This thesis gains an insight into advertising and integrated marketing communications with an exploration of the relationships between advertisers and consumers at the meso level of interface between the two groups. As an initial investigation into advertising and integrated marketing communications and its relationships to consumers’ behaviour, the inquiry develops by exploring an alternative lineage of interpretive consumer research. The two areas of focus emerging from the literature review are the concepts of manufacturing consent (Herman and Chomsky, 2002) as the macro advertiser/sender level of behaviour and the concept of motivational behaviour research (Tadajewski, 2006) as the micro consumer/receiver level of behaviour. The study utilises a mixed methods research design to explore the interface between advertisers and consumers. From the analysis of the commonalites and variances within the data, a mapping of behaviour between the two groups presented a new and unexpected set of interactions. Interactions that reflect the Foundation Premises within the work of Vargo and Lush (2008) by developing an emergent conceptual model.

Are foreign policy officials responsive to policy preferences of the mass media and the public in making their decisions? That question has dogged scholars for decades but there has been little agreement among them on what is the true nature of mass media- and public opinion-foreign policy link. In terms of mass media impact, there are two media theories which dominate the debate. First, the CNN Effect theory claims that, by their nature, the mass media have the power to compel policy officials to adopt their policy preferences. Second, the Manufacturing Consent theory counters with the claim that foreign policy is too serious a matter for officials to yield to mass media demands. Scholars are similarly divided on the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. Lacking in almost all the known studies is an appreciation that foreign policy emerges out of a process involving policy stages. These policy stages have different characteristics. In addition to the nature of those stages in themselves, relationships between policy actors - including the mass media, the public and officials - are different in those stages. Officials tend to react differently at each stage of policy when pressured by the mass media and public opinion. Therefore, in this study, I propose that we will have a better understanding of mass media and public opinion influence on foreign policy officials if we study official responsiveness or sensitivity at the stages of the foreign policy process - policy initiation, policy implementation and policy review. I further argue that official responsiveness to mass media and public opinion depends largely on the stage of policy. For this research, I carried out a case study of Britain's war with Iraq in 2003 to test my theory. Principally, I tried to answer the question: Does foreign policy officials' responsiveness to mass media and public opinion depend on the stage of policy? I found that official response to the mass media and public opinion was not as precise as suggested by the dominant camps in the debate. More importantly, Official response to mass media and public opinion varied in the stages of policy. Specifically, I found that British officials were most responsive to mass media and public opinion at the policy initiation stage, very unresponsive at the implementation stage and even more unresponsive at the policy review stage. As a result of the variations in official responsiveness at the stages, I argue that there is a need to re-evaluate the way we study mass media- and public opinion-foreign policy link. To better understand the impact of the mass media and public opinion on foreign policy, I conclude that we need to examine how policy actors interact at different stages of the foreign policy process.

本研究從勞動觀點出發，檢視台灣媒體組織中的非典型雇用新聞工作者的勞動樣貌，並探討在非典型雇用型態下勞資雙方在生產過程中的互動與關係轉變。非典型雇用新聞工作者則既是受雇於資方的勞工，同時也可視作個人企業。做為勞工，非典型新聞工作者的各項勞動條件幾乎都不如正職工作者；做為個人企業，非典型新聞工作者需獨自面對外在環境變動的風險。正向來看非典型雇用是對於僵化體制的抵抗與反動，脫離組織換取自主性與自由，甚至帶來權力翻轉改變；反向思考則以社會學家Buroway「製造甘願」的概念為基礎，說明非典型新聞工作者對於資方過度剝削的順服，心甘情願參與資方所組織的趕工競賽，透過官僚、科技與價值觀的控制形塑出順服的意識型態。 研究結果依契約型態將新聞媒體產業中的非典型勞動力分為派遣／約聘新聞工作者、自由新聞工作者與獨立／公民記者三種類型，一般非典型雇用新聞工作者勞動條件都比一般正職工作者差，而三種型態的非典型勞動力的契約嚴謹程度會影響到勞動條件與自主性。不同的自主程度會影響到工作者的職業認同感與甘願的機制，派遣與約聘工作者的勞動過程中充滿不甘願的元素但受限於理想與現實卻被迫甘願；自由新聞工作者看似自由自主，但對工作延續性的焦慮也迫使他們落入競爭的遊戲中並自我限縮；獨立與公民記者以無償勞動換取絕對的自主權，然而要在眾多論述中取得框架的定義權，只能以自我剝削換取主流與個人媒體的轉引與跟進，勞動所產生的價值與實際付出不成比例。 本研究建議未來新聞產業界建立良好的新聞鑑價制度，並大力推行公民委製新聞平台，藉此提升台灣新聞產業勞動者的勞動條件與新聞產出品質。 / This research examined the labor of atypical employed journalists in the news industry in Taiwan, discussing the relationship changing between the capitalist and the labor during the production process. Atypical employed journalists are on the one hand the temporary workers who suffer the worse labor condition than permanent employees. On the other hand, they viewed themselves as self enterprise that faced external risks alone. Positive speaking, atypical employment was the resistance of traditional rigid discourse. For the sake of freedom and autonomy, workers leaved organizations and anticipated power reversal. Negatively, based on Buroway’s concept of “manufacturing consent,” this study illustrated how atypical employees submitted to the capitalist’s over-exploitation, willing to making out organized by the capital through the ideology formed by bureaucracy, technology and value control. The results revealed that atypical employed journalists were separated into three kinds: dispatched/contract workers, freelancers and independent/citizen journalists. Generally speaking, those temporary workers’ the labor condition were worse that permanent employees and the type of contracts would affect their working condition and autonomy. Different degree of autonomy could therefore inference occupational identity and consent. Dispatched and contract workers were forced to make consent with the capitalists due to ideal and reality; freelancers seemed to enjoy the freedom and autonomy, but the anxiety to job sustainability forced them to join the competitive game and self-constraint; independent and citizen journalists’ free labor guaranteed the absolute autonomy, but they had to work hard and even self-exploit in order to take advantage of frame disputes in both main stream and personal media. The value conducted during the labor process and the effort they made were out of proportion. This study suggested establishing complete news valuation system, and supporting community-funded reporting to upgrade the labor condition and report quality in the news industry in Taiwan.

Does the individual really matter in the post-modern world, brimming with countless signs and signifiers? My main objective in this writing is to demonstrate how this happens in Verhoeven's films, exploring his central themes and subtext and doing what science fiction does: hold a mirror up to the contemporary world and critique it, asking whether our species' current trajectory is beneficial or hazardous.; Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is a polarizing figure. Although many of his American made films have received considerable praise and financial success, he has been lambasted on countless occasions for his gratuitous use of sex, violence, and contentious symbolism--1995s Showgirls was overwhelmingly dubbed the worst film of all time and 1997s Starship Troopers earned him a reputation as a fascist. Regardless of the controversy surrounding him, his science fiction films are a move beyond the conventions of the big blockbuster science fiction films of the 1980s (E.T. and the Star Wars trilogy are prime examples), revealing a deeper exploration of both sociopolitical issues and the human condition. Much like the novels of Philip K. Dick (and Verhoeven's 1990 film Total Recall--an adaptation of a Dick short story), Verhoeven's science fiction work explores worlds where paranoia is a constant and determining whether an individual maintains any liberty is regularly questionable. In this thesis I am basically exploring issues regarding power. Although I barely bring up the term power in it, I feel it is central. Power is an ambiguous term; are we discussing physical power, state power, objective power, subjective power, or any of the other possible manifestations of the word? The original Anglo-French version of power means "to be able," asking whether it is possible for one to do something. In relation to Verhoeven's science fiction work each demonstrates the limitations placed upon an individual's autonomy, asking are the protagonists capable of independent agency or rather just environmental constructs reflecting the myriad influences surrounding them.