Teenage childbearing is a global social and health concern. South Africa is not spared from the problems of teenage pregnancy be they related to health or to the social sphere. Researchers have been entreated to investigate teenagers’ sexual behaviour and the determinants to their behaviour especially in light of HIV/AIDS and other sexually related diseases. Various programmes and interventions have been developed and implemented in an effort to manage prevalence rates and address the challenges of teenage pregnancy. Inspite of these concerted efforts, pregnancy rates continue to increase. These efforts have been hampered by the absence of the voice of teenagers in research as interventions implemented do not adequately capture the complexity of teenage pregnancy. Research has also divorced teenagers from the environment within which teenage pregnancy takes place and as a result come up with interventions that are not pro teenagers. The absence of teenagers’ input in these interventions results in little uptake of interventions as teenagers feel no ownership or entitlement to these intervention. This study therefore seeks to bridge the gap by addressing teenage pregnancy from the perspective of teenagers themselves and locates teenage pregnancy within the lived experiences of teenagers. Guided by the Social Ecology Model and The Health Belief Model, this study seeks to analyse teenagers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards teenage pregnancy. This study is qualitative in nature and is situated within the interpretive paradigm that enables the researcher to explore people’s lived experiences. Using the case study approach, the study employs focus group discussions to elicit information from participants on their knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards teenage pregnancy. The study concludes that knowledge; attitudes and perceptions are influenced and affected by various factors such as peer pressure, lack of adequate information and gender dynamics. To address teenage pregnancy challenges, there is a need for addressing the structural factors that influence teenagers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceptions. Knowledge on safe sex and contraception abounds though this knowledge does not to translate to positive health affirming behaviour. This gap is attributed to the structural factors that influence and affect health behaviour. As such these factors, such as entrenched poverty and lack of proper sexual health communication need to be addressed if teenage pregnancy is to be managed.

Media promoting cultural tourism is argued to present specific romantic cultural attributes. In the case of Zulu cultural villages, the image offered is of militarism and bare-breasted maidens. The Western gaze offers the template within which such spectacle is constructed. PheZulu Safari Park is one such venture in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands that offers tourists a "uniquely African experience". Cell phones are rapidly proving to be a viable and accessible medium through which individuals can represent themselves. This dissertation evaluates the use of camera-enabled cell phones by Zulu cultural village performers. The subject-generated representation is analysed in order to assess the performers‘ view of the typical Zulu representation in the media, using a participatory video and participatory communication for development framework. A qualitative methodology was used to conduct focus groups, with field notes and unstructured interviews adding depth to the data. Thematic analysis was applied to the collected data, which included the cellphilms produced by the cultural performers. It was found that video enabled cell phones are indeed a viable technology to use in place of traditional digital video cameras in a participatory video project. The cellphilms that the participants produced negated the typical western media disseminated representation of Zulu culture, as is typified in the participants‘ performance at PheZulu Cultural Village. Although the cellphilms were not specifically targeted at promoting their cultural performance at PheZulu, significantly, it was not dismissing their performance‘s validity either. Instead, the participants used the cellphilms to express other, more personal, aspects of their culture. / M.Soc.Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes are important in the promotion of intellectual development and school readiness in children. Equally important is the opportunity to learn in one‟s mother tongue. This study aimed to determine the value of using the multilingual television series Takalani Sesame as a Life Skills educational resource in specific South African schools, amongst Grade One learners. The focus lay on researching a possible mechanism for allowing children who had not attended quality ECD programmes to „catch up‟ in terms of knowledge they may be lacking, as well as providing a form of mother tongue instruction to African learners in schools where the language of instruction is English. A field experiment and a reception study were carried out at a primary school in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Two groups of twelve Grade One learners (from two different Grade One classes at the same school) were included in this research, which spanned a period of 6 months. The children in the test group watched a television series of Takalani Sesame (with guided viewing) and completed related activities including post viewing and homework activities. The children in the control group were not shown the series at school. Both groups were administered the same questionnaire both pre- and post-test in order to determine changes in Life Skills related learnt data. Other research methods included participant observation, focus group discussions, interviews with parents/caregivers and interviews with educators. These used Social Cognitive Theory as their basis, taking constructs that impact on behaviour change, such as modelling, outcome expectancies and behavioural capabilities into account. The research included a large focus on interpersonal communication between researcher and learner, and caregiver and learner, plus a concentration on the children‟s knowledge of and attitudes surrounding HIV/AIDS. Results showed satisfactory levels of attention to the series, as well as high levels of engagement with and enjoyment of the series. Levels of identification with characters were also noted to be high, increasing the possibilities of learning and behaviour change taking place. Decoding of messages was, for the most part, in line with the intentions of the producers, although oppositional readings, erroneous and creative decoding were also noted in some instances. The guided viewing component did well to increase levels of attention to the episode as well as allow for erroneously decoded messages to be corrected almost immediately. Positive changes in learnt data in the Life Skills areas of HIV/AIDS, Nutrition and Safety and Security were identified and these were noted to be impacted on by the homework activities which were included in the intervention to promote parent/caregiver-child communication. The research intervention was deemed to be a success in the selected school, and could possibly be recommended for use in similar South African primary schools where learners are taught in a language which is not their mother tongue. Possible areas for future related research were outlined. This research study contributes to the body of Entertainment Education (EE) research by identifying a new and valuable application for an EE intervention in the South African setting. This highlights the important aspects of localisation, in the South African context, promoting mother tongue learning and ECD. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

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<p dir="ltr">Behavior-change theories reliably explain behavior, but they often lack messaging recommendations to modify behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) could benefit from clear, replicable messaging strategies to target its constructs of attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) about a behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Habit Theory is commonly used for behavior-change interventions because it offers both behavior-change explanations and messaging (Orbell & Verplanken, 2020). Its habit strength measure has been used repeatedly to add explanatory power to the TPB model, and this study tests whether its messaging strategies can effectively pair with the TPB to affect PBC and instigate behavior change (Bamberg et al., 2003; Bayer & Campbell, 2012).</p><p dir="ltr">To test these strategies in the context of problematic smartphone use among college students, focus groups were conducted to select a target habit and to refine the messaging strategy and channel for a habit-focused intervention. These findings were used to create and conduct an intervention with a sorority at Purdue University, and a pre-test, post-test, delayed post-test survey design was used to analyze the effectiveness of the intervention. The intervention had positive effects on participants’ attitudes and intentions toward implementing the habit and to reduce smartphone use, improved their habit strength, and increased the number of times they put their smartphones out of sight while studying or doing homework. Additionally, the sticker cues given away during the intervention increased the effects of the intervention for those who affixed them to at least one of their devices. However, the intervention did not affect PBC or time spent on a smartphone. These findings emphasize the importance of continued research into how messaging strategies affect behavior and the constructs within the TPB.</p>

Die Posterausstellung des Lehr- und Praxisprojekts von Studierenden des Bachelorstudienganges Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft anlässlich der 61. Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Publizistik gibt in Kooperation mit dem Universitätsarchiv Leipzig Einblicke in die wechselvolle Geschichte des Instituts für Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft der Universität Leipzig im 100. Jahr seiner Gründung.

The end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 brought with it the task of redressing past discriminatory practices. The Employment Equity Act (No. 55 Of 1998) passed in 1998 stipulated that designated employers implement affirmative action in order to provide equal employment opportunities to all including the previously disadvantaged or designated groups who are primarily blacks, the disabled and women (Charlton and Niekerk, 1994:. xxii). Affirmative action is not something to be done for political expediency and fear of legislation alone. Shifting markets and consumer needs require demographic representation at all levels in the organization. Addressing the incredible shortage of available skills, compounded by the tendency not to grant equal employment to designated groups who already have skills, suggests the need for demographic considerations in terms of long-term employment needs. Bringing human resources up to world-class standards will mean addressing the deficiencies that have emanated from the apartheid system. This study focuses on the relationship between gender, equality and the concept of affirmative action. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of South African male broadcasters towards affirmative action especially where the policy is targeted towards women. Male broadcasters at SABC KwaZulu-Natal are used as case studies. South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) not only embraces affirmative action but also reports on it. Previous studies on affirmative action in media institutions tend to focus on women and thus this study uses men as case studies to make this area of research more complete. South African men are not a homogenous category. There are class, racial, religious, language, urban/rural, cultural and age lines of division among them (Nzimande and Sikhosana, 1996: 82). This being the case, the study investigates the different perceptions held by South African male broadcasters of different races concerning gender-based affirmative action. Issues discussed in this study include: • Understanding of the concept affirmative action • Need for the implementation of affirmative action • Perceptions ofmen towards work Men and power in organizations • Perceptions towards management • Perceptions towards female broadcasters • Perceived factors that hinder women from upward mobility • Possibilities for informal discrimination Studies on affirmative action have more frequently than not been examined in the context of feminist theories, for example, Susan Manhando's study (1994), 'Towards affirmative action: Issues of race, gender and equality at the SABC: Case studies of Natal women broadcasters' and Farhana Goga's (2000) 'Towards affirmative action issues of race and gender in media organizations: A study on South African media organizations,' to cite but two examples. This study moves beyond this rubric to include both patriarchy and masculinity theories as part of the theoretical framework upon which data analysis is interpreted and discussed. I see the findings of this research as the basis for further investigation into perceptions of South Africans from different races towards affirmative action policy. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

This phenomenological study discusses the problem of whether the agents or actors who design strategies take full account of the concepts that their plans are designed to change. Therefore, I critically assess DramAidE's methodology in order to show how efficient it is in the light of Freirean pedagogy. In that, the study investigates whether there is an analytically bulletproof communication form that necessarily achieves behaviour change, as has occasionally been attributed to Freire. The theoretical framework of this study includes development communication theories along with the Entertainment-Education approach (EE) used in health communication. More specifically, the study is informed by Freirean critical pedagogy and behaviour change theories. On the other hand, the Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977), the Fixation of Belief Model (Peirce, 1877) and the concepts of intimate and social realms (Arendt, 1958) are also used to explain the realities observed in DramAidE's programmes. The methodologies used, in addition to the literature review, consisted of semistructured in-depth interviews along with focus group discussions with DramAidE's staff, schoolchildren, teachers and caregivers. Among the results established by this study, it is worth mentioning the growing interest displayed by beneficiaries towards DramAidE's programmes. Life-skills claimed by learners included aspects such as self-confidence, assertiveness, decision making skills, informed sexuality, and improved communication. However, serious discrepancies were noticed between these life-skills, how well they were mastered and how effectively the learners put them into practice. Reasons for that proved to be rooted chiefly in peer pressures and cultural stumbling blocks, for example gender inequality and violence against females. This means that peer educators needed a more supportive environment to extend DramAidE's action. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.