Sue Turnbull

What do obstetricians think about media influences on their patients

Background:  Patients are playing an increasingly active role in decision‐making about their care and are becoming increasingly informed about their health. Traditionally, sources of information about pregnancy and birth were family and friends and, in more recent times, antenatal classes. Evidence suggests that the media, particularly the Internet, is an increasingly influential source of information about illness and health.

The Media: Moral Lessons and Moral Careers

The account of a media lesson on female stereotypes in advertising, conducted in a multicultural single-sex classroom of an inner-urban Australian school, becomes the starting point for a challenge to the feminist orthodoxies currently being taught in media studies. It is suggested that, in the negotiation of selves and future roles, the media play a complex role in the lives of young women whose expectations and desires may differ from those of their parents and/or teachers. Crucial to the construction of selves is the question of agency which is discussed in relation to the concept of moral careers and how these are to be managed successfully by girls who experience degrees of cultural dissonance across different social spheres. It is argued that the media play a significant role in the negotiation of such dissonance which should be recognised and acknowledged by teachers in their classroom practice.

Socially inclusive processes: New opportunities with new media?

The tools of Web 2.0 and its culture of open collaboration offer a number of new opportunities to individuals, communities and governments. At first glance, many of these opportunities appear to lend themselves to fostering socially inclusive practices, and the report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce in 2009 certainly claimed this. However, while there has been much discussion of social inclusion in policy terms, there has been little consideration of what it means in practice, and no evidence to link the efficacy of new media in enhancing that practice. We develop a conceptual framework to account for the practice of social inclusion, drawing on recent developments in media theory focused on the themes of hospitality and listening. This framework is used to analyse the governments Social Inclusion website and the online forum. Our analysis suggests new media may offer the potential for new opportunities for social inclusion, but there are a number of factors militating against these opportunities being taken up to good effect.

From listening... to the dialogic realities of participatory democracy

The idea of listening offers a means of reframing contemporary media theory and the project of cultural studies in such a way that the ‘other half’ of communication can enter the picture on an equal footing. Many of the implications, both politically and conceptually, of such a move were canvassed in a special issue of Continuum in 2009.This paper engages with the themes of the special issue and elaborates on the implications through a consideration of core issues from perspectives not covered in that issue. We draw particularly on the traditions of hermeneutics, pragmatism and social constructionism to refashion the idea of communicating so that intersubjectivity and praxis are brought to the fore. This refashioning provides the basis for a critical consideration of what it can mean to engage in dialogue. Ideas of dialogue driven by the presumption of shared understanding are discarded in favour of a form of dialogic listening across difference. We proceed to show how these ideas contribute to the heart of the Listening Projects research agenda: understanding and meeting the challenges of democratic dialogue.

Crime as entertainment: The case of the TV crime drama

A viewing of the grim but popular BBC police procedural, Wallander (BBC1, 2008–), prompts a reflection on Richard Dyers original formulation of entertainment as utopia in 1977. It is noted that the concept of entertainment has received relatively little attention within the fields of media and cultural studies since that time and that the history of the television crime drama provides an interesting case study with which to re-examine popular television as a particular form entertainment. The example of the early British police procedural, Fabian of the Yard (BBC 1954–1956) is discussed in order to reveal the complexity of the genre and its various pleasures which have ranged from documenting real crime, the pursuit of knowledge and truth to cultural tourism. Finally it is argued that pleasure in the ‘form’ of the TV crime drama and a familiarity with its series characters may well be a key factor in its assessing its success as a form of entertainment.

Moments of inspiration : Performing spike

This article explores the way in which the actor, James Marsters, performs the character of Spike. Beginning with the Greek term ekphrasis (the verbal representation of visual representation) this article is an endeavour to describe and recover in language the effect which a particular performance, moment or TV series may have on us. The specific moment of performance that the article addresses is that of Spike’s first appearance on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the episode ‘School Hard’ (2:3) - a point at which something magical occurs. We breathe in Marsters’ performance and establish an emotional connection with the character. It is this connection, based on Marsters’ embodied performance, which inspires fan investment in the character and influences subsequent conceptions of what the character should or should not do, resulting in a tension between scriptwriters and the fans who know better.

Teaching Buffy : The curriculum and the text in Media Studies

It’s 10.30 on a Monday night and the VCR is ready to roll. The phone is off the hook, my pyjamas are on, and I have an appointment with television. So far in early 2002, I’ve dropped in on Big Brother and flirted with The Secret Life of Us; however, more than half way through season six, I am still hanging out for the next instalment of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My interest in Buffy as a television text therefore begins with personal pleasure and my own viewing tastes. But, as a lecturer in Media Studies, I know this is never enough. If I want to talk or write about Buffy I need to be able to translate this personal passion into the kind of critical discourse which counts in academic debate. Furthermore, if I want to teach about Buffy, I must also situate Buffy in a Media Studies curriculum in ways that matter for students, ways that are inevitably imbricated in forms of academic accreditation. Locating the appropriate critical discourses which ‘open up’ a text for analysis, being able to teach these skills to students in ways which help them understand the text and their relationship to it, are fundamental to the business of teaching media. And so when approached by the youth programme designer of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (formerly Cinemedia) to prepare a unit of work for secondary teachers in Victoria on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was only too happy to accept the challenge. However, as I attempted to meet the brief (to provide resources for teaching Buffy in schools, including written notes, lectures for in-service days, and resource lists), I started to encounter some interesting problems as I tried to fit Buffy into the existing school curriculum in Media Studies in Victoria. This curriculum, as I shall argue, seemed remarkably inhospitable to the study of a popular television text such as Buffy, thus prompting the inevitable question: why bother trying to teach Buffy? As a Media Studies lecturer I am only too well aware of any solipsistic moves which assume that just because I think Buffy is good and important television, other people should too. It is, therefore, quite usual for academics to find some other motive for talking about television in public rather than their own enjoyment. But if I do need some justification, I don’t need to look too far. A quick trip to any bookshop, video outlet or Web search engine tells me what I need to know: I am not alone. Like many others, including Roz Kaveney, editor of a collection of essays entitled Reading the Vampire Slayer: an Unofficial Critical Companion to Buffy and Angel, I knew six seasons ago that what I was watching was unusual TV, destined to go down in the annals of television (wherever they are kept) as one of those series which makes a real difference

Trafficking in TV crime: remaking Broadchurch

As a genre that has evolved from a complex mix of literary, filmic, documentary and radio sources, many of which have been circulating globally for some time, television crime drama provides an illuminating lens through which to explore the issue of the television remake in an era when the transnational traffic in television renders the impulse to translate an original into a different cultural location more questionable than ever. Employing a case study approach, this essay investigates the possible motives underlying the American remake of the British crime drama Broadchurch. While the failure of Gracepoint to find an American audience may have been a disappointment to the Fox network and BBC America, as this essay will argue, it came as no surprise to reviewers and fans of Broadchurch as this had earlier been the fate of previous UK/US crime series adaptations including Cracker, Prime Suspect and Life on Mars. Success in the long run, however, may well be measured in economic rather than aesthetic returns.

Affect, Upset and the Self: Memories of Television in Australia

In a recent survey inviting people to outline some of their memories of television and its place in their lives, one of the questions asked was: ‘Can you explain why these particular television memories have stayed with you?’ While the responses to this question were complex and individual, some common themes emerged. These included questions of affect; experiences that were ‘beyond the norm’; and moments of self-identification. While the younger age group (15–45 years) slightly favoured the ‘self-identification’ and ‘affect’ categories, for the 46+ combined groups, the major category was the ‘beyond the norm’. The second-most cited factor, given by approximately 50 per cent of the respondents, was that a television memory is made when an event on television somehow becomes intertwined with the life of the individual. In many instances, the event was recalled as a formative or life-changing occurrence. While it is difficult to draw too many conclusions from the data in relation to gender, given that there were more female participants than male, when the data were recast to show percentages within each gender group, it was interesting to note that the male participants rated ‘affect’ most highly while females rated ‘self-identification’ as the most significant factor in the making of a television memory. This article explores these findings in more detail and examines the implications of these data for thinking about the relationship between the medium of television, television audiences and the formation of memories.

A suitable job for a woman: women, work and the television crime drama

The first series of the Channel Nine crime drama series, Underbelly, is the starting point for a reflection on the relationship between women, work, crime and feminism. Following a brief description of the episode ‘Wise Monkeys’ written by Felicity \Packard which features three of the ‘real’ women involved in Melbournes gangland murders, the essay considers the significant role women have played in the depiction of crime on television as creators, writers and actors. In the end, it all comes down to power and control, who wins and who loses in what Gregg and Wilson (2010) have identified as the ‘cultural economy of infamy’ where the playing field is still far from level, either in the television industry or on the ‘mean streets’ of crime.