A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Technology: Fine Arts, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / This study seeks to examine the exponential growth of social media technology as a key component in recent American political campaigning, as well as its use and impact on the larger disciplines of marketing and branding. Adopting the approach of a case study with the focus firmly on the current American president, Barack Obama, the study identifies the key media and technologies used in the build-up to the 2008 American presidential elections in order to unpack and understand how such media channels, technological platforms and patterns were successfully utilised. References are also made to the concepts of ‘branding’ and ‘super branding’ in the discussion, and to the myriad ways in which social media has helped create and roll-out what has since become commonly known as ‘brand Obama’. To provide a framework for the discussion and in order to further understand the rapid growth and proliferation of social media on the political campaigning landscape, a comparison is made with the 2004 American presidential election campaign. This, it is posited, will assist us understand the drivers of new media technologies especially as they are used to create and impact positively on the growth of political super brands.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the role of political elites in addressing the problem of why a durable peace has eluded Israeli Palestine. A theoretical background study was made on the articulation of identity within a civilization. This established identity formation as a political process. To see how the manipulation of the structure within which identity formation processes take place, six critical indicators were identified. These are: Manufacturing conditions of underdevelopment; Un-integrated social and political systems, and distributive injustice; Fostering cleavages, stereotypical images and political symbolism; Placing issues under the 'sign of security'; The production of insecurity through the manipulation of identity formation processes; and Monopolising the conflict resolution process. Political elite creation and perpetuation of structures for conflict shows an inherent inability to bring about a lasting peace in a protracted social conflict for conflict has become the source, rather than the outcome of policy formation. As a result this thesis calls for a more inclusive approach to conflict resolution, one that goes beyond the processes of arbitration, mediation, negotiation and facilitation, to include conciliation at grass roots level between civilizations, sincerely exploring the underlying emotional legacies of fear, hatred, sorrow and mistrust. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op die rol gespeel deur politieke elites in die voortslepende vraagstuk rondom vrede in Israel/Palestina. 'n Teoretiese agtergrondstudie is onderneem om die uitdrukking van 'n samelewing oftewel volksidentiteit te ondersoek. Die studie het laat blyk dat identiteitsformulering 'n politieke proses is. Om waar te neem hoe die manipulasie van die struktuur waarbinne identiteitsformulering plaasvind, is ses kritiese indikators geïdentifiseer, te wete: die skepping van toestande vir onderontwikkeling; ongeïntegreerde sosiale en politieke sisteme en ongelyke verdeling van welvaart; doelbewuste voortsetting van etniese verskille, stereotipering en politieke simbolisme; plasing van kwessies onder die vaandel van "sekuriteit"; die produksie van "onsekerheid" deur die manipulasie van identiteitsformulering prosesse; en die manipulasie van konflik resolusie prosedures. Skepping en doelbewuste voortsetting van strukture vir konflik deur politieke elites dui op 'n onvermoë om langdurige vrede in 'n 'uitgerekte sosiale konflik' te bewerkstellig. Konflik het die oorsprong, eerder as die uitkoms van beleid geword. As gevolg van hierdie feite doen die tesis 'n beroep dat konflik resolusie as dissipline 'n meer inklusiewe benadering volg. Die resolusie prosesse van mediasie, arbitrasie, fasilitering en onderhandeling is opsigself nie genoeg nie en behoort vergesel te word deur die proses van konsiliasie op grondvlak tussen samelewings. Hierdie proses moet deel vorm van 'n opregtheid om mense se vrese, haat, seer en wantroue met ootmoed aan te hoor.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Race has been used as an instrument of domination and separation of the South African population for a long time. The dawn of the democratic dispensation in 1994marked a shift from the policy of racial separation to the creation of the non-racial democratic South Africa. However, political parties in this country have constantly re-politicised race in the post apartheid era mainly for political gain. The purpose of this study will be to describe, explain and analyse how political parties in South Africa use the crisis in Zimbabwe to racialise politics in this country. The study will show that the dilemma facing political parties in South Africa is that they cannot avoid focusing on racial issues. The focus is on four main political parties, the ANC, the PAC, the NNP and the DA. The study specifically looked at the following issues in Zimbabwe: the Land crisis, the 2003 March presidential elections and the economic crisis to see how they have influenced political discourse in South Africa. As anticipated, predominantly black parties have shown some empathy with Robert Mugabe's government, while predominantly white parties have called for a more confrontational measure against Mugabe's government. Nonetheless, this study found no conclusive evidence to suggest that the crisis in Zimbabwe has fuelled race conflict in this country. But that race is politicised by parties in South Africa for political gain. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In Apartheld-Suid-Afrika was rasse verskille gebruik as 'n instrument van onderdrukking en skeiding van die bevolking. Met die totstandkoming van demokrasie in 1994 het 'n verskuiwing van 'n rasse-beleid na 'n nie-rassige, demokratiese Suid-Afrika gelei. Politieke partye politiseer egter steeds ras in post-Apartheid Suid-Afrika vir politieke gewin. Die doel van hierdie studie is om te beskryf, verduidelik en te analiseer hoe politieke partye die krisis in Zimbabwe gebruik om politiek in Suid-Afrika steeds gebonde ras te hou. Hierdie studis al aandui dat politieke partye in Suid-Afrika nie die fokus van ras identiteite kan vermy nie. 'n Moontlike rede hiervoor is dat politieke partye in Suid-Afrika 'nsolidariteit met hul kiesers wil behou. Die studie fokus op vier van die mees prominente politieke partye in Suid-Afrika naamlik: ANC, PAC, NNP en die DA. Om elke party se stand-punt op hierdie onderwerp te verstaan, gaan die studie fokus op die volgende punte in Zimbabwe: grondhervorming, die 2003Presidensiële verkiesing en die impak wat die ekonomiese krisis in Zimbabwe op die politieke gebied gehad het. Soos verwag, het partye met histories oorheersende swart oortuigings empatie met Robert Mugabe se regering betoon. Mugabe word gesien as 'n slagoffer van onsimpatieke wit settelaars wat vasklou aan hul eertydse voorregte. Terwyloorwegende wit partye vra vir strenger optrede teenoor die regering van Robert Mugabe. Nie te min, het hierdie studie geen uitsluitende bewyse gevind wat aandui dat die krisis in Zimbabwe konflik rasse in Suid- Afrika aangespoor het nie. Dit is egter belangrik om in ag te neem dat die politisering van ras grootliks deur partye gebruik word om ondersteuning te werf.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This paper aimed to analyse the impact of power sharing on democracy. The paper also compared the approach of Burundi and Rwanda in their constitutions to the concept of power sharing.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies, Johannesburg, July 2017 / This thesis analyses the representation of the nationalisation of mines debate, as a developmental policy discourse, by the South African corporate media. Essentially, the objective is to ascertain the corporate media’s role and influence on ideology-laden developmental policy discourses. Post-apartheid, the South African corporate media has often been accused of bias by various social actors, including South Africa’s governing party – the African National Congress. These accusations have been accompanied by perceptions of the media’s inability and unwillingness to partner with government in its endeavour to implement its developmental agenda. This perceived bias is accentuated when it comes to ideologically laden issues such as nationalisation. Therefore, this research study grapples, inter alia, with questions behind the drivers of these perceptions, the manner in which the media portrays the developmental policy discourse, and the role the media should be playing in the country’s developmental agenda. In its endeavour to respond to some of these questions, the research study thus focuses on the representation of the nationalisation of mines debate by the South African English corporate press in 2011. Given the complex nature of the discourse, the research study utilises both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; triangulation in particular presents this thesis with numerous advantages towards attaining deeper understanding of the representation of the nationalisation discourse. Whereas quantitative content analysis helps identify and count the number of articles and related elements in the articles, qualitative content analysis offers a chance to probe further various elements in the discourse. In-depth semi-structured interviews are also used as a secondary research technique to discover new clues on the discourse. The research study is based on one major assumption – that structural factors such as ownership and control influence the representation of ideological policy discourses such as nationalisation – and is underpinned by four major theoretical frameworks – the critical political economy of communication; Marxist media analysis; social production of news; and decolonial theories. To comprehensively analyse the representation of nationalisation, the research study focuses on content analysis of news articles, looking at various aspects such as the structure of news as well as its headlines, sources and the general representation of the discourse; utilises theories of the critical political economy of the media and other related theories such as the social production of news and Marxist media analysis to perform qualitative content analysis; scrutinises economic factors in line with the assumption of the study that structural factors influence the representation of the discourse by using the Marxist theories to unpack the representation of nationalisation; and utilises Marxist theories in conjunction with decolonial theories. Among the findings of the research study presented in this thesis is that global capitalism, accompanied by factors such as commercialisation and advertising, influences the representation of ideologically laden policymaking discourses. Ownership and transformation of the corporate media also shape the representation. In this discourse there is convergence, and thus it is apparent that the media plays a pivotal role in reproducing dominant ideology which fundamentally maintains capitalism as “an inevitable and immutable” system. Also, the relationship between the state and media relations is a factor in ideological developmental discourses. Indeed, the representation of the nationalisation discourse is essentially a reflection of the corporate media’s posture towards the broader developmental state and its portrayal of ideologically laden policy discourses. / XL2018

A Research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree Masters in History of Arts at the University of Witwatersrand, 2017 / This research report has followed three periods in the history of the political struggle for freedom in South Africa, from the height of the Anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s to the present day by way of exploring three exhibitions of resistance posters as case studies. It is located in the realm of political and art history. Looking at the positioning of the resistance poster in South African art history, the intension is to highlight how these exhibitions have used display strategies to construct values reflected in the resistance poster. The three selected exhibitions are as follows: firstly, Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective (2008), Second is the exhibition Images of Defiance: South African poster of the 1980’s (2004). And the third exhibition Interruptions: Posters from the Community Arts Project Archive (2014). / XL2018

這項研究探討信息科技在中國的技術政治。研究試圖書寫電子計算機作為一種新的電子信息科技在中國早期設置過程的技術政治社會史，並在理論層面上尝试构建一個拓展了的「技術、社會、與勞動」的進路。源於冷戰的地緣政治結構，不像韓國、台灣、或香港等其他亞洲國家和地區 ，在1980年代改革開放以前，中國大陸的計算機工業已經經歷了近30年（1955-1984）連續且激進的獨立發展。特別需要指出的是，中國社會主義時代的計算機發展不僅僅是爲了滿足冷戰中的國防需要和技術民族主義意識形態下社會動員的需要，同時高度嵌入了有關階級政治和技術哲學的社會主義「社會實驗」當中。而隨著文革群眾運動的終結和中國的「改革開放」，鄧小平為首的國家決策層爲了回應來自外部的壓力和來自社會主義內部的危機，用實用主義的技術發展觀取代了社會主義的技術民主實踐。1984年，隨著阿尔文.托夫勒（Alvin Toffler）的《第三次浪潮》（The Third Wave）風靡中國大陸，革命中國的計算機工業和技術政策逐步被隨新自由主義全球化而來的「信息社會」和「矽谷模式」所取代。 / 作為一個技術和文化的雙重物件，電子計算機及其衍生科技（臺式計算機、筆記本電腦、智慧手機、平板電腦等）是理解當代資本主義生產、消費、與勞動關係的指標性科技。然而在社會主義中國的革命現代化進程中，它卻曾經一度拐入了一條另類的發展路徑。中國的信息化（informationalization）或曰計算機化（computerization）過程中的技術路線鬥爭和轉型是如何發生的，這一進程與中國「從毛到鄧」的獨特現代化道路之間是怎樣的關係？時至今日，批判的傳播研究對這段歷史依然所知甚少。本文試圖重訪這個歷史轉折，探查計算機在中國的早期技術政治史。通過追蹤關鍵的歷史事件、人物、思潮、和政策，論文試圖探尋冷戰架構下東西方技術政治之間的交鋒，如何在被計算機仲介的生產與勞動關係中顯影。從這個「閃回」中得到的知識，有助我們將對今日中國信息產業和信息勞動的理解，重新納入中國革命現代性的潮起潮落之中。 / This paper traces the political and social history for the installation process of digital technology in China, in order to shed light on the ways in which computer interacted with the transformation of Chinese socialism. Due to geopolitical structure of the Cold War, unlike other East Asian countries, before 1980s China had developed its independent computer industry for more than 30 years. This development was not just under the rubric of techno-nationalism, which mainly helps to fulfill military and national defense aims, but also embedded into proletariat political debates. Maoist China developed a dialectical approach to technology, in which the most powerful productive power is the revolutionary proletariat class per se, not the machine or technology. So the process of socialist technology development, like the process of socialist culture and arts development is also a dialectical process, which must follow mass line to not just develop productive force, but also transform production relations and create socialist subjectivity. Instead, the post-Mao leadership under Deng Xiaoping responded to external Cold War pressures and the profound internal crises of state socialism by a massive market-oriented "reform and open-up" process. It is during the same period that the self-reliant computer industry system was replaced step-by-step by a western-oriented system, signified by the popularity of Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave. In this context, computer became a machine for labor control and scientific management, no longer a machine for people’s emancipation. / With a focus on technology politics of computer in China during 1955-1984, this study examines how the concept of computer was introduced into the country and conceived by key players at the time, how such discourses led to the production and consumption of computer by different actors, and how this process triggered the transformation of hegemony and practice related to computer-mediated labor relationship, and finally how such a historical formation was conditioned by the post-cold war structure in East Asia, as well as struggles between Maoist socialist legacy and transborder neo-liberalism ethic. This dissertation revisits this transformation, traces its Key Figures and several historical moments, which shows debates and struggles on computer as the articulation of technology and class politics. Reflections from this flashback will rehistorize China’s working-class formation in its electronic industry nowadays into the ebbs and flows of China’s revolutionary modernity. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 王洪喆. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 336-360). / Abstracts also in English. / Wang Hongzhe.

研究以湖南省松糖事件为例，分析中国农民的抗征地对中央政府信任的影响。研究认为，征地形式、上访过程获取的信息及其上访结果都会影响对中央的信任水平。具体来说，研究有三个主要观点：第一，相比公共项目征地、参与式征地和不威胁生存安全的征地，商业项目征地、命令式征地以及威胁生存安全的征地形式会更容易导致上访。在这些征地中，抗争者提出的诉求由于超越了相关的政策法律因此很难得到地方政府的满足。第二，上访过程中农民对中央信任的变化分为三个阶段：首先，抗争者将中央与其以下政府区别开来，并对中央保持着高水平的信任；接着，多次的进京上访使抗争者获取了有关中央的信息，包括中央已经了解了他们的问题并且这些问题值得重视；最后，失败的抗争结果导致对中央能力和意图的信任同时下降。第三，对中央信任的下降并不一定会导致公民选举要求的提出，这是因为传统的政治文化和无效的村庄选举使农民的政治效能感维持在低水平。 / Drawing on the data from the Song-tang incident in Hunan province, the research examines the influences of resistance to land expropriation in rural China on political trust in the central government. The study argues that forms of land expropriation, information gained through petitioning and outcomes of petitioning have influences on trust in the center. Specifically, there are three main arguments. Firstly, compared with land expropriation for public use, in participatory manners, and without negative influences on living security, land expropriation for commercial use, in imperative manners, and with negative influences on living security is more likely to cause petitioning. In the three forms of land expropriation, claims are hardly satisfied by local governments since they have surpassed the state rules. Secondly, during petitioning trust in the center changes in three phases: at the beginning, resisters distinguish the center from lower-level governments and retain high-level trust in the center. Secondly, activists gain increasing information about the center during times of petitioning to Beijing. They realize that the center has known their grievances, which are also worth its attention. Finally, failure of resistances results in decline of trust in the center’s capacity as well as trust in its commitment. Thirdly, the declined trust in the center does not necessarily imply the demand for popular elections. Due to traditional political culture and ineffective village elections, political efficacy of the farmers remains at a low level. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 劉靜平. / Parallel title from English abstract. / Thesis (M.Phil.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-65). / Abstracts also in English. / Liu Jingping.