Searching for a Place in the Journalistic Sun: A Delphi Study of Future Ethical Issues for the News Media

Higher Educatio

Now for the long term: the report of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations

This report is the product of a year long process of research and debate undertaken by a group of eminent leaders on the successes and failures in addressing global challenges over recent decades. As the world slowly emerges from the devastating Financial Crisis, it is time to reflect on the lessons of this turbulent period and think afresh about how to prevent future crises. The Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations focuses on the increasing short-termism of modern politics and our collective inability to break the gridlock which undermines attempts to address the biggest challenges that will shape our future. In Now for the Long Term, they urge decision-makers to overcome their pressing daily preoccupations to tackle problems that will determine the lives of today’s and tomorrow’s generations. Dr James Martin, the founder of the Oxford Martin School, highlights that humanity is at a crossroads. This could be our best century ever, or our worst. The outcome will depend on our ability to understand and harness the extraordinary opportunities as well as manage the unprecedented uncertainties and risks.   The report identifies what these challenges are, explains how progress can be made, and provides practical recommendations. The Commission outlines an agenda for the long term. The case for action is built in three parts. The first, Possible Futures , identifies the key drivers of change and considers how we may address the challenges that will dominate this century. Next, in Responsible Futures, the Commission draws inspiration from previous examples of where impediments to action have been overcome, and lessons from where progress has been stalled. We then consider the characteristics of our current national and global society that frustrate progress. The final part, Practical Futures, sets out the principles for action and offers illustrative recommendations which show how we can build a sustainable, inclusive and resilient future for all. &nbsp

Of rattle snakes and grapes of wrath: rise, fall and rise of independent media in Kenya

The Kenyan case highlights government’s recourse to sophisticated, “silent” but effective process of emasculating the media in spite of the robustness of the constitutional, legal and institutional frames for media behaviour. The author, Peter Kimani, notes further, however, that investments in the technology sector have led to an empowered citizenry and helped to reorganize the way news is sourced and disseminated, particularly through mobile telephony. According to him, “this, it is safe to predict, is the next news frontier, and start-ups and other fringe news portals are likely to problematize power relations between media barons and the state, and provoke reassessment in the way censorship is/will be exercised in the near future”

Precarious Creativity: Working Lives in the British Independent Television Production Industry

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 value

Ethics, media, theology and development in Africa : a Festschrift in honour of Msgr Prof. Dr Obiora Francis Ike

This Festschrift is published in honour of Msgr Prof. Dr Obiora Francis Ike on the auspicuous occasion of his 65th birthday celebration and 40th priestly ordination anniversary in the year of the Lord two thousand and twenty two (2022), for his immensely distinguished and valuable services and contributions to Nigeria, Africa and the world as a priest, a scholar and an administrator. This Festschrift commemorates the successful six years of his tenure as the Executive Director of Globethics.net, Geneva, Switzerland (2016-2022).This book is a collection of scholarly articles, structured into six different parties and topics such as Reflections on Obiora Ike, Ethics and Christian Faith, Ethics and Environment, War, Ethics, Value, Culture and the Media in Africa, Ethics and the Media in Nigeria, Ethics and Administration. These parties are aiming at understanding and highlighting thoughts and areas of scholarly interest of Msgr Prof. Obiora Ike on theology, ethics and development issues. By showing several serious ethical issues observed on the African continent the book is aiming at being a resource material for theology scholars, applied ethicists, media scholars and professionals, development planners, technological entrepreneurs, policymakers, curriculum developers, society leaders and administrators in general

Between the candle and the star.

This dissertation explores the limits and possibilities of science fiction at the level of television. It examines the narrative strategies of the television series Babylon 5, arguing that the programme has created a radical new sf discourse for television. In doing so, Babylon 5 has also created a new form of television narrative. The Introduction establishes the parameters of the study. Part One examines science fiction in context, considering how the genre may be identified, and in Part Two, examines its possible precursors and the influences of the epic, the Romantic novel (particularly the Gothic) and Sublime. It also considers the role and visualisation of the Western and the epic settlement of the frontier in American mytho-history. Part Three establishes the general criteria for an aesthetics of television, discussing television narrative, and examining episodic and serial drama, soap opera, before considering issues of authorship and industry. It also explores representations of sf on television with series such as Star Trek; Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Dr Who, The X Files, Space: Above and Beyond and Stargate: SG-1. Part Four examines the five-season text of Babylon 5, arguing that in form and content it creates an ideological break with the binary ideology of the past, creating a new form of television which is both epic and novelistic, serial and episodic in nature. Part Five concludes the dissertation, proposing that Babylon 5 offers the first television epic and creates a discourse where the ideology of the past and the values of traditional television sf are questioned and subverted, resulting in a new mythos based upon the infinite discourse of diverse humanity