The first stage of Australia’s digital transition and its implications for Australian television drama

This article analyses how digitisation and screen policy reform altered the production of domestic drama and children’s programmes in Australia. Focusing on dynamics that developed before widespread use of streaming services, it maps the disruptions and evolution that digital ‘multi-channels’ caused and how they challenged audiovisual policy frameworks intended to safeguard local television including drama on advertiser-funded broadcasters. The article reveals how the effects of fragmentation undermined commercial television’s business model and eroded investment in scripted content. Shifting policy priorities also brought new support mechanisms for local programmes and led to adjustments to the ABC’s drama funding practices, with significant effects on the form, content, and cultural visibility of Australian drama. This initial stage of digital disruption – spanning roughly 2001–2014 – is often overlooked but is crucial for appreciating the challenges facing Australian television drama production in the 2020s.

Queering Ageism

Queer theory is an effective tool for challenging ageist assumptions concerning the life course. Recent approaches by age studies scholars and queer theorists, such as Barbara Marshall, Linn Sandberg, Elizabeth Freeman, and Dustin B. Goltz, make use of a queer-theoretical lens to expose naturalized essentialist views of old age and the life course as normative constructions. As a significant way to heighten and shape cultural visibility, literary and filmic narratives play a crucial role in queering ageist cultural scripts of growing older and in highlighting the importance of non-heteronormative representations of aging. Leonora Carrington’s novel The Hearing Trumpet (1974) and Bruce LaBruce’s film Gerontophilia (2013) both exemplify, in their own ways, this process of queering as one of questioning, dismantling, and transforming essentialist assumptions about aging.

Padronização de um protocolo para assepsia de segmentos nodais de Phalaenopsis para clonagem in vitro

Plantbiotechnologysan área ofhighimportancesinceit has forobtainingplantorganismswithcharacteristics superior tothosealreadyonthemarket. Cloningisoneofthetolos that forthisfunction, throughit, organismswithcharacteristicsofinterest are selected and this individual ismultiplied, ensuringthattheregeneratedplants are geneticallyidenticaltothedesiredmatrix, establishing a standardization. Knowingthatthe ornamental plants sector contributessignificantlytotheeconomy and amongthemostesteemed ornamental plantsamongBrazilians, there are orchidswhichhaveacquired cultural visibility and a largenumberofcollectors in recentyears. Theobjectiveofthepresentworkwastoestablishanefficientassepsisprotocolfor lateral meristems and toobtain clones oftheorchidofthegenusPhalaenopsis. Formethodology, aiming at thestandardization o fan asepsisprotocol, 4 treatmentsweredeveloped and testedwithdifferentcombinations (concentration x time) ofagentssuch as sodiumhypochlorite, alcohol, copper, tween and washingtheexplantswithsteriledistilled wáter formeristemsoftheorchidofthegenusPhalaenopsis. Themeristems, alsoknown as lateral bud, were removed fromthestemoftheseedlings, fromtheir floral stems. As forobtained clones, theexperimentcarriedoutconsistedofinoculatingthemeristems, after anasepsisprocess, in Knudson culture media, containingdifferentcombinationsofgrowthregulators, usinganauxin and cytokinin. Theresultsobtained show that, no asepsistreatmentstested in thiswork, presentedsignificant and positive results, so itwasnot posible toestablish, as yet, anasepsisprotocolfor lateral meristemoforchidsofthegenusPhalaenopsis. Sinceallmeristemssufferedcontamination and oxidation. Therefor, itwasnotyet posible toobtain clones, usingthismethodology. Thisworkserves as aninitialbasis, forfutureresearch, regardingcloningthroughmeristems in Phalaenopsis.

HISTÓRIA DO “MEU” LUGAR

O presente artigo propõe um olhar reflexivo sobre a visibilidade dos sujeitos do campo através da história do lugar a que pertencem. Para tanto, o estudo traz esta questão norteadora: de que maneira a contextualização da história de um lugar pode trazer empoderamento para os atores sociais enquanto sujeitos construtores de cultura e identidade? Assim, se objetiva ao longo da pesquisa compreender como as estratégias de contextualização da história da Comunidade de Ipoeira, em Teofilândia/BA, pode promover o empoderamento e o reconhecimento dos moradores no tocante à identidade e à cultura. Foram traçados como objetivos específicos: conhecer/reconhecer a história local através das memórias dos moradores (jovens/idosos) e refletir sobre a importância dos mecanismos de produção da visibilidade identitária e cultural. Como percurso metodológico, utilizou-se a abordagem qualitativa, no viés da pesquisa-ação, que trouxe resultados significativos ante a finalidade da pesquisa de mostrar que o território a que se pertence contribui para a construção da identidade do indivíduo. Abstract: This article proposes a reflective look at the visibility of the subjects of the field through the history of the place where they belong. For this, the study brings as a guiding question: how can the contextualization of the history of a place bring empowerment to social actors, as subjects constructing culture and identity? Thus, we aim throughout the research to understand how the strategies of contextualization of the history of the Community of Ipoeira, Teofilândia/Bahia/Brasil, can promote the empowerment and recognition of residents regarding identity and culture. We outlined as specific objectives: To know/recognize the local history, through the memories of the residents (young/elderly); reflect on the importance of mechanisms for producing identity and cultural visibility. As a methodological path we used the qualitative approach, in the bias of action research, which brought significant results before the purpose of the research of showing that the territory to which we belong contributes to the construction of our identity. Keywords: Identity, Culture, Memory.

‘If the rise of the TikTok dance and e-girl aesthetic has taught us anything, it’s that teenage girls rule the internet right now’: TikTok celebrity, girls and the Coronavirus crisis

During the global lockdowns brought about by the Coronavirus crisis, TikTok saw a phenomenal rise in users and cultural visibility. This short essay argues that the media attention paid to TikTok during this time can be read as a celebration of girlhood in the face of the pandemic, and can be seen to contribute to the transformation of girls’ ‘bedroom culture’ (McRobbie and Garber, 2006) from a space previously conceptualised as private and safe from judgement, to one of public visibility, surveillance and evaluation. Focusing on Charli D’Amelio, this essay argues that the increasing visibility of TikTok and rising celebrity of D’Amelio during the Coronavirus crisis continues and intensifies the longer history of young female celebrity culture, and obscures the dangers and impacts faced by girls around the world who are situated outside of the ideals embodied in TikTok stars like D’Amelio.

Trans-Affirmative Parenting

In a world that is responding to ever-changing ideas and expressions of gender, this book adds new insights on transgender children and the parents who support them. Drawing on in-depth interview data with more than fifty parents, the book examines parents’ shifting understandings of their children’s gender and how they come to help their children make sense of their identities and their bodies. Throughout these processes, the book shows that parents’ meaning-making and decision-making often challenge LGBT rights discourses, as well as queer political tenets, in unexpected ways. These dynamics surface in three key areas: (1) gender and sexuality, (2) the gender binary, and (3) the body. Throughout parents’ understandings, gender identity and sexual orientation do not always present as radically separate aspects of the self, but are more fluid and open to reconsideration, given new cultural contexts, opportunities, and phases of the life course. And despite increasing cultural visibility around nonbinary identities, “gender-expansive” child-rearing often looks, fundamentally, very binary and gender-stereotypical, per the children’s own assertions and expressions. Lastly, parents often utilize highly medicalized understandings of transgender embodiment, which nevertheless resonate with some children’s sensibilities. Altogether, these families depart from conventional understandings of gender, sexuality, and the binary, but in ways that prioritize child-centered shifts, meanings, and parenting models, not necessarily LGBTQ politics or paradigms. This marks new ground for understanding the mechanisms and parameters of the (trans)gender change afoot.

CRITICAL SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY AND RURAL AGING

This paper examines the extent to which critical gerontology has raised awareness of the heterogeneity of rural ageing in High Income Countries (HICs) and compare this to our knowledge of the issues that are associated with rural ageing in Low to Middle Income Countries (LMICS). We will draw on Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework to summarize key issues around: (1) Demography (such as globalization, urbanization, counter-urbanization and rural population ageing); (2) Resources (individual material and social resources; community resources such as access to services); (3) Recognition (social status, cultural visibility through social participation and cultural worth through valued social roles); (4) Representation (in social, health and rural development policies; and in private sector and NGO approaches). We argue that an intersectional approach that takes into account location and context (structural/economic/political) alongside other dimensions of oppression and/or privilege can provide a better understanding of the experience of ageing in rural areas.

Latin American Jewish Studies

The presentation of a comprehensive selection of academic texts in the field of Latin American Jewish studies, such as the one we develop here, requires considering a series of analytical challenges. The first one is epistemological in nature: when referring to a topic as “Latin American” it is not always kept in mind that this adjective comprises many countries, with very different histories and realities. Although there are historical, cultural, and linguistic common grounds that bring most of the countries in the region together, the differences between them are substantial. Only by contrasting this region with others, and through analytical or political enunciation, is it possible to construct it as a single unit. The same is true for Jewish history in the region. Although we can identify common elements that define a unique context for the development of Jewish life in Latin America, such as the historically most widespread religion—Catholicism—and the dominant languages and cultural backgrounds—Spanish and Portuguese—there are many particularities that differentiate historical experiences. The differences in size, degree of institutional development, and social and cultural visibility of the Jewish populations in the Latin American countries, present a second challenge for the current selection. Although we aimed to offer a balanced bibliographical overview of the region, the fact that Argentina, with the largest Jewish community, followed by Brazil and Mexico, has received much more attention from scholars, led us to an unavoidable bias imbalance. Finally, this selection faces a third challenge related to the publishing languages. This is directly associated with the places of academic production. In the cases in which we selected a Spanish or Portuguese-language book or article, we attempted to include the English version. However, most of the references are published only in Spanish or Portuguese. This piece begins with references that address the development of the Latin American Jewish studies field, and continues with the following topics: Converts and crypto-Jews in colonial America; immigration; the formation of communities and the dynamics of integration; Jewish political trends and Jewish participation in national politics; culture and art; Spanish and Portuguese-language literature, which includes an entry on Yiddish literature; women, prostitution, and gender; religion; anti-Semitism; Nazism and the Holocaust; the two bomb attacks in Argentina (Embassy of Israel in 1992 and the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina in 1994); and finally, the repressive actions of military dictatorships.

Amazon: Surveillance as a Service

This essay argues that Amazon, the leading e-commerce platform in many parts of the world, uses surveillance not just as a key tool in the platform logic of its growing constellation of businesses but also increasingly as a service to its consumers. In contrast to prevailing assumptions that platforms will obscure the surveillant aspects of their businesses and that users will resist the intrusive nature of corporate surveillance, Amazon’s business practices point to the rapid normalization, and even embrace, of surveillant logics by consumers. Given the importance of consumer data to its operations, Amazon increasingly designs services whose purpose is, at least in part, to collect more data about consumers. The zenith of Amazon’s surveillance capabilities of its customers is no doubt its family of Echo devices enabled by the artificial intelligence interactive-voice service Alexa, which connects to the cloud run by Amazon, itself, through Amazon Web Services. Alexa is similar to competing digital voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google’s Assistant, but with more cultural visibility, worldwide market penetration, and greater integration with a host of Internet-of-Things devices produced by a variety of manufacturers. Amazon seeks to make Alexa an indispensable service to consumers, one that sweetens the granular forms of surveillance in more private spaces and situations that it now has the capability to gather, relative to the company’s more established forms of surveillance. While a typical association with surveillance might be the alienation and disempowerment of social control, I suggest that Amazon’s practices of consumer surveillance cultivate a sense of intimacy, borne of being seen between consumer and brand. In other words, I advocate for recognizing the subjectification of contemporary practices of platform surveillance, in addition to its structural elements.

Introduction

The introduction places the missionary-Waorani story within the context of the history of American evangelicalism. The iconic narrative of the five men slain in Ecuador stands in a tradition of two centuries of missionary zeal and sacrifice memorialized in print that began with David Brainerd (1718–47). His diaries, edited by Jonathan Edwards as An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd, inspired generations of believers. Other memoirs followed, establishing the missionary narrative as an influential genre of religious biography. Such books presented missionaries, especially those who died in pursuit of their calling, as saints, heroes, or martyrs. They also were products of their times. The Triumph of John and Betty Stam, about a missionary couple murdered in China in 1934, included a note of victory that reflected the influence of Keswick holiness. Widespread interest in the “Ecuador martyrs” twenty-two years later, demonstrated the staying power of the missionary narrative and the increased cultural visibility of theologically conservative Protestants as they left separatist fundamentalism for a “new” evangelicalism. The missionary-Waorani encounter also had an unexpected, almost miraculous sequel that became part of the accepted history even if elements of it were romanticized and misleading.