The meaning of community: the viability of Public Sphere theory and Social Cohesion on social media groups: a reception study of the ‘Grahamstown’ Facebook Group
- Authors: Ferreira, Ettioné
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Digital media -- Social aspects , Facebook (Firm) , Social participation -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Public sphere -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Group identity -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Grahamstown Facebook Group
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/114870 , vital:34043 , Digital media -- Social aspects , Facebook (Firm) , Social participation -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Public sphere -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Group identity -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Grahamstown Facebook Group
- Description: This study explores the meaning of community to Grahamstown’s online social media community, through a case study of the ‘Grahamstown’ Facebook group (GFG). The study explores the possibilities of social media as a public sphere and the way geographically-based social media sites might contribute to social cohesion in a community. The study explores what kinds of discussions take place on the GFG and why they are happening. It investigates whether these discussions can promote understanding and social solidarity, and whether useful deliberations are taking place, in some kind of approximation of a public sphere. Is this Group contributing to the wellbeing of the community, and how? Drawing on public sphere theory and various conceptions of the concept of social cohesion, the dissertation aims to find out how much of an impact the GFG has on Grahamstown/Makhanda inhabitants’ lives and sense of community. The study argues that with the advent of digital media, another ‘structural transformation’ in Habermasian terms, is underway, both empirically and theoretically. Through more than a dozen in-depth interviews combined with content analysis (via participant observation), the study finds that participation in and exposure to the GFG does lead, for many, to a sense of belonging and social cohesion as community members come together to act in relation to the state, local business and other institutions. The viability of ideas of highly localised (in time and space) ‘public sphericules’ as an alternative to broader more overarching concepts of a public sphere, is explored in this study. The study also suggests a typology of users, identifying the frequency, tone of voice and motives for participating on the GFG and attempts a periodisation of the GFG’s changing role in the community over the past decade.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Ferreira, Ettioné
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Digital media -- Social aspects , Facebook (Firm) , Social participation -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Public sphere -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Group identity -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Grahamstown Facebook Group
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/114870 , vital:34043 , Digital media -- Social aspects , Facebook (Firm) , Social participation -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Public sphere -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Group identity -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Grahamstown Facebook Group
- Description: This study explores the meaning of community to Grahamstown’s online social media community, through a case study of the ‘Grahamstown’ Facebook group (GFG). The study explores the possibilities of social media as a public sphere and the way geographically-based social media sites might contribute to social cohesion in a community. The study explores what kinds of discussions take place on the GFG and why they are happening. It investigates whether these discussions can promote understanding and social solidarity, and whether useful deliberations are taking place, in some kind of approximation of a public sphere. Is this Group contributing to the wellbeing of the community, and how? Drawing on public sphere theory and various conceptions of the concept of social cohesion, the dissertation aims to find out how much of an impact the GFG has on Grahamstown/Makhanda inhabitants’ lives and sense of community. The study argues that with the advent of digital media, another ‘structural transformation’ in Habermasian terms, is underway, both empirically and theoretically. Through more than a dozen in-depth interviews combined with content analysis (via participant observation), the study finds that participation in and exposure to the GFG does lead, for many, to a sense of belonging and social cohesion as community members come together to act in relation to the state, local business and other institutions. The viability of ideas of highly localised (in time and space) ‘public sphericules’ as an alternative to broader more overarching concepts of a public sphere, is explored in this study. The study also suggests a typology of users, identifying the frequency, tone of voice and motives for participating on the GFG and attempts a periodisation of the GFG’s changing role in the community over the past decade.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The morphotactic constraints of verbal extensions in isiXhosa
- Authors: Mkabile, Hlumela
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa language -- Grammar
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92849 , vital:30749
- Description: Bantu verbal suffixes, also known as extensions, follow a rather rigid pattern when they attach to the verb. Studies (e.g. Hyman 2002, Good 2005, 2007, among others) have shown that the order followed by these extensions is: Causative, Applicative, Reciprocal, Passive (CARP). Although this pattern is widespread across Bantu, some variations in the ordering of these extensions have been observed in some languages (Kathupa 1991, Simango 1995, Sibanda 2004, among others), which suggests that the template is not as rigid as one might think. This study investigated the morphotactic constraints between four verbal extensions in isiXhosa, the Causative, Applicative, Reciprocal and Passive. It focused on the morphotactics of the transitivising extensions (Causative and Applicative) in the first instance, and morphotactics of the detransitivising extensions (Reciprocal and Passive) in the second instance. The study found that although the co-occurrence of causatives and applicatives is a regular feature in Bantu languages, isiXhosa has restrictions on the co-occurrence of these extensions on some verbs. The study also found that although Causative-Applicative is the expected order the language permits Applicative-Causative in certain contexts. With respect to the detransitivising extensions, the study revealed that there are limited contexts in which these extensions co-occur and, crucially, that these extensions are freely ordered in the language.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Mkabile, Hlumela
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa language -- Grammar
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92849 , vital:30749
- Description: Bantu verbal suffixes, also known as extensions, follow a rather rigid pattern when they attach to the verb. Studies (e.g. Hyman 2002, Good 2005, 2007, among others) have shown that the order followed by these extensions is: Causative, Applicative, Reciprocal, Passive (CARP). Although this pattern is widespread across Bantu, some variations in the ordering of these extensions have been observed in some languages (Kathupa 1991, Simango 1995, Sibanda 2004, among others), which suggests that the template is not as rigid as one might think. This study investigated the morphotactic constraints between four verbal extensions in isiXhosa, the Causative, Applicative, Reciprocal and Passive. It focused on the morphotactics of the transitivising extensions (Causative and Applicative) in the first instance, and morphotactics of the detransitivising extensions (Reciprocal and Passive) in the second instance. The study found that although the co-occurrence of causatives and applicatives is a regular feature in Bantu languages, isiXhosa has restrictions on the co-occurrence of these extensions on some verbs. The study also found that although Causative-Applicative is the expected order the language permits Applicative-Causative in certain contexts. With respect to the detransitivising extensions, the study revealed that there are limited contexts in which these extensions co-occur and, crucially, that these extensions are freely ordered in the language.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The role of psychologists in the #FeesMustFall movement in South Africa: a thematic analysis
- Authors: Kramer, Briony
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Higher education and state -- South Africa , Psychologists -- South Africa , Student movements -- South Africa , College students -- Psychology -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student movements -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76287 , vital:30544
- Description: Since 2015, students across South Africa have protested for free tertiary education. This protest movement is known as #FeesMustFall. It was deemed important to understand what psychologists could do in this movement, as these protests have highlighted the existing inequality and lack of transformation in South African universities. Further, these protests have shown to cause psychological sequelae, and, at present, there is very little information regarding the role of psychologists in these types of protests. In response, this current qualitative study explores what four psychologists believe their role could be within the protests, specifically within Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and a Thematic Analysis methodology and Critical Psychology approach were used to analyse the findings. The results of the study revealed that these psychologists understood they could have varying roles within the protests. These varying roles linked to the broader concept of transformative versus ameliorative interventions. Ameliorative practices are usually more short-term in their effect to initiate change and are mainly aimed at the individual level, while transformative approaches are long-term and are mainly aimed at the societal level. Under the ameliorative approach, the psychologists’ roles included that they provide individual therapy to students who were affected by the protests. The transformative approach, on the other hand, included that the psychologists use their role to act as advocates, negotiators or advisors, and therefore take an active role in assisting the University with the protests. The findings also showed that some participants were ambivalent and uncertain about their role. This ambivalence led to these participants questioning the protests themselves. Results also showed limiting factors within the Psychology profession, which prevented psychologists from taking a more active stance in the protests. The limiting factors referred to phenomena which prevent psychologists from being able to take a role, not only in protests, but in society as a whole. These factors included the idea of the psychologist being a bystander and/or being limited by the professional scope of practice. The implications of these findings highlight the possible key roles that psychologists can play in protest situations. However, it shows that perceived limiting factors sometimes prevent these roles from being fully realised. The findings also then point to a broader issue within the Psychology discipline, specifically relating to its relevance in the South African context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Kramer, Briony
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Higher education and state -- South Africa , Psychologists -- South Africa , Student movements -- South Africa , College students -- Psychology -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student movements -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76287 , vital:30544
- Description: Since 2015, students across South Africa have protested for free tertiary education. This protest movement is known as #FeesMustFall. It was deemed important to understand what psychologists could do in this movement, as these protests have highlighted the existing inequality and lack of transformation in South African universities. Further, these protests have shown to cause psychological sequelae, and, at present, there is very little information regarding the role of psychologists in these types of protests. In response, this current qualitative study explores what four psychologists believe their role could be within the protests, specifically within Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and a Thematic Analysis methodology and Critical Psychology approach were used to analyse the findings. The results of the study revealed that these psychologists understood they could have varying roles within the protests. These varying roles linked to the broader concept of transformative versus ameliorative interventions. Ameliorative practices are usually more short-term in their effect to initiate change and are mainly aimed at the individual level, while transformative approaches are long-term and are mainly aimed at the societal level. Under the ameliorative approach, the psychologists’ roles included that they provide individual therapy to students who were affected by the protests. The transformative approach, on the other hand, included that the psychologists use their role to act as advocates, negotiators or advisors, and therefore take an active role in assisting the University with the protests. The findings also showed that some participants were ambivalent and uncertain about their role. This ambivalence led to these participants questioning the protests themselves. Results also showed limiting factors within the Psychology profession, which prevented psychologists from taking a more active stance in the protests. The limiting factors referred to phenomena which prevent psychologists from being able to take a role, not only in protests, but in society as a whole. These factors included the idea of the psychologist being a bystander and/or being limited by the professional scope of practice. The implications of these findings highlight the possible key roles that psychologists can play in protest situations. However, it shows that perceived limiting factors sometimes prevent these roles from being fully realised. The findings also then point to a broader issue within the Psychology discipline, specifically relating to its relevance in the South African context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The Zulu girl and other poems
- Authors: Ngidi, Sandile Brian
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa poetry
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92748 , vital:30744
- Description: My thesis is a collection of English poems that converse with Mazisi Kunene’s literary corpus. I draw from both Kunene’s early works, which followed the pioneering work of the Zulu poet BW Vilakazi, and his socio‐political later work, which is at once Pan African in scope and intent yet deeply rooted in a Zulu socio‐linguistic milieu. Like Kunene, I aim to create a poetics of exile by working between languages, writing in Zulu and then translating into English to express my alienation in South Africa and what it means to be exiled from language and culture and speak a foreign language with your mother tongue. Here, I also take influence from the rich, evocative imagery in Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's poetry of exile and the quest for a lost homeland, as well as Brazilian poet Adela Prado’s wit and direct speech. I also engage popular contemporary forms of expression and use poetry to question some themes in the popular music genre maskandi, especially its rhetoric on identity, class and gender politics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Ngidi, Sandile Brian
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa poetry
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92748 , vital:30744
- Description: My thesis is a collection of English poems that converse with Mazisi Kunene’s literary corpus. I draw from both Kunene’s early works, which followed the pioneering work of the Zulu poet BW Vilakazi, and his socio‐political later work, which is at once Pan African in scope and intent yet deeply rooted in a Zulu socio‐linguistic milieu. Like Kunene, I aim to create a poetics of exile by working between languages, writing in Zulu and then translating into English to express my alienation in South Africa and what it means to be exiled from language and culture and speak a foreign language with your mother tongue. Here, I also take influence from the rich, evocative imagery in Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's poetry of exile and the quest for a lost homeland, as well as Brazilian poet Adela Prado’s wit and direct speech. I also engage popular contemporary forms of expression and use poetry to question some themes in the popular music genre maskandi, especially its rhetoric on identity, class and gender politics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Therefore I am
- Authors: Núñez-Lagos, Andres
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: South African fiction (English)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92737 , vital:30743
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Núñez-Lagos, Andres
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: South African fiction (English)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92737 , vital:30743
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Understanding the experiences of Zimbabwean students as foreign students at South African universities: the case of Rhodes University
- Authors: Daki, Andile Lebohang
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes , Zimbabwean college students -- South Africa , Zimbabwean college students -- South Africa -- Conduct of life , Zimbabwean college students -- South Africa -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96225 , vital:31252
- Description: This thesis seeks to understand the cultural and social experiences of black Zimbabwean students, as foreign students, at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. It examines the ways in which black Zimbabwean students negotiate the cultural, social and institutional milieu of Rhodes University, which is a former white English-medium university. In doing so, the thesis draws upon Interface theory because, once entering the university space, these students interpret the space and simultaneously negotiate their way in and through this space along cultural and social interfaces. The fieldwork for the thesis involved in-depth interviews with eighteen black Zimbabwean students at the university, stratified in terms of both gender and year of study. A focus on gender facilitated an understanding of possible differences between male and female Zimbabwean students in terms of social and cultural experiences; while a consideration of year of study allowed for an examination of possible shifts in negotiation over time, from first year to Master’s level. The findings demonstrate a range of challenges faced by black Zimbabwean students while at Rhodes University, some of which arise from differences between Zimbabwean and South African society. At the same time, there are considerable differences amongst black Zimbabwean students in relation to the manner in which negotiation took place. While some students negotiate the space through active socialising and assimilating into the local world and lives of South African students as well as the university’s institutional culture, other students negotiate the space through isolation and alienation. Overall, with regard to adjusting to the world of Rhodes and South Africa, students pursued different routes which, in the end, made sense to them.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Daki, Andile Lebohang
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes , Zimbabwean college students -- South Africa , Zimbabwean college students -- South Africa -- Conduct of life , Zimbabwean college students -- South Africa -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96225 , vital:31252
- Description: This thesis seeks to understand the cultural and social experiences of black Zimbabwean students, as foreign students, at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. It examines the ways in which black Zimbabwean students negotiate the cultural, social and institutional milieu of Rhodes University, which is a former white English-medium university. In doing so, the thesis draws upon Interface theory because, once entering the university space, these students interpret the space and simultaneously negotiate their way in and through this space along cultural and social interfaces. The fieldwork for the thesis involved in-depth interviews with eighteen black Zimbabwean students at the university, stratified in terms of both gender and year of study. A focus on gender facilitated an understanding of possible differences between male and female Zimbabwean students in terms of social and cultural experiences; while a consideration of year of study allowed for an examination of possible shifts in negotiation over time, from first year to Master’s level. The findings demonstrate a range of challenges faced by black Zimbabwean students while at Rhodes University, some of which arise from differences between Zimbabwean and South African society. At the same time, there are considerable differences amongst black Zimbabwean students in relation to the manner in which negotiation took place. While some students negotiate the space through active socialising and assimilating into the local world and lives of South African students as well as the university’s institutional culture, other students negotiate the space through isolation and alienation. Overall, with regard to adjusting to the world of Rhodes and South Africa, students pursued different routes which, in the end, made sense to them.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Understanding the perceived role of mobile media in relation to development in a South African rural area
- Authors: Chatikobo, Tatenda
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mobile communication systems -- South Africa , Internet telephony -- South Africa , Mobile communication systems -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Internet telephony -- Social aspects --South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95360 , vital:31148
- Description: This study explores the different perceptions of mobile media in relation to development within Dwesa, a marginalised rural community in South Africa. The proliferation of mobile phones and increasing access to the internet in Africa, and South Africa in particular, is extensively documented and attempts have been made to explore its impact on development. Drawing on adapted aspects of the Diffusion of innovation theory (DoI), the study seeks to understand the relative advantage, compatibility with needs and values, and observable benefits of using mobile media for a rural community. I provide a critical discussion of the concept of development and its relationship with digital technologies and innovation. I reflect on the Diffusion of innovation theory, highlighting its critiques, adaptations and modifications in studies, particularly in the Global South. The present study employs a qualitative methodology and relies on focus groups, semi-structured interviews and observation as methods of data collection. Participants were divided into three focus groups based on Rogers classification of innovativeness (early adopters, majority adopters and late/non-adopters) and I conducted two follow-up interviews with participants of each focus group. I analysed the data thematically. Research participants identified several areas where mobile media contributed to development and positive change, such as lowering the cost of access to information and communication, staying in touch with distant relatives, increasing access to services and providing entertainment, especially among young people. The participants noted that despite these positive changes, that mobile media on its own cannot be expected to address challenges of infrastructure and public service delivery. Research findings also revealed that mobile media might interfere with socio-cultural values of respect, human dignity and privacy. I conclude that, while mobile media is generally considered as beneficial, its critical role in improving the socio-economic conditions of people in Dwesa still remains in doubt. The study provides an opportunity to further investigate the compatibility of mobile media with socio-cultural values along the lines of age and gender, and address issues of digital skills and digital marginalisation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Chatikobo, Tatenda
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mobile communication systems -- South Africa , Internet telephony -- South Africa , Mobile communication systems -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Internet telephony -- Social aspects --South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95360 , vital:31148
- Description: This study explores the different perceptions of mobile media in relation to development within Dwesa, a marginalised rural community in South Africa. The proliferation of mobile phones and increasing access to the internet in Africa, and South Africa in particular, is extensively documented and attempts have been made to explore its impact on development. Drawing on adapted aspects of the Diffusion of innovation theory (DoI), the study seeks to understand the relative advantage, compatibility with needs and values, and observable benefits of using mobile media for a rural community. I provide a critical discussion of the concept of development and its relationship with digital technologies and innovation. I reflect on the Diffusion of innovation theory, highlighting its critiques, adaptations and modifications in studies, particularly in the Global South. The present study employs a qualitative methodology and relies on focus groups, semi-structured interviews and observation as methods of data collection. Participants were divided into three focus groups based on Rogers classification of innovativeness (early adopters, majority adopters and late/non-adopters) and I conducted two follow-up interviews with participants of each focus group. I analysed the data thematically. Research participants identified several areas where mobile media contributed to development and positive change, such as lowering the cost of access to information and communication, staying in touch with distant relatives, increasing access to services and providing entertainment, especially among young people. The participants noted that despite these positive changes, that mobile media on its own cannot be expected to address challenges of infrastructure and public service delivery. Research findings also revealed that mobile media might interfere with socio-cultural values of respect, human dignity and privacy. I conclude that, while mobile media is generally considered as beneficial, its critical role in improving the socio-economic conditions of people in Dwesa still remains in doubt. The study provides an opportunity to further investigate the compatibility of mobile media with socio-cultural values along the lines of age and gender, and address issues of digital skills and digital marginalisation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Vowel harmony in isiXhosa: an OT and acoustic study of [ATR]
- Authors: Kilian, Kelly
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Grammar, Comparative and general -- Vowel harmony , Xhosa language -- Vowels , Xhosa language -- Phonetics
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67678 , vital:29128
- Description: The vowel harmony system in isiXhosa is centred on a process of vowel raising. All mid-vowels preceding a high vowel take on the feature advanced tongue root (ATR) (e.g. thɛnga ‘buy’ → thengisa ‘sell’; bɔna 'see' → bonisa 'cause to see') (Harris 1987). The process of mid-vowel assimilation for the feature [+ATR] is consistent in all instances in which the mid-vowel occurs preceding a high vowel trigger, unless harmony is blocked by the low opaque vowel [a]. This is the analysis presented in Jokweni & Thipa (1996) the only previous literature to address the vowel harmony process of isiXhosa in detail. As an alternative approach to the rule-based phonology applied in the analysis presented by Jokweni & Thipa (1996), I propose the introduction of Optimality theory (OT) (Prince & Smolensky 1993, Bakovic 2000, and Pulleyblank 2002). I will present a map of the harmony system of isiXhosa using OT, while also presenting acoustic data to supplement the selected examples provided in Jokweni & Thipa (1996). This acoustic investigation will determine whether the harmonic feature is ATR, and how this feature patterns among vowels in different phonological contexts. In this paper vowel harmony is achieved through the implication of numerous rules, and with very specific directional and prosodic limitations on the spread of [+ATR]. Using generalisations based on my own collected data as well as those reported in previous literature, I have developed a constraint ranking to account for the harmony process in isiXhosa. By adapting the No-disagreement approach to harmony (Pulleyblank 2002), the final constraint ranking has the capacity to derive the optimal phonetic candidate for every harmony case. A selection of spread constraints is used to account for the raising as well as blocking processes, by driving either regressive or progressive spreading. Within the original No-disagreement approach a spread constraint would recognised only one feature in its prohibition of disagreeing segments. However, in the adapted approach the spread constraint driving [+ATR] assimilation is combined with a feature of correspondence (Krämer 2001) which considers the height as well as the ATR value of the sequential segments. The constraint is therefore adapted to consider more than one feature and is not activated unless the sequential segments agree for this particular feature. The regressive spread constraint is therefore only activated when the consecutive segments have an agreeing height value. The introduction of this adaptation was necessary to provide a more nuanced OT approach with the capacity to effectively characterise the idiosyncrasies observed in this harmony pattern. The harmony constraints are therefore no longer contradict one another by simultaneously driving harmony in opposite directions. Furthermore, the direct acoustic analysis is completed by means of the PRAAT software, to answer the salient question of the definitive harmonic feature. To provide a multiplicity of empirical evidence I have recorded utterances containing a number of vowel combinations. Each combination positions the alternating mid-vowels in a particular phonological context from which instances of ATR alternations have been extracted and phonetically analysed. Using the generalisations reported in Jokweni & Thipa (1996) as a starting point, the acoustic signal of each mid-vowel within a set phonological context is annotated for a predicted ATR value. Hence, if a mid-vowel occurs preceding a high vowel it is annotated as [+ATR] etc. The data sets representing each of the mid-variants found in a specific phonological context are then plotted into vowel charts and compared by means of statistical analysis (Baayen 2008, Bluman 2000). The results are then used to determine whether any significant phonetic alternation is occurring, and what the acoustic distinction between [+ATR] & [-ATR] variants is essentially comprised of. The final acoustic results indicate a significant difference between the mid-vowel ATR variants extracted from specific phonological contexts. Hence, due to co-articulatory effects or some other phonological influence the realisation of [+/-ATR] variants exist along a spectrum, and are therefore not phonetically consistent, but indicate a different acoustic make-up across the various groups.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Kilian, Kelly
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Grammar, Comparative and general -- Vowel harmony , Xhosa language -- Vowels , Xhosa language -- Phonetics
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67678 , vital:29128
- Description: The vowel harmony system in isiXhosa is centred on a process of vowel raising. All mid-vowels preceding a high vowel take on the feature advanced tongue root (ATR) (e.g. thɛnga ‘buy’ → thengisa ‘sell’; bɔna 'see' → bonisa 'cause to see') (Harris 1987). The process of mid-vowel assimilation for the feature [+ATR] is consistent in all instances in which the mid-vowel occurs preceding a high vowel trigger, unless harmony is blocked by the low opaque vowel [a]. This is the analysis presented in Jokweni & Thipa (1996) the only previous literature to address the vowel harmony process of isiXhosa in detail. As an alternative approach to the rule-based phonology applied in the analysis presented by Jokweni & Thipa (1996), I propose the introduction of Optimality theory (OT) (Prince & Smolensky 1993, Bakovic 2000, and Pulleyblank 2002). I will present a map of the harmony system of isiXhosa using OT, while also presenting acoustic data to supplement the selected examples provided in Jokweni & Thipa (1996). This acoustic investigation will determine whether the harmonic feature is ATR, and how this feature patterns among vowels in different phonological contexts. In this paper vowel harmony is achieved through the implication of numerous rules, and with very specific directional and prosodic limitations on the spread of [+ATR]. Using generalisations based on my own collected data as well as those reported in previous literature, I have developed a constraint ranking to account for the harmony process in isiXhosa. By adapting the No-disagreement approach to harmony (Pulleyblank 2002), the final constraint ranking has the capacity to derive the optimal phonetic candidate for every harmony case. A selection of spread constraints is used to account for the raising as well as blocking processes, by driving either regressive or progressive spreading. Within the original No-disagreement approach a spread constraint would recognised only one feature in its prohibition of disagreeing segments. However, in the adapted approach the spread constraint driving [+ATR] assimilation is combined with a feature of correspondence (Krämer 2001) which considers the height as well as the ATR value of the sequential segments. The constraint is therefore adapted to consider more than one feature and is not activated unless the sequential segments agree for this particular feature. The regressive spread constraint is therefore only activated when the consecutive segments have an agreeing height value. The introduction of this adaptation was necessary to provide a more nuanced OT approach with the capacity to effectively characterise the idiosyncrasies observed in this harmony pattern. The harmony constraints are therefore no longer contradict one another by simultaneously driving harmony in opposite directions. Furthermore, the direct acoustic analysis is completed by means of the PRAAT software, to answer the salient question of the definitive harmonic feature. To provide a multiplicity of empirical evidence I have recorded utterances containing a number of vowel combinations. Each combination positions the alternating mid-vowels in a particular phonological context from which instances of ATR alternations have been extracted and phonetically analysed. Using the generalisations reported in Jokweni & Thipa (1996) as a starting point, the acoustic signal of each mid-vowel within a set phonological context is annotated for a predicted ATR value. Hence, if a mid-vowel occurs preceding a high vowel it is annotated as [+ATR] etc. The data sets representing each of the mid-variants found in a specific phonological context are then plotted into vowel charts and compared by means of statistical analysis (Baayen 2008, Bluman 2000). The results are then used to determine whether any significant phonetic alternation is occurring, and what the acoustic distinction between [+ATR] & [-ATR] variants is essentially comprised of. The final acoustic results indicate a significant difference between the mid-vowel ATR variants extracted from specific phonological contexts. Hence, due to co-articulatory effects or some other phonological influence the realisation of [+/-ATR] variants exist along a spectrum, and are therefore not phonetically consistent, but indicate a different acoustic make-up across the various groups.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
We are yet to kill the cattle
- Authors: Orleyn, Rithuli
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: South African fiction (English)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92769 , vital:30746
- Description: My novella comprises inter-linked fragments that combine fiction, autobiography and creative non-fiction. Ranging fluidly from pre-colonial times to the present, and largely set in South Africa but cutting across the native/diaspora divide, the project draws on historical and archival documents, found and fictive letters, oral testimonies and inadmissible facts, mythologies, ghost voices and fictional speculation. It uses the slim slippery voice of autobiography to cast a big shadow of doubt on the certitudes of authorial truth, harnessing multiple voices to disorient settled notions about self/other, black/white and man/machine. My intention is to explore possibilities of being that exceed the human. I draw inspiration from Zoë Wicomb's novella, You Can’t Get Lost In Cape Town, Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter and Mikhail Shishkin’s letter-narratives in Maidenhair. The narrative voice that threads stand-alone fragments seeks to express the demotics of subjects in search of a language for their unlanguaged ‘grammar of suffering’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Orleyn, Rithuli
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: South African fiction (English)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92769 , vital:30746
- Description: My novella comprises inter-linked fragments that combine fiction, autobiography and creative non-fiction. Ranging fluidly from pre-colonial times to the present, and largely set in South Africa but cutting across the native/diaspora divide, the project draws on historical and archival documents, found and fictive letters, oral testimonies and inadmissible facts, mythologies, ghost voices and fictional speculation. It uses the slim slippery voice of autobiography to cast a big shadow of doubt on the certitudes of authorial truth, harnessing multiple voices to disorient settled notions about self/other, black/white and man/machine. My intention is to explore possibilities of being that exceed the human. I draw inspiration from Zoë Wicomb's novella, You Can’t Get Lost In Cape Town, Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter and Mikhail Shishkin’s letter-narratives in Maidenhair. The narrative voice that threads stand-alone fragments seeks to express the demotics of subjects in search of a language for their unlanguaged ‘grammar of suffering’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
What meanings a selection of South African legal practitioners make of their role in the emerging digital media ecosystem
- Authors: Robertson, Heather Lillian
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Public sphere -- South Africa , Lawyers -- South Africa , Citizen journalism -- South Africa , User-generated content -- South Africa , Social media -- Authorship , Digital media -- South Africa , Online journalism -- South Africa , Liminality , Journalism, Legal -- South Africa , Gatewatching , New media ecosystem
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/114854 , vital:34042
- Description: This dissertation explores what a sample of South African lawyers understand about the roles they play in digital public spaces, and whether they perceive their contributions as impacting on journalism in general and legal knowledge among the public more broadly. The communications revolution triggered by web 2.0 interactivity has created a new media ecosystem in which mainstream media journalists co-exist with a variety of non-journalist content producers - including professionals like lawyers, who contribute to media content. This study specifically explores current debates about how the media ecosystem is changing in the digital age, including journalistic practices and routines and the role of journalism within a democracy and daily life. Thomas Hanitzsch and Tim Vos’s recent taxonomy of journalistic functions and roles in society is adapted by combining the domains of politics and daily life, to better describe the roles of non-journalists like the eleven digitally active members of the South African legal community in this study. Using qualitative interviews and content analysis research methods, the study suggests lawyers’ practices and routines challenge current theorisation about the new media ecosystem and digital public sphere in particular ways, suggesting that the affective nature of social media interactions between the lawyers and members of the public is more usefully understood via drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of agonistic public spaces and Axel Bruns and Tim Highfield’s theorisation of ‘public sphericules’ than Jurgen Habermas’s conceptualisation of a rational public sphere. The study found that all of the digitally active lawyers played one or more active roles in contributing news, opinion and debate about legal and social justice matters on different digital public spaces, even though most were reluctant to describe what they do as journalism. The study concludes that this select group of lawyers do complement and enhance the work of journalists covering the legal field in the new media ecosystem in South Africa. It suggests that much more can be done by both journalists and the legal community to deepen co-operation to further enhance public knowledge about the workings of the South African legal system, in relation to legal rights and the rule of law. This dissertation explores what a sample of South African lawyers understand about the roles they play in digital public spaces, and whether they perceive their contributions as impacting on journalism in general and legal knowledge among the public more broadly. The communications revolution triggered by web 2.0 interactivity has created a new media ecosystem in which mainstream media journalists co-exist with a variety of non-journalist content producers - including professionals like lawyers, who contribute to media content. This study specifically explores current debates about how the media ecosystem is changing in the digital age, including journalistic practices and routines and the role of journalism within a democracy and daily life. Thomas Hanitzsch and Tim Vos’s recent taxonomy of journalistic functions and roles in society is adapted by combining the domains of politics and daily life, to better describe the roles of non-journalists like the eleven digitally active members of the South African legal community in this study. Using qualitative interviews and content analysis research methods, the study suggests lawyers’ practices and routines challenge current theorisation about the new media ecosystem and digital public sphere in particular ways, suggesting that the affective nature of social media interactions between the lawyers and members of the public is more usefully understood via drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of agonistic public spaces and Axel Bruns and Tim Highfield’s theorisation of ‘public sphericules’ than Jurgen Habermas’s conceptualisation of a rational public sphere. The study found that all of the digitally active lawyers played one or more active roles in contributing news, opinion and debate about legal and social justice matters on different digital public spaces, even though most were reluctant to describe what they do as journalism. The study concludes that this select group of lawyers do complement and enhance the work of journalists covering the legal field in the new media ecosystem in South Africa. It suggests that much more can be done by both journalists and the legal community to deepen co-operation to further enhance public knowledge about the workings of the South African legal system, in relation to legal rights and the rule of law.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Robertson, Heather Lillian
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Public sphere -- South Africa , Lawyers -- South Africa , Citizen journalism -- South Africa , User-generated content -- South Africa , Social media -- Authorship , Digital media -- South Africa , Online journalism -- South Africa , Liminality , Journalism, Legal -- South Africa , Gatewatching , New media ecosystem
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/114854 , vital:34042
- Description: This dissertation explores what a sample of South African lawyers understand about the roles they play in digital public spaces, and whether they perceive their contributions as impacting on journalism in general and legal knowledge among the public more broadly. The communications revolution triggered by web 2.0 interactivity has created a new media ecosystem in which mainstream media journalists co-exist with a variety of non-journalist content producers - including professionals like lawyers, who contribute to media content. This study specifically explores current debates about how the media ecosystem is changing in the digital age, including journalistic practices and routines and the role of journalism within a democracy and daily life. Thomas Hanitzsch and Tim Vos’s recent taxonomy of journalistic functions and roles in society is adapted by combining the domains of politics and daily life, to better describe the roles of non-journalists like the eleven digitally active members of the South African legal community in this study. Using qualitative interviews and content analysis research methods, the study suggests lawyers’ practices and routines challenge current theorisation about the new media ecosystem and digital public sphere in particular ways, suggesting that the affective nature of social media interactions between the lawyers and members of the public is more usefully understood via drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of agonistic public spaces and Axel Bruns and Tim Highfield’s theorisation of ‘public sphericules’ than Jurgen Habermas’s conceptualisation of a rational public sphere. The study found that all of the digitally active lawyers played one or more active roles in contributing news, opinion and debate about legal and social justice matters on different digital public spaces, even though most were reluctant to describe what they do as journalism. The study concludes that this select group of lawyers do complement and enhance the work of journalists covering the legal field in the new media ecosystem in South Africa. It suggests that much more can be done by both journalists and the legal community to deepen co-operation to further enhance public knowledge about the workings of the South African legal system, in relation to legal rights and the rule of law. This dissertation explores what a sample of South African lawyers understand about the roles they play in digital public spaces, and whether they perceive their contributions as impacting on journalism in general and legal knowledge among the public more broadly. The communications revolution triggered by web 2.0 interactivity has created a new media ecosystem in which mainstream media journalists co-exist with a variety of non-journalist content producers - including professionals like lawyers, who contribute to media content. This study specifically explores current debates about how the media ecosystem is changing in the digital age, including journalistic practices and routines and the role of journalism within a democracy and daily life. Thomas Hanitzsch and Tim Vos’s recent taxonomy of journalistic functions and roles in society is adapted by combining the domains of politics and daily life, to better describe the roles of non-journalists like the eleven digitally active members of the South African legal community in this study. Using qualitative interviews and content analysis research methods, the study suggests lawyers’ practices and routines challenge current theorisation about the new media ecosystem and digital public sphere in particular ways, suggesting that the affective nature of social media interactions between the lawyers and members of the public is more usefully understood via drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of agonistic public spaces and Axel Bruns and Tim Highfield’s theorisation of ‘public sphericules’ than Jurgen Habermas’s conceptualisation of a rational public sphere. The study found that all of the digitally active lawyers played one or more active roles in contributing news, opinion and debate about legal and social justice matters on different digital public spaces, even though most were reluctant to describe what they do as journalism. The study concludes that this select group of lawyers do complement and enhance the work of journalists covering the legal field in the new media ecosystem in South Africa. It suggests that much more can be done by both journalists and the legal community to deepen co-operation to further enhance public knowledge about the workings of the South African legal system, in relation to legal rights and the rule of law.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Where dreams become reality: professionalism in flight training in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Allison, Martin
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Professional socialization , Flight training -- South Africa , Flight schools -- South Africa -- Case studies , Air pilots -- Training of -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95376 , vital:31150
- Description: This study explores the construction of the identity of professional pilots through a case study of a flying school in South Africa. Here, a 15-20-month period of intensive study and training of students, fresh from school or college, leads in most cases to the attainment of a Commercial or Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence. The construction of identity is a continuous process and a lifelong project and hence this study can only reflect upon the factors influencing the early stages of a pilot’s career, until the point where the licenced Pilot leaves the Air School and enters full time employment with a commercial undertaking, but it is argued that this is a crucial step in the formation of professional identity, habitus in Bourdieu’s terms. The culture of the air School reflects the military background of the founders of the school and the staff employed in senior positions. The school, which is residential, observes a strict regime of Ground School and Practical Flying Training and a high standard of performance and personal conduct is demanded, both during training and in off duty hours and excessive consumption of alcohol and smoking are discouraged, and drug use absolutely taboo. Progress with training at the school is closely monitored and a disciplined environment maintained by surveillance cameras, house monitors and security guards; in Foucauldian terms, a modern version of the Panopticon, but somewhat less than Goffman’s Total Institution. It was found that the construction of a flying identity for most of the students entering the air school commenced in childhood or early adulthood, through the influence of friends and relatives and they enter the school with the firm intention of becoming Professional pilots. Full participation of the author in the Ground School revealed how professionalization is implemented through the discipline and rigor of the training methods employed. Through mastery of a complex body of theoretical knowledge in the Ground School and the practical skill of learning to fly in a one-on-one relationship with an instructor, the students gain confidence and efficacy which contributes to their self-respect and maturity. The international reputation of the school, confers prestige upon its graduates and they benefit from membership of a profession which commands respect and a high level of income. In large measure, the thesis shows, the success of the School is a function of the founders’ ‘invention of tradition’ focusing on the wartime training school that existed on the site and the many echoes of those times in the (re)construction of its buildings and facilities, continuing in the approach of the multinational that now owns the School.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Allison, Martin
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Professional socialization , Flight training -- South Africa , Flight schools -- South Africa -- Case studies , Air pilots -- Training of -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95376 , vital:31150
- Description: This study explores the construction of the identity of professional pilots through a case study of a flying school in South Africa. Here, a 15-20-month period of intensive study and training of students, fresh from school or college, leads in most cases to the attainment of a Commercial or Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence. The construction of identity is a continuous process and a lifelong project and hence this study can only reflect upon the factors influencing the early stages of a pilot’s career, until the point where the licenced Pilot leaves the Air School and enters full time employment with a commercial undertaking, but it is argued that this is a crucial step in the formation of professional identity, habitus in Bourdieu’s terms. The culture of the air School reflects the military background of the founders of the school and the staff employed in senior positions. The school, which is residential, observes a strict regime of Ground School and Practical Flying Training and a high standard of performance and personal conduct is demanded, both during training and in off duty hours and excessive consumption of alcohol and smoking are discouraged, and drug use absolutely taboo. Progress with training at the school is closely monitored and a disciplined environment maintained by surveillance cameras, house monitors and security guards; in Foucauldian terms, a modern version of the Panopticon, but somewhat less than Goffman’s Total Institution. It was found that the construction of a flying identity for most of the students entering the air school commenced in childhood or early adulthood, through the influence of friends and relatives and they enter the school with the firm intention of becoming Professional pilots. Full participation of the author in the Ground School revealed how professionalization is implemented through the discipline and rigor of the training methods employed. Through mastery of a complex body of theoretical knowledge in the Ground School and the practical skill of learning to fly in a one-on-one relationship with an instructor, the students gain confidence and efficacy which contributes to their self-respect and maturity. The international reputation of the school, confers prestige upon its graduates and they benefit from membership of a profession which commands respect and a high level of income. In large measure, the thesis shows, the success of the School is a function of the founders’ ‘invention of tradition’ focusing on the wartime training school that existed on the site and the many echoes of those times in the (re)construction of its buildings and facilities, continuing in the approach of the multinational that now owns the School.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Who is a refugee? a philosophical account
- Authors: Oteng, Onalethata
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Refugees -- Philosophy , Refugees -- Government policy , Refugees -- Legal status, laws, etc. , United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons (1951 : Geneva, Switzerland)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92854 , vital:30755
- Description: This thesis comprises two sections: the first section considers who is a refugee and who is not a refugee; and the second section illustrates the necessity of amending the present international laws and conventions to include other people who should also be recognised as refugees. The critical issue regarding the definition of a refugee, is whether or not there is adequate evidence concerning the current understanding of the notion of who a refugee is. Therefore, in order to reach these goals, this thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter explores the definitions pertaining to what it means to be a refugee. The second chapter takes into account the different types of victims that are excluded from the notion of refugee. The third chapter considers the consequences of having a restricted understanding who qualifies to be a refugee. The fourth chapter provides alternative solutions that would assist in providing a more comprehensive definition. Furthermore, chapter five discusses the necessity to further expand the refugee concept to include other forms of victims that are not already included. Overall, this thesis seeks to support expansion of the term ‘refugee‘ since the reasons for forced migration have changed, and individuals are not only fleeing from individual persecution, for instance, but from other situations that can be considered to fall under forced migration. Consequently, extending the definition of the term ‘refugee‘ should occur, because refusing to consider revising the term amounts to a refusal to show acceptance and empathy to today‘s other migrants who are also experiencing survival challenges in their home countries.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Oteng, Onalethata
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Refugees -- Philosophy , Refugees -- Government policy , Refugees -- Legal status, laws, etc. , United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons (1951 : Geneva, Switzerland)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92854 , vital:30755
- Description: This thesis comprises two sections: the first section considers who is a refugee and who is not a refugee; and the second section illustrates the necessity of amending the present international laws and conventions to include other people who should also be recognised as refugees. The critical issue regarding the definition of a refugee, is whether or not there is adequate evidence concerning the current understanding of the notion of who a refugee is. Therefore, in order to reach these goals, this thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter explores the definitions pertaining to what it means to be a refugee. The second chapter takes into account the different types of victims that are excluded from the notion of refugee. The third chapter considers the consequences of having a restricted understanding who qualifies to be a refugee. The fourth chapter provides alternative solutions that would assist in providing a more comprehensive definition. Furthermore, chapter five discusses the necessity to further expand the refugee concept to include other forms of victims that are not already included. Overall, this thesis seeks to support expansion of the term ‘refugee‘ since the reasons for forced migration have changed, and individuals are not only fleeing from individual persecution, for instance, but from other situations that can be considered to fall under forced migration. Consequently, extending the definition of the term ‘refugee‘ should occur, because refusing to consider revising the term amounts to a refusal to show acceptance and empathy to today‘s other migrants who are also experiencing survival challenges in their home countries.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Women’s narratives about alcohol use during pregnancy: a narrative-discursive study
- Authors: Matebese, Sibongile
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Alcohol use , Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95196 , vital:31126
- Description: While research has explored the risk factors that contribute to alcohol use during pregnancy among South African women, such studies have mostly been quantitative in nature. There is a growing body of research that contextualises and articulates the attitudes, beliefs, and underlying motivations that influence drinking during pregnancy. However, few qualitative studies explore the cultural, economic, familial, and social contexts within which drinking during pregnancy takes place. Studies which have explored these contexts have been conducted in other geographical regions such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States but their findings are not generalisable to South Africa. Drawing on a feminist poststructuralist as well as a narrative-discursive approach including Foucault’s (1978) theory of power, this study sought to explore women’s narratives of the personal and interpersonal circumstances under which drinking during pregnancy takes place in terms of the discourses used to construct these narratives and the subject positions made available within these discourses. This allowed for the practice of alcohol use during pregnancy to be understood within the social and cultural narratives, practices, and discourses around pregnancy as well as gendered and social relations. Using the narrative interview method set out by Wengraf (2001), thirteen, unemployed ‘Black’ women from an area in the Eastern Cape were recruited and interviewed. Seven discourses emerged from the narratives namely, a discourse of ‘stress and coping’ ‘hegemonic masculinities’, ‘peer pressure’, ‘disablement and developmental delay’, ‘good mothering/appropriate pregnancies’, ‘culture’, and ‘religion’. These discourses informed the five narrative categories which emerged: narratives about the pregnancy, narratives about the drinking, narratives that justify/explain drinking, narratives that condemn the drinking, and narratives about the women knowing the effects of drinking during pregnancy. Within these narratives, the women mainly positioned themselves as dependent on alcohol during their pregnancies in order to cope with stress caused by various circumstances which were mainly centred on a lack of support from their partners, paternity denial, infidelity and unreliableness. As such, the women in this study mainly justified their drinking during pregnancy and in constructing this narrative, the ‘stress and coping’ discourse as well as the ‘male/masculine provider’ discourse were mainly drawn upon. In reflecting on this analysis, this study argues that alcohol use during pregnancy should be understood within the broader environmental and social context that makes a pregnancy challenging and/or difficult and thus necessitates drinking during pregnancy. Recommendations for future research include expanding the diversity of participants as well as interviewing healthcare providers and women who are currently pregnant, drinking, and part of an intervention aimed at addressing alcohol use during pregnancy so as to obtain a holistic understanding of engaging in this practice. The study makes key recommendations for interventions in practice to help work towards ensuring that the practice of alcohol use during pregnancy is not individualised, decontextualized, and stigmatised.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Matebese, Sibongile
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Alcohol use , Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95196 , vital:31126
- Description: While research has explored the risk factors that contribute to alcohol use during pregnancy among South African women, such studies have mostly been quantitative in nature. There is a growing body of research that contextualises and articulates the attitudes, beliefs, and underlying motivations that influence drinking during pregnancy. However, few qualitative studies explore the cultural, economic, familial, and social contexts within which drinking during pregnancy takes place. Studies which have explored these contexts have been conducted in other geographical regions such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States but their findings are not generalisable to South Africa. Drawing on a feminist poststructuralist as well as a narrative-discursive approach including Foucault’s (1978) theory of power, this study sought to explore women’s narratives of the personal and interpersonal circumstances under which drinking during pregnancy takes place in terms of the discourses used to construct these narratives and the subject positions made available within these discourses. This allowed for the practice of alcohol use during pregnancy to be understood within the social and cultural narratives, practices, and discourses around pregnancy as well as gendered and social relations. Using the narrative interview method set out by Wengraf (2001), thirteen, unemployed ‘Black’ women from an area in the Eastern Cape were recruited and interviewed. Seven discourses emerged from the narratives namely, a discourse of ‘stress and coping’ ‘hegemonic masculinities’, ‘peer pressure’, ‘disablement and developmental delay’, ‘good mothering/appropriate pregnancies’, ‘culture’, and ‘religion’. These discourses informed the five narrative categories which emerged: narratives about the pregnancy, narratives about the drinking, narratives that justify/explain drinking, narratives that condemn the drinking, and narratives about the women knowing the effects of drinking during pregnancy. Within these narratives, the women mainly positioned themselves as dependent on alcohol during their pregnancies in order to cope with stress caused by various circumstances which were mainly centred on a lack of support from their partners, paternity denial, infidelity and unreliableness. As such, the women in this study mainly justified their drinking during pregnancy and in constructing this narrative, the ‘stress and coping’ discourse as well as the ‘male/masculine provider’ discourse were mainly drawn upon. In reflecting on this analysis, this study argues that alcohol use during pregnancy should be understood within the broader environmental and social context that makes a pregnancy challenging and/or difficult and thus necessitates drinking during pregnancy. Recommendations for future research include expanding the diversity of participants as well as interviewing healthcare providers and women who are currently pregnant, drinking, and part of an intervention aimed at addressing alcohol use during pregnancy so as to obtain a holistic understanding of engaging in this practice. The study makes key recommendations for interventions in practice to help work towards ensuring that the practice of alcohol use during pregnancy is not individualised, decontextualized, and stigmatised.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Youth responses to political party messages on Social Media: a case study of Rhodes University students during the 3 August 2016 local government elections
- Authors: Pela, Noko Tshegofatso
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes , Local elections -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media and young adults -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Social media -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68308 , vital:29237
- Description: Rhodes University was awash with political tension and activity in the 2015 and 2016 academic years. The University had been the scene of radical protests and demands for change by students. The #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall and the #RUReferenceList protests at Rhodes University started debates, conversations and public lectures amongst students and staff on and off social media on aspects of decoloniality, transformation, free education, issues of safety on campus and gender-based violence (Grocott’s Mail, 2015b). However, very little of this was reflected in the election campaigns of political parties and seemingly, in student engagement with political processes, at least as reflected in this election. The three biggest political parties in South Africa, and the only ones that contested Ward 12 (Rhodes) ANC, EFF, and the DA, were active on social media aiming to directly engage with constituents and draw citizens to the polls. All the parties had former and current Rhodes University students as candidates for councillor. There was a substantial engagement by students on social media, on the Rhodes SRC Facebook page, and on Twitter. However, only 39% of registered students, turned out to cast their vote on election day (IEC, 2016b). This study examines the interpretations and meaning-making amongst young people at Rhodes University, of the political party messages during the 3 August 2016 local government elections on social media. In addition, the study sought to understand whether youth at Rhodes (Rhodes University) actively sought out political party messages on social media (by following the ANC, DA, EFF Facebook and Twitter accounts), or were the messages incidental on their timelines (for example, following news organisations). Finally, the study sought to understand whether the media messages resonated with them and spoke to the issues faced by young people on the campus. The research used qualitative thematic content analysis and focus group discussions to examine the relationship between the content provided by the political party messages and the audience’s process of making sense and derived meaning from the content. Six focus group discussions were convened. This study found that young people are social media enthusiasts, they actively sought election related content on social media by following the Twitter and Facebook accounts of the parties, and from news organisations. Furthermore, the study discovered that, although, young people engaged with the political party messages on social media, they did not feel like the messages were targeted at them, and as such they felt the messages did not speak to them and the issues they face.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Pela, Noko Tshegofatso
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes , Local elections -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media and young adults -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Social media -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68308 , vital:29237
- Description: Rhodes University was awash with political tension and activity in the 2015 and 2016 academic years. The University had been the scene of radical protests and demands for change by students. The #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall and the #RUReferenceList protests at Rhodes University started debates, conversations and public lectures amongst students and staff on and off social media on aspects of decoloniality, transformation, free education, issues of safety on campus and gender-based violence (Grocott’s Mail, 2015b). However, very little of this was reflected in the election campaigns of political parties and seemingly, in student engagement with political processes, at least as reflected in this election. The three biggest political parties in South Africa, and the only ones that contested Ward 12 (Rhodes) ANC, EFF, and the DA, were active on social media aiming to directly engage with constituents and draw citizens to the polls. All the parties had former and current Rhodes University students as candidates for councillor. There was a substantial engagement by students on social media, on the Rhodes SRC Facebook page, and on Twitter. However, only 39% of registered students, turned out to cast their vote on election day (IEC, 2016b). This study examines the interpretations and meaning-making amongst young people at Rhodes University, of the political party messages during the 3 August 2016 local government elections on social media. In addition, the study sought to understand whether youth at Rhodes (Rhodes University) actively sought out political party messages on social media (by following the ANC, DA, EFF Facebook and Twitter accounts), or were the messages incidental on their timelines (for example, following news organisations). Finally, the study sought to understand whether the media messages resonated with them and spoke to the issues faced by young people on the campus. The research used qualitative thematic content analysis and focus group discussions to examine the relationship between the content provided by the political party messages and the audience’s process of making sense and derived meaning from the content. Six focus group discussions were convened. This study found that young people are social media enthusiasts, they actively sought election related content on social media by following the Twitter and Facebook accounts of the parties, and from news organisations. Furthermore, the study discovered that, although, young people engaged with the political party messages on social media, they did not feel like the messages were targeted at them, and as such they felt the messages did not speak to them and the issues they face.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
‘Jujutech’: exploring cultural and epistemological hybridity in African science fiction
- Authors: Stier, Jordan Daniel
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Science fiction, African -- History and criticism , Tutuola, Amos. The palm-wine drunkard , Mkize, Loyiso, 1987- .Kwezi , Black Panther (Comic book) , Dila, Dilman, 1977-. A killing in the sun , Superheroes, Black , Mbvundula, Ekari. Montague's last
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96908 , vital:31346
- Description: This thesis aims to respond to the rise in the production of science fiction in Africa over the last decade, and to show how what I describe as the juju orientation of many of these works does not disqualify them from the genre of science fiction. Rather, I advocate for the recognition of juju ontologies as genuine sources of knowledge about the world, which have been overlooked by the globally dominant scientism that has informed science fiction theorisation to date. In my introduction I outline the theoretical frameworks of juju, science fiction and epistemology with which the thesis is in communication. In my second chapter I re-read Amos Tutuola’s novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard, showing the inherently science fictional structure of the juju-based storytelling that characterises colonial and pre-colonial African literature, as well as the essentiality of science fictional modes to Tutuola’s own prose. My third chapter considers Ian MacDonald’s theorisation of a jujutech aesthetic in African science fiction, wherein the speculations of the genres are rooted in both technoscientific and juju ontologies simultaneously. I account for the role this literary aesthetic plays in Ekari Mbvundula’s “Montague’s Last” to blur the divisions of worldly knowledge enforced by global epistemological inequalities, before showing how Dilman Dila’s A Killing in the Sun presents a critically frontier African epistemology in literary practice, and the value thereof. My fourth chapter considers the role of popular culture and consumption, and how the global literary industry resists juju-based texts. I conclude that juju-based nova and the jujutech aesthetic are not only essentially science fictional literary modes, but important players in science fiction’s role in being epistemologically productive in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Stier, Jordan Daniel
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Science fiction, African -- History and criticism , Tutuola, Amos. The palm-wine drunkard , Mkize, Loyiso, 1987- .Kwezi , Black Panther (Comic book) , Dila, Dilman, 1977-. A killing in the sun , Superheroes, Black , Mbvundula, Ekari. Montague's last
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96908 , vital:31346
- Description: This thesis aims to respond to the rise in the production of science fiction in Africa over the last decade, and to show how what I describe as the juju orientation of many of these works does not disqualify them from the genre of science fiction. Rather, I advocate for the recognition of juju ontologies as genuine sources of knowledge about the world, which have been overlooked by the globally dominant scientism that has informed science fiction theorisation to date. In my introduction I outline the theoretical frameworks of juju, science fiction and epistemology with which the thesis is in communication. In my second chapter I re-read Amos Tutuola’s novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard, showing the inherently science fictional structure of the juju-based storytelling that characterises colonial and pre-colonial African literature, as well as the essentiality of science fictional modes to Tutuola’s own prose. My third chapter considers Ian MacDonald’s theorisation of a jujutech aesthetic in African science fiction, wherein the speculations of the genres are rooted in both technoscientific and juju ontologies simultaneously. I account for the role this literary aesthetic plays in Ekari Mbvundula’s “Montague’s Last” to blur the divisions of worldly knowledge enforced by global epistemological inequalities, before showing how Dilman Dila’s A Killing in the Sun presents a critically frontier African epistemology in literary practice, and the value thereof. My fourth chapter considers the role of popular culture and consumption, and how the global literary industry resists juju-based texts. I conclude that juju-based nova and the jujutech aesthetic are not only essentially science fictional literary modes, but important players in science fiction’s role in being epistemologically productive in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
‘That mountain cannot be beautiful for nothing’: Zakes Mda’s aesthetics of liberation
- Dilinga, Siyamthanda Iribagiza
- Authors: Dilinga, Siyamthanda Iribagiza
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mda, Zakes -- Criticism and interpretation , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , South Africa -- In literature
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70452 , vital:29662
- Description: Zakes Mda is a prominent post-apartheid black South African novelist whose style has been described as experimental. He also wrote plays intended to ‘rally people to action’ during the apartheid years. The changes in the political and social situation in South Africa since 1994 have had significant implications for those writers and artists who produced protest literature and art. The changes in Mda’s own practice and approach to art are themselves quite telling. His experimental novels place him among those African artists pioneering a new chapter for black South African art and the self-reflexive nature of his novels suggest that he is aware of the fact and is consciously forming and reforming his ideas about what it means to be an artist in post-apartheid South Africa. This study will unpack the role of the artist and the function of art in the becoming new South Africa as represented in Zakes Mda’s novels, thereby hypothesizing Mda’s aesthetic philosophy, as may be deduced from his practice, for what an African artist and art should be. This will be done first by locating Mda in the debates around art and literature within the sociopolitical context of a South Africa in transition. Despite the fact that when it comes to public action in the post-apartheid situation, Mda distinguishes between his own role in society as an artist who is a social activist and the role intended for his work, his own novels reveal a desire for the artefact (or artwork) to have a developmental, educational or conscientizing function. This is evident in representations of the effects of art in what this study proposes to be his extended South African black Kunstlerroman, which spans three novels. It is also demonstrated in his ekphrastic novel, The Madonna of Excelsior, in which visual art is interpreted in the process of description, thereby educating the reader. Not only that, but the reader is made into an ‘almost viewer’ and taught how to ‘see’ art. What emerges in the process of this study is Mda’s aesthetic philosophy or what may be termed his ‘aesthetics of liberation’ concerning the role of the artist in post-apartheid South Africa, a suitable African audience and how art works theoretically, as expressed through his fiction.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Dilinga, Siyamthanda Iribagiza
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mda, Zakes -- Criticism and interpretation , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , South Africa -- In literature
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70452 , vital:29662
- Description: Zakes Mda is a prominent post-apartheid black South African novelist whose style has been described as experimental. He also wrote plays intended to ‘rally people to action’ during the apartheid years. The changes in the political and social situation in South Africa since 1994 have had significant implications for those writers and artists who produced protest literature and art. The changes in Mda’s own practice and approach to art are themselves quite telling. His experimental novels place him among those African artists pioneering a new chapter for black South African art and the self-reflexive nature of his novels suggest that he is aware of the fact and is consciously forming and reforming his ideas about what it means to be an artist in post-apartheid South Africa. This study will unpack the role of the artist and the function of art in the becoming new South Africa as represented in Zakes Mda’s novels, thereby hypothesizing Mda’s aesthetic philosophy, as may be deduced from his practice, for what an African artist and art should be. This will be done first by locating Mda in the debates around art and literature within the sociopolitical context of a South Africa in transition. Despite the fact that when it comes to public action in the post-apartheid situation, Mda distinguishes between his own role in society as an artist who is a social activist and the role intended for his work, his own novels reveal a desire for the artefact (or artwork) to have a developmental, educational or conscientizing function. This is evident in representations of the effects of art in what this study proposes to be his extended South African black Kunstlerroman, which spans three novels. It is also demonstrated in his ekphrastic novel, The Madonna of Excelsior, in which visual art is interpreted in the process of description, thereby educating the reader. Not only that, but the reader is made into an ‘almost viewer’ and taught how to ‘see’ art. What emerges in the process of this study is Mda’s aesthetic philosophy or what may be termed his ‘aesthetics of liberation’ concerning the role of the artist in post-apartheid South Africa, a suitable African audience and how art works theoretically, as expressed through his fiction.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
“Like walking barefoot on the gravel road”: the experience of caring for a child with physical disabilities
- Authors: Ndlovu, Nokanyo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: PhotoVoice , Photography in the social sciences , Action research , Children with disabilites -- Care -- South Africa , Children with disabilites -- Care -- South Africa -- Case studies , Caregivers -- South Africa -- Case studies , Caregivers -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/72479 , vital:30057
- Description: The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of the experiences of caregivers of children with physical disabilities and to explore ways of improving this experience. Although there is a considerable amount of international research on the experiences of caring for children with disabilities, the focus of the methods of enquiry has mainly been on knowledge production and there is limited research conducted using an approach like participatory action research. Secondly, in South Africa, there is still inadequate information regarding the experiences of caregivers who are from low socio-economic backgrounds. It is for these reasons that the current study, which employed PhotoVoice, a participatory research data collection tool, to explore the lived experiences of caregivers of children with physical disabilities from low socio-economic backgrounds was embarked upon. The research methodology comprised two main parts: firstly, a study of relevant literature on the subject matter, in order to gain in-depth understanding of the field; and secondly, qualitative data collection, using PhotoVoice. A sample of six participants between the ages of 22-57 years was selected through purposive and convenience sampling. Cameras were distributed to participants and after processing of images narratives were shared around selected photographs and this was later followed by focused group discussions. This analysis process provided two master themes, which are supported by subordinate themes. The master themes are: 1) The challenges associated with the caregiving experience, 2) The positive side of the caregiving experience. Participants experienced a lack of resources, challenges of mobility, the hopelessness of the situation, loneliness of the experience and the financial burden of caring for a child with physical disabilities as challenges associated with the caregiving role. Whereas the joy brought about by support from family, the health service providers and the Association for People with Physical Disabilities personnel; precious moments shared with the child; and personal growth were associated with the positive side of the caregiving experience. These findings support and expand on the growing knowledge of caring for children with physical disabilities. This research culminated in a sharing of the narratives with stakeholders by caregivers themselves as a way of seeking to influence policy, enhance their well-being and engage in a discussion of exploring ways of improving their experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Ndlovu, Nokanyo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: PhotoVoice , Photography in the social sciences , Action research , Children with disabilites -- Care -- South Africa , Children with disabilites -- Care -- South Africa -- Case studies , Caregivers -- South Africa -- Case studies , Caregivers -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/72479 , vital:30057
- Description: The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of the experiences of caregivers of children with physical disabilities and to explore ways of improving this experience. Although there is a considerable amount of international research on the experiences of caring for children with disabilities, the focus of the methods of enquiry has mainly been on knowledge production and there is limited research conducted using an approach like participatory action research. Secondly, in South Africa, there is still inadequate information regarding the experiences of caregivers who are from low socio-economic backgrounds. It is for these reasons that the current study, which employed PhotoVoice, a participatory research data collection tool, to explore the lived experiences of caregivers of children with physical disabilities from low socio-economic backgrounds was embarked upon. The research methodology comprised two main parts: firstly, a study of relevant literature on the subject matter, in order to gain in-depth understanding of the field; and secondly, qualitative data collection, using PhotoVoice. A sample of six participants between the ages of 22-57 years was selected through purposive and convenience sampling. Cameras were distributed to participants and after processing of images narratives were shared around selected photographs and this was later followed by focused group discussions. This analysis process provided two master themes, which are supported by subordinate themes. The master themes are: 1) The challenges associated with the caregiving experience, 2) The positive side of the caregiving experience. Participants experienced a lack of resources, challenges of mobility, the hopelessness of the situation, loneliness of the experience and the financial burden of caring for a child with physical disabilities as challenges associated with the caregiving role. Whereas the joy brought about by support from family, the health service providers and the Association for People with Physical Disabilities personnel; precious moments shared with the child; and personal growth were associated with the positive side of the caregiving experience. These findings support and expand on the growing knowledge of caring for children with physical disabilities. This research culminated in a sharing of the narratives with stakeholders by caregivers themselves as a way of seeking to influence policy, enhance their well-being and engage in a discussion of exploring ways of improving their experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
“New ways of telling”: African textual forms and dissemination in the age of digital media
- Authors: Friedemann, Oriole Megan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Digital media -- Africa , Self-publishing -- Africa , African literature , Literature publishing -- Technological innovations , Blog authorship -- Africa , African Storybook Reader , FunDza Literacy Project , Long Story SHORT
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115105 , vital:34078
- Description: In the age of digital media, creators are using the versatile nature of information and communication technologies and the ubiquity of the web to publish and distribute texts, circumventing traditional gatekeepers such as publishing institutions. In Africa, where web access and digitisation are relatively new, storytellers are eagerly exploring new mediums and the possibilities that they provide for African narratives and African representation. This thesis looks at the digital platforms of the African Storybook Reader, the FunDza Literacy Project, and Long Story SHORT, as well as Dudu Busani-Dube’s novel Hlomu the Wife, which first gained popularity on a blog platform. It examines three different web series, An African City, The Foxy Five, and Tuko Macho, as well as a transmedia documentary, Love Radio. The texts are grouped into literatures disseminated from digital platforms, localised narratives that explore the urban African woman, and narratives that make use of participatory culture. These are texts that make use of digital tools and platforms to create and disseminate African stories, making diverse and indigenous narratives more easily accessible to both local and global audiences. This thesis argues that digitisation and the global nature of the internet have created opportunities for Africans to become producers and exporters of indigenous information and representation, rather than passive consumers of imported knowledge, or subjects of external characterisation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Friedemann, Oriole Megan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Digital media -- Africa , Self-publishing -- Africa , African literature , Literature publishing -- Technological innovations , Blog authorship -- Africa , African Storybook Reader , FunDza Literacy Project , Long Story SHORT
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115105 , vital:34078
- Description: In the age of digital media, creators are using the versatile nature of information and communication technologies and the ubiquity of the web to publish and distribute texts, circumventing traditional gatekeepers such as publishing institutions. In Africa, where web access and digitisation are relatively new, storytellers are eagerly exploring new mediums and the possibilities that they provide for African narratives and African representation. This thesis looks at the digital platforms of the African Storybook Reader, the FunDza Literacy Project, and Long Story SHORT, as well as Dudu Busani-Dube’s novel Hlomu the Wife, which first gained popularity on a blog platform. It examines three different web series, An African City, The Foxy Five, and Tuko Macho, as well as a transmedia documentary, Love Radio. The texts are grouped into literatures disseminated from digital platforms, localised narratives that explore the urban African woman, and narratives that make use of participatory culture. These are texts that make use of digital tools and platforms to create and disseminate African stories, making diverse and indigenous narratives more easily accessible to both local and global audiences. This thesis argues that digitisation and the global nature of the internet have created opportunities for Africans to become producers and exporters of indigenous information and representation, rather than passive consumers of imported knowledge, or subjects of external characterisation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
A critical discourse analysis of the Daily Nation and the Standard’s news coverage of the 2007/2008 Kenyan elections
- Authors: Bradfield, Sarah-Jane
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Elections -- Kenya Nairobi (Kenya) -- Newspapers Mass media -- Political aspects -- Kenya Kenya -- Politics and government , Discourse analysis Daily Nation (Nairobi, Kenya) Standard (Nairobi, Kenya)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63437 , vital:28411
- Description: This study investigates the Daily Nation and Standard’s news coverage of Kenya’s 2007/2008 general election and the unprecedented eruptions of violence which followed. This research responds to the question which came about as Kenyan print journalists and editors considered their role in possibly contributing to the violence, which took on an ethnic dimension. Vernacular radio has been fingered for having escalated longstanding ethnic tensions, but the role of the press has not been fully understood. In the aftermath of the violence, print journalists and editors met over a series of Round Table events in Nairobi to consider whether their conduct during the election could have encouraged violence. Although ten years have passed since this incidence, much of what happened within the Kenyan print media during and after the 2007/2008 general election remains unexplored and, largely, unexplained today. Although the pre- and post-election phases spanned months, my research is confined to purposive samples from a four-week period from 3 December 2007 to 4 January 2008. These four weeks were selected as they are roughly representative of the three phases of the national election which are considered significant to this study, namely the pre-election phase, the election, and the post-election violence. The research is concerned with analysing and understanding the coverage in the two dailies, the Daily Nation and Standard, and comparing the discursive work of the two, particularly in relation to identity and ethnicity. This study draws on cultural studies, critical discourse analysis and normative theories of the media to inform the research project. The critical discourse analysis explores the discourses articulated during and after the election, with a particular focus on issues of identity, ethnicity and incitement. Through this process the study found that both publications avoided references to ethnicity, despite this being an important factor in Kenyan politics and voter behaviour. In analysing these issues the study found that while the publications might claim to attempt to avoid fuelling tensions by not reporting on ethnicity, the disavowal comprised a silence which positioned the press in a collaborative role, in which it colluded with a powerful Kenyan state. Although a significant amount of time has gone by since the 2007/2008 elections, this study still considers the event significant in understanding the conduct of journalists during times of violence, and specifically for the future of journalism in Kenya.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Bradfield, Sarah-Jane
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Elections -- Kenya Nairobi (Kenya) -- Newspapers Mass media -- Political aspects -- Kenya Kenya -- Politics and government , Discourse analysis Daily Nation (Nairobi, Kenya) Standard (Nairobi, Kenya)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63437 , vital:28411
- Description: This study investigates the Daily Nation and Standard’s news coverage of Kenya’s 2007/2008 general election and the unprecedented eruptions of violence which followed. This research responds to the question which came about as Kenyan print journalists and editors considered their role in possibly contributing to the violence, which took on an ethnic dimension. Vernacular radio has been fingered for having escalated longstanding ethnic tensions, but the role of the press has not been fully understood. In the aftermath of the violence, print journalists and editors met over a series of Round Table events in Nairobi to consider whether their conduct during the election could have encouraged violence. Although ten years have passed since this incidence, much of what happened within the Kenyan print media during and after the 2007/2008 general election remains unexplored and, largely, unexplained today. Although the pre- and post-election phases spanned months, my research is confined to purposive samples from a four-week period from 3 December 2007 to 4 January 2008. These four weeks were selected as they are roughly representative of the three phases of the national election which are considered significant to this study, namely the pre-election phase, the election, and the post-election violence. The research is concerned with analysing and understanding the coverage in the two dailies, the Daily Nation and Standard, and comparing the discursive work of the two, particularly in relation to identity and ethnicity. This study draws on cultural studies, critical discourse analysis and normative theories of the media to inform the research project. The critical discourse analysis explores the discourses articulated during and after the election, with a particular focus on issues of identity, ethnicity and incitement. Through this process the study found that both publications avoided references to ethnicity, despite this being an important factor in Kenyan politics and voter behaviour. In analysing these issues the study found that while the publications might claim to attempt to avoid fuelling tensions by not reporting on ethnicity, the disavowal comprised a silence which positioned the press in a collaborative role, in which it colluded with a powerful Kenyan state. Although a significant amount of time has gone by since the 2007/2008 elections, this study still considers the event significant in understanding the conduct of journalists during times of violence, and specifically for the future of journalism in Kenya.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
A critique of multilingualism in South Africa’s post-democratic parliament with particular reference to the use of selected minority languages
- Authors: Masombuka, Elizabeth Lucy
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Multilingualism -- South Africa , Language policy -- South Africa , Language and languages -- Political aspects , Linguistic minorities -- South Africa , Linguistic rights -- South Africa , South Africa. Parliament (1994- ). Parliamentary Communication Services , Hansard Society Commission on the Communication of Parliamentary Democracy
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61984 , vital:28092
- Description: Language is an essential tool in effecting transformation in a community, society as well as in a culturally diverse institution like the Parliament of South Africa. This study is undertaken to establish the progress made in the use of official languages in the Parliament of South Africa. This study critically looks at the use of eleven South African official languages by the Parliament of South Africa in its daily debates in ensuring transformation to a multilingual parliament. The focus of the study is on the publication of Hansard in all official languages, with specific reference to previously marginalised languages as declared by the Constitution. The study was done in the Language Service Section of the Parliament of South Africa. Firstly, the study looked at the History of Parliament and Hansard publications in relation to the sittings and debates of MP’s since the beginning of Parliament in South Africa. Secondly, a literature review was done on Language Policy implementation, monitoring and promotion of languages in South Africa. Review of legislative frameworks on language matters was undertaken in order to find out the compliance of parliament in using official languages in the publication of Hansard. The study evaluates the recognition of languages as well as the parliamentary in-House Language Policy (Operational Language Policy) in relation to the prescriptions of the Constitution. Findings of the study are indicated in chapter 5 of the thesis. The presentation of data comprises of the work experience of the languages practitioners in parliament, availability and critique of the Language Policy Operational Policy in Parliament, as well as findings in the published Hansard Volumes since the first parliament. The study further tries to look at challenges that hinder the use, and promotion of all languages in parliament, including the use of these languages in the publication of Hansard. The study focuses on minority languages and previously marginalised languages. Recommendations are provided as a means of helping to improve the situation regarding the implementation of the language policy that will assist parliament to transform in order to become truly multilingual. This will allow parliament to be in a position to develop previously marginalised languages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Masombuka, Elizabeth Lucy
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Multilingualism -- South Africa , Language policy -- South Africa , Language and languages -- Political aspects , Linguistic minorities -- South Africa , Linguistic rights -- South Africa , South Africa. Parliament (1994- ). Parliamentary Communication Services , Hansard Society Commission on the Communication of Parliamentary Democracy
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61984 , vital:28092
- Description: Language is an essential tool in effecting transformation in a community, society as well as in a culturally diverse institution like the Parliament of South Africa. This study is undertaken to establish the progress made in the use of official languages in the Parliament of South Africa. This study critically looks at the use of eleven South African official languages by the Parliament of South Africa in its daily debates in ensuring transformation to a multilingual parliament. The focus of the study is on the publication of Hansard in all official languages, with specific reference to previously marginalised languages as declared by the Constitution. The study was done in the Language Service Section of the Parliament of South Africa. Firstly, the study looked at the History of Parliament and Hansard publications in relation to the sittings and debates of MP’s since the beginning of Parliament in South Africa. Secondly, a literature review was done on Language Policy implementation, monitoring and promotion of languages in South Africa. Review of legislative frameworks on language matters was undertaken in order to find out the compliance of parliament in using official languages in the publication of Hansard. The study evaluates the recognition of languages as well as the parliamentary in-House Language Policy (Operational Language Policy) in relation to the prescriptions of the Constitution. Findings of the study are indicated in chapter 5 of the thesis. The presentation of data comprises of the work experience of the languages practitioners in parliament, availability and critique of the Language Policy Operational Policy in Parliament, as well as findings in the published Hansard Volumes since the first parliament. The study further tries to look at challenges that hinder the use, and promotion of all languages in parliament, including the use of these languages in the publication of Hansard. The study focuses on minority languages and previously marginalised languages. Recommendations are provided as a means of helping to improve the situation regarding the implementation of the language policy that will assist parliament to transform in order to become truly multilingual. This will allow parliament to be in a position to develop previously marginalised languages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018