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Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology - Public Relations Management in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / This dissertation is a qualitative analysis of the print media in South Africa. The print media as a form of mass communication, functions in various ways. One of the main functions is to supply news, information and entertainment through magazine content on worldwide aspects. Through various attention grabbing tactics magazine content is able to alter our ideology and thinking. However, through attractive and entertaining topics the public can be affected negatively by the content utilised in magazines, which affects the ideologies and thinking of readers. This effect is mainly evident in younger women and can in turn result in readers unwarily turning to the media to shape their identities. This study examines numerous South African women’s magazines with the main objective of determining the role of magazine content in the creation of young women’s identities in South Africa. These magazines were selected on the basis of their content, structure, target markets and their editor’s willingness to participate in the study. The ten magazines researched for the study are ‘O Magazine’, ‘Marie Claire’, ‘Cosmopolitan’, ‘True Love’, ‘Move’, ‘Glamour’, ‘Grazia’, ‘Fairlady’, ‘Seventeen’ and ‘You’ magazine. The study provides a literature review on various normative theories of the press and also discusses the psychological effects of numerous persuasion theories. Some of these theories are the Feminist Media theory, Identity theory, Agenda Setting theory and the Uses and Gratifications theory. The study also analyses selected magazine covers with the aim of determining the ways in which readers are influenced by magazine content. The methodology for the study used content analysis and surveys in the form of telephonic interviews and questionnaires which were conducted with the magazine editors. The main results of the study indicated that magazine content is primarily aimed at uplifting women and creating awareness within readers to embrace their personalities and attributes. Consequently readers are encouraged not to conform to the current trends in society thereby supporting the theoretical underpinning of the normative theories of the press.

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The music periodical literature of the 19th century has largely remained unavailable to musical scholarship due to a lack of adequate indexing. While several indexing efforts have been attempted in the past century, that proposed by the recently established Répertoire international de la presse musicale du dix-neuviéme siécle (RIPMxix) sets itself apart by its comprehensiveness and its use of computer technology. This thesis tests the new system by preparing a prototype RIPMxix Series A catalogue of a major 19th-century French music journal, La Chronique Musicale (1873-1876). The prototype is in five parts: 1) a Title Catalogue, or chronological checklist of the titles, authors and pagination of all sections in the journal; 2) an Iconography Appendix, listing the captions, dimensions and pagination of all iconography in the journal; 3) a List of Variants, giving alternate pagination references in copies of the journal held by selected major institutions; 4) a Keyword Index of important words contained in article titling; and 5) an Author Index. The indexing of La Chronique Musicale was carried out according to the regulations established in the RIPMxix Series A Guidelines, incorporating minor improvements in presentation, and adjudicating certain indexing situations not addressed in them. A data entry system was developed and the typescript catalogue was entered into computer file space. Detailed formatting based on the general design presented in the RIPMxix Series A Guidelines was specified for the Title Catalogue, Iconography Appendix and List of Variants. To produce the remaining portions of the prototype (viz., the Keyword and Author Indexes), design options were studied, specific designs adopted and detailed formatting established. Production of the prototype involved the development of three computer programmes: a single programme for the Title Catalogue, Iconography Appendix and List of Variants; a separate programme for the Keyword Index; and a third programme for the Author Index. It is concluded that the title-derivative approach taken by the RIPMxix system is a valid one, and suggestions are made for further research. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

This study discusses how Chinese young women relate their reading women’s magazines to their self-representation and their self-construction of a feminine identity. The question is explored from two related perspectives: femininity as represented by the major international women’s magazine titles China and Chinese young women’s interpretation of those magazines. The study first examines the construction of femininity encoding in ten major titles of international women’s magazines in mainland China through a quantitative content analysis of their covers and qualitative semiotic analysis, including both western-style and Japanese-style women’s’ magazines. Generally speaking, international women’s magazines provide an ordinary yet feminine femininity through their covers. All of them put great emphasis on fashion, providing resources for the external construction of femininity. The western style magazines also provide content related to the internal construction of femininity through resources. These are seldom mentioned in the Japanese style ones. Examined through themes of body, fashion and feminism, the study reveals that in general, western style magazines present a more mature and sophisticated version of femininity. They represent a picture of women who are more confident with their body, and who adopt diverse strategies for managing their appearance. These women are endowed with a “can-do nature and the ability to make decisions and take action independently. Women in Japanese style magazines, in contrast, are represented in a manner that is more childlike, innocent, and obedient. This study further provides an alternative way to categorize international women’s magazines in China with regard to the femininity they presented to reveal individual differences among the major titles. The interpretation from the readers is collected through in-depth interviews with Chinese young women. In general there are two types of users. One type of users has acute awareness of the existence of the external resources for femininity construction in whatever form. These users were willing and able to identify, mobilize, and utilize those resources for their femininity construction. The second type of users displays no interest in women’s magazines or alternative resources, and depends on their connections with information collectors to acquire the resources they needed for femininity construction. However, most of the interviewees reveal a strong tendency to maintain a strong consistency in their self-presentation and self-identity as women, which is the identity-based decoding proposed in this study. The ideal of femininity defined by the interviewees concentrates on the internal qualities, such as individuality, competitiveness and activeness. Although they do indeed pay attention to the content of women’s magazines related to such issues in order to locate resources for their self-presentation, the external feminine traits deployed by the magazines, are considered as non-essential and rejected as markers of their own femininity by most of the interviewees. The version of Chinese femininity reflected in this study, briefly speaking, is the de-feminization on the external level, and internalization of “can-do and “doing on the internal level

Submitted to the Department of Library and Information Science for the degree of Master of Library and Information Science, in the Faculty of Arts, at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2002. / The study investigates the use of electronic journals for the dissemination of scholarly information at the Universities of Natal and Zululand and attempts at determining the level of electronic journal use by the scholarly communities, and the perceived impact that these journals have on the community. Similarly, the role-played by the academic libraries in the provision of the journals has been explored. The scholarly community included the academic staff, the library staff and postgraduate students at the two universities. A survey research method was used to elicit information from the subjects. The population was sampled by use of stratified random sampling technique. Firstly, five academic faculties were selected, four from the University of Zululand, and three from the University of Natal. This was done by first drawing an alphabetical list of the academic staff in faculties by academic status. Secondly, The Deans were approached for permission to seek assistance of various heads of departments and heads of schools in distributing the questionnaires to postgraduate students. However, with postgraduate students it was not possible to secure a usable list as most of them are part timers and far away from campus. As a result as many questionnaires were distributed to postgraduate students before they were randomly selected for the sample. Ultimately, a sample of 10% was drawn from the population of 1969 postgraduate students. Regarding the academic staff a sample of 20% was drawn from each strata. The total population for the academic staff was 557. All professional librarians in the two university libraries were identified and included in the study. Data available in the university calendars and the figures obtained from the Division of Information Technology and Faculty Administration Offices was invaluable. Two sets of questionnaires were administered to the two groups, one to the academic staff and postgraduate students and the other one to the library staff. The sample frame was distributed as follows: 197 postgraduate students, 111 academic staff and 34 library staff. Data was analyzed by means of the SYSTAT Version 7.0 and Microsoft Exel for coding data. The results show that the level of electronic journal use by the two universities is still low, because, as a matter of verification. respondents found it difficult to select the type of journals they use most between electronic journals and printed journals. A large number (61 %) identified printed vi joumals. There is a slight difference between the various disciplines in the use and understanding of electronic joumals. It is reccmmended that the academic library should provide the facilities where users could access electronic joumals on their own as well as the marketing of the available services to the library clientele. There is a strong need of user education, more especially in the use of electronic joumals.

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Conducting research, evaluating research, and publishing scholarly works all play an extremely prominent role for university faculty members. Tenure and promotion decisions are greatly influenced by the perceived value of publications as viewed by members of faculty evaluation committees. Faculty members seeking tenure may be limited to publishing in a limited group of journals perceived to be valuable by members of an academic committee. This study attempted to determine the value of various kinds of periodicals (journals, magazines, and e-journals), based on three principal criteria, as perceived by professionals (university faculty, K-12 practitioners, and corporate trainers) in the educational/instructional technology (E/IT) field. The criteria for journal evaluation were Academic Prestige, General Reading, and Classroom Use. The perceived value of journals based on each criterion was compared to determine any significant differences. Members of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) were asked to rate 30 journals in the E/IT field using the three criteria. Statistically significant differences were found among ratings in 63% of the journals. The statistical analyses indicated that differences in the perceived value of journals among E/IT professionals across the three criteria (Academic Prestige, General Reading, and Classroom Use) were statistically significant. It is also noted that refereed journals were rated higher than nonrefereed journals for the Academic Prestige criterion. Survey respondents indicated that individual journals were not valued for the same reasons. This finding implies that the formation of any equitable measure for determining the value of faculty members' journal article publications would be best if based on definable criteria determined by colleagues. Lists of valued journals for each area of faculty assessment would provide standards of excellence both inside and outside the E/IT field for those who serve on tenure and promotion committees in educational institutions.

Increases in the prices of scholarly journals have exceeded the general rate of inflation for the last decade and more. In the face of this "serials crisis," libraries have found it increasingly difficult to maintain essential journal collections. This thesis investigates the causes of the serials crisis in biology using data generated for a study conducted by the Mann Library of Cornell University for 1988 and 1994 and updated by the author for 2001. The major goals of this thesis are to elaborate some alternative explanations of the crisis, identify econometrically the chief determinants of biology journal prices, and test the theory that prices are significantly determined by market structure. Existing literature sheds some light on price determinants specifically, technical characteristics (including frequency and size), publisher's legal form (profit vs. non-profit), location (domestic or foreign) and scale (circulation) have been found to be statistically significant--but this work is incomplete and sometimes contradictory. OLS and GLS regression analysis conducted in this thesis confirms that the determinants of biology journal prices are country of origin, journal size and frequency, circulation, and publisher's legal form. There is no evidence, however, that greater concentration increases prices. According to this analysis, monopoly power is not a problem in biology journal publishing. / Graduation date: 2003