Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse
| dc.contributor.advisor | Wasserman, Hermanus | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ndlovu, Khulekani | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-02-24T06:01:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-02-24T06:01:12Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2021-02-23T12:12:15Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | 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. | |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Ndlovu, K. (2020). <i>Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse</i>. (). ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32952 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Ndlovu, Khulekani. <i>"Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse."</i> ., ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32952 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Ndlovu, K. 2020. Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse. . ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32952 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Doctoral Thesis AU - Ndlovu, Khulekani AB - 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. DA - 2020_ DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Film and Media Studies LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2020 T1 - Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse TI - Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32952 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32952 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Ndlovu K. Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse. []. ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2020 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32952 | en_ZA |
| dc.language.rfc3066 | eng | |
| dc.publisher.department | Centre for Film and Media Studies | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | |
| dc.subject | Film and Media Studies | |
| dc.title | Mediated visibility, morality and children in tabloid discourse | |
| dc.type | Doctoral Thesis | |
| dc.type.qualificationlevel | Doctoral | |
| dc.type.qualificationlevel | PhD |