Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1936. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [473]-503).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Minnesota, 1996. / Adviser: Dona B. Schwartz. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Munich, 1979. / Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 340-354).

The study seeks to document the development of the alternative press in Namibia from 1960 to 1990. It traces the reasons for its emergence and outlines the stated aims and objectives in order to illustrate its attempts to nurture a culture - of colonial resistance. It is argued that structural factors such as funding, distribution, advertisements and ownership enabled the alternative press to operate outside the South African apartheid hegemony. The study explains how the intellectuals used the alternative press in their attempts to mobilise and organise colonised Namibians for social change. They did this by formulating and disseminating ideologically constructed discourses (messages) which challenged the colonial discourse. These messages were produced and directed towards a specific audience, the masses to whom the intellectuals were organically linked. Their primary news definers were also drawn from the ranks of these masses. It is further argued that the alternative press came to represent the colonised masses by voicing their needs and aspirations which were marginalised by the mainstream colonial media. Finally, a relatively detailed analysis of the content, the language used and the'messages carried by the alternative press has been made to demonstrate its political agenda, which was to empower the masses to achieve their objective - the attainment of political independence. These issues are analyzed against a background of theoretical frameworks which seek to explain how subordinated groups and classes in a state of domination sought to establish alternative channels of communication in the creation of a counter hegemonic order.

No description available.

This dissertation concerns the extent to which the propaganda model advanced by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in their Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is still applicable to the current media ecosystem, where both legacy and new media converge, especially given the emergence of global democratic resistance both to the excesses of neoliberalism in general, and to the problems associated with shale gas mining through hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) in particular. In this regard, firstly, the tensions between the views of seminal propaganda theorists and of critical theorists opposed to propaganda will be thematized in relation to Chomsky and Herman’s propaganda model, through which they sought to account for the negative impact of neoliberalism on journalistic freedom. Secondly, the primary features of neoliberalism will be considered in relation to the advent of the Internet, which has helped spread laissez-faire capitalism globally, both through integrating financial markets and augmenting consumerism, and through facilitating new practises of consent engineering via digital forms of censorship and surveillance. Thirdly, the correlative emergence around the world of digital democratic resistance on the part of new social movements and through both new and legacy media means, to the excesses of neoliberalism in general, will be investigated. Fourthly, the corporate underpinning of fracking in the United States will be explored, along with the media strategy by which anti-fracking groups – following Vera Scroggins’s activism – have contested government endorsement of such resource extraction. Fifthly, the resonances/dissonances between the media strategies of the American anti-fracking movement and the South African anti-fracking movement – most notably the Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG) – along with the different contexts out of which they emerged and their respective efficacy, will be examined. Finally, some potential deficits in the TKAG media strategy will be identified, and appropriate recommendations will be made.

This paper is a critical reflection upon commonly found distortions in the representations of the lives of Canadian women of South Asian origin in the Vancouver Sun. The strategy adopted consists in presenting first, the views of three South Asian women activists who acted as collaborators and analyzed the constituted sample of articles; second, feminist anthropological readings are used to draw upon a theory of discourse which looks at news-products as active elements in the construction of reality. It is then argued that by focusing on a narrow range of topics, the prevalent media discourse encourages news readers to develop a homogenous perspective on Canadian women of South Asian origin. The depictions in the press suggest that not only are these women oppressed, but this oppression originates in elements of their own culture and assimilation is only possible by relinquishing these "oppressive" cultural traits. It is argued that the media reinforces the dominant patriarchal, racist and classist discourses prevailing in Canadian society. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1978 M57 / Master of Arts

The original stimulus for this thesis was oral interpretations of events of the 1940’s told to the author both in Ireland and Britain.  In Ireland it has been thought that neutrality was deliberately libelled and misinterpreted by Churchill, the Ministry of Information and the press.  In Britain, neutrality has been seen as national cowardice, unworldliness, or an act of spite against the former ruling power. Basic research led to the conclusion that these assessments were not justified, and further study suggested the following hypotheses. 1.  Churchill’s critical comments on the neutrality of Eire were not based merely on prejudice and pervious experience but as a means of promoting American involvement in the war, disguising intelligence breakthroughs, and creating a scapegoat for British military weaknesses. 2.  The Ministry of Information did not engender anti-Eire propaganda. 3.  Journalistic methods, the means of disseminating information and established British interpretation of Irish culture combined with Churchill’s publicly stated opinions to produce the critical interpretation of Eire’s neutrality in the British press which has persisted to the present. British newspapers and related articles, journalistic techniques and relevant military and diplomatic events will be examined to test these hypotheses.

Throughout the history, U.S. alternative press has published against the grain of mainstream media and politics and on tight budgets. In fact, it remains the political economic dilemma for any critical media project that the financial resources it needs are in the same capitalism society it criticizes. Using a political economy approach, this thesis examined how political economic factors including ownership models, means of support and the government role influence the balance between the editorial goals and business performance of the two alternative or independent publications: The Nation, a privately-owned newsmagazine providing critical opinions and investigative journalism on nationwide issues, and The Texas Observer, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit biweekly covering stories ignored by the mainstream press in the state of Texas. Through in-depth interviews with staffers of the two publications and primary and second sources analysis, this thesis demonstrates the tension between editorial ideals and financial needs that are affected by several political economic factors. It also shows that both alternative papers are committed to democratic altruism and watchdog journalism whenever they deal with political economic pressures. / text