A CONSTRUÇÃO CULTURAL DA NARRATIVA NOTICIOSA: noticiabilidade, representação simbólica e regularidade cotidiana

A tese constitui uma discussão teórico-conceitual de natureza eminentemente qualitativa sobre a construção cultural dos chamados critérios de noticiabilidade no jornalismo. Sua proposta central é inserir a problemática da noticiabilidade isto é, a discussão em torno dos parâmetros que levam determinados acontecimentos a receber a valoração de notícia em detrimento de outros no interior de uma reflexão mais ampla, de ordem culturalista, que objetiva dimensionar a narrativa noticiosa como um dos elementos estético-expressivos mais consistentes na sustentação da experiência cotidiana moderna. Como objetivos específicos, busca-se: 1) a discussão teórica de algumas das mais significativas abordagens conceituais que os critérios de noticiabilidade recebem historicamente nas ciências sociais; 2) a apresentação de um conjunto alternativo de concepções teóricas que, articuladas, possam explicitar a complexidade do processo de seleção noticiosa; e 3) a proposição de uma sistematização teórico-conceitual para tais articulações de modo a sintonizar a tese com o estado da arte no campo da teoria do jornalismo. Aporta-se, ao fim, na elaboração de um modelo explicativo pendular que se institui como metáfora possível para a relação entre o jornalismo, os paradoxos cotidianos e os parâmetros simbólicos que caracterizam a regularidade cotidiana como padrão cultural da sociabilidade moderna.

The unique complexity of social phenomena and the uses of social science knowledge

The assertion about the peculiarly intricate and complex character of social phenomena has, in much of social discourse, a virtually uncontested tradition. A significant part of the premise about the complexity of social phenomena is the conviction that it complicates, perhaps even inhibits the development and application of social scientific knowledge. Our paper explores the origins, the basis and the consequences of this assertion and asks in particular whether the classic complexity assertion still deserves to be invoked in analyses that ask about the production and the utilization of social scientific knowledge in modern society. We refer to one of the most prominent and politically influential social scientific theories, John Maynard Keynes' economic theory as an illustration. We conclude that, the practical value of social scientific knowledge is not necessarily dependent on a faithful, in the sense of complete, representation of (complex) social reality. Practical knowledge is context sensitive if not project bound. Social scientific knowledge that wants to optimize its practicality has to attend and attach itself to elements of practical social situations that can be altered or are actionable by relevant actors. This chapter represents an effort to re-examine the relation between social reality, social scientific knowledge and its practical application. There is a widely accepted view about the potential social utility of social scientific knowledge that invokes the peculiar complexity of social reality as an impediment to good theoretical comprehension and hence to its applicability.

Harnessing linked knowledge sources for topic classification in social media

Topic classification (TC) of short text messages offers an effective and fast way to reveal events happening around the world ranging from those related to Disaster (e.g. Sandy hurricane) to those related to Violence (e.g. Egypt revolution). Previous approaches to TC have mostly focused on exploiting individual knowledge sources (KS) (e.g. DBpedia or Freebase) without considering the graph structures that surround concepts present in KSs when detecting the topics of Tweets. In this paper we introduce a novel approach for harnessing such graph structures from multiple linked KSs, by: (i) building a conceptual representation of the KSs, (ii) leveraging contextual information about concepts by exploiting semantic concept graphs, and (iii) providing a principled way for the combination of KSs. Experiments evaluating our TC classifier in the context of Violence detection (VD) and Emergency Responses (ER) show promising results that significantly outperform various baseline models including an approach using a single KS without linked data and an approach using only Tweets. Copyright 2013 ACM.

Connecting social media to e-commerce:cold-start product recommendation using microblogging information

In recent years, the boundaries between e-commerce and social networking have become increasingly blurred. Many e-commerce websites support the mechanism of social login where users can sign on the websites using their social network identities such as their Facebook or Twitter accounts. Users can also post their newly purchased products on microblogs with links to the e-commerce product web pages. In this paper, we propose a novel solution for cross-site cold-start product recommendation, which aims to recommend products from e-commerce websites to users at social networking sites in 'cold-start' situations, a problem which has rarely been explored before. A major challenge is how to leverage knowledge extracted from social networking sites for cross-site cold-start product recommendation. We propose to use the linked users across social networking sites and e-commerce websites (users who have social networking accounts and have made purchases on e-commerce websites) as a bridge to map users' social networking features to another feature representation for product recommendation. In specific, we propose learning both users' and products' feature representations (called user embeddings and product embeddings, respectively) from data collected from e-commerce websites using recurrent neural networks and then apply a modified gradient boosting trees method to transform users' social networking features into user embeddings. We then develop a feature-based matrix factorization approach which can leverage the learnt user embeddings for cold-start product recommendation. Experimental results on a large dataset constructed from the largest Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo and the largest Chinese B2C e-commerce website JingDong have shown the effectiveness of our proposed framework.

A representação discursiva da vítima e do réu no gênero sentença judicial

This dissertation aims to identify and describe the phenomenon of discursive representation of victim and defendant in court judgment genre. Researchis part of general theoretical framework of text linguistics and more specifically in textual discourse analysis (ATD) theory developed by Jean-Michel Adam ([2008] 2011). Discursive representation notion proposed by ATD is one of the most important aspects of semantic dimension of the text, being complemented in the work of Grize (1990, 1996) from schematization notion. In this perspective, this work is guided by studies of text linguistics with Koch (2012, 2005, 2004), Marcuschi (2012, 2008, 2005), Rodrigues, Passeggi and Silva Neto (2010, 2012, 2014), with genre Bazerman (2005), Bakhtin (1992) and the juridical discourse with Capez (2012), Pimenta (2007), Lourenço (2013) and Gomes (2013) . Methodologically, is a documentary research, presenting qualitative and descriptive characters and is guided by the inductivedeductive method. Corpus consists of a judicial sentence, criminal, collected electronically from Court of Justice of São Paulo - Judiciary website in consultation Judged1st Degree, with the theme of violence against women. Analysis procedures use semantic categories of discursive representation, such as referencing, predication, modification and the spatial and temporal location. Results are focused on the construction of discursive representation of (victim and defendant) from PdV distinct enunciators, which may approach or distance themselves according to argumentative text orientation. Thus, considering social importance of forensic text and, in particular, court judgment in the lives of citizens, it was possible to realize the importance of developing research that addresses the study of text semantic dimension, especially in construction of representations of discourse objects

Entre a cruz e a espada, a foice e o martelo: a representação do anticomunismo no Rio Grande do Norte

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the propagation of an anticommunism movement in Rio Grande do Norte Estate, Brazil, in a process that started on the first decades of the twentieth century and shows reflections until today. Firstly, we introduce the operation promoted by the catholic oriented newspaper A Ordem. Through the analysis of publications from 1935 to 1945, we observe its role in an image campaign of the “Communist Conspiracy” event, in an attempt to legitimate the power of Right wing groups, specially the Catholic Church and the Military Police. The newspapers discourse is analyzed in serial, quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Secondly, we search to understand the space dynamic of the anticommunism discourse thought the creation of evocation and representation spaces that ended up becoming memory places. Our considerations are based on the concept of representation by Roger Chartier, observing the way communism is represented by A Ordem, as well as the spatial category used to reactivate the anticommunist memory and represent it. We analyze the interests that are served by the construction of the monuments, the Oral History, as well as the relation between the local communities with them. Thirdly, we establish a parallel with many authors, in an approach that gathers Cultural and Social elements and Political History, in order to find explanations for the articulation of these discourses.

AS MARCAS E O CONSUMIDOR: Um estudo dos discursos da publicidade na perspectiva da modificação dos estereótipos na representação da família.The

Os papeis de homens e mulheres na sociedade contemporânea têm sido reestruturados, assim como a própria noção das estruturas familiares se renova. Algumas marcas estão atentas a essas mudanças e, no contexto mercadológico, fica evidente que os consumidores são diversos, com novas demandas e expectativas pelo reconhecimento dessa diversidade. Esta dissertação discute a mudança de abordagem na representação da família, demonstrando suas mutações de papeis na publicidade, esta vista como um produto sociocultural. Para tanto foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa qualitativa subsidiada pela análise de discurso de linha francesa. Primeiramente, o estudo qualitativo se desenvolve a partir de uma abordagem bibliográfica e documental e uma parte empírica de análise de discurso de campanhas publicitárias dos últimos anos, selecionadas a partir de seu foco nas representações familiares contemporâneas, de marcas que as tratem com naturalidade e demonstrem aceitar essas transições, buscando-as através da análise de casos múltiplos de amostras intencionais os avanços quando se trata dos modelos familiares, elementos que se desviam de representação conservadora da família. Demonstrou-se que há uma tendência de algumas marcas reforçarem qual é o público que desejam atingir através de suas construções discursivas que apontam para o reconhecimento das famílias reconstituídas, para a adoção e para a homo e monoparentalidade, ou seja, para a confirmação da existência dos variados tipos de família.

A MULHER ALÉM DO BEM E DO MAL: Malévola e a representação cinematográfica do feminino integrado

Estudo sobre as construções simbólicas e identitárias da mulher presentes na narrativa e na estrutura das personagens femininas do filme Malévola (2014) – produção dos estúdios Disney (EUA). A narrativa é inspirada no conto de fadas “A Bela Adormecida do Bosque” e distingue-se pela perspectiva feminina, modificando as possibilidades de interpretação, além de possibilitar a quebra do paradigma dicotômico relacionado ao Bem e ao Mal. A pesquisa tem por objetivo estudar a evolução das construções imaginárias da mulher no cinema e traçar paralelos entre as características arquetípicas das personagens de Malévola em relação à identidade da mulher na contemporaneidade. Para tal, será tomado como referencial teórico os estudos do imaginário social, com as obras de Gilbert Durand, Edgar Morin e, em especial, Michel Maffesoli; conceitos da psicanálise a partir dos trabalhos de C.G. Jung, Erich Neumann, Marie-Louise Von Franz e Clarissa Pinkola Estés; as teorias de Stuart Hall, Laura Mulvey e Gilles Lipovetsky relacionadas aos estudos culturais com ênfase em gênero; e também o ecofeminismo através dos trabalhos de autoras como Vandana Shiva e Maria Mies. Nosso referencial teórico-metodológico é a Hermenêutica de Profundidade (HP) visando à interpretação da estrutura simbólica de nosso objeto. Resultam desta pesquisa a verificação de um processo de saturação de padrões identitários e simbólicos provindos da modernidade e a evolução de novas dinâmicas nas narrativas presentes nas mídias e na comunicação.

Social paranoia and absurdist fiction in Cold War America and Soviet Russia: a comparative study

This thesis explores the theme of social paranoia as depicted in the Absurdist fiction of Cold War America and Soviet Russia. The central hypothesis informing this research maintains that, despite the ideology of moral and cultural “Otherness” constructed and reinforced by both nations throughout much of twentieth century, the US and the Soviet Union more often than not functioned as mirror images of paranoia and suspicion. Much of the fiction produced in Russia from the Revolution onwards and in the US during the Cold War period highlights how these two ostensibly irreconcilable nations were consumed by similar fears and gripped by an equally pervasive paranoia. These parallel conditions of anxiety and mistrust led to a surprising congruity of literary responses, which transcended the ideological divide between capitalism and communism and, as such, underscored the homogeny of fear which lay beneath the façade of constructed difference. I contend that, because Soviet Russia and the America of the Cold War period were nations consumed by fear and suspicion, authors living in both countries became preoccupied by the mechanics of such deeply paranoid societies. Consequently, much of the fiction of the US and the Soviet Union during this period was preoccupied with the themes of paranoia, conspiracy, intensive bureaucracy and the politicisation of science, which resulted in the terror of the Nuclear Age. This thesis explores how these central themes unite apparently diverse literary texts and illustrate the uniformity of terror which transcended both the physical and ideological boundaries separating the United States and the Soviet Union. In doing so, this research focuses primarily on the multi-faceted manifestations of paranoia in selected works by Soviet authors Mikhail Bulgakov, Daniil Kharms and Yuli Daniel, and American authors Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut. Focusing on key works by each author, this research considers these texts as products of two culturally diverse, yet equally paranoid societies and explores their preoccupation with issues of spying, infiltration and conspiracy. This thesis thus emphasises how these authors counter simplistic notions of Cold War Otherness by revealing two nations possessed by a similar sense of vulnerability and insecurity. Furthermore, this thesis examines how this social anxiety is reinforced by the way in which these authors position issues such as the mechanics of the bureaucratic system and clandestine scientific experimentation as the focal point of the paranoid imagination. Ultimately, by examining the concordance of paranoiac representation in America and the Soviet Union during this period, I demonstrate that these ostensibly divergent nations harboured similar fears and insecurities.

Women’s football. Notes for a social history of women’s sport in Spain, 1900-1936

In the context of demands by the European feminist movement at the beginning of the 20th century, in Spain women’s sport flagged up aspirations to what were considered to be male practices. The first experiences of women in football stand out because of their use of the media to appear as a symbol of social transformation to modernity in the 20th century. It was not in vain that women’s football highlighted the demands of the feminist movements, although it did come up against male disapproval from an opposing group. The research sets out from a bibliographical and media review of specialist press and sports news of the time. Other current studies have also been considered in order to place it in a social and historical focus on sport. This has enabled us to highlight that football in Spain was established as an unequivocal space for (re) producing male hegemony where women were relegated to the representation of a symbolic ritual in a scenario of accessory and condescension.

The Electoral Rise of Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe: Ideological Parameters and Social Motivations

Populist radical right parties have become major political actors in Europe. This paper analyses the path and the different phases that have led them from the fringes of public debate to their present signifi cance, which is based on their capacity to attract electoral support and infl uence the political agendas in their respective countries. Besides, an analysis of the core ideological beliefs of these parties, and of the topics on which their mobilization capacity rests, is provided, as well as of the type of voters that are attracted by them. Finally, the authors discuss the meaning and impact of the growing popularity of the ideas and proposals put forward by the populist radical right parties.

La metáfora en los museos de historia social

Antes de la puesta en práctica de los archivos en papel en el siglo XIX había muchas formas líricas de conocer el pasado, por ejemplo, a través del canto y de la pintura. En la evolución de los museos del siglo XIX, los artefactos ocuparon el lugar del conocimiento correspondiente de la “verdad” que se creía existente en el papel archivado. El trabajo del Museo procedió con la certeza del sentido común de una correspondencia individualizada racional entre un artefacto y su significado. La confianza en la capacidad denotativa del artefacto era así la estrategia para transmitir significado a los visitantes. Los museos están alejándose ahora de la denotación como estrategia de comunicación primaria, y uno de los modos que surge es la metáfora. Así como se entendía antiguamente que el significado fijo de los objetos residía en su pura materialidad, ahora vemos el resurgir de la materialidad en los museos, pero esta vez a través de la metáfora, teóricamente entendida como apoyada en la experiencia material del mundo por parte de nuestros cuerpos humanos.

Narratives Around Iberian Culture at Valencia Museums and Archaeological Sites: From Official Discourses to Social Perceptions

Museums and archaeological sites are considered the most authoritative places for talking about the past and the heritage from a scientific perspective. In fact, visitors assume their discourses as reliable and indisputable. In spite of that, professionals of archaeology must critically analyse the production of narratives at heritage sites, since they often reflect social, political and identity issues related to the present-day realities. The aim of this paper is to study official and popular discourses about the Iberian culture (Iron Age) collected in museums and archaeological sites from Valencia region.

Volunteering, social cohesion and race: the German Technical Relief Service

This paper contributes to the debate on whether volunteering influences social cohesion, and argues that issues of race equality should be considered in this discussion. Whilst the German government, like other European states, promotes volunteering as a way of improving social cohesion, discussions on social cohesion in Germany tend not to mention race explicitly, whilst studies on volunteering tend to neglect to explore race at all. When they do, race is simply considered a factor influencing engagement, rather than a structural issue. Employing the example of the German Technical Relief Service for civil defence, the paper explores race relations and representation in Germany, where discussions on race generally remain taboo, drawing on theories of structural racism and whiteness. The paper concludes that it cannot be unproblematically assumed that volunteering leads to social cohesion in an ethnically diverse society if racial inequalities are not addressed.

Widening participation in higher education: the role of professional and social class identities and commitments

Since the neoliberal reforms to British education in the 1980s, education debates have been saturated with claims to the efficacy of the market as a mechanism for improving the content and delivery of state education. In recent decades with the expansion and ‘massification’ of higher education, widening participation (WP) has acquired an increasingly important role in redressing the under-representation of certain social groups in universities. Taken together, these trends neatly capture the twin goals of New Labour’s programme for education reform: economic competitiveness and social justice. But how do WP professionals negotiate competing demands of social equity and economic incentive? In this paper we explore how the hegemony of neoliberal discourse – of which the student as consumer is possibly the most pervasive – can be usefully disentangled from socially progressive, professional discourses exemplified through the speech and actions of WP practitioners and managers working in British higher education institutions.