Repository logo
 

Department of Communication

Permanent link for this collection

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 20 of 165
  • Item
    Three dandelion stories
    (2024) Wurfel, Marlene
    Three stories that explore the relationship between dandelions and the wisdom of children. The Dandelion Who Couldn't Roar is an original fable by Marlene Wurfel for Tales from the Lilypad. The Legend of the Flower Fairy is based on an Aesop's Fable, rewritten and rearranged by M. Wurfel. The third story about dandelions in the garden is based on a traditional Sufi tale and rewritten and rearranged for TFTL by M. Wurfel. Intro and Outro music by Reid Alexander Whelton. Acoustic music featured Acoustic Guitar by ViraMiller -- https://freesound.org/s/744879/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
  • Item
    The nightingale
    (2024) Wurfel, Marlene
    The Nightingale by Marlene Wurfel. Rewritten and rearranged from the Hans Christian Anderson literary fairytale version. Intro Outro Music by Reid Alexander Whelton. The story of an Emperor, his empire, and a little brown bird whose voice has the power to change the world, something like yours does.
  • Item
    Evergreen: affirmations for a new year
    (2023) Wurfel, Marlene
    Beautiful listeners, this is Lily's Christmas card to you. Evergreen is a 10-minute calming mediation for kids and family, wishing your love, light, rest, relaxation and growth in the New Year.
  • Item
    The forest bride a Finnish fairy tale
    (2023) Wurfel, Marlene
    A Finnish fairy tale re-written and re-told for Tales from the Lilypad by Marlene Wurfel. Eino must look for a sweetheart but gets lost in the Dark Woods. Then he sees a little cottage with a bright light in the window and smoke curling up from the chimney. Could his true love be inside?
  • Item
    Peter Squirrel
    (2023) Wurfel, Marlene
    A camping story forged in some of Canada's beautiful national and provincial parks, with gratitude to all the squirrels who helped write, voice, and edit this episode. A Tales from the Lilypad original inspired by Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit: Peter Squirrel knows he shouldn't hang around Campsite #11, his father had a terrible accident there, but it smells like marshmallows and cookies. Original music by Reid Alexander Whelton
  • Item
    Transgressive bodies in dark worlds: female gangsters and film noir in Indian popular cinema
    (2024) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
    The influence of film noir is reflected in Indian popular cinema through narratives that portray the aesthetics of crime-infested, morally deranged and extremely violent urban cityscapes where characters deal with the anxieties of a modern world. The representation of women in such narratives presents a context that challenges the way female characters are imagined and stereotyped in traditional Indian film narratives. This paper examines the social, cultural and historical construction of female identity in Indian cinema through the lens of female gangsters and film noir. The noir space in Bollywood cinematic narratives is dominated by hypermasculine, morally elusive, and existentially indifferent villains/anti-hero personas. However, by portraying the role of gangsters and criminals, women also occupy the underworlds of crime and action. They violate the norms of culturally assigned gender performance by fundamentally disrupting the entertainment value associated with the traditional picturization of the female identity. This article argues that the noir female portrayals that disrupt the symbiotic relationships between conventional gender politics and cultural norms emerge as a new category of transgressive figures that walk the thin line of moral dichotomies. They subvert their existing identities to create a state of gendered unpredictability by replacing male subjective positions.
  • Item
    Spectacles of masculine super-heroism: mapping the early superstardom of ‘Jayan’ in Malayalam cinema
    (2023) Raj, Sony Jalarajan
    Krishnan Nair, popularly known by his screen name Jayan, is often hailed as the first-ever “superstar” actor in Malayalam cinema. The metamorphosis of Jayan’s cinematic stardom signifies the masculine prototype with which Indian film stars attain cultural dominance by aestheticizing their corporeal self. This article approaches the earlier superstardom in Malayalam cinema by deciphering the centrality of Jayan as a Superman-superstar figure. It argues that the heroic screen image, dialogue delivery, stylized stunts, and trendsetting costumes introduced by Jayan in the 1970s–1980s established a new reception of the masculine body that glorified the semiotics of the “Superman.” Using the spectator–spectacle discourse on superstardom, this article examines how different shades of superstardom, especially its posthumous restructuring and reproduction, affect the fate of superheroes in regional cinemas.
  • Item
    Reassessing clictivism: a tool of the (pandemic) times
    (2023) Puplampu, Adiki; Macpherson, Iain
    Activism has long taken place in digital spaces, from the 1990s hacktivism of the Zapatistas to Edward Snowden’s digital leaks and modern-day online petitions (Karatzogianni 2015). In contemporary digital culture, online activism is often characterized as clicktivism, or dismissed as slacktivism, and defined as “low-risk, low-cost activity via social media whose purpose is to raise awareness, produce change, or grant satisfaction to the person engaged in the activity” (Rotman et al. 2011, 821). Less generously, it can be defined as “acts of participating in effortless activities as an expedient alternative to expending effort to support a social cause” (Hu 2014, 354). Despite its unfavourable reputation in both academic and non-academic writing, clicktivism became an undeniably powerful tool at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns forced people around the globe to stay home for extended periods of time, resulting in increased exposure, via various media, to local and global social issues. This intensified social consciousness, in combination with public health orders prohibiting large gatherings, fostered clicktivism as a primary method of social activism, shedding new light on its qualities, both positive and negative. Criticisms of clicktivism fall into two main themes. First, many consider it inferior and counterproductive to “real world” activism which is characterized by actions such as street demonstrations (Halupka 2014, 116). Second, critics argue that motivations for clicktivism are murky because of the slippery slope between genuine activism and mediated virtue-signalling. In more theoretical terms, there is a concern that impression management, efforts to influence others’ perception of us, is the motivation for clicktivist action, not a desire for social change. In response to criticisms of clicktivism we contend that these arguments hinge on misconceptions around online activism and identity construction. In the case of online activism, critics often assume it always involves what psychologists call moral balancing: reliance on previous moral action, such as “liking” a political social-media post, to excuse future (in)action such as not demonstrating or donating. In fact, people are at least equally motivated to maintain consistency between past, present, and future behaviour (Lee and Hsieh 2013). As for impression management, critics associate it with deception, diametrically contrasting it with authenticity. This perception fails to recognize that everyone regularly impression manages in their face-to-face and technologically mediated interactions with others, and typically not from vanity or insecurity (Goffman 1959).
  • Item
    Better than the real you? VR, identity, privacy, and the metaverse
    (2023) Macpherson, Iain; Puplampu, Adiki
    If tech-sector CEOs from firms like Meta and Microsoft, plus industry hypers and investors, get their way, then days and nights like Kentarō’s will become commonplace. This future is heralded under a banner-word the metaverse, envisioned as a blending of virtual and physical realities that will profoundly alter how people experience everyday life, from entertainment to work to relationships. Think ‘augmented reality’ (AR): So, these are computer visuals overlaid by screen or lens onto the actual world – but re-imagine this as a more seamlessly immersive experience, in which we intensify or reduce, at will, our envelopment in virtuality. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently described the metaverse as an “embodied Internet, where instead of just viewing content, you are in it” (as cited in Newton, 2021, para.11). This metaverse will depend on advances and convergences across a vast technological array: 5/6G telecommunications, computer processing/graphics, VR, AR, artificial intelligence, social media, the mobile Internet, ‘smart’ glasses/lenses, body tracking and face recognition, holograms and deepfakes, blockchain and cryptocurrency, and ‘the Internet of Things.’ If this massively, multi-user, multimedia metaverse comes to pass, there will be ramifications for everything from the economy and politics to psychology and relationships. This chapter explores implications for human identity, in three senses: psychological well-being, a deeper ‘sense of self,’ and digital privacy. In each case, we highlight negative and positive discoveries and potentials regarding existing and emergent technologies. Our conclusions are tentative, since findings on ‘virtual identity’ remain debated, and the metaverse isn’t here yet, but this chapter will equip you to decide whether you approach its subject with worry, wonder, or doubt that virtual reality (VR) will transcend niche interests any time soon.
  • Item
    Transgressing the boundaries of faith: belief systems, evil and the human subject in Wes Craven films
    (2023) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
    Contributors use a variety of theoretical frameworks to analyze distinct areas of Craven's work, including ecology, auteurism, philosophy, queer studies, and trauma.
  • Item
    Mediatization
    (2022) Macpherson, Ian
    Mediatization refers to the powerful influences and effects that media technologies and organizations exert within everyday life.
  • Item
    The devil's cinema: the untold story behind Mark Twitchell's kill room
    (2013) Lillebuen, Steve
    On the night of October 10, 2008, Johnny Altinger was heading to his first date with a woman he had met online. He was never seen again. Two weeks earlier, aspiring filmmaker Mark Twitchell, a young father with a devotion to the television series Dexter, began a three-day shoot for his latest short film. His horror story featured a serial killer who impersonates women on an online dating site to lure unsuspecting men to his suburban kill room. But was his script actually the blueprint for a real-life murder? And what of Twitchell's other writings, including the elaborate and shocking document titled "S. K. Confessions"? Was it a work of fiction or a diary detailing his dark transformation into a would-be serial killer? A powerfully gripping narrative, The Devil's Cinema is the definitive account of the notorious "Dexter Killer," a case and trial that captured the world's attention. Steve Lillebuen takes us deep into the extraordinary police investigation and the lives of everyone involved, while unveiling never-before-revealed details, all drawn from extensive and exclusive interviews -- including months of contact with the killer himself.
  • Item
    Greta Thunberg in Canada: climate activism, mediated imagery, and public sphere
    (2022) Thomas, Ronie; Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
    The significance of the ongoing climate debates is characterized by discursive media representations that disseminate mediated constructs of images and ideas to the public sphere. By analysing the recent accounts of Greta Thunberg’s visit to Edmonton, Alberta, this research paper examines the effect of media representations in forming public opinion. It argues that celebrating the emergence of a new Thunberg-era climate discourse through mediated images has reinforced political, cultural, and economic scepticisms that led to repercussions in the form of agitations in the democratic process. Exposure to discourses in the form of activism, counter-activism, and propaganda has had an impact on the oil-based economy of Canada, especially in the results of the 2019 federal election. Through the focused visualization of mediated imagery, these discourses can play an agenda-setting role in shaping public opinion, even in the presence of a refeudalized public sphere.
  • Item
    Porn Tube sites: how do gratifications, interactivity and contextual age predict usage and addiction?
    (2023) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Menon, Devadas
    The advent of the internet and compact and compatible smartphones have led to a dramatic increase in the usage of Porntube sites across the globe. Guided by the uses and gratification theory, this study (N = 405) identified six gratifications obtained from tube site usage: Excitement seeking, Diversion, Fantasy, Arousal, Habitual pastime, and Information seeking. This research also located the relationship between gratifications obtained from porn tube sites, life position indicators, interactivity, and problematic usage. Some of the prominent findings of the study are: there are significant age and gender differences in tube sites' usage; life satisfaction negatively predicted tube sites' usage; excitement seeking, diversion, arousal, and habitual pastime gratifications positively predicted porn tube usage; age, gender and interactivity were positive predictors of addiction; excitement seeking arousal, and habitual pastime gratifications positively predicted tube sites' addiction.
  • Item
    Search for empathy: poverty porn popular culture in Indian television
    (2023) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
    The bipolar political conditioning in the Cold War era was perfect for media discourses to find propagandist methods to frame stories in ways that help set special agendas. The coloniser's curiosity for the indigenous and ritualistic cultural forms of these lands was a sign of exploitation rather than inclusion; the looting and importing of natural resources and artistic assets from colonised regions attest to the desire for things that had pure materialistic value. The revulsion associated with the visual perception of these "outside spaces" is fundamental to the construction of power dominance as it signifies notions of social acceptance and rejection. [...]the notion of "disgust" gets associated with the body of the colonised Other, and the representations of the "disgusted other" essentialises cultural identities.
  • Item
    Between the borders of life and art: Roman Polanski’s transgressive negotiations
    (2023) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
    Roman Polanski’s films are noted for their subversive psychological style that explores themes of sexuality, desire, alienation, and violence. His narratives often reflect a dark sense of humour through which the director perceives the absurdity of the human condition in relation to his own cultural dislocations and artistic eccentricity. This article investigates how different connotations of transgression play a major role in defining Roman Polanski as a filmmaker. It specifically explores how the polysemy of transgression structures Polanski as an artist whose real and cinematic negotiations are often intertwined. Through the constant subversion of moral, cultural, and social discourses, his visual style and narrative ideology maintain a notorious affinity that disturbs the notion of reality and manipulates it with new narrative texts. It is the idea of transgression that changes the way Polanski’s auteur status is perceived, appreciated, and rejected for his actions and creations in the past and their repercussions in the present. Polanski’s works use historical, social, and personal realities to renegotiate his transgressive image in real life by incorporating his contested victim status and persecuted selfhood in narratives that manipulate both the past and present.
  • Item
    Bollywood self-fashioning: Indian popular culture and representations of girlhood in 1970s Indian cinema
    (2023) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
    This article investigates how Bollywood cinema represented girlhood experiences in India in the early 1970s. It argues that the films during this time focused on representing girls who displayed a variety of new fashion styles and attitudes, some of which were borrowed from western cultures. This was a sign that there was a new way of representing girls which broke with the submissive, dull and melancholic sari-wearing Indian female stereotype entrapped within domestic settings. The immediate result of this was the emergence of new style leaders and popular icons in Indian popular cinema. This study uses Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of self-fashioning and Guy Mankowski’s idea of self-design to examine how Indian girlhood was renegotiated in the 1970s as an individual-centric idea with more agency and power. Here, self-fashioning refers to the way girls adopt new elements of fashion, styles and attitudes to distinguish their identity from earlier archetypal modes of representation in film and culture. It specifically analyses the emergence of Jaya Bhaduri in Guddi (1971) and Dimple Kapadia in Bobby (1973) as case studies to understand the transformation of girlhood representations in early 1970s Bollywood that opened a new space for girls to redefine their selfhood through the assimilation of consumerism, western culture and fashion styles.
  • Item
    The little people: a fairy tale by a real queen
    (2023) Wurfel, Marlene
    A version of The Little People by Carmen Sylva, Queen of Roumania (1901). Edited, annotated and re-arranged by Marlene Wurfel. Music Intro by Reid Alexander Whelton.
  • Item
    Legend of the wooden shoe
    (2023) Wurfel, Marlene
    Lily finds this old folktale about the origins of wooden shoes, The Netherlands, and gnomes to have a fascinating and different way of looking at our relationship with nature. It's rewritten and rearranged for Tales from the Lilypad by Marlene Wurfel. “The Legend of the Wooden Shoe” is adapted from a 1918 version in English by William Elliot Griffis in Dutch Fairytales for Young Folks. Original music composed by Reid Alexander Whelton for Tales from the Lilypad. Project Gutenberg link to eBook version of Dutch Fairytales for Young Folks: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7871/pg7871-images.html
  • Item
    Merry Christmas from Lily
    (2022) Wurfel, Marlene
    Peace, love & joy from Lily to you! Music by DJ Williams courtesy YouTube Audio Library