This study examines the home as a context of viewing for the television programme Intersexions in the township of Ginsberg in the Eastern Cape. The central question asked is whether the household influences the interpretation of the programme. The research was mainly conducted through ethnographical methods of participant observation and focus group interviews. Six families were observed and six gender-based focus groups convened. Drawing from the work of Morley (1986) and Lull (1990) that argues that the home be taken more seriously as a context of viewing; this study posits that the home is a rule-bound micro-society that influences the interpretation of media messages. As a starting point, this study contends with the arguments that the South African government has been slow to acknowledge the extent of the problem presented by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Much has been written about the inefficiency of state efforts to educate the public, with some pundits suggesting that government communications strategies have largely been outdated and thus resisted by audiences (Treffry-Goatley, Mahlinza & Imrie, 2013). To counter the pandemic, a large number of independent educational television serials have been launched in South Africa, and met with popular appeal since 1994. Furthermore, this development is in line with global trends of high audience ratings for Entertainment- Education (EE) programmes (Singhal et al., 1993). To investigate complex issue of EE reception by audiences in this burgeoning area of study, the programme at the centre of this study, Intersexions, is a good example. The serial, which concluded its second season in August 2013, is second to only the established soap opera, Generations, in television ratings in South Africa. Therefore, the impressive ratings garnered by educational serials in South Africa are a chance for audience studies to study audiences in context. This research investigates Intersexions using the understanding that television audiences must be analysed in "cultural and historic specific" sites because the struggle to make meanings of texts takes place at the moment when the text and subject meet (Fiske, 1987). This research investigates the assumption that the meanings made by audiences depend not just on the text, but also on environment. This means that the research delves into the situational context in which media are used and interpreted. Therefore, the central aim of this study is to analyse television viewing of the entertainment education programme, Intersexions, in the natural setting of the home, which is in line with analysing television viewers in cultural and historically specific sites.

This study examines the impact of a health education film, Chumo, in Dar es Salaam on knowledge about malaria in pregnancy. Specifically, the study examines the meanings that the selected audiences make after watching the film. Drawing on the tradition of ‘reception studies’, the data for this study was generated through focus group discussions. These discussions were preceded by thematic analysis of the film and its script. An analysis of the audiences’ responses reveals that Chumo, mostly, successfully conveyed new knowledge about malaria in pregnancy, and reinforced existing knowledge bases about the disease. The audiences were able to ‘decipher’ most of the preferred meanings (of the producers) with regard to the disease, particularly in relation to the transmission of the disease and its prevention in pregnant woman. For example, the analysis indicates that both women and men become more aware of the importance of attending antenatal care sessions at local clinics (hereafter ANC). An interesting finding is that men, mostly, expressed a reluctance to attend ANC with their wives because they fear having to undergo HIV/AIDS testing. Men also expressed the sentiment that attending ANC is a women’s responsibility. The discussion groups also raised issues about the use of insecticide-treated nets - some people believe that using them will affect their health because of the chemicals used to treat the nets. From the reception analysis, various other meanings and themes, relating to the choice of storylines and gender stereotypes used in the story, were raised in discussion. The study attempted to assess whether the storyline was advantageous in conveying the core educational messages, or if some elements of the storyline either ‘got in the way’ or reinforced gender roles in ways that may or may not be helpful in terms of combatting malaria in pregnancy. The study also found that Chumo stimulated interpersonal communication, which may trigger behaviour change. It can be demonstrated, at least for the participants in these focus groups, that the film motivated positive attitudes towards behaviour change, i.e. created at least some intention to change. However, interpersonal communication and attitude to change are not, of course, actual change of behaviour: these elements only indicate the possibility of behaviour change in the future. Further study needs to be undertaken to explore whether the actual change took place and whether the change is a result of the exposure to Chumo.

The main goal of this thesis was an investigation into the ways in which whiteness is constructed and positioned in the South African soap opera, 7de Laan, and the Flemish soap opera, Thuis, with the emphasis on the possible implications of these constructions for local as well as global discourses on whiteness in the media. In conjunction with the above, this thesis endeavoured to answer a number of subquestions relating to the origin and history of the construct of “whiteness” and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) as a theoretical approach and its relevance in the South African and Flemish contexts, specifically as it pertains to the analysis of mass media texts like 7de Laan and Thuis. It, moreover, sought to explore if and how whiteness functions as an organising principle in the narratives and representations of these soap operas with the emphasis on potential similarities, differences and the kinds of whiteness constructed in these texts. Finally, the goal was to draw conclusions on the possible implications of these differences and similarities in the wider context of the way in which whiteness functions in the media. To that end I conducted a controlled case comparison of a sample from these two community soap opera texts, which was informed by a literature review and deep description of each context as part of the qualitative approach I chose to take. Despite a number of similarities between the two contexts, they still differ significantly, and this afforded me an opportunity to highlight both the consistencies and particularities in the ideological patterning of representations of whiteness, across seemingly unrelated domains, to illustrate its pervasiveness. Added to the emergence of three shared rhetorical devices perpetuating whiteness in both texts, I was also able to draw conclusions about the unique way in which whiteness functions in 7de Laan in particular, since South Africa remains the primary context of the study. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Framing theory is one of the most used theories in the discussion of media effects on how people make sense of issues, especially in the political environment. Although it is majorly used for the discussion of news media, framing theory can also be applied in other areas surrounding media production. This thesis uses this theory to discuss how presidents are framed in fiction and implications of race and gender in the assessment of presidential characters by analyzing Fox’s fictional drama 24. Although at first the show seems to bring new options for the presidency, the analysis points Presidents Palmer and Taylor as unfit for office and President Logan as unethical and power-hungry. Following Entman’s (1993) process for analyzing frames in media, embedded white male hegemony was identified in the show. As the show presented a postfeminist and postracial world, it continued to frame femininity and blackness as the opposite to effective executive leadership. Further, white masculinity was associated with power, ambition and ultimately corruption. As other races and gender were pointed as unfit, the status quo was questioned as being corrupt. The show both increases the cynicism that people may develop against politics and damages a more proper consideration of women and people of color to be elected president.