Academic literature on the topic 'P990 Mass Communications and Documentation not elsewhere classified'

In this thesis I explore the role and significance of editorial illustration, developed in printed publications and evolving within online publishing structures. Editorial illustration has a long tradition of illustrating stories in news publications, but I argue that in current online news websites its particular role has all but failed. Online publishing has become the driving force within editorial publishing and this raises the question whether, and how, editorial illustration can continue to be a successful constituent in an online publishing environment? I argue that the continuation of editorial illustration lies within digitally native narrative forms, from online interactive documentaries, game-based storytelling, data-visualisation to memes: viral images spread through social media. Within these forms the significance and agency of illustration is not only clearly present but evolving, except here illustration is interwoven with the story. I argue that these forms of illustration, as well as printed illustration, are based on the same conceptual model and articulate editorial illustration’s inherent attributes. I propose a constellation of four attributes (manifestation, translation, reflection, and engagement) that together give rise to the key quality that illustration offers to the reader, deliberation. Illustration should not be understood as a separate artifact, positioned next to a text, but as a multimodal practice, always related to a story, enabled by the specific qualities of its contextualizing medium. As practice-led research, the thesis explores this proposition in practice and theory within printed and online forms of editorial illustration and in relation to online media technologies and material properties. Central is the development of a potential method of online editorial illustration that I call data driven illustration, a formation employing the material and semiotic expressive potential of live data and code. The research draws primarily from the ideas of media materiality (Hayles, Kittler, Manovich), but in doing so is supplemented with other relevant theories found in semiotics (Barthes, Hayles, Kress and van Leeuwen) and audience reception (Hall). This interdisciplinary approach is applied to the field of illustration through a historical study of wood-engraved news illustration in the Illustrated London News; through my own practice as an illustrator, in this case, work undertaken for the NRC newspaper; and explorations of various examples of online illustration. This thesis offers a first step in constructing a framework for editorial illustration, to move beyond the print paradigm and provide a language through which to explore illustration as an emergent practice.

This thesis examines the potential power of internet users to use the internet in the conduct of their everyday lives by discussing the impact of state and non-state actors on cyberspace. The debate about ‘who controls the internet?’ has avoided the question of the power of internet users, which is needed to understand the character of cyberspace. Theoretical debates identify the overwhelmingly territorial nature of cyber governance through nationally developed and enforced legislation, which is in direct opposition to the power of transnational ICTs. This thesis contributes to this theoretical debate through the use of the concepts of alternative and radical media, which are usually categorised as anti-establishment resistance strategies. I use Michel de Certeau’s notion of the heterological practice of everyday life to develop a perspective on the power of the powerless on the internet. I also adopt Franklin’s theoretical stance on the relations between state, non-state, and social actors, which is influenced by de Certeau’s ideas about the plurality of space. In order to illustrate this argument, I discuss the Korean ‘cyber asylum seeker’ phenomenon, which arose when Korean internet users migrated from local web portals to global corporations, such as Google and YouTube, who had refused to comply with the restrictions that the Korean government policies imposed on the local internet. This development allowed Korea cyber asylum seekers to become power holders, thus expanding the reach of Korean cyberspace. The Korean cyber asylum phenomenon was a result of both the Korean government’s cyber intervention following the 2008 Candlelight protest and Korean web portals’ compliance. I therefore understand the Korean cyber asylum seeker phenomenon from the perspective of a tripartite inter-relationship between the Korean government, the web portals, and internet users. This tripartite approach sheds new light on current debates about the questions: ‘Who controls the internet’, ‘Why is it controlled?’ and ‘How is it controlled?’ by adding the question, ‘What other groups have had an impact on power formations in cyberspace?’ My field research points to the significance of internet user mobility for a more complete understanding of the effect of the Korean government and the web portals on the expansion of Korean cyberspace. The research project is based on an analysis of the Korean government’s internet policy, business reports of Korean web portals, and interviews with officials from government bodies, the Korean internet industry, activists, citizens and online community members, as well as online community observation.

This research examines diasporic transformations and the construction of belongings through new technologies of communication by looking at young Kurdish diasporas in Sweden and the UK. It argues that the diaspora concept needs to be reconceptualised in light of digital information and communication technologies and in relation to the imagined community. Empirical evidence from Kurdish diasporas has drawn attention to some missing gaps in the literature. The research asks what it means to be a Kurd in diaspora and what role new media and online communities have in the renegotiation and construction of belongings. By engaging with post-colonial and feminist studies, I unpick fixed categories of identity, belongings and home, and I argue for performativities of those belongings. Based on a year-long ethnographic online study supplemented by offline face-to-face interviews with young Kurds in these locations, and with additional reference to homeland- based Kurds, the research presents three main empirical chapters based on themes derived from the online community’s concerns, and focuses on Swedish, British, and Kurdish forums. The chapters discuss gender and religious tensions; cultural elements and historical suffering; and political engagements in homeland and settlement countries. A fourth chapter takes a step back from online and offline material and examines the comparative approach between the two diasporas, diasporic and homeland Kurds, in both offline and online environments. Against the background of such a close-up comparative study, this research argues for a reconsideration of diasporic formations that are currently fixed between homeland and settlement country, and it presents new perspectives on these that relates to new definitional positions in diasporic formations that have significant implications for the concept of the imagined community.

Contemporary democratic discourse places emphasis on accountability as the basis of power legitimacy and the scholarly literature across disciplines has reserved a special space for the media in that process, for better or for worse. But exactly who is held to account, when, how and by whom, remain troubling questions in the study of media, politics and power. Amidst displays of adversarial journalism without fear or favour, how far are powerful interests still able to control the agenda and manipulate outcomes? The research undertaken here set out to interrogate the notion of media spectacle in a different way from which it has been commonly applied in critical media theory. In particular, its intimate association with sensationalism and tabloidisation threatens to obscure the role of spectacle in what are considered the mainstays of ‘serious’ or responsible news. The Sun might still be the most popular newspaper in Britain, and online news the fastest growing platform, but it is the serious news outlets of traditional media – public service broadcasting, broadsheets, weeklies etc – which remain by far the most credible sources of news and information. And it is credibility which holds the key to ideological power. The research involved extensive analysis of archived television news programmes, supplemented by 50 interviews with a cross section of news producers and actors including journalists, news executives, politicians, campaigners, press officers, lawyers and civil servants. The core subject is terrestrial television news in the UK – a public service regulated platform with a longstanding reputation for high quality journalism. My overall concern is not so much with scandal involving official misconduct or misdemeanour, but rather controversies that point to systemic institutional corruption of the kind that transcends individuals and party politics. These controversies are no longer rare exceptions in the contemporary newscape and their existence raises profound questions about the scope of accountability through the media. There has, however, been surprisingly little critical assessment of such coverage. This provided the overarching motivation for the research; a core premise being that only by examining those instances where mechanisms of accountability appear most far reaching, can we gain a new understanding of ideological power in the age of transparency.

This thesis explores the social processes through which technological change and technologies themselves are negotiated in everyday life. I look to interpersonal communication as a site of such negotiation and focus on the networked practices that extend from mobile telephones, personal computers, and online social platforms. The management of everyday life and interpersonal relationships are shaped by practices of communication management that work through the use of these technologies. I extend and inflect the phenomenological approach to co-presence in interpersonal communication, also reassessing notions of time, for the context of constant networked connection. Drawing from divergent theoretical approaches for understanding technology, an entry point for this thesis was formulated through social interaction. A grounded qualitative approach was used to engage with individuals’ experience of interpersonal communication across everyday domains and contexts of activity. A selection of 35 participants was asked to complete two in-depth interviews, thinking-aloud tasks, and a communication diary. The empirical findings are explored from three perspectives. First, individuals’ relationships to communication tools as objects in an everyday environment are understood for the perceived temporal pressures and a need for networked connection. Second, individuals’ management of those pressures is explored through their imposition of individually controlled barriers to interaction, through which domains of activity are managed by communication practices as relational domains, developing a form of networked awareness between individuals. Third, I examine the forms of negotiation taking place through the interdependency of individual practices, captured by notions of authenticity and perceptions of technologies, as well as a discourse about technology that is enacted through practice rather than communicated through content, what I call meta-communication. I conclude that the negotiated use and role of technologies in interpersonal relationships has implications for the negotiation of wider social changes to the role of technology and to everyday life itself.