In dit onderzoek is een poging gedaan om tot een oordeel te komen wat betreft het optreden van journalisten tijdens de invasie van Irak in 2003. De samenwerking tussen het Amerikaanse ministerie...Show moreIn dit onderzoek is een poging gedaan om tot een oordeel te komen wat betreft het optreden van journalisten tijdens de invasie van Irak in 2003. De samenwerking tussen het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie en journalisten is lange tijd onderwerp van discussie geweest en wordt in dit onderzoek vanuit meerdere perspectieven belicht; dat van de journalisten zelf; dat van andere journalisten die de samenwerking niet aangingen; en dat van de wetenschap.Show less
Colour. A colour, the colour, any colour. Colour in everyday life. Coloured things that individuals use regularly. Colour on the walls, colour in the frames. Colour in the photographs. Colour on...Show moreColour. A colour, the colour, any colour. Colour in everyday life. Coloured things that individuals use regularly. Colour on the walls, colour in the frames. Colour in the photographs. Colour on the multiple screens. Colour in media and films. Furthermore, via things, colour has this potential to speak and evoke memory. In this thesis, I discuss how colour links with memory. More precisely, I analyse how coloured things work as memory’s mediators in two films: And the Wife shall Revere her Husband (1965), and The Red Balloon (1956). In the first case, I claim that coloured things can evoke memory, while in the second, how coloured things work as memes that create memory. In this process, my personal stories assisted me to approach colour in this way. Colours work within a network with their surroundings. In the following pages, I reflect on my own past experiences and I claim that colour and memory have an indisputable connection.Valuable theories and methods from different disciplines, such as media and film studies, sociology and philosophy, stand by my side in this journey. Colours are endless and constant. Without any further delay, allow me to remember and analyse moments through a rainbow costume, a homemade pie, a white hat, and a red balloon.Show less
Bilateral relations between the United States and China have increasingly soured since President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017. A key reason is that China’s growing power has made it a threat...Show moreBilateral relations between the United States and China have increasingly soured since President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017. A key reason is that China’s growing power has made it a threat to U.S. hegemony and the U.S. is more proactively seeking to contain China than ever before. While China’s threat can be examined from various theoretical angles, such as realism, few studies have looked at it from the perspective of the U.S. media. This is an important avenue for research as perceptions influence international relations and the media plays an important role in shaping such perceptions. Conversely, the media reflects tendencies in politics and society. Using content analysis, the portrayal of the China threat in the news coverage of the Wall Street Journal is examined between 2016 and 2018. The debate on the China threat has mostly consisted of three categories, namely military, economic, and political. The thesis adds a new category to be used in content analysis, namely world order.Show less
The prevalent phenomena of "leftover women" has gained increasing attention from the media and different scholars in Chinese society. The term "leftover women" refers to urban and professional...Show moreThe prevalent phenomena of "leftover women" has gained increasing attention from the media and different scholars in Chinese society. The term "leftover women" refers to urban and professional women who remain unmarried by the time they are in their late twenties or early thirties. This phenomena frequently addresses questions pertaining to why such working women are not married, whether they are willing to marry and their attitudes towards marriage. The Chinese media has also produced many dramatic television series reflecting the situation and marital prospects of leftover women. Within the media, these women are stigmatised as money-worshipers, snobbish or picky. However, it has become evident that leftover women present themselves online as economically and spiritually independent entities who prefer compatibility over financial security in their romantic relationships. Upon comparing depictions of such women in the media to their self-representations, this paper makes a twofold argument: on one hand, media representations controlled by the dominant male discourse are criticising women for being money-oriented and picky so they become losers in the marriage market. On the other hand, women have realised their right to freely choose their own partners and decide when to get married. Hence, the discourse of leftover women actually represents a conflict between traditional patriarchy and potential burgeoning of a women's rights movement in the PRC.Show less
Morning drama series, asadora, attract one of the highest number of viewers watching programmes on Japanese television. These serialised drama series broadcasted by state broadcaster NHK over the...Show moreMorning drama series, asadora, attract one of the highest number of viewers watching programmes on Japanese television. These serialised drama series broadcasted by state broadcaster NHK over the course of half a year, have induced large-scale tourism to sites related to the film locations in the series. The success of such “contents tourism” has a significant economic effect, inspiring producers to choose rural areas coping with depopulation and economic loss. This thesis takes the series Hiyokko, broadcasted in 2017, as an example to explore the field of contents tourism and its cultural framework and history. By investigating the content and narrative of asadora, as well as the economic impact of rural revitalisation, this thesis provides an extensive study on asadora from a socio-cultural and economic perspective.Show less
Since the 1979 revolution, the idea that the West has been involved in a conspiracy against Iran has become one of the most important national myths of the Islamic Republic. In recent years this...Show moreSince the 1979 revolution, the idea that the West has been involved in a conspiracy against Iran has become one of the most important national myths of the Islamic Republic. In recent years this national narrative has found new meaning as the “soft war”. A modern iteration of the myth of foreign conspiracy, it stipulates that Western powers seek to infiltrate the moral fabric of Iranian society through Western cultural products and media channels and by extending support to Iranian civil society. Since the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests the soft war has become one of the defining features of Iranian governmental discourse. The election protests relied to a large extent on digital communication and social media platforms to mobilize the opposition to the re-elected president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013). The soft war narrative was the primary justification for the increasing control of the Iranian authorities over their country’s cybersphere which accompanied the regime’s crackdown on the 2009 demonstrations. While the topics of digital repression and the soft war during the terms of president Ahmadinejad have received their share of scholarly attention, a review their status under the current Iranian president of Hassan Rouhani is lacking. This thesis aims to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing how the soft war narrative has been used in Iranian governmental discourse to justify control of Iran’s media environment and in particular, control of Iran’s internet, during the tenure of president Rouhani as compared to during the Ahmadinejad era. Particular attention is paid to the legacy Western imperialism in Iran, factional politics in contemporary Iran and the influence of the country’s political economy on the Iranian state’s restrictions on internet freedom under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani.Show less
The term post-truth politics has become increasingly popular and more frequently used since 2016, a time that has also coincided with Donald Trump becoming the president of the United States of...Show moreThe term post-truth politics has become increasingly popular and more frequently used since 2016, a time that has also coincided with Donald Trump becoming the president of the United States of America and of the growing global popularity of populist politics. To properly understand post-truth politics an analysis of political truths, lies, and bullshit are necessary, as is a broader investigation and analysis of society in general, specifically it’s media. This thesis seeks to investigate and analyse what post-truth politics exactly is and also answer whether or not such a term is describing a new political phenomenon, because if post-truth politics is not describing a new political phenomenon then the use of the term seems to be unjustified.Show less
De hedendaagse kunstenaar Ronald Ophuis draagt met zijn schilderijen bij aan het ethische debat omtrent de representatie van extreem geweld in verhouding tot de persfotografie en de beeldende kunst.
After the end of the Cold War, US – Russia relations have been fluctuating. In recent years, they have been deteriorating, partly because of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. The...Show moreAfter the end of the Cold War, US – Russia relations have been fluctuating. In recent years, they have been deteriorating, partly because of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. The portrayal in the media of the other has become increasingly negative in both states, and public opinion polls show that an increasing number of Americans and Russians saw each other as “unfavourable” in the months after the annexation. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the annexation was framed in both American and Russian news. It employs a deductive framing analysis, using five pre-defined, issue-specific frames, that were derived from the literature. The dataset consists of two articles each out of two Russian and two American newspapers. The thesis concludes that American and Russian news have framed the annexation differently: American news framed the annexation as an aggressive Russian act, whereas Russian news framed it as a result of the Crimean people freely expressing their will to reunite with Russia. As media has an influence on public opinion, the results of this research partly explain the decline of respective favourability in public opinion.Show less
This thesis shows that, despite many rumors that in the summer of 2015 German newspapers would report on refugees with a bias, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reports very balanced and...Show moreThis thesis shows that, despite many rumors that in the summer of 2015 German newspapers would report on refugees with a bias, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reports very balanced and objective concerning refugee related topics.Show less
This Bachelor thesis investigates the Russian media during the second Chechen conflict based on the media coverage of Anna Politkovskaya. It gives a broad view of her media coverage and her view on...Show moreThis Bachelor thesis investigates the Russian media during the second Chechen conflict based on the media coverage of Anna Politkovskaya. It gives a broad view of her media coverage and her view on the conflict.Show less
Dit onderzoek schetst op basis van wetenschappelijke literatuur, populaire literatuur en een case study hoe RT en Spoetnik desinformatie gebruiken. Uit een analyse van de literatuur blijkt dat...Show moreDit onderzoek schetst op basis van wetenschappelijke literatuur, populaire literatuur en een case study hoe RT en Spoetnik desinformatie gebruiken. Uit een analyse van de literatuur blijkt dat Russische desinformatie een tamelijk recent verschijnsel is, dat verschilt van ouderwetse propaganda en het Sovjetfenomeen dezinformatsia. Waar ouderwetse propaganda tot doel had de ontvanger tot actie aan te zetten, lijkt desinformatie vooral bedoeld om de ontvanger te verwarren en in een passieve staat te brengen. Naast een grote hoeveelheid (tegenstrijdige) berichten komt uit de populaire literatuur nog een aantal elementen van desinformatie naar voren, namelijk samenzweringstheorieën, whataboutism, (geladen) taalgebruik, en journalistieke balans. Aan de hand van deze kenmerken is de case – de verslaggeving over MH17 door RT en Spoetnik – bestudeerd. De analyse laat zien dat er in de case sprake is van desinformatie, en dat de voornoemde elementen in meer of mindere mate gebruikt zijn in de verslaggeving.Show less
This thesis researches to what extent Indonesian online based media create a discourse that emphasize the Chinese-Christian identity of Basuki Thjahaja Purnama (Ahok) as a minority during the...Show moreThis thesis researches to what extent Indonesian online based media create a discourse that emphasize the Chinese-Christian identity of Basuki Thjahaja Purnama (Ahok) as a minority during the Jakarta gubernatorial elections of 2017. The thesis employs a qualitative discourse analysis method that researches online articles of news portals Tempo.co, Kompas, and The Jakarta Post. To understand discourse on the Chinese-Christian identity in its proper context, first is researched what the Chinese identity means within Indonesian society by taking a historical perspective. Secondly, this thesis explores the role of religion in modern Indonesian politics as well as the political and religious context of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections. News articles linked to Ahok’s blasphemy case, demonstrations against Ahok, and the elections are selected for analysis. In total 42 articles have been analyzed. The results show that there is difference in writing styles between English and Indonesian language based online news portals. Whereas the Indonesian language based news portals remain neutral to Ahok’s identity as Christian-Chinese by not referring to it, the English language based The Jakarta Post creates a narrative in which Ahok is emphasized as part of a Christian-Chinese minority.Show less
