This dissertation explores the crucial relationship between contemporary processes of international migration and mediated communication processes and practices across the transnational social space, specifically in the case of the Salvadoran immigrant community in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In this dissertation, I aim to articulate the theoretical frameworks of transnational studies, diasporic media studies and structuration theory for understanding the local and transnational dynamics of production, circulation and appropriation of mediated texts and the configuration of collective identity representations through local and transnational Spanish-language media. Based on a media ethnography approach, which includes seventy in-depth interviews, one focus group and participant observation developed during twelve weeks of fieldwork, I analyze a sample of Salvadoran radio and television transnational programs, discuss some alternatives forms of communication and cultural expression, evaluate the diasporic uses of the Internet and new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and the formation of new hybrid identities among Salvadoran immigrants articulated through the sociocultural mediations of soccer, religion, popular music and the construct of an ethnic market.

I conclude that structuration theory provides important sensitizing devices for mass communication research, especially for analyzing the dynamic of agents and structures in the practices of communication and the levels of signification, domination and legitimation in the structuration of communicative processes in society. Likewise, I emphasize the role of transnational media programs as a central mechanism of deterritorialization and reterritorialization for sociocultural ethnic roots, collective identity representations and mediated reunifications of transmigrant families. Similarly, I propose that the development of the Spanish-language media in the United States and the increasing transnational networks among contemporary immigrant communities not only challenges the traditional conceptualization of cultural assimilation but also suggests ground-breaking possibilities for linking second and third generations with new ethnic and collective identity expressions. Finally, I outline a preliminary agenda for designing and implementing media and cultural policies in El Salvador, which can seriously take into consideration Salvadoran transmigrants’ communication and information needs. This Salvadoran diaspora is sustaining the national economy of El Salvador and deserves new sociocultural and political rights, and participation in the transnational public sphere of a democratic society.

This study analyzes media projects designed to contribute to the development of peace. Therefore, it examines post-Cold War mass communication projects developed in direct response to violent conflicts initiated by a party that is not involved in the conflict. The practical effort is named “peace media.”

The review of the literature from the fields of media effects, propaganda research, peace studies and communication for development offers a broad spectrum of studies pointing towards a common conclusion: mass media/communication indeed have the potential to affect populations in a variety of ways. The rhizomatic approach by Deleuze and Guattari was used as the theoretical foundation to the methods employed in the study. As a result, in-depth interviewing, text analysis and a quantitative effects assessment were used as the methods of inquiry. In order to fully understand the rhizomatic foundation of peace media, this study examined three kinds of data: interview transcripts, texts describing peace media projects and the quantitative data of audience effects conducted by practitioners.

Thirteen conflict sites in 18 countries generated a total of nearly forty peace media projects. The analysis begins with the description of the actors and practitioners responsible for peace media projects (who). It continues with an examination of media approaches to peace development (what), followed by a description of the beneficiaries of peace media (whom). The last two segments discuss the means of communication (channels) and examine the effects of peace media and the most effective utilization of such practices (effects).

The study concludes that the impact of media is both substantial and limited. Because action or behavior is dependent on many outside variables and because these variables contribute to the end result as much as any form of communication initiative, only the true integration of media within peacebuilding strategies can insure a significant move toward a peaceful society. In order for this to happen, the following four components need to be integrated in the media plan for conflict transformation: journalism, entertainment, advertising and regulation. The final chapter of the dissertation presents a set of recommendations for the future practice.

This research sets out to understand how communication can facilitate participatory development to improve poor people’s lives using the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) in Jamkhed, India as a case study. For three and a half decades, CRHP has been using a holistic development approach for enhancing people’s health and well-being. CRHP helps poor families improve health through promotion and diffusion of new information, and through different communication practices empowers communities. Thus, communication is used at two levels: to provide new information and to engage people in a dialogue that leads to positive community action. The research used theoretical constructs guiding participatory communication such as critical thinking and problematization as a means for empowerment (Freire, 1970, 1973), the role of the communicator as a facilitator in orchestrating social change (White, 1999) and the role of para-professional aides and change agents in fostering the diffusion of new information and ideas for social change (Rogers, 2003). Two-months of fieldwork, conducted in six villages in the Jamkhed region, used multiple ethnographic methods.

The research concludes that communication processes using Freirean principles can contribute towards empowering poor people if conducted over a long period. Participatory communication and collective action can be successful if change agents act as facilitators and are sensitive to people’s needs. Furthermore, the research indicates that genuine participation is slow and social change is even slower. It also concludes that participatory development and empowerment are dialectical processes that rely on dissemination of expert knowledge and an open dialogue between experts and local people. CRHP shows that empowerment is possible if the project staff, change agents and community members are motivated and willing to continuously change and adapt to the environment, and also challenge oppressive social and political practices. The research concludes that communication practices are important in organizing people to come together and to seek social change, but larger political and structural changes are also necessary to complement individual and community-level actions.

While Africa is confronted with the urgency to provide its citizens with the basic requirements of life, the rest of the world is heading towards a ‘globally-networked’ information economy. Many communication scholars believe that without access to information resources and telecommunication services, an understanding of its significance, and the ability to use it for social and economic growth, Africa is facing an unavoidable predicament. This dissertation presents a case study of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) Huruma Community Telecentre as an arena where governmental, non-governmental and other private organizations are collaborating to test the contribution that a Community Telecentre can make towards providing universal access to telephony and other telecommunications and information services to a disadvantaged community. While the theoretical starting point for this dissertation is grounded within communication and development theories, it employs Bijker, Hughes, and Trevor’s (1987) Social Construction of Technology concept of ‘interpretive flexibility.’ This constructivist approach offers the possibility of looking at the technological process and empowerment as a dynamic process where the ICT users are actively involved in its integration within their existing environment.

The study reveals that, while a number of factors have acted as barriers to communication access to information technology, the biggest hindrances are the lack of sound telecommunication regulations and clear government policies as well as the absence of an environment conducive to ICT development due to an inadequate telecommunication infrastructure. This dissertation employs the case study as an overall strategy and also draws upon multiple data sources to develop a triangulation of methods ranging from in-depth interviewing, participant observation, historical and document analysis as well as analysis of telecommunication debates in local newspapers over the last 4 years. The study concludes that, although the telecommunication is beginning to show some impact due to the partial privatization of the sector, it is too early to assess the overall impact of new media technologies on Africa’s development. This calls for a more realistic approach that incorporates the need to harness the potential of ICTs for purposes of addressing locally relevant problems in innovative and cost-effective ways.

This dissertation is a policy analysis of the broadcasting policy reform in Zimbabwe that resulted in the enactment of the Broadcasting Services Act in 2001. The study utilizes in-depth interviews and document analysis to examine whether the enactment of the Broadcasting Services Act has led to the establishment of a competitive, plural, and diverse broadcasting system thereby breaking away from the past tradition of an institutionalized state monopoly over the broadcast media.

The study reveals that, though the Broadcasting Services Act emphasizes the principles of competition, pluralism, diversity and media independence, the broadcasting terrain in Zimbabwe has not significantly changed. There is a huge gap between the stated objectives of the Broadcasting Services Act and the actual implementation of the Act. The politicians are still deeply steeped in the politics of uniformity of ideas and this explains why the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) remains the sole broadcaster in the country despite the passage of the Broadcasting Services Act in 2001.

Public radio represents a significant part of many universities. These same stations continue to be underrated resources, subject to little scholarly research. This study evaluates the levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction among student and staff employees for eighteen job-related factors as originally identified by Frederick Herzberg.

Data was gathered via questionnaires developed by Frank Friedlander in conjunction with Herzberg. Statistical analysis was performed on the data. Qualitative interviews were conducted with members of management having supervisory duties. The study reveals general adherence to the theory and identifies areas of importance to staff and students. The study also identifies factors among student workers that differ from the theoretical expectations. Contrary to previous corporate studies, students in this investigation rated the hygiene issues of interpersonal relationships as significant elements of job satisfaction. The study concludes with a discussion of station manager realization and manipulation of these motivation-hygiene factors among his or her employees and suggestions for those in upper-administration and law-making positions.

The 1990s witnessed significant changes in the Turkish media landscape as state-controlled broadcasting gave way to the pressures of privatization, deregulation and the infiltration of global media and culture. The new communications space that has opened up with the help of global communication technologies has played an important role in the empowerment of marginal or forgotten groups and voices and their integration with the global system. This space often functions as an alternative public forum to question modernity and national-cultural identities, and to resist top-down economic, political, and cultural systems.

Drawing from the author's fieldwork experience in the underdeveloped southeastern Turkish city of Sanlinurfa, this dissertation explores how nascent local radio, despite its commercial character, constitutes an alternative medium for the young to communicate and be heard. In a region where traditions, the tribal social structure, and the strict interpretation of Islam put extreme pressures on use of the public sphere for social interaction and result in many rigorous constraints on the lives of the young, radio plays a crucial role in alleviating these constraints by functioning as both public and private spheres. Although marriages are arranged, dating is not tolerated, and unmarried women and men cannot enjoy conversation in the public spaces of Sanliurfa, the young manage to experience love and dating via the messages they send through arabesque song requests and conversations with radio DJs. For many youth, these message exchanges encourage independent romantic/emotional development outside the strictures of traditional arranged pairing, they provide a forum for criticism of traditional thinking and matrimonial customs, and they keep young people informed about their peers' struggles with love.

With the help of multi-sited ethnography, this dissertation explores not only the radio audiences' participation in call-in shows and song requests in attempts to overcome traditional restrictions and social norms but also how radio programming decisions are made, challenges that the DJs and producers face when maintaining such audience interaction, and criticisms against such use of commercial radio for the purpose of dating.

This dissertation deals with community radio in South Africa, before and after democratic elections in 1994. Adopting a case study approach and drawing on ethnographic methodology, the dissertation outlines the history of Bush Radio, the oldest community radio project in Africa. To demonstrate how Bush Radio creates community, this dissertation focuses on several cases within Bush Radio. The use of hip-hop for social change is explored.

Framed within theories of entertainment-education and behavior change, the dissertation explores specific programs on-air and outreach programs offered by the station. This dissertation also looks at kwaito music, a new hybrid musical form that emerged in South Africa post-apartheid. In particularly, the dissertation argues that Bush Radio uses kwaito music in the consolidation of a black identity in South Africa. Programs targeting children and youth are also discussed, and the dissertation argues that Bush Radio offers a space for the creation of a generation consciousness in the post-apartheid era. Finally, the dissertation looks at how Bush Radio creates and maintains a gay community through its program In the Pink. Rooted in cultural studies, this dissertation draws on the theory of rhizomatics espoused by Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, arguing for new, creative theorizations of alternative media. Furthermore, this dissertation uses Victor Turner’s communitas and Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus to deconstruct the community in community radio.

In particular, I argue that Bush Radio is not so much an organization as it is an organism, held together by a complex set of interlinked structures, with the concept of “community” pulsating as its central life-force. A kind of “body without organs” (Haraway, 1989), Bush Radio has no real essence – it is both the embodiment of community radio at its best - and its antithesis. Bush Radio is not a “bush” radio, geographically or figuratively. It sports state of the art digital equipment and a relatively sophisticated organizational structure, yet it is still deeply connected to the various communities it serves.

This study examines the impact of new information technologies (NITs) on the Burmese opposition movement-in-exile based in Thailand. The intent of the research is to determine whether NITs, primarily computers and the Internet, are helping to reduce, maintain, or intensify ethnic conflict within the movement. The study explores implications for political mobilization by examining what groups within the movement have access to which technologies, and how these groups understand and use global media and the discourses they produce.

The research is a multi-sited ethnography conceived within the epistemological framework of standpoint theory, providing an empirically grounded exploration of the Burmese opposition movement in both its local and global contexts. It employs participant observation, in-depth interviews and discourse analysis to examine the impact of global communications at the local level. The work begins with an historical examination of the development of the modern state in Burma, which provides the context for exploring how militarization, gender and ethnicity have affected the development of nationalisms and conflict defined largely as “ethnic” in nature. This is followed by a discussion of how the history and current state of communications both inside and outside Burma constrain attitudes toward the possible uses of communications technologies and media among the opposition-in-exile. An overview of opposition media investigates the degree to which these media have opened a space for dialogue between groups. Interviews with opposition activists and refugees from Burma demonstrate how the Burmese regime's militaristic values are both perpetuated and countered within the opposition movement itself.

The research finds that the introduction of NITs and patterns of foreign funding have reinforced existing hierarchies within the opposition movement. Finally, this study demonstrates how the "local" reinvents the "global" through the use of a global discourse of human rights which acts subtly but powerfully to shape social conventions within the movement. This results in an unstated hierarchy of human rights that perpetuates the inequitable gender and ethnic composition of the opposition political groups and the hierarchy of access and use of technologies among these groups.

This research explores the transition of the communication art form, Spoken Word, from the late 1960s to the present. It investigates how African American leaders, orators, and artists use this form of communication during specific periods in history - Black Arts Movement and Black Power Movement. The research also chronicles the usage of specific terms that are appropriated in culture, especially a 21st century "technologizing" culture. Moreover, it analyzes the similarities and differences between the past and present functions of Spoken Word as a communication tool. My method of investigation was auto-ethnography with an emphasis on history-telling as a way of connecting the artistic cultural praxis and traditional use of storytelling that embodies Spoken Word's performative characteristics in the African American culture.

In focusing on the National Columbus Slam team (from Columbus, Ohio) and participating as a member of the team, I reinforced our position as artists centrally located within this transitional use of orality. My subjects consist of six African American people, both females and males, between the ages of 26 and 34. Through in-depth interviews the poets conveyed their identity as active artists in the community of Columbus, Ohio, as well as abroad, and discussed their relationship as it pertains to events of the late 1960s/1970s and how these experiences influenced their art production. Because this research revolves around the cultural understanding of "identity" my results are not finite. Rather, it is an ongoing journey that allows for future generations to re-appropriate terms to accomplish specific goals that are prevalent and relevant at that particular time in history.

This study explores why and how nonprofit organizations in Appalachian Ohio adopt the Web. With the rapid spread of web-technology in society, nonprofit organizations must consider whether they can improve their operations and services by using this technology. While the primary focus of existing studies was placed on the relationships between organizational characteristics and information technology (IT) adoption, the influence of environmental factors on adoption has scarcely been investigated. Because of the dearth of literature, this study attempts to understand how environmental pressures influence the decision to adopt the Web and implement it. In particular it focuses on small nonprofit organizations in Appalachian Ohio, which are located in an economically and technologically disadvantaged area for Web adoption. Grounded in the integration of resource dependency theory, institutional theory, and the strategic choice perspective, this study explicates the adoption process of advanced technology in a complex nonprofit environment.

After examining ways in which the nonprofit organizations in the region used the Web through a content analysis of their web sites, multiple case studies were conducted to better understand why these organizations used the Web in particular ways. The results of the content analysis show very low Web adoption among smaller nonprofit organizations in Appalachian Ohio especially when it came to strategic Web uses. The subsequent case studies of those who used the Web strategically demonstrated that pressures from both the task and institutional environments influenced their Web adoption and use. While institutional expectations of Web deployment have increasingly motivated these organizations to adopt the Web, Web use was affected by resource dependency. Even though the environment surrounding small nonprofits in rural areas has become supportive for Web use with the diffusion of the Internet, decision-making regarding Web use was still strongly determined by resource providers. While satisfied with their current Web use, these nonprofit organizations realized the need to focus more on a client-oriented approach that would strengthen the ties between the organization, their clients, and their contributors, thereby increasing the trust level among them as well as support from them.

This dissertation studies the degree of opposition that the Honduran electorate manifests to dominant codes of the traditional political parties' televised presidential electoral advertising. The main purpose is to generate useful information and electoral alternative strategies to strengthen minority political parties that have been historically committed to political change in an attempt to improve the socioeconomic conditions of marginalized social groups in Honduras. This dissertation attempt to achieve three objectives: (1)To draw on the literature of critical cultural studies to construct a frame useful to interrogate a specific body of televised political commercials and an electorate's response to those political electoral texts; (2)To examine two aspects of political communication: first, the processes through which advertising agencies in Honduras encode values and conventional symbols in televised political advertisements; and second, the oppositional decoded position that is constructed by the critical responses of Honduran voters towards traditional televised electoral advertising; (3)To contribute to a more profound discussion of both methodology and theory as they relate to the study of mass media political communication.

Reception analysis was the method applied in this study, which examined voters' reaction to televised presidential electoral advertisements used by the traditional Honduran political parties, captured through the application of an open ended qualitative questionnaire and a close-ended quantitative survey. Both methods explored the different type of responses expressed by the participants through the decoding of televised presidential electoral commercials. Two primary sources were used as examples for the application of the methods of this dissertation: David Morley's Nationwide Audience of the study of televised program encoding/decoding, and Hall's discussion of decoding positions. The systematization of decoding positions from both the qualitative and quantitative methods made possible a comparative analysis between the responses. The dominant-hegemonic decoded position is mainly conformed by women and sweatshop workers; the negotiated by professionals within the technical type of professions; and the oppositional by students and professionals within the Social Sciences. Theoretically, this dissertation contributes to an expansion of methodology through the successful combination of qualitative and quantitative methods applied to a type of research that has conventionally used only a qualitative approach.

The 1990s was a time of profound economic and political transformation for Thailand. Through major events of economic boom and bust, 1992 political crisis, and democratization of politics, Thailand drafted a new constitution and undertook major political and economic restructuring. Within the context of Thai telecommunications policy restructuring from the beginning of the 1992 to the end of 2000, this study describes the development of Thai Internet and analyzes the policymaking process of telecommunications industry reforms.

The study employs John W. Kingdon's political model of policy process and J. P. Singh's conceptual framework of factors determining telecommunications restructuring and state types in decision-making process to analyze the role of multiple policy forces and the role of the Thai state in network policy formation. While the main impetus for restructuring is Thailand's aspiration to become the economic hub of Southeast Asia, a myriad of forces are found to be at work in telecommunications policy reforms. Economic integration and global liberalization agenda enforced by the WTO and the IMF have had direct impact on the country's policymaking. Domestically, in the juxtaposition of maturing democracy and intensifying money politics, business interests become increasingly influential in telecommunications policymaking through more direct political maneuvering at the top levels. There is also a burgeoning influence from public interest groups and the Senate. The plurality of interests in the policy process hampers the ability of the state to direct policy outcome. In the system where policymaking is plagued by vested interests and political squabbles, the policymaking function of the state is seriously undermined and the development of Thai Internet suffers as a result.

Many scholars of electoral politics argue that differentiated press coverage exists for male and female candidates, which explains why women can fare poorly in political campaigns. However, the majority of research about political candidates focuses on national and statewide elections to the detriment of local political campaigns. This investigation contributes to existing research on political candidates on the local level. In 1999, Republican Party candidate Sue Anne Gilroy and Democratic Party candidate Bart Peterson contested for the Indianapolis mayoral seat. To many observers, Gilroy was advantaged because the Republicans controlled local politics and had easily won the mayoral office for over 30 years. The Democratic Party candidate, Bart Peterson, was a relative unknown to Indianapolis politics. In the end, however, Peterson defeated Gilroy by winning 52% of the votes. Analyzing the 1999 Indianapolis mayoral election as a case study in examining how male and female candidates are framed in the press, this research evaluates the local newspapers' coverage of the major party candidates during the general election period.

The theory of framing analysis guided this study, particularly two frames that are common to the study of elections: gender frame and news frame. Quantitative content analysis was utilized as a research technique to establish the persistent patterns present in the reporting of the candidates. Personal interviews of the campaign managers were conducted to gain insights into the candidates' campaign experience. Statistical analyses of the local newspaper coverage of the Indianapolis mayoral election revealed that neither gender frame nor news frame were significant in the local press coverage of the election. However, some subtle qualitative differences emerged. The results of this study suggest that other frames may have been operative that influenced the election campaign. Yet, the interviews revealed that gender was a factor in the election campaign. Thus, while the issue of gender may not have been obvious in the press, it continues to have a role in political elections.

Broadcasting and telecommunications systems in Thailand have long been controlled by the government under state monopoly policy. In 1997, the new constitution was enacted and introduced a new approach to managing radio frequencies in the public interest. This study examines the policy-making process that led to broadcasting and telecommunications reforms designed to promote education in Thailand. This process resulted in the provisions on frequency management in Section 40 of the 1997 Constitution and other related legislation. The research is intended to provide an understanding of the development of media policies in Thailand, and explain recent efforts to promote education through changes in these policies.

A qualitative approach was adopted. The data were collected from contemporary documentation, participant observation, and in-depth interviews. The analysis of the data was conducted using the theoretical framework developed by Kingdon (1995) and Heclo's (1978) concept of issue networks. This study found that, while the media reform policies in general can be best explained by Kingdon's (1995) stream convergence model, the development of media reforms specifically to promote education was a result of cooperation among academics and senior educators in issue networks dealing with the uses of technology for education. The author concludes that, among various factors influencing the recent reforms in broadcasting and telecommunications in Thailand, politics proved to be the most significance. The change in the political system from authoritarianism to a more democratic rule in the 1990s weakened the political power of the military and strengthened the activities of civil society, which contributed to policy changes in many areas. In contrast to Kingdon's (1995) study, the participants inside the government did not perform an active role in this policy-making process. The alliance between the academics and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) created a powerful effort to affect the policy agenda and the selection of alternatives. Moreover, the business interest groups were not active participants because they shared mutual benefits with the government from the status quo, and never believed that the government would let go its large benefits from the monopoly it has long held.

The study investigates the factors that influence the diffusion and adoption of satellite television service in Malaysia. It also examines the time spent viewing satellite and public television in the presence of satellite television service. In addition, the study analyzes the broadcasting changes in Malaysia in terms of structure and policy between its introduction in 1963 and the development of direct broadcast satellites in 1996. Based on a review of literature on diffusion of innovations theory, the study developed research questions and methods.

The study employed a quantitative method in data collection and analysis. An audience survey was done in Subang Jaya, Malaysia. The results show that socioeconomic and cultural factors are influential in determining the adoption of satellite television service. The socioeconomic factors identified are education, income, travels overseas, last trip overseas, media availability at home, age, marital status, race and language used at home. The cultural factors identified are television viewing hours, frequency of viewing foreign programs and motivation for entertainment. In determining the diffusion rate of satellite television service, the study finds that education, travels overseas, age, race and marital status are influential factors that determine how relatively early or late the adoption takes place. The study also finds that the time spent viewing satellite television will depend on income, travels overseas, media availability at home, marital status, television viewing hours, frequency of viewing foreign programs, frequency of viewing alone and motivation for entertainment, escape, companionship and habit. The time spent viewing public television will depend on income, education, gender, race, television viewing hours, frequency of viewing with family and motivation for learning, talking about with friends, companionship and habit.

The study concludes that socioeconomic factors associated with income are the key factors that influence the adoption of satellite television service. Satellite television is often associated with entertainment, while public television is often associated with learning. Recommendations are made for future research.

Latinos comprise the fastest growing and most racially/ethnically diverse minority groups in the United States, yet it is a group that is greatly misunderstood. One factor in perpetuating the misconceptions about Latinos is the belief that they constitute one homogeneous group. This misconception has prevented researchers, in all fields, from fully understanding the Latino experience in its totality. This study is an attempt to address this problem by examining media use and acculturation in the Puerto Rican community. Based on previous research on Uses and Gratifications, identity, and acculturation, this study sought to determine if and how cultural identity and acculturation correlated with media use. Puerto Ricans, from both the island and mainland, were surveyed to determine their media use, levels of cultural identification and acculturation to the United States. The sample included both mainland and island participants to measure differences in acculturation and media use between those more closely tied to the island's culture and those more closely tied to the mainland (English-speaking) culture.

The results of the study show surprising little difference between mainland and island Puerto Ricans in the their media use. Recent migrants do not exhibit any marked difference in the gratifications sought from the media. This is contrary to other studies that have examined immigrant groups. This study also finds that there is a high level of Spanish language media use among all Puerto Ricans, both on the island and the mainland. An unexpected result is the high level of English language media use among Puerto Ricans living on the island. Finally, the results show that higher levels acculturation have an effect on the media language preference of Puerto Ricans, but this effect was not as powerful as was expected based on previous research.

Through the use of oral histories, this study looks at the social impact of electronic media usage on rural Appalachia. Starting with radio's inception in the 1920s and 30s, followed by television's arrival in the 1950s and 60s, and ending with the current expansion of the Internet, I examine respondents' memories of each medium, how they used them, and the impact electronic media had on their lives. Given the strong sense of community and family within the Appalachian region, this work investigates how the arrival of electronic communication technology enhanced or disrupted the sense of community.

The first chapter of this dissertation positions the researcher and looks at the history of Appalachia, the problems faced by its residents, and images of the region. Chapter Two examines the methodology and theory used in collecting oral histories and interpreting data. In Chapter Three, I focus on ethnicity and identity issues that contribute to the diverse makeup of the peoples of Appalachia, using the Melungeon community as a case study. Chapter Four looks at the inception of radio and how it helped connect rural Appalachia to the rest of the nation and to the world at large. I also examine how mutually influencing technologies and social transformation affect the dissemination of most communication technologies. Rural electrification, for example, had a significant overall impact on rural Appalachia's social history. It was perhaps electricity's arrival, more than the evolution of the medium of radio itself that changed people's listening habits. In Chapter Five, I look at the impact television had on the region. Although the concurrent arrival of television and electricity into the region allowed for a more casual interaction with TV (as compared to radio's arrival), early television also served as a unifying factor as it precipitated gatherings at friends' and neighbors' houses throughout the community. Chapter Six examines how the Melungeons have embraced the Internet as a way of connecting to one another. In Chapter Seven, I summarize my findings with concluding remarks.

Taha, Mustafa Hashim. Web campaigning and the 2000 presidential election: A new paradigm in political communication. Advisor: Flournoy,D.

News media were criticized for their “horse race” coverage of political campaigns. Candidates' views and positions were filtered through media lenses and framed in ways that might not be fair or beneficial to some candidates. Moreover, candidates were infrequently allowed to speak for themselves and have direct mass-mediated communication with voters. The study argues that Web campaigning is a new paradigm that allowed candidates to bypass traditional media and communicate directly with voters. This process of disintermediation enables candidates to provide in-depth campaign information to voters at affordable cost. Because of its interactivity, the Web has the potential of making political campaigns more voter-driven.

Based on review of literature on media coverage of political campaigns, this study asked questions that investigated the uses of candidates' Websites during the 2000 presidential election. The study also investigated the use of the Web by political science professors and political consultants, and sought their views on Web campaigning. The study employed two quantitative research methods: analysis of content, and a survey instrument. The study finds that the Web provided the 2000 presidential candidates with more opportunities to tell their stories, advance their agendas, frame campaign issues, attack opponents and respond to opponents' attacks. The candidates used their Websites for Webcasting, narrowcasting and getting out the vote.

The study also finds that some of the candidates used their Websites effectively to raise money and recruit volunteers. The study concludes that the 2000 presidential candidates used their Websites to provide substantive information to voters, set the agendas, frame the issues, recruit volunteers and raise money online during the campaign. The study also concludes that because the candidates wanted to control the agendas, they did not utilize the Web's interactive features to engage voters in online debates. Unless voters demand that Web campaigning be more interactive, candidates will continue to use the Web as they have used traditional media.

This quantitative content analysis investigates American elite news media's reporting on China. The six media under study are: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and evening news on three broadcast networks--ABC, CBS, and NBC. The specific data collected are key words reflecting all the themes or topics referred to in each news story as registered by Newspaper Abstracts and Evening News Abstracts. This study accesses a full description of the media content in the years after the Tiananmen Square tragedy, 1995. The reporting focus, the major topic themes, the patterns of coverage over time, and the similarities and differences across media are described via an exhaustive keyword study of By applying Perl programming, factor analysis, and other statistical strategies, the study yielded the following findings: (1) the six American news media provided a large volume of news events about China, but with limited diversity of event type; (2) twenty major themes were identified with the complex connections between the subtopics and their underlying common themes; (3) the monthly and yearly chronicle reporting patterns during the six years were identified; and (4) the three newspapers differed significantly among themselves in terms of reporting quantity, while the three broadcast networks showed significant agreement with each other in both reporting quantity and topics.

It is hoped that the analysis might provide insight into future studies of more meaningful content study, which should combine content analyses with effect study and audience research to explore the assumptions of communication theories such as agenda-setting and framing. Expanding or deepening content study in all dimensions will provide knowledge concerning not only what the media report, but how and why it is reported.

Since 1995, Ghana's broadcasting system has been changing from public service broadcast monopoly towards a pluralistic and independent system. As a result, private radio and television stations have started broadcasting alongside the state-owned GBC. This research, conducted in Accra, investigates emerging issues of the broadcasting changes and assesses audience perceptions regarding the current operations of the public and private broadcasting stations. Based on review of literature on global public service broadcasting changes, media diversity, and broadcasting and cultural identity this study asked questions which investigated audience perceptions on the current broadcasting situation. Specifically, issues of broadcast diversity, public participation, and cultural concerns emerging from the operations of the broadcasting stations were investigated.

Quantitative and qualitative methods involving audience surveys and in-depth interviews were employed. The study finds an overall positive audience perception on the broadcasting changes and on the operations of both the public and private radio and television stations. The audience perceptions regarding the introduction of private broadcasting were that it had created diversity in the content of broadcasting, created opportunities and avenues for public participation in broadcasting, resulted in changes in audience habits and preferences for radio and television, that is, increase in viewing and listening to programs compared to the GBC monopoly era. The study again finds significant improvements in the services of the public broadcasting network, a result of the competition from the private stations. The study also reports that the audiences had major concerns about the dominance of foreign programming both in radio and television, the extensive use of English as the language for broadcasting, the mimicking of foreign accents by some presenters, and the lack of program format diversity.

The research concludes that despite these perceived problems, the introduction of independent and pluralistic broadcasting has been a healthy development that has rekindled audience interest in broadcasting and civic participation. Recommendations are made for improving the broadcasting situation and for future research.

The research conducted was a longitudinal comparative study of American television news coverage of the Hong Kong handover from Britain to China. The research covers a thirteen year period from 1984, when the agreement was first signed between Britain and China, until 1997 when the colony of Hong Kong again became part of China. Television news stories from the three major commercial networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), CNN, and the NewsHour on PBS provided the data for the study. These stories were analyzed according to three major components of television news stories: visuals, standups, and soundbites.

The study consisted of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis within the theoretical frameworks of framing, second-level agenda-setting, and social construction of reality. The research comparatively examined (1) how visuals, standups, and soundbites were used by the news organizations in their television news stories during the years of the handover coverage; and (2) how these visuals, standups and soundbites were impacted by two major inputs, the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 and the arrival of Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten in 1992; and (3) the differences between the news organizations in their use of the television news story components under study. One major finding of the study was that the incident at Tiananmen Square produced a strong negative reaction in the story components about the future of Hong Kong after 1997 as well as increased negative reaction towards China's role in the handover. This reaction subsided after the Patten's arrival but an anti-China frame remained dominant throughout the years covered by the study.

Another finding showed that television news coverage tended to focus on charismatic personalities that fit within the ideology of the American news organizations. Patten as well as Pro-Democracy leader Martin Lee received a disproportionate amount of news coverage and Chinese officials were rarely interviewed. Focusing on personalities also meant less time was spent on the political and economic implications of the story. The study also showed that an incident like Tiananmen Square and subsequent demonstrations increases attention to a story because it provides television news with dramatic pictures. The study also demonstrated the decreasing focus on international news by the commercial networks. As the years got closer to 1997, the networks did not increase their coverage as much as CNN or the NewsHour. From 1992 on, the NewsHour aired almost twice as many soundbites on the Hong Kong handover as did ABC, CBS, and NBC combined.

Kyrgyzstan gained its independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991 and declared its intention to develop a democratic republic. Non-government, commercial media began to emerge as reforms were instituted in Kyrgyzstan, and have continued to develop in the decade since independence. This dissertation examines radio broadcasting in Kyrgyzstan and the relationship that exists between radio and the development of democracy from 1991 to 2000.

Two principal methods were utilized to research radio broadcasting in Kyrgyzstan and its role in democratization. In-depth interviews with commercial and government radio personnel provided first-hand perspectives on how radio functioned in the decade following independence. Surveys were administered to radio listeners in the two most-populous administrative regions in order to assess radio's function from the perspective of the receiver. The foundation for the study was built upon McQuail's (1992) Media Performance Assessment, which analyzed media performance based on three principles of democracy: freedom, equality and solidarity. This research examined radio's function in Kyrgyzstan, and how it contributed to the overall process of democratization. Approximately fifty percent of the population in Kyrgyzstan use radio on a regular basis. Radio listeners feel that radio contributes positively to the democratization of the country while radio broadcasters view the atmosphere quite differently, citing numerous restrictions placed on radio broadcasting by government and other sources. Broadcasters hold mixed opinions regarding the effectiveness of radio broadcasting in democratization, claiming that the lack of independent media has not allowed democracy to develop in Kyrgyzstan. Radio stations do offer some opportunities in their programming for listeners to discuss political issues; however, government policies have restricted stations from creating spaces for opinions that criticize authorities. Radio broadcasting has not yet developed its full democratic potential in Kyrgyzstan, as it operates within an atmosphere that is characterized by government controls and limited access. Nonetheless, radio has created some spaces for listeners to express their opinions regarding issues of public concern.

The history of broadcasting in The Bahamas is significantly underrepresented in the literature. This study sets out to rectify this deficiency in the literature and delineates the progress of mass communication, specifically broadcasting, in the country for the period under study, 1930-1980. The study integrates media systems analyses and cultural studies theories to examine the phenomenon of broadcasting in The Bahamas, its effects on the Bahamian audience, the use of broadcasting by Bahamians, and the role of broadcasting in shaping the values and views of Bahamians. The study answers the following questions: what were the economic, political, geographical, social, and technological factors, internally and externally, that influenced the development of broadcasting in The Bahamas from 1930-1980? This study relied on oral interviews and primary and secondary sources to construct and provide the distinctive nature of the broadcasting history of The Bahamas for the period, 1930-1980.

The researcher used the method of triangulation to increase the validity and reliability of the study. Broadcasting is both a product and reflection of the history of the Bahamian society. As such, it continues to play a significant part in developing Bahamian identity and culture. This study on the broadcasting system of The Bahamas reveals several significant findings. First, the control of colonial administrators, especially the Governor and Colonial Secretary, is evident in the structure and function of broadcasting until 1964 (the beginning of internal self-government). Second, in the post-independence period broadcasting functions to promote national development. Third, broadcasting transmitted the values and behaviors of British and American cultures as a result; modern lifestyles replaced traditional ones. Fourth, political and economic élites (first the white oligarchy and later PLP politicians) play an important role in the ownership and control of broadcasting. Fifth, changes in Bahamian cultural tastes result in changes in broadcasting--particularly content. Sixth, commercialization brings increased revenues and provides a turning point in radio broadcasting-the staff increases, the quality and quantity of the programs increase, and the physical facilities improve. Seventh, because of commercialization maximization of audience share takes priority. Finally, this study supports and extends Sydney Head's hypothesis on the forces that influence the characteristics of broadcasting systems.

This work explores the postcolonial representational practices, national identity and the question of community agency based on the popular Indian mythological text, the Ramayana. The starting point for this inquiry was the Balmikis' or lower caste sanitation workers' strike in August 1988 against the Ramayana, when it was serialized on Indian television. The sanitation workers questioned why the narratives of the lower caste author of the text, whom the Balmiki community considers as their guru, were excluded from the popular series. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault, this study explores the question of the audience's agency through the metaphor of the author. It shows how the Balmikis' question of the author constitutes part of a history of postcolonial representational practices, even as it challenges these practices through the medium of popular culture. Colonial genealogies and national/regional identities color contemporary representational practices that encompass television as a medium, television texts, and audiences. The work critically draws upon cultural studies research on media audiences, feminist scholarship and postcolonial theorists in order to conceptualize the historical dimensions of authorship and agency.

This dissertation argues that Hawaiian-music radio constitutes one of the few public spheres in Hawaii where resistance to colonialism is made visible. Music is an important site not only for resistance, but a site of popular memory for Native Hawaiians. It is through music that Natives are able to voice their rejection of American imperialism and colonialism, and to reify important Hawaiian values such as "ohana (family)," "aina (land), and aloha (love). Informed by cultural studies, autoethnography, and phenomenology, my research study consisted of interviewing 30 producers and consumers of Hawaiian-music radio, observing everyday life in Hawaii, gathering documents in Hawaii, listening to Hawaiian-music radio, CDs and tapes, and navigating the Internet to broaden my understanding of how living-in-Hawaii Hawaiians negotiate their identities in a tourist habitus. Methodologically this study problematizes the function of theory and practice throughout the research process. The assumption is that methodology is not contained within the space of one particular research stage (or dissertation chapter), but spirals continuously throughout the study. There is, then, a rhizomatic quality to this study that defies rigid categorizations of beginning, middle, and end, and instead, emphasizes the perennial middle stage of becoming. There are five chapters in this dissertation.

The first chapter positions the researcher and introduces the problematic of "living in Hawaii Hawaiians" and their negotiation of habitus within a tourist discourse. Chapter Two traces the political economy of Hawaii and explicates the function of hybridity in historicity and everyday life, radio, and cultural theory. Methodological issues are discussed in Chapter Three with a detailed account of research methods, and the metatheoretical issues and problematics that emerged in the research study. In Chapter Four, I present my interpretation of research by focusing on methodology as a spiraling concern throughout the research process. As such, this chapter explicates three emergent cultural forms (literary/art journal, rap music, and Website) that represent hybridized memory and resistance. It also problematizes the Hawaiian diaspora in Hawaii and on the U.S. continent, and ends with a critical review of the study, including limitations and suggestions for future research. Chapter Five is an epilogue which revisits Hawaiian-music radio.

The world is witnessing the democratization of Eastern and Central European nations resulting from the Soviet Union's collapse. Many challenges confront these newly democratic countries, and establishing a democratic broadcast media is just one of them. This study examines how the introduction of a pluralistic political system and an open market affect the media system of one such country, Estonia. In the process, issues of the societal role of mass communication are questioned as this newly democratic country struggles to transform its broadcast media system. Using a case study approach, the research provided insight into the complexities and the difficulties in democratizing a previously state-owned and operated broadcast system.

Historical analysis was used to study the first five years, 1991-1996, of the changes and redirection of Estonia's broadcast media system, and a policy analysis of the drafting and enactment of Estonia's 1994 Broadcast Law was conducted. Documents were gathered and interviews were conducted with key actors involved in the broadcasting system and development of the Broadcast Law. In addition, the current state of Estonia's broadcast media system was assessed utilizing McQuail's (1992) Media Performance Analysis framework. The synergies from combining the political and historical analysis and McQuail's (1992) Media Performance Analysis framework with a case study approach produced greater results and understanding than utilizing each method separately.

The findings of the research reveal that Estonia is experiencing significant development of a private broadcast system to parallel its state-owned and operated public system of radio and television stations. In redeveloping and democratizing its broadcast system, Estonia is overcoming formidable challenges: overcoming differences in Soviet and Western broadcast technologies, transforming its state command economy into a mature market economy, developing a regulatory system to establish a public service policy and promote private broadcasting, and developing skills and expertise in managing and operating broadcast stations in a democratic free market environment. Estonia is successfully meeting the challenges in democratizing its broadcast system, but it still has hurdles to overcome.

This dissertation investigates the formulation of the communication policy process surrounding the creation of Moroccan private television, and discusses factors that led to its establishment. This historical study used in-depth interviews to identify the main factors and actors in the communication policymaking. Research results show that a combination of domestic and external factors have affected the creation of private TV. While international moves towards privatization and political liberalization had an impact on the development of private television, the influence of an elite local group also played an important role in the advent of the station. The public and the intellectual/social elite who were dissatisfied with the government broadcasting system also had some influence on the government's decision process, even if the public was not so much asking for the creation of private television as it was demanding reforms of the public television system.

The study highlights the political dynamics of communication policy decisions and the autonomous power of the government. For example, despite pressure, the government was able to introduce a private channel that fit government interests and protected its domination over electronic media. The government was able to reorient the reform process to suit its own sense of priorities and its interpretation of public interest. The political dimension of the communication policy process is also suggested by the beneficiaries of the policy. Resources were channeled to a political elite and the government remained the dominant actor. In addition, the political dynamics of communication policy decisions reflected the limits and constraints placed on the participation of some potential actors (especially the parliament), while providing more power for other participants to exercise close control over the process.

The study demonstrates that the Royal Palace, ONA, and the Ministry of the Interior and Information were the most important participants in the communication policy process, and that most of the interaction occurred among them. The general level of participation and interaction of other potential participants varied according to their role or influence in communication policy.

This research explores the various level of meanings embedded in the images represented of women, television anchors in particular, on Dubai (UAE) TV. Approaches taken to decipher these images are grounded in the methodologies of interpretations, especially those coming from Arab/Islamic traditions. Arab/Islamic interpretation, (Ibn Arabi in particular), negotiates various aspects of concern to this research. This approach negotiates, or rather negates, the move used by most current Arab scholars to utilize Western methodological approaches in the Arab regions and argues that every tradition has its own ways of understanding and articulation of meanings. Globalization, centrality of vision, the concept of "simulacra" (Baudriallard), and how they cross all boundaries of cultures and places are addressed in this research, especially as they are related to the construction of images of women in modern media institutions. The feminine position in Islam and how it is understood and articulated, especially in the tradition of intellectual Islam, is a primary focus in this research.

Vision centrality in the modern West is addressed in this research in order to negotiate how the issue of "veiling" is understood within this centrality. Colonialism and its new, more sophisticated outcome, neo-colonialism, are some of the elements addressed in this research in order to understand how modern mass media institutions in the Arab regions, taking the West as their model and point of reference, construct images of women as well as articulating their relationships to Arab cultures. The finding of this research reveals that images of women on Dubai TV are loaded with western, rather than Arab/Islamic, codes. The female body on Dubai TV is treated as material, objectified, and presented as a site of "gaze."

This research is an extreme case study focusing on mission and strategy in a local public broadcasting organization. The study utilizes strategic analysis based upon dialectic theory. It employs a tri-part process of historical construction, trends analysis and situational analysis to study three perspectives of mission in public broadcasting. The first of these is stated mission which is derived from public policy and planning documents which have created and funded public broadcasting. The second is the enacted mission constructed through the historical development of public broadcasting. The third is the emergent mission defined as a praxis which is socially necessary and environmentally legitimate. Gap analysis between the stated and the enacted missions was utilized to establish an issue agenda consisting of the tensions between the public and the private, the margins and the mainstream, education and entertainment, the economic and the political, and the local and the national. The issue agenda served as an analytic frame in which to examine the past, construct the present, and develop a mission portfolio for the future.

The present research provides an analytic frame and strategic process through which public broadcasting can transform itself into an essential service capable of attracting support from multiple constituencies. Since the theory, process and techniques are applicable to a range of public and not-for-profit organizations, this research is of interest to scholars in not-for-profit studies, strategic management, communications, organizational commications and media studies.

This research examines the ways in which Ghana's poor women, particularly its market traders, use radio. The Ghanaian government has determined that the country's national development is dependent upon the progress of its women, and has focused much of its strategy on projects for women. Radio is the mass medium that is most available to poor women, and government uses it to reinforce development strategies. Ghana's national economy is in a long, slow recovery period and women are caught in the middle. At the same time, the media system is in the process of privatization, and government owned stations are expected to generate revenue through advertising. A combination of qualitative research methods were employed.

An ethnographic, interpretive research approach was used for individual and group interviews and participant observations with the women. Interviews with informants were combined with participant observation, archival research, and textual analyses of two typical radio programs for women to triangulate the interrogation. Women in the areas near Tamale and Ho were interviewed as part of literacy groups, or as individual market traders. The concepts of access to radio, interest in the programming, representation of women on radio, and the relations of power extant in the women's relationship with radio were incorporated in the research process. The research finds that the women are interested in radio, although those in Ho have more access than those in the North. Women enjoy programs that address them as wives, mothers and heads of households; they like religious programming, drama and programs in their local languages. Most prominent in the interviews were the women's economic concerns and feelings of hopelessness about the economy. Interviews with radio station personnel and monitoring of radio programs revealed conflicting interests: development-oriented programs were often replaced with sponsored shows. Programs for women reiterated traditional gender roles, religion, and consumerism while ignoring women's economic needs and interests.

The research concludes that women respond positively to radio, and they are willing to change their behavior, but radio programs and policies need to be consistent and sensitive to women's real fives. Policy and programming suggestions are made.

This study focuses on the images of women in Arab music videos. The music video has been chosen because it is a new phenomenon in Arab culture, particularly in Arab Gulf countries. This study examined the representation of women in Arab music videos, a practice which started in the 1990s. The researcher asked four questions as tools to provide direction for this study: How do Arab music videos represent women? How do Arab audiences read and interpret these images? How do producers who work with these videos interpret these images of women? and How do Arab female performers interpret their images and roles in Arab music videos? This study is important because using female performers in music videos has increased dramatically since 1990, and because these videos emphasize women's bodies and beauty. Published women's studies in Arab region are rare; there is an urgent need for this kind of study into how women's stereotypes are promoted in Arab media. Studies of American women's images in music videos have been reviewed in this study because of the lack of such studies of Arab women. These American investigations provide a frame work for this study. This is a descriptive study.

Three approaches have been used. These were descriptions of music videos contents, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. This study argues that Western feminist theory is difficult to apply to Arab women's position because of the realities and circumstances which Arab women experience and their differences from these of Western women. The study found that images of women in the Arab music videos reinforce some stereotypes of women. Arab women were represented from the perspectives of sex and beauty. Arab audiences and producers believe that women are symbolic of these elements. These images and perceptions of women in the Arab music videos reflect the notions of Arab culture about women.

This study investigates demographic factors influencing the diffusion and individuals' adoption of direct broadcasting system service in the United Arab Emirates. The study explores the assessment and contribution of DBS potential adopters' demographic factors including age, sex, income, and education, and cultural factors (language and travel).

The study employed a quantitative method in data collection and analysis. Data in this study was gathered through a distribution of a self-administered survey at two phases in time in the U.A.E. A total of 550 survey-questionnaires were submitted to DBS audiences in the U.A.E., particularly in the emirate of Abu Dhabi in both Al-Ain City and Abu Dhabi City. A response rate of 80% was achieved. In addition, the study examined people's attitudes, motivations and behavior toward their adoption of the technology. In doing so, the study, to a large extent, used the diffusion of innovations theory to form the theoretical framework. Generally, results show weak relationships between independent variables (age, sex, income, education, language, and travel) and dependent variables (attitudes, motivations, and behavior). Descriptive statistics show that age, parents' monthly income, language, and travel, to certain degree, play a role in individuals' adoption of the technology in the U.A.E. Results, also showed that neither individuals' motivations nor attitudes are strong predictors for viewing DBS in the country. The study holds that the reasons, attributed to the inapplicability of the diffusion of innovations theory at present time in the U.A.E. setting, are as follows: The theory's bias toward diffusion of innovations, the U.A.E. social policy in the past, religion and people's traditions, U.A.E. immigration and naturalization policy, the diffusion of cellular telephones and paging systems, and interpersonal communications. These factors hindered individuals, to a large extent, toward their adoption of DBS services in the U.A.E. although the technology is diffused widely in the country.

This study is an analysis of radio stations' employee perceptions of the acquisition process. Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, acquisitions are frequently used as a method to obtain a radio station license. The importance of this study lies in the development of a model which incorporates the results with Vroom's Expectancy Theory and Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory. The Leveling Model illustrates this study's results that differences resulting from demographics and job characteristics are leveled during the acculturation process. Furthermore, the Leveling Model distinguishes between factors that motivate employees in a stable environment and those factors that motivate in an acquisition environment.

A survey of employees within one company's recently acquired stations and interviews with twenty employees within the company were used in data collection. The survey instrument and interview protocol focused on gaining information regarding satisfaction with the acquisition, organizational climate, and job satisfaction. Results from the survey instrument indicate that none of the independent variables tested serve as predictors of satisfaction with the acquisition. Furthermore, a correlation analysis reveals that none of the independent variables are significantly correlated with satisfaction with an acquisition. Management as a job title serves as a predictor for organizational climate following an acquisition. Correlation analysis indicates that management has a significant positive correlation and 'radio personalities' has a significant negative correlation with organizational climate. Predictors of job satisfaction are a person's job title as a radio personality or account executive. The correlation analysis shows that 'radio personalities' has a significant negative correlation with job satisfaction. Results also indicate that management and office staff have significant positive correlations with job satisfaction, while education has a significant negative correlation with job satisfaction. Interviews reveal that employees and managers feel honesty, communication, and up front knowledge are effective managerial behaviors during an acquisition process. Managers and employees feel concerned that management communicate with employees, are honest in their communication and promises to employees, and that managers communicate information immediately following the announcement of the station's acquisition.

This study is intended to explain the transformation of the Beatles' image from teen idols, as they were portrayed in the earliest print media coverage of Beatlemania, to leaders of the youth movement and cultural agents, as they were by the end of the 1960s. This dissertation used as a theoretical base the work of Richard Dyer in star theory and Antonio Gramsci's notions of hegemony and the intellectual. The study utilized a chronological approach and drew upon secondary and primary sources, including American mainstream print media, Beatle albums, and Beatle films and videos. The following questions were posed: First, how were the Beatles depicted over time in the mainstream press? Second, how did the transformation of the Beatles' image interact with cultural and historical processes and events--in terms of the acceptance and/or rejection of the image by different quarters of the public at various times in the development of that image? Third, how were the different aspects of the Beatles' image incorporated into the culture with regard to dress, style, advertisement, spirituality, and so on? Finally, could the Beatles be viewed as Gramscian intellectuals or agents? If so, in what sense?

The dissertation demonstrates that, initially, the Beatles were sold as stars. Their irreverence, uniqueness, success, and the mania they evoked, were the bedrock upon which their image was built. By 1966 the Beatles tired of touring and Beatlemania effectively came to an end. The Beatles viewed themselves as artists and individuals with concerns consistent with their age cohort, and actively disseminated an image of themselves that was more consistent with their own self image. Their artistic supremacy and championing of counterculture values made them model counterculturalists. The status they enjoyed among "serious" musicians and commentators attests to the success the Beatles had in making the youth-centered culture they led and represented a defining characteristic of the hegemonic culture of the period. In a hegemonic sense, the Beatles' acceptance by traditional intellectuals demonstrates the operation of hegemony. Public culture had been altered: Concessions had been wrested by a subordinate group from the hegemonic class, thus establishing a new hegemony.

The study reviews Japanese television broadcast regulation between 1987 and 1997 and is one of the first research attempts to analyze the Japanese broadcast policy-making process and its patterns. The research focuses on decisions related to the transition from analog to digital broadcasting. The main themes pursued are: roles played by such political actors as bureaucrats, politicians and broadcasters in the decision to shift the broadcast standard to digital; changes which occurred in the domestic political environment in Japan between 1987 and 1997 to support this decision; events both within Japan and internationally that may have created a climate which made such a decision possible; and clues as to the state-centric or society-centric approaches which might explain the change in policy requiring a shift from analog to digital standards.

This dissertation contains six chapters. Chapter I is an introductory chapter which gives an overview of broadcast regulation and introduces the context and concept of this research. Chapter II reviews the related literature, starting from a historical overview of the origins and development of broadcasting research in Japan, then focusing on a review of broadcast policy research. Chapter II also examines the several theoretical ways of analyzing Japanese broadcast policy. Chapter III covers the historical context which led up to the debate over an analog versus digital standard. Chapter IV describes the research method and data collection technique. Chapter V discusses the interview data collected during field research in Tokyo. In the concluding Chapter VI, the researcher summarizes the results of the data arguing that the case of a change from an analog to a digital standard between 1987 and 1997 in Japan is something of an exception due to the fact that the MPT bureaucrats in this case assumed responsibility for making a major policy change with very little consultation with either politicians or market players. The research shows, however, that the days of the elite bureaucrat and the unchecked bureaucracy are over. This is due to technological advancements and societal changes.

Four studies are reported that focus on the formation and development of relationships between people who meet initially on the Internet. The research focuses on the personality factors that predispose some people to seek out friends and romantic partners on the Internet; the speed with which these relationships develop; the similarities and the differences between Internet relationship formation and traditional or 'off-line' relationship development; and the consequences of Internet relationships for the individuals' real life.

Four different methodologies were used for data collection: participant observation, in-depth interviews, a survey conducted with nearly 600 newsgroup users, and two laboratory experiments. Results demonstrate that those who are socially anxious and lonely are more likely to form intimate relationships with others via the Internet. This effect is mediated, however, by the extent to which the individual feels that his or her 'real self' is more accurately and naturally expressed on the Internet than in the off-line domain. Those who locate the real self on the Internet are more likely to engage in such activities as meeting Internet partners in person, having affairs with them, and becoming engaged to someone they had met through the Internet. Results of the two laboratory experiments reveal that individuals like one another better if they first meet via the Internet than if the first meeting takes place face-to-face. It is also shown that people tend to present and effectively convey a more idealized version of themselves in Internet meetings than they do in face-to-face meetings.

The survey and laboratory findings confirm the reports of the majority of those interviewed that Internet relationships form more easily and then develop more quickly than traditional relationships, and end up becoming just as real--that people tend, ultimately, to make their Internet friends and romantic partners part of their actual, physical, day-to-day social worlds.

This study investigates international advertising strategies employed by U.S. companies in foreign markets. It further explores the access that these companies have to different media for advertising purposes and factors affecting media selection for foreign markets. The difference in cultural orientation and attitude toward international advertising among four groups of managers is also examined. In doing so, the study links together three theories of media content to constitute the theoretical framework. These theories are media dependency, resources dependency and theories of influences on mass media content. Finally, the study extends a questionnaire obtained from Kanso (1992).

Data in this study was gathered from foreign officers in U.S. companies with substantial business interests in markets outside the U.S. A total of 500 questionnaires were mailed to names obtained from 'The Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries' and a response rate of 32% was achieved. Descriptive statistics showed that U.S companies do not standardize or adapt international advertising. While approaches companies take fell on a continuum, the distribution of responses was skewed toward adaptation of international advertising. Results further showed that companies do not have the same level of access to direct mail, magazines, newspapers, outdoor, radio and television advertising in foreign markets. A principal components analysis showed that four factors--companies' marketing strength, financial strength and the cultural and competitor-economic environments--affect media selection decisions for foreign markets. A discriminant analysis showed that four groups of managers who reported that international advertising is absolutely standardized, standardized, adapted and absolutely adapted in their firms differ in both cultural orientation and attitude toward standardization.

This study examined the career experiences of African American female general managers of radio and television broadcast stations located in the United States. A population of twenty African American female managers was identified. The study (1) examined career progression; (2) identified career facilitators; (3) identified career barriers; (4) examined the manager's perceptions of their dual status as women and African Americans and (5) examined the impact of gender and race on the manager's career progression.

The results indicate that the FCC's EEO policies helped the managers gain access to the predominantly White and male broadcast industry. While the managers experienced the plexiglass ceiling, station management opportunities have occurred predominantly through public broadcasting and station ownership. The participants believe their careers have been impacted by both gender and race. As African American females in broadcast station management, the participants have experienced professional isolation and biculturality. Like many other executives the research participants struggle to balance their personal and professional lives. The participant's career progression has been aided by nurturing/supportive work environments and formalized support groups, namely CPB and NABOB. Personal career facilitators were identified as 'can do/must do' messages of parents, mothers as role models, personal resiliency and spirituality. A major finding was the research participant's use of the broadcast stations for African American community development. The stations were used as tools in a social change process as they provided a voice to and for African American communities. Major changes in the broadcast industry including: the elimination of minority tax certificates, downsizing, duopolies, relaxation of EEO requirements, the increased competitive environment for Black-owned stations, all raise questions about the potential for diverse local broadcast station management.

The in-depth interview, a qualitative methodology, was utilized in this study. The use of the methodology provided rich data. Eleven research participants were interviewed. Five of the participants managed commercial broadcasting stations and the remaining six managed public broadcasting stations. Three of the participants were owner/managers.

This study investigated Tunisia's response to the advent of foreign direct broadcast satellite (DBS) television in the late 1980s. Research results showed that the Tunisian government followed a three-track policy strategy: (1) A liberal DBS television reception legislation, (2) structural and financial reforms of Tunisian television (RTT) with the aim of improving production and increasing revenue, and (3) a channel diversification strategy that permitted wider access to alternative programming and the establishment of private television.

The multi-faceted response reflected the government's effort to derive maximum political and economic benefits while it ensured that its control of broadcasting would not be diminished. The open approach toward foreign television served the government's political objective of isolating an Islamist opposition that resisted Western influence and threatened the civil society project of the Ben Ali government. Economic considerations were evident in linkages with French and Italian broadcasters who provided not only sources of culturally and socially-acceptable programming but also technical and production benefits to Tunisian television. Although officials claimed that the presence of foreign channels in Tunisia was healthy competition because they induced Tunisian television to improve its programs, various measures were put in effect to ensure that Tunisian television would not be overwhelmed by alternative channels, especially the popular French channel Antenne 2. Such measures included a ban on the transmission of news by Antenne 2 and a no-news arrangement with the private pay channel Canal Horizons. In spite of the limitations engendered by the government's fixation on control of the flow of news and information, policy measures, such the introduction of a private channel and the incorporation of private actors in program production, are significant developments that will undoubtedly have an impact on future deregulation and privatization of broadcasting in Tunisia.

Since many African countries have to grapple with food shortages, the diffusion of new farming methods aimed at increasing food production has become paramount for governments and non-government organizations. The Sasakawa Global 2000 Agricultural Project in Ghana (SG 2000), a non-government development initiative, was funded by the Sasakawa Foundation with administrative support from the Carter Center. The dissertation was the result of an investigation into the communication channels used by SG 2000 officials to inform project beneficiaries about new agricultural methods.

The investigator analyzed the impact of the project on rural farmers in the southern and central zones of Ghana between 1986 and 1994. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and individual in-depth interviews, two research methods that allow dialogue, triangulation and interdisciplinary approaches as well as the generation of accurate information and understanding of rural conditions in a cost-effective and timely manner, were used for data gathering. The choice of RRA reflects recent trends in media research. Small group interviews have been found to produce depths of understanding that may elude the survey researcher. Thirty-three households made up of 132 members participated in the RRA sessions. Persons whose activities affected maize production and distribution were selected for in-depth interviews. These included SG 2000 and extension services officials, maize traders and market queens, rural broadcasters, and Ministry of Agriculture officials.

The study shows that traditional communication channels such as the use of drums and village criers, are effective in diffusing SG 2000 methods among rural farmers. There are no direct linkages between the extension service as currently structured and the mass media. The scheduling of agricultural development programs on Ghana Broadcasting Corporation's radio network do not take the rural audience into consideration. Programs are aired when farmers are working, not when they are at home listening. Finally, the research shows that rural farmers continue to seek loans from traditional money lenders although the SG 2000 package provides these farmers with in-kind credit. SG 2000 has gained high visibility in Ghana. Much of its success can be traced to its reliance on traditional communication processes which helped it to reach the target group, rural farmers.

The study is an analysis of the television epic serial Mahabharata that initiated a major public and scholarly controversy in Indian mass media. The arguments presented are that the readings and claims made were founded on a common ground: the Vedantic notions of unity, nationhood, as the ultimate transcendent source of all the multiple phenomena while the latter were deemed to be appearances of something higher, trans-phenomenal, hidden behind the various dimensional concepts such as maya, lila, sakti, kala, kama (appearance, play, power, time, passion). But in the tracing out of these fundamental readings, it was noticed that without these maternal cosmic dimensions of phenomena, the grand designs of the transcending positions are impotent, and cannot account for their own self concealing. This led to the opening of another domain, more fundamental, and yet completely transitory whose dimensions account for even the highest, transcending positions. These transitory participatory dimensions are found to be completely intertwined with the maternal language and power that is prior to any gender questions.

Such a discovery implies that there are two hermeneutical interpretive domains within the Indian tradition: one, the transcending Vedantic, with its circle of terms connoting purity, inaction, unity, objectivity; and the other, the maternal circle appearing in terms connoting activity, participation without any other reason except to enhance activity for its own sake. In this sense, the controversies about the serial suggested furious, passionate activities and counter activities that, while claiming the superiority of the "higher, transcending" positions, were themselves interacting, contesting, and playing one with the others. This maternal weaving play and interplay, action and interaction is found to be the orthoprax Indian tradition which in the final analysis is unavoidable even for the most exulted figures both in the Mahabharata and in the televisual series. Thus, I concluded, that the transcendental condition for all beings is activity, dynamism transformation, contradiction, controversy, and multiplicity. It is a logic of 'both and' and not either/or or neither/nor.

This dissertation explores the interaction of global media and local cultures and analyzes the ways in which cultural identities are constructed within the global/local interplay. Grounded in cultural and postmodern theory, it re-articulates international communication in terms of glocalization--the construction of hybrid cultural identities at the intersection of historical consciousness and media consumption. Constructing and applying the methodology of native ethnography, this dissertation explicated the construction of hybrid cultural identities among Maronite youth in Lebanon. Whereas traditional ethnography wrote culture and critical ethnography wrote between cultures, native ethnography was explicated as a process of writing against culture. This was achieved by emphasizing a dialogical pair pervading fieldwork, consisting of a dialectic of identity and a dialectic of difference.

Two generic categories emerge from interlocutors' narratives. These are The West and The Arabs. Whereas The West is associated with freedom, progress and moral decadence, The Arabs connotes intolerance, stagnancy and moral values. The two categories mentioned above function as dialogical counterpoints in the construction of hybrid identities. This study explicates three tactics used by young Maronites in articulating their identity: (1) nomadism, (2) mimicry, and (3) consumption. Interlocutors' nomadic strategies (Deleuze and Guattari) of identity articulation make them display multiple context-bound identities. Besides, young Maronites resort to tactics of simulation and dissimulation (Baudrillard) to preserve their threatened identities. Furthermore, a propinquity towards consuming hybrid cultural texts (Bakhtin) is revealed. Of paramount importance among these texts is the oeuvre of Lebanese artist Ziad Rahbani.

Finally, a semiosphere of hybrid identities is described and explicated. As a symbolic space dialogically created by media and history, this semiosphere is the terrain where young Maronites weave their hybrid identities.

From as early as the 1960s, countries of the English-speaking Caribbean complained about inadequate treatment of regional news by western news agencies. This prompted them to establish the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) to facilitate regional news and program exchanges. The CBU, in an effort to fulfill its mandate, created a weekly news magazine program called Caribscope. This program comprises news stories submitted by television stations across the region. In light of criticisms made by Caribbean countries about western news agencies, and given the call by Caribbean policy makers for more reporting of development news, the main objectives of this study are: (1) to examine whether Caribscope is a forum for development news, (2) to determine how evaluative and critical is the development news reported and (3) to see if there are any differences in how journalists from privately-owned and government stations report development news. Content analysis of a random sample of 135 news stories aired between May 1990 and May 1994 was conducted. In addition, all development news stories were coded against development news reporting criteria.

Finally, the case study method was used to determine differences in news reports submitted by journalists from government and privately-owned stations. This study's main findings are as follows: (1) the majority of the news reported is non-development news, (2) none of the development news meets all the criteria for evaluative and critical reporting and (3) there are no differences in how journalists from government and privately-owned stations report development news.

This dissertation explores television's role in the transformation of culture in central Mexico by focusing on processes of reception. Through an ethnographic analysis of audiences, the ways in which historically concrete social subjects receive and interpret both indigenous (Televisa productions) and transnational (advertising and foreign programming) messages are examined. Television's ideological mediations, as extensions of Mexico's transforming political economy, are analyzed in reference to how audiences' negotiate meaning. The main task of this research is to develop a better understanding of how television contributes to the hybridization of Mexican society and culture, investigating the way meaning is constituted, adjusted by, and incorporated into, the practices of everyday life.

Because this research task is concerned with sociocultural processes, ethnography was employed as the primary method of inquiry. The site of inquiry was the Mexican underclasses, or what is commonly referred to in Latin America as the popular classes. Interpretations advanced are based on the participant observation of television watching of popular class households, and conversational interviews with individual family members. Viewer agency is analyzed in relation to interpretive communities (family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, church and school), suggesting how interpersonal interactions frame meaning construction. Moreover, information and entertainment demands, viewing patterns, and the geography of television are foregrounded in the analysis.

What this study provides is an extensive description of how members of the popular classes interpret television in their daily lives, and how those interpretations are incorporated into, and mobilized by, cultural life. It should give readers an understanding of (1) television's role in the formation of popular culture, (2) an example of ethnography's utility in describing and interpreting audience activity, and (3) an overview of important theoretical formations of Latin American scholars. More specifically, what this ethnography provides is a sensitive exploration of the relationships between television and popular culture, historically situated during the intense deregulation, globalization and transculturation of Mexican consumer society. In broader terms, however, this research provides an interesting case of how global, national and local cultures intersect.

This dissertation examines the relationships between current surveillance technologies and practices and their representation within popular culture. Ranging across a wide expanse of popular texts (film, television, radio, literature, music, art, etc.) and sites (governmental, military, medical, corporate, domestic, etc.), the study interrogates the discursive and ideological contributions that share a role in enhancing the exponential growth of mass surveillance, especially since the end of the Second World War. Much of this growth is attributable to the rise of powerful new surveillance technologies and practices, previously unavailable, which now portend to reconfigure political, economic, social, and cultural relations. In order to assess this more pervasive and possibly more authoritarian role for surveillance in contemporary post-Fordist and information-driven societies, the study reviews the interaction and relationship between panopticism and space/time, surveillance and visualization, and the monitoring of the body.

The dissertation is grounded in the genealogical method developed in the later works of Michel Foucault (Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Clinic, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, and The History of Sexuality). In place of traditional historical analysis, Foucault substituted a genealogical analysis, a form of critique that rejected the pursuit of origins in favor of an historical conception of contingencies which reveal the multiplicity of factors behind an event. Genealogies account for the connectedness of forms of knowledge and operations of power. Because surveillance practices are thoroughly implicated in the knowledge/power nexus, and because these practices have disseminated so swiftly via new and sophisticated electronic and communications technologies, the genealogical method proves itself an ideal method for analysis. Using this approach and applying it to the metaphors of Orwell's 'Big Brother,' Bentham's architectural design for the Panopticon, and theories about an 'epistemology of suspicion,' the study concludes that we must make a practice of monitoring the practice of monitoring.

This study highlights the British and South African influence on the development of mass media during colonialism and the post-colonial eras. The ideological functions of mass education and mass communication are made explicit. Mediated mass education efforts are seen as vehicles for the dissemination of values and practices. The significance of the study lies in its contribution both to our understanding of mass communication in Africa and to our knowledge of the policy and practice of mass communication during the colonial era.

This historical study presents a comprehensive description of educational broadcasting in Botswana. The study is rooted in extensive archival research. Information is triangulated with related artifacts such as statistical data, program schedules, written narratives, and interviews. Descriptions highlight the socio-structural movements propelling the development of mass media while alluding to motivations stimulating individual contributions. This description shows Botswana as participating in the creation of their own history while at the same time being molded by it. In establishing the connection between colonial broadcast policy and post-colonial practice, this research reaffirms the notion that communication technologies are not value free.

Analysis of the historical evidence suggests a continuation of colonial patterns of programming and media development in post-independent Botswana. In particular, the British practice of using the media in support of administrative goals and programs persists. The pattern of integrating propaganda into educational programming continues, as does the pattern of financing technological change only in response to perceived threats. In addition, the administration of Botswana has appropriated the British practice of attempting to extend social control over subordinate groups through the imposition of cultural norms and values. Additional research is needed to determine the extent to which this phenomenon is common to other former British colonies. Such research should also support the ethnographic study of the ways that audiences make sense and meaning out of such productions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how social relationships and household power structures are mediated through videotape renting. This problematic was contextualized within two theoretical perspectives: the social uses of media and the family systems approach. Because media use is embedded in the complex relations of everyday domestic life, the family/household was used as the dynamic unit of analysis and ethnographic collaborative interviewing was used as the method of inquiry. This technique allowed access to the social uses of videotape renting while remaining sensitive to power structures within the household and within the researcher/researched relationship.

A purposive sample of ten participants was interviewed about their video renting habits and experiences over a period of three months. Thematic analysis of their transcribed interviews identified six social uses of the activity: to baby-sit, to motivate and reward, to act as information gatekeeper, to educate, to provide relaxation/escape, and to facilitate social interaction. These social uses were then interpreted and contextualized through the identification of six factors that help determine the activity's influence on the positioning of family members within the household structure. These factors are: temporal organization, viewing styles, guilty indulgence, renting as duty vs renting as gift, video selection, and video renting as escape. These factors illustrate how video renting sustains the positioning of family members in domestic work and leisure spheres. The activity separates individuals based on traditionally held domestic gender roles and their corresponding responsibilities and expectations. The study found that video renting provides a group stage for the acting out of roles in the unequal distribution of domestic power, as well as a solitary outlet for women to cope with the rigors of such a distribution. While video renting can provide a momentary space in which women control their own leisure, it ultimately reaffirms gendered work and leisure positioning within the household. This suggests that new communication technologies cannot be liberating to women as long as the family system and the allocation of domestic labor remains unequally divided based on traditional gender roles.

This qualitative study explores the economic lived world of high school students and their families who reside in the Appalachian region of the United States. Through social interaction with family, work, school, peer groups, and mass media, students reveal their beliefs, attitudes, values, images, and understanding of economics. This study aims to explicate the meaning or 'essence' of this knowledge as a way of understanding economics. It does not attempt descriptions, evaluations of behaviors, or determinations of causality. It is more interested in finding out what the students themselves make of them. It is their involvement in the writing, creation, and development of instructional materials that is the aim of this research. Hermeneutic phenomenology, which finds its point of departure in analysis of lived experiences (situations) requires collection of rich descriptions (narratives), thematizing the narratives, and interpreting the themes. In addition, three data gathering techniques were used involving students and their family members. They included: written reflections, in-depth interviews, and focus groups.

The resulting descriptions (narratives) that evolved from the triangulated methods used above, provide a variety of scenarios, comedic situations, and ideas that can be developed by the students. Through local area networks (school campus) or wide area networks (multiple sites) games and puzzles, aimed at learning basic economic concepts (i.e., wants, scarcity and choices) to more advanced concepts of market supply, demand, unemployment, and inflation can then be communicated among students, or students and teachers through interactive multimedia interaction.

This study is a critical analysis of network evening news broadcasts covering the 1994 incident involving figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Through semiotic methodology, the Harding/Kerrigan story is examined as a text that structures information through language, sound, and images. The study examines how meaning is generated through the discursive practices of television news production with a particular focus on the signification of cultural capital. The discursive practices of broadcast journalism construct a language of technology and representational images which confer meaning upon events in the world.

This study semiotically deconstructs the Harding/Kerrigan story. The analysis of the narrative demonstrates how two women, as signifiers of US Olympic figure skating, are signified in bipolar opposition to each other. The patriarchal ideology of broadcast journalism denotes the issue of 'class' to conceal sexist codes of femininity that subordinate Harding through the objectification of her body. The material practices of broadcast journalism are explicated, with a particular focus on Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and habitus, to show how they contribute to the ideological maintenance of society. Cultural capital legitimizes individuals and social institutions with the capacity to exercise influence and ideological domination in society. Celebrities in the news focus attention on social issues, but TV news conceals ideology with technique, technology, and narrative structures. While obfuscating other legitimate concerns in the news, the appeal of cultural capital exploits curiosity and amplifies intrigue. Patterns of news coverage in the Harding/Kerrigan story exposed the habitus of broadcast journalism as a cultural institution with a powerful hegemonic voice.

By means of a case study, this dissertation shows how organizations function as micro-terrains where managerial and alterative discourses intersect. Grounded in critical and postmodern theory, it attempts to cover a blind spot in the communication discipline--the relative neglect of the organizational realm by critical scholars, who usually favor analyses in macro-terrains (e.g., those associated with the mass media).

This dissertation followed a three-step procedure to account for the discursive interplay within a private Mexican university. First, it recurred to three metaphors to characterize the roles played historically by organizational communication researchers (OCR): the traffic controller (functionalists), the organizational detective (interpretivists), and the organizational muckraker (critical scholars). A fourth metaphor symbolized a new kind of OCR: the performing artist. That is, one following ethnographic teletheory (ET), a research tool derived from Gregory Ulmer's version of Derrida's grammatology, and combined with postmodern ethnography. The second step represented the enactment of ET: a collage (i.e., a kaleidoscopic text) conformed by the heterogeneous voices of organizational narrators, from the grounds keepers to the regional president, intertwined with other micro- and macro-narratives (e.g., organizational documents and press clippings). The third step consisted of a phenomenological analysis of the narrators' accounts. This analysis followed Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology and Michel Foucault's ascription of disciplinary power. Seven organizational selves (i.e., distinctive existential modes) emerge from the narrators' accounts of lived experiences: acquiescent (Foucault's docile subject), unwilling (resistant), silent (silenced or self-censored), caring (intellectual), zealous (productive), snubbing/snubbed (disengaging or being disengaged), and hurting (emotive). The characteristic hard-work of Calvinist ethics serves as a hermeneutical backdrop for all these modes. Or, to paraphrase a narrator, 'we are diligent burros.' Finally, two essential themes can be found in the narrators' lived experience: commitment as willingness to comply, and commitment as moral choice. While the former represents an organizational subject finding self-realization through his or her embracement of techno-discourse, the latter is descriptive of those organizational members primarily guided by aesthetic and/or ethical motivations.

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of girls/women involved with an all-female subcultural group known as Riot Grrrl. This project recontextualizes the subcultural argument to include women and introduces trebled reflexivity as a feminist discourse. Trebled reflexivity refers to a tripartite discourse of interpretation which interrogates interlocking systems of oppression experienced by girls/women. Trebled reflexivity begins with the self and extends its critique to mainstream culture and (sub)cultures.

This study examines the Riot Grrrl network as a feminized space of empowerment wherein young women confront dominant patriarchal codes by creating oppositional messages through music, art, fanzines, and political protests. Informed by cultural studies and feminist scholarship, this project offers an understanding of how the Riot Grrrl network acts as a feminist communication outlet and a vehicle for social change. Field work was conducted in Washington D. C. because of the city's influential subcultural scene. Historically, Washington, D. C. is the site of the first Riot Grrrl chapter in the United States. Politically, the dynamic environment of the nation's capital provides Riot Grrrls with opportunities to vocalize their concerns through public demonstrations. Capta was gathered for this dissertation by using a variety of methods, primarily ethnographic participant observation, and in-depth interviews. Ten Riot Grrrls are interviewed, following an open-ended general interview guide approach. This project extends traditional qualitative approaches by explicating the primary text of Riot Grrrl fanzines through critical textual analysis. Forty one fanzines are analyzed. The understanding gained from this intertextual effort contributes to a deeper and broader interpretation of the Riot Grrrl experience.

Five essential themes emerge as central to the lived experiences of Riot Grrrls: (1) Grrrl Love, (2) Every Girl is a Riot Grrrl, (3) DIY: Start Your Revolution, (4) 'Fluffiana(ness)' as Riot Grrrl Style and (5) Grrrls Against Boys. One revelatory phrase 'Revolution Girl Style Now!' appears to reveal the interconnectedness of these themes to the essence of being a Riot Grrrl. Limitations and implications for further research are discussed.

The main purpose of the dissertation study is to bring family planning and development discourses under close scrutiny, based on critical ethnographic research in India. Women's dialogues in India touch upon multiple domains: work, family relationships, lived tradition and current political technocracies. By conducting ethnographic research I have understood that women in India posed their own questions separate from those within the development texts. Their words determined the adequacy, relevance, and appropriateness of the development projects that they were subjects of. The women narrators of my research have articulated their own context about population, about child birth and what family meant to them.

The study reveals that the international development project that imposes population control and family planning in India and in other countries has been unable to transcend its dependence upon Western modernity and historicity. The effigy of the population bomb exploding upon the world thrusts the agenda of family planning upon all agencies of international development. Family planning as a rescue-mission emerges as primary imperative for third world deliverance. The limited solutions suggested by experts in the field serve as impositions upon the lives of its 'targets.' The targets are women of the third world whose fertility has become subject of heated international debate. The solutions proposed to bridle female fertility are sterilization, implant, or injectable contraception. Solutions, subject to strict target-keeping are meted without full consent of the targeted women themselves. The solutions for curbing fertility are carried forth with the ritualistic fervor of war against an enemy. The contrived rituals of family planning have little symbolic or direct connection with what they propose to deliver--improved 'quality of life' through modernization. Due to wisdom of interplay, women have occupied the median position between modernity and tradition. They negotiate and come to terms with both, the cultures of modernity, and the cultures within a tradition. They are able to choose aspects of tradition and modern life that best suit their circumstances to render their lives dynamic and not static.

This dissertation explores how music made by women affects their advancement, how it functions in helping negotiate female identity, how it redefines women's position within North African society, and how the negotiating tendencies of mass communication play in these processes. Informed by cultural studies scholarship, this project offers understanding of how music works as communication and as a vehicle for change. The study privileges voices of Tunisian women musicians--voices that have previously been silent in Western academic work. Field research was conducted in Tunisia because North African nations have been ignored by communication cultural studies and musicology, and the arts can have a prominent role in women's development in cultures where women have been traditionally denied access to other means of social action and expression. The lack of scholarship in women's music is noted by musicologists. Scholarly work on Arab music focuses nearly entirely on male domains, disregarding women's cultural experience through music. Scholars of Western music have argued that musical experience is a source of empowerment, especially to those in subordinate social groups. Tunisian women's words articulate the nature and functions of this empowerment and how the media works to serve or hinder this process.

Because the study of music requires immediate contact and since the research questions focus on how women's music operates within the lived experience of women, the method consisted primarily of ethnographic observation and qualitative interviews. Through these approaches, this study explores the interrelationships of socio-cultural roles and women's consciousness, offering understanding of the interrelationship of culture, art, and lived experience. Women's obstacles in production and performance are explored. For instance, the objectification of women is increasing as Tunisian media adapt to more westernized capitalist structures. In North Africa, women have traditionally been expected to refrain from public performance and media coverage for fear of ruining the family name as 'prostitutes' servicing male audiences. Though women are 'advanced' in Tunisia, women bear the burden of this myth. This work reveals the strength of women performers as they interrogate this myth and the reality of patriarchal oppression at home, on stage, and back stage.

This dissertation investigates how the Chinese television series represents emerging communication discourses in the shifting context of Chinese modernity. It explicates how the television series, as an epistemological category and a popular medium of the public sphere, embodies the Chinese poetics that reifies new communication move and praxis in the political and economic reform. Based upon theories of Habermas, Foucault, Ricoeur, Bakhtin, Newcomb, Silverstone, and other critical and television scholars, this inquiry invokes reflections of some key concepts and theories of television studies and modernity with reference to the context of Chinese television and modernization drive.

A framework of textual analysis is reconfigured by the intertwining of semiotics and hermeneutics, which focuses upon sign, symbol and meaning in the hermeneutic circles and semiosis of Chinese television. In order to capture the carnivalization of the televisual body, concrete textual analyses were conducted on four exemplars of popular Chinese television series: 'He Shang' (River Elegy), 'Wei Cheng' (Fortress Besieged), 'Stories of an Editorial Office,' and 'A Native of Beijing in New York.' These analyses explore the Chinese televisual signification in terms of narrative structure, rhetorical mode, characterization, and discursive and ideological representations. The dissertation analysis reveals that there is a Daoist (Taoist) move and Kaifang (open) episteme emerging from the Chinese television series. The televisual poetics, which derives from the diversification and hybridization of television series in the marketplace transformation, displaces the cultural and ideological domination to a great extent by de-historicization, dialogic imagination and heteroglossia, exploration of modern self, and transborder cultural traveling.

The analysis discovers that the series under the study signify four interrelated practices in Chinese televisual exploration: introspection and resistance, simulation and infiltration, self-overcoming and anti-domestic-hegemony, and playful mediation between the popular text and the power reconstruction. As such, these Chinese television series have rearticulated the television culture and communication praxis in the pursuit of Chinese modernity.

With the rapid adoption of new information technologies in Taiwanese households, adolescents and their families are faced with a new media revolution. Recently, the family has been an important subject of study as a mediating influence in communication-related contexts. Research has shown that TV is vital in regulating family relationships. Studies that consider family mediation of new media should be interested in many of these same topics that informed earlier research on TV and family.

The central idea of this study is to explore how Taiwanese adolescents experience the new media--including VCRs, cable TV, and home computers--in the media-rich environment of the home setting. This is the first work to draw together several forms of new media into one project, and also is the first to pioneer the use of triangulation--combining survey, focus groups and in-depth interviews--to examine the effects of new media use. Thus this research not only generates a comprehensive map of Taiwanese adolescents' new media use, but also describes and interprets the social context of their experiences with new media in their households. The study focuses on two main aspects--allocation of time and interpersonal relationships within the family. Previous studies of adolescents' new media use found that as American adolescents' use of a newer medium increased, the amount of time dedicated to other leisure activities decreased. In terms of relationships within the family, previous studies suggested that use of VCRs, cable television and home computers led to family interaction and enhanced family solidarity.

This study in comparison found evidence of similar time shifts, but also found information unique to Taiwanese adolescents and their use of new media. For example, the study found that Taiwanese youth who primarily used VCRs devoted more time to leisure activities than cable viewers or computer users. The study also found that new media use is not related to adolescents' relationships within the family. It is because the leisure time of Taiwanese adolescents is limited; the factor of Chinese tradition, such as less communication between parents and children, is more influential than the factor of new media use. In future studies, longitudinal survey and observations, gender differences in new media use, and use of pomography programs in cable and computers among adolescents were highly suggested.

This dissertation is a phenomenological investigation of the presentational style of Music Television. The purpose of this dissertation is to heighten perceptiveness for the richness of televisual experience. The dissertation undertakes four tasks. First, it describes the relationships between sight and sound presented in music videos and on Music Television. Second, it compares and contrasts musical performance and performers in music video and in other television presentations (e.g., talk shows, variety shows, televised concerts). Third, it explicates the video-logic or style by which sights and sounds are interconnected in music videos and on Music Television. Fourth, it investigates video as a way to express perception.

Methodology was phenomenological and based on the work of Merleau-Ponty and Edmund Husserl. Each chapter followed three methodological considerations: Phenomenological description, reduction and interpretation. First, phenomenological descriptions were the descriptions of the topics of inquiry as they appeared to awareness. Second, phenomenological reductions were continued descriptions while (a) suspending judgments, commonly held beliefs, theoretical and disciplinary presuppositions, (b) narrowing attention to focus on the current domain of inquiry, and (c) determining which parts of phenomenological descriptions were necessary and which were merely theoretical or accidental. Third, phenomenological interpretations were reflections on the prereflective experience explicated in combined phenomenological descriptions and reductions.

The dissertation reveals a central theme, musical visuality that permeates the audio-visual presentation of music video and Music Television: Musical visuality is the interplay and interpenetration of sights and sounds, music and visuals whereby sights dance to the sounds of music and sounds are manifest visually. The music video is an audio-video form that expresses bodily, synesthetic perception. Visual motifs resonate with sound and music in a syncopated and patterned manner. Music videos present an aural-visual aesthetic in which music and dance replace illustration, description, narrative and realism as the logos of video.

The purpose of this study is to explicate the place and meaning of media in everyday consumption practices of Moroccan migrants in Paris. Drawing from postcolonial discourse and media studies, this research aims at understanding migrants' processes of cultural negotiations of multiple and overlapping discourses.

The data were collected using two methods (in-depth interviews and participant-observation). Over a two-month period (October-December 1994), twenty five migrants were interviewed in different locations in Paris. They were chosen using snow ball and opportunistic sampling methods. Three basic topics were introduced and discussed. These are (1) circumstances and context of migration, (2) migrants' social life and daily interactions, and (3) media encounters. The dissertation is comprised of four separate yet interrelated chapters. Chapter one articulates how identity construction in Morocco intersects the legacy of colonialism. The concepts of 'nomadism' and 'cultural bifocality' render problematic the received view of migration as a movement between binary and fixed points in time and space. What used to be transient and temporary has become now permanent and durable. Chapter two explicates research situations in terms of design and implementation. This chapter includes the problem of cultural translation and the interplay of different semiotic systems. Chapter three presents migrants' accounts of their media use and everyday consumption practices. Nostalgia for the homeland, displacement, and estrangement in both cultural spaces (e.g., Morocco and France) emerge as central themes. They constitute the context of migrants' lived worlds. Chapter four discusses how the use of satellite television and VCRs help migrants reproduce images of an imagined homeland. By doing so, they create a third culture that accentuates their presence and sense of belonging to multiple locations. Specifically, popular culture, as exemplified in rai music, presents elements of migrants powerful and silent insertion and assertion of difference with the host culture while maintaining a continuity with the cultures of their origin.

This research comparatively examined (1) The main factors influencing the international news selection processes of television journalists, and newsroom editorial procedures and control mechanisms in the three television news organizations--Cable News Network (CNN), and Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), non-commercial network and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS), commercial network--through participant observation of each newsroom, and in-depth interviews and surveys of their news personnel; and (2) The main topics and actors of domestic and international news in the three main news programs--CNN 'PrimeNews,' KBS '9 O'clock News' and SBS '8 O'clock News'--using content analysis.

The key finding is that there are significant differences in the selection processes of international news and content between the U.S. CNN, and Korean KBS and SBS news networks. This result suggests that CNN is a more global-oriented news network and is mainly operated by the market-driven business control mechanism, whereas Korean news networks are more national-oriented organizations and thereby focus on maintaining a good relationship with the government, selecting and reporting of news stories. Another major finding is that there are high similarities in the international news selection processes and content between the KBS and SBS news networks. It arises from the homogeneous profiles of Korean television journalists and highly uniform newsroom editorial procedures and news sources.

Based on a comparative analysis of four case studies, we examine the concept of citizens' media as creative efforts that emerge from the articulation of three elements; first, the will of citizens' to re-appropriate a media 'space' to express their own voice; second, the obstacles for doing so that exist in the surrounding cultural context and the unique opportunities to bypass them, and third, citizens' enactment of creative strategies to exploit to exhaustion every fissure in the dominant media system. The four case studies include an analysis of the movement of popular correspondents in revolutionary Nicaragua, a study of Catalonian local television stations, an ethnographic investigation of participatory video production among marginal women in Colombia, and a historical reconstruction of Latino brokerage radio in the United States.

In-depth interviews from the perspective of oral history and ethnographic research were the methods selected to document each case. Two criteria determined this choice. First, the method's potential for unraveling subtle and detailed information about political and cultural dynamics at the individual, group, and community levels. Second, the method's potential to open a space where the informants could recount their own stories. Each of the case studies points at unique facets of citizens' media, allowing this comparative study to explore the complex articulation between culture, media and democracy. Three theoretical sources constitute the interdisciplinary theoretical framework utilized. First, Robert White's theory of the democratization of communication, which allows for a local, grassroots perspective of citizens' media. Second, Manuel Castells' theory of social movements as a category for the exploration of conflict over symbolic production and use value. Third, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theory of radical democracy, which shifts away from traditional essentialist concepts and toward a non-essentialist perspective on democracy.

The study concludes that citizens' media can display all their potential as movements toward democratic communication only if they are approached and understood not as static essences, but as vital entities in constant flux due to their interaction with a historical context.