Cross-Media Studies

Displacing and Complementing Effects of News Sites on Newspapers 1998–2009

by Mathias A. Färdigh

Media managers are facing the challenge of navigating their organizations through a series of extensive changes... more Media managers are facing the challenge of navigating their organizations through a series of extensive changes involving economic, editorial, and technological challenges. Media managers need to develop a better understanding of user behavior and demand. This article addresses the news media landscape and the dynamics at play between print and online media, departing from an elaboration on theories of displacing and complementing effects. The empirical journey focuses on changes over time with regard to how people make use of evening tabloids through print and online. A dataset that comprises annual postal-based surveys carried out from 1998 to 2009 is used for the analysis. The results show an historical change regarding the usage patterns of evening tabloids. First, online news, in general, has acquired a stronger position among users over time, at the expense of the readership of printed evening tabloids. Second, with regard to the interrelated roles of print and online news sites, the latter constitute the primary channel for users—in particular, among 16- to 49-year-olds. Third, gender has the strongest complementing effect, as men are distinguished users of both print and online news. When it comes to explaining displacing effects, these take place among the more highly educated, and the smallest displacing effects are found among 50- to 85-year-olds. The results illustrate the complex dynamics at hand with regard to simultaneous displacing and complementing effects, which nurtures sage managerial implications.

Heaving Cleavages and Fantastic Frock Coats: Gender Fluidity, Celebrity and Tactile Transmediality in Contemporary Costume Cinema.

by Sarah Gilligan

Invited contribution to Film, Fashion and Consumption Journal (Vol 1 Issue 1). Intellect, Feb 2011.
Journal edited by Pamela Church Gibson.

Journal information:
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=203/

As contemporary cinema intersects with both celebrity (Church Gibson 2011) and convergence culture (Jenkins 2006), it... more As contemporary cinema intersects with both celebrity (Church Gibson 2011) and convergence culture (Jenkins 2006), it is vital that the academic analysis of screen costuming moves beyond the film text to consider the wider institutional processes and consumption practices connected to fashion and spectators. In examining the role of costume and fashion as a source of meaning and pleasure this article forms part of my wider research project, which includes a forthcoming monograph and adopts both textually centred and interdisciplinary cross-media methodological approaches. This methodological shift is reflected in this article – the examination of Shakespeare in Love (Madden 1998) adopts a predominantly textually centred approach focusing on the cinematic representation of Viola / Thomas (Gwyneth Paltrow) in which I argue that costume functions as both a spectacular intervention and a visual narrative of gender transformation and sexual fluidity. In then shifting to a cross-media approach, I will discuss both Gwyneth Paltrow and Keira Knightley in relation to issues of fashion, femininity and celebrity culture. As contemporary popular cinema shifts from character centred narratives to the formation of transmedia worlds existing over multiple media platforms, the text-spectator relationship is one grounded in a participatory convergence culture (Jenkins 2006). In the final section of this article I argue that the meanings and pleasures of cinematic costume are increasingly characterised by what I term ‘tactile transmediality’. Through moving my analysis beyond the film text to explore gaming, cosplay and fashion in relation to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (Verbinski 2003, 2006, 2007, Marshall 2011), I will argue that clothing enables a tactile platform in which the spatial distance between the text and the spectator can be bridged via adornment and touch and thus the processes of identity transformation and performativity can be played out in our everyday lives.

Reading Augmented Paper: Children's Experiences from a Simulation Study

by Beat Signer

David M. Frohlich, Ella Tallyn, Nadja Linketscher, Beat Signer and Guy Adams, Technical Report HP Labs, HPL-2001-308, November 2001