Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37994
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Item Exploring factors leading to journalists leaving the profession in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Musi, Mampholodi Glorious; Sithole, EnockThis research looks into factors that lead journalists in South Africa to leave the profession to pursue other careers. Some journalists who have been bringing news to South Africans have been seen taking on jobs such as spokespersons and other roles in government and the private sector. This adds to the loss of skills newsrooms suffer due to the widespread retrenchments in the sector. A qualitative research method was used to gather data from 20 former print and broadcast journalists across South Africa, who shared their experiences in in-depth semi- structured interviews. The interviews were conducted over Zoom video link with journalists who left the profession between 2018 and 2023. This period covers the period before the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been a catalyst for some of the changes in the media landscape and the period post-pandemic. Using Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation, this study reveals that the lack of financial resources in many media houses has created a toxic mix that is pushing journalists out of the jobs they love, mainly because of poor salaries, added work responsibilities that are not matched with compensation, job insecurity, a toxic work environment, poor work-life balance, and unethical management. In general, the former journalists still love journalism but are moving away from the working conditions they were subjected to. Most journalists who have left the profession have more than 10 years of experience in the field. They take with them the skills and institutional memory built over the years – much to the detriment of the society they serve. Many say they are using the skills they have gathered in journalism to build new careers in the private sector corporate communications field and government, while others are running their businesses.Item Through the lens darkly: the transfiguration of the Black African image in South Africa and Mali(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mbele, Mara Iman Mhambi; Ligaga, DinaThis study offers a critical exploration of the dynamic conceptualisation of Blackness and Africanness, through the functionality of studio portraiture, captured within the diverse socio- historical contexts of selected West and Southern African countries. The objective of this study manifests threefold. Firstly, I explore the theorisation of Blackness and Africanness as both fixed embodiments of the colonial matrix of power; secondly, portraiture as an emancipatory structure for ontological resistance; and thirdly, ways through which Black African photographers subvert colonial photography conventions and reappropriate the medium for self-fashioning and self- representation. Where complexities of race, identity and representation intersect, I illustrate ways through which Blackness is discursively produced through specific socio-historical, economic and political legacies of “modernity/coloniality” (Mignolo 2007: 155) and sustained by mechanisms of hegemonic contemporary social structures. This research considers the pursuance of studio portraiture photography, circumscribed to the representation of the Black African body, as a means to elaborate how Africanness and Blackness are embodied through the fluid and fugitive Black African image. Not to conflate Blackness with Africanness, I have decided to make use of the paradigm Archie Mafeje describes as “Africanity” (2008). Concerning the examination of the para-ontological existence of Blackness, Africanness and studio portraiture photography juncture, I situate this study in a transdisciplinary approach, engaging with glitch feminism and decoloniality. Moreover, to highlight the reconstruction and futurity of Blackness, I analyse overall sixteen studio portraiture photographs captured by colonial administrators, postcolonial Black African photographers and contemporary Black African photographers, through my reconstructed multimodal and multisite research approach advanced Critical Visual Methodology (Rose 2001). I explore these images towards the thematic discussion regarding ways to which the potentiality of the Black African image is configured through peculiarities of Anglophone and Francophone colonial pictorial conventions, the shift in ontological bounds, glitching the cosmic Black African image, and lastly, decoloniality functioning as an engine of potentiality. Irrevocably, this research investigates to the extent in which socio-historical conditions produce racial identity; to what extent do the ways by which the Black body obtain the potentiality for autonomy and embodied subjectivity, that are enacted through portraiture photography as a medium and mode for ontological means of resistance and ultimately, to what extent is resistance performed in hegemonic contemporary structures towards writing a visual history of liberation.Item Beneath These Saline Stars(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Wilhelm-Solomon, MatthewA plague of drowning strikes an unnamed lakeside city. Hospitals are flooded with patients – primarily Black youth – who have died on soccer pitches, in their homes, and on the streets. A disgraced and divorced white journalist, now working on the arts pages of his newspaper, named Lüderitz Edward Leveza writes a profile on a performing artist and medical doctor, Isiwa: they are tattooed with black lightning, and walk as if on the point of falling. Isiwa is searching for the childhood song stolen from them when police arrested their mother—an activist against the former dictatorship—as a child. They provide Lüderitz information on deaths at the hospital where they work. Lüderitz’s investigation of the drownings takes him deeper into his past, his documentation of torture during the dictatorship, and his entanglement with Isiwa’s life. Together, Isiwa and Lüderitz see inexplicable visions in the city’s sky: men-of-war pass over his apartment block, a shoal of sardines weaves through the tower blocks, and whales arrive to mourn the dead. Isiwa leads an occupation of the city’s Freedom Square in protest against the deaths, but they are increasingly isolated and then arrested. Lüderitz is removed from his job and is mainly alone, punctured by Isiwa’s absence and left longing for them. During this time, he helps a young journalist called Zé in his investigations into the protests and drownings, which lead to a terrifying outcome. Beneath These Saline Stars is an aesthetic reworking of post-colonial journalistic realism and surrealism. It explores moral complicity with violence, loss and queer desire, rebellion and mourning, and the search for healing in a time of concatenated ecological, public health, and political catastrophes. A reflective essay follows the novel, in the form of crônicas – a Brazilian style of fragmentary essay. These explore diverse themes, both theoretical and personal, related to the context, influences and resonances of the novel: transatlantic literature and music; magical realism; créolité and postcolonial thought; Candomblé and climate change. The juxtaposition of these fragments aims to illuminate the personal, literary and political tides from which Beneath these Saline Stars took form.Item Bridging the Gap: Achieving Professionalization Through Memes(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Greaves, Megan; Parkins-Maliko, Natasha‘Bridging the Gap: Achieving Professionalization through Memes’ focuses on how social media is a useful marketing tool that South African Sign Language interpreters can use to promote the professionalism of interpreting. Up to now, there has been little focus on the ways South African Sign Language interpreters can use social media memes/behaviours to promote and advocate for the mainstream recognition of interpreters. This research bridges that gap by conducting a discourse analysis of the various hashtags South African Sign Language interpreters can employ to promote their personal brands as well as the brands of interpreting agencies. It also looks at the various social media strategies individuals and companies use to reach wider audiences. Although social media is a useful tool to promote professionalism, it does not come without its risks and ethical concerns. These risks are discussed in depth, and it is imperative that interpreters keep these risks in mind when using social media.Item Exploring How Civic Technologies are Contributing to Governance in Nigeria and South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Zisengwe, Melissa Tsungai; Abrahams, Lucienne; Burke, MarkThis research paper explores the African civic technology (‘civic tech’) ecosystem, with specific reference to its contribution to governance in Nigeria and South Africa. The research was informed by a qualitative methodology that used a comparative descriptive and explanatory case studies approach. Drawing on the African civic tech database and expert interviews, the study examined the drivers that influence the development of civic tech, its contribution to governance, and approaches to addressing challenges in the civic tech ecosystems in the two case study countries. The paper finds that in both countries, civic tech is driven by many variables, such as the proliferation of digital technologies, failing government systems, and international agendas. However, the foundations of most civic tech organisations are linked to governance issues experienced by both countries. Therefore, civic tech is often a result of the increased demand to strengthen the voice and capacity of citizens to engage and participate in governance issues that affect them directly. The findings suggest that civic tech influences governance in various areas, including indirectly and directly influencing innovation in government departments, opening up data, and leading to more transparency about government activities and governance challenges. The study found that civic tech has significantly transformed how citizens participate in decision-making and engage with the government, accentuating citizens’ voices on issues that affect them. The study concluded that civic tech has emerged as a social accountability mechanism as it plays a fundamental role in creating channels for citizens and other non-governmental actors to participate in governance. However, while civic tech is improving governance, the research concluded that it remains challenging to measure its influence due to how civic tech is constructed, adopted, and used. Consequently, there is an urgent need for the civic tech field to establish and streamline institutional monitoring and evaluation. This would enable the field to combine efforts and create a synergy where civic tech impact measurement is concerned.Item Kwaitoscapes: Reading the historio-graphic narratives in the visual cultures of black youth(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Hlasane, Mphapho Christian; Peterson, BhekizizweThe argument in this thesis is this: The kwaito music video can be an audiovisual disruptor that recasts and sometimes challenges sociopolitical norms. This study examines the optic narratives in kwaito’s visual culture – with a special focus on the music video. The kwaito music video contributes scantly to scholarship about the music video genre on the African continent. As such, in addition to the exploration of kwaito’s aesthetics, this study deepens ‘our’ reading of the kwaito music video’s narration of notions of gender, race and nationalism as they intersect with technological, economic and political imperatives (Emoresele 2022). This study encompasses two interrelated parts: the production two essayistic videos, and a reflective dissertation to advocate and advance what is understood as artistic research from the ‘Global South’. This interdiscursive study is interested in the manner in which kwaito music video grammar is shot through a historio-graphic lens and modality, that requires a reading of kwaito visual culture within a broader constellation of trans-local black cultural practices, visual and otherwise. The kwaito music video reflects and responds to visual motifs found in music videos for South African musical/cultural practices such as ‘bubblegum’, as well as those in Caribbean and North American black music, especially reggae, R & B and hip-hop. Yet, the visual practices within the kwaito music video are not limited to musical genres, but are essential to musicking practices, which are always if not increasingly visual. As such, within a complex set of dynamics in nationalist global popular culture, kwaito visual cultures represent both the positions of black youth, as well as how black youth not only negotiate their place in the so-called global village but also go about claiming their stakes therein (Musila 2022). It is worth thinking about how kwaito visual culture flips the dearth of nationalist grammar as an opportunity to re-map the topographies and visual markers that constitute black cultural work within global popular culture (ibid.: 4). Kwaito visual culture continues to redefine its visual vocabulary to contradict, complicate and reconceive of nationalist visual ideas and identities. It does this through what I term historio- graphic kwaitoscapes – a writing of histories that produce interdiscursive plura-literary texts (Quayson 1997). Historio-graphic kwaitoscapes are a cyclic writing – from the ground, to the lyric, to the screen, and back again.Item Indigenous languages, cultural cognition and public interest in post-apartheid South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Motsogi, Mphonyana; Mjiyako, LwaziThe South African Language Policy Act was enacted in response to the apartheid system, which systematically marginalised indigenous languages and reduced them to non- official communication tools. The SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) and ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) have the responsibility of ensuring that all official languages of South Africa, including minority indigenous languages, are equally represented in the broadcasting space. This study examines the extent to which the SABC effectively enforces language quota systems, as mandated by ICASA, to promote and safeguard the development of the Sotho/Tswana language category and other official indigenous languages in the broadcasting space; for instance, Tshivenda. The multilingual program, Motswako is used as a (A case study); the programme was broadcast on SABC 2. The study analysed the South African broadcasting model in conjunction with ICASA's language policy regulation document. The study employed language planning theories and the communication accommodation theory to gain insight into the language context and multilingualism in South Africa. In addition, the study focused on the examination of public interest with the objective to investigate the involvement of the public in policy planning and development. The significance of media practitioners as representatives of the public was understood through the application of the social responsibility theory. This research project employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods, specifically analysing language policy documents from both the SABC and ICASA and other relevant articles on language planning and policy. The quantitative route was taken to quantify within episodes; the number of time hosts code switch/mix to western languages. The data collection process involved the collection of policy documents and articles, and the findings were analysed through thematic analysis. A total of eighteen episodes from the multilingual programme Motswako were selected and evaluated according to the language editorial policy principles of the SABC and the language quota systems established by ICASA. The study revealed that both the SABC and ICASA lack effective mechanisms to monitor and safeguard the development of indigenous languages in locally produced programs.Item Like Water Like Stone, Before I Die: Reflections on Writing, Womanhood, and Personal Power(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ncube, Noluthando Leonorah; de Villiers, Phillippa YaaItem More or Less Human: An Ecocritical Exploration of the Posthuman in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Soal, Paige; Gaylard, GeraldWe live in a time when science and technology are exerting more pressure than ever before on what it means to be human. As such, it has become necessary to consider the implications and limitations of a shift into the posthuman guided by science and technology. Supported by a close reading of the texts, this dissertation explores the posthuman as portrayed in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. Critically analysing Atwood’s advocacy of a balanced shift towards a posthuman era, one not solely focused on the possibilities of human enhancement through scientific and technological intervention, but rather one which includes a close consideration of the elemental psyche of human beings, I argue that Atwood’s intervention has substantial merit. Atwood’s choice to foreground affect through observations of the human inclination towards religion, symbolism, and storytelling highlights the necessity of considering the aspects of the human mind which cannot be suppressed nor removed. Furthermore, her exploration of survivalism draws our attention to the unconscious aspects which contribute to our human condition. Atwood’s texts also explore contemporary posthuman theory in relation to the current environmental crisis we face. Exploration of the various approaches to the posthuman in this multivalent way is necessary to ensure that the posthuman does not perpetuate our negative impact on the natural environment.Item Legal interpreting - a qualitative investigation of the effects of directionality on multilingual court interpreters(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Nkasa, Phumzile; Parkins-Maliko, NatashaThe aim of this study was to investigate the effects of directionality in multilingual court interpreters. It sought to investigate whether the quality of interpreting is compromised or not when interpreters interpret into their “B” and “C” languages, which are not their “A” languages. The objective of the study was to also investigate whether the amount of errors occurring as a result of directionality varies significantly between interpreters who have less court interpreting experience and those who have more experience. The study followed an ethnographic methodology, where subjects of the research were observed in their natural environment. Interpreting strategies used by multilingual court interpreters as a result of directionality were also examined by conducting court visits and observing interpreters interpreting during court proceedings. The proceedings were recorded and the interpreting was analysed. Extracts from questionnaires were also transcribed and analysed. In addition, structured and unstructured interviews were conducted. The study found that although working only into an interpreter’s “A” language may be the best practice for interpreters, this is not always possible in real life situations. Most interpreting assignments always require an interpreter to interpret in the retour mode. This is particularly the case in South African court rooms, moreover in Gauteng Province which is a melting pot of different languages and cultures. This is certainly the method of interpreting practiced in legal settings such as courts where the interpreter interprets between two parties involved in communication with each other. The analysis of the questionnaires revealed that in some instances, directionality does have an effect on the competency standard expected from court interpreters. Six out of eight case studies in the current study revealed evidence of incompetency in interpreting skills in terms of errors such as additions and omissions which can be attributed to the impact of directionality. The findings of the study also revealed that when interpreters interpreted into their “A” languages, they tended to have more additions in the interpreted version. It is envisaged that the research conducted in this study will contribute to the current directionality debate, by further shedding some light on the impact of directionality on the quality of interpreting amongst multilingual court interpreters. Additional research will contribute to the refinement, creation or refutation of concepts or theories related to the directionality debate.