Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 484-511). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Except for employing their journalistic skills in traditional positions at newspapers and magazines, journalists today also have a choice of a variety of interesting communication careers. A journalist may choose to be, among others, a copywriter at an advertising agency, a translator, a presenter on television or radio, a publisher, as well as a public relations officer (PRO). Public Relations, especially, has become an increasingly popular career choice for journalists, mostly at a later stage of their careers. Public relations is a professional career, and practitioners have long been trained as specialist in their field. Also, career-orientated courses in public relations are offered at tertiary institutions countrywide. Despite this, experienced journalists are still top candidates for positions as PROs at a variety of organisations. However, because public relations has become considerably specialised and professional over the past 20 years, journalists should acquire extra, "specialised" skills to practise public relations. Their journalistic skills do, however, form a basis for a career in public relations. But the skills and techniques of public relations should still be acquired and applied. The purpose of this mini-thesis is to discuss these skills, and ultimately prepare journalists for a career in public relations. Many definitions of public relations exist, but essentially it is a continuous, systematic and cyclical process that aims to create and maintain a positive image of an organisation. This process consists of four phases. Research is the continuous gathering and interpretation of information to determine who the organisation's publics are (demographic information) and what their attitudes towards and perspectives of the organisation and its products and/or services are. Planning is in itself a process. Through planning the PRO determines the objectives and strategy of a communication programme, which should influence the attitudes and perspectives of the publics. Communication is the execution of the planning through the techniques of, among others, writing and public addresses. Evaluation determines whether the objectives of a communication programme have been met. In addition to these techniques, it should further be noted that public relations is applied differently within different organisations because the objectives and publics of organisations differ. A career change from journalism to public relations demands adjustment. This is discussed in the second part of the mini-thesis. For a journalist to become a successful PRO, he should acquire and apply the skills discussed, as well as be prepare to experience the adjustments that distinguish public relations from journalism. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Behalwe dat joernaliste hul vaardighede inspan in tradisionele poste by koerante en tydskrifte, kan hulle vandag ook 'n verskeidenheid beroepe in die kommunikasiewese beoefen. Joernaliste word, onder andere, kopie-skrywers in die advertensiewese, vertalers, aanbieders op televisie en radio, taalversorgers by uitgewers, asook openbare skakelbeamptes. Dit is veral die skakelwese wat 'n al hoe meer gewilde beroepskeuse word onder joernaliste, veral in 'n latere stadium van hul loopbane. Skakelwese is 'n professionele beroep, en praktisyns word reeds lank as spesialiste op dié gebied opgelei. Talle beroepsgerigte openbare skakelwese-kursusse word landwyd by tersiêre inrigtings aangebied. Maar, ten spyte hiervan, is ervare joernaliste steeds van die top-kandidate VIr skakelwese-poste by 'n verskeidenheid organisasies. Omdat die skakelwese oor die afgelope 20 jaar aansienlik meer gespesialiseerd en professioneel geword het, is dit moeiliker vir joernaliste om dié beroep te betree met net hul joernalistieke vaardighede. Dit vorm wel die basis vir 'n loopbaan in die skakelwese. Vir joernaliste om suksesvolle skakelbeamptes te word moet hulle ook die "gespesialiseerde" vaardighede van die skakelwese aanleer en toepas. Hierdie werkstuk se doel is om die vaardighede van die skakelwese wat joernaliste moet verwerf, te bespreek en uiteindelik die joernalis toe te rus vir 'n loopbaan in die skakelwese. Verskeie definisies van die beroep bestaan, maar essensieel is dit 'n deurlopende, sistematiese en sikliese proses wat poog om 'n positiewe beeld van 'n organisasie te skep en te behou. Om die proses in werking te stel moet deur vier fases gegaan word. Navorsing is die gedurige versameling en interpretasie van inligting waardeur die skakelbeampte bepaal wie sy gehoor is (demografiese inligting) en wat hul houdings teenoor die organisasie en sy produkte en/of dienste. Beplanning is 'n proses op sy eie. Hiermee bepaal die skakelbeampte die doelwitte en strategie van 'n kommunikasieprogram wat die houdings van sy gehoor moet beïnvloed. Kommunikasie is die inwerkingstelling van die beplanning deur die tegnieke van , onder andere, skryf en openbare optredes. Deur evaluering word bepaal of die gestelde doelwitte bereik is deur die inwerkingstelling van 'n spesifieke kommunikasieprogram. Hierby moet skakelbeamptes daarop let dat die skakelwese op 'n unieke manier binne verskillende tipes organisasies toegepas moet word omdat die doelwitte en gehoor van organisasie tot organisasie verskil. Om 'n loopbaanverskuiwing van die joernalistiek na die skakelwese te maak verg 'n aanpassing. Hierna word in die tweede deel van die werkstuk gekyk. As 'n joernalis 'n suksesvolle openbare skakelbeampte wil word, sal hy hierdie vaardighede moet aanleer en toepas, asook bereid wees om die aanpassings, wat die skakelwese anders as joernalistiek maak, te ervaar.

With the rise of internet literacy across the world, men and women on the street are increasingly participating in the news media more than ever before. Early speculations about the influence of citizen journalism imbued the practice with an almost messianic ability to save both journalism and democracy. Whilst these suggestions were influenced by a small amount of data analysis, mainly from Western countries, they were encouraging and demonstrated the potential of citizen journalism in representing the voice of ordinary people. This thesis suggests that citizen journalism is not only promoting the perspective of ordinary citizens, but is also supplementing the coverage of the mainstream media, building relationships, shaping the public sphere, and fulfilling the critical role of a watchdog. Analysing data from a sample of twenty-four different English language citizen journalism sites, this thesis examines the phenomenon of citizen journalism, focusing on the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation. Employing a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken of the data set. The results show that citizen journalism sites in the larger and more developed SAARC countries provide more coverage of news than those in the smaller and underdeveloped countries. Political news is given the highest priority by the majority of the sites whilst news about war and terrorism is given the least. The analysis has also discovered that the sites function as a bridge, bringing people living in different parts of the world together and enabling them to engage in political discourse and the sharing of knowledge and experience. Moreover, citizen journalism is helping people to educate themselves about the culture and political systems of their new countries while also forming their own community online. This was particularly the case with the sites that were owned and operated by the diaspora people living in the West. In addition, with a few exceptions, the majority of the sites make substantial use of supplementary materials to enhance news articles, encouraging readers to participate in interactive news activities, such as posting comments. The study has also found that citizen journalists come from a wide range of backgrounds, from politicians acting as citizen journalists to students aspiring to generate revenues through commercial advertising on the Internet. However, they differ from each other in terms of their news values and news presentation — some of the sites offer more political news than others whilst others behave more like the mainstream media, providing a wide range of news articles. On the other hand, a few of the sites are less active and provide fewer news articles than others. The study has also found that citizen journalists from the SAARC countries include works of fiction as part of their news output, thus offering the slightly different definition of citizen journalism from that in the West.

Normative professional journalism and the need to re-evaluate the structural social context of journalism practice and its role in emerging democracies has led to the increased scrutiny of journalists and their relationship to news sources. This study conceptualises the relationship between journalists and news sources as a dual process of consensus and conflict of interests in the newsgathering practice in Zambia, an emerging democracy. The study suggests that journalists actively pursue powerful individuals in society such as those in government, pressure groups and business as news sources who have been available and suitable in the past. Journalists’ view of society as bureaucratically organised and the short turn-around time of news production are among the organisational factors attributed to this tendency. This study adopts a sociological approach to investigate the journalist-news source relationship at The Post, in Zambia, by factoring in the perspectives of social organisation of newswork and political economy. Whereas the social organisation perspective focuses on the organisational and occupational demands of journalists, political economy reinforces the larger context of journalist-news source interaction in a society. Additionally, the social constructivist theory, which is premised around the idea that the agenda and content of journalism production, is in part a product of non-journalistic social factors is useful in understanding the various influences on the relationship. The study investigates the nature of the journalist-news source relationship using two diametrically opposed views – the dominant (exchange) and competitive (adversarial) paradigms. This is aimed at establishing whether the relationship is an exchange or adversarial. While the latter relationship is common in liberal democracies where the media are seen as part of elite structures with considerable power on their own, the thinking is that inequalities in resource distribution and political power generate social tensions in developing countries that require media to be carefully managed. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews and observation methods, this study establishes that while the adversarial role has an attraction for the journalists investigated, the exchange model comes closest to describing the nature of relationship they share with their news sources.

This qualitative study features in-depth interviews with selected continental African journalists and offers exploratory insights into how they perceive themselves in terms of their journalistic roles and/or sub-identities with regard to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The study also examines correlations between their perceptions and their news stories on NEPAD. Grounded in the libertarian and social responsibility theories of journalism, and reading these theories from the standpoint of Africa, this study posits the neutral, watchdog, social agenda and development journalism sub-identities to explain the respondents’ journalistic identifications. Hence, the study explores how the journalists respond to NEPAD’s (pan)-Africanist and development journalism interpellations. The study draws on postcolonial theoretical perspectives to address questions concerning African identity and the wider NEPAD/African context of research. Findings indicated that the journalists perceive a role for themselves as neutral-objectivist information disseminators as well as social agenda enactors that conscientise their readers about NEPAD. Thus, the journalists tend to implicitly portray a pluralistic understanding of their roles that enables them to balance the ideals of journalism against the development and Africanist aspirations of NEPAD. Although the journalists were found to uphold oppositional stances towards NEPAD, they do not question it from outside of its own neo-liberal discourse. In fact, they still represent themselves as aspiring to its Africanism and remaining sympathetic to its development plans. Overall, they exhibit multiple identifications, and yet they often tend to lean towards their neutral-objectivist journalistic sub-identity. Ultimately, they prioritise the dominant libertarian-professional model of journalism over and above NEPAD’s interpellations. The study also examined the journalists’ interpretations of what they do and the apparent translation of this into their stories. Although in both their stories and interviews discourse they showed a broader orientation towards libertarianism, the findings show that the link between the two is not straightforward.

Esta tese objetiva compreender os sentidos que jornalistas atribuem à noção de interesse público como princípio normativo do jornalismo e critério de noticiabilidade. Para isso, parto de uma perspectiva epistemológica construcionista (BERGER; LUCKMANN, 2009) acerca do jornalismo como instituição social e forma de conhecimento (TUCHMAN, 1983; GENRO FILHO, 1987; MEDITSCH, 2010), que se fundamenta nas noções de verdade e objetividade (CORNU, 1994; CHARAUDEAU, 2007), para abordar as finalidades democráticas da profissão no campo da comunicação pública (HABERMAS, 2003; ESTEVES, 2011) e, assim, delinear o escopo teórico no qual se inscreve a temática do interesse público. Utilizo como procedimento metodológico a entrevista de tipo qualitativo com jornalistas que atuam em organizações informativas de grupos de comunicação tradicionais e importantes no Brasil, na produção de conteúdos para os meios impresso e online (recorte deste estudo). Emprego a Análise de Discurso (PÊCHEUX, 1988; ORLANDI, 2009) para interpretar os relatos desses informantes e, a partir dessa interpretação, evidencio duas formações discursivas (FDs) no interior das quais a noção de interesse público produz sentidos no jornalismo: a FD iluminista-democrática, que apresenta como sentido nuclear a ideia de “apreensão e transmissão da verdade para o progresso social e o desenvolvimento da democracia”, e a FD econômico-mercadológica, que tem como sentido nuclear a ideia de “captura, satisfação e manutenção dos consumidores de notícia para a sobrevivência e o crescimento econômico-financeiro das organizações jornalísticas”. Nessa perspectiva, sustento que os sentidos de interesse público no jornalismo se atualizam em torno das noções de: relevância pública, esclarecimento, vigilância, espaço comum e preferência de consumo. Face às condições objetivas de produção da notícia e às transformações econômicas, tecnológicas e culturais que atualmente incidem sobre a instituição jornalística, afirmo que o interesse público constitui um valor de resistência da identidade profissional e de seu discurso de legitimação. / This doctoral thesis aims to understand the meanings that journalists ascribe to the notion of public interest as a normative principle of journalism and newsworthiness criterion. For this purpose, I start from a constructionist epistemological perspective (BERGER; LUCKMANN, 2009) on journalism as a social institution and form of knowledge (TUCHMAN, 1983; GENRO FILHO, 1987; MEDITSCH, 2010) that is based on the sense of truth and objectivity (CORNU, 1994; CHARAUDEAU, 2007) , to address the democratic aims of the profession in the field of public communication (HABERMAS, 2003; ESTEVES, 2011) and thus delineate the theoretical scope in which the subject of public interest is included. As methodological procedure I use the interview of qualitative type with journalists who work in informative organizations from traditional and important communication groups in Brazil, in the production of content for printed and online media (object of this study). I employ the Discourse Analysis (PÊCHEUX, 1988; ORLANDI, 2009) to interpret the reports of these informants, and from that analysis I demonstrate two discursive formations (DF) within which the notion of public interest produces sense in journalism: the enlightened-democratic DF, that presents as its nuclear sense the idea of "apprehension and transmission of truth for social progress and citizenship development", and the economic-marketing DF, that has as its nuclear sense the idea of "capture, satisfaction and maintenance of news consumers to the survival and economic-financial growth of journalistic organizations". In this perspective, I support that the senses of public interest in journalism are updated from the notions of public relevance, clarification, vigilance, common space and consumption preference. Given the objective conditions of news production and economic, technological and cultural transformations that happen to the journalistic institution, I claim that the public interest constitutes a value of resistance of the professional identity and its legitimating discourse.

Esta dissertação reflete sobre o papel desempenhado pela comunicação social, e pelo jornalismo em particular, nas relações de poder e nas desigualdades que se fundam na cultura, principalmente no que se refere às relações de gênero e sexualidade. Para tanto, foi desenvolvida com o objetivo de analisar as concepções de gênero dos jornalistas percebendo se e de que maneira elas atravessam a produção de notícias e contribuem na reprodução, manutenção, re-significação ou transformação de padrões de desigualdade, e se expressam a existência da heteronormatividade no jornalismo. Desenvolveu-se amparada nas teorias construcionistas do jornalismo, nos estudos culturais, estudos feministas pós-estruturalistas e nos estudos queer. Inspirada no método etnográfico, com uso da técnica da observação participante, a investigação se deu no acompanhamento da produção de notícias, durante onze semanas, junto a um grupo de jornalistas partícipes de um dos programas jornalísticos da RBS TV, na cidade de Porto Alegre/RS. Acompanhando o cotidiano dos jornalistas com foco nas rotinas produtivas das notícias e nas relações entre os profissionais, o jornalismo se desvelou constituído de gênero. Não apenas porque seus operadores são sujeitos que possuem gênero e concepções de gênero. Fundamentalmente porque demonstrou que as convenções de gênero são pervasivas dos valores culturais e visões de mundo, presentes na subjetividade dos jornalistas, e como tal incidem nas estruturas organizacionais e hierárquicas da empresa e nas próprias notícias, bem como nos modos como o jornalismo está relacionado à reprodução de saberes selecionados por serem reconhecidos como podendo ou devendo dar lugar àquilo que uma sociedade considera digno de ser conhecido (LOURO, 1997). / This dissertation reflects upon the role performed by social communication, particularly journalism, in power relations and inequality based in culture, mainly with regard to relations of gender and sexuality. For that, this paper was developed aiming the analysis of journalists’ conceptions of gender, realizing if and in what way they cross the production of news and contribute to the reproduction, maintenance, re-significance or alteration of inequity patterns, and if they express the existence of heteronormativity in journalism. The research was based on journalism’s constructivism theories, on cultural studies, post-structuralism feminist studies and queer studies. Inspired in the ethnographic method, using participant observation techniques, the investigation took place while accompanying the production of news during eleven weeks alongside a group of journalists that are part of one of RBS TV’s news programs in Porto Alegre/RS. Observing the journalists’ quotidian with focus on the productive routines of news and the relationship between professionals, journalism showed itself to be constituted of gender. Not only because its operators are subjects possessed of gender and conceptions of gender, but essentially because it was demonstrated that gender conventions are pervasive of cultural values present in the subjectivity of journalists and, as such, incur in organizational and hierarchic structures of the company and in news itself as well as in modes in which journalism is related to the reproduction of knowledge selected for being recognized as being able or having to give place to what society considers worth knowing (LOURO, 1997).

Esta dissertação reflete sobre o papel desempenhado pela comunicação social, e pelo jornalismo em particular, nas relações de poder e nas desigualdades que se fundam na cultura, principalmente no que se refere às relações de gênero e sexualidade. Para tanto, foi desenvolvida com o objetivo de analisar as concepções de gênero dos jornalistas percebendo se e de que maneira elas atravessam a produção de notícias e contribuem na reprodução, manutenção, re-significação ou transformação de padrões de desigualdade, e se expressam a existência da heteronormatividade no jornalismo. Desenvolveu-se amparada nas teorias construcionistas do jornalismo, nos estudos culturais, estudos feministas pós-estruturalistas e nos estudos queer. Inspirada no método etnográfico, com uso da técnica da observação participante, a investigação se deu no acompanhamento da produção de notícias, durante onze semanas, junto a um grupo de jornalistas partícipes de um dos programas jornalísticos da RBS TV, na cidade de Porto Alegre/RS. Acompanhando o cotidiano dos jornalistas com foco nas rotinas produtivas das notícias e nas relações entre os profissionais, o jornalismo se desvelou constituído de gênero. Não apenas porque seus operadores são sujeitos que possuem gênero e concepções de gênero. Fundamentalmente porque demonstrou que as convenções de gênero são pervasivas dos valores culturais e visões de mundo, presentes na subjetividade dos jornalistas, e como tal incidem nas estruturas organizacionais e hierárquicas da empresa e nas próprias notícias, bem como nos modos como o jornalismo está relacionado à reprodução de saberes selecionados por serem reconhecidos como podendo ou devendo dar lugar àquilo que uma sociedade considera digno de ser conhecido (LOURO, 1997). / This dissertation reflects upon the role performed by social communication, particularly journalism, in power relations and inequality based in culture, mainly with regard to relations of gender and sexuality. For that, this paper was developed aiming the analysis of journalists’ conceptions of gender, realizing if and in what way they cross the production of news and contribute to the reproduction, maintenance, re-significance or alteration of inequity patterns, and if they express the existence of heteronormativity in journalism. The research was based on journalism’s constructivism theories, on cultural studies, post-structuralism feminist studies and queer studies. Inspired in the ethnographic method, using participant observation techniques, the investigation took place while accompanying the production of news during eleven weeks alongside a group of journalists that are part of one of RBS TV’s news programs in Porto Alegre/RS. Observing the journalists’ quotidian with focus on the productive routines of news and the relationship between professionals, journalism showed itself to be constituted of gender. Not only because its operators are subjects possessed of gender and conceptions of gender, but essentially because it was demonstrated that gender conventions are pervasive of cultural values present in the subjectivity of journalists and, as such, incur in organizational and hierarchic structures of the company and in news itself as well as in modes in which journalism is related to the reproduction of knowledge selected for being recognized as being able or having to give place to what society considers worth knowing (LOURO, 1997).

Au cours des trois dernières décennies, la mise en œuvre de stratégies industrielles et éditoriales par les groupes de presse écrite a poussé les marchés du travail journalistique à se conformer à de nouvelles exigences d'adaptation. Face à ces transformations, les positions traditionnelles des acteurs du champ journalistique ont été profondément remises en question, traduisant une reconfiguration en termes de normes et de pratiques socio-discursives, mais aussi de distribution des rôles et des pouvoirs. Notre travail de recherche propose de s'intéresser au cas des journalistes pigistes dont le positionnement dans une « zone grise » du marché du travail en fait des « analyseurs » privilégiés des mutations en cours au sein du secteur de presse. La précarité qui leur est fatalement assignée est ici questionnée comme une catégorie situationnelle et relationnelle nous informant d'une « déstructuration-restructuration » du champ journalistique. La précarité mobilisée dans les discours des acteurs du champ apporte dès lors un éclairage sur les logiques sociales à l'œuvre et permet d'approcher, d'une part, les enjeux qui sous-tendent la stigmatisation des journalistes pigistes en précaires, et, d'autre part, les stratégies qui les portent. Il apparaît que cette représentation à visée différentielle fait singulièrement sens dans un contexte socio-économique de restructuration des industries culturelles. Révélatrice d'une tension entre légitimation et modernisation d'une presse en mutation, la précarité affectée aux journalistes pigistes se met au service des stratégies d'adaptation des acteurs en présence. Elle sert en premier lieu celles des stigmatisés qui, en procédant à un « retournement du stigmate », saisissent l'occasion de faire émerger une identité « para-journalistique » fondée sur une culture qui leur serait propre : le « pigisme ». / Over the past three decades, the industrial and editorial strategies of French press groups pushed the journalistic labour markets to adapt to new requirements. Faced with these changes, the traditional positions of the actors involved in the journalistic field were deeply challenged leading to a reconfiguration in terms of standards and socio-discursive practices, but also in terms of the distribution of roles and powers. Our research focuses on the case of the French “pigistes” journalists who are located in a "grey area" of the labour market and thereby become privileged "analyzers" of the ongoing changes in the French press industry. The precariousness assigned to them is examined as a relational notion, which allows us to approach very closely the "breakdown-restructuring" movement of the modern French journalistic field. The study of the uses of this notion in the discourses of the main actors in this field brings light on the social logics at work. It underlines what is at stake in the stigmatization of “pigistes” journalists in "precarious" professionals on the one hand and which strategies this stigma help to satisfy on the other hand. It appears that this representation implies a differentiation between two types of journalists (the precarious ones and the others), which singularly makes sense in a socio-economic restructuring of cultural industries. Revealing a tension between legitimacy and modernization of a changing press, the precariousness assigned to the “pigistes” journalists supports the adaptation strategies of the actors involved in the field. Above all, this stigmatization serves firstly this stigmatized journalists who by conducting a “reversal of the stigma” seize the opportunity to bring forth a “para-journalistic” identity based on a culture they would own: the “pigisme.”