3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item The misrepresentation of the Zimbabwean crisis by South African weeklies, 2000-2008(2013-05-15) Ogenga, Fredrick OduorThis thesis explores the representation of the Zimbabwean crisis by the The Sunday Times, The Sunday Independent and The Mail & Guardian from 2000-2008. Using critical political-economy theories of the media, theories of news production, cultural studies and a triangulated qualitative methodological approach, the thesis contends that the representation of the situation is sensational, superficial and amounts to misrepresentation. It echoes a particular kind of journalism witnessed in mainstream newspapers driven by commercial interest. Such interests are shaped by ideologies of journalism which not only lean towards a Western perspective of news construction but also define the criterion of news selection. The criterion demands that journalists write news and not history and in the process strive to be objective. This limits possibilities of contextualizing events. Further, objectivity is a myth since it assumes the existence of an independent objective reality. Therefore, news representation is problematic considering that the Weeklies used ‗official‘ sources who furnished them with raw material for framing stories. In addition, those who own the Weeklies are in positions of control depending on how these newspapers are funded. Economic factors such as advertising and sales, working in tandem with political ideologies that lean towards liberal democracy and human rights, influenced representation. In such a context, news is conceived and valued as a product of mass production in the ‗free market.‘ A closer inspection of the Weeklies‘ representation of the crisis reveals the underlying complex ideological dichotomy where Western uni-polar discourses of human rights and democracy are celebrated while those of pan-Africanism, African renaissance, national patriotic history and liberation solidarity in South Africa and Zimbabwe are taken for granted. However, this was to be expected of the three neo-conservative Weeklies studied. This thesis argues that competing discourses should be given an equal chance of scrutiny if humanity, irrespective of race, is to reach a consensus regarding the complexities of the history of human civilization and its future predicament. Such conclusions were reached through semiotics, which included ideological analysis, as the methodological approach used. The latter entailed the analysis of textual elements utilized to construct meanings of the situation at the covert level revealing how the Weeklies expressed the desire to change Zimbabwe out of fears of a Zimbabwe in South Africa. This created the necessary pressure, locally and internationally, leading to the formation of a Government of National Unity.Item Production of HIV/AIDS lessons in the entertainment-education television programme Tsha Tsha and their reception by HIV-positive men in Soweto-Johannesburg(2008-10-22T12:32:51Z) Ogenga, Fredrick OduorThis study aims to examine the production of HIV/AIDS lessons on Tsha Tsha Entertainment-Education and their reception by HIV-positive men in Soweto, and to find out whether this response impacts on their perception of their roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS. The rationale behind this study is that gender and HIV/AIDS has been critical in interventions aimed at combating the disease. Studies in South Africa on gender have revealed that versions of masculinity can be implicated in the increasing infection rates of HIV/AIDS making efforts to combat the disease problematic. A qualitative methodology is used. This method included interviews and focus group discussions. Five interviews were done with programme producers and researchers of Tsha Tsha to find out the major considerations in production. An average of seven HIV-positive men were exposed to 12 episodes of Tsha Tsha to find out their responses in six focus group discussions, and whether these indicated a changed perceptions in their roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS. Their responses were then examined under Bandura’s (1971) social learning theory and Hall’s (1977) encoding-decoding theory .This theories explain the considerations in the production of lessons in Tsha Tsha and how audiences respond to those lessons respectively. The findings reveal that audiences (HIV-positive) men identify with lessons around HIV-testing, disclosure, support and those that challenge stigma and masculinity in HIV/AIDS. Disclosure emerges as a major theme and is compared with sub themes of testing, stigma, masculinity and social support to form categories that are presented as the findings. While HIV-disclosure is seen as challenging HIV/AIDS stigma and masculinity, where men accept their condition, and take responsibility to continue occupying their space as men, E-E production can reinforce lessons around disclosure and other coping strategies to combat HIV/AIDS.