Who Holds Communication Power? An Analysis of Power Relations Shifts within the Media Reform in Myanmar

Author(s):  
Melanie Radue ◽  
Lena Bullerdieck
2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Kitzberger

The Citizens’ Revolution, the political process initiated in Ecuador with the presidential inauguration of Rafael Correa in 2007, initiated a radical transformation in the media comparable to other progressive governmental experiments in the region. The political process led by Correa has pursued a change in power relations and ownership, the introduction of regulation, the demystification of the established media discourse, and an abandonment of the market as a guiding principle in the media. From the perspective of the equitable redistribution of media power, however, it is still an open process whose outcome is uncertain. La Revolución Ciudadana, el proceso político iniciado en el Ecuador con la investidura presidencial de Rafael Correa en 2007, inició una transformación radical en los medios de comunicación comparables a otros experimentos gubernamentales progresistas de la región. El proceso político liderado por Correa ha buscado un cambio en las relaciones de poder y la propiedad, la introducción de la regulación, la desmistificación del discurso de los medios establecidos, y un abandono del mercado como principio rector en los medios de comunicación. Desde la perspectiva de la redistribución equitativa de poder de los medios, sin embargo, sigue siendo un proceso abierto cuyo resultado es incierto.


2020 ◽  
pp. 135-168
Author(s):  
Herman Wasserman

This chapter sets out the central and most important argument of the book as it proposes a normative framework for African media in contexts of democratization conflict that is based on the ethical principal of “listening.” The chapter asks the question: how should the media act ethically during times of conflict? In setting out to answer this question, the chapter departs from the basic assumption that the media have responsibilities to democratic societies that extend beyond their mere functioning as commercial industries, digital platforms, or public institutions. The assumption in this chapter is that ethical frameworks are best developed through a dynamic dialectic between normative concepts and reflective practice: an ongoing process that combines ethical concepts and theories with an analysis of their appropriation, adaptation, and application in actual, specific contexts. Listening as an ethical position requires a fundamental revision of the relationship between journalists and their publics, one in which power relations are radically revised or overturned.


1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Bell

We give a sociological reading of the landscape as a formation not primarily of the natural world but of the social. Landscape is best seen as a terrain on which socially constructed and historically determined significatory practices are at work shaping our perception of nature. Accordingly we must attend to the media forms and practices through which landscape has been represented if we are to understand the inter-textual nature of our experience of nature. We explore in particular sociological attempts to understand tourist representations of the landscape. We engage with Urry's postmodern analysis of picturesque tourism and argue that a more historically informed analysis is needed that links representations of landscape to power relations in colonised societies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-108
Author(s):  
Kapil Kafle

The study explores the changing gender relations in media as social development. Changing Gender Relations have been found expressed in the media that can be proven with different examples but the activists and campaigners of gender equality movement are found glued with the decade old metaphors till date. Though the biological identity of a person still determines the power but the gap has been narrowed down. Even men, as activists, have involved advocating for their gender based grievances created as a result of the patriarchy and masculinity. There is discrimination against women, and even violence against them is in the higher volume in the society, but the cases of the remedies have also increased. Power relations have been found very much gendered and sexist, but the account of changes has not been highlighted properly. Changes in power relations are seen in the media but recognition of the same is not made officially. A concept, that most of the women are victims because of their femininity and men are perpetrators because of their masculinity, has also been repeatedly expressed whereas it has been proved that masculinity does not have a biological basis. Methodologically the study is completely based on secondary information of literature review. In conclusion, a concept of social development lies in gender equality has been internalized at least preliminary level by the media that is needed to recognize by the society so that media will be more encouraged to make contributions for the issues of social development.


2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-219
Author(s):  
Davor Marko

This article deals with how fear is misused in media discourse. Pursuing the claim that it is impossible to eliminate fear from the public sphere, this paper argues that fear control is a technique widely used by certain interest groups to generate and spread uncertainty among people in order to create an atmosphere in which their goals are easily reachable. This paper will discuss the concepts of discourse, hegemony, and power relations in order to show how public language (both written and spoken) in media discourse reflects, creates, and maintains power relations. In this sense, fear, which is a crucial “energizing fuel” of such public language, could be considered and further elaborated as both a contextual variable and as a tool for facilitating power relations by applying various techniques. Aiming to show how media use and control the nature and level of fear in public discourse, I will discuss two techniques – the commercialization of fear and the method of “othering.” While commercialization implies the mass (re)production and (re)appropriation of fear in a public space, “othering” has been applied when the object of reporting is an out-group individual or community and self-group is using the media as a tool for their negative portrayal, thus creating boundaries and provoking discrimination and violence. The case of Serbia will be used to indicate how techniques of “othering,” linked with the regime’s propaganda, may contribute to the creation of an atmosphere of fear, and make a people seek protection and become easy prey for manipulation.


Popular Music ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTTI-VILLE KÄRJÄ

This article applies the processes of canon formation suggested by Philip V. Bohlman in The Study of Folk Music in the Modern World to the historiography of popular music. Bohlman distinguishes between at least three different types of folk music canon: a small group canon, a mediated canon and an imagined canon. Adjusting Bohlman's ideas to the case of popular music, a reformulation is proposed in the form of an alternative canon, a mainstream canon, and a prescribed canon. The unstable power relations implied by the juxtaposition of different canons are considered, as well as the cumulative aspect of canon formation. The article also looks for each type of canon in the media through which historical knowledge is transmitted, and considers the tendency to narrate the historiography of marginal musics with more ephemeral media than the printed word.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samia Bazzi

Abstract This study attempts to show the role of translation in giving meaning to conflicts whether by reproducing the dominant political beliefs of a particular media society or by resisting counter-ideologies that come from foreign sources of information. It utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis as an effective method for the analysis of power relations behind news reporting. The research uses a corpus from international media and their equivalent texts into Arabic between 2013 and 2017. The data covers events on conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen, each article reporting issues about conflict and its impact on arenas of struggle. Through this case study of transediting, I will explore how textual analysis can unravel power relations and hegemonic orders of discourse. The study shows that translation is a site of conflict and has much to say about reasons for conflict and the complex relationship between language and power. The proposed tools of analysis in this study are based on functional language analysis and will show how language structuring, in particular transitivity analysis, articulates the logic created by the media outlet regarding reasons for conflict. The case study concludes that different media structure the current wars in the Middle East in different chains of causal dependence that can impact the reading positions of the readers.


2001 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cox

Arguably, the media today represent the central means by which global power is mediated. The rise of global networks has consolidated the reach of corporate power such that it now rivals — and probably surpasses — that of government. People are finding innovative and alternative ways to communicate using the very means the corporate sector itself uses, to different ends. This is the world of the culture jammer, who turns the message back on the sender, the better to expose the unequal power relations at work in what Guy Debord called ‘The Society of the Spectacle’.


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