Search

A theory of value pertinent to the contemporary iPhone era focuses on formal and informal labour circuits. This study extends this framework by examining a labour dispute in an iPhone factory near Bangalore, delving into its dissemination through media and the broader critical political economy surrounding the recent iPhone production in India. Furthermore, it incorporates a geographical perspective into the circuit framework to illustrate the movement of capital and labour in Bangalore, rekindling discussions on core–periphery dynamics in the context of capital and labour migration. Further, this research builds upon the typography of worker-generated content by illustrating a specific category of such content within the iPhone labour dispute. Utilising a critical political economy of media approach, this article aims to assess the broader implications of the updated framework and to open new avenues for research within the emerging field of information communication technologies, cultural production and labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Ethnologica Croatica is the property of Studia Ethnologica Croatica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the last two years, the metaphor of war has often been used in Italy when discussing the fight against the pandemic, to describe the restrictions that have been introduced as a result, from lockdown to the Green Pass. Paradoxically, once the state of emergency ended, just as we were on the cusp of the long-awaited return to normality (to 'peace' in a sense), Russia's sudden invasion of Ukraine meant that war truly became part of Italians' lives through the media. In this context, I have analysed the positions taken by the major Italian periodicals (Avvenire, Corriere della Sera, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Il Foglio, La Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Mattino di Napoli, Il Messaggero and Il Tempo di Roma) between 20 February and 5 March. What becomes clear through examination of the main articles is that the themes that would characterise the subsequent Italian debate – from a strategic, humanitarian, political, and economic point of view – were already present in the two weeks from the end of February to the beginning of March 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of three and a half years, the global toll of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has claimed the lives of millions of individuals. Scientific breakthroughs, exemplified by mRNA vaccines, have emerged as crucial tools in saving numerous lives and fortifying our defenses against future pandemics. However, the battle against the virus has been complicated by the dissemination of misleading political and ethical information, resulting in avoidable fatalities. Recognizing this phenomenon, the term 'infodemics' has been coined to denote the proliferation of false or misleading information that hinders effective social responses. Given the historical prevalence of infodemics surrounding vaccinations, this discussion delves into the ongoing ethical and legal deliberations concerning vaccination mandates, an indispensable health intervention in the face of pandemics. Governments bear the responsibility of safeguarding their citizens, acknowledging the social requirements imposed by the collective well-being. The protection of both citizens and healthcare workers becomes paramount, considering the potential risks of infection and mortality associated with individuals refusing vaccination. Historically, governments have played a pivotal role in eradicating pandemics through the implementation of vaccine mandates. However, the contemporary landscape is marked by the infusion of political and misleading misinformation, presenting new challenges. Governments are now confronted with an ethical duty to ensure that citizens possess the necessary information to make informed decisions and safeguard their well-being. While grappling with the realization that extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinary responses, the lessons from past pandemics underscore the imperative of prioritizing public health, especially in the context of the high numbers of casualties worldwide. This discourse explores the ethical and legal dimensions surrounding vaccine mandates, with particular emphasis on their relevance to healthcare workers., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2024, Youssef et al.)

The article intends to deal with the presence of anonymous subjects and their daily neglected realities in different media narratives. It establishes relations with studies on the approach of ordinary people in the history and in the Brazilian social sciences. These movements seek to capture actions that aim at the visibility of these subjects, who belong to the popular classes, in traces configured, or not, by them. From there, the article discusses challenges that characterize the emergence of the non-hegemonic subjects in the contemporary media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Exposure to gender stereotypes in the media can develop and reinforce these attitudes in children. Individuals who are overweight, have health conditions, or are from a minority ethnic group (IMEG) are both underrepresented and poorly portrayed in the media. Role models can raise the aspirations of young children both professionally and in taking ownership of their health. We aimed to assess how the portrayal and diversity of characters in Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks animated films have changed over time. Method A cohort study of all main characters in Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks feature-length, theatrical, animated films from 1937 to 2021 was conducted. The portrayal of characters (R-score divided into negative, neutral, and positive -1, 0, and 1, respectively) was scored. The proportion of individuals with certain protected characteristics (sex, increased body mass index, physical or mental health conditions, being from an IMEG or part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, and queer community) was also recorded. Results In total, 116 films and 1,275 characters were included. From the 1930s to 2020s, the proportion of women in films increased (16.7% to 47.3%, p=0.008) and their representation was more positive (mean R-score = -0.10 (SD:0.692) versus 0.49 (SD:0.837), p<0.001, respectively). The portrayal of overweight individuals has improved to a neutral position (mean R-score: -0.67 to 0.0). Both physical and mental illnesses are better portrayed (mean R-score: -0.18 to 0.34, p=0.004 and 0.5 to 1.0, p= 0.019, respectively). IMEGs introduced in 1953 now play more than just negative roles (mean R-score = -1 to 0.76, p=0.008). There is only one explicitly stated homosexual character. The most diverse film is Encanto. Conclusion This is the first study to comprehensively assess the diversity of animated film characters. We have identified an improvement in diversity and the way diverse individuals are portrayed which we hope continues., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Raju et al.)

This article explores Gabriele Basilico’s photographs of the contemporary Italian environment and argues for their status as both iconic – that is to say, distinctive, highly visible, and memorable – and anti-iconic symbols or images. The discussion first explores the anti-iconic impulse in Basilico’s work. It marks out his standing as one of the most prominent proponents of the trend in contemporary Italian photography which sought to counter the mythic view of the country’s landscape and highlights his involvement in the trend’s seminal exhibition, Viaggio in Italia (1984). The article then makes a case for the simultaneous iconic nature of Basilico’s photographs by looking at the 2007/08 exhibition Milano si mostra. 1 Km con Gabriele Basilico, examining the ways in which Basilico’s images were made into icons of Milan’s urban identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research argues that children are becoming disengaged from their local, natural environments. The study sought to map children's interests in, and concern for, their local, natural environments. Because the attitudes and understandings that children have of their world are formed through interaction with their world, their society, their education and their environment, such attitudes and understandings will in turn, determine how they will interact with their environment as adults. Thus, two diverse groups of children in two diverse settings, one group in rural Australia and one group in urbanized Singapore, were selected to understand what interests and concerns each group of children had for their own local, natural environment as well as the environments of others. Data was collected through interviews with the children, observations and from the drawings and storytelling in postcards which children used to communicate with each other for three months. The paper discusses from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective how two diverse groups of children understand their local, natural environments as well as the environments of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coeliac disease (CD) is a topic that has gained momentum in recent years due to an increase in the rates of diagnosis and a rise in the number of people following a gluten-free diet (GFD). Previous studies have shown the ability of the media to influence the behavior of the public, particularly in relation to healthcare. The media portrayal of CD, and its significance, has not yet been explored., Objectives: This study aims to describe and analyze the nature of the media coverage of CD. The implications of the nature of messages should be considered, and any temporal change in content explored., Methods: A document analysis of local and national UK newspaper articles over three weeks, from May 2 nd to May 22 nd , 2016, was conducted, ensuring coverage of articles from Coeliac Awareness Week (commencing May 9 th ). Articles containing instances of CD-related language were collected by Kantar Media ([London, UK] a media intelligence company) for their client - Coeliac UK (Buckinghamshire, UK), and analyzed using a combination of thematic and content analysis techniques. An inductive approach was used to code articles into themes, with frequency data also presented., Results: Four hundred eighty-eight articles were included in the analysis, with 233, 117, and 138 articles in weeks one, two, and three, respectively. Six overarching themes were identified: events around Awareness Week and food content noted as gluten-free (GF), as well as raising awareness, encouraging people to seek help, and other health implications and perceptions of CD and the GFD, of which a significant proportion consisted of articles by Coeliac UK. The increasing popularity of the GFD emerged as a theme, encompassing the growth of the GF industry and celebrity endorsements. Notably, positively and negatively framed articles were identified, with most instances of negative articles occurring in week three., Conclusions: Coeliac Awareness Week was found to have had an influence on the content of newspaper articles, given the increase in the number of negative articles in week three and the significantly higher number of articles in week one. This mixed messaging was considered to negatively impact the potential and current patients with CD, especially in relation to GFD adherence and diagnosis rates., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2022, Verma et al.)

In this paper, the author proposes an analysis of the apparently contradictory attitudes towards transactional sexual exchanges, as they have emerged in public debate and informed legislation and policies in Italy over the past few years. The ambiguity towards commercial sex is linked to a specific dynamic of power, which denies sexual labour the status of work and makes it the object of repressive and criminalising policies, whilst at the same time habitually demanding sexual services in exchange for money, gifts or favours. The article shows how criminalisation functions as a prominent form for the control of subjects, related to the workings of sovereignty. In particular, the author considers the ways in which the criminalisation of prostitution and of undocumented migration, which compound in the figure of the migrant prostitute, represents a means for the exertion of sovereignty and relates to the centrality of desire, transgression and their disciplining in the contemporary context. However, closer examination of the subjective experiences of those who are supposedly excluded and criminalised, such as undocumented migrant sex workers in detention centres, reveals the incompleteness of disciplinary mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Giovannino Guareschi, author of the immensely popular Don Camillo stories and editor of the weekly newspaper Candido, spent 14 months in a Parma prison from 1954 to 1955 for having libelled the former Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi. To this day, he is the only Italian journalist since the founding of the Republic ever to have served actual, behind-bars jail time for libel. This study examines several aspects of Guareschi's life in prison – the ways he coped with boredom and loneliness, the attempts he made to understand his fellow inmates and how he defiantly tried to buoy his spirits. In particular, it focuses on both his correspondence with his wife Ennia, a collection of 44 letters, and his personal musings kept in two prison diaries – all documents that have never been published. The analysis rectifies common misinterpretations as to why Guareschi purposely refused to appeal his guilty verdict and chose to go to jail, considers how Guareschi presented himself in his writings and contemplates Guareschi's place in the history of Italian prison writing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article shows the results of an Amsterdam Fashion institute students' research, conducted under the author's supervision, into weather cultural factors influence a fashion magazine's editorial and advertisement content, as well as its placement within different countries. Students participating in the Intercultural Communication and Globalization courses were asked to research the link between media and culture, by studying one brand (Vogue magazine) across three different countries. Students were encouraged to use interdisciplinary methodology in examining English, French and Russian editions of Vogue, analysing text and image, political and social elements within these editions. Representation of national or international (often American or West European) celebrities and models, the (exotic) Other, sex, gender and authority all appeared to be influenced by the local context in which Vogue appeared. Together with students, I was able to identify a number of elements through which local differences in representation can be measured. The main subject areas that I shall analyse in the three versions of Vogue are related to representations of the local and the global, to issues surrounding factors like sex, gender editions and authority. This chosen template of three different international Vogues from April 2005 can be utilised for any country and any brand magazine. Twelve issues of Vogue from the previous year are also examined in order to provide more context and material for comparison. The magazines will be used as tools for exposing cultural differences and similarities, by using the same 'brand' of a magazine across different cultural markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assumes and therefore does not discuss negative effects of the structural evolutions which have stemmed from secularization on religious propaganda in TV programs. Rather, it deals with those inefficiencies and dysfunctional outcomes arising from the same processes, policies and patterns of religious media propaganda. Among them, we have discussed creating new rituals and quasi-sacraments, weakening traditional religious rituals, myth creation, worldliness, converting religion to commercial goods, mixing religious and mundane propaganda, giving paradoxical messages to the beholders, neglecting spiritual aspects of religion, superficiality of religious beliefs, and involvement with the interests of political parties. Our discussion is based on Islamic thought and communication theorist’s comments.