Public communication as ideal and practice: Definitions of the common good in Persian-language transnational newswork

Public communication’s normative task is to support the legitimacy of collective decisions. Theoretically, two challenges in particular have proved persistent: (1) defining the purpose of public communication under conditions of pluralism, and (2) defining the composition of the public sphere as communication becomes increasingly transnational. It is argued that shared definitions of these, among actors participating in public communication, are prerequisites for the democratic legitimacy of collective decisions. Achieving this is difficult, particularly because it remains unclear how practices of public communication relate to ideals such as participation, inclusion and public reason. In part these difficulties can be attributed to a lack of congruence between the way political theory and empirical social research frame questions about the public sphere. To deepen understanding of these challenges, this study asks how purpose and composition are defined in Persian-language transnational newswork. It also asks whether communicating actors enjoy any meaningful definitional agency. The study is designed to align these empirical results with normative questions about public communication so that they speak more fully to one another. An interview-based qualitative study of the way newsworkers who engage in transnational Persian broadcasting define the public sphere provides the setting for this research. Newsworkers are examined because, it is argued, they enjoy a privileged kind of agency over processes of public communication and play an important role in the public sphere. The results show that transnational newsworkers enjoy some definitional agency, and that both purpose and composition find multiple, sometimes overlapping, and sometimes incommensurable and contradictory definitions in newswork. Newsworkers define a polymorphous public sphere characterised by a plurality of communicative purposes and constituted of a multiplicity of groups with different political allegiances. Some aspects of their definitions resonate with deliberative or agonistic conceptions of the public sphere. Despite these resonances, there are some contradictions between the requirements normative theory makes for a unified single-purpose public sphere and the multiplicity of purposes and criteria for inclusion found in practices of public communication. It is argued that these can be addressed by reducing the fact/value dichotomy and by shifting attention from compositional questions about the public sphere to a greater emphasis on the efficacy of public communication. This thesis contributes to the analysis of transnational and pluralistic public spheres. Moreover, based on both conceptual and empirical analysis, it examines how practices of public communication relate to ideals of the public sphere, an issue that is neglected in the literatur

Inside the European Consensus on Development and Trade : Analysing the EU's Normative Power and Policy Coherence for Development in Global Governance

This dissertation revolves around the enigmatic role of development policy in the European Union (EU), and its place and purpose in relation to the EU’s trade policy and to the Union at large. In particular, it looks at the preconditions that direct the EU’s work for the international development objectives of poverty eradication and sustainable development. In this regard, there has been considerable debate on policy coherence for development, or in other words, on how the EU policies in the field of trade work in favour of, or against, development goals. In fact, the EU has made binding commitments in the EU treaties and in international conventions to advance coherence from a development perspective. However, what actually constitutes policy coherence for development in the EU, and how it is defined and promoted have largely remained unstudied to date. In addition, the question of the power to establish common standards for policy coherence deserves a closer look, both within the EU and in global governance at large. This contribution aims to fill this research gap by tracing the key development- and trade-related processes and analysing their outcomes. These include the first joint policy statement by the European Commission, the European Council and the Parliament, entitled the European Consensus on Development (2005-), as well as those elements of the EU trade policy that were officially declared to manifest policy coherence for development. Regarding the latter, the EU position in relation to the WTO Doha Development Round, as well as the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), is a case in point. The dissertation addresses these issues in the broader historical, international and institutional settings before the Lisbon Treaty (2009), but also draws lessons for the present. The primary data consist of official EU documents and 34 semi-structured interviews with development and trade actors involved in these processes. Drawing on two analytical frameworks – power in global governance (Barnett & Duvall 2005) and normative power Europe (Manners 2002; 2006) – I examine the formation of the policy coherence for development principle in the EU’s development- and trade-related texts, discourse production and social practices that define, naturalise and reproduce certain norms while dismissing others (cf. Fairclough 1992; 2003). My findings indicate that the EU’s contribution to policy coherence for development is affected by intra- and inter-institutional tensions, as well as by ambiguity surrounding the role and purpose of development policy in the Union. In particular, I demonstrate how the proactive role of the Commission in the policy initiation was triggered primarily by the changes in the security and trade branches of the external relations, rather than by learning from the past development policies and its own goal attainment. Although these linkages can be seen as a strategic choice to improve the institutional position of European Community development policy both within the Commission as well as between the Commission and the Council, this choice compromised the development policy content. This tendency is particularly clear in the gradually narrowed, administratively and technically oriented approach to policy coherence for development. In relation to trade, policy coherence was limited mainly to the EU market access proposals for the Least Developed Countries. This aspect of trade liberalisation formed the core for both the international and EU consensus on trade and development. In turn, the reciprocal liberalisation of developing country markets under the Economic Partnership Agreements was initially much weaker. This changed with the dominant role and interests of DG Trade, which adopted the development policy discourse and influenced the Commission policy on development and trade. Consequently, the reciprocal free trade format and the European Commission’s interpretation of international trade law (i.e. GATT Article XXIV) also became the official understanding of policy coherence for development in the EU. As a result, the EU’s model for policy coherence is inclined towards trade policy coherence and in favour of the overall consistency of the Union, rather than policy coherence for development. Therefore, the EU’s normative model risks being inadequate when it comes to safeguarding and advancing development policy goals.Väitöskirjani käsittelee Euroopan Unionin (EU) kehityspolitiikkaa suhteessa EU:n kauppapolitiikkaan ja Unionin kansainväliseen rooliin. Erityisesti siinä tarkastellaan EU:n poliittisen järjestelmän edellytyksiä ja esteitä, jotka vaikuttavat EU:n toimintaan köyhyyden poistamiseksi ja kestävän kehityksen edistämiseksi. Näistä tavoitteista ei vastaa pelkästään EU:n kehityspolitiikka, vaan Unioni on sitoutunut ottamaan ne huomioon kaikessa kehitysmaihin vaikuttavassa toiminnassaan. Tästä, niin sanotusta kehityspoliittisen johdonmukaisuuden näkökulmasta, kehitys- ja kauppapolitiikan välinen suhde on aina ollut merkittävä, mutta hyvin kiistelty. Sisäisistä ja ulkoisista ristiriidoista huolimatta EU pyrkii löytämään yhteisen linjan, ”konsensuksen”, myös kaupan ja kehityksen alalla. Koska EU jäsenmaineen on yhä maailman suurin kehitysavun antaja ja kehitysmaiden kauppakumppani, sen linjaukset ovat merkittäviä köyhimpien maiden sekä kansainvälisten toimintaperiaatteiden ja normien kannalta. EU:n kehityspolitiikkaa ja kehitystavoitteisiin vaikuttavaa kauppapolitiikkaa, tai sitä miten EU määrittää kehityspoliittista johdonmukaisuutta poliittisessa päätöksenteossaan, ei ole aikaisemmin systemaattisesti tutkittu. Väitöskirjani paikkaa tätä aukkoa kehitystutkimuksen ja EU-tutkimuksen kentässä. Tutkimukseni keskittyy tärkeimpiin kehitys- ja kauppapoliittisiin prosesseihin ja niiden tuloksina syntyneisiin linjauksiin, muun muassa historian ensimmäiseen EU:n komission, neuvoston ja Euroopan parlamentin yhteiseen ”European Consensus on Development” (2005—) -julkilausumaan sekä kehitystavoitteiden toteuttamista EU:n näkökulmasta edistäviin kauppapolitiikan aloitteisiin. Näitä ovat puolestaan EU:n maailmankauppajärjestö WTO:n Dohan kehityskierroksen (2001—) prioriteetit sekä EU:n ja Afrikan, Karibian ja Tyynenmeren AKT-maiden väliset, vastavuoroiseen kaupan vapauttamiseen tähtäävät talouskumppanuussopimukset, EPAt (2002—). Näitä politiikkaprosesseja ja niiden tuloksia tarkastelen osana EU:n sisäistä ja maailmanpoliittista kontekstia vuosituhannen vaihteesta vuoden 2009 Lissabonin sopimukseen saakka. Tutkimukseni osallistuu niin sanotusta EU:n normatiivista vallasta (vrt. Manners 2002; 2006) ja globaalin vallankäytön muodoista (Barnett & Duvall 2005) käytävään teoreettiseen keskusteluun. Normatiivinen valta tarkoittaa tässä yhteydessä valtaa määritellä kehityspoliittisen johdonmukaisuuden sisältö / merkitys EU:n kehitys- ja kauppapoliittisessa päätöksenteossa sekä laajemmin kansainvälisessä kehityspolitiikassa. Ensisijainen tutkimusaineistoni koostuu virallisista EU-asiakirjoista sekä 34:stä semistrukturoiduista EU:n kehitys- ja kauppapoliittisten päättäjien haastatteluista. Analyysissäni käytän niin sanottua ”process-tracing” -metodia sekä kriittistä diskurssianalyysiä (vrt. Fairclough 1992; 2003). Jäljitän siis politiikan teon vaiheita ja kehityspoliittisen johdonmukaisuus-käsitteen ja sitä ympäröivän puhetavan muotoutumista, vakiinnuttamista ja valikoidun normiston hyväksyttämistä vallitsevaksi ajattelutavaksi. Tutkimukseni tulokset osoittavat, että Unionin instituutioiden väliset jännitteet sekä EU:n kehityspolitiikan epäselvä rooli haittaavat EU:n kehityspoliittisten tavoitteiden edistämistä. Komission kehityspolitiikasta vastaavan pääosaston heikko asema ei anna edellytyksiä toimia itsenäisesti. Kehityspoliittisten toimijoiden on jatkuvasti turvattava asemansa strategisella liittoutumisella suhteessa kauppa- ja turvallisuuspolitiikkaan sekä suhteessa kansallista kehityspolitiikkaansa painottaviin jäsenmaihin. Kehityspolitiikassa komission ja jäsenmaiden kesken toimivalta on jaettu, mikä monimutkaistaa politiikkaprosessia. Merkittävä huomio on myös se, että kasvava paine komission sisäiseen yhtenäisyyteen kaventaa kehityspolitiikan liikkumavaraa suhteessa kauppapolitiikkaan, jossa toimivalta on yksinomaan komissiolla. Yhdenmukaisuuden paine vähentää myös tarvetta haastaa muita politiikka-aloja, vaikka kumppanimaat tätä vaatisivatkin. Siinä missä kauppapolitiikassa voidaan valjastaa kehitystavoitteet omaksi agendakseen omilla ehdoillaan, kehityspolitiikka painii kehitysavun ja komission ja jäsenmaiden toimivaltakysymysten äärellä eikä aseta ehtoja kauppapoliittiselle toiminnalle. Kehityspoliittisen johdonmukaisuus-käsitteen asteittainen kaventuminen, epäpolitisoituminen ja teknistyminen sekä muuttuminen kauppapolitiikan johdonmukaisuudeksi ilmentävät hyvin näitä ristiriitoja. Tarkastelemissani prosesseissa kehityspolitiikan tavoitteiden suhteen kaikkein köyhimpien maiden EU-markkinoille pääsyn edistäminen muodosti konsensuksen kärjen niin EU:n kuin WTO:n sisällä. Sen sijaan EU:n kahdenväliset, vastavuoroiseen kaupan vapauttamiseen tähtäävät vapaakauppasopimukset Afrikan, Karibian ja Tyynenmeren maiden kanssa ovat muodostuneet kompastuskiveksi. Tutkimukseni osoittaa, että kehityspoliittisen johdonmukaisuuden määreet irtaantuivat kehityspolitiikan tavoitteista ja kehityspoliittisten toimijoiden kontrollista. Lopputuloksena on se, että EU:n kauppapolitiikka määrittää kehityspoliittisen johdonmukaisuuden normistoa EU:n sisällä

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Television coverage of British party conferences in the 1990s: The symbiotic production of political news.

Studies of political communication in the UK have focused primarily on election campaigns and reportage of parliamentary and public policy issues. In these contexts, two or more parties compete for coverage in the news media. However, the main British party conferences present a different context, where one party's activities form the (almost exclusive) focus of the news media's attention for a week, and that party's leadership 'negotiates' coverage in a direct one-to-one relationship. Conference weeks are the key points in the organizational year for each party (irrespective of their internal arrangements), and a critical period for communicating information about the party to voters at large, especially via television news coverage, which forms the focus of this study. The visual and audio impressions generated in the conference hall shape the way in which citizens not involved with that party perceive its organization, membership and policies. This thesis is the first specialized study of how TV news coverage of party conferences is shaped. Source-centred approaches to understanding the production of news focus on the activities of extra-media actors such as party elites in shaping coverage. Media-centred approaches substantially disagree, stressing the media elites' exercise of discretionary power or licensed autonomy in framing news. Party conference coverage reveals the activities of both party and media elites in an exceptionally clear and uncluttered form. Using qualitative interviews with party and media influentials, content analysis of TV news coverage and transcripts, direct observation of conferences and newsrooms, and collateral material from press coverage, historical material and other sources, this study explores the main stages in the production of news. Parties and media organizations both undertake detailed pre-planning for conference week, in the process negotiating key parameters which shape coverage. Journalistic news gathering activities shape the emergence of stories once the conference week begins. The parties have developed specialist teams to handle immediate news management, taking account of media strategies, but coverage can also be affected by internal dissent inside the parties, and by collective and individual responses among TV organizations. The production of conference news is symbiotic at many levels. The one-to-one character of party-media relations in conference weeks demonstrates clearly that broadcasting organisations exert a disciplinary effect upon political parties. Media pressures have fostered a degree of homogenization in parties' internal structures, and a certain standardization in their previously unique organizational cultures and modes of public self-presentation. Party conferences have come to look and sound similar, partly in response to the organizational demands of media professionals and the emergence of media-oriented party cadres. But access to TV news is also an increasingly effective tool for party leaderships to influence the internal debates and power struggles within the parties themselves

An empirical assessment of consumption practices in a revolutionary epoch : the case of Egypt and Libya

The aim of this thesis was to determine the impact of the recent and ongoing Arab Spring phenomenon on consumption practices in Egypt (Cairo) and Libya (Tripoli). The purpose behind the research was to empirically analyse how the Arab Spring has been driven by consumption and the extent to which consumption has been affected by the Arab Spring. A study was conducted between March-April 2013 in two of the main cities associated with the Arab Spring; Cairo (Egypt) and Tripoli (Libya). Retrospective accounts were obtained to capture citizens past experiences, present experiences and future expectations in order to develop a greater understanding of changing consumption practices. This thesis is grounded firmly in the marketing discipline as much as it is in the social sciences, particularly since the consulted literature is of an interdisciplinary nature and the Arab Spring phenomenon is not only of interest to marketing academics and practitioners but also policy makers and sociologists alike.Change is central to this thesis and citizens are considered the anchor of change. The main findings to emerge from this research are that consumption was a call for the revolution but also a cause of it. Two streams of consumption have been identified. These are conservative and conspicuous consumption. While citizens in Cairo have become more conservative in the present epoch (time of data collection March-April 2013), Libyans have become more conspicuous and are excited to try new modes of consumption. Furthermore, a contention raised in this thesis is that marketing operations in times of flux are often neglected. However, the findings demonstrate that there is a greater opportunity to capitalise on new clientele in a state of flux and amidst the instability and insecurity. As a result of the data collected in flux, this study would seem to have particular value and interestingess in the marketing discipline and beyond.Contributions made in this thesis are of a revelatory nature due to the combination of multiple theoretical lenses and the findings marking a very early empirical contribution across the social science disciplines in understanding the impact of the Arab Spring on consumption practices as well as the development and ongoing epiphenomenal state of flux in the Middle East. To the author’s best knowledge, this study is the first to conceptualise the revolutions within the marketing discipline. The findings may be transferred to other contexts and settings to examine other societies in a state of flux such as Ukraine, Syria and Iraq. A conceptual framework is used to illustrate practices in flux. Emergent themes are proposed via a conceptual model to demonstrate how flux influences consumption practices. Moreover, a novel and unusual methodological approach is used by combining a systematic literature review (SLR) as an entry point into the literature alongside grounded theory methods to study matters of consumption practices

Blending industry varietals : developmental considerations for the South African wine tourism industry

Includes bibliographical references.There is consensus that wine tourism summarily offers a strong competitive advantage for wine regions, and can generate profitable business for wineries, other wine-related products and for visitor services. And in the four decades since the first manifestation of South African wine tourism was established in the Stellenbosch wine route, there has been general agreement that South African wine tourism has grown significantly in both local and international reputation and recognition. As a result of the widely identified potential of wine tourism, the South African industry has presented a continuing expectation of sustained industrial growth and tangible developmental manifestations and contributions. However, the industry successes since democracy have more recently been shadowed by an increasingly evident developmental frustration and dissatisfaction on the part of stakeholders, academics and observers.There has been considerable discussion and argument over the growing evidence of non-existent or insufficiently developed industry associative networks, the wide spread and overbearing prevalence of a production mind set and the mounting agreement that there are tremendous amounts of further research and investment still required if South African wine tourism is to realize the true value of its assets. This study identifies and clarifies this prevalent practical problem and research concern of slow and disparate development in the South African wine tourism industry in cognizance of the increasingly evident dissatisfaction and unrealized expectation of South African wine tourism industry stakeholders

Mediating the nation-building agenda in public service broadcasting: convergence active user-generated content (AUGC) for television in Kenya

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2016The  violence,  destruction  and  death  of  more  than  1  200  people  resulting  from   the  highly  disputed  2007  election  results  in  Kenya  was  a  considerable  watershed   moment.  It  exposed  the  deep  fragmentation  within  the  nation-­‐state  and  became   a  significant  fissure  for  the  simmering  tensions  among  the  42  “tribes”  of  Kenya.   In  the  media-­‐scape,  these  events  evinced  the  elitist  and  tribal  hegemony  in  media   ownership  and  revealed,  more  than  ever  before,  that  certain  voices  and   narratives  were  privileged  over  others.  These  events  also  unmasked  recurrent   motifs,  which  illuminated  the  stranglehold  that  the  political,  media  and  economic   elites  wielded  over  media  instruments  and  platforms,  for  their  own  benefit.       This  study  aims  to  explore  the  extent  to  which  active  user-­‐generated  content  in   the  digital  media  space  can  intervene  in,  and  disrupt,  some  of  these  exclusionary   practices  in  the  public  service  mediascape,  to  potentially  inspire  a  re-­‐imagination   in  this  space  for  nation  building  in  Kenya.  It  is  premised  on  a  participatory  action   research  approach  that  draws  on  theoretical  discourse  on  nationalism  and   nation  building,  as  this  is  the  field  from  which  the  study’s  key  problems  stem  and   where  conceptual  discourses  on  digital  media  converge.  The  study  also  draws  on   participatory  discourses  in  the  media,  as  these  potentially  present  an   emancipatory  platform  for  those  on  the  margins  of  the  hegemonic  centres.  Here   it  mainly  draws  on  Bhabha’s  cultural  difference  theory,  Billig’s  banal   nationalisms,  Jenkins’  ideas  on  convergence  culture,  Carpentier’s  thoughts  on   maximalist  media  participation  and  Thumim’s  assertions  on  self-­‐representation   in  the  digital  space.     The  study  also  hinges  on  the  practice-­‐informed  pilot  project  titled  Utaifa   Mashinani  Masimulizi  ya  Ukenya  (UMMU)  digital  narratives,  co-­‐created  by  the   researcher  together  with  the  Abakuria  (the  Kuria  people)  of  Kenya.  This  is  a   community  marginally  represented  in  the  public  service  broadcasting-­‐scape  in   Kenya  and  a  people  whose  narrative  discourse  is  seldom  present  in  the  public   sphere.     The  study  argues  that  broadcast  content  –  not  just  in  Kenya  but  also  in  Africa  –   on  User  Generated  Content  (UGC)  for  broadcasting  predominantly  focuses  on   passive  forms  of  UGC  rather  than  Active  User  Generated  Content  (AUGC)  -­‐  a  term   coined  in  this  study  to  refer  to  user-­‐generated  content  that  entails  a  more   meaningful,  emancipatory  and  empowering  form  of  participation  amongst  those   traditionally  referred  to  as  consumers  of  broadcast  content.  It  contends  that   although  many  contemporary  television  broadcasters  around  the  world  continue   to  create  a  perception  of  increasing  and  robust  audience  participation  in   televised  content,  in  Kenya  this  is  certainly  not  the  case.  It  argues  that  significant   forms  of  current  participation  on  television  are  illusionary,  minimalist  and  futile,   as  they  largely  entrench  television’s  balance  of  power  among  the  media  elites.   Ordinary  people  are  often  ‘invited’  to  participate  in  broadcasting,  but  their  entry   point  into  these  narratives  tends  to  be  limited  to  accessing  already-­‐completed   narratives  and  engaging  in  what  constitutes  token  participation,  with  minimal,   and  in  most  cases,  no  impact  on  the  story,  its  conception,  distribution  and  socio-­‐ economic  benefits.       Drawing  on  insights  from  the  UMMU  project,  the  study  proposes  that  AUGC  can   potentially  disrupt  some  of  the  existing  tropes  and  motifs  in  the  Public  Service   Mediascape  opening  up  spaces  for  multiple  and  diverse  voices  and  narratives  in   Kenya.  This  potentially  enables  active  participation  from  constituencies  that   have  traditionally  been  on  the  margins  of  the  Kenyan  nation-­‐state  to  partake  in   the  nation  building  process.    XL201