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Zugl.: Dresden, Techn. Univ., Magisterarbeit

As immigration turns into the scapegoat of political and social tensions all over the world and politicians that seem to be talking about migration flows communicate instead their conception of the world and where it should head, this study investigates the refugee crisis of 2015 as represented in the two global television channels RT and BBCW. Widely studied for the depiction the press gives of the refugees, for the first time the refugee crisis is analyzed as an arena where competing understandings of international relations are constructed, in a media ecology where a myriad of actors have a chance to foreground their truth and where wars are fought, and possibly won, through the weapons of values, culture and the attraction they exercise (Nye Jr. 1990, 2013). Borrowing the concept of strategic narratives from international relations (Miskimmon et al. 2013) and applying it to textual analysis, the study employs framing analysis to operationalize it and explores a sample of 144 news items (74 from RT and 70 from BBCW) broadcast in August and September 2015 to retrace the narratives of the two channels. It finds out that, although conflicting with each other, both RT’s and BBCW’s narratives are strategic and aim at constructing a past, present and future of international relations that can influence what we expect, consider acceptable or conceivable on the international theater. The channels’ narratives are about the destiny of Europe and countries, depicting a reality that still responds to old Cold War dividing lines. An analysis of the actors allowed to speak and represented as acting confirms that in RT and BBCW political elites and the nations they represent have a greater chance, compared to other actors, to define international politics and shape shared understandings of how international relations works and where it is heading.

In a global media environment characterized by change and conflict, narratives are especially useful to understand how the media form and distribute shared understanding of how the world works and who the important actors are. As the borders between local and global politics are blurred in the digital media landscape, protesters are in increased rate turning their placards to global broadcasters’ cameras, especially when political movements such as the U.S.-based Black Lives Matter movement get international counterparts. The scholarship concerned with the framework through which the media report protests argue the protest paradigm offers useful variables for the study of protests, while problematizing the lack of research on global broadcasting media. Global broadcasters, International Relations scholars argue, need to be understood as resources of soft power that distribute strategic narratives, but they have yet to develop a methodology for how broadcasts can be empirically studied. With this research gap as a point of departure, the chosen case study is the unrest in Ferguson in August 2014. A quantitative mapping and a comparative narrative analysis focusing on the narrative structure were conducted on 16 days of news bulletins from Al Jazeera English, BBC World News and RT. The results show several differences in the reports, the first concerns the amount of attention that was given to Ferguson by each broadcaster, where RT gave almost twice the amount of attention as the other two broadcasters. Further differences were found in the sources each broadcaster used and how they used violence as an entry-point to what their narratives where about, which in the case of AJE was the effects violence has on a society; BBCW’s narrative was of a political issue of high importance that concerns people of color; whereas RT’s narrative was about the militarization of the U.S. police force. The results imply the global broadcasters offer distinctive narratives, which through different storytelling techniques convey different attitudes and morals.

This study centres on the biblical and theological work behind Dorothy L. Sayers' 12-part play-cycle, The Man Born to be King, aired on the BBC between 1941-42. Investigation begins by testing various unsubstantiated statements by biographers and scholars through a line-by-line analysis of the scripts, the results of which can be found in two large tables of information about how Sayers used each pericope in the Gospels (Appendix A) and a list of every known biblical reference within the play-cycle (Appendix C). Sayers' reported privileging of the Gospel of John gives way to evidence that Synoptic content outweighs Johannine by sheer bulk of material while preference is clearly given to stories that appear in both John and the Synoptics. Sayers' reported avoidance of the Authorized Version gives way to limited but consistent use of the AV for the narrator, for Old Testament quotations, and a special use of the Coverdale Psalms from the Book of Common Prayer. A study of Sayers' six secondary sources shows significant influence upon historic details and characterisation. By covering new ground through in-depth script and source analysis, these studies reveal, expand upon, and often contradict previous assumptions regarding Sayers' sources and working process. In the area of theological studies, investigation begins with Sayers' own claim that she had no original theology—that she merely re-stated the Church's teaching. First, Sayers' identity as an Anglo-Catholic is explored to understand what she means by ‘Catholic' and ‘the Church'. Having thus located Sayers within a particular tradition, Sayers' Christology (building upon her emphasis on the Creed) and Eschatology (building upon her chosen theme of the Kingship of Christ) within the plays are considered within their broader context of early twentieth-century Anglo-Catholic and wider theology. Sayers' theological originality is then proposed in relation to how she brought theology to life in dramatic form.