Scottish newspapers and the crisis of the print press: journalistic autonomy and digital transition in a liberal media system

This article examines how members of the Scottish newspaper industry view the current crisis of the print press and the future of their titles. It looks at how newspaper companies are attempting to address the challenges posed by digital transition and competition in a small market, and where they believe the solution to this problem lies. The analysis is based on input from interviews with editors and managers as well as circulation data from the last fifteen years. Findings suggest that, in line with the characteristics of a liberal media system, newspaper organisations believe that it is up to the industry, rather than the state, to resolve this systemic issue and to ensure the survival of their products

Issue and game frames in the news: Frame-building factors in television coverage of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum

This article explores frame building in Scottish television coverage of the 2014 independence referendum. It uses content analysis of news and current affairs coverage and semi-structured interviews with broadcasters and their sources to explain how factors internal and external to the media may be specifically connected to the prominence of generic issue and game frames in the coverage. It argues that broadcasters’ perception of their role in this event and the powerful influence of political sources were factors that encouraged policy-focused coverage, while the journalistic routine of balance and media organizations’ perceptions of what would attract audiences favoured the strategic game frame

Visualising the game frame: constructing political competition through television images in referendum coverage

The strategic game frame, which is a media construction of political events as strategic competition between opponents, has so far been operationalized and measured primarily through verbal indicators. This study extends the operationalization of the frame to television visuals. The article argues that visuals are just as powerful as words in conveying the game frame; however, this can go unnoticed and thus unchallenged, if we focus on analyzing verbal content alone. Visuals should thus be problematized and systematically embedded in empirical studies of the game frame. This qualitative analysis shows how this can be done and, specifically, identifies elements of mise-en-scène, such as setting, actors, camera movement and props, which can constitute empirical indicators for the strategic game frame in television texts. The article uses data from the coverage of a recent referendum in Scotland to illustrate these indicators in use with examples

Gaining trust: the articulation of transparency by You Tube fashion and beauty content creators

This article proposes a new typology of transparency markers in fashion and beauty You Tube videos. It looks at how online content creators disclose the process of selecting and featuring products in their videos and analyses their discursive performance of transparency. It argues that these content creators employ a mix of routines of transparency, authenticity and independence, which they perform simultaneously, constructing themselves as trustworthy. The article suggests that, although restricted in both their extent and regularity, these tactics are complex and offer a glimpse on some of the processes that shape content in beauty and fashion media, which are not normally acknowledged in the magazine press. The article contributes to a better understanding of the manifestation of transparency in new media forms

General Elections in the Post-devolution Period: Press Accounts of the 2001 and 2005 Campaigns in Scotland and England.

This thesis examines and compares newspaper coverage of the first two general elections after Scottish devolution, looking at both the Scottish and English/UK press. By considering the coverage of a major political event which affects both countries, it contributes to debates regarding the performance of the Scottish press within an arguably distinct Scottish public sphere as well as that of the press in England within a post-devolution context. The research is based on a content analysis of all the coverage of the 2001 and 2005 elections in seven Scottish and five English and UK daily morning newspapers, a critical discourse analysis of a sample of the coverage of the most mentioned issues in each campaign and a small set of interviews with Scottish political editors. As a framework for its analysis, this thesis focuses on theories of national identity and deliberative democracy in the media. It finds that the coverage of elections in the two countries has a similar issue agenda, however Scottish newspapers appear less interested in the UK aspect of the elections and include debates on Scottish affairs which are discussed in isolation, within an exclusively Scottish mediated space. These issues are constructed as particularly relevant to a Scottish readership through references to the nation, inclusive modes of address to the reader and the inclusion of exclusively Scottish sources, which contrast with the Scottish coverage of “UK” issues. This distinction between “Scottish” and “UK” topics emerges as the key differentiating factor in the discursive construction of election issues in the Scottish press, rather than that between devolved and reserved issues. Newspapers in England on the other hand, report on the two campaigns without taking into consideration the post-devolution political reality. These core questions are contextualized within the thesis by reference to relevant dimensions of Scottish culture and politics, and interpreted in the light of events since 2005

Scottish Press Coverage of UK General Elections after Devolution: the 2001 and 2005 Campaigns

This paper presents preliminary findings from a wider study into the form that political debate takes in Scottish and English/UK newspapers' reporting of the 2001 and the 2005 UK Elections. The research project aims to contribute to the discussion regarding the role played by the Scottish press in political deliberation after devolution and compares its contribution to the electoral debate with that of newspapers bought in England. This paper explores the results of a content analysis of articles from daily Scottish and UK newspapers during the four weeks of each election campaign period. This reveals that, despite some differences, the overall picture of the coverage of major election issues is consistent. A selection of the coverage of taxation, the most mentioned reserved issue in the 2001 campaign, is subsequently analysed using critical discourse analysis, and the results suggest more distinction between the two sets of newspapers

Whose voices are heard in the news? A study of sources in television coverage of the Scottish independence referendum

This article explores the prominence of different types of sources in the coverage of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum on BBC Scotland’s regional news bulletin. It combines the most commonly used classifications of news sources in the literature and proposes an integrated taxonomy, in which official, unofficial, elite and non-elite sources may take on news-shaper or news-maker roles. This taxonomy is used to analyse the referendum coverage on BBC’s Reporting Scotland in the final month of the campaign. Findings suggest that, despite the presence of many types of sources, male-dominated political elites were the main focus in the news. Although the inclusion of some grassroots and citizen sources is encouraging, the coverage more broadly manifests a liberal democratic logic whereby the media represent the views of politicians and political organisations to the public, whose role is to make an informed choice between them, with comparatively limited opportunities to participate in the mediated political debate

Who speaks in a referendum? Scotland’s Indyref TV news coverage

The 2014 Scottish independence referendum saw unprecedented political engagement on a scale rarely seen of late in the UK. But, ask Alenka Jelen-Sanchez and Marina Dekavalla, was this broad engagement replicated in mainstream television coverage

Understanding online safety through metaphors: UK policymakers and industry discourses about the internet

This article explores how metaphors about what the internet is inform policymaker and industry discourses, when they propose solutions on internet safety. More specifically, it analyzes documents by key players in this debate during a period when the UK government proposed direct regulation of online harms. The study finds that policy documents construct the internet primarily as a “place” that is separate from offline experience; and to a smaller extent as a “tool” that can be abused if it falls in the wrong hands. The article argues that these constructions obscure any links between online and offline risk, and that they legitimize solutions which may not take into account the social roots of online harms. It also suggests that the discourses of policymakers and SNS companies differ in the degree of agency they attribute to users, indicating a discrepancy in their approaches as direct regulation is introduced in the UK

Facework in confessional videos by YouTube content creators: establishing parasocial connection with an imagined audience

This article analyses the role of facework in the discourse of confessional You Tube videos by female fashion and beauty content creators, where they disclose personal problems and offer viewers advice. It uses thematic analysis to identify discursive tactics that protect viewers’ face. The article argues that the parasocial nature of the connection that these videos attempt to establish with an audience that content creators know little about, makes it important for them to reflexively adapt to these viewers’ needs for fellowship and autonomy. Their disclosures may be intended to create closeness, but at the same time they need to cater for distance and prepare the ground for this content to be received as well as possible. However, just like the connection that the videos seek to establish, the facework they contain is also parasocially situated: the videos speak to an imagined viewer’s need for inclusion and this viewer’s possible objections, as these are perceived by the content creator. The article makes a contribution to understanding the construction of closeness in this genre of mediated discourse