COM 2014 Volume 19

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2526

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Open Access
Communicating masculinity: attitudes of adolescent males in rural South Africa to rape and gender relations
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Nedombeloni, Hulisani; Oyedemi, Toks
Rape is a national crisis in South Africa. The high prevalence of rape is evidenced by reports that a woman is raped every four minutes. Various studies have explored attitudes of adolescents to rape; however, they tend to focus on urban, township and college youth with the attitudes of rural boys almost neglected. Drawing on the socialisation theory, it is assumed that the way a boy is socialised through communicative practices at home, school, among the peer group, and in society at large impacts on his attitudes to gender and rape. Through focus group interviews with adolescent boys in Duthuni village in the Limpopo province of South Africa, this study confirms that cultural communicative practices about gender, such as interpersonal communication in family, shape the socialisation of these boys, which influence the acceptance of gender roles displayed in the social construction of masculinity and femininity. This consequently influences their perceptions of rape, and the social efforts to combat rape.
Open Access
Fanon's perspective on intercultural communication in postcolonial South Africa
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Sonderling, Stefan
This article develops a Fanonian perspective to understand intercultural communication in postcolonial South Africa. Apartheid’s demise is communicated as a moral victory over evil and South African whites are persuaded to confess their past immorality. This article argues that moral interpretation is inappropriate and the demise of apartheid must be evaluated as a political power game. Furthermore, it explicates Fanon’s rejection of moral evaluations and his conception of the violent dialectic of colonisation and decolonisation and applies this framework to analyse intercultural communication in the postcolony. Fanon’s Hegelian violent dialectic of master and slave constructs human identities and provides the prototype for intercultural communication. Fanon’s political realism also explains the mass African migration from the postcolonial necropolis to the promised good life in the land of their former European masters. African leaders promote the migration as a rightful revenge for colonisation and the migrants are represented as warriors on a crusade to conquer the lands of former colonisers inspired by communication of memories of their glorious past colonial wars: from Hannibal’s invasion of Rome to the Muslim’s conquest of Spain.
Open Access
Fantasy themes and frames in The Star on Oscar Pistorius in the aftermath of the 2013 shooting
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Marais, Willemien; Grobler, André; Terblanche, Lydie; Litabe, Boitumelo
This article reports on research conducted as part of two studies focusing on media reportage in the immediate aftermath and bail application of athlete Oscar Pistorius after fatally shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on 14 February 2013. The first study examined how print media portrayed Pistorius after he shot Steenkamp, but before his bail application. It was informed by Bormann’s fantasy theme analysis (1972), based on his symbolic convergence theory, to identify fantasy themes. The second study was a deductive frame analysis of the primary news frames in articles published in print media during Pistorius’ bail application. The news frames identified were a combination of the common frames identified by Neuman et al. (1992: 74) and Semetko and Valkenburg (in De Vreese 2005: 56) and include conflict, human impact, human interest, attribution of responsibility and violence. Both studies focused on a number of South African newspapers, but this article reports specifically on the results as they pertain to The Star, a leading South African newspaper. The period under investigation is 15-23 February 2013. The fantasy themes identified have indicated that, in Pistorius’ case, he was mostly depicted in a negative light, while there were very few instances where he was portrayed positively. Conflict was the most common primary news frame found in the frame analysis.
Open Access
Managing online user generated brand risk: an exploratory case study of selected South African cellular service provider brands
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Verwey, Sonja; Muir, Clarissa
The development of web-based technology has resulted in changing communication models which allows for a shift in the power of voice away from the brand to that of its stakeholders. Consumers have increasingly become creators and disseminators of branded content. This is known as user-generated content (UGC). While collaborative networking can assist in building a brand’s reputation, expressive networking can destroy it just as easily. Thus, brand managers are faced with numerous challenges since they no longer retain control over the brand and the conversations affecting it. However, brand managers are ill-prepared for this because it is not clear what brand management looks like when goals of share growth and dominance are replaced by concerns for brand protection, and brand strategies are aimed at brand defence instead of promotion. This exploratory qualitative study utilised a grounded theory approach to determine how brand managers of selected South African cellular service provider brands respond to the online brand reputation risks posed by UGC. Preliminary findings indicate that brand managers need to ensure that online reputation management of UGC forms part of the integrated digital communication strategy of the brand. In addition, UGC should be managed pro-actively as a strategic business tool with the emphasis on generating income and building the brand, and not only as an operational communication tool. A number of management recommendations are made, and possibilities for further research identified.
Open Access
Orbituary: Prof F. H. Terry Terblanche (17 June 1939 -30 April 2014)
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) De Wet, Johann C.
Abstract not available
Open Access
Out-of-home advertising media: theoretical and industry perspectives
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Van der Waldt, D. L. R.; Roux, A. T.
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising media traditionally have not accounted for a large share of advertising budgets, but overall expenditure has grown considerably in recent years. Due to the transformation of the OOH advertising media landscape, and the diversity and ubiquitous nature of these media, there seem to be a discrepancy between the views of academic and industry experts on exactly what constitutes contemporary OOH advertising media. This article addresses the identified academic-practitioner divide by presenting both sides of the coin. An integrative review of OOH advertising media taxonomies in prominent academic sources, as well as specialists’ industry publications from Canada, South Africa, America, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom, was conducted. This resulted in a new conceptualisation of four key platforms for a contemporary OOH advertising media classification framework: outdoor advertising, transit media advertising, street-and-retail-furniture advertising, and digital and ambient OOH media. Clear direction for future research was given, specifically testing the proposed conceptualisation, the impact of OOH audience environments and mood on message delivery, and digital OOH advertising as one of the fastest growing media types.
Open Access
Perceived benefits of Freirean and grassroots comics workshops within three Bushmen communities
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Grant, Julie; Dicks, Andrew
Participatory research and development methods are purported to improve communication between participants and researchers/extension agencies to allow more appropriate development strategies and empower local communities. Given the impoverished conditions and disempowerment of South Africa’s Bushmen communities the application of such methods by researchers and development agencies would seem appropriate. Nevertheless, few research initiatives within these communities have utilised participatory methods and it is difficult to determine the extent to which development agencies make use of these methods as typically these agencies do not critically report on such processes. The study uses participant observation and questionnaires to analyse whether participants perceive participatory workshops, namely Freirean and grassroots comics workshops, as useful, enjoyable, replicable and sustainable.
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.
Open Access
Tattooing amongst youth in Bloemfontein: skin deep communicative signs of a minority group?
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Lombard, Elbie; Bergh, Luna
This article reports on a research project that was undertaken to determine both the scope and communicative value of tattoos mainly among students of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The owner of the tattoo shop on the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS was interviewed, while clients of the tattoo shop as well as undergraduate Communication Science students, a larger random group of students and young working adults of the same age completed a questionnaire anonymously. The expectations were that tattoos among the four groups mentioned (i) would not be predominantly culturally determined, nor (ii) visible all the time; nor (iii) chosen specifically to communicate a rebellious message. In a follow-up study on the same campus, Communication Science students requested fellow students to complete a slightly adapted questionnaire as part of a class assignment. The findings of the analysis are evaluated in terms of both incremental and entity theories, against the background of a brief history of tattoos as a means of expressing identity. This study contributes to the understanding of the role tattoos play in expressing the identities of communities. The findings indicate that the participants choose tattoos for different reasons than a few decades ago in other parts of the world. It can also be concluded that tattoos are by no means skin-deep communicative signs. Given that the majority of respondents have tattoos, the tattoos cannot be considered the signs of a minority group.
Open Access
Time and communication
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Strauss, D. F. M
This article commences by paying attention to the dual role of signs, as physical subjects and communicative objects – both being correlated with physical law and communicative principles. In order to show that time cannot be reduced to physical time, we shall argue that there are indeed different modes of time differing from the physical and kinematic modes of time. Once the ontic reality of four modal or functional aspects has been established, it will be shown that succession (number), simultaneity (space), uniform flow/persistence/constancy (the kinematic) and (irreversible) change (the physical) are each a mode of time in its own right. Moreover, also within the other aspects of reality ontic time manifests itself, such as evidenced in (heterogeneous) biotic time-order of birth, growth, maturation, ageing and dying. A distinction between time-order and time duration is needed in order to question the widespread view that time is the dimension of change. Change represents only one among multiple modes of time. Against this background, attention is given to communication and the conditioning role of the first four ontic time-orders (with a remark on identity and communication), followed by an account of communication and the other modes of time. The intimate connection between time and communication is explained by highlighting the multiple interconnections between communicative actions and the various modes of time, with a view on the norming role of the latter.
Open Access
Transmission and dialogue in the problematic of communication
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Caldwell, Marc
The term dialogue is a tantalising synonym for “communication”, and is often considered more “communicative” than transmission. In fact, we have come to refer to transmission and dialogue paradigms at a time when the current popularity of the latter lies partly in its ability to represent all human contact. The theory of dialogue draws extensively on Buber and Bakhtin, from which it is identified with positive terms such as engagement and interaction. Transmission is not only positioned in opposition to dialogue, but in being imagined as “vertical” it is made to represent power, domination and monologue. Hence it is generally treated negatively in communication scholarship. This article reconsiders dialogue and transmission in terms of communication problematics, arguing that each term draws its sense less from essentialist meanings than from the two epistemological fields – rationalism and expressivism – that constitute modernity, and which periodically hold influence over the kinds of questions that may be asked in the discipline. The formation of cultural studies serves to illustrate how communication can be historicised in a manner that rehabilitates transmission by drawing attention to the term as partly constitutive of the field.
Open Access
The use of Twitter in branding: the case of the University of the Free State
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2014) Snyman, Annette; Mulder, Dalmé
Twitter is shaping brand communication globally at a mere 140 characters a time. Although Twitter is seen as a social media platform with little impact, the number of followers that can be attained “tweet” another story. This article focuses on the way in which marketers can utilise this social media platform to promote their brand image by improving their brand’s online presence. By investigating the branding strategies and characteristics of an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategy, and more specifically the 5R model proposed by Schultz (2000), a framework was created to analyse social media messages. This framework was employed within a qualitative research approach to analyse all the Twitter posts of the University of the Free State (UFS) between 1 January 2013 and 31 July 2013. This was done to determine how the UFS made use of its Twitter profile to enhance the perceptions about its brand. The results underlined the importance of IMC characteristics in social media messages for the messages to contribute to the overall brand image of the institution. Furthermore, the results indicated that in order for a brand to have a successful online presence, the marketers should embrace technology and align all messages with specific objectives. When each online brand message contains an IMC characteristic, a core value of the institution and a motivational objective, there are no boundaries for how far the “little blue bird” can take the brand.

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