Media, Communication and Performing Arts
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/7185
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Item The Slum Chronotope and Imaginaries of Spatial Justice in Philippine Urban Cinema(2017) Macapagal, KatrinaThis dissertation proposes that Philippine independent urban cinema reveals imaginaries of spatial justice. The works approached as Philippine urban cinema are independently produced and internationally circulated films that heavily feature or reference Philippine slums as setting, with narratives that centre on the lives of the urban poor. The theory of spatial justice as defined by leading urban theorists argues that social justice has spatio-temporal dimensions. Grounded on this foundational premise, this study approaches Philippine urban cinema in its capacity to foreground and represent the complexities of social justice as contextualised in Philippine urban conditions, with local and global trajectories. Alongside the theory of spatial justice, the dissertation draws from Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the “chronotope” (literally meaning time-space) to formulate a theory of the “slum chronotope” as a foundational concept for analysing the ways by which films are able to imagine issues of spatial justice, with emphasis on character configuration and narrative formation. The chapters are structured according to genres and modalities, where other chronotopes that dialogue with the slum chronotope are identified and examined. In the comingof- age chapter, the study locates “chronotopes of passage”; in the melodrama chapter, the study locates “affective chronotopes” configured by the spatial practice of walking; in the Manila noir chapter, the study locates “chronotopes of mobility”; and in the final chapter, the study locates “chronotopes of in/visibility” in the Overseas Filipino Worker genre. This study offers a novel interdisciplinary framework for analysing Philippine urban cinema, and in the process, makes a case for Philippine urban history as crucial grounds for understanding the global urbanisation of poverty.Item SCREENING SCOTLAND’S STORIES: Film Adaptations in Twenty-First-Century Scottish Cinema(2017) Munro, RobertThis thesis surveys book to film adaptations in Scottish cinema in the period 2000-2015. It is the first examination of this practice in a Scottish context which also analyses the operations of Creative Scotland, the public arts body responsible for funding and promoting screen production in Scotland. This thesis asks two central questions: what are the processes by which film adaptations are produced in Scottish cinema? And: do contemporary film adaptations in Scottish cinema engage materially and thematically with ‘the nation’? I do this to test whether or not film adaptation is particularly well suited to speak to a national cultural imaginary. I map out a corpus of film texts produced in the first fifteen years of the twenty-first century, and analyse a selection of those texts in the second half of the thesis. I consider the extent to which industrial and thematic discourses of ‘Scottishness’ are engaged with through and by these films. The understanding of these films as ‘Scottish’, and what that means for both their production and reception, nationally and globally, will be discussed. I argue that the importance of national branding in the production of film remains a crucial component of the global film industry, into which Scottish cinema aims for viability. I categorise my four case studies within the categories of arthouse and popular cinema, in order to better understand the ways in which these films are marketed to, and received by, local and global audiences. Furthermore, this thesis uses these film adaptations to consider the discourses prevalent in Scottish culture in the twenty-first century, by examining those pre-existing texts which are selected for cinematic adaptation. How does the success of prior adaptations shape the range of future texts, and therefore what is deemed viable in Scottish cinema? What recurring representative tendencies are to be found in those film adaptations? How do they relate to the socio-political discourses of their era? This thesis attempts to answers those questions, and in doing so examines how particular discourses are mobilised throughout industrial processes of production, distribution and exhibition, and are readable within the film texts themselves.Item An examination of the filmmaking methods of Kenneth Branagh in his directorial film work on Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and Cinderella with specific reference to his status as auteur(2017) Hamzah, SaharThis thesis examines the methods that director Sir Kenneth Branagh employs in his approach to directing his films and questions whether the consistency of methods adopted by Branagh across the scope of his films and their recurring themes support the status of Branagh as an auteur. Much scholarly attention has been given to Branagh’s Shakespeare films, yet there is a deficit of such attention to his later work. Using personal and published interviews, empirical evidence of the films, and text-to-text analysis, the thesis focuses upon analysis of his later films Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and Cinderella. The thesis takes an approach based upon the criteria of Sarris (2008) and Leitch (2008) to determine whether Branagh could be classified as auteur based upon his directorial oeuvre. In doing so, the thesis identifies the key components of Branagh’s methods and style and investigates his rehearsal techniques, research into the history and intertextuality of his projects, relationships with actors, and whether he uses elements of mise-en-scène as cues to reveal intertextuality. The thesis discusses Branagh’s role in semiotic coding in his films, informed by the concept of selective perception, wherein viewers tend to recognise elements in media which align with their expectations (Klapper 1960). It argues that memory of the hypotexts plays a key role in film adaptations (Ellis 1982), that their ability to evoke recall is a means of communication (Grant 2002) which can be achieved through the use of elements of mise-en-scène, (Geraghty 2008) and that the viewer and director are collaborators in producing meaning in film (Wollen 1972). This study contributes to the field of adaptation by adding scholarly literature on the films of Branagh in his post-Shakespeare era and to the subjects of auteurship and audience recall achieved through use of camera technique, intertextuality and mise-en-scène.Item The profession of public relations In Saudi Arabia: a socio-cultural perspective(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2017) Almahraj, YazeedThis thesis examines public relations in Saudi Arabia as an occupational group. The thesis investigates the knowledge public relations practitioners possess, and how Saudi culture and public communication factors affect public relations practitioners. The thesis offers insights into the cultural background of the country, public communication and public relations practice in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it provides an analysis of theories of the profession and the relationship between the profession and public relations occupation. For the purposes of this research, in-depth unstructured interviews were used to collect data from 27 practitioners. A constructivist paradigm was utilised to examine the Saudi practitioners' perceptions of knowledge, culture, public communication. Moreover, the thesis has followed a socio-cultural approach and theories of the profession to investigate the empirical data. The thesis has several contributions to knowledge. Firstly, it brings an understanding of the role of the state in the process of professionalization. Using Vygotsky's theories the thesis has found that educational institutions influence PR practice and this results in lack of progress and limited opportunities for change, learning and career movement. Secondly, the thesis found that there is disconnection between theories that are taught in universities with PR programmes and PR practices. The thesis found that there is a problematic nature of abstract knowledge, which determines the disconnection between communication theories and PR practice. Moreover, there is a disconnection between the practice immersed in culture and that cultural practices are stronger than professional practice. Finally, the thesis has contributed to the literature by finding out that ethics in Western countries are regarded as something that is developed by a professional body in a way that relates to society, however in Saudi Arabia the Muslim values and ethics are implemented directly in the work context and ethics is not developed by a professional body.Item “It’s Complicated”: Facebook and Political Participation in Italy and the UK(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2015) Casteltrione, IsidoropaoloDrawing from an extensive and unique data set acquired by combining a cross-national comparative approach and a mixed methods methodology, this thesis examines the contributions of Facebook to citizens' political participation in Italy and the UK. In the last decade there has been a proliferation of academic studies investigating the links between digital technologies and citizens' political participation, with an increasing number of publications focusing on social networking websites (SNSs). Within this specific sub-field, research has produced contrasting evidence. Some scholars stress the positive impact of the Internet and SNSs on political participation (i.e., optimists), while others minimise their mobilising power, emphasising their tendency to reinforce existing participatory trends (i.e., normalisers) or highlighting their limited or even negative influence on political participation (i.e., pessimists). The present research differs from the majority of investigations in this area in three ways. Firstly, the data for this study were gathered mostly in a non-electoral period and thus the contributions of Facebook to citizens' political participation were assessed independently of the electoral process, which usually occasions a rise in political participation. In addition, this research tackled two conceptual weaknesses characterising many Internet and political participation studies: the failure to consider political participation as a multidimensional phenomenon and the over-generalised approach to Internet and SNS usages. It did so by differentiating between political communication and political mobilisation activities, and three Facebook non-political usages, i.e., information, interpersonal communication, and social recreation. Thirdly, in response to the lack of cross-national comparative studies in this subject area, the contributions of Facebook to citizens' political participation were examined in the different contexts of Italy and the United Kingdom. This thesis makes four main contributions to the field of political communication, and more specifically to the strand of research examining the impact of digital technologies on political participation. The first contribution is the Particularised Model of Facebook Political Participation. The model identifies a number of factors mediating the links between Facebook and political participation, demonstrating the relevance of both external, context-related factors related to the British and Italian media and political landscapes, and more personal, subjective ones such as self-presentation, pre-existing levels of political engagement, and the nature and size of the Facebook network. Secondly, this study sheds light on the ways that Facebook functions as a political platform, establishing that dynamics typical of both new and traditional media are in action on this SNS, and that Facebook holds the capacity to activate a virtuous circle, thereby generating an information-led mobilisation. The third contribution is the Dual Routes of Exposure Model which offers clarification on the alleged tendency of digital technologies to promote selective exposure and, consequently, political fragmentation and polarisation, and shows that Facebook can operate as a potential antidote to such trends. The fourth contribution is to the polarised debate between optimists, normalisers, and pessimist, with the present research further highlighting the sterility of such a debate and indicating potentially fruitful approaches for the development of the field.Item Does anybody like being disabled? A critical exploration of impairment, identity, media and everyday experience in a disabling society.(Queen Margaret University, 2010) Cameron, ColinI offer a critical exploration of tensions experienced by disabled people in the construction of positive identities in everyday contexts in which self-understanding is shaped both by social structural relations of inequality and unique individual experience. The empirical evidence I use to develop and support my thesis involves data I have generated using a variety of data collection tools, through a series of interviews, conversations and observations carried out with sixteen disabled people across Scotland and England. I argue that while certain barriers to participation in ordinary community life may be being removed, perceptions of impairment as something ‘wrong’ with the bodies of disabled people remain embedded in dominant disability discourse. There is a structural purpose underlying the continued representation of impairment as misfortune, involving the ascription of a negative role – the disabled role – to those whose bodily configurations pose a challenge to requirements of conformity. Drawing on insights generated in my research, and building on an idea originally proposed by John Swain and Sally French in 2000, I have developed a clarified affirmative model of disability. This I intend as a tool to be used by people with impairments in making sense of the disabling social relations they encounter in everyday contexts, to be used alongside the social model in gaining knowledge to unsettle mainstream assumptions which can only recognise impairment as personal tragedy.Item Understanding the problem of cultural non-participation: Discursive structures, articulatory practice and cultural domination(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2016-03) Stevenson, David JohnThis thesis employs a discursive methodology to analyse the policy problem of cultural non-participation. In so doing it seeks to answer the questions of what the problem is, why a problem exists, and what the existence of the problem does 'in the real' (Bacchi, 2009). The study draws on primary data generated in the form of policy texts, speeches and 42 in-depth qualitative interviews with individuals working in or for publicly funded cultural organisations in Scotland. Employing the methodological approach of problematisation (Foucault, 2003a [1981]), the study offers a close analysis of the discursive logics upon which the construction of the problem relies. In so doing it is asserted that the problem construction functions as an articulatory practice (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985) that not only constitutes and organizes social relations but also supports asymmetric relations of power and allows inequality in society to be represented as both inevitable and sensible (Rancière, 2004). Beginning with a discussion of how cultural participation has been constructed as an object of enquiry, the thesis moves on to consider how cultural non-participation is constructed as a problem across the discursive planes of politics and professional practice. Having made visible the discursive logics of the problem construction, the discussion then examines the contingent historical conditions under which the existence of certain subjects, objects, and the intelligible relations between them became possible. Arguing that the Arts should be understood as a discursive institution, it is proposed that the subject identity of the non-participant is not only a necessary part of the discursive logic of this institution, but also provided the ideal boundary object (Star and Griesemer, 1989) around which the legitimacy of the relationship between the Arts and the state could, in part, be based. Drawing on the work of Jacques Rancière (1991; 2004; 2004), it is argued that the manner in which those labelled as non-participants are subjectified obscures their agency and in so doing suppresses their capacity to speak within the field of cultural policy. As such, the field of cultural policy remains characterized by asymmetric relations of power and dominated by those who lay claim to the discursive identity of cultural professionals. The result is state subsidised practices that while doing little to influence individual patterns of behavior, through performing inclusion and equality contribute to the maintenance of a status-quo in which state support will only be provided to individuals who accept the values of those who exercise the most power in the field.Item The practice of Political Public Relations in Catalonia and Scotland(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2017) Tarrega, MariolaThis thesis is about the practitioners of political public relations in Scotland and Catalonia. The study is focused on investigating the constitutive elements of political PR practitioners as a professional group and as a practice, and the influence that different media systems have on the practice of political PR. This is a comparative study that combines micro and macro-level analysis. The thesis is one of the first studies to approach political PR as a profession and to compare sub-state nations to explore communication practices in the political sphere. The theoretical framework for this thesis combines a neo-institutional approach to professions, and the theory of media systems models to explore and compare the context where political PR practitioners work. The empirical data of this thesis derives from in-depth interviews to Heads of Communication in parties and governments in Scotland and Catalonia. The analysis of the empirical data is based on thematic coding. The central argument of this thesis is that the practice of political PR and its practitioners occupy a professional role in the division of labour in the political sphere of Scotland and Catalonia. The professional role of political PR practitioners is that of a hybrid model that combines classic traits of professions with informal structures and shared professional identities resulting from the constant influence of the political and the media sphere. As a practice political PR is about relationship management and networking with the core actors and channels of the media sphere. Media systems provide the profession with different tools of influence over the media sphere influencing levels of professional power and professional performance. Catalan practitioners have a wider range of institutional tools because of the strongly interdependent relationship between the media and political spheres. Whereas Scottish practitioners use their professional power and performance to overcome the limitations to political influence in their media system.Item Undoing Scotland after devolution in Liz Lochhead's dramatic adaptations of classical texts on page and stage(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2014) Paraskevova, MinkaThe thesis studies the female voice in the local culture in the post-devolution dramatic adaptations of the Scottish Makar Liz Lochhead. It acknowledges the dramatist's idiosyncratic approach of fusing poetry and drama in order to question the new internationalist national model in Scotland resembling the main features of anti-colonial nationalisms post 1990s. Central to the thesis is the question of local female voice in the current national debate and whether and to what extent it problematizes the relation between feminism and nationalism in the new civic model introduced after devolution as an internationalist in Scotland. Lochhead's idiosyncratic voice of a poet and dramatist is interpreted as a non-feminist and non-nationalist with a specific focus on individualised female dramatic representations. The complex semiotic interpretation of the constructed dramatic images by the playwright in her post-devolutionary adaptations of the classics shows a problematic reading of gender difference as cultural identity which appears with distorted features in the political revisions laden with self-satire. She applies metonymic use of female characterisation in order to reflect upon the changes in the cultural, political and linguistic climate, which results in a shift from a post-colonial dramatic discourse to a socio-linguistic one in the understanding of Robin Lakoff about a highly politicised and performative language and identity. The female voice in the local culture is frequently silenced and partially invisible, thus excluded from the political/national debate. However, Lochhead's subject often re-asserts itself through silent resistance and body visibility to refer to the instability of male political voices and sometimes to ironize their lack of individual identity.Item Speaking in an alien voice: A womanist comparison of the use of language by Scottish and West African female playwrights.(Queen Margaret University, 2012) Ojediran, OludolapoThis study explores specific thematic pre-occupations in the works of selected eight women writers from two different geographical and cultural milieus (West Africa and Scotland) with a specific focus on similarities in which these writers use language as a means of exploring women's positions within their respective societies. The second layer of the study's enquiry lives within the realm of exploration of womanist discourse, as originally developed by Alice Walker, and a possibility of applying this discourse beyond African American and African shores, as a transracial and transcultural model for creating new readings of dramatic discourse by women writers who come from different generational, racial, cultural and geographical environments. In total, sixteen plays ranging from 1970 to 2008 have been examined by means of close reading and comparative analysis, and against the backdrop of Alice Walker's womanist theory. The study's focus has been on the ways in which language is employed in these plays to develop womanish characters, to use Walker's term, capable of overcoming limitations of their position in societies that confine and silence them within domestic realms. This study shows that while womanist theory per se may be seen as confined to African American discourse, some of its elements such as audaciousness, community, spirituality and capability may find successful application in such two different cultural models as West Africa and Scottish shores.