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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 study explores the relationships that form among practitioners in the new media industry – focussing on a particular locale, Brighton, UK. An aim is to understand the meanings that work and peer relationships have for practitioners. Another is to explore how peer relationships affect practitioners' careers. Through the use of qualitative methods – semi-structured and unstructured interviews, and ethnographic observation – the research highlights the importance of locality and of interaction in shaping the meanings and practices around work and sociality in the new media industry. Drawing on Bourdieu's ideas on field, habitus and capital it is suggested that the meanings practitioners attach to work are reflected in the aspirations inscribed in their habitus and the position they occupy within a geographically specific new media field. It is also suggested that social relationships among peers are constructed through interaction within Brighton's new media community where personal biographies, industrial and local cultures structure and reproduce each other. The importance of interpreting practices within intersections of fields, in which people are embedded, is also emphasised. Drawing on Goffman's ideas on the social organisation of co-presence, the logic of the new media field and the strategies that practitioners utilise – which are reflected in the ways practitioners manage their personal preserves inside a co-working organisation – is described. How career opportunities differ based on the position people occupy in the industry and how the use of different types of capitals effect career changes is also demonstrated. This study contributes to the research literature on the clustering of new media industries, to research looking at work and employment in the new media industry and, finally, to the literature on the networking practices of new media practitioners.

This thesis explores the changing use of language in British newspapers that was used to describe queer people, between 1976 and 2005. It brings together a broad spectrum of sociological, linguistic and media theorists to investigate how such change was driven and describe some of the social consequences. The discussion is framed through the analysis of ifferent facets of the queer community's experience which are being represented in the press over that time frame such as: the closet, queer protest and normalization. Whilst at the same time, aspects of the researcher's personal biography are woven into the writing to solidify the connections between theory, representation and individual experience. This then is a multi-theoretical study using changing language and representation as a methodology with its heart in media and language studies, sociology, queer studies and history. The research is focused upon newspaper articles taken from national, regional and queer newspapers and each was focused upon as aspect of the queer experience. The main case studies included comparisons between different papers, The Gay News Trial in 1977 and protests concerning section 28 in 1988. Later, it explores power and the closet across the period and ends by utilising articles involving queer youth, queer family and queer professionals. The analysis reveals that we are living in a new Foucaultian episteme; new age with a new spirit this developed out of the protests and campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s which led to a compression upon language driving linguistic change. This compression led the normalization of queer people within society.

This thesis examines the work of the nineteenth century journalist George Augustus Sala. Previous studies of Sala have focused upon the biographical aspects of his life at the expense of critical analysis of the prolific contributions he made to newspapers and periodicals. This thesis will readdress this imbalance by a close reading of Sala's visual and textual output together with an examination of the contemporary debates and issues surrounding his work. In particular it will suggest that Sala's journalistic style was a product of the very different mediums he was working in, and how this personal style along with his innovations in form would influence the New Journalism at the end of the century. For so long a misunderstood and neglected figure, this thesis will endeavour to reposition Sala at the centre of nineteenth-century media culture rather than at its margins. My research links Sala's role as an engraver, illustrator, and scene-painter to his career as an essayist for Dickens's Household Words. It will demonstrate how this in turn influenced his experiments with the form of the novel which would impact on his work as the pre-eminent Special Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. In an age of rapid press and cultural transformation my research will highlight Sala's engagement with theories of urban modernity and commodity culture; gambling, finance capitalism and the uncertainty of modern life; the culture of literary bohemia and the plight of the poor and the oppressed; and the role of the journalist. I will pursue Sala's commitment to sensationalism and realism in his novels, and his fluctuating opinions on race, slavery and imperialism in his travel writing. This thesis will also shed light on Sala's relationship with some of the most important journalists, authors, and artists of the nineteenth century – Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Mary Braddon, WP Frith, Henry Vizetelly, Frederick Greenwood and W.T. Stead. Necessarily interdisciplinary in focus, my research draws on critical work by cultural historians and literary theorists like Tim Barringer, P.D. Edwards, Mary Gluck, Lynda Nead, Deborah Nord, Matthew Rubery, Richard Sennett, Ralph Straus, Catherine Waters and Ruth Yeazell, among others. By examining contemporary periodicals, newspapers and letters this thesis will contribute to the burgeoning field of nineteenth-century print culture, while adding to the knowledge and understanding of the man many considered to be the 'beau-ideal' of a journalist.

The diploma thesis Periodical Press in České Budějovice 1945 - 1948 focuses on the specifics of the development of periodicals published in České Budějovice in the post-war era from 1945 to 1948. The first part of the thesis deals with the changes in political, economic and cultural spheres in České Budějovice after World War II because it is significant context that influenced the organization and the structure of the national and regional press. For a systematic interpretation of the media situation the thesis captures the characteristics of the periodical press in České Budějovice published in the period between 1938 and 1945. The broadcasting of the radio station was very important during the last days of World War II, because it formed the basis of the regional editorial office of the Czechoslovak Radio. Therefore it was not possible to omit this topic. Specific changes in the organization and structure of the periodicals in České Budějovice in the post-war period are elaborated in the fourth and fifth part of the thesis. The general characteristics of the particular measures in the management of the Czech print media between 1945 and 1948 is followed by an analysis of the particular periodicals in České Budějovice. These periodicals are divided into three groups: periodicals of the National...

O presente trabalho se propõe a observar e analisar os encontros entre o Brasil e o México durante seus processos de independência (1808-1822), entendendo que, por meio desses encontros ambos trocaram experiências políticas em meio a uma mesma unidade histórica. Os espaços americanos escolhidos foram estudados a partir da leitura do mundo lusoamericano na imprensa periódica da Nova Espanha. No entanto, o olhar sobre o fenômeno contrário também foi objeto deste estudo. Assim, buscamos compreender os pontos de contato político, entre o Brasil e o México, em meio à crise do Antigo Regime no mundo ocidental. / This present study aims to observe and analyze the meetings between Brazil and Mexico during their process of independence (1808-1822), understanding that, through these meetings both exchanged political experiences between a historic same unit. The chosen American spaces were studied from reading lusoamerican world in the periodical press of New Spain. However, the look on the opposite phenomenon was also the subject of this study. So, we seek to understand the political points of contact between Brazil and Mexico, through the crisis of the Old Regime in the Western world.

This research explores the convergence of journalism, an influential and well established profession, and the Internet, a technology that alters the communication experience. It focuses on how the Net and its associated practices intersects with deep rooted journalistic cultures; asking how this collision affects traditional values, how it influences new practices appearing in newsrooms, how the involved agents re-define their roles and how new media logics are emerging from this contact. This investigation has been developed through the prism of Bourdieu's theory of practice, which considers the journalistic profession as a field, where there are shared values, practices and routines, a sense of a group, a common identity, built on each actor's daily experiences. The latter, accumulated as a bodily habitus, operates in relation to the environment. The ethnography, a tool reckoned as well suited to capture and describe behaviours in newsrooms, is the methodology employed in this work, which combines participant observation and interviews. The studied media are four Spanish journalistic institutions; Diario de Mallorca, a regional print paper; Efe, a news agency, El País and El Mundo, the two biggest national newspapers and its online sites. This thesis argues that, in the negotiation of their adapted new role, journalists tend to align themselves with their traditional values and habitus. Well aware of the Internet related trends, they claim to keep an open mind to technological features, while filtering them through the sieve of their most cherished tenets. They see the gatekeeping role of journalism –as a profession with particular values– as something that can help save the public sphere from powerful and biased agents; the identification of sources and traceability of stories to guarantee its trustfulness, framing news in wider scenarios or a declared attachment to 'the truth' –all of these ‘news values' and the practical activities designed to underpin them shape their professional ideology. Negotiating new media, and taking a view on journalistic transformation, they mostly stick to what they do not see as nostalgia (an attachment to values now rendered redundant in a new media environment), but as values related with, and indeed helping to enable, democracy, fairness, equality and a healthy public sphere.

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'.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / O presente trabalho apresenta como objetivo analisar, por meio de uma visão comparativa de história, as transformações políticas ocorridas no Rio de Janeiro e em Buenos Aires, a partir de 1808, que modificaram por completo o antigo mundo ibérico, trazendo consigo o processo de emancipação política para as regiões em estudo. Por conseguinte, tais mudanças possibilitaram ainda a elaboração de projetos constitucionais para legitimar tais processos, que culminaram em 1824, com a Constituição Outorgada no Rio de Janeiro, sede do Império do Brasil, e com o Projeto Constitucional de Buenos Aires, que foi a base da constituição argentina anos depois. Na realização desse estudo, priorizaram-se como fontes os projetos constitucionais de 1813 até 1824, além de leis e decretos, que englobam o mesmo período, e de periódicos, tendo como destaque a Gazeta de Buenos Aires. No caso das fontes para o processo constitucional estabelecido no Rio de Janeiro, a ênfase foi dada aos debates da Assembleia de 1823, e seu projeto constitucional, a Constituição de 1824, além de periódicos, como Revérbero Constitucional Fluminense e o Sentinella da Liberdade na Guarita de Pernambuco. Frente às questões político-sociais procurou-se estudar a trajetória política e de vida de dois fundamentais personagens na construção da política nacional das regiões em questão. Mariano Moreno e Antonio Carlos R. Andrada Machado Silva e Araújo que se apresentaram como principais agentes para a discussão constitucional. Por fim, buscou-se compreender que as questões que permitiram a elaboração de uma monarquia constitucional e de uma república para as sociedades em tela, apesar de destoarem frente aos respectivos projetos, mantiveram o status quo em suas sociedades. / This work intents to analise the political transformations occured in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, through a comparative and historical point of view. Starting in 1808, this transformations completaly changed the ancient iberical world, giving birth to a political emancipation. Therefore, such changes allowed the elaboration of constitutional projects that legitimazed these events. These situation had a breakthrough at 1824, as the Constituição Outorgada in Rio de Janeiro, seat of the brazilian empire, and with the constitutional project from Buenos Aires, wich was the baseline of the future constitution. During the elaboration of this study, we priorized as fonts, the constitutional projects from 1813 up to 1824, and also laws, decrees and newspapers of this period of time, specially the Gazeta de Buenos Aires. To the process occurred in Rio de Janeiro, we emphasized the debates held at 1823 assembly, its constitutional project, the constitution of 1824, and newspapers such as Revérbero Constitucional Fluminense and Sentinella da Liberdade na Guarita de Pernambuco. Considering the social and political issues, we intended to study the political path traced and the life of two important characters to the construction of the national policy: Mariano Moreno and Antonio Carlos R. Andrada Machado Silva e Araújo. They played a main role during the constitutional debate. At last, we seeked to compreended the questions that allowed the elaboration of a constitutional monarchy and a republic to these societies that sustained their status quo although they drifted apart from their projects.