This thesis aims to contribute to recent discussions in media and cultural studies and political communication about reconceptualising the relationships between politics, media and public engagement. It will do so by articulating the context and processes in which private citizens form political publics and the ways in which media genres beyond conventional news and public affairs encourage or enable civic engagement. It explores these issues in the context of the ongoing democratisation of South Korea since 1987, a nation with a particularly dynamic digital culture. The thesis critiques the conventional binaries between the private (emotion/entertainment/fans) and the public (reason/news/publics), and articulates the mediating contexts and processes in which the private shifts to the public. It seeks to situate affect and entertainment (popular culture) as key agents in mobilising and sustaining citizens' political interest and participation. The key research questions are therefore: in what context do media offer a discursive space to connect people's everyday lives to the public world as well as to recruit and sustain political interest?; how does affect play a critical part in making sense of the public world, and mobilising political participation?; and in what ways do private individuals come to shape the public? These questions are examined in the context of ICT-based media environments and in relation to three empirical studies: 1) OhmyNews - a global icon of citizen journalism - in which the ‘feminised' news produced by citizens (re- )contextualised private interests into public concerns, and allowed the public to make a real change in the 2002 Presidential election and the 2010 local elections; 2) online political satire, in which politics is situated in an entertainment mode through citizens' creative reinterpretation, and which helped mobilise citizens' political interest and action during the 2004 Presidential impeachment and general election; and 3) the politicisation of teen fandom, in which music fans were mobilised as political actors in the 2008 anti-US beef protest. The thesis employs a wide range of research methods including participant observation, interpretive textual analysis, and semi-structured and in-depth interviews. In this way the thesis identifies a complex linkage of traditionally separated spheres, such as reason and affect, news and entertainment media, and expert and common knowledge.

This thesis is an analysis of the use and impact of digital communication technology (DCT) in the Gay pub scene in the Kemptown neighborhood of Brighton, East Sussex, UK. The purpose of this work is twofold: to create a snapshot record of the everyday activities in pub spaces at a particular point in the neighborhood's history from the point of view of an American gay man, and to develop an understanding of the impact of digital communications technology (DCT) on the activities in these spaces by investigating the impact of DCT on the idea of 'gay space'. This analysis is broken down into three distinct areas of enquiry: the implementation of DCT in pub spaces by the landlords/owners of the space, the use of DCT by the patrons of these spaces, and an analysis of those spaces that have not directly engaged DCT, neither implementing DCT as a feature of the location, nor limiting its use within the space. This thesis utilizes participant observations, auto ethnographic observations, and interviews made over a period of two years and engages with the theoretical arguments around gay space: its history both within the broad context of UK history, and also with Brighton's special historical status as a gay centre within the UK; its current uses; and the potential for its evolution. This investigation of hof DCT is impacting on gay space also questions to what extent 'gay space' is maintaining a sense of physicality and to what extent an extension of DCT-enabled virtual spaces is altering our relationship to these spaces. The work examines the notion of nostalgia, ownership, and control of space and attempts through its focus on several locations in Kemptown to catalogue the many changes in structure, clientele, locale, and business success that these spaces have gone through in a fairly short time and to determine to what extent the use and influences of DCT has driven these changes. The project includes interviews with landlords and patrons of eight current and former venues in Kemptown and encompasses a group of three key participants in detail through a series of scheduled interviews and group discussions conducted during the duration of the project, and details their particular relationships to the spaces in Kemptown as well as their uses of DCT in these spaces. These participants act as a focal point for the research by helping to create a frame of reference within the work balancing the author's auto ethnographic analysis with the point of view of a local Brighton gay male, as well as contribute to and support the broader narrative of the vicissitudes of smaller pub venues by helping to highlight the historical changes in the pubs being looked at. The specific questions that this research sets out to answer are: • How is digital communicative technology (DCT) affecting self defined gay spaces in Kemptown, Brighton? • How is DCT affecting the behaviours of the patrons and owners/operators in these spaces? • How are the owners/operators of these spaces adapting to DCT? Is there evidence of owners/operators conforming to Winston's theory on the suppression of disruptive potential of new and emerging media technology (1995)? • What are the implications, challenges and opportunities presented to those spaces which are not engaging with DCT in their spaces? • Are “gay spaces” in Kemptown still relevant with the intersection of digital and physical spaces? Do these spaces meet the same requirements as they have in the past? Does DCT have the ability on its own to maintain the relevance of a venue on its own when faced off against other pressures (such as commercial or demographic pressure)? The conclusions reached in this thesis draw attention to the potential for DCT: • Acting as a form of disruptive potential of new communication technologies (Winston, 1995). • The concerns that DCT is suppressing interpersonal communications in favor of mediated discourse (Turkle, 2011, 2012, 2015). • That automobility is creating a privatization of pub spaces, along with the creation of ‘non-places' (Bull, 2004) However, in the author's analysis, there is evidence of cohabitation, and adaptation towards DCT which is reminiscent of Winston's theory of the suppression of disruptive potential of emerging communication technology, as well as a resistance response with nostalgic overtones. The conclusions are also grounded in the larger narratives of pub culture within the UK and note the challenging culture that smaller, brewer-tied and non-tied gay venues have within these changing demographics and cultural acceptance of homosexuality in general. This research adds to the broader field of research into the adaptation of communications technology by drawing attention to the effects of DCT on both spaces and their users and also highlights their effects on a subculture.

This thesis explores online practices of women in Québec, a culturally and historically distinct province in Canada that is undergoing rapid social and technological transformations, and analyses the discourses that emerge. It zeroes in on blogging, as a facilitator for exploring, constructing and challenging gendered identities. It draws on and contributes to a growing body of literature that investigates and legitimises women's online writings, an area that remains under analysed. This online ethnography was accomplished through face-to-face interviews with 23 Frenchspeaking women bloggers, home visits and an analysis of their blogs. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, the thesis analyses how informants locate themselves inside and outside traditional and mainstream discourses of femininities. It first explores how participants discuss their blogs using domestic metaphors, thereby linking their online expressions to ideas and ideals of the home. Second, it reveals how bloggers share a common concern with putting forward a favourable self, emphasising personal qualities such as education, respect, affability, and impressive online networks. Third, it analyses self-improvement narratives in participants' interviews and blog entries, examining recurring discussions of personality, values and views; body size and image; emotional and mental health; and professional and homemaking skills. The last chapter underlines how blogging provides women with opportunities for networking, a place to discuss challenges and with a means to claim time for themselves. The thesis draws out the complex engagements in an activity they find pleasurable despite working within mainstream gender role constraints and still facing a digital divide. In both discourse and practice, participants seem at ease with blogging but remain highly influenced by traditional discourses. This gives rise to a sense of contradiction where they feel like they exist, have a public life and make a contribution but also exhibit a sense of compulsion and regulation. They break out of the limits of normative femininities perhaps – at the same time creating new 'women's worlds' – even as the use of blogging reinstates and produces conservative forms of self-management.

This PhD thesis is an ethnographic investigation into the drinking practices of young people undertaken in the Canterbury (Kent, United Kingdom) night-time economy. This research took place across a series of fieldwork sites, including: pubs, night-clubs, the street, and young people’s houses across the city. The research included an in-depth ethnography which took place in a city-centre pub where I was working as a bartender, which adapted the methodological approach of the Chicago School of Sociology to urban studies in a contemporary context. Specific examples from the research included a case study with two young men in the pub who were drinking after work, and a wide-range of other ethnographic examples taken from scenarios arising through my position at the pub resulting from bar conversations and informal interviews. These were selected from a number of literally thousands of young people who I encountered across the two years of fieldwork in the pub. The licensee of the pub, Andrew, acted as a gatekeeper for the research, as his approach to the pub business corresponded to interaction and the possibility of building ethnographic relationships with young people. Other ethnographic data examples were also taken from the wider Canterbury night-time economy, away from the pub at the centre of the in-depth ethnography. The variety of data sets included participant observation, conversation, informal interviews and the field diary. Drawing from the accounts of participants in the fieldwork and emergent themes in the ethnography, the thesis argues that young people are the subject of a normalization of extreme drinking practices in the night-time economy. This is explored through the adaptation of the model of drug normalization theory, where young people’s experiences of alcohol and extreme drinking practices are examined in relation to specific dimensions of drinking. The media stereotyping of extreme drinking practices by young people is also subject to critique, where it will be argued that the term “binge” drinking is an imprecise and moralistic view of young people’s activities in the night-time economy.

The following thesis examines the impact of social and legacy media on young people’s political engagement as well as on their attitudes to, feelings towards and beliefs about politics. This was accomplished using a three-tiered design which integrated both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The aim of this design was to ensure that young people were afforded a voice in the ongoing debate around youth apathy. To this end, a direct comparison of social and legacy media coverage of various case studies was undertaken. This initial comparison was accompanied by a series of interviews using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). The interviews focused on individual engagement with politics and social and legacy media, in order to get a sense of each individuals understanding of their role in British politics as well as the feelings and attitudes towards media and politics more widely. The three-tiered design concluded with a quantitative questionnaire assessing governmental trust, political efficacy, self-efficacy, and self-esteem by way of a series of standardised measures. From this mixed-methods approach, two main findings arise. Firstly, that social media such as Twitter hold the potential to facilitate political engagement in young people, beyond what is currently achieved by the British legacy media. The second finding suggests that there has been fundamental paradigmatic shift of youth conceptions of politics from what could be considered traditional political behaviours (such as voting and party membership; Strømsnes, 2009) to lifestyle orientated choices (such as boy/buycotts; Copeland, 2014; Gil de Zúñiga, Copeland & Bimber, 2014), mediated by social media. Overall the results of the thesis foster a dualistic understanding of British young people who are simultaneously engaged with and apathetic toward “politics” dependant on how the term is defined.

This thesis examines feminist and queer actors emerging in highly mediated environments and the forms of political organisation and critical knowledge production they engage in. It indicates that older debates around gender and sexuality are being reformulated in digital networks and identifies alternative understandings which are being developed. The study foregrounds a performative conceptualisation and argues that political realities are produced in dynamic configurations of communication media, discourses and bodies. It suggests that network technologies constitute sources of vulnerability and anxiety for feminists and stresses the significance of registering how embodied subjectivities emerge from these experiences. To achieve its aims and to map activity happening across different spaces and scales, the project attended to context-specific processes of mediation at the intersections of online and offline settings. It employed ethnographic methods, internet visualisation, in-depth interviewing and textual analysis to produce the following key outcomes: it registered changing understandings of the political in relation to new media amongst a network of women's organisations in London; it investigated the centrality of social media and global connections in the shaping of local queer political communities in Brighton; it complicated ideas of control, labour and affect to analyse emerging sexual identities in online spaces like nofauxx.com, and offline postporn events; finally, it traced feminist actors gathering around new reproductive technologies, at the crossing fields of grassroots activism and the academy. Today, women's groups and queer activists increasingly use networked communication for mobilisation and information-sharing. In a climate of widespread scepticism towards both representational politics and traditional media, questions about the role of digital networks in enabling or limiting political engagement are being raised. This thesis aims to contribute to these debates by accounting for the ways in which feminist and queer activists in digital networks reformulate the relationship between communication media and politics.

This thesis explores the ‘credibility' of news in Saudi Arabia, comparing online media with official newspapers. The latter are heavily regulated offering limited viewpoints. But the Saudi government has been less able to regulate online. Against a historical background of news development in Saudi Arabia, the thesis explores the rise of online from discussion forums established in the 1990s to online newspapers and social media. Largely qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups) plus a quantitative survey, were adopted to collect two sets of data: from educated readers, and from journalists working for online publications. Additionally, material from two news case studies was gathered. Questions concerned: how online news was evaluated by users compared to more traditional reporting; how producers perceived the distinctiveness of online titles and the issues they faced. The data from the case studies – an ‘internal' news story, Corona virus and an ‘external' event, Egyptian elections – was subjected to ‘frame' analysis, addressing the different news coverage of official print titles, online news and independent Twitter accounts. Focus was on whether online reporting offered more varied viewpoints and greater reader participation, and whether there was evidence for more management of news by the Saudi authorities in relation to the internal as compared to the external news event. The thesis argues that compared to official newspapers, online titles have largely gained greater credibility amongst educated Saudi users. They are regarded as offering different views, more ‘objective' reporting and actively encourage reader comment. Findings indicate that online is less censored than official newspapers, but editors/journalists have learnt the skills of self-censorship to avoid blocking. Exchange of views on Twitter also demonstrate the possibility of distinctive voices and viewpoints being aired and argued over. In these ways, the relation between online news and readers/users begins to enable the formation of independent ‘public opinion'.

This thesis explores the recent phenomenon of music concert goers filming these concerts and uploading the footage to YouTube. This contemporary practice poses several questions of the nature of contemporary music culture. The status of the concert as live event is problematised by this mediation of the experience. The videos create producers of fans and allow these fans to make a substantive contribution to music culture as authors of music texts consumed through a major distribution network. The fact that these fans are not paid for their efforts begs the question as to what they gain from this enterprise; particularly as it serves as a distraction for filmers from the immersive concert experience. This thesis will use the work of Walter Benjamin on the ‘aura' as a yardstick against which to judge current attitudes amongst music fans as to the status of live music alongside other ways of experiencing music. The thesis will also offer a contemporary reappraisal of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of ‘cultural capital' that accounts for the recognition that filmers receive from other music fans for their efforts in filming concerts. Concerts are restricted spaces in which music is simultaneously produced and consumed. Broadcasting videos of these events on YouTube provides recognition for filmers both for having attended and managed to capture footage to be shared with those unable to attend for various reasons. Filmers are not paid for their efforts and so this recognition serves as a form of cultural capital in lieu of financial reward. The thesis is based upon interviews with a global sample of music fans who either film concerts or watch these films on YouTube.

This research explores the purpose of the ‘teacher' in an increasingly mediated world. It focuses on the teaching of immigration and explores a pedagogic response attuned to the conflicting attitudes aroused by this controversial topic. Given the pendulum swings between ‘knowledge' and ‘skills-based' forms of study, this research explores the political nature of media learning and the role of media teaching beyond instrumental transmission on the one hand and mere facilitation on the other. Following the work of Biesta (2016), it emboldens the teacher to not shy away from an engagement with ‘difficult questions or inconvenient truths' inherent in teaching a topic such as immigration. This practitioner action research contrasts traditional (Media Studies 1.0) and ‘new' (Media Studies 2.0) approaches to the study of film, press and social media through the teaching of media representations of immigration and immigrants in a predominantly White school in the South of England over a nine month period as part of an A level Media Studies course. In doing so, the research reassesses a conceptual model of media study for the social media age. There are many threats to media studies as a school based subject. Some of these emanate from within the subject itself. The Media Studies 2.0 (Gauntlett, 2007) manifesto argues that formal media studies has failed to grapple with a qualitatively changed media ecology augured by the shift from broadcast to online/social media. This, the critique contends, has resulted in the conflation of the previously fixed phases of media production, distribution and consumption and their pedagogic cousins of teaching, classroom and learning. Within school-based education, media studies is thus seen as losing its distinctive edge with other curriculum subjects using media forms as intrinsic components of the e-Learning experience for both teachers and students. This research questions this overly positive view of social media's potential to act as a nascent pedagogic space for students to develop new technical skills and engage in meaningful cultural debate. The topic of immigration invites explicit teaching through the media concept of representation contrasting two pedagogical approaches. Through the lens of teaching this potentially socially divisive issue, the distinctive features of media studies are explored in presenting a complex, nuanced and sensitive position from which to foster civic engagement in young people. Using a Critical Realist (Bhaskar, 1975) ontological and epistemological framework, the research constructs a theoretical position rooted in what to study (a modified version of the influential BFI model, Bowker, 1991), how to study media (Multiliteracies, Kalantzis, 2008), the purpose of media study (framing and classification, Bernstein, 1975)) and anti-essentialist classroom relations as they pertain to race (Critical Race Theory, Ladson-Billings, 2004). This research asserts the importance of developing a self-reflexive pedagogical response to issues of racial tolerance, social justice and economic power. Additionally, the research presents insights into the multimodal teaching and learning that traverse traditional divides between home/school, public/private spaces and real/imagined spaces. In this context, it reasserts the value of school-based media study as fostering critical, analytical, practical and technical competences that offer the structured self-reflexive space not afforded in general social media consumption practices.