Vol 37, No 1 (2018)

This paper interrogates the mission statements and strategic development plans of two universities in South Africa in order to unpack both the deficit and surplus messages embedded in them. One of the universities is located in a rural setting and was classified as formerly disadvantaged, while the other one was a formerly white and privileged university. This article is a qualitative study and
employs a content and discursive analytic approach, together with McLaren’s (1994) typological framework on the four forms of multiculturalism in order to interrogate the mission statements and strategic development plans of the two universities in question. Both the mission statements and the strategic development plans are examined for the ways in which they discursively identify who
is included and excluded from the realisation and attainment of the missions and development plans of the two universities studied. The article argues that specific discourse patterns emerge from the two universities’ mission statements and strategic development plans to the extent that either marginalising messages or promissory and empowering messages are conveyed inadvertently in the inscriptions. The article ultimately suggests that there is a need for a shift from a deficit discourse to looking critically and reflexively at current university practices and shortcomings in the use of discourse patterns to include or exclude significant agents in both the crafting and implementation of the principalities embedded in their mission statements and strategic development plans.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising, the so-called “new kid on the block”, is not exactly a child any more. DOOH advertising has become one of the most promising marketing communication platforms. Remarkable growth rates are projected in both developed and emerging markets. Studies on DOOH advertising are generally limited to a few leading authors from developed
markets. However, practitioners’ perceptions and practices remain unknown. Understanding professionals’ views of DOOH advertising is important for anyone considering this promising marketing communication platform. Using qualitative interviews with 18 practitioners, this study discovered six themes concerning DOOH advertising in South Africa: its development, barriers, the share of DOOH advertising in various environments, the quality and quantity of exposure, and point-of-transit, point-of-purchase and point-of-wait DOOH advertising. The findings were used to highlight some focus areas for practitioners to develop and overcome obstacles in the South African DOOH advertising landscape. This study is the first of its kind on DOOH advertising and helps to fill a gap in the existing literature on out-of-home advertising and advertising practitioners’ research in an emerging market.

The study interrogated News24’s framing of the 2015 Malamulele service delivery protest in
South Africa. The study sought to find out what frames were used, why they were chosen and
with what effect. Twenty newspaper articles published by News24 on the protest were purposively
selected for inclusion in the study. The articles were analysed using quantitative and qualitative
content analysis. Findings revealed that the reporters chose episodic frames which conformed
with the protest paradigm and which depicted the protestors as violent, destructive, unreasonable
and a threat to the economy of the local community and of the nation. The paper argues that the
choice of sources and frames was largely informed by journalistic principles of news production
and that this resulted in the voices of the protestors being stifled.

Political cartoonists have, in recent years, faced victimisation for daring to speak truth to power.
In December 2010, South African cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) was sued for portraying
former President Zuma as a rapist. In February 2018, his contract of over ten years with The
Sunday Times was abruptly terminated. These developments show that cartoons can be effective
tools of undermining and resisting power. This article critically analyses Zapiro’s Rape of Lady
Justice cartoons in the context of South African politics under Zuma’s presidency. The ANC-led
government under Jacob Zuma was perceived as corrupt and gravitating away from the ideals of
a democratic state. Underpinned by Bal et al.’s (2009) model of caricature, this article seeks to
examine, firstly, how the cartoon, as a medium of expression, pokes fun at its object of caricature,
and secondly, how the broader socio-political context of Zuma’s presidency inspired Zapiro’s
Lady Justice cartoons.

The Kingdom of Swaziland has continued to use the cattle byre, Sibaya, for deliberations on
issues of national importance. This deliberative public sphere is convened once in a while to
discuss pertinent issues relating to the well-being of the Swazi nation. It is a public sphere
that used to be the preserve of men but has since been opened up to accommodate women.
Despite their participation, women still have to follow certain laid down rules to make their oral
submissions in this space. In 2016, the King of Swaziland convened the Sibaya for seven days
and thousands of citizens attended to make oral submissions on social, political, economic and
cultural issues. This article focuses on the representations made by women during the 2016
meeting and their perception about this space. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse
the data on submissions, which were monitored on national television and recorded. Interviews
were also conducted with some participants to find out how they feel about this space. Grounded
on Fraser’s concept of the counter public sphere, the study reveals that interlocutors feel that this
is a restrictive and intimidating space that is and that there are too many rules that discriminate
against the free participation of women. Thorny issues raised by women pertained to education
(primary, secondary and tertiary), the welfare of widows, chieftaincy disputes, access to land,
provision of water and electricity and gender-based violence, among others.

Researchers from various countries have studied the practices of communication industries
worldwide. Despite this nexus of study, relatively little research has been done on the practice
of communication in Zimbabwe. In order to contribute to the understanding of the state of the
communication industry on the African continent, this study reports on the results of a survey
of 50 Zimbabwean communication agencies. This article is different from other studies on the
communication industry because it focuses at an institutional level across the agencies, rather
than at the level of individual practitioners. The findings focus on four main topics, namely
practitioner profile, agency profile, prevailing professional practices and practitioners’ views on
future industry trends. The research indicates that the Zimbabwean communication industry is
vibrant despite the economic and political challenges facing the country. Owing to economic
challenges and stiff competition, most agencies are multipurpose in nature and provide a wide
variety of communication and creative services to their clients. The agencies provide services
such as advertising, graphic design, branding, website development, event management, video
production, online marketing, media relations, mobile app development, and even animation.
There is a growing trend to use digital platforms of communication, yet radio and print (magazines
and newspapers) remain essential communication channels. Among social media platforms,
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are the most used by practitioners in Zimbabwe, while online
audio-podcasts, blogging sites, crowdsourcing and Linked-in are less popular. Practical issues are
addressed regarding information about how agencies have adapted (or can adapt) to the new ways
of strategic practice with clients in order to keep up with the changing Zimbabwean market. This
research also provides valuable insights into the communication industry as a whole. It explores
possible opportunities and threats for communication practitioners presented by economic and
political environment issues and suggests directions for further research in this area.

The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which personally distinguishable information was
collected without explicit permission from millions of Facebook users, once more brought into
focus the potential dangers of our now-pervasive social media use. What the scandal primarily
indicates is the unsettling idea that one’s personal information and what it reveals is open to
an infrastructure capable of manipulating such information to its own ends. Despite such
developments, in my experience of lecturing digital communication to students at a South African
university, there is a lack of awareness of how the technical infrastructures that makes up digital
communication can play a role in potentially negating our agency when using digital forms of
communication. And this lack of awareness is echoed in the lax global response to the Cambridge
Analytica scandal. In response, this article argues that digital space may well be antithetical to
the notion of agency through digital communication. To do so, it turns to a very specific source;
the post-structural theorist, Gilles Deleuze, and his conception of digital societies of control, as
well as contemporary theoretical works that reflect his concerns over our agency within the virtual
spaces we now increasingly inhabit.

A growing body of literature on media and xenophobia in South Africa has shown that the depiction
of immigrants by the mainstream print media is overwhelmingly negative, and this in turn enforces
negative stereotypes that contribute to further xenophobic attacks. This paper adds a dimension
that is missing from existing research to focus on media representation of immigrants within
questions around citizenship and identity.. The arguments driving this paper are inspired by the
proclamations in the South African Constitution preamble, which states that “South Africa belongs
to all who live in it, united in our diversity”. This paper analyses how selected print media in the
country construct immigrants in the context of identity and belonging. We start from the premise
that as a social institution, the media play an important role in shaping policies on immigration
that have a bearing on these matters. Using theories of media and national identity, the paper
examines thematic frames used by the selected newspapers to construct the image of immigrants
during three periods of xenophobic violence, in 2008, 2015, and 2017. Our main argument is
that while the media have played a significant role in creating awareness about the scourge of
xenophobia, they have, wittingly or unwittingly, used narrative frames that justify the exclusion of
foreigners, thereby entrenching a perception of insiders and outsiders, citizens and non-citizens.
In the process, they also reinforce fears of a national takeover by the foreign “other”. These
arguments hold significance in the broader debates about the transformation of the print media
and its role in the on-going process of nation-building.