Noah Miller - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Mr. Miller is a Director with the Sochin Research Institute, an independent think tank based in Nairobi. He was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer with the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media & Communications from 2016 to 2018.
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Noah Miller analyses whether the impact of social media on the 2017 Kenya elections has been exag... more Noah Miller analyses whether the impact of social media on the 2017 Kenya elections has been exaggerated. This article is part of our African Elections series.
Kuwait boasts high levels of political and media freedoms compared to many countries in the Middl... more Kuwait boasts high levels of political and media freedoms compared to many countries in the Middle East, and it enjoys a vibrant social media scene. The Kuwaiti parliamentary election in February 2012 was the first election in which candidates widely utilized Twitter during their campaigns. This article presents a content analysis of tweets sent by the 50 winning members of parliament (MPs) during the campaign period. It seeks to ascertain the Twitter usage patterns of MPs and determine whether Twitter was an effective tool in gaining votes. Although Twitter was widely used among MPs, it was employed less for information sharing or communicating about political issues and more for engaging with followers. This article concludes that no relationship existed between using Twitter and gaining votes. Rather, the social media platform acted as a natural extension of off-line interactions between MPs and the electorate.
This article examines the media coverage produced by several international news organizations abo... more This article examines the media coverage produced by several international news organizations about four bombings carried out in Baghdad in the months preceding Iraq’s national election conducted in March 2010. In particular, it utilizes the propaganda model postulated by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman to analyse the construction of narratives of various government actors, and it seeks to determine the extent to which select news organizations were complicit in propagating an elite view. Iraqi and US government and military elites had a strong incentive to co-opt the media as they sought to convince, particularly the Iraqi public, that insurgent activity could not undermine the security that the Iraqi army and police forces maintained. Moreover, applying the five filters comprising the propaganda model suggests that elites positioned themselves to disseminate their narratives due, in part, to the high reliance by the media on official sources. Although the media coverage generally did not challenge various elitist views and did not provide alternative viewpoints, this article demonstrates that elites nevertheless failed to establish a homogenous consensus view. Several observations suggest that elite narratives lacked credibility because of incomplete, contradictory or false information. By revealing the inconsistencies within and between various elite narratives, the media thus fulfilled its basic functions as the fourth estate.
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree obtained from the... more Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree obtained from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Noah Miller analyses whether the impact of social media on the 2017 Kenya elections has been exag... more Noah Miller analyses whether the impact of social media on the 2017 Kenya elections has been exaggerated. This article is part of our African Elections series.
Kuwait boasts high levels of political and media freedoms compared to many countries in the Middl... more Kuwait boasts high levels of political and media freedoms compared to many countries in the Middle East, and it enjoys a vibrant social media scene. The Kuwaiti parliamentary election in February 2012 was the first election in which candidates widely utilized Twitter during their campaigns. This article presents a content analysis of tweets sent by the 50 winning members of parliament (MPs) during the campaign period. It seeks to ascertain the Twitter usage patterns of MPs and determine whether Twitter was an effective tool in gaining votes. Although Twitter was widely used among MPs, it was employed less for information sharing or communicating about political issues and more for engaging with followers. This article concludes that no relationship existed between using Twitter and gaining votes. Rather, the social media platform acted as a natural extension of off-line interactions between MPs and the electorate.
This article examines the media coverage produced by several international news organizations abo... more This article examines the media coverage produced by several international news organizations about four bombings carried out in Baghdad in the months preceding Iraq’s national election conducted in March 2010. In particular, it utilizes the propaganda model postulated by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman to analyse the construction of narratives of various government actors, and it seeks to determine the extent to which select news organizations were complicit in propagating an elite view. Iraqi and US government and military elites had a strong incentive to co-opt the media as they sought to convince, particularly the Iraqi public, that insurgent activity could not undermine the security that the Iraqi army and police forces maintained. Moreover, applying the five filters comprising the propaganda model suggests that elites positioned themselves to disseminate their narratives due, in part, to the high reliance by the media on official sources. Although the media coverage generally did not challenge various elitist views and did not provide alternative viewpoints, this article demonstrates that elites nevertheless failed to establish a homogenous consensus view. Several observations suggest that elite narratives lacked credibility because of incomplete, contradictory or false information. By revealing the inconsistencies within and between various elite narratives, the media thus fulfilled its basic functions as the fourth estate.
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree obtained from the... more Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree obtained from the London School of Economics and Political Science.