*Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs)
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Browsing *Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs) by School "School of Literature, Language and Media"
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Item Diasporic Landscape: A Geosemiotic Analysis of Greekness in Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Vratsanos, Alyssa Vida Castrillon; Baro, GillesAfter a number of waves of immigration of Greeks from Greece, Cyprus, and the established Greek diaspora in Egypt, South Africa is home to a sizable Greek community – concentrated in Johannesburg – that has established its own cultural identity in the country and left indelible traces of Greekness in the semiotic landscape of the city. In this dissertation, I explore the discursive, multimodal processes employed to inscribe Greekness – the quality of being of Greek heritage – in the city of Johannesburg. The overarching aim of this study was to analyse how members of the Greek diaspora in Johannesburg negotiate and perform their Greek identity and how Greekness is inscribed in various spaces in the city. In particular, it aimed to answer the following research questions: (i) How are certain spaces in the city of Johannesburg materially constructed as Greek spaces?; (ii) How is Greekness semiotically constructed?; and (iii) How is this constructed Greekness experienced by social actors, in the context of a European diasporic community in Johannesburg, a city in the Global South?. Empirically, this linguistic/semiotic landscape study made use of multimodal data, in the form of ethnographic field notes, photographs of signs, interviews, and newspaper articles, which were analysed within Scollon and Scollon’s (2003) geosemiotics framework. Previous works by McDuling (2014) and McDuling and Barnes (2012) have examined the Greek diaspora in Johannesburg from a sociolinguistic perspective, with a focus on language shift and maintenance. This study differs significantly in approach, shifting the focus from language use to an analysis of the signs used to assert and inscribe Greekness in Johannesburg, thereby drawing this subject matter into a linguistic landscape study of the diaspora In the empirical chapters of the dissertation, I used geosemiotics as a methodological toolkit to analyse several themes that arose from my data. First, I analysed the role food plays in inscribing Greekness in Johannesburg through an analysis of the Greek foodscapes in the city, such as Greek restaurants and supermarkets, as well as the food-centric elements used in other Greek spaces to communicate Greekness. I then introduced the concept of syncretism as a term that can be applied in a semiotic sense, to describe the ways in which signs and symbols from various, sometimes incompatible, aspects of Greek history and identity are deliberately displayed side-by-side in a space and operate in aggregate to communicate homogeneous and ‘authentic’ Greekness. Finally, I took a ‘semiotic approach’ (Van Leeuwen, 2001) to authenticity and analysed how authenticity in the Greek diaspora is semiotically constructed both visually and aurally in Greek spaces in Johannesburg. This study argues that the Greek diaspora in Johannesburg seeks to construct spaces in the city as recognisably and undeniably Greek, deliberately distinguishing themselves from the rest of the city, including other South Africans and other diasporas, by using a constellation of multimodal and multisensorial signs to convey a sense of homogeneous Greekness. The types of signs that are used to inscribe Greekness are all linked to the desirability – and by extension superiority – of Greek culture, heritage, and history. Thus, the ways in which Greekness is inscribed by the diaspora in Johannesburg rely on a process of self-exoticism (cf. Iwabuchi, 1994).Item Disinformation: exploring the nexus between politics and technology in Nigeria(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Olaniran, Samuel; Gagaliardone, IginioOver the past decade, disinformation and social media hoaxes have evolved from a nuisance into a high-stake information war, exploiting weaknesses in our online information ecosystem. Although social media has the potential to strengthen democratic processes, there is increasing evidence of malicious actors polluting Nigeria’s information ecosystem during elections. Misleading narratives targeting candidates and political parties were picked up, liked, shared, and retweeted by thousands of other users during the 2019 presidential election campaign. Rooted in the theoretical lens of centre/periphery dynamics and equalizing and normalizing hypothesis, this study examines the networked nature of disinformation by identifying instigators, techniques, and motivations for spreading manipulated information around elections. While providing valuable data-driven insights drawn from a computational analysis of over 3 million tweets and a critical blend of qualitative framework, this study analyses the human agency and motivations behind online disinformation. The spread of falsities is coordinated in a way that “ordinary users” unknowingly become “unwitting agents” as “sincere activists” of concerted influence operations, a participatory culture that amplifies disinformation and propaganda. Agents’ participation in the “nairainfluenzer” industry is motivated by factors such ethnic and religious sentiments, poor economy, and low trust in news media. These findings broaden the perspective for examining top-down, orchestrated work as well as other types of coordination that stress how election-related disinformation heightens centre/periphery power dynamics. It further emphasizes that the systematic production and amplification of disinformation on Twitter represents a universal online behaviour not common “emotional-periphery” states.Item Igeza lensizwa as fashioned by ILanga le Theku(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03-15) Ngwane, Simphiwe Blessing Mthokozelwa; Mupotsa, Danai S.The objective of this study is to explore, analyse and interpret igeza lensizwa fashion inspired photographs on the back page of the first isiZulu-language lifestyle supplement called ILanga le Theku. These were photographs of street-casted young black men from around eThekwini that were being foregrounded as public scripts of youthful Zulu masculinities. Through a discursive approach to Critical Masculinities Studies, I interrogate how young Zulu men made situated decisions in the fashioning of their masculinities. The study engages other interlocutors that were involved in the fashioning of igeza lensizwa. These were the female-led editorial team, the mostly male photographers that street-casted and photographed young men, the young men that agreed and those that did not agree to be street-casted, and the female readers, as represented by the female persona. All these interlocutors had a hand in shaping the form of igeza lensizwa. The archive of the fashion inspired photographs of amageza ezinsizwa and their accompanying captions were approached as key sites where masculine representations were being articulated and contested. The study demonstrates how ILanga le Theku devised various literary techniques to cater for its two implied readers/audiences of igeza lensizwa. Through analysing these literary techniques, the study crafted two concepts to offer more context-based readings of Zulu masculinities as represented in ILanga le Theku. The study foregrounds a concept of igeza lensizwa as being comprised of ukuzithemba [self confidence] and ukuzizwa [self-regard]. The other concept is, thirst-trap which is achieved if the image of igeza lensizwa complies with ukuheha [to entice] and ukuchaza [to have an affect], in relation to the implied female audience. The study demonstrates how these two concepts offer insights on Zulu masculinities by engaging how young people eThekwini were changing dual gender systems norms and matters of desire. Moreover, the study shows how the section was also a site that challenged the myopic limits of homosocial desire with its limitation of masculine desire only incorporating interpersonal attractions. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that through shifts in spectatorship, facilitated by an auto-ethnographic queer lens as method, I inferred looking relations that, inter alia, explored how young men were asked to introspect, and confront masculine beauty.Item Media Voices and Power: A decolonial analysis of black voices in the post-apartheid South African media landscape using City Press newspaper as an analytical focus(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Mgibisa, Mbuyisi; Menon, Dilip; Daniels, GlendaThis study conducts a decolonial analysis of black voices in the post-apartheid South African media landscape using City Press newspaper as an analytical focus. For the purposes of this study, I have analysed four case studies linked to the mediation and meditation of black voices in the media and public sphere. First, this study explores the subjection of black voices inside the newsroom using the black-oriented newspaper, City Press, as an example. It assesses the structure of whiteness in that newspaper and interrogate whether it provided its black journalists with a room to write from the standpoint of “black perspective”. The second theme is an exploration and personal account of my lived experience in the typical South African neoliberal newsroom and an attempt to bring theory in order to figure out my lived experience. Third, this thesis focuses on forms of gendered and racialised forms of subjection posed by the silencing of voices of black women journalists in the South African mainstream media, including social media. And the fourth theme looks at the importance and significance of voice or speech in doing politics in the post-apartheid South Africa and interrogates how the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) has deployed its “radical black voice” through the concept of Black rage. The study utilises decolonial theory and Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness philosophy as a lens as it seeks to investigate how essentialised, racialised, politicised, gendered and lived are black voices in post 1994 South Africa media landscape and public sphere. This study, then, involves the critical analysis of four themes, all of which are integrally related. The main argument advanced in this thesis is that black voices continue to be subjected through the concept and function of coloniality. For this reason, the study not only historizes black voices as producers, users and custodians of knowledge but also situates their lived experiences. This study finds that even in the face of debilitating coloniality in our everyday lives, black voices persist through those politicised, gendered, racialised and lived negative forms of invisibility and marginalisation and think and speak from the perspective of blackness. Therefore, this thesis posits that black voices are a communicative plane on which blackness performs and articulate itself, for itself. Moreover, this study is a form of epistemic protest against systematic and systemic silencing of black voices and an attempt to counter efforts of rendering black people, in particular black women, speechless. The transdisciplinary methodological approach deployed here is, first and foremost, embedded in the theoretical framework and various methods and concepts will be operationalised to bring to light the complex and complicated nature of how black voices are mediated in the post-apartheid South African media landscape and public sphere. The interview method, which comprises a reflective commentary, and autoethnography are important components of this study. Additionally, the empirical findings through interview material, newspaper articles and tweeter feeds have been examined through discourse analysis and through the prism of the conceptual analytical tools deployed here.