4 The celebrity persona and the celebrity text It has been emphasised that we can only know stars through media texts (Dyer, 1998) and this can be extended to seeing celebrities themselves as texts, though for celebrities of any longevity we would certainly have to consider them as large, complex and modulating ones. This section will look at how we might go about reading such a text. There is a distinction between the ‘real’ person and a persona presented in the public arena. One pervasive feature of the ‘large celebrity text’ is
2.3 The representation of ‘celebrity’ We have already seen the way in which texts gain meaning from other texts by the operation of contrast, but multiple texts are useful to the textual analyst in another way. Looking at a large number of texts dealing with the same subject – celebrity – enables us to detect common themes and narratives (stories), to the extent that with enough repetition we become able to talk about the representation of that subject. Working through a large number of texts about celebrities, we beco
2.2 The semiotic approach to textual meaning: image and ideology Think of an image of a celebrity winning an award. How is s/he photographed, dressed and accompanied? Perhaps the most likely image you thought of was a full-length or mid-shot of the celebrity dres
Activity 2
Learning outcomes On completion of this unit, you should be able to: illustrate how CCTV is used for general surveillance; give examples of how CCTV can be used for crime control.
Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence This extract is taken from D315: Crime, order and social control, produced by the BBC on behalf of the Open University.
6.2 Who should get to vote on secession? The Bs (encompassing the Cs) or all the As too? After all, democracy is often said to be about people who are affected by an issue having a say on it; and As will certainly be affected if Bs secede. This is a live issue with regard to Northern Ireland's future, for example. If a referendum were to decide if the province should join the Irish Republic, should the voters include all UK voters and all Irish voters, or just those living in the province? If, for example, there were to be a vote on
5.3 ‘A positive valorisation is assigned to one's own nation, granting it specific claims ove Just how a nation is prioritised over other communities will have an important impact on how the terms of this second element are played out. A nation that sees itself in pluralistic or liberal terms for example – which may celebrate cultural diversity as part of its very sense of a collective identity – is, on the face of it, less likely to make particular demands or to institute extensive controls on the behaviour of its members. On the other hand, a nation that is imagined in terms of
Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions). This content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit.
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3.1 Gender-based disadvantage The post-war period has seen a significant increase in the participation of women in the labour market, with women now making up around 45 per cent of the UK workforce. Although women still undertake the major share of family responsibilities and domestic activities, an increasing number of women are entering the labour market. This increase is evident in many countries and has been associated with an improvement in the relative earnings of women. This trend towards greater equality is eviden
2.2 Summary Social scientists need to stand back, to view common sense or ‘what everybody knows’ from the perspective of a stranger. Common sense about social problems such as poverty involves a process of social construction, drawing on a repository or storeroom of underlying theories and assumptions. Common sense has been built up over time, carrying with it traces of earlier understandings which are also brought into discussions of new issues and debates. Common sense is itself divided, reflecting
Digital communications
Optical-fibre communications became commercially viable in the 1970s and innovation continues today. This free course, Digital communications, will illustrate how very high data rates can be transmitted over long distances through optical fibres. You will learn how these fibres are linked, examine the technology used and assess the future direction of this continually developing area of communication.
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2.1 Numbers The supermarket example discussed in Section 1 involves various forms of data that a computer may need to handle. Some of these, such as numbers and characters, are simple but fundamental. Other forms of data, such as sequences, involve more complicated structure. In this section, we will introduce sets, which are a variety of data collection that is different from sequences. But first we will look more carefully at numbers and characters. When developing software we need to dist
8.3 The AND operation The AND operation combines two binary words bit by bit according to the rules 0 AND 0 = 0 0 AND 1 = 0 1 AND 0 = 0 1 AND 1 = 1 In other words, only when both bits are 1 is the result 1. You may find it helpful to think of it this way: when one bit is one and the other bit is 1 the result is 1. 3.4 Input and output considerations CCDs are not inherently able to detect colour, only brightness. So it is necessary to rely on the fact that any colour of light can be made up from the three primary colours of light: red, blue and green. (Note that the three primary colours of light are different from the three primary colours of pigments.) Each CCD in the array is therefore overlaid with a red, blue or green filter and so detects the brightness of, respectively, the red light, the blue light or the green light falling on it Introduction Computers are designed to receive, store, manipulate and present data. This unit explains how computers do this, with reference to the examples of a PC, kitchen scales and a digital camera. In particular it explores the idea that the data in a computer represents something in the real world. This unit is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Computers and processors (T224) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may w 16.1 Introduction Supermarkets make use of ICT systems for a range of purposes. In the following sections, we'll look at the processes of receiving, storing, retrieving, manipulating and sending data at the checkout, and then we'll move on to the larger context of the supermarket. 14.3 Personal Digital Assistants
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or handheld computers are small, portable computers. They each contain a small processor and have specially written operating systems. Two popular types of PDA at the time of writing (early 2005) are those running the Palm OS operating system and those using the Windows Mobile operating system, (also called Pocket PC). There is a range of applications purposely written for PDAs, but many also use special versions of popular applications like Microsof 2.3 Models of an ICT system To help me to introduce you to important ideas about ICT systems, I'm going to take a three-stage approach. ICTs involve conveying, manipulating and storing data. This is going to be the basis of my approach. Firstly, in the next few sections, we'll look at ICT systems where the primary function is to convey data. We can think of these systems as communication systems and I'll use a mobile phone system as an example. In sections 8–14, I'll focus on ICT systems wher Learning outcomes By the end of this unit you should have developed an understanding of: how you select appropriate techniques to tackle and solve problems in the discipline of information security management; why security and its management are important for any modern organisation; how an information security management system should be planned, documented, implemented and improved, according to the BSi standard on information security management. 11.2 How do advertising cookies work? Many websites host advertising banners, and these advertisements may place a ‘third-party cookie’ on your computer. This means that the cookie does not come from the website you are viewing but from one of the advertisers. There has been pressure on the browser manufacturers to control third-party cookies. The website carrying the advertising banners may also set a cookie on your computer. The cookie records which advertisements you see as you view the web page and which advertiseme
