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This thesis provides an integrated analysis of formal and informal distribution networks for East Asian Cinema in the UK through interviews and ethnographic-style research. It examines what motivates and shapes the acquisition decisions of distributors in these contexts and how these motivations might conflict, interact with, or complement one another. Whilst existing literature has focused on formal distribution and ‘piracy’ as distinct phenomena, this thesis considers both in conjunction with each other and also uncovers the distinct social contexts of each environment. Through anti-piracy discourse, the positions and priorities of ‘pirates’ and the ‘industry’ are repeatedly constructed as unequivocally distinct and oppositional. However, on the basis of my research, I argue that these seemingly opposed groups -- professional distributors and filesharers -- are more similar than we might imagine. The connections between the online and offline distributors can be noted in a number of ways. First, the actions of distributors within formal and informal networks involve complex social and cultural interactions rather than purely economic considerations. Second, an individual’s position in a socially imagined ‘knowledge community’ is perceived to be more significant than economic interest in motivating the activities of distributors within both formal and informal channels. Third, by applying Molteni and Ordanini’s principle of socio-network effects, I argue that distributors online and offline are engaged in a symbiotic relationship where each party can be said to benefit socially and culturally, if not necessarily economically, from the actions of each other. Overall, this thesis argues that social contexts of distribution in formal and informal settings shape the distribution process. Indeed, rather than just representing the movement of an economic commodity, the act of film distribution also mediates and facilitates the social and professional relationships of distributors across both sectors.

This research operates in the context of a European political discourse, where the main concern is counter-cultural approaches to non-mandatory collaboration and contractual agreements. FLOSSTV (Free, Libre, Open Source Software TV) covers a broad range of practices, from television via documentary up to media arts productions. This thesis documents the endeavour to formulate a policy for FLOSS culture. FLOSSTV studies the impact of new intellectual property legislation on media production, as well as conceptions and applications of collective authorship and alternative licensing schemes. FLOSSTV sets out to explore methods that can facilitate media and arts practitioners wishing to engage in collaborative media productions. The thesis sets out to investigate the theories and histories of collaborative media and arts productions in order to set the ground for an exploration of the tools, technologies and aesthetics of such collaborations. The FLOSSTV thesis proposes a set of contracts and policies that allow for such collaborations to develop. It is through practice that this research explores FLOSS culture, including its methods, licensing schemes and technologies. In order to focus the research within the field of FLOSSTV I initiated the practice-based Deptford.TV pilot project as the central research experiment for the FLOSSTV thesis. DVD ONE contains a series of films produced collaboratively for Deptford.TV that express the characteristics and contractual arrangements of FLOSS culture. Deptford.TV is an online audiovisual database primarily collecting media assets around the Deptford area, in South­East London, UK. Deptford.TV functions as an open, collaborative platform that allows artists, film-makers, researchers and participants of the local workshops in and around Deptford, and also beyond Deptford, to store, share, re-edit and redistribute their footage and projects. The open and collaborative nature of the Deptford.TV project demonstrates a form of shared media practice in two ways: audiences become producers by submitting their own footage, and the database enables the contributors to interact with each other. Through my practice-lead research project Deptford.TV I argue that, by supporting collaborative methods and practices, FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open Source Software) can empower media and arts practitioners to collaborate in production and distribution processes of media and arts practices.

Do digital screen media alter our sense of being in the world? Contained within this question are some fairly fundamental existential and metaphysical notions about what it is to be in the world, and what is it to have this sense altered? There is the complex notion of consciousness: what is it to be conscious of the world? What, indeed, is ‘the world’ – simply our phenomenal sensory awareness of reality, or some external transcendent actuality? To understand the effect of the digital on consciousness, one must consider investigating the dynamics of synaptic signals in the brain, to affection and cognition, to larger social, global and even metaphysical systems – whilst also maintaining an eye for the subtle metaphoric connections between them. In the work of new-media theorists such as Massumi, Shaviro, Pisters, Rodowick, Parisi, and Hansen, we see some of the above questions tackled through a triangulation of aesthetic theory, affect theory and philosophy of consciousness. It is amongst these theoretical perspectives that I position my research. I describe digital visual media as an extension and fruition of aesthetic impulses towards indeterminism and flux largely described by Deleuze in the Time-Image as ‘the indiscernibility of the real and the imaginary, or of the present and the past, of the actual and the virtual’, but further, through Bernard Stiegler, as a new mnemo-technical ‘grammatisation’ of vital metaphysical forces, or of existence as such. I then show by example how digitally created and inflected images, through their own vital automatism, give us new mimetic and metaphorical tools through which to affectively and conceptually think the real. I argue that the digital-image establishes itself in ways that Deleuze foreshadowed but could not quite foresee, becoming: ‘an as yet unknown aspect of the time-image’.

This thesis explores the affective, relational, and intercorporeal intensities circulating in three of London’s queer performance club spaces. Duckie, Bird Club and Wotever have staged queer cabaret, burlesque and live-art influenced performance work in bar and nightclub settings for many years, and yet have received little academic attention. Located at the intersection of cultural studies, performance studies, and body theory, this thesis serves not only to archive this rich and yet under-explored scene of creative endeavour, but also to bring into dialogue concerns and approaches from these divergent disciplines that appear to coincide within these settings. It asks two complimentary overarching questions: a) What can the debates around subjectivity, affect and embodiment emerging from body theory bring to our interpretation and understanding of performance practice and spectatorship? b) What can a consideration of performance bring to the ongoing interest across the humanities in the workings of affect and embodied experiences that challenge the rational, bounded, autonomous subject? Through autoethnographic research, comprising performance analysis, one-to-one and group interviews with performers and regulars of the three clubs and extensive participation in both the social and performance aspects of this ‘scene’, I argue that much is to be gained from this under-explored crossover. Engaging theory on bodily integrity, relationality, trauma, fantasy and desire and the public sphere I investigate the workings of affect within these domains, and the complex intersections between affect and identity politics, performativity, subjectification and world-making. I trace the modes of subjectivity and belonging that appear to be enabled within these milieux, and address why it is that these debates become pertinent here. Shifting our attention to the affective register of what is occurring within queer performance, I argue, enables a consideration of experiences, subjectivities and performances that might otherwise seem paradoxical, impossible or illegible.

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 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 thesis examines the mediation of the nation-state as a dimension of the diasporic experience of place. It focuses on the consumption of mass-media about Israel or originating from it by people residing outside of the country. I understand this mediation to take place continuously throughout the day, in multiple spaces, through different technologies. As such, it forms part of the experience of place in media- saturated (urban) environments, allowing for a distant nation-state to become embedded in daily routines. In order to theorise this experience, I draw on Merleau- Ponty’s phenomenology, which understands place through embodied perception and habit, and on studies of diaspora and media, which examine the social meanings and uses of media among specific transnational groups. This qualitative project is based on a researcher-absent exercise and extended interviews with British Jews and Israeli immigrants in London. Analysis reveals that orientation includes four areas of practice: investing and withdrawing emotions as part of managing ‘care’, searching for truth, distinguishing between ordinary and extraordinary time, and domesticating media. Some of these practices may be particular to the case of Israel, but some are shaped by discourses around insecurity, rather than Zionism itself. Others appear to be related to experiences of migration and diaspora in general. I argue that these practices are ‘orientational practices’ in which people endeavour to make sense of spatial positioning through negotiating distance and controlling media. I theorise media as ‘orientation devices’ in diasporic everyday life, but ones that are unstable, contested and reflected upon, and hence never fully habituated. The resulting experience is one of increased reflexivity about everyday place and, paradoxically, increased dependency on media for orientation. I conclude by suggesting that practices of orientation point to a mode of being in place in globalisation that is not sufficiently addressed by the dominant understanding of ‘belonging’.

In this dissertation, I address issues in relation to working with teachers on viewing video recordings of their own, or their colleagues' lessons and ask: how can I use video to support teacher learning? what patterns of interaction (in discussion of video clips) support teacher learning? what is the role of the discussion facilitator? I also address similar issues in relation to mathematics classrooms: how can I use video to study classroom discussion? what patterns of interaction get established and alter in a classroom over an academic year? what is the role of the teacher? I look at similarities and differences, across these two contexts. I bring an enactivist epistemological stance to this study, which took place in one secondary school in the UK. I draw out methodological implications from enactivism for the study of discussion and use the tools I develop to analyse data from year 1 of the project. In year 2, I developed alternative techniques to aid my analysis of micro-events in teacher discussions and mathematics classroom, drawing on ideas from linguistic ethnography. My first analysis of the data from teacher discussions of video, threw up five elements of the role of the discussion facilitator: setting up discussion norms; starting with reconstruction and moving to interpretation; re-watching the video; metacommenting; selecting a video clip. Bringing the more micro-techniques of analysis to the same data served to trouble the categorisation above, and I conclude that my description of practice cannot be separated from the particular context in which it took place. My analysis of data from mathematics classrooms suggests the teacher's use of explicit metacommunicative messages (metacomments) was significant in terms of establishing desired patterns of interaction. In one classroom I study, there is evidence of student metacommunication and metacognition in relation to work in mathematics lessons. I argue for a re-framing of metacognition to include the perspective of a process of becoming, as well as the development of skills. Looking across the data of teacher discussions and mathematics classrooms, I introduce the notion of a heightened listening as a description of a similarity in the roles of a discussion facilitator and teacher wanting to develop metacommunicative or metacognitive practices with others.

In this thesis I explore the idea of communicative injustice. That is, I consider the thought that some of our communicative practices are so vital to our flourishing existence as human persons that we suffer an injustice in certain circumstances when these practices fail. For instance, sometimes the ability to successfully communicate consent or refusal means the difference between maintaining authority over our bodies and becoming victims of rape and assault. Sometimes the ability to communicate successfully about an experience like sexual harassment means the difference between vulnerability to confusion, self-doubt, and further injustice and the ability to understand and combat that injustice from a situation of relative epistemic security. I argue that there are conditions under which we should be able to communicate certain things, and that sometimes an inability to communicate constitutes an injustice. That is, under my account, a person may become a victim of injustice when certain kinds of communication become impossible for her.

This work considers the relationship between music and silent film focussing particularly on the areas that inform the composition of a new score for the film Pandora’s Box (Pabst, 1929). The paper begins with a consideration of the origins of the narrative and a discussion about the relationships between Wedekind’s originating plays and Pabst’s film. The discourse explores the way in which the new score is informed by the understanding of Pabst’s work as being both modernising and reductive. Through an examination of the organisation of the plot, it establishes the rationale behind the organisation of the score. Part 2 of the paper focuses more closely on aspects of the relationship between music and image. It discusses all aspects of the techniques employed within the score including the use of referential music and sound, the application of cliché, the employment of the rhythm of inter-title ‘speech’ and synchrony. As an original contribution to knowledge, the paper establishes the novel idea of the organisation of music and sound as Layers of Synchrony and with reference to examples within the new score explains how the composer may view the various layers within an arrangement as having additional function through their purposeful, synchronous distribution in relation to the moving image. With reference to the historical and theoretical contexts surrounding the application of music and sound to silent film, and additional reflection on the role and impact of current technology on the compositional process, the paper sets out to establish that the new score for Pandora’s Box is both reflective of the advantages of 21st century technology and the 1930s hybrid form known as the film sonore.

This thesis investigates a framework for generating reliefs. Relief is a special kind of sculptured artwork consisting of shapes carved on a surface so as to stand out from the surrounding background. Traditional relief creation is done by hand and is therefore a laborious process. In addition, hand-made reliefs are hard to modify. Contrasted with this, digital relief can offer more flexibility as well as a less laborious alternative and can be easily adjusted. This thesis reviews existing work and offers a framework to tackle the problem of generating three types of reliefs: bas reliefs, high reliefs and sunken reliefs. Considerably enhanced by incorporating gradient operations, an efficient bas relief generation method has been proposed, based on 2D images. An improvement of bas relief and high relief generation method based on 3D models has been provided as well, that employs mesh representation to process the model. This thesis is innovative in describing and evaluating sunken relief generation techniques. Two types of sunken reliefs have been generated: one is created with pure engraved lines, and the other is generated with smooth height transition between lines. The latter one is more complex to implement, and includes three elements: a line drawing image provides a input for contour lines; a rendered Lambertian image shares the same light direction of the relief and sets the visual cues and a depth image conveys the height information. These three elements have been combined to generate final sunken reliefs. It is the first time in computer graphics that a method for digital sunken relief generation has been proposed. The main contribution of this thesis is to have proposed a systematic framework to generate all three types of reliefs. Results of this work can potentially provide references for craftsman, and this work could be beneficial for relief creation in the fields of both entertainment and manufacturing.

In this thesis I primarily address those within media and communications studies who research mass media audiences and their engagement with a diverse range of texts. I ask in what ways our knowledge about the interpretation of genres, emergent from many decades of empirical research with mass media audiences, is useful in understanding engagement with new media. This conceptual task is pursued empirically by applying a conceptual repertoire derived from reception analysis to interviews with youthful users of the online genre of social networking sites (SNSs). The thesis presents findings on the heterogeneity of children’s experiences in using SNSs following their perceptions of authorial presence, their notions of others using the text, their expertise with the interface and pushing textual boundaries. I explore four tasks involved in the act of interpretation – those being intertextual, critical, collaborative and problem-resolving. In analysis, I also reflect on a selection of the core conceptual tools that have been animated in this thesis, in research design as well as analysis and interpretation. It is concluded that inherited concepts - text and interpretation, continue to be useful in extension from the world of television audiences to the world of the internet. Second, inherited priorities from audience reception research which connect clearly to the conversation on media and digital literacies prove to be important by connecting resistance and the broader task of critique to the demands of being analytical, evaluative and critical users of new media. Third, the notion of interpretation as work is useful overall, to retain in research with new media use, for there is a range of tasks and responsibilities involved in making sense of new media.

In this project I explore everyday encounters with urban screens. I define urban screens as image interfaces that occupy (material) public urban space and represent other (symbolic) space. I conceptualise encounters with urban screens as events of media consumption in which passers-by are invited to communicate, without the possibility of pressing control buttons. I draw on the perspective of phenomenological geography, which understands place as an experiential dimension of space, sustained through habit, and on media domestication studies, which analyse how people incorporate media technologies and texts in familiar spaces. My grounded qualitative research encompasses four different screen placements: street and underground advertising panels, an architectural interface in a promenade, and a public art installation. A triangulation of my observations, participants’ diaries and depth- interviews suggests that passers-by compensate for the lack of material controls by ‘taming’ the screens (learning about their position, size, scale and mode of address), and by making use of screens in responding to various elements of the site-specific situations of passing by (presence of others, traffic, weather). Passers-by develop what I call ‘situational uses of urban screens’, such as managing interaction with unknown others, escapism, gathering potentially useful information, and focussing thoughts. I understand these ethnomethodological appropriations of screens as forms of pedestrian tactical resistance to institutional spatial arrangements. In order to maintain their practices of looking around and moving through routines, passers-by make their uses of screens habitual, and develop knowledge of the varieties of urban screen technologies and images. Through such intimate negotiations of technologically mediated urban spaces, people domesticate urban screens as taken-for-granted elements of their everyday spaces and landscapes of media consumption. I conclude that passers-by experience the changes of technologies and images as spatial changes, which make their habituation of mediated cities laborious and require their domestication of urban screens to be continuous.

This thesis investigates how cinema’s specificities are defined in relation to technological developments. I propose that the most appropriate way to do this is by taking the whole cinematographic circuit into account – that is, the complete set of socio-technical operations that are involved in the medium, as remote as they might seem to be from actual cinematographic practices. I depart from the definition of circulation as a socio-technical continuum of the production, distribution, exhibition and evaluation of movies, explaining how these activities might be enacted in three different technological regimes: film, video and digital computation. Then, following an account of the early history of the pirate film society Cine Falcatrua (2003-2005), I show how the specificity of the medium is constituted and preserved throughout its technical progress. Acknowledging the limits of traditional film and screen studies to deal with these questions, I attempt to find an alternative research approach by engaging in practice-based investigation using curatorial strategies. By bringing together and analysing different film and art pieces in an exhibition entitled Denied Distances (2009), I propose a framework that allows an understanding of how media technology are defined in relation to one another, exposing how seemingly expanded practices such as installations and performances might be contained within conventional cinematographic apparatus. I conclude by suggesting that, in order to keep up with the ever-changing nature of the medium, the study of cinema would profit from engaging the extremes of scientific criticism and art practice.

Media and communications engage in social power relations. This thesis aims to investigate the “power value” of media and communications, focusing on the private communication practices of economic elites. The main argument is that, in the age of hyperglobalization, elite private communication plays no less important a part than mass forms of communication in shaping and maintaining economic elite power that operates in a far from transparent and accountable manner. This detachment of media and communications from the public is a symptom of the shrinking of democracy, which sanctions the massive transfer of resources to the organized interests. For the purpose of empirical study, his thesis investigates the sites or networks of the national and transnational market forces within the historical context of the neo-liberalization of the Korean economy and society since the 1990s. The research shows, via in-depth interviews and qualitative case studies, how increasingly broader areas of the economy are becoming discursively de-politicized and how the closed communicative processes of economic elites are replacing democratic structures. Think-tanks, epistemic communities and policy networks, with their practices of private communication, lobbying and “brain sharing”, often make policy decisions that have a significant impact on the masses. The discrete culture and exclusive elite communication networks which are prevalent in the global-national investment web of intermediaries allow the growth of “invisible power”, which almost completely blocks the vigilance of the public. In the financial market, the cohesive culture, combined with the reflexive and intensive communication environment, generates a system of preferences and evaluations as well as one-sided expectations that have a tremendous impact on corporate management and the whole of society. The study suggests that we should attend to the growing tendency of the mediation of power that is taking place with minimum reference to the public. This research contributes to the understanding of the “power value” of media and communications by providing an alternative or complementary explanation.

This thesis examines the creation of the National Communications Commission (NCC), an independent media regulatory agency in Taiwan, in order to shed light on the relationship between media, state, and democracy in post-transition countries. This study positions the NCC as the key transformation of media reform during the political transition to democracy. On the one hand, it addresses the role of media in transitional societies and how political and industry power elites try to maintain control. On the other hand, it traces the rise of the ‘regulatory state’, a global trend towards regulatory reform, and investigates how the political environment in transitional countries may influence its development. This research is based on the analysis of case studies spanning issues of institutional legitimacy, media ownership, and convergence legislation, with the support of data collected by document analysis and interviews with actors in the policymaking process. The findings point to how Taiwan’s post-authoritarian political background has outweighed economic and technological factors as described in mainstream literature in giving rise to the creation of the agency. The analysis demonstrates that state intervention and politicised concepts of democratisation and independence of the agency both impair media regulatory capacities in transitional societies. More importantly, it is indicated that the threat to democracy has been shifting from authoritarian states to unfettered markets where concentration of media ownership and impediments to media reform through entrenched politico-economic networks have taken place. I question the popular discourse that democratisation is equal to the withdrawal of the state in media regulation, calling instead for active civic engagement to hold the agency accountable, scrutinise its performance, and make the media better serve the public.

This work begins with the idea that creativity is a problematic concept generally and in education particularly. I argue that it is necessary to shed a belief in an ʻessenceʼ of creativity in order to understand how knowledge about creativity is produced. In a review of different approaches to creativity I identify the ways in which ʻtruth effectsʼ are produced in scientific and popular texts. Of particular interest here are approaches and assumptions (expressed through language and operations) in the domains of psychology, education and the arts. A post structuralist analytical methodology, drawing particularly on Foucaultʼs work, is justified in relation to the significance of concepts such as discourse, ideology, rhetoric and myth which, I argue, are crucial in understanding how creativity is made meaningful. The primary analysis is of key documents from the last decade which have sought to inform education policy on creativity: All our futures (NACCCE 1999); Creativity: Find it, promote it (QCA 2004); Nurturing creativity in young people (Roberts 2006); Learning: Creative approaches that raise standards (Ofsted 2010a). Attention is given to the discursive processes of authorising particular models of creativity in these documents, the ways in which tensions and contradictions are dealt with and the implications for ʻcreativityʼ in education. An explicitly reflective mode is adopted where appropriate, in order to highlight my epistemological development during the course of the research. This takes the form of ʻinterruptionsʼ between chapters. I argue, ultimately, that there is a case for only operating with the term ʻcreativityʼ in a reflexive, meta-discursive way and that this is a particular necessity in education.

Studies of source-media relations have tended towards two principal frameworks for analysis: developing a structural approach, where access is determined by the source's position within the dominant hegemony (Hall et al. 1978); or through sociological enquiries, which examine the relationship between journalists and their news sources (Gans 1979; Schlesinger 1990). There is, however, a much smaller body of research that has considered the influence of news sources upon audiences. This thesis develops an audience centric approach to sourcing, in order to understand how journalists may influence audiences' interpretation of a story through the attribution of information to particular types of institutional sources. This issue is considered through the media discourse of Islamist terrorism, to explore the potential for source attribution to influence audiences' perceptions of alleged terrorist plots. The justifications for focusing upon this issue are twofold. First, news coverage of suspected terrorist plots has raised questions over the position and types of sources appearing in reports. Second, news media reporting of terrorism has become synonymous with unofficial sources and leaked information. Accusations have been made, particularly following news of a foiled kidnap plot in January 2007, that government sources had relayed intelligence or operational information about the threat to a select group of journalists. For some, these charges evidence the social and political construction of contemporary terrorism, a condition, which it has been argued, is engineered by elites to make a raft of legal responses politically acceptable to the electorate (Jackson 2006; Mythen and Walklate 2006). This thesis explores source attribution upon audiences' perceptions of terrorism through two stages of empirical research. A content analysis of UK newspaper coverage of five alleged terrorist plots and a media experiment that simulates exposure to three different types of source attribution. The results reveal that veiled references to public institutions were predominant within coverage, however, contrary to conspiratorial approaches to political discourse,government sources were not influential in supporting details of a specific threat.Furthermore, that sourcing may simply arise as a feature of the news narrative to each event. The findings also suggest that sourcing was indicative of a broader shift in the media discourse of terrorism, with more recent coverage seeking to address public concerns over the way official or government sources communicate information about the threat from terrorism. For news audiences, the results show that the more powerful cumulative effects of trust in the media and concern over terrorism undermine any influence source attribution may have upon audiences' perceptions of the credibility of a story reporting an alleged terrorist plot. Moreover, taken together the findings demonstrate that the effect of subtle or nuanced variations in the presentation of media content upon audiences is limited and that the attitudinal and demographic characteristics of audiences serve as more significant determinants of audiences' perceptions of news.

The BBC's 'flagship' current affairs series Panorama, occupies a central place in Britain's television history and yet, surprisingly, it is relatively neglected in academic studies of the medium. Much that has been written focuses on Panorama's coverage of armed conflicts (notably Suez, Northern Ireland and the Falklands) and deals, primarily, with programmes which met with Government disapproval and censure. However, little has been written on Panorama's less controversial, more routine war reporting, or on the programme's more recent history, its evolving journalistic practices and place within the current affairs form. This thesis explores these areas and examines the framing of war narratives within Panorama's coverage of the Gulf conflicts of 1991 and 2003.' One accusation in studies looking beyond Panorama's more contentious episodes is that the series has, traditionally, (over)represented 'establishment' or elite perspectives in its reporting. This charge has been made by media scholars (Williams 1968; Hall et al. 1981; Born, 2004), champions ofrival current affairs programmes (see Goddard et al. 2007) and even by a number ofsenior figures within the BBC and Panorama itself (Day 1990; Dyke 2004a). This thesis tests that view in relation to an archive ofPanorama programmes made between 1987 and 2004, with particular reference to its coverage of the First and Second Gulf Wars. The study aims to establish if Panorama has, in fact, patrolled the 'limits ofdebate', largely confined itself to 'elite views' and predominantly reflected the 'Westminster consensus' in its coverage of conflict. The thesis is supported by interviews with current and former Panorama staff and contains discussion of working practices at Panorama, particularly as they relate to reporting conflicts involving British armed forces. There is an assessment of the BBC's journalistic culture and developments within the News and Current Affairs directorate in the period under discussion; the legal and institutional constraints under which the series operated; challenges and threats to the current affairs tradition; wider concerns relating to television's coverage ofwar in general, and the two wars against Iraq specifically. Questions of indexing and framing are foregrounded in textual and content analysis of forty-two episodes dealing with the Gulf Wars to assess whether Panorama's coverage was overdetermined by official sources and elite perspectives or if it gave adequate space to a diversity of opinions and explanations for the conflicts and thereby fulfilled its legal obligations and Public Service role.

Practices commonly termed participatory or citizen journalism, such as blogging and publishing content in participatory news media, have triggered interest in academic and media discourses alike. The discussion has centred on the significance of participatory journalism and whether it leads to democratisation of media and to redefining journalism and its ethics. This thesis examines online participatory journalism practices and what enhances or impedes them by drawing on a close and systematic analysis of qualitative interviews with reporters and facilitators of participatory media. The research considers both the meso level of media organisations in their socio-cultural context and the micro level of reporters, and is comparative and transcultural in scope. The focus is on the international edition of the South Korean news organisation OhmyNews and on two Indymedia collectives, namely, Indybay in California in the USA and the no-longer active Vaikuttava Tietotoimisto in Finland. The study employs Dahlgren’s (2009) analytic frame of civic cultures that, although it downplays skills and somewhat problematically assumes equal weight of all dimensions, proved valuable in addressing several key aspects to participatory journalism as a mode of civic engagement. The research demonstrates how reporters’ journalistic activities do not exist in a vacuum, but are shaped by participatory media organisations, for example, through the values they promote and the type of journalism, the access to sources and training they facilitate. Furthermore, the thesis argues that participatory media practices are less distinct from those of mainstream media than may have been assumed. Underpinning the analysis of media organisations are the theories of alternative media and of voluntary associations, whereas Mouffe’s (2000a) political theory of agonistic pluralism is applied to assess the viability of an agonistic space online. The findings, apart from the instances of its constructive uses, point toward the difficulties in sustaining an agonistic online space.

This thesis explores the professional cultures, capital and occupational identities of a group of women journalists working in contemporary London-based women's magazines and newspaper supplements. I have mapped this journalistic subfield in order to answer questions about the gendering of hierarchies and structures in the wider journalistic field and the opportunities and limitations provided by women's traditional associations with consumption. Commercial journalism created for, and by women, plays an increasingly important editorial and commercial role within journalism, but has received little academic attention. In this research I demarcate a distinct subfield of print journalism that I term feminine journalism. This female oriented subfield is concerned with lifestyle, fashion, celebrity and the body and extends across women's magazines and newspapers. My research is based on analysis of qualitative semi-structured interviews with a cross-section of forty journalists from across the subfield. I use Bourdieu's notion of habitus and field to interrogate the gendered journalistic cultures that mediate the production of feminine journalism. Through a detailed consideration of working practices, routines and occupational identities, I document a journalistic domain dominated by consumption, taste and aesthetics and inextricably enmeshed with the adjoining commercial fields of fashion and beauty brands. I explore the way in which the cultural and economic interlink to produce a version of commercial femininity, which helps to constitute subjective identities for both practitioners and readers. I argue that the species of feminine, embodied capital deployed by the subfield's agents offers some women power, privilege and success within the journalistic field, but ultimately circumscribes their progress barring them from the professions defining discourses of objectivity and autonomy. This situation supports my wider conclusion that the feminine capital offered to women through consumption represents a limited and contingent form of power, which ultimately reinforces a symbolic order that privileges masculinity over femininity.

As processed of globalisation are seen to undermine traditional understandings of political democracy, much analysis and hope in academia currently rests on ideas of deliberation and post-national democratic practices - the roots of a 'global civil society' - that has taken force as not just an analysis of social and political change, but as a normative project. I argue that counter to much academic discussion, the very notion of a civil society needs to be subjected to rigorous critique given that so much of the discussion is based on an implicit, but problematic; account of changing conditions, not least within the media. In this thesis, I argue that advocates of 'global civil society' rest in an understanding of the media, especially the news, as playing a central role in three different, but overlapping, way: firstly, to transform political communities and provide the basis for 'global citizenship'; secondly, to provide the resources necessary for public deliberation in a 'global public sphere'; and thirdly, to facilitate the influence of non-elites by representing 'global public opinion'. This thesis interrogates this understanding of media developments by presenting original empirical research of different kinds of news organisations that all play a key role in the discussion on global civil society - global satellite news networks, traditional national/local news outlets, as well as 'alternative' online news sites - and argues that developments in news media do not sustain such an understanding. These assumed functions of the media are undermined by evidence that news practices are shaped by not only economic and strategic considerations rooted in specific cultural contexts, but also by a continuous nation-state defined world-view that rests on dominant political rhetoric and the activities of a narrow group of political and social elites. What is more, it argues that new 'alternative' media does not necessarily challenge these practices and may indeed exacerbate the individualisation and privatisation of public deliberation, fragmenting any unifying 'global moral order'. I present the argument that this misapprehension of developments in news practices highlights the difficulties the concept of global civil society has with taking account of the power relations of actually existing democracy and I also challenge the broader appeal to a global 'space' of politics in such circumstances.

This thesis considers how the mediation of poverty in Canada and the United Kingdom influences responses to the issue of poverty. The thesis focuses in particular on the issue dynamics concerning children as constructions of a “deserving poor” and immigrants as constructions of an “undeserving poor”. A frame analysis of mainstream news content in both countries demonstrates the extent to which individualizing and rationalizing frames dominate coverage, and that the publication of the news online is not leading to an expansion of discourses, as hoped. A frame analysis of alternative news coverage and coverage from the 1960s and 70s demonstrates significant absences of social justice frames and rights-based discourse in contemporary coverage. I suggest that mainstream news coverage narrows and limits the way poverty is talked about in a way that reinforces the dominance of neoliberalism and market-based approaches to the issue. Interviews with journalists, politicians, researchers and activists collectively indicate that getting media coverage is essential to gaining political attention in both countries. These interviews also reveal the power dynamics influencing the relationships between these actors and the way the issue of poverty is approached. I argue that while new media tools create new opportunities to share information, these tools are also creating new pressures by speeding up the working practices in mediated political centres in a way that forecloses potentials to challenge dominant news coverage and approaches to poverty. However, this cross-national comparison also reveals context-specific factors influencing poverty politics in each country. I conclude that this analysis and comparison of poverty issue dynamics reveals shortcomings in the democratic processes in both countries. Changing poverty coverage and approaches to the issue will require changing specific media and political practices.

This research examines Vietnamese in London, focusing on identity formation and community networks through transnational activities. I argue that ‘the transnational’ is a ‘subset’ of migrant categories, and that Vietnamese transnational identities depend on the measurable activities in which they are involved. Important aspects of this research are: First, the Vietnamese are one of the first major non-British Commonwealth peoples to migrate into the United Kingdom in the modern era. This has had implications related to settlement into British society, overcome by the subsequent shift from refugee status to transnational activity and identities, resulting in widespread Vietnamese transnational networks. Second, the Vietnamese represent one of the first ‘quota’ refugee populations granted entry into the UK. Refugees were accepted prior to entering Britain, and upon arrival, government and private support structures were provided. Also, Vietnamese refugees underwent mandatory dispersal across the UK, a detrimental situation prompting a subsequent intra-Britain migration to urban centres, particularly London. Third, Vietnamese communities in Britain have distinctive characteristics, making a study of identities and networks an interesting and useful one, particularly in light of developing research in transnational studies. These characteristics include the Vietnamese North-South cultural and linguistic ‘divide’, the presence of Vietnamese and Chinese-background Vietnamese, and differences in the timing and reasons for migration. Key research questions relate to transnational activities, identities, and community networks played out in the role, reach and specific pathways of those activities across national borders. Key questions are: ‘What does it mean to be a transnationally active Vietnamese Londoner?’ and ‘How are Vietnamese Londoners engaged in community-based transnational networks?’ These questions are addressed using interviews, participant observation, participation in Vietnamese-related conferences, and in informal conversations on the street and in local Vietnamese shops. This research relates stories of contextualised transnational identities linking Vietnamese from London across the globe.

This thesis analyses screenwriting as an exemplary and idiosyncratic form of creative labour in the ‘new cultural economy’ and specifically, in the contemporary UK screen production industry. Using a critical sociological framework combined with a neo-Foucauldian understanding of work and subjectivity, a series of explicit analytical connections are made in this project, between screenwriting, creative labour and the new cultural economy. I contend that screenwriting, as a form of creative labour which in many ways eschews the term ‘creative’, is an instructive, timely case study precisely because it agitates traditional dichotomies - between creativity and craft, art and commerce, individual and collaborative work - in pedagogy and practice. After tracing the dynamics of this form of creative work in theoretical, discursive and historical terms, I then analyse how screenwriting is constructed, taught and practiced as labour in three areas: ‘How-to’ screenwriting manuals, pedagogical locations for screenwriting in the UK and British screenwriters’ working lives. At each site, I focus on how craft and creativity are defined and experienced, how individual and collective forms of work are enacted at different locations and what implications these shifting designations have. Screenwriting within the mainstream Hollywood and British film industries in the contemporary moment demands particular and complex forms of worker subjectivity in order to distinguish it from other forms of filmmaking and writing, and to make the work knowable and do-able. I follow the voices of screenwriters and those who teach and instruct about screenwriting across the fieldwork sites and analyse the ways in which they calculate, navigate and make sense of the screen production labour market in which they are immersed. The theatrical, mythic and practical navigations of screenwriters in pedagogy and practice that are the centre of this thesis offer an antidote to impoverished, economistic readings of creativity, craft and creative labour in contemporary worlds of work.

This thesis aims to contribute to the growing field of media production studies through an ethnographic study of independent television production companies in Great Britain and Germany. Discourses of self-enterprise, free markets and consumer choice supported by technological developments, audience fragmentation and neoliberal legislation have led to a shift from a formerly predominantly public-service orientated broadcasting environment to a commercialised, competitive and consumer-orientated television industry. Because they seldom command high ratings, 'serious' documentaries are not a high priority for broadcasters compared to other programme genres, and a formerly protectionist attitude toward documentary is being eroded alongside public service broadcasting values. The thesis examines the impact of these developments on independent companies involved in documentary production. It inquires into the ways in which the new commercial production structures affect the work of independent documentary makers and asks to what extent they constrain or enable individual creativity in the development of original documentary programming. Combining participant observation with practitioner interviews, the study analyses the complex ways in which television workers adapt to creativity-commerce tensions. It describes how commercial imperatives cause independents to act as service-providers for broadcasters and to conform to predetermined programme preferences. The empirical results show that a sense of professional identity alongside occupational values and genre traditions play a particularly important role in this context. They disguise commercial conformity and prevent or dissolve creativity-commerce tensions. At the same time, they form the basis for an understanding of programme quality that is independent from and potentially in conflict with economic objectives. Consequently, television workers both accept their commercial supplier role and the creative constraints it entails, and are also critically reflexive about the production culture and their own role within it. The thesis will discuss the interplay of these competing values and address the consequences they have for the developed programmes and the documentary genre in general.

Motion capture technology is recognised as a standard tool in the computer animation pipeline. It provides detailed movement for animators; however, it also introduces problems and brings concerns for creating realistic and convincing motion for character animation. In this thesis, the post-processing techniques are investigated that result in realistic motion generation. Anumber of techniques are introduced that are able to improve the quality of generated motion from motion capture data, especially when integrating motion transitions from different motion clips. The presented motion data reconstruction technique is able to build convincing realistic transitions from existing motion database, and overcome the inconsistencies introduced by traditional motion blending techniques. It also provides a method for animators to re-use motion data more efficiently. Along with the development of motion data transition reconstruction, the motion capture data mapping technique was investigated for skeletal movement estimation. The per-frame based method provides animators with a real-time and accurate solution for a key post-processing technique. Although motion capture systems capture physically-based motion for character animation, no physical information is included in the motion capture data file. Using the knowledge of biomechanics and robotics, the relevant information for the captured performer are able to be abstracted and a mathematical-physical model are able to be constructed; such information is then applied for physics-based motion data correction whenever the motion data is edited.

This thesis considers the importance to democracy of online spaces where citizens can engage in dialogue on issues of public concern. Specifically, it evaluates the BBC's news and features provision on its website dedicated to the 2005 UK Parliamentary General Election, entitled Election 2005. Particular attention is given to sections such as the Election Monitor, the UK Voters' Panel and Have your say, to which people were encouraged to submit their views and comments for posting. Given the leading status of BBC News Online in the UK (the remit for which is defined, in part, by its Royal Charter obligation to provide a public service), it is vital to examine the Election 2005 website and its role in the democratic process. The principal aim of this thesis is to analyse the ways in which BBC News Online deployed its website to facilitate spaces for citizens to engage in dialogue during the 2005 UK General Election. To achieve this aim, the thesis makes use of web dialogue analysis, which is a method proposed and defined for the purpose of this project. The case study is divided into three chapters: the first dealing with online news in which citizen voices were found to be marginalised; the second concerning different genres of online feature articles, wherein citizen voices was the most prominent source; and the third focussing on sections where people were encouraged to submit comments. Through analysing the nature of source utterances (quotations and paraphrases), and comments submitted to debate sections, the thesis found little dialogue taking place in any of the sections on the BBC's Election 2005 website. It argues this was caused by a) the deliberate intention of BBC staff to discourage dialogue, and instead facilitate a 'global conversation', b) the manual process used to publish comments to the site, and c) people being at the time unaccustomed to participate in any meaningful debate using online forums. In this way, the thesis seeks to contribute to a developing area of scholarship concerned with news media representations of national elections, online journalism and citizenship.

This thesis investigates a variety of uses of actuality (recorded speech), oral history and folklore (vernacular culture) in radio broadcasting in Britain and Newfoundland (Canada). The broadcasting of vernacular culture will be shown to foster intimate and interactive relationships between broadcasters and audiences. Using a theoretical framework that draws upon the work of communications theorists Harold Innis and Walter Ong, the thesis will explore the (secondary) orality of radio broadcasting, and will consider instances in which the normative unidirectional structure and 'passive' orality of radio has been (and can be) made reciprocal and active through the participation of listeners. The inclusion of 'lay voices' and 'vernacular input' in radio broadcasting will be charted as a measure of the democratization of radio, and in order to demonstrate radio's role in disseminating oral history, promoting dialogue, and building and binding communities. The thesis will predominantly focus on local and regional forms of radio: the BBC Regions in the post-war era; regional radio programming serving the Canadianprovince ofNewfoundland both pre- and post-Confederation (which took place in 1949); and the community radio sector in the UK during the last five years. A common theme of many of the case studies within the thesis will be the role of citizen participation in challenging, transgressing or eroding editorial control, institutional protocols and the linguistic hegemony of radio production. Conversely, close attention will be given to the ways in which editorial control in radio production has circumscribed the self-definition of participants and communities. These case studies will provide evidence with which to investigate the following research question - is the democratization of radio possible through the incorporation of citizen voices or messages within radio production or programming, or is it only possible through changing the medium itself through citizen participation in democratic structures of production, management and ownership?

This research is concerned with the development of a set of novel sketch-based skeleton-driven 2D animation techniques, which allow the user to produce realistic 2D character animation efficiently. The technique consists of three parts: sketch-based skeleton-driven 2D animation production, 2D motion capture and a cartoon animation filter. For 2D animation production, the traditional way is drawing the key-frames by experienced animators manually. It is a laborious and time-consuming process. With the proposed techniques, the user only inputs one image ofa character and sketches a skeleton for each subsequent key-frame. The system then deforms the character according to the sketches and produces animation automatically. To perform 2D shape deformation, a variable-length needle model is developed, which divides the deformation into two stages: skeleton driven deformation and nonlinear deformation in joint areas. This approach preserves the local geometric features and global area during animation. Compared with existing 2D shape deformation algorithms, it reduces the computation complexity while still yielding plausible deformation results. To capture the motion of a character from exiting 2D image sequences, a 2D motion capture technique is presented. Since this technique is skeleton-driven, the motion of a 2D character is captured by tracking the joint positions. Using both geometric and visual features, this problem can be solved by ptimization, which prevents self-occlusion and feature disappearance. After tracking, the motion data are retargeted to a new character using the deformation algorithm proposed in the first part. This facilitates the reuse of the characteristics of motion contained in existing moving images, making the process of cartoon generation easy for artists and novices alike. Subsequent to the 2D animation production and motion capture,"Cartoon Animation Filter" is implemented and applied. Following the animation principles, this filter processes two types of cartoon input: a single frame of a cartoon character and motion capture data from an image sequence. It adds anticipation and follow-through to the motion with related squash and stretch effect.

Today's British commercial radio environment consists of over three hundred local, regional and national radio stations. Many operate a concentrated music format, designed to meet the demands of a defined target audience. This is in contrast to the commercial radio model in existence between 1973 and 1990, where local stations were required, as part oftheir contract, to broadcast speech-based programming, in addition to music, to a wider audience profile. One reason for speech programming on commercial stations was the strict regulation laid down by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). Regulatory policy coupled with societal and political changes had a major influence on the creation of programme output from 1973, when commercial radio was established, until new broadcast legislation was passed which transformed the business model under the Broadcasting Act 1990. Programme content was constrained by the regulator's demands for what they referred to as 'meaningful speech' and the stations' desire to be more commercial in line with the demands of the audience. The intention ofthis research project is to explore the impact of regulation upon the commercial radio programming model between 1983-85, and to uncover why this period was pivotal in bringing about change within the regulatory framework. This examination will be carried out by drawing on IBA policy papers, media reports and personal accounts from interviews with key radio station personnel, such as broadcasters, station producers, managers and regulation staff The project draws on original sources of both primary and secondary data, including information held in the archives of the current radio regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), who has granted unlimited access to previously unseen confidential archives. This provides an exclusive data source allowing the research to make an original contribution to broadcasting history, which is pertinent given the current debate on deregulation within UK commercial radio.

The news media are considered a significant force in conflict situations, capable of influencing antagonists and their actions. Whether this influence is constructive or destructive is determined by the nature of journalism presented to the warring sides. News content that holds the other side responsible for the strife and focuses on violence is likely to exacerbate the situation. Sustained reportage on the possibilities and need for peace, on the other hand, could contribute to a political climate suited for peace negotiations. This India-centric study examines the Kashmir conflict in this context. While the coverage of more recent conflicts such as the Gulf Wars and the 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan has evoked sustained scrutiny from media scholars, there is little empirical work on the news on Kashmir. The objective here is to profile the nature of coverage the Indian and Pakistani press accorded the conflict, which could provide an empirical foundation for future discussions and research on Kashmir. Selected news reportage of 10 major events that appeared in two national Indian newspapers and one Pakistani daily is examined for this purpose. By utilising an original coding scheme that draws on conflict journalism, media effects and agenda-setting theories, this study arrives at an indicative overview of the journalism on Kashmir presented to the two publics over the years. The analysis is more reliant on what appeared in the Indian press, and has been contextualised by data drawn from personal interviews with Indian policymakers. Hence it is largely from an Indian perspective. However, the inquiry provides insights into the Pakistani coverage as well. The conclusion, based on patterns that emerged from the news presented to the two warring societies, is that the coverage was vigorously government-led and intensely 'negative'.

Against a backdrop of videogame producers keen to promote themselves as a 'serious' adult entertainment industry, and persistent media reports on the 'dangers' of videogame play, this research examines the lived experiences of adult videogame players. I start with aconsideration of the nature of play and of consumption in order to assess the ways in whichour consumer society may be seen as becoming more playful, or experiential. I also consider the development of key discourses on videogame use and in particular the problematic waysin which we understand real, virtual and digital spaces. These theoretical contexts provide a background against which I consider a phenomenology of adult videogame consumption. Drawing from extended discussions with 24 adult videogame players I review: the biographical and domestic contexts in which adults play videogames; the various practices that they develop relating to buying, owning and using videogames, and; the nature of experiences produced through play. Adults may have started playing videogames as a result of an educational agenda, or peer pressure whilst as school, but may have continued playing intermittently into adulthood and now find that friends, and especially family influence how and what they play. As a result they have developed a variety of practices that I describe in detail including managing the amount of time and money spent on games and negotiating spaces to play. Within these contexts players aim for 'ideal' experiences of skill and achievement, of escape though the management of their imagination, and of social interaction with family and friends. However these largely positive experiences need to be carefully managed against a risk that their behaviour may be seen as childish, and against the potential for play to cause disruption to work or domestic life. Following these detailed first-person descriptions I consider the 'discourses in practice' during the use of videogames. I note the persistent framing of videogame play as frivolous, but also the way in which games are used to manage everyday life by providing a space that is an escape from routines of work and family life and in particular a space in which the imagination may be actualised. In doing so I also consider the transformatory potential of videogames, concluding that although they may be seen to serve a conservative role, and may be critiqued as part of an over-experienced, yet'futile' life, their ability to aid the management of everyday life is significant.

There is growing concern amongst observers of the media that news coverage of politics has moved away from a focus on issues, and instead towards political strategy. This emphasises the tactics employed by politicians in pursuing policy goals, as well as their performance, styles of campaigning, and personal battles in the political arena, whether it be in office, opposition, or during elections (de Vreese & Elenbaas, 2008). Strategically framed news is problematic because it portrays politicians as manipulative, power hungry and Machiavellian, and therefore invites audiences to attribute cynical motives to their actions. As a result, this type of news has been found accountable for increasing levels of political cynicism in the US electorate, which erodes civic engagement and depresses electoral participation - a process described as a media-induced 'spiral of cynicism' (Cappella & Jamieson, 1997). This dissertation examines this type of news. Despite much concern that – driven by a number of changes to the working practices of journalists – political issues are increasingly being undermined by a narrative of strategy, there is little evidence of either the presence or effects of strategy news in the UK, especially outside of elections. This study fills some of this gap by conducting a content analysis of a non-election issue in the news media (press and TV news) over a 3 month period, whereby strategy news as a frame was examined. The issue chosen for case study was the ‘euro debate’ of May-June 2003. The second part of the study is a framing experiment, where a sample of young people were randomly exposed to either a ‘strategy’ or ‘issue’ framed account of the euro debate, and then asked about their political attitudes. Content analysis findings showed the euro debate to fulfil many typical characteristics of EU reporting in the British media, with coverage cyclical and driven by events. Although there was a roughly equal balance of issue and strategy framed stories in the press, the strategy frame was more prominent in the news agenda and was more consistently spread throughout the time period. When broadcast news did cover the euro, it was usually to cover a development in the manoeuvring of political elites. Although some qualifications emerged, much of the content analysis findings confirmed the worries of media critics. Experiment findings found evidence of a ‘spiral of cynicism’ but only for those who were less politically engaged, and their cynicism was confined to the motivations of politicians, not of the political system writ large. For the less engaged, the presentation of the euro debate through the strategy frame also suppressed their support for the euro compared to the issue version. Although some of the experiment findings should concern observers of news media performance, the evidence of this study does not support a full-blown ‘spiral of cynicism’ in the UK.

International meetings such as the G8 Summit have evolved from the sequestered gatherings of the economic elite to full-scale political media events. Using the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit as a case study, and focusing on one specific ‘autonomous’ activist network – Dissent! – this thesis investigates how the process of mediation is articulated in activists’ practices in preparing and enacting acts of contention. Dominant approaches to such events in the field of media and communications are often text-centred, focussing on the media’s framing of protest, overlooking the actions against and interactions with the media at such sites. This oversight is significant given that contemporary political struggle occurs on the ground, as well as with and through the media. The theoretical framework applies past media/movement scholarship to emerging discourses on mediation which view media – its content, producers, users, technologies, culture and rituals – as an ongoing and reflexive process, actualised through analysing activists’ media-oriented practices (Couldry, 2004, Silverstone, 2005). The methodological approach follows Burawoy’s (1998) “extended method” drawing on a year of participant observation and 32 in-depth interviews. Analysis is undertaken on an activist, group and network level; before and at the Summit. The findings show that activists demonstrate a reflexive awareness of media, including lay theories of media which inform their actions. On a networklevel, Dissent! established a policy abstaining from media interaction. Yet, despite this, on a group-level, the CounterSpin Collective formed within Dissent! to manage media interest. The Collective’s media practices are shown to be characterised by a strategy of dual adaptation; adapting to both Dissent!’s political limitations and the media’s demands. The analysis of the site of protest in Scotland – Hori-Zone eco-village – and the protest actions undertaken from it, further demonstrates the way in which media orients and permeates activists practices. The concept of spectacular action is developed to analyse a shift in the type of protest activities conducted at a media event from direct action to the simulation of direct action, valuing symbolic over physical disruption. This thesis contributes to a growing interest in the concept of mediation through the emerging field of media practice, offering both empirical evidence and revised theory. Moreover it addresses the largely neglected role of the media in social movement literature. Research undertaken also demonstrates how the logic of media now permeates the practice of activism, marking the rise of spectacular action as a cause for concern for both activists and academics.

This thesis examines the understandings and meanings of personal blogging from the perspective of blog authors. The theoretical framework draws on a symbolic interactionist perspective, focusing on how meaning is constructed through blogging practices, supplemented by theories of mediation and critical technology studies. The principal evidence in this study is derived from an analysis of in-depth interviews with bloggers selected to maximise their diversity based on the results of an initial survey. This is supplemented by an analysis of personal blogging’s technical contexts and of various societal influences that appear to influence blogging practices. Bloggers were found to have limited interest in gathering information about their readers, appearing to rely instead on an assumption that readers are sympathetic. Although personal blogging practices have been framed as being a form of radically free expression, they were also shown to be subject to potential biases including social norms and the technical characteristics of blogging services. Blogs provide a persistent record of a blogger’s practice, but the bloggers in this study did not generally read their archives or expect others to do so, nor did they retrospectively edit their archives to maintain a consistent self-presentation. The empirical results provide a basis for developing a theoretical perspective to account for blogging practices. This emphasises firstly that a blogger’s construction of the meaning of their practice can be based as much on an imagined and desired social context as it is on an informed and reflexive understanding of the communicative situation. Secondly, blogging practices include a variety of envisaged audience relationships, and some blogging practices appear to be primarily self-directed with potential audiences playing a marginal role. Blogging’s technical characteristics and the social norms surrounding blogging practices appear to enable and reinforce this unanticipated lack of engagement with audiences. This perspective contrasts with studies of computer mediated communication that suggest bloggers would monitor their audiences and present themselves strategically to ensure interactions are successful in their terms. The study also points the way towards several avenues for further research including a more in-depth consideration of the neglected structural factors (both social and technical) which potentially influence blogging practices, and an examination of social network site use practices using a similar analytical approach.

As a generalised field of study, artificial life has produced specific meanings and narratives about what it means to be alive: structured around the concepts of code, information, evolution, connectionism, emergence and cybernetics that connect silicon and carbon life together. Evolutionary computer games and popular programs have introduced the general player and user to advanced artificial life creations, with games based on the nurturing and breeding of silicon creatures placed within new digital natures conceived as computational regimes. Considered is the question of how it has become possible to talk of silicon entities as being alive, and to explore their relationship with carbon life as presented within evolutionary computer games. Similarities between digital and material proposed within computational regimes are also investigated. Playing computer games is developed as a productive practice that constructs meanings, stories and narratives within play. Tracing spiritual and scientific myths and narratives of construction, creation and change, reveals how common stories about life, nature and cosmos are employed in the building of bonds between silicon and carbon. Evolutionary computer games are presented as actively promoting themselves as artificial life products creating links with the life and biological sciences. Meaning produced within play is shown to naturalise and normalise specific definitions of life steeped in neo·Darwinian evolutionism and cybernetics, and how our digital creations have become perfected examples of the essence of this life. Whether this conceptualisation of life, nature and cosmos works within computational regimes is questioned and discussed. Reflecting similar arguments contesting the neo·Darwinian evolutionary perspective within biology, the assumptions employed within this framework are investigated and challenged. Utilising Bruno Latour's program of political ecology and his concepts of proposition and habit. An alternative framework is suggested to examine artificial life, utilising Bruno Latour's program of political ecology, his concepts of proposition and habit, and our relation with these entities.

After approximately 100 years of radio, it is inevitable that radio in Western countries not only survives but also develops, despite fierce competition with visual media. However, having competed with other media for more than 15 years, radio in Vietnam is experiencing a significant loss of audience (especially the youth, the well-educated, and the people in urban areas). It should be noted that due to a 30 year war and 20 years of embargo by the US and other Western countries, information about Western countries in general, and journalism in particular, was in short supply in Vietnam. For this reason, gaining experiences from radio's developments and its adaptability in Western countries - in order to apply these to Vietnamese radio - is an imperative need. However, at present, radio in Western countries has reached a significant turning-point, when a number of terminologies - which are used according to the radio's variants, including web radio, digital radio, and visual radio - have challenged the perceptions of radio which have been accepted for almost a century. The questions 'What is radio?', 'Is web radio 'radio'?' and 'Does web radio enhance radio development?' are contentious issues which have been discussed for some time without a conclusion. On the other hand, web radio has a significant impact on Vietnamese radio in the sense that it brings radio to the Internet community who are generally believed to be the young, well-educated and people in urban areas who listen to traditional radio the least. It is suggested that web radio is potential way to capture the neglected traditional radio listeners in Vietnam. From an historical point of view, this thesis will investigate the changes of radio in terms of technology, radio programming and ways of listening, in order to understand the development of radio from its inception to date. Moreover, radio will be placed in the context of the competition and interplay between mass media. This will be done in order to explore the contention that the existence and development of each medium depends not only on its own characteristics, but also on its ability to adjust itself to a new technological environment - as well as the ability to adapt methods and tools from other media to strengthen its position. It is contended that web radio is the product of the competitive and interactive environment in which it operates: and its characteristics can only be clarified with reference to those relationships between mass media systems. Having investigated the political, historical, sodo-economical and cultural contexts of radio and web radio in Vietnam, the thesis explores the ways in which modem radio theories and practices from Western countries can be applied to Vietnamese radio, and examines if web radio is a means to capture new audiences, particularly the groups who have neglected traditional radio. In order to achieve this aim, three major research methods will be applied: historical and secondary data; online and offline surveys and in-depth interviews of radio listeners, non-radio listeners, and web users about their habits of consuming media, the impact of the Internet on their habits, and their needs towards web radio also will be undertaken.

Computer games with complex virtual worlds, which are populated by artificial characters and creatures, are the most visible application of artificial intelligence techniques. In recent years game development has been fuelled by dramatic advances in computer graphics hardware which have led to a rise in the quality of real-time computer graphics and increased realism in computer games. As a result of these developments video games are gaining acceptance and cultural significance as a form of art and popular culture. An important factor for the attainment of realism in games is the artificially intelligent behaviour displayed by the virtual entities that populate the games' virtual worlds. It is our firm belief that to further improve the behaviour of virtual entities, game AI development will have to mirror the advances achieved in game graphics. A major contributing factor for these advancements has been the advent of programmable shaders for real-time graphics, which in turn has been significantly simplified by the introduction of higher level programming languages for the creation of shaders. This has demonstrated that a good system can be vastly improved by the addition of a programming language. This thesis presents a similar (syntactic) approach to the definition of the behaviour of virtual entities in computer games. We introduce the term behaviour definition language (BDL), describing a programming language for the definition of game entity behaviour. We specify the requirements for this type of programming language, which are applied to the development and implementation of several behaviour definition languages, culminating in the design of a new game-genre independent behaviour definition (scripting) language. This extension programming language includes several game AI techniques within a single unified system, allowing the use of different methods of behaviour definition. A subset of the language (itself a BDL) was implemented as a proof of concept of this design, providing a framework for the syntactic definition of the behaviour of virtual entities in computer games.

Broadcasting is undergoing a period of profound change. Convergence and digitisation are reshaping production and consumption. In the multi-channel environment, public service broadcasting (PSB) finds itself under threat, as traditional funding models are threatened by increased choice, new modes of delivery, and, for commercial public service broadcasters, a reduction in advertising revenue. In the UK, the industry base has undergone significant restructuring over the last twenty-five years. This has occurred following the creation of Channel 4 in 1982, and the emergence of the independent television production sector (ITPS) , coupled with a steady process of employment and industry deregulation. Labour in the sector is now predominantly freelance (Skillset, 2006a, 2007a), and increasingly concentrated in the ITPS, largely in London but with growing production bases at a regional level. Furthermore, the independent sector itself is reshaping, from a sector predominantly made up of small 'one-man band' lifestyle companies, to the more commercially facing, vertically integrated 'super-indies' which now dominate the sector (Mediatique, 2004). In this context of transformation, this thesis is an investigation of creative labour in the ITPS in the UK, focused specifically on factual television production. Based on extended qualitative research of a group of twenty individuals over a six-month period, and supplementary interviews with company managers, the research examines the nature of work and production for individuals in this industry. The sample is cross-generational and includes a wide range of production positions, from researcher to series producer. The research focuses on the consequences of casualisation and risk for television workers, exploring how they manage their careers in the face of rampant insecurity. Drawing on Sennett's (1998) method of narrative sociology, the thesis explores the personal consequences of flexible labour markets (of which television is exemplary) on working individuals. It focuses on the subjective response of individuals to working in this area of the cultural economy, exploring the attractions of cultural labour despite the ontological insecurity and (self)-exploitation which often accompanies such work. It examines the emergence of 'network sociality' (Wittel, 2001) in the creative labour market, and the implications of this for recruitment and access to the television industry. Finally, it utilises the notion of 'craft' (Sennett, 2006), in order to explore the impact of flexible accumulation on television workers' production values.

Relational demographers and dissimilarity researchers contend that group members who are dissimilar (vs. similar) to their peers in terms of a given diversity attribute (e.g. demographics, attitudes, values or traits) feel less attached to their work group, experience less satisfying and more conflicted relationships with their colleagues, and consequently are less effective. However, qualitative reviews suggest empirical findings tend to be weak and inconsistent (Chattopadhyay, Tluchowska and George, 2004; Riordan, 2000; Tsui and Gutek, 1999), and that it remains unclear when, how and to what extent such differences (i.e. relational diversity) affect group members social integration (i.e. attachment with their work group, satisfaction and conflicted relationships with their peers) and effectiveness (Riordan, 2000). This absence of meta-analytically derived effect size estimates and the lack of an integrative theoretical framework leave practitioners with inconclusive advice regarding whether the effects elicited by relational diversity are practically relevant, and if so how these should be managed. The current research develops an integrative theoretical framework, which it tests by using meta-analysis techniques and adding two further empirical studies to the literature. The first study reports a meta-analytic integration of the results of 129 tests of the relationship between relational diversity with social integration and individual effectiveness. Using meta-analytic and structural equation modelling techniques, it shows different effects of surface- and deep-level relational diversity on social integration Specifically, low levels of interdependence accentuated the negative effects of surface-level relational diversity on social integration, while high levels of interdependence accentuated the negative effects of deep-level relational diversity on social integration. The second study builds on a social self-regulation framework (Abrams, 1994) and suggests that under high levels of interdependence relational diversity is not one but two things: visibility and separation. Using ethnicity as a prominent example it was proposed that separation has a negative effect on group members effectiveness leading for those high in visibility and low in separation to overall positive additive effects, while to overall negative additive effects for those low in visibility and high in separation. These propositions were sustained in a sample of 621 business students working in 135 ethnically diverse work groups in a business simulation course over a period of 24 weeks. The third study suggests visibility has a positive effect on group members self-monitoring, while separation has a negative effect. The study proposed that high levels of visibility and low levels of separation lead to overall positive additive effects on self-monitoring but overall negative additive effects for those low in visibility and high in separation. Results from four waves of data on 261 business students working in 69 ethnically diverse work groups in a business simulation course held over a period of 24 weeks support these propositions.

This thesis explores the expansion of British television in the 1950s and 1960s and its relationship to social and cultural change. During this period, television developed into an industry and mass medium and this coincided with a cultural shift from a seemingly consensual society of post-war austerity to a society characterised by fragmentation, individualism and consumerism. By combining a re-examination of existing histories of British television with a discussion of television programmes and sociological theory, this thesis explores the complex relationship between the expansion of television and that social and cultural change. The thesis shows how television represented these changes, and how it presented competing discourses about consumer culture in a range of programmes including action adventure series, pop music and women's programmes. It also demonstrates how television promoted class and cultural conflict in its individual programmes such as situation comedies and dramas, and through juxtaposition of high and low cultural vales, themes and forms in its mixed programme schedule. By looking at issues such as intimacy, performance, authenticity and sociability, the thesis argues that television promoted its own status as an increasingly centralised cultural form. It proposes that television established social categories which became embedded and naturalised over time, and this created the potential to define social experience. The thesis therefore concludes that the examination of the expansion of television in the 1950s and 1960s is of importance for understanding the operation of media power today.

Nystrand's social interactive model of writing (1989) describes composing as a social construct between the reader and writer. Although many researchers are debating whether the language of computer mediated communication (CMC) veers towards written or spoken discourse, or has developed a style of its own (e.g. Baron 1998, 2001; Ferrara et al. 1991; Harrison 2000a; Yates 1996), genre now plays an important role in fixity of documents in a digital medium (Yates and Sumner 1997). I therefore analysed the adaptations in linguistic 'style' of email writing as a non intrusive means to study social-interactive behaviour in networked team writing projects. Based on the premise that socio-emotional communications benefit team performance (Argyle 1994; Barker et al. 2000; Hyland 1998; Panteli 2004), I tested the concept that social interactive adaptations in email writing describe the social-task balance on projects and are reflected in the social interactivity applied to the team writing of the document. Communication markers and writing influences were extracted from email content analysis to compare academic and commercial writing projects. Evaluating documents with Sless's social desirability model (2004) showed a parallelism between the social-task balance described by team emails and social desirability of the final documents. Further studies are required to prove this concept. Social interactive adaptations demonstrated in socio-emotional behaviour in the emails of the academic project were also demonstrated in the final document. Higher pro-social behaviour was represented in Dutch emails in the academic project, and in English emails in the commercial project. Face to face contact influenced pro-social CMC behaviour and perceptions of behaviour. The methodology provides a standard, unintrusive tool for monitoring the social dimensions of projects to identify and correct problem areas, and to research multiple contexts and inform more broadly on professional practice. Relating the social-task dimensions to document evaluations is the first step towards a causal model, to understand how team culture can influence virtual team writing. The merging of personal and professional email styles predicted by Danet (2001a) is already apparent in communications from the academic context. Findings suggest that to encourage informal exchange of ideas and improve socio-emotional relations, professional email communications would benefit from a more conversational style.

As a means of addressing strategies of subjectification within culturally differentiated communities, Reclaiming Remembrance explores the relationship between shame and commemoration in late twentieth/early twenty-first century Britain. In doing so, the thesis emphasizes a consideration of death and commemoration as a key part of the engagement with cultural practices driven by sexual and racial politics. The work draws on Michel Foucault's elaboration of subjectification through discourse, using it as a theoretical starting point for formulating post-identitarian subjectifying strategies. Such strategies are discussed in an analysis of discourses of shame in relation to four case-studies. Each of the case-studies centres on commemorative events in which artists and writers commemorated prominent cultural figures whose deaths had taken place in circumstances that can be understood in terms of shame. The thesis elaborates 'shame' as 'a crisis of legitimacy'. The effects of such crises are explored in respect of the problems they posed for culturally differentiated communities in the generation of hagiographical images of prominent figures, such as: the photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode; the Irish nationalist Roger Casement; the footballer Justin Fashanu; the writer Oscar Wilde. Specific problems are seen to have arisen in respect of the commemorative practices discussed in each of the case-studies. Such problems are identified as: apprehension, dispossession, doubt, embargoes, omissions and variance. The problems are explored in three key ways: first, in respect of the manner in which they impeded engagement with the commemorative practices discussed in the case-studies; secondly, as regards the mechanisms used to facilitate nuanced approaches to the material under consideration; thirdly, in relation to the means by which they provided the grounds for a reformulation of subjectifying strategies among culturally differentiated communities. In doing so, the hope is that this thesis will facilitate the development of post-identity politics in a direction that is productive of a wider range of possibilities for those engaged with struggles surrounding culturally differentiation.

This study takes a step towards answering two questions concerning L2 writing: 'Why do the Japanese write English expository essays differently in terms of discourse structure from their native English counterparts?' and 'What are the differences?' The study compares discourse structures of Japanese and English school texts from 30 Japanese junior high school pupils (14-15 years), who wrote school compositions on the occasion of their graduation, and 30 British secondary school pupils (14-16 years), who wrote GCSE coursework essays for Religious Education and English. Other written materials were collected from a Japanese school, and classrooms at a British school were observed. There are three research questions: whether the school texts are different in terms of topical progression (consisting of parallel, extended parallel, sequential and extended sequential progressions), what implications the results have in terms of genre and what implications the results have for Contrastive Rhetoric (CR) research. A review of CR literature suggests a need for further studies in this area, particularly for the exploration of the cultural and educational contexts, where preferred L1 discourse structures are likely to be taught and practised. It also raises an issue of genre, questioning whether expository writing, which has been the yardstick genre of CR research, is universally practised. Another issue is the search for a methodological framework for text analysis which can relate textual features to 'rhetorical organisation'. The apparently universal discourse structure of a meaningful utterance, topic - comment, and the central role of information structure in the construction of coherence, suggest Topical Structure Analysis (TSA) as the framework. The application of TSA to Japanese is discussed and found to be appropriate. The examination of the materials from the Japanese school and the observation of English and Religious Education classes in the British school reveal that expository writing is not practised in the Japanese school; instead, writing is used for self-reflection and self-growth. In the British school, expository writing is the major means of learning and assessment. The writing used in the Japanese school is characterised by parallel progression while English expository writing is likely to contain many topical progressions due to its clear focus on a limited number of topics and its logical nature. The TSA results show substantial differences of occurrence of topical progressions: the English texts contain more topical progressions, suggesting that they rely more than the Japanese texts on repetition of important items in conveying a sense of coherence. Parallel progression is the only type of progression that occurs more in the Japanese texts than the English texts. Examination of the results reveals the roles of topical progressions: parallel progressions for accumulation of information/descriptions, sequential progressions for development of argument, extended parallel and extended sequential progressions for repetition of important items throughout the text. The differences in the mean occurrences of topical progressions are found to be due to the difference of genre or function between the two data sets: the Japanese texts are expressive and the English texts transactional. The use of parallel progressions is associated with description within the expressive texts and the use of the other progression types is associated with the argumentative nature of English school essays. The potential of the topical marker was in Japanese for the construction of coherence is discussed. By providing a clearer coding scheme, this study contributes to TSA studies and CR research in general. The findings support a number of earlier CR findings. Although the limited sample size prevents generalisation, the findings hint at an association between lack of experience in argumentatiy writing among Japanese secondary pupils and the L2 writing performance of Japanese students at English speaking universities. Analysis based on TSA, while unable to detect every feature of coherence in text, has the potential to provide useful data for L2 writing classrooms and for future CR research relating textual features to coherence construction.

This dissertation examines the rise of English language commercial radio broadcasting from the Continent to Britain prior to World War Two, and its effect on the Public Service monopoly defended by the BBC. It explores the long-term effect on the history of British broadcasting caused by this competition, and argues for a reasoned consideration of the role of commercial broadcasting in the development of British media. Aller its introduction, which sets out the author's case for the fuller examination of this subject, Part One addresses the context of early broadcasting in Britain, and the guiding principles behind the Public Service ethic. Part Two extends this context to examine firstly the cultural climate in Britain between the wars, proceeding to discuss parallels, divergences and influences between the emerging broadcasting industries of the United Kingdom and the United States. Part Three explores important areas in which commercial operators played a major role in the development of broadcasting, namely scheduling and audience research, and the development of broadcast technology, notably recording processes. In Part Four the dissertation details the central issue of concerted commercial attacks on the BBC's monopoly, exploiting in particular its controversial Sunday Programmes Policy. It further charts the response of the Corporation to these challenges, and the gradual changes to Public Service Broadcasting as a result. The effects of competition were long-term, and to demonstrate this it is necessary to extend the study beyond the main historical area; Part Five therefore takes account of the Post-War climate, the parallels between 1930s and 1960s pressure from commercial interests, and the eventual arrival of land-based Independent Radio, initially governed by a Public Service Ethic. Finally, the Conclusion proposes that the thus Far undervalued role of Commercial radio in the United Kingdom belies its importance as a presence and influence in the medium dating hack to the very earliest years of British broadcasting.