Research Articles (Communication Science)
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Browsing Research Articles (Communication Science) by Author "De Wet, Johann C."
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Item Open Access Aspekte van narratiewe kommunikasie as retoriese strategie binne prediking(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2013) Van der Walt, Marésa; Marais, Willemien; De Wet, Johann C.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 communication within the Christian philosophy, narrative communication can be used as a rhetorical strategy. This article discusses the different aspects of the use of narrative communication as rhetorical strategy within preaching. Both narrative techniques and narrative style elements can be used to contribute to the rhetorical effectiveness of a sermon. The use of “story elements” and “style elements” qualify a text (sermon) as “narrative”. The rhetorical success of narrative communication when used in sermons was tested in traditional Afrikaans-speaking Apostolic Faith Mission congregations in Bloemfontein. Churchgoers completed questionnaires to convey their experience and opinion of the use of narrative communication in preaching during 12 sermons. The results were overwhelmingly positive.Item Open Access An evaluation of COPE's communication strategy for 2011 municipal elections campaign in the Northern Cape(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2012) Turkington, Jamie-Ryan; De Wet, Johann C.The article is guided by the following research question: What factors found expression, and influenced the extent to which COPE’s 2011 municipal elections campaign in the Northern Cape met the objectives set in the developed communication strategy? Following the framework of systems theory, the developed communication strategy included an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing COPE prior to the election, as well as recommendations for the messages the campaign would use to persuade voters; the techniques it would use to reach them; and a targeting strategy that aimed to identify the priority localities where campaign resources should be focused in order to reach the required number of votes to achieve the campaign’s objectives and goals. The success of the communication strategy was then evaluated post-election by explaining to what extent the campaign was able to meet the objectives and goals set for it. The main factors influencing COPE’s election outcome were found to be non-adherence to targeting strategy; lack of national media coverage; poor distribution of campaign resources; state resources and patronage; insufficient visibility in targeted areas; COPE’s poor campaign organisation; the Mompati defection; and insufficient training.Item Open Access The rhetorical imprint from a constructivist perspective(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Cawood, Stephanie; De Wet, Johann C.The rhetorical imprint, ideal for probing the rhetoric of a single rhetor, is defined as a unified set of characteristics that function at the manifest and latent levels of rhetoric. From a constructivist viewpoint, this concept is indicative of individual conceptual processes and structures. The constructivist lens is derived from George Kelly’s construct theory and his conception of a personal construal system governing human cognition and communication. Constructs develop from primitive constructs derived from human biology, while construct development is bound to embodied experience where the body mediates individual experience and provides content to the primitive constructs. The personal construal system resides in the cognitive unconscious and has a deep-seated and complex metaphorical structure, which is reproduced in the rhetorical imprint. A rhetorical imprint is dynamic and will evolve in concert with the personal construal system to make sense of the world, while remaining internally coherent. In a constructivist understanding of communication, sophisticated personal construal systems produce sophisticated communication, a crucial element of the rhetorical imprint. The rhetorical imprint corresponds to the classical canon of inventio where habitual topoi, metaphorical mental common-places from where available means of persuasion are sought, leave an indelible impression of a rhetor’s individuality in rhetoric.