This thesis aims to uncover how Iran was represented in the British Print Press from 1989-2005. The period under analysis marked a new phase in Anglo-Iranian relations in which Iran sought improved relations with Britain primarily for economic reasons. This study will combine Critical Discourse Analysis with a Corpus Based Analysis using Monoconc Pro 2.2 a computer based concordance software package. The Corpus Based Analysis allows large corpus files to be analysed and provides quantitative findings which can support the qualitative analysis. The newspapers selected for the combined analysis were the The Times and the Guardian. Article selection was based on the presence of certain words appearing in the headline throughout the time frame. To facilitate analysis of the Sun and the Mirror which were not available on Lexis for the whole time frame, a qualitative only analysis was also conducted on all papers using four keys events. The study found that Iran is represented as a ‘threat’ through its link to terrorism and most notably the nuclear issue. In addition the study found that generally the media follow government policy in its coverage of Iran. Coverage was overwhelmingly political however both of the broadsheet papers did feature examples of social and cultural focused articles. Social and cultural reporting provides an opportunity for newspaper readers to gain an insight into aspects of Iranian life.

This study uses an ethnographic approach (in-depth interviews and newsrooms observations) combined with Critical Discourse Analysis to closely interrogate how journalists in four Nigerian print newsrooms; The Punch, Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune and Guardian, appropriate ‘alternative media’ content and new media technologies in their newsmaking practices. The choice of these four newsrooms enables a detailed reading of how the process of appropriating new media technologies and alternative media content takes place in Nigerian print newsrooms. The study explores how and whether (or not) these appropriations are impacting on institutional practices of Nigerian print journalists. It also sheds light on the spaces which new media technologies negotiate in these newsrooms and how these journalists negotiate the appropriation of alternative media content. Beyond the everyday newsmaking practices, the study uses the reporting of two key events; the Nigerian elections of 2011 and the Occupy Nigeria protests of 2012 to show how journalists in Nigerian print newsrooms negotiate their appropriation of alternative media content and new media technologies in reporting key events. Together, these examples highlight the creative appropriation of new media technologies in Nigerian print newsrooms and the need to avoid technological determinist perspectives which totalise experiences elsewhere as being universal. The study therefore reinvigorates the continued relevance of newsroom ethnography and argues that a sociological approach, which importantly considers local context imperatives, remains useful in understanding how Nigerian print journalists appropriate new media technologies and the resulting alternative journalisms. The findings of the study provide useful insights into the journalistic cultures in Nigerian print newsrooms and highlights how these journalists negotiate their appropriation of alternative media content. While the (disruptive) impact of new media technologies on newsmaking practices in these newsrooms cannot be ignored, the study finds that a number of local context factors constrain and shape how appropriations take place in these newsrooms. Thus, Nigerian print journalists appropriate alternative media and new media technologies to suit traditional journalistic practices. The study’s contribution to knowledge therefore lies in acknowledging that, beyond binary assumptions about the impact of new media technologies on journalism practices in Africa, particularly Nigeria, there is the need to consider the creative and complex ways in which journalists in these contexts appropriate these technologies. This study should thus be read as a step towards that end.

"Without techniques of visualization, without symbolic forms, without mass media…risks are nothing at all.” (Beck, 2006: 332) There is considerable disparity in the media's profile, prominence and portrayal of climate change when measured against the issue's evidence base. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal (IPCC, 2013: 4) with unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (ibid: 11), which are extremely likely to have been caused by human activities (ibid: 17). At its unchecked worst, climate change has the capacity to "alter the sustainability of life on earth as we know it" (Lewis, 2012: 260). In order “[t]o manage the grave risks of climate change effectively, the world must build a zero carbon energy system by the second half of this century” (Green & Stern, 2014: 9). Despite these warnings, climate change has failed to align with news agendas in the UK. Its visibility and presentation in the media is significantly awry with scientific, technical and socio-economic predictions. Instead, terrorism and the threat facing the West from Islamic extremists has commanded more media attention and been treated with greater urgency and less scrutiny than climate change (Lewis, 2012: 260). Whilst it is at odds with research, which indicate that terrorism is a minor, among global threats (Abbott et al, 2006: 4), Islamic-terrorism has come to calibrate the definition of ‘risk’ in the modern Western world. Parallels are drawn between the differing treatment of climate change and terrorism in the media and in political responses (see for example Lewis, 2012; Sunstein, 2006; Kahan, 2013), but no research has yet empirically compared the disparity in media coverage of these risks in more detail. This research addresses that gap and presents the findings of a content analysis designed to comparatively examine reporting of climate change and terrorism over a 14-year period (from January 1999-December 2012) in five British newspapers – The Guardian, The Times, the Daily Mirror, The Independent and the Daily Mail. As a result, this study finds that climate change is 'undone' by the lack of a strong, grand narrative in the British press, with the issue defined in some instances according to a newspaper's ideological position. The terrorism media narrative is concentrated around incident and response while climate change is diffuse, and the discourse of action offset by the alignment of the issue as a predominantly future based risk with financial implications. Competing and antagonistic messages between climate change and terrorism in the media present ‘others’ simultaneously as both victim and enemy, while climate change is also often the subject of debate. Discursive ownership of climate change, when compared to terrorism, is disparate as is the impact of the issue, which lacks a British hallmark. This research argues that what the media says matters (Lewis, 2012: 268). Recalibrating climate change into a concentrated narrative that joins causes, impact and action may have positive implications for those at the forefront of climate communication: scientists, academics and charities/pressure groups. I suggest that comparing risks rather than addressing them individually and taking a 'politicized reading' of newspaper reporting (Carvalho, 2007: 240) may further our understanding of the representation of global risks in the media.

While many comparative studies reveal how a given medium determines narrative in ways distinct from others, I uniquely consider within this thesis the highly variable structure of a single given medium and the resultant implications for storyworlds and their presentations. Focusing upon the production of serial narrative within multiple media, I map the intricate processes by which cultural industries inform narrative diversity. Through the introduction of my dimensions of specificity model, I account for diachronically- and synchronically-variable conditions of narrative design within a given medium, revealing the complex interactions between media and narrative that are frequently overlooked. Via the model, I identify the ways in which narrative design processes are, within a medium, specific to the historically changeable configurations of a particular market. I examine in tum how, within a given market, these narrative design processes are further specific to the particular requirements of an intended audience, the particular technologies of production, distribution and consumption, and the particular economic strategy and production culture of a commissioning media institution. Chapter one historicises the project by exploring the relevance of this model to nineteenth-century British literary-serial fiction; it takes into account the ramifications to narrative of contrasting specificities within markets, audiences, institutions and technologies of the Victorian era. The remaining three chapters each consider in depth a single dimension of specificity in relation to a particular contemporary US media industry. Chapter two analyses the dimension of institutional specificity within the context of US television; it distinguishes between the economic models of network, basic cable and premium cable institutions, gauging the unique implications of each system to the narrative design processes of primetime drama series. Chapter three investigates the contingency of narrative upon the dimension of audience specificity within the US comic-book industry; it examines how publishers' endeavours to court audiences beyond their dedicated niche-readership have impacted upon writing and illustrating practices. Chapter four charts the significance of the dimension of technological specificity to narratives within the videogame home-console market; it explores the connections between an industrially enforced technological-upgrade culture and the ongoing development of story-driven videogame series. Through this tracing of the variable ways by which cultural industries can influence storyworlds and their presentations, I provide with this thesis a necessarily nuanced understanding of the relationship between narrative and media.

This investigation of the origins and impact of the 'new reportage' in the '30s interrogates the 'dominant tradition' of documentary, i.e. an 'objective' recording of facts and historical events, by reconstructing an alternative 'broken' tradition of radical reporting which was both 'counterfactual' and criticised the status of documents (including photographs and film) as privileged forms of realistic representation. The implications of Russian Formalist 'defamiliarization' led to an avant-garde 'literature of fact' in the USSR and Weimar Germany, inspired by John Reed's Ten Days that Shook the World, with the potential not only to represent suppressed facts but to subvert 'automatized' concepts, thus challenging official paradigms defining historically significant data and putting the model of reality constructed by dominant ideology under strain, as the work of the LEF group and Egon Erwin Kisch shows. The new reportage was self- consciously mediating and 'bared its devices', often using montage to expose the construetedness of discourses. Hence the thesis maps the growth of a parallel alternative reportage in '30s Britain which did not simply resuscitate the realistic project of Naturalism but built on the Modernist legacy, examining in detail the work of Orwell, Sommerfield, Priestley, and Hanley among others. The thesis focuses on prose forms of reportage, from individual I-witnessing in articles and autobiographies, to 'participant observation', documentary novels, encyclopaedism, Mass-Observation and photojournalism, outlining the historical and cultural factors which gave reportage literary prominence at the time, as well as issues, such as unemployment, poverty and Appeasement, which it represented. Consequently, it explores the ways and means by which new reporters expressed their awareness of connections between political and cultural representation, in order to question authorized representations of fact and the sanctioned national self-image.

The works presented here constitute an examination of the impact of new media technologies (focusing on social media) on the practice of journalism, with an emphasis on integrating empirical and sociological research. The use of a combination of content analysis, interviews and personal reflections and columns by journalists, case studies and observations, serves to verify and triangulate the evidence. The use of a comprehensive model to examine and analyse media products is a substantial contribution to the field of journalism studies. Previous studies that focused on new media technologies tended to either simply describe these technologies and their potential for change, or to analyse them purely in relationship to older technologies and processes, reducing both forms of practice to a tautological definition: each is that which the other is not. Taking a clear snapshot of the current landscape, and examining it without reference to specific technologies or past practices, the model allows for clear examination of relationships and practices, without being limited by the previous analyses. A number of key themes emerge from research: the tension between the potential of new technologies to expand and improve journalistic practice and output is countered by the fear that the technology will render journalists and their practices redundant. The impact of economic forces is also apparent in the research. The economic structures that underpin journalism were undergoing substantial changes as new media was introduced, and have undergone additional changes as a result of the social and usage changes that technology has wrought. Technology cannot be abstracted from society and economics, and this interrelationship is apparent in the development of the model of the new media ecology which we developed. The work expands on ideas of the first wave of sociological research into the practice of journalism, taking the methods and ideas and applying them to current environments. The iterative development of a model for the new media environments, and its application to empirical and observed research is a key contribution to the field.

This is a novel study of the German press’ visual and textual coverage of the wars in Bosnia (1992-95) and Kosovo (1998-99). Key moments have been selected and analysed from both wars using a broad range of publications ranging from extreme-right to extreme-left and including broadsheets, a tabloid and a news-magazine, key moments have been selected from both wars. Two sections with parallel chapters form the core of the thesis. The first deals with the war in Bosnia and the second the conflict in Kosovo. Each section contains one chapter on the initial phase of the conflict, one chapter on an important atrocity – namely the Srebrenica Massacre in Bosnia and the Račak incident in Kosovo – and lastly a chapter each on the international involvement which ended the immediate violence. The coverage of nine national publications is closely examined for each timeframe. The thesis examines how the various events were covered, what sources were used and what insights the publications conveyed. Where possible, a further comparative perspective has been added by the inclusion of German parliamentary debates and the relevant UN press releases. This provides a useful comparison between the political discourse and the coverage of the German press. Special attention has been paid to four key themes, which emerged from the research. Firstly, the changing perceptions of the Serbian President Slobodan Milošević and the issue of who was to blame for the conflicts; secondly, how various armed forces, including the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army and the Kosovo Liberation Army were presented in the German press; thirdly, the persistent presence of the Second World War as well as the Holocaust and how they shaped the press’ interpretation of the violence; and lastly, how Germany’s role in the Balkans – both in the realms of diplomacy and military intervention – was evaluated by the national press. Pictures and cartoons accompanying the textual coverage were included to present a more rounded picture of press coverage.

This research is concerned with how journalists discursively construct their world of work and identity. In studies of news production journalists are frequently utilised as a source of information and explanation about processes and news values, as a means of describing the ‘real’ world of news. However, conversations with journalists have been largely treated by scholars as the transparent neutral information about production practices rather than a discursive practice in itself. In this piece of research the talk itself is moved centre stage and becomes the focus of analysis. Discourse analysis has been extensively applied to the output of television news yet this methodological approach has been underdeveloped in the area of production studies. This research project aims to address this gap by drawing on the work of discursive psychology (Potter & Wetherell 1987, Potter 1996, Billig 1996) to examine the rhetorical discourse of television journalists. I will argue that a more discursive approach to news production studies yields a more nuanced understanding of the culture and practice.

To establish how women are portrayed in the press, the dissertation offers findings from a content analysis of 1,050 news accounts of women drawn from three Zambian newspapers in 1991, 1995 and 1999. These findings are supported by a textual reading of a smaller number of news accounts examining how media construct women in politics as they are representatives of other women in general. The dissertation concludes that news accounts of women in the Zambian press to some extent contribute to their continued marginalisation in society

This study explores how stories of 'lived experience' are used in journalism and journalism education. As a piece of biographical research, it seeks to analyse the relationship between autobiography and journalism in an age, which has been described as 'autobiographical' (Plummer, 2001). Its principal feature is a series of in-depth interviews with high profile, experienced broadcast journalists who reflect on their experiences as journalism educators at the BBC College of Journalism. The role of personal stories in journalism education is considered, since stories are 'hard-wired' into journalism as a craft (Marr, 2004). The research is informed by Mishler's (1999) study of craftartists' narratives of identity and the notion of journalism as craft-artistry emerges as a theme. It also considers the ways in which stories are told and re-told, referring to Denzin's (1989) concept of interpretive biography and 'pentimento' as well as the importance of time, memory, location and the role of epiphanies in self-stories. The relationship between professional and personal identity is considered and the emergent concept of 'autobiographical journalism' is utilised to scrutinise the role of self within the context of the newsroom and the classroom. Here, autobiographical journalism as catharsis and the confessional genre provide some context. Impartiality is a key concept for the professional practice of journalists and for journalism educators and this study considers its importance through a reflexive analysis. The post-Leveson landscape and the need to restore trust in journalism provide important context to the study. My background as a journalist, who worked for the BBC and my current role as a journalism educator inform this thesis, which seeks to ascertain the role of personal stories in inculcating good practice. The participants emphasise the importance of credibility and utility in sharing their experiences with others in a learning environment. The thesis indicates that good practice and a pride in the craft-artistry of journalism could be inculcated through placing the storied selves of self-reflexive practitioners at the heart of the learning experience.