Communication Science
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Browsing Communication Science by Author "Breytenbach, H. J."
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Item Open Access Perceptiveness of U.F.S. students towards racial messages in newspapars(University of the Free State, 2002-03) Snyman, Carina Francis; Pepler, E.; Breytenbach, H. J.In 1998, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) received a request from two professional bodies, The Black Lawyers Association (BLA) and the Association of Black Accountants of South Africa (ABASA), to investigate two newspapers. The BLA and ABABSA claimed that The Star and The Mail & Guardian were allegedly guilty of racism. The HRC consequently appointed two research authorities, Claudia Braude (qualitative content analysis) and The Media Monitoring Project (quantitative content analysis), to investigate these allegations. Several newspaper editors and journalism institutes questioned these findings. According to them, the research was "considerably weakened by the absence of research into media consumers" (HRC report, 1999). They based their arguments on the premises that the research focused primarily on the content of the respective newspapers, and not on the interpretation of the readers/audience of the papers. In the final section of the report, the HRC concluded that "the media can be characterised as racist institutions" (HRC report, 1999). By not considering the opinion of the media receivers, the HRC report failed to make a credible and valid impact. An investigation on the audience's interpretation of these racist messages was called for. The population sample of the study was drawn from students between the ages of 18 and 25; the future readers and interpreters of newspaper messages. The sample included a variety of nationalities in order to determine to what extent race plays a role in the interpretation of the mass media messages. The content of three newspapers (Mail & Guardian, The Citizen and The Star) was analyzed over a period of a nine weeks based on the same guidelines determined by the MMP report (i.e. quantitative content analysis categories). Newspaper items were analyzed by monitoring items in which race was explicitly stated and implicit to the content. Once the content analysis was completed, examples of specific newspaper articles, which have been selected on their racist content, were supplied to the respondents. After reading the items, the respondents were asked to complete a questionnaire based on the selected newspaper articles. An exploration of the media as an institution and the interpretation of the respondents on the other side of the spectrum provided a relative holistic encapsulation of racism in the media The data gathered from the survey indicated a statistical significant difference between the responses of the White and the Black respondents. Although all the items presented to the respondents contained implicit or explicit racist messages, the respondents did not perceive these newspaper items as racist.Item Open Access The rhetorical imprint of Nelson Mandela as reflected in public speeches 1950 - 2004(University of the Free State, 2011-05) Cawood, Stephanie; De Wet, J. C.; Breytenbach, H. J.The study set out to construct a rhetorical imprint of Nelson Mandela as reflected in a combination of all, as well as selected publicly available speeches from 1950 to 2004. The rhetorical imprint refers to constant, underlying patterns of distinctive, verbal characteristics that support the content of numerous speeches in different contexts (Burgchardt, 1985: 441). The rhetorical imprint is conceptualised in pragmatic constructivist terms to be the product of the conceptual categories of the mind, which are intrinsically metaphorically structured (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 7). Since conceptual categories cannot be directly observed, evidence of the particular conceptual categories which governed Nelson Mandela’s rhetorical imprint was sought in the rhetoric itself. The rhetorical imprint functions at both the manifest and latent levels of meaning. In this study, the researcher accessed the surface-level patterns through quantitative, computer-aided content analysis, while the very fact that the individual conceptual system was considered metaphorical suggested the use of metaphorical concepts as qualitative tool in order to access the deeply embedded content of the conceptual categories which were most influential on the rhetorical imprint. The rhetorical imprint was finally synthesised from the qualitative and quantitative data in terms of the general characteristics of the rhetoric, the cognitive complexity and the conceptual structure of the rhetorical imprint, which consists of transcending conceptual motifs and sub-ordinate themes. Mandela’s rhetoric was also contextualised against his biographical background and ethos, as well as against the overall rhetorical situation, which include the socio-political context as controlling need or exigency, a consideration of the rhetorical audiences and constraints on the rhetor. Mandela’s rhetoric was found to be complex, with sophisticated vocabulary use and conceptual structuring. The rhetorical complexity indicates a rhetor who is cognitively complex and able to adapt his rhetoric to the nuances of different audiences and contexts. Mandela’s rhetoric further indicates a definite evolution from sub-corpus to sub-corpus. It was found that the controlling concern of the struggle period revolved around aspects of struggle, while the liberation sub-corpus signified a focus on aspects of the political transition. The presidential period focused on reconciliation and reconstruction and the postpresidential sub-corpus indicates a preoccupation with the issue of HIV/AIDS. The most dominant conceptual motif at the core of Mandela’s rhetorical imprint was found to be his use of the archetypal JOURNEY source domain in metaphorical concepts to conceptualise the controlling concerns throughout the entire corpus. The JOURNEY motif is accompanied by a forward-looking orientation where future paths and destinations are optimistically envisioned. The source domains war and building/structure are also prominent, although subordinate to JOURNEY. The metaphorical concepts related to JOURNEY are based on the mega-metaphorical concept LIFE IS A JOURNEY, while war is derived from LIFE IS A STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL and building/structure is based on ABSTRACT COMPLEX SYSTEMS ARE BUILDINGS. These mega-metaphorical concepts interact and indicate that Mandela’s individual construal system and rhetoric are fundamentally structured by the notion of a PERILOUS SYMBOLIC JOURNEY, which is the rhetorical imprint, and that all metaphorical concepts discovered in his rhetoric are subsumed in this configuration.Item Open Access The uses and gratifications of music, by personality type, of a central South African radio station's audience(University of the Free State, 2012-11) Kotzee, Rozanne; Breytenbach, H. J.Various methods of communication exist and the understanding of the subtle differences in each form of communication may aid the compassing of this complex process. An example of one such method is music. At any given moment, worldwide, in restaurants, homes, offices, vehicles, night clubs, etc. people are listening to music. Music surrounds us, whether our listening to the radio, being put on-hold during a telephone call or going about day-to-day activities. Music has become a significant part of our lives – a ubiquitous social phenomenon and is the centre of various social activities, like concerts, where people gather to listen to and talk about music. Even in social gatherings where music is not the primary focus, for example weddings, it is an essential component – imagine a wedding without music (Rentfrow and Gosling 2003: 1236-1237). Radio stations may be regarded as some of the largest users of music as a method of communication. Wimmer and Dominick (2006:361) indicate that music is the main product of many radio stations and is of utmost importance for their economic sustainability. Furthermore, the audiences of radio stations – thus the receivers of the communication – also play an important role in the communication process employing music specifically as a method of communication. It may, therefore, be valuable to gain insight into the music preferences of a radio station’s audience. As music is mostly the main product of a radio station, it is of cardinal importance to be able to identify the music preferred by the audience of that particular radio station. The audience figures for commercial radio stations are directly related to the radio station’s advertising income (Wimmer and Dominick 2006:361). Despite the prevalence of music in our lives, the study into the personality psychology of music has remained mainly mute. Various questions remain regarding the individual differences and different uses of music, as well as individual differences and music preference choices. It is a given fact that people differ from one another. Precisely how and why they differ is less apparent and forms the focus of personality or individual differences research in the social science and, in particular, psychology (Rentfrow and Gosling 2003). It has been identified that there is currently a lack of knowledge and research specifically related to the relationship between personality traits, the uses and gratifications of music and the music preferences of radio audiences. The aim of this study will be to investigate the possible development of a predictive measurement tool in order to predict the music and genre preference for different psychographic groups of respondents who represent the audience of a central South African radio station, as well as their uses and gratifications of the music. Examining the patterns of music use and the relationship between music use and psychographic profiles, by employing the Ten- Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) and the Uses of Music Inventory (UMI), may contribute to the development of a more efficient model in the construction of a radio station’s music content and diversity. However, it should be noted that this will, by no means, be an exhaustive study into neither the exact influences on music preference nor the patterns of music use amongst the audience of this radio station.Item Open Access The uses and gratifications of music, by personality type, of a central South African radio station's audience(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2013) Kotzee, Rozanne; Breytenbach, H. J.While music is the main product of many radio stations, this study seeks to gain insight into the music preferences of a central South African radio station’s audience. The study into the personality psychology of music has remained mainly mute. Various questions remain regarding individual differences and different uses of music, as well as individual differences and music preference (Rentfrow & Gosling 2003). By examining the patterns of music use and the relationship between music use and audiences’ psychographic profiles, and by employing the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) and the Uses of Music Inventory (UMI), this study might contribute to the development of a more efficient model in the construction of a radio station’s music content and diversity.