Dissertations Copyright (c) 2013 Bond University All rights reserved. http://epublications.bond.edu.au/disseration Recent documents in Dissertations en-us Tue, 14 May 2013 19:55:43 PDT 3600 The New 'Multi-journalism': Journalists' and educators' perceptions of the influences of the Internet upon journalism and its implications for journalism education http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/218 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/218 Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:34:20 PST This work uses grounded theory methodology to develop a theory of the Internet’s influences upon journalism and its implications for journalism education. It sets out to address research questions asking what journalists’ and educators’ electronic discussions reveal about the influences of the Internet upon journalism and what the implications of this might be for journalism education. Sub-questions ask how the Internet’s influences upon journalism might be categorised and, further, ask what new tasks and practices journalists have adopted in their work as a result of the use of the Internet.

The literature review reveals scholarship in the field has developed rapidly during the course of the study, however while much of the research has targeted specific phenomena in the journalism / Internet / education interface, there has been a dearth of literature attempting to synthesise the three in a holistic theorybuilding exercise such as this. Certainly, there have been no attempts to use a grounded theory approach to the analysis of electronic discussion list data in building such theory.

The data upon which the analysis is based are the discussions about journalism practice and journalism education on four electronic discussion lists during a nine week period in 1997. The 1217 messages posted to the lists were sorted according to their relevance to the research questions and the 629 messages selected were coded and sorted using the NUD.IST qualitative research software and analysed in accordance with grounded theory procedures recommended by Strauss (1987) and Strauss and Corbin (1990).

The study illustrates that the Internet has had a major influence upon journalism which has important implications for journalism education. The thesis presents a descriptive categorisation of the Internet’s influences upon journalism.

The Internet’s actual influences upon journalism are identifiable and numerous, and include 169 new journalistic tasks and practices. The influences are so profound in some respects that they force a re-evaluation of journalism and its purpose.

The influences of the Internet upon the context in which journalism is practised and upon the practice of journalism are momentous. They represent the emergence of an endeavour which, while retaining many of the characteristics of journalism as it has been known, is too fragmented, multi-dimensional and multipurposed to continue to be classified as such, a notion which has profound implications for journalism education and necessitate a review of its aims and practices. The term “Multi-Journalism” has been coined to describe this new manifestation of journalism as an occupation.

Numerous opportunities for further research have been identified, covering all three domains addressed in the thesis: the context in which journalism is practised, the practice itself, and the implications of Internet influences for journalism education.

]]> Mark Pearson “Une Annee Entre Parentheses” French academic sojourners in Australia: The impact of social and cultural dimensions of acculturation and repatriation on perceptions of cultural identity http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/150 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/150 Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:29:55 PDT Intercultural exchanges in Australia for French academic sojourners constitute a recent phenomenon as French students were traditionally involved in primarily European exchange programmes under the auspices of associations such as ERASMUS and formerly SOCRATES. Numerous studies have been carried out on academic sojourners, however, much of the research to date has focused on the academic dimensions of their experience. By comparison, few studies have addressed issues relating to the social and cultural dimensions of the exchange process. These dimensions are however of central importance to understanding the nature and impact of the study abroad experience. This dissertation has investigated the impact of the acculturation and repatriation processes and the language experiences of French academic sojourners on their perceptions of cultural identity. When sojourners enter a new society with distinctive cultural norms and values, it stands to reason that identity changes may result from intercultural contact between visitors and host society members, as identity transformations occur in response to temporal, cultural and situational contexts. When sojourners are required to adapt to an unaccustomed socio-cultural milieu over an extended period of time, they need to learn new cultural repertoires and competencies. Adjustment to an unfamiliar culture necessitates changes in cognition, attitudes and behaviour, without which culture shock and acculturative stress may occur.

This thesis emerged from the close observation of a group of French students who were experiencing difficulties during their academic sojourn in Australia and were concerned about their re-entry. This was because once they had traversed the difficult stages of culture shock and reached the stage of full recovery (adjustment), they no longer wished to go home. For this reason, the cyclical journey of these sojourners was of great interest to this project. This dissertation was based on three substantive themes: culture shock, reverse culture shock and cultural identity issues. Of significance was the notion of perceived identity because the issues in this study revolved around the way the respondents think about themselves rather than developing an external view of others’ identities. Therefore the discourse of the respondents about their own culture has been respected and their views have been taken as evidence of what they wished to project rather than as information about their original culture. It will be shown that the French respondents in this study belonged to and traversed a complex multiplicity of cultures both within and across societies. They were largely ill-prepared for this journey. The end result was a dynamic move away from stereotypical national cultural perceptions toward a newly created identity. However, cultural identity, seen in terms of national identity, remains important for these sojourners, even though they have rejected aspects of what this identity represents. Even having chosen to live outside France, they still understand themselves in terms of the ‘Frenchness’. Clearly, pre-departure preparation from participating institutions and the individuals themselves, both on a linguistic and psychological level can be seen to impact significantly on the adaptation experiences of academic sojourners.

]]> Marie-Claire Patron