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The media as a non-state actor in international relations: a case study of the New York Times' coverage of the Darfur conflict in 2004Chutel, Lynsey 02 March 2015 (has links)
The media’s role is to disseminate accurate and objective information about particular
phenomena but the media itself is rarely an objective institution. In international
relations, the media exists as a non-state actor, able to exert power through its
representation, reinforcement and the possibility to challenge the narrative of a
particular conflict or intervention. The hypothesis of this paper is that the media does
not play the role of neutral observer in a conflict. Using the New York Times’
coverage at the start of the Darfur conflict in 2004 as a case study, this paper
discusses how the newspaper reported on the conflict, exploring how the description
of the conflict, its root cause and actors involved, as created by the coverage as well
as the calls for international intervention demonstrates the role of the media as a nonstate
actor. Using discourse analysis and discussing power and representation through
language and framing, it links international relations theory with that of media theory
to show how the media is situated within discourse, where it creates and recreates
historical representation. This paper suggests that through a more nuanced description
of the Darfur conflict and subsequent intervention and more interrogation of the
accepted narrative, the media could have created a richer contribution to the existing
discourse on the Darfur conflict specifically and conflict in general.
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Striving towards ‘perfection’?: investigating the consumption of self-help media texts by black South Africans in post-apartheidRens, Simphiwe Emmanuel January 2016 (has links)
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree
Master of Arts (Media Studies)
Department of Media Studies
School of Literature, Language and Media
Faculty of Humanities
University of the Witwatersrand / This research project studies the consumption of ‘self-help’ media texts with respect to black South African audiences. The core objective of this project is to contribute to expanding debates on race, class, identity, and media consumption. Based on in-depth interviews with 10 avid self-help consumers, the paper develops an argument for the role of self-management in race and other social identities. The deployment of the qualitative methodology of a thematic discourse analysis of over seven hours of interview transcripts assists this paper in providing an account of where, when and how self-help media manifests in the lives of the chosen participants. The paper finds that participants are motivated to consume self-help media texts by a need to ‘know’ and ‘understand’ themselves and others in order for these participants to acquire what they express to be an atmosphere of inter-relational harmony. A growth of media texts forming part of a genre related to the practice of therapy in South Africa is owed to what I argue as a deep-rooted culture of ‘reconciliation’ and a preoccupation with emotions which stems from a particularly murky socio-political past still in a constant state of reparation (prevalent in discourses about reconciliation and forgiveness) in the democratic dispensation. As a key inspiration, the once-off yet pertinent process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa has noticeably inspired a genre which supplies its audience with an array of self-help, therapy-inspired media texts thriving on the practice of public confession and testimony (key principles of the TRC). This has paved the way for a culture of ‘treatment’ and ‘remedy’ becoming what this paper refers to as a ‘public affair’. Active participants on these self-help, often therapeutic, media texts on mass media platforms regularly do so at the expense of exposing deeply personal issues to ‘experts’ entrusted to assist with ‘healing’ what are deemed to be problem areas in people’s lives. Referred to by some of the interviewees as ‘brave hearts’, these participants (‘public confessors’) hold a complex position in the minds of the interviewed individuals who, ironically, express admiration and respect to the individuals who publicly testify and confess as they are a valued reference of ‘learning’ but at the same time, an expression of disappointment and shame is bestowed upon these ‘public confessors’ for allowing their argued exploitation by the media. Amidst all this, it is apparent that consumption of self-help media texts have particularly intricate influences on the patterns of self-identity as constructed by the participants of this research project. / GR2017
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Political super branding through the use of social media technology : the Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008Pillay, Nadas Ramachandra 05 December 2013 (has links)
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Technology: Fine Arts, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / This study seeks to examine the exponential growth of social media
technology as a key component in recent American political campaigning, as
well as its use and impact on the larger disciplines of marketing and
branding. Adopting the approach of a case study with the focus firmly on the
current American president, Barack Obama, the study identifies the key
media and technologies used in the build-up to the 2008 American
presidential elections in order to unpack and understand how such media
channels, technological platforms and patterns were successfully utilised.
References are also made to the concepts of ‘branding’ and ‘super branding’
in the discussion, and to the myriad ways in which social media has helped
create
and
roll-out
what
has
since
become
commonly
known
as ‘brand Obama’.
To provide a framework for the discussion and in order to further understand
the rapid growth and proliferation of social media on the political campaigning
landscape, a comparison is made with the 2004 American presidential
election campaign. This, it is posited, will assist us understand the drivers of
new media technologies especially as they are used to create and impact
positively on the growth of political super brands.
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The political use of ‘new’ media in the 2014 South African national electionMalherbe, Daniel 04 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nuwe media het ’n duidelike impak op die manier waarop moderne politieke partye
en partyleiers hulle verkiesingsveldtogte bestuur.
Hierdie studie fokus daarom op die vraag: Hoe is nuwe media tydens die 2014 Suid-
Afrikaanse nasionale verkiesing gebruik? Dit word gedoen deur konteks te gee aan
wat nuwe media behels, hoe dit in die moderne politiek gebruik word, en wat die
impak is wat nuwe media op verkiesings en verkiesingsveldtogte het. Drie
gevallestudies, die Obama-veldtog, asook die 2014 verkiesings in Indië en Brasilië,
word gebruik om spesifieke elemente oor die impak wat nuwe media op verkiesings
het, uit te wys.
Die ontleding word dan gebruik om ’n kriteria-raamwerk te skep waarteen spesifieke
Suid-Afrikaanse politieke partye se gebruik van sosiale media in die 2014 verkiesing
gemeet word, om hulle sukses al dan nie daarmee te bepaal. Die sukseskriteria maak
dit moontlik om politieke partye in ’n rangorde te plaas en punte aan hulle toe te ken.
Die punte-telling, uit ’n totaal van 50, word dan gebruik om te bepaal waarom die
partye sukses behaal het, of nie.
Nog 50 punte word toegeken op die basis van ’n subjektiewe oordeel oor
taalgebruiken aanslag asook geteikende kieserskommunikasie op nuwe media
platforms, meer spesifiek Twitter. Dit word gedoen deur insigte uit ’n studie van
relevante literatuur oor die verkiesingveldtog, Suid-Afrika se demografiese en
geografiese verskille asook om te oordeel of die partye wat in die studie bestudeer
word kommunikasie strategieë benut het om die verskillende groeperings van kiesers
te teiken.
Die studie bevind dat die spesifieke partye, gemeet teen die raamwerk vir kriteria vir
sukses, sowel as die subjektiewe opinie oor taalgebruik en aanslag in kommunikasie,
hulle sleg van hul taak gekwyt het in die 2014 nasionale verkiesing in Suid-Afrika.
Hulle het in meeste gevalle, met die DA as ’n uitsondering, nie geslaag om die nodige
digitale-platforms te vestig en om suksesvol deur die nuwe media platforms te
kommunikeer nie. Hulle het ook nie geslaag om die apatie van die Suid-Afrikaanse
jeug aan te spreek nie en daar was ’n gebrek aan geteikende en relevante
kommunikasie met spesifieke sosiale groepe. Die partye het ook nie daarin geslaag
om die kiesers wat partyloos is, of van party wil verander, ’n beter opsie te bied nie. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: New media is seen as having a big impact on the way modern political parties run
their campaigns during election periods.
This paper focuses on answering the question: How was new media used in the 2014
South African national election? It does this by creating a context regarding the
understanding of what new media is, how it is used in politics, and what impact it has
on electioneering and political campaign strategies. Three case studies, the Obama
campaign and the 2014 Indian and Brazilian elections, are used to highlight how new
media has impacted on elections.
This analysis is then framed into a set of criteria for success that is used to measure
the chosen South African political parties against, to determine whether or not they
used new media well in the 2014 South African national election. A set of criteria for
success thus makes it possible to rank and assign points to each party and from those
points determine whether that party used new media well or poorly. Each party is
given a score out of 50.
The other 50 points were awarded based on a subjective view regarding the actual use
of language and focused voter communication on new media platforms, specifically
Twitter. This was done by looking at the insights garnered from the literature
regarding electoral campaigning, South Africa’s demographic and geographic
differences and seeing if the parties analysed in this study employed communication
strategies to target these voter differences.
This study found that the parties identified, when measured against the set of criteria
for success that was created and the subjective views of the way in which the parties
communicated, did not use new media well in the 2014 South African national
election. They failed in most cases, with the DA being the exception, to build the
necessary online platforms or to communicate effectively through new media
platforms. There was also too little focus on addressing voter apathy in the youth and
there was a lack of targeted communication to specific social groups. Parties also
failed to present themselves as a viable alternative to voters who did not already
identify with a party or those who were looking for an alternative party.
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The political role of black journalists in Post-apartheid South Africa : the case of the City Press – 1994 to 2004Sesanti, Simphiwe Olicius 12 1900 (has links)
Thesis (PhD )--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated the political role of the City Press. black journalists in post-apartheid
South Africa. Taking into consideration its ownership by a white media company, the study
investigated the role played by African cultural values in the execution of their tasks with a
particular focus on the period 1994 to 2004.
The interest in the role played by African cultural values in the execution of the City Press.
black journalists. tasks, and in the issue of the newspaper.s white ownership, was driven by
an observation that historically, the trajectory of black newspapers was to a great extent
influenced by the interests and values of the owners. The issue of ownership was of interest
also because the black political elite frequently accused black journalists in South Africa of
undermining the ANC government so as to please the white owners of the newspapers they
worked for.
Also, taking into consideration that the City Press played a conscious role in the struggle
against apartheid, the study sought to investigate the role the City Press defined for its
journalists in post-apartheid South Africa, specifically in the first decade after 1994.
Three theoretical frameworks were deemed applicable in this study, namely Liberal-
Pluralism, Political Economy, and Afrocentric theories on the media.s political role in
society. The first was chosen on the basis of its theorisation on the political role of the media.
The second was chosen on the basis of its analysis of the link between the performance of the
media and ownership, although that is not the only issue Political Economy deals with. The
third was chosen on the basis of its focus on African historical and cultural issues. The study
has employed qualitative research methods, namely content analysis and interviews. It has a
quantitative aspect in that it involved the counting of the City Press. editorials, columns and
opinion pieces, as an indication of how many journalistic pieces were analysed.
The period of this study ends in 2004 in the year that the City Press was re-launched as a
¡°Distinctly African¡± newspaper. The ¡°Distinctly African¡± concept had both cultural and
political implications for the City Press. journalists. This study covers some of these aspects
in a limited way since the research period ends in the year 2004.
The research found that in post-apartheid South Africa, the City Press. black journalists.
political role was to make sure that the objectives of the anti-apartheid struggle were
achieved. It also established that the City Press. black journalists executed their tasks
independently without interference from their newspaper.s white owners. The study also
established that some of the newspaper.s black journalists experienced tensions between what
they perceived as expectations of journalism and what they perceived as the prescriptions of
African culture. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het die volgende ondersoek: die politieke rol van die City Press se swart
joernaliste in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika, die rol van Afrika-kulturele waardes in die
uitvoering van hul taak met 'n spesifieke fokus op die periode 1994 tot 2004, en die konteks
van die koerant as eiendom van 'n tradisionele wit media maatskappy.
Die belangstelling in die rol van Afrika-kulturele waardes in die uitvoering van die taak van
die City Press se swart joernaliste en die kwessie van die koerant se wit eienaarskap is gedryf
deur die waarneming dat, histories, swart koerante grotendeels beïnvloed is deur die belange
en waardes van die eienaars. Die kwessie van eienaarskap was ook van belang omdat die
politieke elite gereeld swart joernaliste beskuldig het dat hulle die ANC-regering ondermyn
om sodoende die wit eienaars van die publikasies vir wie hulle werk, tevrede te stel.
In ag geneem die feit dat die City Press 'n bewustelike rol in die struggle teen apartheid
gespeel het, het die studie ook die rol ondersoek wat die City Press vir sy joernaliste in post-apartheid
Suid-Afrika gedefinieer het, spesifiek in die eerste dekade ná 1994.
Drie teoretiese raamwerke is beskou as van belang vir hierdie studie, naamlik die Liberale-
Pluralisme, die Politieke Ekonomie en Afrosentriese teorieë oor die media se politieke rol in
die samelewing. Die studie het twee kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodologieë gebruik, by name
inhoudsanalise en onderhoude. Daar was 'n kwantitatiewe aspek deurdat die City Press se
hoofartikels, rubrieke en meningstukke getel is as 'n aanduiding van hoeveel stukke
geanaliseer is.
Die navorsing het bevind dat die City Press se swart joernaliste hul politieke rol in post-apartheid
Suid-Afrika gesien het as om onder meer seker te maak dat die doelwitte van die
vryheidstryd bereik word. Die studie het ook vasgestel dat die City Press se swart joernaliste
hul taak onafhanklik en sonder inmenging van die koerant se wit eienaars kon doen. Ook is
bevind dat sommige van die koerant se swart joernaliste spanning ervaar tussen eise van die
joernalistiek en wat hulle beskou as voorskriftelikheid van Afrika-kulturele waardes.
Die tydperk van die studie eindig in 2004, die jaar waarin die City Press geloods is as 'n
"Distinctly African"-koerant. Die "Distinctly African"-konsep het beide kulturele en politieke
implikasies vir die City Press se joernaliste. Hierdie studie dek sommige van hierdie aspekte
in 'n beperkte mate aangesien die navorsingstydperk in 2004 eindig. Dit word voorgestel dat
meer navorsing gedoen word met spesifieke verwysing na die tydperk tussen 2004 en 2009,
die volgende vyf jaar van demokrasie in Suid-Afrika. In die politieke diskoers verwys die
swart politieke elite gereeld na Afrika-kultuur. Dit is nog 'n aspek wat toekomstige studies
kan ondersoek, naamlik die verhouding tussen joernalistieke waardes en praktyke aan die een
kant, en Afrika-kultuur aan die ander. / Stellenbosch University / Awqaf Foundation
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A late harvest: post '94 policy & its implications in the Hex River ValleySteyn, Lisa January 2016 (has links)
This report presents research into policy implications in the Hex River Valley in the Western Cape Province. The research aims to understand how key policy interventions introduced by the democratic national government have performed over the past 20 years in this specific geographic area. The policy examined relate specifically to of agriculture, labour, housing, land reform, black economic empowerment, and substance abuse. The findings show mixed results. Some policy has gone a long way in improving the lives of people in the valley. In other instances it has been woefully inadequate. Often, policy is simply unable to keep up with the changing landscape and the new problems that continue to develop. All the while the table grape industry at the heart of this settlement has proved to be incredibly flexible in adapting. This report consists of two sections. The first is a long-form journalistic piece presenting the research and its findings in a narrative writing style which is intended to engage the reader. The second section is the scholarly methods document sets out the academic research supporting this work. It also analyses on the manner in which the research was conducted and the reasons therefore. / GR2017
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Framing the narrative: a comparative content analysis of how South African mainstream and alternative youth media reported on the 2015 student revolutionZimbizi, Doreen January 2017 (has links)
Submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for an MA in Journalism and Media Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Witwatersrand, August 2017 / The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how alternative youth media, particularly onlinebased news sources, in covering the #FeesMustFall (#FMF) campaign 2015 students protest from October 14, 2015 to October 23, 2015, challenged news framing, while shifting traditional mainstream media’s agenda-setting role. In post-apartheid South Africa in 2015, which was dubbed “the year of the student”, the history of student politics was significant in what culminated in the hashtag #FeesMustFall campaign, challenging the representation of student protesters in the media. The unprecedented local and international alternative youth media and mainstream media coverage of the 2015 student protests—in print, online and on social media platforms—signaled the impact of the biggest student protests since 1994. The results from this qualitative research sampling online-based news platforms and interviews with journalists for their opinions on the blanket media coverage of the protests, shows a significant paradigm shift in how newsrooms re-examined what would be a silent consensus of framing and agenda-setting as was dictated by alternative youth media. / XL2018
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The media wars and their discourses in the South African print mediaMgibisa, Mbuyisi January 2017 (has links)
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the degree of Masters by Research in Media Studies, Johannesburg, March 2017 / In post-colonial, post-apartheid South Africa, “media wars”1 appear to have become a strong feature. Traditionally, the news media rarely report about other media. Media wars seem to manifest themselves more when news publications subject each other to critical scrutiny. Recent media wars between newspaper companies and editors have highlighted the agonistic pluralist nature of the South African print media which is facing persistent and complex disruptions. This research asserts that a notable feature of these media fights is that they are linked to the battle to gain market share in the South Africa print media market stranglehold by big media organisations. They are often couched in ideological discourses which are constitutive of editors and media owners speaking out publicly about issues internal to the media in order to carry the freight of public attention. The foci of this study will be two-fold: Firstly, it seeks to investigate whether these media wars are related to the broader issues of transformation in the South African print media. Secondly, the study seeks to unravel how some of the country’s leading news publications represent their competitors using editorial platforms and will investigate the editorial motivations behind certain representations. Despite the growing interest in media wars, South Africa is still underrepresented due to a lack of literature published in the field. The main rationale behind the study is to show how the media’s ‘independence’ from political parties plays itself out in ideological discourses found in the tensions between newspaper companies and editors in the period between 2010 and 2015. Two examples or case studies of media fights will be critically examined in this study and a qualitative discourse analysis will be undertaken in order explore the ways in which the media war texts spoke to or problematised the main theories employed in this study, namely: Critical Political Economy (CPE) of the media and Michel Foucault’s material post-structuralism blended with Bourdieu’s concept of the ‘media field’. Keywords: media wars, agonistic media space, market share, ideological discourses, transformation, representations. / XL2018
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Corporate media and the nationalisation of the economy in South Africa: a critical Marxist political economy approachRadebe, Mandla Joshua January 2017 (has links)
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies, Johannesburg, July 2017 / This thesis analyses the representation of the nationalisation of mines debate, as a developmental policy discourse, by the South African corporate media. Essentially, the objective is to ascertain the corporate media’s role and influence on ideology-laden developmental policy discourses. Post-apartheid, the South African corporate media has often been accused of bias by various social actors, including South Africa’s governing party – the African National Congress. These accusations have been accompanied by perceptions of the media’s inability and unwillingness to partner with government in its endeavour to implement its developmental agenda. This perceived bias is accentuated when it comes to ideologically laden issues such as nationalisation. Therefore, this research study grapples, inter alia, with questions behind the drivers of these perceptions, the manner in which the media portrays the developmental policy discourse, and the role the media should be playing in the country’s developmental agenda. In its endeavour to respond to some of these questions, the research study thus focuses on the representation of the nationalisation of mines debate by the South African English corporate press in 2011. Given the complex nature of the discourse, the research study utilises both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; triangulation in particular presents this thesis with numerous advantages towards attaining deeper understanding of the representation of the nationalisation discourse. Whereas quantitative content analysis helps identify and count the number of articles and related elements in the articles, qualitative content analysis offers a chance to probe further various elements in the discourse. In-depth semi-structured interviews are also used as a secondary research technique to discover new clues on the discourse.
The research study is based on one major assumption – that structural factors such as ownership and control influence the representation of ideological policy discourses such as nationalisation – and is underpinned by four major theoretical frameworks – the critical political economy of communication; Marxist media analysis; social production of news; and decolonial theories. To comprehensively analyse the representation of nationalisation, the research study focuses on content analysis of news articles, looking at various aspects such as the structure of news as well as its headlines, sources and the general representation of the discourse; utilises theories of the critical political economy of the media and other related theories such as the social production of news and Marxist media analysis to perform qualitative content analysis; scrutinises economic factors in line with the assumption of the
study that structural factors influence the representation of the discourse by using the Marxist theories to unpack the representation of nationalisation; and utilises Marxist theories in conjunction with decolonial theories.
Among the findings of the research study presented in this thesis is that global capitalism, accompanied by factors such as commercialisation and advertising, influences the representation of ideologically laden policymaking discourses. Ownership and transformation of the corporate media also shape the representation. In this discourse there is convergence, and thus it is apparent that the media plays a pivotal role in reproducing dominant ideology which fundamentally maintains capitalism as “an inevitable and immutable” system. Also, the relationship between the state and media relations is a factor in ideological developmental discourses. Indeed, the representation of the nationalisation discourse is essentially a reflection of the corporate media’s posture towards the broader developmental state and its portrayal of ideologically laden policy discourses. / XL2018
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Bring back the signal: an evaluation of the existence of a digital public sphere in the South African mediascape.Sibiya, Nkululeko January 2017 (has links)
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
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