Climate change is one of the most urgent issues of our times. Most people receive information onclimate change from the mainstream newspapers and broadcast media and it is important that this information be as accurate and complete as possible. As for many other topics, governments are an important point of reference for media coverage on climate change, as they are the main actors regarding international climate negotiations and national climate policy. In this thesis, I set out to compare newspaper and government frames in four countries: the UK, Germany, the US, and India. Using qualitative content analysis, I examined government communication and two quality and one mid-market or popular newspaper in each country in two time frames. The first time frame was the month around the 2011 Durban Conference, the second in June 2012. The countries' newspaper regimes were categorised following Hallin and Mancini's (2004) model of media systems, which correspond with different political systems. Frames have become a popular tool to structure media content. This thesis makes a point of using a clear and narrow definition of framing by drawing from strong elements of existing definitions. I established government frames and checked newspaper articles for frame congruence. The independent variable originally was political parallelism, which, in Hallin and Mancini's model plays a key role in determining the relationship between media and political system. After a first evaluation, political parallelism showed to have less explanatory value for the relationship between newspaper and government frames than expected. As a second explanatory variable, I then established national loyalty, a concept, on which I elaborate in this thesis. This new element gave the thesis a more exploratory character. This study shows that it is possible to apply Hallin and Mancini's framework beyond countries that are included in their original study without trying to fit them into one of the existing models. However, the study also indicates that for climate change coverage, political parallelism seems to play a role less important than described by Hallin and Mancini. The newspapers rather seem to follow national loyalty, when covering international climate negotiations in particular. This national focus stays in contrast with the global character of the issue of climate change and raises questions for future research. This study contributes to the field through its comparative and longitudinal design. While there exists a good body of research on media coverage on climate change, particularly for US and UK media, most studies are cross-sectional and focus on one country. Future research can widen the scope of media included and further explore the notion of national loyalty in media coverage.

This research contributes to the field of Journalism Studies and the evolving area of social media studies by empirically investigating the role of Twitter and Facebook in news production at global news agencies (GNAs) and their impact on GNA journalism. Research into the use of new networked and digital technologies in journalism has been growing but has yet to examine the arena of GNAs, which are a traditionally under-researched but hugely influential sector of the news industry. This thesis adds to a nascent body of research that takes social media seriously in journalism by analysing the interplay of the architecture and affordances of these technologies with the news production process. It does this through critical interrogation of changing organisational and individual work practices at the ‘Big Three’ GNAs, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters, which have become a crucial site for research of the impact of widespread and growing use of social media. The research creates and uses the theoretical framework of cultures of practice to analyse how GNAs are integrating social media into their organisational infrastructure and how newsworkers are incorporating them into journalistic practice. The term cultures of practice is employed to highlight the importance of socio-material context for shaping journalists’ work – taking account of how social and technological aspects of GNA infrastructure shape professional culture. Employing a qualitative multi-case study approach, the thesis combines interview analysis, framing analysis of social media guidelines, and analysis of organisational SNS activity to illuminate how social media are understood and employed at GNAs and the impact of their adoption for GNA journalism. The research finds that GNAs are ‘social networking the news’ and identifies a newly developed ethic of professional sociability, which is transforming GNA journalism and contributing to re-articulation of the GNA relationship with the public, business model, and role in the journalism ecology. It argues that professional cultures of practice is a valuable analytical lens for studying technological change in news production contexts as it enables effective study of the relationship between (social media) technology, (news production) practice and (GNA) culture. This study matters for what it indicates about how professional journalistic cultures transform in times of technological change through selectively co-opting practices, norms, and values while re-negotiating notions of professionalism.

Journal indexing systems (JIS) are bibliographic databases that are used to search for scientific literature and for bibliometric analyses. This thesis addresses the emergence and growth of regional JIS, focusing on the Scientific Library Online (Scielo) and the Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España, y Portugal (RedALyC) in a challenging environment in which the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus prevail. WoS and Scopus are referred to as mainstream JIS and Scielo and RedALyC as alternative JIS. The research questions are: (1) Why did alternative JIS emerge in light of the dominance of WoS? (2) Why do researchers publish in journals indexed by alternative JIS? The research draws on the concepts of cognitive authority from information science, and universalism and particularism from the sociology of science. A cognitive authority is an information source that is credible. JIS are becoming cognitive authorities in the science communication system. Their credibility relies on their application of objective criteria to select journals (universalism). However, journal selection can be influenced by subjective criteria (particularism). The tensions between universalism and particularism suggest two scenarios for the emergence and growth of alternative JIS. A universalistic view suggests that they emerge to cover journals with low scientific impact and editorial standards. A particularistic view poses that they emerge to cover disciplinary, linguistic, and regional gaps created by biases in mainstream JIS, particularly in the coverage of WoS. The research questions were addressed through mixed methods to produce quantitative and qualitative evidence. The evidence was obtained from (1) documentary and literature reviews; (2) descriptive and correlational statistics; and (3) a case study that involved interviews with researchers in private and public universities in Colombia in agricultural sciences, business and management, and chemistry. The findings indicate that disciplinary, linguistic, and geographical biases in the coverage of mainstream JIS motivated the development of Scielo and RedALyC. The reasons for their growth have been conceptualised in this thesis as: (1) training; (2) knowledge-gap filling; and (3) knowledge bridging. This thesis addresses a significant gap in the sociology of science by studying new authorities in the science communication system. It contributes to debates on universalism and particularism, showing that both are involved in the selection of journals by JIS. It also contributes to understanding how particularism in mainstream JIS can pose barriers to the communication of scientific knowledge that has the potential to address pressing social demands. The findings could contribute to the design of research policy and research evaluation in contexts not widely covered by mainstream JIS.

Over the last three decades, Chinese society has experienced dramatic social change. China is now turning into a global superpower, both economically and militarily but not necessarily politically. Western media often embarrass Chinese political leaders for their suppression on free speech and deviation from political democracy. This is the wider social context in which this thesis locates its enquiries. The Chinese media are deeply involved in this social transition. This thesis intends to provide an up-to-date investigation into journalistic culture in contemporary China, where journalism undergoes political suppression, commercial imperatives, and technological upgrades. This thesis examines the key tenets of practising journalism. It focuses on three areas: (1) the norms of practising journalism under political suppression, (2) the main forms of and roots of journalistic corruption that have brought forth by media commercialisation, and (3) the changes and continuities in journalistic practices associated with social media. This research is mainly based on six individual interviews and six focus group interviews, carried out between January 2012 and February 2012 in Beijing and Shanghai. The research is also supported by materials gained through personal communication in these cities. The research concludes that self-censorship and journalistic corruption are two prominent features of contemporary Chinese journalism. Social media have brought both changes and continuities to journalistic practices and media control methods. In analysing the factors shaping contemporary journalism, journalists tend to highlight the impact of traditional Chinese culture. This research, however, suggests that culture does not always play a determinative role. Political, economic and cultural factors, alongside other elements, all contribute to shaping journalism. We need a more dynamic and comprehensive perspective in examining journalism, which should be spatial-temporally constructed.

Ever since Edward I subjugated the Welsh in 1282 and, a little over 250 years later, Henry VIII attempted to wipe the country off the map, Wales has lived in the overpowering shadow of its powerful English neighbour. Unlike Scotland, Wales did not develop its own legal and banking systems and symbols of national identity were slow to appear. This thesis argues that, while many national institutions are relatively recent innovations, the Welsh language is the most potent symbol of national identity. More importantly, it argues that it was the journalists who used the language to communicate “Welshness”. They, in many ways, created a radical approach to politics, an antipathy towards the Established Church, an occasional suspicion of the country’s English neighbour, an interest in international affairs and an awareness of the rich cultural heritage of the country. This argument has been pursued by way of a critical survey of the development of Welsh-language journalism. To date, there are no specific studies on this subject - particularly relatively recent developments since the advent of S4C in 1982. Indeed, little scholarly attention has been paid to the fast-developing world of on-line journalism and the use of social media as far as the Welsh language is concerned. The main analytical focus of this thesis is to examine the impact of Welsh-language journalism on the national consciousness in Wales. This has been done through a series of case studies, content analyses and interviews with influential and experienced journalists and editors in all fields of journalism, namely print, broadcast and on-line. The conclusion is that journalists reintroduced the Welsh people to their literature and poetry, they wrote about traditional music, they adopted a radical approach to national and international politics, they were sympathetic to the non-conformist religion of the majority of people and news was reported from a Welsh point of view. Indeed, the phrase Welsh Renaissance has been applied to the section of this thesis related to Early Periodicals. There is considerable scope for further research. There is no history of solely Welsh-language journalism in a single volume. In recent years, journalism has moved on rapidly, as new forms of journalism have rapidly become established. There is little analysis of the effects of these outlets on Welsh consumers, let alone the effects of radio and television to any great degree. In addition, as Wales becomes more confident in the post-devolution era, Welsh journalism becomes more relevant and there is scope to chart how much influence Welsh-language journalism really has on its consumers.

This thesis analysed the representation of women as voters, politicians and relatives of politicians in the newspaper coverage of every elections from 1918 until 2010; in order to offer historical context to the existing literature about women, media and politics. Content analysis and feminist critical discourse analysis were employed to track the changes and continuities in their mediated representations across the twenty five elections studied. The study shows that across time, the representation of voters changed the least. Voters tended to be constructed as mothers and thrifty housewives whose political views stemmed from their familial roles and domestic responsibilities. The extent to which they were depicted as politically engaged and were quoted did increase over time however they continued to be predominantly written about rather than allowed to speak for themselves. Contrary to the results of previous studies, politicians were not associated with stereotypically feminine policy areas, but were instead gendered through their construction as important representatives for women voters and their campaign styles. Over time the proportion of items offering negative evaluations increased. The proportion which made personalised references to their appearance or age, and included their voices peaked during the 1960s and 1970s and then declined so that contemporary politicians are as likely to experience both as their interwar forebears. The results from 2010 however suggested that personalisation may once again be increasing. The role of relatives in electoral coverage changed the most of the three groups. During the interwar years they were depicted as active political campaigners whose contribution was largely welcomed, after war their role became more focused on their personal lives. The coverage also became increasingly focused on the wives of party leaders. By the late 1980s, leaders wives were once again constructed taking an active role in the campaign but these interventions were portrayed as illegitimate and threatening to democracy. The coverage of relatives became increasingly personalised over time focusing on their appearance and its appeal to the electorate. The newspaper coverage of women in electoral campaigns has always been, and continues to be gendered in specific ways. Women have consistently had their level of political activity trivialised and their voices marginalised. They were domesticated through the construction of their political priorities and campaign styles and they received personalised coverage which was undeniably gendered. In effect women were routinely linked to the private sphere, rendering their political participation in the public domain problematic.

The discourse of ‘the white man’s burden’ that originated in the nineteenth century with missionaries and colonialism still underpins much of the development ideology towards Africa today. The overwhelming assumption that rich Western countries can and should address ‘underdevelopment’ through aid only stigmatizes African reality, framing it to mirror the worldview of the international donors who fund most non-profit interventionist documentaries. In the ‘parachute filmmaking’ style that results, facilitated by financial resources and reflecting the self-serving intentions of the donors, the non-profit filmmaker functions simply as an agent of meaning rather than authentic author of the text. Challenged by limited production schedules and lacking in cultural understanding most donor-sponsored films fall back on an ethnocentric one-size-fits-all template of an ‘inferior other’ who needs to be ‘helped’. This study sets out to challenge the ‘donor gaze’ in documentary films which ‘speak about’ Africa, arguing instead for a more inclusive style of filmmaking that gives voice to its subjects by ‘speaking with’ them. The special focus is on black African women whose images are used to signify helplessness, vulnerability and ignorance, particularly in donor-funded documentaries addressing HIV/AIDS. Through case studies of four films this study asks: 1. How do documentary films reinforce the donor gaze? (how is the film speaking and why?) 2. Can the donor gaze be challenged? (should intentionality always override subjectivity of the filmed subjects?) Film studies approach the gaze psychoanalytically (e.g. Mulvey 1975) but this study focuses on the conscious gaze of filmmakers because they reinforce or challenge ‘the pictures in our heads.’ Sight is an architect of meaning. Gaze orders reality but the documentary gaze can re-order it. The study argues that in Africa, the ‘donor gaze’ constructs meaning by ‘speaking about’ reality and calls instead for a new approach for documentary to ‘speak with’ reality.

Serving the good of the community is a professional value prized by those who work in the provincial press. It is also seen as a vital role for local newspapers by those outside the industry. A localised form of the Fourth Estate, the good of the community therefore justifies and underpins the routines and news values of those who work in regional and local news organisations. This thesis investigates the extent to which this notion serves as a functional value for the English provincial news industry; it positions it within an historical context to understand its relationship with the economic structure of the local newspaper. As such, after Foucault, it constitutes the good of the community as a discursive position which functions in different ways during different periods of development for the provincial press. The history of the provincial press is charted from its inception in the eighteenth century to the present day. This history conceptualises its development within six distinct stages; as such it seeks to demonstrate the fluidity of the notion of serving the good of the community which is presented as absolute by the industry. Interviews with current workers within the industry are used to expose the way in which the concept functions for the industry today and concomitant changes wrought by digital innovation. These demonstrate that the notion functions best at those titles which enjoy direct investment in their ability to act in a way which serves the good the community; conversely it is most under threat at those titles which are increasingly removed from their locale for reasons of profit. This thesis ends with the suggestion that preserving the ability of the provincial news industry to serve the good of the community necessitates a new approach to an assessment of its value; it suggests that alternative funding models are needed if the ability of the industry to meet this goal is to be retained.

This is a study of news production by eight major news organisations in the UK and Canada. Through observation of daily routines and semi-structured interviews, 124 journalists were included in the final sample. The overall aim of this research was to explore the interrelationships between new technologies, the potential autonomy accessible by journalists and the structure of constraints under which they operate. The news marketplace has become congested while audiences have fragmented and public news-producing behaviours have soared, facilitated through the ubiquity of new media. These developments were crucial to the analysis of mainstream news production within a media environment that has left news organisations struggling to retain audiences and their own credibility. New technologies adopted by news organisations have altered routines both within newsrooms and out in the field. News values have shifted towards ‘live’ coverage while workflow has been improved and convergence become the norm. At the same time, new media available within the public realm – including the internet, online publishing tools and advanced mobile phone technologies – are also available to individual journalists. However, it is those journalists already familiar with technology who are more likely to incorporate them into their own daily routines, along with the wider range of sources now available within the information producing strata of society. Research findings relate to the specific locations in the news production process at which new technologies, journalistic autonomy and constraining factors have the most impact. For this purpose, a model was developed along with an autonomy-constraint ratio. Key findings are that the transmission phase of news production presents the least amount of autonomy for journalists while the newsgathering phase offers the greatest amount of autonomy. Due to the temporal and theoretical limits of previous research frameworks, an autonomy-centred approach is proposed as a means of complementing the existing constraints-based approaches that have tended to dominate news production studies.

Since the early 2000s, a largely Internet-based network of independent news operations has emerged focused on small geographic areas in the UK, often run by non-professional journalists. ‘Hyperlocal’ journalism seems to have captured the imagination of academics and policy-makers, with some arguing that it has the potential to fill the democratic deficit caused by the decline of mainstream local newspapers. Attention has largely focused on the journalistic values of these websites rather than their wider cultural value, with relatively little recourse to primary research in the UK context. This thesis addresses both of those aspects by drawing on a range of data: a large-scale overview of the sector, three case study accounts of hyperlocal news operations, and an analysis of interviews with practitioners. The research finds that hyperlocal news operations are spread across the UK and collectively produce an impressive number of news stories. In that sense, they play a useful role in local news ecologies and their independence marks them out as an alternative to an increasingly consolidated mainstream local news sector. Hyperlocal news operations are gaining legitimacy through engagement with audiences on social media and through recognition by other news media. The thesis also finds that the hyperlocal journalist is often motivated by a desire to redress mainstream media’s representation of their locality or by a single campaign issue. Hyperlocal journalists traverse both the digital ‘beat’ and the real-world ‘beat’, using reciprocal journalism practices in order to build a community around their service. However, many services are precariously placed as the journalists exploit their own labour and avoid engaging fully with issues of economic sustainability. Taking a case study approach, the thesis explores the working practices and environments of three hyperlocal news operations in detail, including looking at audience engagement. It finds further evidence of these issues of precarity, making the potential of sustaining hyperlocal operations difficult. However, the case study accounts also highlight the value of focusing on everyday aspects of community life and how that can help build audiences and enable citizens to become participants in content creation and distribution. Finally, the thesis argues that hyperlocal can play a more vital role in the UK’s local news landscape should the right conditions be created by policy-makers to create a more level regulatory playing-field.