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COVID-19, the slow-moving apocalypse, and The Sopranos: investigating new interpretive contexts Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Alexander Hudson Beare
In 2020, 21 years after its original release, The Sopranos (1999–2007) experienced an unexpected surge in popularity online. Outlets like The Guardian and GQ were quick to label it as “the hottest ...
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Academic freedom as academic necessity: an editors’ note Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Rachel Alicia Griffin, Kimberly R. Moffitt
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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“We have a lot weighing on us:” a Black Feminist analysis of U.S. newspaper quotes of Black women in year 1 of the COVID-19 pandemic Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-02-20 Kallia O. Wright, Zixiao Yang
This study examined Black women’s quotes in seven major U.S. newspapers during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lexis Uni and a university news database were used to locate articles from Ma...
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COOL IT! The objective racism of carceral technofixes Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-02-20 Cengiz Salman
Technofixes that promise to improve racism in the prison industrial complex (PIC) frequently perpetuate it instead. This article argues that carceral technofixes undermine their promises when they ...
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Adolescent use of new media and internet technologies: debating risks and opportunities in the digital age Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Kaiwen Yang, Ya Sun
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Everybody eats: communication and the paths to food justice Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Olivia Stowell
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Asian American transnationalism: queer diasporic critique on Netflix’s Bling Empire Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-02-04 Anh Nguyen, Zhao Ding, Shinsuke Eguchi
This essay interrogates Asian American representations in the Netflix’s reality TV series Bling Empire (Jenkins, J., Panaligan, B., Weintraub, R., Chung, E., Eisele, B., & Li, K. M. (Executive Prod...
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An accounting from Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Ahlam Muhtaseb
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Struggling for ordinary: media and transgender belonging in everyday life Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Cicada Inscoe
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Intergenerational Mujerista Latinidad: a comparative media analysis of One Day at a Time and Jane the Virgin Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Zazil Reyes García, Claudia A. Evans-Zepeda
Jane the Virgin (JTV) and One Day at a Time (ODAAT) are contemporary U.S. American shows that intervene in a traditional media landscape that has largely ignored Latinas/os/x and allow for a re-env...
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“We can do better. We can be better”: counter-narratives in true crime podcasts on domestic violence Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Kelli S. Boling
Through three qualitative interviews with journalists who have produced and hosted true crime podcasts about domestic violence cases, this study examines the reciprocal interactions hosts can have ...
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Scandinavians in Chicago: the origins of white privilege in modern America Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Steve Ingham
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 5, 2023)
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India’s internet shutdowns as biopolitics: The formation of political will and opinion through collective action under attack Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Sananda Sahoo
During the 2020–2021 farmers’ movement in India, the central government argued that its temporary internet shutdowns in specific areas associated with the protest aimed to prevent law and order vio...
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Cosmic underground: a grimoire of black speculative discontent Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Reviewed by Jeremy R. Laughery
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 5, 2023)
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The digital is kid stuff: making creative laborers for a precarious economy Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Aiden James Kosciesza
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 5, 2023)
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Post-racial politics and the mandate to desire: interracial love as liberation in Bridgerton Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 William Joseph Sipe
Shonda Rhimes’ latest televisual sensation updates her post-racial and post-feminist fantasies for a post-Trump world. Discarding her trademark colorblind casting, Bridgerton confronts racial tensi...
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Stonewall forever: queer monumentality in the age of augmented reality Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-10-24 Joe Edward Hatfield
In this article, I examine Stonewall Forever, a mobile augmented reality (AR) application developed by Google and the U.S. National Parks Service, that superimposes computer-generated imagery into ...
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Fan-Based citizenship in “Mary Poppins Quits”: fannish affect, public affect, and the potential for solidarity Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-09-07 Ashley Hinck
On July 23, 2014, the fiftieth anniversary of Disney’s Mary Poppins, Funny or Die released a video titled, “Mary Poppins Quits with Kristen Bell,” earning more than 4 million views. In the video, M...
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Neo-Ottoman cool west: the drama of Turkish drama in the Bulgarian public sphere Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-09-01 Yasemin Y. Celikkol, Marwan M. Kraidy
This article explores the distribution, popularity, and contestation of Turkish television series (dizi) in Bulgaria. How could dizi become popular in Bulgaria, after 500 years of imperial Ottoman ...
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The right to believe: constructions of white Christian victimhood in the God’s Not Dead series Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Courtney J. Dreyer
This essay argues that the Christian independent film series God’s Not Dead operates to further affective investment in white Christian nationalism. I combine Lundberg’s (2009) analysis of evangeli...
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Containing visions of justice: on the assimilation, alienization, and disappearance of Black Lives Matter in Scandal’s “The Lawn Chair” Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Abigail N. Burns
When the primetime television show Scandal aired its Ferguson-inspired episode “The Lawn Chair” in March 2015, they sought out to envision what racial justice “should” mean. This vision assimilated...
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And Just Like That … misogyny reigns supreme: disciplining womanhood in the critical framings of Sex and the City’s new chapter Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Mick B. Brewer
Two decades after its debut, Sex and the City’s universe was reborn with 2021s And Just Like That (AJLT). More political than its predecessor, AJLT presents a meditation on the complexities of woma...
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Platforming inclusion at U.S. media industry events: confronting Hollywood’s lack of representational diversity Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-23 Brad Limov
Incremental structural adjustments define attempts to advance representational diversity in Hollywood. This essay considers U.S. media industry events as catalysts for change. Using the 2020 Austin...
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Queer failure in Freddy’s Revenge and Scream, Queen! A documentary’s recuperation of Elm Street’s queer memory Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-12 Ragan Fox
In this queer reading of the 1985 horror sequel Freddy’s Revenge, I use Halberstam’s theory of queer failure to interrogate cultural mechanisms that validate and invalidate a film’s memory. The 201...
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Black monstrosity and the rhetoric of whiteness in Disney’s Zombies trilogy Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-12 Linsay M. Cramer, Gabriel A. Cruz
Drawing from strategic whiteness and guided by racial rhetorical criticism, this article analyzes Disney’s Zombies movie trilogy. Situated within the context of anti-Critical Race Theory policies a...
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Sustaining Black music and culture during COVID-19: #Verzuz and Club Quarantine Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-02 Tira J. Murray
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 4, 2023)
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The politics of Digital India: between local compulsions and transnational pressures Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Asvatha Babu
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 4, 2023)
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Still never at the top: representation of Asian and Black characters in Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man trilogy Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-28 Jolie C. Matthews, Dustin Tran
This article examines the portrayal of Asian and Black characters in Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man trilogy. We analyze Ned Leeds, Brad Davis, Liz Allan, and M.J. “Michelle Jones-Watson,” as well ...
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Latin Blackness in Parisian visual culture, 1852–1932 Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-26 Anna E. Lindner
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 4, 2023)
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Quare vernacular discourse: vulnerability, mentorship, and coming out on YouTube Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-10 Keven James Rudrow
ABSTRACT This essay argues that coming out narratives shared by Black queer youth on YouTube can be understood as a quare vernacular discourse that captures their rhetorical moves, illuminates their material realities, and participates in Black queer worldmaking. Recognizing that much remains uncharted about how Black queer youth use social media, I extend quare vernacular discourse to examine the
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The COVID-19 pandemic as a challenge for media and communication studies Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-10 Guodong Jiang, Mengyuan Zhu
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 2-3, 2023)
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Framing women’s indignation: news coverage on women’s mobilization in Mexico, 2019–2021 Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-07 Marta Ochman, Ingrid Sada Correa, María José Ibarra, L. Alejandra Jacobo Rangel
ABSTRACT Women’s mobilizations in Mexico have caused controversy due to violent protest strategies. Also, the government discredited them as being manipulated by the conservative opposition. This study analyzes press coverage of women's mobilizations from 2019 to 2021 in three Mexican newspapers with different ideological orientations, applying frame analysis. The findings point to the predominant
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Mediating Maggie: Margaret Thatcher, leadership, and gender in The Iron Lady and The Crown Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-07 Leland G. Spencer, Timothy S. Forest
ABSTRACT Political women who lead with firmness get castigated as heartless. Margaret Thatcher represents that stereotype, most concisely captured in the sobriquet “Iron Lady.” We argue that the film The Iron Lady and the Netflix series The Crown offer versions of Thatcher that critique Thatcher’s supposed failures of femininity. Rather than centering their framing of Thatcher on the harms of her policies
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Understanding transnational decontextualization-recontextualization through Shingeki no Kyojin: The perils and possibilities surrounding Japanese manga and anime Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-06 Fielding Montgomery, Megu Itoh
ABSTRACT Japanese anime has continued to gain recognition as one of the strongest cultural influences in a globalized world. We examine how the transnational process of decontextualization-recontextualization can shift the messages of popular culture texts as situated in differing collective memories. To highlight this process, we analyze Shingeki no Kyojin (known to English-speaking audiences as Attack
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Caster Semenya as a “can-do” hero for “at-risk” girls: analyzing Nike’s neoliberal postfeminist advertisements Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-07-03 Anna Posbergh, Samuel M. Clevenger, Caitlin E. Kane
ABSTRACT To solidify itself as a socially progressive global brand, the U.S.-based sports apparel corporation Nike produces and distributes advertisements featuring women from around the world as empowered, independently motivated athletes, capable of transcending all boundaries through their pursuit of athletic excellence. Some advertisements feature celebrity non-Western athletes such as South African
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“I’m real when I shop my face”: Glitch virality & Sophie’s cyborg dream Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-06-30 Tyler S. Rife
ABSTRACT This essay aims to contribute to ongoing explorations of glitch feminism and its capacities for resistance against capitalist- and cis-normativity. To this theoretical project, I contribute the concept of glitch virality by emphasizing glitch feminism’s circulation across digital, social, and material registers. Through an attendance to glitch virality, the project of glitch feminism is figured
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It gets better when you fall in Love on the Spectrum Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Emily D. Ryalls
ABSTRACT Love on the Spectrum (2019–) premiered on Netflix in July 2020. The reality television show follows young autistic adults in Australia as they date, fall in love, and get married. I argue Love on the Spectrum (LOTS) ignores the marginalizing forces of ableist structures in favor of telling individual “supercrip” stories of autistic success that are grounded in heteronormative conventions of
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Rebirthing a nation: White women, identity politics, and the internet Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-06-27 Cecilia Salomone
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 2-3, 2023)
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Peace journalism in East Africa: A manual for media practitioners Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-06-27 Gao Jingquan
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 2-3, 2023)
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From whence we came and where we are going: the editors’ introduction Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-06-18 Rachel Alicia Griffin, Kimberly R. Moffitt
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 1, 2023)
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Leaks and lawfare: adding a Legal Filter to Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-05-26 Aaron Hyzen
ABSTRACT Motivated by the conundrum “when does the law make it illegal to reveal illegal activity?”, this article explores the relationship between legal structures and the free flow of information by adding a Legal Filter to the Propaganda Model. The Legal Filter represents how elite powers use legal constructions to block information from mainstream media through three layers: Undisclosed Information
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Review of Social Media and Hate Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-05-26 Yudhi Arifani, Nur Hidayat, Nur Naily, Nur Fadjrih Asyik
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 1, 2023)
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“Not You Too”: Drake, heartbreak, and the romantic communication of Black male vulnerability Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-05-16 Damariyé L. Smith
ABSTRACT Recently, there has been a resurgence of academic interest in the lived experiences of Black males. One way that scholars have approached the field of Black male studies is by examining the susceptibility of Black men and boys in various contexts, commonly referred to as Black male vulnerability. In this essay, I utilize the song “Not You Too” by the Hip-Hop/R&B artist Drake as a case study
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Review of LGBTQ Visibility, Media and Sexuality in Ireland Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-04-21 John Walsh
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 1, 2023)
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TV (Object Lessons) Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-04-13 Adrienne Darrah
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 40, No. 1, 2023)
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Black Frankenstein in D’Souza’s 2016: Obama’s America Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2023-01-18 Michael G. Lacy
ABSTRACT This essay offers a critical rhetorical analysis of neoconservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza's popular political documentary film, 2016: Obama's America. I argue that the documentary's narrative emulates conservative Black Frankenstein stories, whereby a monstrous black slave revolts against his white slave owner, justifying a violent white backlash to restore white supremacy [Young, E. (2008)
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Imagining the thoughtful home: Google Nest and logics of domestic recording Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-11-16 Carla White, James N. Gilmore
ABSTRACT The Google Nest home security system offers an array of cameras, sensors, and Internet-connected devices to allow homeowners to monitor and record the exterior and interior of their home and automate various functions of heating and cooling, lights, and other appliances through smartphone application control panels. This article analyzes how Google has worked to construct an imaginary around
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Casting heroes and victims of disaster events: representations of race and gender in Hurricane Harvey front page news images Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-09-21 Ever Josue Figueroa
ABSTRACT Mainstream press coverage of public disaster events produce mythological narratives of heroism, sacrifice and authority. Press coverage of Hurricane Harvey in the late summer of 2017 proved to be an important historical moment in disaster coverage. A visual textual analysis of 106 front page photos of newspapers from August 28, 2017, to September 4, 2017 was conducted. The results show that
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Indigenous Hitmakerz in the Arctic: negotiating local needs with global ambitions within commercial music industries Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-09-19 Ashley Cordes, Christopher Chávez
ABSTRACT Although music by Inuit peoples is systematically relegated to the margins, recent artists from Nunavut have garnered limited commercial attention. Using a case study approach with critical political economy theoretical grounding, we focus on Hitmakerz, an independent record label based in the Arctic region of Nunavut. We analyze the ways independent music producers negotiate the commercial
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Swedish Cold War history on YouTube – committed amateurs and heritagization from below Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-09-16 Christian Widholm
ABSTRACT This study explores the meaning-making of amateur videos on YouTube pertaining to the Swedish Cold War heritage and it contributes with a discussion on how videographic conventions and social media platform logics intervene in the ongoing informal heritagization of the Cold War era. The heritagization process of the Cold War remains in Sweden during the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium
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A not so special episode: laughing at abortion on television Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-07-21 Corinne Weinstein
ABSTRACT The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has led many states to ban or severely limit abortion access, leaving women seeking reproductive healthcare more vulnerable than they have been in decades, especially marginalized women. Legal restrictions, alongside socioeconomic barriers and cultural stigmas around abortion, are reinforced by media representations that depict abortion
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Promoting extreme fitness regimes through the communicative affordances of reality makeover television: a multimodal critical discourse analysis Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-07-01 Göran Eriksson
ABSTRACT Taking off from the theory of social semiotics and using the methods of multimodal critical discourse analysis, this paper demonstrates how the communicative affordances of a Swedish reality makeover show, The Great Health Journey, are used to promote discourses normalizing extreme fitness ideals. It is a show that reduces health to body fitness and supports a particular health consciousness
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Life after privacy. Reclaiming democracy in a surveillance society Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-28 Hans Teerds
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 39, No. 5, 2022)
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Establishing 911: media infrastructures of affective anti-Black, pro-police dispositions Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-25 Myles W. Mason
ABSTRACT To facilitate deeper investigations into the U.S.’s centralized emergency number, 911, this article attends to the first decade of the service’s implementation in the mid-twentieth century. Ostensibly, 911 was created to hasten responses by public services for health and safety. Yet, federal backing for 911 first occurred in 1967 in a report admonishing the recent “race riots,” articulating
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Craig Of the Creek: Black childhood and environmental racism Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-14 Alex Thomas
ABSTRACT The animated show Craig of the Creek is an important source of animated environmental imagery for children as its main characters and plot provide the opportunity to discuss both race and environmental issues. However, these shows often only show one view of environmental degradation and ignore issues like environmental racism and urban housing issues. The history of racial environmental innocence
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Another world is possible: building games for just futures Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-10 Alexandrina Agloro
ABSTRACT Game design in systematically excluded communities offers a powerful framework for empowering communities. These findings are based upon The Resisters—an alternate reality game built with young people about social movement history in Providence, RI—and Vukuzenzele—a collaboration between an interactive media firm and an informal settlement non-governmental organization (NGO) in Cape Town,
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Ignoring the blood on the tracks: exits and departures from game studies Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-09 Kelly Bergstrom
ABSTRACT In this article I examine game studies’ role in training students who go on to work in or study the games industry. Using a feminist lens to critique the leaky pipeline metaphor, I discuss how this metaphor assists in a collective amnesia that allows game studies to ignore the larger culture problems associated with games and the industry that makes them. In its place, I offer up Neil deGrasse
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The metaverse, but not the way you think: game engines and automation beyond game development Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-09 Aleena Chia
ABSTRACT The production of videogames routinely uses automated techniques to generate content, rig animations, map light, and script behaviors. The automation of programming and artistic functions is increasingly baked into game engines that work with other software applications in 3D production ecosystems, which are laying the foundations for what is being pitched by platform companies as the future
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Performing #MeToo: How not to look away Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Yasamin Rezai
Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Vol. 39, No. 5, 2022)
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Decolonizing play Critical Studies in Media Communication (IF 1.328) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Aaron Trammell
ABSTRACT The past five years have seen the development of what Mukherjee, S. (2018. Playing subaltern: Video games and postcolonialism. Games and Culture, 13(5), 504–520) and Murray, S. (2018. The work of postcolonial game studies in the play of culture. Open Library of Humanities, 4(1), 1–25) (amongst others) term postcolonial game studies. Postcolonial game studies looks at how games represent colonial