A large number of professional articles or academic works have been written about the series Sex in the City, but none of them directly dealt with the impact of the series on their fans. From an empirical point of view, the diploma thesis Research of the Perception of the Influence of the Cult Series HBO Sex in the City on its Viewers is a qualitative analysis. It is examined opinions of the series' viewers on various aspects of the series and also their motivation to watch such media content are examined through in-depth interviews. In the qualitative analysis, the author focuses mainly on the phenomena such as gender stereotyping, consumer lifestyle (product placement in the series) or, for instance, the postfeminist tone of the series itself. The inspiration for this thesis was the work of Ien Ang, who also focused on fans of the cult series Dallas in her researches and tried to interpret the success of this phenomenon through qualitative research.

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efforts to educate the public, with some pundits suggesting that government communications strategies have largely been outdated and thus resisted by audiences (Treffry-Goatley, Mahlinza & Imrie, 2013).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.

Hierdie proefskrif is 'n verkennende ondersoek na kykers se interpretasie van die seep-opera Egoli - Piek van Goud. Die basiese vertrekpunt van die studie is die teks-leserontmoeting waar gelyke status aan die boodskap ('n teks) en die ontvanger ('n kyker) gegee word. Uit so 'n ontmoeting ontstaan kykers se interpretasies. Die tweeledige ondersoek plaas die proefskrif binne die teoretiese en metodologiese raamwerk van resepsiestudie om die komplekse interaksie tussen 'n teks en die ontvanger te ondersoek. Die twee komponente word binne spesifieke historiese en kulturele kontekste geplaas, te wete die veranderende politieke en ideologiese klimaat in Suid-Afrika asook die sosio-kulturele en politieke kontekste van die deelnemers. Die deelnemers van hierdie studie is groepe bruin-, swart- en witvroue. Groeponderhoude (fokusgroepe) is met ses groepe vroue tydens hul etensuur by die werkplek gevoer. Die onderhoude is rondom die volgende temas gestruktureer: romanse, identifikasie, parasosiale interaksie, sosiale interaksie, intertekstualiteit en Egoli as 'n forum vir die uitbeelding van Suid-Afrikaanse werklikhede. Kykers se interpretasie van die temas is ontleed aan die hand van referensiele, onderhandelde en kritiese interpretasierame. Daar is gevind dat die verskillende kultuurgroepe in 'n groat mate dieselfde interpretasierame gebruik in hul interpretasie van die verskillende temas. Die opvallendste verskil tussen die groepe is die wyse waarop die deelnemers die tema Egoli as 'n forum vir die uitbeelding van die SuidAfrikaanse werklikhede vertolk: as gevolg van verskillende sosio-kulturele en politieke omstandighede in Suid-Afrika het die deelnemers waarskynlik interpretasierame ontwikkel wat aan daardie omstandighede gekoppel kan word. In die studie is aangetoon dat die hermeneutiek en resepsieteorie nuttige verklarings gee van die elemente in die seep-operateks wat kykersbetrokkenheid stimuleer en die proses van interpretasie. Die proses verloop soos volg: deelnemers het bepaalde verwagtings oor 'n program; hulle moet die uitgebeelde werklikheid(e) herken en die boodskappe dan toe-eien. Hierna word boodskappe 'n kultuur binnegedra deur middel van sosiale diskoers. Die teoretiese onderbou het voorts aan die lig gebring dat deelnemers se interaksie met en interpretasie van Egoli 'n vorm van spel is. Empiriese bewyse is gevind dat die deelnemers op speelse wyse • oor karakters 'skinder'; • spekuleer oor romantiese assosiasie; • met karakters identifiseer; en • parasosiale verhoudings met karakters aanknoop. / Text in Afrikaans / This thesis is an exploratory study of viewers' interpretation of the soap opera Egoli - Place of Gold. The basic point of departure is the text-viewer encounter where equal status is given to the message (text) and the recipient (viewer). Viewers' interpretations develop from this encounter. This dichotomous investigation places the thesis within the theoretical and methodological framework of reception study where the complex interaction between a text and the recipient is examined. The two components are placed within specific historical and cultural contexts, namely the changing political and ideological climate in South Africa, as well as the socio-cultural and political contexts of the participants. The groups participating in this study consisted of coloured, black and white women. Six group interviews (focus groups) were held with these women during their lunch-hour at the workplace. The interviews were structured around the following themes: romance, identification, parasocial interaction, social interaction,intertextuality and Egoli as a forum for the portrayal of South African realities. Viewers' interpretations of these themes were analysed according to referential, negotiated and critical interpretative frames. It was largely found that the various cultural groups use the same interpretative frames to interpret the various themes. The exception was the way participants interpreted Egoli as a forum for the portrayal of South African realities: because of different socio-cultural and political circumstances in South Africa the participants may have developed interpretation frames that could be linked to these circumstances. Hermeneutics and reception theory provide useful explanations of these elements in a soap opera text that stimulate viewers' involvement and the process of interpretation. This process proceeds as follows: participants have specific expectations regarding a programme; they must recognise the realities depicted and then appropriate the messages. Thereafter messages are incorporated into a culture by means of social discourse. A further important theoretical finding was that the participants' interaction with and interpretation of Egoli takes the form of play. It was empirically determined in this study that participants playfully • speculate about romantic association; • engage in gossip about characters; • identify with characters; and • develop parasocial relationships with characters. / Summaries in English and Afrikaans / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication Science)

This thesis is about the everyday cultural practices of communal television viewing by urban kampung people. It challenges the institutional frameworks and constructs about the television audience. To achieve this, the thesis looks at the cultural context of the television set and its uses in urban kampung households and the neighbourhood system. Studies on urban kampung community in Indonesia so far have focused on the socio-economic and cultural practices of the people in relation to state ideological matters (e.g. Guinness, 1989; Sullivan, 1994; Brenner, 1998). This thesis is an attempt to extend the investigation about the cultural practices of the kampung community in relation to media use in the era of competitive private television in the early 2000s. As those kampung people have existentially engaged in fashioning their own lives neither as rural subjects nor urban/ity subjects, their narratives in responding to televised images and representations (of women in particular) shape the particularity of the cultural scene of these marginalized subjects. Taking up their social economic background and the particularities of socio-cultural circumstances of the kampung, this present study takes a close look into the day-to-day communal viewing practice of the kampung female viewers of the most-watched local program on Indonesian television, that is sinetron (television drama). / Extending the argument of Ien Ang and others into the Indonesian context, the thesis concludes that the national television audience as a unified, atomistic and controllable entity, as is institutionally imagined, does not exist. Rather, watching television, particularly among the urban middle to lower class community, is a discursive practice overwhelmingly showing the diverse, particular, and unpredictable attitudes, which challenge the account of 'the audience' that characterises the industry, the state and, ironically, also the intellectual critical knowledge producers.

Hierdie proefskrif is 'n verkennende ondersoek na kykers se interpretasie van die seep-opera Egoli - Piek van Goud. Die basiese vertrekpunt van die studie is die teks-leserontmoeting waar gelyke status aan die boodskap ('n teks) en die ontvanger ('n kyker) gegee word. Uit so 'n ontmoeting ontstaan kykers se interpretasies. Die tweeledige ondersoek plaas die proefskrif binne die teoretiese en metodologiese raamwerk van resepsiestudie om die komplekse interaksie tussen 'n teks en die ontvanger te ondersoek. Die twee komponente word binne spesifieke historiese en kulturele kontekste geplaas, te wete die veranderende politieke en ideologiese klimaat in Suid-Afrika asook die sosio-kulturele en politieke kontekste van die deelnemers. Die deelnemers van hierdie studie is groepe bruin-, swart- en witvroue. Groeponderhoude (fokusgroepe) is met ses groepe vroue tydens hul etensuur by die werkplek gevoer. Die onderhoude is rondom die volgende temas gestruktureer: romanse, identifikasie, parasosiale interaksie, sosiale interaksie, intertekstualiteit en Egoli as 'n forum vir die uitbeelding van Suid-Afrikaanse werklikhede. Kykers se interpretasie van die temas is ontleed aan die hand van referensiele, onderhandelde en kritiese interpretasierame. Daar is gevind dat die verskillende kultuurgroepe in 'n groat mate dieselfde interpretasierame gebruik in hul interpretasie van die verskillende temas. Die opvallendste verskil tussen die groepe is die wyse waarop die deelnemers die tema Egoli as 'n forum vir die uitbeelding van die SuidAfrikaanse werklikhede vertolk: as gevolg van verskillende sosio-kulturele en politieke omstandighede in Suid-Afrika het die deelnemers waarskynlik interpretasierame ontwikkel wat aan daardie omstandighede gekoppel kan word. In die studie is aangetoon dat die hermeneutiek en resepsieteorie nuttige verklarings gee van die elemente in die seep-operateks wat kykersbetrokkenheid stimuleer en die proses van interpretasie. Die proses verloop soos volg: deelnemers het bepaalde verwagtings oor 'n program; hulle moet die uitgebeelde werklikheid(e) herken en die boodskappe dan toe-eien. Hierna word boodskappe 'n kultuur binnegedra deur middel van sosiale diskoers. Die teoretiese onderbou het voorts aan die lig gebring dat deelnemers se interaksie met en interpretasie van Egoli 'n vorm van spel is. Empiriese bewyse is gevind dat die deelnemers op speelse wyse • oor karakters 'skinder'; • spekuleer oor romantiese assosiasie; • met karakters identifiseer; en • parasosiale verhoudings met karakters aanknoop. / Text in Afrikaans / This thesis is an exploratory study of viewers' interpretation of the soap opera Egoli - Place of Gold. The basic point of departure is the text-viewer encounter where equal status is given to the message (text) and the recipient (viewer). Viewers' interpretations develop from this encounter. This dichotomous investigation places the thesis within the theoretical and methodological framework of reception study where the complex interaction between a text and the recipient is examined. The two components are placed within specific historical and cultural contexts, namely the changing political and ideological climate in South Africa, as well as the socio-cultural and political contexts of the participants. The groups participating in this study consisted of coloured, black and white women. Six group interviews (focus groups) were held with these women during their lunch-hour at the workplace. The interviews were structured around the following themes: romance, identification, parasocial interaction, social interaction,intertextuality and Egoli as a forum for the portrayal of South African realities. Viewers' interpretations of these themes were analysed according to referential, negotiated and critical interpretative frames. It was largely found that the various cultural groups use the same interpretative frames to interpret the various themes. The exception was the way participants interpreted Egoli as a forum for the portrayal of South African realities: because of different socio-cultural and political circumstances in South Africa the participants may have developed interpretation frames that could be linked to these circumstances. Hermeneutics and reception theory provide useful explanations of these elements in a soap opera text that stimulate viewers' involvement and the process of interpretation. This process proceeds as follows: participants have specific expectations regarding a programme; they must recognise the realities depicted and then appropriate the messages. Thereafter messages are incorporated into a culture by means of social discourse. A further important theoretical finding was that the participants' interaction with and interpretation of Egoli takes the form of play. It was empirically determined in this study that participants playfully • speculate about romantic association; • engage in gossip about characters; • identify with characters; and • develop parasocial relationships with characters. / Summaries in English and Afrikaans / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication Science)

Title: HC Slavia Praha ice hockey benefits Objectives: The aim of this paper is to identify and describe individual benefits of product ice hockey match HC Slavia Praha. There is also the aim to find out viewers satisfaction with partial benefits that come out from observing the home match of HC Slavia Praha. The accumulated data is used to create recommendation which might help to increase satisfaction and viewers audience as well. Methods: Marketing research that was used to find out viewers satisfaction with partial benefits of HC Slavia product was realized via quantitative method. Data was collected by observing as well as questioning. Techniques of personal, written, and electronical questioning of a great deal of respondents were used to reach satisfying amount of data that showed viewers satisfaction with partial benefits of matches. Results: It was found out from collected data that HC Slavia Praha home match viewers are mostly satisfied. For viewers, the most important part of a match is sport performance as well as atmosphere on the stadium. Accompanying program is also the important part. Based on the data from the research, there were specific suggestions and recommendations for increasing viewers satisfaction made. The recommendations were mostly about food, viewers' comfort, and...

The diploma thesis focuses on motivations for watching beauty videos on YouTube. The aim is to clarify why viewers watch amateur videos that communicate topics related to physical appearance. Assuming the audience as an active actor of media communication the thesis is based on uses and gratification theory. Viewers watch beauty videos consciously to meet their individual needs. Based on an analysis of eleven interviews with regular viewers of beauty videos this thesis reveals five categories of motivation. Beauty videos represent the source of information, the source of entertainment, the platform for communication with individuals with shared theme of interest and the tool for self-education. These motivations are not specific for this specific type of media and can motivate viewers to watch amateur beauty videos and professional beauty shows equally. The key motivation for watching beauty videos on YouTube is the interest of videobloggers. Authors of beauty videos disclose parts of their privacy, show their imperfections and interact with their audience. Using these practices videobloggers evoke the illusion of a close relationship between them and their viewers. Viewers have the opportunity the create strong social ties to videobloggers.

This study focuses on dark-skinned, Black women's representation in Black sitcoms. Through a mixed-methods use of a comparative textual analysis and focus group, the content and context of episodes from A Different World and Dear White People are explored to illustrate portrayals of dark-skinned, Black women and how these portrayals affect dark-skinned, Black women's self-esteem. Its findings contribute to colorism research by exploring colorism in Black sitcoms. Because this topic is largely unexplored, this study seeks to begin a conversation about dark skinned, Black women's representation in Black sitcoms. The main objective is to ultimately improve their depictions and roles in Black sitcoms and hold Black creatives responsible for the role they play in promoting colorism and its ultimate effect on Black women's self esteem.

Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie studie ondersoek die behoeftes van Afrikaanse televisiekykers aan Afrikaanse televisieprogramme te midde van die veranderinge wat sedert demokratisering aan die Suid-Afrikaanse medialandskap plaasvind. Hierdie behoeftes word ondersoek by wyse van 'n gevallestudie ender graad 10-leerders in Pretoria. Die gebruike- en bevredigingsbenadering dien as teoretiese onderbou vir die studie en die invloed van 'n aantal veranderlikes word ondersoek. Hierdie veranderlikes is televisiegerig (inhoud, aanbod en struktuur van Afrikaanse programme), tegnologiegerig (nuwe mediategnologiee socs satelliettelevisie en die Internet) en kykergerig (sosio-kulturele, persoonlike en demografiese faktore). Die studie bevind dat daar 'n verband is tussen hierdie veranderlikes en respondente se behoeftes aan Afrikaanse televisieprogramme. Die studie bevind dat Afrikaanse programme nie respondente se behoeftes bevredig nie. Nuwe mediategnologiee verbreed respondente se sosio-kulturele horlE;onne sodat hulle gemaklik met programme in Engels omgaan. Te midde van die toenemende aanbod van oorsese programme in Engels, neem die behoefte aan Afrikaanse programme af. / This study investigates the need for Afrikaans television programmes among Afrikaans viewers in the changing media environment in South Africa. Needs are studied by means of a case study among grade 10 learners in Pretoria. The uses and gratifications approach serves as the theoretical framework of the study and a number of variables are investigated. These variables are television driven (supply, content and structure), technology driven (new media technologies such as satellite television and the Internet) and viewer driven (socio-cultural, personal and demographic factors). The study finds that there is a connection between these variables and the need for Afrikaans programmes among respondents. The supply, content and structure of Afrikaans programmes do not gratify respondents' needs. New media technologies broaden respondents' socio-cultural horizons, enabling them to comfortably watch English programmes. Amidst the increasing supply of overseas programmes in English, the need for Afrikaans programmes is diminishing / Communication Science / M. A. (Kommunikasiekunde)

English Studies / M.A. (English)