In the late 20th century, the global economy experienced a radical shift due to widespread deregulation and, subsequently, rapid financialization. Examining archival and contemporary trade magazines and corporate reports, this project considers the interconnections between television audience constructions/ratings and financial institutions amid these structural changes. In chapter one, this thesis starts by charting the pre-history of media financialization and financial stakeholders’ early influence over the radio industry and its antecedent industries (i.e., the telegraph and telephone) between 1800 and 1943. After charting a historical overview of media industries’ relationships to Wall Street, the second chapter details the financialization of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) between 1943 and 1970 and considers the correlation between Nielsen ratings and stock prices. In the third chapter, these theories are brought into the 21st century, examining how media companies like Disney “pitch” their audiences to Wall Street and how financial incentives have led streaming platforms to engage in performative social justice in order to cater to upscale white audiences.

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With the traditional commercial model failing, U.S. news organizations are increasingly turning to various types of collaborations in order to produce news content. They are partnering with nonprofits, universities, creative groups, citizen journalists and other entities, many of them non-journalistic in nature. As a result, these diverse groups are increasingly having to negotiate different sets of values and priorities as they establish journalistic processes and create news content. This dissertation explores, first, the question of how the structure and makeup of such diverse collaborations influences the journalistic values and norms by which the effort abides; second, it examines how the processes of collaborations reflect these negotiated norms and values. The project seeks to shed light on the ways traditional journalistic boundaries are being expanded and the journalistic field transformed by new, non-traditional journalistic partners in collaborations. The qualitative study – which utilizes in-person and virtual ethnography, in-depth interviewing, and textual analysis – focuses on two different collaborations: a fledgling partnership called the Dallas Media Collaborative, which involves 14 different journalistic and non-journalistic partners working together to cover the topic of affordable housing in Dallas, Texas; and the Credible Messenger Reporting Project, which pairs professional journalists and community journalists in the coverage of gun violence in Philadelphia. The study finds that these partnerships demonstrate evidence of journalists expanding their traditional boundaries to include new partners in the process of creating news content, showing that collaboration can mark an attempt at field repair. These new partners are helping to re-envision the purpose of the field, with a much greater focus on public service and the goals of effecting social change and empowering communities; they are also forcing an expansion of the boundaries of what can be considered journalism – especially in terms of creative work and audience engagement. However, journalists often continue to enforce traditional values even amid the presence of non-traditional partners, and the power dynamics of traditional journalism are persistent. As a result, collaborations continue to be a site of constant of contested norms and values, evidenced both in journalistic processes and in the content that they produce. / Media & Communication

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Scholars contend that media accountability to the public and professional stakeholders has been improving in recent years because of the increased use of digital platforms. Since most studies related to online news media accountability have focused on developed countries, this research study examines the state of accountability in online news media in Nepal, where access to online media is very limited and audiences are barely aware of media's journalistic responsibilities. By employing case study research method with three data sources, this research study assesses the state of online media accountability in Nepal, key challenges for ensuring accountability in journalism created using digital platforms, and the role of audiences in making online news media accountable. The study finds that Internet accessibility, media literacy, and availability of resources are the primary challenges to making media accountable in Nepal. The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research and practical applications.

The religious book club provides a fascinating location for observing the social construction of reality. This study sets out to discover how religious identities affected reading and how reading affected religious identity through examining social reading. Seven book groups, all in the Boston area, participated. Three groups were affiliated with a church or synagogue, three had no religious affiliation, and the seventh was transitioning away from a religious affiliation. Fieldwork within the groups and individual interviews are analyzed using grounded theory techniques. All readers used reading to pursue aims such as relationships, educational status, and transformations of identity, but only readers within the religiously affiliated groups experienced an "inflection" of those aims. While readers in nonreligious book groups developed friendships, the religious book group members developed a sense of congregational identity. Nonreligious group readers sought to be "well read" religious group members sought to be articulate believers. Many readers sought to transform themselves through books, but religious groups transformed their members through emphasizing boundaries and identities, constructing shared definitions of "religion." Nonreligious group members were unconcerned with tying book club identity to personal identity. Religious groups, through confirming and challenging definitions of religion, developed religious identities that were expected to have deeper relevance to individual lives. Individual religious identity did not inflect the aims of reading, since religious individuals in nonreligious groups did not develop their sense of belonging, status, or identity around religious constructions. Within religious groups, it was not religious doctrines, ethics, or awe that produced the religious inflection of reading's aims. Only the affiliation with a formal religious institution was necessary. This demonstrates that religion functions not as a foundational worldview for its adherents, but as a thin container that offers the opportunity to develop a deeper, more durable identity. Despite reading's construction as a primarily individual activity, these findings also demonstrate how the social infrastructure of reading can have important effects.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

While adaptation research possesses longstanding applications and ample material for study, seldom has a data set proven to be as iconic and culturally relevant as the various iterations of To Kill a Mockingbird. Novel to film to stage play, and then nearly 60 years later to a second stage play, the story has resonated with audiences in a range of performative variations. A defining characteristic of Harper Lee's tale is her use of a narrator; this characteristic provides an effective entry-point in examining the two stage adaptations by way of their interpretation of the narrator. A study of the respective presentations of the narrator(s) employed by the two official theatre versions of To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates that while both are appropriate to and reflective of the time in which they were initially produced, Aaron Sorkin's script offers a divergence from the standard form of the narrator and produces insight into the original novel as well as innovative potentialities for the performance of a memory play. This examination has been conducted through observations collected at live performances, individual playscripts, theatre reviews, and printed interviews, as well as academic articles and books. Sorkin's introduction of three narrators and compression of the presented timelines to create a state of "present consciousness" in both the narrators and the audience offers a range of new opportunities for the employment of the accepted narrator trope as well as the engagement of the audience with the world of the play.

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