Culture & Politics in Media

Advertising & the End of the World features an illustrated presentation by Sut Jhally of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the producer and writer of the award-winning Dreamworlds II.

Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, he asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from…

Japanese anime is the biggest thing to come out of the East since Godzilla. It's featured on clothing, food, television, video games and for some, has become a way of life.

With the introduction of such popular anime series as Pokemon and Sailor Moon, some anime fans have taken their…

The belief that good triumphs over evil resonates deeply in our psyche through religious, cultural, and political discourses. It is also a common theme in the entertainment media where the struggle between good and evil is frequently resolved through violence. The potential negative impact of media violence on children has…

With virtually no government or public outcry, the multi-billion dollar youth marketing industry has been able to use the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. American kids now influence an estimated $700…

In 1998, university professor Kembrew McLeod (Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa) trademarked the phrase “freedom of expression”—a startling comment on the way that intellectual property law restricts creativity and expression of ideas. This provocative and amusing documentary explores the battles being waged in courts, classrooms,…

We are living in a time of threatening conflict. We feel our survival jeopardised by wars in the Middle East, Central Africa and South Africa. But there is another war, a global conflict more devastating and more uncertain in its outcome, a war that poses the ultimate question of survival…