Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Communication, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-63).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-146).

The global trends of democratisation and privatisation that swept much of the developing world in the 1980s and 1990s led to significant changes in the conceptualisation, organisation and performance of the media. In Africa democratisation attained a new meaning with associated processes of liberalisation of broadcasting to end the monopoly of broadcasting by the state. The private media of the liberalised market is increasingly putting the public media system, both broadcast and print, under serious competition, and forcing them to adjust to changing circumstances. The New Vision newspaper in Uganda is one such public service media organisations that are owned by the state and yet have to compete in the new more democratic and liberalised environment. This study set out to explore the extent to which state-ownership impacts on The New Vision’s social role. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods of date collection, I have established the that although The New Vision is a public service medium for which government remains the major source of news, it does not in most cases give the state more or preferentially prominent coverage at the expense of other interest groups in society. On contrary, basing of the amount of coverage of civil society I established that The New Vision enabled the various groups public sphere to interact. The newspaper to an extent also plays the democratic role of monitoring government although there was little evidence of monitoring of corporate abuse. The nature of The New Vision Statute, and the global trends that have changed the conduct of official and private business, have rendered the theories on the 1980s’ development media theories increasingly inapplicable, forcing The New Vision to develop its own version of development journalism that is socially relevant. The study recommends that whereas much of The New Vision Statute is progressive, sections of it should be removed to protect the newspaper from being manipulated by government functionaries, if the it is to continue enabling the public sphere. The newspaper should also increase its monitoring of corporate abuse, and make internal reforms to improve the coverage of development related issues.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-04-05Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:54:50Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ramos_ps_me_assis.pdf: 682619 bytes, checksum: beaeda2e0f9ad8821aabbbbaa3b2d812 (MD5) / Neste trabalho analisamos o discurso dos periódicos A Província de São Paulo e Jornal do Commercio sobre os Estados Unidos e a Argentina entre os anos de 1875 e 1889. Objetivamos, fundamentalmente, compreender como esses órgãos de imprensa se posicionaram em relação aos países supracitados, quais foram as suas propostas quanto à inserção brasileira no continente americano e como se utilizaram destas interpretações no debate político em torno da crise do regime monárquico. Buscamos articular nesta pesquisa o estudo da identidade nacional, dos embates ideológicos e dos processos políticos, econômicos e sociais brasileiro, argentino e norte-americano no final do século XIX / This study analyses the discourse of the newspapers A Província de São Paulo (Province of Sao Paulo) and Jornal do Commercio (Commerce Newspaper) about the United States and Argentina between the years 1875 and 1889. We aim to fundamentally understand how these media outlets are positioned in relation to the above countries, what their proposals regarding the inclusion of Brazil in the Americas were, and how these interpretations were used in the political debate around the crisis of the monarchy. We seek to articulate in this research the study of national identity, the ideological struggles and the political, economic and social Brazilian, Argentine and American processes in the late nineteenth century

Programa Institucional de CapacitaÃao Docente e TÃcnica / Este trabalho tenta explicar as mudanÃas de opiniÃo do jornal Folha de SÃo Paulo no perÃodo de 1979-1989, sobre a funÃÃo estatal no desenvolvimento econÃmico, quando reverte sua linha editorial de defesa da polÃtica nacional-desenvolvimentista instaurada em 1968, para o apoio das orientaÃÃes neoliberais de desregulamentaÃÃo e limitaÃÃo da intervenÃÃo estatal. Tomando como base da pesquisa seus editoriais, aliado a reportagens e artigos da Folha de SÃo Paulo, reconstruÃmos seu processo de adesÃo Ãs idÃias desestatizantes da dÃcada de 1980, relacionando-a com as transformaÃÃes polÃticas e econÃmicas que o paÃs passava naquele momento. Tentamos desmistificar as auto-representaÃÃes do jornal que justificavam a reorientaÃÃo da linha editorial como fruto do cÃrater nÃo dogmÃtico, flexÃvel e atento Ãs mudanÃas no mundo do periÃdico, pela anÃlise de suas construÃÃes discursivas, presentes nos editoriais, confrontando-as com informaÃÃes da atuaÃÃo polÃtica e empresarial de seus proprietÃrios, conseguidas em entrevistas e relatos de jornalistas que trabalharam e ainda atuam na Folha, nos seus balanÃos financeiros e em estudos sobre o diÃrio paulista em seus aspectos jornalÃsticos, polÃticos e econÃmicos. A presente dissertaÃÃo insere-se nas tentativas de compreensÃo do processo de implantaÃÃo da hegemonia neoliberal na imprensa e na sociedade brasileiras, que em espaÃo de tempo relativamente curto, inibiu e pÃs na defensiva as tendÃncias nacionalistas explicitadas no ConstituiÃÃo de 1988 e no ideÃrio das elites acadÃmicas, empresariais e polÃticas do paÃs. / This job tries to explain the changes of opinion of the Folha de SÃo Paulo newspaper in the period of 1979 to 1989 about economical development in the state when showing its publishing line in the political developmental national defense established in 1968 for the support of orientations neoliberal of regulamentations and limitations of state intervention. Based on research in its publishing allied to articles of Folha de SÃo Paulo rebuilt its process of adhesion to the distating ideas of the 1980 decade, relating it with the political and financial changes that the country has been through. We have tried to dismitify its self representations of the newspaper that justified the reorientation of the publishing line as a result of non dogmatical character, flexible, and aware to the worldwide changes of the newspaper, by the analysis of these discursive constructions showed in the publishing, confronted them whit the business and political information of its owners, gotten by interview, accounts of journalists that worked and still work at Folha de SÃo Paulo newspaper, in its financial balances and is studies about the paulista diary in its financial political journalistical aspects. The presenting lecture inserts itself in the process of introduction of comprehension of neoliberal hegemony in the press and in the Brazilian society that has a relatively short space that inhibited and put in its defense of nationalist tendencies shown in the ideal of the academical business elites and politics of the country.

The press in Uganda has come a long way right from the colonial days when newspapers sprang up, mainly from missionary activity, through the eras of Obote 1 (1962 – 1971), Idi Amin (1971 – 1979), Obote 11 (1980 – 1985), Tito Okello (1985 – 1986) and the Museveni administration (1986 – to date). For most of this time, the press in Uganda enjoyed very little or no freedom to do its work. The year 1986 saw the ascendancy to power of the Yoweri Museveni as president after a five-year bush war with promised to restore peace, democracy, the rule of law, economic prosperity and civic rights and freedoms. Several achievements in these areas have been registered since 1986. Newspapers have sprouted and the broadcast industry liberalised to allow private ownership that has seen the proliferation of FM stations. However, the relations between the government and the press remain strained with journalists arrested and/or prosecuted mainly for offences relating to sedition, publication of false news and criminal libel. This study was intended to examine why journalists in Uganda continue to suffer arrests and incarceration when the country has been reported to be moving towards democratisation. The study was also aimed at assessing the impact of arresting journalists and arraigning them before the courts of law in the period under study and what this portends for freedom of the press and democratisation. It is recommended, among others, that journalists in Uganda need more unity of purpose to pursue meaningful media law reform that will de-criminalise publication wrongs. The civil remedies available to people who feel offended by the press are sufficient, if not excessive. The efforts already undertaken by the Eastern Africa Media Institute (EAMI) Uganda Chapter in this direction should be pursued to a logical conclusion.

This thesis is a reaction to the state of utter lawlessness and the abuse of human rights by those in power in Zimbabwe over the past two years and it investigates the possibility of restoring democratic governance in that country by increasing the freedom of expression and media freedom, which is considered to be one of the most valuable elements in advancing democratization. Its aim is to establish the Internet as the best means possible to increasing media freedom and creating new ‘sites of struggle’ for activists in a context where the substantive freedom of expression does not exist. This in turn is shown to advance levels of democracy. To this end, the value of the freedom of expression to media freedom and the value of the latter to increasing levels of democracy is developed and the lack of democracy in Zimbabwe at all levels of society is considered. The Internet is seen to increase the freedoms of speech and association in new and interesting ways and it is discussed in various examples in which it has already been instrumental in evading the censorship of the media and increasing the ability of activists to express themselves freely and to organize more efficiently. Finally, the resources that Internet technology makes available to African journalists and activists are considered along with lessons gleaned from international examples of successful Internet use and it is shown to already be of use to Zimbabwean journalists and activists as they create to new cyberspaces in which they can struggle for positive democratic change in Zimbabwe. The Internet is also shown to have tremendous potential for future use in that country.

No description available.

This study focuses on the role of the press in violent political conflicts in Kenya in the period that preceded the 2005 referendum on the draft constitution. Based on media reports, six major thematic areas of concern emerged during constitution making. These were: land tenure, devolution of power, the executive, the legislature, the Bill of Rights, and the provincial administration. These sections of the draft constitution caused a remarkable divergence of opinion. The citizens either supported or opposed the draft constitution on the basis of how the draft had treated those sections in the draft constitution. Besides the major thematic areas, newspapers regularly focused and reported on ethnicity, violence, political leaders‟ utterances, the process of constitution making, and political conflicts. Three main objectives guided the study. The first objective focused on the relationship between media content and different levels of political conflict. The influence of media content and how these may have led to high political conflict, medium political conflict, low political conflict and no political conflict, are tested in this study. The second objective highlighted the kind of coverage that the draft constitution got during the period that preceded the referendum in November, 2005. This objective facilitated interrogation of media content and whether media content focused on aspects of the draft constitution such as land ownership, the executive, devolution, the legislature and religion, as highlighted in the draft constitution of Kenya 2005. The third objective examined the thematic emphasis that the media undertook in the period that preceded the referendum. The themes that were dominant in the period before the referendum could have impacted on readers' perceptions of the critical issues that could have informed the voters' decisions. Three primary questions were addressed in the study: Firstly, was there a link between media content and different levels of political conflict in weak democracies such as Kenya? Secondly, did media content influence ethnicity and did it encourage ethnic conflict in diverse societies? Finally, what were the key thematic areas of coverage by the press, and how were they used during the referendum? In order to study these research objectives, I used a combination of theories to enhance understanding of the interplay between media content and audience in the society. The theories are: agenda setting, two-step flow, priming, framing, and the public sphere. The study adopts a triangulation convergence design in mixed- methods research that involves both qualitative and quantitative methods. A structured questionnaire and content analysis were used to seek responses to the research questions of the study and to meet the stated objectives. The research revealed that the two newspapers under investigation, namely the East African Standard and the Nation, provided more coverage to issues that were not central to the content of the draft constitution, such as political leaders' utterances, violence, ethnicity, and the process of constitution making. This showed that the newspapers tended to sensationalise issues instead of providing objective coverage of political matters. These newspapers used their opinion pages to educate their readers on how the referendum was turning violent. The theme of political leaders' utterances is closely linked to that of violence. This suggests that the violence was influenced by some of the leaders' statements. These utterances, and more so those that touched on ethnicity, could therefore have been a potential cause of the ensuing political conflicts during the 2005 referendum on the draft constitution. The findings reveal that newspaper editors tended to focus on political conflict at the expense of the actual content of the draft constitution. This would have provided insight and knowledge on the document and avoided sensational reporting, which could have contributed to violent political conflicts during the period that preceded the referendum on the draft constitution of Kenya.

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