mediadev library

Stephen Hutchings, Precious Chatterje-Doody, Marie Gillespie, Vera Tolz

Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (2024), 342 pp.

"Through the prism of the first comprehensive account of RT, the Kremlin's primary tool of foreign propaganda, Russia, Disinformation and the Liberal Order sheds new light on the provenance and nature of disinformation's threat to democracy. Interrogating the communications strategies pursued by aut ... more

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Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

Rhys Crilley, Marie Gillespie, Bertie Vidgen, Alistair Willis

International Journal of Press/Politics, volume 27, issue 1 (2022), pp. 220-242

"The Russian state-funded international broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) has attracted much attention as a purveyor of Russian propaganda. To date, most studies of RT have focused on its broadcast, website, and social media content, with little research on its audiences. Through a data-driven ... more

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Mapping Refugee Media Journeys: Smartphones and Social Media Networks

Marie Gillespie, Lawrence Ampofo, Margaret Cheesman, Becky Faith, Evgenia Iliadou, Ali Issa, Souad Osseiran, Dimitris Skleparis

Open University; France Médias Monde (2016), 103 pp.

"Smartphones and digital connectivity are essential for refugees seeking protection and safety in Europe, but they also carry risks for them. This research identified a huge gap in the provision of relevant, reliable and timely digital news and information for refugees on their journeys and upon arr ... more

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Designs, Devices and Development: Audience Research as Creative Resource in the Making of an Afghan Radio Drama

Andrew Skuse, Marie Gillespie

Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, volume 8, issue 1 (2011), pp. 132-153

"This essay analyses the role of audience research as a change agent in media development interventions in Afghanistan. It analyses how audience research in transnational contexts involves a complex set of intercultural negotiations and translations that contribute to the enduring relevance and sust ... ainability of the highly popular Afghan radio soap opera New Home, New Life. This is a ‘development drama’ that has been broadcast across Afghanistan since 1993. It is based on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers and produced by BBC Afghan Education Projects (BBC AEP). Audience research has been vital to forging a dynamic relationship between the creative teams who make the drama, the donors who pay for it, and the audiences who consume it. The article addresses three broad themes. First, we outline how data gathered in formative audience research, prior to the creation of the drama, provides the creative team with the dramatic raw material for the radio serial. The extensive qualitative data gathered by Afghan researchers in local milieux is translated so as to enable culturally diverse teams of writers and producers to ground the serial narratives in the lived experiences of its audiences, and to introduce multiple local perspectives on development issues. Second, we show how evaluative audience research, data gathered in the postproduction phase, plays a key role in providing critical audience interpretations of New Home, New Life’s dramatic themes. In so doing, it creates feedback loops that allow audiences to become active participants in the ongoing creation of the drama. The research designs and devices, developed over the last two decades to document the changing life-worlds of Afghan citizens-cum-audiences, are part of an ongoing set of transcultural encounters that contribute to strengthening the social realist appeal of the drama and to calibrating how far any given storyline can be pushed in terms of cultural propriety. Third, we examine how during periods of military conflict, when routine audience research becomes dangerous or impossible and audience feedback loops are disrupted, the writers and producers have to rely on their own personal and political experiences, often with unpredictable ideological consequences. We draw attention to the limitations and challenges of making dramas for development in highly charged politicised and postcolonial contexts. While, development dramas may be a cheap and effective way of dealing with certain informational needs, such as landmine awareness, they cannot redress social and structural inequalities or, as Western donors wish, eradicate opium cultivation." (Abstract) more

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Drama for Development: Cultural Translation and Social Change
Inspiring Practice

Andrew Skuse, Marie Gillespie, Gerry Power (eds.)

Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage (2011), xxiii, 324 pp.

"By assessing edutainment as a space of cultural translation, Drama for Development advances an often neglected perspective in this topics' research. It focuses on what happens when various goals, worldviews and needs from donors, producers and the audiences come together in the production and meani ... more

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Media Audiences

Marie Gillespie (ed.)

Maidenhead: Open University Press (2005), 250 pp.

Russia, Disinformation, and the Liberal Order: RT as Populist Pariah

Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

Mapping Refugee Media Journeys: Smartphones and Social Media Networks

Designs, Devices and Development: Audience Research as Creative Resource in the Making of an Afghan Radio Drama

Drama for Development: Cultural Translation and Social Change Inspiring Practice

Media Audiences

Drama for Development: Cultural Translation and Social Change
Inspiring Practice