Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-160). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees’ orientations to belonging and identity. It is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted among asylum seekers/refugees residing in Scotland between 2006 and 2008 and on a media monitoring of a number of UK newspapers. The interviews were analysed for interviewees’ orientations to feelings of belonging and identity with the UK, Scotland and homelands. They were also analysed for interviewees’ perceptions (beliefs and understandings) of newspapers’ reporting of asylum and importance to their sense of national belonging and national identity forming. The monitoring provided the context of newspapers’ reporting of asylum at the time of interviews. It enabled a small-scale examination of media content with reference to interviewees’ perceptions. The thesis explores two assumptions. Firstly, asylum seekers/refugees’ national belonging and national identity formations are complex and contingent upon their everyday ‘lived’ experiences. Secondly, asylum seekers/refugees’ belonging and identity formations, as social processes of citizenship, cannot be understood in isolation from the high visibility of the asylum issue in UK media. As an empirical study, therefore, its findings are deployed to critique policymaking, theoretical and media accounts of non-British citizens’ forms of belonging to, and identification with the British ‘nation’. It is suggested that, in addition to policymaking, there are other social circumstances that would facilitate ethnic minority migrants’ national belonging and national identity formations. These factors do not only account for the prioritising of Scottishness over Britishness, but also migrants’ ‘hyphenated’ identities. This thesis will therefore provide evidence suggesting that non-citizens (ethnic minorities), have their own meanings and agency of orientating to a feeling of national belonging and national identity that is nuanced and contingent on their experiences. The thesis does not aim to establish media causality. However, it highlights the fact that newspaper coverage can evoke responses from marginalised groups and provide the context from which identities are narrated and mobilised. The thesis will improve our understanding of the practices, meanings and contestations of belonging and identity that is grounded in the ‘lived’ experiences of noncitizens. This sociological dimension to ethnic minorities’ citizenship forming is not only poorly understood, but has been dominated by theoretical and policymaking accounts in the contemporary state.

There is consensus in media scholarship that in the best conditions, the media can play fundamental roles as institutions of the public sphere in both established and fledgling democracies. This study applies the critical political economy of the media approach to explore the manner in which the mainstream press in Zimbabwe ‘mediates’ the country’s postcolonial transition through coverage of political contests and political debate. It assumes that how the press frames these pivotal features of democracy is a significant pointer to its role in relation to the public sphere. While on the one level examining patterns of media framing of elections in the selected six newspapers over a period spanning over two decades, on the other level the study explores the relationship between the press and centres of political and economic power in the transition. This is done with a view to establishing the role and influence of these relations on media functions. What emerges from this study is that both the state and fractions of capital informed the manner in which the press ‘mediated’ Zimbabwe’s transition. The state was particularly the most influential power centre which, as its legitimacy waned after the first decade of independence, adopted authoritarian and predatory tendencies with the effect of polarising media along highly partisan forms of ‘oppositional’ and ‘patriotic’ journalism. Where nodes of critical-analytical journalism appeared, as did ‘independent nationalist’ journalism in 2000, they were nipped in the bud by unrelenting political and economic constraints. The study’s major finding is that restrictive media policies aimed at constructing Zanu PF hegemony through the press, as well as pressures from fractions of capital and sections of civil society vying for control of state, combined to seriously compromise the press’s mediation of the political contestation in the transition. It also notes the press’s institutional inability to actively assert its powers of agency against structural constraints, and explains this as a partial inheritance from lethargic Rhodesian institutions such as the Rhodesia Guild of Journalists. Overall, the thesis argues that to nurture a media system that approximates the ideal of a multi-layered and differentiated public sphere which best serves an array of citizens’ interests, Zimbabwe would need radical reforms at the levels of media policy and media practice.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 186 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until September 1, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-125)

In the construction of their media infrastructure, most of the Arab countries are spending millions of dollars on US and Western contracts. Regarded as one of the fastest growing and dynamic markets for media technologies in the world, the region may lack a clear media policy as a guideline to shed light upon the mega million investments on the industry. Some critics suggest that the advanced media technologies provided to the Arab world are mostly initiated by Western sales/marketing strategy rather than Middle Eastern choice and initiative. They see the process as a reaction to the Western media practices, rather than a pre-planned policy. This study is directed toward constructing a critical understanding of the development, and current status, of media policy and infrastructure in the Arab world. Being undertaken as the basis of a Ph. D. thesis in an inter-disciplinary department, the research is informed by a strong inter-disciplinary perspective, but with a clear political economy emphasis. The study seeks to examine whether there is a clear media policy in the Arab world, either at a national or regional level. Within this context, ARABSAT, perhaps the most popular media system in the Arab world, constitutes a specific case study. Inaugurated in 1985, the system has been the subject of extensive debate, sometimes heatedly discussing its pros and cons. Its long period of operation, the extensive contribution of most Arab/Muslim countries in the process of the creation and operation of ARABSAT, as well as the footprint coverage of the system including the Middle East, most parts of Asia, the Indian subcontinent and some parts of Europe, make the contribution of ARABSAT within the Middle East media environment of particular interest. Now, nearly 15 years after the advent of ARABSAT, established and supported by the overwhelming majority of the Arab states, a critical assessment of the system in terms of policy/strategy is timely.

Since the early 1990s, regulators in the UK and in many other countries have faced increasing pressure from media industry participants to liberalise media and cross-media ownership restrictions. Many countries, including the UK, have responded to this pressure by amending their domestic legislative frameworks in such ways as to remove at least some restrictions which had previously been established in order to protect pluralism. The main aim for this study has been to assess the 'economic' case in favour of de-regulating media and cross-media ownership in the UK. The principal method of investigation has been to analyse the relationship between, on the one hand, the size and vertical or diagonal structure of a selection of UK media firms and, on the other, their recent economic performance. Findings suggest that, although factors other than size will affect performance, there is generally a strong and positive correlation between the market share and the operating profitability of firms who are involved in either television or radio broadcasting, or national newspaper publishing. This correlation reflects efficiency gains through economies of scale and scope and, also, revenue advantages arising from increased market power. On the other hand, there is little evidence that previous monomedia ownership restrictions represented a threat to the economic viability of the industry or that developments in the late 1990s have introduced significant 'new' gains for enlarged monomedia enterprises. Nor is there evidence that de-regulation of monomedia restrictions would have any positive impact on the exports performance of traditional UK media firms. With regard to diagonal expansion, there is no evidence that cross-ownership between radio and television or between television and national newspapers yields important economic benefits. This thesis would argue that, taken as a whole, the de-regulation of UK media ownership in 1996 has delivered relatively few enhancements to the economic efficiency or prospects of the UK media industry while, at the same time, has engendered a considerable welfare loss through lower safeguards for pluralism. This outcome reflects serious systemic problems at the national UK level in the policymaking mechanism which is supposed to curb the political influence of media owners. This study finds that the scope - via a shift in responsibility for policy-formulation to the transnational European level - for overcoming such problems will be limited, not least because the protection of pluralism remains outside the official competence of the European Commission.

The broadcasting sector is a subject of continual debate in modern society. One of the oldest segments of the rapidly-evolving information technology and communications industry, it is still the most content rich and the most popular. Australians who watch television spend more time doing so than doing any other leisure activity – except those who fish (ABS 1998). Broadcasting is highly pervasive. Some kind of service is available and used in every Australian household. Everyone is an expert, everyone has an opinion. Since the Federal Government decided to allow the introduction of domestic subscription television in 1992, pay television has been broadly dismissed by its media rivals as being unpopular, unprofitable and unnecessary. In turn, the Australian pay television industry considers that it is over-regulated, especially compared to the free-to-air sector, and that much of this regulation severely constrains its ability to grow its subscriber base. This thesis examines whether the Australian subscription television industry has achieved the aims set for it by the legislators in 1992 – that is, whether it has ‘met its promise’. To achieve this, the thesis first identifies the ‘promises’ of an Australian subscription television industry. In assessing whether the industry has met its promise, the thesis considers various aspects of the industry, including what the industry has needed to do to make itself profitable and ensure its longevity and the environment within which the industry operates. The thesis examines the role that content plays in attracting subscribers and considers whether minimal content regulation has resulted in a paucity of local content on subscription television in Australia. The thesis draws on existing academic literature, government publications, information released by the subscription television industry itself and interviews conducted in the course of the project with the Australian subscription television sector. It also uses and builds on ratings data to examine the programs and channels that are offered by Australian pay television services. In concluding, this thesis makes an assessment of whether the Australian pay television industry has met its promise.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-215). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris II, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 1115-1140). Also issued in print.