Public Administration & Management / D.P.A.

Will community television one day be lamented in the same way as the Glenn Valley Bridge Club in Pennsylvania, where no one remains 'who can tell us precisely when or why the group broke up' (Putnam, 2000: 15)? Robert Putnam's bestseller Bowling Alone proposed that people 'need to reconnect with one another' and rebuild their communities for the good of society. Although he may not have succeeded in instigating a revival of lawn bowls and bridge, Putnam did spark a debate about the meaning of "community" today and its role in bringing about positive social change. At a time when the communications landscape is set to transform with the introduction of digital broadcasting technology, this thesis looks at the status of community broadcasting and its role within civil society. Taking Australia's community television sector as its starting point, it aims to define the pressures, public philosophies and policy decisions that make community broadcasting what it is. This thesis is structured thematically and geographically. The introductory chapters establish the research question in relation to Australia's community broadcasting sector. As well as tracing the intellectual path of community media studies, it sets out to locate community broadcasting within broader intellectual debates around notions of community, governance and the media. These are brought back to the "on-the-ground" reality throughout the thesis by means of policy analysis, interviews and anecdotal evidence. Chapters Three to Five map out the themes of access, the public interest and development by reference to community broadcasting in different regions. In North America I explore notions of free speech and first-come-first served models of access. In Europe, notions of "quality", public service broadcasting and the difficult relationship that community broadcasting has with public interest values. Through the Third World and the Third Way I examine how community broadcasting is implicated within development discourse and ideas of social change. The final chapter of the thesis moves into the virtual region of the Internet, looking at changing notions of access and the relevance of new communications rationales to the community broadcasting project. At the intersection of the various themes and models discussed throughout the thesis exists a strong rationale for the future of community broadcasting. Although new technologies may be interpreted as the beginning of the end of community broadcasting, I have argued that in fact it is an idea whose time has come.

Public Administration and Management / D.P.A.

Political structures and the evolution of late capitalism in liberal Western democracies lend a common frame to the development of national media systems. However, whereas media policy from the post-war period to the mid-1980s was largely driven by socio-political concerns and coextensive with policy for public service television, this model has been vehemently challenged. Key factors were the convergence of erstwhile-separated industries and infrastructures, as well as the ambitions of the corporate sector and governments alike, to benefit from the economic opportunities offered by the communications revolution. By assessing the changing relationship between the role of the state, economic structures and technological innovation, this research investigates these processes in the UK and Germany. Both countries have the two key public service systems but also feature striking differences such as the antithetic political systems and democratic processes (majoritarian vs. consensus democracy). The basic assumption suggests that a genuine understanding of contemporary developments is only possible if political/economic as well as historic/sociological perspectives are incorporated into the holistic approach applied. Thereby this study gives consideration to key processes and events which have determined transitions between communications policy paradigms and regulatory regimes. Given the Anglo-Saxon tradition of regulating, key processes and events in the UK are often indicated by the appointment and report of a committee of enquiry. For the purpose of this study the most crucial of these is the Committee on Financing the BBC (1986), which first applied market-driven politics onto British broadcasting, and whose recommendations still serve as a blueprint for current communications policy-making. In Germany the KtK Report (1974) formed the basis for decisive reforms in broadcasting and communications. Apart from that, however, Germany features the characteristic of administering state interventions in as detailed a manner as possible through legislation. Of central importance are, therefore, the rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court, which continuously set decisive parameters for the development of the broadcasting system. The thesis follows two driving themes which have been identified as crucial in terms of the comparative dimension and are elaborated continuously in more detail. First, the focus is on the interdependencies between public and private sector. Second, implications and responses of the central vis-à-vis federal characteristic of state formation are investigated. In doing so, the thesis draws on vast sources of archival documents as well as exclusive material from a series of elite interviews with a purposively-selected sample of very high-level sources, including Chairmen, Director-Generals, ministers, very senior civil servants and so on. The thesis demonstrates how communications policy-making is carried out in both countries and how these processes are determined by national regulatory frameworks which are rooted within the borders of the nation state. As such the research findings have broader implications for commercial and public sector regulation.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:21:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MONICA.pdf: 2145586 bytes, checksum: 7857cc364a385078195800c766014c8c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-28 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / On April 11th 2002, the President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez sustained an unsuccessful coup détat orchestrated through the media by the dominant leading social circles, owner of the country s main communication vehicles, jointly with conservative sectors of the Armed Forces. From the reestablishment of democracy, the government started thinking its communications policy as one of the strategic sectors. Amidst the predominance of capitalism s sole notion according to which socialism was buried along with the fall of the Berlin Wall , the leader of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution is at the head of a process which has been receiving relevant attention in all political fields around the planet. His government questions the neoliberal globalization, carries an anti-imperialist nature and proposes the endogenous development of the nations, transforming society from the economical, cultural and social point of views. One of the biggest oil producers in the world, Venezuela faces a fierce internal and external struggle of ideas. The Revolution has its methods and perspectives questioned by opposers and supporters, in a dialectical process of constructing a new socialism, the 21st Century Socialism. In this process, which, until this stage, is marked by a reform of the bourgeoisie State, the President s leadership has been essential, mainly in response to a deficient political system. The base of its support is the strengthening of participative democracy. This work s hypothesis is that the communications policy adopted by Hugo Chávez Government is one of the political sustainers of the Bolivarian process, where war waged among the favorable and contrary information vehicles is moderated by the biggest international media corporations, reproducers of the great capital interests. Having this in view, we analyze the role of contra-informative media in the dispute for hegemony / Em 11 de abril de 2002 o presidente da Venezuela Hugo Chávez sofreu um falido golpe de Estado orquestrado midiaticamente por setores da elite dominante, detentora dos veículos de comunicação de massa do país, em aliança com setores conservadores das Forças Armadas. A partir do restabelecimento do poder, o governo passou a compreender a política comunicacional como uma das frentes estratégicas. Em meio à hegemonia do pensamento único capitalista segundo o qual o socialismo foi considerado enterrado depois da queda do Muro de Berlim, quando se deu o fim da história −, o líder da chamada Revolução Bolivariana está a frente de um processo que tem recebido destacada atenção em todos os campos políticos do planeta. Sua gestão questiona a globalização neoliberal, tem caráter antiimperialista e propõe o desenvolvimento endógeno das nações, transformando a sociedade a partir do ponto de vista econômico, cultural e social. Um dos maiores produtores de petróleo do mundo, a Venezuela enfrenta uma acirrada luta de idéias interna e externa em um processo dialético de construção do Socialismo do Século XXI. Neste ousado processo, que até o momento é marcado por uma reforma do Estado liberal, a liderança de Chávez tem sido essencial, principalmente em resposta a um sistema político deficitário. A base de sua sustentação tem sido o fortalecimento da democracia participativa. A hipótese deste trabalho é que a política comunicacional adotada pelo governo é um dos pilares de sustentação política do processo bolivariano, onde a guerra midiática é pautada pelas grandes corporações midiáticas internacionais, reprodutoras dos interesses do grande capital. Tendo isso em vista, analisamos o papel dos meios contra-informativos na disputa pela hegemonia

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:56:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MONICA.pdf: 2145586 bytes, checksum: 7857cc364a385078195800c766014c8c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-28 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / On April 11th 2002, the President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez sustained an unsuccessful coup détat orchestrated through the media by the dominant leading social circles, owner of the country s main communication vehicles, jointly with conservative sectors of the Armed Forces. From the reestablishment of democracy, the government started thinking its communications policy as one of the strategic sectors. Amidst the predominance of capitalism s sole notion according to which socialism was buried along with the fall of the Berlin Wall , the leader of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution is at the head of a process which has been receiving relevant attention in all political fields around the planet. His government questions the neoliberal globalization, carries an anti-imperialist nature and proposes the endogenous development of the nations, transforming society from the economical, cultural and social point of views. One of the biggest oil producers in the world, Venezuela faces a fierce internal and external struggle of ideas. The Revolution has its methods and perspectives questioned by opposers and supporters, in a dialectical process of constructing a new socialism, the 21st Century Socialism. In this process, which, until this stage, is marked by a reform of the bourgeoisie State, the President s leadership has been essential, mainly in response to a deficient political system. The base of its support is the strengthening of participative democracy. This work s hypothesis is that the communications policy adopted by Hugo Chávez Government is one of the political sustainers of the Bolivarian process, where war waged among the favorable and contrary information vehicles is moderated by the biggest international media corporations, reproducers of the great capital interests. Having this in view, we analyze the role of contra-informative media in the dispute for hegemony / Em 11 de abril de 2002 o presidente da Venezuela Hugo Chávez sofreu um falido golpe de Estado orquestrado midiaticamente por setores da elite dominante, detentora dos veículos de comunicação de massa do país, em aliança com setores conservadores das Forças Armadas. A partir do restabelecimento do poder, o governo passou a compreender a política comunicacional como uma das frentes estratégicas. Em meio à hegemonia do pensamento único capitalista segundo o qual o socialismo foi considerado enterrado depois da queda do Muro de Berlim, quando se deu o fim da história −, o líder da chamada Revolução Bolivariana está a frente de um processo que tem recebido destacada atenção em todos os campos políticos do planeta. Sua gestão questiona a globalização neoliberal, tem caráter antiimperialista e propõe o desenvolvimento endógeno das nações, transformando a sociedade a partir do ponto de vista econômico, cultural e social. Um dos maiores produtores de petróleo do mundo, a Venezuela enfrenta uma acirrada luta de idéias interna e externa em um processo dialético de construção do Socialismo do Século XXI. Neste ousado processo, que até o momento é marcado por uma reforma do Estado liberal, a liderança de Chávez tem sido essencial, principalmente em resposta a um sistema político deficitário. A base de sua sustentação tem sido o fortalecimento da democracia participativa. A hipótese deste trabalho é que a política comunicacional adotada pelo governo é um dos pilares de sustentação política do processo bolivariano, onde a guerra midiática é pautada pelas grandes corporações midiáticas internacionais, reprodutoras dos interesses do grande capital. Tendo isso em vista, analisamos o papel dos meios contra-informativos na disputa pela hegemonia

The aim of this thesis is to investigate in what way Swedish universities regulates its internal and external communication by the use of policy documents. The purpose has led to three research questions: what scope of communication is given to the documents user, if the document is challenging or redefining the current means of power, and how questions regarding trademark is taken into consideration. In order to achieve the purpose a discourse analysis is used as both underlining theory and comprehensive method. The underlining theory is based around social constructionism, structuralism, poststructuralism and critical discourse analysis. The analysis have taken emphasis from Norman Faircloughs three-dimensional model in which the documents have been studied on three separate levels. The material the research has been built upon is documents regarding communication policy from ten of Swedens fourteen universities. The results indicated that three central groups of participants where given authority in the policy document. The first group consists of different types of managers whom, in the policy document, where given the highest freedom of their own communication. The second group consist of colleagues and employees and are by the policy document viewed as both goals and actors with limited freedom and power over their own communication. The third group consists of students, whom much a like the second group, were viewed as both goals and actors. The last group where however given less influences over their own communication and there was a clear distinction between universities whom looked upon their students as part of the organisation and those who placed the students outside the university organisation. The results furthermore indicated that the policy document are used and works as reproduced documents for the current means of power and that questions regarding trademark are present. The term trademark were used in the majority of the documents and it was also possible to distinguish and read that the universities are very conscious about, and want to influence what image of them that is corresponded through media, employees and students.

Wireline telecommunications infrastructure in the customer access network or CAN is undergoing a veritable technological and commercial revolution. The paired-copper CAN is being modernised with optical fibre deployed ever closer to customers, culminating soon with fibre-to-the-home networks or some variant thereof. Although bandwidth ceases to be a scarce commodity, the underlying natural monopoly will most likely be strengthened. National competition policy desires open access to multiple service providers yet commercial pressure calls for closure. This has been the recent experience with the hybrid fibre coaxial networks delivering pay television and Internet access. This research asks the question: What are the factors that prevent open access to the broadband services of next generation wireline infrastructure? How can these obstacles be overcome? A particular focus is given to non-price considerations which come to the fore due to the unique strategic and technological characteristics of optical fibre in the access network. The methodological approach involves data gathering via three case studies - that of the Telstra/Foxtel pay television network, the TransACT broadband network and fibre-to-the-home networks in general. Although the ultimate focus is on the research question above, these cases are discussed in a holistic way with consideration of a number of contextual factors. The research also examines the relationship between the concepts of 'open access' and 'network neutrality', visiting the concept of 'common carriage' in doing so. Several findings are reached that illuminate the field of telecommunications access regulation as applied to infrastructure capable of delivering truly next generation broadband services. Since 1993, our politicians have only paid lip service to the importance of competition and have deferred to the demands of the dominant builder of telecommunications infrastructure. From the viewpoints of end-users and access seekers, the access regime is found to be incapable of dealing with the technical and commercial bottlenecks arising from optical fibre in the CAN. It is concluded that communication between users should be recognised as the prime purpose of telecommunications and that the regulatory regime should not reward discriminatory practices detracting from the development of a networked information economy. It is also concluded that dominant players should never be rewarded with access holidays which could otherwise entrench market dominance through the creation of new bottlenecks. Access regulation is ill-equipped to cope with optical fibre in the CAN until it also recognizes the strategic potential of such infrastructure.