Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This thesis has been written as a research project within a programme that topicalises intercultural communication in fairly broad terms. It provides an analysis of the different constructions in the media of events and people by journalists from different linguistic communities who have regular intercultural contact in the course of reporting on local newsworthy events. The communities here are different media producers, different news publishing institutions who print and circulate current news to audiences in different language communities. Illustratively, attention will go to the particular role players in the media, i.e. news producers (journalists, newspapers, publishing groups), newsmakers (people whose actions are observed and topicalised in the media) and news consumers (the audience, readership) engaged in reporting on a particular, prominently mediated event in 1986, and again in 1996. The event that is now recorded as the Guguletu Seven incident is investigated for the way in which it can highlight cultural linguistic differences in mediating the same event.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since South Africa’s transition from a nationalistic state to a democracy in 1994, debates about the media’s role have intensified as the challenges and complexities of the South African society unfolded. In this debate, which mainly played out between the government and the media, the liberal theory and the developmental theory were used as the two main normative positions from which to contest the media’s role. As normative theories they describe the ideal role of the press within societal systems and thus fall within the functionalist paradigm. Historically, the liberal approach was seen as the accepted normative framework for the media within a democracy to protect that very democracy. The liberal consensus adopted by the post-apartheid media therefore came as no surprise. However, the optimism initially experienced regarding the independence of the new, liberal media, its professionalisation and economic restructuring, is gradually being challenged by the critical perspective. This perspective questions the extent of transformation in a public sphere where entrance is still restricted by class structures. The argument of this paper is that although the above changes to the media landscape are recognised as important, they do not account for issues of class and how the poor, the spaces they live in and the factors impacting on their lives, are framed by the media. This paper is presented as a normative undertaking and presents civic journalism as alternative normative framework. It moves from the premise that the representations afforded to the poor in die media are being hampered by the individualistic aims of the Western, liberal, journalistic tradition. The argument is further that the use of a community-driven approach should lead to broader representation of the poor in the media and the inclusion of this currently marginalised group in the public sphere. Reframing, one of the most important methods of civic journalism, is singled out to explore the possibility of applying civic journalism to the South African context. The motivation for this paper is the belief that the need exists for a greater plurality of voices and discourses. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sedert Suid-Afrika in 1994 beweeg het van ’n nasionalistiese staat na ’n demokrasie, het die debat oor die rol van die media algaande verdiep namate die uitdagings en kompleksiteite van die Suid-Afrikaanse situasie ontvou het. In die debat tussen die postapartheid media en die regering was die twee normatiewe posisies van waar die media se rol by uitstek betwis is, die libertynse en ontwikkelingsteorie. As normatiewe teorieë wat die ideale rol van die pers binne samelewingsisteme verwoord, val dit binne die funksionalistiese paradigma. Histories word die liberale benadering gesien as die vanselfsprekende roete wat ’n media binne ’n demokrasie moet volg om daardie demokrasie te beskerm. Die liberale konsensus van die post-apartheid media was in die lig hiervan geen verrassing nie. Maar die optimisme wat aanvanklik ervaar is oor die onafhanklike, liberale media, sy professionalisering en ekonomiese herstrukturering, word algaande uitgedaag deur ’n kritiese perspektief. Hierdie perspektief bevraagteken die waarde van ’n getransformeerde media waar toelating tot die openbare sfeer steeds deur klasstrukture gereguleer word. Alhoewel die bogenoemde erken word as belangrike veranderinge, is die argument dat die liberale normatiewe paradigma nie genoeg was om kwessies van klas te verreken en hoe armes, die kwessies wat hulle lewens beïnvloed en die ruimtes waarin hulle ’n bestaan maak, deur die media beraam word nie. Hierdie werkstuk is ’n normatiewe onderneming wat burgerlike joernalistiek as normatiewe raamwerk wil voorstel. Die uitgangspunt is dat representasie van armes in die media deur die individualistiese doelstellings van die Westerse, liberale joernalistieke tradisie beperk word. Die argument is verder dat die toepassing van ’n gemeenskapsgerigte benadering behoort te lei tot ’n breër representasie van armes en die insluiting van dié tans gemarginaliseerde gemeenskappe by die openbare sfeer. Herberaming, een van die belangrikste metodes van burgerlike joernalistiek, word uitgesonder om die toepassingsmoontlikheid van burgerlike joernalistiek as alternatief te ondersoek. Die motivering vir die werkstuk is die oortuiging dat daar in die Suid-Afrikaanse mediakonteks ’n behoefte bestaan aan ’n groter diversiteit van stemme en diskoerse.

This research is located within media studies and draws on the Cultural Studies approach. It is an audience study, which uses the mixed methods of focus group discussions and an online survey to examine the importance of the use of Nigerian Pidgin as a broadcast language in investigating the rising popularity of Pidgin English radio in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Nigeria. The study focuses on Wazobia FM, a radio station in Lagos, and the first pidgin station in Nigeria. It seeks to determine whether the station’s audience engaged with the station’s programming based on its prioritisation of NigP and the linguistic identity it offers them. The study foregrounds the marginalised status of NigP within the politics of language in Nigeria. It traces the language’s evolution through popular and oppositional expressions in broadcasting and in music. It also seeks to establish the place of Pidgin English within the role that language plays in the formation of the Nigerian identity. This study thus adopts the ‘emic’ perspective, which underpins qualitative methodology, and views social life in terms of processes as opposed to static terms. The theoretical framework of this research revolves around culture, language and identity. Pertinent concepts in post-colonial studies, together with conceptual frameworks in Cultural Studies, such as popular culture, representation, hegemony and counter-culture have been used to make sense of the popularity of NigP radio stations.

The early 1990s saw a major change in the Ethiopian history in so far as Ethiopian media consumption practices was concerned. With the change of government in 1991, the ‘Iron Curtail’ prohibiting the dissemination of Western symbolic products within the country was lifted which in turn led to a surge in demand for Western predominantly American media texts. In order to supply this new demand, informal video houses showing primarily American action movies were opened in Addis Ababa. There was a significant shift in Ethiopians’ films consumption practices which were previously limited to watching films produced by socialist countries mainly the former Soviet Union. This study set out to probe reasons for the attraction of American action movies shown in video-viewing houses in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia amongst the urban unemployed male youth. Particularly, it examines how the meanings produced by and embedded in the cultural industries of the West are appropriated in the day-to-day lives of the youth. The importance of video houses as a shared male cultural space for Ethiopian unemployed youth and the watching of American action movies in this space are the main entry and focus of this study. Using qualitative methods such as observation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, the study explores what happens in this cultural space and how one makes sense of the impact of American media on local audiences. The findings of the study point to the embeddedness of viewing practice in everyday life and the importance of local contexts in understanding text-reader interaction. This is shown by the male youth’s tendency to use media messages as a mode of escape and a symbolic distancing from their lived impoverished reality. The study also seeks to highlight that the video houses as cultural space have contributed to the creation of marginal male youth identities in the Ethiopian patriarchal society. As such, these and other findings, the study argues, highlight the deficiencies of the media imperialism thesis with its definitive claims for cultural homogenisation as effect of globalisation of media. As such, this study should be read as emphasising the capability of local audience groups in Third World country like Ethiopia to construct their own meanings and thus their own local cultures and identities, even in the face of their virtually complete dependence on the image flows distributed by the transnational culture industries.

Este trabalho analisa a construção dos discursos políticos relacionados ao gaúcho e ao colono nas eleições municipais de 1996 e 2000, em Caxias do Sul. Delimitada pelos programas eleitorais da Frente Popular, a pesquisa busca demonstrar como os mitos desses dois grupos sociais estão presentes no imaginário social e acabam sendo empregados na comunicação partidária com o propósito de conquistar os eleitores. Foram analisados 20 programas da campanha da Frente Popular que, em 1996, disputou a Prefeitura de Caxias do Sul com o então deputado estadual Pepe Vargas, do PT, tendo como adversário o deputado federal Germano Rigotto, do PMDB, e, no ano de 2000, concorreu com o também deputado federal José Ivo Sartori. Para avançar nesse sentido, identificamos o processo de formação da identidade do gaúcho e do imigrante italiano e, posteriormente, a forma com que essa identidade passa a constituir o imaginário coletivo em um processo persuasivo de discurso histórico, literário e midiático. Por meio de análises antropológicas e semióticas, cujo aporte teórico baseia-se em Mircea Eliade e Roland Barthes, verificamos os significados produzidos por essas mensagens para interpretar as variações de um discurso eleitoral mitificado, que busca uma aproximação com o eleitor a partir de sua identificação com o mito. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2016-11-25T11:23:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Silvana Teresinha Tomazzoni Goncalves.pdf: 2932148 bytes, checksum: 8a94f5fe26b2ac6b2cd729ef19da83aa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-25T11:23:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Silvana Teresinha Tomazzoni Goncalves.pdf: 2932148 bytes, checksum: 8a94f5fe26b2ac6b2cd729ef19da83aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-25 / This paper analyzes the construction of political discourse related to the gaúcho (typical cowboy who lives in the southern state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul) and the colono (settler) in the 1996 and 2000 municipal elections, in Caxias do Sul. The research was delimited by the electoral programs of the Popular Front and it seeks to demonstrate how the myths of these two social groups are present in the social imaginary and end up being used in partisan communication with the purpose of winning voters. Twenty Popular Front campaign programs were analysed. These referred to the 1996 elections for the City Hall of Caxias do Sul between the State Deputy, Pepe Vargas, from PT, and the Federal deputy, Germano Rigoto, from PMDB. In the year of 2000, José ivo Sartori was the one running against Pepe Vargas. In order to move forward in this direction, we have identified the gaúcho and Italian immigrant process of identity formation and subsequently the way this identity will become the collective imagination in a persuasive process of historical, literary and media discourse. Through anthropological and semiotic analysis, whose theoretical framework is based on Mircea Eliade and Roland Barthes, we found the meanings produced by these messages to interpret the variations of a mythologized election discourse, which seeks a rapprochement with the voter based on his/her identification with the myth.

Este trabalho analisa a construção dos discursos políticos relacionados ao gaúcho e ao colono nas eleições municipais de 1996 e 2000, em Caxias do Sul. Delimitada pelos programas eleitorais da Frente Popular, a pesquisa busca demonstrar como os mitos desses dois grupos sociais estão presentes no imaginário social e acabam sendo empregados na comunicação partidária com o propósito de conquistar os eleitores. Foram analisados 20 programas da campanha da Frente Popular que, em 1996, disputou a Prefeitura de Caxias do Sul com o então deputado estadual Pepe Vargas, do PT, tendo como adversário o deputado federal Germano Rigotto, do PMDB, e, no ano de 2000, concorreu com o também deputado federal José Ivo Sartori. Para avançar nesse sentido, identificamos o processo de formação da identidade do gaúcho e do imigrante italiano e, posteriormente, a forma com que essa identidade passa a constituir o imaginário coletivo em um processo persuasivo de discurso histórico, literário e midiático. Por meio de análises antropológicas e semióticas, cujo aporte teórico baseia-se em Mircea Eliade e Roland Barthes, verificamos os significados produzidos por essas mensagens para interpretar as variações de um discurso eleitoral mitificado, que busca uma aproximação com o eleitor a partir de sua identificação com o mito. / This paper analyzes the construction of political discourse related to the gaúcho (typical cowboy who lives in the southern state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul) and the colono (settler) in the 1996 and 2000 municipal elections, in Caxias do Sul. The research was delimited by the electoral programs of the Popular Front and it seeks to demonstrate how the myths of these two social groups are present in the social imaginary and end up being used in partisan communication with the purpose of winning voters. Twenty Popular Front campaign programs were analysed. These referred to the 1996 elections for the City Hall of Caxias do Sul between the State Deputy, Pepe Vargas, from PT, and the Federal deputy, Germano Rigoto, from PMDB. In the year of 2000, José ivo Sartori was the one running against Pepe Vargas. In order to move forward in this direction, we have identified the gaúcho and Italian immigrant process of identity formation and subsequently the way this identity will become the collective imagination in a persuasive process of historical, literary and media discourse. Through anthropological and semiotic analysis, whose theoretical framework is based on Mircea Eliade and Roland Barthes, we found the meanings produced by these messages to interpret the variations of a mythologized election discourse, which seeks a rapprochement with the voter based on his/her identification with the myth.

Guided by Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study investigated the relationship between Chinese college students' use of social media and their social activism. Data collected from a goup-administered survey of 309 undergraduate students at a large university in eastern China was used to answer four research questions. The results indicated that Chinese college students who used social media for information seeking were likely to participate in individual social activism. Besides, students who used social media for self-status seeking and information seeking were likely to participate in collective social activism. No significant correlation between entertainment motivation and social activism were found. Neither can socializing motivation predict Chinese college students' social activism. In addition, gender had an impact on individual social activism and frequency of social media use could affect both individual and collective social activism.

This thesis, titled “Normative Media Theory and the Rethinking of the Role of the Kenyan Media in a Changing Social Economic Context,” is a theoretical study that discusses the role of normative media theory in shaping and guiding debate on the role of the media and attendant policy making processes in a changing Kenyan social economic context. This is done against the background of acknowledgment of the general state of flux that characterizes normative media theory in a postmodern, globalized and new media landscape. The study thus extensively describes the Kenyan media landscape, with a view to demonstrating how it has and is continuing to be transformed by a variety of developments in the social economic set up of the Kenyan society. In order to provide a theoretical basis for explaining these developments, the study then indulges in an extensive theoretical discussion that presents a synthesis of current arguments in the area of normative media theory. This discussion fundamentally brings to the fore the challenges which characterizes normative media theory in a changing social economic context and therefore the inability of traditional normative theory to account for new developments in the media and society in general. In an attempt to integrate normative media theory and practice, the study then discusses (against the backdrop of theory) the views and opinions of key role players in the Kenyan media landscape, in regard to how they perceive the role of the media. Particular attention is given, inter alia, to matters such as media ownership, media accountability processes, changing media and communication technologies, a changing constitutional landscape, the role of the government in the Kenyan media landscape, the place of African moral philosophy in explaining the role of the media in Kenya, and the growth of local language radio. Finally, on the bases of theory, experiences from other parts of the world and the views of key role players in the Kenyan media landscape, the study presents several normative guidelines on how normative theory and media policy making in Kenya could meet each other, taking into account the changes occasioned by globalization and the new media landscape. These proposals are essentially made to enrich general debate on the role of the media in Kenya, as well as attendant media policy making efforts. / Communication / D.Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Reality television programming chronicling the daily workings of multiple birth families within American culture has gained notoriety in recent years. Such programs, especially Discovery Health and TLC's 17, 18 Kids and Counting and TLC's Jon and Kate Plus Ei8ht, film, edit and broadcast the "everyday" life of these families. This research study focuses attention on hegemonic ideologies surrounding family values, motherhood, gender roles and religious faith, illuminated through textual and audience analysis. Working from an interdisciplinary approach combining feminist media and cultural studies, this study finds that hegemonic notions of family values, gender representations, religious faith and conceptions of motherhood are evident to varying degrees in the television texts and accepted by fans who negotiate their meanings online. / by Emily M. CIttadino. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Mass Effect is a Science Fiction/Action Role Playing/Third Person Shooter video game series that takes place in the year 2183, in which the player assumes control of Commander Shepard. Players can choose to customize the character based on his/her gender, appearance, sexual orientation, background origin and occupation. The choices that show up in the game are also based on how the player wants their version of Shepard to interact with other characters and allows players some leeway to shape their own narrative. The series also discusses and acknowledges issues of race, gender, subjecthood and sovereignty, politics and sexual orientation within its narrative. This analysis focuses on the text of the series and its implications concerning hegemonic reinforcement and/or resistance in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, politics, and warfare tactics. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection