The research was aimed at addressing the challenge of evaluating a large scale change intervention in a large organisation and in a complex environment. Finding robust, meaningful yet realistic methodologies from among the array of possible approaches, methods and techniques has proved problematic, for both organisational practitioners and academics alike. The research explored this issue of choice from the perspective of ¿fit for purpose¿ and suggests a multi-faceted approach, using a range of evaluation methods and techniques, which were applied to an ongoing example at the BBC. It was also planned to use structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques to examine the relationships between variables critical to the study. The approach described represents a ¿pilot¿ evaluation exercise, which drew on data collected from early cohorts going through the BBC Leadership Programme, a key element of the ¿Making it Happen¿ change strategy initiated by the then Director General, Mr. Greg Dyke. As a second level of research, an evaluation of the primary evaluation itself, i.e. of the BBC Leadership Programme, was also undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the primary evaluation strategy and its implementation. Three hypotheses were examined in terms of programme impact: It was proposed that participation in the programme would bring about collective improvements in individual leadership behaviour (Ho1), leading to improved departmental performance across the business (Ho2), in turn, resulting in improved organisational performance (Ho3). Due to limitations in the application of the methodology it was not possible to use SEM analyses on the data collected. Alternative analyses failed to demonstrate conclusive support for all three hypotheses and, while other factors besides programme attendance appear to influence leadership performance the afore-mentioned limitations restrict the ability to draw firm conclusions. Following evaluation of the primary evaluation it was evident that, as a pilot exercise, important outcomes from the programme evaluation give rise to ¿lessons learned¿ and changes are suggested for any future evaluation exercise of this kind.

The research was aimed at addressing the challenge of evaluating a large scale change intervention in a large organisation and in a complex environment. Finding robust, meaningful yet realistic methodologies from among the array of possible approaches, methods and techniques has proved problematic, for both organisational practitioners and academics alike. The research explored this issue of choice from the perspective of 'fit for purpose' and suggests a multi-faceted approach, using a range of evaluation methods and techniques, which were applied to an ongoing example at the BBC. It was also planned to use structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques to examine the relationships between variables critical to the study. The approach described represents a 'pilot' evaluation exercise, which drew on data collected from early cohorts going through the BBC Leadership Programme, a key element of the 'Making it Happen' change strategy initiated by the then Director General, Mr. Greg Dyke. As a second level of research, an evaluation of the primary evaluation itself, i.e. of the BBC Leadership Programme, was also undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the primary evaluation strategy and its implementation. Three hypotheses were examined in terms of programme impact: It was proposed that participation in the programme would bring about collective improvements in individual leadership behaviour (Ho1), leading to improved departmental performance across the business (Ho2), in turn, resulting in improved organisational performance (Ho3). Due to limitations in the application of the methodology it was not possible to use SEM analyses on the data collected. Alternative analyses failed to demonstrate conclusive support for all three hypotheses and, while other factors besides programme attendance appear to influence leadership performance the afore-mentioned limitations restrict the ability to draw firm conclusions. Following evaluation of the primary evaluation it was evident that, as a pilot exercise, important outcomes from the programme evaluation give rise to 'lessons learned' and changes are suggested for any future evaluation exercise of this kind.

This dissertation interrogates the representation of SiSwati programming (a minority language) on SABC 1 It critically analyses the statutory provisions in place for language parity and utilises hegemony as the theoretical framework for understanding the concept of language parity in the South African broadcasting landscape. To the researcher’s knowledge, there is limited information pertaining to this particular research topic however, most of the previous literature refers to all eleven official languages and not SiSwati specifically. Hegemony, a strand of critical theory as developed by Antonio Gramsci, will serve as the theoretical base of this study. This study falls within the framework of qualitative research. An extensive literature study of various sources and a content analysis of the relevant legislative documents form the basis of the research. SABC TV is positioned in a highly competitive, multi-channel market environment with powerful social, political and economic forces to contend with, this makes it difficult for SABC TV to fulfil its mandate of treating all eleven official languages equitably, hence languages such as SiSwati are underrepresented on national television. This study is seminal and relevant insofar as it offers a much needed insight into the plight of a marginalised language by the country’s public broadcaster. / MA (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

From the 1990s onwards the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) adopted a range of interactive multimedia activities: CD-ROM, web publishing, datacasting and interactive television. Drawing on extensive primary research, this thesis explores why the ABC pursued an interactive multimedia program under a neo-liberal rationality and how online publishing in particular has impacted on its role as a public service broadcaster. Drawing on neo-Foucauldian governmentality theory and Scott Lash’s critique of information, the thesis examines how the ABC operates as a technology of government in the transition to an informational society. While it considers the ABC as a localised, specific form of public service broadcasting, many of the findings have importance for analysis within the broader field of state intervention in media markets. It demonstrates that networked interactive multimedia are a communications strategy appropriate to the governance of a globally implicated market-state during a period of informationalisation – characterised by increased symbolic flows, spatial and temporal compression, decontextualised and disorderly relations of information. Public service media will transition this period, characterised by rapid social change and institutional upheaval, where they can incorporate and exploit the informational relations that threaten to diminish their utility as governmental assemblage. It finds that while ABC executives used technological change to adapt to the enterprise focus of neo-liberal government, the corporation was simultaneously transformed by disorganisational influences pursuing an ethics of internetworking. Contrary to Lash’s ideal schema of institutional decline, disorganisation – embodied in the ad hoc, program-maker led push for internet access and publishing – can become a force for organisational renewal. This is observable in the development of ABC Online, a public access web service. The conclusion drawn from ABC Online’s emergence is that the era of digitalisation exposes the ABC as a mutable object, a flexible strategy of national communications governance. It is not exclusively tied to a technical system, such as radio or television, or a practice such as broadcasting. Interactive multimedia such as ABC Online may help the ABC to readdress its contradictory political rationale – the call to represent a coherent national identity in the face of infinite lived diversity – and play a new role in connecting and engaging its users.This thesis re-examines that role in light of Lash’s observations about the nature of informational power. It explores at length the response to a new self-governing, performative subject, the user of interactive multimedia technology. The user, unlike the audience, is visible, often vocal and social. She negotiates both the space of a multimedia object and dialogic interactions within that space. Her exemplary expertise may rival that of the ABC’s program-makers. This analysis indicates that in response to informational phenomena, the ABC has reconceived its space of government, its pedagogy and its production of citizenship in order to remain an effective expression of governmentality. An online ABC may act as a mediatory, contextualising strategy that helps users negotiate the construction and function of difference. It may also be altered by user knowledge. These relations are possible, although preliminary in this research, while the ABC remains wedded to the more disciplinary relations of broadcasting. The implication is that a digitally networked ABC should not be a self-enclosed institution. It is part of an informational network: a multi-sector innovation system. It should not be divorced from its public or the market except in its ethics of exchange. It is a technology that through its technocultural relations socialises, is shaped by and melds with its sometimes unruly user/citizens. It influences, is influenced by and is part of a volatile mediascape. The ABC is organisation and disorganisation, the rigidity of the one generating the other and then being reincorporated, in a cycle of institutional and industrial change.

From the 1990s onwards the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) adopted a range of interactive multimedia activities: CD-ROM, web publishing, datacasting and interactive television. Drawing on extensive primary research, this thesis explores why the ABC pursued an interactive multimedia program under a neo-liberal rationality and how online publishing in particular has impacted on its role as a public service broadcaster. Drawing on neo-Foucauldian governmentality theory and Scott Lash’s critique of information, the thesis examines how the ABC operates as a technology of government in the transition to an informational society. While it considers the ABC as a localised, specific form of public service broadcasting, many of the findings have importance for analysis within the broader field of state intervention in media markets. It demonstrates that networked interactive multimedia are a communications strategy appropriate to the governance of a globally implicated market-state during a period of informationalisation – characterised by increased symbolic flows, spatial and temporal compression, decontextualised and disorderly relations of information. Public service media will transition this period, characterised by rapid social change and institutional upheaval, where they can incorporate and exploit the informational relations that threaten to diminish their utility as governmental assemblage. It finds that while ABC executives used technological change to adapt to the enterprise focus of neo-liberal government, the corporation was simultaneously transformed by disorganisational influences pursuing an ethics of internetworking. Contrary to Lash’s ideal schema of institutional decline, disorganisation – embodied in the ad hoc, program-maker led push for internet access and publishing – can become a force for organisational renewal. This is observable in the development of ABC Online, a public access web service. The conclusion drawn from ABC Online’s emergence is that the era of digitalisation exposes the ABC as a mutable object, a flexible strategy of national communications governance. It is not exclusively tied to a technical system, such as radio or television, or a practice such as broadcasting. Interactive multimedia such as ABC Online may help the ABC to readdress its contradictory political rationale – the call to represent a coherent national identity in the face of infinite lived diversity – and play a new role in connecting and engaging its users.This thesis re-examines that role in light of Lash’s observations about the nature of informational power. It explores at length the response to a new self-governing, performative subject, the user of interactive multimedia technology. The user, unlike the audience, is visible, often vocal and social. She negotiates both the space of a multimedia object and dialogic interactions within that space. Her exemplary expertise may rival that of the ABC’s program-makers. This analysis indicates that in response to informational phenomena, the ABC has reconceived its space of government, its pedagogy and its production of citizenship in order to remain an effective expression of governmentality. An online ABC may act as a mediatory, contextualising strategy that helps users negotiate the construction and function of difference. It may also be altered by user knowledge. These relations are possible, although preliminary in this research, while the ABC remains wedded to the more disciplinary relations of broadcasting. The implication is that a digitally networked ABC should not be a self-enclosed institution. It is part of an informational network: a multi-sector innovation system. It should not be divorced from its public or the market except in its ethics of exchange. It is a technology that through its technocultural relations socialises, is shaped by and melds with its sometimes unruly user/citizens. It influences, is influenced by and is part of a volatile mediascape. The ABC is organisation and disorganisation, the rigidity of the one generating the other and then being reincorporated, in a cycle of institutional and industrial change.

The integration of social media records into enterprise content management systems is crucial to organisations as it enables them to have access to these records if they are required for evidential purposes. However, despite social media content being considered as official records in state-owned enterprises, they are often left unmanaged. The purpose of this study was to investigate the integration of social media content into the enterprise content management system at the South African Broadcast Corporation Limpopo provincial office in South Africa. The study utilised quantitative data collected through questionnaires distributed to SABC employees and employees at three radio stations in the Limpopo provincial office (Munghanalonene FM, Thobela FM and Phalaphala FM). The key results suggest that there were no policies or guidelines on the management of digital records that emanated from social media. It was discovered that the SABC’s Limpopo provincial office opened official accounts with various social media platforms such as SNSs, online content communities and podcasts to use for official matters; yet content generated through these platforms is neither managed nor preserved. It has been established that the responsibility of managing social media content is unconsciously assigned to the creators of the content as no official records management responsibilities were assigned. It is recommended that digital records emanating from the use of social media by the staff of the SABC Limpopo provincial office need to be treated and managed as official records, like all other paper-based records. In this regard, a policy for integration of social media content into enterprise content management is desirable. A further study on the development of a framework to integrate social media content into organisational records management is recommended. social media content, social media platform, enterprise content management, digital records, records, records management, online content communities, South African Broadcasting Authority. / Information Science / M.A.(Information Science)

1992 marked a turning point in Nigeria’s broadcasting history as the country formally deregulated her broadcast space. However, it was not until March 2002 that the first commercial radio station was established in Rivers State, a broadcast environment hitherto monopolised by Radio Rivers. The coming of the first independent radio station in Rivers State in March 2002 was followed by the establishment of two other stations in October 2003 and November 2003 respectively. As important as these events in broadcasting in Rivers State are, however, media scholars have argued that in most societies where such change has taken place, public service broadcasters have tampered with their values of being an open space where individuals and groups can come together to be educated, informed, and entertained. This study investigates the extent to which the proliferation of commercial broadcasting outlets has affected Radio Rivers’ public service programming and scheduling. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, through in-depth interviews and analysis of the mandate and programme schedules, the study established that while Radio Rivers still maintains some public service values, its current programming policy is driven by the need to compete with the commercial broadcasters. This is evidenced in the decrease in the programme space allocated to current affairs and educational programmes on the schedule, (the genre of public service broadcasting), and the increase in attention to advertisements and entertainment programmes, (the genre of commercial broadcasting). The study also confirms the adverse effects of dwindling financial resources as forcing public service radios to compromise on their public service values, as majority of programmes on Radio Rivers current programme schedules are now geared towards attracting advertisers rather than serving the public good and interests. However, the study proved that it is not in all cases that the entry of commercial broadcasters into Rivers State broadcast space has undermined Radio Rivers public service values. Indeed, in leading to the expansion of interactive, news, and the diversification of entertainment programmes spaces on Radio Rivers’ programming schedules, the proliferation of commercial broadcasters has yielded some positive effects on Radio Rivers public service values and contribution to the public sphere. The study further highlights the need for some policy reforms at Radio Rivers, such as the introduction of licence fees, increased government funding and loosening government’s current control over the station. In addition, there is the need for the edict establishing the station to be amended to reflect the current trends in broadcasting in Rivers State, and above all to reposition Radio Rivers to sustain public good and public interests in its programming.

This is an exploratory study conducted to assess the way in which social media could enhance the experience for audiences of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television drama. This study focused on Facebook and Twitter since they are two of the top five social media networks that are popular in the country and which have the potential to offer television more mileage in terms of communicating with its audience and extending its reach. The guiding theory for this study was uses and gratifications theory. This theory was employed to assist in assessing the opportunities that exist for SABC television drama, as well as to assess the ways in which the audience believe social media could be helpful in interacting with SABC television drama. The results for this study are interesting in that the majority of respondents believed that having a hashtag on screen during a drama broadcast would help to increase interactivity with the programme, as it could help direct audiences to the correct interactive space for that programme and they would be able to share their ideas and comments on the drama directly with the producers, making feedback immediate. It was interesting to note that the respondents believed that they could interact with SABC television drama for information relating to the story. The findings suggest that SABC television drama needs to actively adopt social media in its programmes for maximum interaction. There is also the need for an understanding of how they Facebook and Twitter could be embedded in SABC drama. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)

From the earliest days of English-language Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television (CBC-TV), the military has been regularly featured on the news, public affairs, documentary, and drama programs. Little has been done to study these programs, despite calls for more research and many decades of work on the methods for the historical analysis of television. In addressing this gap, this thesis explores: how media representations of the military on CBC-TV (commemorative, history, public affairs and news programs) changed over time; what accounted for those changes; what they revealed about CBC-TV; and what they suggested about the way the military and its relationship with CBC-TV evolved. Through a material culture analysis of 245 programs/series about the Canadian military, veterans and defence issues that aired on CBC-TV over a 40-year period, beginning with its establishment in 1952, this thesis argues that the conditions surrounding each production were affected by a variety of factors, namely: (1) technology; (2) foreign broadcasters; (3) foreign sources of news; (4) the influence of the military and its veterans; (5) audience response; (6) the role played by personalities involved in the production of CBC-TV programs; (7) policies/objectives/regulations set by the CBC, the Board of Broadcast Governors and the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (later, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission); (8) ambitions for program development and the changing objectives of departments within the CBC; (9) economic constraints at the CBC; (10) CBC-TV’s relations with the other producers of Canadian television programming, like the NFB; and, (11) broader changes to the Canadian social, economic, political and cultural scenes, along with shifts in historiography. At different times, certain of these conditions were more important than others, the unique combination of which had unpredictable results for programming. The thesis traces these changes chronologically, explaining CBC-TV’s evolution from transmitting largely uncritical and often positive programming in the early 1950s, to obsession with the horrors of war and questioning of the military’s preparedness by decade’s end, to new debate about the future of the forces and the memory of war in the 1960s, to a complex mixture of activism, criticism and praise in the 1970s and 1980s, and, finally, to controversy and iconoclasm by the 1990s.

Thesis (M. A. (Media Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Culture gives identity to the people, that which should run from one generation to another. In this information age, media are expected to be carriers of culture to help sustain its transmission through generations. This case study explored the role of the South African public broadcaster in sustaining African traditional culture concerning SABC 2 soap opera named Muvhango. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with a sample of 25 participants from Tshakhuma village in Vhembe District. The study hypothesised that there is a misrepresentation of reality in soap opera. However, the findings of the study prove that media representations about tradition are a true reflection of the culture impersonated. The results have shown that there is a good relationship between the media and culture, which the media as transmitters of culture are fulfilling. The findings of the study have proven sustainability of culture. However, thorough research is encouraged for content producers to have more accurate and truthful representation.