The world-wide news agencies: development organization, competition, markets and product. A study of Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Reuters and United Press, to 1975

The thesis argues that in their development, organization and news services, the major western-based global news agencies have responded and continue to respond primarily to the requirements of western markets. In particular, their domestic markets are shown to be especially important to them, and much of their early development is explained by their struggle to secure monopolistic or oligopolistic control of these markets. The struggle to, achieve security in the domestic markets greatly tempered early international competition between the agencies in a way that still has consequences for their relative market positions in certain world regions, and which has hindered their penetration of one another's domestic markets. Nevertheless, growing international competition, general difficulties in traditional domestic newspaper markets and the evolution of new client requirements have combined to stimulate considerable market diversification in recent decades, both inside and outside media client groups. Within their traditional overseas markets, the global agencies, in their organization of news-gathering and news-distribution, have made considerable use of the national news agencies. The global agencies have stimulated the development of many such agencies, entering into relationships of unequal exchange with them, while only marginally threatened by the attempts of some national agencies to upset the dominant market position of their global partners. The thesis provides evidence of contemporary agency organization, news-gathering practices and news-service content in order to support the argument that there continues to exist a structural imbalance in agency operations which favours western market interests, and to further explore the underlying significance of their organizational priorities

The economics and regulations of concentrations of media ownership in the UK

Since the early 1990s, regulators in the UK and in many other countries have faced increasing pressure from media industry participants to liberalise media and cross-media ownership restrictions. Many countries, including the UK, have responded to this pressure by amending their domestic legislative frameworks in such ways as to remove at least some restrictions which had previously been established in order to protect pluralism. The main aim for this study has been to assess the 'economic' case in favour of de-regulating media and cross-media ownership in the UK. The principal method of investigation has been to analyse the relationship between, on the one hand, the size and vertical or diagonal structure of a selection of UK media firms and, on the other, their recent economic performance. Findings suggest that, although factors other than size will affect performance, there is generally a strong and positive correlation between the market share and the operating profitability of firms who are involved in either television or radio broadcasting, or national newspaper publishing. This correlation reflects efficiency gains through economies of scale and scope and, also, revenue advantages arising from increased market power. On the other hand, there is little evidence that previous monomedia ownership restrictions represented a threat to the economic viability of the industry or that developments in the late 1990s have introduced significant 'new' gains for enlarged monomedia enterprises. Nor is there evidence that de-regulation of monomedia restrictions would have any positive impact on the exports performance of traditional UK media firms. With regard to diagonal expansion, there is no evidence that cross-ownership between radio and television or between television and national newspapers yields important economic benefits. This thesis would argue that, taken as a whole, the de-regulation of UK media ownership in 1996 has delivered relatively few enhancements to the economic efficiency or prospects of the UK media industry while, at the same time, has engendered a considerable welfare loss through lower safeguards for pluralism. This outcome reflects serious systemic problems at the national UK level in the policymaking mechanism which is supposed to curb the political influence of media owners. This study finds that the scope - via a shift in responsibility for policy-formulation to the transnational European level - for overcoming such problems will be limited, not least because the protection of pluralism remains outside the official competence of the European Commission

Tomorrow's Airport Today: A Holistic Approach to Modern Terminal Design

Modern airport terminal design approaches the needs of passengers on a primarily logistical level. Over time, genuine interest in passenger comfort and satisfaction has become diluted in the face of an increasingly efficiency and money-driven aviation industry. The airport experience has been reduced to getting in and out of the terminal as quickly as possible, simply because there is little incentive to slow down or even go in the first place. Uninspiring interior designs, crumbling infrastructure, claustrophobic spaces, security hassles, and a lack of access to food, shops, services, and entertainment are just a few of the issues that must be dealt with in order to restore a certain level of appeal and comfort. This thesis suggests that a more sensitive and responsive approach to airport design can change an ingrained mentality that characterizes airports as places to be dreaded rather than be inspired by. Over time, stress has become an inherent part of travelling, due largely to incremental increases in security checks and measures. This is an unfortunate by-product of the era we live in and is not likely be changed entirely, as public safety must remain a paramount goal in any airport design. At the same time, architects must feel compelled to design in a way that reduces passenger stress at every point along their terminal experience. Only then can passengers feel free to truly take in the architecture of their surroundings -- an architecture that should aim to satisfy functional and efficiency-related standards, as well as symbolize gateways to new places and embody the essence of flight. The design of tomorrow's airport must anticipate and respond holistically to passenger needs, on both a practical and an aesthetic level, so as to create an experience that manifests in quality rather than quantity. The degree of that response at various airports around the world is what this thesis measures, deconstructs, and reimagines as a foundation for the final design proposal

China, Europe, and the Pandemic Recession: Beijing’s Investments and Transatlantic Security

Given the depth and breadth of the pandemic-induced recession in Europe, private companies in need of capital and governments looking to shed state-owned enterprises may be tempted to sell shares, assets, or outright ownership to investors with liquidity to spare. Of greatest concern is the role that China might play in Europe, building Beijing’s soft power, weakening allied geopolitical solidarity, and potentially reprising the role it played in the 2010s, when its investments in Europe expanded dramatically. More specifically, there is concern over China’s investments in infrastructure and sensitive technologies relevant to American and allied military operations and capabilities. Whether Europe is prepared and able to parry Beijing’s economic statecraft is somewhat unclear, given varied attitudes toward China and the patchwork of investment screening mechanisms across the continent. Regardless, the outcomes will have significant implications for US security and for the Defense Department specifically. In support of US European Command (EUCOM) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) assembled an interdisciplinary team to examine these issues and offer actionable policy recommendations for military leaders and decisionmakers on both sides of the Atlantic. Study sponsors (nonfunding): United States European Command, United States Department of Homeland Securityhttps://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1945/thumbnail.jp

A case study of the televised international newsflow of Raidió Teilifís Éireann and The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: A comparative content analysis

The objective of this comparative newsflow study was to analyse the televised international news broadcast in the national public service of Canada and the Republic of Ireland over a thirty-day term. In doing so, a quantitative content analysis comparing the output of two national public service providers (PSB), Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is offered. In identifying the national origin of the international news, those reports utilizing the foreign correspondents of the PSBs were quantified. Finally, the ratio of international to domestic reportage and the volume of international news reports by quantity and duration are also compared. This study reviews the literature of cultural, corporate and state sovereignty as it looks to the regulatory structures of the broadcasters. Gatekeeping dynamics and the critical media ecology of a re-feudalizing public sphere are addressed as are the roles of framing and domestication. An exploration of cultural imperialism and the newsflow studies of globalization and deregulation are also undertaken. The commercialization of international news values, compassion fatigue and declining demand are similarly explored. Satellite broadcasting and the influence of the news agencies is considered as is the literature pertaining to crisis-news driven parachute journalism and the role of the foreign correspondent. The study revealed that the real sovereignty of both the CBC and RTÉ is demonstrably limited in terms of their ability to control the production chain from the source of the news through to the audiences. It’s argued that larger outputs of international news increase the value accrued to civic knowledge and therein the value of the service offered. In terms of the offered ‘value for public money’ it’s concluded that audiences of the CBC routinely receive greater value than do those of RTÉ

The Media in the Network Society: Browsing, News, Filters and Citizenship

560 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.Libro ElectrónicoIn the Network Society the development of a new communicational model has been taking shape. A communicational model characterized by the fusion of interpersonal communication and mass communication, connecting audiences and broadcasters under a hypertextual matrix linking several media devices. The Networked Communication model is the informational societies communication model. A model that must be understood also in its needed literacies for building our media diets, media matrixes and on how it’s changing the way autonomy is managed and citizenship exercised in the Information Age. In this book Gustavo Cardoso develops an analysis that, focusing on the last decade, takes us from Europe to North America and from South America to Asia, combining under the framework of the Network Society a broad range of scientific perspectives from Media Studies to Political Science and Social Movements theory to Sociology of Communication.Index of Figures Index of Tables Preface Acknowledgements The Media in the Network Society. Contextualizing the Media in the Network Society; Media, Autonomy and Citizenship 1. The Multiple Dimensions of the Network Society. The Network Society; The Culture of the Informational Societies 2. Societies in Transition to the Network Society. Societies in Transition in the Global Network; Societies in Transitions, Values and Social Well-Being; Media and Social Change in the Network Societies 3. From Mass to Networked Communication: Communicational Models and the Informational Society Communicational Models and the Informational Society. Communicational Globalization in the 20th Century; Mass Media and New Media: the Articulation of a New Communicational Model?; Rhetoric, Accessibility of Information and Narratives Networked Communication 4. A Constellation of Networks: Mass Media, Games, Internet and Telephones. An Entertainment Meta-System in Transition: from Multimedia Games to Television; The New Entertainment Player: Multimedia Games; The Reaffirmation of TV as a Central Element of the Entertainment Meta-System; From Interactive Television to Networked Television 5. Has the Internet Really Changed the Mass Media?. From the End of Journalism to Its Reconstruction; The Information Meta-System and Its Network Organization; Television: the New Online Functions; From Radio Interactivity to Newspaper; Time Management: the Media Network 6. The Massification of the Internet Experience. The New Frontiers and Their Entry Portals; Media, Memory and Filters 7. Media and Citizenship in the Network Society. Mediation of Citizenship and Informational Literacy; The Different Media Ages; Different Media Ages, Different Forms of Citizenship? 8. Mediated Politics: Citizens and Political Parties in Continuous Democracy; An Institutional and Parliamentary; Framework for Continuous Democracy; The Internet as Hostage of Institutional Informational Politics? 9. Media, Mobilization and Protests. Goku vs. The Ministry of Culture: Terràvista, Television and Newspapers; The Closure of RTP2: Television Seen from the Internet; The Pro-East Timor Movement: Human Rights, Mass Media and the Internet; Instrumentalization of the Networked Symbolic Mediation Conclusion: Browsing, News, Filters and Citizenship.Browsing, News, Filters and Citizenship Bibliograph

Beyond the CNN effect : towards a constitutive understanding of media power in international politics

Temaet for denne avhandlingen er nyhetsmedias makt og innflytelse over staters utenrikspolitiske handlinger og prioriteringer i internasjonal politikk. I motsetningen til mye annen forskning konkluderer avhandlingen med at medias makt er betydelig. Avhandlingens hovedsiktemål er å utvikle en teoretisk modell for å forstå denne innflytelsen, samt å dokumentere relevansen av denne modellen med utgangspunkt i et større norsk og internasjonalt empirisk materiale. Avhandlingens funn er blant andre: - Den globale nyhetsdekningen av internasjonale politiske forhold, er i betydelig grad uniform, og preges av det doktoranden omtaler som medias innebygde kommunikasjonslogikk (”communicative system”). - Denne kommunikasjonslogikken gir i vesentlig grad forrang til saksfelt, hendelser og trusler som har visuelle, kortsiktige og dramatiske kvaliteter. - Utenrikspolitikken tar merke av dette ved at de deler av den internasjonale virkeligheten som ikke harmonerer med denne grunnleggende kommunikasjonslogikken, nedprioriteres og i noen grad usynliggjøres på den utenrikspolitiske agendaen. - Norske utenrikspolitiske beslutningstakere er i økende grad orientert mot nyhetsmedias virkelighetsgjengivelse i sin tilnærming og sine debatter om utenrikspolitikk. - Norske nyhetsmediers dekning av krig er i stor grad preget av de samme faktorer som annen internasjonal dekning, men norske medier vinkler sakene i stor grad i tråd med norske nasjonale særtrekk og utenrikspolitiske selvbilder, med mindre vekt på krigshandlinger og utvidet dekning av humanitære forhold. Norsk utenrikspolitisk journalistikk må i noen grad beskrives som ”offisiøs”. Media bedriver lite selvstendig kritisk dekning av norsk utenrikspolitikk, og ivaretar i noen grad utenrikspolitikkens ”doxa” (dvs. forsvar av tradisjonell norsk tilnærming til omverdenen)

Representing the MAJORITY WORLD famine, photojournalism and the Changing Visual Economy

Our knowledge of the world is mediated. This means knowledge depends on representations provided to us from a variety of sources. However, we should not limit representation to a concern with language, or suggest that representations produce fictions unconnected to the real world. To avoid these problems we need to understand mediated knowledge and representation in terms of discourse. This thesis examines aspects of a particular discourse, the visual discourse of photojournalism, and explores its role in constructing the imagined geography of Africa. This thesis investigates how photographic illustrations of Africa play a role in constructing knowledge of the continent for mainstream UK audiences. It undertakes this in terms of the ‘Minority World’ and the ‘Majority World’ in order to challenge the assumptions of superiority and inferiority associated with traditional representations of ‘First World/Third World’ or ‘developed/underdeveloped’. Central to the discussion is the notion of a specific photographic point of view based on the author’s background as a Minority World photographer who has undertaken extensive work in the Majority World. The thesis considers how historical photographic representations of African countries that are beyond the personal experience of UK mainstream audiences, and the formation of key compositions in a particular style to represent famine, were repeated through the last century and how these compositions relate to current public understandings of the Majority World as a particular place. Through this discussion the thesis critically analyses public consumption of such images and argues the construction of key events (disasters, famines, etc.) are central to the imaginary construction of the continent of Africa. It argues that colonial relations of power and knowledge, and the production of ‘otherness’ continue to influence contemporary images of the Majority World. Taking the1984-5 Ethiopian famine as a key event in the formation of geographic visualisations of the African continent, the thesis both considers this event in detail and traces its influence to the formation of contemporary photographic illustrations. Through critical discourse analysis, extensive interviews with photographers, fieldwork, and surveys the thesis examines contemporary photojournalistic coverage of a single event and how it affects UK public understandings of Africa. The photojournalistic representations of famine in Africa are then considered in terms of the rapidly changing global image economy (in which the move to digital production and distribution is transforming photographic practice), the rise of local photographers, and the influence of the visual discourses on economic stability and growth of the communities in which their subjects live. These arguments come together in the 2003 case of photographic reports from Bob Geldof’s return to Ethiopia during another purported food crisis. The thesis asks if the changes in the image economy and recent examples of new photographic practice, especially that which follows the codes of conduct for imagery put in place after the Ethiopian famine of 1984-5, demonstrate the potential for changing the way ‘Africa’ is constructed as an imagined geography for UK publics, and, if so, how? It grounds the argument in an extended conclusion, which examines the assignment the author carried out in Mali in November 2005 in conjunction with Oxfam GB. This photographic commission demonstrated the difficulty of finding an alternative visualisation of food insecurity (famine) that meets the demands of non-government organisations’ (NGOs) ethical picture policies yet satisfies the requirements of mainstream media in the UK