“Please don’t show me on Agataliiko Nfuufu or my husband will beat me like engalabi (long drum)”: young women and tabloid television in Kampala, Uganda
- Authors: Nakacwa, Susan
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Television broadcasting of news -- Uganda -- Kampala , Reality television programs -- Uganda -- Kampala , Sexism -- Uganda -- Kampala , Women in mass media , Sensationalism on television , Sensationalism in journalism , Mass media -- Moral and ethical aspects , Sex role on television , Uganda -- Social conditions -- 1979-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3551 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020968
- Description: The “tabloid TV” news genre is a relatively new phenomenon in Uganda and Africa. The genre has been criticised for depoliticising the public by causing cynicism, and lowering the standards of rational public discourse. Despite the criticisms, the genre has been recognised for bringing ‘the private’ into a public space and one of the major ‘private’ issues on the public agenda is women and gender equality. Given these critiques, this study set out to interrogate the meanings that young working class women in Kampala make of the tabloid television news programme Agataliiko Nfuufu and to ask how these meanings relate to the contested notions of femininity in this urban space. In undertaking this audience reception study I interviewed young women between the ages of 18-35 years by means of individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study establishes that Agataliiko Nfuufu is consumed in a complex environment where contesting notions of traditionalism and modernity are at play. The study also establishes that while mediating the problems, discomforts and contestations of these young women’s lives, Bukedde TV1 operates within a specific social context and gendered environment where Agataliiko Nfuufu is consumed. The study concludes that the bulletin mediates the young women’s negotiations and contestations, but it provides them with a window into other people’s lives and affords them opportunities to compare, judge and appreciate their own. Furthermore, the gendered roles and expectations in this context have become naturalised and have achieved a taken-for-grantedness. Therefore, patriarchy has been legitimised and naturalised to the extent that the respondents define themselves largely in relation to male relatives, and marriage. While the women lament the changes that have taken place in their social contexts which disrupt the natural gender order, they construct themselves as subjects of the prevailing discourses of gender relations that see men as powerful and women as weak and in need of protection.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Nakacwa, Susan
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Television broadcasting of news -- Uganda -- Kampala , Reality television programs -- Uganda -- Kampala , Sexism -- Uganda -- Kampala , Women in mass media , Sensationalism on television , Sensationalism in journalism , Mass media -- Moral and ethical aspects , Sex role on television , Uganda -- Social conditions -- 1979-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3551 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020968
- Description: The “tabloid TV” news genre is a relatively new phenomenon in Uganda and Africa. The genre has been criticised for depoliticising the public by causing cynicism, and lowering the standards of rational public discourse. Despite the criticisms, the genre has been recognised for bringing ‘the private’ into a public space and one of the major ‘private’ issues on the public agenda is women and gender equality. Given these critiques, this study set out to interrogate the meanings that young working class women in Kampala make of the tabloid television news programme Agataliiko Nfuufu and to ask how these meanings relate to the contested notions of femininity in this urban space. In undertaking this audience reception study I interviewed young women between the ages of 18-35 years by means of individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study establishes that Agataliiko Nfuufu is consumed in a complex environment where contesting notions of traditionalism and modernity are at play. The study also establishes that while mediating the problems, discomforts and contestations of these young women’s lives, Bukedde TV1 operates within a specific social context and gendered environment where Agataliiko Nfuufu is consumed. The study concludes that the bulletin mediates the young women’s negotiations and contestations, but it provides them with a window into other people’s lives and affords them opportunities to compare, judge and appreciate their own. Furthermore, the gendered roles and expectations in this context have become naturalised and have achieved a taken-for-grantedness. Therefore, patriarchy has been legitimised and naturalised to the extent that the respondents define themselves largely in relation to male relatives, and marriage. While the women lament the changes that have taken place in their social contexts which disrupt the natural gender order, they construct themselves as subjects of the prevailing discourses of gender relations that see men as powerful and women as weak and in need of protection.
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- Date Issued: 2014
An investigation into the impact of the gender policy on journalistic practices at the Times of Zambia newspaper
- Authors: Mwale, Edna
- Date: 2013-07-24
- Subjects: The Times of Zambia (Zambia) Newspapers -- Zambia Journalism -- Zambia Mass media -- Social aspects -- Zambia Women and journalism -- Zambia Mass media and women Mass media -- Political aspects -- Zambia Zambia -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3521 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008303
- Description: This study investigates the impact of the Times of Zambia gender policy on journalistic practices. The policy was formulated to address issues of representation of women both in news coverage and at an institutional level. In spite of the implementation of the editorial gender policy, no change in gendered representation is evident. As a media practitioner and a Zambian woman concerned with social justice, I set out to investigate the impact of this policy on journalistic practices. The study is informed by a Cultural Studies approach to media studies, specifically drawing on the 'circuit of culture' (du Guy et ai, 1997) and focused on two specific 'moments', namely representation and production. Data was collected using two qualitative methods, namely document analysis and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The document analysis established that this policy is informed by a liberal feminist approach to media and identified the weaknesses in its formulation. The subsequent semi-structured in-depth interviews probed the practices and perceptions of male and female journalists and editors in relation to the degree of change in gendered representation in the news. This study finds that the editorial gender policy at the Times of Zambia has not had any significant impact on the journalistic practices and it probed the reason for this lack of effectiveness. It argues that this can be partially attributed to the orientation of the policy within a liberal feminist paradigm which neglects the internal and external factors that influence the representation of women and men in news production. Further, this position ignores the societal structures and power relations which impact, albeit unintentional, on the treatment of news. Inter-organisational factors such as profit maximisation, political interference, the use of news values and news beats are identified as leading to the exclusion of representations of women in hard news. At an intra-organisational level, lack of importance attached to the policy by senior staff and their attitudes to news production in general have meant that the policy was not enacted or ensured in any meaningful way. The study also established that the patriarchal values that characterise Zambian society influence journalists ' and editors' treatment of news, thus making the implementation of the policy ineffective. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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- Authors: Mwale, Edna
- Date: 2013-07-24
- Subjects: The Times of Zambia (Zambia) Newspapers -- Zambia Journalism -- Zambia Mass media -- Social aspects -- Zambia Women and journalism -- Zambia Mass media and women Mass media -- Political aspects -- Zambia Zambia -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3521 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008303
- Description: This study investigates the impact of the Times of Zambia gender policy on journalistic practices. The policy was formulated to address issues of representation of women both in news coverage and at an institutional level. In spite of the implementation of the editorial gender policy, no change in gendered representation is evident. As a media practitioner and a Zambian woman concerned with social justice, I set out to investigate the impact of this policy on journalistic practices. The study is informed by a Cultural Studies approach to media studies, specifically drawing on the 'circuit of culture' (du Guy et ai, 1997) and focused on two specific 'moments', namely representation and production. Data was collected using two qualitative methods, namely document analysis and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The document analysis established that this policy is informed by a liberal feminist approach to media and identified the weaknesses in its formulation. The subsequent semi-structured in-depth interviews probed the practices and perceptions of male and female journalists and editors in relation to the degree of change in gendered representation in the news. This study finds that the editorial gender policy at the Times of Zambia has not had any significant impact on the journalistic practices and it probed the reason for this lack of effectiveness. It argues that this can be partially attributed to the orientation of the policy within a liberal feminist paradigm which neglects the internal and external factors that influence the representation of women and men in news production. Further, this position ignores the societal structures and power relations which impact, albeit unintentional, on the treatment of news. Inter-organisational factors such as profit maximisation, political interference, the use of news values and news beats are identified as leading to the exclusion of representations of women in hard news. At an intra-organisational level, lack of importance attached to the policy by senior staff and their attitudes to news production in general have meant that the policy was not enacted or ensured in any meaningful way. The study also established that the patriarchal values that characterise Zambian society influence journalists ' and editors' treatment of news, thus making the implementation of the policy ineffective. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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Whither state, private or public service broadcasting? : an analysis of the construction of news on ZBC TV during the 2002 presidential election campaign in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Dlamini, Tula
- Date: 2013-07-16
- Subjects: Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Journalism -- Political aspects -- Zimbabwe Mass media -- Political aspects -- Zimbabwe Political campaigns -- Zimbabwe Elections -- Zimbabwe Television and politics -- Zimbabwe Zimbabwe -- Politics and government -- 1980-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3520 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008257
- Description: The study sets out to examine the television coverage of the 2002 presidential campaign in Zimbabwe by examining the extent to which the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation fulfilled the mandate of public service broadcasting. The primary objective of this study is to assess how ZBC television newscasts mediated pluralistic politics in the coverage of the country's presidential election campaign, in line with the normative public sphere principles. The thesis comprises seven chapters organized, first, with an introductory chapter, which provides the general background of the study. The chapter offers the rationale for the focus on TV rather than other media fomls . There are two theoretical and contextual chapters in which the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods is explained and findings are presented. Finally, the conclusion offers recommendations about the form broadcasting might take to fulfil a public service mandate and these include the strengthening of the public service broadcasting model along normative public sphere principles. The findings of the analysed election newscasts confirm that ZBC television election news was constructed in favour of ZANU PF at the expense of voices from other social and political constituencies. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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- Authors: Dlamini, Tula
- Date: 2013-07-16
- Subjects: Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Journalism -- Political aspects -- Zimbabwe Mass media -- Political aspects -- Zimbabwe Political campaigns -- Zimbabwe Elections -- Zimbabwe Television and politics -- Zimbabwe Zimbabwe -- Politics and government -- 1980-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3520 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008257
- Description: The study sets out to examine the television coverage of the 2002 presidential campaign in Zimbabwe by examining the extent to which the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation fulfilled the mandate of public service broadcasting. The primary objective of this study is to assess how ZBC television newscasts mediated pluralistic politics in the coverage of the country's presidential election campaign, in line with the normative public sphere principles. The thesis comprises seven chapters organized, first, with an introductory chapter, which provides the general background of the study. The chapter offers the rationale for the focus on TV rather than other media fomls . There are two theoretical and contextual chapters in which the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods is explained and findings are presented. Finally, the conclusion offers recommendations about the form broadcasting might take to fulfil a public service mandate and these include the strengthening of the public service broadcasting model along normative public sphere principles. The findings of the analysed election newscasts confirm that ZBC television election news was constructed in favour of ZANU PF at the expense of voices from other social and political constituencies. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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What makes news on the front page? : an investigation of conceptions of newsworthiness in the East African Standard
- Authors: Nzioka, Roseleen M
- Date: 2013-06-19
- Subjects: East African Standard (Nairobi, Kenya) Journalism -- Social aspects -- Kenya Journalism -- Editing -- Kenya Newspapers -- Sections, columns, etc -- Kenya Mass media -- Political aspects -- Kenya Newspapers -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3519 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008178
- Description: Determining what is newsworthy is a daily challenge even to the very people who source news, produce and disseminate it. This study is part an exposition and exploration of the different approaches that media researchers have used to explain and determine the value of news. Like similar research before it, this study more specifically delves into the news selection process of news of one particular newspaper with the goal of investigating why and how news is selected for publication in the front page. News is the 'result of many forces: ranging from source power, journalistic orientation, medium-preference and market model, news values and production routines and processes. The study briefly expounds on the different definitions of news as perceived in terms of the developed and developing world. Just as journalists do not operate in a vacuum, a close examination of the various definitions reveals that news cannot be defined in isolation. Its definition is intrinsically tied to that of news values. Also explored here are debates about news values and their Western rootedness. Here reference is made to literature regarding theories on the social construction of meanings and on the gatekeeping concept.The study is informed by similar research in gatekeeping studies and sociology of news studies. It is important to state at the outset that the study is not concerned with how news is produced but why there is a bias for certain kinds of news. I am interested in explaining why and how the writers and editors at the East African Standard make decisions about what is worthy of being published on the front page of the newspaper. This distinction is necessary because the theories that inform this study transcend news sourcing and production. This study takes cognizance ofthe fact that one cannot separate social processes from the individual and vice versa. For this reason, this study investigates and analyses the biases of individual gatekeepers at the East African Standard as well as their collective biases. In the concluding section, this study calls for an alternative paradigm for journalism and news. The foregoing discussions in the other sections prove that a universal definition of news and what is newsworthy will not suffice and there is need to contexualise it.
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- Authors: Nzioka, Roseleen M
- Date: 2013-06-19
- Subjects: East African Standard (Nairobi, Kenya) Journalism -- Social aspects -- Kenya Journalism -- Editing -- Kenya Newspapers -- Sections, columns, etc -- Kenya Mass media -- Political aspects -- Kenya Newspapers -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3519 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008178
- Description: Determining what is newsworthy is a daily challenge even to the very people who source news, produce and disseminate it. This study is part an exposition and exploration of the different approaches that media researchers have used to explain and determine the value of news. Like similar research before it, this study more specifically delves into the news selection process of news of one particular newspaper with the goal of investigating why and how news is selected for publication in the front page. News is the 'result of many forces: ranging from source power, journalistic orientation, medium-preference and market model, news values and production routines and processes. The study briefly expounds on the different definitions of news as perceived in terms of the developed and developing world. Just as journalists do not operate in a vacuum, a close examination of the various definitions reveals that news cannot be defined in isolation. Its definition is intrinsically tied to that of news values. Also explored here are debates about news values and their Western rootedness. Here reference is made to literature regarding theories on the social construction of meanings and on the gatekeeping concept.The study is informed by similar research in gatekeeping studies and sociology of news studies. It is important to state at the outset that the study is not concerned with how news is produced but why there is a bias for certain kinds of news. I am interested in explaining why and how the writers and editors at the East African Standard make decisions about what is worthy of being published on the front page of the newspaper. This distinction is necessary because the theories that inform this study transcend news sourcing and production. This study takes cognizance ofthe fact that one cannot separate social processes from the individual and vice versa. For this reason, this study investigates and analyses the biases of individual gatekeepers at the East African Standard as well as their collective biases. In the concluding section, this study calls for an alternative paradigm for journalism and news. The foregoing discussions in the other sections prove that a universal definition of news and what is newsworthy will not suffice and there is need to contexualise it.
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Use of the internet in newsgathering : a case study of The Post newspaper in Zambia
- Authors: Hamachila, Alphonsius
- Date: 2013-06-10
- Subjects: Post (Lusaka, Zambia) Electronic news gathering -- Zambia -- Case studies Journalism -- Data processing -- Zambia -- Case studies Reporters and reporting -- Zambia -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3518 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008075
- Description: The Internet and World Wide Web have become dominant newsgathering tools in a sholi period of time. While the body of research, particularly in the First World, has developed quickly along with the Web, many unanswered questions remain on how journalists in developing countries make use of the Internet for newsgathering purposes. This study combined social constructivist theory with the socio-organisational and cultural approaches to news production in order to critically investigate how journalists at The Post newspaper in Zambia relate to, and make use of, the Internet as a newsgathering resource, in the context of Third World conditions. The study critiqued technological detelminism perspectives on journalists' use of the new information technology. The technological determinism theory, which has largely been advanced by some scholars from the developed world, takes a celebratory approach to journalists' use of the Internet in the newsroom. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews and observations, the study established that while journalists at The Post acknowledged the lnternet's potential in news gathering, factors such as unreliable telecommunications infrastructure, poor Internet skills, lack of local content on the World Wide Web, and organisational and occupational demands inhibited the use of the Internet as a journalistic newsgathering resource. The study established further that online reporting is only a tool within the broader news gathering and production process; and in the case of The Post, it does not replace the traditional news gathering techniques used by journalists, particularly direct contacts with human sources. The respondents cited face-to-face interviews, a traditional means of newsgathering, as the main driving force in news gathering routines at the newspaper. However, although the respondents saw some mixed blessings in the Internet as a reporting tool, they also believed that the benefits outweighed the problems. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hamachila, Alphonsius
- Date: 2013-06-10
- Subjects: Post (Lusaka, Zambia) Electronic news gathering -- Zambia -- Case studies Journalism -- Data processing -- Zambia -- Case studies Reporters and reporting -- Zambia -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3518 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008075
- Description: The Internet and World Wide Web have become dominant newsgathering tools in a sholi period of time. While the body of research, particularly in the First World, has developed quickly along with the Web, many unanswered questions remain on how journalists in developing countries make use of the Internet for newsgathering purposes. This study combined social constructivist theory with the socio-organisational and cultural approaches to news production in order to critically investigate how journalists at The Post newspaper in Zambia relate to, and make use of, the Internet as a newsgathering resource, in the context of Third World conditions. The study critiqued technological detelminism perspectives on journalists' use of the new information technology. The technological determinism theory, which has largely been advanced by some scholars from the developed world, takes a celebratory approach to journalists' use of the Internet in the newsroom. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews and observations, the study established that while journalists at The Post acknowledged the lnternet's potential in news gathering, factors such as unreliable telecommunications infrastructure, poor Internet skills, lack of local content on the World Wide Web, and organisational and occupational demands inhibited the use of the Internet as a journalistic newsgathering resource. The study established further that online reporting is only a tool within the broader news gathering and production process; and in the case of The Post, it does not replace the traditional news gathering techniques used by journalists, particularly direct contacts with human sources. The respondents cited face-to-face interviews, a traditional means of newsgathering, as the main driving force in news gathering routines at the newspaper. However, although the respondents saw some mixed blessings in the Internet as a reporting tool, they also believed that the benefits outweighed the problems. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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A study of women's representation in relation to poverty: a case study of The Post March 2009
- Gwanvalla, Delphine Ngehndab
- Authors: Gwanvalla, Delphine Ngehndab
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Journalism, Commercial -- Social aspects -- Cameroon Women -- Cameroon -- Social conditions Poor women -- Cameroon Mass media and women -- Cameroon
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3504 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007144
- Description: The media, specifically tabloids, have the potential to portray poverty-related issues in a manner that informs the public and government about the experiences of people living in poverty so that it can be tackled with urgency. Poverty has blighted the lives of many, especially women, children and widows in Cameroon. The role of the media in reporting the plight and suffering of the ‘masses’ potentially shapes the way in which these issues are handled by those in authority. The study notes that the tabloid press has the potential to expose certain experiences of ordinary people thereby constituting that alternative sphere for the disadvantaged. The study investigates the manner women are represented in The Post which is an English tabloid published in Cameroon. The representation of women in this study looks at the institutional policies which drive the representation of women in news constructs, analyses the news values which shape news production, and uses Thompson’s modes of ideology to unravel the underlying meanings in the reported stories. The study is inspired by the claims that since women make up the majority of the world's poor, so too would media representations depict them as such. It utilises thematic analysis to understand the manner in which women are represented in The Post. It also uses interviews with the regional bureau editor of the North West region to probe what news values and institutional policies drive the stories on women’s poverty. Document analysis is used to better comprehend the institutional guidelines which govern the representation of women during the month of March 2009.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Gwanvalla, Delphine Ngehndab
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Journalism, Commercial -- Social aspects -- Cameroon Women -- Cameroon -- Social conditions Poor women -- Cameroon Mass media and women -- Cameroon
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3504 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007144
- Description: The media, specifically tabloids, have the potential to portray poverty-related issues in a manner that informs the public and government about the experiences of people living in poverty so that it can be tackled with urgency. Poverty has blighted the lives of many, especially women, children and widows in Cameroon. The role of the media in reporting the plight and suffering of the ‘masses’ potentially shapes the way in which these issues are handled by those in authority. The study notes that the tabloid press has the potential to expose certain experiences of ordinary people thereby constituting that alternative sphere for the disadvantaged. The study investigates the manner women are represented in The Post which is an English tabloid published in Cameroon. The representation of women in this study looks at the institutional policies which drive the representation of women in news constructs, analyses the news values which shape news production, and uses Thompson’s modes of ideology to unravel the underlying meanings in the reported stories. The study is inspired by the claims that since women make up the majority of the world's poor, so too would media representations depict them as such. It utilises thematic analysis to understand the manner in which women are represented in The Post. It also uses interviews with the regional bureau editor of the North West region to probe what news values and institutional policies drive the stories on women’s poverty. Document analysis is used to better comprehend the institutional guidelines which govern the representation of women during the month of March 2009.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
An investigation into how journalists experience economic and political pressures on their ethical decisions at the Nation Media Group in Kenya
- Authors: Maweu, Jacinta Mwende
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Nation Media Group Limited Journalists -- Kenya Journalistic ethics -- Kenya Press and politics -- Kenya Journalism -- Economic aspects -- Kenya Journalism -- Political aspects -- Kenya Mass media -- Political aspects -- Kenya Mass media -- Economic aspects -- Kenya Freedom of the press -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3508 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007583
- Description: This study investigates how journalists experience economic and political pressures on their ethical decisions at the Nation Media Group (NMG) conglomerate in Kenya. The study uses qualitative semi- structured interviews to examine how journalists experience these pressures on their professional ethics as they make their daily decisions. Grounded in the critical political economy of the media tradition, the findings of the study indicate that economic and political pressures from advertisers, shareholders’ interests, the profit motive and the highly ethnicised political environment in Kenya largely compromise the ethical decisions of journalists. The study draws on the work done by Herman and Chomsky in their ‘Propaganda Model’ in which they propose ‘filters’ as the analytical indicators of the forms that political and economic pressures that journalists experience may take. The study explores the ways in which journalists experience these pressures, how they respond to the pressures and the ways in which their responses may compromise their journalism ethics. The findings indicate that aside from the pressures from the primary five filters outlined in the Propaganda Model, ethnicity in Kenyan newsrooms is a key ‘filter’ that may compromise the ethical decisions of journalists at the NMG. The study therefore argues that there is a need to modify the explanatory power of the Propaganda Model when applying it to the Kenyan context to include ethnicity as a ‘sixth filter’ that should be understood in relation to the five primary filters. From the findings, it would seem that the government is no longer a major threat to journalists’ freedom and responsibility in Kenya. Market forces and ethnicity in newsrooms pose the greatest threat to journalists’ freedom and responsibility. The study therefore calls for a revision of the normative framework within which journalists’ and media performance in Kenya is assessed. As the study findings show, the prevailing liberal- democratic model ignores the commercial and economic threats the ‘free market’ poses to journalism ethics as well as ethnicity in newsrooms and only focuses on the media- government relations, treating the government as the major threat to media freedom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Maweu, Jacinta Mwende
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Nation Media Group Limited Journalists -- Kenya Journalistic ethics -- Kenya Press and politics -- Kenya Journalism -- Economic aspects -- Kenya Journalism -- Political aspects -- Kenya Mass media -- Political aspects -- Kenya Mass media -- Economic aspects -- Kenya Freedom of the press -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3508 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007583
- Description: This study investigates how journalists experience economic and political pressures on their ethical decisions at the Nation Media Group (NMG) conglomerate in Kenya. The study uses qualitative semi- structured interviews to examine how journalists experience these pressures on their professional ethics as they make their daily decisions. Grounded in the critical political economy of the media tradition, the findings of the study indicate that economic and political pressures from advertisers, shareholders’ interests, the profit motive and the highly ethnicised political environment in Kenya largely compromise the ethical decisions of journalists. The study draws on the work done by Herman and Chomsky in their ‘Propaganda Model’ in which they propose ‘filters’ as the analytical indicators of the forms that political and economic pressures that journalists experience may take. The study explores the ways in which journalists experience these pressures, how they respond to the pressures and the ways in which their responses may compromise their journalism ethics. The findings indicate that aside from the pressures from the primary five filters outlined in the Propaganda Model, ethnicity in Kenyan newsrooms is a key ‘filter’ that may compromise the ethical decisions of journalists at the NMG. The study therefore argues that there is a need to modify the explanatory power of the Propaganda Model when applying it to the Kenyan context to include ethnicity as a ‘sixth filter’ that should be understood in relation to the five primary filters. From the findings, it would seem that the government is no longer a major threat to journalists’ freedom and responsibility in Kenya. Market forces and ethnicity in newsrooms pose the greatest threat to journalists’ freedom and responsibility. The study therefore calls for a revision of the normative framework within which journalists’ and media performance in Kenya is assessed. As the study findings show, the prevailing liberal- democratic model ignores the commercial and economic threats the ‘free market’ poses to journalism ethics as well as ethnicity in newsrooms and only focuses on the media- government relations, treating the government as the major threat to media freedom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
An investigation into the representations of environmental issues relating to Lake Victoria, Uganda, and their negotiation by the lakeside communities
- Lwanga, Margaret Jjuuko Nassuna
- Authors: Lwanga, Margaret Jjuuko Nassuna
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Victoria Voice Victoria, Lake -- Environmental aspects -- Research Lakes -- Environmental aspects -- Research -- Uganda Environmental management -- Research -- Uganda Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Uganda Radio broadcasting -- Uganda , Uganda CBS , Central Broadcasting Service , Mass media -- Environmental aspects -- Research -- Uganda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3411 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001577
- Description: The state of the environment is increasingly present as an urgent concern for contemporary political, social, cultural and physical life. Yet the roles of the mass media (radio, television and newspapers) in shaping and influencing crucial public awareness, debates and environmental decision-making remain inadequately understood. Positioned as a critical studies inquiry into media representations and audience reception, this study forms part of a wider project amongst media scholars and culture critics on the relationship between media textual production and consumption. It explores how one radio station in Uganda, Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) radio, represents and constructs the environmental crises faced by Lake Victoria, especially pollution and overfishing. The focus is on the Victoria Voice radio documentaries aired on CBS radio in the year 2005. The study further explores how three lakeside communities negotiate these issues as radio broadcasts. It recognises that while the mass media contribute significantly to creating public awareness about such social concerns, their likelihood of having a direct and predictable impact on social behaviour is slight. The context and the lived experiences at the reception stage where the decisions are made on whether to adopt an innovation are ultimately the factors which impact on how they are negotiated. The thesis is informed by the theoretical and analytical framework of Cultural Studies as well as the Participatory Approach to Communication for Development perspectives. The study is specifically informed by the theories of ‘discourse’ (Foucault, 1980a, 1981) and the ‘circuit of culture’ (du Gay et al., 1997 and Johnson, 1987) and these provided the conceptual framework for investigating the representations, the production and the consumption of media texts. Predominantly qualitative methods have been employed in data collection and analysis. In the first place, a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1995a, 1995c) of the radio texts has interrogated the discourses and discursive practices of CBS’ Victoria Voice environmental radio programmes in order to consider its representations of particular issues and consequently the discourses it privileged. Qualitative methods of participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were deployed to investigate the negotiation of the texts by the lakeside communities. This research establishes that the Victoria Voice radio texts foreground three contesting types of discourses: the discourse of basic economic survival and livelihoods is articulated largely by the ordinary people, the lakeside communities; the discourse of sustainable development, particularly the protection and sustainability of Lake Victoria, by scientists and environmental experts; and the discourse of modernisation and corporate investment by politicians and/or policy makers and industrialists. The texts, to a large degree, reaffirm the hegemonic relations of power in Ugandan society, and thus contribute to the maintenance of the status quo. The selection of an elite category of informers (scientists, experts, politicians, policy makers) serves to marginalise the less powerful ordinary people (the fisher folk, farmers and other eyewitnesses). The construction of the elite as active and speaking subjects within the various debates introduced in these programmes, for example, works both to obscure and endorse the unequal power relations. At the reception side, while the lakeside communities attest to the relevance of the programmes in providing information on the issues concerning Lake Victoria and other aspects of their livelihood, they also recognise the power relations that underpin the sets of representations. Amongst these sets is government’s complicity with industry, in line with their economic policies and the global capitalist economy, while espousing the rhetoric of nature conservation. The study argues that sustainable solutions for the crises on Lake Victoria should take into account the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the lakeside communities. For the Ugandan media, particularly radio, there is a need to rethink the nature of the coverage, which tends to neglect the contextual factors, such as local socio-economic and cultural factors within which environmental issues and problems occur and which, as this thesis establishes, greatly influences the way people make sense of environmental issues and problems. I posit that the Participatory Approach that seeks to address the communities’ most pressing concerns should be adopted – to include more of the communities’ voices and involve them in the production of radio programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Lwanga, Margaret Jjuuko Nassuna
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Victoria Voice Victoria, Lake -- Environmental aspects -- Research Lakes -- Environmental aspects -- Research -- Uganda Environmental management -- Research -- Uganda Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Uganda Radio broadcasting -- Uganda , Uganda CBS , Central Broadcasting Service , Mass media -- Environmental aspects -- Research -- Uganda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3411 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001577
- Description: The state of the environment is increasingly present as an urgent concern for contemporary political, social, cultural and physical life. Yet the roles of the mass media (radio, television and newspapers) in shaping and influencing crucial public awareness, debates and environmental decision-making remain inadequately understood. Positioned as a critical studies inquiry into media representations and audience reception, this study forms part of a wider project amongst media scholars and culture critics on the relationship between media textual production and consumption. It explores how one radio station in Uganda, Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) radio, represents and constructs the environmental crises faced by Lake Victoria, especially pollution and overfishing. The focus is on the Victoria Voice radio documentaries aired on CBS radio in the year 2005. The study further explores how three lakeside communities negotiate these issues as radio broadcasts. It recognises that while the mass media contribute significantly to creating public awareness about such social concerns, their likelihood of having a direct and predictable impact on social behaviour is slight. The context and the lived experiences at the reception stage where the decisions are made on whether to adopt an innovation are ultimately the factors which impact on how they are negotiated. The thesis is informed by the theoretical and analytical framework of Cultural Studies as well as the Participatory Approach to Communication for Development perspectives. The study is specifically informed by the theories of ‘discourse’ (Foucault, 1980a, 1981) and the ‘circuit of culture’ (du Gay et al., 1997 and Johnson, 1987) and these provided the conceptual framework for investigating the representations, the production and the consumption of media texts. Predominantly qualitative methods have been employed in data collection and analysis. In the first place, a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1995a, 1995c) of the radio texts has interrogated the discourses and discursive practices of CBS’ Victoria Voice environmental radio programmes in order to consider its representations of particular issues and consequently the discourses it privileged. Qualitative methods of participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were deployed to investigate the negotiation of the texts by the lakeside communities. This research establishes that the Victoria Voice radio texts foreground three contesting types of discourses: the discourse of basic economic survival and livelihoods is articulated largely by the ordinary people, the lakeside communities; the discourse of sustainable development, particularly the protection and sustainability of Lake Victoria, by scientists and environmental experts; and the discourse of modernisation and corporate investment by politicians and/or policy makers and industrialists. The texts, to a large degree, reaffirm the hegemonic relations of power in Ugandan society, and thus contribute to the maintenance of the status quo. The selection of an elite category of informers (scientists, experts, politicians, policy makers) serves to marginalise the less powerful ordinary people (the fisher folk, farmers and other eyewitnesses). The construction of the elite as active and speaking subjects within the various debates introduced in these programmes, for example, works both to obscure and endorse the unequal power relations. At the reception side, while the lakeside communities attest to the relevance of the programmes in providing information on the issues concerning Lake Victoria and other aspects of their livelihood, they also recognise the power relations that underpin the sets of representations. Amongst these sets is government’s complicity with industry, in line with their economic policies and the global capitalist economy, while espousing the rhetoric of nature conservation. The study argues that sustainable solutions for the crises on Lake Victoria should take into account the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the lakeside communities. For the Ugandan media, particularly radio, there is a need to rethink the nature of the coverage, which tends to neglect the contextual factors, such as local socio-economic and cultural factors within which environmental issues and problems occur and which, as this thesis establishes, greatly influences the way people make sense of environmental issues and problems. I posit that the Participatory Approach that seeks to address the communities’ most pressing concerns should be adopted – to include more of the communities’ voices and involve them in the production of radio programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
An investigation of the discursive construction of the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union as nation in the Union Day coverage in The Citizen and Daily News newspapers from 2005 to 2011
- Authors: Dotto, Paul Casmir Kuhenga
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Newspapers -- Research -- Tanzania , Press and politics -- Tanzania , Tanzania -- Politics and government -- 1964- , Zanzibar -- Politics and government -- 1964- , Press , Daily News , The Citizen , Union Day , Nation building
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3412 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001843
- Description: This study is concerned with the constructions of the Tanzanian nation in the press. It has confined its focus, first, to the coverage from 2005 to 2011 on Union Day that marks the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar and the formation of the United Republic of Tanzania and, second, to two prominent Tanzanian newspapers, namely the state-owned Daily News, and the privately-owned The Citizen on Union Day. As the Union remains a contentious issue, the relevance of this research relates to the press’s considerable power to shape understandings and influence attitudes. The study works within a broad cultural and media studies framework and is informed by a constructionist approach to representation and to culture, and to nation in particular. It also draws of journalistic theories of agenda-setting and the normative roles of the press to probe the agendas set by the press on Union Day and to interrogate how the two newspapers construct and frame the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar as nation. The research responds to the question: ‘How has the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union been represented in The Citizen and Daily News newspapers from 2005 to 2011?’ It employs quantitative and qualitative (thematic) content analysis to investigate the coverage in the editorials and feature articles of The Citizen and Daily News newspapers on Union Day (26 April) of 2005 to 2011. This study finds that the government-owned newspaper, Daily News, publishes more articles related to Union on Union Day than the privately-owned, The Citizen and collaborates more determinedly with the state in the process of constructing the nation. However, both newspapers adopt a collaborative role consistent with the development journalism tradition that endorses an informal partnership between media and the state in the process of development (Christians et al, 2009:201). Both publications tend to emphasise the hegemonic ideology pertaining to Union while giving limited attention to challenges to such constructions. While both newspapers do identify certain problems of the Union and thus exercise a monitorial role to varying extents, it is apparent that the press in Tanzania tends to be largely acritical, perhaps attributable to a long period under single party rule
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Dotto, Paul Casmir Kuhenga
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Newspapers -- Research -- Tanzania , Press and politics -- Tanzania , Tanzania -- Politics and government -- 1964- , Zanzibar -- Politics and government -- 1964- , Press , Daily News , The Citizen , Union Day , Nation building
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3412 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001843
- Description: This study is concerned with the constructions of the Tanzanian nation in the press. It has confined its focus, first, to the coverage from 2005 to 2011 on Union Day that marks the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar and the formation of the United Republic of Tanzania and, second, to two prominent Tanzanian newspapers, namely the state-owned Daily News, and the privately-owned The Citizen on Union Day. As the Union remains a contentious issue, the relevance of this research relates to the press’s considerable power to shape understandings and influence attitudes. The study works within a broad cultural and media studies framework and is informed by a constructionist approach to representation and to culture, and to nation in particular. It also draws of journalistic theories of agenda-setting and the normative roles of the press to probe the agendas set by the press on Union Day and to interrogate how the two newspapers construct and frame the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar as nation. The research responds to the question: ‘How has the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union been represented in The Citizen and Daily News newspapers from 2005 to 2011?’ It employs quantitative and qualitative (thematic) content analysis to investigate the coverage in the editorials and feature articles of The Citizen and Daily News newspapers on Union Day (26 April) of 2005 to 2011. This study finds that the government-owned newspaper, Daily News, publishes more articles related to Union on Union Day than the privately-owned, The Citizen and collaborates more determinedly with the state in the process of constructing the nation. However, both newspapers adopt a collaborative role consistent with the development journalism tradition that endorses an informal partnership between media and the state in the process of development (Christians et al, 2009:201). Both publications tend to emphasise the hegemonic ideology pertaining to Union while giving limited attention to challenges to such constructions. While both newspapers do identify certain problems of the Union and thus exercise a monitorial role to varying extents, it is apparent that the press in Tanzania tends to be largely acritical, perhaps attributable to a long period under single party rule
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Constructions of nationhood in secession debates related to Mthwakazi Liberation Front in Bulawayo's Chronicle and Newsday newspapers in 2011
- Authors: Ndlovu, Mphathisi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Newspapers , Bulawayo , Matabeleland , Zimbabwe , Chronicle , Newsday , Secession , Devolution , Nationhood , Ndebele , Ethnic identity , Mthwakazi Liberation Front , Mthwakazi Liberation Front -- Zimbabwe , Mass media and nationalism -- Research -- Zimbabwe , Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) -- Newspapers , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- History -- Autonomy and independence movements , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- Social conditions , Zimbabwe -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3415 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001846
- Description: This study investigates the constructions of nationhood in two Bulawayo newspapers, the Chronicle and Newsday. Against the backdrop of the emergence of a secessionist movement, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), this research examines the discourses of nationhood in the secessionist debates raging in these two newspapers. This study is premised on a view that nationhood constructions cannot be understood outside the broader context in which these newspapers are embedded. Accordingly, it traces the roots and resurgence of Matabeleland separatist politics, exploring the political-historical forces that have shaped a distinctive Ndebele identity that poses a threat to the one, indivisible Zimbabwean national identity. Further, the study situates Matabeleland separatist politics within the broader African secessionist discourse challenging the post-colonial nation-building project on the continent. Informed by Hall’s (1992, 1996) constructivist approach to identity, it considers national identities as fragmented, multiple and constantly evolving. Thus, this study is framed within Hall’s (1997) constructivist approach to representation, as it examines the constructions of nationhood in and through language. The study uses qualitative research methods, as it examines the meanings of nationhood in key media texts. Informed by Foucault’s discourse theory, this research employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse 12 articles from the two newspapers. The findings confirm that the representations of nationhood in the two newspapers are influenced by their position within the socio-political context. The state-owned Chronicle legitimates the unitary state discourse advocated by ZANU PF. On the other hand, Newsday’s representations are informed by the discourses of the opposition political parties and civil society that challenge the dominant nation-building project. Thus, within this paper, secession and devolution emerge as alternative imaginaries that contest the authoritarian discourse of nationhood
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Ndlovu, Mphathisi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Newspapers , Bulawayo , Matabeleland , Zimbabwe , Chronicle , Newsday , Secession , Devolution , Nationhood , Ndebele , Ethnic identity , Mthwakazi Liberation Front , Mthwakazi Liberation Front -- Zimbabwe , Mass media and nationalism -- Research -- Zimbabwe , Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) -- Newspapers , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- History -- Autonomy and independence movements , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- Social conditions , Zimbabwe -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3415 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001846
- Description: This study investigates the constructions of nationhood in two Bulawayo newspapers, the Chronicle and Newsday. Against the backdrop of the emergence of a secessionist movement, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), this research examines the discourses of nationhood in the secessionist debates raging in these two newspapers. This study is premised on a view that nationhood constructions cannot be understood outside the broader context in which these newspapers are embedded. Accordingly, it traces the roots and resurgence of Matabeleland separatist politics, exploring the political-historical forces that have shaped a distinctive Ndebele identity that poses a threat to the one, indivisible Zimbabwean national identity. Further, the study situates Matabeleland separatist politics within the broader African secessionist discourse challenging the post-colonial nation-building project on the continent. Informed by Hall’s (1992, 1996) constructivist approach to identity, it considers national identities as fragmented, multiple and constantly evolving. Thus, this study is framed within Hall’s (1997) constructivist approach to representation, as it examines the constructions of nationhood in and through language. The study uses qualitative research methods, as it examines the meanings of nationhood in key media texts. Informed by Foucault’s discourse theory, this research employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse 12 articles from the two newspapers. The findings confirm that the representations of nationhood in the two newspapers are influenced by their position within the socio-political context. The state-owned Chronicle legitimates the unitary state discourse advocated by ZANU PF. On the other hand, Newsday’s representations are informed by the discourses of the opposition political parties and civil society that challenge the dominant nation-building project. Thus, within this paper, secession and devolution emerge as alternative imaginaries that contest the authoritarian discourse of nationhood
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Hungry but silent: a content analysis of media reporting on the 2011-2012 famine in Somalia
- Authors: Stupart, Richard
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Famines -- Political aspects -- Somalia Somalia -- In mass media Famines in mass media
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3500 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006054
- Description: This dissertation examines media coverage of the 2011- 2012 famine in Somalia by the websites of BBC News, CNN and Al Jazeera. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analyses, it asks why coverage of the famine began as late as it did, despite ample evidence of the coming famine. It further surveys the famine-related news reports for evidence of four paradigms through which the causes of famine can be understood; as a Malthusian competition between population and land, as a failure of food entitlements as conceived of by Sen (1981), as critical political event (Edkins, 2004), or as an issue of criminality (Alex de Waal, 2008). Findings include a dramatic silencing of victim’s accounts of famine, despite a reliance on their photographic images, as well as an overwhelming preference for Malthusian accounts of the famine. Late media coverage is explored via a new-values paradigm which links the sudden outburst of media coverage for the famine to a formal UN declaration, and suggests that this may have created a new elite-relevance to the event which did not exist before, and therefore making it of relevance to domestic publics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Stupart, Richard
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Famines -- Political aspects -- Somalia Somalia -- In mass media Famines in mass media
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3500 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006054
- Description: This dissertation examines media coverage of the 2011- 2012 famine in Somalia by the websites of BBC News, CNN and Al Jazeera. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analyses, it asks why coverage of the famine began as late as it did, despite ample evidence of the coming famine. It further surveys the famine-related news reports for evidence of four paradigms through which the causes of famine can be understood; as a Malthusian competition between population and land, as a failure of food entitlements as conceived of by Sen (1981), as critical political event (Edkins, 2004), or as an issue of criminality (Alex de Waal, 2008). Findings include a dramatic silencing of victim’s accounts of famine, despite a reliance on their photographic images, as well as an overwhelming preference for Malthusian accounts of the famine. Late media coverage is explored via a new-values paradigm which links the sudden outburst of media coverage for the famine to a formal UN declaration, and suggests that this may have created a new elite-relevance to the event which did not exist before, and therefore making it of relevance to domestic publics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Investigating rural Ugandan women's engagement with HIV and AIDS-related programmes on community radio: a case study of Mama FM's Speak out and Listen
- Authors: Kigozi, James Musisi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Community radio , AIDS (Disease) in women -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) and mass media -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) -- Social aspects -- Uganda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001845
- Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate how rural Ugandan women engage with discussions of HIV and AIDS on community radio. It explored how this audience may relate such broadcast discussions to their own lived experience of HIV and AIDS. It is explained in the study that, while the Uganda government has an official policy of openly discussing matters of HIV and AIDS, health communication strategies still operate within a context where there is an underlying "culture of silence" that discourages openness about sexual matters. It is also pointed out that there are widespread gender disparities among rural communities, which severely limit women's ability to make use of health communication initiatives aimed at educating them. Against this backdrop, the study sets out to explore audience responses to a particular example of Speak Out and Listen, a weekly programme broadcast on Mama FM, a Kampala-based radio station managed by the Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA). The study maps out responses to the programme by a particular group of rural women. It is argued that these research participants' comments confirm the importance, noted in literature dealing with health education, of drawing for content on what members of an audience have to say about their own lived context. It is proposed that, despite the existence of a 'culture of silence', the women's comments demonstrate an ability to speak with confidence about their experience of living with HIV and AIDS. Thcy are able, more particularly to discuss the constraints placed by gendered power relations on women's ability to draw on the educational content of programming that targets people living with HIV and AIDS. As such, the comments that such women offer represent a valuable resource for HIV and AIDS related programming. The principal conclusion of the study is that health communication initiatives such as Speak Out and Listen would benefit from facilitating conversations with their target audience about their lived experience of HIV and AIDS, and incorporating such discussion into their programmes
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Kigozi, James Musisi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Community radio , AIDS (Disease) in women -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) and mass media -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) -- Social aspects -- Uganda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001845
- Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate how rural Ugandan women engage with discussions of HIV and AIDS on community radio. It explored how this audience may relate such broadcast discussions to their own lived experience of HIV and AIDS. It is explained in the study that, while the Uganda government has an official policy of openly discussing matters of HIV and AIDS, health communication strategies still operate within a context where there is an underlying "culture of silence" that discourages openness about sexual matters. It is also pointed out that there are widespread gender disparities among rural communities, which severely limit women's ability to make use of health communication initiatives aimed at educating them. Against this backdrop, the study sets out to explore audience responses to a particular example of Speak Out and Listen, a weekly programme broadcast on Mama FM, a Kampala-based radio station managed by the Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA). The study maps out responses to the programme by a particular group of rural women. It is argued that these research participants' comments confirm the importance, noted in literature dealing with health education, of drawing for content on what members of an audience have to say about their own lived context. It is proposed that, despite the existence of a 'culture of silence', the women's comments demonstrate an ability to speak with confidence about their experience of living with HIV and AIDS. Thcy are able, more particularly to discuss the constraints placed by gendered power relations on women's ability to draw on the educational content of programming that targets people living with HIV and AIDS. As such, the comments that such women offer represent a valuable resource for HIV and AIDS related programming. The principal conclusion of the study is that health communication initiatives such as Speak Out and Listen would benefit from facilitating conversations with their target audience about their lived experience of HIV and AIDS, and incorporating such discussion into their programmes
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Perceived usefulness of agricultural information sought on-line and broadcast in rural Mozambique: a case study of two Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs)
- Authors: Fuel, Isaias Carlos
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Radio in community development -- Mozambique Radio broadcasting -- Mozambique Radio stations -- Mozambique Digital media -- Mozambique Rural development -- Mozambique Agriculture -- Mozambique
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3505 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007240
- Description: The wealth of information available on the Internet holds the potential to aid development in Africa. In order to be effective, such information needs to be contextualised to respond to local needs and practices. The combination of old and new media can support uptake and improve acceptance of new technologies in developing countries. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceived usefulness of agricultural information sought on-line and broadcast via community radio in the two Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) of Namaacha and Murrombene, in rural Mozambique. The data was generated from focus group discussion, individual interview, document analysis, and observation involving farmers and radio presenters. The study has shown that on-line agricultural information responds to the needs of the farmers because it contributes to eliminate pests and help farmers to make decisions about their activities. The study has also shown that there is a communication gap between farmers, extension workers, and volunteer reporters working at the community radios of the two CMCs. Volunteers have no agricultural knowledge. The problem this creates manifests itself primarily when they try to translate on-line agricultural information from Portuguese into local languages. Farmers have difficulties expressing their problems. Extension workers are not available to act as experts and mediators between volunteers and farmers. A collaborative website focusing on locally relevant content was suggested as a possible improvement.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Fuel, Isaias Carlos
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Radio in community development -- Mozambique Radio broadcasting -- Mozambique Radio stations -- Mozambique Digital media -- Mozambique Rural development -- Mozambique Agriculture -- Mozambique
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3505 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007240
- Description: The wealth of information available on the Internet holds the potential to aid development in Africa. In order to be effective, such information needs to be contextualised to respond to local needs and practices. The combination of old and new media can support uptake and improve acceptance of new technologies in developing countries. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceived usefulness of agricultural information sought on-line and broadcast via community radio in the two Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) of Namaacha and Murrombene, in rural Mozambique. The data was generated from focus group discussion, individual interview, document analysis, and observation involving farmers and radio presenters. The study has shown that on-line agricultural information responds to the needs of the farmers because it contributes to eliminate pests and help farmers to make decisions about their activities. The study has also shown that there is a communication gap between farmers, extension workers, and volunteer reporters working at the community radios of the two CMCs. Volunteers have no agricultural knowledge. The problem this creates manifests itself primarily when they try to translate on-line agricultural information from Portuguese into local languages. Farmers have difficulties expressing their problems. Extension workers are not available to act as experts and mediators between volunteers and farmers. A collaborative website focusing on locally relevant content was suggested as a possible improvement.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
The new Africans: a textual analysis of the construction of 'African-ness' in Chaz Maviyane-Davies' 1996 poster depictions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Authors: Garman, Brian Donald
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Human rights , Posters , African perspective , Stereotypes , Black men , Maviyane-Davies, Chaz -- Criticism and interpretation , Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- Posters -- Research , Ethnicity -- Research -- Africa , Human rights -- Africa , Pan-Africanism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3413 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001844
- Description: In 1996, Zimbabwean graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies created a set of human rights posters which represent several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from what he calls an “African perspective”. In this study I investigate how Maviyane-Davies has constructed ‘African-ness’ and probe what he refers to as the “alternative aesthetic” that he is trying to create. I use a visual social semiotic approach to examine the discourses he draws on to re-image and re-imagine Africa and Africans in a manner that contests the stereotypical representations found in political, news and economic discourses about Africa, paying particular attention to the ways he uses images of the body. My analysis of the posters shows how complex and difficult it can be to contest regimes of representation that work to fix racialised and derogatory meanings. In response to the pejorative stereotypes of the black body, Maviyane-Davies uses images of strong, healthy, and magnificent people (mostly men) to construct a more affirmative representation of Africa and Africans. Significantly, he draws on sports, touristic, traditional and hegemonic discourses of masculinity in an attempt to expand the complexity and range of possible representations of African-ness. In so doing he runs the risk of reproducing many of the stereotypes that sustain not only the racialised and gendered (masculinist) representations of Africa, but also a sentimentalisation and romanticisation of a place, a people and their traditions. Apart from women in prominent positions, other conspicuous absences from these images include white people and hegemonic references to Western modernity. I do not believe he is discarding whites and modernity as un-African, but is rejecting the naturalisation of whiteness as standing in for humanity, and particular icons of Western modernity as significations of ‘modernity’ itself
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Garman, Brian Donald
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Human rights , Posters , African perspective , Stereotypes , Black men , Maviyane-Davies, Chaz -- Criticism and interpretation , Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- Posters -- Research , Ethnicity -- Research -- Africa , Human rights -- Africa , Pan-Africanism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3413 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001844
- Description: In 1996, Zimbabwean graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies created a set of human rights posters which represent several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from what he calls an “African perspective”. In this study I investigate how Maviyane-Davies has constructed ‘African-ness’ and probe what he refers to as the “alternative aesthetic” that he is trying to create. I use a visual social semiotic approach to examine the discourses he draws on to re-image and re-imagine Africa and Africans in a manner that contests the stereotypical representations found in political, news and economic discourses about Africa, paying particular attention to the ways he uses images of the body. My analysis of the posters shows how complex and difficult it can be to contest regimes of representation that work to fix racialised and derogatory meanings. In response to the pejorative stereotypes of the black body, Maviyane-Davies uses images of strong, healthy, and magnificent people (mostly men) to construct a more affirmative representation of Africa and Africans. Significantly, he draws on sports, touristic, traditional and hegemonic discourses of masculinity in an attempt to expand the complexity and range of possible representations of African-ness. In so doing he runs the risk of reproducing many of the stereotypes that sustain not only the racialised and gendered (masculinist) representations of Africa, but also a sentimentalisation and romanticisation of a place, a people and their traditions. Apart from women in prominent positions, other conspicuous absences from these images include white people and hegemonic references to Western modernity. I do not believe he is discarding whites and modernity as un-African, but is rejecting the naturalisation of whiteness as standing in for humanity, and particular icons of Western modernity as significations of ‘modernity’ itself
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
'Becoming citizens': young people making sense of citizenship on a South African community radio station youth show
- Karamagi, Sharon Benna Kyakyo
- Authors: Karamagi, Sharon Benna Kyakyo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Citizenship -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Youth -- Social conditions Community radio -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3444 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002898
- Description: This research set out to investigate the role that community radio can potentially play as a space in which young people engage with their own role as citizens and, in so doing, participate in discussions that seek to address social problems in a community divided by class, income, gender and race. The study examines how a local community radio station - Radio Grahamstown - developed a youth programme Y4Yin which the producers of the show and its audience came together to negotiate the meaning of citizenship. The study examines whether this interactive programme was able to function as something like a public sphere where in young people were able to develop a greater sense of agency, at least in the realm of citizenship. Using evidence gathered through focus group discussions with a group of young school-going leamers, interviews conducted with the producers of the show Y4Y, and drawing on Dahlgren's elaboration of a functional public sphere, the research concludes that the show provided a useful platform for Grahamstown high school students to develop their own notions of citizenship and to, at least partially and tentatively, build some 'bridges' across the vectors of socio-economic division in the town. However, the research also concludes that the Y4Y producers often failed to use a mode of address contemporary to the youth and often did not use production techniques congruent with young people's cultural tastes. This limited the programme's appeal and its potential as an enabler of discussion about notions of citizenship and as a platform for social bridging. In addition, because of the producers' control over the choice of topics put up for discussion, open interaction was more limited than could have been expected. In addition, the study also concludes that various limitations to the leamers' freedom of expression (including their fear that teachers might be listening in to the shows) inhibited the programme's role as a deliberative public sphere where issues could be aired, common ground found, and solutions discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Karamagi, Sharon Benna Kyakyo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Citizenship -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Youth -- Social conditions Community radio -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3444 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002898
- Description: This research set out to investigate the role that community radio can potentially play as a space in which young people engage with their own role as citizens and, in so doing, participate in discussions that seek to address social problems in a community divided by class, income, gender and race. The study examines how a local community radio station - Radio Grahamstown - developed a youth programme Y4Yin which the producers of the show and its audience came together to negotiate the meaning of citizenship. The study examines whether this interactive programme was able to function as something like a public sphere where in young people were able to develop a greater sense of agency, at least in the realm of citizenship. Using evidence gathered through focus group discussions with a group of young school-going leamers, interviews conducted with the producers of the show Y4Y, and drawing on Dahlgren's elaboration of a functional public sphere, the research concludes that the show provided a useful platform for Grahamstown high school students to develop their own notions of citizenship and to, at least partially and tentatively, build some 'bridges' across the vectors of socio-economic division in the town. However, the research also concludes that the Y4Y producers often failed to use a mode of address contemporary to the youth and often did not use production techniques congruent with young people's cultural tastes. This limited the programme's appeal and its potential as an enabler of discussion about notions of citizenship and as a platform for social bridging. In addition, because of the producers' control over the choice of topics put up for discussion, open interaction was more limited than could have been expected. In addition, the study also concludes that various limitations to the leamers' freedom of expression (including their fear that teachers might be listening in to the shows) inhibited the programme's role as a deliberative public sphere where issues could be aired, common ground found, and solutions discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Negotiating family planning radio messages among Malawian rural men of traditional authority Kadewere, Chiradzulo district
- Authors: Ntaba, Jolly Maxwell
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Family planning -- Malawi , Birth control -- Malawi , Radio advertising -- Campaigns -- Malawi , Men -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3548 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018258
- Description: Family planning campaigns, using the media among other advocacy interventions, are produced and disseminated by both government and nongovernment organizations in Malawi, with an aim of reducing fertility and promotion of reproductive health. This qualitative audience study looks specifically at the reception by rural men of radio broadcast Public Service Announcements produced by the NGO, Banja La Mtsogolo, a leading provider of family planning services and products based in Blantyre. The aim of the study is to understand how the appropriation of these messages relates to traditional concepts of gender, masculinity and kinship within an area that has not been spared the influences, values and accoutrements of modernity. Underpinned by Hall’s encoding and decoding model, the study reveals that at most men make an oppositional reading of the texts based on their lived and shared cultural experiences. The results show that while people understand and appreciate the importance of family planning, cultural and traditional influences play a major role in how these messages are appropriated by and incorporated into the everyday lives of their listeners. Given the above understandings, the research asks what are the implications for the success of family-planning media campaigns by government and other non-governmental organisations such as Banja La Mtsogolo
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Ntaba, Jolly Maxwell
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Family planning -- Malawi , Birth control -- Malawi , Radio advertising -- Campaigns -- Malawi , Men -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3548 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018258
- Description: Family planning campaigns, using the media among other advocacy interventions, are produced and disseminated by both government and nongovernment organizations in Malawi, with an aim of reducing fertility and promotion of reproductive health. This qualitative audience study looks specifically at the reception by rural men of radio broadcast Public Service Announcements produced by the NGO, Banja La Mtsogolo, a leading provider of family planning services and products based in Blantyre. The aim of the study is to understand how the appropriation of these messages relates to traditional concepts of gender, masculinity and kinship within an area that has not been spared the influences, values and accoutrements of modernity. Underpinned by Hall’s encoding and decoding model, the study reveals that at most men make an oppositional reading of the texts based on their lived and shared cultural experiences. The results show that while people understand and appreciate the importance of family planning, cultural and traditional influences play a major role in how these messages are appropriated by and incorporated into the everyday lives of their listeners. Given the above understandings, the research asks what are the implications for the success of family-planning media campaigns by government and other non-governmental organisations such as Banja La Mtsogolo
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
The making of business news in Africa: a case study of Cameroon Tribune newspaper
- Authors: Tawe, Ngamale Emmanuel
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Journalism -- Cameroon Mass media -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Cameroon Cameroon Tribune (Cameroon) Journalism, Commercial -- Sociological aspects -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Social aspects -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Economic aspects -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Political aspects -- Cameroon Cameroon -- Economic conditions Elite (Social sciences)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3487 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002942
- Description: Since the emergence of business journalism as a genre within the broad spectrum of news reporting, most of the scholarly works into its development have focused on growth in the western (that is developed) world. This indicates that very limited research has been done in the field of business journalism in the developing economies. Thus there exist gaps in understanding the practice of business journalism in Africa and part of this is rooted in how the practice is defined. This study aims to shed light on the practice of business journalism in this African context. It explores the onset and development of business journalism and its evolution in Africa. The main focus in this case study was to understand the definition of business news in the specific context of the Cameroon Tribune. Individual in-depth interviews were used as the main (primary) data collection method along with observation and cursory reading as complementary (secondary) methods. This study is influenced by the sociology of news production which foregrounds theoretical frames such as news construction and gatekeeping. Findings from this study reveal that business news at the Cameroon Tribune is elitist, essentially defined around personality and, is in the most part, development news. Additional findings indicate that the absence of any editorial guidelines leaves most reporters secondguessing how to please management with socialised values mostly acquired through peer learning. In conclusion, this study advances the necessity for the Africanisation of business news. This would entail reporting financial, economic, consumer, and corporate affairs, from a vocabulary and composition context that unveils much exchange taking place in the lives of many Africans.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Tawe, Ngamale Emmanuel
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Journalism -- Cameroon Mass media -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Cameroon Cameroon Tribune (Cameroon) Journalism, Commercial -- Sociological aspects -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Social aspects -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Economic aspects -- Cameroon Journalism, Commercial -- Political aspects -- Cameroon Cameroon -- Economic conditions Elite (Social sciences)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3487 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002942
- Description: Since the emergence of business journalism as a genre within the broad spectrum of news reporting, most of the scholarly works into its development have focused on growth in the western (that is developed) world. This indicates that very limited research has been done in the field of business journalism in the developing economies. Thus there exist gaps in understanding the practice of business journalism in Africa and part of this is rooted in how the practice is defined. This study aims to shed light on the practice of business journalism in this African context. It explores the onset and development of business journalism and its evolution in Africa. The main focus in this case study was to understand the definition of business news in the specific context of the Cameroon Tribune. Individual in-depth interviews were used as the main (primary) data collection method along with observation and cursory reading as complementary (secondary) methods. This study is influenced by the sociology of news production which foregrounds theoretical frames such as news construction and gatekeeping. Findings from this study reveal that business news at the Cameroon Tribune is elitist, essentially defined around personality and, is in the most part, development news. Additional findings indicate that the absence of any editorial guidelines leaves most reporters secondguessing how to please management with socialised values mostly acquired through peer learning. In conclusion, this study advances the necessity for the Africanisation of business news. This would entail reporting financial, economic, consumer, and corporate affairs, from a vocabulary and composition context that unveils much exchange taking place in the lives of many Africans.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
"Too tired to speak?": investigating the reception of Radio Grahamstown's Lunchtime Live show as a means of linking local communities to power
- Authors: Tsarwe, Stanley Zvinaiye
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Community radio -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Radio broadcasting -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Radio journalism -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Mass media -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions -- 21st century Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social conditions -- 21st century Civil society -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Political participation -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3488 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002943
- Description: This study sets out to investigate Lunchtime Live, a twice-weekly, one-hour long current affairs show broadcast on a small community radio station, Radio Grahamstown, to understand its role in the local public sphere, and its value in helping civil society’s understanding of and involvement in the power structures and political activities in Grahamstown. Lunchtime Live seeks to cultivate a collective identity and promote public participation in the public affairs of Grahamstown. As a key avenue of investigation, this study seeks to test theory against practice, by evaluating Lunchtime Live’s aspirations against the audiences’ perception of it. This investigation uses qualitative content analysis of selected episodes of recorded transcripts of the shows that aired between August 2010 and March 2011, together with the audiences’ verbalised experiences of this programme through focus group discussions. The study principally uses qualitative research informed by reception theory. The research reveals three key findings. First, that resonance rather than resistance is the more dominant ‘stance’ or ‘attitude’ towards the content of Lunchtime Live. Residents interviewed agreed that the programme is able to give a “realistic” representation of their worldview, and thus is able to articulate issues that affect their lives. Second, that whilst the programme is helping establish links between members of the civil society as well as between civil society and their political representatives, residents feel that local democracy is failing to bring qualitative improvements to their everyday lives and that more ‘participation’ is unlikely to change this. Most respondents blame this on a lack of political will, incompetence, corruption and populist rhetoric by politicians who fail to deliver on the mantra of ‘a better life for all’ in the socioeconomic sphere. The study finds a scepticism and even cynicism that participatory media seems to be able to do little to dilute. Thirdly, in spite of the largely positive view about Lunchtime Live’s capacity to be a platform for public engagement, its participatory potential is structurally constrained by the material privations of most of its listeners. Given that in order to participate in talk shows and discussions audience members have to phone in, economic deprivation often precludes this. It is clear from this research that despite shows such as Lunchtime Live that are exploring new techniques of popular involvement, the voice of the ordinary people still struggles to be heard.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Tsarwe, Stanley Zvinaiye
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Community radio -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Radio broadcasting -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Radio journalism -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Mass media -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions -- 21st century Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social conditions -- 21st century Civil society -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Political participation -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3488 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002943
- Description: This study sets out to investigate Lunchtime Live, a twice-weekly, one-hour long current affairs show broadcast on a small community radio station, Radio Grahamstown, to understand its role in the local public sphere, and its value in helping civil society’s understanding of and involvement in the power structures and political activities in Grahamstown. Lunchtime Live seeks to cultivate a collective identity and promote public participation in the public affairs of Grahamstown. As a key avenue of investigation, this study seeks to test theory against practice, by evaluating Lunchtime Live’s aspirations against the audiences’ perception of it. This investigation uses qualitative content analysis of selected episodes of recorded transcripts of the shows that aired between August 2010 and March 2011, together with the audiences’ verbalised experiences of this programme through focus group discussions. The study principally uses qualitative research informed by reception theory. The research reveals three key findings. First, that resonance rather than resistance is the more dominant ‘stance’ or ‘attitude’ towards the content of Lunchtime Live. Residents interviewed agreed that the programme is able to give a “realistic” representation of their worldview, and thus is able to articulate issues that affect their lives. Second, that whilst the programme is helping establish links between members of the civil society as well as between civil society and their political representatives, residents feel that local democracy is failing to bring qualitative improvements to their everyday lives and that more ‘participation’ is unlikely to change this. Most respondents blame this on a lack of political will, incompetence, corruption and populist rhetoric by politicians who fail to deliver on the mantra of ‘a better life for all’ in the socioeconomic sphere. The study finds a scepticism and even cynicism that participatory media seems to be able to do little to dilute. Thirdly, in spite of the largely positive view about Lunchtime Live’s capacity to be a platform for public engagement, its participatory potential is structurally constrained by the material privations of most of its listeners. Given that in order to participate in talk shows and discussions audience members have to phone in, economic deprivation often precludes this. It is clear from this research that despite shows such as Lunchtime Live that are exploring new techniques of popular involvement, the voice of the ordinary people still struggles to be heard.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
'Technic' practices of the computer game Lanner: identity development through the LAN-gameplay experience
- Khunyeli, Ramotsamai Itumeleng
- Authors: Khunyeli, Ramotsamai Itumeleng
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Computer games -- Social aspects , Computer games -- Psychological aspects , Computer games -- Sex differences , Information technology -- Social aspects , Social interaction -- Computer network resources , Local area networks (Computer networks) -- Social aspects , Race discrimination -- Education (Higher) -- Computer network resources
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3534 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013405
- Description: This thesis is a reception analysis using qualitative interviews to investigate the formation of cultural groups around computer-game LANs present in Rhodes University. It also looks at how issues of social inequalities evident on the university's campus impact on the participation of students in these LANs. The findings of this study are that the participants have established a community around the practice of computer LAN-gameplay based on values developed through the combination of the material and gameworlds. It serves as a home-on-campus for them; where they can fully explore their passion for games thus reaffirming their identity as gamers on a campus where being a gamer is viewed negatively. In this light, computer-game playing is not just a practice these participants perform, but a culture they live out every day. This is a culture predominantly lived out by men. One of the reasons for this is because most women have been raised to believe to have negative predispositions about digital gaming e.g. that it is childish, addictive and anti-social, but also that computer are meant to be used by men - women use them only when it is absolutely necessary, for example, that it is childish, for academic-related purposes. As a result, not many of them will use computers for any otherreason for fear of being socially criticised. In addition, the gaming culture being dominated by whites is due to the fact that admittance in to this community is still unaffordable for the majority of black students on the Rhodes University campus as a result of their social backgrounds.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Khunyeli, Ramotsamai Itumeleng
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Computer games -- Social aspects , Computer games -- Psychological aspects , Computer games -- Sex differences , Information technology -- Social aspects , Social interaction -- Computer network resources , Local area networks (Computer networks) -- Social aspects , Race discrimination -- Education (Higher) -- Computer network resources
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3534 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013405
- Description: This thesis is a reception analysis using qualitative interviews to investigate the formation of cultural groups around computer-game LANs present in Rhodes University. It also looks at how issues of social inequalities evident on the university's campus impact on the participation of students in these LANs. The findings of this study are that the participants have established a community around the practice of computer LAN-gameplay based on values developed through the combination of the material and gameworlds. It serves as a home-on-campus for them; where they can fully explore their passion for games thus reaffirming their identity as gamers on a campus where being a gamer is viewed negatively. In this light, computer-game playing is not just a practice these participants perform, but a culture they live out every day. This is a culture predominantly lived out by men. One of the reasons for this is because most women have been raised to believe to have negative predispositions about digital gaming e.g. that it is childish, addictive and anti-social, but also that computer are meant to be used by men - women use them only when it is absolutely necessary, for example, that it is childish, for academic-related purposes. As a result, not many of them will use computers for any otherreason for fear of being socially criticised. In addition, the gaming culture being dominated by whites is due to the fact that admittance in to this community is still unaffordable for the majority of black students on the Rhodes University campus as a result of their social backgrounds.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Investigating at the grassroots: exploring the origins, purposes journalistic practices and outcomes in two award-winning Daily Dispatch editorial projects
- Authors: Lunga, Carolyne Mande
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Investigative reporting -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Citizen journalism -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Reporters and reporting -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Journalism -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Journalism -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3452 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002906
- Description: This thesis explores the origins, purposes, journalistic practices and outcomes of two award-winning projects namely Broken Homes and Slumlords done by Daily Dispatch's Gcina Ntsaluba in 2009. The projects were described by the paper as investigative journalism but interestingly the original idea came from grassroots driven strategies and they were done by adopting alternative news gathering strategies and immersion in the ordinary people, inspired by public journalism. This thesis follows Christians et al's (2009) normative theoretical framework of press roles summarised as the monitorial, facilitative, collaborative and radical roles. It provides normative prescriptions of public and investigative journalism, development and radical journalism. It then draws on sociological theoretical critiques in order to provide an analytical overview of the complex matrix of political, economic and media contexts which influenced the origins, purposes, journalistic practices and outcomes of the two projects. Drawing on a critical realist case study design, the thesis goes on to provide a narrative account of the two projects based on the in-depth interviews exploring the editorial staffs ideas on the origins, purposes, journalistic practices and outcomes of the projects and a qualitative content/thematic analysis of the journalistic texts related to the projects. This primary data is then critically evaluated against normative theories of press performance, especially Nip's (2008) key practices and Haas's (2007) 'public philosophy' of public journalism. It is also evaluated against a normative framework of what constitutes "good investigative journalism" based on Ettema and Glasser (1998), Waisbord (2000) among others. Protess et al 1991's classic mobilisation model is used to interrogate the projects' outcomes. The thesis established that there was a close connection of the monitorial (investigative journalism), facilitative (public journalism) and radical (tabloid journalism) roles at the paper which shows that the roles are not mutually exclusive. The two projects however fell short of the collaborative role (development journalism) which can, partly, be attributed to the adversarial nature of the relationship between the state and the media. The Daily Dispatch also failed to activate a platform for deliberation and public problem solving. There might thus be more scope in adopting a 'facilitative monitorial role' which would not only expose those who violate other people's human rights, corrupt people and institutions that are not performing well. Instead it will also activate civic life and facilitate 'collaboration' between government and the publics in problem solving.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Lunga, Carolyne Mande
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Investigative reporting -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Citizen journalism -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Reporters and reporting -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Journalism -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Journalism -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3452 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002906
- Description: This thesis explores the origins, purposes, journalistic practices and outcomes of two award-winning projects namely Broken Homes and Slumlords done by Daily Dispatch's Gcina Ntsaluba in 2009. The projects were described by the paper as investigative journalism but interestingly the original idea came from grassroots driven strategies and they were done by adopting alternative news gathering strategies and immersion in the ordinary people, inspired by public journalism. This thesis follows Christians et al's (2009) normative theoretical framework of press roles summarised as the monitorial, facilitative, collaborative and radical roles. It provides normative prescriptions of public and investigative journalism, development and radical journalism. It then draws on sociological theoretical critiques in order to provide an analytical overview of the complex matrix of political, economic and media contexts which influenced the origins, purposes, journalistic practices and outcomes of the two projects. Drawing on a critical realist case study design, the thesis goes on to provide a narrative account of the two projects based on the in-depth interviews exploring the editorial staffs ideas on the origins, purposes, journalistic practices and outcomes of the projects and a qualitative content/thematic analysis of the journalistic texts related to the projects. This primary data is then critically evaluated against normative theories of press performance, especially Nip's (2008) key practices and Haas's (2007) 'public philosophy' of public journalism. It is also evaluated against a normative framework of what constitutes "good investigative journalism" based on Ettema and Glasser (1998), Waisbord (2000) among others. Protess et al 1991's classic mobilisation model is used to interrogate the projects' outcomes. The thesis established that there was a close connection of the monitorial (investigative journalism), facilitative (public journalism) and radical (tabloid journalism) roles at the paper which shows that the roles are not mutually exclusive. The two projects however fell short of the collaborative role (development journalism) which can, partly, be attributed to the adversarial nature of the relationship between the state and the media. The Daily Dispatch also failed to activate a platform for deliberation and public problem solving. There might thus be more scope in adopting a 'facilitative monitorial role' which would not only expose those who violate other people's human rights, corrupt people and institutions that are not performing well. Instead it will also activate civic life and facilitate 'collaboration' between government and the publics in problem solving.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011