Die moderne Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte lässt sich – auf den Ebenen des Transports, der Informationsübertragung und der interpersonellen Kommunikation – als ein sich permanent steigernder Beschleunigungsprozess beschreiben. Insbesondere neuartige Medientechnologien verkürzen die zeitlichen Intervalle der Kommunikation zunehmend. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass sich die dem Geschwindigkeitsimperativ unterliegenden neuen Kommunikationsbedingungen in sprachlichen Innovationen niederschlagen und diese wiederum Indikatoren für Sprachwandel sind. In der jüngsten linguistischen Forschung wird allerdings vielfach die These geäußert, der Sprachgebrauch in den neuen Medien indiziere fundamentale Veränderungen der Schriftlichkeit und führe zu einem sprachlichen Verfall besonderen Ausmaßes. Diese These soll am Beispiel schriftbasierter Alltagskommunikation – vom Telegramm über den Brief und der Internetkommunikation bis hin zur SMS-Kommunikation – in medien-, kultur- und texthistorischen Zusammenhängen überprüft werden. Es geht darum, die kulturhistorischen Modalitäten der Medien- und Beschleunigungsgenese aufzudecken und spezifische mediale und kontextuelle Bedingungen sprachlicher Veränderungen herauszustellen. / It is generally considered that the modern history of culture is widely influenced by a permanent process of increasing acceleration. This social trend occurs on different levels, such as public transport, information transport and interpersonal communication. Particularly, new emerging media technologies are abbreviating the temporal intervals of daily communication increasingly. Starting from this premise, it can be assumed that new conditions of communication based on speed imperatives result in special linguistic innovations. In doing so, these innovations clearly reveal the mechanisms of language change. However, in recent linguistic debates, it is frequently asserted that the use of language in new media applications causes fundamental changes of written language and, moreover, results in a language decay of exceeding extent. By pulling together several strands of empirical evidence and conceptual approaches this thesis is to be examined by the example of written-based everyday life communication, i.e. telegram, letter and Internet communication up to SMS communication - within a medial, cultural and text-historical context. The objective of this paper is to investigate the culture-historical modalities of media and acceleration genesis and to point specific medial and contextual conditions out of language change.

The emergence of new media technologies has influenced the broadcasting marketplace causing it to evolve and become more competitive. The various platforms that new media technologies have made available for content repurposing and the increased number of channels available via digital television and radio has altered the landscape of the public service broadcaster in an unprecedented manner. Thus, questioning its viability amongst the other private media organisations whose core focus is on commercialisation of content rather than serving the public interest. Based on the case study of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), this study articulates the influence of new media broadcasting on the public broadcaster’s business model and value chain. It investigated the legitimacy of public service broadcasting in the new media age. This study examined the current status of the SABC’s broadcasting policy and concluded that there is urgency for policy revisions to be fast tracked.

As our consumption behaviours of media and entertainment change in the age of new media technologies, the means of production change with them. Filmmaking usually follows a set procedure (often with clear hierarchy and specialised roles in the crew) and the flow of the narration has traditionally followed a one-way direction, from the producing part (the producer/director) to the receiving part (the audience). But since the arrival of the internet, its disruption of the industry has opened up for an increased dialogue between the two, turning the receiving part to a contributing one. This has resulted in a wider democratisation of the medium, where the once passive audience now becomes more involved in the creative production process. Crowdsourcing, already used frequently in service industries and product design processes, has become an alternative method of creative content creation. Made possible through the use of social media channels, entire films are now being created with material submitted by its audience. This study aims to answer the research questions: “What is required in order to use crowdsourcing successfully in filmmaking?”, as well as the sub-questions “What role has social media played in the making of crowdsourced films?” and “Is there a future in crowdsourcing within filmmaking?” Six cases of film and series productions, each of different formats, were analysed; two documentary films, three web series and one TV show. In this study, the production approach for each case has been investigated, in order to see how they have used crowdsourcing in their processes. Five qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted and each interviewee had held key positions in the making of their respective production. The findings showed the strong need for having an already well-established community in place before undertaking a crowdsourced endeavour. The use of social media also appears to be one of the fundamentally enabling factors for these types of projects, since it provides a platform for an immediate dialogue between the two parties. Using crowdsourcing in film will presumably continue, but the method has still considerable unexplored potential. Because of it’s ingrained dependence on social media, future research could benefit from exploring interdisciplinary collaboration between filmmaking and interactive media technologies. / Samtidigt som att våra beteendemönster i hur vi konsumerar media förändras i takt med att nya medieteknologier uppstår, förändras också sättet media produceras. Filmskapande följer många gånger en särskild process (ofta med en tydlig hierarki av specialister inom produktionsgruppen) och berättelsen har traditionellt sett berättats från en part till den andre – från producenten/regissören till publiken. Men internets intåg har i många avseenden förändrat filmindustrin, vilket har öppnat upp för en ökad dialog mellan dessa två parter, vilket har omformat publikens position till en mer medskapande sådan. Detta har resulterat i enstörre demokratisering av filmmediet, där den en gång passiva publiken nu involverar sig mer i den kreativa filmskapandeprocessen. Crowdsourcing, som redan är vanligt förekommande inom exempelvis produktdesign och serviceindustrier, har blivit en alternativ metod för att skapa kreativt innehåll. Med sociala medier som en möjliggörande faktor skapas hela filmer endast med hjälp av material inskickat från den framtida publiken. Denna studie ämnar svara på problemformuleringarna: "Vad krävs för att framgångsrikt använda crowdsourcing inom filmproduktion?", samt delfrågorna "Vilken roll har sociala medier spelat i skapandet av crowdsourcadefilmer?" och "Finns det någon framtid för crowdsourcing inom filmskapande?" Sex stycken film- och serie-produktioner av olika format har analyserats: två dokumentärer, tre webbserier och en TV-show. Denna studie har undersökt hur varje produktion har använt sig av crowdsourcing i dess produktionsprocess. Utöver det har en kvalitativ undersökning genom fem semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts, där varje intervjuobjekt har haft nyckelpositioner inom respektive produktion. Resultaten visade på ett starkt behov av att ha en redan väletablerad skara av följare eller ambassadörer innan man startar en crowdsourcing-kampanj. Sociala medier visade sig också vara en fundamental beståndsdel i möjliggörandet av detta, eftersom de skapar en omedelbar tvåvägskommunikation mellan producenten och publiken. Användandet av crowdsourcing kommer förmodligen att fortsätta, och metoden har fortfarande en ansenlig outforskad potential. Med anledning av metodens beroende av sociala medier, kommer fortsatt forskning inom området troligtvis att gynnas av att utforska samarbeten mellan filmskapande och interaktiva medier.

This thesis examines the implementation of the new digital information and communications technologies (ICTs) by the Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Non-government organisation (NGO) at the state, national and international levels through an ethnographic, participant observation case study, informed by the precepts of feminist research. A quantitative survey of Australian peak women's NGOs participating in the electronic mailing list - Pamela's List is also conducted mapping the context in which WIFT operates and providing an overview of Australian women's peak NGOs' uptake and use of ICTs. The findings are situated in relation to a review of the international surveys available on women's NGOs and the surveys and research reports available on the overall NGO sector, nationally and internationally. The study addresses two neglected areas in the ICT literature. For over a decade Feminist theorists have pointed to the omission of gender as a focus in studies on the new information and communications technologies. There has also been little research and few surveys into the uptake of ICTs by either women's NGOs or the broader NGO sector, nationally or internationally. The detailed, longitudinal case study of the implementation process from pre-establishment through to advanced use of digital communications by a women's NGO at state, national and international level is also unique. Combined with the survey, it affords the opportunity to not only document which ICTs are being adopted but also why particular technologies are being used over others and how they are being used. Despite key successes, the results show less than optimum uptake, a lack of advanced or strategic use, and the myriad of challenges shared by all three WIFT organisations, Australian women's peak NGOs, and the national and international NGO sector in utilising ICTs. The reasons for this are analysed revealing the conflicting values between the NGO sector and those underlying the development of ICTs and demonstrates that difficulties systemic to both the technology and the NGO sector are limiting access and utilisation by women's NGOs. While the myths of women as technophobic are seriously challenged by the findings, the study highlights the importance of gender factors in limiting access and uptake and shaping the use of ICTs. Australian women's NGOs' uptake is shown to be less than their mixed gender counterparts and the study also reveals a lack of acknowledgement by government of gender as a key factor in the uptake of ICTs. It is also shown that significant funding, infrastructure support and policy initiatives recognising the special technological and communication challenges of women's NGOs and the overall NGO sector are needed, if both are to fully and strategically embrace these technologies and function effectively in the new millennium. The significant contribution to knowledge of this thesis lies foremost in furthering the understanding of gender as a key factor in the uptake and utilisation of the new ICTs while at the same time challenging the patriarchal myth of women as technophobic. It thus contributes to the reconstruction of the epistemologies surrounding women's relationship to technology. The study also contributes to furthering the current very limited knowledge and understanding of women's NGOs and the overall NGO sector's uptake and use of information and communications technology. The knowledge and the critical insight provided is not purely historical but rather as the push to take up broadband begins, has relevance to this and future technological innovations. Without an understanding of the process, requirements and challenges faced by women's NGOs and the NGO sector in general, the existing problems will continue to be replicated. The material presented in this study will be useful to all women's organisations and NGOs contemplating establishing digital communications or wishing to review their current use of these technologies. It will also be of value to government and policy makers seeking to establish policies and initiatives that will enable NGOs to take up the new information and communication technologies.

Text in English / Born at a time of abundance of technology, including new media, e-teens have their lives woven around the use of new media technologies to the extent that they virtually do everything with the aid of these technologies, including learning, playing, socialising and communicating. E-teens, besides, demonstrate marked expertise in the use of these technologies. Although there have been various studies done on this group of users supported by models and theories on the use, gratifications and appropriation of new media technologies, the premise of this study was on two assumptions. First, there are limited studies that have been conducted in the sub-Saharan African context, especially, Ghana. Second, most available theories and models that guide the study of e-teens’ use, appropriation and the use of new media technologies are generalized and do not sufficiently highlight the unique attributes and gratification needs that are tied to their developmental stage. In light of these assumptions, the study was undertaken to provide empirical evidence on the types of new media e-teens have access to; the types of new media used by e-teens in their scheme of things and e-teens’ purposes for using new media. It also sought to find out the gratifications sought and obtained from the use of new media technologies by e-teens; the key features of new media appropriation and experience among e-teens and to identify the features of new media technologies which are most appealing to e-teens. The other objective, which serves as the main contribution of this study, was to develop a conceptual model representing new media use and appropriation among e-teens, thereby filling the theoretical or conceptual gap that exists in this context. The study adopted a quantitative approach whereby data was collected using close-5ended questionnaires. The target population were teens from age 13 to 19 in senior high schools in the Greater Accra region of Ghana, selected using a simple random sampling. The results of the study show that, overall, the most popular new media technology that e-teens had access to and owned was the smartphone. Leading among the apps that e-teens found to be appealing were educational, entertainment and information/news, with communicative and participatory features of new media technologies appealing to e-teens highly. Also, educational, sociability and social inclusion, respectively, were the most popular gratifications sought and obtained by e-teens. It is submitted that social inclusion, educational and sociability gratifications are considered to be directly in line with the unique developmental needs of e-teens. However, it is recommended, among other things, that educational use of new media, which was one of the strong points for new media use, should be further encouraged as new media provides borderless opportunities forlearning. The researcher believes that the conceptual model for e-teen use and appropriation of new media technologies provide a firm ground for further research on topics related to this subject matter. To provide support and substance to the e-teen model, other researchers are encouraged to test and extend it where necessary. In conclusion, the findings provide evidence that new media technologies are highly appropriated by e-teens because the technologies help them meet their unique gratification needs. Therefore, the study recommends that, although new media use among e-teens can be encouraged, it is important to ensure proper usage, which will not be detrimental to them. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

The inquiry documented in this thesis is located at the nexus of technological innovation and traditional schooling. As we enter the second decade of a new century, few would argue against the increasingly urgent need to integrate digital literacies with traditional academic knowledge. Yet, despite substantial investments from governments and businesses, the adoption and diffusion of contemporary digital tools in formal schooling remain sluggish. To date, research on technology adoption in schools tends to take a deficit perspective of schools and teachers, with the lack of resources and teacher ‘technophobia’ most commonly cited as barriers to digital uptake. Corresponding interventions that focus on increasing funding and upskilling teachers, however, have made little difference to adoption trends in the last decade. Empirical evidence that explicates the cultural and pedagogical complexities of innovation diffusion within long-established conventions of mainstream schooling, particularly from the standpoint of students, is wanting. To address this knowledge gap, this thesis inquires into how students evaluate and account for the constraints and affordances of contemporary digital tools when they engage with them as part of their conventional schooling. It documents the attempted integration of a student-led Web 2.0 learning initiative, known as the Student Media Centre (SMC), into the schooling practices of a long-established, high-performing independent senior boys’ school in urban Australia. The study employed an ‘explanatory’ two-phase research design (Creswell, 2003) that combined complementary quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve both breadth of measurement and richness of characterisation. In the initial quantitative phase, a self-reported questionnaire was administered to the senior school student population to determine adoption trends and predictors of SMC usage (N=481). Measurement constructs included individual learning dispositions (learning and performance goals, cognitive playfulness and personal innovativeness), as well as social and technological variables (peer support, perceived usefulness and ease of use). Incremental predictive models of SMC usage were conducted using Classification and Regression Tree (CART) modelling: (i) individual-level predictors, (ii) individual and social predictors, and (iii) individual, social and technological predictors. Peer support emerged as the best predictor of SMC usage. Other salient predictors include perceived ease of use and usefulness, cognitive playfulness and learning goals. On the whole, an overwhelming proportion of students reported low usage levels, low perceived usefulness and a lack of peer support for engaging with the digital learning initiative. The small minority of frequent users reported having high levels of peer support and robust learning goal orientations, rather than being predominantly driven by performance goals. These findings indicate that tensions around social validation, digital learning and academic performance pressures influence students’ engagement with the Web 2.0 learning initiative. The qualitative phase that followed provided insights into these tensions by shifting the analytics from individual attitudes and behaviours to shared social and cultural reasoning practices that explain students’ engagement with the innovation. Six indepth focus groups, comprising 60 students with different levels of SMC usage, were conducted, audio-recorded and transcribed. Textual data were analysed using Membership Categorisation Analysis. Students’ accounts converged around a key proposition. The Web 2.0 learning initiative was useful-in-principle but useless-in-practice. While students endorsed the usefulness of the SMC for enhancing multimodal engagement, extending peer-topeer networks and acquiring real-world skills, they also called attention to a number of constraints that obfuscated the realisation of these design affordances in practice. These constraints were cast in terms of three binary formulations of social and cultural imperatives at play within the school: (i) ‘cool/uncool’, (ii) ‘dominant staff/compliant student’, and (iii) ‘digital learning/academic performance’. The first formulation foregrounds the social stigma of the SMC among peers and its resultant lack of positive network benefits. The second relates to students’ perception of the school culture as authoritarian and punitive with adverse effects on the very student agency required to drive the innovation. The third points to academic performance pressures in a crowded curriculum with tight timelines. Taken together, findings from both phases of the study provide the following key insights. First, students endorsed the learning affordances of contemporary digital tools such as the SMC for enhancing their current schooling practices. For the majority of students, however, these learning affordances were overshadowed by the performative demands of schooling, both social and academic. The student participants saw engagement with the SMC in-school as distinct from, even oppositional to, the conventional social and academic performance indicators of schooling, namely (i) being ‘cool’ (or at least ‘not uncool’), (ii) sufficiently ‘compliant’, and (iii) achieving good academic grades. Their reasoned response therefore, was simply to resist engagement with the digital learning innovation. Second, a small minority of students seemed dispositionally inclined to negotiate the learning affordances and performance constraints of digital learning and traditional schooling more effectively than others. These students were able to engage more frequently and meaningfully with the SMC in school. Their ability to adapt and traverse seemingly incommensurate social and institutional identities and norms is theorised as cultural agility – a dispositional construct that comprises personal innovativeness, cognitive playfulness and learning goals orientation. The logic then is ‘both and’ rather than ‘either or’ for these individuals with a capacity to accommodate both learning and performance in school, whether in terms of digital engagement and academic excellence, or successful brokerage across multiple social identities and institutional affiliations within the school. In sum, this study takes us beyond the familiar terrain of deficit discourses that tend to blame institutional conservatism, lack of resourcing and teacher resistance for low uptake of digital technologies in schools. It does so by providing an empirical base for the development of a ‘third way’ of theorising technological and pedagogical innovation in schools, one which is more informed by students as critical stakeholders and thus more relevant to the lived culture within the school, and its complex relationship to students’ lives outside of school. It is in this relationship that we find an explanation for how these individuals can, at the one time, be digital kids and analogue students.

Text in English / Born at a time of abundance of technology, including new media, e-teens have their lives woven around the use of new media technologies to the extent that they virtually do everything with the aid of these technologies, including learning, playing, socialising and communicating. E-teens, besides, demonstrate marked expertise in the use of these technologies. Although there have been various studies done on this group of users supported by models and theories on the use, gratifications and appropriation of new media technologies, the premise of this study was on two assumptions. First, there are limited studies that have been conducted in the sub-Saharan African context, especially, Ghana. Second, most available theories and models that guide the study of e-teens’ use, appropriation and the use of new media technologies are generalized and do not sufficiently highlight the unique attributes and gratification needs that are tied to their developmental stage. In light of these assumptions, the study was undertaken to provide empirical evidence on the types of new media e-teens have access to; the types of new media used by e-teens in their scheme of things and e-teens’ purposes for using new media. It also sought to find out the gratifications sought and obtained from the use of new media technologies by e-teens; the key features of new media appropriation and experience among e-teens and to identify the features of new media technologies which are most appealing to e-teens. The other objective, which serves as the main contribution of this study, was to develop a conceptual model representing new media use and appropriation among e-teens, thereby filling the theoretical or conceptual gap that exists in this context. The study adopted a quantitative approach whereby data was collected using close-5ended questionnaires. The target population were teens from age 13 to 19 in senior high schools in the Greater Accra region of Ghana, selected using a simple random sampling. The results of the study show that, overall, the most popular new media technology that e-teens had access to and owned was the smartphone. Leading among the apps that e-teens found to be appealing were educational, entertainment and information/news, with communicative and participatory features of new media technologies appealing to e-teens highly. Also, educational, sociability and social inclusion, respectively, were the most popular gratifications sought and obtained by e-teens. It is submitted that social inclusion, educational and sociability gratifications are considered to be directly in line with the unique developmental needs of e-teens. However, it is recommended, among other things, that educational use of new media, which was one of the strong points for new media use, should be further encouraged as new media provides borderless opportunities for learning. The researcher believes that the conceptual model for e-teen use and appropriation of new media technologies provide a firm ground for further research on topics related to this subject matter. To provide support and substance to the e-teen model, other researchers are encouraged to test and extend it where necessary. In conclusion, the findings provide evidence that new media technologies are highly appropriated by e-teens because the technologies help them meet their unique gratification needs. Therefore, the study recommends that, although new media use among e-teens can be encouraged, it is important to ensure proper usage, which will not be detrimental to them. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Text in English with abstracts in English and Afrikaans / The objective of this study was to investigate how the integration of social media applications such as Facebook can be advantageous to students in Open Distance Learning (ODL) settings or environments. This study was carried out in the context and recognition that the use of social media has become a norm in modern-day society where people in general, and students in particular, can upload videos, images and texts towards achieving a common purpose. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the researcher employed two theoretical frameworks, namely Connectivism and New Media Theory. The study also used Qualitative Research Methodology, particularly the qualitative content analysis research technique and focus group interviews. The study found that the use of Facebook provided students with better access to online resources and facilitated more interaction with fellow students. In an ever-changing world, the study established that technology has the potential to innovate distance learning, providing students with an open space to learn, collaborate and communicate more effectively. This means that social media applications have the power to connect people and bridge the gaps of time and distance. This is especially relevant in ODL environments where students operate in isolated spaces and have little or no direct interaction with their lecturers and fellow students. / Die doel van die studie is om ‘n ondersoek te loods na sosiale media integrasie, meer spesifiek Facebook, en hoe voordelig die gebruik daarvan vir studente in die konteks van ‘n Oop- en Afstandsonderrigleer (OAL) is. Die studie was gedoen binne die konteks, en met inagneming van, hoe die gebruik van sosiale media ‘n norm in die hedendaagse samelewing geword het, en hoe mense oor die algemeen videos, prente, en teks kan oplaai om ‘n gesamentlike akademiese doel te bereik. Ten einde die doel van die betrokke studie te bereik, het die navorser twee teoretiese raamwerke gebruik, naamlik Konnektivisme (Connectivism) en Nuwe media-teorie. Die studie het gebruik gemaak van ‘n kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetode, meer spesifiek kwalitatiewe inhoudsanalise en fokus-groep onderhoude. Die studie het bevind dat die gebruik van Facebook studente beter toegang tot aanlynhulpbronne verleen, en ook meer interaksie tussen studente bewerkstellig. In ‘n veranderende wêreld het die studie bevestig dat die gebruik van tegnologie oor die potensiaal beskik om innoverende afstandonderrig aan te bied en ope platforms vir studente bied om met mekaar saam te werk asook meer effektief te kommunikeer. Sosiale media beskik dus oor die vermoë om mense nader aan mekaar te bring, en ook die gaping van tyd en afstand te oorbrug. Dit is hierin ook die geval waar studente dikwels in isolasie, met min of geen direkte kontak met dosente of mede studente in ‘n OAL konteks, studeer. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)