Browsing by Author "Wasserman, Hermanus"

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    Entanglements of media and space: an exploratory case study of two public arts projects in Johannesburg and Cape Town
    (2024) Brown, Storm Brown; Irwin, Ronald; Wasserman, Hermanus
    This research presents a spatially and media sensitive analysis of the layers of discourse created by two South African public art case studies between 2017 and 2019. Public art is selected as the research object as it “necessarily explores the very meaning of public space” (Wacławek, 2011:65) and it “can become the central focus for a range of competing discourses related to that domain” (Clements, 2008:19). Furthermore, the concept of public space has changed since the “internet and related technologies have created a new public space for politically oriented conversation…” (Papacharisi, 2002:9). When public art is photographed and re-presented in an online space, its surrounding audience and public sphere also extends. This results in a collapse of physical spaces into online ones, and has transformed contemporary understandings of what it means to be public and what it means to be visible. The emplaced yet fragmented nature of public art could not be more relevant for a South African context where public spaces are increasingly contested in a post-apartheid context. Therefore two specific public art case studies were chosen for this research. These projects first appeared in physical locations before moving into online and mediated spaces. The first project, #ArtMyJozi by The Trinity Sessions, features community public art projects created in and around the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit Terminals on Louis Botha Avenue in Johannesburg. #ArtMyJozi was commissioned by the City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Development Agency. It used a placemaking approach to guide the artwork creation process and community engagement. The second case study looks at three iterations of BAZ-ART's International Public Art Festival (IPAF) from its inaugural year in 2017. The IPAF started off as a South African iteration of a global public art festival, and was a commercially sponsored three-day long event where various murals were created in and around Salt River and the surrounding Central Business District of Cape Town. Although both projects are loosely branded as ‘public art', each project underwent a very different project delivery and community inclusion process. Furthermore, there was no shared meaning about the term public space. These differences in approach and process resulted in vastly different public responses and discourse themes for each case study. This discourse emerged in both online news media and Social Network Sites, as well as within the physical spaces that the works occupied. Therefore, in order to study both sites of discourse for each public art case study, this research uses an exploratory case study approach. The approach triangulates various data collection sources including field visits, social media posts, press releases, government policies and interviews. After this, a Critical Discourse Analysis and a Content Analysis are used to discern key interrelated discourse themes. This layered and triangulated approach is informed by Couldry and McCarthy's (2004) conceptual framework of MediaSpace. MediaSpace presents a spatially sensitive approach to examining media objects and the discourse that they create over five distinct levels. Importantly, it highlights how each level is interconnected with all other levels. It also considers the cumulative scale of effects between media and space. This study is a necessary one, as it explores how discourse is created in public art projects in South Africa, and by extension, how discourse around public spaces is amplified, maintained or negated in various spaces including online ones. There has not yet been a localised and digitally inclusive study of this phenomenon in South Africa.
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    Facebook's ‘white genocide' problem: a sociotechnical exploration of problematic information, shareability, and social correction in a South African context
    (2021) Barraclough, Jessica Ann; Wasserman, Hermanus
    A relatively small, but highly visible group of South Africans believe that farm attacks/murders (and other crimes against whites) constitute a targeted ‘white genocide'. Their beliefs have found support and corroboration in various online spaces, but especially within ‘alternative news' Facebook pages. This case study is used as an opportunity to apply a sociotechnical model of media effects to a very real disinformation problem that continues to inflame race relations in South Africa. Three pivotal questions are addressed, relating to (1) how Facebook users on farm attack/murder-focused pages engage with problematic information (fake news) and why; (2) the qualitative and affordance/format-related themes of posts with the highest share counts on these pages; and (3) the common themes of discourse used in defensive responses to social corrections of false information. Findings suggest that South Africa's ‘white genocide' problem is more deep-set than other more ephemeral ‘fake news' stories, especially due to stark racial and political dichotomies, reflected by the post comment sections herein. Group identities and cognitive biases work to sustain the disproportional media ‘spectacle' of gratuitous farm attacks/murders against white South Africans, and leverage Facebook's platform affordances to do so.
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    Lockdown fatigue: A content analysis of how the COVID-19 pandemic was framed in South African newspapers before, during, and after the termination of the National State of Disaster
    (2023) Solomons, Soligah; Wasserman, Hermanus
    Both domestically and abroad, the COVID-19 pandemic has gotten a lot of media attention. When covering crises, the media frequently uses frames. This study looks at the frames used by the media to cover the time leading up to, during, and following the termination of South Africa's national state of disaster. The study examines the media coverage of four weekly print newspapers using content analysis. Additionally, a deductive analytical method is employed to discover the frames beforehand, including the alarming frame, neutral frame, and reassuring frame. The results of this study showed that the media's reporting was predominantly alarmist in nature. The reassuring frame and the neutral frame respectively came next. Males made up the majority of the sources for the reporting, who were mostly representatives of various agencies. The majority of the stories analysed at this time gave no information about the abolition of the national state of disaster. Additionally, the few stories that did cover the pandemic often omitted information on what it meant for citizens after the two-year lockdown regulations were lifted. According to this research, the media's overall coverage of the COVID-19 virus has reduced. This study also shows that despite advancements in the COVID-19 viral control methods put in place, the media continued to portray the situation as alarming. Keywords: media framing, COVID-19/covid-19, coronavirus, newspapers, public health crises, pandemics, South Africa
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    Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse
    (2020) Ndlovu, Khulekani; Wasserman, Hermanus
    Media studies has recently witnessed an upsurge in theoretical and empirical work that investigates the moral-ethical implications of the mediation of suffering. The research focus has largely been limited to representations of distant suffering by global media to audiences in the Global North. Contrary to the above, this work focuses on the mediation of suffering by media in the Global South. This study is underpinned by the understanding that suffering is also a proximal (local) phenomenon and mundane (everyday) phenomenon. It is against this backdrop that this work uses the B-Metro tabloid's mediations of child abuse in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe as a case study. The study espouses a holistic view of mediation where mediation is the social circulation of meaning across the moments of production, text and reception. Roger Silverstone's concept of proper distance is used to evaluate the extent to which the BMetro's representations of child maltreatment are successful in engendering an ethic of care among its readership. Methodologically, the study triangulates focus group data about the context of production, with a textual analysis of the child abuse stories and focus group data about the reception of the same. Findings from the context of production point to an overreliance on legal, social and cultural elites for news about child abuse. Data shows that B-Metro journalists are torn between compassion and institutionalised compassion fatigue about child abuse. Findings also point to the prevalence of a gendered perception of child abuse among the journalists. Textual analysis data revealed that the editorial discourse identifies the ethic of care and the ethic of voice as being instrumental in the fight against child abuse. Further, the texts exhibit a patriarchal, gendered and heteronormative conception of child abuse. Reception data shows that it is more plausible to think of media users' responses as being located along a continuum whose range spans compassion fatigue and an ethic of care. A typology of witnessing is used to capture readers' responses to the mediations of child abuse. The tabloid genre was found to be simultaneously enabling and disabling the successful activation of an ethic of care. The thesis concludes by advancing a dialectical view of mediation that explores the equivalences and ambivalences between the moments of production, text and reception.
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    Popular talk radio and everyday life in Mauritius
    (2022) Chenganna, Azhagan; Wasserman, Hermanus
    This study has attempted to explore the myriad ways talk radio is tied to everyday life in Mauritius. As a point of departure, this study has considered the success of Mauritian private radio stations as a social phenomenon that deserves attention. It has delved into the ways talk radio, especially their morning talk radio programmes, are tied to notions of citizenship, democracy and development. Anchoring popular talk radio as practice, the study has used a multilevel approach to find out what do people do to talk radio, what kinds of engagement are pursued, which ethical considerations are valued and the implications for citizenship and democracy in a Mauritian context of power differentials and social inequalities. Following a three tier approach implying discourse analysis of morning talk radio, focus group discussions with listeners as well as in-depth interviews of journalists, this study has underlined the importance and significance of the new political that has emerged, highlighting the fact that the democratisation of the radio airwaves in 2002 has allowed political engagements and participation of ordinary people hitherto excluded from the Mauritian public sphere. Against the perspective that views the public sphere as constituted unequivocally in rationality and consensus, this study contends that talk on morning talk radio is inherently conflictual and is performed in reason and affects. Anger, fear, anxiety, hope and solidarity are discursive resources that define the life trajectories of ordinary people but are also ways for listeners to “feel their way” into the stories and to bond together to create a sense of engaged community however fleeting these communities may be. The ethics of care and solidarity afforded by talk radio journalists to these communities shift understandings of the liberal democratic norms of journalism from professionalism to “interpretive communities” that are characterized by social reciprocity. Adopting a decolonial approach that foregrounds the importance of listening to the lived experiences of people, this study finally makes the case for an ethics of listening that is based on re-imagining the conditions for talk radio journalists to listen deeply to people, especially to marginalized communities as a way for journalism to stay relevant while improving the capabilities of people and consolidating the conditions of living together well.
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    The impact of perceptions of China’s human rights and sustainable development on its soft power initiatives in South Africa
    (2019) Calitz, Willemien; Wasserman, Hermanus
    This study examined the representation of China’s human rights and sustainability record in the mainstream South African media. It also explored the factors that influence both South African and Chinese journalists and its potential effects on their coverage of China’s sustainable development and human rights impact. Through its “Going Out” policy, China has re-established a close affiliation with African countries.. South Africa is significant to this growing China-Africa relationship, as a fellow member of the BRICS group of emerging nations. Through its soft power strategy, whether as a “charm offensive” (Kurlantzick, 2008), or “charm defensive” (Shi, 2013), China has expanded its media reach in Africa through platforms such as Xinhua, China Central Television (CCTV) and People’s Daily to provide counter stereotypical images of being “a mysterious, exotic and unknowable force” (Wasserman, 2012). Dominant media discourses have represented China as lacking concern for good governance, transparency, freedom of the press, worker’s rights, human rights, and environmental protection in its relationship with Africa (Sautman & Hairong, 2009; French, 2014). China has been criticised for exporting its environmental destruction and human rights violations to the African continent. These negative perceptions among global media and key roleplayers could harm China’s strategies to harness its soft power on the African continent. This study explored to what extent these perceptions are manifested in media coverage, and what factors influenced this coverage. Through a qualitative framing analysis, this study examined how China’s sustainable development and human rights record is depicted in South African media. The framing analysis explored three individually-owned South African media publications: the weekly investigative paper Mail & Guardian, the Cape Times daily and the online news site News 24, to determine South African media representation of China. The study found five dominant frames in South African media’s coverage of China’s sustainable development record. China as key perpetrator in poaching; China vs the USA as a superpower; China’s role in the struggle against climate change; China as a source of green technologies, renewable energy and green investment; and China as a polluted country itself. Regarding South African media’s coverage of China’s human rights record, three dominant themes have emerged: Cheap Chinese products replacing job opportunities in Africa, China’s general poor record of human rights and cheap Chinese labour in African countries. Additionally five dominant frames were found in Chinese media coverage of China’s sustainable development: China’s climate leadership, China-US collaboration, repercussion for environmental violations, China’s green technology and innovation, pollution in China, and Chinese environmental aid. Regarding human rights, only three dominant frames were found: Chinese jobs empower African communities, improved labour conditions and official human rights engagements. The second part of this study examined how China’s media image might influence Chinese and South African journalists’ coverage of China’s sustainable development and human rights impact. Apart from China’s environmental and human rights reputation, which other influences on journalists have been significant to their coverage of China? Using Reese’s (2001; 2016) hierarchy of influences model as a guideline, this study explored the individual, routine, organisational, extra-media and ideological influences on Chinese and South African journalists covering China’s human rights and sustainable development reputation. Using semi-structured interviews, 20 journalists from Chinese and South African publications were interviewed. The interview questions built on Reese’s (2001; 2016) sociology of the media approach. The aim was to compare the different layers of how journalists in China and South Africa are influenced when covering China’s human rights and sustainable development record. Results show that South African journalists were strongly influenced by their perceptions of China’s environmental and human rights impact, which are generally pessimistic. They find Chinese government and sources to be inaccessible and distrust them. South African journalists also believe that media diplomacy will not lead to soft power success in Africa, in particular compared to efforts such as health diplomacy. Chinese journalists were strongly influenced by the Chinese state’s media ownership. Despite censorship, Chinese journalists find working for Chinese publications, Xinhua in particular, honourable. They find their role in improving China’s soft power in Africa through media diplomacy to be crucial, and particularly through challenging current western representations of China.
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    The internet, political mobilisation and civic engagement in Zimbabwe from 2015 to 2020: investigating the role of Twitter
    (2022) Pindayi, Brian; Wasserman, Hermanus
    This study sought to determine how Twitter affected political mobilisation and civic engagement in Zimbabwe from 2015 to 2020. Zimbabwe's competitive authoritarian regime has over the years restricted access to mainstream media platforms, leaving members of the opposition and most civic organisations with no recourse but to resort to social media platforms such as Twitter for purposes of political mobilisation and civic engagement. The research questions were: How did Zimbabwean political actors, namely ZANU-PF, MDC formations, Build Zimbabwe, National People's Party, Independent candidates and ordinary citizens use Twitter for political engagement from 2015 to 2020? To what extent has Twitter influenced political mobilisation in Zimbabwe from 2015 to 2020? What examples are there of successful civic engagement through Twitter in Zimbabwe from 2015 to 2020? A thematic analysis of tweets from political parties that contested the 2018 elections, politicians, civic organisations and private citizens was carried out. Eight themes were identified, four measuring political mobilisation and four measuring civic engagement. For political mobilisation the themes were, engaging ZANU-PF, engaging MDC Alliance, sanctions, and corruption. For civic engagement the themes were focusing on humanitarian aid or causes, personal exchanges, provocative or gaslighting tweets, and human rights or legal issues. Findings indicate that Twitter, has several affordances that result in socio-political influences. Twitter empowers opposition parties and citizens in Zimbabwe. It constitutes a collaborative space on which different political parties pursue common objectives. The accumulation of information and conversations makes Twitter a historical database with verification capabilities. Furthermore, as Zimbabweans have been using Twitter to connect with specific issues and online communities, it has served as an endorsement and/or verification platform. The multiplicity of voices and opinions have made Twitter a marketplace of ideas. By enabling certain individuals or issues to gain prominence, Twitter has become a snowball amplifier of events and issues. Twitter creates boundless, extended or international communities as political actors and citizens across international boundaries have centralised or focused debates. Several opposition politicians, civic organisations and citizens have relied on Twitter to spread information and influence mainstream media channels in what exemplifies a phenomenal ‘Twitter effect'. The political persecution, lawfare and suspension of Twitter accounts has demonstrated how Twitter can be an ephemeral, mutating and transient platform. These metaphoric categories all demonstrate how Twitter serves as an alternative public sphere in Zimbabwe, a potent forum for subaltern counter publics.
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    The manifestation and potential of constructive journalism in South African digital news
    (2023) Fölscher-Kingwill, Barbara; Wasserman, Hermanus
    This study aimed to establish the manifestation of constructive journalism, and the perceptions and attitudes of journalists and editors towards the form, in South African digital news. A qualitative content analysis was applied to a sample of 134 articles on “evictions” (written during SA's first Covid lockdown in 2020) from three online news-outlets varying in editorial approach. Semi-structured interviews with a purposively selected sample of journalists and editors followed. Findings showed that the most distinctive principles of constructive journalism were largely absent in the articles. Yet, interviewees recognised a role for the form to be introduced alongside watchdog journalism. Views ranged from supporting constructive journalism as a necessary and valuable approach that would strengthen watchdog journalism, to seeing constructive journalism as a “nice to have” in the overall news cycle. In some of the outlets, constructive journalism has recently been included in output, even if not labelled as such. The contrast between the two dataset's findings indicates a shift in how some journalists have started thinking about the information needs of audiences and ways to address those. Journalists showed acute awareness of the effects of relentless negative news on audiences. Findings revealed that industry pressures posed significant challenges to the implementation of constructive journalism, but that certain of those challenges are also opportunities. One proposition was that newsrooms collaborate to tackle big-issue projects through creating joint investigative/constructive teams. Some journalists had difficulty with a clear conception of constructive journalism but found it noteworthy to see constructive journalism as an additional step in the overall news cycle not replacing their monitorial role. Interviewees wanted to learn more about expanded interviewing techniques proposed in constructive journalism to add complexity to conflict reporting. The study enriches understanding of the applicability of constructive journalism in developing democracies and shows that the form can add nuance and complexity to current practices of watchdog journalism dominating South African news-reporting. The risks of constructive journalism being misinterpreted or manipulated by partisan media requires of journalists to adhere to rigorous journalistic norms proposed in constructive journalism.
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    The reimagined migrant portrait - exploring the lives of Chinese and Taiwanese minorities living in South Africa
    (2019) Hsu, Tzu Ting; Wasserman, Hermanus
    This multimedia project explores the lives of Chinese and Taiwanese migrants living in South Africa and how language, culture, community and marginalisation have come to shape their identities and to visually represent them in a way that is not prevalent in mainstream media. It uses two visual mediums – photography and video interviews – to understand these migrants’ experiences, how they perceive themselves and how they think society perceives them. Data analysis consisted of a process of coding the video interviews and structural analysis of the visuals. Rising worldwide migration has simultaneously increased the spread of diasporic communities. China’s positionality as an economic powerhouse and the influx of East Asian migrants to South Africa in recent years has shone a light on this minority population group. However, much of what is known about them tends to be through forms of mass media which perpetuates stereotypical representations. This paper draws on various literature including acculturation, diasporic communities, representation, languaging and xenophobia to explore the lives of East Asian migrants living in South Africa and search for more empowered forms of representation.
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    Un/doing gender stereotypes in digital technology journalism
    (2022) Clark, Vanessa; Wasserman, Hermanus
    This creative media project and essay explore how the editorial brief impacts the creation of gender stereotyped digital technology entrepreneurs in digital technology journalism in South Africa. A second objective is to explore how journalists can create alternative, nongender stereotyped stories about digital technology entrepreneurs in South Africa. The qualitative study's points of departure are the under- and misrepresentation of women in the media and the gendered stereotyping of digital technology entrepreneurs. Further, the researcher's professional experience as a digital technology journalist suggested the editorial brief, as the primary and most salient point of contact between a freelance journalist, their editor and the publication, would be a critical area of study. The researcher creates three pieces of media (a feature article, three book chapters and a podcast) about women digital technology entrepreneurs based on semi-structured interviews. She then uses auto-ethnographic, critical reflection to compare and contrast the productions with her typical experience as a journalist, and considers the broader implications for digital technology business journalism, paying specific attention to editorial authority and ethical considerations. The work establishes that there are actions journalists and editors can take today to avoid gender stereotyping entrepreneurs. The results support the thinking that the editorial briefs should not be considered neutral or inert and so their impact should be carefully considered by editors and journalists. The findings, although limited by the size and nature of the project, could contribute to further research into the media production of digital technology business journalism, and the role of production factors in producing more feminist journalism.
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    Virus from the Global South: A comparative analysis on Twitter commentary on China x Covid-19, and South Africa x Omicron
    (2023) Rabin, Fadiyah; Wasserman, Hermanus; Bosch Tanja
    On the 12th of March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the widespread outbreak of Covid-19 a pandemic. This announcement came after months of monitoring a cluster of cases in Wuhan, China, in 2019 and led to a series of global lockdowns and travel restrictions to inhibit the spread of the virus. China and WHO were blamed by some for the spread of the virus for not raising concerns sooner. The combination of blame and Covid-19 misinformation led to increased xenophobia toward people of Asian descent. Nearly two years later, in November 2021, variant B.1.1.529 was discovered in South Africa. This variant was named Omicron and is considered a variant of concern by the WHO. In response, various countries from the Global North initiated travel bans for several southern African countries. Despite initial cases only being identified in South Africa and Botswana, southern African countries were being unfairly punished due to South Africa's transparency and the efforts of their scientists. These responses reinforce colonial perceptions of Africa and Asia as a ‘county of illness' (Shim, 1998; Flint & Hewitt, 2015; Lee, 2017; Kagumire, 2021). Commentary on these events were widely discussed and shared on Twitter. Twitter allows for broader commentary on current events as user posts (Tweets) reflect their perspectives and contributions to any debates that may be ongoing. Drawing on an analysis of the most shared (retweeted) posts from two datasets, this thesis conducts a comparative content analysis to identify dominant themes. Datasets were collected over 7-days, starting from the dates of WHO's announcements on the widespread outbreak of Covid-19 being declared a pandemic (2020), and the Omicron variant being declared a variant of concern (2021a). From these datasets, 3000 (1500 x 2) of the top retweeted tweets were analysed through qualitative content analysis. This thesis explores whether the online conversations reinforce stereotypes surrounding historical perceptions of China and Africa. Furthermore, the thesis explores whether the data sets revealed broader commentary on geopolitical tensions that were potentially heightened during the pandemic. Findings showed that although the datasets did not reveal many instances of explicit hate speech, there was discussion highlighting racial stigma and racial scapegoating of both China and South Africa. Both datasets also showcased broader commentary on geopolitical tensions, specifically centred around influence, power, and 6 inequality. These discussions drew on the ongoing battle for global power between the US and China and how the pandemic highlighted existing divides between the Global North and Global South. Stemming from colonial differentiations between “primitive” and “advanced”, the phrase “Global South” is a contested term. However, the term has shifted from its focus on development and culture to geopolitical power relations (Connell & Dados, 2012). Lastly, both datasets showcased how Twitter can be used by citizens as a tool to challenge and critique power elites.