Getting hold of television and radio news was slightly more problematic. How could I record the live transmissions of the primetime daily bulletins that are broadcast simultaneously? The Malta Broadcasting Authority, which monitors all newscasts, kindly let me look at their recordings to analyse the content. I used my networking and asked editors for a copy of the news text under study. Two stations were helpful but others were not and so it took longer to analyse their broadcasts.

My main problem was that I was overwhelmed with data. Although I analysed a sample that merely covered one month, I was looking at too many outlets. Moreover, the EU was a key issue on the national agenda because the unofficial campaign for the EU membership referendum was underway. Coping required decisions and so I selected two daily English language newspapers The Times and The Malta Independent, together with the trade union-owned newspaper L-Orizzont  whereas I analysed the news of the broadcasting outlets of the two main political parties and the church. Each news item that referred to the EU was subsequently assessed according to a coding frame that was adapted from a schedule designed by Hansen et al. (1998, pp. 117, 199). Some variations in the coding schedules were made for newspapers and broadcast news. I filled a coding sheet for each news item.

I still had a lot of data to analyse - a total of 444 items. I needed to use quantitative and qualitative software to process it. While I was familiar with Nvivo, I had never used SPSS and I spent much more time on the analysis than I had anticipated. I also acknowledge a psychological blockage with numbers, which was eased by reassuring friends, who had much more experience in the area.

Yet quantitative content analysis could only help in a limited way. The discourse of all news items was further analysed qualitatively for the ideological frameworks on which the items were based. The main rhetoric was analysed and positive legitimising values and the negative values were noted together with implicit or explicit connotations.

This chapter took much more time and energy than I had originally anticipated. This single chapter was probably the toughest. Looking at so much data required a lot of self-discipline. When I became too tired or bored I had to put it aside. Apart from plenty of time, one also needs space. At that time I was living in a very small room in a shared house and I had to use every inch to organise papers, videotapes etc.

Interviews with Audiences
The third part of my thesis was based on interviews with families. I wanted to know how audiences made sense of news. In my pilot work I organised a number of focus groups but then I decided to interview families, because I acknowledged that in Malta the family is still the most important interpretative community. I met families using snowballing methods – meeting people whom I was not previously acquainted with. Friends (a teacher, a priest, a trade unionist, a street theatre organiser in a working class urban area and a political activist) arranged meetings. I met various forms of families from small nuclear families to extended families. I made an effort to have a balanced gender representation and to include people from different parts of the island, different socio-economic groups, and people with different political views.  


Support
Research funded by a Commonwealth Scholarship
The supervisor provided constant access and support. He was my key motivator in the project and apart from the intellectual guidance also helped me to discipline myself with tight deadlines.
Participation in the Goldsmiths' Journalism Studies Group was extremely useful. I also had the opportunity to address seminars about my work progress.


What you would suggest to a new PhD student...
Not available


Abstract of the Thesis:
Pillars of polarisation: News Production, Content and Reception in Malta.
The thesis argues that with improvements, this small island state could present an alternative pluralist model where a core of advocacy and public journalism complements the role of the commercial media. While from a liberal perspective, this landscape appears to be 'traditional' and 'backward' because of the resilience of partisan media; this system may also have a democratising impact.

Unshackled by commercialisation and professional ideology, it helps keep all social groups effectively engaged with socio-political processes and electoral turnouts exceed 95%.
Firstly, the thesis looks at how the media system reinforces the highly polarised political culture, which is overwhelmed by two political parties. It describes the two-pronged information stream, which comprises the dominant messages emanating from the state and the ruling party, which is countervailed by messages stemming from the opposition media. 
Secondly, it delves into the work practices of partisan and non-partisan journalists. The way media target citizens rather than consumers is explained by looking at news producer's perceptions of their audience.
Thirdly, it analyses the patterns of institutional influence on news content in a sample of texts systematically selected during the referendum on Malta's membership with the European Union.
Finally, the study looks at the audience's perceptions of the media system. It identifies how highly critical receivers still 'read' media messages within their respective partisan terrains. It argues that 'active' audiences are unlikely to be emancipated unless they are also able to organise and participate in political action.

This work concludes that since professionalism is linked with the advancement of commercialisation, it does not necessarily lead to democratisation and so civic journalism also needs to be nurtured and developed. Furthermore the thesis supports the expansion of the comparative approach so that media scholarship extends its attention beyond the concerns of predominant British and American literature.


Publications and Papers
Forthcoming publication:
Maltese Media and Society, Lexington Press (USA) 2006


Current Job
- Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the University of Malta, teaching Global Economy of the Media, Media and Society & Media and International Relations.

- My current research interests are: media coverage of the influx of irregular immigrants in Malta, Media and gender in international relations, Media portrayal of irregular immigration in the Mediterranean.
- I regularly analyse the newspapers on radio for Public Broadcasting Service
- Presenter of a weekly current affairs programme on EU affairs of radio RTK
-Also contribute media-related articles for the press
- Member of the Journalism Research Studies Group at Goldsmiths College, University of London


Contact details
Department of International Relations,
Faculty of Arts,
University of Malta,
Msida, MSD 06,
Malta.

Phone: +356 2340 2950
Fax: +356 23402185

Email: carmen.sammut@um.edu.mt