Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1996. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2891. Typescript. Abstract precedes second title page as preliminary pages 2-3. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 28-31).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: Danilo Yanich, School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy. Includes bibliographical references.

This doctoral submission arises from the experience of working in broadcasting in Wales over a period spanning five decades. It focuses on one of my abiding concerns throughout: the under-represented experience of the community (the post-industrial working class of the South Wales coalfield) in which I grew up – and, more broadly, of those not especially powerful or privileged, elsewhere in Wales and the world; and how, in the broadcasting mainstream, in the UK and beyond, the quantum of the representation of such experience could be increased and its quality improved. The submission consists of a portfolio of four of my documentaries - The Waste Game (1987); Everyman: A Place Like Hungerford (1988); Do Not Go Gentle (2001); and Tonypandy Riots (2011) – and an overview which examines the characteristic features of my programme-making in the context of the development of the documentary and of television in Britain; explores the nature of representation in broadcasting, and its importance in validating the complex experiences and identities of ‘peripheral’ communities in the UK; explains how my understanding of community, forged in Wales, became problematic in the eyes of the London-based press when it informed in turn my representation of a particular and traumatic English social experience; and delineates strategies I have helped to form and articulate, both within the BBC and as an independent producer, which are intended to ensure that the under-represented experience of the periphery becomes more visible on the screen. After an Introduction which examines the interrelated group of meanings bound up in the idea of ‘representation’, and explains why they were of significance to a tyro producer/director from the Rhondda, each Chapter of the overview details the genesis, production and impact of one of the four documentaries in the portfolio, in chronological order, with an intermediate Chapter covering a period I spent away from hands-on production, engaged at a senior corporate level with issues of Welsh representation on the BBC networks. A Postscript expresses my conviction that the progress in the representation of marginal experience which I have witnessed and been party to can only be truly fruitful if the imaginative human relationship between programme-makers and those they represent is one of mutual trust and respect. This submission represents a significant contribution to knowledge in several ways. First, the portfolio of documentaries and the wider corpus of my work analysed and assessed here form a high-profile cluster of broadcast output made in the English-language in Wales. Such programmes were comparative rarities when my career began, and remain under-represented on the British screen. This intimate account of the detail and context of their production adds to the limited body of academic scrutiny such work has received. Second, at a time when the relationship between ‘the devolved nations’ of the UK and England is of particular political significance, this study constitutes a detailed consideration of a dimension of ‘British’ identity beyond those of age, ethnicity, class and gender which is just as complex in terms of the implications of its representation on the screen, and deserves as much attention. Third, this portfolio of work was produced within a broadcasting system and an institutional structure which, I argue, was signally failing to offer proportionate representation to the kind of experiences I was concerned with. This study offers a unique ‘insider’s view’ of power-struggles over the issue at the BBC and the development of a key intervention in which I was centrally involved. Finally, the portfolio itself and the broader career which it has been my privilege to enjoy are testimony to the (at least partial) efficacy of some of the strategies examined here for surmounting and moving beyond the economic barriers and cultural constraints which have historically prevented Welsh experience being fully visible, and which continue to disadvantage the Welsh producer. This account of the rationale for these strategies – and of the use made of them by the individual programme-maker and the incorporated production entity in the marketplace for factual television in the UK and beyond – may fill in some useful detail in the roadmap taking us towards a more complete representation of human experience.

Mae'r astudiaeth hon yn dadansoddi a dehongli hanes sefydlu Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) fel sianel newydd yn nhirlun darlledu Cymru gan drafod, mewn manylder, gyfnod prawf y sianel rhwng 1981-1985. Mae'r astudiaeth yn archwilio paham yr oedd dirfawr angen sianel ar wahan ar gyfer rhaglenni teledu Cymraeg ac yn trafod sut aeth trigolion Cymru ati i'w hennill trwy ddulliau cyfansoddiadol ac anghyfansoddiadol. Prif ffocws y traethawd yw dadansoddi'r hyn a gafwyd yn dilyn yr ymgyrch hirhoedlog i sefydlu S4C, gan holi a sefydlwyd sianel a feddai ar y rhinweddau a ddeisyfwyd gan yr ymgyrchwyr. Mae'r astudiaeth yn ystyried y sialensiau a wynebwyd gan yr Awdurdod newydd, a chan swyddogion a staff y sianel wrth iddynt gynllunio a chyflwyno gwasanaeth teledu Cymraeg cynhwysfawr, y polisi'au a ffurfiwyd ganddynt a'r cydberthynasau a saemiwyd gyda'r BBC, HTV, Channel 4 a'r cynhyrchwyr annibynnol. Mae'r traethawd hefyd yn pwyso a mesur ymateb y gynulleidfa i'r gwasanaeth a'r rhaglenni ac yn ystyried sut yr aeth y Swyddfa Gartref ati i adolygu'r sianel ar ddiwedd ei chyfnod prawf ym 1985. Trwy gyfrwng ddadansoddiad manwl o gofnodion y sefydliadau darlledu ym Mhrydain, erthyglau o'r wasg a chyfweliadau gyda nifer o'r unigolion fu'n allweddol i fenter S4C, darlunnir sut y llwyddodd y sianel i newid tirlun darlledu Cymru yn llwyr. Bu'r partneriaethau unigryw a ffurfiwyd rhwng y sianel a'i chynhyrchwyr annibynnol a'r darlledwyr eraill yn fodd o gyflwyno bwrlwm newydd i'r diwydiant darlledu a'r arlwy cyfrwng Cymraeg, bywiogrwydd a fu'n allweddol i Iwyddiant y sianel gyda'i chynulleidfa yn ystod y cyfnod prawf Amlinellir hefyd sut y llwyddodd swyddogion y sianel weithredu strategaeth a wreiddiodd y sianel yn ddwfn yn ffyniant economaidd Cymru gan ei gwneud yn anodd os nad yn amhosibl ei diddymu wedi tair blynedd o arbrawf.

M.A. (Communication Learning) / This investigation examines the audience experience with television news in South Africa and presents a process model of uses and gratifications based upon an expectancy-value approach. According to this approach expectations about finding certain television news-items and evaluations of these news-items are important antecedents of motives to seek associated gratifications. The prime objective of the study was accomplished when three reliable scales for the measurement of values attached to television news-items ; expectations about finding such news items in television news; and gratification of these expectations, were developed. The Pearson product-moment correlation method which was used to explore the relationships between the three scales, indicated a significant correlation between all the scales, although the correlation between values and expectations was much stronger than the correlation between values and gratifications. While the correlation between expectations and gratifications was still significant, it was also much lower than the correlation between values and expectations. This latter finding of a not nearly perfect correlation between expectations and gratifications provides evidence against the teleological criticism that since a gratification is expected and sought, it must necessarily be obtained. Instead, it is found that television news programmes in South Africa, while effective, are imperfect providers of news-related gratifications sought (expectations) by audience members. Finally, to cast additional light on the relative lower correlation between expectations and gratifications, the degree of dependence on television news as primary news source was taken into account.

No description available.

M.A. / This study investigates the influence of American media practices and aesthetics on the presentation of Taiwanese television news. The inception of this topic resulted from the obvious disparity between Taiwan's exemplary developmental experience ( in relation to other developing countries ) and the effect of foreign countries, particularly the USA on Taiwan's process of growth. In the 1960s Taiwanese television was regarded as the showcase of the dependency of Taiwan on the USA. [ C. C. Lee, 1987]. Thirty years later, even though our environments have been globalised and post-modernism is the main stream in social science, this study will prove that the historical dependency of Taiwanese television news on American media has not changed.

Examines the issue of media bias in favor of the Democratic Party during the 2004 Presidential Election. To examine the most far reaching form of media in the United States, this study consisted of the three major television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and their weekday nightly newscasts during the entire month of October 2004. Emerging themes and strategies were compared to a study conducted at Sonoma State University of the year's most underreported yet newsworthy events. Results of the study indicate that no evidence exists to support the notion of media bias in favor of the Democratic Party in the media coverage leading up to the 2004 Presidential Election.

Bibliography: pages 190-196. / This dissertation develops a syllabus for the study of television literacy in South African secondary schools. There are two natural divisions in the development of the thesis; the section which explores epistemological issues and the section which describes the strategic issues. The first section examines the nature of print literacy. This consists of four elements: mastering the basic language of the medium; being able to decode this language; using the medium for personal creative ends; and having the capacity for critical reflection. It is possible to talk in terms of a language of television and so this definition of literacy can be extended to television as well. There are three main areas for the study of television literacy. These are: the production techniques and effects of television; the conventional forms of the medium; and the nature of television as a mass medium. Once this has been established the dissertation explores the strategic issues of a methodology and areas of knowledge for teaching television literacy. Although there are many methodologies for the study of the mass media, the British Cultural Studies approach, together with Hall's three moments of encoding and decoding, seems to offer the methodology most suitable for teaching critical literacy. Within this theoretical framework it is possible to describe a syllabus for teaching television literacy. This syllabus involves studying the encoding and decoding of television messages within the context of the technical infrastructure of television; the internal and external relations of production, and the frameworks of knowledge which determine the form and content of television.

No description available.