Text in English / Social media has taken the world by storm and keeps on evolving. This evolution poses a threat as well as an opportunity to mankind, to the livelihoods of hordes of people employed in the media industry. It also presents a unique opportunity to chart new waters. This study explores the convergence and divergence of new media and traditional media. This divergence and convergence, if properly understood, will help in understanding the future of traditional media, and thus mitigate the threats posed by the ever evolving social media and communication technologies. This study provided a test case on the legitimacy of traditional media in as much as the ‘public interest and purveyor of public opinion’ clause of the media is concerned. The media cannot afford to live by Marx doctrine of “he who owns the means of production also controls the production of ideas in that epoch’. If it is going to be a driver and custodian of democracy in a new emerging Africa, the media has a responsibility to be the voice of the voiceless. Social media plugs the gap that traditional media leaves. Thus, the two can thus complement each other, rather than compete with each other within the same space. The population in Africa is becoming younger and younger and by extension they are moving away from traditional media towards digital and social media. There is an opportunity to be seized there. This study established that the traditional media has entrenched ways of looking at news, which are normally divergent from the way that the general populace, as captured in social media does. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)

The objective of this study is to establish the media usage and preference of consumers in the Transkei. The results are of special significance to media planners and advertisers in so far as they will assist in the media selection process. This in turn will form the basis of improved marketing communication between media planners and advertisers on the one hand and Transkeian consumers on the other. The media types investigated were newspapers, magazines, television and radio. The results indicated that three newspapers (Daily Dispatch, Intsimbi and Imvo), three magazines (!bona, Pace and Orum), one television channel {TV 2 - now CCV-TV) and one radio station (Radio Transkei) are extremely popular among the majority of Transkeians. The research results also indicated that the following topics are very popular in all the media types: local news, sport, education and arts/cultural articles. The results further indicated that Transkeians are generally favourably inclined towards advertisements. / Economics / M.Com (Business Economics)

Communication is an essential element of any retail business as it is a means of informing the customer about the retailer and the products and services that they offer. The internet and the rapid advancements in technology have provided retailers with various methods of communicating with the customer such as real-time marketing. Real-time marketing, which allows retailers to interact with customers through various means in real time, has already been widely used in businesses around the world. Although many South African businesses are starting to adapt real-time marketing as a marketing tool in their businesses, the perception of consumers regarding real-time marketing has not been investigated in South Africa. The primary purpose of this study was therefore to determine consumers perceptions of real-time marketing used as a marketing tool by retailers in Gauteng, South Africa. A broad and in-depth literature review was conducted on the advent of real-time marketing as a marketing tool and the various tools used by retailers to execute real-time marketing campaigns of retailers. An empirical study was conducted, in which data was collected from consumers of retail stores in the Gauteng province of South Africa by means of a web-based (computer-assisted), self-administered questionnaire. A quantitative approach was followed in order to satisfy the research objectives of the study. The results of this research study indicated that consumers perceived real-time marketing campaigns as clutter. Customers only considered the real-time marketing campaigns that consisted of immediate discounts and that were personalised for the individual customer as valuable to them. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Text in English / This study investigates the SAPS utilisation of social media in its fight against crime, and the extent to which the SAPS is already using it. The findings suggest that the SAPS is utilising social media in the fight against crime, mostly at a specialised level. Detectives at station level lack adequate knowledge and skills to use social media to their advantage. A lack of adequate resources and training is also identified. Social media is a communication platform for millions of people, and should therefore be used in the SAPS, to its advantage, to solve crime. Guidelines are in place for law enforcement officials who need to use it in their investigations. Recommendations resulting from the study include benchmarking with international law enforcement agencies, and finalisation of relevant policies. Training material should be developed and presented to detectives and members at station level. Resources should be made available to members to use in their investigations. / Police Practice / M. Tech. (Policing)

Social media is an important part of the everyday lives of young and old alike. Consumers today turn to online sources more and more to help them make decisions. They ask for advice online on purchases they want to make and read extensive reviews that help them to make a purchase decision. With a broad literature review conducted, it was noted that in the past traditional media was mainly used by students as information sources in their decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to determine what role social media as an information source has in the decision making of students when selecting a university. Data was collected from University of South Africa students by means of an online questionnaire. The sample was selected using probability sampling in the form of simple random sampling. The results of this study indicated that students use social media as an information source to some extent when making a decision about a university. Social media was found to be a credible source of information albeit it only has a slight influence on their decision-making process. Students are present online and use social media mostly on their cell phones for entertainment purposes. Universities should take note of the role that social media plays in the lives of students. It can enable them to better market their institutions to potential students. / Business Management / MCOM (Business Management)

This study centres on the psychological effects new digital media, like the internet and cellphones, have on adolescents. Although the internet has enormous benefits, it also poses a host of risks that can make adolescents vulnerable to victimisation and/or developing associated psychosocial problems. Characterisations of adolescents’ social relationships in the internet medium, as well as the investigation of the continuity between digital media literacy and online social behaviours, carry high relevance for developmental psychology. It is during the adolescent period that peer interactions arguably hold the greatest importance for individuals’ social and behavioural functioning. Using a logic model for evaluation, the researcher conducted an exploratory research study on digital media use among adolescent learners aged 13 to 15 years to determine whether schools could guide them to think critically for themselves about the entire realm of these new media. The data were gathered from school principals, teachers, parents and learners from three secondary schools in Gauteng Province, which were purposely selected to represent different socio-economic circumstances. A total of 230 people (n=230) participated in the research. Mixed research methods were employed in this study. The quantitative research methods supported the qualitative research methods. The literature review suggested that current media literacy education, which forms part of the Life Orientation curriculum, does not enable learners to think critically or make informed choices about their behaviour in the digital world – because it incorporates neither ethics nor responsibility. One of the main aims of the study therefore was to investigate the importance of expanding existing media literacy education, namely by incorporating two additional learning categories in the curriculum: Digital Safety and Security, and Digital Citizenship. These additional learning categories were introduced in the form of lessons by the teachers participating in the study. A think aloud strategy was used whereby learners verbalise what they were doing and learning while engaging in the digital media literacy lesson activities. The learners’ verbalisations were used to ascertain what learning was occurring in the classroom. The experimental group demonstrated an increase in critical thinking from pre- to post-evaluation. This research therefore proposes that the signature element of intervention strategies for inappropriate online behaviour be to create a “culture of critical thinking”. This implies greatly reducing the risks cyberspace pose, and at the same time enhancing adolescents’ abilities to use it in ways that create and deepen healthy relationships – in the digital as well as the real world. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This dissertation examines the meanings that young adults give to their mobile phones in the township of Hooggenoeg in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. The research was predominantly conducted through individual interviews with nine young adults as well as two small gender-based focus groups. Participant observation as well as a close reading of the popular mobile website Outoilet also contributed to the study. Drawing on Silverstone, Hirsch and Morley’s (1992) work into the meanings attributed to the mobile phone through the domestication processes of appropriation, objectification, incorporation and conversion, the study argues for the heterogeneous roles defined for mobile phones as they are integrated into different cultural contexts. The term ‘raw phones’ in the thesis title refers to a particular cultural understanding of respectability in mainly working-class ‘coloured’¹ communities in South Africa, as described by Salo (2007) and Ross (2010), in which race, class and gender converge in the construction of the respectable person’s opposite – a lascivious, almost certainly female, dependent, black and primitive ‘raw’ Other. The study argues that in Hooggenoeg, the mobile phone becomes part of semantic processes that define both respectability and ‘rawness’ , thus helping to reproduce social relations in this community along lines of race, class and gender. A major focus of the study is the instant messaging application MXit, and how it assists in the social production of space, by helping to constitute both private and dispersed network spaces of virtual communication, in a setting where social life is otherwise very public, and social networks outside of cyberspace are densely contiguous and localised. In contrast, gossip mobile website Outoilet seems to intensify this contiguous experience of space. My findings contest generalised claims, predominantly from the developed world, which assert that the mobile phone promotes mobility and an individualised society, and show that in particular contexts it may in fact promote immobility and create a collective sociability.

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu / Propelled by increased competition with the private sector and other similar organisations, the non-profit sector increasingly faces challenges to create meaningful interactions with stakeholders which, among other benefits, allow for differentiation and the creation of favourable and lasting impressions of the corporate brand. The main research aim of this study was to propose possible elements for a conceptual framework for the integration of non-profit organisations’ social media brand communication. The point of departure was that the achievement of a favourable corporate brand in the non-profit sector could, inter alia, be realised by following an integrated communication approach when utilising social media to communicate with stakeholders. The study is different from prior studies because of its specific interdisciplinary focus on the corporate brand, social media and integrated communication (IC), and the fact that it is merged into one study. The research into the main contribution of the study was based on a thorough literature review focusing on the following objectives: to explore corporate branding and social media; and to describe elements that could constitute an integrated approach to social media brand communication. During the investigation into the topic, the social media focus of the study was framed on the basis of classical theoretical views, and the theory of and perspectives on human action, symbolic interaction and social presence. The absence of a single set of theoretical assumptions of social media necessitated an inductive reasoning process based on identified key elements of social media. Subsequent to the literature review, the empirical research gathered invaluable insights from communication professionals in South African non-profit organisations, and who are responsible for communication by means of social media. Finally, and following the measurement of the proposed elements, the objective of proposing possible elements for the integration of social media brand communication and presenting it in a conceptual framework was achieved. The conceptual framework was based on three foundational principles, namely a corporate brand focus and a philosophy of communication integration, underpinned by social media. The proposed conceptual framework should provide new insights into and contribute to the existing body of knowledge on organisational communication. / Toenemende mededinging in die privaatsektor en tussen ander soortgelyke organisasies, rig ‘n grotewordende uitdaging aan die niewinsgerigte sektor om betekenisvolle wisselwerking met belangegroepe te bewerkstellig, iets wat dit onder andere moontlik maak om te differensieer en om gunstige en blywende indrukke van die korporatiewe handelsmerk te skep. Die belangrikste navorsingsoogmerk van hierdie studie was om moontlike elemente aan die hand te doen vir ʼn konsepsuele raamwerk vir die integrasie van niewinsgerigte organisasies se kommunikasie in sosiale media. Die vertrekpunt was dat ʼn gunstige korporatiewe handelsmerk in die niewinsgerigte sektor onder andere gerealiseer kan word deur middel van ʼn geïntegreerde kommunikasiebenadering wanneer sosiale media gebruik word om met belanghebbendes te kommunikeer. Die studie verskil van vorige studies weens die spesifieke interdissiplinêre fokus op die korporatiewe handelsmerk, sosiale media en geïntegreerde kommunikasie, asook die feit dat dit in een studie geïntegreer is. Die navorsing vir hierdie studie se belangrikste bydrae was gegrond op ʼn deurtastende literatuuroorsig, toegespits daarop om die gebruik van korporatiewe handelsmerke en sosiale media te verken; en om elemente wat ʼn geïntegreerde benadering tot handelsmerkkommunikasie in sosiale media sou kon daarstel, te beskryf. Gedurende die ondersoek na die tema het die studie se sosialemediafokus gerus op klassieke teoretiese sienings en die teorie van en perspektiewe op menslike aksie, simboliese wisselwerking en sosiale teenwoordigheid. Die gebrek aan ʼn enkele stel teoretiese aannames van sosiale media het ʼn proses van induktiewe redenering, gegrond op geïdentifiseerde sleutelelemente van sosiale media, genoodsaak. Voortspruitend uit die literatuuroorsig het die empiriese navorsing uiters waardevolle insigte bekom van kommunikasiekundiges in Suid-Afrikaanse niewinsgerigte organisasies wat deur middel van sosiale media moet kommunikeer. Laastens en na afloop van die meting van die voorgestelde elemente is die oogmerk om moontlike elemente vir die integrasie van kommunikasie van ʼn handelsmerk in sosiale media en die aanbieding daarvan in ʼn konsepsuele raamwerk, bereik. Die konsepsuele raamwerk is op drie beginsels gegrond, naamlik ʼn fokus op die korporatiewe handelsmerk en ʼn filosofie van kommunikasieintegrasie, ondersteun deur sosiale media. Die voorgestelde konsepsuele raamwerk behoort nuwe insigte in en bydraes tot die bestaande kenniskorpus oor organisasiekommunikasie te bied. / Ngokugqugquzelwa ukwanda kokuncitisana kwemikhakha ezimele nezinye izinhlangano ezifanayo, umkhakha ongenzi inzuzo uyaqhubeka njalo nokubhekana nezinselelo zokwenza ukuthi ukuxhumana kahle nabanye ababambe iqhaza okuwukuthi, phakathi kokunye okungazuzwa, kuvumele ukwahlukaniswa kanye nokwakhiwa kwezimpawu zemifanekiso yenkampani ezikahle futhi eziyohlala isikhathi eside. Injongo enkulu yocwaningo lwalesi sifundo kwakuwukuhlongoza imikhakha engaseyenzeke yohlaka olungakapheleli lokuhlanganiswa kophawu lokuxhumana ezinkundleni zokuxhumana zezinhlangano ezingenzi inzuzo. Iphuzu elalisemqoka kwakuwukufeza umgomo wokuthi kwakhiwe uphawu olufanele lwenkampani emkhakheni ongayenzi inzuzo, phakathi kwezinye izinto, ufezeke ngokulandela indlela edidiyelwe yezokuxhumana uma kusetshenziswa izinkundla zokuxhumana ukuxoxisana nababambe iqhaza. Lesi sifundo sihlukile kwezinye esezike zenziwa ngaphambilini ngenxa yokuthi sigxile ngokukhethekile ekusetshenzisweni kophawu lwenkampani, izinkundla zokuxhumana kanye nezindlela zokuxhumana ezididiyelwe, i-integrated communication (i-IC), kanye nephuzu lokuthi kudidiyelwe kwaba ucwaningo olulodwa. Lolu cwaningo kulokho okusemqoka okuwumthelela walesi sifundo lwalugxile kakhulu ekubuyekezweni okujulile kwemibhalo kubhekwe kakhulu kulezi zinjongo ezilandelayo: ukuhlaziya uphawu lwenkampani nezinkundla zokuxhumana; nokuchaza amaphuzu angase akhombise indlela edidiyelwe ekuxhumaneni ngophawu lwezinkundla zokuxhumana. Ngesikhathi kuphenywa ngesihloko, ukugxila ezinkundleni zokuxhumana kulesi sifundo kwabalulwa esizindeni semibono yezinto ezingaphatheki, kanye nethiyori nemiqondo yokwenza komuntu, ukuxhumana ngezimpawu nokubakhona kwabantu basemphakathini. Ukungabibikho kweqoqo elilodwa lokucatshangelwa ngokwenzeka emiqondweni ngokwezinkundla zokuxhumana kwenza ukuthi kube nesidingo senqubo yokuqala ukucabanga ezinze emaphuzwini asemqoka ezinkundla zokuxhumana. Ukulandela ukubuyekezwa kwemibhalo, lolu cwaningo oluphethe ubufakazi obuphathekayo luqoqe ulwazi olusemqoka oluvela kosolwazi bezokuxhumana ezinhlanganweni ezingenzi nzuzo zaseNingizimu Afrika, futhi ezinomsebenzi wokuxhumana ngokusebenzisa izinkundla zokuxhumana. Ekugcineni, futhi ngokulandela izilinganiso zamaphuzu ahlongozwayo, yafezeka injongo yokuhlongoza okungase kube amaphuzu okudidiyela ukuxhumana ngokusebenzisa uphawu lwezinkundla zokuxhumana kanye nokuluveza njengohlaka lokusemqondweni. Uhlaka lokusemqondweni lwalugxile emigomeni eyisisekelo emithathu, okuwukugxila kuphawu lwenkampani nenzululwazi yokudidiyelwa kokuxhumana, nokusekelwe yizinkundla zokuxhumana. Uhlaka olusahlongozwa olungakapheleli kumele luhlinzeke ngemiqondo emisha futhi lube nomthelela esakhiweni solwazi esikhona ekuxhumaneni ngokwenhlangano. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

This study centres on the psychological effects new digital media, like the internet and cellphones, have on adolescents. Although the internet has enormous benefits, it also poses a host of risks that can make adolescents vulnerable to victimisation and/or developing associated psychosocial problems. Characterisations of adolescents’ social relationships in the internet medium, as well as the investigation of the continuity between digital media literacy and online social behaviours, carry high relevance for developmental psychology. It is during the adolescent period that peer interactions arguably hold the greatest importance for individuals’ social and behavioural functioning. Using a logic model for evaluation, the researcher conducted an exploratory research study on digital media use among adolescent learners aged 13 to 15 years to determine whether schools could guide them to think critically for themselves about the entire realm of these new media. The data were gathered from school principals, teachers, parents and learners from three secondary schools in Gauteng Province, which were purposely selected to represent different socio-economic circumstances. A total of 230 people (n=230) participated in the research. Mixed research methods were employed in this study. The quantitative research methods supported the qualitative research methods. The literature review suggested that current media literacy education, which forms part of the Life Orientation curriculum, does not enable learners to think critically or make informed choices about their behaviour in the digital world – because it incorporates neither ethics nor responsibility. One of the main aims of the study therefore was to investigate the importance of expanding existing media literacy education, namely by incorporating two additional learning categories in the curriculum: Digital Safety and Security, and Digital Citizenship. These additional learning categories were introduced in the form of lessons by the teachers participating in the study. A think aloud strategy was used whereby learners verbalise what they were doing and learning while engaging in the digital media literacy lesson activities. The learners’ verbalisations were used to ascertain what learning was occurring in the classroom. The experimental group demonstrated an increase in critical thinking from pre- to post-evaluation. This research therefore proposes that the signature element of intervention strategies for inappropriate online behaviour be to create a “culture of critical thinking”. This implies greatly reducing the risks cyberspace pose, and at the same time enhancing adolescents’ abilities to use it in ways that create and deepen healthy relationships – in the digital as well as the real world. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Social media is an important part of the everyday lives of young and old alike. Consumers today turn to online sources more and more to help them make decisions. They ask for advice online on purchases they want to make and read extensive reviews that help them to make a purchase decision. With a broad literature review conducted, it was noted that in the past traditional media was mainly used by students as information sources in their decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to determine what role social media as an information source has in the decision making of students when selecting a university. Data was collected from University of South Africa students by means of an online questionnaire. The sample was selected using probability sampling in the form of simple random sampling. The results of this study indicated that students use social media as an information source to some extent when making a decision about a university. Social media was found to be a credible source of information albeit it only has a slight influence on their decision-making process. Students are present online and use social media mostly on their cell phones for entertainment purposes. Universities should take note of the role that social media plays in the lives of students. It can enable them to better market their institutions to potential students. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)