Thesis (MPhil (Document Design))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study focused on the image formation and projection of Helen Zille, leader of South Africa’s largest opposition party. South Africans are heading to voting stations in 2009 for the national and provincial election. For this reason the image a party portrays in all the methods it uses to attract voters needs to be perfect. Such methods include voting-posters, public debates and newsletters. This study focuses on the newsletters that Helen Zille writes every week and takes the form of a corpus analises. The study also shows the importance of the documentation from the leader of any institution. Such reasons include that the leader is the most identifiable person thereof. This study was undertaken within the framework of the Integrated Communication Model for Image formation and projection (IFP-model) developed by Professor Leon de Stadler. The model consists of three levels, namely the image, the information design and the document design. Each of these levels focuses on specific phases of image formation and projection. Image focuses on the intended (the desired image the institution want to construe) and the construed (the image the reader derives from the documentation) image. The information design involves the manner in which the reader accesses the text. There are three ways, which are the physical access (that which the reader sees first), the intellectual access (the way in which the information is interpreted) and the emotional access (how the reader feels about the content). The document design focuses on the four messages which appear in the text. They are the referential (the content), the appealing (the objectives), the expressive (the image of the sender) and the relational (the relationship between the reader and the sender) messages. This study focuses on the expressive and relational messages. Other questions mentioned in this study are whether the IFP-model kan be used as an analytical instrument and if this model kan be refined to place more emphasis on the expressive and relational messages. After the expressive and relational messages where identified, various tendencies where noticed in the content, style, structure and graphics thereof. These tendencies include a positive focus in the content, an informal style, high information density and the use of photographs as graphics. These tendencies where used to refine the IFP-model. The analises of the newsletters indicated that Helen Zille portrayed an image of a self-assured leader, but that this image was influenced by tendencies such as a negative focus on the ANC. Further findings showed that the IFPmodel can be used as an analytical instrument, but that more emphasis should be placed on refining the model so that it includes various aspects of the different levels, such as the different ways a reader gains access in the information design. This study also introduced a refined model which can be used to analyze the expressive and relation messages.

This thesis examines the political public relations campaign of the Democratic Alliance in the 2009 elections in order to explain the party’s performance in these elections. The research is premised on John Petrocik’s (1996) issue ownership theory. A number of quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted to provide answers to the main research questions. These involved: the party’s 286 media releases; party leader Helen Zille’s 2009 campaign speeches; and Zille’s Facebook platform. Results revealed that although the DA demonstrated extreme political resilience amidst fierce challenges in the 2009 elections, the party primarily campaigned on an anti-ANC ticket and a fair amount of negative advertising against the governing party to win itself votes. Not only did the party fail to “associate” itself with real issues affecting South African voters—especially the poor Black African majority which constitutes the largest voting bloc—it failed to pronounce itself clearly on other issues. Instead, the party attached itself to a multitude of shared issues, often “trespassing” on issues of common concern not necessarily “owned” by any one political party. This study also deduced that while Facebook facilitated public opinion on the DA in the 2009 elections, it still could not be regarded as a genuine public sphere in the South African context. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

This thesis examines the political public relations campaign of the Democratic Alliance in the 2009 elections in order to explain the party’s performance in these elections. The research is premised on John Petrocik’s (1996) issue ownership theory. A number of quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted to provide answers to the main research questions. These involved: the party’s 286 media releases; party leader Helen Zille’s 2009 campaign speeches; and Zille’s Facebook platform. Results revealed that although the DA demonstrated extreme political resilience amidst fierce challenges in the 2009 elections, the party primarily campaigned on an anti-ANC ticket and a fair amount of negative advertising against the governing party to win itself votes. Not only did the party fail to “associate” itself with real issues affecting South African voters—especially the poor Black African majority which constitutes the largest voting bloc—it failed to pronounce itself clearly on other issues. Instead, the party attached itself to a multitude of shared issues, often “trespassing” on issues of common concern not necessarily “owned” by any one political party. This study also deduced that while Facebook facilitated public opinion on the DA in the 2009 elections, it still could not be regarded as a genuine public sphere in the South African context. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

Global research shows that media owners tend to influence the editorial direction of their newspapers. Such influence generally tends to be in line with the media owner’s economic and / or political interests. Naturally, this is a challenge because media is regarded as the fourth estate and is supposed to be an objective yet effective channel for the citizenry to make informed decisions about their world. The study seeks to find out if the owners of four daily newspapers in South Africa, based on their political proximity; may have influenced their newspapers to be biased in favour or against any of the three biggest political parties contesting the 2016 Local Government Elections. This study is an exploratory and descriptive content analysis based on an Agenda Setting theoretic framework – supported by framing analysis and game framing. Findings reveal the correlation between the media owner’s interests and the biased reporting within their respective newspaper. This suggests that although media may not be directly or explicitly forced to adopt a specific ideology, it can be argued that political relations with media owners can influence editorial decisions. Therefore, it can be inferred that media owners of The New Age, The Citizen and The Star influenced editorial content of their newspapers during the 2016 local government elections. Given the findings of this study and the elections scheduled for 2019 in South Africa, it is important for more political communication studies to be conducted in order to establish guidelines for unbiased news reporting across all media – including newspapers. Alternatively, to compel media owners to declare their bias towards and against specific political parties in each news content, upfront. Particularly important during election period, is the need for each media (including newspapers) to have an independent editor – potentially one from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to ensure that each piece of content produced is validated as bias or impartial. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)