Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 29 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-28).

The "tabloid TV" genre, like tabloid newspapers has been chastised for depoliticising the public by causing cynicism, and lowering the standards of rational public discourse. Such criticisms are not always based on a close interrogation of the reasons for the popularity of such a genre amongst its consumers. The "tabloid TV" news genre is a relatively new phenomenon in Zambia and in the African context in general. This study is an investigation of the rise in popularity of the Zambian television station, Muvi TV. It is a reception study of Lusaka (capital city) viewers, particularly the working class community, who make up the majority of the TV stations' audience. Members of this social group who have hitherto been marginalised from mainstream media discourses were interviewed. In particular, the study explores the meanings obtained from the content of Muvi TVs' tabloidised main evening news and its relevance to their everyday lived experiences. The TV station gives prominence to "micro-politics of everyday life", alongside "serious" stories albeit in a more lurid, sensationalised and personalised manner. In undertaking this investigation, the study draws primarily on qualitative in-depth interviews - focus group and individual. These techniques unearth the manner in which the viewers decode the messages and appropriate the meanings into their lived experiences. The study establishes that the popularity of Muvi TV is due to the emphasis on human-interest stories epitomised by tabloid journalism values. The working class majority is able to relate and identify with these stories, and attaches greater believability to the station's news as compared to the public broadcaster, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC). As such, Muvi TV can be seen to fulfil a political function despite its sensationalised approach.

Narrative journalism has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in mainstream daily newspapers in the United States during the last decade. This popularity has encouraged many journalistic experts to proclaim that narrative journalism is well-liked by readers and may well become the savior of daily newspapering. This study attempts to determine reader preferences in four areas : appeal, believability, comprehension, and retention.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work is about the Cultural Studies and its configuration, the Culture Circuit and its approach with the News Circuit , in a full and integrating attempt of approach which revindicates a global view about the journalistic processes based on the Idea of integration between production, text and readings. It searches signs capable to demarcate the incursion into the communication and journalism Field and part of the theoretical-methodological contributions of the Cultural British Studies, in special the ones postulated by Richard Johnson (1999) which refers to the Culture Circuit , to understand and/or to explain the culture dynamics, of the cultural products and their intersections with the journalistic practice, mainly which refers to its representations. Studying the representation of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) and their actions into the Zero Hora newspaper(ZH) texts having as the scenery the News Circuit and their distinct stages is our main purpose. Nevertheless here we also want to map the representations movement and its transformations along the production text reading chain. In that way, besides recognizing the aptitude of the journalism and the journlistic speech at work of the construction of the representations we will try to answer how this movement works and how it is based this movement which passes by the different stages of the News Circuit , without forgetting its intersections and interrelations. / O presente trabalho trata dos Estudos Culturais e de sua configuração, do Circuito da Cultura e de sua aproximação com o Circuito das Notícias , numa tentativa de abordagem integral e integradora, que reivindica uma visão global sobre os processos jornalísticos sustentada na ideia de integração entre produção, texto e leituras. Ele busca sinalizadores capazes de balizar a incursão no campo da comunicação e do jornalismo e parte das contribuições teórico-metodológicas dos Estudos Culturais Britânicos, em especial dos postulados de Richard Johnson (1999) no que se refere ao Circuito da Cultura , para entender e/ou explicar a dinâmica da cultura, dos produtos culturais, e suas intersecções com a prática jornalística, principalmente no que se refere às representações. Estudar a representação do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-terra (MST) e de suas ações nos textos do jornal Zero Hora (ZH), tendo como panorama o Circuito das Notícias e suas distintas fases, é nosso objetivo central. Porém aqui, também pretendemos mapear o movimento das representações e suas transformações ao longo da cadeia produção texto leitura. Dessa forma, além de reconhecer a competência do jornalismo e do discurso jornalístico no trabalho de construção das representações, tentaremos responder como se dá e em que base se assenta esse movimento que perpassa as diferentes fases do Circuito das Notícias , sem esquecer de suas intersecções e inter-relações.