Browsing by Author "Thomas, Amos Owen"

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    Dubious trade and corporate connections: Moral imperative versus academic silence.
    (2010) Thomas, Amos Owen
    Advocacy against the dark side of trade comes to us via investigative journalism by the mainstream news media, rather than the business media. Formal research on these dubious trades is lacking and what little is done is primarily by non-government organisations {NGOs) and intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), not academic institutions. Within academia, research on the phenomenon is published primarily by researchers from the humanities and social sciences, even the physical sciences, rather than those in business and management disciplines, with the possible exception of economists who have done some amoral research on the arms trade. Utilising limited secondary data on the extent of the trade and its consequences, this paper aims to make the case for why corporations cannot ignore such matters of global socio-economic justice.
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    Franchising culture for Kazakhstan television: Producers' ambivalence and audiences' indifference.
    (Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 2010) Thomas, Amos Owen
    After decades of state-owned broadcasting as part of the Soviet Union, the arrival of commercial television in Kazakhstan meant expanded entertainment programming for the masses. Adaptation of program formats and genre from abroad provided a quick-and-dirty solution to increased channels and broadcast hours, but little has been written about the challenges to program producers or about viewer opinion. Despite Kazakhstan producers and consumers being initially curious and toleranttowards the new cultural offerings, I found neither seemed fully receptive to the commercialization of television programming but somewhat resigned to the imperative. Yet this response might only last while there is an older generation that remembers Soviet days and holds to some of its cultural values. I argue that creation and reception of such commercial television programs may provide yet another site of cultural contestation in the post-Soviet age between a globalized Western, regional Russified, and a nationalistic Kazakhstan one. Thus my paper explores the hybridization of quasi-national culture in search of audiences. I conclude from my research that Kazakhstan’s commercial television needs to reserve space for the authentic expression of the multi-cultural nature of this society.
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    Tentative transition to market communications: Early television advertising in Kazakhstan.
    (Scientific Journals International, 2012) Thomas, Amos Owen
    While there has been considerable growth of commercial media such as in local, national and regional television in Kazakhstan, the reality is still one of oligopolistic competition with much political intervention. Utilising personal interviews with and secondary data from ad agencies, market research firms and mediaowners, this paper maps the early history and development of television and advertising industries in this Central Asian state. This research suggests that the tentative practice of advertising in this transitional economy resembles that of developing countries rather than emulation of the developed models upheld. Yet its challenges with account handling, media buying and creative services in Kazakhstan might hold lessons for other newcomers to the capitalist production system in its region. The author argues further that its practitioners and policy-makers could learn from the historic experience of developing, emergent and transitional economies worldwide.