Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2014, Communication

The past decade has seen a large number of film co-productions between Hollywood studios and Chinese production companies. These co-productions reflect the continued rise of the Chinese box office, and a desire by Hollywood to cash in on the emerging market. Among these co-productions is Looper, a cinematic collaboration between Tri-Star Pictures and DMG Entertainment. Along with its co-production status, Looper is significant in its unique portrayal of a future featuring a dystopic United States and a prosperous China. Viewing the film as a "representative anecdote," this thesis argues that Looper represents United States cultural apprehensions towards China. By the circumstances of the film's production and its on-screen portrayal of the future, the film reflects the distinct American fear in which China is the dominant world economic power. The film accomplishes this through its appropriation of science-fiction cinematic conventions, particularly regarding utopia, dystopia, and "alienation of the familiar."

Committee: Joseph Valenzano Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jeffrey Griffin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Andrew Slade Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Film Studies; Rhetoric

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2019, East Asian Studies

The first decades of the 21st century have seen a remarkable rise in science fiction novels and short stories by Chinese authors, whose works have attracted international attention and success. Although highly imaginative and fantastical works of literature have a long history in China, the genre of science fiction has experienced long periods of interruption and obstacles that limited the genre's constant growth. During the Cultural Revolution, any films, books or plays that were not actively promoting the Chinese Communist Party were not condoned by the State or seen as useful to Chinese society. Science fiction literature generally did not fall within the strict confines of the socialist realism genre and therefore virtually died out during the middle of the twentieth century. As the Cultural Revolution ended, the influx of culture included non-Chinese science fiction literature and sparked a renewed interest in the genre. Three authors in particular, Han Song, Liu Cixin, and Hao Jingfang, are actively ushering in a new age of Chinese literature with their fascinating works of science fiction, which comment on the state of humanity and the Chinese experience. The new age of Chinese science fiction takes root in the satirical nature of the genre's origins, serving primarily as criticism of China's sociopolitical state. It is with these criticisms that modern science fiction authors employ the characteristics of the genre in order to openly, accurately and creatively portray their experience as Chinese people. This “Golden Age” of Chinese science fiction could be more accurately described as an “Electric Era,” containing a small but powerful spark that will soon light up as a global sensation, bringing critical discussions of the Chinese experience to both domestic and international readers.

Committee: Shelley Chan (Advisor); Sunny Jeong (Committee Member); Scot Hinson (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Literature; Asian Studies; Literature; Modern Literature

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2015, Journalism (Communication)

Satirical news from websites such as onion.com have attracted news consumers into believing these stories as real. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the factors that attract news consumers into believing satirical news as true. This thesis examines content and source cues for levels of satire and source reputability to investigate their effects on perceived believability of satirical news across genres. In experiment one, 80 participants viewed manipulated news stories measured as high and low on satire, while in experiment two, 64 participants viewed manipulated satirical stories with high-reputable and low-reputable sources from entertainment and science genres. Results show perceived believability is different across news genres. Satire in science stories is not easily perceived as high-satire science news is perceived more believable than high-satire entertainment news. Source reputability did not affect believability of satirical science news. Other findings and implications are discussed.

Committee: Kalyango Yusuf Jr. (Committee Chair); Jatin Srivastava (Committee Member); Hans Meyer (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism

PHD, Kent State University, 2012, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This dissertation situates the emergence of the science fiction literary genre in the biology of the human brain and its evolved cognitive abilities and it specifically investigates the fiction of three renowned, twentieth-century writers—Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and William Gibson—published between 1940 and 1988. While grounded in literary history, this dissertation is an interdisciplinary project that also draws on neuroscientific topics and science and technology studies. Beginning with what I call a cognitive approach to science fiction, I argue that a combination of effects—the brain's adaptation for narrative and imagination, humanity's co-evolution with technology, and technology's rapid and largely unanticipated change—led to the emergence of science fiction in the early part of the twentieth century. While this approach to the origins of the science fiction genre is new, I demonstrate that its functional aspects are rooted in the ideas of the genre's arguably most influential editors: Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell, Jr. Unlike the majority of scholarly discussions and critiques on Asimov's, Dick's, and Gibson's fictions, I examine their work from a perspective that emphasizes the brain's physicality over the psychology of mind by deploying my cognitive approach. In the chapter on Asimov's fiction, I argue that while many of his works give prominence to robots, these fictions are primarily about their human counterparts and the human brain. I argue in the chapter on Dick that while he emphasizes the centrality of the human brain to our recreation and experience of reality within our consciousness, he vacillates between the good and ill of technology's influence on our realization of the self and our empathy for others. In the chapter on Gibson's writing, I argue that while he focuses on the fetishistic technologies of computer hacking, he carefully constructs cyberspace as a representation projected and perceived interactively within the human brai (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donald Hassler M (Committee Chair); Tammy Clewell (Committee Member); Kevin Floyd (Committee Member); Eric Mintz M (Committee Member); Arvind Bansal (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Evolution and Development; Literature; Technology