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This study investigates why women in Southern Italy are attracted to Turkish TV serials, which may seem culturally distant at first glance. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 30 women, the research aims to uncover the specific elements of Turkish serials that resonate with these women. The findings reveal that participants appreciate the portrayal of strong, independent female characters in Turkish serials, which challenge their preconceptions about Muslim women and foster a sense of shared human experiences across cultures. The romantic ideals depicted, without overt sexualization, and the subtle reinforcement of traditional gender roles, align with the viewers' cultural values, offering a comforting blend of familiarity and novelty. Additionally, the high production values and aesthetically pleasing depiction of Turkish settings and lifestyles enhance the appeal. These serials not only entertain but also prompt audiences to reflect on their own cultural and feminist issues. This study highlights the intricate dynamics of cross-cultural media consumption and its impact on cultural perceptions and viewer engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TV drama A Love for Dilemma (2021) has sparked widespread debates on motherhood and gender in China. This article explores the intricacy of the show's representation of "bad mother." While conventional perspectives often view motherhood as a realm of private intimacy, insufficient attention has been given to the distinctiveness of Chinese-style motherhood and its intersection with family, neoliberalism, and state politics. This article addresses the importance of analyzing the televisual representation of motherhood to gain insight into how the interplay between patriarchy, the market and the state configures maternal subjectivity, particularly under the leadership of Xi Jinping. By examining the emotional meaning of motherhood produced by the TV series, this study unveils the inherent contradiction of mother love as a site of political investment. It argues that the ambivalence surrounding mother love stems from its entanglement with patriarchal expectations, the burdens of emotional labor, and the state's vested interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically reflects on a television trend that remains poorly documented, namely that of representing male virginity as being caused by a form of neurodivergence. As part of an interdisciplinary research project on sexually inexperienced emerging adults (SIEA) in North American films and TV series, a textual analysis has been conducted for four TV series portraying sexually inexperienced men on the spectrum (The Good Doctor, Atypical, The Big Bang Theory, L’Heure bleue). Our research shows that this tendency to associate men’s sexual inexperience with autism is an important issue that reveals the persistence of gender and ableist norms in TV series. For instance, TV series contribute to the reproduction of the stereotype that a man on the spectrum is de facto sexually inexperienced, and then prioritize a “virginity loss” narrative. Characters also acquire maturity after their first sexual encounter, resulting in increased masculine capital. Considering that such series seek to represent neurodiversity, the lack of diversity when it comes to representing sexual inexperience is questioning. The fact that narratives invariably allow neurodivergent men to gain sexual experience seems to reinforce the cultural norm that sexual activity is mandatory, especially for adult men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delves into the social and cultural challenges Muslim women face in the TV series Mata A Yau, which airs on Arewa 24, a Hausa-language channel catering to Hausa-speaking audiences in Northern Nigeria. The show premiered in August 2023, sparking debates about the media’s portrayal of contemporary Muslim women and their identity. The study employed sociocultural theory, mixed methods of interviews, and focus group discussions to analyse the program and uncover the root causes of these cultural and social disputes. The findings reveal that Islamic popular culture often intersects with religious and cultural practices, leading to debates about women’s identity, particularly within the context of media and Islamic popular culture. The study uncovers society’s unfounded biases and unjustified insults and condemnation against a particular gender as a result of hasty judgments or responding to contentious or religious issues without fully understanding the topic. The conflicts experienced by Muslim women within the series provide a valuable opportunity to delve into the complexities of contemporary Muslim women’s identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the intricate relationship between science, technology, engineering and mathematics field representation by the media and the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field in reality, centring on two pivotal inquiries: (i) How is gender within science, technology, engineering and mathematics portrayed in visual culture? (ii) How do gendered representations in visual culture impact science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals? By scrutinizing two Turkish TV series featuring science, technology, engineering and mathematics characters, namely, Sıcak Kafa (Hot Skull, 2022, by Mert Baykal) and Yakamoz S-245 (Into the Deep, 2022, by Tolga Karaçelik and Umut Aral), we assert that recent Netflix productions in Turkey showcase science, technology, engineering and mathematics characters in a less marginalized manner compared to mainstream series content. The study explores the intersection of science, technology, engineering and mathematics portrayals with actual gender experiences in the Turkish context. Findings show science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals, particularly women, to be rendered invisible in being confined to gender-based definitions. Despite portraying male and female science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals as equal and non-marginalized, male characters predominate in decision-making and implementation processes within many series. Furthermore, science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals do not identify with their own character representations in media content, as they express through interviews. The study underscores there is room to challenge patriarchal norms, fostering more equitable depictions of science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals, including women, to dismantle gender biases and foster inclusivity within science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies show that when Hollywood professionals develop and produce films and television series, they consult experts in social and political issues. These experts may be private individuals or representatives of various governmental, social movement, or research organisations. Drawing on ethnography and interviews, I focus on organisational experts and explore how they provide their expertise to Hollywood. I argue that these organisations form a peculiar social space surrounding Hollywood, which I refer to as 'the relational space of organisational expertise provision', which demonstrates some field effects like similar practices and habitus, but does not show overt competition. I argue that the provision of organisational expertise in Hollywood is undertaken by organisational boundary spanners who operate within this relational space through the enactment of expertise networks, the construction of connecting interfaces, and the trading of expertise as short-lived, or proxy, capital. These findings contribute to the Bourdieusian field analysis and sociology of expertise by elucidating how social spaces interact, how social agents gain power through the inter-field exchange of expertise, and what happens in the field of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that the alternating rhythms with which AMC's Better Call Saul moves though time, and the alternating temporal frames of reference with which it represents Saul Goodman's "hustling" specifically, represent self-conscious efforts to clarify the narrative affordances of the serial television medium. These temporal experiments also elucidate the felt endlessness of waged work in the context of go-nowhere careers. In both capacities, Better Call Saul adumbrates formal and thematic concerns central not only to Breaking Bad, but also to twenty-five years of prestige TV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article first resumes up-to-date conceptualisations of the superego in psychoanalytic theory, stretching from the superegoic sense of guilt (Freud) up to the superego as an "imperative od jouissance" (Lacan), and at the same time as an imperative of transgression insofar as enjoyment is by definition based upon transgression of the law. Against this background, the article develops another conceptualisation of the superego, which consist in the completion of the superegoic dialectics of "dirty and necessary" in perversion. This conception is based upon perverse self-instrumentalisation of the subject, which transforms the "dirtiness" of subjective enjoyment and transgression into their necessity. The article then moves toward the analysis of how especially this new conceptualisation of the superego manifests itself in the popular crime series Chicago Police Department (CPD), and in some logically and structurally similar phenomena, which occurred during Donald Trump's presidency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how death is represented in the popular Netflix television series Squid Game. While death is an overarching theme in this series, there is one feature of its storytelling that sets it apart from other fictional deadly games' televisual or cinematic franchises. Indeed, Squid Game depicts players implicitly consenting to die if they lose the game. This narrative is centered on the deep vulnerabilities that come from social inequalities and create conditions in which death can be staged as merchandise to be sold or bought for entertainment purposes. This paper describes and analyzes how the implicit consent to death was portrayed as the ultimate outcome of social inequalities, as a commodity, and as an object of leisure. We will conclude the paper by discussing the implications of exposure to this discourse during leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This oral history research explores the experience of ten retired elite Australian football players during their careers in the period from 1970 to 1995. The ex-players were interviewed about their careers by sports journalist, Mike Sheahan, in the long-running Australia Fox Sports Open Mike television series. The particular focus of this historical research is ex-players' experience of on-field violence. Findings indicated that ex-players were willing to break the Australian football rules and engage in on-field violence either as intimidation or retaliation against opponents. When ex-players did engage in violent intimidatory behavior, they were cool and callous, and anger rarely played a role. Violent retaliation to opposition player transgressions was either immediate or delayed until a future opportunity presented itself. For one Indigenous ex-player, violent responses during games were often sparked by opponents' verbal racial abuse. In retrospect, he considered this a form of intimidation aimed at putting him off his game that was just part of Australian football at the time. Some ex-players did feel remorse about their violent acts, but others were adamant that they had no regrets about their behavior. Violence was almost expected as an everyday aspect of their football experience and was accepted as an occupational hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at an interdisciplinary analysis of the various roles of prejudice and discrimination in fantasy. It focuses on the ways the storyworlds of The Witcher and The Lord of the Rings portray racial discrimination. Reading the books of J.R.R. Tolkien and Andrzej Sapkowski through jurisprudential lenses allows us to draw conclusions as to the meaning of the implicit and explicit presentation of discriminatory practices by authors in storyworlds. Remarks on movie and TV series adaptations are included to develop transmedia storytelling analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional media and contemporary digital communication platforms have been instrumental in developing environmental awareness and educating the general public about the entrenched dangers of ecoprecarity. Visual references like ecocinema, short films, documentaries and television series have shown how the Anthropocene is affecting the world and how important human‐centred survival models are. These visual references have played a big part in ecological knowledge and shown possible ways to use socio‐ecological practices. The present article critically analyses Kaala Paani, a contemporary Indian Hindi‐language survival drama seven‐episode television series, and foregrounds how this series not only represents the ecological issues we face but also fosters a stronger sense of ethical accountability towards the long‐term impact of our decisions and actions on the natural environment. Through its focus on dramatizing environmental toxins and the power of indigenous and tribal knowledge to fight them, the series effectively tells viewers about the harmful effects of illegally exploiting the environmental buffer zone and the results of capitalist‐driven developmentalism. The series also inspires them to recognize the overwhelming existence of nature that the discourse of the ‘Anthropocene’ has downplayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of inherited or family wealth in reproducing and even exacerbating wealth inequalities has been addressed in various studies in recent years. Bringing together representation studies with studies on cultural and moral economies, this article analyses how cultural norms indispensable to the preservation of dynastic wealth are negotiated through contemporary popular culture and television series. It introduces the concept of family succession drama, referring to television fiction that focuses on issues concerning intergenerational transmission of wealth and/or privileges and analyses the series Downton Abbey as a case study for interrogating the ambiguous affirmation of inherited wealth and dynastic privileges in a historical melodrama. By focusing on Downton Abbey, the article considers how hereditary rights and dynastic privileges are negotiated in a heritage drama in ways that also enable the legitimation of contemporary dynasty-making. While acknowledging the anxieties caused by class differences, Downton Abbey nevertheless affirms the necessity for various hereditary privileges and fortunes, thereby excluding any true alternatives for (contemporary) dynastic dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a theoretical exploration of the nuanced connections between the notion of affect and representations of sexuality in postfeminist television series. Drawing on gender studies, media studies and affect theory, it addresses the manifestation of postfeminist ideals in popular media and how it shapes the audience's understanding of gender and sexuality, acknowledging the complex negotiation of sexual identities, and emphasising the role of affective experiences in viewer engagement and interpretation of sexual scripts. Contributing to the ongoing dialogue on feminism, media, and affect theory, the study theoretically examines the affective dimensions of postfeminist learning to enhance comprehension of emotional responses to depictions of sex on contemporary television, using the series Fleabag as an illustrative example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's media, conservative women are often represented by their domestic roles or low income levels rather than their social, cultural, and political positions. This representation offers a generalizing and restrictive portrayal that does not correspond to the real lives and experiences of women. The aim of this study is to reveal how conservative women who are not frequently seen in the media are positioned through which roles in selected TV series. Within the scope of the study, the TV series Gönül Dağı and the locally produced digital series Bir Başkadır, which are among the most watched domestic television series, were included in the analysis due to the conservative women they feature. As a result of the study, it was determined that conservative women in the media have not attained economic freedom, have not received education or have received only primary-secondary education, have not developed an autonomous or public identity, and are typically positioned in domestic roles such as housekeeping or as stay-at-home mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fans may experience significant upset and distress when a television series ends. However, grief and loss reactions to the end of a fictional series have seldom been investigated. It is likely that the degree to which such reactions are felt is influenced by viewing motives (e.g., pleasure, meaning making), connection to the series and its fan community, relationships formed with characters, including parasocial bonds and experiences of empathy, and tendency to engage with others' perspectives and emotions, including fictional characters. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of fans' grief and loss reactions to the end of the television series Neighbours, which aired from 1985 to 2022. Fans (n = 1289) completed an online survey shortly after the screening of the final episode. The survey measured grief emotions and cognitions, acceptance that the series had ended, distress at the loss of a parasocial relationship with a favourite character, feelings of closure, and expressions of gratitude for the series. Predictors of these grief and loss reactions examined in the survey were viewing motives, fan identity, strength of a parasocial relationship formed with a favourite character, empathy towards that character, and tendency to take others' perspectives, experience empathic concern and personal distress, and tendency towards engagement with fictional characters. Greater grief and loss reactions were experienced by fans whose motives for watching involved being entertained and exposed to different lifestyles, who felt a stronger fan connection to the series, and who formed stronger parasocial empathic relationships with their favourite character. Factors such as gender, age, and empathic tendencies predicted various types of grief reactions. Understanding fan experiences when a long-running series ends advances theory and research on viewer parasocial relationships and engagement with media, as well as providing evidence that the loss of a series or favourite character can be viewed as a type of grief experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The representation of the LGBTIQ+ community in TV series has received major attention from academia, mostly from textual and reception perspectives. However, the creative and industrial processes behind the production of media content, including the writers' views and experiences, remain under-explored, especially outside of the United States and Northern Europe. Drawing on Queer Production Studies, this research seeks to fill this gap in Queer Media Studies by examining Spanish screenwriters' experiences and conceptions regarding the creation of fictional LGBTIQ+ characters for TV shows, and observes how the broadcasting industry influences this process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 Spanish screenwriters. Following thematic analysis informed by grounded theory, the main results show that normalization guides the creation of LGBTIQ+ characters, although there are differences in the way screenwriters define this concept. Moreover, the narrative exposition of the intimate lives of LGBTIQ+ characters emerges as the main dilemma in that normalization. Likewise, scriptwriters perceive ambivalent attitudes from the TV industry: Whereas the inclusion of LGBTIQ+ characters seems mandatory these days, there are fears that this might lead to low viewing figures or of reputations being tarnished by negative criticism. The results of this investigation further our understanding of how the concept of normalization shapes the creation of LGBTIQ+ media representations as perceived by professionals who play significant roles in their production. These findings contribute to the advancement of knowledge within LGBTIQ+ media studies and the construction of queer media representations. They also expand the scope of the under-explored field of Production Studies and diversify its geographical area of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends academic debates occurring in the discursive intersections between childhood studies and tourist studies. Drawing on theoretical concepts devised by Mikhail Bakhtin and Erving Goffman, it employs a critical discourse analysis that focuses on the representation of tourists in selected travel-themed episodes of three popular children's television series. This study investigates how travel experiences and practices of touristic consumption are discursively constructed and interrogates how this tourist discourse is implicated in relationships performed by children and adults or authority figures in these narratives. The findings imply that children's travel-themed television narratives both challenge and reinforce cultural assumptions about tourist behaviour. This paper highlights how literary devices such as carnivalesque humour and anthropomorphism are employed to convey cultural messages and touristic themes. It also demonstrates that critical discourse analysis is an effective framework for explaining and understanding the various social interactions, roles, and relationships portrayed in these narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the unique dimensions of social reality in domestic sitcoms, one of the fundamental dynamics of television narrative, from a Zygmunt Bauman sociological perspective. According to Bauman, causal relationships and proximities are inherent characteristics of human existence. At the core of love lies uncertainty. What makes love temporary is the ideal intention that it cannot exist without it. The ultimate goal of love for each individual is the happiness of its object. The perfect model of imitating love is not to love in order to acquire something one has not had before, to give up the richness of one's own life, security, and sense of integrity. All loves should be like this. In this study, the Turkish TV series "Avrupa Yakası," which was broadcast on ATV channel between 2004-2009, is examined. The series narrates the humorous story of the Sütçüoğlu family living in Nişantaşı and the employees of Avrupa Yakası. In this study, utilizing a sociological analysis method, the loves, emotional events, and gender relationships in the series are examined from Bauman's perspective. Problems such as temporary relationships among characters in the liquid modern life of the modern era, distancing couples, the depreciation of love, and the impermanence of emotions are analyzed and interpreted in light of Bauman's views on love. As a result, it has been observed that the series reflects the social and cultural dynamics of the phenomenon of love in society and likely tells the future direction of love in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Audiovisual messages helped drivers identify messages on variable message signs. • The effect was not cancelled by a distractive audiovisual activity. • The effect was observed in drivers using a partially automated vehicle (SAE-2) • The pattern of eye fixations was more efficient with audiovisual messages. Introduction : Highly automated driving is expected to reduce the accident risk occurrence by human errors, but it can also increase driver distraction. Previous evidence shows that auditory signals can help drivers take over in critical situations. However, it is still uncertain whether the potential benefit of verbal auditory signals could be generalized to driving situations where drivers are visually and auditorily distracted. Method: Our first objective was to compare the effectiveness of complementary audio messages (audio + visual condition) and visual only (visual condition) variable message signs (VMS) messages. The second objective was to explore the potential use of oral messages with traffic information to help highly-automated vehicle drivers identify critical situations. Eye-tracking data were also registered. Twenty-four volunteers participated in a driving simulator study, completing two tasks: (a) a TV series task, where they had to pay attention to an episode of a TV series while traveling along the route; and (b) a VMS task, where they had to recover the manual control of the car if the VMS message was a 'critical message.' Results: General results showed that, when the audio was available, the participants: (a) had a higher ability to discriminate the VMS messages, (b) were less conservative, (c) responded earlier, and (d) their pattern of fixations was more efficient. A complementary analysis showed that the counterbalance order was a moderating factor for the discrimination ability and the response distance measures. This evidence suggests a potential learning effect, not cancelled by counterbalancing the order of the conditions. Conclusion: The processing of traffic messages may improve when provided as oral and visual messages. Practical Applications: These results would be of special interest for engineers designing highly automated cars, considering that the design of automated systems must ensure that the driver's attention is sufficient to take over control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years ago, the infamous bank robbery and ensuing hostage crisis that took place in a Stockholm bank gave rise to the so-called 'Stockholm syndrome'. Though never recognized as a valid medical diagnosis, the (allegedly) pathological relationship between kidnapper and hostage has become an omnipresent media phenomenon that inspires movies and television series to this day. However, this forced bond was not always seen as problematic. The years between 1860 and 1910 witnessed the rise of kidnappings in the Mediterranean world (Southern Italy, Greece, the Ottoman Balkan region, and Morocco) involving English, American, and European hostages. Today, we know about these incidents from autobiographical narratives by the former captives. They painted a surprisingly favourable picture of their captors – and found enthusiastic audiences for their stories. Looking at the interplay of feelings, coercion, and empowerment, the article opens up a new perspective on the history of emotions that brings both victims and perpetrators into the picture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binge-watching (BW; i.e., watching multiple episodes of a TV series in a row) has become a popular way of TV consumption, leading to concerns about its potentially addictive features. Yet, few data are available regarding the psychological determinants of BW in young adults. Thus, the present study investigated the associations between BW, emotion regulation, and depression in a sample of 332 participants between 16 and 20 years of age. The results of the path analysis showed that gender and cognitive reappraisal predicted both positive and negative BW experiences, whereas out-of-control emotionality and emotional confusion predicted only negative BW experiences. Similarities and differences with previous studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Believability: sexual violence, media, and the politics of doubt" by Sarah Banet-Weiser and Kathryn Claire Higgins explores the impact of feminist and anti-rape activism and the backlash against it in contemporary media culture. The authors argue that the distribution of believability, particularly for survivors of sexual violence, is influenced by intersecting factors of gender, race, and class. The book analyzes media representations of sexual violence, critiques the limitations of the #MeToo movement, and examines the commodification of women's testimony. It also explores the role of social media, surveillance technologies, and the digitization of doubt in shaping public discourse on sexual politics. The authors discuss how social contexts and power dynamics affect the believability of survivors and examine the appropriation of victimhood by accused individuals. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the complexities surrounding the believability of sexual violence and offers insights for feminist activism. [Extracted from the article]

The rise of fashion as a star attraction in recent television serials points to the complex critical languages of fashion in fleshing out character and in shifting generic expectations. It also discloses the relation between fashion as commodity and fashion as an extension of self in a way that signals the queer potential of fashion on several fronts. Here I examine how fashion in Killing Eve (Waller-Bridge, 2018–2022) drives a form of queer attachment that speaks to the complicated terrain of a post-queer, post postfeminist critical moment. Throughout the series fashion is as a vehicle for the protagonist's mercurial moods, from fun and playful to terrifying and anarchic, whilst also driving the audience's visual pleasure and scopophiliac thrill. But the series is less interested in moral opprobrium of the protagonist's excesses, either killing or shopping, than revealing "desire's unruly attentiveness" (Berlant 2002, 72) through Eve's impossibly queer obsession with Villanelle: "I think about what you're wearing and what you're doing... I just want to know everything" (Thomas 2018). In queering our fantasmatic relation to fashion, from pleasure and ambivalence to novelty and disgust, Killing Eve dwells on the treacherous flux of our desires, alongside the underlying queerness of the commodity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polish popular film has responded to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with two productions: the TV series Misja: Afganistan (dir. Maciej Dejczer, 2012) and the feature film Karbala (dir. Krzysztof Łukaszewicz, 2015). They do not reflect the prevailing views of the public on these two military conflicts, but rather appeal to the general imaginings about Polish wars in the course of history. As they leave out issues of politics, it is the portrayal of the soldiers that most fundamentally contributes to the construction of the perspectives on the wars in the Middle East in the films under discussion. The predominantly positive image of the Polish soldiers leads the viewer to believe that the wars in which they fought were justified. Misja: Afganistan and Karbala perpetuate the tropes entrenched in the heroic/martyrological model of representing war in Polish film through exploiting universal connotations of heroic war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue brings together European researchers that have carried out studies into the translation of swearwords from English into Danish, Greek, Italian and Spanish. The articles analyze the strategies used by the translators in a variety of genres, including television series, films, novels and plays. This introduction surveys the most important publications on the translation of swearwords, a subarea of research within translation studies that has gradually attracted the interest of researchers and practitioners, as the abundance of articles, book chapters and M. A. and Ph D. theses available in the past two decades attest. The contributors to this special issue analyze the pragmatics of swearing in translation by considering aspects such as emotional force, level of offensiveness, intended inferences of the original texts and their translation, and perlocutionary force. • Translation scholars have analyzed the translation of swearwords since the turn of the century. • Most publications analyze English and another Western language. • Translations used to tone down or omit swearwords. • This tendency may be changing in the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopesick (2021) is the first TV series whose plot deals exclusively with the opioid crisis in the United States. The current study uses narrative analysis and framing theory to explore this series, discussing its portrayal of the people and themes involved in the opioid crisis. Our analysis found that although Dopesick attempts to portray multiple dimensions of the opioid crisis, its narrative oversimplifies the story in attributing the cause of the problem almost exclusively to Purdue Pharma and its director Richard Sackler, while downplaying other factors that contributed to the opioid crisis. Thus, the narrative in this TV series tends to offer simple explanations to a complex problem for which simple solutions are likely to be inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tendency of late marriage and the increasing single population in Chinese society have galvanized a considerable amount of anxiety in recent years. Part of such anxiety has been manifested through the constant media representations of "shengnü" or "leftover women" since 2010. Referring to women in their late twenties or over thirties while still not getting married, the term "leftover women" indicates a continuous patriarchal policing of single women circulated in mass media. This study, by comparing two popular Chinese television series— We Get Married (2013) and Nothing but Thirty (2020), discusses the altering constructions of unmarried women on Chinese television against the backdrop of China's post-socialist gender politics. The comparison provides a useful vantage point to examine the emerging gendered structures and new cultural imperatives under specific historical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict surrounding Islam has been going on for many years, even before the September 11th, 2001 (henceforth, 9/11) incident occurred. However, the fact that the post-incident living circumstances for Muslim people especially in America has been undeniably rough, raises a new trend where Islam is being represented poorly and almost always talked about in negative ways. There are certain characteristics which are attributed especially to identify Muslims, and also certain role that they play in media. Using the Representation theory proposed by Stuart Hall, this research aims to uncover how Islam is represented in American TV series, FBI, which might be seen as a reflection of how Muslims are living in the United States post-9/11 incident. The result found that in the FBI series, Islam is still mainly represented as Arab people, though in reality not every Arabs are Muslims, but the point of view has been slightly shifted for the better. The findings highlight the changing dynamics of Muslim representation, driven by the evolving Muslim community and market demands, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of cultural shifts in the representation of Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to investigate the reasons behind the origins of the ideal American society and its embodiment in the television series The West Wing. To this end, the factors that led to the success of the series will be explored, at the precise moment when the public’s viewing habits began to change, as they started demanding more complex and ambiguous dramatic characters. In this context, the article examines the way in which Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the series, approached the writing of the episodes, avoiding overly naive idealism without renouncing the aim of building bridges with the foundations of the American past. The study analyses the most important plots of the first four seasons and their links to the society that emerged in the New World. Despite the problems inherent in such an undertaking, the conclusions show how Sorkin’s dramatic skills managed to dramatize idealism in order to bring the series closer to 21st century audiences, avoiding the cynicism that was starting to take hold in society at that moment, yet at the same time adapting the conflicts of the plot to the level of complexity required by the audience. Moreover, the prestige of the series has outlived the years in which it was produced, as it is still viewed today, at a time when the innocent point of view has decisively disappeared. Among the findings of the study, one interesting fact is that the fictional president, Josiah Bartlet, was given the name of a senator who actually signed the Declaration of Independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consolidation of digital television via subscription video on demand (SVOD) services has created an unprecedented increase in the consumption of serialised TV shows, which has had direct consequences on the content production sector. Faced with an increasingly demanding, hyperconnected and discerning audience and a supply of content never previously seen, television production and distribution strategies are involved in a process of change and adaptation. This paper seeks to analyse the production of Spanish television series created to be distributed on SVOD platforms. The aim is to know the role that production companies play in the creation of television series for SVOD so as to identify strategies and cooperative alliances between production companies and platforms and to detect possible patterns and trends in the operations of the audiovisual market. Using a mixed methodology that combines quantitative study with qualitative data analysis, the 88 Spanish TV series and miniseries that premiered on SVOD platforms from 2016 to 2021 are analysed, taking as a starting point the year in which these platforms began operating in Spain. The results confirm a trend towards cooperation between independent production companies and the platforms themselves, while no presence of in-house production is observed. Likewise, the atomisation of the role of production companies in the context of SVOD is shown, a phenomenon that already existed in generalist television production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neural correlates of sentence production are typically studied using task paradigms that differ considerably from the experience of speaking outside of an experimental setting. In this fMRI study, we aimed to gain a better understanding of syntactic processing in spontaneous production versus naturalistic comprehension in three regions of interest (BA44, BA45, and left posterior middle temporal gyrus). A group of participants (n = 16) was asked to speak about the events of an episode of a TV series in the scanner. Another group of participants (n = 36) listened to the spoken recall of a participant from the first group. To model syntactic processing, we extracted word-by-word metrics of phrase-structure building with a top--down and a bottom--up parser that make different hypotheses about the timing of structure building. While the top--down parser anticipates syntactic structure, sometimes before it is obvious to the listener, the bottom--up parser builds syntactic structure in an integratory way after all of the evidence has been presented. In comprehension, neural activity was found to be better modeled by the bottom--up parser, while in production, it was better modeled by the top--down parser. We additionally modeled structure building in production with two strategies that were developed here to make different predictions about the incrementality of structure building during speaking. We found evidence for highly incremental and anticipatory structure building in production, which was confirmed by a converging analysis of the pausing patterns in speech. Overall, this study shows the feasibility of studying the neural dynamics of spontaneous language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definition: Contemporary educators have increasingly recognised the diversity of their student population and, hence, have attempted to use multimodal teaching methods for additional student learning benefits. One popular example is repurposing film and TV content for higher education pedagogies. However, integrating these materials into teaching effectively often proves more complex than lecturers might anticipate. This entry investigates the merits and challenges of using FF/TV in teaching to determine the factors that impact development of an effective FF/TV pedagogy for student learning, through an interdisciplinary review of the existing literature, followed by a qualitative survey and semi-structured interviews with lecturers across disciplines at Australian universities. Using visual literacy theory, cognitive load theory, and dual coding theory, data analysis reveals that the pros and cons of integrating film and TV in teaching are in fact interconnected, and the main role of the teacher is to pedagogically balance them. Evidence-based and theory-grounded suggestions for application are detailed throughout the discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many elements of qualitative data analysis that may appear intangible to novice researchers. In this article, I present an approach to a data analysis workshop with students, where I do my best to avoid the instruction to "fold in the cheese," as per the television series Schitt's Creek. Students attend 90-minute workshops where they use an assortment of buttons to practice different strategies of qualitative analysis. The tactile mechanism of sorting objects has proven invaluable in workshops, as it helps students to physically organize their thoughts and takes pressure off to find the "right" answer. The nature of the items could also be adapted to meet students' accessibility needs. The workshop has improved the quality of student writing in methods chapters and built students' confidence as they approach their own data analysis processes, especially for master's students and research assistants, where a full-length course may not be feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was twofold: to validate the Watching TV Series Motives Questionnaire (WTSMQ) for the Portuguese population and to understand its relationship with loneliness. WTSMQ was validated through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Besides, multi-group CFAs according to gender were conducted having been tested four levels of measurement invariance: configural, metric, scalar, and error variance. Several multiple linear regressions were carried out to estimate the relationship between sociodemographics, series preferences, loneliness and watching TV series motives. Results showed that the Portuguese version of WTSMQ presents good psychometric properties and that configural and metric were achieved, but not scalar and error variance invariance providing some evidence that the WTSMQ operates similarly in males and females. Results also showed that gender, age, TV series preferences, and loneliness contribute to explain different dimensions of Watching TV Series Motives. Also, sociodemographic variables, TV series preferences and WTSMQ subscales explain loneliness. The relationship between the motives for binge-watching and loneliness is bidirectional; sociodemographic variables and series preferences that explain those motives and loneliness overlap. Implications for tracking problematic Binge-watching situations are discusst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The television series The Last of Us imagines a postapocalyptic world ravaged by a fungal pandemic caused by a Cordyceps species. We evaluate whether a fungal pandemic is possible (and reasons behind its current improbability). We further discuss the series' effect on public perception of fungi, fungal infections, and pandemic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moral features are essential components of TV series, helping the audience to engage with the story, exploring themes beyond sheer entertainment, reflecting current social issues, and leaving a long-lasting impact on the viewers. Their presence shows through the language employed in the plot description. Their detection helps regarding understanding the series writers' underlying message. In this paper, we propose an approach to detect moral features in TV series. We rely on the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) framework to classify moral features and use the associated MFT dictionary to identify the words expressing those features. Our approach combines that dictionary with word embedding and similarity analysis through a deep learning SBERT (Sentence-Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) architecture to quantify the comparative prominence of moral features. We validate the approach by applying it to the definition of the MFT moral feature labels as appearing in general authoritative dictionaries. We apply our technique to the summaries of a selection of TV series representative of several genres and relate the results to the actual content of each series, showing the consistency of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital age, online video platforms have revolutionised the way in which we consume entertainment. YouTube and Twitch, two of the most popular platforms, have undergone a significant evolution since their inception, becoming containers for stories and narratives that go beyond simple improvised amateur content. The hypothesis is that the fundamentals and structures for storytelling are maintained, but we wish to ascertain specifically what endures through the different formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osmosis (Netflix, 2019) is only the second French television series to be commissioned by Netflix. Set in a near-future Paris and dramatising the final beta-testing and launch of a revolutionary dating application, the programme has frequently been compared to Black Mirror (Channel 4 Television Corporation/Netflix, 2011–19). This article argues that the parallel is unhelpful since Osmosis does not contain the underlying technophobia that characterises the UK series and is largely, though not entirely, optimistic about the implications of artificial intelligence and technological advances for humanity. Nonetheless, the two series do share a common preoccupation with critiquing certain excesses of late capitalism. In its blend of dystopian and utopian elements and allusions to and subversions of Anglophone science-fiction conventions, Osmosis constitutes an original – and unashamedly French – futuristic series whose key characteristic is ambivalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is very little academic work on music in television series, and none on music in French television series. This article focuses on one of the most successful French television series, the eight-season-long Engrenages/Spiral (Canal+, 2005–2020). It identifies the similarities and differences between music for films and music for television series before focusing on the music composed by Stéphane Zidi for Engrenages. This combines the unusual use of gamelan instruments as musical cues with more melodic piano themes. Arguing that television series music, which might have been even more 'unheard' than film music, functions to shape audience perception of the characters, the article focuses on the specificities of gamelan cues and piano themes. The piano themes migrate from one character to another across the eight seasons of the series, and the article shows how this affects the narrative arc of the main character, Laure Berthaud, emphasising her rejection of (both) the conflicting roles of mother and leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maison close [brothel] in French history and culture, particularly during the nineteenth century because of its representation in art and literature, could be argued to be a lieu de mémoire [site of memory]. In light of the gaps in material that gives direct voice to women in sex work, especially during this period, the maison close could equally be termed a lieu d'oubli [site of forgetting]. In contemporary popular culture, the brothel has become a popular setting for fiction, as with the Canal+ series Maison close (2010, 2013), set in 1870s Paris. The series reflects a fascination with sex work in popular culture, as well as offering a commentary on the legal standing of sex work between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. This paper interrogates the extent to which Maison close attempts to offer alternative or more nuanced visions of history than simply categorising sex workers as victim/criminal/femme fatale, informed by abolitionist debates during its production and emerging critiques of the Nordic Model of sex work. It also analyses how the series provides an alternative vision for sex workers, and workers more generally, that moves from exploitation to collective action and attempts to increase their agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at reflecting on ways of teaching/learning international relations (IR) critical theories. It does so by analyzing the results of a teaching/learning exercise based on Netflix's series "Black Earth Rising" and put into practice with undergraduate students of a course on IR theory taught at the Argentinian Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Assuming that series of mass consumption work as cultural devices that inform power relations through the production of truths and subjectivities, the exercise had two main objectives: on the one hand, to develop and illustrate otherwise difficult-to-grasp concepts of IR theory and, on the other hand, to make the students aware of how widespread TV series participate in the constitution of both international politics and their own subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are currently more trans characters than ever in television series, while at the same time scrutiny of trans people is intensifying in social and public debate, and the correspondence between this increased presence in the media and improvements in the trans community's rights is in dispute. This research aims to find out how trans audiences relate to their portrayal in TV series, to learn about their perceptions and opinions, and to understand how these depictions affect their everyday lives. A qualitative analysis was conducted of 19 trans people in two focus groups and nine semi-structured interviews. The findings show that the participants perceive a clear distance between their realities and the most popular narratives about trans lives. They identify cispassing as a transversal element that drives the production, creation, and distribution of media narratives, leading to a transnormative representation. Consequently, the trans audience demands the inclusion of trans people in the (audiovisual) cultural circuit in order to combat the 'cis gaze' and to create more diverse narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popularized by Hulu's television adaptation, the allegories and iconography of The Handmaid's Tale have been used in women's reproductive rights activism around the world. However, at the same time, the series has been recognized and critiqued as offering white, conservative feminism. This article explores how Hulu's adaptation often works to domesticate Margaret Atwood's novel and the series' feminist implications in regard to reproduction and motherhood. While The Handmaid's Tale has become spectacularly visible as a popular feminist television series, its reproductive politics and representations of women, family and motherhood are largely conservative: waging a limited resistance on behalf of neotraditional white Anglo-western mothers. In light of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, this article is motivated by the conviction that it is increasingly important to hold sociocultural representations of reproduction and motherhood to account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]