This research aimed to investigate the desires of the users of the Greek public Library on Gender and Equality (LGE) about a future Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) containing Web2.0 functionalities. The concepts of participation, information pluralism and community building in relation with Web 2.0 tools in libraries’ catalogues were introduced under the theoretical approach provided by Social Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas. Aqualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with users of the LGE wasconducted and the collected data that were analysed with the thematic analysis method,revealed positive users’ impressions regarding the introduction of Web 2.0 tools in theLGE’s OPAC. The research also disclosed users’ desires and suggestions regarding specific Web 2.0 features and their common motivation to participate and contribute to be the opportunity of communicating with like-minded people.

Information has always been strategically relevant for the European Commission, especially during the last thirty years with discussions about a gap in communication and the possible democratic deficit propagating. For that reason, communication was introduced as a policy after 2000. In order to reach specific interests in the Union, the Commission highlighted the importance of the partnership with civil society in 2005 through the “Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate” and its “going local” approach. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the communication strategy of the EU through the lens of one of its regional communication instruments, the Europe Direct relays of information. The relays are a first-hand portal for the citizens to enter into the Union not only by acquiring information but also by transferring their comments and suggestions to Brussels. They form, therefore, a debate platform between citizens and institutions under a European “public sphere.” Nevertheless, research has identified two critical points in their function: the host structure, which intervenes in their administration role, and the European Commission, which provides them with financial support and information services. This thesis seeks to ascertain the success or not of the relays in relation to those two variables. In order to achieve that, the Spanish study case is examined. It will be finally verified if, according to the guidance of the European Commission, the relays fulfill their role in fostering national involvement in supranational activities.

Cette étude se propose de traiter le tiers-lieu en tant qu'objet. De le saisir dans toute sa complexité pour essayer d’en dégager toute la simplicité. Elle appréhende le tiers-lieu comme un concept à définir. Pour y parvenir elle construit une enquête qui se déplie en trois parties. Dans un premier temps, l’objet est approché sous l’angle de la terminologie par une étude des usages courants, professionnels et littéraires du terme, suivi de réflexions sur les notions de lieu et de tiers. Des représentations historiques des tiers-lieux sont ensuite analysées au travers des troisièmes lieux de Ray Oldenburg et de certaines structures sociales de la sphère publique habermassienne notamment les salons et les cafés de la bourgeoisie au XVIIIe siècle. Ce passage en revue permet de délimiter l’objet, d’en clarifier les propriétés et les usages. Il constitue également le point de départ et l’hypothèse d’une enquête exploratoire qui a déterminé la construction d’une posture d’investigation originale nécessairement engagée. Cette enquête s’est déroulée entre 2010 et 2015 auprès de services – espaces de coworking, fablabs, hackerspaces, makerspaces, biohackerspaces, etc. dans leur composition et recomposition successives - qui se désignent ou se présentent explicitement comme des tiers-lieux. Les singularités de ces tiers-lieux, la manière dont ils traduisent des valeurs qualitatives en valeurs juridiques et aussi en valeurs quantitatives, les rapports d’échange et les habitudes critiques des usagers contributeurs ainsi que les régimes de conception sont ensuite théorisés. À partir de l’ensemble de ces informations, une proposition de définition conceptuelle du tiers-lieu est formulée. Celle-ci envisage le tiers-lieu comme une configuration sociale particulière où se produit une rencontre entre des entités individuées qui s’engagent intentionnellement à la conception d’une représentation commune, c’est-à-dire à responsabilité partagée. Des invariants sont enfin posés comme l’esquisse d’une logique opératoire supposée déterminer la présence de la configuration en tiers-lieu. Cette procéduralisation présente une manière d’intervenir sur les règles par la conception de services. C’est ce dépassement de la discursivité qui distingue le tiers-lieu de l’espace public politique. / The object of this research is the tiers-lieu, with the aim of grasping it in all its complexity in order to draw out its simplicity. The research treats the tiers-lieu as a concept to be defined. In order to achieve this, it sets out an investigation in three parts. Firstly, the object is approached from the perspective of terminology through a study of current users, professionals and literary writers’ use of the term, following reflections on the ideas of “lieu” and “tiers”. Historic representations of tiers-lieu are then analysed, through the “third places” of Ray Oldenburg and certain social structures of the Habermasian public sphere, particularly the salons and cafés of the 18th century bourgeoisie. This section, through examination, allows the delimitation of the object, clarifying its characteristics and its uses. It also establishes the starting point and the hypothesis of an exploratory enquiry which necessarily required a research approach involving active engagement. This enquiry was conducted between 2010 and 2015 though active involvement in services – coworking spaces, fablabs, hackerspaces, makerspaces, biohackerspaces, etc. in their composition and subsequent re-composition – which are labelled or present themselves explicitly as tiers-lieux. The singularities of tiers-lieux, the way in which they translate their qualitative values into legal values and quantitative values, the exchange relationships and the critical habits of contributing users together with design structures are then analysed. From all this information, a proposed conceptual definition of tiers-lieu is formulated. This envisages the tiers-lieu as a particular social configuration which produces a meeting between individual entities who engage intentionally in the design of a common representation, that is to say a shared responsibility. Patterns are finally set out in order to outline an operating logic for determining the presence of a tiers-lieu configuration. This procedural approach provides a way of intervening in regulations through the design of services. It is this going beyond discursivity that distinguishes tiers-lieux from the public political arena.

This essay examines tweets published during a measles outbreak in January 2018 with the purpose of highlighting the division among tweets positive and negative toward vaccine, the use of sources and arguments as well as what risks are expressed and how the tweets relate to research and media. The study conducted is based on a combination of a quantitative content analysis followed by a qualitative content analysis. In total 260 Swedish tweets are being analyzed during the study, 18 of them make up the material for the qualitative study, all published 2-5 January 2018. Theories about media and health, post-truth, risk and participation make up the theoretical framework for the conducted study. The results from the study are analyzed through these theories. Results from the quantitative content analysis show that more than half of the tweets mentioning vaccine are positive toward vaccine. Tweets arguing in favor of vaccine use more sentiment in their arguments and those opposing vaccine more often use rational arguments. The quantitative analysis also show that half of the tweets used a source and primarily with the purpose of spreading information. Additionally a majority of those tweets using a source support the source mentioned, sources mostly used are media or authorities/institutions. Almost two-thirds of all tweets express some kind of risk. The risks most frequently expressed are risk of disease, lack of people vaccinated and immigration. Four themes emerge from the qualitative content analysis, two themes among tweets negative toward vaccine and two themes from tweets positive toward vaccine. The negative tweets speak of measles as a harmless disease and the danger of taking vaccine. On the contrary, the positive tweets speak of the dangers of measles and of the lack of people vaccinated as dangerous. / I denna studie undersöks twitterinlägg som publicerats under utbrott av mässling i januari 2018 för att belysa fördelningen mellan inlägg för och mot vaccin, användning av källor och argument samt hur inläggen ger uttryck för risk och även deras förhållande till forskning och media. Studien bygger på en kombinerad metod med en kvantitativ innehållsanalys följt av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Totalt har 260 svenska twitterinlägg ingått i studiens empiriska material, varav 18 ingått i den kvalitativa delen av studien, och samtliga är hämtade 2-5 januari 2018. Teorier om hälsa och medier, post-truth, risk samt deltagande utgör den genomförda studiens teoretiska ramverk. Dessa teorier används för att analysera studiens resultat. Resultatet av den kvantitativa analysen visade att mer än hälften av de inlägg som berörde vaccin var positiva till vaccin. I sin argumentation användes främst emotionella argument hos inlägg positiva till vaccin och logiska argument hos inlägg negativa till vaccin. Den kvantitativa studien visade även att hälften av alla inlägg använt sig av en källa och då främst i syfte att informera, dessutom ställde majoriteten av twitterinläggen sig positiva till den källa de hänvisat till vilket oftast var media eller myndigheter/institutioner. Nästan två tredjedelar av inläggen gav uttryck för risk och då var sjukdom, brist på vaccinerade och invandring de risker som lyftes fram mest. I den kvalitativa delen av studien framkom fyra teman, två för inlägg negativa till vaccin och två för inlägg positiva till vaccin. Inlägg negativa till vaccin talade om hur mässling inte var farligt och att vaccin var farligt. I motsats till detta talade inlägg positiva till vaccin om att mässling var farligt och att brist på vaccinerade var farligt.

This dissertation deals with the concepts glasnost and perestroika during the Gorbachev era 1985–1991. It offers an explanation to the rise and fall of these concepts and casts light on their modern and postmodern implications, as well as their historical and generational preconditions. In light of the Soviet and Russian conceptual history, Gorbachev’s articulation of glasnost and perestroika is contrasted with the reception of these concepts in what at that time came to be called Russian postmodernism. Glasnost and perestroika both confirm and transcend Soviet modernity. They are both future-oriented but at the same time possess retrospective anchorage. The present study reconstructs the experience encapsulated in the concepts, the expectations they unleashed and the tensions they triggered. The Gorbachev era signaled a rupture in the temporal order of modernity. During this time Soviet modernity lost confidence in its self. With glasnost and perestroika a suppressed past opened up which blocked the futurist potential inherent in the present. The concept-theoretical perspective assumed in the dissertation helps explain essential aspects of the dramatic turn of events. Postmodernism’s relationship to the concepts is mainly antagonistic. At the same time glasnost and perestroika were essential to the self-identity creating process of postmodernism and its development of an understanding of a specific late Soviet postmodern situation. Beneath the surface a conflict evolves, constituted in intergenerational terms. The vast differences in deployment of the two key notions appear related to generation specific historical experiences. This is apparent in the glasnost- and perestroika discussions of the 19th and 20th centuries. In several respects the 20th century discourse reflects that of the 19th century. The analysis in the present dissertation demonstrates how Gorbachev, on the basis of his generation-specific experience as a man of the 1960s actively sought to articulate an alternative reconstruction (perestroika) and did so with a distinct ideological accent. The postmodernists, the last Soviet generation, bore the imprint of the stagnation of the Brezhnev era and had no ideal past to resuscitate. Instead of reconstructing social reality they tried to place themselves outside it. This apolitical stance however embodied both anti-political and political implications.

Exploring both political aesthetics and the politics of aesthetics to outline an environmental ruralism for art in public spaces, this practice lead research project postulates a “complemental practice”, outlining its methodology and contexts for operation, the rural, spaces of leisure and the public realm. It is a response to threats to spatial and environmental commons from heritage, place-making and nostalgia, psychological inhibition such as a sense of global contingency and widespread economic exploitation. Responses by artists to this situation can be characterised as a binary of dialogism (Kester, 2004) and relational antagonism (Bishop, 2004), i.e. consensual/collaborative or antagonistic/autonomous practices. Informing both is the work of Jacques Rancière who theorises an ethical and social turn in the arts. Through both commissioned and self-initiated projects this thesis offers an interpretation of Jacques Rancière’s conception of dissensus (Rancière, 2010) modulated through an application of the work of philosopher Slajov Žižek on environmental politics and complementarity - the inscription of the universal within the particular (Žižek, 2011). The thesis’ originality lies in this theoretical synthesis which sets out a complemental practice based on dissensus and the undecidability of subject and context, but which dismisses any inflexible schema of either aesthetic autonomy or ethico-political egalitarianism. In addition it suggests an approach to practice in this field and a situation for this - a dissensual infrastructure for the common public realm which is socially relational and evolutionary over time.

En remontant à la genèse de la réception de La Nuit des Morts-vivants (Romero, 1968) dans la presse américaine entre 1967-1971, la présente recherche vise à élucider sa trajectoire médiatique et, ce faisant, montrer le caractère progressif de sa consolidation en tant que film culte, œuvre d’art et phénomène digne d’intérêt public. L’investigation cherche ainsi à comprendre comment un film qualifié d’« orgie sadique » par sa première critique nationale dans le magazine Variety devient digne d’une projection au Musée d’Art Moderne à New York et donne naissance à de nombreuses interprétations, lancées en 1970 par sa critique européenne. La Nuit sera compris comme un reflet métaphorique à peine déguisé des conflits internes (tensions raciales, l’affaiblissement du patriarcat traditionnel) et externes (guerre du Vietnam) traversés par la société américaine. Au-delà l’immédiateté de ses images violentes de cannibalisme, son contenu sera jugé comme socialement subversif. Au final, ce petit film d’horreur produit par une équipe d’inconnus de Pittsburgh deviendra partie intégrale du patrimoine culturel des États-Unis et donc de la mémoire nationale. C’est dire que le travail des critiques fait bien davantage que d’informer une communauté de lecteurs, spectateurs, auditeurs, au sujet d’une nouvelle sortie culturelle. La tâche journalistique consistant à informer des publics anonymes est également une opération de médiation. En présentant La Nuit des Morts-vivants comme un miroir de la société, les critiques font de l’imaginaire une source de réflexion sur le vivre ensemble. Ce faisant, ils permettent à une collectivité nationale d’une société démocratique caractérisée par la communication de masse de se donner à voir à elle-même et d’avoir prise sur son passé et ses propres actions. / The present research follows George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead’s reception in the American press between 1967 and 1971. The analysis of the film’s media career shows how it progressively becomes consolidated as a public phenomenon, cult film and a work of art. The aim of the investigation is to understand by what means a film qualified by its first national review in Variety as an “orgy of sadism” becomes worthy of projection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the object of numerous interpretations, initiated by European critics in 1970. Night will be interpreted as a barely disguised metaphor of interior and exterior conflicts that shook the United States in the late Sixties (racial tensions, weakening of the traditional patriarchy, Vietnam War). Beyond the immediacy of its violent imagery of cannibalism, its content will be seen as socially and politically subversive. In the end, this little horror film made by some Pittsburgh-based amateurs will be integrated into United States’ cultural heritage, i.e. the national memory. This indicates that (film) critics do more than just inform their readership about new cultural releases. A journalist’s job consisting of spreading information to anonymous audiences is also an operation of mediation. By presenting Night of the Living Dead as a mirror of the American society, the critics take up the imaginary as a source for reflection on the commonly shared world. By doing so, they enable a national collectivity of a democratic society characterized by mass communication to see itself and to have control on its own history and actions.

Cette recherche a pour objectif de comprendre le rôle des chaînes internationales d’information à l’ère de la mondialisation : la tension et l’harmonisation entre l’objectif de diplomatie publique de la chaîne internationale d’information et les principes journalistiques ; le rôle des chaînes internationales d’information pour l’espace public global dans le monde « trans-nationalisé ». Afin de répondre à ces questions, dans une perspective constructiviste, nous avons analysé les missions annoncées par les chaînes sélectionnées (CNN International, France 24, BBC World News, NHK World TV, Arirang TV et Al-Jazeera English) puis leur contenu réel : la programmation et le contenu journalistique. Les résultats d’analyse nous démontrent que les chaînes considèrent et réalisent implicitement leur rôle de diplomate public et soulignent explicitement les principes journalistiques. Enfin, nous avons trouvé que les chaînes internationales d’information fonctionnent comme une infrastructure de communication internationale, en réalisant un double objectif et une double identité à cause du croisement de deux acteurs principaux concernés au sein de la chaîne internationale d’information : le gouvernement et les professionnels du journalisme. De plus, les efforts qui peuvent montrer « l’objectivité » et « le respect des principes journalistiques » des chaînes internationales conduisent ces dernières à jouer un rôle dans la sphère publique internationale, notamment grâce aux émissions participatives et interactives, ainsi que par les dispositifs d’interaction et de discussion. / This research aims to understand the role of international 24-hour TV news channels in the era of globalization: the tension and balance between the role of the international news channel for public diplomacy and the respect for journalistic principles; the role of international news channels for the global public space in the transnationalised world. In order to answer these questions, we analysed their missions announced by the selected channels (CNN International, France 24, BBC World News, NHK World TV, Arirang TV and Al-Jazeera English) and their media content with a constructivist perspective. The results show that the channels implicitly realize their role for public diplomacy and explicitly emphasize the journalistic principles. Finally, we found that international news channels work as an international communications infrastructure phenomenally with dual goal and a dual identity. In addition, the result shows that the international 24-hour TV news channels try to play a role as international public sphere through participatory and interactive programs.

Esta tese tem como objetivo central analisar, através das folhas operárias que circularam no Amazonas na Primeira República, como os seus militantes estabeleceram contatos, conexões e interações e, no seio dos circuitos desenhados, elaboraram e fizeram circular projetos de identidade operária que, de forma imbricada, tinham como finalidade a criação de espaços políticos legítimos de mudança social. Para isso, utilizou-se a imprensa operária como tema e objeto central de análise e reflexão histórica, abordando-a numa perspectiva que a toma como objeto e fonte de estudo concomitantemente. Desse modo, num primeiro momento, procurou-se identificar os militantes que estavam por trás dos jornais voltados aos trabalhadores para, em seguida, entender como eles costuraram relações com lideranças de outros estados e até de outros países. Nesse intento, a análise de redes sociais foi importante, pois possibilitou a visualização dos contatos, das conexões e das interações da militância operária, contribuindo, assim, para a compreensão da movimentação de ideias sociais e políticas que dinamizaram o movimento operário local Em seguida, certificou-se que, nas redes visualizadas, a fração organizada dos operários elaborou (e fez circular nelas) projetos de identidade operária que caminharam em duas direções: a primeira, de unidade do operariado em geral, vislumbrava o reconhecimento e a distinção em relação a outros setores sociais (sobretudo o patronato e as “classes perigosas”) e tinha como pilar a posição de que o trabalhador era o elemento propulsor da sociedade, criador da riqueza e do “progresso” de um país; o segundo, de diferenças e distinções internas (entre os trabalhadores), evidenciava a diversidade existente no mundo do trabalho. Para perceber esse processo foi utilizado o conceito de projeto e de identidade. Por fim, verificou-se que essas conexões e interações estabelecidas pelas lideranças e a construção de projetos de identidade direcionados aos operários surgiram no sentido de promover a constituição de espaços políticos que concorressem para mudanças sociais. Neste caso, utilizou-se a categoria de esfera pública na perspectiva habermasiana. Confirmou-se que as lideranças operárias intentavam constituir uma esfera pública, visando atingir os espaços deliberativos, de decisão política. / This thesis aims to analyze, through the workers' works that circulated in Amazonas in the First Republic, how its militants established contacts, connections and interactions and, within the circuits drawn, elaborated and circulated projects of worker identity that, in a way imbricated, aimed at creating legitimate political spaces for social change. For this, the working press was used as the central theme and object of analysis and historical reflection, approaching it in a perspective that takes it as object and source of study concomitantly. Thus, at first, we sought to identify the militants behind the workers' newspapers and then to understand how they sewed relations with leaders from other states and even from other countries. In this attempt, the analysis of social networks was important because it made possible the visualization of the contacts, connections and interactions of workers 'militancy, thus contributing to the understanding of the movement of social and political ideas that stimulated the local workers' movement Next, it was verified that in the networks seen, the organized fraction of the workers elaborated (and circulated in them) projects of workers' identity that walked in two directions: the first one, of unit of the working class in general, glimpsed the recognition and distinction in relation to other social sectors (especially the patronage and the "dangerous classes") and had as a pillar the position that the worker was the driving force of the society, creator of the wealth and "progress" of a country; the second, of internal differences and distinctions (among workers), showed the diversity in the world of work. To understand this process was used the concept of design and identity. Finally, it was verified that these connections and interactions established by the leaderships and the construction of projects of identity directed to the workers suggest in the sense of promoting the constitution of political spaces that concur for social changes. In this case, the category of public sphere in Habermasian perspective was used. It was confirmed that the workers' leaders tried to constitute a public sphere, aiming to reach the deliberative spaces, of political decision.

This thesis explores the manner in which political-economic forces born of democratisation have shaped media developments in Zambia, affected the welfare of journalists and the viability of the state owned press epitomised by the Times Newspapers. The aim is to inform the privatisation policy discourse. Using a political economy analysis, the thesis unveils the historical intimacy between nationalist administrations and multinational business elites and how these forces - often working in collusion - influenced patterns of media ownership, inhibited labour rights and controlled communicative activity – indicative of how the state and markets can constrain freedom of expression and association, despite democratisation. The thesis contends that the uncertainty of neo-patrimonial conditions that characterised the post colonial era has not dissipated to a great extent and continues to undermine media and institutional reform in today’s liberally inclined Zambia. Pervasive clientelism has also compromised popular perceptions of state media systems, subverting competitiveness and the propagandist function of the Times Newspapers in the liberalised market, a point empirically illustrated through the analysis of market and public opinion data. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)