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Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Sam Mwangi / From around the year 2006, the government of Kenya has committed substantial amounts of resources to build Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) around the country and in the education sector in particular, with the sole purpose of catalyzing education. This commitment has emanated from the need to increase access to education to the greater portion of the ever-growing nation’s primary and secondary school population. Some of the pressure to increase education access has also come from regional and international commitments to bodies such as the United Nations through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) through its e-school initiative. The news media have an important and potentially influential role in the discourse about the use of ICTs in education. While the news media rely on different sources for their news about ICTs and education, including politicians, central government ministers, and interest groups, policymakers, in turn, use the same media as a communication channel to relay their messages on education policy to the general public, education professionals and stakeholders. Having this symbiotic relationship between the media and its source(s) of e-learning news in mind, the purpose of this study is to examine the nature and content of the news media’s interest in e-learning and to begin to ask how it could have influenced public opinion or even the public policy-making process. Content analysis was used to audit news media content comprising 60 news articles taken from two leading online daily newspapers in Kenya. Findings from this study indicate that government officials were the most relied-upon sources of news about e-learning, while the theme of connectivity was the most discussed. The tone of the coverage was largely positive. Understanding the intersection between media coverage and e-learning ultimately enriches our understanding and knowledge of the power of journalists and news outlets in constructing the debate about educational technology. ICTs, with their efficacy in boosting education still being studied, a discussion is provided about the need for media coverage to encompass the viewpoints of all stakeholders in education and adopt a broad conceptualization of ICTs so as to have a balanced debate about ICTs and ICT projects in education.

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This study combines perspectives from domestication theory, feminist technology studies and sociological research on ageing in order to understand older people’s internet use. The suggested approach enables us to examine the complexity of social inequalities in domestication processes. Firstly, I argue that domestication theory benefits from the integration of gender-technology relations, a perspective developed from within feminist technology studies. This allows a better understanding of different dimensions of gender (structure, symbolism, identity) as well as mutual shaping processes between gender and technology. Secondly, this analysis of gender-technology relations can also be utilised to enhance our understanding of age-technology relations. Gender and age are examined in relation to (i) different phases of domestication, (ii) the use of the internet for different activities and (iii) forms of social connectedness in everyday life. The research draws upon 33 semi-structured interviews with women and men between the ages of 55 and 80 about their internet and web 2.0 use experiences. My study demonstrates the diversity of intersections between age, gender and technology within older women’s and men’s internet use experiences, and highlights the significance of traditional age-gender-technology relations (which marginalise older women) for internet use. Furthermore, it identifies specific mechanisms found within domestication processes which serve to maintain these traditional relations. This thesis proposes a research perspective for studying age-gender-technology relations, and examines mutual shaping processes in the domestication of the internet.

Cette thèse vise à explorer le sens de l’intégration et l’usage des TIC dans l’enseignement universitaire en Colombie. Nous questionnons la réalité de ce phénomène à travers l’analyse de documents et des données recueillies dans un travail de terrain mené auprès de cinq universités. Notre travail s’inscrit dans l’élargissement du champ des objets d’analyse de la sémiotique et aborde notre objet d’étude comme une configuration mouvante dont les effets de sens se construisent en situation. Il se fonde, principalement, sur les acquis de lathéorie sémiotique greimassienne et post-greimassienne, dans une approche sociosémiotique. Cette thèse contribue à la compréhension de la réalité de l’intégration etl’usage des TICE dans la société colombienne et met également en évidence la pertinence de l’approche sociosémiotique et esthésique dans la compréhension des pratiques sociales. Cette étude examine, d’abord, les dispositifs d’usages mis en place par les universités etdégage les logiques dans lesquelles ces établissements inscrivent les rapports à l’autre. Dans un second temps, elle traite des politiques d’intégration proposées par le Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale et les établissements universitaires pour comprendre comment ces instances modalisent leurs énonciataires et orientent cette intégration. Enfin, elle explore les perceptions des sujets participant aux pratiques pédagogiques médiées et met en avant leur ressenti par rapport à la construction intersubjective du sens dans cette expérience. / This thesis aims at exploring the meaning within the integration and usage of theInformation and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the university teaching in Colombia. We question the reality of this phenomenon through the analysis of the documents and data collected during the fieldwork performed in five universities. Our work is part of the broadening field of objects of analysis in semiotics, and approaches our object of study as a moving configuration whose effects of meaning are constructed in situation. It is based mainly, on the proposals of the Greimassian and post-Greimassian semioticstheory, in a sociosemiotic approach. This thesis contributes to understanding the reality of integration and use of the ICTs in Colombian society and also highlights the pertinence ofthe sociosemiotic and aesthesic approaches in the understanding of social practices. Thisstudy examines firstly, the devices implemented by the universities and identifies the logicsin which the latter inscribe the reports to the other. Secondly, it deals with the integrationpolicies proposed by the National Ministry of Education and the academic institutions to understand how these instances modalize the enunciators and guide this integration. Finally, it explores the perceptions of the subjects participating in mediated pedagogical practices and highlights their feelings concerning the intersubjective construction of meaning within this experience.

The focus of this paper is to examine information communication technologies (ICTs), organizational changes, R&D, and collaboration through econometric regression analysis. We concern about the impact of the sunrise biotechnology industry in emerging developed economy of Taiwan. This paper investigate the determinants of organizational changes, and complementary relationship between ICT labors, ICTs, and organizational change and study the determinant model of the most important topics, R&D and collaboration, which display biotechnology¡¦s characteristics.

Media impact on LGBT people’s empowerment is not a new topic to media and communication studies, however, the extent to which lesbians’ use of internet-based media have contribute to their empowerment in a non-western context remains under-researched. This research attempts to respond to the question with an exploration of the relation between nv-tong-zhi’s use of internet-based media and their empowerment by the lens of their own lived experiences in Taipei. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) method was applied in this research, and thematic analysis was conducted on the data gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that nv-tong-zhi individuals’ use of internet-based media have brought about increases in self-efficacy, self-esteem and competence as well as active engagement in empowerment interventions by providing more valuable information and more convenient and accessible social interactions. However, the contribution of using internet-based media remains contextual and temporary. In some cases, using internet-based media may bring in subjective sense of insecurity. Furthermore, there has emerged a paradox between psychological empowerment and collective empowerment that deserves further explanatory studies in the future.

Networked information technologies and especially the internet, have brought about extensive changes and re-arrangements in cultural production, distribution, commercialisation and consumption of creative content. As an attempt to create a type of copyright licenses better suited for the online environment, the Creative Commons (CC) organisation has launched a license suite that allows creators to openly distribute and share their work under varying levels of restrictions. This thesis aim is to explore the motivations, expectations and understandings of both users and non users of CC licenses within the Independent Filmmaking Community. The research maps out the strategies and diverse business models that users of the licenses develop around their implementation but also the problems and conflicts that arise for both users and non users of the licenses. It therefore sheds light on the processes of adoption, implementation and subsequent fragmentation of the socio-legal innovation that is the CC license suite. While Free and Open Source models of software development (FOSS) have been thoroughly researched, little is known about how other content creators incorporate open licensing strategies within their creative fields. This research aims to address this gap in the literature through the examination of the use of CC licenses by Open Content Filmmakers. Building on theoretical and empirical research in Science and Technology Studies my aim is to analyse the legal innovation of CC licenses by focusing on how they are embedded within the everyday practices of open content filmmakers. By applying the Social Shaping of Technology framework and more specifically the Social Learning perspective, I examine the ways different actors ascribe meaning and conceptualise the role and usefulness of the licenses for their creative practices. Filmmakers negotiate the licenses’ significance through their interactions with diverse actors. These negotiations entail conflicting interpretations as different actors often have different agendas, commitments and resources, resulting in the transformation of both the licenses’ stated goals and of the perceived affordances of digital technologies. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography and rich qualitative data, this thesis captures the processes of learning by doing and learning by interaction, as filmmakers seek to find an appropriate way of applying the licenses, situating them within their localised creative endeavours through trial and error practices. The analysis of empirical evidence reveals how independent filmmakers navigate between ideological imperatives and practical considerations in order to form distinct, heterogeneous configurations that work for them, instead of outright adopting a homogeneous generic vision for how copyright should be applied in the digital environment.

This research investigates the linkages that exist between climate change impacts, adaptation and information and communication technologies (ICTs) within developing country livelihoods. The analysis is based on an original conceptual framework that explores the notion of 'e-resilience' as a key property through which ICTs may strengthen the capacity of vulnerable systems to adapt and potentially transform in the face of increasing climate change impacts and uncertainty. By drawing key principles from the sustainable livelihoods framework, new institutionalism and Sen's capabilities approach, and based on a critical realist view of the world, the research provides a novel approach to the understanding of ICTs' role in contexts vulnerable to climate change. Based on the experience of Colombia's coffee producers, the analysis demonstrates that ICTs can contribute to the ability of vulnerable livelihoods to adapt to the impacts of climate change and variability through improved short-term informational efficiency and knowledge sharing, and long-term decision-making effectiveness, capacity building and behavioural change. The analysis explores the main factors that enable or constrain ICTs' contribution to the implementation of adaptive actions, arguing that the extent and impact of those contributions are best understood through the concept of e-resilience. As an increasingly relevant property of vulnerable systems, e-resilience integrates foundational (robustness, self-organisation and learning) and enabling attributes (redundancy, rapidity, scale, flexibility, diversity and equality) that may have been overlooked from a traditional 'asset-based' approach, while allowing a systemic (multi-scale/multi-temporal/multi-stressor) understanding of the context within which developing country stakeholders operate. The research findings reveal numerous linkages between ICTs' role and resilience building, suggesting that the e-resilience sub-properties strengthen the ability of vulnerable systems to enact adaptation actions, and better cope with the process of change and increasing uncertainty associated with (but not limited to) climate change. The analysis shows that, while ICT tools have not been explicitly integrated into national or sectoral climate change adaptation strategies, they are playing an increasing role in the adaptive capacity and resilience of developing country livelihoods. The study concludes by recognising the strengths and weaknesses of the e-resilience approach, providing recommendations to facilitate its use in development practice and suggesting key areas for future research.

In Georgia, a country with a post-soviet past and a long path of geopolitical struggles that is transitioning into a liberal democracy, queer people remain as one of the most oppressed groups of the society. Despite the hostile environment, there are several openly queer activists who fight against the oppression on a daily basis. One of the battlegrounds for those fights has become Facebook, the social networking site that created another space for informational exchange and meaning construction during the interaction. The purpose of this research is to explore the use of Facebook by Georgian queer activists for their individual and community empowerment. The study deals with the concept of empowerment as the primary theoretical framework from the perspective of community phycology. With the help of a one-month netnographic observation of 10 queer activists on Facebook and interviews conducted with them, the study demonstrates the sense of empowerment that queer activists obtain through their use of Facebook. According to the activists’ accounts, Facebook increased possibilities for them to receive more information more easily and quickly, to express their opinions, negotiate their identities, engage in acts of resistance, organize the community and mobilize community members and their supporters. However, the use of Facebook is not a singlehanded process, as it has created new challenges that activists have to deal with, along with the fellow community members. Some of those challenges include increased cyberbullying, “slacktivism” (Morozov, 2011), issues of digital security and better-organized hate groups. The research adopts a phenomenological approach to explore the self-perceptions of the queer activists’ experiences, and it creates a basis for further research about studying the actual effects of Facebook on queer resistance in Georgia.