Global Media and Communication

The international communication subfield has assumed that cross-border information flows and the national borders they traverse are two different kinds of phenomena: information flows are viewed as fluid and mobile, while national borders are understood to be the rigid and immobile edges of the nation-state ‘container’. This paper unsettles this assumption by showing that state actors in the US and the EU are stretching border controls into neighbouring and distant territories. These borders, which are dependent on transnational ICT networks, are permitting state actors to re-scale border controls in a way that transcends the territorial framework of the nation-state system. These network-like borders are discussed in terms of their contribution to mobility inequality; their implications for those who have turned to concepts such as ‘diaspora’ as a way of escaping ‘the iron grip of the nation-state on the social imagination’; and their implications for state power.

This article utilizes new institutional theory and its principle – coercive isomorphism – to examine explicit and implicit pressures exerted on news organizations by a regional government in Russia in 2009 and 2010. The study found that while empowering regional reporters by the myth of helping underprivileged citizens, the authorities divert the media from scrutinizing the government. The political officials outsource media relations to media themselves, turning them into public relations agents. This mission seems to homogenize the content of regional newspapers since the government becomes the main source of information.

This article focuses on plurilingual processes in two European-based news agencies: Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Agence télégraphique suisse (ATS). Fieldwork (observation and semi-structured interviews) was conducted in Switzerland at the regional office of AFP in Geneva and at the head office of ATS in Bern. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential consequences of a highly plurilingual production process on the one hand, and of the ostensible invisibility of multilingualism/translation on the other hand. Some of the interviewed journalists acknowledge the risks that may be posed by interlingual and intercultural transfer (translation), given the working norms of news agencies (rapidity, accuracy of information, and adaptation to the audience). However, the institutional denial of these possible biases may prevent news agencies from reducing them.

The aim of this article is to explore the motivations that drove many ordinary people to produce citizen journalism after the earthquake that destroyed the Italian city of L’Aquila in 2009. Using in-depth interviews, we investigate the motivations and the obstacles underlying the publication of grassroots information related to the post-earthquake situation. Findings highlight that people were largely motivated to upload their content online: (1) to contrast the quake-related news provided by Italian mainstream media with their own perceptions; (2) to document their lives and the ‘real situation’ of the city; and (3) to share their points of view with other citizens trying to re-establish online the ties broken offline because of the catastrophe. Analysis shows that these non-professional journalists also had to face a series of obstacles, such as risks of fragmentation and lack of professionalism, funding and visibility.

The definition and local cultural adoption of globally generated terms such as environment and sustainable development happen largely through an imbricated process of meaning negotiation within democratic public discourse. Framing behaviour by media and influential opinion makers shapes and moulds local and national discourse about environment and sustainability, particularly in developing countries where pro-development forces face off against pro-conservation groups over resource use choices. Using elements of framing and grounded theory, a qualitative interpretive case study analysis of environment and sustainability related articles from a leading English language fortnightly magazine in India reveals that highly emotive frames are being used in media construction of the environment and sustainability discourse in India. While the research findings suggest that stock themes from the international framing repertoire are in use, they also indicate that distinctive new frames are being employed that could assist in instigating social change and refashioning public attitudes.