@misc{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {Future Cities of Loneliness: Dysfunctional Urbanities on Filmic Mars}, series = {Journal of Language and Communication}, volume = {48}, journal = {Journal of Language and Communication}, issn = {2183-7198}, pages = {208 -- 221}, abstract = {This article discusses cinematic Mars fictions with a hermeneutic approach in their relation to the real-world urban challenges encrypted in these art works. Science fiction movies have long created a collective consciousness of specific imaginations of how city life might look and sound like in the future, condensing our real life beyond the cinematic world, our wishes, hopes and fears into works of art. However, almost all 'earthly' sceneries are burdened with connotations. That is why so many filmic future narratives are located in the blank vastness of foreign worlds and their temporarily inexhaustible freedom for speculation - in particular on Mars. Against the historic background of the development of Mars fiction as a movie genre, this paper distinguishes three phases of Mars cinema movies and examines the forms and ideas of urbanity thoses films create, the societal and urban issues that are preferred by those cinematic scenarios, and how these filmic future 'cities' can be understood as critical comments on current and forthcoming questions of urbanity. Starting from Nietzsche's thought of post-moral mankind as a 'lonely' species, it demonstrates, on the basis of selected examples, such as the film Total Recall (1990), how Mars science fiction movies deal with dysfunctional communities and the resulting loneliness of the urban human of the future. That makes filmic Mars cities aesthetic projections of 'earthly' sociopolitical challenges of urbanization that have been dynamicly changing in the course of history since the beginning of 20th century.}, language = {en} } @misc{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {Serial Horrors of Loneliness: The Impossibility of Communitization in "The Walking Dead"}, series = {Zer - Journal of Communication Studies}, volume = {24}, journal = {Zer - Journal of Communication Studies}, number = {47}, issn = {1137-1102}, doi = {10.1387/zer.20728}, pages = {51 -- 64}, abstract = {For a long time, zombie movies have lead a shadow existence. Nowadays,, zombies have surprisingly be-come in vogue: today, they are a constant telemedial companion, reaching all relevant target groups. «The Walking Dead», offers a promising object of investigation. The main question is why has this series with its dark lonely world become one of the most successful telemedial narratives of our times? The paper wants to show from a sociological-philosophical perspective how we can understand modernity as an age of growing loneliness as it generates uncertain social relationships and living conditions, provoking a longing for a simpler lifestyle without the antagonisms of modernity. But this desire for an anti-modern change, which leads to 'post'-moder-nity, and the hope to overcome modernity's loneliness, does not only negate all modern achievements —prosperity, de-mocracy and freedom—, but also those modern means of mass communication like television, which made the loneliness of modernity bearable through mediated forms of communitization.}, language = {en} } @book{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {It's All Been There Before. What We Can Learn about the Coronavirus from Pandemic Movies}, publisher = {ibidem}, address = {Stuttgart}, isbn = {978-3-8382-1617-1}, pages = {159}, abstract = {Since the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis, our lives have completely changed: Shutdowns, working in home offices, contact restrictions, daily bulletins from virologists, protest movements, and conspiracy fantasies seem to have become part of our new everyday life. Could we have been prepared for this? Totally. It's all been there before: in the movies. Science fiction films and series have always dealt with the future and its possible course, social changes, and conflicts in a speculative way. Denis Newiak searches through the scenes of pandemic movies and series to bring out ideas for how to cope with the social, political, and economic challenges of the crisis. Can the scenarios developed in film help us to pass this test—and to emerge from it with greater strength?}, language = {en} } @book{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {A Preparing for the global blackout : a disaster guide from TV and cinema}, publisher = {ibidem Verlag}, address = {Stuttgart}, isbn = {978-3-8382-1661-4}, pages = {301}, abstract = {Dead phones, chaos in hospitals, looming nuclear meltdowns: For years, experts all over the world have been warning of a widespread power blackout—and the devastating consequences for society as a whole. However, just as before the Covid-19 pandemic, politicians and the public are hardly aware of the far-reaching risks: A blackout would catch us almost completely unprepared. As for other (supposedly improbable) disruptive events, disaster movies and sci-fi series have long shown what would happen if modern society were to lose its lifeblood. Denis Newiak looks into those filmic fictions for answers to pressing questions: How can we prepare ourselves for the dramatic consequences of such a crisis? And can the collapse of modernity still be stopped?}, language = {en} } @incollection{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {Death in a Lonely Place: The Loneliness of Modern Dying in the Bathrooms of Bates Motel and 13 Reasons Why}, series = {Lingering Shadows. A Literary Journey into Memory and Death}, booktitle = {Lingering Shadows. A Literary Journey into Memory and Death}, editor = {Kumari, Swati and Kumar, Manoj}, publisher = {Yking Books}, address = {Jaipur}, pages = {1 -- 22}, language = {en} } @incollection{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {The loneliness of conspiracy believers in pandemic series using the examples of Sl{\o}born and Y: The Last Man}, series = {Conspiracy Ideologies in Films and Series}, booktitle = {Conspiracy Ideologies in Films and Series}, editor = {Newiak, Denis and Schnitzer, Anastasia}, publisher = {Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden}, address = {Wiesbaden}, isbn = {9783658436933}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-658-43694-0_4}, pages = {61 -- 93}, abstract = {Not only since the Covid-19 crisis have pandemics and the conspiracy ideologies circulating around them played a central role in current television series. In doing so, the series depict the characters afflicted by such conspiracy beliefs as thoroughly lonely figures, for whom clinging to conspiratorial thinking represents an apparent chance for orientation, meaning, and thereby community. Using a detailed examination of the social constellations and motives of the fictional characters in current pandemic series such as Sl{\o}born and Y: The Last Man, it will be shown that conspiracy ideologies can be interpreted as a consequence of the isolating tendencies of complex late modern living conditions and possible real-world intervention strategies should be considered against this background.}, language = {en} } @incollection{MaederSchwaabNewiak, author = {Maeder, Dominik and Schwaab, Herbert and Newiak, Denis}, title = {Television studies and research on Series: an introduction}, series = {Television Studies and Research on Series: theory, history and present of (post-)televisual seriality}, booktitle = {Television Studies and Research on Series: theory, history and present of (post-)televisual seriality}, editor = {Newiak, Denis and Maeder, Dominik and Schwaab, Herbert}, publisher = {Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden}, address = {Wiesbaden}, isbn = {9783658429140}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-658-42915-7_1}, pages = {1 -- 15}, abstract = {Television series enjoy an unbroken—popular as well as scholarly—attention. It is surprising, however, that in works on seriality in media and cultural studies—referring here primarily on the German context of media studies—, approaches to television studies and television history still play a rather minor role. Yet seriality should always be thought of in terms of television, since the two have always been inextricably interwoven—economically, technically and aesthetically. But what else constitutes the serial in television and how does it change its face in times of digitalization, streaming and interactivity? Is it possible to think of a genuine serial theory of the televisual—and what, in turn, can be learned from this for seriality beyond television? The essays in this volume contribute to shedding new light on the serial as a core principle of television and to providing new impulses for a television theory of the serial on the basis of diverse examples from the current range of television series.}, language = {en} } @incollection{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {Television series against late-modern loneliness: forms of telemedial communitization using the example of "13 Reasons Why"}, series = {Television Studies and Research on Series : theory, history and present of (post-)televisual seriality}, booktitle = {Television Studies and Research on Series : theory, history and present of (post-)televisual seriality}, editor = {Newiak, Denis and Maeder, Dominik and Schwaab, Herbert}, publisher = {Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden}, address = {Wiesbaden}, isbn = {9783658429140}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-658-42915-7_6}, pages = {101 -- 148}, abstract = {Based on sociological and socio-philosophical theories of modern loneliness, this paper examines the socializing, uniting, and 'Gemeinschaft'-creating functions of television series as they are negotiated in discourse on television theory and the sociology of media. Using the series 13 Reasons Why as an example, it is shown that contemporary television series contribute to social cohesion and social meaning-making in a variety of ways: behavioral modeling, the visualization of social causation, and the production of temporal structures help late-modern societies coordinate their complex interactions; cult and fantum, formation of notions of truth, and the production of parasocial relationships produce new experiences of closeness, community, and transcendence in an age of increasing social distance. Can television series contribute to better enduring or even overcoming the diverse lonelinesses of late modernity—or do they, by thereby pushing modernization ever further, not only produce even stronger feelings of social isolation?}, language = {en} } @incollection{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {Fighting Conspiracy Ideologies: Learning from Pandemic Movies to Counter the Post-Factual}, series = {The Post-Truth Era. Literature and Media}, booktitle = {The Post-Truth Era. Literature and Media}, editor = {Abraham, Praveen and Mathew, Raisun}, publisher = {Authors Press}, address = {New Delhi}, isbn = {978-9391314095}, pages = {21 -- 31}, language = {en} } @incollection{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {Youth on its Own: Growing Up in a Lonely Post-Apocalyptic World.}, series = {Screening Children in Post-Apocalypse Film and Television}, booktitle = {Screening Children in Post-Apocalypse Film and Television}, editor = {Olson, Debbie}, publisher = {Lexington Books}, address = {Maryland}, isbn = {978-1-66691-867-0}, pages = {61 -- 80}, language = {en} } @book{Newiak, author = {Newiak, Denis}, title = {The Lonelinesses of Modernity}, publisher = {Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden}, address = {Wiesbaden}, isbn = {9783658401436}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-658-40144-3}, abstract = {Modernity presents itself as an age of increasing social disintegration: secularization and rationalization, urbanization and globalization, individualization and digitalization make it difficult for communities today. Modernity comes with desirable promises that make it attractive, but it does not come free: Its price is escalating modern loneliness. Denis Newiak tells a cultural history of modernization that, from industrialization to the late-modern network society, produces ever new and harsher experiences of loneliness.}, language = {en} }