Ekman, William Friesen and Lluís Payrató. It also gives an account of the semiotic diversity of the horned hand (depending on a culture, the gesture can communicate very different messages, ranging from insults and threats to protection from evil). It was established,based on numerous discussions with the so-called metal heads, that they are able to convey five different meanings using the gesture: 1) indicate affiliation with heavy metal music and/or subculture, 2) display identity and/or community, 3) greet each other, 4) bid each other farewell, 5) display appreciation/respect. Research survey showed that more than 70% of respondents, who consider themselves knowledgeable about the metal subculture, were able to derive a message matching exactly or almost exactly the message intended by the encoder,which allows to declare the emblematic status of the horned hand. However, subjects not familiar with the subculture were much less successful with this task. This shows that gesture’s emblematic status is restricted to members of the metalhead community.
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In this article I shall examine how Poppy uses her extreme grotesque effect to construct visual, audial and lyrical narratives of empowerment – in gender, personal, and musical context. I shall shed a light on the way her self-awareness as a female vocalist deconstructs the image of ‘metal woman’ – through subversive combination of hyperfeminine image with aggressive music and involved lyrics – to expose excluding paradigms which determine female presence in metal. Finally, I shall show how her post-genre aesthetics undermines hardened determinants of what is, and what is not ‘metal’.
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Why humour fails, after all is said and done
Failed humour can be explained by communicative gaps, at either the semantic or pragmatic levels, but sometimes, after all is ‘said and done’, people resist humour for purely discursive reasons. Some may recognise the divisive nature of a humorous text, and experience conflicting feelings. Others may welcome humour purely because of its appeal to ideology, while the text itself may not be considered as being very funny. Then there are people who ‘go along with the joke’ purely to avoid losing face. Political humour is a site of great power, where the stakes are high. For example, Donald Trump rejected Baldwin’s SNL parody, finding his ‘alter ego’ “unwatchable” and “not funny”. Other politicians, and members of the public, however, choose to respond to political humour in diverse ways. The reception of humour, therefore, is more complex than it appears. We might resist humour because of a deficiency in linguistic competence, but we might also resist humour because of literacy competence. This paper will theorise that there exists a ‘default setting’ in a person’s discourse, such that when encountering an instance of humour, we all employ a Discursive Defence Mechanism (DDM), and that there are ‘triggers’ which provoke this DDM.
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Oriana Fallaci had the opportunity to closely observe the efforts the US made during the Space Race which was sealed in 1957 by the launch of the first Russian Sputnik. The journalist knew dozens of NASA workers (including astronauts, engineers and doctors) and others (external scientists, advertisers, writers). Based on the interviews and articles printed in L’Europeo, Fallaci published two books Se il Sole muore (1965) and Quel giorno sulla Luna (1970). Recently, the publishing house Rizzoli collected some of Fallaci’s texts that appeared in this weekly newspaper (L’Europeo) between 1964 and 1980 in the volume La Luna di Oriana (2018). It would be worth analyzing the cornerstones of Fallaci’s narrative approach, resembling in many ways the American New Journalism – with its tension between information and emotion, interpretation and persuasion – in her work before the famous war reports.
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Subversion, caricature, and humanity in Three Men in a Boat
Through characters who openly express distress over imagined pains, “Jerome at the BBC” treats BBC’s Three Men in a Boat as a playful critique of heroic masculinity, or what the paper defines as confident cognisant agency. Air ing in 1975, BBC’s ad aptation is released after the media ascension of James Bond and in the heyday of tough Hollywood heroes, bold figures who refuse to complain about, let alone give in, to physical pain unlike Jerome’s men. Jerome’s original and its BBC adaptation are lay ered comical texts. By channelling Jerome’s critique of the colonial, seafaring male into contemporary notions of the Hollywood hero type, this paper examines the BBC film’s boisterous lack of masculine agency, the quiet parody of action sequences, and the gingerly movement towards a conclusion that does not bang, but whimpers. Moreover, the paper asserts that the humour also functions on a less grand level, by being an effective caricature of human behaviour a healthy dose of cultural self mockery. Furth ermore, through revealing moments, by the telefilm’s end, the characters do not simply remain caricatures to be laughed at, but become identifiable and relatable human beings.
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Many modern scholars consider the Old Testament Book of Jonah being written in a boldly parodic manner. The narrative engages many details that sound humorous for a modern reader. However, from the standpoint of late Antique and early Medieval patristic exegesis, it is often unclear whether Byzantine interpreters perceived such passages laughable or at least inappropriate for a prophetic writing. This study presents a few examples of early Byzantine commentaries to the episode with Jonah and a gourd (Jonah 4:6–11). None of the commentaries expresses any explicit amusement caused by the discussed text. However, the style, method, or context of each commentary appears to be passing the traditional bounds of Bible interpretation. The earlier interpreters adhere to the most expected moral reading of Jonah 4, but they use epithets, metaphors, or omissions, which produce the effect of paradox comparable to the biblical wording itself. The later commentaries tend to involve unexpected and even provocative senses. In such interpretations, God can be thought of as being able to play with a human or even to fool and deceive. What seems us humorous in the Bible, Byzantine commentators take primarily as a paradox, which they did not explain or remove but elaborate further paradoxically. The later an interpreter is, the bolder his paradoxical approach appears. The results of the study provide some clues to understanding how the interpretation of humorous, parodic, or ironical passages were developing in the history of Byzantine intellectual culture.
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An analysis of Akpos jokes and the readers’ responses
Studies on humour have acknowledged that responses to jokes are important aspects of a joking exchange; however, investigation of joke recipients’ responses has received little attention from humour scholars. Moreover, the linguistic investigations of jokes have been limited to native speakers’ contexts, leaving ESL contexts out. Therefore, this study examines readers’ responses to a genre of jokes in Nigerian online spheres, Akpos jokes, with a view to characterising their forms and functions. Akpos jokes are humorous narratives created around an imaginary character called Akpos. Jokes are randomly collected from a blog and readers’ responses were derived from a Facebook page in which Akpos jokes are published. Using computer paralanguage and language mixing in writing the jokes and the responses, the jokes and the reactions to them mirror the online and the Nigerian ESL contexts in which they are situated. Readers use their responses to indicate affiliation, disaffiliation with the joke, or to introduce something that has nothing to do with the subject of the joke or humour. Readers also use their responses to argue for and/or against the humorousness the jokes.
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“Me Too” and “Time’s Up” are new feminist movements posing a challenge before existing gender norms and battling sexual harassment and gender inequality at the workplace.The aims of this report are to follow how both movements transformed from social media posts to global initiatives leading to tangible changes in society’s attitude towards sexual harassment and to discuss what separates these two movements from other social media trends. Critical analysis of some of the newest publications on the topic is made in this report.
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Theaim of this paper is to present how the participants in a debate between a representative of new atheism (and evolutionism) and a representative of Christianity frame their arguments by the metaphor of struggle for survival. In order to do so a debate Has Science Buried God? has been analysed. It is shown that arguments are thought to compete for the status of “the truth” in the eyes of the general public, in a way that “better” ones push out “worse” ones, especially with a view to how scientific discoveries make explanations considered valid in the past no longer valid.
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