title: Bridging adaptive learning and desired natural resource management outcomes: Insights from Australian planners

authors: Serrao-Neumann, Silvia

abstract: Natural resource management (NRM) has been increasingly guided by governance arrangements seeking less centralized and hierarchical and more integrated and adaptive approaches to achieve desired social-ecological outcomes. Successful implementation of these approaches requires adaptive learning which entails the application of individual, institutional and social learning to adaptive co-management. This paper proposes and validates a conceptual model that identifies components of adaptive learning and their relationships with desired NRM outcomes. Supported by on-ground experience of Australian NRM planners, it discusses three key insights to enable bridging between adaptive learning and NRM outcomes: changing focus away from economic-efficiency culture, supporting learning and knowledge exchange structures, and reinventing practice.

text: Bridging adaptive learning and desired natural resource management outcomes: Insights from Australian planners Natural resource management (NRM) has been increasingly guided by governance arrangements seeking less centralized and hierarchical and more integrated and adaptive approaches to achieve desired social-ecological outcomes. Successful implementation of these approaches requires adaptive learning which entails the application of individual, institutional and social learning to adaptive co-management. This paper proposes and validates a conceptual model that identifies components of adaptive learning and their relationships with desired NRM outcomes. Supported by on-ground experience of Australian NRM planners, it discusses three key insights to enable bridging between adaptive learning and NRM outcomes: changing focus away from economic-efficiency culture, supporting learning and knowledge exchange structures, and reinventing practice.

year: 2018

title: An explorative study of the encoding/decoding model in respect to television news in Papua New Guinea

authors: Lagdom, Nancy

subjects: Papua New Guinea Media

abstract: Television in Papua New Guinea strives to exist in a pluralistic society characterised by diverse local cultures and traditions that blend with Western influences. It is important to understand the role of television and its influence on such a pluralistic country as it continues to go through the process of nation building. Global advances in media and technology that will one day penetrate deep into such societies will need to be understood; however, this may not be possible without first setting the context for television, which is tied into the country’s post-colonial history. 
This study looks at television news producers and audiences in regard to the encoding/decoding model, in order to understand the role television has played in Papua New Guinea in terms of nation building. There is, however, very little literature on television news producers and audiences in PNG. As such, an explorative approach was taken to look into the encoding and decoding of EMTV news by journalists and student audiences.
The main questions addressed in this thesis are: Why do journalists make/report/produce news? How do journalist make/report/produce news? Why do student audiences watch news? How do student audiences watch news? What meanings are encoded by journalists onto the news discourse? What implications can be drawn from the news discourse? What meanings do student audiences decode from the news discourse?
The theoretical frameworks that inform this research include the “encoding/decoding” model of active audiences and the De-Westernizing Media model. A mixed method approach was taken, where four research methods were employed to look into encoding and decoding of EMTV news throughout its circuit of communication. In-depth interviews were carried out with four journalists, to understand their encoding roles, their personal motivations for the job, their perception of newsworthiness and the meanings they encode onto the news discourse. A total of 135 questionnaires were completed by student audiences, and a focus group was held with eight students. These were to understand audience encoding roles and experiences, their personal motivations for watching, their perception of newsworthiness, the meanings they decode and their overall perception of EMTV news. To further understand meanings within news discourse, a discourse analysis was carried out on a representative news sample to identify the implications embedded in the representative news bulletin.
By the end of the research, and after collating and analysing the data it was concluded that EMTV news has contributed negatively to nation building because of its focus on Western news values. Through its coverage of bad news or negative stories, it has created a negative image of the country and its people. EMTV news reports are biased in their choice of cultural representation, rather than blending the country’s rich and diverse cultures into creating a unified hegemonic identity. As a result, provincial identities emerge among student audiences, rather than a national identity.

text: An explorative study of the encoding/decoding model in respect to television news in Papua New Guinea Television in Papua New Guinea strives to exist in a pluralistic society characterised by diverse local cultures and traditions that blend with Western influences. It is important to understand the role of television and its influence on such a pluralistic country as it continues to go through the process of nation building. Global advances in media and technology that will one day penetrate deep into such societies will need to be understood; however, this may not be possible without first setting the context for television, which is tied into the country’s post-colonial history. 
This study looks at television news producers and audiences in regard to the encoding/decoding model, in order to understand the role television has played in Papua New Guinea in terms of nation building. There is, however, very little literature on television news producers and audiences in PNG. As such, an explorative approach was taken to look into the encoding and decoding of EMTV news by journalists and student audiences.
The main questions addressed in this thesis are: Why do journalists make/report/produce news? How do journalist make/report/produce news? Why do student audiences watch news? How do student audiences watch news? What meanings are encoded by journalists onto the news discourse? What implications can be drawn from the news discourse? What meanings do student audiences decode from the news discourse?
The theoretical frameworks that inform this research include the “encoding/decoding” model of active audiences and the De-Westernizing Media model. A mixed method approach was taken, where four research methods were employed to look into encoding and decoding of EMTV news throughout its circuit of communication. In-depth interviews were carried out with four journalists, to understand their encoding roles, their personal motivations for the job, their perception of newsworthiness and the meanings they encode onto the news discourse. A total of 135 questionnaires were completed by student audiences, and a focus group was held with eight students. These were to understand audience encoding roles and experiences, their personal motivations for watching, their perception of newsworthiness, the meanings they decode and their overall perception of EMTV news. To further understand meanings within news discourse, a discourse analysis was carried out on a representative news sample to identify the implications embedded in the representative news bulletin.
By the end of the research, and after collating and analysing the data it was concluded that EMTV news has contributed negatively to nation building because of its focus on Western news values. Through its coverage of bad news or negative stories, it has created a negative image of the country and its people. EMTV news reports are biased in their choice of cultural representation, rather than blending the country’s rich and diverse cultures into creating a unified hegemonic identity. As a result, provincial identities emerge among student audiences, rather than a national identity.

year: 2014

title: When loanwords are not lone words: Using networks and hypergraphs to explore Māori loanwords in New Zealand English

authors: Trye, David

abstract: Networks are being used to model an increasingly diverse range of realworld phenomena. This paper introduces an exploratory approach to studying loanwords in relation to one another, using networks of co-occurrence. While traditional studies treat individual loanwords as discrete items, we show that insights can be gained by focusing on the various loanwords that co-occur within each text in a corpus, especially when leveraging the notion of a hypergraph. Our research involves a case-study of New Zealand English (NZE), which borrows Indigenous Māori words on a large scale. We use a topic-constrained corpus to show that: (i) Māori loanword types tend not to occur by themselves in a text; (ii) infrequent loanwords are nearly always accompanied by frequent loanwords; and (iii) it is not uncommon for texts to contain a mixture of listed and unlisted loanwords, suggesting that NZE is still riding a wave of borrowing importation from Māori.

text: When loanwords are not lone words: Using networks and hypergraphs to explore Māori loanwords in New Zealand English Networks are being used to model an increasingly diverse range of realworld phenomena. This paper introduces an exploratory approach to studying loanwords in relation to one another, using networks of co-occurrence. While traditional studies treat individual loanwords as discrete items, we show that insights can be gained by focusing on the various loanwords that co-occur within each text in a corpus, especially when leveraging the notion of a hypergraph. Our research involves a case-study of New Zealand English (NZE), which borrows Indigenous Māori words on a large scale. We use a topic-constrained corpus to show that: (i) Māori loanword types tend not to occur by themselves in a text; (ii) infrequent loanwords are nearly always accompanied by frequent loanwords; and (iii) it is not uncommon for texts to contain a mixture of listed and unlisted loanwords, suggesting that NZE is still riding a wave of borrowing importation from Māori.

year: 2023