Dong Dong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-136). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.5 / Chapter II. --- Youth Culture Practiced in Virtual Community --- p.10 / Chapter III. --- "Background, Research Questions and Research Design" --- p.36 / Chapter IV. --- Style of Chinese University BBS Youth Culture --- p.45 / Chapter V. --- Youth Cultural Community as Identified by Style --- p.68 / Chapter VI. --- Resistance within Contexts --- p.84 / Chapter VII. --- Conclusion --- p.108 / Appendix 1 Captions of Postings & Discussion Threads --- p.111 / Appendix 2 Style of BBS Discussion Threads --- p.114 / Appendix 3 BBS Member's Composition --- p.118 / Appendix 4 Personal Reflections on the Film --- p.120 / Appendix 5 --- p.123 / Collective Discussions in Chinese University BBSs --- p.123 / Bibliography --- p.127

Zhang Weiyu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-177). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter I --- Subaltern Public Spheres on the Internet --- p.5 / Democracy and the Internet --- p.5 / Public sphere as a democratic ideal --- p.7 / Chapter ´Ø --- Habermasian public sphere --- p.8 / Chapter ´Ø --- Multiple public spheres --- p.11 / Chapter ´Ø --- Habermasian public sphere vs. multiple public spheres --- p.17 / Public sphere and the Internet --- p.21 / Chapter ´Ø --- Habermasian public sphere on the Internet --- p.23 / Chapter ´Ø --- Multiple public spheres on the Internet --- p.27 / Chapter II --- Subaltern Public Spheres in China --- p.30 / The history of Chinese civil society --- p.30 / Civil society in contemporary China --- p.32 / Chapter ´Ø --- Definitions of civil society --- p.32 / Chapter ´Ø --- Trade union and the caged social organizations --- p.34 / Chapter ´Ø --- Entrepreneurial class and the incorporated social organizations --- p.36 / Chapter ´Ø --- Discussions --- p.38 / Multiple public spheres in contemporary China --- p.39 / Chapter ´Ø --- Mass media and the dominant public sphere --- p.41 / Chapter ´Ø --- The premises of subaltern public sphere in China --- p.42 / Chapter ´Ø --- Subaltern public spheres in contemporary China --- p.44 / Chapter III --- Research Questions and Research Design --- p.48 / Research questions --- p.48 / Research site: an online discussion board of movies --- p.48 / Chapter ´Ø --- Why BBS? --- p.49 / Chapter ´Ø --- Why movies? --- p.51 / Research methods --- p.54 / Chapter IV --- Bulletin Boards as Subaltern Public Spheres --- p.57 / Introduction of Rear Window --- p.58 / Chapter ´Ø --- The development of Rear Window --- p.59 / Chapter ´Ø --- The contents on Rear Window --- p.61 / Chapter ´Ø --- The users of Rear Window --- p.63 / Accessibility of Rear Window --- p.65 / Chapter ´Ø --- Accessibility of the Internet in China --- p.65 / Chapter ´Ø --- Accessibility of xici.net --- p.66 / Chapter ´Ø --- Accessibility of Rear Window --- p.68 / Discourse on RearWindow --- p.73 / Chapter ´Ø --- "Introduction of the discussions about ""Movies are a kind of politics""" --- p.75 / Chapter ´Ø --- The goal of the discussion --- p.77 / Chapter ´Ø --- The equality of the discussion --- p.80 / Chapter ´Ø --- The rationality of the discussion --- p.85 / Chapter ´Ø --- The communicative rationality of the participants --- p.89 / Chapter ´Ø --- Other kinds of discourse --- p.93 / Discussions and conclusions --- p.95 / Chapter V --- Relationships among the Subaltern Public Sphere and the State --- p.98 / The autonomy from the state --- p.100 / Chapter ´Ø --- Control at the level of state --- p.102 / Chapter ´Ø --- Control at the level of websites --- p.107 / Chapter ´Ø --- Control at the level of boardmasters --- p.111 / Chapter ´Ø --- Control through self-censorship --- p.112 / The discursive resistance toward the state --- p.114 / Discussions and conclusions --- p.125 / Chapter VI --- Relationships between the Subaltern Public sphere and the Market Economy --- p.129 / The Internet economy in China and the subaltern public sphere --- p.132 / The pirate movie industry and the subaltern public sphere --- p.138 / Private movie watching and the market economy --- p.142 / Discussions and conclusions --- p.147 / Chapter VII --- Relationships between the Subaltern Public Sphere and the Mass Media --- p.149 / The competition between RearWindow and mass media --- p.151 / The collaboration between RearWindow and mass media --- p.154 / Discussions and conclusions --- p.159 / Discussions and Conclusions --- p.161 / Subaltern public spheres --- p.161 / Democratic potential of the Internet --- p.165 / Chinese civil society and Chinese public sphere --- p.166 / Limitations of the study --- p.168 / Bibliography --- p.170 / Appendix: Survey Questionnaire --- p.178

One approach to studying media is uses and gratifications, a model that suggests media audiences can explain why and for what purpose they use the media. This study took a Uses and Gratifications approach to the Internet social interaction site LambdaMOO. On LambdaMOO, users log on and create an alternate persona to interact with other users. Using a set of questions, 222 selected LambdaMOO users were asked about why they use LambdaMOO, their actions as an alternate persona and their opinions on LambdaMOO. Answers from the subjects were content analyzed to find commonality against several preselected categories and sub-categories. Upon analysis, the subjects were found to use LambdaMOO for talking to other users, "building" up the site through programming and surveying the current events and political movements on the site. Also, the subjects were determined not to act different from their real life actions and preceived attitudes, although the opportunity for freedom through anonymity was everpresent. / Department of Journalism

This thesis examines the discourse strategies used to construct initiation schools in online media and message boards. The focus is on understanding the tensions that come with enacting traditional practices in the face of modernity and its associated cultural expectations. The thesis describes the manner in which these tensions are constructed in text by the media in news reports and participants in discussion forums. While there is still debate around whether the internet will revolutionise public participation and create a digital utopia; the internet is acknowledged as one of the widest reaching sources of information and entertainment. Specifically, the internet provides a platform to challenge the traditionally top-down communication between the elite, who have privileged access to the media, and the general public, who were previously constructed as passive recipients of information. Using the male circumcision initiation rite, this thesis examines how the South African public discursively constructs the epistemic location of African traditions in South Africa. The study drew on a sample of news articles from the News24 site, the largest news site in South Africa, ranging from January 2008 to December 2013. A corpus of 62 articles were analysed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique described by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the thesis were that the initiation rite is used as a rhetorical tool to argue for the abandonment of African cultural practices in favour of modern, Western influenced beliefs and values. The findings also indicate that the initiation rite is reduced to the act of circumcision in the media by focusing on the injury and deaths of the initiates and excluding the meaning of the rite as a meaningful cultural practice. The conclusion of the thesis challenges the epistemicide committed against the male circumcision initiation rite from within the Decolonial school of thought, which critically examines everyday interaction for universalising, normative language that aims to commit cultural epistemicide to reinforce the white, male, European, Christian traditions of masculinity. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This thesis examines the discourse strategies used to construct initiation schools in online media and message boards. The focus is on understanding the tensions that come with enacting traditional practices in the face of modernity and its associated cultural expectations. The thesis describes the manner in which these tensions are constructed in text by the media in news reports and participants in discussion forums. While there is still debate around whether the internet will revolutionise public participation and create a digital utopia; the internet is acknowledged as one of the widest reaching sources of information and entertainment. Specifically, the internet provides a platform to challenge the traditionally top-down communication between the elite, who have privileged access to the media, and the general public, who were previously constructed as passive recipients of information. Using the male circumcision initiation rite, this thesis examines how the South African public discursively constructs the epistemic location of African traditions in South Africa. The study drew on a sample of news articles from the News24 site, the largest news site in South Africa, ranging from January 2008 to December 2013. A corpus of 62 articles were analysed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique described by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the thesis were that the initiation rite is used as a rhetorical tool to argue for the abandonment of African cultural practices in favour of modern, Western influenced beliefs and values. The findings also indicate that the initiation rite is reduced to the act of circumcision in the media by focusing on the injury and deaths of the initiates and excluding the meaning of the rite as a meaningful cultural practice. The conclusion of the thesis challenges the epistemicide committed against the male circumcision initiation rite from within the Decolonial school of thought, which critically examines everyday interaction for universalising, normative language that aims to commit cultural epistemicide to reinforce the white, male, European, Christian traditions of masculinity. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)