Travel is the stuff of dreams. But its facilitation or impediment is the reality of commerce and governments and their manipulation by marketing and political considerations. This thesis examines how travel journalism can maintain responsibility to a 'private' tourist audience in the 'public' tourism sphere. Travel journalism is not only an under-researched area, but provides an important site to study the role of public interest information for a consumer audience participating in a sometimes culturally and politically dangerous activity. The reporting of travel by mainstream newspapers concentrates on the travel dream, while the tourism industry, described as the largest in the world, receives little scrutiny by society's guardians of democracy. This thesis examines literature from the fields of journalism, sociology and marketing to highlight the private tourist audience desires and the measures that commercial and government travel enterprises employ to reach consumers through public relations influence over journalism entities and practitioners. This study also emphasises the public nature of tourism and the risks it presents to tourists to examine how travel journalism, as a responsible moral practice, should address its audience. A content analysis was conducted on a sample of Australian newspaper travel journalism to provide a description of international travel coverage. More specifically it revealed the characteristics of travel articles that provide public interest information to move the private tourist audience to engage in the public tourism sphere as an active citizenship.

The traditional news media is being reshaped by the phenomenon known as media convergence. This thesis, which is presented as a journalistic, multimedia website (see http://www.artsweb.aut.ac.nz/mediaconvergence), explores media convergence in New Zealand. Its primary objective is to gauge the impact of convergence on the extent to which journalism fulfils its public interest duties. To this end, the defining elements of convergence are examined, along with its driving factors and impact on day-to-day newsroom practices. The research project is based on in-depth interviews with news media experts and practitioners and the results of an industry survey. The research findings indicate that convergence poses significant risks to public interest journalism. At present, however, there is more evidence of benefits than detriments.

The traditional news media is being reshaped by the phenomenon known as media convergence. This thesis, which is presented as a journalistic, multimedia website (see http://www.artsweb.aut.ac.nz/mediaconvergence), explores media convergence in New Zealand. Its primary objective is to gauge the impact of convergence on the extent to which journalism fulfils its public interest duties. To this end, the defining elements of convergence are examined, along with its driving factors and impact on day-to-day newsroom practices. The research project is based on in-depth interviews with news media experts and practitioners and the results of an industry survey. The research findings indicate that convergence poses significant risks to public interest journalism. At present, however, there is more evidence of benefits than detriments.

The traditional news media is being reshaped by the phenomenon known as media convergence. This thesis, which is presented as a journalistic, multimedia website (see http://www.artsweb.aut.ac.nz/mediaconvergence), explores media convergence in New Zealand. Its primary objective is to gauge the impact of convergence on the extent to which journalism fulfils its public interest duties. To this end, the defining elements of convergence are examined, along with its driving factors and impact on day-to-day newsroom practices. The research project is based on in-depth interviews with news media experts and practitioners and the results of an industry survey. The research findings indicate that convergence poses significant risks to public interest journalism. At present, however, there is more evidence of benefits than detriments.

The legal regulation of the environment is exemplary of the formation, practice and challenge of modern legal discourse and governance. The latter part of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of environmentalism and the problematisation of the environment in terms of the management of hazard and risk. The social authority of law has meant that it has been inevitably implicated in the contestation and negotiation of environmental governance. In turn, environmental governance and discourse have required a certain refiguring of legal rationality as legal discourse has been confronted by the immanent critique of environmentalism. This thesis will focus on how the environment emerged as problematic and how it came to be governed and of legal interest. Several examples of legal thinking concerning specific environmental problems are analysed, and the manner in which the environment is constructed within the legal discursive domain is examined. Much modern knowledge and understanding regarding the environment developed in part from the specialisation of scientific discourse and experiment, which formed certain areas of expertise, including biology, ecology and toxicology. This scientific knowledge significantly contributed to governmental identification and elucidation of the environment. Modern ecology and associated technologies have facilitated the detailed mapping and auditing of physical environments, and have profoundly effected our modern appreciation of ‘the environment’ as an interdependent, dynamic and potentially fragile web of interdependent physical zones, spaces and activities. Modern environmentalism has emerged through the application of this type of technical scientific knowledge, in combination with certain forms of ‘environmental sensibility’ which treat the environment, not as a thing, or somehow ‘out there’, but as a dynamic process of which humans are a part, which has a history, an economy, and a power to transform and be transformed. The shape of modern environmental governance has been especially influenced by the scientific and ethical critique of environmentalism that connects the origin of ecological risks to technological application and commodity production. Throughout this thesis, specific aspects of the ‘analytics of government’ or governmentality approach derived from Foucault’s writing on governmentality are taken up. Governmentality theory is largely concerned with the contingent relationship between knowledge and power; thus, with analysing specific discourses and associated spaces within which differing knowledge and forms of thinking interrelate and resist each other. The contestation and negotiation associated with environmental governance has confronted legal discourse and led to a refiguring of legal rationality. Legal governance of the environment has stretched and unsettled legal orthodoxy, as the environment does not readily fit into any of the usual categories pertaining to legal rights and interests. The environment, as a legal subject, is not simply a physical space; it is a contingent and instrumental concept, determined by human activity, social values and legal and non-legal calculation.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 312-334). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-224). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Esta dissertação articula os conceitos relacionados à comunicação pública, cidadania e instituição com o objetivo de analisar processos de comunicação pública que incidem na construção da cidadania, a partir da atuação da Defensoria Pública do Rio Grande do Sul dirigida à defesa dos direitos de pessoas socialmente excluídas. A Defensoria é analisada como instituição constituída pelas perspectivas normativa, fática e estratégica. Os conceitos teóricos trabalhados reportam ao interesse público conforme discutido por Arendt (2014), Sennett (1988) e Bobbio (2012), à cidadania (MARSHALL, 1967; GIDDENS, 2008; CARVALHO, 2013; DAGNINO, 2004) e direitos humanos, a partir da gênese de valores proposta por Joas (2012). A abordagem comunicacional parte do conceito de interações comunicativas, conforme França (1998), desenvolve o conceito de comunicação pública articulando, principalmente, as proposições de Weber (2007, 2009, 2011) e Esteves (2011), e abrande os estudos de comunicação organizacional com Baldissera (2014), Marques (2015), Mumby (2009) e Deetz (2010) e de estratégia em Pérez (2012). A reflexão sobre instituição é feita a partir de Castoriadis (1982), Braga (2010, 2012), Berger e Luckmann (1998). O estudo de caso é a opção metodológica para a abordagem da Defensoria Pública do Rio Grande do Sul enquanto uma dimensão institucional particular. Os procedimentos metodológicos incluem pesquisa documental e bibliográfica da legislação federal sobre a instituição, sobre suas atividades, os defensores e as pessoas atendidas, além de práticas e produtos de comunicação. A análise da Defensoria Pública do Rio Grande do Sul é realizada nas perspectivas normativa (análise histórico-descritiva), fática (análises descritiva e das situações de interação) e estratégica (análises descritiva das estratégias e de temas e vozes). A articulação dessas perspectivas da instituição permitiu cercar a constituição de rede de comunicação pública sobre o tema de interesse público e os direitos de cidadania. Dessa forma, identifica-se a atuação da Defensoria Pública do Rio Grande do Sul como um espaço institucional rico em termos de interação comunicacional, capaz de ampliar as experiências de cidadania e privilegiar o interesse público. / This Master Thesis articulates the concepts related to public communication, citizenship and institution aiming to analyse public communication processes focusing in the construction of citizenship, from the perspective of Rio Grande do Sul´s Public Defender´s work directed to the defence of social excluded individuals´ rights. The analysis focus in the Public Defender as an institution constituted by the normative, factual and strategic perspectives. The main theoretical concepts worked report to public interest, as discussed by Arendt (2014), Sennett (1988) e Bobbio (2012), to citizenship (MARSHALL, 1967; GIDDENS, 2008; CARVALHO, 2013; DAGNINO, 2004) and human rights, starting from the genesis of values proposed by Joas (2012). The communicational approach derives from the communicative interactions concept, according to França (1998), develops the public communication concept articulating, mainly, the propositions from Weber (2007, 2009, 2011) and Esteves (2011), and includes the organizational communication studies with Baldissera (2014), Marques (2015), Mumby (2009) e Deetz (2010) and strategy in Pérez (2012). The observation about institution is made from Castoriadis (1982), Braga (2010, 2012), Berger and Luckmann (1998). The case study is the methodological option for the Rio Grande do Sul Public Defender approach as a particular institutional dimension. The methodological procedures include federal legislation documental and bibliographic research about the institution, its activities, the public defenders and the persons aided, in addition with communication practices and products. The Rio Grande do Sul Public Defender analysis focuses in the normative (historical descriptive analysis), factual (descriptive analysis and from the interaction situations) and strategic (descriptive analysis of strategies and themes and voices analysis). The articulation of these institutional perspectives allowed surrounding the public communication network about the public interest subject and the citizenship rights. Therefore, the Rio Grande do Sul Public Defender is a rich institutional space in terms of communicational interaction, capable of increasing the citizenship experience and prioritise the public interest.

Esta tese objetiva compreender os sentidos que jornalistas atribuem à noção de interesse público como princípio normativo do jornalismo e critério de noticiabilidade. Para isso, parto de uma perspectiva epistemológica construcionista (BERGER; LUCKMANN, 2009) acerca do jornalismo como instituição social e forma de conhecimento (TUCHMAN, 1983; GENRO FILHO, 1987; MEDITSCH, 2010), que se fundamenta nas noções de verdade e objetividade (CORNU, 1994; CHARAUDEAU, 2007), para abordar as finalidades democráticas da profissão no campo da comunicação pública (HABERMAS, 2003; ESTEVES, 2011) e, assim, delinear o escopo teórico no qual se inscreve a temática do interesse público. Utilizo como procedimento metodológico a entrevista de tipo qualitativo com jornalistas que atuam em organizações informativas de grupos de comunicação tradicionais e importantes no Brasil, na produção de conteúdos para os meios impresso e online (recorte deste estudo). Emprego a Análise de Discurso (PÊCHEUX, 1988; ORLANDI, 2009) para interpretar os relatos desses informantes e, a partir dessa interpretação, evidencio duas formações discursivas (FDs) no interior das quais a noção de interesse público produz sentidos no jornalismo: a FD iluminista-democrática, que apresenta como sentido nuclear a ideia de “apreensão e transmissão da verdade para o progresso social e o desenvolvimento da democracia”, e a FD econômico-mercadológica, que tem como sentido nuclear a ideia de “captura, satisfação e manutenção dos consumidores de notícia para a sobrevivência e o crescimento econômico-financeiro das organizações jornalísticas”. Nessa perspectiva, sustento que os sentidos de interesse público no jornalismo se atualizam em torno das noções de: relevância pública, esclarecimento, vigilância, espaço comum e preferência de consumo. Face às condições objetivas de produção da notícia e às transformações econômicas, tecnológicas e culturais que atualmente incidem sobre a instituição jornalística, afirmo que o interesse público constitui um valor de resistência da identidade profissional e de seu discurso de legitimação. / This doctoral thesis aims to understand the meanings that journalists ascribe to the notion of public interest as a normative principle of journalism and newsworthiness criterion. For this purpose, I start from a constructionist epistemological perspective (BERGER; LUCKMANN, 2009) on journalism as a social institution and form of knowledge (TUCHMAN, 1983; GENRO FILHO, 1987; MEDITSCH, 2010) that is based on the sense of truth and objectivity (CORNU, 1994; CHARAUDEAU, 2007) , to address the democratic aims of the profession in the field of public communication (HABERMAS, 2003; ESTEVES, 2011) and thus delineate the theoretical scope in which the subject of public interest is included. As methodological procedure I use the interview of qualitative type with journalists who work in informative organizations from traditional and important communication groups in Brazil, in the production of content for printed and online media (object of this study). I employ the Discourse Analysis (PÊCHEUX, 1988; ORLANDI, 2009) to interpret the reports of these informants, and from that analysis I demonstrate two discursive formations (DF) within which the notion of public interest produces sense in journalism: the enlightened-democratic DF, that presents as its nuclear sense the idea of "apprehension and transmission of truth for social progress and citizenship development", and the economic-marketing DF, that has as its nuclear sense the idea of "capture, satisfaction and maintenance of news consumers to the survival and economic-financial growth of journalistic organizations". In this perspective, I support that the senses of public interest in journalism are updated from the notions of public relevance, clarification, vigilance, common space and consumption preference. Given the objective conditions of news production and economic, technological and cultural transformations that happen to the journalistic institution, I claim that the public interest constitutes a value of resistance of the professional identity and its legitimating discourse.

Peacebuilding efforts are ongoing around the globe today. However, in societies that have transitioned out of conflict and have a strong judiciary, potential exists to use innovative techniques to assist in those efforts. Termed divided societies, these countries which have conflict simmering under the surface may benefit from public interest litigation as a tool for peacebuilding in the region. As peacebuilding and public interest litigation share many of the same goals, litigation may be able to assist the society to more sustainably transition from a culture of conflict to a culture of peace. This paper details current scholarship on public interest litigation, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction, provides research findings of best practices for litigating from Northern Ireland and South Africa, and discusses the efficacy and limitations of public interest litigation as a tool for peacebuilding.