Women and women’s issues receive a great deal of attention on Al-Jazeera English, increasing the visibility of feminist ideologies in the transnational media and promoting a space for new and greater feminist discourse. This thesis seeks to discover how and why Al-Jazeera undertakes such promotion and what links it possesses to the larger sociopolitical climate of the Middle East as a whole. In pursuit of these goals, the study examines the journalistic content, unconscious style, and linguistic structures used in articles about women on the Al-Jazeera English website to conclude that this attention is primarily supportive of feminist ideologies, though more so with regards to women from areas that fall outside of the regions dominated by the hegemonic Anglo-American media establishment. In circumstances of revolution and change, Al-Jazeera invokes women to highlight their active agency and demonstrate their social power. Where such change is not possible, articles employ more reserved and passive techniques to convey the stagnancy of the situation. When this stagnant situation occurs in the United States or Europe, however, Al-Jazeera journalists express much less sympathy than when similar situations occur in less developed countries. Women from these less developed areas are also highlighted more often in positions of power and influence. Based on this evidence, the study concludes that Al-Jazeera’s attention to women plays a role in a larger movement to develop an ideological culture base without roots in the United States or Europe. By building a feminism tied to local women, Al-Jazeera is providing an alternative to the widespread and diametrically opposed systems of cultural imperialism and stalwart traditionalism. By proving that feminist ideologies can consist of Arab, African, or Indian ideas as much as American or European ones, Al-Jazeera paves the way for discrete ideological development in regions suffering from the aftershocks of cultural appropriation and imperialism. / text

This study aimed to answer these research questions: what role do transnational screen media play in how urban Indian children think about their culturally hybrid identities? In what ways does transnational screen media consumption influence these children's perceptions of their lived sociocultural realities? Using survey and ethnographic research methods comprising a survey for children, participant observation and in-depth interviews with children, and in-depth interviews with parents and teachers, the research for the study was conducted in Bangalore city in southern India. The study found that the children’s major socialization agents, i.e. the family, the school and the transnational screen media they consumed played an interrelational role in children’s formulating and negotiating their culturally hybrid identities. The implication of this finding is that as these children mature, they are challenged to exercise a critical reflexivity that may only reconcile the differences between their perceptions of mediated globalities and their lived sociocultural contexts uneasily, at the intersections of these children’s sociocultural identity markers. / Media & Communication

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Internet and mobile wireless as emerging content distribution platforms have not only redefined the traditional media market, but also influenced the business strategies of the transnational media corporations (TNMC) that are expanding their operations into the ¡§new-media¡¨ system in another country. The purpose of this study is to explore how global media move from the traditional television distribution channel to the Internet and mobile wireless platform in the country of China and what strategic patterns of alliance they engage to obtain sustainable competitive advantage. Applying a resource-based view (RBV) framework of analyzing strategy and employing a case study approach, this study investigates the formation and evolution of strategic alliances for the U.S.-based TNMCS in the marketplace of China and discusses how their resources were aligned with their local counterparts¡¦ resources in marketing their content products. The alliance involving Time Warner, News Corporation, Disney, and Viacom were examined. Cross-case analysis identified six alliance patterns, including the importance of content-distribution resource alignment, the acquisition of local knowledge resources, the strategic alliances between TNMCs, the decrease of equity-based alliances, the complementary role of property and knowledge resources, and the necessity of uniting resources that enable the local responsiveness of video-related products.

As the media followed the turn of events in Belarus, increasing arrests and the violence that followed brought tens of thousands of Belarusians into the streets to demand change, end police brutality, and display how far human rights abuses have come in Lukashenko's regime. This thesis argues that in the cases like this, foreign media comes forward to either further protester's voices or shut them down, which, drawing on the previous research, is considered dependent on the geopolitical relations of the countries involved. Departing from the normative knowledge that media, politics, and protests are interrelated, this thesis bridges theories of all three of the latter fields to craft an interdisciplinary theoretical framework for the research. Building on political and media opportunity structures and indexing theories, this thesis addresses questions of how independent from authorities is the media and how a geopolitical position might influence the coverage of the conflict. The framing analysis of LRT English, Deutsche Welle, RT, and Daily Sabah coverage during the 22 weeks is conducted to identify the coverage's patterns, developments, and changes in the coverage. The results have shown that the amount of coverage is related to the authorities position announcement. Democratic and protest supportive countries cover the protest extensively even before the authorities react; meanwhile, less democratic countries show that the coverage significantly increases as soon as the government reaction is publicised. Furthermore, the framing of the protesters differs as well. On the one hand, protesters and violence are depicted differently, on the other, frames employed in opposition supportive countries' media outlets are more diverse and explorative than in the media of Lukashenko's allies.

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Technological, political and economical developments have fostered the spread of transnational media since the latter part of the 20th century. Despite that, most studies of media effects are still nationally bound. This dissertation discusses some of the effects that both national and transnational news media can have on people’s thoughts and feelings. It explores the particular effect of consensus building as a consequence of second level agenda-setting. The main focus of this dissertation is how national and transnational news media can bring different demographic groups closer in their perceptions of major topics in the news. This dissertation analyzes consensus building effects through the European Union’s reaction to the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. It analyzes how the use of national and transnational media brought EU demographic groups in closer agreement regarding the attributes of the terrorism issue and of the Muslim and Arab communities, as they related to the events of 9-11 and its aftermaths for the EU community. This study is based on a secondary data analysis of a survey conducted in the close aftermath of 9-11. It is an extensive replication of Shaw and Martin’s (1992) consensus model based on a cross-national analysis of 15 European Union nations and their patterns of national and transnational news media use among four demographic groups in relation to the substantive and affective dimensions of attribute agendas regarding the aftermath of 9-11. This study found evidence that national media bring the segments of society to closer agreement regarding the attributes of terrorism and the attributes of the Muslim and Arab communities. This was especially true for those indicating they used national television. Transnational media also have some potential for similar effects, though less than for national media. Borders still matter but it will be interesting in the future to see if the increasing availability of transnational media translates into increased influence as well. / text

This study explores political parallelism in the context of diaspora-based transnational media through the experience of the Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT). The station is conceived as a party media outlet and transformed into a diaspora-based, non-profit and mainly diaspora funded institution. It has been operating from its three studios in Amsterdam, London and Washington, D.C., until recently. ESAT has emerged as one of the most influential media outlets in the political landscape of Ethiopia in the last ten years. The research, through qualitative and in-depth case study interviews, examines the underlying ideological, political and organizational affiliations that defined ESAT’s position in the media landscape. The study concluded that political parallelism, as an indicator of the dynamics between media and politics, can be used in the diaspora-based transnational media context. However, the study also validated critics on the inapplicability of the two preconditions of political parallelism, namely the existence of competitive system and patterns. The analysis confirms a high level of political parallelism in ESAT in all the five indicators selected for the study. The indicators considered are Ownership, Organizational connections, Party or ideological loyalty, Media personnel’s political involvement, and Journalists’ role orientation. Each of them demonstrated a level of parallelism in ideological orientations or party connection with Ginbot 7 Movement for Democracy and Justice. The study concluded that the salient features of political parallelism should further be studied in the context of the transnational media space of diaspora-based media.

Although efforts have been made by the Afghan government and its international partners to promote the tents of gender equality in Afghan society, biases against women and other marginalized groups persist in the society and media sector, particularly. The current study is a timely research because feminist media studies are an under-researched field in the context of Afghanistan. My research aims to be a contribution to this field and open a path for Afghan feminist media studies. The current study explores the representations of gender relations in transnational television soap operas broadcast on Afghan television stations, audiences’ decoding of the representations, and the role of the media in promoting social change. The selected soap operas for the study are Paiman and Qesay Maa, Turkish television soap operas dubbed in the Dari language. The current study is based on feminist theory and feminist methodology, providing a balance of content and reception analysis. Drawing on feminist media studies and focusing on media representations, the content analysis of transnational soap operas echoed previous studies on representations of gender relations and indicated that gender relations are often portrayed in stereotypical and traditional manners. The content analysis further demonstrated that women are objectified in different ways and are often represented as domestic, passive, selfless beings in men’s service. Moreover, relationships between women are often based on rivalry, hatred, and shaming and often without any particular reason. The study also found that contrary to women, men are often represented at outdoor and professional settings. Additionally, grounded on encoding/decoding model through a feminist lens, the thematic analysis of focus group discussions demonstrated that audiences constantly interact with media text and actively make meaning. Interestingly, FGD findings further indicated that as active viewers, both female and male participants, derive multiple and often diverse meanings from the media text. Although both female and male participants problematize the content of transnational soap operas, their interpretations of representations of gender relations and gender equality are dissimilar. The study concludes that transnational soap operas, and the media in general, can play an important role in promoting social change in Afghanistan, particularly gender parity through the Entertainment-Education strategy. However, an intersectional framework is essential in designing EE programmes for promoting gender equality in a diverse society like Afghanistan.

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