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.

This paper aims to examine the different perspectives that emerged during the debate surrounding the right-wing newspaper “Nya Tider” and their participation at the Swedish bookfair in Gothenburg back in 2017. The study relies on the theoretical foundation that is known as Spiral of Silence and Agenda-Setting. But is examined and operationalized by the historical perspective given by John Durham Peters in his book “courting the abyss”. Peters portrays in his book a variety of different takes on the free speech phenomenon. The study’s aim was then to see if similar perspective were protruding now as it has before.A research question regarding what perspective were protruding in the debate that followed “Nya Tider” and their announcement that they were going to attend the bookfair once again where therefore coined. The direct translation of this questions is “What perspective of where the limit of free speech should be drawn is present in the Swedish media outlet regarding the debate of “Nya Tider” participation at the book fair in Gothenburg 2017.In order to examine what perspective protruded in the debate the approach of a qualitative content analysis was deemed the best way to examine the phenomenon. A total of (n) 36 articles were systematically analyzed and a total of 4 perspectives where formed, the liberal, the absolutistic libertarian, the opponent perspective and the victim perspective. Each one different from each other. The study also examined the level occurrence of the different perspective and found that in 18 out of the 36 article’s the opponent perspective where present, whereas the absolutistic libertarian perspective only occurs in 4 out of the 36 articles’. A big difference where therefor found in what coverage the different perspectives were given in the Swedish news outlets.In a time where political censorship is at a rise around Europe with the implementation of laws that prevent people from speaking their minds. Or compelling them to address people a certain way, not by choice but by legislation, the need to examine what perspectives are occurring in our media might for the uneducated seem like a vague way to approach a complicated matter.But Agenda-Setting research has shown that the media agenda affects both the public agenda as well as the legislative part of our society. Therefore, a lack of occurrence of certain perspectives can also affect what laws are put in place. It is therefore imperative to examine what sort of perspective occurs in the Swedish debate to prevent an infraction of the Swedish free speech law, and to keep Sweden a free, secular society.

This thesis examines the role of microblogging in shaping public opinion and political participation in China with particular focus on the question of what sociopolitical implications and challenges that weibo phenomenon has brought to the Chinese society. I explore some of the prominent features of weibo for the role they plays in framing public sphere. Along with an in-depth study of two weibo cases, the results show that microblogging provide a unique platform for Chinese citizens to participate in civic engagement and to organize their collective opinions. The study also demonstrates that weibo has a significant impact on spurring social change. Further, weibo discourse encourages interaction between government and ordinary citizens, and it also changes traditional Chinese politics through enabling public political participation. However, the spread of rumors and network violence are some of the disadvantages inherent to the weibo phenomenon that should be of concern. More importantly, the analysis reveals that the initial reasons behind the weibo phenomenon were the long-term social conflicts and continuous information control by the state. Weibo certainly provides a remarkable platform for the freedom of speech but it should not be considered as a panacea for the social changes in China.

The purposes of this study were (1) to identify the reasons for and the processes of underground communication in Russia since the seventeenth century and (2) to utilize the information to interpret the clandestine media's significance. The study concluded: (1) underground media have evolved because Russian governments have oppressed free speech; (2) dissidents have shared similarities in the methods of illicit communications; (3) whereas the earlier clandestine press tended to be either literary or political, today's samizdat is a synthesis of many varieties of dissent; (4) underground media have reflected the unique characteristics of Russian journalism; and (5) the Chronicle of Current Events is unparalleled as a news journal in the history of Russian dissent.

This paper analyses the interactions between Australian mainstream media and social media political influencers and how these interactions amplify ideological misinformation. Social media, particularly YouTube, is increasingly a primary source of news and information for people, principally in the younger 18 – 35-year demographic. Yet while social media has opened up horizontal networks of mass self-communication that allow anyone with an internet to communicate on a mass scale, it has also precipitated a significant rise in the dissemination of reactionary right and extremist messages. The analysis is embedded in Manuel Castells network society theory and utilising Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis framework and José van Dijck’s combination of the Network Society theory with Actor Network Theory. By analysing the discourses employed by News Corp around notions of “identity politics” “western civilisation” and “the left”, this paper argues that the discourses of News Corp Australia are largely the same as the Alternative Influence Network (AIN) on YouTube – a loosely connected group of reactionary right-wing influencers. It further analyses the way News Corp reports on these influencers, concluding that the intertwining discursive patterns of both News Corp and the AIN have the effect of discriminating against a range of minority groups due to its centring of white, western identity as default. News Corp produces and amplifies ideological misinformation through both power and counterpower communication networks. This is concerning considering News Corp’s prominence and influence in the Australian media landscape. Finally, it argues that the ideological misinformation amplified by News Corp Australia is contributing to a new ideological paradigm that combines populist nationalism with neoliberalism.

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no / This paper analyses the verbal and textual hostility employed by rioters, politicians and the media in Sydney (Australia) in December 2005 in the battle over Sutherland Shire¿s Cronulla Beach. By better understanding the linguistic conventions underlying all forms of maledictive hate, we are better able to address the false antimonies between free speech and the regulation of speech. It is also argued that understanding the harms of hate speech provides us with the tools necessary to create a more responsive framework for criminalising some forms of hate speech as a preliminary process in reducing or eliminating hate violence.