Doctoral Degrees (Journalism)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Journalism) by Author "Ndlovu, Mphathisi"

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    Sites of remembrance and forgetting : new media (re)constructions of distinct Ndebele collective memory and history in the context of hegemonic Zimbabwean Nationalism
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Ndlovu, Mphathisi; Botma, Gabriel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines new media reconstructions of Ndebele collective memory and history in the context of hegemonic Zimbabwean Nationalism. Situated within the overlapping fields of cultural studies, journalism and media studies, the research explores the possibilities of news websites as liberatory spaces for ethnic minorities, such as the Ndebele people, to recollect, mediate and circulate their historical narratives that have been marginalised and suppressed in the dominant nationalist spheres. Given that new media have been lauded as counter-hegemonic sites that promote political participation, civic engagement and social change, this study contributes to these scholarly engagements by examining how Ndebele people are appropriating three news websites (Newzimbabwe.com, Bulawayo24.com and Umthwakazireview.com) to resurrect, preserve and commemorate their repressed historical memories. In focusing on a Ndebele community that is haunted by traumatic memories of the state-orchestrated post-colonial violence, this study probes how new media are empowering the subjugated communities to recount, mediate and share their memories of past events that remain occluded, repressed and criminalised in official discourses. This research is premised on a social constructionist understanding that the media do not reflect a reality “out there”, but rather construct our knowledge of the social world. Drawing upon theoretical insights from cultural studies, this study examines how Ndebele communities employ new media artefacts to construct, in other words, their lived experiences, and to reconstruct their historical imaginations. This study is framed within a qualitative methodology, as the aim was to explore meaning-making practices in cyberspace. The Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), a strand of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), was selected as a method for analysing how language use serves to reproduce and challenge asymmetrical power relations amongst social groups. Data was selected purposively from three news websites, and genres such as editorials, opinion pieces, discussion forums, YouTube videos and readers’ comments were analysed to make sense of the reconstructions of Ndebele public memories. The research findings indicate that Ndebele people are employing new media to recollect, preserve and transmit their pre-colonial and post-colonial memories in ways that not only repudiate hegemonic Zimbabwean Nationalism, but also contribute to the resurgence of Ndebele secessionist imaginations. Thus, new media are sites of memory that are not only transforming and democratising the processes of narrating, preserving and disseminating historical memories, but also are reinvigorating and heightening Ndebele nationalism.