by Siu Luen-wun, Wanda. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-100). / Chapter I --- Introduction --- p.1-3 / Chapter II --- Literature Review --- p.4-43 / Chapter 2.1 --- Cognitive Priming theory --- p.4-10 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Spreading-Activation Network model --- p.11-12 / Chapter 2.3. --- The Semantic Network Theory --- p.13-16 / Chapter 2.4 --- Cognitive Priming and the mass media --- p.16-20 / Chapter 2.5 --- Links with Emotion --- p.21-34 / Affect and mental Network theory --- p.24 / Positive and Negative Asymmetry --- p.24-25 / Affect and Memory --- p.25-27 / Affect and Learning --- p.27-29 / Affect and Information Processing --- p.30-34 / Chapter 2.6 --- Theoretical model proposed --- p.35-38 / Application of the model to the study --- p.39-43 / Chapter III --- Methods --- p.44-55 / Chapter 3.1 --- Research Question --- p.44-46 / Chapter 3.2 --- Hypotheses --- p.47-50 / Affect and feelings towards Clinton --- p.47 / Agenda setting and priming --- p.48 / Approval of Clinton and evaluation of Clinton --- p.49-50 / Competence and Integrity perception --- p.50 / Chapter 3.3 --- Dependent and Independent measures --- p.51-59 / Affect manipulation check --- p.51-52 / Positive and negative feelings --- p.52-54 / Issue Salience --- p.55 / Perception of Clinton's overall performance --- p.55-56 / Competence and integrity perception --- p.57-59 / Chapter 3.4 --- Experimental materials --- p.60-62 / Chapter 3.5 --- Pilot Test --- p.63-65 / Chapter 3.6 --- Procedure --- p.66-67 / Chapter IV --- Principle Analysis --- p.68-85 / Chapter 4.1 --- Affect and feelings towards Clinton --- p.69-72 / Chapter 4.2 --- Agenda setting and priming --- p.73-79 / Chapter 4.3 --- Approval of Clinton and evaluation of Clinton --- p.80-84 / Chapter 4.4 --- Competence and Integrity perception of Clinton --- p.85 / Chapter V --- Conclusion --- p.86-90 / References --- p.91-100 / Appendix --- p.101-107

This thesis, titled “Normative Media Theory and the Rethinking of the Role of the Kenyan Media in a Changing Social Economic Context,” is a theoretical study that discusses the role of normative media theory in shaping and guiding debate on the role of the media and attendant policy making processes in a changing Kenyan social economic context. This is done against the background of acknowledgment of the general state of flux that characterizes normative media theory in a postmodern, globalized and new media landscape. The study thus extensively describes the Kenyan media landscape, with a view to demonstrating how it has and is continuing to be transformed by a variety of developments in the social economic set up of the Kenyan society. In order to provide a theoretical basis for explaining these developments, the study then indulges in an extensive theoretical discussion that presents a synthesis of current arguments in the area of normative media theory. This discussion fundamentally brings to the fore the challenges which characterizes normative media theory in a changing social economic context and therefore the inability of traditional normative theory to account for new developments in the media and society in general. In an attempt to integrate normative media theory and practice, the study then discusses (against the backdrop of theory) the views and opinions of key role players in the Kenyan media landscape, in regard to how they perceive the role of the media. Particular attention is given, inter alia, to matters such as media ownership, media accountability processes, changing media and communication technologies, a changing constitutional landscape, the role of the government in the Kenyan media landscape, the place of African moral philosophy in explaining the role of the media in Kenya, and the growth of local language radio. Finally, on the bases of theory, experiences from other parts of the world and the views of key role players in the Kenyan media landscape, the study presents several normative guidelines on how normative theory and media policy making in Kenya could meet each other, taking into account the changes occasioned by globalization and the new media landscape. These proposals are essentially made to enrich general debate on the role of the media in Kenya, as well as attendant media policy making efforts. / Communication / D.Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

Not available / text

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study aims to locate the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) within South Africa’s transformation from apartheid to a nonracial and constitutional democracy. This entails first examining the potential for participation demonstrated by editors’ societies at different democratic stages and defining the ideal democratic roles of journalism. The recent political history of journalism in the country is summarised to draw out the particular obstacles to editors’ unity and the transformation needs in South Africa’s racialised context. Then the forum’s history from 1995 to 2000 is reconstructed in detail using documentary sources. This covers the formation and launch periods of Sanef, and the next couple of years of the forum’s existence. This study is described as a historical, qualitative inquiry from the inside, observing both the sequence of events and the motives related to the context and to concepts of democratic role. It is unusual in that it is a historical study of a journalism society and it uses journalism theories to guide the research and the analysis. The research shows that despite having to overcome divisive issues from their past, the editors chose to play their part across all democratic roles: liberal, social democratic, neoliberal and participative. Activities were mostly linked to the current democratic stage. Many involved the self-transformation of journalism and journalists, leading to the suggestion of a fifth role for journalism in emerging democracies. However, some Sanef projects were not completed despite their significance for democratic journalism and others had no strategic rationale. This study recommends that Sanef be more strategic in its activities and look to other emerging democracies for appropriate solutions to problems. It is suggested that failing to do so could result in more complex problems for journalism in South Africa in the future. Finally, it is noted that the existence of a stable and prominent forum giving editors, senior journalists and journalism educators a united voice in areas of common interest in itself lends serious weight to their democratic participation.

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT:In a system of representative government, the media is assumed as an important institution to reflect public concerns and holding government accountable for the way in which it addresses these public concerns. Not only is this role imposed by a paradigm which views the media as one of the institutions that sustain and consolidate liberal democracy – the so-called fourth estate alongside the legislative, executive and judicial pillars – but the media itself has conceptualised its identity around the notion that journalists are a “vital part of political life” (Sparks, 1991:58). This study explores the validity of this authority. It suggests that the authority of the media to frame public concerns in a way that is useful for ordinary citizens to “bridge the gap between the private, domestic world and the concerns and activities of the wider society (McQuail, 2005:432)” has been eroded because citizens feel that their concerns and priorities have become secondary to the priorities of powerful state, economic and other “experts” who determine the news agenda. At the same time, there is a general sense that representative government or what is generally known as liberal democracy is losing its currency because citizens have developed a “habit of seeing the political system as indifferent and unresponsive” to their problems and their circumstances (Mathews, 1999:33). This study explores the potential of a more productive relationship between the media and citizens to rekindle and energise the role of citizens to contribute to the public work of solving common problems that face the wider society. This study proposes three theoretical frameworks – democratic professionalism, public journalism and deliberative democracy – with the potential to re-conceptualise the way journalists consider their professional role. This re-conceptualisation raises the possibility for reassessing the political work of journalists and the political work of citizens and build new habits of participation and discussion in the political process of communities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In 'n stelsel van verteenwoordigende regering, word die media veronderstel as 'n belangrike instelling om publieke kwessies te weërspieël en die regering verantwoordelik te hou vir die wyse waarop dit hierdie publieke kwessies aanspreek. Hierdie rol word veronderstel in 'n denkraamwerk wat die media beskou as een van die instellings wat liberale demokrasie konsolideer as die sogenaamde “vierde pilaar” neffens die wetgewende, uitvoerende en geregtelike gesag. Die role word verder deur die media self gekonseptualiseer as ‘n identiteit rondom die idee dat joernaliste 'n "belangrike deel is van die politieke lewe" (Sparks, 1991:58). Hierdie studie ondersoek die geldigheid van hierdie gesag. Die studie dui daarop dat die media gesag het wat die moontlikheid bied om publieke kwessies aan te spreek op 'n manier wat van nut kan wees vir gewone burgers om die kloof tussen die private, huishoudelike wêreld en die sorg en die aktiwiteite van die breër gemeenskap te oorbrug (McQuail, 2005:432). Die gesag word ondermyn omdat gewone burgers voel hulle belange en prioriteite word sekondêr geag aan die magsbelang van die staat en ander "kenners" wat die nuus agenda bepaal. Terselfdertyd is daar 'n algemene persepsie dat verteenwoordigende die regering, of wat algemeen bekend staan as liberale demokrasie, geldigheid verloor omdat burgers voel dat die politieke stelsel onverskillig reageer op die probleme wat hulle ervaar. Hierdie studie ondersoek die potensiaal van 'n meer werkbare verhouding tussen die media en die burgery om die energie wat burgers in die openbare sfeer kan bydra te ontgin. Hierdie studie stel drie teoretiese raamwerke voor – demokratiese professionaliteit, openbare joernalistiek en beraadslagende demokrasie – wat moontlikhede bied om opnuut oor die professionele rol van joernaliste te besin. Hierdie “besinning” bied weer nuwe moontlikhede vir die politieke werk van joernaliste en die politieke werk van die burgery. Dit veronderstel nuwe gewoontes van deelname en gesprek in openbare politieke proses.

This thesis deals with the introduction of participatory research methods to programming staff working at Radio KC, a South African community radio station based in Paarl, in the Western Cape province. The focus is on a series of workshops conducted at the station, dealing with research tools developed to enable station workers to undertake research of their community. The aim was to determine, by means ofa case study, whether the introduction of participatory research methods could improve the ability of community broadcasters to facilitate democratic participation among the communities in which they operate. More particularly, the thesis assesses whether the application of such methods has improved the ability of the programming staff that were involved in this case study to identify a wider range of stories and voices within their target community, for inclusion in programming content. The participatory research techniques that are applied at the radio station are based on ideas in 'civic mapping' developed by Harwood and McCrehan (1996) under the auspices of The Pew Center for Civic Journalism, and supplemented by insights from Friedland (2001) and Downs and Stea (1977) about the cognitive, normative and imagined dimensions of community. All of the ideas and techniques were adapted for the South African situation. The findings of the research project illustrate that for community stations, the key concepts of 'community' and 'participation' are highly complex ones and that stations need assistance to apply these concepts in their everyday practice. The account of the intervention at Radio KC shows that the process did indeed assist the individual research participants to better deal with the application of these concepts. It did not, however, make much impact on the station as a whole. Reasons for this are believed to lie in the organisational dynamics of the station, and the fact that the model as applied in this case did not provide a means for tackling the agendas, investments and power relations that define the activities of individuals at a given community radio station - what Hochheimer (1993) talks about as the entrenchment of power and personalities. In order to address these shortcomings, an attempt is made to develop a model for future application, which places the mapping process within the context of a broader strategic planning process, focussed on a station's programming schedule.

On July 29 2000, Uganda held a referendum to decide whether to continue with the ruling Noparty Movement system or to revert to the Multi-party platform. This research entails a qualitative content analysis of the role the media played in driving debate and understanding of the referendum and its role in the country’s democratisation process. The research is informed by Jurgen Habermas’s public sphere paradigm as well as the sociological theory of news production. The research covers Uganda’s two English dailies – The New Vision and The Monitor, examining whether they provided a public sphere accessible to all citizens and devoid of ideological hegemony. It concludes that the newspapers were incapable of providing such a sphere because of the structural nature of Ugandan society and the papers’ own capitalistic backgrounds and ownership interests. The research concludes that such English language newspapers published in a country with a low literacy rate and low income levels, can only provide a public sphere to elite and privileged sections of society. A case is then made that multiple public spheres would be better suited to represent the views of diverse interest groups.

On May 16 2006 the government of Zimbabwe embarked on a clean-up programme of urban centres, destroying informal human settlements and informal businesses. This operation, which the government called operation "Restore Order", resulted in the displacement of nearly one million people and left thousands of families homeless. This study is a discussion and an analysis of the coverage of the clean-up operation by two of Zimbabwe's leading Sunday newspapers, The Sunday Mail and The Standard. The Sunday Mail is owned by the Zimbabwe government and The Standard is privately owned and perceived to be oppositional to the current Zimbabwe government. The two newspapers, therefore, covered the clean-up operation from different perspectives and often presented conflicting reports explaining why the clean-up operation was carried out and the extent of its impact on the lives of millions of Zimbabweans. The chosen research approach is the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework as developed by Fairclough (1995). Using CDA, this study seeks to find out and expose the underlying ideological struggles for hegemony between different social and political groups in Zimbabwe and how the newspapers became actors in this process. This process is made possible by looking at how news reporting is organised in the two newspapers, issues of language use, sourcing and external factors that influenced the coverage of the operation.

This research is premised on the understanding that media texts are discourses and that all discourses are functional, that is, they refer to things, issues and events, in meaningful and goal oriented ways. Nine articles are analysed to explicate the sorts of discourses that were promoted by The Chronicle during the Gukurahundi conflict in Zimbabwe between 1982 and 1986. It is argued that discourses in the news media are shaped by the role(s), the type(s) of journalism assumed by such media, and by the political environment in which the news media operate. The interplay between the roles, types of journalism practised, and the effect the political environment has on news discourses is assessed within the context of conflictual situations. This is done using insights from the theoretical position of peace journalism and its critique of professional or mainstream journalism as promoting war/violence journalism. Using the case of The Chronicle's reportage of the Gukurahundi conflict in Zimbabwe, it is concluded that, in performing the collaborative role, state owned/controlled media assume characteristics of war/violence journalism. On the other hand, it is concluded that The Chronicle developed practices consistent with peace journalism when it both espoused the facilitative role and journalistic objectivity. These findings undermine the conventional view among proponents of peace journalism that in times of conflict, the news media should be interventionist in favour of peace and that they should abandon the journalistic norm of objectivity which they argue, promotes war/violence journalism.