Ingrid Volkmer argues that the new global exchange can be regarded as a trans-societal sphere of mediation, which involves a global exchange of universal but also - increasingly - particular news and political information issues. This new diverse global information flow provides the communication platform, on which a global civil society emerges.
The CNN Effect examines the relationship between the state and its media, and considers the role played by the news reporting in a series of 'humanitarian' interventions in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. Piers Robinson challenges traditional views of media subservience and argues that sympathetic news coverage at key moments in foreign crises can influence the response of Western governments.
This handbook covers perspectives from both the social sciences and the humanities. It provides guidelines for how to think about, plan, and carry out studies of media in different social and cultural contexts.
We are living in a period of great uncertainty. The rise of extreme populists, economic shocks and rising international tensions is not only causing turmoil but is also a sign that many long-predicted tipping points in media and politics have now been reached. Such changes have worrying implications for democracies everywhere. This second edition of Political Communication bridges old and new to map the political and cultural shifts and analyse what they mean for our ageing democracies. With new sections and revisions to all chapters, the book continues both to introduce and challenge the established literature. It revisits key questions such as: Why are polarized electorates no longer prepared to support established political parties? Why are large parts of the legacy media either dying or dismissed as 'fake news'? And why do some democratic leaders look more like dictators? In this fully updated edition, there is greater focus on digital developments, and it is enriched with new global comparisons and useful ancillary material. Political Communication: An Introduction for Crisis Times will appeal to advanced students and scholars of political communication, as well as anyone trying to understand the precarious state of today's media and political landscape.
The Middle East has been a particular focus of global crisis reporting. Yet, international coverage of these conflicts has historically been presented through a 'Western' perspective. The absence of Arab voices in the global public sphere has created a discursive gap between the Middle East and the rest of the world. The arrival of Al Jazeera English might, therefore, be regarded as an attempt to bridge this gap by broadcasting discourses from and about the Arab world. Using a framing analysis of selected news reports by Al Jazeera English before and after the so-called 'Arab Spring' protests, this book considers Al Jazeera English's position in the global news environment and identifies the extent to which it addresses this gap between the Arab and global spheres.
The media ecology within which conventional mainstream journalism currently operates has undergone major transformations since the advent of social media. These transformations arise from the disruption brought upon by the emergence of networked, interactive platforms and user-driven online applications including social media, blogs and alternative citizen news sites. This book analyses networked forms of journalistic production at traditional news organizations and their conventional news channels. Focusing on case studies from Malaysia, it examines current transformations to the norms, practices and values of conventional news production. Drawing upon a recent global-comparative turn in journalism studies and parallel efforts to de-Westernize communication theory, this book suggests an innovative ‘glocal’ comparative approach to analyse ‘network newswork’ among global, transnational, and local news organizations, including Al Jazeera and Bernama TV, located within the same geographical locality, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This author uses an empirically-grounded conceptual framework for exploring and understanding recent transformations that user-driven networked resources bring to professional journalists’ daily work of producing news. Discussing the implications of network newswork on the wider global journalistic sphere, the book elucidates a tiered model of networked sources and expounds upon journalism’s deepening of the digital divide in its inadvertent muting of the voices of non-networked communities that are switched off from the global news sphere and its network society. A fresh perspective on the analysis of globalization in the media and a useful guide for gaining access into media organizations and securing cooperation of organizational members for research, this book will be of interest to researchers in the field of Asian Media and Communication Studies, Journalism Studies, Political Communication and Sociology of Journalism.
This book analyzes how and why Al Jazeera English (AJE) became the channel of choice to understand the massive protests across the Arab world 2011. Aiming to explain the ‘Al Jazeera moment,’ it tracks the channel’s bumpy road towards international recognition in a longitudinal, in-depth analysis of the channel’s editorial profile and strategies. Studying AJE from its launch in mid-November 2006 to the ‘Arab Spring’, it explains and problematizes the channel’s ambitious editorial agenda and strategies, examines the internal conflicts, practical challenges and minor breakthroughs in its formative years. The Al Jazeera-phenomenon has received massive attention, but it remains under-researched. The growth of transnational satellite television has transformed the global media landscape into a complex web of multi-vocal, multimedia and multi-directional flows. Based on a combination of policy-, production- and content analysis of comprehensive empirical data the book offers an innovative perspective on the theorization of global news contra-flows. By problematizing the distinctive characteristics of AJE, it examines the strategic motivation behind the channel and the ways in which its production processes and news profile are meant to be different from its Anglo-American competitors. These questions underscore a central nexus of the book: the changing relationship between transnational satellite news and power.
This exciting collection raises important questions regarding what journalism should look like after the events of September 11th. It will be necessary reading for those concerned with the integrity of journalistic practice.
Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive introduction to the various approaches in the field. From outlining what media studies is to encouraging active engagement in research and analysis, this book advocates media study as a participatory process and provides a framework and set of skills to help you develop critical thinking. Updated to reflect the changing media environment, Media Studies retains the highly praised approach and style of the first edition. Key Features: Five sections - media texts and meanings; producing media; media audiences; media and social contexts; histography - examine approaches to the field including new and web media, traditional print and broadcast media, popular music, computer games, photography, and film. An international perspective allows you to view media in a global context. Examines media audiences as consumers, listeners, readerships and members of communities. Guidance on analytical tools - language, a range of theories and analytical techniques - to give you the confidence to navigate, research and make sense of the field. New for the second edition: New case studies including Google, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, the life of a freelance journalist, phone hacking at News International, and collaborative journalism. 'New Media, New Media Studies' is an additional feature, which brings into focus ways of thinking about new media forms. Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context, 2nd Edition will be essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of media studies, cultural studies, communication studies, film studies, the sociology of the media, popular culture and other related subjects.