A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication Science at the University Of Zululand, South Africa, 2017 / This study examines the function and purpose of public television broadcasters across two countries (South Africa and Nigeria) in order to highlight best practices in public broadcasting for the benefit of the public (who ought to be the target audience). The original idea of public broadcasting was aimed at informing the public about the truth without commercial or political provocation and influence. This study examines whether society has come to accept inappropriate broadcasting practices because of prolonged exposure to these practices. When incorrect behaviour is practised continually over a prolonged period, it becomes accepted as normal in society and this is referred to as normalcy. In this regard, the study was further aimed at investigating and comparing the attitude of viewers towards commercial advertising interruptions during public television viewing time. Literature review within this study also focused on factors which influence viewer rating of public television in Nigeria and South African which ought to be informative and educational while providing suitable entertainment. This study employed a survey method and was conducted among the inhabitants of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Ibadan, South-West, Nigeria. The study was interesting in that viewers’ attitudes across the two countries differed significantly. Generally, South African TV viewers were more accommodating with regards to accepting commercial interruptions during viewing time. On the other hand, Nigerian TV viewers felt that commercial interruptions are disturbances and must not be included in the programmes of public television. The study confirmed that the motives of viewing public TV and behaviour of viewers during the commercial interruptions on the programmes of public TV stations have greatly influenced the attitudes of viewers towards commercial interruptions. Finally, the study offers recommendations guidelines in areas that need more attention based on findings of the study. The study also indicates the limitations of the investigation and provides suggestions for future research.

Thesis (M.J.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-145). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 356-367).

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 / The  violence,  destruction  and  death  of  more  than  1  200  people  resulting  from   the  highly  disputed  2007  election  results  in  Kenya  was  a  considerable  watershed   moment.  It  exposed  the  deep  fragmentation  within  the  nation-­‐state  and  became   a  significant  fissure  for  the  simmering  tensions  among  the  42  “tribes”  of  Kenya.   In  the  media-­‐scape,  these  events  evinced  the  elitist  and  tribal  hegemony  in  media   ownership  and  revealed,  more  than  ever  before,  that  certain  voices  and   narratives  were  privileged  over  others.  These  events  also  unmasked  recurrent   motifs,  which  illuminated  the  stranglehold  that  the  political,  media  and  economic   elites  wielded  over  media  instruments  and  platforms,  for  their  own  benefit.       This  study  aims  to  explore  the  extent  to  which  active  user-­‐generated  content  in   the  digital  media  space  can  intervene  in,  and  disrupt,  some  of  these  exclusionary   practices  in  the  public  service  mediascape,  to  potentially  inspire  a  re-­‐imagination   in  this  space  for  nation  building  in  Kenya.  It  is  premised  on  a  participatory  action   research  approach  that  draws  on  theoretical  discourse  on  nationalism  and   nation  building,  as  this  is  the  field  from  which  the  study’s  key  problems  stem  and   where  conceptual  discourses  on  digital  media  converge.  The  study  also  draws  on   participatory  discourses  in  the  media,  as  these  potentially  present  an   emancipatory  platform  for  those  on  the  margins  of  the  hegemonic  centres.  Here   it  mainly  draws  on  Bhabha’s  cultural  difference  theory,  Billig’s  banal   nationalisms,  Jenkins’  ideas  on  convergence  culture,  Carpentier’s  thoughts  on   maximalist  media  participation  and  Thumim’s  assertions  on  self-­‐representation   in  the  digital  space.     The  study  also  hinges  on  the  practice-­‐informed  pilot  project  titled  Utaifa   Mashinani  Masimulizi  ya  Ukenya  (UMMU)  digital  narratives,  co-­‐created  by  the   researcher  together  with  the  Abakuria  (the  Kuria  people)  of  Kenya.  This  is  a   community  marginally  represented  in  the  public  service  broadcasting-­‐scape  in   Kenya  and  a  people  whose  narrative  discourse  is  seldom  present  in  the  public   sphere.     The  study  argues  that  broadcast  content  –  not  just  in  Kenya  but  also  in  Africa  –   on  User  Generated  Content  (UGC)  for  broadcasting  predominantly  focuses  on   passive  forms  of  UGC  rather  than  Active  User  Generated  Content  (AUGC)  -­‐  a  term   coined  in  this  study  to  refer  to  user-­‐generated  content  that  entails  a  more   meaningful,  emancipatory  and  empowering  form  of  participation  amongst  those   traditionally  referred  to  as  consumers  of  broadcast  content.  It  contends  that   although  many  contemporary  television  broadcasters  around  the  world  continue   to  create  a  perception  of  increasing  and  robust  audience  participation  in   televised  content,  in  Kenya  this  is  certainly  not  the  case.  It  argues  that  significant   forms  of  current  participation  on  television  are  illusionary,  minimalist  and  futile,   as  they  largely  entrench  television’s  balance  of  power  among  the  media  elites.   Ordinary  people  are  often  ‘invited’  to  participate  in  broadcasting,  but  their  entry   point  into  these  narratives  tends  to  be  limited  to  accessing  already-­‐completed   narratives  and  engaging  in  what  constitutes  token  participation,  with  minimal,   and  in  most  cases,  no  impact  on  the  story,  its  conception,  distribution  and  socio-­‐ economic  benefits.       Drawing  on  insights  from  the  UMMU  project,  the  study  proposes  that  AUGC  can   potentially  disrupt  some  of  the  existing  tropes  and  motifs  in  the  Public  Service   Mediascape  opening  up  spaces  for  multiple  and  diverse  voices  and  narratives  in   Kenya.  This  potentially  enables  active  participation  from  constituencies  that   have  traditionally  been  on  the  margins  of  the  Kenyan  nation-­‐state  to  partake  in   the  nation  building  process. / XL2018

Utilizing published and unpublished sources and working with interviews of a number of participants this thesis examines the evolution of the political influences that stimulated the Australian federal government's policy decisions on public broadcasting. The background to the federal government's original involvement in broadcasting in the early years of the twentieth century is investigated to put later developments into a broader perspective. Comparisons are also drawn with progress in other comparable Western countries to highlight the unique nature of the Australian model. Since broadcasting was never an issue, like health and education, which could capture votes from the electorate as a whole, government policy was driven by pressure from particular special interest groups as their influence waxed and waned and calls from individual electorates, when the interest was strong and the seat was marginal. The government decisions that resulted from this situation were ad hoc and expedient and no really coherent policy was ever implemented. This thesis examines the forces that led to the restriction in the expansion of broadcasting services after World War 2 and to the change in the influence of pressure groups in the 1960s which led to the establishment of FM and public broadcasting in the 1970s. A detailed exploration of particular interests, such as the Public Broadcasting Association of Australia, educational broadcasters and ethnic broadcasters shows how the influence of different groups changed over time. Once public broadcasting was established the main concern of both broadcasters and government was to keep the sector economically viable. A detailed analysis is provided of how the funding arrangements altered as the sector grew. There were always some idealists who saw public broadcasting as a vehicle for putting forward their own point of view. But, this thesis concludes that, by the early 1990s, apart from its role as regulator, which was the same for commercial broadcasting, government policy on public broadcasting was largely driven by the fact that minimal funding for the sector enabled government to ensure that essential non-commercially viable broadcasting services that would be far more expensive for the government to provide itself, were able to continue. / PhD Doctorate

Extended Essays (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (School of Communication) / Simon Fraser University. Senior supervisor : Dr. Catherine Murray. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Zugl.: Mainz, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy / The thesis critically analyses the potential of digital technologies – in particular, digital terrestrial television – to enable substantive diversity of programming in a public service broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The thesis deploys critical political economy of the media approaches. These approaches argue for a social constructivist approach to technology and not a celebratory determinist approach, which confuses the potential of technology with what actually happens in ‘real world’, contested policy contexts. The research uses qualitative methodologies, specifically thematic analyses of policy texts and in-depth interviews with policy actors and informants. Ultimately, the thesis finds that the changing political context in South Africa, which has moved away from participatory policy making processes, has resulted in missed opportunities to harness the digital potential to diversify programming. The thesis finds that with the government’s deployment of more authoritarian ‘statist’ and market-orientated policies, the policy space has narrowed, ultimately limiting the possibilities for the delivery of substantive diversity of content and programming. Finally, the thesis finds that to begin to reverse these trends in the digital, multi-channel environment, the government needs to (re)commit to consultative policy making processes and to regulation and public funding in the public interest. / XL2018

Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-13T14:10:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 limites_do_publico_e_privado_.pdf: 3488526 bytes, checksum: d78a06c70776fdef8723c94648f204d5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-17 / The proposal of this study is to reflect on how public television is perceived by its viewers and the cultural content it is expected to provide. It endeavors to explore the cultural imagination of this mass media segment, by examining its ideal format, the pivotal role it plays and the value attributed to it. In an effort to consolidate these perceptions the study also attempts to evaluate the perceived boundaries that separate the public and private spheres of this section of the mass media landscape, by analyzing the extent to which the sale of private advertising, in an effort to provide public television with financial sustainability, can at the same time provoke ethical concerns among the citizen-viewers. More specifically it aspires to study how the citizen-viewer understands and acknowledges the different forms of financing that are available for a public television system. Then based on qualitative research, the ethical and esthetic questions surrounding Brazilian public television are analyzed by investigating whether or not this society s concept of ideal public television can include advertising / O trabalho propõe-se a refletir sobre como a TV pública é percebida por seu telespectador e seu esperado conteúdo cultural. Busca-se explorar o imaginário cultural deste espaço midiático, sua forma ideal, seu papel e o valor a ele atribuído. Consubstanciando tal entendimento, procura-se ainda avaliar as fronteiras percebidas entre as esferas públicas e privadas nesta paisagem midiática. Pretende-se analisar em que medida a venda de espaços publicitários à iniciativa privada, na estratégia de sustentabilidade financeira da TV pública, pode suscitar preocupações éticas no público-cidadão. Mais especificamente, aspirou-se estudar como o público-cidadão entende e acolhe as diferentes formas de financiamento de um sistema publico de televisão. Com base em pesquisa qualitativa, a autora faz um ensaio sobre questões éticas e estéticas acerca da televisão pública no Brasil, investigando se a concepção de TV pública ideal da sociedade comporta a publicidade

Federal funding has been a frequent political issue for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The corporation has come under the threat of being defunded many times since its inception. Those calls have been renewed with the election of President Donald Trump. The CPB defends its existence by citing an inability of the commercial broadcasting market to produce content for certain demographics such as minorities and children. Public media’s opponents believe the opposite is true. This thesis critically examines the discourse of the CPB for appeals to fear that may be exuded as a result of existing in a state of frequent funding threat. A historical background is also established showing how public media in the United States exists as part of a broadcasting system that has been dominated by commercial interests, and how those commercial interests have been responsible for stifling non-profit and educational broadcasting in the country.