Browsing by Author "Baillie-Stewart, Adrian"

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    An exploration of South African news organisations’ #FeesMustFall tweet-activity on the Twitter networked public sphere
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Baillie-Stewart, Adrian; Botma, Gabriel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study contributes towards the study of journalism in the age of social media and the role of the news organisation in the Twitter networked public sphere. The convergence of news media and social networks has resulted in the media industry being “challenged by a complex environment” (Villi, Matikainen & Khaldarova, 2016: 289). The primary focus of the study was to explore South African news organisations’ #FeesMustFall tweet-activity that took place on the Twitter networked public sphere for the period 15 to 23 October 2015. On 22 October 2015 the #FeesMustFall hashtag was trending on Twitter and featured prominently in news-media articles, stories and news reports. On 23 October 2015, President Zuma announced a zero fee increase for the 2016 academic year (Hosken, 2015). Relevant to the #FeesMustFall debate, this study endeavoured to determine how South African news organisations played their journalistic role (or not) on Twitter. This was facilitated by investigating South African news organisations’ use of the Twitter platform’s unique microblog features (e.g., direct messaging (DM), @mentions, and URL links) in their tweets. The theoretical paradigms of media functionalism, the information society and the networked public sphere were combined to establish a unique hybrid theoretical model that best-informs and best-supports the academic analysis of phenomena specific to this study. The study employed the use of a mixedmethods computer-assistive methodology, using the Tableau® software application in order to process South African news organisations’ tweets that featured the “#FeesMustFall” hashtag. The findings reveal some shortcomings and inconsistencies in news organisations’ quality of journalistic-type information that was published on Twitter. The study concludes with a discussion and a set of recommendations on three levels: the empirical, theoretical and methodological levels. The primary recommendation is that South African news organisations might wish to relook their current Twittercontent publishing strategy and refine their best practices for Twitter usage.