Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the text-linguistic and genre-analytic properties of Sesotho magazine texts on society issues. In particular, the model of text construction postulated by Grabe and Kaplan (1996) is employed as general theoretical framework for the research on Sesotho magazine texts. The writing properties of effective texts dealing with the theme of society issues will be analysed, taking into account the ethnography of writing, i.e. the influence of socio-cultural beliefs and views on writing in Sesotho. The study will present an extensive invesitgation of the genre approach to writing in the context of language teaching. The rationale of the genre approach and its advantages for teaching writing are reviewed. The text-linguistic and genre-analytic properties of texts need to be incorporated in methodology for teaching writing at secondary school. The study presents an extensive analysis of the Sesotho magazine texts as regard properties such as information structuring (topic-comment, theme-theme), coherence relations, cohesion and lexical choices as a reflection of communicative purposes. The linguistic devices in Seotho that characterise these properties are examined extensively. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die tekslinguistiese en genre-analitiese kenmerke van Sesotho tydskrifartikel tekste oor sosiale vraagstukke. Die model van tekskonstruksie, soos gepostuleer deur Grabe en Kaplan (1996), word gebruik as algemene teoretiese raamwerk vir die ondersoek van Sesotho tydskrifartikels. Die skryf-kenmerke van effektiewe tekste wat verband hou met die tema van gemeenskapsvraagstukke, salontleed word met inagneming van die etnografie van skryf, d.i. die invloed van sosio-kulturele sieninge op geskrewe tekste in Sesotho. Die studie sal 'n uitgebreide ondersoek bied van die genre-benadering tot geskrewe tekste in die konteks van skryfonderrig. Die rasionaal van die genre-benadering en die voordele daarvan vir skryfonderrig word beskou. Die tekslinguistiese en genre-analitiese kenmerke van tekste moet ingesluit word in 'n metodologie vir skryfonderrig in sekondêre skool. Die studie bied 'n uitgebreide analise van die Sesotho tydskrifartikels t.o.v. eienskappe soos informasiestrukturering, koherensie, kohesie en leksikale keuses as 'n refleksie van kommunikatiewe doelstellings. Die linguistiese elemente in Sesotho wat hierdie kenmerke realiseer word ekstensief ondersoek.

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A dissertation submitted to the School of Literature, Language and Media, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by dissertation. 14 March 2016 / The aim of this research is to investigate practitioner perspectives and assumptions about the role media plays in communication strategies that aim to change the behaviour of an individual. It assesses whether these assumptions are consistent with the way the media is actually used in the campaigns of three organisations, and then asks whether there is any correlation between the apparent effectiveness of the campaign and the assumptions of media effect held by practitioners. The purpose is to gain better insight, from a media practitioner’s perspective, into how communication practitioners working on public campaigns understand the impact of the media. Three case studies are analysed, focusing on the use of print, broadcast and the internet to communicate the key messages in the campaigns. The case studies are of highly visible national organizations, each using the media in a particular way, with varying results. The first case study is of SANRAL's E-tag campaign, a campaign which has struggled to achieve widespread public support for e-tolls in Gauteng; the second, Play4Life, is a campaign launched by loveLife, which has in the past been controversial in its use of mass media, and the last, PhuzaWize, is campaign run by Soul City, generally credited with having an evidence-based and strategic approach to its communication strategies. The research found that the communication strategies used in the campaigns are in line with the compliance gaining, the two-step and multi-step, and with communication for social change models, respectively. Practitioners interviewed for this study however showed slightly differing views on the impact of media. Some seemed to understand the mass media through theoretical prisms described in Hovland’s “magic keys” (of attention, compliance and acceptance), whilst others argued that the messaging must change internal psychological makeup of the audience – as described in De Fleur’s psychodynamic model. Whilst one practitioner was an advocate of educational-entertainment and communication for social development approaches, others made repeated references to the power of inter-personal interactions, which are most in line with Lazarsfeld’s two-step and multi-step models. / MT2017

This research addresses the question of whether individuals or groups induce deeper message processing of persuasive messages. An interaction between group entitativity and whether the group is an ingroup or an outgroup is predicted, where ingroups low on entitativity and outgroups high on entitativity are expected to induce deeper message processing. Entitativity measures the extent an aggregate of people is seen as a group (D. T. Campbell, 1958). Previous research shows contradictory results. S. G. Harkins and R. E. Petty (1987) have shown that high entitativity causes more message focus than low entitativity. R. J. Rydell and A. R. McConnell (2005) have shown that low entitativity causes more message focus than high entitativity. Hypotheses were not supported by the data. Post hoc analyses suggest that motivation to process persons and messages was greatest in the high entitativity ingroup condition. Predictions were revised by adding motivation as a variable. / by Karoly I. Balazs. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

Purpose: The field of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) intervention research is in need of treatment response measures that are sensitive to change and flexible enough to be used across studies. The Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC) was developed to address this need. The purpose of this work is to examine the initial reliability and validity of the BOSCC in two samples of children with ASD. Method: In a sample of 56 children participating in ongoing early intervention, the primary objectives of Study 1 were to 1) determine items for inclusion in the BOSCC coding scheme, 2) explore the relationships among items using factor analysis, 3) assess inter-rater and test-retest reliability, and 4) explore change over time. Using a sample of school-age, minimally-verbal children, the primary objectives of Study 2 were to extend the results of Study 1 to a new sample to 1) assess BOSCC changes over time, 2) compare changes in BOSCC to clinician determinations of improvement, 3) examine the relationship between change in BOSCC scores with changes in baseline cognitive skills, adaptive functioning, and ASD severity, and 4) compare changes in BOSCC scores in children who did and did not change on other standard measures. Results: Study 1 revealed that the BOSCC has high to excellent inter-rater and test-retest reliability and shows convergent validity with measures of language and communication skills. The BOSCC Core total demonstrated statistically significant amounts of change over time while the ADOS Calibrated Severity Score over the same period did not. Results of Study 2 confirmed excellent inter-rater reliability but the BOSCC did not change significantly over time. Most children were identified by clinicians as improving in response to treatment. However, only 15% of children changed significantly on the BOSCC over 16 weeks of intervention. Limitations: Both studies had small samples of predominantly male, Caucasian children. When interpreting the results of these studies, it is important to consider the differences between samples, including the shorter time of treatment and more cognitively and language impaired children in Study 2. Conclusions: These studies are a first step in the development of a novel outcome measure for social-communication behaviors with applications to clinical trials and longitudinal studies. Future work should continue to explore the benefits and limitations of the BOSCC in larger independent samples.

This study deals with the issue of comnunication barriers between white social work students and black and chicano clients, which represent the largest minority group in the United States.

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