To explore strategic narratives of the U.S. and Russia is a motivation for this research. The study investigates whether there is a return to the Cold War rhetoric between the West and Russia, or if the discourse has taken a new form. A primary goal is to examine if media originating from the two countries spread propaganda, but mainly to detect what kind of propaganda it is. The research compares types of propaganda techniques that are most commonly applied by RT and CNN, and discusses results in a context of the Cold War propaganda prominent themes. This has been done by comparing how the two media outlets were reporting on a crash of a Malaysian Airlines aircraft in eastern Ukraine on July 17th 2014. A method of a framing analysis has been applied for a material from both channels for a period of four months. The results indicate that a number of propaganda techniques are used by both RT and CNN. Moreover, channels’ discourse is antagonistic, while strategic narratives of the U.S. and Russia nowadays have similarities and differences comparing to the Cold War times. Further research should look at other genres, events and topics reported by the two media.

This study strives to provide an insight as to how gender is dealt with by global news agencies within the context of climate change. The capacity to adapt to change is shaped by power relations related to social identities of people and group. Gender is a key element of these identities. Global news agencies are to a large extent responsible for what we see and understand of that world. However, in the media research field, few media studies has examined how global news agencies discusses gender in the context of climate change. Through a critical discourse analysis combined with a postcolonial feminist perspective, this study has closely examined articles about climate change from the world’s three largest news agencies - Reuters, Associate Press and Agence France-Presse. Through the analysis four main categories have emerged: Poor women in need of help; Women getting help; Women within familial systems; and Women as experts. The result showed that the concepts of women was narrow and existed within imperialistic, mainstream discourses on women. Through these discursive constructions of women, news agencies risk reinforce a North-South bias and stereotypes of the ‘third world woman’.

The foreign correspondent, in situ witness of world events, has enjoyed a privileged position within the profession. This Ph.D thesis contrasts the myth of the correspondent built up over the years thanks to cinema and the autobiographical literature of reporters with the harsh reality of their profession in the 21st century. The thesis carries out an exhaustive typology of this figure and similar agents -war correspondent, special envoy, freelance, etc- before revealing the modus operandi of this peculiar institution. Later on, the thesis analyses the role of the correspondent within the strategies of international news coverage, their news sources and the external and logistical obstacles which complicate their task. The thesis closes with an analysis of the oncorporation of new technologies within the day-to-day routine of the foreign correspondent. / El corresponsal en el extranjero, testido in situ de la actualidad mundial ha disfrutado de una trayectoria privilegiada dentro de los confines de la profesión periodística. Esta tesis doctoral contrasta el mito del corresponsal construido desde el cine pasando por la literatura autobiográfica de los propios reporteros con la realidad de su oficio en el siglo XXI. El trabajo lleva a cabo una tipologia exhaustiva de esta figura y agentes afines -corresponsal de guerra, enviado especial, freelance, etc- antes de revelar el modus operandi de esta singular institución. A posteriori, la tesis pasa a analizar el papel del corresponsal dentro de las estrategias de cobertura internacional de la prensa, sus fuentes informativas y aquellos obstáculos externos y logísticos que complican su labor. El trabajo cierra con un analisis de la incorporación de las nuevas teconologias en el trabajo cotidiano del corresponsal.

This study critically explores the relationships amongst the global, national, continental and alternative news agencies in South Africa and in a changing global context of news. It revisits previous studies’ findings on imbalances in global flows with a view to extending and updating these case studies. An extended-case study approach employing in-depth, open-ended interviews with news agency participants based primarily in South Africa and with the Pan African News Agency in Senegal is undertaken. The study postulates that news agencies do not operate independently of the broader external social environment. News agencies are influenced by changes in the global news environment and impacted upon by socio-economic, political and cultural processes and relations amongst nations. The main findings include firstly, that “intermediary changes” described as “adaptive strategies” at news agencies result from internal and external pressures on their operations of news production, selection and distribution. Internal pressures are identified as changes in ownership, and the gate-keeping function in the selection and exchange of news. External pressures are associated with the processes and relations of market-based global capitalism, which, it is theorized, gives rise to changing conditions described as a new phase of neo-liberal globalisation. Another finding related to the first, describes the adaptive strategies at news agencies as signifying a crisis in the global capitalist order and a transition to a post-industrial society. This post-industrial society presents the space for further investigation of the phenomenon of global consciousness, which is a further finding of the study. The prevalence of an alternative form of news production, citizens’ journalism, is seen as an example of an emerging public realm of opinion making, or, the public sphere. The study concludes that explanations for the persistence of imbalances in global news flows in the relationships among news agencies needs revision and updating, and that a global phenomenon, “global consciousness”, presents a challenge to the extreme market forces and the statist government control over media systems worldwide.

This dissertation examines the agendas and frames used by the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) and Reuters in their coverage of issues and actors of the May 2005 Ethiopian Elections, by employing agenda-setting and framing theories. The study applies quantitative and qualitative methods and examined fifty news stories from each news agency, and forwards five main findings: One, ENA and Reuters differed in setting agendas. While ENA focused on the legitimacy, Reuters emphasised on the killings and arrests of the electoral process. Second, ENA and Reuters differed in their motives to make some actors more salient than others. Third, ENA framed Elections processes as rightful, while Reuters framed them as disfigured. Fourth, ENA framed government parties as visionary and indomitable, and the oppositions as wrongdoers. Contrastingly, Reuters framed the oppositions as victims, and the government parties as brutal actors. And finally, by so doing, both agencies reflected their respective interests. / Communication Science / MA (International Communication)

This dissertation examines the agendas and frames used by the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) and Reuters in their coverage of issues and actors of the May 2005 Ethiopian Elections, by employing agenda-setting and framing theories. The study applies quantitative and qualitative methods and examined fifty news stories from each news agency, and forwards five main findings: One, ENA and Reuters differed in setting agendas. While ENA focused on the legitimacy, Reuters emphasised on the killings and arrests of the electoral process. Second, ENA and Reuters differed in their motives to make some actors more salient than others. Third, ENA framed Elections processes as rightful, while Reuters framed them as disfigured. Fourth, ENA framed government parties as visionary and indomitable, and the oppositions as wrongdoers. Contrastingly, Reuters framed the oppositions as victims, and the government parties as brutal actors. And finally, by so doing, both agencies reflected their respective interests. / Communication Science / MA (International Communication)