"The impact of mass media on individuals and society is to a great extent based on human emotions. Emotions, in turn, are essential in understanding how media messages are processed as well as media's impact on individual and social behavior and public social life. Adopting an interdisciplinary appr
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oach to the study of emotions within a mass media context, the Handbook of Emotions and Mass Media addresses areas such as evolutionary psychology, media entertainment, sociology, cultural studies, media psychology, political communication, persuasion, and new technology. Leading experts from across the globe explore cutting-edge research on issues including the evolutionary functions of mediated emotions, emotions and media entertainment, measurements of emotions within the context of mass media, media violence, fear-evoking media, politics and public emotions, features, forms and functions of emotions beyond the message, and provide the reader a glimpse into future generations of media technology." (Publisher description)
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"This article explores the consumption patterns of local and foreign film and television content of Mexican audiences living in the Northeast region of the country, a region bordering with the United States. Based on telephone surveys in four of the largest cities in the area (Reynosa, Monterrey, Sa
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ltillo and Torreón), the study presents data about television consumption that suggest that cultural proximity factors are stronger in Mexican northerners than their geographical, commercial and historical proximity to the US. The concept of cultural discount seems to apply in this part of Mexico, due to the differences in language, practices and traditions despite the proximity and familiarity with US culture (except in the case of Hollywood films, as in many other countries in the world)." (Abstract)
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"What is clear from the Research ICT Africa (RIA) Household and Individual Access and Usage Survey is that the diffusion of ICT is highly uneven concentrating in urban areas and leaving some rural areas almost untouched. Access to these technologies is constrained by income as is usage, and as they
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become more complex, they are increasingly constrained by literacy and education. This analysis explores the inequities of access and usage further, by viewing them through a gender lens. Of the limited demand-side data on Africa that exists, very little is disaggregated on gender lines. This study provides a descriptive statistical overview of access to ICTs by women and men and their usage of them. This is supported by focus groups that were undertaken in five of the 17 countries surveyed in East, Central, South and West Africa. The survey reveals some surprising instances where more women than men own mobile phones, such as in South Africa and Mozambique, or where women have greater knowledge of the Internet such as in Cameroon. More generally however, the study confirms the differences in access by men and women to ICTs especially where they depend on public access." (Executive summary)
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"Esta unidad Linguapax es una colección de ejercicios y actividades relacionados principalmente con los ámbitos de lenguas y ciencias sociales, pensados para que el alumnado reflexione, opine y cuestione cuáles son los estereotipos que predominan en nuestra sociedad y cuál es la mejor manera de
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darles la vuelta para favorecer actitudes de respeto y tolerancia. También se proponen actividades destinadas al autoconocimiento, a la reflexión sobre la imagen que podemos tener de nosotros mismos y cómo ésta es percibida por la gente que nos rodea. Este libro pretende ser un trabajo de refuerzo de las actitudes personales, de la autoestima y de la construcción de un criterio personal más allá de las opiniones de los otros, y quiere, en definitiva, fomentar la autonomÃa de pensamiento para favorecer la diversidad de ideas en los trabajos en grupo." (Introducción, página 4)
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"This paper studies the link between television and divorce in Brazil by exploiting variation in the timing of availability of the signal of Rede Globo—the network that had a virtual monopoly on telenovelas in the country—across municipal areas. Using three rounds of Census data (1970, 1980 and
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1991) and controlling for area fixed effects and for time-varying characteristics, the paper finds that the share of women who are separated or divorced increases significantly after the Globo signal becomes available. The effect is robust to controlling for potential determinants of Globo’s entry strategy and is stronger for relatively smaller areas, where the signal reaches a higher fraction of the population." (Abstract)
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"This article reports the findings of a review and methodological critique of 96 Latin American empirical studies on television reception published between 1992 and 2007 in the most important journals of the region. The analysis compares the studies according to their theoretical approach, the resea
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rch technique used, their sample size, the type of audience members studied, the type of television content researched and the scholars mentioned the most in their references. Findings show that Cultural Studies is by far the most popular theoretical approach in Latin American audience research, and that two of the topics covered the most were television and daily life and the importance of social and cultural mediations. The article also concludes that many studies lack a solid methodological base. Morley, Orozco, MartÃn-Barbero, GarcÃa-Canclini and Lull were the scholars mentioned the most in the reference sections. The article ends with a diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of current Latin American empirical research on television audiences and points out the need for more methodological rigor and more emphasis on the analysis of ideological readings and impact." (Abstract)
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"An engaging and original study of current research on television audiences and the concept of emotion, this book offers a unique approach to key issues within television studies. Topics discussed include: television branding; emotional qualities in television texts; audience reception models; fan c
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ultures; 'quality' television; television aesthetics; reality television; individualism and its links to television consumption. The book is divided into two sections: the first covers theoretical work on the audience, fan cultures, global television, theorising emotion and affect in feminist theory and film and television studies. The second half offers a series of case studies on television programmes in order to explore how emotion is fashioned, constructed and valued in televisual texts. The final chapter features original material from interviews with industry professionals in the UK and Irish Soap industries along with advice for students on how to conduct their own small-scale ethnographic projects." (Publisher description)
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"Cable and satellite television have spread rapidly throughout the developing world. These media sources expose viewers to new information about the outside world and other ways of life, which may a ect attitudes and behaviors. This paper explores the effect of the introduction of cable television o
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n women's status in rural India. Using a three-year, individual-level panel dataset, we found that the introduction of cable television is associated with significant decreases in the reported acceptability of domestic violence towards women and son preference, as well as increases in women's autonomy and decreases in fertility. We also found suggestive evidence that exposure to cable increases school enrollment for younger children, perhaps through increased participation of women in household decision-making. We argue that the results are not driven by pre-existing differential trends." (Abstract)
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"What are the effects of television, and of role models portrayed in TV programs, on individual behavior? We focus on fertility choices in Brazil, a country where soap operas (novelas) portray families that are much smaller than in reality. We exploit differences in the timing of entry into differen
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t markets of Rede Globo, the network that has an effective monopoly on novelas production in this country. Using Census data for the period 1970-1991, we find that women living in areas covered by the Globo signal have significantly lower fertility. The effect is strongest for women of lower socioeconomic status and for women in the central and late phases of their fertility cycle, consistent with stopping behavior. The result is robust to placebo treatments and does not appear to be driven by selection in Globo entry. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that novelas, and not just television, affected individual choices. First, people living in areas covered by the signal were more likely to name their children after novela characters. Second, entry of a network that relied on imported shows did not have a significant impact on fertility. Third, the impact of Globo presence was strongest for women close in age to the main novela characters." (Abstract)
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"This book explores people's everyday experience of the media in Asian countries in confrontation with huge social change and transition and the need to understand this phenomenon as it intersects with the media. It argues for the centrality of the media to Asian transformations in the era of global
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ization. The profusion of the media today, with new imaginations, new choices and contradictions, generates a critical condition for reflexivity engaging everyday people to have a resource for the learning of self, culture and society in a new light. Media culture is creating new connections, new desires and threats, and the identities of people are being reworked at individual, national, regional and global levels. Within historically specific social conditions and contexts of the everyday, the chapters seek to provide a diversity of experiences and understandings of the place of the media in different Asian locations. This book considers the emerging consequences of media consumption in people's everyday life at a time when the political, socio-economic and cultural forces by which the media operate are rapidly globalizing in Asia." (Publisher description)
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"Mediengewalt ist immer wieder ein Thema öffentlicher Debatten. Insbesondere nach spektakulären Amokläufen taucht regelmäßig die Frage auf, ob Medien ihre Nutzer zu Gewalttätern programmiert und so die Tat verursacht haben. Dabei ist der kausale Zusammenhang alles andere als geklärt: Obwohl d
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ie empirische Mediengewaltforschung mit großem Aufwand betrieben wird, hat sie bis heute keine konsensfähige Antwort gefunden. Diese Studie sucht keine weitere Lösung, sondern fragt, wie sich die Kausalformel »Mediengewalt« historisch herausgebildet hat und welcher Gewinn darin liegt, die Mediengewalt-Debatte beständig mit ungeklärtem Wissen zu versorgen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"El desarrollo de estudios de recepción constituye una asignatura pendiente en Paraguay. Analizando el ámbito académico de la comunicación, en la única carrera universitaria que ha producido tesinas de grado en los últimos 30 años, sólo tres investigaciones se aproximan a este campo. Sus eje
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s son publicidad e infancia, canales de información y actitudes polÃticas y sexuales de la juventud, y la música (cachaca) como industria cultural." (Resumen)
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"Quito fue una suerte de "capital de la comunicación latinoamericana" com la presencia de ocho organizaciones internacionales de comunicación. No obstante esto y las importantes actividades realizadas en el campo comunicacional, paradójicamente los efectos, especialmente en el ámbito de la inves
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tigación, han sido mÃnimos. El texto pone en evidencia la condición marginal de la investigación en el Ecuador (aunque con un interesante repunte en los últimos años) y, más aún, la de los estudios de recepción (ER)." (Resumen)
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