Department of Communication
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- ItemNo news is not good news: the implications of news fatigue and news avoidance in a pandemic world(2022) Fitzpatrick, NeillIn an era dominated by a constant flow of grim news, news fatigue is becoming more recognized as a serious concern, even a health risk. Around-the-clock reports on the pandemic can seem unavoidable, along with ongoing coverage of political upheaval, climate change, and other major global issues. For some, the weight of the world‘s news becomes too much. A 2019 pre-pandemic survey of 12,000 American adults by the Pew Research Center found 66% admitting they were "worn out" by the sheer amount of news available to them. News fatigue can translate into a desire to consume less news in an effort to preserve and protect one‘s mental health. A Pew Research Center survey in April 2020 determined 71% of adult Americans say they need to "take breaks from COVID-19 news" while 43% said the news "leaves them feeling worse emotionally". The World Health Organization addressed the concerns about the impact of the news onslaught in the "Mental Health Tips" section of its website. The WHO offers this advice to the public: "Try to reduce how much you watch, read or listen to news that makes you feel anxious or distressed". Growing numbers are heeding this advice and reducing their news consumption. Some are opting for no news whatsoever as a means of coping. In May 2020, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University examined the "infodemically vulnerable" in Britain, those who chose to reduce consumption of COVID-19 related news. More than one-fifth of those surveyed said: 'they often or always actively try to avoid the news," with the majority citing the impact on their mood. While mental health concerns appear to be the primary reason behind the increase in avoidance, growing distrust in mainstream media is also cited. While not a new phenomenon, the skepticism surrounding journalism was exacerbated during the pandemic as anti-vaccination advocates and conspiracy theorists questioned the validity and accuracy of the COVID-19 facts shared by news organizations, even governments. In this analysis of research, interviews, news articles, and social media content, I will advance recommendations for journalism researchers seeking to understand these issues. I will also propose strategies for journalists and news organizations seeking to navigate the issues and find solutions to help their embattled profession survive and recover.
- ItemRemastering Prince and authenticity: marketing the posthumous cultural artefacts of a past musical life(2022) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.Hailed as one of the most versatile artists of his time, Prince is marked in history for his revolutionary music that rendered his appearance as a cultural icon across various music aficionados around the world. The posthumous evolution of Prince’s legacy is largely embedded in the reproduction and (re)release of material that not only presents him as a music artist but a commercial product for the market. This created a new cultural space where the reception of an exceptional creative artist found new dimensions, and the commercial value of his musical life became equally important as its cultural and artistic significance. The release of the Super Deluxe Sign o’ the Times 2020 box set is one of the recent evidence of such a situation in which material enacted as cultural artefacts preserves and transposes Prince to a new generation of musical reception. This article analyses the ideas of marketability and authenticity in the contemporary era reception of Prince and its ongoing attempts to appropriate cultural artefacts through commodification and commercialization. It argues that cultural artefacts do not replicate the authentic lived career of Prince but, on the contrary, they reflect the past legacy of an iconic star to maintain his marketability in a new era of music, performance and cultural activities.
- ItemFrom closeness to openness: repositioning of the Indian kitchen and restructuring of the gender system(2022) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.The concept of the kitchen is an integral part of household interiors that defines a space of interactivity essential to the organic existence of individuals in society. The traditional Indian kitchen is a closed space separated from the living room and other open spaces where members interact regularly. It is conventionally established as a gendered space restricted for women members to partake in activities of food production, serving, and cleaning. The modern idea of the kitchen, especially seen in Western architecture, is articulated through the notion of ‘openness’ which strictly contradicts the ‘closeness’ of the Indian kitchen. This paper examines how the transformation from an Indian spice kitchen (separated structuring of the kitchen in a way to contain the smell of spices from spreading to other parts of the house) to a modern open kitchen redefines the existing gender coordinates of the land. It uses two critically acclaimed Malayalam films—from the south Indian cinema of Kerala— namely Salt N’ Pepper (2011) and The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) to analyze and differentiate the visual representations of the open and closed kitchens in India. It argues that a restructured modern kitchen challenges the traditional gendered kitchen and nourishes a participatory culture that demands open interaction from all participants.
- ItemPicturing the Anthropocene through flood narratives: the environmental disaster discourse in Indian cinema(2022) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.Narratives of disaster play a significant role in the construction of perspectives on the Anthropocene. In an age where human activity has crossed many boundaries to explicitly reveal the imminent threat of ecological degradation, environmental disasters need to be addressed with utmost seriousness. Cinema being the popular art of the technologically advanced and globalized world, it is possible to realistically visualize environmental disasters and their impact on the ecosystem. For instance, cinematic representation of geographies of the tropical regions affected by climate change and natural disasters helps one understand the complex sociocultural repercussions that restructure the very fabric of organic life. This chapter examines how narratives of flood in Indian cinema define the notion of ecological disaster in India. Floods are one of the most common natural disasters in India as their sudden and long-term impact on the natural environment puts the lives of millions of people and animals at risk. Films that show floods as a narrative tend to emphasize the cultural disorientation as a result of the monstrosity of water. This can be argued as an anti-romantic approach whereas such narratives essentially subvert the aesthetics of rain, acommon theme in Indian cinema. When floods alter the geography of a region, it reflects the vulnerability of a given population and the consequences of human activity that force them to vacate the premises of their habitat. Using contemporary disaster discourses, this chapter deconstructs the spectacles of flood in Indian cinema to understand their overarching impact on the geography, culture, and life in India.
- ItemCultural monsters in Indian cinema: the politics of adaptation, transformation and disfigurement(2022) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.In India, a popular trope is adapting cultural myths and religious iconographies into visceral images of the monster in literary and visual representations. Cinematic representations of the Indian monster are modelled on existing folklore narratives and religious tales where the idea of the monster emerges from cultural imagination and superstitions of the land. Since it rationalizes several underlying archetypes in which gods are worshipped in their monstrous identities and disposition, the trope of the monster is used in cinema to indicate the transformation from an ordinary human figure to a monstrous human Other. This paper examines cinematic adaptations of monster figures in Malayalam cinema, the South Indian film industry of Kerala. The cultural practice of religious rituals that worship monstrous gods is part of the collective imagination of the land of Kerala through which films represent fearsome images of transformed humans. This article argues that cultural monsters are human subjects that take inspiration from mythical monster stories to perform in a terrifying way. Their monstrous disposition is a persona that is both a powerful revelation of repressed desires and a manifestation of the resistance against certain cultural fears associated with them. The analysis of several Malayalam films, such as Kaliyattam (1997) Manichithrathazhu (1993) and Ananthabhadram (2005), reveals how film performance adapts mythological narrative elements to create new cultural intertexts of human monsters that are psychotically nuanced and cinematically excessive.