Communication Science
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Browsing Communication Science by Author "De Wet, J. C."
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Item Open Access A leadership communication value chain model(University of the Free State, 2017-12) De Lange, Lucrezea; Mulder, D.; De Wet, J. C.Abstract not availableItem Open Access Narratiewe kommunikasie as retoriese strategie in die prediking van die Bloemfonteinse Apostoliese Geloofsending(University of the Free State, 2011-05) Lotter, Marésa; Marais, W.; De Wet, J. C.English: Human beings are susceptible to the rhetorical power of narrative communication. Narrative communication is an organisational element that helps people to make sense of the world they live in. Rhetoric is the application of reason to imagination to bring the human will into movement. In the world of religious communication, especially communication within the Christian philosophy, narrative communication is used as a rhetorical strategy regularly. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) is the oldest and biggest Pentecostal church in South Africa. The primary aim of the study was to analyse the use of narrative communication as rhetorical strategy within the preaching of the traditional Afrikaans-speaking Apostolic Faith Mission congregations in Bloemfontein. The research question is how narrative communication manifests as a rhetorical strategy in the preaching of the traditional Afrikaans-speaking Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) congregations in Bloemfontein. Secondary aims of the study were to measure the frequency of narrative communication as rhetorical strategy in the preaching of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Bloemfontein; to determine which narrative story elements and style elements are used; and to determine whether there is a difference in the application of narrative communication during the morning services and the evening services. Twelve sermons, three morning sermons and three evening sermons of two pastors of different congregations, were analysed by overt observation and content analysis. Video recordings were made of all the sermons in order for the researcher to go through all of the sermons again to verify the results. Content analysis was the primary research strategy during this study. During the church services, the researcher fulfilled the observer-as-participant role. There are different elements to qualify and identify a text as “narrative”. These elements are called “story elements”, seeing that they usually form part of a story. Storyline, narrative location and experience narrative are examples of story elements. If the communicator wants to capture the imagination of the audience and if he wants to get them emotionally involved in the message, he must pay attention to the style of the communication action. The communication action can be seen as narrative if these style elements are applied, even if there is not a complete story present. These narrative style elements include certain language elements and non-verbal elements. The unit of analysis for this study was the narrative story elements and style elements that were found in die twelve sermons. These elements were identified in the literature study. The categories of analysis were the story elements and the style elements. For the sake of this study, it was said that narrative communication was applied as a rhetorical strategy in a sermon when 50% of the identified narrative story elements or 50% of the identified narrative style elements were found within that sermon. This sub-minimum was met in every analysed sermon and thus it can be said that narrative communication was applied as rhetorical strategy during every sermon. Introduction, causal relations, protagonist and narrative location are the narrative story elements that were used most frequently. The use of humour, the use of metaphors and the self revelation of the storyteller are the style elements that were used most frequently. Narrative style elements were used more frequently than narrative story elements. The only difference between the use of narrative communication in the morning services and in the evening services was that narrative style elements were used more frequently during the morning services than during the evening services. The pastors‟ knowledge about the use of narrative communication during preaching was limited. However, the literature study showed that narrative communication can be applied as a rhetorical strategy during preaching with great success. Thus, the construction of a narrative model for preaching in the AFM, and in other denominations, could be useful.Item Open Access Nat Nakasa as existential journalist(University of the Free State, 2016-02) Marais, Willemien; De Wet, J. C.English: South African journalist Nat Nakasa’s short career in journalism started at Drum magazine in Johannesburg in 1958 and ended in New York City when he died of suicide in 1965. Arguably, Nakasa was not the most prolific or well-known journalist of South Africa’s Drum generation of journalists, which also include, amongst others, Lewis Nkosi, Es’kia Mphahlele and Richard Rive. Nakasa’s body of work consists of about 100 pieces, mostly journalism, and one short story. In terms of professional milestones he was an assistant editor at Drum, the first black columnist for Rand Daily Mail, the founder and editor of The Classic, a literary magazine, and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. However, Patel (2005: vii) writes that Nakasa’s “reportage of events and personality profile of a time gone by opens a window for us to look into the past and thereby enrich our understanding of intensely human episodes he witnessed”. Nadine Gordimer (in Roberts 2005) describes Nakasa as a “racial visionary”, while referring to his work as “journalism, yes, but journalism of a highly personal kind” (in Patel 2005). Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu (in Mahala 2014) describes Nakasa as “a rainbow man when the rainbow was not allowed”. Nakasa’s approach to journalism places him in the realm of Merrill’s existential journalism (1977). It also relates directly to what Muhlmann (2008; 2010) describes as decentring journalism, where the journalist takes on the role of the outsider in an effort to disrupt the status quo, or “decentre” it. These orientations to journalism form part of what can be described as unconventional forms of journalism, characterised, amongst others, by the constructivist idea that there is no absolute truth and that journalists inescapably create their own realities (Hanitzsch 2007) that they then share with their audiences. The practice of unconventional forms of journalism represents an ontic act of existentialism, which ascribes to an individualistic, interpretive world-view. From the Western existential perspective, life can only be experienced, described and made sense of from an individual perspective; it is inherently subjective and there is no universal truth “out there”. This study set out to consider how Nakasa’s writing, irrespective of his intention in this regard, serves as an example of applied existentialism, i.e. explaining Western existentialist thought, themes and structure through descriptions of real-life situations (ontic acts) as it manifests in his journalism. The study revolves around the axis of existentialism as conceptual framework, an interpretive research paradigm and a qualitative research methodology. An adapted deductive/inductive hybrid theme analysis was employed as method in order to analyse Nakasa’s writing. The results of the analysis were used to construct an existential storyline based on a combination of general existential themes as well as themes unique to Nakasa’s writing. From the combined results of the deductive and inductive analyses, seven main themes were constructed, based on Sartre’s “restless existence” cycle of facticity, nihilation, projects and transcendence. The themes identified include “mental corrosion”, “living outside of the normal human experience”, “the fringe”, “social experiment”, “tiny subversive acts”, “towards a common experience” and “the duty of the writer”. All seven themes are supported by relevant existential themes and concepts and thus provided the evidence to support this study’s claim that Nat Nakasa can be read as an existential journalist. In terms of contemporary relevance, Nakasa’s approach to journalism suggests how existentialism could provide the journalist with a practical approach to writing, especially for journalists working in developing societies. The relevance of this approach lies in the fact that there will always be an interregnum (Gordimer 1982), or circumstances of being “between two identities, one known and discarded, the other unknown and undetermined”, which might require the journalist to operate outside the boundaries of conventional journalism – thus an existential journalist practicing decentring journalism.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.