AustLit

'In recent years, the importance of environmental education for young children has been globally acknowledged. At the same time, children have become recognized as ‘green consumers’ and as potential audiences for media messages about sustainability. Increasingly, many children’s films and television programmes fall within the loose genre known as ‘eco-media’ and/or seek to cultivate environmental awareness in young audiences. However, questions about authenticity arise when screen media texts adopt the role of informal environmental educator. This article investigates the troubled relationship between screen media and environmental learning with specific reference to the animated children’s television programme dirtgirlworld. The brainchild of Australian media creators Cate McQuillen and Hewey Eustace, dirtgirlworld promotes sustainability practices through unconventional means – including the use of a blended animation style and the development of an augmented reality iPhone app. This article investigates the strategies that McQuillen, Eustace, and their team have employed to authenticate dirtgirlworld’s environmental messages. Looking closely at the television series along with some of its transmedia extensions, the article argues that dirtgirlworld enables environmental learning by representing, positioning and addressing the child audience as ‘agents of change’ within natural and digital spaces.' (Publication abstract)

'Celebrity seminars are a common fixture of contemporary popular culture conventions, sought after for their ability to offer close contact with celebrity figures and organized to facilitate in person fan-celebrity encounters. Following a well-established formula, the seminars constitute ‘pre-staged encounters’; managed events enabling fan-celebrity interaction within controlled situations. Celebrities offer anecdotes and answers to selected fan questions that are regulated by hosts. These three agents constitute the main ‘players’ or agents in a ritualistic social situation governed by inherent rules and behavioural expectations. This paper examines the interaction between celebrities, fans and hosts during question and answer seminar sessions to explore the role of the host, as a facilitator of fan-celebrity interactions. It offers an Australian perspective through its focus on six celebrity seminars held at the Supanova pop culture expo, Gold Coast in April 2016. Qualitative ethnographic methodology was employed with observation of participation interaction at seminars. Fan-celebrity interaction, as moderated and facilitated by the host, will be discussed from the perspective of dynamics of power, control and desire. In particular, the multifaceted role of the host within the fan-celebrity encounters is examined in detail.' (Publication abstract)