As institutional and professional journalism faces increasing uncertainty about its financial security and social influence, it is also being challenged by emerging forms of networked journalism that rely on open, network-based flows of information. In 2010, one of those networked groups, WikiLeaks, rose to prominence through a series of large, high-profile leaks of government information. Drawing on the concepts of paradigm repair and professional boundary work, this study examined the way numerous professional news organizations portrayed WikiLeaks as being beyond the bounds of professional journalism. Through a textual analysis of discourse about WikiLeaks from the group’s inception in 2006 through early 2011, the study found that the American professional news media depicted WikiLeaks as unreliable, unstable deviants who maliciously and indiscriminately released information rather than properly performing journalism. The discourse portrayed WikiLeaks as being outside journalism’s professional norms in four primary areas: institutionality, reporter-source relationships, original reporting, and objectivity. In doing so, professional journalists defended those domains against WikiLeaks’ networked alternative, reasserting their own social value and authority by arguing for the superiority of their professional journalistic model. Discourse from professional media criticism, conservative and liberal alternative news media, and European journalism was also examined, using the response to WikiLeaks to help form a a map of several areas of the journalistic sphere in terms of their adherence to the paradigmatic tenets of professional journalism. The WikiLeaks case provides a useful guide for evaluating future interactions between professional and networked journalism, particularly professional journalism’s evolving self-definition vis-à-vis its emerging networked counterpart. / text

Assurance of corporate sustainability reports relies on the idea of a third-party assuror who is independent and objective. The assurance approaches typically used by accountancy companies have been developed over many years and are supported by internal as well as external standards. With the help of these standards, the assuror provides credibility to the public statements of the companies through a thorough checking of statements, data and supporting systems. However, the orthodox approach overlooks or neglects the many paradoxes and dilemmas that are the daily experience of most assurors, e.g. what it means to be independent and objective while at the same time trying to develop a relation with the client. There has also been criticism of assurance, as currently practiced, as being too rigid, too predictable and providing too few benefits to the companies assured. In this thesis, the author explores why and how his own assurance practice differs from the more orthodox approach. This has led to the description of an alternative approach to assurance, called the ‘artist’ approach that takes the ethical dilemmas and paradoxes into account. The approach has been developed and described on the basis of the author’s own experiences using a critically reflexive methodology. The methodology builds on personal narratives and iterative feedback from fellow researchers and supervisors. The development of the ‘artist’ approach is based on: 1) a critical investigation into the idea of ‘compromise’, which leads to an alternative way of thinking about the practice of assurance; 2) a critical investigation into notions of trust and distrust, and power relations, and the effect of these on assurance work; and 3) a concept of ‘stumbling together’, which is built on relationality and ‘essential references’, where the assuror and the assuree are mutually exploring the territory. In the ‘artist’ approach, the values of independence and objectivity are compromised. The assuror actively strives to build personal trust based (at least in part) on technical kinship. Through this trust the power dynamics of the ‘insider’ and the ‘outsider’ are contained; indeed, the notion of ‘insider/outsider’ is forgotten in the moment. Independence has turned into interdependence, and objectivity into mutual engagement, where both assuror and assuree together might discover new issues not known to either of them before. In the orthodox approach, the assuree is ‘called to account’, whilst in the artist approach, the assuree is invited to ‘give an account’. This process of collaborative exploration allows the potential for radical new discoveries, for both assuror and assuree. The ‘artist’ approach as described here has affinities with complex responsive processes of relating as explained by Stacey. In the ‘artist’ approach, the craftsman approach is always paradoxically present at the same time, and the approach makes use of the same tools and the same framework as the craftsman approach. A wider understanding and application of the ‘artist’ approach can potentially lead to significant changes in the way assurors act, and hopefully to assurance results that are more relevant and useful.

Abstract Title: Wikipedia as a source? Is it accepted in the studies of Media and Communications at Uppsala University? (Wikipedia som källa? Är det accepterat vid studier i ämnet medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap vid Uppsala universitet?) Number of pages: 38 (39 including enclosures) Author: Susanna Salomon Tutor: Else Nygren Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Autumn 2007 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/ Aim: The purpose is to study whether or not the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia is an accepted source when a student writes a paper in Media and Communications at Uppsala University Material/ Method: Qualitative research method based on interviews with teachers and on litterature. Main results: The study shows that there is no common view within the faculty whether or not Wikipedia could be used as a source when writing a paper in Media and Communications. Some accept it, others do not. The results show that the teachers of this subject at Uppsala University have not yet decided upon how to adjust to the new large information bank wich is Wikipedia. Keywords: Wikipedia, Uppsala University, sources, reliability, objectivity, collective intelligence, the Internet

The Master paper consists of introduction and two parts: a) the singularities of an alternation of the pupils‘ evaluation in the context of the learning paradigm; b) the investigation of the ruling singularities of parents and teachers into the evaluation of the pupils. The conclusions and the recommendations for the teachers and parents are provided in the end of the paper. In the primary school on the basis of the humanistic ideas the grading evaluation was rejected. Further it was made according to the individual progress evaluation the criteria of which might have been not completely clear to parents as well as it might raise unclearness to the teachers. The negative ruling possibility might possibly become higher because of the unclearness in the evaluation of the pupils‘ progress. Therefore, the question turns out: which of the ruling singularities of parents and teachers (positive, neutral or negative) are oriented towards the basic changes of the students‘ progress evaluation? The question and search for the answer is the problematic basis of this Master‘s work. Goal of the analysis: to analyze the ruling singularities of parents and teachers of the primary school towards the evaluation of the pupils by grading and towards the idiographic way of evaluation. The fundamental goals of the work: to clarify the impact of the nature of the ruling singularities of parents and teachers upon the progress and the achievement evaluation system in the primary school regarding the... [to full text]

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Purpose: Our purpose is to investigate if the documentation of an internalaudit department at banks reflects a shift towards more consultingactivities, and how this potential change in the internal audit doc-umentation can be explained. Background: Previous research indicates that internal audit has developed fromits traditional assurance activities to include more consulting ac-tivities such as risk management assistance and corporate govern-ance support. Some researches argue that this development canhave a negative impact on internal auditor independence. Howev-er, there is a lack of research in this area using documentation andcontent analysis of internal audit reports. Method: In this study, we have done qualitative content analysis of internaldocuments collected from the period 2004-2013. These docu-ments are analyzed using a coding scheme based on previous re-search. Conclusion: By qualitatively analysing the activities reported we find that thedocumentation reflects a shift, over time, towards more activitiesthat we classified as consulting. We argue that this can mainly beexplained by coercive and normative isomorphism; for example,regulatory pressures and influences from the Institute of InternalAuditors. We also argue that internal auditing might benefit froma more consistent view of the role.

This study attempted to make releveant connections between the marginalization theory posited by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky and Indiana news media coverage of the 1993 Gay, Lesbian and Bi-Sexual March on Washington. To date, Herman and Chomsky's work has looked at the marginalization of political or racial minorities. This study looked at how the elements of marginalization, the perpetuation of stereotypes and the complete annihilation of thought or consideration of the minority group, as seen regarding gay and lesbian people in America. Further, the theory guided the study's content analysis of Indiana news media coverage of the 1993 Gay, Lesbian and Bi-Sexual March on Washington. Taking the form of a case study, the contextual basis for the content analysis was provided by an interview with Gregory Adams, media co-chair for the march.Indiana coverage of the march in The Indianapolis Star was content analyzed sentence-by-sentence, while the same coverage was analyzed sentence-by-sentence from stories broadcast on WISH-TV, Channel 8 in Indianapolis. In addition, media images from the March broadcast by WISH-TV, Channel 8 in Indianapolis were also content analyzed video cut-by-cut.The study found gay and lesbian people were marginalized in the text of the Indiana news media coverage. The study also found that the marginalization of gay and lesbian people in the coverage was consistent among the three media types measured (newspaper text, television text and television images). / Department of Journalism

The Michael Fay conflict in 1994 provided an opportunity to use Singapore as a subject for mass communication research.Three prominent U.S. newspapers, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, were chosen for content analysis of their coverage of Singaporean news eight months before, six months during and eight months after the Fay trial proceedings. The amount of news space devoted to Singaporean news ray the three newspapers during the three periods was also studied.The objective of the study was to determine if the coverage of Singaporean news by U.S. newspapers changed as a result of the Fay case.Results of the study showed that U.S. newspapers provided a negative coverage of Singaporean news as a result of the Fay controversy. In terms of news space alloted to Singaporean news, the New York Times remained fairly constant throughout the three periods. The Los Angeles Times first decreased its coverage during the trial proceedings, but expanded its coverage after the case ended. Conversely, the Chicago Tribune increased its coverage of Singaporean news during the case, but its coverage dwindled with the conclusion of the case. / Department of Journalism

Contemporary researches on news coverage of Persian Gulf Wars have shown many controversial results in examining how U.S. newspapers covered war events during the wartime. This study examined the coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom by the newspapers of the United States, Britain, and Saudi Arabia.Three prominent newspapers, the New York Times, the Times of London and Arab News, were selected for content analysis of their coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom between March 20 and May 1, 2003. The percentage breakdown of positive, negative and neutral paragraphs coded from composite two weeks of publications by all three newspapers was studied.The goal of the study was to determine if the coverage of the 2003 Iraq war by the New York Times and the Times of London were more favorable than that Arab News. The Arab News was used as a basis for comparison of American and British newspapers for this study.The results of the study showed that the three newspapers covered the Operation of Iraqi Freedom in a neutral manner.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306However, the Times of London treated the Iraq war coverage with more positive news rather than the New York Times and Arab News did, respectively. On the other hand, Arab News appeared to have devoted the lowest favorable news stories after the Times of London. / Department of Journalism

The central contention of this thesis is that an increase in image-focused or pseudo-event-focused hyperlinked-headlines is occurring on online news sites. This central contention contains at least three implications. First, holding that the newspaper is the epitome of traditional journalism, a crisis in the news industry is underway. The crisis began as a result of newspapers’ financial challenges posed by electronic media, but the growth of online news sites has accelerated and worsened conditions. Second, as a result of this dire financial situation, news outlets, collectively, are shifting focus from traditional journalism’s concept of news to a 1830s-era Penny Press sensationalism style, marked by human-interest pieces, entertainment fluff and celebrity gossip. Third, news is shifting away from the ironic reporting method and theory of detached observer to a more personally connected style of narrative storytelling, which, together with the aforementioned implications, signifies a cyclical cycle and consequential return to the colonial roots of the American press and its definition of news. / The evolving crisis in the American news system -- Literature review of related topics -- Methodology -- Results : the news shift from event to image-based -- Discussion, limitations and recommendations for further study. / Department of Telecommunications