Media Production Practices: Behind the Scenes of Colombian Public Service Television

2014 New Directions

in Media Research

CONFERENCE PROGRAM University of Leicester Department of Media and Communication Bankfield House, 132 New Walk, Leicester, LE1 7JA

New Directions in Media Research Department of Media and Communication Page 1


Contents

Schedule of NDiMR 2014 ......................................................................................................... 3

Welcome to NDiMR 2014 ......................................................................................................... 4

NDiMR Organization Committee .............................................................................................. 5

Registration and Refreshment .................................................................................................... 6

Opening Speech ......................................................................................................................... 6

I. Keynote Speaking ................................................................................................................ 6

(New) Media, Users and Interactions ........................................................................................ 7

II. Keynote Speaking ............................................................................................................... 8

Lunch Break ............................................................................................................................... 9

(New) Media and Production ..................................................................................................... 9

(New) Media, Identities and Representations (Parallel) ......................................................... 11

Media and Democracy (Parallel) ............................................................................................ 13

(New) Media and Development (Parallel) .............................................................................. 14

Coffee Break ............................................................................................................................ 14

(New) Media and Audience ..................................................................................................... 15

(New) Media and Politics ........................................................................................................ 16

Closing Speech & Certificate Deliberation.............................................................................. 17


Schedule of NDiMR 2014

08.30-09.30 Lecture Theatre: Registration and Refreshment

09.30-09.45 Lecture Theatre: Opening Speech: Prof. Peter Lunt, Head of Department

Chair: Yupei Zhao

09.45-10.15 Keynote Speaking (1): Prof. Myria Georgiou

Lecture Theatre (New) Media, Users and Interactions Moderator: Hannah Ditchfield

10.15-10.35 Claudette Hawkins

10.35-10.55 Ayman Naji S. Bajnaid

10:55-11.15 Nur Ishaq

11:15-11:35 Hannah Ditchfield

11.35-12.05 Keynote Speaking (2): Dr. Panayiota Tsatsou Moderator: Rahma Al Foori

12.05-13.05 2rd Floor, Lunch Break Lecture Theatre (New) Media and Production Moderator: Andreas Anastasiou

13.05-13.25 Rahma Al Foori

13.25-13.45 Tianbo XU

13:45-14:05 Andreas Anastasiou

Parallel Session: Lecture Theatre (New) Media, Identities and Representations Moderator: Shuhan Chen

14.10-14.30 Alakija, Oluwafunmilayo 14.30-14.50 Xiaomin Hu 14.50-15.10 Tianyang Zhou 15.10-15.30 Shuhan Chen Parallel Session: Seminar Room (New) Media and Democracy Moderator: Alejandra Castano-Echeverri 14.10-14.30 Peter Mhagama

14.30-14.50 Alejandra Castano-Echeverri

Parallel Session: Seminar Room (New) Media and Development Moderator: Faith Kibere

14.50-15.10 Oghogho Uyi Osazee-Odla

15.10-15.30 Faith Kibere

15.30-15.50 Coffee Break

Lecture Theatre (New) Media and Audience Moderator: Mokhtar Alareshi 15.50-16.10 Saadia Ishtiaq Nauman 16.10-16.30 Khalid Al-Jaber and Mokhtar Elareshi

Lecture Theatre (New) Media and Politics Moderator: Ken Wang

16.30-16.50 Yupei Zhao

16.50-17.10 Lidia García

17.10-17.30 Lawrencia Agyepong

17.30-17.50 Ken Wang

17.50-18.05 Lecture Theatre Closing Speech & Certification Deliberation: Prof. Mark Banks, Research Director Chair: Yupei Zhao


Welcome to NDiMR 2014 Dear Sir or Madam, Thank you for coming and contributing to NDiMR 2014! The Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester is described as diverse and focused on research. The Department has been at the forefront of media research since 1966 when it was established as the Centre for Mass Communications Research (CMCR). It was in 2006 when CMCR evolved into the Department of Media and Communication. Today the Department is the fastest growing department of its kind in the UK - supporting and encouraging a variety of research interests and approaches to the study of media, communication and cultural studies. Research is at the heart of the Department with eight active research groups: Audiences; Cultural Production & Consumption; Cyber Security; Digital Media; IDeoGRAMS; Media and Democracy; Media and Social Policy and News and Journalism. The conference, New Directions in Media Research has built on its success since 2012, which witnessed the first postgraduate annual conference organized and lead by postgraduate students. The second conference in 2013 continued the objective of the Department to seek to encourage the research environment. The second conference attracted more participants from the UK, Europe and Asia to the extent that we had registrants on the waiting list. The event has lent itself to be a fascinating on-going annual tradition. Research students consider it an excellent platform to develop research skills as well as disseminate research, critically contributing to discussions of theory and methodology which investigate a diversity of issues. Thus, we have decided to expand the conference for 2014, with help and funding support from both the Graduate School and the Department. This third annual conference aims to celebrate the diverse research interests held by PhD research students in the Department of Media and Communication, whilst providing an opportunity to reach out and establish links with other researchers working in similar disciplines from other departments and universities. Hope you enjoy the NDiMR conference in 2014 and we are looking forward your further feedback and contact! Sincerely NDiMR Organization Committee Department of Media and Communication University of Leicester


NDiMR 2014 Organization Committee

Advisory Board Prof. Peter Lunt - Head of Department Prof. Mark Banks - Research Director Dr Ong Jonathan - Academic Event Organizer Ms Ellen Puurman - Research Support Administrator Organization Team Members Yupei Zhao (PhD) - Team Leader & PGR Representative Rahma Al Foori (PhD) Dimitrinka Atanasova (PhD) David Moss (PhD) Alejandra Echeverri (PhD) Hannah Ditchfield (PhD) Shuhan Chen (PhD) Contacts: [email protected] University of Leicester Department of Media and Communication Bankfield House, 132 New Walk, Leicester, LE1 7JA

mailto:[email protected]


Registration and Refreshment 08.30-09.30

Opening Speech 09.30-09.45 Prof. Peter Lunt Head of Department in Media and Communication, University of Leicester

I. Keynote Speaker

09.45-10.15

Media and the city: The contradictory consequences of a powerful synergy Prof. Myria Georgiou, Department of Media and Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science This paper examines the growing interdependence of media and the city, with a focus on the contradictory consequences of this relationship for urban societies. With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities (UN 2009) and with media expanding their reach across the world’s urban societies, examining the relation between media and the city is more urgent than ever. While not unique in its symbolic and communicative value, global city represents the most powerful case to observe this synergetic relation. For this reason, the paper focusses on the global city – the city, which currently holds enormous financial and symbolic power. Given how much is at stake, especially with the vast and fast growth of urbanization, the ways in which the city is shared, communicated and symbolically constructed can have enormous consequences for cultural and social life: most importantly, in the ways in which we are exposed to each other, and understand or misunderstand each other, in an increasingly mediated urban world. Starting from the powerful hegemonic synergies between city authorities, financial capital and media corporations, the paper moves swiftly to the urban street: where appropriations and uses of media and communications invent, become evidence and reaffirm the uniqueness of the city as a creative hub, as a consumer paradise, as a space of identity, community and even possibly political recognition. In unravelling the different layers of the city-media synergy the paper raises questions about the constraints and possibilities that media and communications present to living together in an urban world.


(New) Media, Users and Interactions 10.15-10.35 A Click Too Far: Repeat Victimisation in Online Mass Marketing Fraud. Claudette Hawkins, University of Leicester, [email protected] The internet has allowed individuals and companies to use mass marketing techniques to reach out to a wider online group of people from paid advertisements to simply sending an email on mass to a wider audience through relatively cheap means. The advantage of online mass marketing has not gone unnoticed by criminals who now use similar techniques to advertise mass marketing scams through a click of a button. Online mass marketing fraud is an example of a cyber-enabled crime, where new technologies are being used to carry out traditional offline crimes online and has also created new opportunities for criminals to connect and interact with victims in a shared space. Despite the increase in research into mass marketing fraud in the physical world there is still little research, which has examined the relatively unknown world of repeat victimisation in online mass marketing fraud. Particularly the emotional and psychological impact being defrauded has on repeat victims. This presentation will discuss the current research literature surrounding stress and coping and the emotional and psychological impact of repeat victimisation in online mass marketing fraud. 10.35-10.55 Do Saudis search for Love Online? A Study of Online Courtship Scripts, Sexual Strategies, and Self-Presentations among Saudi Expatriates Ayman Naji S. Bajnaid, University of Leicester, [email protected] This research project attempts to investigate how Saudi expatriates in the United Kingdom, who come from an Islamic Arabic background, utilise online matchmaking websites to search for potential spouses. In particular, the current research project aims to understand the Saudi expatriates' online courtship scripts. Besides this, it aims to illustrate how Saudi expatriates who search for a potential mate present themselves in their online profiles. This project also seeks to investigate what preferences they look for in their future spouses. 10.55-11.15 Exploring Internal Communication and Engagement in Organizational Change: Employees’ Perspectives Nur Ishaq, University of Stirling, [email protected] This thesis will explore and critically examine the role of internal communication and in what ways its role will facilitate employee engagement in the successful implementation of organizational change initiatives within Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia. This study will explore employees’ perspective of managing organizational change and their perceived expectation and understanding of strategic role of internal communication and employee engagement. The study will demonstrate the importance of employees’ contributions and roles within the framework of internal communication in facilitating the process of organizational change thus minimize the failure rate as well as reduce employees’ resistance towards its implementation. The contribution of knowledge from



this inquiry is hoped to shed new insights in the field of internal communication and higher education practice. This research will employ a qualitative multiple case methodology to illustrate the phenomenon under examination. The proposed participants of this study will include purposefully selected group consisting of 30 employees from diverse departments with different hierarchical roles in two selected universities recently undergoing change in Malaysia.

11.15-11.35

A Mediated Interaction Order? The Hidden Spaces of Online Interaction Hannah Ditchfield, University of Leicester, [email protected] Goffman suggests that the “rules and rituals” of interaction are “weaker” in mediated settings than in face-to-face environments. But is this the case? This paper will present initial reflections on a project that intends to explore similarities and differences in the way individuals discursively manage identity and interactional order in online, textually mediated environments. This paper will describe how the study extends co-present focused work (e.g. Goffman (1983), Brown and Levinson (1987) and Derek Edwards (2005; 2007)) by using screen-capture software to examine interactional practices on the social networking platform Facebook. It will also consider the broadly ethnomethodological (EM) perspective that will be taken in the analysis of this data and how this incorporates tools from discursive psychology (DP) and conversation analysis (CA). Via the close analysis of social networking discourse, this paper aims to consider and extend arguments stemming from Goffman’s notion that mediated interactions are ‘reduced versions of the primordial thing’ and that interactional order is weaker due to the lack of physical presence (1983, p.2).

II. Keynote Speaker 11.35-12.05 Digital inclusion from a micro perspective: forging links between identity, literacy and inclusion Panayiota Tsatsou, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, University of Leicester Despite the debates around digital inclusion and its effects on social inclusion/exclusion, the connections between the micro and macro dimensions of digital inclusion remain unchartered. In this talk I will present interview, diary and podcast/videocast data from a British Academy funded project entitled Discovering Digital Me (http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/discovering-digital-me). Work in this project suggests an understanding of the micro aspects of digital inclusion in order to better comprehend and tackle the hurdles to digitally enabled macro development and advancement. Also it points out that ‘identity’ and ‘literacy’ and their linked role in digital inclusion can help researchers and practitioners map out the micro-macro links and reveal nuances of digital inclusion beyond aggregate figures and facts about the digital. My talk will underline the links between identity and literacy in the use of digital technologies and specifically how the user identity and its role in the user-technology interactivity are important to comprehend the micro elements and macro implications of digital inclusion. This way I will highlight the significance of the micro and individual-dependent variations of inclusion and will suggest that the parameters of literacy and identity and their individual (micro) dimensions enable enriched measurement and evaluation of instances of digital divide or

http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/discovering-digital-me


exclusion. This talk aims to feed discussions on future practices concerning the inclusive character of technology and the ways it can benefit society at the macro level.

Lunch Break 12.05-13.05

(New) Media and Production 13.05-13.25 Journalists' Explanations for the Culturally-specific Framing of Environment Coverage in two Omani Newspapers Rahma Al Foori, University of Leicester, [email protected] This paper investigates the role journalists play; in the most-read Omani quality Newspapers, Oman and Alwatan; in contributing to solving environmental problems through the press. This investigation has developed from the constructionist understanding, which perceives journalists as individuals who frame issues according to the society’s collective definitions of the environmental problems. The question of this paper is based on the content analysis findings which have shown prominence for particular environmental issues. The study focused on the content of 12 months’ systematic sampling (June 2010- May 2011) and used the Semetko and Valkenburgy framing model to investigate the extent and nature of environmental issues upon which the latter method, interview, was conducted, to identify the factors which have contributed to that construction. For example, of the findings on which this paper is based, the framing of a natural disaster, (Cyclone Phet) and pollution on a local level, shows an interesting use of the morality frame, with reference to ‘Almighty Allah’ and Islamic teachings. Prayers are used to call for the protection of the nation in times of crisis, but the frame of government and citizen/resident responsibility to solve or investigate the issues is at its highest as well. With pollution issues, religious teachings are used to advise readers about how pollution is damaging to the environment as well as ‘sinful’ as a behavior. The content analysis also showed that some coverage of past environmental problems gets recalled and the new content questions why officials have not yet responded to these problems. Discovery of this interesting status of environmental coverage entailed interviewing thirty (30) journalists in these newspapers for their reasons. The interview findings reveal a very high level of advocacy towards solving problems through the content of the newspapers and that repeating and tracking are tactics to solve the problems. Journalists have pinned up cases they believed they solved. They described how they intentionally initiate events, for instance, to shed light on an issue. They also pointed to tactics such tracking the official response by pasting previous news releases and requesting an urgent reaction from authorities addressed. These tactics have been geared by several forces, such as their sense of responsibility to serve society, and instilled Islamic religious teachings which they regard as guidance for that sense of responsibility. Reference to their belief in religious guidance as an authority encourages the readers, and journalists use it in giving advice to the public on issues of pollution or to calm people down in a natural disaster by the use of prayers yet emphasizing on the responsibility of government and individuals to manage these problems strategically. This shows the usefulness of constructionism in acknowledging these cultural differences and how they contribute to understanding both content and production of environmental coverage in the Omani newspapers.


13.25-13.45 Chinese Journalists' Changing Perceptions and Practice in the Context of New Media Tianbo XU, University of Sheffield, [email protected] Topic and purpose of the research--- Two dimensions are cross-applied to discuss the effect of the internet on contemporary journalism: new technologies and the political-economic context in which the new technologies work. Within these theoretical parameters, this study aims to explore the perceptions of Chinese journalists about their own experience of practice in order to assess how the internet precipitates journalists to transform their journalistic professionalism. Methodology---Qualitative semi-structured interviews are used as the research method in this study to collect data from 25 news media professionals. Thematic analysis is used as the approach to analyse the qualitative data generated from the interviews. Findings---Because of the popularity of using the internet in the newsrooms of traditional news media and the development of online news media as competitors of traditional journalism, Chinese journalists’ views of their professional practice have been changed on three main points: 1) the political hierarchy of Chinese news media and Chinese journalists has been impacted by the rise of commercial news websites. 2) There are grey areas for online news media to conduct journalistic practice in different ways from their traditional counterparts. 3) Chinese journalism has been developing its professionalism while struggling with the ideological dissonance. 13:45-14:05 Journalistic Objectivity and News Values: Theory vs. Practice Andreas Anastasiou, University of Leicester, [email protected] Technological convergence in the newsroom undermines the professional status of journalists, while citizen journalism challenges their watchdog role. Globalisation and cultural convergence tend to blur the borderlines between media systems in the western world, with the democratic corporatist and the polarised pluralist models –as suggested by Hallin and Mancini- tending to converge toward the market-oriented liberal one. Such changes are affecting journalistic norms and practices, and are calling for a reconsideration of what is meant by ‘objectivity’ in journalism and by ‘criteria of newsworthiness’; furthermore, of what the relation of these concepts is to their application in practice. The proposed paper will discuss theoretical and practical issues of news values, based on past relevant research and the author’s exploratory observations, leading to the formation of the hypothesis that Galtung and Ruge’s and Harcup and O’Neill’s theories on news values -widely accepted as given- are not sufficient for explaining the process and logic by which journalists select and evaluate the news, thus new research on the matter is proposed. The presentation will focus on ‘neglected’ works by Rosengren, Westerståhl and Johansson, Schulz, and Staab, suggesting their empirical re-evaluation, as they appear to constitute a convincing alternative to the usually cited sources.



(New) Media, Identities and Representations (Parallel) 14:10-14:30 Home, Identity and Media Practices among First and Second Generation Members of Nigerian Diaspora in Peckham Alakija, Oluwafunmilayo, University of Leicester, [email protected] ‘Home’ to the diaspora is conceived in terms of multiple locations straddling both the homeland and the host land, while identity is considered fluid and always in process. Although the ‘homeland’ is a contested terrain whereby a distinction is made between a desire for the homeland and a homing desire by Brah; it is nonetheless a key feature in the diasporic consciousness. Arguments have therefore focussed on whether the homeland is an authoritative point of reference or a myth in the imagination of the diaspora. Given these debates, this study examines the understanding of home, identity and media practices of first and second generation members of the Nigerian diaspora in Peckham. Drawing on Hall, the thesis argues that the context of ‘becoming’ is different given the distinctiveness of the historical experiences of each diaspora and contends that irrespective of the position of the fluidity that marks the postmodern migrant, the homeland is still an authoritative point of reference that is subliminally glued to the diasporic consciousness and which has greatly influenced the second generation claims to the parental homeland as a heritage they are proud of. Accordingly, the daily lived experiences of the diaspora revealed banal nationalism through an everyday representation of the homeland in the symbolic, material, social, cultural as well as religious practices in the diaspora. Drawing on 7 months anthropological as well as media ethnographic participant observation in various domestic and informal social and cultural events in Peckham coupled with semi structured interviews of 67 participants from the second and first generation members of Nigerian diaspora who use Peckham as diasporic space in various capacities: as residents, commerce, social cultural, religious activities. The study finds that while many of the first generation members of the diaspora tend to use British media in their daily media reception, their daily practices still tend towards the homeland. While the second generation members are emphatic in their claims to hyphenated identity, they have however been socialised into the religious beliefs of their parents, consequently serving as a form of social capital that connects them to the parent’s homeland and one which has a strong influence on their daily lived experiences in diaspora. 14:30-14:50 'Seeing is Believing?': Regarding Photographic Representation of Distant Suffering towards a Theoretical Framework of Cosmopolitanism, Mediation and Interpretation Xiaomin Hu, University of Leicester, [email protected] The paper aims to assimilate existing literature on photographic representation in media to draw a historical pattern of the persuasive nature of photography, as well as to discuss the controversial persuasive nature of photography in contemporary global media age and explore how this may interact with audiences with a theoretical framework of cosmopolitanism, mediation and interpretation. This is part of the work that over the next few years investigate a cultural perspective of ethics on photographic representation of war in transnational media combined with audience reception theory. Visual material is offered up by mass media to attract their audiences` attention. Media images are supposed to not only illustrate the media contents but also arouse audiences emotionally. To collect photographs is to collect the world (Sontag, 1977). Photography was regarded as a strong convincing visual material in the age of ‘seeing is believing’. However, today it seems that the persuasive nature of photography is being challenged. Technological convergence in the global media age makes it possible to witness distant vulnerable others regardless of distance. Therefore, I will be drawing the work of Lilie Chouliaraki (2006), Roger Silverstone (2006), Jonathan Ong (2009) and begin with mapping cosmopolitanism, mediation and interpretation.



14.50-15.10 An Examination of the Interaction between Cyberqueer Techno-practice and Offline Gay Male Experience in Contemporary China Tianyang Zhou, University of Sussex, [email protected]. The term ‘cyberqueer’ refers to the alliances between queer experiences and computer-mediated worlds, which stresses the independence of the two concepts in both daily practices and academic research. This study examines the interaction between cyberqueer techno-practice and offline gay experience in contemporary China. It addresses the research questions how gay men in contemporary China experience possibilities and constraints in their offline and online life. This study uses complementary methods in order to capture the complexity between online practices and offline experiences of gay men, in which the combination of an online survey, semi-structured interviews, and simple observations serve to deepen and enrich one another. The findings suggest that new media makes a great contribution to Chinese gay men’s everyday life regarding self-representation, community-making, as well as romantic and erotic practices. Meanwhile, the interconnectedness between cyberqueer techno-practice and offline gay experience reveals a comprehensive picture of Chinese gay male culture. 15.10-15.30 Understand 'Face' Concept in Chinese Social Media through Online Self-representation Shuhan Chen, University of Leicester, [email protected] Chinese ‘face’ practices are considered as the heart of Chinese culture, and ‘face’ always being understood in two terms as ‘Lian’ and ‘Mian’ in Chinese. This study aims to discover Chinese people’s understanding of ‘Lian’ and ‘Mian’, whether use of social media have an impact on Chinese people’s perception of ‘face’, and the ‘face’ Chinese people want to achieve through using social media. The theoretical study will be generated by comparing the way Goffman’s ideas about self-presentation have informed studies of social media in the West, interviews and concurrent verbalisation will be conducted among social media users and non-social media users to provide empirical findings. This research helps to explore how Goffman’s self-presentation ideas can be applied in China to understand Chinese people’s online self-presentation, also, by comparing the differences between ‘face’ concepts in China and in Western Countries it can contribute to the comparison of Eastern and Western cultures. Finally, research findings may help to explain social media’s influence on Chinese people’s social interaction comparing the online and offline world.



Media and Democracy (Parallel) 14.10-14.30 Media Production Practices: Behind the Scenes of Colombian Public Service Television Alejandra Castano-Echeverri, University of Leicester, [email protected] The Western tradition of public service media usually takes for granted the benefits of having an independent, pluralist media among democratic societies, because of its important contributions to the illustration of the citizens and therefore, their participation in debates about topics in the public interest. However, in some countries where this standpoint is accepted, reality is not close to this ideal. This is the case of Colombia, where there are two public national television stations, one of them with 43 years on air, but still with a very low impact on viewer’s construction of political and contextual reality. These two channels are fully funded by the Colombian government, a fact that has shaped their production dynamics, as well as the ways producers choose representations and formats to reconfigure reality. Those representations seem not to be appealing to audiences, since ratings are exceptionally low, in spite of the programs they show that have been worldly awarded. This situation reveals a paradox between academic discourses on public service production, which glorify the quality of the programmes even when they don’t have a representative amount of viewers, and those discourses by audiences, which state that public television is a need for improving their quality of life. These particularities of the Colombian context will be analysed under the narrative paradigm and the affect theory; the former states that translating experiences or ideas into stories, would reinforce the experience of communication for every actor involved in the process, and the latter states that humans tend to experience the same affect that other person they're watching is experiencing, and that it is through affection that communication can be more effective. Thus, we will intend to provide a comprehension on how producers imagine their audience and produce audiovisual texts according to that preconceived idea of their viewers. 14.30-14.50 Radio Listening Cluns in Malawi as an Alternative Public Sphere Peter Mhagama, University of Leicester, [email protected] Many people in rural areas in Malawi lack access to information due to illiteracy and unavailability of reliable sources of information. There is also absence of a proper forum where ordinary people in rural areas can express their views and have their voices heard in the market place of ideas. However, in communities where there are community radio stations, the stations are helping create spaces for ordinary people to participate in democracy and public life by setting up radio listening clubs (RLCs). Members of RLCs meet regularly to listen to specific radio programmes and then discuss the content of the programme for its merit and decide how best to put the information to use. This empowers them to make informed decisions about issues that affect their lives. They also have control of the development processes taking place in their community. Based on the concept of Habermas’ public sphere, this article examines how RLCs offer ordinary people with opportunities for mediated participation in public debate and for self-representation. The research was conducted at Nkhotakota Community Radio station in Malawi. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation. The article argues that the organization of listeners into RLCs by community radio stations enables ordinary people whose voices were excluded from mainstream media to express their views and opinions and debate issues of interest without any restrictions. The article further argues that because RLCs are composed of smaller groups of listeners, they are an ideal forum for offering ordinary people with access to information and opportunities for mediated participation in public debate and for self-representation. RLCs also offer ordinary people with a public forum to participate in decision making on issues that affect them locally and calling on local leaders to be accountable. In this way, RLCs are an alternative public sphere for the promotion of participatory democracy at local level.




(New) Media and Development (Parallel) 14.50－15.10 Qualitative Analysis of University Students Perceptions and Usage Behaviour of Mobile Phones in Nigeria. Oghogho Uyi OSAZEE-ODIA, University of Leicester, [email protected] The author investigates what mobile phones means to University students in Nigerian society. Focus groups were conducted in two Universities: Delta State University and Benson Idahosa University for which thirty two participants were selected through convenience sampling in different faculties of each University. The social construction of technology (SCOT) was adopted to underscore the linkage of mobile phones and users in the society and through which to unravel its value to the University students. The data collected was analysed with the constant comparative method. The findings reveal university students benefits from the use of mobile phones through system usage applications, new forms of communication behaviour, social relationships and sociality. 15.10-15.30 An Ethnographic Study of the Relationship between New Media and the Youth in Kibera, Kenya Faith Kibere, University of Leicester, [email protected] Much of the ICTD (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) literature is saturated with the proposition that technology is the silver bullet for marginalized communities in the Global South. Paternalistic assumptions of development underlie the deployment of technologies for persistent development issues such as civic engagement and voice. In the midst of the technological hype, studies that interrogate the relationship between users and technology are rare. Therefore, this yearlong ethnography in Kibera comprising 22 in-depth interviews contributes to the emerging research on ICT users. The evidence reflects enthusiastic engagement of young Kiberans with Facebook as opposed to the specially deployed local Voice of Kibera crowdsourcing platform that promises empowerment. It is a timely contribution to the discussion on the inclusion of ‘leisure’ based engagement with ICTs to the ICT4D literature.

Coffee Break 15.30-15.50


(New) Media and Audience 15.50-16.10 Audiences' Attitudes toward Arabic and Non-arabic Media Services Covering the Arab Uprisings Khalid Al-Jaber and Mokhtar Elareshi, University of Leicester, [email protected] This paper examines audiences’ attitudes toward Arabic and Non-Arabic news media services regarding the perceptions, quality and credibility of news coverage of the Arab uprisings. The revolutionary social and political actions were the major results of the change, as evidenced by the fact that any popular movement beyond the spotlight of satellite TV channels died in its cradle. This study canvassed Arab viewers’ opinions using an online survey posted on social network websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Arabic TV news services and the Internet emerged as the most reliable and credible sources for news about the Arab uprisings. Al Jazeera TV was seen as the most credible on all measures, followed by BBC Arabic TV. Local media and some non-Arab TV services were rated lowest on all measures. Respondents were interested in Arab political matters and they discussed these matters with others. 16.10-16.30 Youth, and Convergent News Media Environment in Pakistan Saadia Ishtiaq Nauman, University of Stirling, [email protected] This paper aims to address the emerging trends of young audiences in the convergent news media environment. Relying on Media Displacement theory, Uses and Gratification theory, the theory of Involvement, Selected Perception and the Media Practice Model, this study proposes that a careful revision is required before applying old theories to the young audiences of convergent media. A range of scholars have argued that the news audience is changing because of the convergence of technologies (Meikle & Young, 2013; Livingstone, 2013; McQuail, 2013; Das, 2013; Pavlickova, 2013). They argue that ‘convergent’ and ‘networked’ media platforms and media devices are offering more interactive and participation options to news readers (Livingstone, 2013). Meikle & Young (2013) believe the term ‘audience’ does not justify the title of media users in this convergent media environment and they have suggested the term ‘creative audience’. Livingstone (2013) refers to this phenomenon as an ‘interactive communication’ between users and media. The tremendous growth in technology has provided newspaper organisation owners with multiple platform options for the distribution of news. Consequently, news audiences now have more devices and platforms than ever to access news. Almost 70% of the Pakistani population has a mobile phone and recent ICT policy suggests there are plans to subsidise smart phones in the country, which will further boost the digital environment. It is critical, as Picard (2011) has noted, for newspaper organisations to keep examining the needs of their audiences in the digital age. There is clear evidence that young readers and students are the target of news organisations when it comes to planning future news business. The news consumption patterns of young university students through these convergent devices and platforms will provide valuable data for further planning. This paper addresses two main questions. The first is how the news usage pattern of Pakistani university students has been changing in the convergent media environment? The second is how Pakistani university students are using convergent media devices and platforms especially for accessing news? This research aims to understand the emerging practices of news seeking patterns of Pakistani university students through comprehensive surveys and in-depth focus group discussions.


(New) Media and Politics 16.30-16.50 A Semi-structured Interview: how Chinese (mainland& Hong Kong) playing a role as freedom seeking netizens in the case study of Hong Kong Chief Executive Election in 2012 Yupei Zhao, University of Leicester, [email protected] The aim of the research is to examine the different ways of contributing to cyber social netwok- Chinese micro blogging Weibo, but focusing on the case study of Chief Executive Election of Hong Kong in 2012; topic discussion and topic orientation expression will also be highlighted in a qualitative way- semi-structured interview. This research will not measure the specific level of democracy but will draw on the interactive model of theory of democracy in terms of agreeing with the views from Schudson (2004) and Astrom (2004), focusing on citizen information dissemination through online debate and discussions (Weibo) and efficiency of citizen participation to strengthen their civic society and the several participatory forms of citizenship (Schuler, 2004, Hague and Loader, 1999). This research will highlight how the users playing a role as freedom seeking netizens and making use of Weibo to challenge the Party-state on their own perspective to enhance the democracy, as the same time, how the internet playing a ultimate tool to manipulate the censorship and self-censorship practice. The result of analysis demonstrates that forwards were the most popular type of contribution rather than comment or comment on comment, and there is a considerable gap between forwards were done by casual users rather than that by Weibo Got Talent or VIP of person, or VIP of organizations. 16.50-17.10 New Social Movements and Social Media Uses: Mexicans´ mobilisation for peace Lidia García, Nottingham Trent University, [email protected] The recent political demonstrations in Greece, Iran, Tunisia, and Egypt were showed to the world through the global mainstream and alternative media using many images and reports produced by people on the ground using mobile phones, twitter and other social media. These events have triggered a discussion not only about the political changes taking place in the region but also have opened up an academic debate related to the changes and transformations that might have occurred in the nature of citizens´ political actions and the use of social media to communicate with people all over the world. In turn, these political events have also reignited the discussion on social media as transnational public spheres beyond government control and questioned the ethos of existing attempts at Internet governance by western nation-states. The aim of this paper theoretical discussion of this political phenomenon, through a case of study of New Social Movements and Social Media Uses: Mexicans´ mobilisation for peace which explores social media as an important element for the development of forms of citizen participation on the Internet. In this process, there is potential to theoretically redefine social movements and to contribute to the debate on the role of new media in redefining social movements´ media and their potential to transform traditional practices of politics – such as opening up space to develop temporary alliances with the government; to widening political participation in government structures; or/and to exercising closer influence to the policy-making process.



17.10-17.30 Celebrity Politics: Celebrity political Endorsement as a Political Marketing Tool in the 2008 and 2012 Electoral Campaigns in Ghana Lawrencia Agyepong, University of Leicester, [email protected] According to Henneberg (2003), celebrity political endorsement is a political marketing instrument which can foster useful conditions during political campaigns. Research on political marketing in Ghana has focused little attention on the use of endorsers in general and the use of celebrity political endorsement in particular. This research investigates the role of celebrity endorsement in Ghana elections by looking at how celebrity endorsements are represented in media reporting of election campaigns through a content analysis of media coverage of campaigns in 2008 and 2012 general elections. The theoretical frame is based on Bourdieu’s (1986) notion of ‘capital’. According to Bourdieu’s capital forms, the accumulation of the symbolic and political capital is necessary for advancement in the political field. Thus, using celebrities as part of political marketing can lead to the accruement of ‘capital’ or a resource for political gain or advancement by raising political campaign awareness, mobilize citizens and even persuade voters. This theoretical frame builds on Davis (2010) work which examines “media capital” that political candidates/parties and celebrities gain or not in using the endorsement process. 17.30-17.50 De-westernizing Media Studies Interpretations of Chinese City Creative Industries Policies Ken Wang, University of Leicester, [email protected] The term “creative industries” was created as a policy discourse in Britain in 1997 and various scholars have analyzed how British policy makers interpreted creative industries' policies (Flew, 2012; Newsinger, 2012; Oakley, 2004; McGuigan, 2004). The discourse has been exported to many other countries, China included. China officially claims to be a socialist country, which is different from the UK, a capitalist country. The policy making context and state control in China are also different from that in UK and Chinese cities are important in promoting creative industries. This research aims to test how Chinese city policy makers understand the imported term and how they interpret creative industries policies . This conference paper will provide an overview of the PhD project. Specifically, it will briefly review the formation of the creative industries policies in UK from the perspectives of political economy and govern mentality and the interpretations of British creative industries policies. Then the Chinese context will be introduced and the paper will present how British interpretations of creative industries work as a reference plane to analyze Chinese creative industries' policies concerning governance of cultural workers, promotion of SME, meaning of culture, and the use of public funding .

Closing Speech & Certificate Deliberation 17.50-18.05 Prof. Mark Banks, Research Director, University of Leicester


Media Production Practices: Behind the Scenes of Colombian Public Service Television

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