List of Titles

“Don’t forget to be awesome”: the role of social learning as a component of belonging in virtual communities: a case study of the Youtube fan community “Nerdfighteria”

- Steenkamp, Elri Colleen

Authors: Steenkamp, Elri Colleen
Date: 2018
Subjects: Nerdfighteria (Online) , Social learning , Online social networks , Belonging (Social psychology) , Communities of practice , YouTube (Firm)
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63753 , vital:28484
Description: The growth of the Internet has allowed fans who consume various media products, to interact and convene with other who share similar interests in online fan communities. Historically the study of fans has focused on pleasure and enjoyment as the main motivating factors why individual fans join, stay and participate in fan communities. This study, however, suggests that learning as a component of belonging has been underestimated within contemporary fan studies. Close examination of the literature of fan studies and the social practices of online fan communities reveal that these spaces may serve as fertile spaces for learning and the sharing of knowledge. Daily learning occurs within multiple spheres, including personal interests, peer culture, and academic content; all elements which can be found within fan communities. This study used the social learning theory “communities of practice” (CoP) model developed by Wenger (1998) to understand of this element of learning and knowledge sharing that seems to take places within fan communities. This study explores learning as a component of belonging to online fan communities by using the fan community of the YouTube personalities Vlogbrothers, which has named itself Nerdfighteria, as a case study. Through a qualitative research approach, which includes participation observation methods and qualitative interviews, this thesis has analysed the fan community Nerdfighteria, and used two Nerdfighter fan Facebook groups, the global NERDFIGHTEIRIA and local Nerdfighters South Africa, as case studies to evaluate whether the elements of learning taking place within these spaces serves as a motivating factor for belonging and participation. The results of this research support the idea that learning plays a role within the fan community Nerdfighteria and thus that it functions as a CoP. Fans within the global NERDFIGHTERIA Facebook group use this fan space to discuss and debate content related to their media of choice; thereby learning and acquiring knowledge as a CoP. The Nerdfighters South Africa Facebook group, despite the learning potential, fails to function as a CoP because it is no longer functionally allows for shared learning. Online fan communities, this research found, have the potential to serve as functioning communities of practice (CoP) only if they embody the characteristics and practicalities consistent with a learning space. Overall these fan groups may be categorised as communities of interests but sub-sections within these communities fit the criteria of a community of practice due to the kind of learning that is taking place. This research supports an alternative, yet promising, approach to the study of fan online communities which prioritises learning.
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Date Issued: 2018

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Land, Church, Forced Removals and Community on Klipfontein Farm in the District of Alexandria, Eastern Cape c. 1872 - 1979

- Bezuidenhout, GJW

Authors: Bezuidenhout, GJW
Date: 2017
Subjects: Janse van Rensburg family , Klipfontein Farm (Alexandria, South Africa) , Alexandria (South Africa) -- History , Colored people (South Africa) -- History , Colored people (South Africa) -- Religion , Colored people (South Africa) -- Relocation , Black people -- Relocation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Family farms -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Church history -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land tenure -- Law and legilstion -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161315 , vital:40615
Description: This thesis is a case study of how church, land and dispossession of land has influenced identity formation of a coloured community in the Eastern Province, namely the Klipfontein community. Coloured history in the Eastern Province has largely been neglected. This study attempts to rectify such a lack of in-depth enquiry as it may lead to misinterpretations that may influence contemporary politics and identity formation. Through research based on primary sources, it is evident that the social landscape of Klipfontein Farm and the relationships between that community and surrounding black African and white communities have largely been shaped by the stipulations contained in the joint will of the community’s ancestors: Dirk and Sarah Janse van Rensburg. The land devolved into a trust and has been administered by trustees since the death of the first spouse in 1877. By keeping the land in a trust, it enabled the descendants to continue to live on the farm in perpetuity, without the risk of being forced off the land via financial restraints or racially-based legislation. But the usufructuaries could also never fully utilise Klipfontein as an agricultural concern due to a combination of a lack of equipment and skill, and the provisions of the will. These complications inevitably led to inter-familial disputes and tension. Before 1939 there had already been three court cases dealing with the interpretations of the Will. In that same year the Supreme Court ordered that tracts of the land, including a part of Boesmansriviermond village, be sold in order to pay off arrear rates and taxes. Although the responsibility for these sales lay with the trustees, the community has been suspicious of the usufructuaries ever since. A key element of the Klipfontein identity is their religion. The church legitimises their right to the farm - against those who wish to take that right away. Their claim to occupation is couched in scriptural discourse, viewing Klipfontein as 'their Garden of Eden' that God gave to the stamvader, Dirk Janse van Rensburg. This seemed to have been partially successful for the Klipfontein community in staving off harassment by authorities. It also caused friction between the community and the black African residents. Some usufructuaries and family members felt that such right was exclusively given to the coloured community and so they became increasingly annoyed by the black Africans who settled there. Other usufructuaries did not share this feeling. They allowed evicted black African farm labourers to settle on certain portions of Klipfontein until the late 1970s. The black African population rapidly increased due to misinformation and evictions from neighbouring farms. This only further exacerbated the inter-familial conflict between usufructuaries, flaring tensions between the black Africans and their reluctant hosts as well as animosity from the white community towards Klipfontein. In 1979, after a series of court cases, a decision was made to remove all the African settlers by force and relocate most of them to the ‘homeland’ of Ciskei. The rest, who were of ‘working-age’ were left behind in a ‘temporary emergency camp’ on the outskirts of Kenton-on-Sea. The effects of these removals still impact the relationships between the different racial groups in the area to this day.
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Date Issued: 2017

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Language and access in the public healthcare system in South Africa with a particular focus on primary public health facilities in Grahamstown and Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape

- Mhlauli, Nonceba

Authors: Mhlauli, Nonceba
Date: 2017
Subjects: Health literacy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Patient education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Communication in medicine -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Health literacy -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poor -- Medical care -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/56692 , vital:26817
Description: The right to language and the right to healthcare services are human rights which are enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Section 6 (5) of the Constitution and Section 1.3 (b) and (e) of the Eastern Cape Provincial Language Policy provide protection against unfair discrimination on the grounds of language; while sections 30 and 31 (1) of the Constitution refer to people’s rights in terms of cultural, religious and linguistic participation. Section 27 (a) states that ‘everyone has the right to access to healthcare services’. In accordance with the Constitution, in 2011 the National Department of Health passed a Policy on Language Services. This policy aims to facilitate equitable access to government services and information, as well as respect for language rights as spelled out in the Constitution. The Policy on Language Services further aims to promote multilingualism in the National Department of Health and to allow people to access information in a language of their choice, understand important messages and the language necessary for informed and participatory decision making (Department of Health 2011:1). Given the above policy and Constitutional provisions as far as policy commitment is concerned, the crucial issue remains the implementation of such policy to ensure that the right to access to health and language are realised. The study provides an analysis of the Policy on Language Services 2011 as it relates to language rights and the delivery of health services, focusing on the roll out and implementation process and the public awareness of the policy. This study primarily focuses on the role language plays in accessing public healthcare in primary healthcare facilities in the Grahamstown and Cofimvaba. The study looked at communication between patient and healthcare providers and whether healthcare services were provided in the language of the patient or the language the patient knows best. This study further assessed indications of patients’ comprehension of information such as medical instructions on packaged medicine, comprehension of posters, pamphlets and health education sessions in order to fully participate in the process of their health status. The data of this research was collected from healthcare providers and patients in primary healthcare facilities in Grahamstown and Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape. The research methods used was in-depth interviews, non-participant observations as well as content analysis such as sign/direction posts, medical labels and information boards. These methods were used to determine whether language plays a role in accessing quality healthcare services in these facilities. The research found that the lack of implementation of language and health policy resulted in the perpetuation of language barriers in the healthcare sector. The study therefore argues that adequate healthcare can only be provided if and when healthcare providers and patients are able to communicate with each other in the language they know best or feel most comfortable in. Thus meaning the implementation of the current Constitutional and policy provisions is crucial to language and access to healthcare services.
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Date Issued: 2017

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The emergence of youth protest music and arts as alternative media in Zimbabwe: a Gramscian analysis

- Kabwato, Chris

Authors: Kabwato, Chris
Date: 2017
Subjects: Protest songs -- Zimbabwe , Protest poetry -- Zimbabwe , Hip-hop -- Political aspects -- Zimbabwe , Radical theater -- Zimbabwe
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/51228 , vital:26072
Description: The primary goal of the research is to examine the reasons for the emergence of - hip-hop-based youth protest music and satirical video comedy in Zimbabwe in a context where democratic and media practice has been restricted. The study examines the strategies and platforms that the young urban-based, musicians and cultural activists employ as they contest the meta-narrative of political nationalists who control the public mass media. The study recognises culture as a site of struggle and seeks to tease out the meaning of specific art forms (‘conscious’ hip-hop music and faux-news satire) in this very specific period of Zimbabwe’s history. The study proposes that the rise of these new forms of hip-hop based protest music, poetry and satirical comedy indicate how through the production and circulation of popular culture, ordinary Africans are able to debate pertinent issues that are marginalised by the official media channels. The study thus sees these artists as organic intellectuals who use alternative media to engage with different publics as they seek to counter hegemonic discourses.
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Date Issued: 2017

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Ideas of poetic form: aspects of the Romantic-Symbolist tradition

- Oldert, David

Authors: Oldert, David
Date: 2016
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54554 , vital:26587
Description: The subject of the work is some of the formal and technical developments of modern poetry in the Romantic-Symbolist tradition. These developments were stimulated partly by the ideas of the non-intellectual Symbol inherited from the Romantics and the idea that poetry could be a musical medium inherited from some of the French Symbolists. Their combined influence led to a number of technical problems in the structuring of imagery and the handling of syntax. The work begins, therefore, by tracing the philosophical assumptions behind the ideas of the Symbol and of the musical analogy. I then go on to examine two of the difficulties that these ideas produced. One is the tension between the analogical structure of a poem’s imagery and its metaphorical texture: quite simply, the more compressed and complex a poet’s metaphors become, the more they tend to disrupt the poem’s structure of imagery. The other problem is obscurity, which is caused by insufficient objectification of private images in a symbolic structure, and by fused metaphor, which is essentially a metaphor with an obscured ground of resemblance. Finally, I show how these difficulties were solved by poets outside the tradition who used a more articulate kind of syntax, yet who also managed to combine that syntax with the ideal of symbolic form. The implicit argument, then, is that the Romantic-Symbolist ideas of form, and the New Critics’ theories of form which were largely based on them, are able to elucidate an essentially different kind of poetry, and thus have some degree of truth and use beyond the tradition that generated them.
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Date Issued: 2016

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The last stop

- Mofokeng, Thabiso

Authors: Mofokeng, Thabiso
Date: 2016
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64567 , vital:28559
Description: My novella is set in the taxi industry. Its main characters are a wealthy taxi owner, a poor taxi driver from another African country, and the taxi driver's girlfriend. The story is partly a ghost story and partly crime fiction, it combines gritty realism with magical elements. It shows what happens between people in times of taxi violence. As the plot develops, the driver finds out that his boss is sleeping with his girlfriend. In revenge, the boss bribes some policemen to arrest the driver and beat him, and he dies in the police cells. But it turns out that the detective investigating the driver’s death is not quite impartial, nor is he of this world only.
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Date Issued: 2016

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Appraising the appraisal framework: evidence from Grahamstown property advertisements

- Beangstrom, Tracy

Authors: Beangstrom, Tracy
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54744 , vital:26608
Description: This thesis considers how interpersonal meaning choices in property advertisements are best reflected in a context of constraint in Grahamstown, South Africa, using and appraising Martin & White’s (2005) APPRAISAL Framework. The study is comparative in two senses since the data is analysed using Martin & White’s (2005) APPRAISAL Framework and a revision to it, and property advertisements from two competing estate agencies are analysed: Remax Frontier Properties and Pam Golding Properties. An initial strict application of Martin & White’s (2005) framework is followed by a second, based on analyst difficulties and framework limitations experienced in the first analysis, as well as those experienced by other researchers. Revisions to the original framework include added ‘local’, context-driven features and sub-categories: Exclusivity and Convenience in Attitude, a Scale of Intensity in Graduation, and a category ‘Invite’ in Engagement. These enable a richer, more detailed account of the alignment strategies and interpersonal micro-politics at play in the property advertisements than is possible using the original framework. Findings from the analyses reveal four facts of note. Firstly, that while the original Martin & White (2005) APPRAISAL Framework captures a general level of interpersonal meaning in the data, it does so more fully when it includes contextual and contextually-driven categories that are informed by local knowledge. Secondly, two levels of meaning are expressed in the data. One is aimed at an ‘external’ audience; the other, truer, fuller and more contentious, is aimed at what appears to be the intended audience only. Thirdly, and relatedly, specific contextual and cultural knowledge is needed by the intended audience to access the intended meaning. Fourthly, both estate agencies promote values of high prestige, exclusivity, elitism and wealth as their intended meaning to align a like-minded audience, although Remax Frontier Properties attribute these values to location and features of the home to a greater extent than Pam Golding Properties, who place greater emphasis on the size of the home. The thesis suggests further avenues for research into the discourse of property advertising, as well as into overcoming certain context-specific limitations of the APPRAISAL Framework.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Evaluating coverage of the environment: a comparative study of the observations of academics and journalists

- Koro, Emmanuel

Authors: Koro, Emmanuel
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64888 , vital:28628
Description: This study is a comparative analysis of the way that academics and journalists evaluate media coverage of news about the environment. The purpose is to gain insight into the kind of contributions that each of these groups can make to debates about the role that such coverage should play within processes of public deliberations about the environment. The dissertation begins by establishing theoretical terms of reference for assessing discussions of the journalistic coverage of the environment. It proposes that it is of value to consider the conceptualisation, within such discussions, of credible knowledge about the environment and, more particularly, to establish whether such conceptualisation is based within a positivist, interpretive, or critical realist paradigm. It is demonstrated that each of these epistemological traditions brings valuable perspectives to the discussion of journalism about the environment within such literature. It is, however, the positivist perspective that remains dominant, and this limits the extent to which the potential of the other two epistemological positions are fully realized. It is also demonstrated that there is a tendency, within this literature, to focus on the performance of individual journalists with minimal attention to the particularities of institutional and social context. It is proposed that this tendency results from the adherence to a positivist approach to the evaluation of journalism. The dissertation then describes the design and implementation of the empirical component of the study - dealing with decisions made about the overall methodological framing, the choice of method, the fieldwork plan and the approach to analysis. It is explained that the aim of the empirical component was to examine South African print journalists’ discussions of coverage of the environment in their own publications, and to compare such discussion to that which is represented in the academic literature. The dissertation then presents a summary of the themes that emerged from the analysis of the interview material that formed part of this empirical work. It is demonstrated that the evaluation of coverage of the environment, as articulated by the research participants, is informed by many of the assumptions and values that can be identified within academic literature. Such evaluation is, furthermore, similarly informed by a positivist, interpretive and critical treatment of knowledge - with, again, a tendency for the positivist position to dominate. One important difference is that the research participants include more references to institutional context. It is proposed, however, that the tendency to prioritise a positivist epistemological framing continues to place limitations on the extent to which the participants are able to fully articulate their knowledge about such context.
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Date Issued: 2015

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“Bold Distinguished You”: a critical discourse analysis of the representation of masculinity in Destiny Man, 2012 - 2013

- Hutcheson, Lauren

Authors: Hutcheson, Lauren
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/56032 , vital:26767
Description: Radical social and economic changes have transformed the employment opportunities available to black men in South Africa, and consumer magazines like Destiny Man have been quick to respond. Historical shifts in the configuration of an ideal black masculinity have been proposed over time in magazine representations of black men. Critiques of the representations of black men in consumer magazines pre- and post- independence interrogate the politics of the ways in which black masculinity has been, and is, configured around classed identities. In this study, I present the findings of a critical discourse analysis (CDA) on the construction and representation of masculinity within a contemporary South African’s men’s lifestyle magazine, Destiny Man. This study presents an analysis of the subject positions that this magazine constructs for its male readers. Destiny Man proposes particular kinds of discursive subjects in its sets of representations, both in word and image. The images and copy validate a neo-liberal elite masculinity achieved through self-surveillance and a variety of technologies of self, with the ultimate focus on material success. I argue that these representations have implications for the development of masculinities in a context marked by extreme inequality.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Dangerous people and places : a community newspaper's constructions of crime

- Raymond, Leigh Alice

Authors: Raymond, Leigh Alice
Date: 2014
Subjects: Grocott's Mail (Grahamstown, South Africa) , Community newspapers -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Crime and the press -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Newspapers -- Objectivity , Mass media policy -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Social responsibility of business -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Police and the press -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: vital:3527 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013091
Description: This thesis argues that there is a clear imbalance in the representation of crime in the newspaper, Grocott’s Mail, in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The thesis concludes that the system of marginalisation and segregation which was established during the apartheid era is the foundation for the continued segregation and marginalisation of certain groups of people in Grahamstown as depicted in crime journalism. Previous research shows that not only people, but spaces are marginalised through media representations of crime. As people are represented as dangerous, so too the spaces they occupy become dangerous spaces. Importantly, the research shows that discourses of marginalisation are present in newspaper reports reproducing the discourses prominent in society, and in turn, the newspaper itself perpetuates these marginalising discourses. This extends into the coverage that different crimes receive in newspapers. For instance, the reports show that a middle-class audience will be more concerned with property crime in middle-class neighbourhoods, than other crimes in lower-class neighbourhoods. I argue that not only the type of crime, but the severity, the effect, and the necessity for justice represented by the newspaper, are all largely determined by the region of the crime. Further, I show that the criminal is not only demonised and represented as individually deviant in the reports in the newspaper, but that these representations are made by this newspaper because they are deeply imbedded as a discourse in society. This is partly because this newspaper has taken on a monitorial role, requiring neutral reporting from journalists, and a dedication to surveying the processes of state institutions, like the police and courts. As a result, the ways in which crime is reported on in the newspaper is fairly well fixed, making it difficult for journalists to conceive of different ways of reporting crime. The representations of the criminal justice system that the monitorial media, this newspaper included present, are a careful balance between the interest of the public, and the need to preserve relationships with sources. The monitorial media in general, and this newspaper in particular, represent the criminal justice system. The relationship between the police and the newspaper, and the courts and the media, therefore strongly influences the way in which crime news is reported. In particular, crime news is represented from the perspective of the criminal justice system. This research was carried out using Critical Discourse Analysis, qualitative interviews, and focus group interviews.
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Date Issued: 2014

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Inside the river

- Buzani, Mangaliso Welcome

Authors: Buzani, Mangaliso Welcome
Date: 2014
Subjects: South African poetry (English) , Xhosa poetry
Language: English , Xhosa
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: vital:5971
Description: My collection is of imagistic associative poetry, influenced by Spanish and other kinds of modernism, and written in my two languages, isiXhosa and English. My approach to producing these poems is first via the mastery of sound, not on the actual meaning of a poem; working on the meaning would be the last stage. The language of each poem will be encountered as it comes down on the paper, leading me to the words meaningful for that particular poem.
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Date Issued: 2014

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Lived bodies: women’s experience of sex and gender

- Lothian, Julie-Anne

Authors: Lothian, Julie-Anne
Date: 2014
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69445 , vital:29538
Description: This thesis will discuss the category of women, as a social group, through a phenomenological understanding of women’s subjective experiences. In arguing for the phenomenological perspective of the lived body, I show the ways in which other conceptions of women’s embodied subjectivity ultimately fail to provide comprehensive accounts of the lived experience of being a woman. I begin with an investigation into how biological determinists hypothesise women’s bodies as sexed. I then move to respond to Judith Butler’s poststructuralist feminist account of the gendered body. Finally, I argue that the embodied experience of being a woman is best explained as an ambiguous relationship between socially constructed expectations of femininity and biological materiality.
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Date Issued: 2014

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What makes news on the front page? : an investigation of conceptions of newsworthiness in the East African Standard

- Nzioka, Roseleen M

Authors: Nzioka, Roseleen M
Date: 2013-06-19
Subjects: East African Standard (Nairobi, Kenya) Journalism -- Social aspects -- Kenya Journalism -- Editing -- Kenya Newspapers -- Sections, columns, etc -- Kenya Mass media -- Political aspects -- Kenya Newspapers -- Kenya
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: vital:3519 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008178
Description: Determining what is newsworthy is a daily challenge even to the very people who source news, produce and disseminate it. This study is part an exposition and exploration of the different approaches that media researchers have used to explain and determine the value of news. Like similar research before it, this study more specifically delves into the news selection process of news of one particular newspaper with the goal of investigating why and how news is selected for publication in the front page. News is the 'result of many forces: ranging from source power, journalistic orientation, medium-preference and market model, news values and production routines and processes. The study briefly expounds on the different definitions of news as perceived in terms of the developed and developing world. Just as journalists do not operate in a vacuum, a close examination of the various definitions reveals that news cannot be defined in isolation. Its definition is intrinsically tied to that of news values. Also explored here are debates about news values and their Western rootedness. Here reference is made to literature regarding theories on the social construction of meanings and on the gatekeeping concept.The study is informed by similar research in gatekeeping studies and sociology of news studies. It is important to state at the outset that the study is not concerned with how news is produced but why there is a bias for certain kinds of news. I am interested in explaining why and how the writers and editors at the East African Standard make decisions about what is worthy of being published on the front page of the newspaper. This distinction is necessary because the theories that inform this study transcend news sourcing and production. This study takes cognizance ofthe fact that one cannot separate social processes from the individual and vice versa. For this reason, this study investigates and analyses the biases of individual gatekeepers at the East African Standard as well as their collective biases. In the concluding section, this study calls for an alternative paradigm for journalism and news. The foregoing discussions in the other sections prove that a universal definition of news and what is newsworthy will not suffice and there is need to contexualise it.
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An investigation of the discursive construction of the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union as nation in the Union Day coverage in The Citizen and Daily News newspapers from 2005 to 2011

- Dotto, Paul Casmir Kuhenga

Authors: Dotto, Paul Casmir Kuhenga
Date: 2013
Subjects: Newspapers -- Research -- Tanzania , Press and politics -- Tanzania , Tanzania -- Politics and government -- 1964- , Zanzibar -- Politics and government -- 1964- , Press , Daily News , The Citizen , Union Day , Nation building
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: vital:3412 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001843
Description: This study is concerned with the constructions of the Tanzanian nation in the press. It has confined its focus, first, to the coverage from 2005 to 2011 on Union Day that marks the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar and the formation of the United Republic of Tanzania and, second, to two prominent Tanzanian newspapers, namely the state-owned Daily News, and the privately-owned The Citizen on Union Day. As the Union remains a contentious issue, the relevance of this research relates to the press’s considerable power to shape understandings and influence attitudes. The study works within a broad cultural and media studies framework and is informed by a constructionist approach to representation and to culture, and to nation in particular. It also draws of journalistic theories of agenda-setting and the normative roles of the press to probe the agendas set by the press on Union Day and to interrogate how the two newspapers construct and frame the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar as nation. The research responds to the question: ‘How has the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union been represented in The Citizen and Daily News newspapers from 2005 to 2011?’ It employs quantitative and qualitative (thematic) content analysis to investigate the coverage in the editorials and feature articles of The Citizen and Daily News newspapers on Union Day (26 April) of 2005 to 2011. This study finds that the government-owned newspaper, Daily News, publishes more articles related to Union on Union Day than the privately-owned, The Citizen and collaborates more determinedly with the state in the process of constructing the nation. However, both newspapers adopt a collaborative role consistent with the development journalism tradition that endorses an informal partnership between media and the state in the process of development (Christians et al, 2009:201). Both publications tend to emphasise the hegemonic ideology pertaining to Union while giving limited attention to challenges to such constructions. While both newspapers do identify certain problems of the Union and thus exercise a monitorial role to varying extents, it is apparent that the press in Tanzania tends to be largely acritical, perhaps attributable to a long period under single party rule
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Date Issued: 2013

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Constructions of nationhood in secession debates related to Mthwakazi Liberation Front in Bulawayo's Chronicle and Newsday newspapers in 2011

- Ndlovu, Mphathisi

Authors: Ndlovu, Mphathisi
Date: 2013
Subjects: Newspapers , Bulawayo , Matabeleland , Zimbabwe , Chronicle , Newsday , Secession , Devolution , Nationhood , Ndebele , Ethnic identity , Mthwakazi Liberation Front , Mthwakazi Liberation Front -- Zimbabwe , Mass media and nationalism -- Research -- Zimbabwe , Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) -- Newspapers , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- History -- Autonomy and independence movements , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- Social conditions , Zimbabwe -- Social conditions
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: vital:3415 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001846
Description: This study investigates the constructions of nationhood in two Bulawayo newspapers, the Chronicle and Newsday. Against the backdrop of the emergence of a secessionist movement, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), this research examines the discourses of nationhood in the secessionist debates raging in these two newspapers. This study is premised on a view that nationhood constructions cannot be understood outside the broader context in which these newspapers are embedded. Accordingly, it traces the roots and resurgence of Matabeleland separatist politics, exploring the political-historical forces that have shaped a distinctive Ndebele identity that poses a threat to the one, indivisible Zimbabwean national identity. Further, the study situates Matabeleland separatist politics within the broader African secessionist discourse challenging the post-colonial nation-building project on the continent. Informed by Hall’s (1992, 1996) constructivist approach to identity, it considers national identities as fragmented, multiple and constantly evolving. Thus, this study is framed within Hall’s (1997) constructivist approach to representation, as it examines the constructions of nationhood in and through language. The study uses qualitative research methods, as it examines the meanings of nationhood in key media texts. Informed by Foucault’s discourse theory, this research employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse 12 articles from the two newspapers. The findings confirm that the representations of nationhood in the two newspapers are influenced by their position within the socio-political context. The state-owned Chronicle legitimates the unitary state discourse advocated by ZANU PF. On the other hand, Newsday’s representations are informed by the discourses of the opposition political parties and civil society that challenge the dominant nation-building project. Thus, within this paper, secession and devolution emerge as alternative imaginaries that contest the authoritarian discourse of nationhood
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Date Issued: 2013

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Counting planes

- Rawlins, Isabel Bethan

Authors: Rawlins, Isabel Bethan
Date: 2013
Subjects: Prose poems , Flash fiction , Short stories , English , Creative writing (Higher education) , Short stories, South African (English) -- 21st century , South African fiction (English) -- 21st century , South African poetry (English) -- 21st century , English language -- Writing
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: vital:5966 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001816
Description: This collection of prose-poems and flash fiction, together with a few short stories, shows how romantic relationships colour our perspectives on the world. The collection has echoes throughout of speakers' voices, theme, imagery and tone. There is a narrative logic too, but working on a subtle level of echo and resonance
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Date Issued: 2013

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Creating a new declaration of rights : a critical reconstruction of earth jurisprudence's global legislative framework

- Lenferna, Georges Alexandre

Authors: Lenferna, Georges Alexandre
Date: 2013
Subjects: Universal Declaration , Rights , Earth , Environment , Ethics , Environmental law, International -- Research , Environmental law, International -- Philosophy , Environmental ethics -- Research , Nature conservation -- Law and legislation -- Research , Jurisprudence -- Research , Law -- Philosophy
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
Identifier: vital:2704 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001979
Description: This thesis aims to critique the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and its underlying moral justification in order to provide a stronger and improved version of both. In Chapter 1 I explore what sort of moral justification is necessary to establish the Universal Declaration on firm grounds and explore its relation to environmental ethics and rights discourse. I argue that a non-anthropocentric perspective is necessary to justify the Universal Declaration’s rights. In Chapter 2 I explore the underlying justification of the Universal Declaration as discovered in the works of Cormac Cullinan and Father Thomas Berry. I argue that their ethical framework is indeterminate, has many ambiguities and uncertainties, and, among other problems, it does not provide a clear action-guiding framework. In Chapter 3 I develop an alternative justification for the Universal Declaration. I argue against many predominant moral theories, that in light of our best scientific and moral understanding we should expand the realm of moral concern to include all living beings, a moral theory I call Life’s Imperative. In Chapter 4 I illustrate that Life’s Imperative is a much stronger, more coherent justification for the Universal Declaration, one that coheres with both our best understanding of the natural world and our relation to it, and to an environmental ethic reflective of that relationship. Unfortunately many of the weaknesses in the current implicit justification of the Universal Declaration have also led to it enshrining rights that are themselves problematic. In order to address these issues, I revise its rights to accord with the stronger justification that I established in Chapter 3. The end result of doing so is a revised version of the Universal Declaration
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Date Issued: 2013

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