PLATFORM Vol 2 Issue 1 is available online

PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication
Volume 2 Issue 1 (January 2010)

OUT ONLINE!
http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/platform/vol2_1.html

Welcome to the second issue of *PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication, an online academic journal edited and comprised of work by a global community of graduate media and communications emerging scholars.

::: CONTENTS :::

1. Editorial
Amira Firdaus and Dale Leorke. University of Melbourne, Australia

2. 'Cultural Globalisation and Challenges to Traditional Communication
Theories'
Lauren Movius. University of Southern California, USA

This article reviews existing traditional media theories, and analyses the
challenges that the current developments of globalisation present to them.
The article provides a short history of the concept of globalisation, and
reviews the primary theoretical approaches to globalisation that are
critical to communication scholars. The article also examines how
globalisation challenges the ways in which media and communication have
traditionally been theorised. Specifically, the cultural imperialism theory
is discussed, as well as the main challenges to the theory. Audience
reception studies, which focus on how audiences negotiate meaning
differently in specific cultural contexts, are highlighted as the key
critique of cultural imperialism.

3. =93Tonight=92s Secret Ingredient Is...=94: Iron Chef America as Media Ri=
tual
Christopher Bell. University of Colorado-Boulder, USA

The Food Network program Iron Chef America creates a media ritual space in
which public displays of virtuosity and the engendering of parasocial
relationships combine to present both the media ritual itself (the cooking
competition) and the media ritual it engenders (the viewing of and
parasocial interaction with the cooking competition). These rituals though
separate and distinct are inextricably tied together. Couched in the ritual
tropes and memes of sporting events, Iron Chef America is an attempt to
mediate mundane activity by transforming it into competitive action. As a
result, the program ritualises the =91deep play=92 aspect of cooking as
spectator sport, and in the process, reinforces the ritual structures of
American society, celebrating the triumph of skill, determination, and hard
work so valued in contemporary USA.

4. Interview with Daniel Dayan
'Bearing Witness - Between the Professional and the Personal: An Interview
with Daniel Dayan'
Esther Chin. University of Melbourne, Australia

In this stimulating interview by Esther Chin, Dayan discusses his lifelong
passion bearing witness to history as it is made. In addition to discussing
contemporary applications of =91media events=92, Dayan provides us with a
comprehensive introduction to his areas of interest, discussing anti-
Semitism, transformations in the discourse of terrorism, =91visuality=92 an=
d
=91witnessing=92, among other thought provoking topics. Dayan also reflects on
his early academic career, taking us back to his exposure as a student to
distinguished scholars at the Sorbonne and L=92Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Sociales in France, and at Stanford University in the US. Dayan
also shares with us how his personal life experiences are intertwined with
his professional work.

*****************************************************
PLATFORM is a new international peer-review graduate journal, available
online through open-access.

PLATFORM is refereed by an international board of established and emerging
scholars working across diverse paradigms in Media and Communication. It is
edited by graduate students at the University of Melbourne, and published b=
y
the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.

The aims of PLATFORM include:

    * To provide a platform for media and communications graduate student
researchers to showcase, share, and support the work of one anotherthrough
publication, peer-review, and comments;

    * To provide a platform for emerging media and communications scholars
to build a publication record and to contribute subsequently to other
academic publications;

    * To increase scholarly appreciation of media and communications
research across diverse theoretical, methodological, and empirical
interests; and

    * To encourage international awareness and collaboration through the
discussion of issues associated with the rising significance of multiple
media and communications platforms for societies and individuals in and
across various globalised and localised environments.

[EDITORS]
Esther Chin (Founding Editor, Editor-in-Chief, Vol. 1)
Amira Firdaus (Editor-in-Chief, Vol. 2 Issue 1)
Dale Leorke (Editor-in-Chief, Vol. 2 Issue 2)
Gin Chee Tong
Sandy Joy Watson (Essay Section)
Elias Mokua Nyatete

[WEBSITE, DESIGN & CREATIVE EDITOR]
Gin Chee Tong

[COPY EDITORS]
Marie Christoulaki
Siobhan Argent

[COPYRIGHT & EXTERNAL LIASION]
Blaise Murphet

[JOURNAL MANAGER]
Akina Mikami

[ADVISROY BOARD]
Ingrid Volkmer, University of Melbourne, Australia
Sean Cubitt, University of Melbourne, Australia
Jenny Lee, University of Melbourne, Australia
Brian Fitzgerlad, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

[EDITORIAL BOARD]
Benjamin De Cleen, Young Scholars Network, ECREA
Joanna Redden, Young Scholars Network, ECREA
Tamara Witschge, Young Scholars Network, ECREA
Stefania Milan, Emerging Scholars Network, IAMCR
Michele Cheng Hoon Khoo, Student Board, ICA
Malte Hinrichsen, Student Board, ICA
Diana Bossio, ANZCA

PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication
URL: http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/platform
Email: platformjmc AT gmail.com