New Literacies
Prison Radios as Tools of Communication with the Inner and Outer World
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gergely Gosztonyi
There are two basic goals for the law enforcement: all those who are judged by the independent judiciary to be separated from society and on the other hand to do everything to ensure that the prisoners have the chance to reintegrate into the community. The meaningful activity can help the convicts not go onto the so-called 'prison socialization' path or reduce the inaction associated with the closed space and the strict agenda. In the UK the Prison Radio Association was set up in 2006, and after one year of its work, the world's first prison radio started its broadcasting in the HM Brixton Prison in 2007. Since 2013 the PRA broadcasted in more than one hundred UK and Wales. Since that time, similar initiatives have started in Scotland, Sweden, Israel, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago. And in 2014, the first prison radio in Central-Eastern-Europe started its broadcasting in Hungary at the Vác Prison. All those experiences show that even those underrepresented groups like prisoners could benefit a lot from some aspects of freedom of expression. The target audience is where the creators of the programs are: behind the grid. PRA is an example of everything that is commonly referred to as the third leg of the three-stage media system, the alternative or community media. It is built on the content created by prisoners and broadcast to the prisoners. By the community, to the community. With this new tool, prisoners have begun to engage in entertainment, learning and development.
An Empirical Study on Media Literacy of Network Radio Drama Production Group in China
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yiqun Geng
With the development of digital technology and social media, young people are organizing increasing numbers of small groups with distinctive characteristics according to their preferences. Groups such as Funsub group, ACG group, electronic game group, homemade On-line drama group, and other network groups have gradually become an inseparable part of the culture in the Network environment, constituting a unique UGC network culture phenomenon. As a network minority group, the Chinese network radio drama production group warrants investigation. Considering the theory and practice of online (online/network) community, this paper takes the online radio drama production group as the research target by adopting the research methods of field observation, survey, and in-depth interviews to sketch the organizational structure of the group and present the network radio drama production process. Based on Henry Jenkins' participatory cultural theory, the authors examined the media literacy level and competence traits of the group members from six aspects: collective collaboration capacity, performance simulation capacity, media production capacity, evaluation capacity, disseminating and sharing capacity, and self-cognition capacity. The study reveals that the network radio drama production group is thriving and indicating a unique subcultural phenomenon, though the group may encounter potential network risks and the problem of self-legitimacy in the process of development. Some strategies are proposed from levels of the group members, families and schools, and the larger society.
Teaching Around Trump : Pedagogical and Rhetorical Acrobatics in the Writing and Research Classroom
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michael Meinhardt
The intersection of the contemporary states of fact, rhetoric, research, and civil discourse has undergone such a dramatic and overwhelming shift away from long-standing methods and methodologies that the writing and research classroom is at risk of sacrificing the mission of pedagogy in the student mindset and the political and economic spectrum of administration. The dangers of this precipice, fomented mostly through Donald Trump's political ascendency and the actions used to do so as well as further his particular array of governance goals, is the tacit acceptance of his authority and authoritative style by students in a writing arena that requires them to transform, however challenging this may be so as to establish a strong foundation for academic and professional development. This study examines a framework by which the writing classroom community may be established from the start so as to circumvent dogmatism, considers rhetorical strategies to confront zealotry through discursive collaboration, and grounds the writing and research classroom in both holistic and concrete goals for the skills to be acquired and the value those skills hold in the greater world.
Space in Contemporary Cinema: Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri, Manchester by the Sea, and The Shape of Water
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Abu Haque
The paper explores the cinematic spaces in contemporary American film in relation to the triad of spatial practices, representations of space, and representational spaces produced through a variety of exclusions. These exclusions reproduce the dominant discourse. Visual analysis of three contemporary films explored how spaces conceived in cinema (spaces produced through the process of filmmaking) deviate from the social practices of divergent groups within these spaces. The production of these cinematic spaces does not correspond with the lived experience of the margin, as they reinforce racial and gender biases to reproduce the dominant ideologies. The production of the ‘New South’ within these cinematic spaces is reminiscent of the idyllic antebellum South. The representational spaces of these films also conceal the hegemonic power relations between the dominant form of representation and the margin. These spaces recreate the dominant discourse, which are seldom challenged by alternative representations. The production of these representations brings in the spaces of heterotopias such as bars, washrooms, city streets and alleys, graveyards and the fantasmatic, all of which reify the dominant discourse through cinematic narratives.
