Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Communication, Media and Society)

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Indigenising psycho-social support: an examination of Oliver Mtukudzi’s music in the context of the Shona community’s indigenous health practices.
(2025) Nembaware, Shadreck.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.
The Korekore community in Fumhe village, a rural enclave tucked in Northern Zimbabwe’s district of Mbire, is a coterie of culturally rich members whose indigenous practices play out in ethnic music as a culturally-codified mode of performative production. As a native of this community, Oliver Mtukudzi composed and performed songs that denote the cosmology and cosmogony of a people whose lives tap into the resourcefulness of culture as a pervasive element in social, political and religious spheres of existence. Whilst previous studies have placed huge attention on the didactic and aesthetic functions of Mtukudzi’s music, this study sought to explore the artist’s music with particular focus on its merits as a reflector and enabler of the Shona community’s indigenous health practices in the domain of psycho-social support for the bereaved. The qualitative study conducted seven in-depth interviews with a view to understanding African indigenous approaches to psycho-social health in the context of death, bereavement, grief and loss. Also, through a lekgotla (African indigenous colloquium) and a woman-only focus group discussion (both conducted in Fumhe village in June 2023), the qualitative study enlisted the participation of community members as key stakeholders in the creation, deployment and optimisation of knowledge systems as they play out in the population under study. Riding on interpretive phenomenology, the study deployed analytical tenets from a framework of concepts that combined Postcolonial Indigenous theory, Culture-Centered Approach and African Cultural Studies to explore Shona healing practices. The framework facilitated an indigenous oriented entry into the African healing paradigm, debunking the narrow confines of Eurocentric certitudes that for years used ‘biomedicalisation’ to frame healthcare systems. Instead, decolonial studies champion the ‘sociology of health’ amongst communities of the African Global South whose scholarship locates health, wellness and healing within a cultural context. To understand the indigenous healing interventions of a community, one needs to phenomenologically appreciate the community’s conceptualisation of health within its cultural-situatedness. It is against this backdrop that this study appropriates the lenses of ethnography, folklore and cultural anthropology to explore indigenous knowledge systems as encapsulated in the corpus of African music and the discourses it generates. Among its key findings, this study found that for the Shona community, music is a part of everyday life that connects the dead with the living, hence it obtains within a cultural cosmology that ensures closure. Also, the concept of ‘community bereavement’ denotes the merits of social cohesion. Acknowledging the scope of music in psycho-social support, the study contributes to knowledge by establishing that in the Shona community, healing for the bereaved occurs at multiple levels, with self, others, and the environment being interconnected factors that cannot be disaggregated from the quadrant of a community galvanised by the relational ethos of holism. The study also unearths a ‘social equality group’ dimension to support in bereavement, foregrounding women’s critical role as carers, nurturers and restorers who champion the healing cause. Interestingly, ‘maternal valorisation’ ignites potent contestations for healing discourses in a community whose exclusionary patterns of relations denote patriarchy as a domineering socio-cultural operating system.
The role of Radio Rwanda as a facilitator of positive youth development: a case study of Kazi Ni Kazi radio programme.
(2025) Mwesigye, Edward Kabs.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.
The study connects to the role of media and communication and its role in democracy, development and social change broadly in Africa. Its focus is the role of radio in Rwanda as a facilitator of positive youth development and social change. Radio played a significant role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi by encouraging citizens, especially the youth, to participate in the genocide. Today, radio in Rwanda aims to facilitate socioeconomic development. There is limited scholarship that explores these efforts from a rich qualitative approach that includes the voices and insights from both radio personnel and youth audiences. This study thus contributes new knowledge in this area. The study falls within an interpretive paradigm that presents and analyses youths’ perceptions and reception of the Kazi ni Kazi radio programme messaging and its influence on their life experience. To ascertain the predominant messages, radio episodes were selected for analysis and interviews were conducted with one director of Radio Rwanda, one programme producer of Kazi ni Kazi, six contributors to the Kazi ni Kazi programme, two experts who have served on Radio Rwanda and ten directors of youth centres/leaders of Agakiriro market centres. Further, 69 youth participated in focus group discussions. The study was guided by three complementary bodies of knowledge in both its data collection and analysis: Positive Youth Development Theory (Lerner et al., 2005) which demonstrates that if youth can be engaged in development projects, they can become useful citizens; the Participatory Framework for Researching and Evaluating Communication for Development and Social Change (Lennie & Tacchi, 2013) that champions participation in emergent issues that should be examined holistically and critically; and lastly the Participation Paradigm in Audience Research (Livingstone, 2013), which brings to the study’s theoretical framework a guide on the study of audiences not as recipients of information, but as active meaning makers. The study applied the qualitative content analysis and reflexive thematic analysis as suitable methods of data analysis. The qualitative content analysis was applied to the Kazi ni Kazi recorded programmes, while the reflexive thematic analysis was applied to the interview and focus group transcripts. Each method resulted in generating themes that were then interpreted in relation to the theoretical framework The findings of the study reveal the changing role of radio and its impact on development and social change aspirations and issues affecting the Rwanda youths. The predominant Kazi ni Kazi messaging centres on encouraging youth to work for development, breaking what the radio personnel deem a culture of idleness. Finding from the field data analysis revealed that the Kazi ni Kazi radio programme promotes major tenets of development such as communication, competence, character, connection, and caring among the youth in its efforts around shifting mindsets, encouraging innovation and showcasing the potential in different economic sectors.
The role of mobile media in adolescent girls’ access to sexual reproductive health and rights information during covid-19 pandemic: a case study of 4 selected secondary schools in Lusaka, Zambia.
(2024) Mwelwa, Ringford Abel.; Gibson, Sarah Elizabeth.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused several challenges in the health sector, particularly in the area of adolescent sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services including physical access to information. However, the challenge of adolescent girls’ access to SRHR information in Zambia in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic is understudied (if at all). This study aimed at investigating the role of mobile media in adolescent girls’ access SRHR information in four selected secondary schools in Lusaka Zambia. The Covid-19 pandemic worsened the already existing vulnerabilities of adolescents’ access to SRHR information. This was caused by measures implemented to curb the spreading of Covid-19 such as lockdowns, restrictions on movements, prolonged closure of schools. Due to such measures, adolescents could no longer access SRHR information through face-to-face mobilizations such as workshops, drama, seminars, and classroom learning of comprehensive sexuality education. Additionally, the fear of contracting Covid-19 prevented women and young people from visiting health facilities for SRHR services. Community outreach services for SRHR also reduced during Covid-19. This thesis employed a qualitative approach that utilized FGDs for data collection. The study revealed that before Covid-19, adolescent girls had access to SRHR information through various sources, including Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) in schools, Peers, Youth-friendly corners at health facilities and clubs in schools and even their friends at home. However, Covid-19 affected access to SRHR information through school closures and lockdowns. The findings of this study indicate that adolescent girls in Zambia during Covid-19 were profoundly dependent on mobile media to access information SRHR given the restrictions on movements and prolonged school closures. The majority of participants reported using Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube to search for SRHR information, and of these, Google was the most popular mobile media source. Additionally, the findings indicate that while many participants relied on mobile media for SRHR information, they had concerns about issues such as: accuracy of information, privacy, reliability, exposure to pornographic content, and risk of online abuse. The study underscores the potential of integrating mobile media with traditional methods to address SRHR information gaps among adolescent girls, particularly during crises. In addition, the findings reveal that mobile media has the potential to empower adolescent girls with SRHR knowledge, but there are also challenges and limitations to be addressed to ensure the safety of the adolescent girls as well as the quality and accuracy of information accessed. Furthermore, the study findings demonstrate the need to design SRHR information access’ interventions that consider the digital divide and unequal access to technology. Additionally, there is need for infrastructure development to enhance internet speed, reduce internet costs, expand network provision to include all areas in Zambia, and to stabilise electricity services. By and large, the study places emphasis on the need for a comprehensive approach to information access on SRHR that integrates both online and offline platforms to address the SRHR information needs of adolescent girls in Zambia.
An analysis of coverage of the decriminalization of abortion for minors on non-state radio stations in Rwanda.
(2025) Mukamana, Jeanne d’Arc.; Gibson, Sarah Elizabeth.; Durden, Emma.
With its focus on radio stations’ coverage of the revised law expanding access to abortion for women and girls under certain circumstances in Rwanda, this thesis explores the role of the media in communicating about this seemingly controversial issue, in a context with a high rate of early unintended pregnancies. Early and unintended pregnancies are recognised as a concerning phenomenon, resulting in serious consequences for the health and wellbeing of girls and young women (Choonara et al., 2014). Further, unintended pregnancies are often linked to an increased risk of unsafe abortions (Mohamed et al., 2023). Adolescent pregnancy rates in the East and Southern Africa region are estimated at twice the global average, with 92 births per 1000 girls (UNFPA, 2021). It is in this context that Rwanda revised its penal code in 2018 to expand access to safe abortion services for girls under the age of 18, and women under certain circumstances. While the amended law may be driven from a concern about protecting children rather than advancing Sexual And Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), abortion is among the recognised SRHR services, and respecting women’s rights to safe abortion and their SRHR is linked to respecting women’s right to life (African Union, 2003; Durojaye, Mirugi-Mukundi, and Ngwena, 2021; Starrs et al., 2018; WHO, 2022). Research indicates that there are significant gaps in protecting and respecting SRHR in Africa, specifically in sub-Saharan countries (Durojaye et al., 2021; Poku, 2020; Starrs et al., 2018). This may be a result of restrictive laws and policies as well as prevailing religious, cultural beliefs and attitudes related to SRHR. The media has a key role to play in shaping public discourse and impacts attitudes toward SRHR and abortion access as a health service and a right (Fraile and Hernández, 2024). Recognising the role that radio plays in Rwanda as a trusted source of information (Nduhura and Prieler, 2017), in this study I analysed 36 broadcasts collected from eight non-state radio stations, which covered the legal reform of 2018 expanding access to abortion for minors in Rwanda. I also analysed eight in-depth interviews with key informants from these radio stations. Through Harbemas’ (1989) theory of the public sphere and Cohen’s (1972) moral panics theory, qualitative content analysis (QCA) (Schreier, 2014) showed that the selected radio stations served as an inclusive public sphere where citizens held honest and, in some instances, reasoned discussions about issues of concern such as the legal provision of abortion for minors in Rwanda. However, it also showed that some more powerful members of the society, predominantly religious leaders, men and parents, expressed themselves opposing the legal reform, where the radio coverage aligned with moral panics. The data also showed that the legal reform was challenged because of prevailing socio-cultural and religious beliefs that oppose abortion, with some citizens considering the law as encouraging immorality, particularly for girls. The analysis showed that gender inequality and discrimination against girls and women play a role in challenging the implementation of the law allowing abortion for minors and the realisation of SRHR. The analysis of the coverage of this issue shows the role of radio stations and the media in general in offering opportunities to citizens to realise their right to expression regarding issues of concern affecting society.
Communicating about pandemics: exploring Covid-19 communication responses in Kigali City.
(2025) Mpungirehe, Odette.; Govender, Eliza Melissa.
Globally, public health communication has taken an ongoing top-down approach. Community engagement is overlooked in emergencies, yet it is pivotal because it helps in recruiting new allies and resources, creating better communication, building trust, and improving overall health outcomes. COVID-19 preventive communication in Rwanda focused on disseminating information to the public, expecting them to adopt preventive behaviours. Development communication researchers have criticised the top-down approach as antagonising participation and engagement, thus advocating for a participatory communication model. The model follows a liberating communication philosophy in which participants cease to be filled but participate in the communication process, with dialogue and conscientisation as key drivers of that process. Unfortunately, how and when to start engaging communities is not clearly described in development communication literature. This study aimed to examine how dialogue and the stages of conscientisation in communities influenced COVID-19 prevention messages in Kigali, Rwanda. It examined how Kiruhura, Karama and Mwendo residents understand local contexts and how these influenced their communication of dominant messages. The study adopted the Participatory Communication Approach from Freire and Dutta’s Culture-Centred Approach, selected eighty-one participants through purposive sampling, collected data with nine focus group discussions, and utilised reflexive thematic analysis to illustrate the contextual perceptions, responses, and dialogical scenarios. It found that residents of Kiruhura, Karama and Mwendo communities perceived COVID-19 as illusory. Influenced by their culture, socioeconomic limitations and other pandemic experiences, communities perceived COVID-19 prevention messages as inapplicable, which resulted in mixed and ambivalent responses. Also, COVID-19 instructional communication humped dialogue and conscientisation by neglecting local contexts, which should constitute a practical foundation for the pandemic-related discussions, thus overlooking local communication structures. Therefore, this study suggests analysing communities' culture, experience with other pandemics, changing socioeconomic situation and their intersection with perceptions of emerging pandemics. It also advises introducing dialogue by linking pandemic narratives and community lived experiences, and basing community participation on local communication systems. In addition, this study suggests prioritising interpersonal over media channels. Scholarly, this research contributes insights on how to communicate contextually applicable pandemic preventive messages and apply the principles of humility, empathy, love, and hope in dialogically engaging Rwandan communities in pandemic communication. Practically, it discusses local enablers of pandemic dialogue.
The influence of musical interventions on drug abuse reduction among Nigerian youths: a study of David Jones’s popular music (2017 – 2022)
(2025) Eze, Ezekiel Onyebuchi.; Govender, Eliza Melissa.
Drug abuse is one of the extreme health and social problems confronting Nigeria, as the national prevalence rate of 14.4 per cent surpasses the global prevalence rate of 5.5 per cent (UNODC, 2021). Drug abuse prevalence is perceived to be very high among Nigerian youths (NDLEA, 2013; Umukoro et al., 2016; Adeyemo et al., 2016; Umukoro & Aina, 2020) as a result of several prevailing risk factors (Unya & Onya, 2020; Adeniyi, 2022) that the Nigerian youths are predisposed to in their immediate environments. A good number of communication strategies have been adopted in the past, both at international and national levels, to reduce the impact of these risk factors on Nigerian youths. However, these approaches have failed to yield the expected outcomes, partly due to the complexities in developing drug abuse interventions that can help to address the situation. The use of educational programmes in Nigeria's efforts to address drug abuse has since been championed (Ajayi & Alli, 2020; Olarewaju et al., 2022). Entertainment Education (EE) applications are rare health interventions in the Nigerian context. This thesis explores, in a broader sense, the EE potential of an anti-drug abuse popular music intervention, David Jones's anti-drug abuse popular music (2017-2022), as a tool to address drug abuse among Nigerian youths. Using Social Cognitive Theory, this study explores David Jones’s anti-drug abuse interventions through the lived experiences of Nigerian youths exposed to it, towards exploring the EE potential for drug-related interventions. The epistemological assumption upon which this study draws is the interpretive paradigm. The study used hermeneutic phenomenological methodology fortified by seven FGDs to generate qualitative data. The purposive sampling was employed to select a sample comprising 41 Nigerian youths who volunteered from seven tertiary institutions, namely the Rivers State University (RSU), Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe University (KOMU), Godfrey Okoye University (GOU), Coal City University (CCU), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) and Veritas University (VU). The data collected for the study were analysed employing reflexive thematic analysis. The findings of this study sustain the conclusion that EE holds vast potential in the development of interventions that would help address the growing prevalence of drug abuse among Nigerian youths aged 18 -25 years. David Jones’s anti-drug abuse interventions’ messages were found to have offered transformative educational information, promoted guidance and counselling of the study’s participants, and stimulated self-belief. This also indicates that the anti-drug abuse popular music intervention was grounded in SCT and perceived to be relevant in informing EE interventions (Willoughby et al., 2018). However, David Jones’s anti-drug abuse popular music intervention (2017-2022) does not fully address the entertainment needs of some Nigerian youths due to the music composition and deferential in the listening functions of significant music uses. These include the music theme, melody, repetitive and minimalist pattern, and static nature, as it lacks dynamics and contrast. The study concludes that continuous engagement in the production of intriguing EE music is essential to foster the saturation level needed for the success of music interventions. It also emphasises the importance of incorporating theories in EE music messages through design and implementation. The appeal for behavioural changes and the highlight of the dire consequences of drug abuse should be paramount in music intervention. This approach may help suppress the risk factors responsible for drug abuse among Nigerian youths and trigger good drug use behaviour. The success of EE music intervention depends on a nuanced understanding of youths' music genres, information or practical needs, and entertainment experiences.
Exploring the localisation of COVID-19 prevention messages in eThekwini communities.
(2025) Bokolo, Simamkele.; Govender, Eliza Melissa.
The global COVID-19 pandemic disrupted communities and healthcare systems worldwide. In early 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended a range of preventive measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 which included regular handwashing or sanitising, social distancing and the use of face masks. These measures were adopted by governments around the globe including South Africa. However, these strategies were predominantly based on biomedical and behavioural approaches, with limited consideration of the socio-cultural context in which health decisions and preventive actions are taken. Evidence from past and ongoing pandemics, such as Ebola and HIV, demonstrates that excluding local knowledge, cultural norms, and community-based insights in health messaging can limit the effectiveness and uptake of these interventions. Adopting a photovoice methodology embedded within the community-based participatory approach, this study explored the local interpretation, adaptation and reconstruction of the dominant COVID-19 prevention messages that included regular hand washing and sanitising, the use of face masks and social distancing in three eThekwini communities (including Umbumbulu - a rural community, Cato Crest - an informal settlement and Umlazi a township). Participants were recruited purposively in each community. Data was collected in two phases with the first phase taking place between March and April 2021 during the adjusted level 2 lockdown, and the second phase was during the adjusted level 1 lockdown, between October and November 2021. The study adopted a three-staged data collection process which included (1) the introductory sessions with participants to inform them about the study and data collection methods (2) the photovoice data collection stage in which participants went out to their communities to capture photos that reflected their understanding, interpretation and adaptation of the COVID-19 prevention messages within their local contexts and (3) the focus group discussion which included detailed discussions on the photos collected and explored other related themes. Data was analysed thematically. Key findings from this study highlighted that people's understanding and interpretation of COVID-19 prevention messages evolved over time. During the first phase of data collection, people focused on making sense of these messages within their local cultural contexts. Whereas, the second phase found that there was more familiarity with the dominant messaging and localised interpretation of these messages to fit specific contexts. While there were mixed reactions to adopting COVID-19 prevention messages, cultural beliefs and values often conflicted with full compliance, challenging widespread acceptance of these measures within local communities. This study highlighted the importance of integrating community perspectives and contextual nuances in the development of health communication strategies to enhance their effectiveness and sustainability in managing future pandemics. These insights can guide the design of culturally grounded public health interventions and strengthen future pandemic communication strategies to ensure greater trust, uptake, and long-term adherence to prevention measures.
‘Signs of our passage’: Examining how Tanzanian irregular transit migrants create a sense of place through their mobile and immobile experiences: a Durban-based case study.
(2024) Landers, Shannon Leigh.; Teer-Tomaselli, Ruth Elizabeth.
In 2020, there were reportedly 281 million international migrants, roughly 3.60 percent of the global population. While most people participate in legal migration, a significant portion of global migration is irregular due to economic, social, environmental and political instability. Africa witnessed a 68 percent increase in transnational migration between 2000 and 2017, originating from the continent. However, scholarship on African mobilities prioritises irregular migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe through the Maghreb region. Furthermore, studies on migration in Southern Africa tend to characterise South Africa as a destination country. Situated within the global phenomenon of irregular transit migration, this study aimed to understand and describe the unique experiences of a Tanzanian irregular transit migrant and stowaway community as they created a sense of place through social and material practices in heterotopic sites in Durban, South Africa. Additionally, the study aimed to understand the community members’ mobile and immobile experiences as they travelled from Tanzania to South Africa with one intention: to stow away on a ship to Europe or the Americas. The data for this project was collected through 11 qualitative semi-structured interviews with community members and associates. A Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) approach was utilised to interpret the stories elicited from the research participants. The findings contradict research that characterises irregular migrants as passive victims or unscrupulous criminals by demonstrating the polysemic nature of ‘heterotopias of deviance’ as contradictory, intense, and transformative places where identity and belonging are actualised. This perspective departs from the dichotomy of dominance and resistance in spatial thinking. Additionally, the accounts reveal that Durban represented an open-ended pause for this community, which confronted harsh conditions and dangerous encounters through their mobile and immobile experiences en route, in Durban and at sea. This study indicates the need to humanise precarious migrants’ attitudes, motivations and lived experiences to comprehend the complex phenomenon of global irregular transit migration.
Local interpretations of COVID-19 communication and their influence on risk perception and self-efficacy in rural, township and informal settlement communities: a case study in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2024) Gumede, Nompumelelo Promise.; Govender, Eliza Melissa.
Communication during a health crisis is important to ensure that the public is informed and is equipped with correctly affirming behaviours and actions that can ensure their safety. While acknowledging COVID-19 as a global pandemic, the reality is that prevention measures must be implemented in local, geographically, and culturally bounded contexts. The traditional approach to communication during public health emergencies, involving one-way broadcast messages, usually from government to communities, has been criticised for stifling public participation and failing to integrate local knowledge and contexts, thus leading to poor adoption of protective behaviours by communities. This study explores how communities in three different types of localities; township, rural and informal settlement in eThekwini Municipality in South Africa, interpret COVID-19 prevention communication, and how these interpretations influence their perception of risk and self-efficacy to adopt preventive behaviours. Such an understanding can shape the development of a more localised response to COVID-19 prevention, and hopefully, future pandemics. Theoretically the study is grounded within Colins Airhihenbuwa’s PEN-3 Cultural Model for Health Communication, which foregrounds the importance of culturally appropriate and compelling strategies for behaviour change. The PEN-3 Model negates the ‘culture-as-barrier’ bias but instead locates culture as central in determining individual, family and community health by investigating positive, neutral, and negative impacts of culture on health behaviour. Data were collected in two rounds: after the South African 2nd wave of COVID-19 in April and after the 3rd wave in November 2021, with communities in the three identified geo-spatial locations. A total of six virtual WhatsApp groups and six face-to-face community dialogues (55 participants) were conducted to explore local interpretations of COVID-19 prevention messages and how these can form pathways for the development of locally relevant COVID- 19 communication. Unsafe working environments, the public transport industry and attitudes towards the government’s COVID-19 strategy impacted participants’ evaluation of the threat and risk for COVID-19 infection. The cultural identity of communal living and support, embedded in Ubuntu, was challenged through prescriptive government-led pandemic communication, leading to widespread flouting of COVID-19 precautions. Community assets, agency and resources were ignored by the top-down communication approach, contributing further to the widespread lack of adherence to prescribed precautions. The overcrowded and unhygienic informal settlement environment rendered adherence to preventive precautions too hard, demonstrating the structural environment's moderating influence in decisionmaking and subsequent preventive action. Reverence for local community leadership structures over distant national government demonstrated the moderating influence of power dynamics at the community level, which work to enhance mechanisms for transparency and accountability. Patriarchal societal norms influenced men’s responses to pandemic communication, and the role of the family in potentially contributing to positive health outcomes was highlighted. The results point to a need for risk communication and community engagement at a more granular level. The study argues for a participatory communication process that amplifies community voices and reveals context-specific and culturally-informed perceptions that impact on decision-making around COVID-19. This culture-centred exploration ensures that health communication interventions are developed from a positive perspective, that extends beyond highlighting the negatives, but rather focuses on enhancing the positive through a recognition of the positive and unique aspects of a people’s culture. The study recommends the application of a culture-centred theoretical lens to communication during a health crisis, as opposed to the proliferation of individual-focused theories of behaviour change that characterised the COVID- 19 communication landscape, for future pandemic preparedness efforts.
Changes and continuities? Investigating the representations and readings of female characters in South African soap operas Uzalo and Scandal!
(2024) Onuh, Janet Atinuke.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.
This study explores the construction and readings of female characters concerning their gender roles within localised South African soap operas Uzalo and Scandal! Concerning the issue of female representation, it is not just crucial to have a significant presence of women in television, it is equally important that these characters represent women fairly. This is particularly important within a country like South Africa, where gender inequality is a problem and gender-based violence is declared a second pandemic as femicide remains is prevalent. Since characterisation is one of the most important elements in any soap opera, this study investigates how female characters are represented. It explores the changes and continuities in how female characters are intentionally constructed in South African soap operas and if these representations support or subvert previous representations and dominant discourses in society. It is theoretically framed within feminist media theory, with a particular emphasis on intersectionality and the active audience theory guided by the circuit of culture model. Located within the interpretive paradigm, its qualitative methodology ascertains the perceptions of individual viewers (University of KwaZulu-Natal students) and Uzalo and Scandal! production staff. The data, gathered via interviews and focus group discussions, were organised through reflexive thematic analysis. The study found that the representation of mistress, mother, and matriarch are some of the roles still prominent in soap opera depictions. However, a shift exists in that conventional characters such as the villainess and matriarch are still central but are represented differently, based on the South African context, particularly that of the township locale. Female characters are also included in the storylines, such as CEOs, businesswomen, and other prominent roles often associated with male characters and public domains. Contemporary and traditional-styled characters are aspirational depending on the preference of lifestyle values held by the viewer of the soap operas. Soap opera has the potential to educate audience members about socio-economic, socio-political, and other developmental issues that will enhance social change. The study contributed new knowledge to understanding the construction of female representations and the possible subversions these texts offer to normative societal representations. It is unique in that it considers both a production and viewer perspective, which is a gap within South African scholarship that typically includes one of these perspectives. Through this study, an analytical matrix combining the circuit of culture and intersectionality has been developed that could be used for further research.
Mugabeism and factionalisation of journalism: interrogating the state of print media journalism in Zimbabwe (2014-2017).
(2023) Maodza, Takunda.; McCracken, Donal Patrick.
This qualitative study investigated how ZANU-PF factionalism cascaded into The Herald, Daily News and NewsDay newsrooms and “factionalised” the newspapers’ reportage of Robert Mugabe’s succession in the period between 2014 and 2017. The period marks the height of ZANU-PF factionalism after independence. In the context of this study, “factionalisation” of journalism infers adoption of either of the ZANU-PF factions contending to succeed Robert Mugabe by journalists in their reportage of the intraparty schisms promoting the ideological aspirations of one group over the other. There were two factions at any given moment in ZANU-PF angling to succeed Mugabe owing to his old age. ZANU-PF has experienced episodes of factionalism since its formation as a break away party in 1963 from Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU. The study is guided by Mugabeism as its main theoretical lens supported by the Critical Political Economy of the media model. It sought to establish how The Herald, Daily News and NewsDay reported ZANU-PF factionalism between 2014 and 2017. Further, the study examined how ZANU-PF factionalism permeated newsrooms and corrupted newspapers’ narratives on Mugabe’s succession. The study also highlights the implications of Mugabeism on The Herald, Daily News and NewsDay’s reportage of ZANU-PF factionalism during the period under review. Whereas this study adds to the growing body of knowledge on the media and politics, research into implications of ZANU-PF factionalism on political journalism are still nascent. Further, this study’s uniqueness is in its deployment of Mugabeism – a theory domiciled in political science and history – in media studies to account for journalistic process that informed or were influenced by Mugabe’s succession matrix. Use of the Mugabeism model is also a response to growing calls to decolonise, decentre and dewesternise media studies through deployment of indigenous theories to account for developments in the global south. Data was gathered through in-depth face-to-face interviews with purposively selected journalists at The Herald, Daily News and NewsDay and via Qualitative Content Analysis. The study established that ZANU-PF factionalism permeated into daily newspaper newsrooms in Zimbabwe leading to the “factionalisation” of journalism. Journalists adopted either of the factions angling to succeed Mugabe and aligned their reportage to the respective interests in an editorial disposition devoid of impartiality and factuality. In some instances, journalists were motivated by material inducements to adopt and promote factional positions. It is also this study’s finding that through rhetoric Mugabe provided cues to journalists at both state-controlled and privately owned newspapers on how to report on his own succession. As a result, ZANU-PF factionalism compartmentalised journalism by allowing or denying ruling party politicians a platform for expression depending on which faction they belonged. Newsrooms were turned into war zones as journalists became enemies in a battle to protect interests of factions they editorially adopted.
A discursive analysis of the construction of Afrophobia in TimesLive, News24 and Independent Online in South Africa, 2019 - 2022.
(2024) Jani, Clifford.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.
Immigration has become a global phenomenon where nearly half of the world‘s populations are refugees, migrants or asylum seekers. However, the representation of black African migrants has not been fair and balanced leading to studies outlining the negative representation of migrants in the media. Previous scholarship has explored how such reporting could be deemed xenophobic. This study is specifically interested in the phenomenon of Afrophobia, defined as fear of black people or systematic discrimination against people with African ancestry (Dube, 2019). This study explores the representation of black African migrants in Timeslive, News24 and IOL news sites and how the reporting language may be used in the construction of Afrophobic sentiments. The study utilises content analysis to gather data. A total of 66 news articles were purposively selected from the three news sites. The data is grouped according to emerging themes: illegality, undocumented migrants, job takers, criminals and drug dealers. Critical discourse analysis is used to analyse the discursive portrayal of black African migrants. The focus of the analysis is on how Afrophobia is problematised and transformed into a discursive crisis through the construction of anti-immigrant themes. Representation theory and post-colonial theory conceptually guide this study. Although the findings of this study generally support earlier studies which argue that the media representation of black Africans is negative, the critical discourse analysis also revealed sympathetic representations available in the news. The study‘s unique contributions are that it explores the Afrophobic sentiments manifested as prejudices and stereotypes, and systemic discrimination faced by foreign nationals in South Africa, through the online news as they are depicted as criminals, drug dealers and illegal or undocumented people, blamed for social ills in South Africa. It also reveals positive reporting where black African migrants are portrayed as entrepreneurs, employing the local population and adding value to the economy. However, the negative homogenous reporting of black African migrants is still prevalent.
Discontinuity without change? the place and discourse of colonial memory in Zimbabwe’s post- Mugabe Zanu-PF politics.
(2024) Kupeta, Noah.; Lubombo, Musara.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.
Zimbabwean politics are notably complex and difficult to understand, even by scholars with a strong interest in African affairs with a long institutional memory of the historical determinants of the independence and post-independence struggles within Zimbabwe. Through the lens of political culture and functional theory campaign communication, this qualitative inquiry titled “Discontinuity without change? The place and discourse of colonial memory in Zimbabwe’s post-Mugabe ZANU-PF politics” scrutinizes the colonial narratives in the political discourses in Zimbabwe’s ruling party ZANU (PF) following the Robert Mugabe era intending to understand how colonial memory shapes the party’s the ideological foundations and policy directions. The study draws on eight speeches delivered by former president Robert Mugabe during the 2002 elections, as well as speeches by his successor and current president Emmerson Munangagwa during the 2018 election campaign. It also incorporates insights from key informants within ZANU (PF), Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), Zimpapers, and Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) to explore the role of media in influencing the nuanced interplay between historical legacies, political discourse, and contemporary governance. By examining the ebbs and tides of electoral politics in Zimbabwe spanning nearly decades through the prism of post-colonial memory, the study concludes that while Mnangagwa’s ascendance as President hinted at a departure from his predecessor’s politics, there is a notable continuity in the streams of colonial memory that informed ZANU-PF electoral strategies. This underscores how political discourses and power dynamics during elections are deeply entrenched within the broader context of Zimbabwean politics and pan-African pursuit of of self-determination (Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo), identity and independence. Despite certain shifts in Mnangagwa’s ‘New Dispensation’ that deviate from Mugabeism, the persistence of colonial memory underscores its pivotal role in shaping the principles and practices of representative democracy within Zimbabwe. The media’s influence in (re)shaping post-Mugabe discourse sheds light on the implications of memory appropriation in contemporary Zimbabwean political communication.
An exploration of community radio, culture and health communication among rural and semi-urban dwellers in the central region of Ghana: a case study of Covid-19 and Radio Peace.
(2022) Essel, Emmanuel.; Govender, Eliza Melissa.
The mainstream global COVID-19 communication for development and social change approaches, instituted by the neoliberal forces, hinge on information dissemination targeting individual behavioural change to halt the spread of the virus (Dutta et al., 2020). Ghana’s public health communication about COVID-19 has primarily employed persuasive approaches using mainstream channels to share the WHO-approved non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs): personal hygiene, mass masking, social distancing and pharmaceutical measures. However, the adequacy of mainstream approaches to meet the COVID-19 communication needs among marginalised communities is unclear. This study focuses on pandemic responses and explores community participation through counter-discursive platforms like community radio. This thesis explores how local cultures influence the ability, modality and extent of community members’ participation in the workings of community radio in promoting COVID-19 relevant health communication. This study uses qualitative data from three semi-urban and rural community radio host districts in Ghana collected between July and December 2021. Radio Peace, a community radio station in Winneba, Ghana’s Central Region, serves as a single case study. Purposive sampling was employed to select participants from the Effutu Municipal, Awutu Senya West, and Gomoa West Districts, Ghana’s Central Region. By using the culture-centred approach and participatory communication, eight (8) focus group discussions (FGDs) and eleven (11) in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted to understand how community radio attends to the communicative needs of marginalised people living within the selected communities. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings suggest that community radio enhances the agency of marginalised people by providing an accessible public sphere for community-level dialogue concerning COVID-19 prevention using indigenous language. However, the involvement of marginalised people in Radio Peace’s COVID-19 communication intervention was limited by structural factors. These include indecorous language during on-air discourses, economic challenges of batteries to power radio sets, irregular community visits by the station’s staff, transmission challenges, and difficulty in calling into programmes due to jammed telephone lines. The study concludes that social, economic and cultural contexts significantly influence active listeners’ ability to participate in community radio interventions that pertain to COVID-19 communication. It also considers that community radio effectively communicates COVID-19 prevention messages that offer active listeners opportunities to be involved meaningfully in the interventions. Thus, the study proposes the socio-cultural model for the future conception, design and implementation of COVID-19 communication interventions for community radio in a manner that allows for marginalised people’s meaningful participation in such responses. Access, social capital and community participation are critical for effectively implementing the socio-cultural model for COVID-19 communication using community radio. The success of the socio-cultural model for COVID-19 communication hinges on a nuanced understanding of the beneficiary communities’ local needs, values, structural factors and economic capabilities.
Public participation in the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio stations: a case study of Ukhozi FM and SAfm.
(2020) Gamede, Sanele Justice.; Teer-Tomaselli, Ruth Elizabeth.
Radio has always and still remail one of the most useful, available, and affordable medium. Radio has remained relevant and continue to build communities through its programming. This is not different from the South African public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC). The study investigates the public participation within the SABC radio stations using Sithakela Isizwe on Ukhozi FM and The View Point on SAfm as a case study. One of the roles of the media, especially a public service broadcaster such as the SABC, is to create and promote a platform for fair public engagement. It is on this platform that citizens behave as a public body, and are able to engage with one another freely, that is, with the of freedom of assembling together as a collective, associating themselves with other people or social groups and the freedom to express their opinions about matters of general interest. It is for that reason that the study explores the public participation in SABC using the above-mentioned shows as a case study, focusing on the extent in which the shows allow public participation, how it allow public participation and the extent in which the public, the radio presenters and producers influence programming of the shows. The South African based study is located in Durban and Johannesburg because Ukhozi FM and SAfm are located in Durban and Johannesburg. This qualitative study employs a content and thematic analysis to collect and analyse the data collected through in-depth interviews of the radio presenters and producers and through collecting buying the data from the SABC. The researcher used a purposive sampling to sample both the respondents in the study and the month, April 2019, for recording of both shows. The study employed the public sphere theory to make sense of the study. Jürgen Habermas ‘s defines the public sphere as a realm within society in which people can bring forth ideas which can be accessible to many people. The theory helped in understanding the realm established by the shows and to evaluate the type of public sphere. The study, through the help of the public sphere theory, revealed that the two shows formed a virtual public sphere. The study also revealed that there is public participation within the SABC radio stations particularly the shows in question in this study and have formed not only a virtual public realm, but they do allow a physical public sphere which was originally argued by Habermas when he observed the bourgeois society. The radio stations have not only created a virtual public platform, where the public engaged through social media and through traditional ways of participation such as call-ins, but the public has an influence, to a certain extent, toward the programming of the shows through public participation. The data also revealed that the radio presenters, producers, and the radio management have an influence not only in programming, but they also have influence on who gets to participate either as a guest or from the public. This happens when they decide who to participate as a guest during the planning of the show and it happens when they choose whose WhatsApp voice note to play on air, which Tweet to read, whose comment to read from Facebook and whose call to answer. The study, like many radio audience, public service broadcasting and radio public participation studies, pointed out that the virtual public sphere created by radio such as the SABC radio stations needs to constantly check and balanced between self-regulation and censorship. It also revealed that social media and the internet has not killed radio but it has enhanced the virtual public sphere.
The role of communication in addressing sociocultural factors that influence pregnant women to drink alcohol in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
(2021) Akpan, Udoh James.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.; Govender, Eliza Melissa.
The World Health Organisation report (WHO, 2016) states that one in 10 women consumes alcohol during pregnancy globally, and 20% of these women binge drink. Drinking while pregnant harms the foetus with the possible consequence being Fetal Alcoholic Spectrum Disorder (FASD). South Africa has the highest reported FASD prevalence rates in the world. The South African Department of Health (DoH) recognises this as a severe public health issue affecting pregnant women. Studies show that the factors that motivate maternal drinking are more socio-cultural than medical and psychological. There have been global efforts to address this public health issue with pregnant women but the phenomenon still persists. This study addresses the issue by exploring the localised responses of pregnant women who drink while pregnant in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, through a qualitative investigation of the sociocultural factors that encourage alcohol consumption amongst this population. The study employed Participatory Health Communication as the theoretical framework and mobilised the Social Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) as the process to identify and analyse the socio-cultural issues in Durban. This theoretical framework and process was supported by the Culture-Centred Approach (Dutta, 2008) to engage with the influence of culture and structure to understand the socio-cultural factors that contribute to their health choices and possible avenues for agency to address this. Communication plays a central role in this agency. The study adopted the Applied Thematic Analysis (Guest, McQueen and Namey, 2012) to interpret the data gathered from interviews with the participants at King Edward VIII Hospital. The study found that social and environmental factors are family, friends and access to shebeens and taverns in the neighbourhood which support a drinking culture that encourages social tolerance of alcohol consumption and the reluctance to stop drinking. The study identified the need for ongoing communication through preferred communication channels that are readily available for women to request support. The study found the importance to extend beyond knowledge acquisition, but to mobilise communication as a culturally nuanced tool to facilitate psycho-social support during times of alcohol consumption when pregnant.
An interpretive study of the representations of South African Zulu masculinities in the soap operas, Uzalo, Imbewu and Isibaya.
(2021) Nzimande, Melba Belinda Melissa.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.
Since their origins in the 1930s, soap operas have been known as a feminine genre. Contributing to soap opera scholarship, this study explores the interpretations of masculinities that are presented in three South African soap operas by Zulu male audiences living in KwaZulu-Natal - Uzalo, Imbewu and Isibaya. A constructivist approach guides the study in understanding that masculinities are fluid and influenced by social and cultural factors. It articulates the complexity and ambiguity of contemporary South African masculinities, thus working against stereotypical representations of black South African men. An indigenised cultural studies approach includes how the study’s focus group participants read the soap opera preferred messages of Zulu masculinities and reasons for their dominant, negotiated or oppositional readings of these. This is enabled through a comparison of data collected through in-depth interviews with producers from each of the soap operas, with responses from 30 focus group participants in rural and urban areas of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Data is analysed through the development of deductive and inductive thematisation where the relationship between the theme and international and local theoretical positions are explained. Typically, soap opera scholarship argues that the genre subverts discourses of hegemonic masculinity. This study found that contemporary South African soap opera representations of masculinities both uphold and subvert dominant discourses of Zulu masculinities. The significance of this is twofold. Firstly, soap opera producers are creating narratives that no longer conform only to traditional soap opera codes and conventions. They encode messages through narratives that draw in male viewers and use the power of cultural proximity in representations, meaning that there is a move to the indigenisation of settings, storylines and languages to attract audiences. Secondly, male audiences decode the messages through parasocial relationships and cultural proximity. The study adds to understanding the specificities of viewing within the African context, and the importance of creatives to be aware of the ways in which these habits shape the meanings of the programmes they produce. In sum, the study contributes to African masculinity studies, but particularly masculinity studies in soap operas in terms of representation and audience engagement in a “post” era, from the perspective of the global South.
The sustainability of a free press in Zambia’s Third Republic: a case of the Zambia Daily Mail and The Post newspapers.
(2015) Hamusokwe, Basil Nchimunya.; McCracken, Donal Patrick.
This study sets out to explore the sustainability of a free press in Zambia. The main objective is to contribute to the debate on factors affecting the political and economic sustainability, advertising in particular and independence of newspapers in a small media market. For this purpose, the study uses a case of the Zambia Daily Mail and The Post newspapers. Using political economy analysis, the thesis uncovers the nature and form of the media system; the factors influencing the independence and freedom of the press; the type, the extent, resources required for the sustainability of a free press and the role and impact of policy interventions for creating an enabling environment for a free press in Zambia. The thesis acknowledges that global transformations are pushing media systems around the world towards the liberal system of market-driven de-regulated, convergence and commercialism. Similar claims are made that, like any other, the Zambian media market is not immune to these trends, and is in transition to integrate with the global trends. It, however, stresses that the degree and extent to these transformations varies from region to region, and country to country. However, irrespective of some signs of evidence of this transformation, Zambia is a small country with a small media market, subjecting it to different influences from affluent Western countries. It has therefore been argued that country-specific conditions in the media and communication environment such as a country’s media and communications infrastructure, and more rudimentary characteristics including market size, growth rate, profitability and competition should be taken into consideration. In this vein, the thesis also contends that the influence of the global trends in the political economy of communication on the Zambian media system has not been subjected to adequate academic examination. In fact, this observation is extended to most third world African countries. As a result, this has led such countries to either be left in the margins or be subjected to sweeping generalisations made about Western societies. Therefore, the thesis advocates evidence-based approaches for conceptualising the political economy of communication.
An exploration of the social-cultural factors that influence oral pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake and integration into sexual and reproductive healthcare services for young women in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2019) Nota, Phiwe Babalo.; Govender, Eliza Melissa.
In the past, HIV prevention efforts have disappointingly focused on reducing individual risk, with insufficient attention to socio-cultural, economic, structural, and other contextual factors that increase vulnerability to HIV. However, public health efforts towards HIV prevention now focus on combination strategies. This strategy recognizes that the integration of biomedical, social and structural interventions in mitigating the HIV and AIDS epidemic will translate to population-level impact. In Southern Africa, young women are disproportionately vulnerable to HIV infection, with women between the ages of 15 to 24 twice more likely to be infected than men. However, the licensure of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and the South African National Department of Health policy on the integration of oral PrEP in sexual reproductive health (SRH) services creates renewed hope for young women who are often unable to negotiate safe sex practices. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of biomedical technologies is influenced by socio-cultural, structural and economic factors. This underscores the need to understand; (a) Populations that will consider using oral PrEP, (b) The likely socio-cultural challenges or opportunities that will influence acceptance, uptake and adherence of oral PrEP, and (c) How to integrate oral PrEP in already existing SRH services in a manner that ensures optimal adherence to oral PrEP to key population groups. This study sought to find effective ways in which oral PrEP can be integrated into SRH services in South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). To attain an in-depth understanding of this topic, participatory visual methodologies in the form of journey mapping workshops and one-on-one interviews with 15 young women taking oral PrEP were facilitated. The participatory approach to this inquiry created an enabling space for young women to engage in dialogue about oral PrEP. Young women need to be placed at the centre of the response to HIV and AIDS in a meaningful way that will facilitate sustainable interventions in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Two nurses from both research sites were also interviewed to yield healthcare providers perspectives into the study inquiry. The study has the potential to inform policymakers on how existing SRH services can be improved to multi-dimensional systems that support oral PrEP uptake and adherence by young women at high risk of HIV. Findings of this study support the conclusion that oral PrEP needs to be integrated into already existing SRH services in ways that are context-specific and culturally relevant for communities. The young women in this study explicitly shared the various social and cultural factors that will influence them accessing oral PrEP in SRH services within their local clinics. Issues related to the structure, services offered and healthcare provider’s attitudes will affect acceptance, uptake and adherence of oral PrEP by young women in rural and urban KZN communities.
Online newspapers and reader gratification: modeling the effects of interactive features, content and credibility among Zambian readers.
(2020) Mbozi, Parkie Shakantu.; Teer-Tomaselli, Ruth Elizabeth.
Online newspapers have been in existence globally since 1998 and in Zambia since 1999. They have grown exponentially to establish themselves as a mainstream mass media genre and as the tool and symbol of post-modern life. Yet despite the position they occupy today as one of Zambia’s main sources of news and information, there are gaps in scholarship, specifically in audience-based empirical research dedicated to investigating, analysing and characterising their use and its effect on readers and media ecology. Applying the uses and gratification, network society and diffusion of innovation theories, the study investigates and models gratifications sought and obtained from the content, interactivity features and social functions of online newspapers. It investigates and characterises the outcomes of obtained gratification in terms of influence on readers and impact on the media ecology, specifically on radio, television and print newspapers. The study uses empirical data that are based on perceptions, attitudes and diverse audience experiences elicited through self-reports of 535 randomly sampled individuals in Lusaka Province of Zambia. Data were analysed using advanced statistical tests (Chi-square and regression analyses). The study establishes moderate but rising selectivity, exposure and attention to online newspapers, albeit only among certain demographic groups (e.g. those with Internet access). Readers mainly seek and are generally gratified by: 1. the surveillance (news and information seeking) and socialization functions of online newspapers; 2. content of a general nature, especially politics and governance news; and. 3. human interactivity features. The study further establishes that online newspapers have a strong displacement effect on radio and print newspapers but a weak substitutability (ultimate displacement) effect, which upholds multiplatform media news and complementarity between online newspapers and the old media. In terms of micro-level socialising influence, the study establishes strong surveillance or awareness influence but weak behavioural change influence or effect, which accords with established ‘stages of change’ media effect theories. The study also establishes that readers perceive online newspapers to be only moderately credible. However, it concludes that perceived credibility does not ‘intervene’ in the overall gratification obtained from online newspapers or on their perceived influence on their readers and the extent to which they are perceived as substitutes for traditional media. The study confirms the relevance of all the three main theories – uses and gratification theory, network society and diffusion of innovation – to the study of online newspapers. It also ‘discovers’ the relevance of subsidiary theories, notably ‘reliance’ and ‘familiarity’, to characterising media use behaviour among the respondents.

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