Erasmus University Thesis Repository
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Playing the Blame Game: Discursive Constructions of Accountability in Lebanese News Coverage of the Beirut Port Explosion
No full textIn the context of large crises, especially in politically polarized and fragile states, news media serve a critical role in constructing narratives that further shape public discourses. This study explores the discursive construction of blame in Lebanese digital news coverage of the Beirut Port Explosion from August 2020 to February 2021. This disaster devastated the capital and triggered public outrage due to Lebanon's pre-existing economic collapse and institutional paralysis. With formal mechanisms of justice dysfunctional, news media became a space to negotiate the production and attribution of blame.
This study explores how two ideologically diverse Lebanese outlets, The Daily Star and L'Orient Le Jour, constructed blame in the aftermath of the catastrophe. Using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), 40 digital articles were investigated through visual and textual tools over a six-month period. Integrating discursive strategies provided a framework to uncover how actors are represented, narratives constructed, and moral responsibility assigned or deflected.
The findings reveal two dominant discourses. The first discourse focuses on systemic blame, portraying the Lebanese state as a collective perpetrator. The discourse portrays the state as morally and structurally culpable in years of corruption, negligence, and political dysfunction that led to the explosion. This was reflected through emotionally charged representations of victims, protestors, and stalled legal processes. The second discourse is one of blame denial and deflection, emerging from elite discourses, where political actors avoided accountability through strategic procedural language, narrative ambiguity, and mention of sovereignty. These attempts included redirecting blame to foreign actors and painting accusations as politicized and baseless.
This study enhances the literature on news media and crisis discourses by examining how blame is negotiated when institutional accountability is lacking. It demonstrates insights into how journalism in fragile environments performs as a moral function, mediating public outrage and shaping narratives of justice, contributing to larger discussions on the performance of accountability in the Global South
Science Fiction Utopia
No full textDonald Judd (American, 1928-1994) was an artist associated with the Minimalist movement who established the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas in 1986, after 15 years of development. Originally named the Art Museum of the Pecos, the Chinati Foundation is a contemporary art museum dedicated to perpetually exhibiting the art of Judd and his colleagues in the West Texan desert. If Judd's artwork is seen as a bridge between late modernism and postmodernism, how do we understand his museum design in Marfa, Texas? Judd used science-fictional material and temporal techniques to engage with a Scottish-American individualist legacy of utopian design. This, in practice, proposed a postmodernism that did not divorce from humanism. Judd's approach allowed for a de-hierarchized art institution and alternative conceptions of the modern-postmodern divide. However, this antiauthoritarian praxis could easily be recaptured by capital through commercializing the radically contingent subject, which prefigures the postmodern art museum and contemporary 'art experience.' This reflects broader changes in the phenomenology of art in contemporary society and thus museum design. To explain these changes, I engage with critical cultural Marxist theory through Fredric Jameson, Mark Fisher, and Slavoj ?i?ek, as well as the philosophy of technology of Martin Heidegger. I work from the art-critical milieu of the October group, particularly Rosalind Krauss and Hal Foster. I advance a new term for the understanding of Judd's work, drawn from Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, and Heidegger: simulacral Enframing.
My thesis takes the form of an entirely qualitative, critical analysis of the Chinati and Judd Foundations in Marfa, Texas. My first chapter aims to define the terms that I use so liberally throughout, namely 'postmodernism.' This, of course, implies a modernism that it transgresses, the definition of which has wider implications on how we understand Judd's techniques. I examine these largely through comparison to Robert Smithson to understand utopian and dystopian attitudes in their works, differing responses to their time. In this way, it also acts as an extended literature review. The second chapter examines the Marfan foundations as Judd and Lauretta Vinciarelli built them, how they functioned, and the social implications in reference to latter-20th century America. This ties to urbanism and social theory, a legacy within which I situate the Marfan museum design, given a politicization of the philosophical propositions within his work. This ties to Judd's own political leanings and activism; I mean to show how they are inextricable. The third chapter revisits the foundations in the present day, after their transformation into a tourist destination for the ultrawealthy artworld. I examine how Judd's techniques, established in the first chapter and enacted in the second, made the commercialization of his work somewhat inevitable by the third. However, within this capital recapture, I also highlight the utility of Judd's structuralizing museology and its relationship to the Dia Art Foundation
Formerly Twitter, Formerly Functional?
No full textThis thesis explores how Elon Musk's 2022 takeover of X (formerly Twitter) has affected the working
practices of journalists, taking the Irish media context as a case study. Over the past decade, X has
played a fundamental role in journalism, serving as a key space and resource for newsgathering,
information dissemination, professional visibility, and audience engagement. However, since Musk's
acquisition in 2022 and subsequent governance changes, many journalists have reported a
deterioration in the platform's functionality, safety, and credibility. This research examines how these
changes shaped journalists' responses, adaptations, and perceptions of their professional needs related
to their use of X. The central research question guiding this study is: How has the takeover of X
affected the work of journalists? It also explores the key factors influencing these responses, including
personal circumstances, professional constraints, and platform dependency. A second question
examines: What factors and motives, including journalists' individual needs and circumstances, shape
and interact with their responses to these changes in working practices? The study's findings are
derived from a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with nine Irish journalists representing
a variety of organisations, roles and career stages.
Findings show that while all journalists acknowledged X's previous centrality to their work, the
platform's takeover has reduced its professional utility and prompted varied responses, including full
disengagement and continued use with significant adaptations. Some journalists noted benefits to
staying on X, particularly for real-time access and network visibility, while others cited increased
abuse, reduced trust in information credibility, and dissatisfaction with platform governance.
Emerging themes include shifts in platform affordances, ethical and practical dilemmas around
staying or leaving, differentiated impacts and adaptation strategies. Journalist's responses were shaped
not only by personal preferences but also by professional needs. For example, younger journalists and
those with high visibility or sourcing demands found disengaging with X harder, while established or
freelance journalists with strong offline networks had more flexibility. Career stage, journalistic
specialisation and role, gender, and political views were also predictors of these choices.
Overall, this study illustrates how journalists navigate changes in platform governance and
affordances through strategies such as platform migration and swinging, disengagement, symbolic
resistance, or behavioural adaptations while remaining on the platform, all of which are shaped by
several key factors. Moreover, this research adds to growing literature by showing how ever-evolving
platform governance changes expose journalists to risks like abuse and disinformation, reshaping
professional practices in a volatile, platform-centric media environment
Daughters of Artemisia: A Difference-in-Difference Analysis on Hammer Prices for Women Artists in the Aftermath of the #MeToo Movement
No full textIn the context of art markets, empirical evidence suggests underrepresentation of women artists and less recognition of their work. This systematic issue ultimately translates into lower prices for their artworks. Global mediatic movements as #MeToo try to tackle these injustices by raising awareness with the goal of shifting public perceptions.
This study thus aims to explore the impact of the #MeToo Movement on market valuations of artworks created by women artists in the secondary art market. In doing so, it tries to answer the question: To what extent did the #MeToo Movement impact the prices of artworks created by women artists in the secondary art market? For this purpose, an analysis was executed by conducting a Difference-in-Difference analysis and using 2017 as the treatment year, following various findings on the mediatic spread of the Movement online and offline. A sample collected through ArtPrice, with years of sale ranging from 1984 to 2025, was used, while utilising artworks created by female artists as the treatment group and the ones created by male artist as the control group.
While the analysis on the full sample reflected a positive change of prices for female artists in the aftermath of the Movement, it did not prove statistically significant. Therefore, the analysis was conducted on a subsample by keeping artworks sold between 2013 and 2024 and revealing statistically significant results for the effect of the Movement on hammer prices. Taking solely results from the subsample analysis into account, three robustness checks were conducted to back the validity of the findings. First, a placebo test was conducted by using artworks created by male artists as a treatment group. Second, a test was conducted on the top-quartile subsample, following literature on the glass-ceiling for women artists in the secondary art market. The third test aimed at assessing the immediate results of the Movement, while also excluding COVID years from the analysis.
The purpose of this research is to assess whether the art market is keeping up with what happens in the external world, and thus, whether social movements can influence the art market by trickling down into secondary market outcomes. It is then argued that social movements may hold this influence due to their potential to shift narratives and influence collectors' choices. The results of this research might prove useful for conducting similar studies on other discriminated identities, while bringing additional value to the extensive theoretical and empirical research on the discrimination on women artists in the art world
Do environmental taxes have an effect on the Greenhouse gas emissions of the industrial sectors within Europe?
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Assessing the Impact of TMT Gender Diversity on Corporate Sustainability Performance in the Fashion Industry
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