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1 – 10 of 18
Article
Publication date: 22 June 2023

Chiara Alzetta, Felice Dell'Orletta, Alessio Miaschi, Elena Prat and Giulia Venturi

The authors’ goal is to investigate variations in the writing style of book reviews published on different social reading platforms and referring to books of different genres…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors’ goal is to investigate variations in the writing style of book reviews published on different social reading platforms and referring to books of different genres, which enables acquiring insights into communication strategies adopted by readers to share their reading experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose a corpus-based study focused on the analysis of A Good Review, a novel corpus of online book reviews written in Italian, posted on Amazon and Goodreads, and covering six literary fiction genres. The authors rely on stylometric analysis to explore the linguistic properties and lexicon of reviews and the authors conducted automatic classification experiments using multiple approaches and feature configurations to predict either the review's platform or the literary genre.

Findings

The analysis of user-generated reviews demonstrates that language is a quite variable dimension across reading platforms, but not as much across book genres. The classification experiments revealed that features modelling the syntactic structure of the sentence are reliable proxies for discerning Amazon and Goodreads reviews, whereas lexical information showed a higher predictive role for automatically discriminating the genre.

Originality/value

The high availability of cultural products makes information services necessary to help users navigate these resources and acquire information from unstructured data. This study contributes to a better understanding of the linguistic characteristics of user-generated book reviews, which can support the development of linguistically-informed recommendation services. Additionally, the authors release a novel corpus of online book reviews meant to support the reproducibility and advancements of the research.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 80 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2024

Alexandra Thrall, T. Philip Nichols and Kevin R. Magill

The purpose of this study is to examine how young people imagine civic futures through speculative fiction writing about artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The authors…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how young people imagine civic futures through speculative fiction writing about artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The authors argue that young people’s speculative fiction writing about AI not only helps make visible the ways they imagine the impacts of emerging technologies and the modes of collective action available for leveraging, resisting or countering them but also the frictions and fissures between the two.

Design/methodology/approach

This practitioner research study used data from student artifacts (speculative fiction stories, prewriting and relevant unit work) as well as classroom fieldnotes. The authors used inductive coding to identify emergent patterns in the ways young people wrote about AI and civics, as well as deductive coding using digital civic ecologies framework.

Findings

The findings of this study spotlight both the breadth of intractable civic concerns that young people associate with AI, as well as the limitations of the civic frameworks for imagining political interventions to these challenges. Importantly, they also indicate that the process of speculative writing itself can help reconcile this disjuncture by opening space to dwell in, rather than resolve, the tensions between “the speculative” and the “civic.”

Practical implications

Teachers might use speculative fiction writing and the digital civic ecologies framework to support students in critically examining possible AI futures and effective civic actions within them.

Originality/value

Speculative fiction writing offers an avenue for students to analyze the growing civic concerns posed by emerging platform technologies like AI.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Male Rape Victimisation on Screen
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-017-7

Article
Publication date: 13 January 2023

Natheer Abu-Obeid and Lama Bilal Abuhassan

The goal of the study is to underline “Cinematic Architecture” as another source of architectural thinking and research. This study is also a response to the shortage in empirical…

251

Abstract

Purpose

The goal of the study is to underline “Cinematic Architecture” as another source of architectural thinking and research. This study is also a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema. Moreover, the study introduces the architectural components that qualify the cinematic spaces to be influential cinematic experience. This is in addition to investigating the impact of these components on the viewers' cognitive and emotional experience of films.

Design/methodology/approach

In the reported study, an empirical experiment examined scenes from three different movies as experienced by a selected group of audience of movies fans (architects and laypersons). The audience was asked to report feelings the audience had about each scene using a questionnaire that was designed for this purpose, and the audience was asked to write down the aspects that affected the audience's emotions. The experiment evaluated selected emotional states and could specify the architectural features and/or objects that significantly contributed in inducing these emotions.

Findings

This study's findings concluded that emotions, which exist in the positive margin of the emotions “circumplex model,” were influenced by architectural components that were different from those that influenced emotions which lie in the negative margin of the model.

Research limitations/implications

As for filmmakers, the study contributes in developing filmmakers' knowledge about the role of architecture in scenic creation and thus how that knowledge enhances filmmakers' film narrative and the narrative's spatial imagery. As for academia, this study contributes in developing the knowledge about film cognition as related to architectural semiotics. In the context of behavioral approach to architectural design, a behavior setting which is the basic element in environmental design can be dramatized by applying a cinematic narrative to a human activity system within a milieu of architectural design elements.

Practical implications

This study is important for architects, as the study provides architects with an alternative tool for fictional experience and for testing architectural ideas through cinematic architecture. This study also helps in developing new venues for the practice of architecture into the world of fiction. This study also contributes in developing the trend that architectural design thinking can learn from cinematic thinking and practice.

Originality/value

This study introduces an empirical approach to evaluate architectural entities as part of cinematic experience. This study also comes as a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema.

Details

Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-6862

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2023

Emerson Taylor and Chern Li Liew

Researchers in information studies have examined fictional depictions of libraries in various mediums because these images can reflect and influence real-life experiences and…

Abstract

Purpose

Researchers in information studies have examined fictional depictions of libraries in various mediums because these images can reflect and influence real-life experiences and attitudes. Video games, despite being relatively overlooked, are increasingly culturally relevant and can indicate library users' real needs and desires. This study investigates the ways in which video games depict characters using libraries to seek and use information.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative content analysis approach incorporating methods from information studies and game studies was applied. Tancheva's (2005) semiotic analysis of fictional libraries and Carr's (2019) textual approach provided the framing for the unique aspects of video games and their meanings. Carroll (2021)'s character analysis and Chatman (1996)'s theory on insiders–outsiders dynamic underpinned the data collection and analysis. The purposive sample included 15 video games released since 2010.

Findings

Video games depict game characters visiting libraries to solve short-term problems, to gain knowledge to improve themselves or to bond with others. Protagonists are often depicted as adventurers or outsiders who must adapt to unfamiliar places and situations to achieve their wider objectives. In these games, libraries provide useful documents, spaces or helpful guides and intellectuals who assist the protagonists. As outsiders, the protagonists seek information in libraries to help them learn about their environments and to immerse themselves in the local histories and cultures in their worlds. Overall, these depictions highlight both short- and long-term benefits of library use.

Originality/value

As with existing studies, the ways in which fictional library use appear in video games can suggest real needs and desires among library users. The findings from this study emphasise the importance of library services and spaces that help users both address short-term problems and immerse themselves in local concerns, with longer-term goals. Applying different research methods or lenses to analysing video games could deepen our understanding of what library users think and feel when they seek and use information in libraries.

Abstract

Details

Male Rape Victimisation on Screen
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-017-7

Article
Publication date: 18 January 2024

Lucinda McKnight and Cara Shipp

The purpose of this paper is to share findings from empirically driven conceptual research into the implications for English teachers of understanding generative AI as a “tool”…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to share findings from empirically driven conceptual research into the implications for English teachers of understanding generative AI as a “tool” for writing.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports early findings from an Australian National Survey of English teachers and interrogates the notion of the AI writer as “tool” through intersectional feminist discursive-material analysis of the metaphorical entailments of the term.

Findings

Through this work, the authors have developed the concept of “coloniser tool-thinking” and juxtaposed it with First Nations and feminist understandings of “tools” and “objects” to demonstrate risks to the pursuit of social and planetary justice through understanding generative AI as a tool for English teachers and students.

Originality/value

Bringing together white and First Nations English researchers in dialogue, the paper contributes a unique perspective to challenge widespread and common-sense use of “tool” for generative AI services.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 25 March 2024

Heather Yaxley

Informal conversational encounters are explored using free indirect discourse (FID) as a novel storytelling method to gain a multi-generational understanding of the experiences of…

Abstract

Informal conversational encounters are explored using free indirect discourse (FID) as a novel storytelling method to gain a multi-generational understanding of the experiences of women working in public relations (PR) in 1960s/1970s Britain.

Echoing a literary tradition, anonymised transcripts of recordings provide impressionist accounts that immerse the reader in the thoughts and feelings of novelistic characters. An informal network of women narrate their stories with a much younger listener enabling exploration of intergenerational relationships and the intersection of gender and age.

This unstructured approach develops a complex yet natural flow to create unique withness-understandings. The author/narrator introduces a conception of informal conversational encounters, supporting an organic approach of interweaving storying, everyday performance, situated accountings, narrative unfoldings and inside/outside points of view.

An interplay of multiple female voices reveals a degree of symmetry in fractal patterns of women's early career experiences over the duration of a generation. Facilitation of sense-making through intergenerational conversations connects with Mannheim's theory of generational unity.

Women's beginnings of PR careers in 1960s/1970s Britain demonstrate a liberal feminist perspective in taking responsibility for their careers and enjoyment beyond the workplace in a man's world.

Book part
Publication date: 30 April 2024

Natalie Wall

Abstract

Details

Black Expression and White Generosity
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-758-2

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