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Media Watch

Journal Description

Media Watch

Media Watch is a double-blind peer-reviewed tri-annual media and communication journal demonstrating high-quality academic standards at all levels of its publication. Published jointly by Centre for Academic Social Action and SAGE-India, the journal reflects the international scope of the field and encourages contributions from scholars and researchers worldwide.

Each issue of Media Watch presents the latest research on a wide range of topics related to media and communication and invites original articles under the following categories:

  • Media, democracy and citizenship
  • Children and media
  • Grassroots and alternative media
  • Civic journalism
  • Peace and conflict communication
  • Ethnicity and mass media
  • Politics, economy and mass media
  • Cultural communication
  • Advertising and public relation
  • New media technologies and communications
  • Globalization and mass media
  • Communication theories and practices
  • Media audiences
  • Advertising and public relations
  • International communication
  • Scholastic journalism
  • Visual communication
  • Media law, ethics, regulations, and policy
  • Media industry trends and dynamics
  • Communication and culture
  • Journalism research and education
  • Media management (Organisational and business communication) and economics
  • Sports journalism
  • Cinema and traditional media
  • Print, electronic and online media
  • Media, health and climate change

The journal is supported by an international editorial advisory comprising leading academicians worldwide.This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Journal Feed

  • Cultural Branding in the Arab Region
    by Noha Mellor
    Media Watch, Ahead of Print. The comparative study of cultural policies in the Arab region remains a relatively underexplored domain, particularly in how these policies influence nation branding and nation-building efforts. This exploratory study seeks to contribute to this nascent field by adopting a comparative lens to examine the cultural policies of three Arab nations: the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Through a document analysis of key policies from these countries, this research unveils the intricate ways cultural strategies are employed to articulate and disseminate national, ethical and political ideologies. The article articulates how each country’s approach […]
  • Fear of Expansion and Domination: Toxic and Ethnic Frames Amidst Call to #SayNoToRUGA on Nigerian Twittersphere
    by Umar Olansile Ajetunmobi
    Media Watch, Volume 15, Issue 2, Page 246-266, May 2024. Nigerians have, over the years, lived with mutual distrust, often escalated by ethnoreligious sentiments and sectional profiling. Government policies, for example, are at times seen through the lens of the ethnic background or sectional affiliation of the president at any given time. This study examined the kinds of frames Nigerian X (formerly Twitter) users adopted during the #SayNoToRUGA movement on X. It also investigated how the digital movement predicted the polarisation of Nigerians across ethnic and sectional divides. Through a summative content analysis of 145 purposively selected tweets of #SayNoToRUGA […]
  • Editorial
    by Uma Shankar Pandey
    Media Watch, Volume 15, Issue 2, Page 139-142, May 2024.
  • Is it Time to ‘Send in the Clowns’? What Happens to the ‘Rest of the News’ in Social Media during Extreme Crises
    by Theodora A. Maniou
    Media Watch, Volume 15, Issue 2, Page 143-159, May 2024. Based on a qualitative analysis of news posts on traditional media Facebook pages, this work seeks to explore the way(s) in which established news organisations in the United Kingdom use their social media accounts in times of extreme crisis. Specifically, we seek to assess what (other) types of news are publicised through social media beyond those related to the crisis itself. Findings show that well-respected international news organisations choose to post news items that aim to (a) distract from a bleak reality, (b) suggest ways to cope with new challenges […]
  • An Investigation of Factors Influencing Attitudes Towards Online and Offline Games with the Moderator Effects of Gender in Iran
    by Davoud Monfared
    Media Watch, Volume 15, Issue 2, Page 183-216, May 2024. Due to the escalating popularity of video games, the industry’s annual income rose to $197 billion in 2022. To promote video games, it is imperative to possess adequate insights into the attitudes and emotions of adolescent gamers. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing video game engagement in Iran by utilising quantitative data obtained from 205 students participating in video gaming activities in Mashhad. The results proved that playing online and offline games at home, hand in hand with the participants’ interest in play, has a positive impact on […]
  • There are no Such ‘Bad Women’: Reading Text and Politics of ‘Conscious or Intended Pleasure’
    by Deepika
    Media Watch, Volume 15, Issue 2, Page 217-245, May 2024. Television serials are widely acclaimed as the most entertaining genre in India. Focusing on the characters’ family lives in different settings gave the female audience a more profound and engaging experience. However, watching women in specific roles is not seen as a reflection of everyday reality by the female audience in the Anand Nagar slum in India but rather as un-existing characteristics or traits. However, such characters are actively watched and argumentatively recalled as ‘bad women’. Watching female characters in negative roles triggered the respondents’ emotional imbalance and negative feelings, […]
  • Recognising the Virtual and Real Causality of ‘Spiral-of-Silence’: Mapping the Silence in Echoes of Women Healthcare for Rural Bengal in India
    by Sabyasachi Bhattacharjee
    Media Watch, Volume 15, Issue 2, Page 160-182, May 2024. This study advances the acquaintance of the spiral of silence theory by evaluating the impact of new media on virtual behaviour motivation. It explores rural women’s willingness to express opinions on awkward issues like unwanted pregnancies and abortion in online and offline settings. It examines how the ideology submitted by the spiral of silence theory works in each location. Results of a survey among 198 samples suggest a possible correlation between speaking out online and the chance of expressing themselves in an authentic offline setting, and vice versa. Findings imply […]
  • Hegemonic Femininity: Negotiating the Stereotypes of Gender in the Indian Movies Fire (1996) and Shakuntala Devi (2020)
    by Shaista Irshad
    Media Watch, Ahead of Print. Bollywood, or the mainstream Indian Cinema, has been presenting the idealised image of male characters as machismo or super-hero, revered and emulated by all, while simultaneously demoting women to trivial or insignificant roles. However, during the last two decades, celluloid developed new experiments projecting its female characters as redefining and reconstructing the stereotypes redundantly dominating the silver screen. In this article, I propose to explore femininity through the lens of hegemony in opposition to the emphasised femininity of Connell and alignment with Mimi Schippers and Carrie Paechter’s understanding of hegemonic femininity by looking at its […]