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Faculty of Management Sciences

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Author: search.filters.author.Govender, Nereshnee

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    Audience inclusion in news reporting on facebook and twitter : the case of #feesmustfall
    (Center for Strategic Studies in Business and Finance SSBFNET, 2022-12-18) Olagunju, Anu; Govender, Nereshnee; Frankish, Tarryn; Wade, Jean Philippe
    With the growing popularity of social media as a news source, there is a need to explore the audience-inclusion function of these social media platforms for news reporting. It is imperative to explore how the audience uses these platforms in the production of news to define the transformative nature of the media and its role in empowering society (the audience) to ‘break’ and tell their own story. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand how these social media platforms encourage audience inclusion and provide opportunities for the audience to participate in the production and dissemination of news items. In understanding this, society will be able to situate the role of emerging social media platforms in news dissemination, especially in the 21st century. The study conceptualised the audience inclusion theory to explore and examine the role of Facebook and Twitter in producing and disseminating news, particularly in reporting the #FeesMustFall campaign. It explored how social media allows participation in news production and dissemination and how #FeesMustFall participants used Facebook and Twitter to produce and disseminate news about the protest. The study used a qualitative exploratory approach within the interpretive paradigm to understand the audience inclusion role in news dissemination. Findings indicate that students find recourse in social media as an avenue for news during the peak of #FeesMustFall. There is also a change in news reporting due to audience inclusion provided by social networks. Also, citizens in the form of university students have become more engaged with social media because of its ease of access and sense of connectedness.
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    Magazines’ representation of women and its influence on identity construction : a South African perspective
    (MCSER Publishing, 2014-09) Govender, Nereshnee; Rawjee, Veena P.; Govender, Jeevarathnam Parthasarathy
    South Africa is now in its third decade of democracy and is characterised by a social and political dispensation based on the principles of freedom of expression, non-racialism and non-sexism. These values ought to be entrenched in all aspects of our society and likewise, in the media we consume. Media is a powerful tool and through its representation contributes significantly to the definition of the world around us, and thereby also to the definition of ourselves. One such area that the media influence is the way women are represented. The media takes on an interpretative role and teaches us how to ‘make sense’ of the world and therefore consistently privilege some issues and identities while devaluing others. The media landscape in South Africa is large, complex, robust and mature and arguably, ranks among the largest in Africa. Magazines in particular, are modern and are popular cultural forms of representation. They are one of the most influential forces in South African culture today. The aim of this paper is to explore the representation of women in magazines and the extent of how this representation influences gender identity in either empowering or limiting the development of women in society. It employs a qualitative research methodology to examine content of selected articles in South Africa’s two leading weekly magazines namely DRUM and YOU. Content analysis was used to analyse specific categories of text collected from these magazines. Overall findings reveal that stereotypical, dismissive and confining representations of women prevail in magazine media content. Creating and sustaining change must involve challenging this media content to not only increase the type of coverage of women but to extend the range of diversity to include coverage a range of stories about women including achievements and success stories of women.
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    Magazines’ representation of women and Its influence on identity construction: a South African perspective
    (MCSER, 2014) Govender, Nereshnee; Rawjee, Veena P.; Govender, Jeevarathnam Parthasarathy
    South Africa is now in its third decade of democracy and is characterised by a social and political dispensation based on the principles of freedom of expression, non-racialism and non-sexism. These values ought to be entrenched in all aspects of our society and likewise, in the media we consume. Media is a powerful tool and through its representation contributes significantly to the definition of the world around us, and thereby also to the definition of ourselves. One such area that the media influence is the way women are represented. The media takes on an interpretative role and teaches us how to ‘make sense’ of the world and therefore consistently privilege some issues and identities while devaluing others. The media landscape in South Africa is large, complex, robust and mature and arguably, ranks among the largest in Africa. Magazines in particular, are modern and are popular cultural forms of representation. They are one of the most influential forces in South African culture today. The aim of this paper is to explore the representation of women in magazines and the extent of how this representation influences gender identity in either empowering or limiting the development of women in society. It employs a qualitative research methodology to examine content of selected articles in South Africa’s two leading weekly magazines namely DRUM and YOU. Content analysis was used to analyse specific categories of text collected from these magazines. Overall findings reveal that stereotypical, dismissive and confining representations of women prevail in magazine media content. Creating and sustaining change must involve challenging this media content to not only increase the type of coverage of women but to extend the range of diversity to include coverage a range of stories about women including achievements and success stories of women.
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    Magazines' representation of women and the influence on identity construction
    (2015) Govender, Nereshnee; Rawjee, Veena P.; Govender, Jeevarathnam Parthasarathy
    The history of South Africa has many scars of oppression and women have long experienced a disempowered position in society. It is also a history of intrepid efforts to emancipate South Africans from past afflictions. Media in South Africa played a key role in amplifying the apartheid regime and also overthrowing it. Media has significant power, is regarded as a bastion of freedom and nation building, and by means of its representation, contributes to our individual and social identities. Magazine media, in particular, are modern and popular cultural forms of representation. It is a significant force in South African culture and plays a central role in shaping public opinion on women. South Africa has a deep-rooted patriarchal value system and while advances can be commended, significant challenges persist. Despite women actively engaging in various aspects of society, from business to sport, they continue to receive marginal support and media attention. Stereotypical representations abound in magazine content and women are often sexualised and objectified in traditionally feminine, decorative roles and framed by their social positions as homemakers and non-professionals. This study explores magazines’ representation of women and the influence on identity construction. The connected landscapes of media’s production and consumption practices is also addressed, as there is a powerful interplay of how the economics of publishing significantly shape media content. This study proposes a model that contributes to promoting diversity in media content, ownership and control, critical citizenry and media accountability in terms of social change and gender equality. The qualitative methodological approach addresses the issue of objectification of women in editorial content and advertisements of two of South Africa’s leading consumer magazines, YOU and DRUM. The findings reveal that gender stereotypes thrive in magazine texts that repeatedly represent women as objects for male consumption, thereby not reflecting the diverse and progressive roles of modern day women. Magazine media can play a powerful role in helping to dislodge the patriarchal, public attitudes towards women. Diversified, equitable representation of gender in media is important so that it may demonstrate, and influence, society’s shift towards egalitarian principles. This study serves as a catalyst for change by building a knowledge base and raising awareness regarding magazines’ role in identity construction, by advocating gender issues and by contributing to gender parity in and through the media.
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    The influence of the print media in portraying women in sport : a case study of The Independent on Saturday
    (2010) Govender, Nereshnee; Rawjee, Veena P.; Ramlutchman, Nisha
    During the Apartheid era in South Africa, women were marginalised from sport. The ability to participate in sport in South Africa is intrinsically linked to the political history of the country. Sport played a dynamic role in the struggle against the diabolical system of apartheid in South Africa and has a powerful role to play in the transformation and nation building of South Africa. Women have made great strides in sport in recent years in South Africa and the way in which media portray these sporting achievements is critically important to dislodging negative stereotypes and overcoming discrimination of women in sport. The unfair coverage of women’s sport displays gender based attitudes which systematically disadvantage women’s position in society. Women’s participation in sport has grown dramatically but despite this growth coverage of women in sport remains inferior to that given to men in sport across all media. Media need to acknowledge, promote and celebrate the wealth of talent that there is to be enjoyed by society. Newspaper reports are seldom challenged for not being accurate or truthful. But readers have a right to truthful information and reporting, and being trustworthy to the reader is the basis of good journalism. Media need to collectively reflect a diversity of content to ensure public access to a variety of viewpoints and they should expect societal intervention if the media fail to meet professional standards. The print media has a fundamental role to play in shaping public opinion and undoubtedly have an influence in portraying women in sport in South Africa. This study critically analyses the influence of the print media in portraying women in sport.