David J. Schaefer

Is Ignorance Bliss? Assessing Singaporean Media Literacy Awareness in the Era of Globalization

Singaporean college students (N = 262) were surveyed about their awareness of visual media literacy. One hypothesis and two research questions are posed comparing awareness of media literacy components for two educational conditions—students enrolled in mass media production programs vs. those enrolled in other programs. Potential effects of cultivation and censorship on media literacy awareness also are explored. Findings include that media education corresponds to an increased awareness of media literacy; the effect was more pronounced for production-oriented rather than consumption-oriented components. Media students reported lower awareness of the ability to distinguish fact from fiction than non-media students, suggesting a cultivation effect. Conclusions address media literacy theory.

An analysis of policy options for high-definition television

There is an urgent need in the USA for a cohesive policy regarding high-definition television (HDTV) because world leadership in technology is at stake and foreign competitors, especially the Japanese, are pushing ahead with implimentation. This article compares the leading digital and analog HDTV standards, and offers a plan for government support of the technology in the USA.

Bollywood Cinema at the Crossroads: Tracking the Dimensions of Globalization in Postcolonial Popular Hindi Cinema

Hindi film scholars have been slow to adopt content analysis methodologies. Given the potentially changing social-political-economic context of Hindi cinema, this study utilized content analysis to investigate the prevalence of five globalization dimensions—geographical, cultural, nationalistic, infrastructural, and artistic—in the highest grossing Hindi films of the postcolonial era between 1947 and 2007. The films were coded to address multiple hypotheses theorizing that changing transnational contexts would be related to significant increases in global aspects of content. The findings suggest that the oft-repeated conclusions of scholars regarding the widespread influence of global forces on Hindi film production—particularly in the current era of “Bollywoodization”—are more complex than suggested in prior research.

From the dialogic to the contemplative: a conceptual and empirical rethinking of online communication outcomes as verbing micro-practices

Traditional approaches to studying communication in public spheres draw upon a product or outcome orientation that has prevented researchers from theorizing more specifically about how communication behaviors either inhibit or facilitate dialogic processes. Additionally, researchers typically emphasize consensus as a preferred outcome. Drawing upon a methodology explicitly developed to study communicating using a verb-oriented framework, we analyzed 1,360 postings from online pedagogical discussions. Our analysis focused on verbing micro-practices, the dynamic communicative actions through which participants make and unmake public spheres. Two questions guided our analysis: (1) How do grounded communicative micro-moment practices relate to consensusing and dissensusing within public spheres? and (2) What are the theoretical implications of these relationships for the quality of dialogue among participants who are discussing controversial topics? Our findings indicate that, contrary to recent theorizing, consensus-building and maintaining behaviors may actually inhibit the communicative processes necessary for the creation of effective public sphere dialogue.

Problematizing Chindia Hybridity and Bollywoodization of popular Indian cinema in global film flows

In the new millennium, scholars are increasingly predicting that Asian film industries, particularly those of India and China, will wrestle control of global film flows from Western dominance. Fueled by the internet, satellite networks, cable television, and DVD distribution, it is argued that Asian production centers will increasingly exploit cinematic contraflows that draw upon structures of hybridity to meet increasing demand for glocalized content within globalized distribution networks (e.g. Bose, 2006; Curtain, 2007; Kumar, 2008; Lagerkvist, 2009; Mitra, 2008). As noted by Ritzer (2007), cultural hybridity is central to glocalization, where human agents self-consciously and creatively combine local with global cultural formations in a bid to subvert potentially homogenizing forces associated with cultural imperialism (Schiller, 1991). Within cinematic public spheres, filmmakers act as bricoleurs (Newcomb and Hirsch, 2000), mixing both global and local elements to appeal to audience tastes and trends (Bhabha, 1995; Burke, 2006; Volkmer, 2003). For Appadurai (1996: 35), global mediascapes provide the backdrop of ‘large and complex repertoires of images, narratives, and ethnocscapes’ used in cultural mixing. As hybridized content spreads, ‘contra-flows’ (Thussu, 2006: 175) emerge, shifting the direction of cultural influence to the Global South and blurring ‘the boundaries between the modern and the traditional, the high and low culture, and the national and the global culture’ (2006: 175). ARTICLE