Not available / text

No description available.

No description available.

Based on three essays, this Ph.D. thesis studies costly and truthful communication in the following situation: a sender (S) tries to convince a receiver (R) to accept a project.<p>Before communication, both agents do not know the project quality. On the one hand, they believe with probability α that the project is of high quality and will raise R’s payoff by r_H, and otherwise that it is of low quality and will decrease R’s payoff by / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This DPhil thesis discusses how two divergent risk conceptions, a 'social view' and an 'economic view' of risk, are constructed through inter-expert risk communication. Different and sometimes contradictory concepts of risk are mobilised in regulatory practice, but the origins of these divergent risk conceptions are not extensively studied. This thesis seeks to unpack this divergence. Empirically, I analyse risk communication among experts in the European Union (EU) during the creation of two risk regulation standards. The two case studies, one related to the development of the two-degree target of EU climate policies (the climate case) and the other about the negotiation of the excessive deficit criteria of the Maastricht Treaty (the euro case), can shed light on the relations between risk conceptions and inter-expert risk communication. I argue that through risk communication, an initial 'view' of risk can be entrenched and developed into a paradigmatic 'risk conception'. My analysis uses historical and sociological institutionalism, by focusing on path dependence of risk communication and social construction risk conceptions among EU experts. Through the two case studies, I identify four analytical dimensions of inter-expert risk communication: networks (the institutional setting and relationships between different experts), cultures (the mentalities of experts in relation to discussing risks), dynamics (the actual processes of transmitting and receiving risk messages) and strategies (the rationales supporting the decisions of risk regulation standards). My thematic analysis reveals four key distinct 'features' of social/economic views of risk: expertise (the types of knowledge mobilised), normality (characterising risk as either 'special' or 'routine'), probability (considering risk as either uncertain or calculable) and impact (seeing risk as either negative or positive). I argue that these four features can help explain the construction of risk conceptions, and more broadly, provide an analytical framework for studying how views of risk evolve and interact over time.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies, Johannesburg, July 2017 / This thesis analyses the representation of the nationalisation of mines debate, as a developmental policy discourse, by the South African corporate media. Essentially, the objective is to ascertain the corporate media’s role and influence on ideology-laden developmental policy discourses. Post-apartheid, the South African corporate media has often been accused of bias by various social actors, including South Africa’s governing party – the African National Congress. These accusations have been accompanied by perceptions of the media’s inability and unwillingness to partner with government in its endeavour to implement its developmental agenda. This perceived bias is accentuated when it comes to ideologically laden issues such as nationalisation. Therefore, this research study grapples, inter alia, with questions behind the drivers of these perceptions, the manner in which the media portrays the developmental policy discourse, and the role the media should be playing in the country’s developmental agenda. In its endeavour to respond to some of these questions, the research study thus focuses on the representation of the nationalisation of mines debate by the South African English corporate press in 2011. Given the complex nature of the discourse, the research study utilises both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; triangulation in particular presents this thesis with numerous advantages towards attaining deeper understanding of the representation of the nationalisation discourse. Whereas quantitative content analysis helps identify and count the number of articles and related elements in the articles, qualitative content analysis offers a chance to probe further various elements in the discourse. In-depth semi-structured interviews are also used as a secondary research technique to discover new clues on the discourse. The research study is based on one major assumption – that structural factors such as ownership and control influence the representation of ideological policy discourses such as nationalisation – and is underpinned by four major theoretical frameworks – the critical political economy of communication; Marxist media analysis; social production of news; and decolonial theories. To comprehensively analyse the representation of nationalisation, the research study focuses on content analysis of news articles, looking at various aspects such as the structure of news as well as its headlines, sources and the general representation of the discourse; utilises theories of the critical political economy of the media and other related theories such as the social production of news and Marxist media analysis to perform qualitative content analysis; scrutinises economic factors in line with the assumption of the study that structural factors influence the representation of the discourse by using the Marxist theories to unpack the representation of nationalisation; and utilises Marxist theories in conjunction with decolonial theories. Among the findings of the research study presented in this thesis is that global capitalism, accompanied by factors such as commercialisation and advertising, influences the representation of ideologically laden policymaking discourses. Ownership and transformation of the corporate media also shape the representation. In this discourse there is convergence, and thus it is apparent that the media plays a pivotal role in reproducing dominant ideology which fundamentally maintains capitalism as “an inevitable and immutable” system. Also, the relationship between the state and media relations is a factor in ideological developmental discourses. Indeed, the representation of the nationalisation discourse is essentially a reflection of the corporate media’s posture towards the broader developmental state and its portrayal of ideologically laden policy discourses. / XL2018

This dissertation examines the flow of economic news in Africa, in order to investigate the potential existence of regional hierarchies in international news flow. The research was based on a framework of theories on international news flow. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a sample of news articles published in Africa Investor, African Business and Business in Africa during 2007 and 2008 was analysed. The quantitative results showed that South Africa received the highest level of coverage and was covered to a greater extent than any other African country. The qualitative results indicated that there was clear evidence of regional hierarchy in the coverage of African countries: South Africa received extensive coverage probably due to the fact that it is the largest, most advanced and influential economy in the continent. The study showed that inequality in news coverage is not only a global issue, but also a regional one. / Communication Science / M.A. (International Communication)

This dissertation examines the flow of economic news in Africa, in order to investigate the potential existence of regional hierarchies in international news flow. The research was based on a framework of theories on international news flow. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a sample of news articles published in Africa Investor, African Business and Business in Africa during 2007 and 2008 was analysed. The quantitative results showed that South Africa received the highest level of coverage and was covered to a greater extent than any other African country. The qualitative results indicated that there was clear evidence of regional hierarchy in the coverage of African countries: South Africa received extensive coverage probably due to the fact that it is the largest, most advanced and influential economy in the continent. The study showed that inequality in news coverage is not only a global issue, but also a regional one. / Communication Science / M.A. (International Communication)

In a traditional business environment, companies set up their organisation’s IT data infrastructure, install their applications and carry out the maintenance and management of their infrastructures. Whereas Cloud computing removes the need for companies to set up own data centers and run enterprise applications. Cloud computing technology provides businesses with the advantage of on-demand access, agility, scalability, flexibility and reduced cost of computing. An appreciable increase is being observed in the acceptance and migration to this new IT model in developing economies. In Nigeria, it has been observed that there is a somewhat unimpressive rate of adoption of Cloud computing by the microfinance operators. This research investigates the reason for the slow adoption of Cloud computing by SMEs in Nigeria with special consideration to the Microfinance subsector and to develop a model for improving the adoption of cloud computing by microfinance organisations. The research was conducted using a qualitative research design method. Interview was the main data collection instrument and data collected was analysed using thematic content analysis method. The analysis of the study revealed that SMEs in Nigeria, with particular reference to microfinance subsector in Akwa Ibom State are yet fully to embrace cloud technology. It was discovered that most of the SMEs studied, has some level of reservation about cloud computing arising from not having appropriate education and enlightenment about the cloud economic offerings and potentials. From the outcome of the research, the researcher identified that most people’s concerns are as a result of lack of knowledge about cloud computing and so the researcher concluded that appropriate enlightenment by industry stakeholders, cloud service providers, cloud enthusiasts and even the government on the risks and overwhelming economic incentives of cloud computing as well as the provision of a monitored free trial services will encourage the adoption of cloud computing by SMEs. / College of Engineering, Science and Technology / M.Tech. (Information Technology)