The present paper explores the effects player transfers have on share price for publicly traded football clubs in Europe. The study utilizes two samples: one English sample from 1997—2004, and another more contemporary European sample from 2007—2014. Preliminary analysis assesses share price links with team performance, financial variables, and two STOXX indices. Further analysis includes 12 event studies testing for abnormal returns resulting from player transfers. Of these 12 event studies, half of the transfers yield abnormal returns. Though results varied, there remains ample evidence from this paper for academics to further study the topic of player news and share prices for publicly traded football clubs.

This thesis investigates how the news media constructs reality through newspaper representation of the role of a hero in society and a hero's loyalty to the nation. The research is based on a case study of New Zealand newspapers and how they framed Russell Coutts' role in the America's Cup 2003. Russell Coutts was the leading figure of "Team New Zealand"in 1995 and in 2000 when his team won and defended the America's Cup. He was praised by New Zealand newspapers as a hero during the time he led "Team New Zealand"from one victory to another. But, after the victory in 2000, Russell Coutts signed a contract with the rival team "Alinghi"and the framing of his heroic role in the New Zealand press changed. He became a defector from his team and he was framed as a traitor to his own country. Using discourse studies and semiotics as the main theoretical and methodological background, this thesis analyzes how the process of news framing is influenced by the rules of journalistic practice and by the wider social environment. The thesis explores how news values blend with mythological narrative in journalists' daily routine of producing news stories that both construct reality and reaffirm society's dominant values. The study reveals that the re-presentation of the nation in the news media is a simplified construction of an ideal and transcendental identity. Consequently, the role of the hero is framed as a representation of that ideal, and the hero is framed as a loyal leader - someone who should lead, not challenge, society's rules. The thesis discusses the news media's power to define identity by questioning a prominent individual's loyalty to the nation. The research illustrates that even a hero whose position is firmly established within the particular society can be radically re-defined if that hero is not following the expectations of the press and the rules of the society

Contributing to the broader debate on the nature and identity of the European Union (EU), this thesis is a study of the EU from the outside looking in: an examination of how this novel process of integration among the nations of Europe is viewed by its partners around the world, in particular in New Zealand through its television news media. While there are many studies which examine how the EU is understood and represented within its borders, there is an absence of parallel studies which consider the image of the EU from an external perspective. Recognising that the television news media plays a particularly important role in influencing the knowledge and perceptions of people on foreign matters, the thesis presents an analysis of the entire EU television news coverage in New Zealand's two prime-time television news bulletins throughout 2004. The primary research question that the thesis investigates is, how is the EU framed in the television news media of New Zealand, an external 'Other' of the EU? The study was multi-methodological in nature and analysed each of the relevant news items using content analysis, as well as undertaking deeper analysis of the metaphorical categorisations and the visual images of the EU, to detect the entire range of EU representations and the overall image of the EU these created for New Zealand television news audiences. These findings were then compared against corresponding research from Australia, South Korea and Thailand, as well as to the perceptions of New Zealand's leading newsmakers, in order to account for the most important trends in EU image formation in New Zealand. In particular it was found that the EU was often entirely absent from the New Zealand television news space, and when it was visible, was often presented in a way which ignored the extensive domestic relevance of the Union for New Zealand and its immediate region.

This thesis addresses the roles and experiences of fourteen London correspondents for New Zealand newspapers, 1884-1942. It argues that these correspondents made a small but significant contribution to news flow into New Zealand and that the importance of London’s role as an imperial, cultural and news-flow metropole make it central to studies of the New Zealand press during this period. However, correspondents identities as New Zealanders and the unique requirements of the New Zealand press system were also important, meaning that correspondents and their correspondence need to be addressed in terms of layered identity and of both imperial and domestic press systems.

On February 22, 2011, Christchurch-based journalists were jolted out of their normal work routine by a large 6.3 magnitude earthquake that killed 185 people, wrecked the city and forced reporters to reappraise their journalism. This study considers how the earthquake affected journalists’ relationship to the community, their use of sources and news selection. A theory of collective trauma is used to explain the changes that journalists made to their reporting practice. Specifically, Christchurch journalists had a greater identification and attachment to their audience post-earthquake. Journalists viewed themselves as part of the earthquake story, which prompted them to view sources differently, use those sources differently and see advocacy as a keystone of their news work after the disaster. This study adds to a growing scholarship about journalists and trauma, but focuses on what the event meant for local reporters’ choice of sources and news selection rather than measuring rates of psychological distress.

Abstract This thesis explores how the cultural and social media environments surrounding the journalism of Al Jazeera English are shaped by and shape the channel’s news practices. Al Jazeera English has been described as a contra-flow news organization in the global media landscape and this thesis discusses the different reasons why the channel is described in this way by looking at its origins, aims, characteristics and ideals. Based on interviews with Al Jazeera English journalists, news observations and two field observations in London, I argue that Al Jazeera English brings cultural and social sensitivity to its news reports by engaging with multiple in-depth perspectives, using local reporters and integrating citizen generated material. The channel’s early adoption of online technologies and citizen journalism also contributes to a more democratic news direction and gives the channel a wider spectrum of opinions and perspectives to choose between. By applying a comparative analysis built on similar studies within anthropology of news journalism differences and similarities within the journalistic practices can be detected, comparing Al Jazeera English’s journalism with journalism at other places and news organizations. These comparisons and discussions enables new understandings for how news is produced and negotiated within the global media landscape, and this gives the global citizen an improved comprehension of why the news, which shapes our appreciation of the world, looks like it does. In conclusion, this awareness opens up for a discussion towards a societal transformation that gives space for a more multifaceted journalism distancing itself from one-sided perspectives and institutional censoring.

This thesis has investigated the local Indianapolis television news viewing habits of the residents of Muncie, Indiana. The thesis also explored similarities between Muncie TV news viewing habits and those of the rest of central Indiana.The study used a random telephone survey method to gather data. Past area viewing trends recorded by the Arbitron Company of Chicago were also used for informal comparisons of Muncie and central Indiana viewing preferences of Indianapolis TV newscasts.Demographic analyses of TV news audiences of the Indianapolis commercial network television affiliates were conducted in order to help describe the participation of each station's Muncie audience.

This thesis offers a feminist analysis of the gendered public discourses surrounding notions of talent, authenticity and containment. Using two of the most polarizing stars in North America – ‘Snooki’ and Kim Kardashian – the author offers an analysis of how both hard and soft news frame our everyday understanding of women’s public work. Textual analyses of news articles demonstrated that displays of sexual power were most undermined by the media while attempts to venture beyond the reality television texts were contained. On the other hand, the news media were more likely to use positive framing when women were seen to be fulfilling more traditional roles such as wife and mother. The empirical research approach provides an original framework which can be applied to other female public figures to examine how such ideological and gendered discourses shape our understanding of women’s work as well as, more generally, women’s roles in our society.

Our study has explored how university students at the Technical University of Mombasa, TUM, in Kenya consume news. The aim of the research has been to get a snapshot picture of what the consumption look like in a time and context when the development of Internet Communication Technology, ICT, has increased rapidly in a short period of time. Our empiric data has been collected through three different methods. First we approached the area of the Technical University of Mombasa with an ethnographic method. Then we went on with an in-depth interview with one of our key informants before handing out a survey to collect quantitative data to analyse. Through theoretical framework rooted in the theories of Digital divide and New media we interpreted our data to be able to answer our research questions. The results show that the use of the smartphone is widely spread in order to consume news among students of TUM. Money is still a big obstacle for the majority of the students in our population in how they can access news through technical devices. The gap between those who can afford and those who fight with financial issues is still large. Our study confirms that the gap in the digital divide is still big but we could read signs telling us that the gap maybe is about to shrink.

The evidential quality of photographs has grown out of their early uses in tourism, colonialism, social control and media, and their often unconscious perception makes them not only susceptible to manipulation but also gives them the power to impart messages beyond those consciously considered by the viewer. This thesis explores seemingly innocuous photographs of the 2003 war in Iraq from the BBC and The New York Times online as published evidence that moves beyond simple coverage of the war by using subtle visual cues that speak to historically rooted power relationships between the Western ‘self’ and the Muslim ‘other’. Further, using Baudrillard’s understanding of simulation and dissimulation as a guide, this thesis introduces the notion of iconification and reveals how these images portrayed consistent themes thereby rendering the photographs icons for abstract concepts such as terrorism, oppression, and liberation. / Graduate