mediaWorkingPapers/listOfTitles.htm The papers posted on this list address aspects of the social, political, economic and cultural context of the media and communication, including their forms, institutions, audiences and experiences, and their global, national, regional and local development. c.l.bennett@lse.ac.uk lsewebsite@lse.ac.uk (LSE Website) en-uk Copyright © Tue, 3 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber21.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber21.htm This paper investigates the role of Australian media in feelings of home and belonging amongst the Iranian-Australian diaspora. Drawing on data from in depth interviews, the paper argues that the ‘local’ and broadcast media of the country of settlement can play the dual role of encouraging feelings of belonging and not belonging in the wider Australian society for Iranian-Australians. This duality highlights the media’s role beyond mere representation, and extends to the way media is used by consumers in order to negotiate their social surroundings. The article begins by discussing the meaning and role of ‘home’ in studies of media and diaspora, whereby it is emphasised that home is something made and desired. Then, the way local and broadcast media is used in the essay is defined, and the possibility of media use leading to feelings of both belonging and not belonging is discussed. Finally, feelings of home and belonging amongst Iranian Australians are analysed by drawing on a series of in depth interviews with Iranians on their media use. Thu, 13 Oct 2010 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber20.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber20.htm In this article, the consequences for independently run micro-labels of new patterns of music consumption and -use, as well as the changes in the value being attributed to music by audiences are assessed. First, the emergence and diversity of independent labels is historically contextualised to then address the impact of technological change on the music industries, with a particular focus on independent labels. Second, the audience perspective is introduced by differentiating between the identities of the fan, the consumer and the (copy-right) user. Regarding the identity of the user, the gift economy is juxtaposed with the intellectual property regime and debates regarding the benefits as well as destructive nature of file-sharing and the use of internet platforms for the promotion as well as distribution of music. Interviews with three Belgian micro labels, active respectively in the industrial/experimental and alternative dance scenes, feeds into this analysis and will also provide the basis for assessing ways in which Belgian micro-labels are coping with these changing audience behaviours. A mixed picture emerges. Some independent artists, even from obscure genres, align themselves with the discourse of the mainstream music industry when it comes to file-sharing. Small-scale micro-labels in Belgium are also clearly struggling to invest in new productions, to break even, leading some to cease their activities reducing the diversity of music publishing, certainly in more obscure genres. Dance-oriented labels are more flexible and able to take advantage of the benefits the internet and digitalisation offers. Overall, the identity of the fan and building a dedicated fan-base, accumulating social and cultural capital, emerges as ever more important for small labels' survival.. Thu, 13 Oct 2010 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber19.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber19.htm Information Technology (IT) in/for development has become both a catch-all term and an attractive political slogan. In effect IT is hyped as a sort of 'magic wand' that is supposed to eradicate social deprivation and economic disparity almost instantaneously. Admittedly, IT has a key role in the construction of a better economy, society and empowerment of ordinary people in the developing countries. However, its uncritical promotion in communication about policy and political discourse –- without taking into account the social reality that exists in developing countries – is counter-productive. Politically, it enforces certain closures which also gives IT an ‘apolitical’ character, severely undermining diversity of opinions, the space for dissent and the need for democratic scrutiny, all of which are supposed to provide legitimacy for any public policy claiming to have problem-solving strategies. The paper – citing instances from south Asia and from Brazil for its innovative initiative in adopting an inclusionary path – asserts the need for concerted intervention by practitioners of the social sciences to expose and counter the politics of depoliticization that creep into the IT-centric imaginary of development. Thu, 05 Oct 2010 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber18.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber18.htm It is almost universally accepted within advanced industrial democracies that concentration of media ownership within too few hands contradicts the basic tenets of democracy, threatening diversity of expression and risking autocratic control of communicative spaces. Although these principles of diversity and pluralism have routinely underpinned American and European policy statements on media ownership, recent policy initiatives have moved inexorably in the opposite direction, towards relaxation of restrictions and hence greater consolidation. These trends have been exacerbated over the last two years by a sustained economic recession, allied to structural shifts in advertising revenue, which have left hard-pressed media enterprises lobbying intensively for even greater deregulation. This paper argues that the dire state of the media industry, which threatens the very existence of public interest journalism, may demand a more benign response to arguments for corporate consolidation than traditionally articulated by critical scholars. It suggests that the focus of regulatory intervention should switch from structural regulation which prevents greater concentration of ownership to content regulation which imposes substantial public interest obligations on the output of media businesses in return for a less restrictive corporate environment. It examines the early monopoly days of commercial television in the UK, and argues that the clear regulatory imperatives then imposed on monopolistic licensees offers a policy benchmark for permitting greater consolidation today while safeguarding vital public interest content. While a broad legislative framework currently exists, the paper argues that it would require a significantly more ambitious range of public interest requirements rooted in a normative vision of journalism's contribution to a healthy democracy. Thu, 25 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber17.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber17.htm This paper considers the role of academics in current debates on media and cultural policy in the UK. Although theories of the intellectuals differ widely as to what such a role might be, they point to a more general issue: the struggle for social recognition by contending forms of expertise. The policy field is one arena in which such contention occurs. Although the digital revolution is beginning to erode distinct policy regimes, broadcasting policy debate still conserves some long-standing features. Dominated by a few protagonists occupying positions of institutional power and critical, academic influence is at best marginal. For its part, cultural policy is being increasingly displaced by creative economy policy. This has been a New Labour project, initiated and from time to time sustained by a policy generation rooted in think tanks, consultancy and advising, with its academic critics largely unheard. Despite its shaky foundations, creativity policy has achieved a hegemonic position in British debate and is influential internationally. Nearer home, it has been uncritically adopted in Scotland - an illuminating case of policy dependency. The paper concludes with some reflections on policymakers' resistance to academic arguments. Thu, 06 Dec 2009 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber16.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber16.htm China’s television sector has undergone rapid transformations since the country’s reform and opening-up period in the late 1970s. As in many other countries, these transformations have meant to availability of globally diffused cultural forms through television. In this paper, the main results of a recently completed PhD project, aiming to understand the role of the Chinese party state in this transformation, are presented. The project challenges both the media imperialism theory that regards global communications as mostly driven by activities between states and the revisionist approach that assumes the end of nation-states under globalization. It supports global transformation theories and develops a three-tier analytical framework in order to assess (1) the transformation of television governance by the party- state; (2) the impact of party-state policies on Chinese television; and (3) the interplay of party-state policies with other power factors. The findings suggest that the globalization of Chinese television has undergone three stages of internationalization, transnationalization and renationalization, in accordance with the changing role of the Chinese party state. They complement global transformation theories with evidence from a transitional Communist country that the (party) state not only remains a key actor in the process of globalization, but has also itself undergone profound changes in response to it. Thu, 15 Nov 2009 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber15.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber15.htm This article outlines the main results of an extensive survey on the digital skills of a random sample of 980 third-year high school students in Italy. The test used in the survey covers three main dimensions of digital skills (theoretical knowledge, operational skills, and evaluation skills) and includes knowledge questions, situation-based questions and tasks performed online. A Rasch-type model was used to score the results and an adjusted regression analysis was undertaken to investigate whether a skills divide based on characteristics such as gender and family education exists among the students. The results indicate that while family education level has a relevant impact with respect to physical access conditions at home, this variable is associated with small differences in students’ level of skill. The results for gender, were similar in terms of skills differences but there were no significant differences in terms of access. These results support the hypothesis that in an environment such as northern Italy (the Trentino region), where good quality and relatively equal educational opportunities are in place and where schools provide frequent opportunities to use the web, differences in the characteristics examined in this study do not have a substantial impact on the digital skills level among young people. Thu, 15 Nov 2009 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber14.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber14.htm This paper seeks to re-negotiate ideas of media intertextuality in the context of theories of global media discourse. The paper starts by discussing in some depth "intertextuality" and the relevance of the concept to media studies, both methodological and theoretical. As an illustration of this, intertextual readings of a group of consumer magazine covers are made. Next, the paper addresses the context of intertextuality, which is argued to be the situation of a globalised media system. Next, the theory of “global media discourse” as related to magazines, is explored. Here, the paper references the work of Machin and Thornborrow (2003) and Machin and Van Leeuwen (2003, 2005, 2007), which focuses on the global discourse schemas of Cosmopolitan magazine. It is then argued that the perspective of globalised media discourse requires linking to the concept of media intertextuality and that, if this is achieved, the former could extend the latter by providing a focus on the multimodal mechanics of global discourses which thrive in the late modern globalised media system. The paper concludes by proposing that the relationship that exists between the two sets of ideas can be summarized in the term “megatextuality”. Thu, 3 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber13.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber13.htm This paper offers a feminist critique of the UK comedy sketch show Little Britain. The first part of the paper situates Little Britain in the context of both alternative comedy and postfeminism, with particular reference to the use of irony as a 'get out of jail free' card for offensive statements or stereotypical representations of a particular group, and to the notion of humour as hatred. Some of the characters of Little Britain (Vicky Pollard, Ting Tong and Daffyd) are then considered in depth, through an engagement with figurative analysis, to assess their status as recognisable figures ('the chav mum', 'the mail order bride' and 'the gay man', respectively). Other notable figures are mentioned, and the show's creators, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, are also considered as potential figures. The paper concludes that, although there are parts of Little Britain in which stereotypes are challenged, and the abusive power dynamic is inverted through humour, for the most part, Little Britain colludes with prejudice by positing an 'us' - the audience, who callously mocks 'them' - figures representative of marginalised groups already vulnerable to harm. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber12.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber12.htm The author offers an understanding of media uses as place-making practices of a sort. In doing so, he issues a challenge to those theorists who have linked developments in media with an emerging condition of placelessness. Engaging critically with literature in human geography, as well as with work in the field of media and communications, he explores experiential constructions of place in physical and virtual environments – focusing on the habitual and affective dimensions of place-making in daily living. With reference to new research on trans-European migration, he notes that these particular aspects of social activity that are usually taken for granted can become more evident when lifeworlds are disturbed. Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:30:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber11.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber11.htm This paper offers a critical view of the current international copyright regime through a comparative analysis of the protection of foreign copyrights in the 19th century United States and that in contemporary China. The first part of this paper is a retrospective analysis of how the early US copyright statute dealt with the copyright of foreign works and what the rationales were behind the discrimination against foreign authors’ rights. The treatment of foreign works in Chinese copyright law is then discussed, demonstrating that such treatment was strongly influenced by the hegemonic power that the US and other developed countries had established in the arena of international copyright. In the conclusion the two historical accounts are drawn together to highlight the impracticability and injustice of the current trend toward the harmonisation of international copyright law. Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber10.htm mediaWorkingPapers/ewpNumber10.htm As UK households gain access to the internet, many questions arise for social scientists and policy makers. This working paper overviews a project designed to understand the balance of opportunities and risks afforded to children and young people by the diffusion and appropriation of the internet in everyday life. The project, UK Children Go Online, sought to steer a course between utopian and dystopian views by conducting a substantial multi-method empirical project focusing on four key dimensions of use -(1) access, inequalities and the digital divide; (2) undesirable forms of content and contact; (3) education, informal learning and literacy; and (4) communication, identity and participation. Gradations in frequency of internet use, significantly explained by demographic, use and expertise, predicted take-up of online opportunities, this suggesting a new divide between those for whom the internet is an increasingly rich, engaging and stimulating resource and those for whom it remains a narrow, unengaging, if occasionally useful, resource. Notably, despite the widespread notion that young people are the internet experts, the research identified a range of ways in which children struggle with the internet. Last, the research showed that it is those who take up more online opportunities, not fewer, who encounter more of the risks associated with internet use. This raises particular challenges for parents and schools in supporting children as the task of determining what is trustworthy, reliable or safe online. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:00 GMT