Following the global 'capitalisation' of public institutions, academic institutions have embarked continuously on a drive towards 'marketisation' and commodification of their services. Tertiary institutions are utilising aggressive marketing strategies and media campaigns to attract students. This study examines the advertising campaign embarked on by the University of Natal in 1998/ 1999. This is a first stage of a two-tier marketing strategy, and it involves brand-building the University. This research assesses the University of Natal's advertising campaign both on radio and in print, it analyses the campaign from creative conceptualisation to media exposure, while giving a brief background to advertising and commodification trends among tertiary institutions in South Africa. Eric Michaels' (1990) proposal of a circular message transmission model called 'hermeneutic circle' (12-28) of a teleported text serves as the theoretical backdrop for the assessment of lhe conceptualisation process to the media exposure of the campaign. A semiotic analysis of the University of Natal's advertising campaign is also given and located within a particular context in the 'henneneutic circle'. Various focus group discussions were conducted : one comprising mainly white students from Pinetown Girls High School in Standard Nine; the second, mainly Indian students in their matric year at Queensburgh High School. The others comprised of black students from Ferndale Secondary School, Phoenix, but who reside in KwaMashu, and also black students from Amangwane High School in Bergeville, near Ladysmith. One on one interviews were also conducted with high school students. Most of these students were in Standard Nine with some completing their matric year. These discussions were conducted separately to avoid any kind of intimidation and domination of the discussions by students from the private schools who are more fluent in the command of the English language. The other group comprised of an alumnus, a parent, four students - two local and two international, and two staff members of the University. Their comments provide information in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign as well as the evaluation of the campaign concepts and contents in correlation with the cultural contexts of the target groups. The group discussions also provide insight into the reception and perception of the campaign. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

This study synthesises three conceptual areas-identity, fictional television programmes and memory to examine what young people remember about their fictional television viewing and how it impacts their identity. Memory is used as a window through which long-lasting identity influencers can be analysed; this takes the analysis beyond the level of 'effects' to a more contextualised view. Focus group research and a quantitative overview work to uncover which fictional programmes stand out in young people's memory and why. Research further interrogates what events, characters or story lines young people recall and why these elements are important. The answers to these two research questions crystallises the ways in which South African youths' memories of fictional programmes impact their identity formation. The hypothesis that young South Africans remember that which directly affirms or contradicts their lived experience, is found to be partially true. Similarly, the second hypothesis that fictional memories of South African 15- to 20-year-olds impact youth identity through a direct link between memory selection, interaction and application is found to be fractionally substantiated. The final conclusion of the study is that while memories of fictional programmes do impact the identity of young people, it must be viewed within the larger context of lived experience. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This treatise employs comparative analysis to examine the content of television main news bulletins as broadcast on SABC 1 in the Nguni group of languages and on SABC 3 in English. Specific emphasis is placed on the extent of uniformity in news construction and presentation techniques applied across news bulletins in the two channels. This research was conceived in the light of endeavours which began in 1994 to transform the corporation into public service broadcasting; given its history of manipulation of its activities more especially in the news departments, by previous governments. From racial divides to language groupings as core requisites for channel divisions; this treatise saw the policy shift as providing a unique window in a moment of transition in public broadcasting in relation to rapid social and political change. Empirical data in the form of recorded news bulletins was collected between 13 July and 13 August 1998. The findings did not reveal any substantial differences in the news construction techniques that are applied on both SABC 1 and SABC 3 news bulletins. The project is organised into five sections. Section one is a brief historical overview of the SABC 's channel division structure from 1992 to 1998. This section also outlines the changes that have taken place during the past year at Television News due to the impact of the SABC 's public mandate to transform from state to public broadcaster. Section two carries a definition of television news. In this section a body of media theories and models are reviewed and their relevance to the present treatise is highlighted. Section three talks about the methodology and research employed. These included daily recordings of news bulletins on SABC 1 and SABC over a period of one month , as well as both telephonic and personal interviews with role players at the SABC. Section four contains an analysis of the recorded data. This data is tallied with the SABC' s policy documentation. Section five concludes the study. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.

All over the world - except underdeveloped countries - many religious congregations worship in 'electronic churches'. This represents one of the 20th century's great religious achievements. Societies have become the comfortable beneficiaries of their newly invented technologies. However, since 1995 the phenomenon of FM community radio has been growing rapidly. It has become a new way to meet the public service communication need for entertainment, education and information in a very professional way. Religious community radio stations are a new and growing mode of transmission, and the object of this research is to highlight the development and growth of the religious community radio as a better way of providing communication services to religious groups. All churches and religious groups take it for granted that mass media have a role in the erosion of religious values. Yet they also proclaim that mass media provide the only means to reach out behind atomic individuals' closed doors, communicating intimately with the millions souls in that universe. My research uses the example of a South African community radio station, Radio Khwezi at Kwasizabantu Mission, to show (i) how a religious group has managed to create a viable non-denominational community service; and (ii) that regulatory and operational problems can be overcome in a suitable environment of regulation. I conclude that there is no need for mainstream religious groups to feel threatened by electronic media, that the mass media are an extension of the good tidings of the kingdom of the Lord. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.

This study is concerned with the potential of a community radio station under the ownership of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in being a facilitator and social actor of community-based development. XK fm is a radio station run by members of the !Xun and Khwe (two ethnic San communities), but owned and governed by the SABC. It was established to preserve and protect the cultures, languages and histories of the two communities as well acting as a facilitating and promoter of development. The focus of this research is on the examination of the station‘s day-to-day development programmes, the processes involved in operation, production and transmission of these programmes and the outcomes of these processes in the reception of the programmes among the two communities. As a means of critically analyzing the multi-layered aspects of operations within the radio station and the listening habits of its audiences as a whole, this study is situated within a Circuit of Culture (du Gay et al, 1997) framework of theory. It is also based on a case study approach of methodology that utilizes ethnographic methods of data collection from semi-structured and in-depths interviews to passive and participant observations that have been recorded on video. Based on the principles of both forms of development radio broadcasting, this study concludes that XK fm has been successful in utilizing indigenous knowledge and culture to produce radio programming that is sensitive to the development needs of the !Xun and Khwe communities. It has created awareness of development issues through both its cultural programmes and it informational programmes, and through the SABC has been enabled to be productively sustainable, technically advanced and participatory in nature. However, the SABC‘s control over the station does limit the two communities‘ ownership of the station and participation in policy construction, thus constraining the station in more effectively acting as a community radio station. It suggests that XK fm cannot act alone as the sole facilitator of development and needs other mechanisms to enhance participation and effective dialectical information exchange such as radio listening clubs. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The present study investigates how television advertising represents work in South Africa. It uses the 1998 Employment Equity Act as an index of analysis. Using the contructionist approach to media representations and a re-examination of George Gerbner's cultivation hypothesis as its point of departure the study examines fifty-four television advertisements that were randomly selected over a four week period SABC 1, 2 and 3, and e.tv. Overall the study points out that images of work that are portrayed by television adverting in South Africa tend to marginalise certain demographic groups in certain types of occupational categories and work roles. However, it hesitates to apply ideals of the 1998 Employment Equity Act on this observation to conclude that advertising representations discriminate against the respective demographic groups in the occupational categories and work roles. The study justifies this hesitation in two ways. Firstly, it raises theoretical problems that would arise if one applied ideals of the 1996 Employment Equity Act wholesale on advertising representations of work. Secondly, it points out important weaknesses of quantitative content analysis which incapacitates it from grasping subtle tendencies which may help give a more comprehensive picture of advertising representations. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1994.

Society ‘obscures itself’ by presenting a world that is self-contained and logical (Barthes, 1973) – a world underpinned by a transparency of its underlying systems of meaning. This formulation maps the theoretical location of the dissertation, by which an investigation into tourism, as an economic and political expression of contemporary culture, occurs. More specifically, the dissertation addresses the type of tourism that bisects narratives of history and of cultures – that popularly described under the label of cultural tourism. Thus it employs an array of critical tourism and cultural theory, to offer an exposition on how best to understand the articulation of meaning in the consumption of ‘place’, formations of heritage and Otherness. The study also explores the epistemological nature/agendas of the so-called ‘Image of Africa’ and the ‘Absolute Other’, and how these are recycled in the parameters of modernity. Using a genealogical approach to studying discursive formations articulating some kind of Zulu Otherness, the dissertation grounds these conventions of identity predominantly in the symbolic practice of a colonial Western society. This exposes the arbitrary, constructed nature by which contemporary society governs itself. Methodologically, the research applies participant observation and semiotic analyses, predominantly in the cultural/filmic village of Shakaland, near Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, to explore how the constructions of identity manifest and are negotiated and consumed in the activity of this tourism. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2011.

There is consensus in the development communication field about community participation being a holistic approach required to address social development challenges. Participatory development, also known as another development, is considered invaluable in the social change process. While participatory principles have enjoyed increasing influence over the work of development organisations, there is still confusion as to what participation really is and how it must be applied as an approach to social change. As a result, development in (marginalized) communities has remained what I would call a Sisyphean task despite tremendous funding and effort that is being put towards development. This study is motivated by three factors relating to the practical and theoretical issues characterising participation. First is the acknowledged lack of a consistent definition as well as inconsistencies characterising the application of participation. The second factor is the contention that participation has remained under theorised and the third is what can be arguably conceived as the influence of stakeholder theory on development communication discourse. The focus of this study is how a theory commonly used in the strategic communication field, the stakeholder theory, applies to deliberate development communication efforts, particularly how the theory sheds light on the concept of participation. It introduces and examines the relevance of Edward Freeman‘s (1984) stakeholder theory in defining and applying participation in social change initiatives. Three development agents namely OneVoice South Africa (OVSA), The Valley Trust (TVT) and Drama for Aids Education (DramAidE) are used as a case study of the concept of participation. The study begins with a critical exploration of the complex participatory communication for social change narrative discussing key ontological and epistemological assumptions as well as a pastiche of approaches often reified as participation. It goes on to present a comprehensive review of the stakeholder theory and its critique, followed by an exploration of how the three development agents develop, implement and manage their respective participatory programmes. It concludes by applying stakeholder theory to the analysis of these programmes to determine whether the theory can be conceived as an accurate descriptive tool of the participation process and if its normative tenets are valid to the process. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The thesis begins with a literature review on the political economy of communication, paying particular attention to the impact of globalisation on the communications sector. It highlights conflictual relationships between commercialisation and democratisation in transforming broadcasting and telecommunications in an era of globalisation. In doing this the study contends that the process of democratisation and commercialisation are 'mutually incompatible', as one can only be realised at the expense of the other. Namibia gained its independence in 1990 and set out to transform and restructure its communication systems to respond to the demands of a new society. At the same time the country had to address the demands of an emerging global order. While trying to democratise and build a new nation based on the values of equity, social justice and participation, Namibia had to respond to commercial imperatives of global capitalism that were not necessarily compatible with the demands of democratisation and nationbuilding. The thesis argues that these conflicting demands resulted in challenges and contradictions experienced in the entire transformation process of the communications sector, which the State failed to overcome. The thesis examines the policy, legal and regulatory practices adopted by the State to transform the communications sector and assess the internal and external factors that led to the adoption of these practices. It illuminates the roles and responsibilities of this sector in the broader transitional process. In Chapters Six and Seven the thesis examines the restructuring processes of NBC and Telecom Namibia, at a micro level. This analysis pays particular attention to the manner in which these two institutions were streamlined (downsized and rightsized) in order to become effective, efficient and profitable in discharging their new mandate. It argues that the streamlining process prevented these institutions from properly performing some of their core mandates, particularly the provision of non-profitable public services. The thesis also interrogates the penetration of the new Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in Namibian society in Chapter Eight. It argues that while government adopted most of the relevant policies to establish an enabling environment for the transformation of the country into an 'information society', the penetration of the ICTs remained dismal. This elucidates the factors that led to this poor penetration. In conclusion the thesis provides a summary of the major findings and arguments. It contends that the neo-liberal policies of commercialisation and liberalisation adopted to transform the communications sector coupled with the restructuring of the national broadcaster and telecommunications operator along commercial lines tended to diminish rather than advance the goal of universal and affordable communications services to the majority of the people. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.