This thesis examines the effect that archival silences have had on historical narratives surrounding Northern Ireland's most popular television broadcaster, Ulster Television (UTV). It aims to discover what categories of archival silences are evident regarding UTV, the impact they have had on our understanding of the station's history and whether recovery strategies used in other classes of archive could be employed to recover some of the resultant 'missing' knowledge. iii These questions are explored through six case studies, each of which aims to illuminate different aspects of the issue of silences within television archives and histories. The case studies have been constructed through analysis of contemporary media reports, regulatory archives, participant interviews and an examination of surviving visual material, some of which was thought lost for over 40 years but was rediscovered during this study. The thesis concludes that archival silences have had a profound impact on our understanding of UTV' s history and development. They have obscured the extent of the station's contribution to UK broadcasting and the sometimes innovative nature of its early programming. They have restricted our knowledge about how the station's producers and policymakers addressed the issue of the Northern Irish Troubles. In addition, a significant amount of material relating to UTV's engagement with and contribution to local popular culture has been permanently lost. The study also highlights the complex nature of the causes behind silences evident in UK television archives. While many resulted from a lack of awareness of the cultural value of television programming, it is evident that issues relating to finance, cultural legitimacy and the construction of corporate narratives also had a significant impact on how broadcasters preserved and presented their archival material.

The Bush administration has charged that reporters at Al Jazeera and other Arab media outlets are biased against the US. Whether or not such an allegation is true, it raises the central question of what influences are at work on Arab journalists at this crucial time of turmoil in the region and change in Arab media. What are their core values? To what degree do religious beliefs and ethno-nationalist attitudes shape their coverage? How do they view US policy and other regional and international issues? What do they define as the role of a journalist in the modem Arab and/or Islamic worlds? This study analyzes the responses of 517 Arab journalists who participated in the first broad, regional survey examining attitudes and values. It found that Arab journalists see the achievement of political and social change as the prime mission of Arab journalism and cited "democrat" as their primary political identity. When the views of self-declared "secular" and "religious" Muslim journalists were compared, there was little statistical difference in their attitudes on all but issues related to the role of clerics in Arab society.

As the written component to a practical PhD, the arguments contained in this thesis developed out of a direct engagement with the practical processes of producing a film that represents the traumatic experiences of actual people. The main aim of the thesis is to explore alternative approaches to the docudramatic genre by problematising major dilemmas involved with the production of 'real' images. Consequently, established conventions as well as theoretical arguments related to docudrama, are investigated in a way that seeks to broaden the concept of what constitutes 'representing the real'. In this regard, the notion that docudrama has the ability to 'bridge' gaps in historical experience, is explored by problematising the view that docudrama represents events through realistic codes and conventions only. I do so by considering inter alia ethical ambiguities that often remain unacknowledged during the documentation of real events. This is motivated by what Andrew Britton terms the 'documentary effect', which shows that documentary production uses methods of creating images similar to those of fiction. With this in mind, the thesis builds on what Linda Hutcheon calls 'historiographic metafiction' in that it argues for the validity of images that historicise the past by drawing attention to the constructed nature of historical representations of any kind. Interpretive recreation is therefore placed at the centre of my research in order to explore the possibilities of investigating the past. This investigation is conducted by means of particular consideration of the dynamics involved with remembering traumatic events. Human response (that is, human emotion) is therefore highlighted in the process of examining the subjective dimension as a legitimate form of historical representation. The notion of aesthetic fragmentation thus forms a key element of the project. Based on a number of Brechtian theories and 'post-modern' strategies such as 'hyperfiction' and 'transfiction', the value of self-reflexively representing memory is proposed. As the memory of the past is shown to be distinctively fragmented, yet no less 'authentic', the re-presented historical space is placed under particular scrutiny. Ultimately, my thesis presents a view that blends various kinds of spaces, pointing towards the possibilities of a form that combines so-called objective modes (documentary) with subjective experience (memory) to create a docudramatic perspective that could more effectively offer an ethical portrayal of the past. This I term documemory.

The research journey which this practice-led project undertook describes and analyses the use of documentary filmmaking in the audio visual recording of memories from political conflict. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, three distinct, but related, research questions can be identified. The first and most consistent asks what is the significance of collaboration between the filmmaker and the participants. The second questions the effect of location on the performance and structure of memory-telling. The third asks to what use the edited material can be put in both personal and public spheres. The thesis is published in both written and audio visual interrelated texts, which can be read separately but benefit from being read in reference to each other. Four DVDs cover memories from the Troubles in the North of Ireland (1970-2000) and one DVD addresses the legacy of the Apartheid era in South Africa. The written text contextualises and reflects on the audio visual recording processes and productions.

This study analyses the behavior of Internet users interested in producing their own documentary videos and assesses the characteristics and techniques that govern the production of such videos. The development and global diffusion of Internet 2.0 technologies have facilitated a rapid proliferation of user-generated video, of varying quality and aesthetic seriousness, on the Internet in recent years. These videos are produced by amateur Internet users, and express the dominant social, cultural, and political trends of their respective milieux while also reflecting the new availability of affordable mobile cameras and editing software. These new tools are helping thousands of ordinary people to explore their political and artistic concerns in an unprecedented, public way. User-generated video is increasingly considered a valid source of information by mainstream media networks, to the point that it is even coming to occupy a central role in some forms of news broadcasting. This study raises an essential question: Can we view user-generated amateur video as a new form of documentary? From this question there derive other important questions about the various forms that these new videos take, the ways that they are produced, the expertise of the people who make them, the distinctive characteristics, if any, of their content, and the extent to which their makers comply with the ethical standards of professional documentary-making. The theoretical part of this study explains the concept of the professional documentary, its formal characteristics, modes, and ethical requirements, as well as highlighting the differences between documentary, news and reality TV. A working definition of user-generated video will then be proposed in light of developments in media studies and new media theory. The practical part of the study centres on an e-workshop for non-professional documentary-makers in Egypt called egdoc. The workshop is set up in such a way as to allow the behavior of amateur users of the site to be analysed and ultimately compared with the behavior of professional documentary-makers. The launching of the egdoc website coincided with the aftermath of the revolution which began in Egypt on 25 January 2011. This dramatic context, and the unprecedented quantity of amateur video documenting revolutionary events, generated a healthy level of interest in the egdoc project and soon gave rise to an adequate sample of amateur video. The egdoc study also serves, in its own right, as a valuable snapshot of Egyptian public opinion in the historic period that it covers. The most important lesson gleaned from the egdoc experience was that the distinction between professional and user-generated amateur documentary is fast becoming blurred. Some of the users of egdoc can hardly be described as amateurs when you compare their final product with a professional production in terms of either content or form. In addition, the egdoc experience suggests that political and social circumstances may contribute to the development of new forms of non-professional documentary in the future.

This thesis is centrally concerned with the historical development and performance of two sectors which have together constituted the mainstay of the British mass media, namely terrestrial broadcasting and the printed press. It sets out to discover how and why two sectors born of the same national setting, and whose regulatory arrangements were formally constructed in historical perspective at roughly the same moment in time, have developed to be so different. It argues that part of the answer lies in an explanatory variable neglected by existing accounts of British media development, namely the institutional variable. Thus, whilst incorporating insights from leading accounts that view British media development from 'outside in'; as the product of external forces acting upon media institutions; this thesis constructs a complementary account of British media development which emphasises how and why Britain's foremost mass media have been heavily dependent on their prior institutional histories. For the purposes of concision, the thesis refers to this perspective as the view from 'inside out'. To make its case, the thesis applies concepts drawn from the historical institutionalist (HI) school of political science, such as historical timing and sequence, self-reinforcing positive feedback, institutional isomorphism, path dependence, windows of opportunity and critical junctures, exploring how and why the institutional structures of the British press and British broadcasting developed over time, and outlining why an HI perspective adds significant value to the current knowledge base. The thesis comes in three parts. In Part One, the respective performances of British broadcasting and the British press under formal regulation are analysed. In Part Two, the sectoral differences identified in Part One are explained, first by means of three leading narratives that perceive media development from 'outside in'; and secondly via a HI account which views development from 'inside out'. Finally, in Part Three, the thesis focuses upon the current state of play and longer term prospects of the institution of British public service broadcasting. There it considers whether, in light of current powerful external forces of change, a regulatory policy paradigm shift has occurred. Though it does not discount the propensity for change in the current climate, it argues that the path dependent nature of three recent significant policy developments shows that, even in the digital age, media institutions and their histories continue to matter.

Obesity affects people worldwide and in Western Europe, Britain and Germany have among the highest rates. It is thus unsurprising that research has tried to identify its causes. The media have been found to play a role - media use correlates with weight gain. The media can also affect obesity in another way - by featuring news articles which discuss certain aspects of obesity rather than others the media can, like a window, frame these aspects as especially applicable to how obesity should be understood and addressed. Informed by framing theory, this research integrated the study of: 1) news media content with the study of its antecedents - by analysing factors affecting news production; 2) news media content with the study of accompanying readers’ comments to identify correlations that may be used as a starting point for researching the consequences of news media exposure; 3) texts and photographs which together make up news media content. This study asked: 1) what frames did news articles employ and with what frequency; 2) were news articles in what emerged as the most frequently used frame also driven by the highest number of distinct news values and did significant differences in the use of frames exist between media outlets of different political leanings and reporting styles; 3) was frame use in news articles significantly correlated with frame use in readers’ comments. It emerged that: 1) among the frames of ‘medical progress’, ‘self-control’, ‘education’, ‘environments’, ‘acceptance’ and ‘coming out’, ‘self-control’ was most frequently used; 2) its use was not explained by the concentration of distinct news values, yet significant differences in frame use between media outlets lent themselves to explanation via political leaning and reporting style; 3) frame use in news articles was significantly correlated with frame use in readers’ comments except ‘self-control’.

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The thesis is a development of the making of the documentary tape L'Artiste. Le Fermier et Le Paysag. The central argument is to propose a way of looking at documentary based on the possibility of making and examining documentary material which combines narrative and non-narrative techniques and on the value of comparing non-actor contributions to improvised performance processes and outcomes. The purpose of this approach is to produce an effect upon the viewer where the viewer engages in working out what is happening within an array of possible meanings contained within the audio-visual pattern. The qualitative effect is to offer the viewer pleasure, recognition and a game of intellectual inquiry and assessment. The whole activity is termed the non-linear improvised approach to documentary. It places the maker in an ethical relationship with the participants and aims to create a democratic state of affairs for the viewer. Key areas of concern are firstly to examine the role of the participant and maker, before and during shooting. The participant develops confidence with the maker and at the time of shooting he or she is in a state of being to produce a performance which can be described as a line of energy drawn from his/her personality. Secondly, within the overall structure of the documentary attention is given to the opening, the ending and the overall patterning. Each scene produces many moments of meaning (beats) reinforcing the main theme which itself contains a cluster of meanings. Comparisons with silent cinema, the films of Jacques Tati and music hall comedians aim to illuminate the discussion. A key consequence of the non-linear improvised approach is to consider sound and image on an equal footing combining to produce a distinct style. Sound becomes a series of elements - dialogues, atmos. tracks, music and spot effects - which all have a role in the production of beats. Voice elements can be seen as much for their intrinsic poetic qualities as for their objective statements about the social world.

Utilising a practice-based methodology, this study is concerned with the construction processes of documentary films that seek to record traumatic stories from victims and survivors of conflict. The implications for participants and the integrity of the work are explored by employing various filmic strategies across three original documentary film productions, created for this study. In particular, this study is concerned with the manifestation of emotion in documentary. The motivation for this research comes from the author's substantive professional experience in the production of broadcast documentary and television news outputs in the period immediately after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. Meeting victims, survivors and former combatants, often years after significant traumatic events in their lives, it was striking how recounting their 'lived experience' on camera, was still a highly emotional experience for many. Bound up in the recording process of these stories, are significant ethical and editorial challenges for the filmmaker. The overarching aim of this study was to contribute to an informed understanding of how trauma functions in the making of documentary film work about conflict. This work is not immediately concerned with the processes of evidence based 'truth recovery'. The modes of truth explored here are memory based and distinct from the juridical procedures of a court of law. Rather the study concentrates on the praxis of the filmmaker in documentary, where the participants have experienced significant trauma in their lifetime. This research also examines the representation of trauma; how the filmmaker presents this emotion, and how creative decisions influence collective or societal memory formation. All of which has received little scholarly attention in a medium largely concerned with 'representing the real'. Emotion in this study should be read as a complex set of interconnecting 'feeling states' collectively described as trauma. The contention is that where trauma manifests, so too can be found a significant number of difficult ethical, moral and editorial challenges for the filmmaker. This study seeks therefore, to interrogate the processes of 'managing' emotion in the production of new film work where testimony is a core component. The practice based methodology employed, led to the creation of three self-authored documentary films featuring stories from victims and survivors of the Northern Ireland conflict known as the Troubles, and the Siege of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. These films, We Carried Your Secrets (Keeney, 2010), We Are Not Afraid (Keeney, 2012) and Release (Keeney, 2013), can be viewed as a development of the author's own approach to documenting traumatic events of conflict. Each film provided the context for a case study that emerged chronologically over the period of the study, whereby each film in turn, explored core research questions such as the implications for participants when recalling traumatic memories of conflict on camera; how the production process and creative decisions of the filmmaker impact on the integrity of these stories and finally, the third film sought to understand the value or contribution these films make to the record of the conflict, in the context of work not motivated by 'truth recovery'. This study will argue that emotion is a modifier of memory and that documenting 'emotional' testimony has significant implications for the participant and the audience's reception of the story. This study also found that the use of artifice or fictive devices by the filmmaker alters how these films' function in relation to wider memory formation in a post-conflict society, but that these films do have an intrinsic value to the record of conflict. This study attempts to outline a number of interventions in the field of documentary production. It asks for greater support for victims and survivors during and after their contribution to the production process. It also suggests that a more profound understanding of the cognitive processing at work in these engagements can be beneficial for the participant, the integrity of the stories and to the creative process. The need to find a research paradigm that offered a means to articulate these findings, led to an engagement with cognitive film theory and recent scholarship around its application to documentary. This study suggests the use of cognitive theory as a synthesizing tool for conceptualizing an approach to making documentary films. The focus of cognitive studies remains on spectatorship. This study is not proposing a new theory but rather it attempts to reverse engineer the process. On a practical level this can enable the filmmaker to attach creative solutions to problems of representing or evoking emotion and on the theoretical level, this approach offers insight on how the film work might be received having made those decisions.