Masters Degrees (Journalism)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Journalism) by Subject "Africa -- Economic conditions"

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    Representing successful entrepreneurship in the African business environment: A content analysis of Forbes Africa’s cover stories (October 2011 – December 2019/January 2020)
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Sibanda, Alundrah Martina-Ann Dadirai; Rabe, Lizette; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated Forbes Africa’s representation of successful African entrepreneurship in the African business environment through an analysis of the cover stories that the Pan- African business magazine published from October 2011 to December 2019/January 2020. The background of this study was that reports about the state of Africa’s economic growth trajectory recommended the improvement of Africa’s business environment and entrepreneurship as pivotal factors for the continent’s economic growth, thereby necessitating this study which investigated how Pan-African business media such as Forbes Africa represented successful African entrepreneurship to its audience. The theories chosen were Pan-Africanism, agenda setting and framing. The researcher used an intensive case study as the research design and combined quantitative content analysis and qualitative content analysis as methodology. The findings were that the majority of the entrepreneurs that were featured in the sample of Forbes Africa magazine covers were people of colour; the majority of the entrepreneurs that were featured in the sample were male; and the nine African countries represented in the cover sample, in alphabetical order, were Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, with Nigeria and South Africa receiving by far the highest coverage. The dominant themes that were identified about Africa’s business environment from these cover stories were governance, opportunity, diversification, finance, internationalisation, partnership, competition, economy, technology, infrastructure, mergers, electricity, race, gender, and instability. The study concluded that Pan-African media reported on the African business environment by striking three balances, namely, the balance between framing themes as the benefits of the African business environment and presenting themes as the challenges of the African business environment while profiling success stories; the balance between telling the story of the entire continent’s business environment with telling unique stories about each African country which was represented; and the final balance, between telling a truly representative Pan-African story that celebrates African entrepreneurship, while reflecting the true situation on the ground in terms of inequality and wealth disparity in Africa’s business environment.