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The diploma thesis called "Domestication of Television News: Everyday Social Use of Television News in the Contemporary Family Environment" deals with the question of how and why are the evening news used in the family environment. It approaches this topic from the perspective of auditorial approach of cultural studies, takes for granted the existence of autonomous active audience. It informs about the key studies of social use of media, e.g. the typology of social use or role of gender in the attitude to media, and it deals with the question of relation of children and media. Further part of work is devoted to the news, its characteristics and the possible social use of this format by specific members of the family.These concepts are consequently used as tools for the research itself. The research of social use of the evenenig news is carried out with the help of qualitative grounded theory. In the empirical part the author arrives to the following conclusions: the main motivation for watching news is informative use, though at the same time it is used as a coulisse to other activities, most often bathing children and preparing or eating dinner. The most widespreaded type of watching news might be described as "monitoring", when television news viewing is secondary to some other primary activity....

The aim of my study was to explore and describe the possible effects of family rituals as an asset during the process through which children give meaning to their experiences. I undertook an empirical study of limited extent. My study was qualitative by nature and conducted from the interpretivist paradigm. I used an instrumental case study as research design and employed educational psychological assessment, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, reflective journals by the participants and myself, visual data (photographs), observation and field notes as data collection and documentation methods. I selected two Afrikaans-speaking primary school children and their parents from a nuclear family as participants in the study. The findings of my empirical study are supported by relevant literature with regard to the main concepts guiding the study, namely family, ritual, routine and family ritual, asset, meaning giving and children. The main findings were that the five dimensions of family rituals (structure, meaning, persistence and commitment, adaptability and gender relations), as identified in existing literature, were present in the family’s rituals with the possibility of adding other dimensions to these mentioned, such as task completion, communication, roles, affective management, affective involvement and behaviour management. Furthermore I found that the family’s rituals, with some exceptions, positively impacted on the children’s giving of meaning to themselves and the family rituals. Asset-based outcomes were also evident in the meaning the children gave to their experiences following the practicing of family rituals. Lastly I found that the family’s rituals served as an asset within the family. / Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted