Browsing by Subject "Media Theory and Practice"
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- ItemOpen AccessA Hypothetical Exploration of Survival, Colonisation and Interplanetary Relations Around the planet Mars(2019) Reid, Caroline; Irwin, RonaldThree novellas exploring the short and long-term implications of Martian colonisation and an explication. The first part examines the necessity of a robust and mentally-fit crew along with the relationships between corporatism. The second, which happens a century later, explores the health effects of long-term living on Mars along with the Earth disconnect by Martian-born humans. In the third part, another century later, the long-term strains of sustaining such a project are examined on Earth and how Martians are used as scapegoats. The explication describes the scientific motivations behind some aspects of the novel, including how the conditions of Mars necessitates certain survival protocols.
- ItemOpen AccessBarack Obama's rise to power : reinventing political campaigns(2009) Araujo-Quintero, CarolinaThis research paper uses content analysis to analyse the subtext of Obama's campaign messages and virtual ethnography to analyse the way that information technology was used to further his campaign's goals. The findings suggest that while historic forces, such as economic turbulence and the unpopularity of outgoing President George W Bush, helped propel Obama to power, his campaign was nonetheless revolutionary. It will be argued that it contained several elements of trail blazing innovation that are likely to redefine political communications in the U.S and globally.
- ItemOpen AccessBumper to bumper: photographing across the class divide in post-apartheid South Africa. A photographic essay and analysis(2012) Culhane, Dylan; Glenn, IanThe eponymous collection of 64 photographs accompanying this text constitutes the creative research component of my M.A. in Media Theory & Practice. I chose to photograph the men (and to a lesser but nonetheless significant degree women) that we see being transported in bakkies and trucks on our roads on a daily basis, compiling a photographic essay engineered to provoke contemplation of current societal discrepancies.
- ItemOpen AccessCall on me : the cell phone : a multi-media tool of communication amongst South African youth and how it can be used to platform youth stories for media and advertising(2007) Griffiths, Claire; Glenn, IanThis media dissertation researches the cell phone's actual and potential role as a multimedia tool of communication amongst South African youth and looks at how it can be used to platform youth stories for media and advertising. The youth's connection to the cell phone has come to mean so much more than its actual technological functions. This media dissertation investigates the cell phone phenomenon amongst the youth of today, by looking at both local and international trends, with a more intimate focus on the current trends amongst the South African youth. It will look at the sociology of the cell phone and the culture surrounding it. It will then consider new technology and how the cell phone's role may also be a tool for leapfrogging in South Africa. It is also important to consider the negative connotations that arise with the cell phone's infiltration amongst the youth.Through analysis of recent research about the cell phone's impact on the youth here and internationally, two opposing media directions are identified: the cell phone as a tool in marketing and advertising; and the cell phone as a tool in investigative journalism. By analyzing two different areas, this media dissertation creates a broad and holistic understanding of the cell phone's potential functions through a strong literature review. Firstly, the cell phone's function in marketing and advertising will be analyzed. This media dissertation will take into account the youth market in South Africa through a case study of one of South Africa's strategic consultancy companies: Instant Grass. Through a close look at the youth market now, it will be possible to create a greater understanding of the current trends and how to capitalize on these trends. In terms of marketing and advertising, this media dissertation then discusses an advertising exercise with a youth group studying Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town. Secondly, the cell phone in terms of media and investigative journalism will be analysed through fieldwork done with etv's 3rd Degree. This media dissertation looks at how the cell phone could be used as a tool for youth stories by looking at the parameters involved in creating investigative stories. This chapter also takes a look at the issue of citizen journalism in the digital publishing world today and the rate at which cell phone technology is spurring this development on.
- ItemOpen AccessCape of German hopes : exploring German culture in Cape Town : a reflective analysis from the perspective of the producer(2011) Llorente Quesada, LemayDocumentary film, in the words of Linda Williams, always has the receding goal of finding 'some form of truth'. Yet documentary film as an art also blurs the notions of fact and fiction and runs the risk to construct reality rather than merely show it. This dissertation paper is a Reflective Essay supporting the documentary film 'Cape of German Hopes' and aims, with special references from the director's and editor's perspective, to back up the documentary by explaining more in depth about the motivation, goals and achievements of the film. The documentary is a journey that explores life experiences of German families and people of German heritage who settled in Cape Town. It uncovers how they seek to find a balance between their cultural heritage and the culture they are living in.
- ItemOpen AccessCast-off: Original script for a feature film(2011) Paitaki, Gregory
- ItemOpen AccessDocumenting gay identity through the cinematic lens an investigation of representations of South African gay identities through film(2012) Tohlang, Saint-Francis; Botha, MartinThis paper looks to delve into a rounded exploration of a queer cinematic culture in the post-apartheid era. Through an appreciation of South African cinematic history, the socio-political seems intertwined in the very fibre of this cinematic history; with factors such as race, class, wealth distribution, policy, legislation and conditions of production etc. playing an active role in shaping this history. Sexuality is another facet, in very subtle terms, which has contributed, influenced and scripted the historical make up and character of South African Cinema. I undertake to focus on the interplay between sexuality, cinema and history in an attempt to contextualise (for the purposes of this investigation) how strategies of representation are appropriated in a post-apartheid queer cinema.
- ItemOpen AccessAn empirical investigation into the 'piracy' of television series in South Africa(2010) McQueen, Kate; Glenn, IanThe end-user 'piracy' of television series, particularly of those produced by USA television networks such as HBO, NBC, ABC and FOX, is a growing trend in South Africa. This paper aims to identify why South Africans want to view television series this way and contribute to the research recognising it as a significant trend in media consumption. The key questions that are examined in this paper include: Who are these individuals, what is their viewing behaviour and why? This paper thus examines the literature available surrounding the profile, the motivations, and the viewing patterns of these revolutionary series viewers.
- ItemOpen AccessFrom Namibia with Love - the dissertation paper a reflective essay supporting the documentary film 'From Namibia with Love'. With special references from the director's and editor's perspective on making a politically sensitive documentary film(2012) Merilainen, LauraThis dissertation paper is a reflective essay supporting the documentary film From Namibia with Love (FNWL). The aim of this essay is to examine and analyse the production challenges, ethical considerations and the reconstruction of reality in the making of the film FNWL. The essay explores these issues from the director's and editor's point of view with special references to academics literature and different documentary films.
- ItemOpen AccessGamers in Ganglands : the ecology of gaming and participation amongst a select group of children in Ocean View, Cape Town(2012) Venter, Marija Anja; Walton, MarionThis dissertation explores the contextual meanings of digital gaming for a group of children from the resource-constrained township of Ocean View, situated 45km outside of Cape Town. I document the domestication (Silverstone & Haddon, 1996) of mobile phones and PlayStations as technologies for gaming in this context, showing how the children appropriated the games technologies much as other household media are domesticated, in a process of double articulation.
- ItemOpen AccessHerald(2016) Macleod, Caitlin; Smit, AlexiaThe original idea behind Herald was to create a South African Downton Abbey (ITV and PBS, 2010 -2015). Historical television is currently popular and Downton is appealing because it communicates interesting history, finds comedy in the manners and behaviours of the day and indulges in the visual pleasures of opulent aristocratic society. A historical setting is as foreign and exciting as a fantasy realm but it can still provide a platform to explore themes that are relevant and familiar to a contemporary viewer. Members of local government, military officers and other nobles and wealthy Britons at the Cape lived aristocratic lives not unlike the fictional inhabitants of Downton and yet a wholesale pastiche of the structure of Downton or the conventions of the period drama genre is inappropriate. The racial tensions that have defined the colonial and postcolonial periods of South African history and the Eurocentric, androcentric approach to that history necessitate a new approach. It is with this in mind that I have attempted to create a television miniseries inspired by the traditional period drama and by Downton Abbey specifically, but remoulded by the contexts of past and present day South Africa. I had several main goals in mind for this miniseries: to provide South Africans with entertaining television that tells local stories and, in so doing, encourage South Africans to engage with their own history; to grapple with contentious issues of the present such as race, gender and land, by exploring the past; to place strong black, Malay and female characters at the center of history and give them the agency to effect history; to provide a critique of the British and their actions at the Cape.
- ItemOpen AccessInsuring the African future(2013) Barry, Hanna; Glenn, IanThe African growth story has investors from around the world eyeing opportunities offered up by the continent in the form of new markets, enhanced growth potential and impressive returns. Despite the overwhelmingly positive thrust of this message, it finds itself situated against a backdrop of serious challenges, not only in Africa, but also globally, in the face of increasing financial, political and natural-catastrophe risk. In this world of tremendous risk and tremendous opportunity, the insurance industry can provide post-disaster financing, financial security, institutional investment and innovative risk management strategies to reduce levels of risk on the ground. Launched earlier this year, the Principles for Sustainable Insurance are a framework for embedding environmental, social and governance factors into insurance business and so promoting sustainable development. This creative research project argues that a robust insurance industry promotes economic growth and that the parallel developments, in the story of African growth and the risk management practices of the insurance industry, present a compelling framework for nurtured and sustainable development in Africa.
- ItemOpen AccessLiquid cinema and the re-creation of thought: towards a philosophy of filmind(2014) Wheeler, Christopher J; Botha, MartinThis research is towards the advancement of filmosophy as a progressive new approach to how we think about, and through, film. This explorative research aims to introduce, contextualise, and expand upon the thoughts and writings of Daniel Frampton, as found in his 2006 manifesto: Filmosophy. In order to provide a suitable platform from which to introduce Frampton’s contemporary concepts (i.e. ‘filmind’ and ‘fluid film-thinking’), this paper first outlines and discusses the various ways in which philosophy and film are said to overlap, culminating in a critical discussion of ‘film-as-philosophy’ in terms of the implications it posits for providing innovative philosophical contributions through uniquely cinematic means (the ‘problem of paraphrase’). This literature review concludes by presenting and discussing filmosophy and its major tenets as both an appropriate extension of the current canon, and as a potentially productive new paradigm through which both film and philosophy can be critically considered and advanced.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Mercedes-adoring gun-toting litter-throwing Bush-praising Greek-hating tourist-loving ex-dictatorship of Albania : the friendliest nation on earth(2008) Morley, LaurenI headed to Europe's least visited country for two weeks, to bolster their tourism count and find out if Albanians really were the depraved criminals that the rest of the continent took them to be. And was pleasantly surprised by what I found.
- ItemOpen AccessOdd number : a reflective essay, on the filmmaker, Marius van Straaten's practice in Odd Number a documentary about Rashaad Adendorf, with a focus on representation(2013) Van Straaten, Marius; Glenn, Ian; Botha, MartinThis paper is a reflective essay supporting the documentary film Odd Number and aims to clarify and create more depth for the reader around the film's successes and failures in representing Rashaad Adendorf. Rashaad was formerly an assassin for a feared gang but is now a redeemed family man. His life is explored through interviews with him, his victims, his family and his enemies. Re-enactments of his most significant life changing events are used to inform the audience. A film representing Rashaad's life inevitably raises questions around representation and the filmmaker's relationship with Rashaad. The essay concludes that a weakness of Odd Number is its lack of self-reflexivity and lack of showing the filmmaker's process and bias. The paper identifies that the key strength of the film is the relationship and friendship between Rashaad and the filmmaker and how that influences the process of making the film. The paper concludes that through Odd Number, Rashaad has claimed agency, not only to rebuild or redeem his own life, but to work to improve the lot of the community. The paper argues that this is the best possible legacy Odd Number could leave. The film and reflective essay demonstrate that the relationship with the subject is of primary importance and that focussing on the process rather than the outcome can result in a more honest, albeit subjective portrayal of a subject from a different race, class and background to the filmmaker. Ideally the paper should be read after having watched, the documentary Odd Number. It is important to note that the author of this paper is also the director of Odd Number. This paper is therefore not an analysis of somebody else's work, but a set of reflections by the director on his own work. The paper therefore communicates in the first person, aswell as the third person from time to time.
- ItemOpen AccessOnline and digital media usage on cell phones among low-income urban youth in Cape Town(2009) Kreutzer, Tino; Walton, MarionCell phones introduce a range of new possibilities for the use and production of media, for social networking and communication, political activism, and social development. For this study, 441 grade 11 students at nine schools in low-income areas in Cape Town, South Africa were surveyed about their use of cell phones. These young South Africans have adopted a number of ways to use the Web and mobile Instant Messaging. They also commonly access, produce, and share digital media via their phones and the Internet. Internet access has, until recently, only been accessible to the wealthiest fraction of South African society (about 10% of the population) and so this is a highly significant development. Until now, little quantitative data has been available to describe exactly to what extent and how this cohort is beginning to access and use the Internet and digital media on cell phones. The students reported intensive use of cell phones to access mobile Internet applications, at a far greater level than they report using desktop computers to access the Web. Mobile Internet is considerably more accessible to these students than computer-based Internet access and they are choosing to use the Internet primarily for mobile instant messaging and other characteristic forms of mobile media use. This suggests that these students encounter a distinct, mobile version of the Internet. Their experience of Internet access and digital media may consequently be quite different to that of their computer-using peers. An exploratory media and technology usage approach was chosen to determine first, the availability of cell phones and specific features to the students, and, second, the extent to which online and digital media are being accessed, produced, or shared. A detailed questionnaire was distributed to all students from thirteen grade 11 classes at nine schools (n=441). The schools were chosen as random cluster samples from all public secondary schools located in the city's 50% most deprived areas in order to provide a detailed assessment of cell phone usage in an environment similar to that which prevails in many urban South African schools. Activity-based questions indicate that a majority of respondents (68%) have used a cell phone on the previous day to access the Internet, while half of all respondents (49%) used the mobile Internet to access the Web on the previous day. Interpersonal communication was still the most common use of phones, with 87% of respondents making calls or sending SMS messages on a typical day. A significant minority (23%) of students did not own their own personal handset, despite the near universal use of cell phones among all respondents (96% use one on a typical day). While phone ownership correlated strongly with a sense of economic deprivation as well as lower academic performance, there was no significant difference between both groups in terms of their mobile Internet usage. Thus the fact that some students do not own a phone does not seem to create a 'mobile divide' or automatically lead to exclusion from the possibilities of mobile Internet access. Online media were found to be less frequently used than broadcast and print sources. Nonetheless, the fact that 28% of low-income urban youth access online news about once every day, or more often, may have significant implications for South Africa's news media, particularly in the future. Despite the geographical limitations of this study, the results provide an illuminating snapshot of mobile media use by low-income school-going youth in urban Cape Town.
- ItemOpen AccessOut of the box, into the bottle: an example of documentary film as a new research tool in the South African wine industry(2013) Duff, Kristen LesleyDue to recent developments in digital video technology, the documentary film format is increasingly being used and adapted in unconventional ways, including in the illustration of research in academia and as an educational tool in corporate contexts. Generation Wine is a feature-length research documentary created by Gosia Podgorska and myself between 2012 and 2013 and submitted as a Master's in Media Creative Production at the University of Cape Town. The aim in creating the film was to use the documentary format as a research tool to investigate key contemporary marketing and media-related issues in the South African and French wine industries, and to ultimately communicate these research findings to academics, industry professionals and other interested parties in a highly engaging manner, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the documentary format in research contexts. This paper serves as an explication to accompany the Generation Wine video, which uses the documentary as a departure point for discussing theoretical issues regarding the use of documentary film as a research tool, as well as the production process and wine industry-related content explored in the documentary.
- ItemOpen AccessThe personal is political: articulating women's citizenship through three African feminist blogs(2017) Carelse, Aimee; Evans, MarthaMediated public spaces both on and offline privilege the educated male elite, and thus cannot address the specific needs of women (Huyer and Sikoska, 2003:2), or their points of view. This study aimed to explore the extent to which three African feminist blogs realise the democratising potential of the blogosphere as well as the ways in which they articulate the concerns and perspectives of women whose vantage points are often silenced by mainstream discourses of citizenship. As a specifically gendered platform within a feminist public sphere, these blogs offer insight into the fluidity of the private/public dichotomy in online media spaces, and how this determines particular discourses of citizenship both on and offline. Using a qualitative-quantitative content analysis of 45 blog posts across three African feminist blogs (Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, Her Zimbabwe, and MsAfropolitan) during July and August 2016, this study investigated how women's engagement with feminist issues is enabled by alternative online media spaces, and in what ways blogs offer African women a relatively democratic space for sharing and discussion. Through an analysis of blog content, the study revealed that contributors deploy particular communicative strategies such as first-person narration, reflection of personal experience in relation to broader social, economic and political issues, and a confessional intimacy that altogether prioritise women's voices and personal lived realities. The topics discussed in the content of blogs cut across public and private life, testifying to a need to move away from ideological conceptualisations of public engagement that delegitimise women's participation in the public sphere. It also makes a case for the reconsideration of the terms "public" and "politics" and what counts as both in a technologically dynamic society in which marginalised groups are continuing to explore alternative avenues for communication and self-expression.
- ItemOpen AccessPublic crime, private justice : the tale of how one of South Africa’s top private investigators gets impressive results and what lessons the men and women of the public police force and the SAPS as an institution might learn from this(2015) Sudheim, Alexander; Evans, MarthaThe role of the police is a fundamental one in any society and in South Africa this role is beset with a unique set of challenges which are organisational, institutional, operational, individual and political in nature. It is these I address by means of examining the South African Police Service from the perspective of the praxis, process, means and methods of a working private investigator in contemporary South Africa. My method in this undertaking is a journalistic one in which I use the narrative techniques of dialogue, description, pacing and reflection to bring to life the stories and characters of police officers; ex-police officers; private investigators; victims of crime and perpetrators of crime in order to bring to light some of the more pressing issues with regard to crime and its prevention in contemporary South African society. This lends drama and suspense to a non-fiction narrative and also involves the reader in such a way that they respond to and engage with the subject matter on a personal level, thereby evoking their own thoughts and feelings on the spectre of crime in South Africa and what the SAPS variously is, isn’t or could be doing about it.
- ItemOpen AccessRain falls on water : a journey into Haiti(2006) Hartley, Aimee-Noel