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Journal articles by Kasun Ubayasiri
This article focuses on the media frames of legitimization presented by the Islamist militant gro... more This article focuses on the media frames of legitimization presented by the Islamist militant group the Islamic State (IS) in their English-language magazine Dabiq to justify their occupation and expansion in Iraq and Syria between June 2014 and July 2017. It argues that, similar to any other militant group, IS faced challenges in establishing, sustaining and projecting legitimacy of both the organization and its militant actions. Focusing on IS narrative frames of legitimacy in Dabiq, this article looks at how the group constructed frame hierarchies that built upon widely accepted higher-order meta-frames of Islamic belief and Westphalian devolution of state power, to lever support for lower-order frames that are of strategic advantage to IS. The author agues such narratives of legitimacy were vital in IS's attempt to undermine the authority of the sovereign states they occupied, and were necessary to challenge the monopoly of state violence in order to legitimize its own use of strategic violence both inside the self-proclaimed caliphate and in its expansion.
Journal of International Communication, 2019
This study examines Western media’s unwitting complicity in spreading Islamic State (IS) propagan... more This study examines Western media’s unwitting complicity in spreading Islamic State (IS) propaganda using the November 2015 Paris attacks as a case study. While numerous studies have examined IS propaganda material, less attention has been devoted to the Western media’s role in disseminating the group’s key narratives, crucial to its ability to recruit new members, intimidate opponents, and promote its legitimacy as an Islamic ‘state’. We group IS’ key messages under two broader narratives: 1) ‘formidable foe’, which characterises IS as a brutal and indomitable force; and 2) ‘clash of civilisations’, which sees the West is waging a war against Islam and Muslims. A content analysis was conducted on news coverage of the Paris attacks across four newspapers: New York Times, The Times, Daily Mail, and Le Figaro. Our findings suggest these news sources replicated IS’ propaganda directly and indirectly to varying degrees. Alarmist and sensationalist reporting as well as saturation coverage fed the ‘formidable foe’ narrative, while the media’s conflation of Islam and Islamism, Muslims and terrorists, reinforced the ‘clash of civilisations’ narrative.
Papers by Kasun Ubayasiri
Environment And Planning C: Politics And Space, Jun 8, 2023
Asia-Pacific Media Educator, 2002
Ejournalist, 2010
A number of recent books on ethics (Hirst and Patching 2005, Tanner et al, 2005, Ward, 2006) have... more A number of recent books on ethics (Hirst and Patching 2005, Tanner et al, 2005, Ward, 2006) have indicated that traditional understandings of journalism" objectivity" are in need of renovation if they are to sustain the claim as a guide to ethical action.
Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa
This non-traditional research paper explores the role of photojournalism and documentary photogra... more This non-traditional research paper explores the role of photojournalism and documentary photography in shifting the power dynamic inherent in photographing refugee migrants in Australia—the refugee as an object of photographic scrutiny. It draws on visual politics literature which argues refugees have been subjected to a particular ‘gaze’, where their migration narratives are mediated, mediatised, dissected and weaponised against them in the name of journalistic public accountability in and for the Global North. This photo-documentary praxis project subverts this ‘gaze’ of the Global North and decolonises the power dynamics of the visual politics of refugee migration by turning the lens on middle Australia. Instead of questioning refugees, this project asks what is our moral responsibility to support them? These images are drawn from three years of photographically documenting the Meanjin (Brisbane) community that rallied around and eventually triggered the release of about 120 med...
Journalism for Social Change in Asia, 2017
This chapter examines the relationship between media and corporate social responsibility by highl... more This chapter examines the relationship between media and corporate social responsibility by highlighting three journalism initiatives by major media companies, to combat human trafficking. These initiatives are varied in their approaches and demonstrate a willingness by corporate giants to invest in the targeted reporting of human rights abuses. The three media giants that inform the case studies are CNN (The Freedom Project), MTV (MTV EXIT) and The Guardian’s commitment to reporting trafficking through its modern day slavery focus. Each of the case studies has produced positive outcomes, by using journalism and storytelling in creative ways.
The Internet has atomised the media and journalists are losing their monopoly on international ne... more The Internet has atomised the media and journalists are losing their monopoly on international news. This paper analyses the Internet presence of five US proscribed
UBAYASIRI & BRADY: One temple, one bomb, and three lines of political narrative.One Temple, one B... more UBAYASIRI & BRADY: One temple, one bomb, and three lines of political narrative.One Temple, one Bomb,
The Australian Journalism Review, 2014
Review(s) of: Sri Lanka's secrets: How the Rajapaksa regime gets away with murder, by Grant, ... more Review(s) of: Sri Lanka's secrets: How the Rajapaksa regime gets away with murder, by Grant, T. (2014), Melbourne Monash University, Publishing ISBN 9781922235534; pbk; 226pp; $29.95.
The Handbook of Media and Mass Communication Theory, Mar 28, 2014
This chapter discusses the use of law and intimidation and direct censorship in relation to the p... more This chapter discusses the use of law and intimidation and direct censorship in relation to the purported strategic needs of terrorism and counter-terrorism. It explains the role of the media and the strategic efficacy of censorship in insurgent terrorism, which includes subnational and transnational actors attempting to gain political power. The chapter further explains the role of the media and the strategic efficacy of censorship in state terrorism, where terrorism is deployed to sustain and strengthen political power. The role of the media and the strategic efficacy of censorship in counter-terrorism are also analyzed. The chapter talks about the strategic relationship between insurgent terrorism and counter-terrorism where the media and the efficacy of media censorship are a strategic response against terrorism as opposed to their being a tool of terrorism, which is sometimes the case in state terrorism.
Media, War & Conflict, 2015
Australia’s World War I veterans, particularly the Anzacs of Gallipoli, are a quintessential part... more Australia’s World War I veterans, particularly the Anzacs of Gallipoli, are a quintessential part of Australia’s cultural imagining. Mythologised by the war correspondents of the time, refined and embellished by generations of politicians and myth makers and stripped of their shortcomings and human foibles through repeated renditions, the diggers of the ‘Great War’ continue to define duty and courage in contemporary Australian society. This article focuses on contemporary media coverage of two controversial wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – and how the news media tasked with recording those wars subscribed willingly to the politically charged ‘digger’ trope, which effectively served both to shield soldiers from any political fallout and to perpetuate the myth itself.
Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 2020
The sovereign states of Melanesia are countries where the yoke of colonialism and struggles for i... more The sovereign states of Melanesia are countries where the yoke of colonialism and struggles for independence are still within living memory. There are territories within Melanesia where the questions and complexities associated with achieving self-determination are very much live issues. In West Papua, this issue is one over which blood continues to be spilt. As these countries, and the communities within them, grapple with political-economic and technical shifts, the need for independent journalism is self-evident. However, journalists, editors, publishers and media owners face a barrage of challenges to their ability to operate free from repression or coercion by those who wield power in their societies. Some of these challenges are overt and can extend to threats or physical intimidation. Others are more subtle but no less pervasive and damaging. They lead to a narrowing of the media landscape, the loss of talented professionals to other areas, the rise of self-censorship, and more.
The paper provides a systematic analysis of Tamilnet's role as a primary news source in the m... more The paper provides a systematic analysis of Tamilnet's role as a primary news source in the mainstream international media. It argues the format and content of the web-based news provider has yielded results in generating wider coverage for a self confessed Eelamist narrative that may have otherwise failed to reach international media consumers.
Journal of Global Communication, 2014
This chapter starts by examining the impact of the digital disruption on post-millennium journali... more This chapter starts by examining the impact of the digital disruption on post-millennium journalism. It examines how the emergence of digital platforms have helped journalism for social change to develop. It positions this type of journalism within the broader literature on communication for social change. It explores the work of Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Friere as a theoretical framework for developing more meaningful participatory models of journalism. The chapter proposes approaches for the development of journalism on complex issues such as people smuggling, migration and human trafficking.
Twenty years of civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and predominately S... more Twenty years of civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and predominately Sinhala-Buddhist government forces has cost the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka an estimated 65,000 lives. But it was the 1998 Tiger attack on the country’s most venerated Buddhist shrine which struck the majority Sinhala-Buddhist population the hardest. The bombing of the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth Relic) resulted in unprecedented news coverage and in doing so exposed the inherent socio-political biases within the Sinhala media. Using the accepted standard that a newspaper’s front page presents the most newsworthy, alluring coverage and is the publication’s window, this paper examines the county’s three main stream Sinhala daily newspapers the Government owned Dinamina, and the independent Divayina and Lankadeepa.
This chapter outlines the way human trafficking has been reported and seeks to establish best pra... more This chapter outlines the way human trafficking has been reported and seeks to establish best practice models for reporting human trafficking. It draws on the use of ethical guidelines by key organisations experienced in combatting human trafficking and argues for a slow journalism approach to be applied in the construction of these narratives. Three best practice reporting case studies are presented that identify the in-depth analysis required to report human trafficking. These avoid recurring pitfalls in this kind of reporting which often stereotype victims, while narrowly focussing on sex trafficking, to the exclusion of diverse forms of human trafficking.
News media plays a crucial role in generating public discourse and interpreting 'reality'... more News media plays a crucial role in generating public discourse and interpreting 'reality', and within this context the role played by newspapers in interpreting and explaining complex political machinations cannot be overlooked. The process of packaging 'reality' for media consumption, invariably results in the framing of narratives that emphasise certain attributes of a media event over others. This paper analyses how US and Sri Lankan newspapers covered a number of complex political narratives, when reporting a US sponsored resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council on alleged war crimes committed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war. This paper looks at how the domestic press in the two countries favoured nationalist frames, emphasising the 'home government' in the best possible light.
This article focuses on the media frames of legitimization presented by the Islamist militant gro... more This article focuses on the media frames of legitimization presented by the Islamist militant group the Islamic State (IS) in their English-language magazine Dabiq to justify their occupation and expansion in Iraq and Syria between June 2014 and July 2017. It argues that, similar to any other militant group, IS faced challenges in establishing, sustaining and projecting legitimacy of both the organization and its militant actions. Focusing on IS narrative frames of legitimacy in Dabiq, this article looks at how the group constructed frame hierarchies that built upon widely accepted higher-order meta-frames of Islamic belief and Westphalian devolution of state power, to lever support for lower-order frames that are of strategic advantage to IS. The author agues such narratives of legitimacy were vital in IS's attempt to undermine the authority of the sovereign states they occupied, and were necessary to challenge the monopoly of state violence in order to legitimize its own use of strategic violence both inside the self-proclaimed caliphate and in its expansion.
Journal of International Communication, 2019
This study examines Western media’s unwitting complicity in spreading Islamic State (IS) propagan... more This study examines Western media’s unwitting complicity in spreading Islamic State (IS) propaganda using the November 2015 Paris attacks as a case study. While numerous studies have examined IS propaganda material, less attention has been devoted to the Western media’s role in disseminating the group’s key narratives, crucial to its ability to recruit new members, intimidate opponents, and promote its legitimacy as an Islamic ‘state’. We group IS’ key messages under two broader narratives: 1) ‘formidable foe’, which characterises IS as a brutal and indomitable force; and 2) ‘clash of civilisations’, which sees the West is waging a war against Islam and Muslims. A content analysis was conducted on news coverage of the Paris attacks across four newspapers: New York Times, The Times, Daily Mail, and Le Figaro. Our findings suggest these news sources replicated IS’ propaganda directly and indirectly to varying degrees. Alarmist and sensationalist reporting as well as saturation coverage fed the ‘formidable foe’ narrative, while the media’s conflation of Islam and Islamism, Muslims and terrorists, reinforced the ‘clash of civilisations’ narrative.
Environment And Planning C: Politics And Space, Jun 8, 2023
Asia-Pacific Media Educator, 2002
Ejournalist, 2010
A number of recent books on ethics (Hirst and Patching 2005, Tanner et al, 2005, Ward, 2006) have... more A number of recent books on ethics (Hirst and Patching 2005, Tanner et al, 2005, Ward, 2006) have indicated that traditional understandings of journalism" objectivity" are in need of renovation if they are to sustain the claim as a guide to ethical action.
Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa
This non-traditional research paper explores the role of photojournalism and documentary photogra... more This non-traditional research paper explores the role of photojournalism and documentary photography in shifting the power dynamic inherent in photographing refugee migrants in Australia—the refugee as an object of photographic scrutiny. It draws on visual politics literature which argues refugees have been subjected to a particular ‘gaze’, where their migration narratives are mediated, mediatised, dissected and weaponised against them in the name of journalistic public accountability in and for the Global North. This photo-documentary praxis project subverts this ‘gaze’ of the Global North and decolonises the power dynamics of the visual politics of refugee migration by turning the lens on middle Australia. Instead of questioning refugees, this project asks what is our moral responsibility to support them? These images are drawn from three years of photographically documenting the Meanjin (Brisbane) community that rallied around and eventually triggered the release of about 120 med...
Journalism for Social Change in Asia, 2017
This chapter examines the relationship between media and corporate social responsibility by highl... more This chapter examines the relationship between media and corporate social responsibility by highlighting three journalism initiatives by major media companies, to combat human trafficking. These initiatives are varied in their approaches and demonstrate a willingness by corporate giants to invest in the targeted reporting of human rights abuses. The three media giants that inform the case studies are CNN (The Freedom Project), MTV (MTV EXIT) and The Guardian’s commitment to reporting trafficking through its modern day slavery focus. Each of the case studies has produced positive outcomes, by using journalism and storytelling in creative ways.
The Internet has atomised the media and journalists are losing their monopoly on international ne... more The Internet has atomised the media and journalists are losing their monopoly on international news. This paper analyses the Internet presence of five US proscribed
UBAYASIRI & BRADY: One temple, one bomb, and three lines of political narrative.One Temple, one B... more UBAYASIRI & BRADY: One temple, one bomb, and three lines of political narrative.One Temple, one Bomb,
The Australian Journalism Review, 2014
Review(s) of: Sri Lanka's secrets: How the Rajapaksa regime gets away with murder, by Grant, ... more Review(s) of: Sri Lanka's secrets: How the Rajapaksa regime gets away with murder, by Grant, T. (2014), Melbourne Monash University, Publishing ISBN 9781922235534; pbk; 226pp; $29.95.
The Handbook of Media and Mass Communication Theory, Mar 28, 2014
This chapter discusses the use of law and intimidation and direct censorship in relation to the p... more This chapter discusses the use of law and intimidation and direct censorship in relation to the purported strategic needs of terrorism and counter-terrorism. It explains the role of the media and the strategic efficacy of censorship in insurgent terrorism, which includes subnational and transnational actors attempting to gain political power. The chapter further explains the role of the media and the strategic efficacy of censorship in state terrorism, where terrorism is deployed to sustain and strengthen political power. The role of the media and the strategic efficacy of censorship in counter-terrorism are also analyzed. The chapter talks about the strategic relationship between insurgent terrorism and counter-terrorism where the media and the efficacy of media censorship are a strategic response against terrorism as opposed to their being a tool of terrorism, which is sometimes the case in state terrorism.
Media, War & Conflict, 2015
Australia’s World War I veterans, particularly the Anzacs of Gallipoli, are a quintessential part... more Australia’s World War I veterans, particularly the Anzacs of Gallipoli, are a quintessential part of Australia’s cultural imagining. Mythologised by the war correspondents of the time, refined and embellished by generations of politicians and myth makers and stripped of their shortcomings and human foibles through repeated renditions, the diggers of the ‘Great War’ continue to define duty and courage in contemporary Australian society. This article focuses on contemporary media coverage of two controversial wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – and how the news media tasked with recording those wars subscribed willingly to the politically charged ‘digger’ trope, which effectively served both to shield soldiers from any political fallout and to perpetuate the myth itself.
Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 2020
The sovereign states of Melanesia are countries where the yoke of colonialism and struggles for i... more The sovereign states of Melanesia are countries where the yoke of colonialism and struggles for independence are still within living memory. There are territories within Melanesia where the questions and complexities associated with achieving self-determination are very much live issues. In West Papua, this issue is one over which blood continues to be spilt. As these countries, and the communities within them, grapple with political-economic and technical shifts, the need for independent journalism is self-evident. However, journalists, editors, publishers and media owners face a barrage of challenges to their ability to operate free from repression or coercion by those who wield power in their societies. Some of these challenges are overt and can extend to threats or physical intimidation. Others are more subtle but no less pervasive and damaging. They lead to a narrowing of the media landscape, the loss of talented professionals to other areas, the rise of self-censorship, and more.
The paper provides a systematic analysis of Tamilnet's role as a primary news source in the m... more The paper provides a systematic analysis of Tamilnet's role as a primary news source in the mainstream international media. It argues the format and content of the web-based news provider has yielded results in generating wider coverage for a self confessed Eelamist narrative that may have otherwise failed to reach international media consumers.
Journal of Global Communication, 2014
This chapter starts by examining the impact of the digital disruption on post-millennium journali... more This chapter starts by examining the impact of the digital disruption on post-millennium journalism. It examines how the emergence of digital platforms have helped journalism for social change to develop. It positions this type of journalism within the broader literature on communication for social change. It explores the work of Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Friere as a theoretical framework for developing more meaningful participatory models of journalism. The chapter proposes approaches for the development of journalism on complex issues such as people smuggling, migration and human trafficking.
Twenty years of civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and predominately S... more Twenty years of civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and predominately Sinhala-Buddhist government forces has cost the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka an estimated 65,000 lives. But it was the 1998 Tiger attack on the country’s most venerated Buddhist shrine which struck the majority Sinhala-Buddhist population the hardest. The bombing of the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth Relic) resulted in unprecedented news coverage and in doing so exposed the inherent socio-political biases within the Sinhala media. Using the accepted standard that a newspaper’s front page presents the most newsworthy, alluring coverage and is the publication’s window, this paper examines the county’s three main stream Sinhala daily newspapers the Government owned Dinamina, and the independent Divayina and Lankadeepa.
This chapter outlines the way human trafficking has been reported and seeks to establish best pra... more This chapter outlines the way human trafficking has been reported and seeks to establish best practice models for reporting human trafficking. It draws on the use of ethical guidelines by key organisations experienced in combatting human trafficking and argues for a slow journalism approach to be applied in the construction of these narratives. Three best practice reporting case studies are presented that identify the in-depth analysis required to report human trafficking. These avoid recurring pitfalls in this kind of reporting which often stereotype victims, while narrowly focussing on sex trafficking, to the exclusion of diverse forms of human trafficking.
News media plays a crucial role in generating public discourse and interpreting 'reality'... more News media plays a crucial role in generating public discourse and interpreting 'reality', and within this context the role played by newspapers in interpreting and explaining complex political machinations cannot be overlooked. The process of packaging 'reality' for media consumption, invariably results in the framing of narratives that emphasise certain attributes of a media event over others. This paper analyses how US and Sri Lankan newspapers covered a number of complex political narratives, when reporting a US sponsored resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council on alleged war crimes committed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war. This paper looks at how the domestic press in the two countries favoured nationalist frames, emphasising the 'home government' in the best possible light.
Despite spearheading a three decade long conflict with the Sri Lankan government force and for sh... more Despite spearheading a three decade long conflict with the Sri Lankan government force and for short period the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has remained an illusive figure in the island nation's northern conflict. The Tiger leader has provided few media interviews in his lifetime, and virtually non since the late 80's, at times adding fuel to the south's politically motivated rumours announcing his death. However, every year on November 27 Velupillai Prabhakaran has continued to address his 'nation', a much publicised statement which is viewed small window into the Tiger ideology. Despite its significance in providing and insight into the course of the ethnic conflict, little or no systematic research has been conducted to analyse the semiotic content of the annual speeches. In this context this paper aims to provide a detailed analysis of the annual speeches, based on the texts available through numerous pro-Tiger sourc...