This study attempts to analyse the way foreign media organisations have used the Internet to inform, educate and mobilise citizens for participation in their national election. These foreign experiences provide a framework with which to analyse the implications for the SABC as a public broadcaster of the next elections in South Africa. The research was informed by theories of media and democracy. One of the most powerful features of the new technology is its technical ability to facilitate an interactive flow of information. This research examines the concept of cyberdemocracy and the implications for the SABC, especially as it is planning on launching an online election strategy. The democratic roles of journalism and the implications for the SABC are also discussed. As a public service broadcaster, the SABC is bound to educate, inform, and mobilise voters for participation, build community and national identity and scrutinise the poll in the interests of transparency, accountability and fair play. International journalists are advocating a new type of journalism, called public or civic journalism, which combines these roles. This research draws primarily on qualitative research methods, using a case study methodology. It draws upon direct observation and interview methodology in the fieldwork. However, it also uses some quantitative methods in the analysis of the websites and the SABC research.Finally, the research analyses the situation at the SABC and provides recommendations for the election website within this context

This research contributes to the field of Journalism Studies and the evolving area of social media studies by empirically investigating the role of Twitter and Facebook in news production at global news agencies (GNAs) and their impact on GNA journalism. Research into the use of new networked and digital technologies in journalism has been growing but has yet to examine the arena of GNAs, which are a traditionally under-researched but hugely influential sector of the news industry. This thesis adds to a nascent body of research that takes social media seriously in journalism by analysing the interplay of the architecture and affordances of these technologies with the news production process. It does this through critical interrogation of changing organisational and individual work practices at the ‘Big Three’ GNAs, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters, which have become a crucial site for research of the impact of widespread and growing use of social media. The research creates and uses the theoretical framework of cultures of practice to analyse how GNAs are integrating social media into their organisational infrastructure and how newsworkers are incorporating them into journalistic practice. The term cultures of practice is employed to highlight the importance of socio-material context for shaping journalists’ work – taking account of how social and technological aspects of GNA infrastructure shape professional culture. Employing a qualitative multi-case study approach, the thesis combines interview analysis, framing analysis of social media guidelines, and analysis of organisational SNS activity to illuminate how social media are understood and employed at GNAs and the impact of their adoption for GNA journalism. The research finds that GNAs are ‘social networking the news’ and identifies a newly developed ethic of professional sociability, which is transforming GNA journalism and contributing to re-articulation of the GNA relationship with the public, business model, and role in the journalism ecology. It argues that professional cultures of practice is a valuable analytical lens for studying technological change in news production contexts as it enables effective study of the relationship between (social media) technology, (news production) practice and (GNA) culture. This study matters for what it indicates about how professional journalistic cultures transform in times of technological change through selectively co-opting practices, norms, and values while re-negotiating notions of professionalism.

This practice led thesis is an exploration of the ways in which theory can inform practice in documentary filmmaking. Section 1 of the thesis provides an embedded review of literature in order to offer the reader a critical evaluation of the theoretical debates that have informed my documentary practice. This section analyses issues associated with definitional debates on documentary film, while also addressing the formal features associated with what Bill Nichols (1991; 2001) called modes of documentary. The work of particular filmmakers will be discussed, namely Dziga Vertov, Jean Rouch and the city symphony makers of the early 20th century, in relation to how their ideas and film work have had a major impact on my own approach to filmmaking. Section 2 is the practical portfolio of work itself and acts as an exploration of theory within a practical context. The audio-visual texts include, A Film About Nice (2010), a dawn-to-dusk city symphony, which focuses on capturing the everyday life of a European city. It echoes the tradition of the City Symphony makers of the early 20th Century, however the significant difference here is that I explore some of the visual techniques adopted by the filmmakers and explore them within a sonic context. This film can be seen as an exploration of the impact rhythm has on signification within film. Mechanized Deconstruction (2011) is a recording of a live performance at Documentary Now 2011. This was my first venture into producing documentary films within a live context, via the use of DJ/VJ technologies. There is a cine-poem, which acts as a collaborative approach to documentary, combining the work of the poet and the work of the filmmaker. It also acts an example of how some of the techniques I have developed during the live performance of documentary have had an impact on the documentary films that I have since produced. The Mill (2016) adopts a similar structure to The City Symphony, however this film can be seen as an Industrial Symphony, in that the focus here is on the rhythm, movement and the sonic dimension of the machine. In many ways this film can be seen as that which encapsulates the essence of the formalist approach I adopt when producing documentary films. Driven By Machines (2017) uses footage from The Mill and provides an example of how a filmmaker can de-familiarize actuality footage through post-production technique. This film acts as an ode to the abstract filmmakers such as Man Ray, Len Lye, Viking Eggelling and Hans Richter, all of who used actuality footage and abstracted this footage through manipulation techniques available to them at the time. In summary, Section 2 acts as an audio-visual explication of theory within a practical context. Section 3 is a critical reflection of the practical portfolio of work. Here I aim to explain how I have used certain filmmaking techniques as a way of exploring some of the theoretical concepts outlined in Section 1. This offers the reader an opportunity to gain insight into how theory can inform practice; as such the reader of my films is able to gain insight into authorial intention, therefore the reader is able to make a more informed analysis of my practical portfolio.

Television news is a key provider of information within British society, investing those who produce it with power to determine what is 'important' and 'interesting'. In this context I set out, through observation and interview in the newsrooms of Channel Four, HTV West and BBC I Midlands Today, to gain insight into how journalists think and behave when selecting and constructing news stories. I sought to examine the effects of routine practices and the extent to which reporters and editors reflect on their decision making. In addition, I conducted a close reading of the headline item from the bulletin produced in each newsroom on the same day as my visit, in order to draw comparison between what editors and reporters articulate as important in a newsroom setting, and what appears to be the case in manifest content. While considering a wide range of influential factors, an overriding objective was to assess the specific role of 'news value'. Do journalists consciously apply individual criteria? Are newsrooms organised so that editors and reporters routinely privilege certain subjects as 'news' and not others? Is there a journalistic tendency to 'notice', perceive and 'frame' events as a set of familiar types? In examining these questions, special attention was given to the conceptual model developed by Galtung & Ruge (1965), in order to assess its relevance in the 'real' newsroom environment. My findings suggested that journalists do not openly reflect on newsworthiness in a systematic way. The complex task of preparing a story ready for broadcast was achieved in a manner that was almost automatic. Attitudes and behaviour appeared to be driven by routines, with decisions made quickly and with minimal outward reflection. In conversation, the importance of visual impact and drama, and an emphasis on negativity, emerged as being significant, although subsequent analysis of output suggested that other criteria may also be influential, for example a concentration on 'elite' subject matter. Overall, however, there seemed to be a lack of ability or willingness to discuss selection in a conceptual manner and newsworthiness was explained and 'justified' by reference to actual examples of stories or subject matter.

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This study of the production of British broadcast journalism, rather than its finished products, reveals the ways in which the organising and financing of journalism have traceable consequences on the ways in which news is selected and constructed, supporting the critical political economy perspective. Using a comparative ethnographic approach including interviews and observation of professional practice in three local television newsrooms, studios and other production spaces, this study represents a rare opportunity to gain insights into the ways in which events, issues and sources are selected by journalists, editors, producers and others engaged in the production of British broadcast news and how material is shaped into news bulletins and other programming. Drawing on news value theory (Galtung and Ruge 1965; Golding and Elliott 1979; Harcup and O’Neil 2001, 2016), the study offers a new model of news value analysis, the ‘News Value Matrix’, which takes account of the interplay between two key categories of news values, organisational pragmatics and perceptions of audience appeal. The study will be of interest to local broadcast journalists, editors and producers, to policymakers concerned with media and cultural policy, and to those wishing to develop a greater critical understanding of the professional practice of journalism.

This study draws together a range of critical models in order to explore the ways in which the periodical functions as a particular cultural practice, both shaping and being shaped by the society in which it was produced. Focusing upon single women's magazine, Woman, across its entire publication span from 1890 to 1910, the study seeks to contribute a deeper understanding of the periodical text by situating it within its specific social and historical context. Through this comprehensive diachronic approach the study accounts for the changes occurring within a long-lived periodical which does not have one identity but several. The study also explores the complex web of relations between the text, its producers and its consumers, and the function of each in the creation and negotiation of meanings. The fragmentation of the periodical text into separate areas of writing, as well as its multiple points of production (from proprietors, publishers and editors to the many professional and amateur contributors), renders the magazine's construction of a stable textual identity problematic. A central question in the study, therefore, has been how to develop a critical model with which to address the plurality of a text in which genres and voices collide within an overarching editorial framework. The study also aims to redress the balance of existing critiques of the women's periodical press which have tended to marginalise the role of the reader both in the production of the text itself and in its interpretations. While the study explores the ways in which the genres of feature articles and editorials, competitions, correspondence and fiction in Woman functioned within the editorial framework as well as in response to circulating discourses, the central focus of the study is the interaction between consumers and producers in the construction of the text, and the ways readers absorbed, appropriated or resisted dominant modes of editorial discourse.

This thesis is concerned with the news construction of Africa, particularly African women in British and Nigerian newspapers. Informed by feminist epistemology as well as postcolonial theoretical perspectives, it explores the constitutive dynamics of race and gender as identities, which both depict and define African women. African women have historically been excluded from defining how they should talk and be talked about in cultural forms. This thesis uses the news as a negotiating space for certain African women [Nigerians] to participate in defining what it is to be an African woman. In doing this, the thesis serves a political end of giving 'voice' to African women as well as creates a form of dialogue between Western (British) women and African (Nigerian) women. This dialogue is crucial in feminism because the tensions, diversities and differences inherent in feminist debates have made meaningful conversations between women difficult. This study thus steps across cultures by offering a space for a cross-cultural dialogue on news constructs of African women's femininity. The thesis employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, which combine an analysis of texts and group discussions. In this study, I have conducted a symptomatic analysis of British and Nigerian newspapers during 2002, drawing on cultural studies tradition of textual analysis. Reflexive dimensions are an integral part of the whole research process. As a black African Nigerian woman in Britain, I embody some of the tensions and contradictions that characterise feminist cultural debates. This situation positions me squarely as the bridge between two cultures - as the pipe though which the words of one is carried to the other. This role is reflected in the thesis as my reflexive thoughts about the tensions and contradictions spread spasmodically throughout the thesis. By speaking and negotiating across cultures, this thesis provides an avenue for smoothening the tense relations existing between Western and African feminists and thus creates an opportunity for the possibilities of commonalities as well as an ethical relation with 'the other'.

Against the background of ‘the global resurgence of democracy' (Diamond and Plattner 1996), and focusing particularly on the democratic waves that swept through Africa in the 90s, scholars have acknowledged the central role of the press in the restoration of democratic governance in Africa. The Nigerian press in particular has been touted as Africa's symbol of a liberal press (Seng and Hunt 1986, Ogbondah 1994). It is said to have played a significant role in the battle against military dictatorship, leading to Wole Soyinka's trophy: the press as ‘magnificent and heroic' (Soyinka 1998). Yet in spite of the ‘adversarial and lively outspokenness' of the press (Olukotun 2002, 2010), the military had a sixteen-year reign. How can this paradox be explained? The thesis explores four military regimes during the sixteen-year period focusing on specific events of national significance in each regime, with a view to establishing what role/s the press played in restoring democracy; and whether it deserved the award of ‘magnificent and heroic'. Methodologically it adopts a critical discourse analysis approach (Fairclough 2013, Van Dijk 1991), particularly analysing headlines, news reports, editorials, photographs, political cartoons and articles; across seven national newspapers and two weekly magazines. Additionally it draws on interviews with state officials and editors with knowledge of the periods to provide a further interpretation of the press at particular historical moments. It opens up the issue of a liberal press to suggest that there are serious questions about the press's relation to the various military regimes and thus the degree to which the press really was ‘magnificent and heroic'. Indeed an argument can be made that much of the press was complicit with these regimes and contributed to delaying the realisation of a democratic rule.

This thesis investigated how the Arab and western media affected the staff and students of one Libyan university, Sebha University, through their presentation of the major Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan. In particular, the research focused on the reporting by Al-Jazeera and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The study attempted to show how these two channels represented the main incidents of Arab Spring uprising and examined whether this representation was influenced by any ideology the channels attempted to propagate. It should be noted, however, that the researcher was not seeking to support any one ideological approach but was, rather, concerned with the ways in which such reporting impacted on the respondents of the study. The methodological approach was qualitative in nature and 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the staff (15 interviews) and students (15 interviews) of Sebha University, Libya. In order to gain further evidence about students’ and lecturers’ experiences and their views toward the two channels, 12 articles (6 from Al-Jazeera and 6 from the BBC), relating to the critical events of the three Arab Spring uprisings, were analysed using the main assumptions of Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics. The study found that most of lecturers and students indicated that the two channels were, indeed, different in terms of their reporting of the events of the Arab Spring uprisings and, whilst the BBC was trusted for its dispassionate observations, Al-Jazeera was considered to be ideologically driven. This reporting caused a range of problems for the lecturers and students. Most notably, the students were concerned about the perceived lack of security, the reporting of which was a particular feature of the Al-Jazeera channel. On the other hand, both the students and the lecturers observed that the BBC was neutral and professional and without political propaganda. The main professional recommendations resulting from the study were that the university under scrutiny, and universities more widely, need to ensure that they have in place well developed systems for supporting both staff and students during times of stress, including during periods of national crisis. It is also suggested that national and international agencies and researchers must consider further the nature and impact of media reporting in an era of mass communication.