This dissertation examines the process of limited political liberalisation in China by analysing the coexistence between critical journalists and the party-state under the Hu-Wen leadership. In contrast to the scholarship on authoritarianism and Chinese politics, which tends to analyse the perspectives of societal actors and the state separately from one another, this study brings the two together, unveiling the intricacies of their interactions. In the past decade, critical journalists and the party-state maintained a partnership which can be best described by a jazz ensemble metaphor. The players—critical journalists and the party-state—share a common purpose: improving their performance or governance within the existing political system. They overcome the limitations on their collaboration with ad hoc creative adjustments made in response to one another. The party-state acts as a band leader, setting the key by establishing a framework within which creative manoeuvring can take place. The study is based on unique access to politically sensitive material, including 120 in-depth interviews with critical journalists, media and crisis management experts, and government officials. It also includes multilayered textual analysis of the Chinese Communist Party journal, Qiushi, and investigative reports in two outspoken media outlets, Caijing and Nanfang Zhoumo. The data is employed to analyse the boundaries for limited political liberalisation of the media as well as how it manifests itself during major crisis events. More broadly, the dissertation draws the attention of both China and authoritarianism scholars to the significant yet neglected feature of interactive improvisation as a force that can sustain coexistence between critical actors and authoritarian states. It shows that by engaging in actor-driven analysis and illuminating the process of their interactions, we can better grasp the dynamics of authoritarianism in China and beyond. A step is made towards applying the analytical framework distilled in the China case on other authoritarian regimes by including a limited comparison to media–state relations under Gorbachev and under Putin. It shows that the variables of collaboration and improvisation are useful in explaining the different outcomes of political liberalisation reform.

Abstract Title: “Journalists who loves the flexible life” - A case between journalists occupational perception and work-future who works at a newspaper compared to a radio station in northern Sweden. This study is a qualitative comparison between journalists without permanent employment on a commercial newspaper and a public service owned radio station in a medium sized town in northern Sweden. The main purpose was to analyse the occupational perception and work-future among young journalists without permanent employment in the public service and the commercial sector. Another intention was to figure out if there was any similarities or differences between working for a public service owned radio station compare to a commercial newspaper. We wanted to investigate how these journalists experience and manage their work and in which way they look at their own future and journalism in general. The research applies theories such as the precariat and studies about convergence. The chosen method for the study were qualitative semi-structured interviews based on the answers from six journalists and was processed through a thematic analysis. The main conclusion of this study was that multi journalism has become a part of the journalistic agenda, both on the radio station and the newspaper. It showed that journalists has to be flexible when it comes to working schedules. Even though they had to adapt to a lot of the journalistic requirement they still accepted the funny, but yet stressful life as a journalist. One conclusion that can be drawn is that todays journalism can demand almost anything, and job seeking journalists will adapt quite well regardless of change. A final conclusion was that it's difficult to predict the future of these journalists. But a common stand point for the journalists was that almost everyone could imagine a future in another profession.

This thesis is about development of Czech media market after 1989 in the context of political economy of the media. It tries to find practical impacts of the pressures of commercial sphere on media content in Czech serious daily press, on the basis of theories applied in the research part of the work. These pressures include media owners and media market ownership concentration, advertisers, expert opinions makers and think-tanks and public relations. A quantitative content analysis and journalists interviews are used for this purpose. The results confirm an existence of commercial influences in Czech dailies, especially from advertisers. A significant dominance of opinions supporting right-wing (conservative) thoughts has been also confirmed. Brought knowledge and research findings both leave and open substantial space for a future research of this topic.

Diploma thesis Journalists and Public Opinion Polls: Media Representation of Public Opinion in the case of the First Direct Presidental Election in Czech Republic deals with an issue of media representation of public opinion polls and journalists' attitudes towards these polls. From the theoretical point of view this thesis focuses on definition of concepts such as public and public opinion, examination of how these concepts are approached within public opinion polls and investigation of possible influence of mediated public opinion polls on recipient of media messages. The main part of this thesis describes results of academic studies that address an issue of media coverage of pre-election polls. Analytic part is divided into two parts. The first part deals with media content analysis, the second one deals with journalists' attitudes towards polls. We can conclude that interviewed journalists are rather skeptical about public opinion polls while this scepticism is not followed by critical interpretation of pre-election poll results. This conclusion rises a question why journalists' sceptical attitude doesn't correspond with media coverage of polls that was found rather uncritical. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This diploma thesis deals with the depiction of the role of media and journalists in war conflicts. It analyses the way the film producers portray media and journalistic work, their characters and abilities. The analysis also looks for attributes of professional journalistic routine in the hostile environment of the war zones, how media and journalists communicate with each other, the way they interact with civilians, soldiers, how critical they are towards the official establishment line of their editors or governments. The method used for analysing the feature and documentary films was the qualitative content analysis. After seeing the films several times, eleven categories that represented best the groups of similarities concerning media and journalists were defined throughout the analysed films. After that, charts were created where brief descriptions of categories and data were lined up and then compared. The next part of the analysis inspects these data even deeper. The result shows how the film makers depict journalistic routines and which stereotypes they use. We also learn whether the picture of the journalists differs according to each of the conflicts when we know that there were utterly different motivations behind them.

xi, 272 p. : ill. (some col.) / This is a qualitative comparative study about perspectives and experiences of contemporary journalists at three newspapers in the United States and Japan. The newspaper industry in both the United States and Japan is going through an unprecedented transitional period driven by economic forces and technological changes. One purpose of the study is to shed light on everyday journalists who are exposed to industry-wide structural changes. Based on interviews with journalists of the three newspapers, this study explores journalists' experiences about economic and technological impacts and their perspectives about their work. Another purpose of this study is to compare and contrast these perspectives and experiences. By doing so, it is possible to examine how the interconnected economies of the countries and globally standardized technology influence the views and behavior of U.S. and Japanese journalists. Journalists of the three newspapers are confronting a dilemma between their journalistic ideals and increasing economic pressures that limit their activities. They are increasingly feeling insecure about employment in the newspaper industry. They show different attitudes toward employment with their newspapers. Journalists at the U.S. newspaper think of changing careers for better job security, while Japanese journalists seek solutions within the company, rather than leaving. This indicates that U.S. journalists have more freedom to choose, while Japanese journalists are bound to their company partly because of hiring and training practices specific to Japanese newspapers. Journalists have contradictory views about technological development. While they appreciate increased productivity brought by digital technology, they feel their labor has been cheapened partly because of the same technology. Similarities in journalists' experiences beyond newspapers and national borders occur as a result of homogenous impacts of interconnected economies of the two countries and globally standardized technology. However, shared ideas, values and norms specific to the workplace play an important role in determining journalists' perspectives and social behavior. This is why journalists' perspectives and attitudes vary by newspaper. This study concludes by emphasizing the importance of labor studies of newspaper journalists as information providers who are expected to make democracy function. / Committee in charge: Dr. John Russial, Chairperson; Dr. Gabriela Martinez, Member; Dr. Janet Wasko, Member; Dr. Jeffery Hanes, Outside Member

O objetivo desta pesquisa é refletir sobre a organização do trabalho no jornalismo, analisando quando o trabalho é fonte de sofrimento e quando ele é fonte de prazer, a partir da subjetividade dos jornalistas entrevistados. Para tanto, utilizamos a psicodinâmica do trabalho, delineada por Christophe Dejours, como referencial teórico, e entendemos a segurança e a saúde no trabalho como direitos sociais que compõem a cidadania. No estudo do contexto histórico, relacionamos a organização do trabalho e a saúde do trabalhador com a história do jornalismo e suas práticas organizacionais. Fazemos uma pesquisa qualitativa que usa a análise de conteúdo, conforme Bardin. Realizamos 21 entrevistas semiabertas com jornalistas de diferentes gerações, entre 25 e 82 anos de idade, a partir de um roteiro base de 25 perguntas. Os entrevistados dividiram conosco suas memórias e vivências para que analisássemos como se dá a organização do trabalho jornalístico na prática e como são as relações de prazer e sofrimento no trabalho. A escolha dessas pessoas se baseou em uma pesquisa, que considerou o envolvimento profissional, o trabalho por elas realizado, a pluralidade de idades e a experiência em diferentes meios de comunicação jornalísticos. Analisamos o conteúdo do material transcrito a partir de seis categorias temáticas: 1) Direitos trabalhistas, em que analisamos jornada de trabalho, formas de contratação, compensação ou pagamento de horas extras e plantões; 2) Organização do trabalho, em que discutimos a pressão, o ritmo, as relações, as limitações e as rotinas de trabalho; 3) Sofrimento, em que refletimos sobre os sofrimentos, dores e adoecimentos, estresse, assédio moral, álcool e drogas, riscos e violências relacionados ao trabalho; 4) Sentido do trabalho, em que pensamos sobre os sentidos de ser jornalista, a relação trabalho e vida pessoal e o envolvimento com o trabalho; 5) Prazer no trabalho, em que avaliamos o prazer, a satisfação, a criatividade e a autonomia presentes no trabalho do jornalista; 6) Futuro do jornalista, que nos dá pistas para a conclusão deste estudo. Os depoimentos mostram que as pessoas reconhecem situações negativas com a precarização do trabalho, mas ao mesmo tempo declaram o grande envolvimento que têm com a profissão, pois o trabalho dá sentido à vida, e o reconhecimento e o sentido do trabalho podem transformar o sofrimento em prazer. / The aim of this research is to reflect on work organization in the journalistic field, analising how work can be the source of suffering and how it can be the source of pleasure, beginning from the subjectivity of interviewed journalists. As for that, we used psychodynamic at work, going through Christophe Dejours studies as theoritical reference, as we understand the occupational safety and health as social right that surrounds citizenship. In the study of the historical context, we related work organization and worker´s health with the story of journalism and it´s organizational practices. We did a qualitative research which uses the contents analysis, according to Bardin. 21 semi-opened interviews were conductected with journalists from different generations, between 25 and 82 years old, beginning from a script with 25 questions. Interviewers divided with us their memories and experiences in order to analyse how work organization works in practice and how are the relations between pleasure and suffering at work. The choice for picking these professionals was based on a research that considered the professional engagement, the work done by them, the plurality of ages and the experience in different press communication vehicles. We also analysed the contents of the transcription, beginning from six temathical categories: 1) Work Rights, where we analysed work shifts, ways of hiring, overtime, extra payment, on and off duty; 2) Work organization, where we discussed pressure, rhythm, relations, limitations and work routine; 3) Suffering, where we reflected about sufferings, pains, illnesses, stress, moral harassment, alcohol, drugs, risks and violences related to work; 4) Meanings of work, where we considered the meaning of being a journalist, the relation between personal life and involvement with work; 5) Pleasure at work, where we evaluated pleasure, satisfaction, criativity, autonomy, all of them present at journalists job; 6) The future of journalists, which gives us the clue for the conclusion for this study. Testimonials showed that people can recognise negative situations when it comes to a term of undermining work, but at the same time declared a great involvement they have with their profession, as work gives sense to life, and the recognition and meaning of work can change suffering into pleasure.

Notre sujet de thèse porte sur la contribution des journalistes caribéens au processus démocratique à travers le traitement des événements socio-politiques majeurs entre 1989 et 2009. Il s’agit de la tentative du coup d’état de juillet 1990 à Trinidad-et-Tobago et du mouvement social de 2009 en Guadeloupe.Cette étude part d'un état des lieux des concepts de journaliste, de démocratie et de liberté de la presse. Cette thèse vise à interroger le terme « démocratie » et l'éthique des journalistes. Il existe des chartes déontologiques, édictées par la profession des journalistes, qui reprennent les principes démocratiques. Nous avançons donc l'hypothèse selon laquelle les journalistes sont de véritables acteurs du processus démocratique. Garants de la démocratie, ils ont aussi une responsabilité sociale envers les citoyens.Cette recherche vise à analyser les événements socio-politiques majeurs dans les deux territoires entre 1989 et 2009. A travers ces événements, il s'agit de montrer la manière dont les journalistes contribuent au processus démocratique. Notre méthodologie consiste à analyser les articles de presse et les entretiens semi-directifs avec les journalistes pour comprendre comment ils travaillent et comprendre leur concept de liberté de la presse. / The present research deals with the involvement of Caribbean journalists in the emergence of democracy through media coverage of the major socio-political events between 1989 and 2009. It is the attempted coup d’etat in Trinidad and Tobago in July 1990 and the social movement in Guadeloupe in 2009.This study starts by defining concepts such as journalists, democracy and freedom of the press. This thesis aims at examining the term “democracy” and journalists' ethics. There are democratic principles in the code of ethics written by journalists themselves. This leads me to think that journalists are indeed major actors in the democratic process. Indeed, they are the guarantors of democracy because they have a social responsibility towards citizens.This research aims at analyzing the major socio-political events in both territories between 1989 and 2009. Through these events, I would like to show the way journalists contribute to the democratic process. That is why I analyzed the articles of the newspapers and interviews with journalists were conducted, in order to know in detail the way they work and their concept of freedom of the press.

According to reports from Reporters sans frontiers and Freedom House, the freedom of the press has declined during the recent years in the sub-Saharan country Tanzania. Using the human rights reports as an entry point, this study set out to investigate the working conditions for journalists in the capital de facto of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam. An important aim was to dig deeper and show the local and culturally specific conditions. The study supports that the press freedom, as well as the working conditions have declined during the last years for the journalists in Dar es Salaam. However, the study also shows that the new laws and government measures, described by the human rights reports as reducing the press freedom, is not considered by every journalist to be negative. The challenges differ among the corps of journalists, as their values of journalism differs. The greatest denominator among the informants was the high-degree of journalistic interventionism, directed at helping the society. In some cases, this took form as a practice of development journalism. The strong connections to the local community, the country and the religious affiliations are thought to contribute to these values. For journalists in private media, the press freedom was found to be the most acute problem, while for journalists in state-owned media it was economic issues. The press freedom was connected to the perceived job autonomy, and senior journalists and journalists working for international media were found to be more autonomous. Self-censorship was used by many in the private media sector as a tool to avoid both bureaucratic harassment from government, as well as violent repercussions. The main challenges included new restricting laws, economic issues which lead to the practice of brown envelopes, the parliament being located in Dodoma, gender-issues, scared sources and the advancement of social media. Theories and earlier research evolving from the values of journalism and journalism in Africa were used as tools to understand and compare with. The results are based on fieldwork conducted during a period of two months in the beginning of 2019, with qualitative interviews held with journalists in the city of Dar es Salaam.

By virtue of their broadcast licenses, local television stations in the United States are bound to serve in the public interest of their community audiences. As federal regulations of those stations loosen and fewer owners increase their holdings across the country, however, local community needs are subjugated by corporate fiduciary responsibilities. Business practices reveal rampant consolidation of ownership, newsroom job description convergence, skilled human labor replaced by computer automation, and economically-driven downsizings, all in the name of profit. Even so, the people laboring under these conditions are expected to keep their communities informed with democracy- and citizenship-enhancing information. This study uses a critical political economy framework to focus on the labor aspects of working in commercially-run local television newsrooms in the United States. Surveys and interviews with news workers from the 25 largest local television markets highlight the daily challenges of navigating the dichotomy of labor in the space between corporate profiteering and public enlightenment. In addition to their more well-known and well-studied on-air reporter and anchor peers, "behind the scenes" workers and those with newly converged job descriptions also share their news work stories, thus filling a gap in the literature. Corporate capital incentives affect all who gather and disseminate the news. While all of these workers generally strive for high journalistic quality, the pressures of increased workloads and constant deadlines imposed by shrinking news staffs and growing digital media expectations mean journalists have to make craft work compromises in the race to report news faster and first. Owners push experienced news veterans with deep community connections out in favor of younger, cheaper, more tech-savvy workers. Financially beneficial content trumps deep policy investigations. These outcomes not only worry those in the journalistic trenches of local television news, but also potentially deprive the public of the information they seek from these outlets. As local television newsrooms remain the most popular sources of information for Americans, particularly in times of crisis, such outcomes are not in the community's best interest.