Scholarship & Research
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/1
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Finding new representations in science and natural history film through a deconstruction of televised weather forecasting(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2008) Brown, Parker Brandt; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias.Broadcast television networks limit their representation of the weather by embedding weather forecasting with ideologies of science, capitalism, and patriarchy, thereby creating a dispassionate monolithic regime as the totalizing representation of weather in popular media. This is not to say that TV weather forecasting is not useful, but that it is a narrowly focused scientific representation of nature, and as such denies experiences of the weather beyond utilitarian prediction. Non-fiction film employs a set of representational tools that, when applied to the weather, can deconstruct the mainstream representation of the weather and create alternative representations that reconnect viewers with their personal experiences of the weather. Non-fiction film allows filmmakers the freedom to directly author messages and choose systems of signs that deconstruct the mainstream broadcast of the weather. It can restore an assumption of afilmic representation and allow viewers the ability to interpret the weather in their own contexts. These ideas led to the production of my own film, Weatherscape, which simultaneously re-contextualizes the weather to encourage the viewer to create his or her own weather experience and critiques the TV weather representation. Deconstruction through non-fiction film proves to be a robust tool for creating representations that rethink our portrayal of nature.Item The space between : how hypertext affects the author/reader divide(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2007) Becker, Michael Edward; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael SexsonAuthors and readers have been in conflict since the invention of writing, battling over the right to interpret a written document. This has artificially created a split between these two institutions, a split typically divided between those who have the power and money to publish their words to a mass audience and those whose words have been repressed by that publishing system. This thesis examines, through the lens of deconstruction and other post-structuralist theories, how hypertext and other digital technologies have empowered reader to take back some of the functions historically granted to authors. Through blogs, interactive Web sites, and electronic literatures, readers can assume a larger role in the creative process. However, with more power comes more danger for manipulation, as authors have also become more canny with the rise of electronic text. Though readers have more freedom, they must also face an increased potential for mediation and manipulation outside of their control. This thesis determines that although the gap between authors and readers is narrowing, many of the old conflicts are too ingrained to ever be settled.