This thesis explores the impact of political discourses on the construction of the issue-culture of East Timor in Portugal, and analyses media representations of East Timor from 1975 up to 1999. The research looks specifically at the discourses and strategies of the state and those groups who challenged establishment views of the issue, namely NGOs campaigning for the territory and the Timorese resistance. On the basis of material gathered through media stories, political documents and interviews, the research argues that media coverage was driven by the political framing of East Timor; that challenge groups were more successful in defining the terms of coverage when they sought resonance with larger cultural themes; and that changing media practices impacted dramatically on the news narrative. It concludes that East Timor was legitimised once it was transformed into a domestic issue, and articulated with ideological versions of identity and history reminiscent of the Portuguese Empire.

Music journalism has been acknowledged as an important space of mediation between artists and consumers. Journalists and critics have played an historical role in the creation of discourse on popular music and are acknowledged by the music industry as an important referent in promotion strategies. Research on the subject has been mostly focused either on the relationship between music journalism and the wider music industry in which it operates or on its status as a field of cultural production. Little consideration has been given to the role played by music journalists in articulating popular music with wider political, social and cultural concerns. This thesis will examine the case-study of Portuguese popular music journalism. It will address its historical evolution and current status by taking into consideration some dimensions, namely, the wider institutional contexts that frame the status of music journalism and how they work upon it, the ideologies and values realised in journalistic discourse, the journalists’ relationship to the music industry (as represented by record labels/companies and concert promotion companies) and issues of interactivity with readers. The thesis will draw on theories of the public sphere and, to a lesser extent, on Bourdieu’s notions of field, capital and habitus to assess the possibilities for music journalism to create reasoned discourse on popular music and, therefore, contribute to wider debates on the public sphere of culture.