An investigation of the strategies for sustainability of selected community radio stations in Transkei rural areas of the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Mafani, Hlanga Eric
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Community radio -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Radio stations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5963 , vital:21020
- Description: This research project was aimed at investigating strategies that are used for the sustainability of selected rural-based community radio stations in the Transkei area of the Eastern Cape. The study was done under a hypothesis that, in the absence of big business and migration of literate people and skilled labour from rural communities to urban centres, rural-based community radios struggle to attract operational revenue through advertising, community support, etc., and that the supposedly high illiteracy in the rural areas render it difficult to run the stations. Two rural-based community radio stations were selected for this study: Alfred Nzo Community Radio at Mount Ayliff in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality area, and Vukani Community Radio at Cala in the Chris Hani District Municipality area. The aim was to study their activities with regard to the most and widely agreed three-dimensional method of sustaining community radio stations: Financial Sustainability, Institutional Sustainability, and Social Sustainability. Relevant literature has been reviewed and data have been collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods through questionnaires. The study however leans more on the qualitative approach and a quantitative approach has merely been used to identify the trends of the views of the participants. The analysis of data highlights the views of the respondents about these radio stations with regard to their strategies to sustain themselves. The views of the respondents represent all people from all levels of people involved in the stations: From the Member of the Board of Directors in the boardroom to stations’ members of management at their desks. From Presenters behind their microphones to the listener in the dusty streets of the poor rural areas. The results confirm the hypothesis that the areas have high unemployment and illiteracy rates, and that their sustainability depend largely on trade-outs with local business and government support. However, the study also shows that strategies for Financial Sustainability, Institutional Sustainability, and Social Sustainability may overlap or influence each other. For instance, an activity of Institutional Sustainability may result in Financial Sustainability, and visa-versa. The study also reveals that the stations struggle to establish and maintain effective Social Sustainability for the benefit of the station. In the light of this, a proposal for further study and recommendations are given at the end of the study.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Androcentrism and misogyny in late twentieth century rock music
- Authors: Berkland, Darren Gary
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Music -- Social aspects , Gender identity in music , Music -- Performance -- Psychological aspects , Emotions in music , Rock musicians
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8440 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021199
- Description: Judith Butler’s writings on gender ostensibly changed the way gender is considered with regard to an individual’s subjectivity. Her writings expressed a discursive parameter that changed the theoretical standpoint of gender from that of performance, to that of performativity. In short, the notion of gender became understood as a power mechanism operating within society that compels individuals along the heteronormal binary tracts of male or female, man or woman. Within the strata of popular culture, this binarism is seemingly ritualized and repeated, incessantly. This treatise examines how rock music, as a popular and widespread mode of popular music, exemplifies gender binarism through a notable ndrocentrism. The research will examine how gender performativity operates within the taxonomy of rock music, and how the message communicated by rock music becomes translated into a listener’s subjectivity.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Die verjaardagvers-ritueel in Breyten Breytenbach se oeuvre
- Authors: Tait, Charles Norman
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Breytenbach, Breyten -- Poetry , Poets, South African
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5076 , vital:20800
- Description: This study investigates the subgenre of the birthday poem within Breyten Breytenbach’s poetical oeuvre. Throughout the now half a century of his poetic production the writer has repeatedly written poems for himself on his birthday on 16 September of each new year (as well as a smaller number to his wife and close friends) The writing of birthday poems becomes a ritualist poetical act throughout the poet’s life and poetical oeuvre, one that has served many purposes over the years of Breytenbach’s increasingly nomadic existence. This study’s scope spans fifty years of poetical output, starting with the poet’s debut anthology, Die ysterkoei moet sweet (1964), including all the anthologies up to the publication of vyf-en-veertig skemeraandsange uit die eenbeendanser se werkruimte (2014). A small literary history is offered at the outset of the tradition of the birthday poem, based in classical Roman times (Argetsinger,K 1992) and following through to modern times. After describing the reasons for the sometimes challenging task of identifying birthday poems (unmarked by dates, having to rely on inference deduced from the content, and the like), the poems are analyzed with a particular focus on their nature and function within the larger context of the poet’s oeuvre. The research is organized according to the separate phases traceable in Breyten Breytenbach’s oeuvre (Van Vuuren 2011: 46–56), describing the steadily shifting themes and motifs of the subgenre throughout each of the four phases (pre-prison, prison, post-prison and late work phases). It was found that the birthday poems cohere as a subgenre within the oeuvre. Breytenbach’s birthday poems have a distinctive character and certain identifiable qualities (ritualistic characteristics such as reflection on the self within the present, reflection on time past, evaluating the situation and self on the particular birthday. Placed against the specific context in which the poet finds himself, with a poetical and autobiographical way forward implied in the given milieu and context, psychological insights are utilized where applicable, especially in the prison birthday poems and the late work birthday poems. A remarkable new insight gained through this study is the nature of he “reminiscence bump” (Janssen, Haque 2014) which older people experience, and is identified also in Breytenbach’s late work birthday poems. This adds to and refines the understanding of the nature of late work in Breytenbach’s poetical oeuvre. A final insight gained from the research is that description and comprehension of this smaller corpus of birthday poems (roughly thirty identified at present) may also be used as an entry into understanding of the nature of the poet’s large oeuvre (comprising twenty collections of poetry, containing around 1,600 poems between 1964 and 2014), as they represent each stage of development in Breyten Breytenbach’s oeuvre.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Identity in the media in a post-apartheid radio station in South Africa: the case of Lotus FM
- Authors: Pillay, Divinia
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Public broadcasting -- Political aspects -- South Africa , Radio stations -- South Africa , Post-apartheid era -- South Africa , Identity politics -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5709 , vital:20971
- Description: This research study investigates Lotus FM, as one of many South African Media components that are catering for one specific cultural or religious group. The investigation explores the implications of practice of a pecific media component that caters for specific cultural or religious groups operating in a post-apartheid South Africa. After the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, a number of South African media components have proclaimed their commitment to reconciliation and nation building within South Africa by attempting to unite audiences. The South African Broadcasting Corporation, which held the monopoly on South African Broadcasting for decades, has promulgated the notion of the rainbow nation to audiences in South Africa. Since 1994, sub-components of the different South African media segments were developed to cater for specific ethnic or cultural groups by the station managements. This was aimed at reversing the effects of pre-1994 media that catered for the former ruling minority only or ethnic groups that were categorized by the former political dispensation. It is possible, however, that this has resulted in a renewed and continued separation of interest groups present in South Africa today.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Implementation of the national language policy at institutions of higher education
- Authors: Ownhouse, Aileen Lucia
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Language policy -- South Africa , Multilingual education -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3415 , vital:20428
- Description: This study investigated the implementation progress of the National Language Policy (NLP) of South Africa (SA) by reviewing pertinent research related to Language Policy (LP) initiatives. In particular, the study explored the implications of the NLP implementation on multilingual teaching and learning practices, especially practices aimed at developing proficiency in the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT). In particular, the LP implementation initiatives to support a multilingual practice community at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) were overviewed. The study focused on and assessed the AHZ Project multilingual initiative in the Department of Applied Language Studies (DALS) at NMMU. The AHZ Project multilingual initiative included text translation and multilingual tutorial strategies to assist isiXhosa-speaking students understand grammatical concepts. As a result, an aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of the AHZ Project by assessing the perceptions of English Language Studies (LES111) students and lecturers who were responsible for implementing the initiative. Finally, the research aimed to determine reasons for the apparent slow progress of implementing multilingualism as a teaching and learning practice as well as the underlying constraints of implementing the NLP at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). A mixed-method approach was selected to explore the aims of the research study as both quantitative and qualitative data collection tools were used. As the AHZ Project initiative was the study’s data sample, data was collected by conducting three face-to-face semi-structured interviews with two LES111 lecturers and a tutor as well as one focus-group interview with eight student participants. In addition, a LEC online assessment and 284 LES111 reflective paragraphs were analysed. NVivo 10 qualitative software was used for the coding of the data and a descriptive analysis of the interviews as well as the LEC online assessment was employed. To code and analyse the face-to-face semi-structured and focus-group interview transcripts, dominant themes from the study’s literature review, for example, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Mother Tongue (MT) transfer were used. The reflective paragraphs were analysed manually using a quantitative coding approach. From the data coding, the study’s findings were determined and interpreted. The LEC assessment confirmed that the students were not coping with the LOLT. By taking cognisance of the AHZ Project strategies and investigating the perceptions of the participants towards the initiative, conclusions were drawn. These conclusions indicated positive attitudes towards the multilingual language practices as implemented by the AHZ Project initiative. In addition, the perceptions towards identity, language status, mother tongue education and language transfer were articulated. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made to promote the use of African Languages as LOLTs in teaching and learning classroom practices. Recommendations were also made for future research relating to the teaching of African Languages (ALs) in the schooling sector.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Investigating the Cuban Revolución Agricola as a model for the post-'peak oil' age
- Authors: Weideman, Lisa
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Sustainable agriculture -- Cuba , Agriculture and state -- Cuba , Green Revolution -- Cuba , Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- Cuba , Cuba -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/4998 , vital:20777
- Description: In this dissertation, the socio-ecological transformations that occurred during Cuba’s Revolución Agrícola are explored, against the backdrop of the historical subalternisation of the country as a consequence of Spanish and American imperialism, and in relation to the continuing subalternisation of the country and its people through the neoliberal mass media. To contextualize such exploration, the origins of large-scale privatization of common land, and the subsequent process of urbanization in the West, are investigated, before Cuba’s similar developmental path – as a result of Spanish colonialism, U.S. imperialism, and communist influence – is detailed. Thereafter, the way in which Cuba established an alternative food paradigm, characterised by local, communal, and urban production during the country’s ‘Special Period’ in the 1990s, is discussed, with a view to illustrating how this eco-socialist model of food production, in both rural and urban areas, led to new relations between people and nature. This Cuban model is then posited as a socio-ecologically sustainable model of food production, deserving of the attention of communities around the world, who seek to gain a degree of autonomy from neoliberal agribusiness. Conversely, the efforts of mainstream neoliberal mass media to silence the immensely positive characteristics of the revolution are also investigated, and framed in terms of the historical subjugation of Cuban voices in the American mass media, and the contemporary marginalisation of the country and its people in the neoliberal mass media. Finally, the dissertation concludes by examining the alternative media response, on the part of several prominent Cubans and those sympathetic to their cause, to bring attention to the value of the socio-ecological transformations that have occurred on the island, against the backdrop of various theorisations of the importance of alternative media platforms as a radical counterforce to neoliberal mass media hegemony.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Managing stakeholders involvement in website communication: a comparative study of Lesotho and South African national websites
- Authors: Mota, Molikuoa Adolphine
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Government Web sites -- Lesotho , Government Web sites -- South Africa , Electronic government information -- Lesotho , Electronic government information -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3529 , vital:20439
- Description: Engagement of stakeholders in government website communication has emerged as an important strategy that can build trust, improve transparency and strengthen loyalty between governments and their citizens. This is because websites provide access to a broader spectrum, offer unlimited storage of information and rapid feedback. This main purpose of the study therefore was to find out how the Lesotho and South African national governments utilise their websites to engage stakeholder’s in websites communication for maintaining and building mutual relationships. The literature review for this study covered the role of public relations in government, different kinds of governments’ stakeholders and the importance of engaging stakeholders in website communication for relationship building and maintenance of such relationships. The methodology that was employed involved analysis of twenty websites which were selected using purposive sampling technique. Coding sheets were designed and used to collect data based on the three principles of dialogic communication namely: Ease of interface, Generation of return visits, Usefulness of information and the two models of communication which are One-way communication and Two-way communication. The results revealed limited efforts for stakeholder’s engagement in both Lesotho and South African government ministries and made recommendations on how this challenge can be addressed. The study concluded that the two countries can improve stakeholders’ participation and engagement in websites communication by aligning their websites with the three principles of dialogic communication and two models of communication.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Political communication: a case study of the Democratic Alliance and its use of digital media in the 2014 South African General Elections
- Authors: Chong, Sandra Pow
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Communication -- Political aspects -- South Africa Mass media -- Political aspects -- South Africa Political campaigns -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/11416 , vital:26923
- Description: Political organisations are now using a two-way path of communication thanks to the development of technological platforms that work in-sync with the internet to allow this to happen. Information can now flow across new networks to allow exchanges from the many to the many. This study sets out to explore the use of social media by political organisations as a means of political communication. A case study was conducted which focussed on online communication used by the Democratic Alliance in the 2014 General Elections in South Africa. The social media strategies adopted by the Democratic Alliance was examined. Reference is made to the 2008 Obama Campaign. The study revealed that the DA primarily made use of two-way asymmetrical communication despite the party posting a lot of consistent information and content; however in response to many questions and comments posted on the social media fora by online users, the DA only selectively responded to a handful of these.
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- Date Issued: 2015
The design of a new opera house for central, Port Elizabeth
- Authors: Chilton, Marc John
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Theaters -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- Designs and plans Centers for the performing arts -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth , Theater architecture -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/15356 , vital:28224
- Description: Urban decentralization and inner city decay is a ubiquitous phenomenon of social and economic circumstance. The rise of sub-urban sprawl around new centres has encouraged urban degeneration and produced unsustainable cities, particularly in South Africa. Consequently, the loss of cultural assets in decaying historic centres, specifi cally in Port Elizabeth, reveals issues pertinent to loss of place and heritage. In combatting urban degeneration, the utilization of culture and the arts has proven to be a powerful rejuvenation strategy. The vision of the Mandela Bay Development Agency, and similar successful global precedents, suggest that a cultural precinct could effectively tackle urban decay in the historic core. This premise guides the proposal.The principal aim of this treatise is the design of a new Opera House acting as a catalyst for the proposed cultural district, based on the inner-city rejuvenation of Central. This aim is achieved by several objectives, which are explored in an effort to unveil potential and appropriate design responses: An investigation of the Opera House typology, which uncovers its dignity, vitality and signifi cance within past and present cities; An exploration of context, which reveals the opportunities to transform identity and urban cultural practise; Research into technical, spatial and physical demands of the program provide depth and root the design responses in reality. As a result, the Opera House sits as a gateway building into the precinct, as well as a cultural and physical landmark within the city. A duality of expression presents both a contrast and self-similarity in the historic context, simultaneously rooting the building in place while conveying a unique character.
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- Date Issued: 2015
The design of a seaside hydrotherapy facility in Nelson Mandela Bay, Beachview
- Authors: Van Jaarsveld, Nadine
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Health resorts -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- Designs and plans Hydrotherapy , Recreational therapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/18663 , vital:28703
- Description: This treatise is about the design of a seaside hydrotherapy facility which will treat health conditions through the healing properties of water therapy and nature, as well as improving the wellness of the users. The purpose of this treatise is to understand the architectural aspects involved in a seaside hydrotherapy facility, such as the theoretical, the contextual, spatial, and the physical aspects. The facility will be located in Nelson Mandela Bay at Beachview in a therapeutic setting on the seafront, and will not only provide specialized thalassotherapy, but also give the users the benefit of the mental healing properties of the ocean. The building itself aims to promote healing and relaxation and challenges the designer to make maximum use of these elements. The nature of hydrotherapy facilities requires the provision for recovery, which indicates the setting up of overnight amenities as well as daily access. With this in mind, the relationship between these two groups of users and their connections, are explored. The facility proposes to use design as a way to connect the sea, land and architecture, in order to form an integrated relationship for the beneficial use of the user. An architectural design is proposed which is formed of specific sets of architectural issues that were identified and analysed. The work of professionals and other architectural designs with similar challenges were studied in terms of their particular responses and their relationships were analysed in relation to a seaside hydrotherapy facility.
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- Date Issued: 2015
The design of a Tesla automotive factory for the Coega Development Corporation
- Authors: Raciti, Riccardo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Architecture, Industrial -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth , Factories -- South Africa -- Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality -- Designs and plans , Automobile factories -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- Designs and plans , Coega Development Corporation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/18949 , vital:28759
- Description: This treatise will explore the suitable design of a 21st century fully sustainable automotive manufacturing facility for the company: Tesla Motors. It will investigate how the factory will sit in its cosmic context in conjunction with creating public and industrial spaces, based on the nature of the building and corporation. This proposal seeks to: Have a relevant expression and public interface for a factory of that type belonging in a cosmic landscape. Embark upon a critical investigate on of factories as a typology and related issues and concerns. Establish a stimulating and creative platform through which highly skilled international and local automotive leaders, academia, students and entrepreneurs can be in dialogue. Through the critical engagement of these fields a well-structured methodology will be formulated, as well as a hypothetical architectural response relating to the 21st century factory.
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- Date Issued: 2015
The productive utilisation of child support grants in Benoni
- Authors: Njingti, Yvonne Senge
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Child support -- South Africa -- Benoni , Social security beneficiaries -- South Africa -- Benoni
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/4879 , vital:20718
- Description: This treatise investigated the productive utilisation of child support grants (CSGs) with particular reference to Benoni town. The South African government introduced the CSG, which replaced the old maintenance grant in 1998. The aim of the CSG is to cater for the needs of vulnerable children living in South Africa such as education, basic health, food, shelter and protection. Since its introduction, CSG has been able to reach millions of vulnerable children in South Africa. Despite this success, the grant is still fraught with administrative inefficiencies and fraudulent activities committed by some CSG recipients. The researcher’s findings exposed the inappropriate and wasteful expenditure associated with the grant usage, by recipients of CSG. The researcher discovered that some mothers use grant money to buy alcohol and beauty products for themselves instead of the child’s needs. The reason associated to this wasteful expenditure was that the child is kept under the care of the grandmother who takes good care of the child, thus giving the mother the opportunity to use the grant she collects as she wishes. The main aim of this investigation was to find out how CSGs can be effectively and efficiently utilised by parents and guardians in Benoni and to make recommendations for better usage. The study also examined the effects of CSGs on children in Benoni and whether they are beneficial or not. The qualitative method of research was used and the study was descriptive in nature. Questionnaires were distributed to state officials and interviews conducted with CSG recipients. The findings from this research revealed that some of the respondents use the money to buy alcohol and beauty product for themselves instead of the child’s needs, making the implementation of CSGs ineffective and inefficient. This shows that there is a misuse of state funds by recipients of CSGs whereas there are millions of vulnerable children out there who do not have access to this cash transfer. The department of social security is encouraged to ensure effective and efficient utilisation of CSGs by recipients through state officials.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Uphando ngokuphononongwa kwabalinganiswa ngokobume bengqondo kwiincwadi ezikhethiweyo zikaSaule u'Vuleka mhlaba no Umthetho kamthetho'
- Authors: Sokiya, Liliswa
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Saule, N. -- Criticism and interpretation , Xhosa literature -- History and criticism
- Language: Xhosa
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/8585 , vital:26409
- Description: Impatho-mbi nabalinganiswa iba ngunobangela wokuphazamiseka kwengqodo zabalinganiswa. Umlinganiswa uthi nokuba uhleli azibone sele enezinye iingcinga, ngcinga ezo ziphazamisa ubomi bakhe. Izinto eziphazamisa umlinganiswa ebalini kukutyholwa ngezinto angazaziyo. Iyashiyana indlela abalinganiswa abachaphazeleka ngayo ngenxa yolu phazamiseko, loo nto ikhokelele ekubeni benze izinto ezingafaniyo.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Women farmers' representation in Botswana Agrinews Magazine
- Authors: Morupisi, Joseph
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mass media and women -- Botswana , Women in agriculture -- Botswana
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/6567 , vital:21112
- Description: The Government of Botswana recognises the important role that women can play in the economic development of the country, particularly in the agricultural sector, with respect to food security at both household and national levels. The study sought to investigate how women in agriculture are represented in the Botswana Agrinews Magazine. Moreover, it sought to establish whether, and how, messages conveyed to audience by the Botswana Agrinews Magazine promote any type of social or economic interaction between farming communities, individuals and/or government and other stakeholders. The sources of data were the articles that reported on women farmers from the sample of the Botswana Agrinews Magazine, over 24 months, that is, from January 2012 to December 2013. This magazine under study is a government publication targeting the broad Botswana farming community. Critical discourse analysis revealed that women farmers participated in events associated with commercial horticultural farming, dry land farming (field crop production), in the arable farming sector, at Consumer Fairs and Regional Agricultural shows for Commercial Farmers respectively, as well as in pastoral farming sector events at Agricultural shows. They also participated in the arable farming sector agricultural activities for commercial horticultural farmers and those for subsistence dry land farming. Furthermore, the results revealed that women farmers encountered constraints in the different ventures, they undertook in both arable and pastoral farming. However, the reports showed that they received support from the government and/or other stakeholders to counteract their constraints. Furthermore, the analysis identified the coverage on the themes of (1) arable farming, (2) pastoral farming, (3) integrated farming, and (4) attitudes of both women in agriculture and Ministry of Agriculture workers, which promoted women farmers’ participation in the agricultural sector.
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- Date Issued: 2015
"To learn how to speak": a study of Jeremy Cronin's poetry
- Authors: Pinnock, William
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Poets, South African , Historical materialism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8484 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021038
- Description: In the chapters that follow, the porous boundary between the public and the private in Jeremy Cronin’s poetry is investigated in his three collections, Inside (1983), Even the Dead: Poems, Parables and a Jeremiad (1996) and More Than a Casual Contact (2006). I argue two particular Marxist theorists are central to reading Cronin’s poetry: Bertolt Brecht, and his notion of the Verfremdungseffekt, and Walter Benjamin and his work on historical materialism, primarily the essay On the Concept of History / Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940). Both theorists focus on the work of art in a historically contextualized manner, which extends the challenge to the boundary between the public and the private. Their work is underpinned by the desire to draw out hidden narratives occluded under the grand narratives of history and capitalist ideas of progress. I argue that these are the major preoccupations in Cronin’s oeuvre as well. As such Cronin’s poetry may be seen to write against a perspective that proposes a linear conceptualisation of history. The poetry therefore challenges the notion that art speaks of ‘universal truths.’ Such ideas of History and Truth, if viewed uncritically, allow for a tendency to conceive of the past as unchanging, which subconsciously promotes the idea that social and political realities are merely logical evolutionary steps. I argue that Cronin’s poetry is thus purposefully interruptive in the way that it confronts the damaging consequences of the linear conceptualisation of history and the universal truth it promotes. His work attempts to find new ways of connection and expression through learning from South Africa’s violent past. The significance of understanding each other and the historical environment as opposed to imposing perspectives that underwrite the symbolic order requires the transformation rather than the simple transferral of power, and is a central focus throughout Cronin’s oeuvre. This position suggests that while the struggle for political freedom may be over, the necessity to rethink how South Africans relate to each other is only beginning. Chapter One will focus on positioning Cronin, the poet and public figure, in South African literature and literary criticism. In this regard, two general trends have operated as critical paradigms in the study of South African poetry, namely Formalism (or ‘prac crit’) and a Marxist inflected materialism, which have in many ways perpetuated the division between the private and the public. This has resulted in poetry being read with an exclusive focus on either one of these two aspects, overlooking the possibilities of dialogue that may take place between them. Cronin’s perspective on these polarised responses will be discussed, which will illustrate the similarity of his position to Ndebele’s notion of the ‘ordinary’ which suggests a way beyond these binaries. This will lead to a discussion of how South African poets responded to the transition phase, suggesting that the elements of the polarisation still remained. Considering the major influences and paradigms when reading Cronin’s oeuvre provides a foundation for the following three chapters. These include Cronin’s use of Romanticism, Bertolt Brecht and the V-Effekt and Walter Benjamin’s perspectives on historical materialism. In addition to these three theoretical paradigms, the relevance of Pablo Neruda’s poetry to Cronin’s work is also foregrounded. In Chapter Two, the focus will be on Cronin’s first collection of poetry, Inside, concentrating on Cronin’s use of language as a way of constructing poetry in the sparseness of the prison experience. This will show an abiding preoccupation of learning to speak in a language that considers the material context out of which it emerges. In this regard, the poems “Poem-Shrike” “Prologue” and “Cave-site” are analysed. In addition, one of the central poems in Cronin’s oeuvre, “To learn how to speak […],” will be examined in order to illustrate how the poet extends this project on a meta-poetic level, asking for South African poets to ‘learn how to speak’ in the voices of South African experience and histories. I will show how this is linked to Cronin’s “Walking on Air” which illustrates how the V-Effeckt recovers the small private histories through re-telling the life story of James Matthews, a fellow prisoner incarcerated for his anti-apartheid activism, revealing how this story is intimately connected to the public sphere. In Chapter Three, Cronin’s second collection: Even the Dead: Poems, Parables and a Jeremiad will be examined. In the poem “Three Reasons for a Mixed, Umrabulo, Round-the-Corner Poetry” Cronin resists inherited Western poetic conventions by incorporating and subverting versions of the Romantic aesthetic, arguing for poetry to be immersed in South African multi-lingual and multi-cultural experiences. “Even the Dead” reveals how Cronin uses Walter Benjamin’s perspectives on historical materialism to confront amnesia. In terms of the themes established in “To learn how to speak […]”, the poem “Moorage” demonstrates how the public and private can never be separated in Cronin’s work. The final section of this chapter will examine how Cronin responds to Pablo Neruda’s poems “I am explaining a few things” and “The Education of a Chieftain,” and how these poems challenge narratives that privilege the ‘great leader’ instead of the so-called smaller individuals’ stories. Chapter Four examines selections from Cronin’s third collection, focusing on Cronin’s use of the automobile, charting an ambiguous trajectory through the ‘new’ South Africa. The examination of the poems “Where to begin?”, “Switchback” and “End of the century - which is why wipers,” all attempt to include individuals left on the margins of the narrative of global freeways and neo-liberal capitalist progress. The poems present an interrogation of how ‘vision’ is constructed. This will show that the poetry responds to the experiences of the marginalised under these grand narratives in a primarily fragmentary and interruptive manner. This in effect constitutes the culmination of Cronin’s poetic journey and the search for new ways of envisaging South Africa’s future and finding a new language with which to speak it.
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- Date Issued: 2014
A critical cultural review of the media coverage in the infighting of Nelson Mandela's burial in 2013
- Authors: Tandwa, Nontlahla
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013 , Mass media and culture
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5733 , vital:20987
- Description: The aim of the study is to analyze the representation of isiXhosa traditional culture through the coverage on media coverage as the topic suggests following a legal battle on the removal of the remains of Mandela‘s children in the year 2013. The online news articles selected in this study covered issues since Mandela was in and out of hospital. The articles covered are those of local newspaper, The Herald-online- as it is based in the Eastern Cape and has covered more on the traditional beliefs, understanding and following such rituals. The aim of the study is to explore and describe the perceptions and experiences of people around the family feud and the legal battle on the removal of those remains. It will also emphasize on the representation of the media on this problem and how Xhosa tradition can be affected and also compare other newspaper articles on their coverage.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Altering urbanscapes: South African writers re-imagining Johannesburg, with specific reference to Lauren Beukes, K. Sello Duiker, Nadine Gordimer and Phaswane Mpe
- Authors: Fryer, Jocelyn Teri
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Novelists, South African , Johannesburg (South Africa) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8481 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020877
- Description: The following dissertation considers the ways in which we have come to perceive of our post-apartheid South African urban spaces. It focusses on the representation of our contemporary urban spaces as I posit that they are re-imagined in the works of Phaswane Mpe, K.Sello Duiker, Nadine Gordimer and Lauren Beukes. In particular, it is concerned with the representation of Johannesburg, and specifically Hillbrow, in relation to the space of the rural, the suburban enclave and the city of Cape Town. I argue that while so-called urban ‘slums’ such as Hillbrow have been denigrated in the local imaginary, the texts that I have selected draw attention to the potentialities of such spaces. Rather than aspiring to ‘First World’ aesthetics of modernity then, we might come to see such spaces as Hillbrow anew, and even to learn from them as models, so as to better create more fully integrated and dynamic African cities.
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- Date Issued: 2014
An investigation of the expectations held by retail tenants with regards to the internal marketing function performed by their shopping centre landlord
- Authors: Bosman, Jiminy-Ann Ashurde
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Shopping centers , Retail trade , Stores, Retail , Consumer satisfaction
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3725 , vital:20458
- Description: While much has been written about retail stores and the retail environment, franchises and organisational marketing, not much can be found on “host” organisations such as shopping centres and their role within the marketing mix. A unique disparity exists within shopping centres in that not only are they an organisation with their own brand identity and culture, but they also play host to numerous retailers and franchises with very clear brands and messages of their own. The question that is often posed to the landlord is therefore whose message or what message is the correct one to market to the common consumer-base targeted by both the shopping centre (landlord) and the tenant (retailers). When considering this, it is important to understand that a symbiotic relationship exists between landlord and tenant within shopping centres in that if a tenant is successful this will result in greater rentals for the landlord and if the landlord’s property is successful, i.e. popular, this will result in greater revenue for the tenant. Both parties therefore actively engage in marketing of their businesses and whilst the message is often noticeably different, what is unique is that this is often to the same consumer-base. Tenants in many shopping centres contribute towards centre marketing expenses as part of their lease agreements and as a result have certain expectations in terms of what message is being marketed. Shopping centres varying in size and tenant numbers make the landlords marketing role that much more complex and often generic messaging is employed to umbrella the wide offering available. This study aims at investigating the expectations held by retail tenants of their shopping centre landlords through the internal communications function. Corporate communication theory as well as public relations theory was used as a grounding.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Assessing the local government turnaround strategy: the case of Ngqushwa Local Municipality
- Authors: Bokwe, Nosiphiwo Gloria
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Municipal services -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Municipal corporations -- South Africa , Regional planning -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8312 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020084
- Description: The thrust of the study is to investigate the Local Government Turnaround Strategy as introduced by Cabinet in the year 2009. In this treatise a critical evaluation of the Local Government Turnaround Strategy that was passed by cabinet as a panacea that seeks to address the challenges that are being faced by municipalities today will be embarked upon. A case study of the Ngqushwa Local Municipality in the Amathole District Municipal area will be undertaken with the view to understand whether the Local Government Turnaround Strategy will indeed assist ailing local municipalities like Ngqushwa. As can be seen in our country, apartheid has left many problems both in the social, economic and political realms of our society. When local government was first established it was for the perpetuation of separate development as enshrined in the policy of apartheid. Apartheid was not the beginning of geographic, institutional and social separation at the local level. Segregation was already a policy by the time apartheid was introduced in 1948. However, the Group Areas Act, the key piece of legislation, instituted strict residential segregation and compulsory removal of black people to own group areas. Through spatial separation, influx control, and a policy of own management for own areas, apartheid aimed to limit the extent to which affluent white municipalities would bear the financial burden of servicing disadvantaged black areas. These separate developments led to the collapse of the former Black Local Authorities. When the democratic government took over the same challenges reared their heads again. Many intervention programmes were introduced to assist ailing municipalities to be viable. The study thus has tried to indicate how the Turnaround has assisted municipalities like the Ngqushwa Local Municipality.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Evaluating audience responses to promotional messages
- Authors: Bezuidenhout, Sonja
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Branding (Marketing) , Content analysis (Communication) , Public relations
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8480 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020280
- Description: This study explored the guidelines advocated by selected media content analysis with the aim of identifying effective approaches to evaluate audience responses to promotional messages. Drawing from literature and documented deliberations by industry professionals, content-specific analysis protocols were applied and tested using a case study representing topic-specific responses to the Two Oceans Quay 5 product launch. In doing so, a logical observation of the communication in unpaid media placements and relevant discussions distributed in public media channels was completed. It is in this sense that this research enriches the study of public relations with a particular focus on output-driven evaluation. It provides insights into qualitative and quantitative publicity measurement and suggests how these methods can be useful to explicate the impact of media coverage as a public relations element. While it largely focused on discovering improved media content analysis solutions, this study revealed that content-driven analysis can only be useful when its protocols are aligned with the context of the data and if communication practitioners remain aware and transparent of its subjectivity. In this regard, this study helps to generate an understanding of the subjective dynamic of public relations and the importance of in-depth and adaptable publicity assessments to help distinguish public relations as a purposeful branding function next to advertising and marketing.
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- Date Issued: 2014