Academic literature on the topic 'African media'

The aim of this study is to explore the relation of New Media, in particular blogging, at the intersection of the African Diaspora, identity construction and postcolonial thought. Postcolonialism is a theory and practice that seeks to encounter the dominant Western discourse and its affects on both the individual as well as society as a whole. It critically addresses and means to deconstruct Western representations of the ‘Third World’, in the case of this study ‘Africa’. It aims at hearing and recovering the experiences of the colonized or of those who have to deal with colonialism’s legacies and one of the most established strategies to do so is ‘writing back’ and delivering a counter-story that challenges the dominant discourse and its inherent power structures. New Media, through the relative ease of access and the communicative possibilities they present, blur the lines between media producers and consumers. They offer an attractive option for anyone with a certain level of computer literacy (and economic conditions) to enter the stage and produce his/ her own media content. Through New Media, it becomes possible to confront dominant media culture, politics and power and reclaim a space where a different story can be told. Weblogs, or blogs, are one of the most popular phenomena within New Media. They are a format for creating a sense of individual presence on the Web, allowing the author(s) to articulate and archive his/her/their thoughts. They can be seen as ‘digital identity narratives’, where people tell stories about themselves and how they see the world.In the frame of this study, six weblogs which belong to a blogosphere of African, mainly diasporic bloggers, have been analysed using a combination of narrative analysis and qualitative interviews in order to learn more about how New Media impact on the construction of identity for those who are permanently challenged by society for being ‘the Other’, and how they are used to oppose the Western discourse about Africa and to ‘write back’.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD<br>This thesis is a multimodal discourse analysis of the media representations of Zimbabwean immigrants in the South African media. The aim of the investigation is to illustrate how Zimbabwean immigration and Zimbabwean immigrants are portrayed in the print media in South Africa. For the theoretical and analytical framework, the study mainly combines critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1992, 1995, Van Dijk, 1988, 1991, 1993, Wodak, 1999) and multimodal analysis approaches (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006). These approaches are augmented by insights from the cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and from sociologists such as Stanley Cohen (1972) who have researched on moral panic. The study analyses the coverage of Zimbabwean immigrant stories in the South African print media from the year 2000 to date. A total of five hundred and seventy five articles were randomly selected from the SA Media Database. The SA Media Database is a comprehensive collection of all newspapers published in South Africa. These data are supplemented by articles from newspaper cuttings collected during the course of the study. The focus of the analysis is on how the arrival of Zimbabwean immigrants is ‘problematized’ and transformed into a discursive crisis through the construction of anti-immigrant metaphors and generation of a moral panic. The data are grouped into emerging themes, and data analysis is guided by a multimodal critical discourse analysis approach in which the verbal and visuals are read as text. Although the findings of this study generally support earlier studies which argue that the media representation of Zimbabwean immigrants is negative, the multimodal analysis suggests a more balanced and positive image. Thus, although this study supports studies that show that media discourses represent Zimbabwean immigrants as ‘others,’ and often as criminals, the multimodal analysis of the images of Zimbabwean immigrants suggests that media discourse is much more complex. In the media, the Zimbabwean immigrants are presented as either victims or abusers of the system in South Africa. This reflects a broader discourse on migration which constructs Zimbabweans as ‘aggressors and victims.’ Through discourses of moral panic, the analysis of metaphors, the representation of female immigrants, and the multimodal analysis of language and visual data, this thesis shows an extensive deployment of discursive strategies used for the representation of us and them, characteristic of media discourse on migration. On the other hand, the South African media, through visual images, portrays a sympathetic view toward Zimbabwean immigrants and their difficulties. Thus, while the study supports Woods and King (2001), who note that media discourses represent immigrants as ‘others’ and often as criminals, the multimodal analysis of the images of Zimbabwean immigrants tend to be multivocal, in that they tend to also depict migrants as victims of circumstances beyond their control. Therefore, one conclusion that can be made is that the verbal and visual texts in the South African media do not always tell the same story. In some cases, two or more stories are being told at the same time. The study also concludes that multimodality offers the tools through which the different voices, some of which are contradictory, can be read and heard. Images evoke readers’ schemas and frames of experiences, for instance, of pain and human suffering. In fact, visual images are presented as authentic and objective pieces of evidence, not as representations of reality, but, in a sense, as reality itself (Dauber, 2001).Thirdly, the images of Zimbabwean immigrants convey additional information, beyond the journalist’s intention. With images, readers can quickly elicit a strong emotional response. This is different from a textual description. Therefore, images are not only excellent communicators, but also quickly affect us mentally and emotionally. In this study, for instance, images of Zimbabwean immigrants in long queues at the immigration department enduring cold weather, or bloodied victims of attack, or an image of a helpless Zimbabwean child eating from an empty platter seemingly abandoned and alone, by design or default, draw sympathy from the readers. Because multimodal images tend to tell more than one story, such images can also elicit anger and resentment from the readers.Lastly, this study contributes to our understanding of Zimbabwean immigration to South Africa by focusing on how the media multimodally constructs representations of Zimbabwean immigrants in the South African media. Thus, this study also fills a gap that exists in the study of the interplay between verbal texts and immigration images in the media in African contexts; and specifically contributes to the understudied representations of immigrants in South Africa. Another significant contribution is that this is the only study that has combined cognitive theory of metaphor, the sociological notion of moral panic, critical discourse analysis and current theorization on multimodality to comprehensively account for media representations of immigrants. This study points to the need for a multi-semiotic approach to the analysis of the verbal texts and images of immigration in the South African media for a comprehensive appreciation of the relationship between the verbal and visual texts.

The African growth story has investors from around the world eyeing opportunities offered up by the continent in the form of new markets, enhanced growth potential and impressive returns. Despite the overwhelmingly positive thrust of this message, it finds itself situated against a backdrop of serious challenges, not only in Africa, but also globally, in the face of increasing financial, political and natural-catastrophe risk. In this world of tremendous risk and tremendous opportunity, the insurance industry can provide post-disaster financing, financial security, institutional investment and innovative risk management strategies to reduce levels of risk on the ground. Launched earlier this year, the Principles for Sustainable Insurance are a framework for embedding environmental, social and governance factors into insurance business and so promoting sustainable development. This creative research project argues that a robust insurance industry promotes economic growth and that the parallel developments, in the story of African growth and the risk management practices of the insurance industry, present a compelling framework for nurtured and sustainable development in Africa.

In recent years, stories of African entrepreneurship have become popular online, highlighting the journeys, success and challenges that emerging entrepreneurs experience. However, many of these stories and platforms focus mainly on opportunity entrepreneurs and exclude necessity entrepreneurs who operate medium to small businesses, despite the fact that these entrepreneurs overwhelmingly outnumber their more affluent counterparts. Everyday Entrepreneurs is Media Creative Production undertaken with the aim of beginning to fill this gap by highlighting the narratives of some of the entrepreneurs that we encounter daily. The researcher created a web-based platform to showcase various entrepreneurial journeys. This was done by conducting qualitative interviews with seven small-to-medium business owners operating in Cape Town, South Africa, selected through a purposive sampling process. These interviews informed a series of profiles detailing the experiences of these entrepreneurs. The supporting research, as well as the motivations and experiences of the research are documented in the accompanying reflective essay.

Throughout history, technology has evolved to help empower communities of color. In the twenty-first century, online social networking sites have changed the way people communicate with their peers, employers and the world. Online social media sites have brought demands for further exploration using social media sites. Online social media has influenced social change, and has become the voice of the new era. Facebook and Twitter have been the leading tools used to communicate world events, social gatherings, revolutions and everyday events. Communication scholars have begun to research the phenomenon of how social media sites are being used to socialize communities of color. In the digital age, researchers are using methods such as uses and gratification to understand and investigate why African-Americans are using online social media sites as a tool to communicate. Researchers focus on questions such as why are African-Americans interested in sharing personal information online, and how do African-Americans use different social media sites to engage. In this research, Facebook was one of the most popular sites used in the African-American communities to communicate by posting pictures, exchanging information and posting daily activities. There are several reasons for social online media sites in the African-Americans community, such as entertainment, socialization, information-seeking, business and education. The study found African-American young adults use social media sites to engage in daily activities and information seeking. Further explanations of observed finding were provided in the thesis.

\<br>Advertisements in African languages are generally confined to radio, and in that medium are factual, dialogic and direct. When used in television advertising, however, South Africa’s indigenous languages play a less informative role, being employed rather to index a concretised African essence, African identity, urban style, or a particular reified postapartheid togetherness and cultural mobility. In this dissertation I analyse six television advertisements, all using African languages or language varieties, broadcast over the years starting 2010 through to 2014. I reflect on how and why the African language is used and to what extent African languages are no longer seen by television advertisers as carriers of information but as exploitable symbols of trustworthiness, multiculturalism, belonging and innovation. Methodology includes interviews with agencies, sociolinguistic analyses of the varieties used, detail on brands and products represented by the language and a small pilot study with viewers to ascertain their responses to the six selected advertisements.

This study investigates the role of new media technologies in the development of African literature. It examines the different ways that these new technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones have revolutionised the way Africans write and read literary works on the continent. African literature refers to literary works written mostly by Africans in any language. Over the last decade, new African writers have created a stir in the arenas of creative writing. Uses and gratification as well as diffusion of innovation theories were adopted as the theoretical framework for this study. A total of 30 African writers and 300 readers completed a survey questionnaire designed to elicit responses on how new media has influenced African literature. Some of the writers interviewed have distinguished themselves in their fields, their works have appeared alongside works of other international writers. The readers were chosen from a popular literary society. The results of the study indicate that the Internet has a big impact on reception of African literature, creating endless opportunities, easy accessibility, promotion of work and networking with peers and literary community. The findings also show that social media also increases networking opportunities and provides a platform where readers access, share and discuss African literature. Mobile phones also play a significant and functional role in the reception and promotion of African literature. Overall, these findings suggest that new media technologies have created opportunities for African literature to be appreciated globally, and have enabled readers to access, share and discuss new works.

Includes bibliographical references.<br>In recent years South Africa has seen the formation of a nascent craft beer industry, with scores of small, independently owned breweries appearing in all corners of the country. Given this growth this descriptive study aims to provide an account of the marketing strategies used within the industry. This study used method and data triangulation, involving both qualitative and quantitative research approaches . Consecutive sampling of all active South African craft breweries was us ed, in order to give a holistic and accurate account (where n=86) . Data was analysed through qualitative content analysis of surveys administered to 24 craft brewers. Furthermore, social media data from the Facebook and Twitter pages of the 86 breweries was analysed quantitatively and through inferential statistics. This aimed at determining whether there were relationships between social media activity and audience size and engagement. The results of this research suggest that craft breweries in South Africa rely heavily on below - the - line and direct marketing tactics. The social media analysis also showed significant positive correlations between brewery -driven activity and audience size as well as engagement.