9 research outputs found
“Eye on the big prize!”: Iconizing the Democratic Alliance in the Daily Sun
No full textThis article gives a snapshot view of how Mmusi Maimane’s rise to leadership in the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2015 was reported on in the Daily Sun, South Africa’s biggest-selling national daily newspaper (South African Audience Research Foundation, 2016). Through analysis of a Daily Sun news article exemplifying trends in the positioning of the DA in the tabloid over the first half of 2015, the present study demonstrates how Maimane tried to align the DA around a new iconography (Tann 2010, 2013), centred on the values of “freedom”, “fairness” and “opportunity”. Moreover, the present study also shows how this purported transformation in the DA was treated with scepticism by the news article’s author, who iconizes the DA as incapable of transformation and effective governance. Fine-grained complementary Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analyses were conducted on this news article. The LCT analysis shows how multiple voices in the news article create conflicting binary constellations, axiologically charged through various linguistic resources, including intertextual references. The analysis, using SFL’s Appraisal system (Martin and White 2005), shows how iconization is accomplished in the news article through evaluative language, coupled with intertextual references, grammatical metaphor andtechnicality to produce syndromes of meaning in the news article. Such iconization works, in this case, to reproduce an attitude of cynicism toward party politics in post-apartheid South Africa. This cynicism foreshadows Maimane’s ultimate lack of success in transforming the discourses of the DA
“Eye on the big prize!â€: Iconizing the Democratic Alliance in the Daily Sun
No full textThis article gives a snapshot view of how Mmusi Maimane’s rise to leadership in the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2015 was reported on in the Daily Sun, South Africa’s biggest-selling national daily newspaper (South African Audience Research Foundation, 2016). Through analysis of a Daily Sun news article exemplifying trends in the positioning of the DA in the tabloid over the first half of 2015, the present study demonstrates how Maimane tried to align the DA around a new iconography (Tann 2010, 2013), centred on the values of “freedomâ€, “fairness†and “opportunityâ€. Moreover, the present study also shows how this purported transformation in the DA was treated with scepticism by the news article’s author, who iconizes the DA as incapable of transformation and effective governance. Fine-grained complementary Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analyses were conducted on this news article. The LCT analysis shows how multiple voices in the news article create conflicting binary constellations, axiologically charged through various linguistic resources, including intertextual references. The analysis, using SFL’s Appraisal system (Martin & White 2005), shows how iconization is accomplished in the news article through evaluative language, coupled with intertextual references, grammatical metaphor and technicality to produce syndromes of meaning in the news article. Such iconization works, in this case, to reproduce an attitude of cynicism toward party politics in post-apartheid South Africa. This cynicism foreshadows Maimane’s ultimate lack of success in transforming the discourses of the DA
“Eye on the big prize!”: Iconizing the Democratic Alliance in the Daily Sun
No full textThis article gives a snapshot view of how Mmusi Maimane’s rise to leadership in the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2015 was reported on in the Daily Sun, South Africa’s biggest-selling national daily newspaper (South African Audience Research Foundation, 2016). Through analysis of a Daily Sun news article exemplifying trends in the positioning of the DA in the tabloid over the first half of 2015, the present study demonstrates how Maimane tried to align the DA around a new iconography (Tann 2010, 2013), centred on the values of “freedom”, “fairness” and “opportunity”. Moreover, the present study also shows how this purported transformation in the DA was treated with scepticism by the news article’s author, who iconizes the DA as incapable of transformation and effective governance. Fine-grained complementary Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analyses were conducted on this news article. The LCT analysis shows how multiple voices in the news article create conflicting binary constellations, axiologically charged through various linguistic resources, including intertextual references. The analysis, using SFL’s Appraisal system (Martin and White 2005), shows how iconization is accomplished in the news article through evaluative language, coupled with intertextual references, grammatical metaphor andtechnicality to produce syndromes of meaning in the news article. Such iconization works, in this case, to reproduce an attitude of cynicism toward party politics in post-apartheid South Africa. This cynicism foreshadows Maimane’s ultimate lack of success in transforming the discourses of the DA
"A Symbol of the New African": Drum magazine, popular culture and the formation of black urban subjectivity in 1950s South Africa.
No full textPhDThis thesis examines the emergence of black urban subjectivity in South Africa
during the 1950s, focussing on the ways in which popular American genres were
utilised in the construction of black urban identities that served as a means of
resistance to apartheid. At the centre of this process was Drum magazine:
founded in South Africa in 1951 , it became the largest selling magazine on the
African continent in 1956. Drum's success was due to the way in which it
enabled the relocation of black identity from the "traditional" towards the
"modern'. The 1940s gave rise to widespread migration of black South Africans
from rural to urban areas and this newly urbanised community was seeking
models of black urban identity. Yet the Nationalist government was attempting
to curtail the emergence of a black urban proletariat, which posed a threat to
white political supremacy. Through apartheid legislation black identity was
constructed as essentially tribal and rural. As a means of resisting this, urbanised
black South Africans turned to, and appropriated, readily available forms of
American culture. Drum published Americanised images and stories: gangsters,
black detectives, black comic heroes, and pulp romances. This popular material
appeared alongside some of the finest investigative journalism ever published.
While Drum magazine is widely acknowledged as having provided a platform
for the emergence of black South African writing in English, its popular content
has been dismissed by critics as apolitical escapism, imitation and capitulation to
American culture. This thesis challenges the dismissal of the popular that has
dominated analyses of Drum since the 1960s, arguing that such a position denies
the agency of local writers and audiences. My analysis reveals that American
forms were adopted in critically discerning ways and chosen for their ability to
convey local meaning and create positions from which to resist aparthei
Shades of blackness: politicians' performances of blackness in South Africa
No full textDissertation presented (with recommended revisions) in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Media Studies in the School of Literature and Languages at the University of the Witwatersrand, May 2018Over the decades, the concept of race has been interpreted and altered in various ways. Supposed characteristics have been imposed by society on groups of individuals as stereotypes of what they should be or do. This is the basis for racism, as it has been proven through studies on genetics that all races of humans bear the same genetic makeup. This has not only allowed for divisions between races but has created space for differences within them. However, scholars have, in recent years, come to an understanding of race as a social construct that is performed, instead of something that humans are born with. This study seeks primarily, to explore the diverse and fluid black identities that are present within South Africa’s political sphere. It seeks to understand the varying and opposing ways in which South African politicians display their blackness, and simultaneously develop an understanding of how this is received by the media and the South African public alike.
To establish these differences, this study seeks to employ three case studies from the South African political landscape. The case studies are the ANC’s Jacob Zuma, the EFF’s Julius Malema and the DA’s Mmusi Maimane. The study hopes that in exploring three very different political personas, some of the many varying tropes that exist will become lucid. In To structure this study, one speech by each case study politician has been selected as a text to be analysed. This speech, in turn, consists of three components which are critically unpacked: a video recording of the speech, an article posted alongside it and comments posted below it.
All three components of the text are analysed in detail, to ascertain the different approaches and responses (both by the author of the article and the public commenters) each politician receives with regards to their black identity. These responses then feed the research in terms of understanding the tropes of blackness that each politician enacts, determined by a range of factors including their specific masculinities, accents, dress styles, approaches to the systems in place and so forth.XL201
Shades of blackness: politicians' performances of blackness in South Africa
No full textDissertation presented (with recommended revisions) in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Media Studies, 2018Over the decades, the concept of race has been interpreted and altered in various ways. Supposed characteristics have been imposed by society on groups of individuals as stereotypes of what they should be or do. This is the basis for racism, as it has been proven through studies on genetics that all races of humans bear the same genetic makeup. This has not only allowed for divisions between races but has created space for differences within them. However, scholars have, in recent years, come to an understanding of race as a social construct that is performed, instead of something that humans are born with. This study seeks primarily, to explore the diverse and fluid black identities that are present within South Africa’s political sphere. It seeks to understand the varying and opposing ways in which South African politicians display their blackness, and simultaneously develop an understanding of how this is received by the media and the South African public alike.
To establish these differences, this study seeks to employ three case studies from the South African political landscape. The case studies are the ANC’s Jacob Zuma, the EFF’s Julius Malema and the DA’s Mmusi Maimane. The study hopes that in exploring three very different political personas, some of the many varying tropes that exist will become lucid. In To structure this study, one speech by each case study politician has been selected as a text to be analysed. This speech, in turn, consists of three components which are critically unpacked: a video recording of the speech, an article posted alongside it and comments posted below it.
All three components of the text are analysed in detail, to ascertain the different approaches and responses (both by the author of the article and the public commenters) each politician receives with regards to their black identity. These responses then feed the research in terms of understanding the tropes of blackness that each politician enacts, determined by a range of factors including their specific masculinities, accents, dress styles, approaches to the systems in place and so forth.XL201
South African primary health care in the era of HIV/AIDS treatment and care : understanding the organisation and delivery of nursing care
No full textThe integration of Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) for HIV in to South African primary health
care (PHC) and task shifting are increasing nurses' role in ART and H/V care. There is
evidence this role is motivating nurses to adopt more patient-centred care. This study
explored this potential emergence of more patient centred care in PHC in the Free State
province, South Africa.
A multi-site, mixed-method observational approach was used, building on ethnographic
principles. A purposive sample of four clinics, two providing ART and two not, were the
focus for observation and interviews through four phases of data collection. Emerging
findings were explored in an additional six clinics in later phases of data collection. 34
professional nurses, 6 members of clinic staff and 21 patients were interviewed. A thematic
analysis that aimed to develop theory grounded in the study contexts through integrating
existing theory with inductively identified themes was used.
The study found care is patient centred and integrated to a limited extent, while ART and
HIV care are more likely to be patient centred than other aspects of PHC. These care
routines are then shown to emerge from nurses' agency mediating different levels of
structure: the rules of clinic interaction and then the clinic context. Further analysis of
nurses' agency explores how it is shaped by a complex identity and a health system context
of constant change.
The study provides in-depth understanding of a little explored health services issue, and is
the basis for recommendations to support patient centred and integrated care. The
analysis supports the reconceptualisation of patient centred care to consider Issues of
convenience, as a response to the specific context of nurse-led PHC in South Africa. The
study also introduces a structure-agency theoretical framework that can be applied to the
context of nurse-led PHC
Governing mother-child communication about sex in HIV/AIDS epidemic : positioning Lovelines
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (p. 421-474).Lovelines was a didactic textual series that appeared in Fairlady, a South African women's magazine, instructing mothers on how sex should be talked about with young people to inoculate them against the risk of HIV/Aids. My reading of this media discourse, and mothers' appropriation of it, sought to examine how the primary target audience of middle classed mothers were persuaded to adopt particular communicative positions. Foucault's normative apparatus of family-sexuality-risk concerns the distribution of expertise - epidemiological science of risk in populations, developmental psychology-inscribed micro-practices of childrearing in families - and self-responsibilization of disciplinary power. This finds mothers governmentally positioned as relay points between 'public' (health, economy) and 'private' (family, childrearing, sex) apparatuses, tasked with appropriately socializing a new generation of sexually responsible citizens. This governmental rationality of neo-liberalism is read against South African conditions of mass media persuasion, HIV/Aids risk and talking about sex in families
