Reporting and recording Zimbabwe

Forward has convened this one day international conference exploring journalistic issues affecting Zimbabwe. How has the western media covered the the country's story? How difficult is it for local journalists inside Zimbabwe to tell the story? Who sets the news agenda? The conference takes place in Oxford on Saturday 28th June 2008. You can download details and a draft programme here.

How do readers interact with hypertext narrative fiction?

Hypertext fiction has incredible potential as a new literary art form. Supporters see it as exciting and dynamic, critics claim it is disorientating and unsatisfying. This thesis is the first major empirical study of reader's responses to hypertext fiction and one of the few to consider the effect of the interface on reader satisfaction.

Young People, Identity and the Media: A Study of Conceptions of Self-Identity Among Youth in Southern England

This thesis investigates young people's perceptions of their own identities and how the media is used to shape their conceptions of self. Young people aged 13 to 14, of contrasting class and ethnic backgrounds were invited to create identity collages using media materials that expressed 'how I see myself' and 'how I think other people see me', and provided their own interpretations of this work within unstructured interviews.

C Sheep

C-Sheep is a language used to teach the principles of programming and computer science. Users control both the sheep avatar and the variable environment of 'the meadow'. By emulating the style of modern game technology it is hoped to make coding more attractive and engaging to the media savvy kids of tomorrow. Eike and Leigh presented an educators paper at SIGGRAPH in San Diego this summer.

Protecting TV Formats

The business of TV formats, which account for around half of the UK's TV programme exports, has a global turnover in excess of 2 billion pounds a year. A format, however, is essentially understood by media proffessionals as an idea and ideas are not protected by copyright law. This research examines how, with no straightforward legal framework, TV formats are being bought and sold and how broadcasters are dealing with copycats. This project is supervised jointly with CIPPM in the Business School.

Back into the Malaise? Exploring the link between news framing and voter perceptions of the political process

With declining levels of trust in politicians and increasing levels of cynicism towards the political process as a whole, the media malaise thesis attributes such developments to the way politics is covered in the media. This investigation aims to contribute to this debate, by measuring how voter attitudes are shaped by the way politics is framed by the media.

Political engagement amongst Thailand's youth

Using an extensive survey of young people's opinions this study examines changes in the methods and levels of political engagement in young Thai people.

Corporate Social Responsibility: dead or alive?

In one of the first empirical studies of its kind Kathy examined business practices across Dorset. Away from the theories how and why are businesses engaging with community obligations.