Comunicación y cultura

Cinema, Cross-Cultural Collaboration, and Criticism is a manifesto for a developing area, one that provides a new model for reading films about indigeneity. Davinia Thornley investigates specific production partnerships in Canada, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, using the framework of scholarly and popular criticism to draw conclusions from these collaborative case studies. In doing so, her book makes two very specific contributions to knowledge: it provides several industry-specific examples of collaboration in production, and it answers the question of how first world critics can approach the films created by indigenous and minority groups. Encouraging scholars to think about indigenous media more critically reorients indigenous perspectives to a central place in the critical debate.

The films discussed include the world-renown ISUMA Production's Before Tomorrow; Lousy Little Sixpence, the first documentary to address Australia's 'Stolen Generations'; and contemporary offerings from Aotearoa New Zealand.

A dominant global cultural force, the video game business is diverse and increasingly influential. In this comprehensive industrial, historical, economic and theoretical overview of the business, Randy Nichols examines its emergence, culture, structure, production processes and relationship with audiences and other cultural industries.

Including profiles of major players, case studies of key industrial moments, and data on audiences, labour and other crucial factors in the video game business's success, this illuminating book explores the key changes and challenges of its past, present and future.

Screenwriters and Screenwriting is an innovative, fresh and lively book that is useful for both screenwriting practice and academic study. It is international in scope, with case studies and analyses from the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, Ireland and Denmark. The book presents a distinctive collection of chapters from creative academics and critical practitioners that serve one purpose: to put aspects of screenwriting practice into their relevant contexts. Focusing on how screenplays are written, developed and received, the contributors challenge assumptions of what 'screenwriting studies' might be, and celebrates the role of the screenwriter in the creation of a screenplay. It is intended to be thought provoking and stimulating, with the ultimate aim of inspiring current and future screenwriting practitioners and scholars.

All films have texture. Texture has an important sensory dimension; it expresses the feel of something and thus evokes response. Texture also encompasses broader expressions of quality and nature, relating to the weaving of cloth, a web or a narrative. Texture in Film considers texture in film as both an aspect of materiality, and in the sense of an overall fabrication. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives of art, literature and music, Donaldson develops a stimulating understanding of a concept that has received little detailed attention in relation to film. Texture in Film contributes to the increasing body of work aiming to renew attention to sensorial experience in the cinema, through an approach to details of filmic decision-making and evaluations of style and meaning. Case studies include Ride Lonesome, The Shooting, Vertigo, Lost Highway, The Haunting, Singin' in the Rain, and an extended examination of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.

Voice and Environmental Communication explores how people give voice to, and listen to the voices of, the environment. As anxieties around degrading environments increase, so too do the number and volume of voices vying for the opportunity to express their experiences, beliefs, anxieties, knowledge and proposals for meaningful change. Nature itself speaks through, and perhaps to, individuals who advocate on behalf of the environment. This collection includes nine original essays organized into three sections: Voice and Environmental Advocacy, Voice and Consumption, and Listening to Non-human Voices. Four notable scholars reflect on these chapters, and provide both an audience to the scholars as well as a forum for extending their own understanding of voice and the environment. This foundational book introduces the relationship between these two fundamental aspects of human existence and extends our knowledge of the role of voice in the study of environmental communication.

Volume 3 Number 2 of Culture and Dialogue focuses on the theme of “identity and dialogue.” All the essays gathered in this volume address issues of identity with concrete examples and from different perspectives, be they art, philosophy, politics, religion, gender, or ethnic studies. All essays describe and question the relational element at work in identity formation within different cultural contexts, such as Japan, America, Corsica, Mongolia, Norway, Australia, Italy, and Ireland. Hiroshi Yoshioka offers a topical critique of what lays behind the fashionable self-portrait of Japanese cultural identity as Cool Japan in all its uniqueness. Sandra Wawrytko addresses the sensitive issue of gun culture in American identity by resorting to Mahāyāna Buddhist conceptions of failed interconnectedness. Dominique Verdoni discusses cultural identity formation with particular reference to the Corsican language and literature against the background of more dominant or regulating cultures. Angelika Böck shows how art practice can disclose the processes involved in any attempts to represent otherness, including when different groups such as Mongolian herders, Sami singers, and Australian Aboriginal hunters use other cultural codes and perspectives. Francesca Pierini critically reflects upon the culturally biased ways in which Anglo-American literature has traditionally portrayed Italian culture —an orientalised imagined identity. The selection of essays closes with Hannah Hale’s study on a very specific aspect of gender identity formation: how eating and drinking habits shape the development of masculinities within a community of students. All essays, in one way or another, disclose how identity formation is conditioned by, or emerges from, relationships between self and otherness, inside and outside, or minor and dominant cultures. As paradoxical as it may seem, the more we relate to each other, the more identity becomes an issue.

Indian ecocriticism has not yet adequately demonstrated the applicability of ecological/deep ecological/tinai principles to visual texts. Culture and Media: Ecocritical Explorations closes this gap at the most opportune moment. Though this volume accommodates ecologically oriented interpretations from several cultures across the world, it reserves the centre stage for Indian ecocriticism and ecotheory quite appropriately. The volume effectively challenges the major documents on ecocriticism and theory (published by international presses), which have been reluctant to give space to tinai criticism and theory that transcend Dravidian or Tamil boundaries. The day is not far when cinema of the world, shaped by tinai theory, will employ tinai hermeneutics to gain fresh insight, which, in turn, will feed into the processes of creation and production of relevant and great movies.

This book examines the manifestations of terror in the arts. From classical tragedy to post-9/11 responses, terror – as an emotion, violent act, and state of the world – has been a preoccupation of artists in all genres. Using philosophy, art history, film studies, interdisciplinary arts, theatre studies, and musicology, the authors included here delve into this perennially contemporary theme to produce insights articulated in a variety of idioms: from traditional philosophical humanism to phenomenology to feminism. Their approaches may vary, but together they reinforce the notion that terror is a thread in the fabric of artistic expression as much as it has always been and, alas, remains a thread in the fabric of life.

This book offers new and compelling insight into the emergent shared culture of the relationship between political actors and journalists in nine European democracies. It is a truly comparative account of the attitudes of 2,510 political communication elites between Helsinki and Madrid on various aspects of the media's role in politics and on the mutual relationship of politicians, political spokespersons and journalists. The study identifies national political communication cultures acrossEurope over the importance of journalists in advocacy and commentary, pressures on the media and perceived political influence. It also highlights that professional roles determine the perception of news-making, the interpretation of daily political life and the ethos of professional conduct and interaction.

Communicating in multicultural settings is a field of central interest to those involved in ensuring access to healthcare. Ever-increasing migration requires access to essential legal, medical and social services. This book provides an overview of current issues in this field through a multi-faceted approach, situating the work of potential healthcare professionals and intercultural intermediaries in the broader context of public service providers and practitioners. The book is not oriented towards one population in particular; rather it is directed towards multiple groups, mainly to students of the health sciences and medical professionals interested in communicating with migrants and visitors, and those who have to work in multicultural settings. It is not a theoretical book, nor is it rule-based by any means. It is a handbook oriented towards reflection and practice resulting from years of experience training mediators, interpreters and translators working in minority languages within multicultural settings. It can be used for self-study and independent learning, but will also be extremely useful to teachers and trainers of future doctors and medical staff who seek materials or readings for their classes. Furthermore, it represents an excellent resource for mediators, interpreters and translators who want to learn more about communication in healthcare setting.