Disorder and the body of drugs : addiction, consumption, control, and city space

Different cultures and the specific culture manifested within them are intrinsically linked to addiction in a complex fashion which has a long history. For important thinkers, such as Nietzsche, addiction actually embodies human culture, rendering addiction and culture inseparable. This is clearly seen within the Western world’s addiction to the consumption of material goods and the damage that results.

Utopia has often become dystopia. Not only is an understanding of addiction key to understanding culture but to an understanding of the very act thinking itself and the way of being in the world. Addiction raises key philosophical questions, such as: do people really have a choice in their behavior, and what governs them; is it free will or predetermination? Is it biology or environment is it the external world or the internal that drives addiction, or a complex combination of both?

In a contemporary context the media frenzy around celebrity addiction continually fuels public debate in this area, and this book deepens the understanding of addiction within this contentious context. This book addresses a key concern over how addiction became the norm, and it seeks to understand its dominance comprehensively. How did it come to pass that not being an addict was a transgressive act and way of being?

While there has been a great deal of debate about addiction utilizing the discourse of individual and often competing disciplines such as biology and psychology, little attention has been paid to the cultural aspects of addiction. The innovative approach taken by this book is to offer insights into this complex area through a contemporary methodology that covers diverse interrelated areas. Drawing on different disciplines, offering deeper insights, from the analysis of music lyrics to empirical social science and anthropological work in AA groups in Mexico and the portrayal of the “addiction’ to therapy in film and television, amongst other areas, this book addresses the need for a more comprehensive approach.

Academic analysis is also given to the discourse on celebrity culture and addiction. A contemporary fusion of the humanities and the social sciences is the best way forward to tackle this subject and move the debate on. The focus of this study is an innovative interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to addiction, from the social sciences to the humanities, including cultural studies, film and media studies, and literary studies. Areas that have been overlooked, such as lost women’s writings, are examined, in addition to comics, popular film and television, and the work of AA groups.

This edited collection is the first study to provide such a comprehensive analysis of the cultures of addiction. Traversing cultures across the globe, including Asia, Central America, as well as Europe and America, this book opens up the debate in addiction studies and cultural studies. The important insights the book delivers helps to answer questions such as: In what way can Deleuze further the understanding of addiction through the analysis of rock lyrics? How does anthropology improve the understanding of AA groups? How can cultural studies deepen knowledge on the “addiction” to therapy? These are just some of the vast array of areas this book covers. Other areas include the condemnation of “addiction” to comic reading through an historical examination, violence in popular culture, and lost women’s writing on addiction. No other book has such depth and contemporary breadth.

Cultures of Addiction is an important book for those taking cultural studies courses across a range of interrelated disciplines, including English and literary studies, history, American studies, and film and media studies. This will be invaluable to library collections in these fields and beyond in the social sciences, and specifically in addiction studies and psychology.

(Jason Lee, Editor)

Simultaneous determination of irinotecan (CPT-11) and SN-38 in tissue culture media and cancer cells by high performance liquid chromatography: Application to cellular metabolism and accumulation studies

A simple and sensitive HPLC method was developed to simultaneously determine CPT-11 and its major metabolite SN-38 in culture media and cell lysates. Camptothecin (CPT) was used as internal standard (I.S.). Compounds were eluted with acetonitrile–50 mM disodium hydrogen phosphate buffer containing 10 mM sodium 1-heptane-sulfonate, with the pH adjusted to 3.0 using 85% (w/v) orthophosphoric acid (27/73, v/v) by a Hyperclon ODS (C18) column (200 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.), with detection at excitation and emission wavelengths of 380 and 540 nm, respectively. The average extraction efficiencies were 96.9–108.3% for CPT-11 in culture media and 94.3–107.2% for CPT-11 in cell lysates; and 87.7–106.8% for SN-38 in culture media and 90.1–105.6% for SN-38 in cell lysates. Within- and between-day precision and accuracy varied from 0.1 to 10.3%. The limit of quantitation (precision and accuracy <20%) was 5.0 and 2.0 ng/ml for CPT-11 and 1.0 and 0.5 ng/ml for SN-38 in culture media and cell lysates, respectively. This method was successfully applied to quantitate the cellular accumulation and metabolism of CPT-11 and SN-38 in H4-II-E, a rat hepatoma cell line.

Playing a critical role: experiential learning resources and analytical media studies in higher education

This article compares two Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) used in the Faculty of Arts, Deakin University Australia, and investigates the relationships between technology, pedagogy and key issues in the teaching and practice of public relations, in a media studies context. The online role-play ‘Save Wallaby Forest’ and the e-simulation ‘PRessure Point! Getting Framed (GF), in their different ways, afford learning  environments with capabilities that present public relations and media students with opportunities to discover a critical consciousness, break out of naturalised world-views, and explore alternative approaches to organisational communication. Furthermore, they present students with complex ethical issues to investigate based around the idea that media industries are powerful discursive producers and reproducers of social norms, values and beliefs which in turn shape notions of identity and influence the formation of public opinion in society (Fairclough 1999; Habermas 1995). This article explores the intersections and differences between these distinct ICTs in their relationships to a constructivist learning approach and ethical questions about how public relations both produces and reproduces world views through practice. This interacting nexus – between technology, pedagogy and theme – is significant because “what happens in the learning process” relates to the learning outcome and therefore has the potential to develop holistic reflexivity in studies of public relations (Laurillard 2003, p.42).

Mothering in the freelance film industry: case studies in the postproduction film industry in Melbourne, Australia

This paper examines the dynamic relationship between work and life through the experiences of three mothers seeking to realise careers in the freelance film industry in Melbourne, Australia. The women were part of a larger sample of postproduction workers who were surveyed on their responses to technological change in the postproduction freeelance film industry but were out of the industry having children during the first wave of technological change. The paper examines qualitative data from these women and later longitudinal data in order to understand the limits of equal opportunity in an uneven playing field.

Women's cognitive and emotional processing during sexual arousal : the effects of erotic film and absorption

Sexual arousal is a complex and dynamic element of women’s sexuality. Accounts vary, however most multidimensional models highlight the cognitive, affective and physiological components of the female sexual arousal response. While literature examining the peripheral physiological changes that occur during female sexual arousal abounds, there has been a dearth of literature pertaining to the cognitive and affective components. Thus, while many authors have included cognitive and emotions as independent components of the female sexual arousal response, there has been little empirical research to validate this approach. The aim of the current thesis was to examine the cognitive and affective components of female sexual arousal in more depth, investigating the nature of the relationship between these components under various experimental conditions. In order to do so, two integrated studies were conducted, each highlighting the effects of either external or internal variables on women’s subjective sexual arousal, absorption, positive affect and negative affect. Study One was designed to evaluate women’s emotional and cognitive processing of two elements of erotic film – foreplay and erotic context. 60 women were asked to report their subjective sexual arousal, absorption, positive affect and negative affect in response to one of four erotic film excerpts. The erotic excerpts varied in accordance with the degree of foreplay (low vs. high) depicted and the context in which the sexual activities took place (novel vs. habitual context). Women in the study responded more favourably to the high foreplay erotic film excerpt, subsequently reporting higher degrees of subjective sexual arousal, absorption and positive affect. Women also responded favourably to the erotic excerpt filmed in a novel context, reporting greater subjective sexual arousal as a result. The environment in which the sexual encounters were filmed failed to have an effect however, on women’s absorption or their positive or negative affect. The results of Study One suggest that stimulus specific variables, such as the degree of foreplay depicted, have a significant influence on female cognitive and emotional processing of erotic film. The results also suggest that a relationship exists between absorption, subjective sexual arousal and positive affect, albeit a correlational one. Specifically, there was evidence of parallel processing during sexual arousal, as participant reported sexual arousal, absorption and positive affect all increased and decreased in unison. Based on the results it was suggested that future research attempt to experimentally manipulate one of these variables, to examine its direct effect on the remaining variable. Thus, Study Two aimed to examine the effects of absorption on women’s cognitive and emotional processing of erotica. Study Two manipulated absorption at two levels (high vs. low), examining the impact of these states on participants’ subsequent absorption, subjective sexual arousal and positive and negative affect. 62 women were asked to read one of two sets of test session instructions. The first, participant-oriented instruction set, instructed participants to immerse themselves in the erotic film excerpt, as if they were active participants in the sexual exchange. The second, spectator-oriented instruction set, directed participants to observe and evaluate the erotic film. These instructions were designed to elicit high and low degrees of absorption, respectively. The utility of this approach when manipulating female absorption, was demonstrated by self reported ratings of absorption, given at the conclusion of the film presentation. Participants were also asked to report their subjective sexual arousal and positive and negative affect at the conclusion of the erotic film presentation. The findings of this study suggest that the adoption of a participant-oriented (high absorption) perspective elicits more favourable responses from participants than a spectator-oriented (low absorption) perspective, with participants in the former experimental group reporting greater degrees of subjective sexual arousal and positive affect. Negative affect was equivalent across experimental conditions, with the participants reporting that they experienced little to no aversive feelings during either of the experimental conditions. The results suggest that the degree to which a women immerses and absorbs herself in a sexual stimulus has a significant impact in her subsequent cognitive and affective processing of that stimulus. More specifically, it appears that women respond more favourably when they are highly absorbed and immersed in a stimulus, reporting greater subjective sexual arousal and positive affect. Overall, the results of Studies One and Two highlight the dynamic and complex nature of female sexual arousal. It appears that women have definite cognitive and affective responses to sexual stimuli. The magnitude of these responses may be mediated by a number of factors however, including the intrinsic qualities of the stimulus and the degree to which the woman attends to the stimulus. Both these variables act to either enhance or inhibit the sexual arousal response. There results have important implications for current sexuality literature. While women’s cognitions and emotions in response to erotic film were generally highly correlated, in some instances they differed, warranting their inclusion as separate elements in models of female sexual arousal. Furthermore, it might be suggested that the inclusion of an additional variable – absorption – into current models of female sexual arousal would prove beneficial, aiding researchers to better understand and predict the arousal process. As such, recommendations are made for a revised model of female sexual arousal. In terms of future directions, the results of the present thesis have implications for the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, suggesting that clinicians need to understand the internal and external variables that might contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of their presenting problems.

Narrativization of actuality : convergence of form and genre in film and television

The thesis concerns the treatment of actuality in film and television, particularly the narrativization of actuality images, and the context of their placement within audio/visual texts. Several instances of the convergence of media form and genre are analyzed, and the conventions of classificatory systems and boundaries that pertain to film and television representations are reconsidered in light of changes in the conventions of genre. The distinction between, and convergence of fictional and non-fictional conventions of narrative are therefore central to the thesis, as are the related issues of viewer response, the nature of subjectivity in the viewer, the connectivity of text and culture, and the relations of actuality to the text. The thesis traces the narrativization of actuality through textual, formal and genre boundaries, adopting a ‘line of flight or deterritorialization’ that enables the thesis to ‘change in nature and connect with other multiplicities.’This line of flight passes through the conventional separation of genre groupings and texts, and, similarly, has been applied in the thesis as a rationale for the diminution of theoretical boundaries. A multiperpectival approach is applied to the permeability of, or transcendent relations of the analysis to the boundaries between genres, between texts and culture, and between actuality and virtual representation. In the thesis there is also a theoretical deterritorialization that consents to a pluralism of theory, which is an approach demonstrated by Deleuze and Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus. The model of multi-perspectivalism adopted in the thesis engages in establishing connections and similarities between theories, rather than emphasizing contradictory and exclusive practices. The Foucauldian notion of the rules of formation in discourse, Nichols’ theories of documentary representation of reality, Bordwell’s schematic interpretation, and several other positions are critiqued, as the line of flight embarked upon in the thesis intersects with, and passes through both textual and theoretical boundaries. The thesis consists of two parts: firstly, a location of theoretical perspective, in which the issues of theory pertaining to actuality and narrative are explicated, and the methodological approach of the thesis is defined. The second part commences with an analysis of the most familiar instances of actuality in film and television, with particular attention to documentary forms. It then engages in the analysis of films that represent actuality but which, in the process of narrativization, display a convergence of genre conventions. The films selected for analysis include Steven Speilberg's Schindler's List, (1993) Oliver Stone's JFK, (1991) and Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump, (1994) and Contact, (1996). Hence the thesis is concerned with the application of a pluralist theoretical approach, with, however, an emphasis on the Deleuzo-Guattarian notions of rhizome and assemblage. Within this theoretical frame, the connections between actuality and the audio/visual text are explicated, and the formation of text as ‘a rhizome with the world’, is analyzed across a range of examples.

What to do when you can’t (afford to) collect your own data? : a test case using the longitudinal study of Australian children to investigate the influence of parental context on media use and obesity

The dramatic rise in childhood obesity prevalence in the last two decades has prompted concern about the risk factors that may precipitate or maintain weight gain, or both, in early childhood. Media use has long been implicated in policy debates in Australia, particularly around limits to advertising. However the Australian research funding ecology and dominant paradigms in Australian communication and media studies have resulted in a lack of independent, nationally representative studies upon which to base advice. Australian researchers often can’t afford to collect the kind of data they would like in order to intervene productively as policy actors. As a test case for innovative ways round this dilemma, this paper mobilises secondary data analysis methodologies to explore potential influences of parenting on children’s media use and their weight status.

The research reported here uses data from the first three waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Results from a path model suggest that children of mothers who were less consistent in the way in which they enforce their rules were more likely to adopt unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, such as sedentary behaviour and consuming unhealthy snacks. Of the lifestyle behaviours considered, time spent watching television or DVDs was the only predictor of child weight status in late childhood. These results suggest a clear pathway linking consistent parenting and other parental practices, children’s lifestyle behaviours and weight status.

Animal rights and media ethics in Australia: advocacy journalism?

This paper considers the role of animal rights-based Australian law in journalism studies and its connection to instruction of graduate students at a large university based in Victoria. Its case study examples illustrate and develop some of the discussions in journalism studies worldwide of the balance between ethical practice balanced against legal considerations, and whether advocacy and journalism can function together for the benefit of the public interest.