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Scholars are increasingly aware of the ways in which popular culture, particularly spy fiction and film, mediates public understanding of the clandestine world of espionage and intelligence. This article uses the 1954 Petrov Affair as a case study to argue that spy fiction and representations of espionage performed a mediating and framing process for the Australian public during the early Cold War. The events surrounding the defection of Soviet embassy Third Secretary Vladimir Petrov and his wife, Evdokia, to Australia in April 1954 were shocking and unprecedented; with little experience of the extraordinary events beyond the thrilling espionage narratives of popular culture, the Australian media began to frame the event using the familiar formula of spy fiction. By making the "story" of the Petrov Affair a recognisable narrative, rendering the events understandable and the mysteries decipherable, the media transformed Australia's unsettling involvement in the world of international espionage into entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A burgeoning literature firmly establishes that democratic backsliding leaves negative imprints in various domains. However, this empirical regularity has not been extended to the realm of culture despite ample anecdotes pointing to the detrimental effect of democratic decays on the very backbone of cultural dynamism, the freedom of expression. To fill this lacuna, the article documents the case of deliberate infringement on freedom of expression in South Korea during its backsliding period (2008-2017). Using a difference-in-difference model on an original individual-level panel dataset, I report that the Blacklist project significantly damaged the careers of Korean movie workers, particularly those invisible from the public. The article suggests that the consequence of a backsliding government's attempt to control public discourse can be surprisingly comprehensive because it instills self-censorship in the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a podcast series called Yine Yeni Yeniden 90'lar (Again, Anew, Once Again the 90s—YYY90) in Turkey that analyzes 90s popular culture from feminist and queer perspectives. The hosts, İlker Hepkaner and Sezgin İnceel, focus on gendered lyrics, representations of femininities and masculinities, and forms of resistance in 90s pop music. They aim to develop a historiography intervention by examining popular culture through recent theoretical debates and personal reflections. The podcast provides a critical analysis of nostalgic feelings about the 90s and highlights marginalized themes in popular culture, such as drag history, feminist songwriting, and the role of migration in Turkey's music scene. [Extracted from the article]

With the rise of feminist sentiment and the growing awareness of gender equity in China, social media has become an increasingly central space for Chinese feminist expression. However, the complex dynamics of feminist expression in these online spaces—and the role of popular culture in facilitating such discourse—are still to be fully elucidated. Here, focusing on the understudied social media platform Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), we analyze the online discussion sparked by the stand-up comedy acts of Chinese female comedians. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of Douyin videos and related comments, we demonstrate how users employed the platform's creative features to challenge everyday sexism by echoing or building upon the stand-up comedians' gags. At the same time, the analysis also uncovers how Douyin is used to insult and push back against these feminist voices. Our findings shed light on the sophisticated role of Douyin as a platform for digital feminist expression, and the ways in which it can amplify both feminist discourse or, conversely, give voice to misogynistic attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generational conflict is often understood as central to social change, and more so concerning the development of feminism, as expressed through the mapping of feminist history in opposing waves. The opposition between younger and older women is also a common trope in popular culture, often aimed at describing the conflict between different generations of women and their understanding of gender and gender relations. However, since the emergence of the #MeToo phenomenon in 2016, new representations of intergenerational female relationships have emerged, specifically in the workplace. In this context, conflict does not necessarily foreclose dialogue, but is part of a more rounded relationship that encompasses solidarity and growth, taking the shape of feminist mentorship. Through the analysis of three popular shows (The Good Fight, The Bold Type, Hacks), I investigate the emergence of the trope of feminist mentorship in popular culture and argue that, while these texts offer more positive representations of intergenerational feminist relations, they expand neoliberal feminism's focus on workplace success for female empowerment by making work the preferred site of feminist activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comics Ramayan 3392 AD are the only major futuristic adaptation of the Indian epic Rāmāyaṇa. Scholars have stated that the Indian element in the comics has been effaced so that the series could cater for international audiences versed on American pop culture. However, global concepts have often been appropriated by contemporary Indian nationalistic discourses. I analyse Ramayan 3392 AD through discourse analysis and the frameworks of Orientalism and re-Orientalism to conclude that, even though globalised, the elements in Ramayan 3392 AD create antithetical representations of India and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyril von Baumann was an imposter. Throughout the 1920s, he pretended to be a medical doctor in the United States. As his deception was increasingly uncovered, Baumann reinvented himself as a 'noted explorer' of South America. Returning to the U.S. from various expeditions in the 1930s, Baumann plied the national media with fantastic tales of adventure and discovery. This paper explores Baumann's life history across this process of self-reinvention. I situate Baumann's career in relation to other confidence tricksters from this period, focusing on how the turn to exploration offered greater flexibility to create a new persona and the possibility of legitimacy. I also compare Baumann's storytelling with the representational practices of other U.S. based explorers. Baumann's history shows how the imagined geographies of South America were less about the projection of U.S. power, but a means of self-fashioning that challenges the prevailing ways we conceptualize the cultural practices associated of twentieth century U.S. empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nostalgia for the 1980s, or 80stalgia, is a global phenomenon. This article explores the phenomenon in Greece and approaches 80stalgia as a cultural trend that marks media and pop culture. It combines digital ethnography through invisible observation (especially using Facebook, a social medium that favours nostalgic communities) and historicised content analysis to analyse 80stalgia in its interrelation with politics, and approaches it as having been influenced by international nostalgic trends and local politics, especially the political legacy of 1980s governments. Finally, the article discusses why the economic crisis of the 2010s, an experience that triggered self-reflection on the past, strengthened 80stalgia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two decades on from his sudden demise in 2003, the enduring local and international fandom of Hong Kong's bisexual icon, Leslie Cheung, amplifies his posthumous stature. This paper delves into the selective commemoration of Leslie Cheung within the contemporary media landscape of Mainland China. Our findings elucidate a discernible erasure of Cheung's queer identity from mainstream media since 2017, coinciding with an emergent wave of homophobia in the mainland. Contemporary nostalgic narratives recast Leslie Cheung as an emblem of 'positive energy', portraying him as a patriotic luminary supportive of Hong Kong's sovereignty transfer from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China, a devoted artist epitomising the industrious spirit of Hong Kong's working class, and a benevolent senior guiding young talent. Contrarily, his queer legacy resonates predominantly through social media platforms and music streaming applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article responds to the recent exhibition at Tate Britain by Sarah Lucas. It critically considers her use of the coded stereotypes, clichés and vernacular language drawn from British popular culture. Often focused on the playful mangling of the codes and assumptions of femininity and masculinity, we show how her work can be adequately characterised by its recurring thematic and formal concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing a diary-interview method, this study delved into how Flemish audiences make sense of fictional journalism series originating from various production contexts. Initially, it corroborated the prevalence of an overarching journalism discourse largely influenced by American fiction but extending to non-American narratives. However, participants’ engagement with this discourse did not exclude critical evaluation. They notably differentiated between American and European journalism fiction, viewing the latter as less sensationalized and more nuanced. Moreover, the interpretation of the series varied significantly based on participants’ media profiles. Consequently, the series tended to reinforce pre-existing opinions rather than catalyze change. Despite this tendency, participants did note a shift in their perspectives upon exposure to behind-the-scenes footage, prompting a more critical stance toward news coverage while also fostering a deeper appreciation for the challenges inherent in the profession. This study shed light on culturally diverse journalistic discourses in Flanders and their role in shaping Flemish journalistic discourse. It highlights a dynamic interaction between the narratives presented in fiction and the media profiles of their audiences. In a journalistic environment marked by declining trust and accusations of bias, locally produced fiction emerges as a vital force in shaping both existing and new journalistic discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the POOL Group, a cultural pioneer in the late 1920s and early 1930s, focusing on their prototypically queer perspectives on cinema. The group, including H. D., Bryher, and Kenneth Macpherson, published avant-garde films and feminist film criticism. The text explores how members like Bryher and Blakeston developed queer film criticism, challenging heteronormative narratives in Hollywood and advocating for more nuanced portrayals of sexuality in cinema. The article highlights the historical context of the POOL Group's work and its resonance with contemporary queer perspectives, emphasizing the group's contributions to challenging traditional gender and sexual norms in film. [Extracted from the article]

AbstractThis article uses the comedy television series The Good Place as a starting point to theoretically explore the value of guerrilla government as a measure to disrupt administrative evil. Drawing from the literature of administrative evil and Rosemary O’Leary’s work on the ethics of dissent and guerrilla government, this article considers the personal ethics and organizational cultural motivations for dissent as well as how administrators work to disrupt administrative evil while navigating through various strategies including loyalty, neglect, voice, and exit. This article demonstrates how popular media can be used as a means of theorizing for public administration scholars as well as a space where ideas related to public administration can apply existing theories in a method that can be engaging to mainstream audiences. The paper concludes with a proposed model of how administrative evil and guerrilla government may be conceptualized to interact with one another as well as potential areas of opportunity for administrators to practice dissent within the broader maze of bureaucracy administrative evil can become lost amongst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Portuguese dictatorship of Estado Novo (1933–1974) marked a crucial period in the culture industry and its mediations, presenting new challenges for a censorship system initially designed for press and public performances. Television, or the state-sponsored RTP, became a significant challenge. RTP framed and continuously reshaped its own censorship bodies within the regime’s structure to address the nuances of everyday production with its diverse players and content. This article contributes to the underexplored field of television censorship studies, especially within the Portuguese context. It examines censorship in action in television production beyond formal structures and agents, focusing on variety shows—a popular genre that connected various fields of popular culture and industry at the time and served as a precursor to the development of censorship frameworks in other countries. Using partial and fragmented archival sources, the article explores the theoretical dimensions of regulatory and constitutive censorship and follows agents who traverse and link various fields to ensure television censorship operates in informal and less visible ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the surge in global consumption of Nigerian music and film, non-African content creators are now part of the emerging group of people participating in the production and circulation of African, specifically Nigerian, popular culture on social media. This article provides a scholarly interrogation of these emerging “transracial” online enactments, with a particular focus on these performers’ use of lip-syncing to audio texts originally created by Nigerian artists. We examine the performances of three Oyibos (light-skinned foreigners) who create short videos on TikTok, arguing that through lip-syncing, each of them becomes part of networked publics built around Nigerian content and facilitated by the social media application TikTok. The article takes an audience-centred approach. Through focus group interviews with potential audiences in Nigeria, we seek to understand the meanings that Nigerian viewers (and potential members of these networked publics) derive from such clips and the transgressive play with difference that they entail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the period known as the 'Phoney War,' the comedic song 'The Biggest Aspidistra in the World' became a significant cultural reference point in the UK, along with its singer, the renowned Gracie Fields. This was a notable achievement given the shifting public tastes within the country during a period of widespread uncertainty and transformation. However, despite the song's wartime popularity, it has received little scholarly attention. This paper traces the rise and fall of 'The Biggest Aspidistra' in the UK during the Phoney War, exploring its impact through an analysis of the national symbols in its lyrics, its comedic delivery by Fields, and its collaborative musical approach. By bridging musicology and cultural history, this paper clarifies the importance of comprehensive song analysis to Second World War studies and underscores the role of humour in bolstering wartime morale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how Indian cinema represents marginalized castes and religious communities, focusing on the intersection of popular culture, hegemony, and identity renegotiation in film. Topics include the historical marginalization of Dalit and Muslim identities, the evolution of cinematic narratives through digital platforms, and the role of critical discourse analysis in examining these representations.

Investors and managers of firms producing cultural products have long confronted the problem of low success rates. This study proposes a model arguing that corporate governance, in addition rates organizational learning, improves market orientation, which in turn influences the performance of cultural products. To support our model, this study collects 607 music videos produced by South Korean and Taiwanese entertainment companies. We measure their market orientation via the simple market research technique of data mining and examine the degree to which the characteristics of firm products are consistent with the results of market research. We find that market orientation is positively related to product performance. We also find that both corporate governance and organizational learning improve market orientation. Building on past research that has exclusively conceptualized market orientation as firm capabilities that could be improved by organizational learning, this study further suggests that agency problems between investors and artist managers hinder firms' market orientation, and could be mitigated by strong institutions in corporate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contends that storytelling is not merely a supplementary aspect of law but integral to its very essence. By examining popular culture and literary works like Frank Herbert’s Dune, the article illustrates how storytelling reveals and critiques the underlying violence and ambitions within legal systems. Structured in three acts, the article first examines legal scholars’ use of storytelling to unmask violence, then juxtaposes literary and legal critiques, and ends by demonstrating law as a unique form of storytelling, essential for understanding and critiquing legal practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By packaging the television show Yellowjackets as a gender-flipped Lord of the Flies meant to reveal that girls can be just as violent and predatory as boys, the Showtime series successfully tapped into the market of popular feminism. Inspired by Sayak Valencia’s discussion of “gore capitalism” in hypermasculine popular culture, this article presents a close reading of Yellowjackets in order to problematize popular feminism’s cannibalization of heteropatriarchal iterations of death and gore. A seemingly edgy and purportedly subversive stand-in for girl power, I contend that “gore power” or “gore empowerment” rhetoric incoherently portrays women’s adoption of hegemonically masculine traits as both a symbol of empowerment and a warning sign of moral decay. Transposing abject hegemony in a manner that further degrades women as unscrupulous and maladjusted monsters, such programming bolsters a necro-neoliberal regime in which women’s achieved liberation is manifested by a gender-equal—but racially hierarchized—hunger for domination, blood, and death. By interrogating the televisual coupling of indiscriminate violence with women’s empowerment, this essay provides further analysis of white feminism’s necropolitical commitments as they function rhetorically to undermine the political projects of equity, women’s leadership, antiviolence, and racial justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International competition and the continual emergence of new brands pose significant challenges to time-honored brands, prompting many of these established brands to adopt brand extension strategies as a means of reshaping and revitalizing their brand image. Based on the theory of brand legitimacy, this study constructs a research model of cultural fit – brand legitimacy – brand image and proposes pop culture involvement as a moderating variable. Two Chinese time-honored brands in the pharmaceutical industry, Tongrentang and Pientzehuang, were selected as the experiment scenarios. The study finds that: in the process of brand extension, cultural fit plays a positive role in influencing the brand image of the time-honored brands; brand legitimacy plays a mediation role between cultural fit and brand image; pop culture involvement plays a negative moderating role between cultural fit and brand legitimacy. Applications have also been mentioned in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ways in which British Second World War conscientious objectors (COs) have been commemorated, memorialized, and represented since 1945. Despite comprising nearly 60 000 men, the CO is strikingly absent in both the popular narrative of the Second World War and official, institutional commemorations of the conflict. This is not true of their First World War counterpart. This is unsurprising: the Second World War CO is largely at odds with popular British conceptions of the war as a ‘just’ conflict. Nevertheless, a broad and diverse set of initiatives have been established to commemorate the CO. The CO also features in numerous forms of post-war popular culture, including fiction, films, television programmes, and plays. It is these disparate remembrance practices and representations that this article brings together to help us explore both the memory of wartime conscientious objection and the broader cultural legacies of the Second World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the K-POP industry, K-POP fandom, and Korea itself as complexly racialized spaces, I argue that the images of idols, constructed in part through their military-precise African-American-inspired performances and music, work as a form of national branding, framing South Korea as aligned with American pop cultural modernity while globally exporting examples of the South Korean state’s supposedly successful production of disciplined bodies. In this complex and ultimately affective process, Black fans find themselves freed from domestic cultural expectations while paradoxically trapped by legacies of racism that haunt them overseas, suggesting the tenuous and contradictory construction of Korea’s hegemonic social politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Written in the present continuous tense, Seeing Others is a lucid analysis of contemporary American society. In contrast to a widespread gloominess about the future, this is a declaration of hope and a call for action: change the story to change history. From Hollywood movies to artistic practice, from daily routines to popular culture, a dense series of examples illustrates how narratives can be means to create more inclusive and equal societies. I will focus here on some of the book's present continuous tenses and put them into conversation with examples and stories from my recent experience, mostly spanning a few weeks while I was reading the book. Delving into my own ordinary life stories, I intend to illustrate the "superpowers" of the book as a creator of shared meaning across national and cultural contexts. As an instrument of "ordinary universalism". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The French eighteenth century provides fertile ground for contemporary writers, artists, and filmmakers, offering narratives of struggle and triumph that specifically resonate today. The essays in this special issue attest to the importance of the French eighteenth century as an enduring source of cultural inspiration deriving in large part from its foundational relationship with our modernity, and in particular modern concepts of the individual in relation to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2022 Canal+/PBS/BBC series Marie Antoinette not only comes as evidence of the enduring mystique around the eighteenth-century queen of France, but illustrates her appropriation by contemporary creators who want to deal with twenty-first century issues. Under the guise of delivering a biopic, the writing team explores the condition of women through a Marie Antoinette who is neither a historical figure nor a fictional character, but someone with whom younger viewers can empathize. Paradoxically, however, this updated Marie Antoinette appears both as a model of female resilience and necessary self-care in a persistently misogynistic and patriarchal society, and as the ultimate exemplar of the pampered, self-indulgent one-percenter. Setting aside obvious anachronism, we have to wonder what the series' creators aim to accomplish by revisiting history in such an ambiguous manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The release in 2022–23 of four creative works derived from Les Liaisons dangereuses, on screen and in graphic novel format and in French and English, demonstrates that the novel published in 1782 remains indisputably relevant. However, all these avatars differ considerably from the text on which they claim to be based, in particular by not using the unique epistolary narrative device designed by Laclos. Now seldom read in its original form, and probably poorly understood even by those who do venture to read it, Les Liaisons dangereuses nevertheless still exudes an aura powerful enough to encourage contemporaries to craft versions "adapted" to today's audiences. Rather than belittling or condemning these derivations as facile and inferior to the original, we need to question the ways in which they "re-present" in pop culture a classic whose longevity they continue to ensure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs Adam Possamai's concept of "hyper-real religions" to argue that Thai youth are utilizing various spaces to blend different faiths and popular cultures, and synergizing with consumerism to shape a novel manifestation of "religion." In Thai communities, spiritual practices and mediumship are interwoven into communal dynamics, often supporting local Buddhist institutions. Kitiarsa presented the journey of becoming a medium, which involves physical symptoms, negotiations with spirits, and eventual acceptance. This study explores the notion of "Ong" within contemporary youth culture and analyzes glocalized beliefs among Thai spiritual practitioners on digital platforms through online practice, questionnaires, and interviews. Unlike historical views where Ong bestowed supernatural abilities, contemporary practitioners perceive themselves as empowered to choose. They amalgamate multiple religions and pop culture to make spiritual practices more relatable while acknowledging their embedded political implications. The paper comprises sections on Thai religious practice, hyper-real religions, commodification of faith, de-westernization of tarot reading, integration of Hinduism, and K-Pop's impact on Thai youth spirituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how pop culture and new media have become vital tools for political expression and activism among Thai youth following the 2014 coup. Topics discussed include the role of symbolic gestures in protests, the integration of artistic expressions into political movements, and the evolving relationship between culture and politics in Thailand.

In recent years, feminism's visibility in Western pop culture and social media has seemingly made it ever more accessible for young people (Banet-Weiser, S. 2019. Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Durham, NC: Duke University Press). This article uses the framework of youth 'knowledge cultures' to analyse how feminist knowledge is negotiated and remade in online culture, going beyond characterisations of online feminism primarily in terms of either 'activism', or the linear 'accessing' of feminist ideas. Drawing on an ongoing empirical project located in Australia involving 50 young feminists who regularly engage with feminist social media culture, we highlight participants' affective practices of analysis and critique in connection with three Australian feminist 'influencers' with significant social media presences: Clementine Ford, a white columnist and memoirist; Abbie Chatfield, a white former Bachelor contestant, now podcaster and TV personality; and Lillian Ahenkan aka Flex Mami, a Black entrepreneur, and podcaster. We highlight how practices of distancing and proximity are enacted by participants in affective knowledge practices in relation to these influencers. We suggest the framework of 'accessibility' that predominates in scholarship obscures the complex classed, racialised and gendered dynamics through which knowledge is hierarchically made, contested, and accorded legitimacy in social media knowledge cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Research Note aims to expand the emerging discussion of media-induced tourism to the domain of video games. It situates video games food at the intersection of tourism, food, and video games. Observations made from news media, video games related websites, and social media depict an emerging phenomenon of interest in video game food transferring to the real world. Based on this developing nexus, the paper identifies video game food has the potential to be developed as a niche product for tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the depiction of digital journalists in popular culture. Researchers conducted a textual analysis of the films Contagion (2011) and State of Play (2009) and the television series House of Cards (2013-2018) and Veep (2012-2019). They found that digital journalists are not depicted as "real" journalists, digital journalists typically are bad when they attempt to do "real" journalism, digital journalists sometimes do "real" journalism, and digital journalists are unethical. These findings are then discussed in terms of boundary work and the impact of popular culture mythmaking on real-world digital journalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration, a fundamental aspect of life, has grown more intricate due to societal complexities, national identities, and borders. This study examines how sexuality influences migration, focusing on queer individuals who often migrate from hostile to queer-friendly communities. Specifically, it investigates the interaction between queer Nigerians and cinematic productions, analysing how these productions shape migration perceptions. Data from two groups of nine queer Nigerians (each) were collected using open-ended and semi-structured questionnaires respectively. Findings indicate that queer Nigerians actively engage with queer-themed films, with Western depictions of queer utopia often motivating their desire to migrate. Despite a lack of Nollywood representation, queer Nigerians turn to Western cinema for consumption. While queer-themed cinematic productions significantly influence migration motivations, there is a need for studies to explore the interconnections between queerness, popular culture consumption, and the decision to migrate from ‘queer hostile’ nations to more ‘queer friendly’ countries, especially within African transcontinental endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conceptualizes the multiple and dynamic landscape of the Korean girl industries as a sexuality-assemblage. This assemblage comprises seemingly anachronistic elements: a long-standing patriarchal and misogynistic social structure; a youth-driven popular culture; a rapid global expansion of the entertainment and media industries; highly advanced digital media technology; and girls’ aspirations, desires, and frustrations. Through this lens, the analysis proposed three territories of girl industries: luminosity, precarity, and risk. These territories are all processual constructions of the interrelated forces of territorialization (neoliberal capitalism, digital media and financial technologies, cultural and entertainment industries, and patriarchy and misogyny) and deterritorialization (girls’ desires, aspirations, capabilities, and vulnerabilities). Considering Korea’s significant situation of gender inequality, the luminosity territory’s dazzling illusion stands in stark contrast to the muted reality of the middle precarity territory, while the risk territory exposes a brutal truth hidden from view. It is also crucial to acknowledge the potential for girls’ agency and solidarity built up across the multiple territories of the girl industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bedtime media use is often maligned in research and pop culture. However, the evidence for the relationship between bedtime media use and sleep for adults has been mixed – sometimes sleep quality is negatively affected by media use, sometimes it is positively affected. Competing explanations include the sleep displacement hypothesis (i.e. media use leads to later sleep onset, less total sleep, and lower sleep quality) and the media recovery hypothesis (i.e. media use helps reduce stress, and this relaxation helps people fall and stay asleep). Two retrospective diary studies test these competing hypotheses in an undergraduate sample (n = 200) and a general population U.S. adult sample (n = 202). Overall, results provide more support for the sleep displacement hypothesis than for the media recovery hypothesis. However, some evidence suggests potential for positive relationships between media use and sleep. More work is needed to explicate the complicated relationship between bedtime media use and sleep. [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]

Transphobic discourses have become prominent even as media representations of gender non-conformity have increased, demonstrating the paradoxes of media visibility for the status of minority groups. Illustrating this phenomenon, transphobic commentary proliferates on two iterations of The L Chat (TLC), online forums centered on popular culture topics of particular interest to lesbians. Presenting a critical qualitative analysis of TLC discussion threads about actor Elliot Page, and transgender and nonbinary identities, activism, and politics, this article identifies how these contribute to what is theorized as a broader global phenomenon of networked transphobia. While some of the themes identified overlap with those found in other research on transphobia, the TLC threads reflect complexities arising from the posters’ political positionalities, and suggest that the circulation of regressive discourses on sex and gender attain distinct specificities at particular online spaces, including discussions filtered through interests in popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of individuals who meet the criteria for PTSD diagnoses during the pandemic increased exponentially, creating the need for more effective teaching of treatment methods for PTSD. This paper provides educators with an interdisciplinary learning tool to conduct a thorough assessment of a unique movie character with PTSD. A collaborative effort that incorporates teaching practices of the cinematic arts with social work can possibly fill in gaps in knowledge about PTSD. Authors demonstrate how combining the skills training of social work educators with cinematic art educators can lead to the development of innovative solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During summer 2021, the world watched the swift and, for some, surprising collapse of Afghanistan's government. However, a Taliban victory was always a possibility for players of ADistant Plain (ADP), a boardgame about insurgency and counterinsurgency in post-9/11 Afghanistan. These events inspired many ADP players, and its designers, to (re)engage with the game, thus providing scholars with a unique opportunity to investigate in real time how historical practice occurs within the popular culture space. Utilizing primary sources, this article demonstrates that contemporary history games – those which depict current events or open-ended, unresolved periods, rather than ones designed to model what is seen as 'settled' history – are uniquely subject to external, out-of-game interventions which may prompt reevaluations of their assumptions and models, since players and designers are repeatedly challenged by changing circumstances to integrate new data into how they perceive and consume the historical representations found therein. These games are therefore exceptionally suited to engendering genuine and ongoing historical practice, through the use of evidence, argumentation and debate, retrospective reassessments, and counterfactual analysis. The broader discipline will greatly benefit from taking a more inclusive view of popular history by paying greater attention to historical games of this type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, a shift took place in the dress practices of attendees at the Melbourne Cup, marking out the period from the conservative formality of the decade before. Evident in the public areas of Flemington Racecourse, this new trend saw boisterous young racegoers dress in satiric, comedic or raunchy attire. Commenting on this trend in the late seventies, the journalist Keith Dunstan decided that unruly young people engaging in these madcap dress practices had turned the Cup into a "Bacchanalian Mardi Gras". In this article, we use Dunstan's commentary and an extensive archive of images taken at Flemington by the photographer Rennie Ellis to argue that the culture of mocking and ludicrous dress emerging at the Cup in the 1970s was a form of carnivalesque disorder that appealed not only to boorish, beer-swilling ocker men, but also young female revellers determined to contest convention and members of countercultures who creatively pushed sartorial boundaries. We also argue that the best way to understand the rise of carnivalesque dress at the Cup is to see it as part of a wider suite of practices that had the cumulative effect of changing approaches to sexual, gender and social decorum across the seventies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberalism as phenomenon has been noted for its pervasiveness, persistence and negative impact in society. The uncertainty, pessimism and tension associated with neoliberal societies have found expression in popular culture entertainment, more specifically in dystopic depictions of societies influenced by neoliberal logic. These dystopic presentations offer fantastical depictions as allegories, holding up our current realities for critique. While many studies have examined presentations of dystopia from various scholarly perspectives, we employ here a social semiotics approach to examine how semiotic resources are deployed in dystopic presentations of neoliberalism – neoliberal dystopia – to engender critical stances and attitudes. Using excerpts from the Netflix science fiction series Black Mirror, our study shows how combinations of semiotic resources are employed to draw critical attention to representations of neoliberal realities and society. The use of a social semiotics approach offers systematicity in the examination of representations of meaning via the utilization of established analytical frameworks, adding to already-existing commentaries on neoliberal dystopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the 2016 Diba Expedition to Facebook, a mass collective organized campaign directed at independence-leaning Taiwanese individuals and institutions, as an example of cyber nationalism through a highly organized meme war between anti- and pro-Taiwan independence users on Facebook. Drawing upon a social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis of the nationalist campaign, this study examines the ways Diba members deployed multimodal elements of political propaganda and popular culture in the preparation and mobilization of the campaign as well as the playful memetic interaction between the two camps on the battlefield. The analysis and discussion underscore the playful and carnivalesque ecology of Chinese social media that users deployed in the 2016 expedition while also demonstrating the dilemma of undertaking a Chinese nationalism campaign beyond the Great Firewall, where those based in the Mainland needed to overcome the state's regulations of online security to defend the motherland. This study contributes to the growing research on cyber nationalism in China and adds a further dimension to the study of Chinese social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in representations of transgender individuals in Spanish popular culture, particularly in written and visual media. This study analyzes Antonio Mercero's crime fiction novel El final del hombre (2017) in which transgender life functions as a metaphor for modern and progressive Spain, highlighting its successes and limitations regarding gender justice and representation. While the novel introduces a transgender detective as a prominent figure in mainstream fiction, it also perpetuates certain stereotypes that it aims to challenge. Drawing on the theory of trans maladjustment by Cameron Awkward-Rich, here I explore how El final del hombre deviates from traditional narrative structures and delves into the experiences that define maladjustment. As the novel navigates various regulatory mechanisms and patriarchal institutions, such as the family, the healthcare system and the police, it also underscores the ongoing challenges in moving beyond limited portrayals and expanding the possibilities of transgender identities and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study set out to understand how representational practices of journalism and age congregate in the fiction movie The French Dispatch. Employing textual analysis, we found that the film engages with three overlapping tropes in which journalism and age congregate. First, it represents journalists as different from “normal civilians” especially in their state of loneliness which is a constant throughout the narrative. This difference narrative is especially invigorated for journalists that demographically deviate from the norm in which older women are labeled as “old maids.” Second, the film represents an intergenerational conflict, specifically in relation to explorations of journalistic neutrality. Last, the commercial nature of journalism is addressed through the representation of an older mentoring editor-in-chief who protects journalistic quality against commercial pressures. By combining the lens of journalism and ageism, we uncovered how both concepts congregate and create a unique romanticized perspective on the profession as “it used to be.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the rise of “reactionary feminism” within popular culture, suggesting a possible departure from, or mutation of, the hegemony of neoliberal and postfeminisms of recent decades. It locates reactionary feminism as key to the growing backlash against “liberal feminism,” pointing to emergent popular feminist discourses of “brutal truths,” “material conditions,” and women as a “sex class.” I analyse three seemingly diverse iterations of the reactionary feminist turn: its political-intellectual articulation by anti-progressive, “post-liberal” feminists; secondly, its manifestation within the “femosphere” - the online, female-centric communities which mirror those of the manosphere—focusing specifically on the “Female Dating Strategy;” and thirdly, “dark feminine” dating influencers on TikTok and YouTube, sometimes framed as “Andrew Tate for girls.” Reactionary feminism appears to have certain similarities with leftist, intersectional feminism; it has a strong critique of liberal feminism, and explicitly centres issues such as misogyny, the devaluation of women’s work, gendered economic inequality, and the politics of care. However, I argue that while it purports to oppose misogyny and the manosphere, it mirrors many of its regressive logics, and is characterised by an aggressive sense of fatalism, bio-essentialism, and a deep animosity towards liberationist feminism and any form of social hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study abroad is laden with socially constructed expectations informed by discourses of place, people, and culture presented through social media, pop culture, word-of-mouth, and marketing. These discourses can shape how students approach and interpret their host countries and study abroad experiences. To better inform language and culture curriculum in study abroad programming, this qualitative case study explored how 13 U.S. students in an introductory Italian language and culture summer course perceived their host country and culture before, during, and after a short-term study abroad programme in Italy. Framed by Urry’s notion of the tourist gaze through a social constructionist lens, the study examined multiple data sources including interviews, participant observation, questionnaires, social media, and course artifacts. Findings identified that students curated their own Italian reality by filtering their experiences through existing frames of reference. They conceptualised Italy through a romanticised lens fuelled not only by stereotypes and singular narratives, but also by sheltered exposure to the broader country. Further, students perpetuated the tourist gaze by reproducing the same discourses that they themselves referenced. The implications support curricular intervention strategies to challenge existing frames of reference and to expose students to broader representations of the host country and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two main characters in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017) and Unorthodox (2020), Midge and Esty, traverse, circumvent, and subvert norms of behaviour that their husbands, families, and communities ascribe to them as Jewish women. Both series examine the friction between public and private spheres in considering the role of a married wife and mother, using specifically the lens of performance, either through stand-up comedy or musical performance, to establish Midge and Esty as extraordinary or peculiar. By relying on the excuse of difference, the two shows undercut Midge and Esty's delineation of their own paths, employing them as examples of noncompliant behaviour. In staging performance as an act of rebellion tied to a woman's right to self-expression, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Unorthodox contradict their ostensibly progressive embrace of modern, secular Jewish womanhood and ultimately encourage more traditional female roles. Examining these two contemporary series in tandem offers us an opportunity to consider and understand how, as film scholar Nathan Abrams asks regarding the development of news Jews and Jewesses in cinema, new trajectories of character development centred on the portrayal of Jewish women continue to emerge and to be articulated in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, the past two decades have been crucial for the growing popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM). This is largely due to the burgeoning presence and significance of EDM festivals as a performative site of a contemporary Indian youth culture. A salient feature capturing the zeitgeist of twenty-first century, urban, modern Indian youth is EDM's gradual permeation into the cultural fabric of India through crucial collaborations with cultural industries like Bollywood. It is a truism that the legacy of Goa Trance remains a dominant point of reference in the global imagination of the Indian EDM scene. This article, however, argues that the contemporary mode of Indian Electronic Dance Music Culture (EDMC) has largely developed independently of this legacy. The main proponent of contemporary EDMC in urban India has been the multiple greenfield EDM festivals held annually all over the country. This article draws on fieldwork data collected between 2016-2018 at Indian EDM festival sites. Using this empirical data, the article examines the 'performance' of Indian EDMC and considers whether it is viable to speak in terms of an Indian way of raving, as a variation of other 'local' ways of performing EDMC that may exist elsewhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of forging (Western) modernity, Eastern Europe has been constructed as an uncivilised Other of the West. The Vampire Narrative was created to represent the divide between 'us' and 'the others', including the fundamental divide between West and non-West. It has evolved over the years, reflecting the processes of inclusion. This article demonstrates that the political inclusion (into the European Union) of some countries of Eastern Europe (self-called 'Central European') has not actually led to the cultural inclusion of Eastern Europe in the social Western European imagery. To discover the full meanings of the 21st-century French Vampire Narrative, the study employs a complementary combination of structural analysis, deconstruction, and resistant reading. Vampire bandes dessinées (BDs) are chosen as research material due to their popularity in French culture and their two-dimensionality as graphic and literary works. The chosen analytic corpus encompasses remediations and adaptations of Bram Stoker's Dracula, diverse versions of Vlad Dracula Tepes' (hi)story, and perfectly new vampire tales. The representation of Eastern Europe in BDs reveals itself to be surprisingly in line with the 19th-century Vampire Narrative: Eastern Europe is a disturbing, un-real, exotic space of radical Otherness or an in-between 'Secondary Empire'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Remembrance of Earth's Past, also known as The Three-Body Trilogy, by Liu Cixin and its connections to Chinese politics and Historical IR. I examine how the Trilogy as a contemporary pop-cultural artefact and a fictional narrative sustains, recrafts and critically deals with the historical, conceived here as constructions of history, historical trajectories and the key historic challenges. I respond to the call of this special issue to consider new dimensions of how storytelling and Historical IR can be disruptive. On the theoretical level, I distinguish the notions of external and internal disruptions (critiques) with the help of pragmatism and post-colonialism. On the empirical level, I argue that the Trilogy offers an internal critique of China's long-term obsession with developmentalist modernisation by expressing ironies and uncertainties of it. It reveals limits ('selvedges') of development(alism) by showing that it is ultimately unachievable, unnecessary and uncontrollable. In other words, the internal disruption stems from exposing the final frontiers of the given tradition where its internal logic starts to crumble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]