This research paper sets out to investigate the messaging present in a corpus of texts
gathered from Acxiom’s, an American data-analysis and ‘Identity Solutions’-company,
website. The paper applies a framework of Critical Discourse Analysis informed by Theo van
Leeuwen’s theory of ‘legitimations’ and analyses the findings through the theoretical
framework of ‘Sociotechnical Imaginaries’. Greater emphasis is placed on the theoretical
framework, in the hopes of allowing a greater insight into the ideological underpinnings of
the corpus. The paper looks at five broad categories of inductively identified discourses in
the texts; the neo-liberal market economy, privacy, identity structure, techno-utopianism,
and the naming conventions/usage of biological terms carried out by Acxiom.
This is undertaken with the aim of answering the question: ‘What discourses are present
in the texts, and to what extent do they extol the virtues of techno-utopianism?’ After the
empirical analysis, the project will pivot to focus especially on the underlying techno-utopian
elements and discursive positions which Acxiom assume in the texts. The analysis will be
focusing on the techno-utopian elements, and Acxiom’s own conception of identity, as it
exists both inside and outside of its system, to show how the texts analysed contain a great
starting point for attempting to trace an outline of the imaginary disseminated through
Acxiom’s system.
Additionally, through engaging in a legitimation-based critical discourse analysis, this
study aims to examine the power structures implicit in the texts. It diagnoses how Acxiom constructs not only their own position, but also that of their clients, and the consumers which
are categorised in said system. Through doing so, the project looks at the role of a dataanalysis
company working largely unseen in today’s data-driven landscape of marketing
and communication in order to ensure that corporate communications remain targeted and
relevant at the potential cost of reifying and maintain prior power relations in society.
Additionally, the project looks at the imaginary, the vision of a preferable future, constructed
by Acxiom and critically analyses how it contains elements that misinterprets the role and
function of ‘identity’ and reshapes it into an algorithmic abstraction, away from its roots in
individuals’ ‘real’ lived lives. Through activating the idea of said ‘imaginary’ the project
shows how futures that are envisioned run the risk of being subsumed into the technology of
those that control it.
Therefore, the project will through an empirical element, draw out the theoretical and
ideological underpinnings of a major actor in the sphere of data-analysis and identity
solutions.

Purpose:
The aim of the research is to juxtapose the public trust towards investigations carried out by investigative journalists with the ones conducted by politicians in Armenia. The thesis also seeks to reveal the preconditions of trust in the two phenomena mentioned above.
Theory:
Conditioned by the lack of prior research on the matter in Armenia, the theoretical framework of trust and its prerequisites is borrowed from western academic works and adapted for the Armenian public.
Method:
The methodology used for the thesis encompasses both qualitative and quantitative research, more specifically a paper-based survey conducted in both rural and urban areas of Armenia with 2800 responders and an interview conducted with four of the survey participants.
Result:
The research revealed that the investigations conducted by politicians are trusted significantly more, while the public trust score in investigative journalism is evidently low.

Anthropogenic climate change is a wicked problem and the nature of the climate discourse propagated through media outlets is one key component in shaping how the public understand and act upon its causes and ramifications. This study draws on journalism practice theory and related approaches to analyse semi-structured interviews from early 2020 with 10 journalists who consistently cover climate change in Aotearoa New Zealand. It describes and contextualises CJ practice in relation to the negotiation of journalistic responsibilities within media, climate and Covid-related arenas. The analysis finds that the journalists seek to provide accurate, contextualised, holistic stories, to aim for fair and diversified representation, to ensure fresh and regular coverage, maintain an emotional awareness, make coverage interesting and relevant without sacrificing the above principles, and be responsive to audience needs and feedback. Discursive challenges include representing—and visualising–the perspectives of frontline communities without stereotyping, explaining the science in fresh ways, and regularly communicating the vast and overwhelming nature of climate change. The analysis situates CJ within a journalistic space to elucidate the relationships between the symbolic capital and material resources at the journalists’ disposal, and those present within CJ when understood nationally. National trends show numbers of reporters, editorial legitimacy of CJ and science communication expertise increasing, but the landscape is highly variable between organisations, with a few individuals driving much of the change. Areas of friction between climate reporting and media logic reveal a high degree of similarity with findings from other Anglo-Saxon countries. Climate connections are not consistently integrated within general journalism despite climate change being considered increasingly newsworthy and unavoidable. The early months of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the financial precarity of both the journalism industry and the journalists’ daily routines and held CJ issue attention implications.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to reflect the perceived professional identities of
female journalists in relation to investigative journalism and how much the
legislative restrictions by the state change their perceived possibilities to
produce journalism according to their ideals.
Theory: Findings are discussed with the theory of social capital by Pierre Bourdieu. In
The Forms of Capital (1986), Bourdieu introduces the accumulation of
different forms of capital, such as social and cultural capital.
Method: The study in hand is based on empirical research and its chosen approach is the
concept of social capital by Pierre Bourdieu. Empirical research has been
conducted by document collecting, interviewing, and participant observation.
The data consists of six semi-structured interviews of educated female
journalists. On top of empirical data, publications by the Media Council of
Tanzania were collected and analyzed: Press freedom violations register
(2016), Compendium of analyzes of media related laws in Tanzania (2020),
Challenging the Glass ceiling: Study of Women in the Newsroom in Tanzania
(2019), and Gender in Media Policy (2019). The conclusions are based on both
the interviews and the document analysis.
Result: Women produce and report investigative journalism in Tanzania, and
journalists of female gender consider working with it to be possible with their
level of competence, but there is a strong sense of self-censorship among the
professionals because of the legislation created to hinder journalism.
Journalists need to work in favor of the government, or they risk being banned,
fined, or imprisoned. The situation above refers to all genders, but female
journalists must hold their professionalism to a higher standard to protect
themselves from inappropriate demands within and outside newsrooms.

Purpose:
The research aims to reveal the media models operating in the selected three post-Soviet countries: Armenia, Belarus, Russia. As the latters have a joint history the thesis seeks to find out the historica, economic and socio-political casual links that have contributed to the development of the current media systems.
Theory:
The thesis is based on the theoretical framework of Hallin and Manici described in “Comparing Media Systems.” More specifically, to identify the media model(s) and to discover the character of the media-state relationship two of the dimensions proposed by Hallin and Mancini will be further used with a greater emphasis, which are political parallelism and role of the state. Nevertheless, as the dimensions have been designed to be implemented in Western countries, the research also relies on the critiques on the book.
Method:
The analysis is based on both secondary research and qualitative study conducted within the scope of this particular research. The theory has been designed to be implemented on already existing information. To fill in the gaps in the research, interviews have been carried out with 5 investigative journalists from the selected countries altogether.
Result:
The analysis has revealed that three of the selected countries share one type of media system. Nevertheless, the media model differs from those proposed by Hallin and Mancini due to historical, economic, socio-political characteristics of the countries.