Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of the Arts (Media Studies) in the Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, March, 2017 / Many young black aspirational South African women are involved in the construction of their identities, and their ideal selves, through their self-display on Instagram. Within the framework of certain hegemonic structures, these women are seen exercising their ‘freedom’ within a post-feminist setting, as neoliberal citizens, and thus striving for a sense of empowerment from this engagement. This project explores the self-display of 10 of these young women that have each accumulated more than 10,000 followers on Instagram. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of them, and their Instagram images were analysed, in order to find out how their online performances relate to consumption and global celebrity culture, and how these ideologies are depicted in their images. They draw inspiration from certain black female celebrities such as Beyoncé and Rihanna, and their emulation of these celebrities is used in their identity construction. They do this by displaying a lifestyle of glamorous consumption by incorporating certain exclusive brands and fashionable items into their online presentation. Additionally, they modify and model themselves to fit a specific beauty ideal, which is characterized by long straight hair, fair skin and a curvaceous body. By doing all of this, these young women are, by their own definition attaining a level of ‘success’, and achieve the status of ‘Insta-Celeb’ by the Instagram community. The ideological frameworks on which this construction is built, involves a collective imperative to be liked and accepted by their online followers, the desire for status, and the contradictory creation of a faux idea of female empowerment that is, in reality, not actually as free as it seems. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Journalism and Media Studies), 2016 / This research report is an exploratory study into two regional commercial music stations (YFM and 947) and their use of Twitter as a tool to relate to, interact with and enable participation from their audiences. Of particular interest was why they are using it, what they are doing with it and how this affects the on-air content pre, during and post broadcast, if at all it does. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / GR2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing, 2016 / Word-of-mouth (WOM) has been seen to be one of the most powerful resources of transmitting information. Progression in Information technology and the rise of online social network sites have changed the way information is being conveyed. This phenomenon sways consumers as this effortlessly accessible information could significantly influence their consumption decision. The purpose of this paper is to investigate Social Media factors impacting purchase intention of mobile devices amongst Working Generation Y in South Africa. The target population for this study was defined those who are between ages of 24-35 years of age and are employed. This paper relies on a quantitative analysis of the results gathered through an online survey. Measurement of items have been adapted from existing scales found in the marketing literature. Researchers reviewed the items for validity and readability. A multiple regression model procedure and Structural Equation Model is applied to test the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The research model was tested using a sample of 250 people who are South Africa’s Working Generation Y consumers and are regular social network users. Based on the resulted yielded from this research paper, it is reasonable to argue that consumer engagement will affect eWOM which may influence consumer purchase intentions. The paper outlines ways to promote a brand effectively through online consumer communities’ also known as virtual communities, as well as general guidelines for website and forum moderators for facilitating such presentation in a manner useful to the members of their online communities. While there is a substantial research stream that examines the branding of consumer’s goods and an increasing literature on product brands, little is known about social media, brand image and purchase intention in the context of online communications. This paper therefore extends existing measurement of these variables. / XL2018

Using the narrative imagery of Instagram and the cultural narrative of the Olympics, I explore the role of agency and autonomy in modern sport with a focus on the commercial and institutional arms of surfing. This project is an attempt to evaluate visual and cultural narrative from the perspective of a literary scholar and to root theory and philosophy in issues that go beyond scholarship and academics. In chapter one, I use sports sociologists Jennifer Hargreaves and Krista Comer as well as Jean Kilbourne and Rosalind Gill to illuminate and explore two surf-centric Instagram accounts, both of which imagine a story of surfing through a mostly visual medium. In chapter two, I turn to Elizabeth Grosz and Michel Foucault to help explore the institutionalized arm of surfing through its recent inclusion in the Olympic Games. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Communication

My intention for this show is to explore the effect of alienation that ironically is being produced by social media. The principal concept is developed around shame, sharing, and notoriety on three different social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram. This show explores the social media perception of myself in the realms of human interaction, identity, and memory in social media through the critical appropriation of the languages of design and photography. The installation with four Facebook profile pictures in large scale and framed looks at the way a personal image can convey the impression of widely different personalities. The selections of personal exchanges over Facebook and Instagram show the degree to which social media creates its own visual language and mode of communication, which sometimes becomes separated from reality and intention. The show extends its reach to performance and direct interaction with the viewer through the availability of stickers for comments by the profile pictures and a third area, where viewers can write or draw their own messages through the simple medium of chalk, which can then be rendered in virtual form through posts on a specially created webpage. The viewer should thus be challenged to ask, to what degrees do words and images communicate the essence of our selves and our own will. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis is a study of the role of local television stations in Kargil (India), which investigates whether the success of local media in Kargil is a result of fulfilling the needs and desires of the local community, using the methods of content analysis, interviews, and surveys. Kargili local television stations have adopted global media technologies for disseminating their programs, but at the same time have changed some of the television convention to feed their needs and expectations of local viewers. The forces of globalization have not only exposed places like Kargil to new technologies, but it has given them an opportunity to participate in new discourses, to create a local media that is being used to address the specific concerns and problems of the local community. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015 / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-06-15T12:34:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariana Leonhardt Hallage.pdf: 4649504 bytes, checksum: 73447bf4b5dfd8e3f3979822307c794c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-15T12:34:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariana Leonhardt Hallage.pdf: 4649504 bytes, checksum: 73447bf4b5dfd8e3f3979822307c794c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study intends to understand how fashion brands keep their strategies of branding and its own stories, while being internet’s social agents, through real time communication in digital social medias. The analysis is based by the view of the conflicting dynamic between the need showed by brands to be always visible and the scheduled volatility of images and videos produced in the cyberspace, particularly in social medias which its premise surrounds the idea of producing content units that lasts in visibility only for only day after being created and started its disclosure. To achieve this main reflection of thoughts, we intend to analyze the ephemeral audiovisual content production that three brands, being in the market as fast-fashions, besides of observing how they hand with their own image complexities by passing information of branding for volatile images. The logic of digital communication in real time and the one of fashion system are incredibly like each other, in terms of language and expressions of the needs of these brands, which will be also included here, in conclusion of this study. It will be elaborated case studies analyzing the brands C&A Brasil, Forever21 and Topshop, in their activities on digital social medias Snapchat and Instagram Stories, by collecting sixty days of image production. Talking about results, we could found content units which helps on the creation of a singular narrative strategy for each brand, maintaining their media visibility to their spectators / O presente estudo busca entender como algumas marcas de moda reiteram suas narrativas, enquanto agentes sociais na internet, através da comunicação em tempo real nas redes sociais digitais. A análise é balizada tendo em vista a dinâmica conflitante entre a necessidade que possuem, de estarem sempre visíveis, e a volatilidade programada das imagens e vídeos produzidos no ciberespaço, especificamente em redes sociais digitais, cuja premissa é que se produzam unidades de conteúdo, que durem por até um dia após o início de sua veiculação. Para atingir essa principal reflexão, analisa-se a produção de conteúdo audiovisual efêmero que três marcas em regime fast-fashion elaboraram, além de observar como lidam com complexidades imagéticas, na passagem de informação de imagem de marca para imagens voláteis. As lógicas de comunicação digital em tempo real e do sistema de moda apresentam pontos de convergência e similaridades, em termos de linguagem e expressão dos anseios dos agentes do mercado, que também serão abordados na dissertação. A análise dos dados percorre sessenta dias das marcas C&A Brasil, Forever 21 e Topshop, nas redes sociais digitais Snapchat e Instagram Stories, avaliando suas produções imagéticas. Como resultados, são evidenciados conteúdos que visam criar estrategicamente algumas narrativas, para auxiliarem as marcas na construção de uma imagem própria, singular

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:52:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 INEZ RODRIGUES ROSA.pdf: 1182387 bytes, checksum: 66338936b615d22e1b7039e3bfd78cd7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-28 / Connected to the Theory of Education and Pedagogical Studies research line, the objective of this study was to analyze the communicative practices of young people, in orkut, as an identification of discursive and argumentative strategies that permits the improvement of reading and writing as sociocultural competences. The first chapter presents the information and communication technologies (ICT) and the relation of young people with these new technologies, as well as socio-technical approach of technology and education. The theoretical reference of this chapter is based on studies of Abreu (2006), Belloni (2005, 2008), Buckingham (2003; 2006), Carvalho (2006), Foracchi (1972), Jenkis (2008), Libâneo (2006), Melucci (1997), Peixoto (2003, 2008), Peralva (1997), Prensky (2001), Recuero (2005), Santaella (2003, 2004), Tapscott (1999, 2009), Toschi (2010), Veen and Vrakking (2009). The second chapter focuses on reading and writing, and its use in the social communication. This chapter presents also a reflection about the communicative competence and the construction of texts and discourses, including their communication strategies. The theoretical reference for this discussion is based on Bakhtin (1992, 2002), Brandão (2001), Bronckart (1999), Cagliari (2004), Chartier (1999, 2002), Chauí (2000), Fischer (2006), Freitas (2000, 2002), Koch (1996, 2002, 2008), Koch and Elias (2006), Kleiman (1989, 2001, 2002), Leffa and Lopes (1994), Ramal (2000), Santaella (1997, 1983, 2003, 2004), Soares (2000, 2003), Traváglia (2002), Vygotsky (1998, 2007, 2008), among others. The research can be characterized as qualitative and imbued with virtual ethnographic inspiration. The initial sample was contructed with young high school students from a public state school in the outskirts of Anapolis. Thereafter, the sample was increased with the members of this students‟ network. On this way, the empirical field was composed by the network formed by students and "friends" added to its network. The adopted proceeders were to observe the processes established in this communication web. The study revealed that young people know how to adapt their communication according to the moment and to the requirements of the processes of communicative interaction, even demonstrating the same absence of originality, once that prevails the copying of songs and messages from sites specialized in providing such content. They use specific strategies to the social communication through orkut with the development of a "new code"of reading and writing, spread among them. The one who communicates tries to get adapted to the speaker, to the context, to the objectives and to the communication needs in an articulated manner, contributing to the improvement in the use of such language. This research revealed: in their communicative practices in orkut, young people articulate oral and written languages; these kinds of communication complement each other, considering the expression of the desired meaning or the one known by the socialcultural group. In this way, they can produce new significations for their comprehension of world and of the relations among them or with the others in the world. / O objetivo deste estudo, vinculado à linha de pesquisa Teorias da Educação e Processos Pedagógicos, foi analisar as práticas comunicativas dos jovens no orkut com vistas a identificação das estratégias discursivo-argumentativas que permitem o aprimoramento da leitura e da escrita como competências socioculturais. No primeiro capítulo apresentam-se as tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC) e a relação dos jovens com essas tecnologias, além da abordagem sociotécnica da relação entre tecnologia e a educação. O referencial teórico desse capítulo baseia-se nos estudos de Abreu (2006), Belloni (2005, 2008), Buckingham (2003; 2006), Carvalho (2006), Foracchi (1972), Jenkis (2008), Libâneo (2006), Melucci (1997), Peixoto (2003, 2008), Peralva (1997), Prensky (2001), Recuero (2005), Santaella (2003, 2004), Tapscott (1999, 2009), Toschi (2010), Veen e Vrakking (2009). O segundo capítulo aborda a leitura e a escrita, e seu uso na comunicação social. O capítulo apresenta, ainda, uma reflexão sobre as competências comunicativas e a construção de textos e discursos e suas estratégias de comunicação. O referencial teórico desse capítulo fundamenta-se em Bakhtin (1992, 2002), Brandão (2001), Bronckart (1999), Cagliari (2004), Chartier (1999, 2002), Chauí (2000), Fischer (2006), Freitas (2000, 2002), Koch (1996, 2002, 2008), Koch e Elias (2006), Kleiman (1989, 2001, 2002), Leffa e Lopes (1994), Ramal (2000), Santaella (1997, 1983, 2003, 2004), Soares (2000, 2003), Traváglia (2002) e Vygotsky (1998, 2007, 2008), entre outros. A pesquisa pode ser caracterizada como do tipo qualitativa e de inspiração etnográfica virtual. A amostra inicial foi constituída de jovens estudantes do Ensino Médio de uma escola estadual da periferia de Anápolis. A partir daí a amostra foi ampliada com a inclusão dos integrantes da rede dos estudantes inicialmente contatados. Desta forma, o campo empírico constituiu-se na rede formada pelos estudantes e pelos amigos adicionados a sua rede. O procedimento adotado foi a observação dos processos de comunicação estabelecidos nessa rede. O estudo evidenciou que os jovens sabem adequar sua comunicação ao momento e às exigências dos processos de interação comunicativa, mesmo demonstrando falta de originalidade, uma vez que impera a cópia de músicas e de mensagens de sites especializados em fornecer esse tipo de conteúdo. Os jovens utilizam estratégias específicas para a comunicação social por meio do orkut com o desenvolvimento de um novo código de leitura e escrita, disseminado entre eles. Aquele que comunica busca adequar-se ao interlocutor, ao contexto, aos objetivos e à necessidade comunicativa, de forma articulada, contribuindo para o aprimoramento no uso dessa linguagem. A presente pesquisa revelou, então, que em suas práticas comunicacionais no orkut, os jovens articulam as linguagens oral e escrita de forma que elas se complementem, tendo em vista a expressão do sentido pretendido ou do sentido conhecido pelo grupo sociocultural a que pertencem. Dessa forma, conseguem também produzir novos sentidos para sua compreensão do mundo e de suas relações de interação com o outro ou com os outros no mundo.