Highway Africa Chair Projects
1. Sanpad research project
Project report
A baseline study of youth identity, the media and the public sphere in South Africa
Background
2011-2012. A baseline study of youth identity, the media and the public sphere in South Africa and Holland. Joint research project with Prof Jane Duncan (project leader), Prof Larry Strelitz, Prof Lynette Steenveld, Ms Priscilla Boshoff (all from Rhodes), Mr Wadim Schreiner (Media Tenor), Dr Tanja Bosch, Dr Adam Haupt and Dr Musa Ndlovu (of UCT), Prof Irene Costera Meijer and Nico Drok (Free University of Amsterdam). Funded by the SA-Netherlands Partnership on Alternatives in Development (Sanpad).
The aim of this project, focussing on youth and media in South Africa, is threefold. First, we wish to investigate the ways in which various forms of media, including new media, shape youth identity in South Africa. Second, we wish to probe the possible ways in which media can be used to contribute to the civic identity of this social group. This civic function of the media, as captured partly in Habermas’ notion of the Public Sphere, is important if youth are to become integrated into the fabric of society and participate in its development. Third, we will explore whether youth voices are being heard through the media, as media that fail to articulate youth aspirations and frustrations may contribute to feelings of alienation. This alienation is evidenced in mounting youth disengagement with society’s major institutions, and growing youth disaffection. This information will enable us to contribute towards media policy formulations that ensure that media are responsive to youth needs and interests.
The research question is as follows: Do the media help South African youth construct social identities which enable them to contribute to the development of South Africa’s democracy? To answer this question we will enquire into the patterns of youth media consumption and the extent to which youth voices are reflected in the media.
A key objective of the project is to survey the actual state of youth media consumption in four localities in South Africa (Eastern Cape, KwaZulu/ Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng), reflecting a methodology (large scale quantitative research and an international comparative study) used by the project’s Dutch partners, Irene Costera Meijer and Nico Drok in a similar project conducted in the Netherlands. In particular, we will assess how structural factors (such as class, race, gender, and geography) impact on media
2. Research project on social media and social protests in Southern Africa
The project involved a comparative study of five Southern African countries on the actual usage of social media during recent protests in these countries. Countries purposively chosen included: Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland. Admire Mare (a PhD candidate, school of journalism and media studies, Rhodes University) was commissioned by the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa and Highway Africa's Chair of Media and Information Society to examine the role social media played in the mobilisations in these protests, examine similarities and differences between the Southern African and North African protests in the take up of social media, assess what the demonstration effect of the North African protests with their usage of social media has been on Southern African protests and map out the policy environment necessary to protect and promote social media usage in political activism.
Another report of the same project examined the relationship between social media and mainstream media in the coverage of the same protests with special emphasis on Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The overarching research question was to examine to what extent the mainstream media trailed social media or vice versa in information dissemination about the protests. Fieldwork was conducted in the five countries over a period of two months.
Two reports were submitted as part of this project:
• 'Social media and protests in Southern Africa: a comparative analysis of Malawi, Swaziland, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe'
• 'A complicated but symbiotic affair: the relationship between mainstream media and social media in the coverage of Southern African protests'.
The first report was presented at the Rhodes University, School of Journalism and Media Studies' seminar series and is also billed to be presented at the annual South African Sociological Association Conference (SASA) at the University of Cape Town. The second report has been submitted to the special issue of Ecquid Novi 2012: African Journalism Studies: social media and journalism in Africa for consideration. If accepted, it should be published early 2013. Further, another abstract has been submitted for consideration by IDEA and UNECA for the 'Youth, ICTs, Social Media and Political Change' pencilled for September 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
