Thesis (M.Com.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Business and Economic Sciences, 2017 / With an increase in competition in the political sector, there is a paradigm shift as parties revert to branding to influence voters’ political party brand preference. Political marketing is one of the most important aspects of developing industry which affects institutions, people and the involvement of successful candidates in the modern generation of politics. Therefore, it is of interest to examine how political party branding can enhance brand preference of the voters. Although several studies have explored political marketing and factors influencing university students’ intention to vote using various mediums, few studies have explored distinctive cues as a holistic concept in investigating the effect on youth of brand image and brand preference. More precisely, few studies have explored this topic in a political context among the youth in South Africa. This research purpose is to determine whether political party branding influences voting brand preference among the youth in South Africa, through the means of the proposed conceptual model, brand identity, positive word of mouth and brand authenticity as the predictors, brand image as the mediating variable, and brand preference as the outcome variable. The current study undertakes a quantitative approach, where 379 questionnaires were received from the respondents, (University of the Witwatersrand students), to explore the influence of political party branding on voting brand preference among the youth in South Africa. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling and Amos 23.0. Findings support all five proposed hypotheses. Hence indicating that brand identity, positive word of mouth and brand authenticity, influences brand image and brand preference. The contribution of this study is to provide general information to guide political parties or politics in South Africa in developing marketing / branding strategies based on the concept of brand preference. These contributions will help different types of political parties in having the knowledge of the critical role of brand preference and its implementation in the political marketing context. Theoretically, it is positioned in political marketing and adds to empirical literature that focuses on political branding, branding and voters’ preference in political parties. Lastly, by examining the predictors’ variables and their influence on brand image and brand preference, the findings provide political parties with a better understanding of branding strategies that can be implemented to influence voters’ preference before, during and after a campaign through comprehensive political branding. / XL2018

M.A. (Communication Studies) / This dissertation will concentrate on the manner in which the signification system of popular culture in advertising texts operate within the context of changing South African or post apartheid society. Social and political changes have taken place virtually overnight and it is therefore not surprising that the effects of these transformations have not yet filtered through to all layers of society. Furthermore, such quick changes cannot take place without causing at least some ripples of dissent and upheaval within certain sectors of society which may include cultural groups or even business. The author will consequently examine the effect which social changes have had on the perceptions of advertisers in the marketplace and the manner in which their brands are portrayed within advertising texts. More specifically, an investigation will be undertaken into the manner in which Popular Culture, whiph is inherently South African, has been incorporated within the contents of those texts. Popular Culture, it will be argued, has moved away from being a term used by classical Marxists to describe a so-called mass culture. In fact, within the context of a postmodern society, in other words, one which is essentially multi-faceted, the . concept Popular Culture-encapsulates that which is used within the day-to-day living experience to make a statement of dissent with the mainstream. Therefore the task set by this dissertation is manifold. the first instance we will place the South African market within a historic, cultural and economic context. In other words, we will attempt to trace the life-world of the South

Thesis (M. A. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The purpose of this study was to investigate the approach to land and unemployment as main electoral themes during 2019 elections in South Africa by the ANC and EFF. A qualitative, exploratory research was conducted to determine how these issues were articulated and approached using emotional and cognitive messages in the production of political content. This was to determine the implications of their use regarding issues of emphasis and ownership by political parties on the decision of constituencies. The hubs of data collection for this study were political street posters and Facebook advertisements. This study paid particular focus on the manners in which both parties framed the subjects of land and unemployment. Thus, thematic content analysis was used to determine the themes that emerged from the Facebook advertisements while semiotic analysis was applied on the data that emanated from street posters. The selection of the posters and Facebook political advertisements was guided by the issues the researcher intended to study which reflected on the ANC and EFF political advertisements. A total of 8 posters (N=8) were selected and analysed (4 for each party) and a total of 10 Facebook advertisements (5 for each party) were used for the generation of data in this study. A semi-structured interview was also conducted. The findings revealed that there are connections among political issues, images of politicians and the decision of voters. People vote based on these connections. The study therefore recommends that areas of content production need to be improved in the production of political advertisements, and that scholars need to improve the existing literature on political communication to educate the public (voters) about the persuasive strategies of the political parties

Political advertising on television is a relatively “new” phenomenon in South African general election campaigns (circa 2008). The purpose of this study is to analyse and compare the three sampled 2009 and 2014 African National Congress (A.N.C.) political television advertisements, with a specific focus on the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric in the communication of election campaign messages. To achieve this goal, the study reviewed literature in the subject of rhetoric and post-colonial perspectives in the areas of Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism, focusing specifically on the seminal work of the Afro-centrist, Molefi Asante, and the anti-Western-centric scholar, Samin Amin. The study uses social semiotics (as both a theoretical approach and a research methodological framework). As a theoretical approach, the social semiotic approach was conceptualised by Valentin Voloshinov (1973) and Michael Halliday (1978), and it argues for the creation of social meaning within a text and within a society. The study focuses on the former, the creation of meaning within a text, that is, the content of the three sampled political advertisements. As a research framework, the approach was adapted by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen (1996). The study favours their social semiotic research method which provide the interpreter/researcher with dimensions, or “tools’, with which to explicate and deconstruct textual meanings. Thus, in this study, social semiotics as part of the broader field of discourse analysis, was used to deconstruct the latent and manifest ideologies of the non-verbal, verbal and visual rhetoric of two 2009 and one 2014 A.N.C. political television advertisements. Using this combined theoretical framework (rhetoric, social semiotics and Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism), and, research approach, it could be determined whether the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric of these three A.N.C. political television commercials represents Afrocentric and/or Eurocentric post- colonial The main findings of the study show that both the visual and verbal rhetoric of the sampled A.N.C. political television commercials represents a combination of a varying ideological constructs, namely the “nationalist”; “socialist”; “liberal feminist”; and, “liberal capitalist ideologies” (cf. Haywood 1998; Thompson 2003). Furthermore, the findings of the study point out that the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric of the selected A.N.C. political television commercials, are neither exclusively Afrocentric nor Eurocentric in nature. Both post-colonial perspectives are represented, in varying degrees, in the sampled A.N.C. commercials. The study makes a significant contribution to the political communication landscape in South Africa, in that, it is an exclusively qualitative content analysis, as opposed to previous, quantitative content-analysis studies (cf. Fourie 2008; Fourie & Froneman 2003; Fourie & Froneman 2001). It is also important to note that as far as can be determined, that this is the first study to use social semiotics, as either a theoretical framework or a research method. The key limitation of the study is that, it only focuses on three purposely sampled A.N.C. election campaign television advertisements, and does not include the political television advertisements of opposition political parties, such as the Democratic Alliance. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)