This study sought to determine how Twitter affected political mobilisation and civic engagement in Zimbabwe from 2015 to 2020. Zimbabwe's competitive authoritarian regime has over the years restricted access to mainstream media platforms, leaving members of the opposition and most civic organisations with no recourse but to resort to social media platforms such as Twitter for purposes of political mobilisation and civic engagement. The research questions were: How did Zimbabwean political actors, namely ZANU-PF, MDC formations, Build Zimbabwe, National People's Party, Independent candidates and ordinary citizens use Twitter for political engagement from 2015 to 2020? To what extent has Twitter influenced political mobilisation in Zimbabwe from 2015 to 2020? What examples are there of successful civic engagement through Twitter in Zimbabwe from 2015 to 2020? A thematic analysis of tweets from political parties that contested the 2018 elections, politicians, civic organisations and private citizens was carried out. Eight themes were identified, four measuring political mobilisation and four measuring civic engagement. For political mobilisation the themes were, engaging ZANU-PF, engaging MDC Alliance, sanctions, and corruption. For civic engagement the themes were focusing on humanitarian aid or causes, personal exchanges, provocative or gaslighting tweets, and human rights or legal issues. Findings indicate that Twitter, has several affordances that result in socio-political influences. Twitter empowers opposition parties and citizens in Zimbabwe. It constitutes a collaborative space on which different political parties pursue common objectives. The accumulation of information and conversations makes Twitter a historical database with verification capabilities. Furthermore, as Zimbabweans have been using Twitter to connect with specific issues and online communities, it has served as an endorsement and/or verification platform. The multiplicity of voices and opinions have made Twitter a marketplace of ideas. By enabling certain individuals or issues to gain prominence, Twitter has become a snowball amplifier of events and issues. Twitter creates boundless, extended or international communities as political actors and citizens across international boundaries have centralised or focused debates. Several opposition politicians, civic organisations and citizens have relied on Twitter to spread information and influence mainstream media channels in what exemplifies a phenomenal ‘Twitter effect'. The political persecution, lawfare and suspension of Twitter accounts has demonstrated how Twitter can be an ephemeral, mutating and transient platform. These metaphoric categories all demonstrate how Twitter serves as an alternative public sphere in Zimbabwe, a potent forum for subaltern counter publics.

A relatively small, but highly visible group of South Africans believe that farm attacks/murders (and other crimes against whites) constitute a targeted ‘white genocide'. Their beliefs have found support and corroboration in various online spaces, but especially within ‘alternative news' Facebook pages. This case study is used as an opportunity to apply a sociotechnical model of media effects to a very real disinformation problem that continues to inflame race relations in South Africa. Three pivotal questions are addressed, relating to (1) how Facebook users on farm attack/murder-focused pages engage with problematic information (fake news) and why; (2) the qualitative and affordance/format-related themes of posts with the highest share counts on these pages; and (3) the common themes of discourse used in defensive responses to social corrections of false information. Findings suggest that South Africa's ‘white genocide' problem is more deep-set than other more ephemeral ‘fake news' stories, especially due to stark racial and political dichotomies, reflected by the post comment sections herein. Group identities and cognitive biases work to sustain the disproportional media ‘spectacle' of gratuitous farm attacks/murders against white South Africans, and leverage Facebook's platform affordances to do so.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-173). / This work investigates the meanings coloured people derive from media representations of' colouredness'. To position coloured identity in post apartheid South Africa, it pays close attention to the ways apartheid stereotypes play themselves out in particularly television media today. It looks at representations of working class coloured identities and asks for a shift in representations which undervalue that identity. Since this research focuses on both an analysis of television content and reception analysis amongst the women of the Cape Flats community of Hanover Park, a working class coloured community, it cannot be removed from questions about the existence of coloured identitity. It argues that despite the apartheid imposition of the label it exists in as much as there are those who identify with the label, and therefore give it meaning. This meaning is complicated by working class identities. In looking at the meanings these women derive, negotiate and construct from these narratives, it highlights the impact of gender roles and class not only on the act of reception but the creative processes of meaning generation. This work does not limit itself to a television analysis but also looks at print media in the tabloid, the Daily Voice, since it speaks to a specific working class, coloured market, and highlights its representation of coloured identities. Lastly, there has always existed a cultural link between coloured and African American identities. While recent scholars highlight the importance of this link based on identification with black Diasporas occurring within the coloured community, this work argues that this identification could have negative repercussions. It problematizes the representation of African American masculinities, but more importantly, draws similarities between the representations of coloured women in the soap opera narratives and oppressive caricatures of African American women. It shows that these caricatures have been commercialized through the hip hop genre, questioning the potential for similar images of coloured identity to be normalized and therefore problematizes coloured identification with this American product.

Popular notions of "net generations" and "digital natives" have already been subject to sustained academic critique. This dissertation builds on such critiques by documenting the local practices and distinctive mobile literacies of a group of young people in South Africa. These young people (ages 13-17, n=18) were asked how they were learning about and using ICTs. The sample lived in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, and were members of a non-profit youth development organisation, Ikamva Youth, participating in beginner coding classes. This study explored what they had already learned about ICTs from their networks of close interpersonal relationships (n=133) and asked them how they felt about their own ICT knowledge, as well as the ICT skills of those around them. Unlike their wealthier counterparts, such young people do not have ubiquitous Internet connectivity, ease of access to consumer electronics or many opportunities to learn about computers in particular. Yet, rather than being stuck on the wrong side of a 'digital divide' or waiting passively for government to fulfil broken promises about digital literacy in schools, they were actively pursuing knowledge about ICTs and mobiles in particular. They demonstrated distinctive 'mobile-centric' repertoires, fostered through learning about ICTs from their strong ties. This gave rise to a distinctive mobile youth culture, shaped by race, class, and gender dynamics. Gendered biases and preoccupations, peer networks and technicities were particularly important. While this allows many creative and strategic appropriations of mobile technology, it also means that largely homophilous informal learning networks in part set the bounds of their learning. When most of what you're learning comes from your friends, it really matters who those friends are. Unsurprisingly, gaps in their digital literacies were apparent. In particular, their ability to fully participate in modern digital publics is curtailed. It remains essential to provide formal opportunities for young people to learn about ICTs at school, but also informally via a larger network of interpersonal relationships and communities of practice such as Ikamva Youth. Mobile technology presents many opportunities and suggests new approaches to digital literacy. Nonetheless, it seems likely that, given difficulties in accessing high status ICTs and bridging capital in particular, access and knowledge gaps will continue to disadvantage such young people.

The study concludes that there is still lack of media freedom in Swaziland under the new constitutional dispensation. Its significant finding is that the lack of media freedom is a consequence of constitutional, legal and extra-legal constraints.

Over the past 15 years, there has been limited research regarding gender and journalism in a South African context. Existing research implies that there is almost complete gender balance across all media. Yet, despite the gender parity in the workforce, women are underrepresented in senior and key decision-making positions, indicating that a glass ceiling still exists for female journalists in South Africa. Furthermore, newsrooms are still dominated by patriarchal practices, norms and values. This study investigated the representation of female journalists in South African daily newspapers via one case study: the Cape Times. It shed light on what type of stories female journalists report on in comparison to their male colleagues and identified patterns in female reporting. The study also investigated how transformative policies may have affected newsrooms. Further, attention was paid to the female voice in the print media in terms of the use of female sources and women as the subject of news stories. The data for this study was generated through a content analysis and interview research. The content analysis was conducted on articles of the Cape Times newspaper and was based on three research questions regarding representation, female voice in the media and topic assignment/ contribution. As part of the interview research, in-depth informant interviews were conducted with female journalists and editors; the aim was to collect industry insight and opinions regarding the representation of female journalists and female voices in South African newspapers. The study revealed that the assignment of stories has been characterised by constant fluctuations over the past 20 years. It became apparent that effort is put into gender balance not only when it comes to the representation of journalists, but also the assignment of beats. However, the study indicated a significant difference between the representation of female journalists and the female voice in the print media. It also highlighted issues of gender inequality in reporting. The study revealed that while South Africa's newsrooms might be progressing towards gender balance, patriarchal structures and views are still embedded in the print media. These findings are congruent with the existing academic literature. This research further revealed that structures and issues of the newsroom or the media reflect issues and structures of South African society. Past research in a South African context has been very limited, making this study one of a few of its kind and its findings are indicative for other print media, filling a gap in the literature.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Representation is fluid;symbolism changes between eras and between news channels. From the negativity of Afro-pessimism and threatening connotations of tribes and rampant warfare, to the notion of untouched wilderness, abundant natural resources, and financial miracles in recent years, Africa has many representations within the media. Sadly, many Africans argue, Western media practitioners tend to present "fatalistic and selectively crude" (Kromah, 2002) representations of Africa, portraying a large and diverse continent as homogeneous (Hammett, 2010), if they represent African realities at all (Golan, 2008). With the FIFA 2010 World Cup held for the first time on the African continent, the Western media spotlight was fixed firmly on South Africa for over a month of continuous, rolling reporting on Western and non-Western news channels. Did this journalism re-engender old stereotypes, symbolism, and language? This study scrutinises five rolling news channels to analyse that very issue, and adds depth and empirical evidence to an under-researched area.

This dissertation aims to explore how user-generated fashion content within the specific online community of Lookbook.nu is influenced by a set of underlying ideologies, such as beauty, power and gender to create specific and homogenous fashion identities in line with mainstream fashion trends, and which inform users' formation of identity within the structure of a community space. The aim of identifying the ideologies at play on the web site is to raise an awareness of how an individual's identity is influenced by others within his or her community space, even if that community happens to reside online. Furthermore, the means that inform the structures found on the community web site as well as the way in which the ideologies operate to maintain a certain criteria and level of fashion generated by users will be discussed in relation to identity formation. To determine how Lookbook users' perceive and portray identities on the site, semiology and multimodal discourse analysis were employed. It is important to keep in mind that while the media content in this thesis is as current as possible and while a great deal of content still exists on Lookbook, the platform is continuously evolving with new additions to its terms of use, mediums of access and overall design.

Word processed copy. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-137). / In this thesis, Lukas Opatrny studies the reasons for and implications of the demise of the South African alternative press, from the 1980s, after the end of apartheid. The concept of this press carried important democratic values, which contributed to media diversity, but when the 1990s ushered in the democratic era, theses 'alternative' ideals were lost along with the whole alternative press sector. ... A close analysis of [the] demise of Grassroots and the survival of the Weekly Mail/Mail & Guardian forms the basis of this study and serves to illuminate the conditions prevalent amongst the other alternative publications, which are examined more briefly.

The purpose of this study is to explore young people's radio listening habits in a time of radio convergence in South Africa. This study explores how the radio listening practices of youth studying and living in a township, for example Khayelitsha, differ from the practices of those who attend school in an urban area, for example Rondebosch, and acknowledging the University of Cape Town as a 'grey area' where diverse youth come together, by comparing Humanities and Science students. Drawing on Bourdieu's theories of capital, the study argues that various issues related to Internet access in South Africa, including communicative ecology, the historical background, and 'cultural capital' (Bourdieu, 1986; 1990), make the radio listening experience different for different groups, and strongly influence young people's radio listening habits. This argument is contextualized in relation to radio convergence which is seen through the use of social networking sites by radio stations, young people and people at large, and focusing especially on the growth of online-only radio with evidence of it being accessible to those that have access to the Internet. Furthermore, this study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the uses and gratifications as well as the social and individualistic act of radio listening, and the phenomenon of online-only radio. This study analyses the online radio stations Assembly Radio, CliffCentral and Ballz Visual Radio as case studies to show the dynamics of this medium, specifically highlighting programming, revenue, access to stations, and the reasoning behind their conception. In conclusion, the study argues that radio convergence should not be viewed as an erosion of the nature of traditional radio, but rather argues for convergence as an extension of the medium.