Enriching the Texture of Experience a Media Ecology Perspective on The

Enriching the Texture of Experience A media ecology perspective on the Do Lectures as a case study in strategic communication 001 002 DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. HUGH GRIFFITHS 17 OCTOBER 2017 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD (Communication). HUGH GRIFFITHS 17 OCTOBER 2017 STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/ investigation, except where otherwise stated, and the thesis has not been edited by a third party beyond what is permitted by Cardiff University’s Policy on the Use of Third Party Editors by Research Degree Students. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. HUGH GRIFFITHS 17 OCTOBER 2017 STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter- library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. HUGH GRIFFITHS 17 OCTOBER 2017 Enriching the Texture of Experience A media ecology perspective on the Do Lectures as a case study in strategic communication HUGH GRIFFITHS This thesis is submitted to Cardiff University in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies October 2017 When we own our story, we have the power to write our own brave ending. BRENE BROWN DEDICATION TO MY WIFE JAYNE AND MY SONS NATHAN AND JACOB Your love, encouragement and support have consistently cheered me on. IN MEMORIAM ERICA Beatrice MAE GRIFFITHS 1934 - 2013 who first gave me a love for reading and of the library JOHN LEOLINE GRIFFITHS 1924 – 2004 who first gave me a love for books and of the tools for writing CONTENTS vii List of tables viii List of figures ix Abstract xi Acknowledgements 001 Introduction PART ONE CONTEXT, LITERATURE AND RESEARCH DESIGN 007 CHAPTER 1 The development of the Do Lectures 027 CHAPTER 2 Media ecology and Marshall McLuhan 069 CHAPTER 3 Research design and methodology PART TWO FINDINGS AND DATA 103 CHAPTER 4 The goals, motivations and intentions of the Do Lectures 137 CHAPTER 5 Impact and influence: The audience survey 195 CHAPTER 6 Impact and influence: Online testimony PART THREE DISCUSSION 229 CHAPTER 7 Renaissance, Retrieval and Reimagination 273 CHAPTER 8 Conclusions 299 Appendices 313 Bibliography LIST OF TABLES Page Description 084 Table 3.1 Taxonomy of potential data sources 093 Table 3.2 McGuire’s progression of persuasion indicators 128 Table 4.1 Do Lectures followers on social media as at February 2016 128 Table 4.2 Do Lectures articles on Medium and the audience response 140 Table 5.1 Structure of the audience survey 144 Table 5.2 Survey respondent profile summaries 147 Table 5.3 Survey respondent discovery of the Do Lectures 150 Table 5.4 Survey respondent Do Lectures event attendance 151 Table 5.5 Survey respondents and other Do Lectures media 153 Table 5.6 Ranking of specified impact factors 156 Table 5.7 Other audience defined impact factors 165 Table 5.8 Frequency of watching the Do Lectures online 166 Table 5.9 Devices used to watch the Do Lectures online 166 Table 5.10 Reasons for watching the Do Lectures online 169 Table 5.11 Do Lectures talks mentioned as influential 177 Table 5.12 Recommending the Do Lectures to others 184 Table 5.13 Perceptions of Wales 202 Table 6.1 Blog articles by Do Lectures participants vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Description 002 Figure 0.1 Death by Powerpoint cartoon 008 Figure 1.1 Visual summary and timeline of the Do Lectures 056 Figure 2.1 McLuhan’s tetrad of ‘Laws of Media’ 110 Figure 4.1 Guidelines for Do Lectures speakers 130 Figure 4.2 The Do Lectures Manifesto 135 Figure 4.3 The Hiut Denim ‘History Tag’ 149 Figure 5.1 Do Lectures poster Say Yes More than No 165 Figure 5.2 Frequency of watching the Do Lectures online 177 Figure 5.3 Reasons to recommend the Do Lectures 182 Figures 5.4 Keywords describing Wales 184 Figure 5.5 Shifts in perceptions of Wales 205 Figures 6.1 Visual summaries of Do Lectures talks 222 Figures 6.2 Do Books series and sample layout 248 Figure 7.1 Do Lectures Firestarters poster 256 Figure 7.2 The ‘tetrad’ for the live event 258 Figure 7.3 The ‘tetrad’ for the digital platform 266 Figure 7.4 Do Lectures Small Clever Country visual motif 293 Figure 8.1 A ‘tetrad’ of enquiry for a media ecology viii ABSTRACT This research examines the role and impact of the Do Lectures, a digital platform that has its roots in both a place and an annual signature live event held in rural Wales. Based around a format of short talks, they are subsequently published online and free of charge to a global audience. It begins with an overview of the Do Lectures, its development and general cultural context, outlining the physical and digital media forms and channels they have incorporated into their media ecology. The thesis then presents an analysis of the results of a survey of their live and online audiences and their online testimony in order to understand the impact of the Do Lectures event. The results highlight the significance of the Do Lectures’ use of the highly interpersonal connection format of the live event in combination with digital channels to establish a rich media ecology comprised of significantly contrasting and complementary media forms. It demonstrates that their ability to communicate is notably strengthened by adopting starkly contrasting forms where the properties of each medium is highlighted and appreciated because of the differences that exist between them. For the audience, meaning and significance is drawn not only from their own particularities but from their relationship to one another and the intermedium dynamics that exist between them. The conclusion suggests that companies and organisations can increase the influence of their communications by giving strategic consideration to the design of their media ecology, actively developing a media environment whose disparities and contradistinctive qualities of form have an impact beyond the contribution of their individual functions. The thesis introduces the concept of ‘media texture’ to describe the contribution that these intermedium dynamics provide to the impact on an audience and proposes a four-dimensional model through which it can be deliberately explored or developed. ix x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks go to Professor Ian Hargreaves CBE and Professor Justin Lewis who have patiently supervised this project from the outset. They have provided me with their support and understanding during some of the most difficult periods of this research. I am grateful for their breadth of outlook and their rich professional and academic experience that has helped to guide my work. I am very grateful to David and Clare Hieatt for welcoming me to the Do Lectures and for opening their home and the event to me over the last few years. Their generosity of spirit and the Do Lectures experience will stay with me. Gratitude is also due to the many friends and colleagues I have been working with at Cardiff University’sSchool of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies and the Cardiff University Press. Working with you in teaching, publishing and in so many other ways has been a privilege and a pleasure that has greatly enriched my experience. This project was completed in partnership with the Do Lectures and with KESS (Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships) funding awarded from the European Social Fund (ESF) and managed by the Welsh European Funding Office, an Executive Agency of the Welsh Assembly Government. xi INTRODUCTION The lecturer and the audience join in affirming a single proposition. They join in affirming that organized talking can reflect, express, delineate, portray – if not come to grips with – the real world, and that, finally, there is a real, structured, Erwin GOFFMAN somewhat unitary world out there to comprehend. Western society is saturated with powerful digital communication technologies and it has never been easier or cheaper to create, publish or distribute media content quickly and globally. Yet despite these flexible tools and their increasingly powerful digital platforms, there remains a strong cultural appetite for ‘organised talking’ - the lecture – that form of communication of ideas that is perhaps the most elemental and historically established through almost every major institution in society. An individual is given a place, an occasion, a platform and the time for others to listen and share in their thoughts and feelings as they are given form and life through their words. As Goffman suggests, it is an affirming role that creates a tacit agreement or ‘contract’ between speaker and listener - a bond within which “a meaningful picture of some part of the world can be conveyed” (1985, p.195). This expression of ideas through the spoken word remains a core practice of many types of societal and public communication. In politics thought is expressed through the delivery of speeches, in the academy through the giving of lectures, by the church through the preaching of sermons, within professional groups by conference and keynote talks, in the company or business organization it is expressed through presentations. Yet despite the prevalence and almost universal presence of the organized talk at the heart of almost every institution of society, the lecture form or its equivalent in another cultural setting is not without criticism. Even within the academy where it forms a mainstay of educational practice it has been severely questioned where even its efficacy of use as a pedagogical form has been challenged.

Load more