News discourses on distant suffering: A critical discourse analysis of the 2003 SARS outbreak

News carries a unique signifying power, a power to represent events in particular ways (Fairclough, 1995). Applying Critical Discourse Analysis and Chouliaraki's theory on the mediation of suffering (2006), this article explores the news representation of the 2003 global SARS outbreak. Following a case-based methodology, we investigate how two Belgian television stations have covered the international outbreak of SARS. By looking into the mediation of four selected discursive moments, underlying discourses of power, hierarchy and compassion were unraveled. The analysis further identified the key role of proximity in international news reporting and supports the claim that Western news media mainly reproduce a Euro-American centered world order. This article argues that news coverage of international crises such as SARS constructs and maintains the socio-cultural difference between 'us' and 'them' as well as articulating global power hierarchies and a division of the world in zones of poverty and prosperity, danger and safety

Exploring perceptions of advertising ethics: an informant-derived approach

Whilst considerable research exists on determining consumer responses to pre-determined statements within numerous ad ethics contexts, our understanding of consumer thoughts regarding ad ethics in general remains lacking. The purpose of our study therefore is to provide a first illustration of an emic and informant-based derivation of perceived ad ethics. The authors use multi-dimensional scaling as an approach enabling the emic, or locally derived deconstruction of perceived ad ethics. Given recent calls to develop our understanding of ad ethics in different cultural contexts, and in particular within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, we use Lebanon—the most ethically charged advertising environment within MENA—as an illustrative context for our study. Results confirm the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics as comprising a number of dimensional themes already salient in the existing literature but in addition, we also find evidence for a bipolar relationship between individual themes. The specific pattern of inductively derived relationships is culturally bound. Implications of the findings are discussed, followed by limitations of the study and recommendations for further research

Informal/Formal Morphologies

Title on the accepted version is: Informal morphologiesMuch has been made of the fact that most of the global population is now urban. It is not so often noted that most of this new urban population has been accommodated through the expansion of informal settlements or slums in the developing world. Informal architecture, urban design and planning are the primary means by which cities have absorbed most rural-to-urban migration over the past half-century. We define such settlements as ‘informal’ because they emerge outside the formal codes of the state in terms of land tenure, urban planning, design and construction. The label ‘informal’ is also used to avoid terms with overlapping meanings, like ‘slum’ and ‘squatter’. The distinctions between these three terms are important. Informal settlements can be defined as those where the design, planning and construction of buildings and street networks emerges without authorisation by the state (Roy and AlSayyad 2004). A slum is defined by the UN as a dwelling that lacks basic access to light, space, air, water, sanitation, security or durability (UN-Habitat 2006: 19). Squatting is settlement that occurs without the authorisation of the legal owner. Many dwellings within so-called ‘slums’ do not fit the UN definition and standards of construction can be quite high (Hernandez and Kellett 2010). Likewise, tenure is often ambiguous, irregular and contested, with many forms of de facto tenure (Durand-Lasserve and Royston 2002). Many informal settlements are established by ‘pirate’ developers on private land with quasi-legal tenure. Such ‘between’ conditions are typical: slums becoming upgraded; squatters becoming tenured; informal settlements becoming formalised; and formal settlements becoming informalised. Our thinking, analysis and action on this nexus of issues needs to move beyond the somewhat essentialised concepts of slums, squatters and informal settlements