A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Media Studies, 2017 / On the 12th of February 2015, in an unprecedented move, members of the media in South Africa (SA) protested in Parliament and chanted “bring back the signal”, waving their smartphones in the air after discovering that a signal jamming device had been activated to disrupt cell phone signals in the National Assembly. Their protest denied President Jacob Zuma the opportunity to deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA) until the signal and connection to the internet had been restored. It was the first time in the History of democratic SA the SONA was disrupted. The presence as well as the rapid spread and use of new media technologies in the SA mediascape has led scholars like Yu-Shan Wu to question the nature of their use and impact on government policy decisions. This study contributes to such work as well as long standing debates about the role of new media technologies in advancing democratic ideals in emerging democracies and the internet’s role as a public sphere. It does this by using a case study research method focusing on SONA 2015 to evaluate whether the South African digital space constitutes a digital public sphere. This paper concludes that indeed the South African digital space does constitute a form of digital public sphere. This sphere is largely operated and structured by news media organisations that use their websites, social media and various online platforms to engender it. / XL2018

This thesis seeks to investigate the role that blogs play in contemporary South African journalism through examining six blogs in the South African blogosphere and their content choices. This thesis draws on four key theoretical frameworks around which the research questions have been formulated: New Media and Journalism, Journalistic Blogging, Audiences and the Public Sphere. There are three key research questions: 1. What is the role played by blogging in contemporary South African journalism? 2. To what extent has the blogosphere become a Public Sphere? 3. How have blogs influenced/changed/impacted on the style and content of South African journalism? The qualitative data collected through blog observation, interviews with blog owner/ editors and concluded focus group discussions with blog readers, is designed to help reveal the role blogs and bloggers play in contemporary South African journalism, and through discussions with the audience and monitoring conversations online, help explore the possibilities of a public sphere. The conclusion of this thesis is that blogs do play a role in contemporary South African journalism and can serve as an effective public sphere. Defining what it means to be a journalist and recognising the differences between blogger and journalist is an issue that needs to be effectively understood before a conclusive agreement is to be reached in the blogger/journalist debate. However, for now the relationship between South African news agents and South African bloggers is promising. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, Dept. of International Communication, 2008. / Bibliography: p. 348-366. / Introduction -- Globalisation and network society -- Digital television -- Communication policy and development of Thai TV -- Research design -- Results : DTV: Thailand at the crossroads -- Results: National DTV policy and trends -- Results: Thai TV stations in technological transition (part 1) -- Results: Thai TV stations in technological transition (part 2) -- Discussion and conclusion. / The evolution of television and broadcasting technology from analogue to digital brings about changes in the global television industry. This technological transition is related to a political push which is highly concerned with national public interest in relation to socio-economic forces. Thailand's TV industry has also adopted and used digital television (DTV) technologies since the late 1990s in its TV production and broadcasting. The Thai government broadcasting regulators are expected to play a key role in launching and issuing national DTV policy. However, they seem to be involved in a conflict of interest which has negatively impacted Thailand's DTV transition. --This study selects Thailand's TV industry as a case study of a developing country in response to global technological transition. The thesis aims to explore major drives influencing Thai broadcasting in the shift from analogue to digital. It provides recommendations vis-à-vis the establishment of national DTV policy, and the current use of DTV technologies by Thai TV stations. The research project was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand, between October 2006 and October 2007, after the September coup in 2006. Two research methodologies employed in the study are (1) in-depth interviews with 26 experts (TV station administrators and mass communication scholars), and (2) observations of the nine TV stations. --Theoretical concepts in globalisation of communication echnologies and communication policy are reviewed. The research reveals two major pushes significantly forcing Thailand's TV industry into a newly administrative sphere. These are: (1) global push, and (2) domestic push; both are extensively addressed in this thesis. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xv, 366 p. ill. (some col.)

This qualitative research study explores the relationship between reducing uncertainty and assigning source credibility in the context of social media sites (SMS) and examines the effect of uncertainty reduction within the social media environment on the development of relationships between journalists and their sources. For this study, interviews were conducted with professional journalists to determine whether uncertainty was reduced and credibility was established with sources via SMS (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and what theoretical strategies journalists used to reduce their uncertainty. The study also aims to determine if correlations exist between a reporter's age, beat, and/or personal adoption of SMS and the reporter's usage of SMS for source development. The interviews were conducted with 15 journalists of The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Florida), using a standardized interview protocol. Subjects were asked to voluntarily participate in a face-to-face interview with the researcher. Reporters were selected based upon their gender and cultural ethnicity, which was representative of the newsroom demographics of The Palm Beach Post at that time. This research aims to contribute to the uncertainty reduction theory in the realm of computer-mediated communications, specifically with regard to the use of SMS in forming and maintaining journalist-source relationships. / by Michelle D. Brown. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

This study explored how social media are setting the agenda of the traditional media and re-defining the role of the journalists. Content analysis was done to analyse the coverage of Jacob Zuma stories in newspapers and on Facebook, from the 1st of February until the 30th of June 2018.The sample for the study was drawn from three local newspapers, the Citizen, the Sowetan, the NewAge (AfroVoice), as well as the Facebook page called #Zumamustfall. This was done to determine if newspapers which are traditional media were being influenced by social media in what stories to report on. Results from the study showed that social media are influential in building an agenda for the traditional media and in particular, with the Zuma story. In the same vein, it emerged that traditional and social media set the agenda for each other. Based on these findings the research recommends that other social media sites including Twitter be used in similar research to determine their effects on agenda setting of traditional media (newspapers). / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)

New media technology continues to provide journalists with sophisticated tools that are changing news processing and gathering. Economics journalists in particular have grasped the possibilities offered by new media technologies. Thus, this paper offers a theoretical and practical look at how new media technologies have impacted the production and processing of economics news in South Africa, with a particular focus on Fin24.com which is South Africa's biggest online economics news publication. Using qualitative research methods and the case-study approach, this thesis documents the impact of new media technologies on the production of economics news. It draws on Witschge and Nygren's (2009) framework which describes how new media technologies change the nature in which news is produced and processed. New media technologies in this study will refer to the Internet, particularly search engines like Google, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, Blogs as well as mobile telephony. Economics journalism will here refer to all coverage of economics and business-related news. This is because the case study (Fin24.com) covers both business and economics journalism by strict definition. Findings reveal that these new media technologies have not only changed economics newsgathering and processing but also journalistic routines. The findings generally show that new media technologies make it easier for economics journalists to produce the news quickly and efficiently. Indeed, the most distinguishing characteristic of new media is its overall speed, which is both challenging and attractive. The findings also reveal that new media technologies within a newsroom can be problematic in a number of ways, mainly raising issues of accuracy and credibility thus challenging the profession of economics journalism more than ever.