Media & Communication
Digital Platforms and the Press
James Meese argues that there is a growing risk of a platform-dependent press a development that threatens liberal democracies across the world. The book provides the first comprehensive account of how platform dependence manifests in the news media sector.
Platform dependence is a concept used to describe what happens when businesses or an entire sector become reliant on one or more digital platforms for its survival. The situation is occurring across the news industry to the extent that it is difficult to imagine the production distribution and long-term survival of news in liberal democracies without the involvement of platforms.
With governments regulators and citizens increasingly concerned about platform power Digital Platforms and the Press is the first book to highlight the long-term economic and social consequences of platform dependence for the news sector.
Featuring a rich selection of case-studies and written in an accessible style Digital Platforms and the Press provides a strong grounding in relevant debates for the interested student reader and important takeaways for subject matter experts in journalism studies and media policy.
Digital Platforms and the Press will be of interest to journalism and media policy scholars other scholars in communication as well as industry practitioners and policymakers.
A brief history of China’s livestreaming industry: Evolution along with state–business interactions
In contemporary China livestreaming is one of the most popular communication technologies continuously shaping the digital media landscape. In order to trace the evolution of China’s livestreaming industry this study first situates it in the broader context of China’s digital economy and highlights how state–business interactions influence the development of China’s digital economy. This research then examines the development trajectory of China’s livestreaming industry from 2016 to 2022 by analysing regulatory and business documents. Three key phases for the development of China’s livestreaming industry are identified in the analysis. By doing so this research reveals the complex and contingent dynamics between state and business in China’s livestreaming industry and how this industry has evolved into a complex and intricate cultural and commercial sector jointly regulated by industrial stakeholders and state regulators.
Contemporary British and Italian Sound Docudrama
The book focuses on radio and sound docufiction and docudrama through comparative analysis of the British and the Italian output from post war years to the 2010s from both a historical and formal point of view. It sheds light on a rather neglected area of study providing a systematic survey of the development of the form and of its current status and perspectives and at the same time constructing viable analytical tools that can be used to investigate individual productions.
Considering the different docudramatic output in formats and quantity in the two countries the book explores case studies from BBC Radio which continue to air a high number of programmes with a great variety of formats and subgenres and Italian case studies from both independent bodies and the Radio RAI whose docudramatic production has declined since the late 1980s.
Specifically the study seeks to explain how radio language in its purely acoustic dimension allows access to unpredictable layers of truth often complementary when not overtly alternative to the documental truth of declaredly journalistic or scientific programmes.
A well-researched resource for university students scholars researchers and educators in media sociology of media and history. In-depth analysis of an original topic.
Women in Portuguese Print Media
Our research is focused on examining the role of women in print media both considering how Portuguese media portray women and how they are being used as sources by journalists. We focus also on the areas women are news protagonists and whether their “voices” are being taken in the first hand.
Drawing from the idea that media representations constitute a normative function of the language that reveals or distorts what is taken as true about gender issues our approach combines a quantitative content analysis with qualitative discourse analysis to explore the way women are being portrayed in Portuguese print media (daily and weekly newspapers and magazines over 3 years over 10 thousand news items). Content analysis is designed to characterize the relevance and highlight of news on women but also reading protagonists features news sources to whom main “voices” in the news belong and news direction. Discourse analysis focuses on major arguments for a positive or negative direction in the news and the speech subtleties that reveal gender stereotypes.
Narratives About Women's Identity in Yugoslavia From a Croatian Perspective
This paper aims to investigate and describe the presentation of articles on narratives in Yugoslavia in Croatian academia using the example of the central portal of Croatian academic journals Hrčak which provides access to journals after the Open Access Initiative. Thus the main focus of the research is to examine the academic discourse on selected Croatian portals on the topic of women in Yugoslavia. Narratives in Yugoslavia are part of an ideology created through propaganda activities. Therefore the aim is to investigate which narratives about women in Yugoslavia are offered by academic texts as publicly available media sources for reporting on this period. A total of 49 articles were empirically analysed using qualitative and quantitative content and narrative analysis. The data were coded and analysed according to the period of publication (during and after the disintegration of Yugoslavia).
The Media Representation of Female Politicians in Croatia: Who Will Give Us Power if We Think We Do Not Deserve It?
Croatia is the latest member of the European Union (2013) and one of the European countries where the Catholic Church's social role is very powerful. Since Croatia entered the EU the strengthening of clerical catholic associations’ social influence has significantly increased. Croatian media represents women in the politics further reflects these deep-rooted prejudices and the extent of the Catholic Church's influence. The chapter through indepth interviews explores why and how five Croatian women political journalists from national daily newspapers participate in the creation of such media representations. As a former politician I was intensively gendered stereotyped in the media and I find the deepening of gender stereotypes extremely dangerous. If such phenomena are not deconstructed we could soon witness the realization of The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood's novel.
The Female Profile Promoted in Scânteia During the First Decade of the Communist Regime in Romania
The chapter addresses the representation of women in the written media of the early communist instalment in Romania focusing on the Scânteia newspaper. The publication was the party's official voice one of the main instruments of communist enforcement ideological and informational control a barometer of policy changes intent and actions of the political movement coordinated from Moscow thus making it the perfect source of information. The newspaper addressed the general public and appeared daily with rare exceptions until 1965. The period of interest was the first decade of the communist establishment which was also the harshest repressive regime that the country endured until the Revolution of December 1989. After browsing almost 30000 pages from the indicated timeframe each mention of a woman was selected and entered into a database that grew to over 18600 text and photo references which later transformed into interesting and original conclusions.
When Sexism in Politics Became a Media Issue in France: Mobilization of Female Political Journalists
On May 5th 2015 forty-one mostly anonymous women signed an open letter in the French national daily newspaper Libération entitled “We women political journalists and victims of sexism ...”. They explained that they wanted to denounce the impunity of politicians whose sexist behavior towards them sometimes extending to sexual harassment constituted a gender constraint in conducting political journalism on a daily basis so they felt disadvantaged in the strategic news-gathering process compared to their male colleagues. This open letter is our starting point for questioning the mediatization of sexism in politics. By what processes under what conditions and in what context was the public denunciation of sexism exerted by elected representatives on women journalists possible? At the crossroads of sociology of journalism gender studies and social problem construction this research is based on an on-the-ground survey consisting of semi-structured interviews (13) with male and female political journalists working in various media (print online press radio television) and under different employment statuses (permanent freelance).
One Human, Unequal Gender: A Critical Appraisal of Women and News Creation in Nigeria
This story examined through content analysis 208 stories of two Nigerian newspapers over a period of two years to ascertain the gender distribution of reporters and topics they cover as well as the gender distribution of story sources and the topics they are used in. The results of the study indicated that men were generally over-represented as journalists and sources. Female journalists predominated only in lower-ranked areas and topics such as entertainment and arts while their male counterparts dominated politics business and other highly ranked areas. Also men took the lead in terms of number of expert sources and areas and topics of usage. Despite the increase in number of female journalists female journalism graduates and influx of female journalism students findings indicate a profession and practice dominated and controlled by men in all ramifications.
Visual Representations of Fashion and Clothing Practices in the Post-War Period of Socialist Yugoslavia in the Magazines Žena u borbi (Woman in Struggle) and Naša moda (Our Fashion) 1
AFŽ (Anti-Fascist Women's Front) as the main platform of women's emancipation in the period of the National Liberation War and in the post-war period of socialist Yugoslavia promotes and propagates the concept of “New Women” (emancipated politically and socially active worker) through direct propaganda in the magazine Žena u borbi (Women in Struggle). Immediately after the liberation AFŽ began to publish a very popular magazine with fashion content called Naša moda (Our Fashion). This paper presents both magazines through the analysis and comparison of different clothing and fashion content which reveal the relationship to fashion and clothing as part of everyday clothing practices and the development of clothing culture. This case study relates to the period of early Yugoslav socialism from 1945 to 1953. Intense post-war modernization influenced the culture of dress and the aestheticization of life. However the gradual development of industrial production was not at the same time in balance with the new reality and the desire for prosperity and consumption.
New New New (n3) Portrayals of Women in Television and Postfeminist News
This chapter looks at new develops in representations of women in television in terms of women’s relationship to work to traditional gender roles to each other and to emergent social movements created by women. Concepts such as proto-feminist feminist emerging and post-feminism are used and explained.
Whither Gender Equality? The Image of Women in News over Time
The representation of women in the news media has been prominent on the policy and research agenda since the 1960's- 1970's. The study maps the evolution in the prevalence of female news actors and sources in male female or neutral topics in Dutch-speaking Belgian news media between 2003 and 2013. Within the research sample there was no increase of female actors between 2008 and 2013 however some significant improvements were found between 2003 and 2013. Overall the gender balance was the lowest within male topics (Simpson's Dz of .56) and the highest within female topics (Simpson's Dz of .91). Within neutral topics no sufficient gender diversity was found (Simpson's Dz of .78). Although VRT (Public Service Media) has an explicit diversity policy strategy the study did not reveal a significant higher share of women in the newscasts of VRT compared to the commercial counterparts.
Being a Female Journalist in Serbia: Socialist and Post-Socialist Perspective
For many decades during the 20th century Serbia was a part of socialist Yugoslavia. After the war and the tragic war-related consequences to the political social and cultural ties between former republics Serbia entered a transitional process that has still not ended. However there are many differences between the socialist media environment and today’s media system. In Yugoslavia there was a strong relationship between the nature of news production and state control. The domination of the public media service was evident. Understanding the reasons behind the socialist journalistic practice is important to determine its further transformation into the post-socialist commercial digital or revitalized state media system. In the sense of describing the social framework the term socialist in recent literature can often refer to a onedimensional perspective. On the other hand the term post-socialist is characterized by more dispersed spaces complexity and a range of identities. Looking into everyday life social order is morphing into new empirical evidence that requires wider reflection. However female journalism is an underdeveloped field of research in Serbia. Another largely unexplored field of study is the lack of comparing the experience of elderly women journalists from the socialist media environment and the experience of younger women employed in today’s media organizations. Our research intends to fill the gap in expert literature with a critical insight into female journalism which provides a nexus for the detailed examination of gendered news production the commercialization process power and control. Building on critical media studies and qualitative methodology our research draws attention to the role of female journalistic experience in socialism and post-socialism. Using the methods of indepth interview and focus group we will explore to what extent female journalists occupied significant positions in newsrooms then and now in Serbia.
Who Creates the News About Violence Against Women? The Case of Spain
Violence against women (VAW) is a topic that has been progressively increased as an international concern. However the role of journalists in the construction of VAW news has not been yet exploredindepth. This chapter explores first if there is a feminization of the coverage of VAW news; second if the newspapers treat VAW as a main theme; third if the sex of the editor influences the quality of the news and fourth if the sex of the authors has an impact onsources selection. A sample of sexist murders news published during 2016 in three relevant Spanish newspapers (El Mundo eldiario.es y Diario de Sevilla) has been analyzed.The results show a journalistic dependence of the News Agencies that have a lower grade of quality than the news signed by journalists. In conclusion mostly the sources used in VAW news are expert and/or official. Alsoa progressive implementation of the existing deontological recommendations is deduced. Moreover most of the news published by the Spanish media are agency news. Finally agency news presents a considerably worse quality than those signed by media professionals