Dear OURMedia members, 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. PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication Volume 2 Issue 1 (January 2010) OUT ONLINE! http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/platform/vol2_1.htm ::: 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. “Tonight’s Secret Ingredient Is...”: Iron Chef America as Media Ritual 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 ‘deep play’ 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 ‘media events’, Dayan provides us with a comprehensive introduction to his areas of interest, discussing anti- Semitism, transformations in the discourse of terrorism, ‘visuality’ and ‘witnessing’, 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’Ecole 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 by 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: [log in to unmask]