This study sought to investigate the practices of citizen journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project. The objectives of the research were to explore the evolving practices of citizen journalism in Grahamstown and to extrapolate how citizen journalists are securing a discursive space in relationship to conventional journalism. The study investigated whether the citizen journalists based at Grocotts Mail and Radio Grahamstown are developing practices and patterns that can be distinguished from the practices of conventional journalism. It also evaluated whether the content that is produced by citizen journalists differs from the content that is produced by professional journalists, so that it can be understood as "alternative" and as promoting engaged citizenship. A sub goal was also to explore whether citizen journalism does enable the practice of citizenship through expanding the public sphere. The findings of the research are that in the Iindaba Ziyafika project, citizen journalists see news as a process and not as a series of news events. This is clear departure from event-based news conceptualisation associated with mainstream journalism. They view news as unfolding social processes, allowing citizen journalists to question the factors which would have precipitated the event and investigate the causal factors of particular phenomena. The research also reveals that citizen journalists in the project are engaging in pro-am journalism. Part of the practice of citizen journalists involves a very significant amount of collaboration between professional journalists and citizen journalists. The collaboration is in the production of content and in the presentation of radio broadcasts. Part of the findings of the study are that journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project work in different mediums and this calls for them to acquire the competencies of the different mediums. The same citizen journalists produce content for print, radio and for online media. The diction used in the stories published by citizen journalists is couched in struggle and revolutionary language which seems to pit the community against the authorities. The citizen journalists also make use of every daily language in their radio broadcasts and borrow from their cultural expression. This they do through populist methods. The citizen journalists have also integrated communication brokering as part and parcel of their practice. This is because the citizen journalists have also made it their mandate to enable the flow of information between the residents and the local authority. In terms of sourcing there is a deliberate stance to include those who are not ordinarily given a voice in the mainstream media. Women and the poor appear frequently in stories as sources and this is a different scenario from that prevalent in mainstream journalism which frequently covers the rich and the powerful. The citizen journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project have also borrowed practices from professional journalism and this has been integrated into their daily practice. This includes following strategic rituals of journalism objectivity and balance.

This study investigates Grocott’s Mail’s rape reporting through a participatory action research process. It draws on feminist cultural studies, sociology of news, and normative theories of the media to inform the research project. The participatory action research process explored three areas with the journalists at Grocott’s Mail: their understanding of the community they serve and their own professional identity as a community of practice, roles of the media in society which inform reporting, and rape as a social issue and problem. Through this process the study found that the pervasiveness of rape in the Grahamstown community, the complexities around rape reporting which include the significant legal challenges, the personal impact rape cases have on journalists, and the journalistic roles and approaches employed in rape reporting all influence how the paper covers rape. In analysing these matters the study found that the primary factor inhibiting a successful strategy for managing rape reporting was that Grocott’s Mail does not place gender-based violence on their news agenda as an issue requiring attention in order to develop the community they serve.

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa / The collections-based research reported upon in this dissertation focuses on three sites in the Eastern Cape: Huntley Street in Grahamstown, Farmerfield, a nearby Wesleyan mission station, and Fort Double Drift, a British fortification on the Great Fish River. The collection, which is housed in the Albany Museum, derives from Patrice Jeppson’s excavations, completed in the 1980s. Analyses of the excavated glass and metal, augmented by a close reading of tender and shopkeepers’ advertisements in The Graham’s Town Journal, chronicle how merchants, settlers, soldiers, missionaries and local African communities were involved in, and affected by, trade between 1820 and 1860. The study explores aspects of the mercantile economy, consumerism and military provisioning relating to a wide range of imported glass and metal merchandise. The burgeoning trade linked various enterprises, groups and individuals through monetary and social transactions, reflecting the steady incorporation of the Eastern Cape into the British colonial trading network. / Die versamelingsgebaseerde navorsing waaroor in hierdie verhandeling verslag gedoen word, fokus op drie terreine in die Oos-Kaap: Huntley-straat in Grahamstad, Farmerfield, ’n nabygeleë Wesleyaanse sendingstasie, en Fort Dubbeldrif ’n Britse vesting aan die Groot-Visrivier. Die versameling, wat in die Albany-museum gehuisves word, is afkomstig van Patrice Jeppson se opgrawings, wat in die 1980's voltooi is. Ontledings van die opgegraafde glas en metaal, aangevul deur ’n grondige studie van tender- en winkelieradvertensies in The Graham’s Town Journal, boekstaaf hoe handelaars, setlaars, soldate, sendelinge en plaaslike Afrika-gemeenskappe by handel tussen 1820 en 1860 betrokke was, en daardeur beïnvloed is. Die studie verken aspekte van die handelsekonomie, verbruikerisme en militêre bevoorrading met betrekking tot ’n wye verskeidenheid ingevoerde glas- en metaalhandelsware. Die bloeiende handel het verskeie ondernemings, groepe en individue deur monetêre en sosiale transaksies met mekaar verbind, wat die geleidelike opname van die Oos-Kaap in die Britse koloniale handelsnetwerk weerspieël. / Uphando lwezinto eziqokelelweyo ekunikwe ingxelo ngalo kule disetheyishini, lugxile kwiindawo ezintathu eziseMpuma Koloni ezizezi: eHuntley Street eRhini, eFarmerfield, esisitishi seMishini yamaWesile, naseFort Double Drift, eyinqaba yamaBhilitane ekwiGreat Fish River. Le ngqokelela, egcinwe eAlbany Museum, isuka kwizinto ezazigrunjwe nguPatrice Jeppson, grunjo olo olwagqitywa phaya koo1980. Uphononongo lweeglasi neentsimbi ezagronjwayo, oluxhaswa nakukufundwa kweentengiso ezakhutshwayo zeethenda nezoonovenkile kwi-The Graham’s Town Journal, lunika iinkcukacha zeendlela abarhwebi, abemi ababesuka kwamanye amazwe aphesheya kweelwandle, abefundisi ababesuka kwamanye amazwe, amajoni noluntu olumnyama lwaloo mimandla ababebandakanyeka ngayo nebabechatshazelwa ngayo lurhwebo olwaqhubeka phakathi ko-1820 no-1860. Olu phando luvelela imiba yoqoqosho lorhwebo, ukhuselo lwabathengi, nobonelelo lwezinto zomkhosi lwezinto eziliqela zeeglasi nezentsimbi. Olu rhwebo olwaluhlumile lwahlanganisa amashishini ahlukileyo, amaqela kunye nabantu nje abazimeleyo ngokuthi barhwebelane ngeemali nangezinto zentlalo, yaye oku kubonisa ukungeniswa kweMpuma Koloni kuthungelwano lorhwebo lobukoloniya lwamaBhilitane. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Archaeology)