Theses and Dissertations (Communication Science)https://hdl.handle.net/10500/1832024-03-28T09:44:56Z2024-03-28T09:44:56ZAn analysis of the implementation of communication integration in Metropolitan Life Insurance in South AfricaSokana, Nozimangahttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/308762024-03-13T09:40:19Z2023-04-01T00:00:00ZAn analysis of the implementation of communication integration in Metropolitan Life Insurance in South Africa
Sokana, Nozimanga
This study evaluated communication implementation within Metropolitan Life Insurance (“Metropolitan”) in South Africa. In the current volatile and competitive market setting where companies have similar offerings, compounded by easily accessible information due to technological advancement, having the best products and services does not warrant the success of an organisation. Organisations must invest in relationships with stakeholders to remain relevant to their needs and have a competitive advantage through effective and efficient communication. The prevailing economic headwinds, alongside the scepticism and lack of confidence in companies because of irrefutable corporate scandals, obligate organisations to conduct their business practices transparently.
The South African insurance industry is highly competitive and dynamic, especially post-1994 when the reintegration into the international economy took place. The industry is one of those under constant scrutiny mainly because it offers risk management solutions in which the insurance company warrants payment for an uncertain future event. At the same time, they require the customer to pay a certain amount of money as a premium in exchange for the protection promised. They sell a promise. In this regard, insurance companies should implement communication integration (CI) to build their organisational stakeholder groups and intentionally coordinate stakeholder stakes into consistent and targeted communication behaviour.
Qualitative and quantitative techniques were applied to collect the data for this study. The qualitative data was collected through telephonic and video interviews and analysed through thematic analysis, where repeated patterns in the data set were identified, while online surveys were used to collect the quantitative data, which was descriptively analysed. The study found that Metropolitan needs policies, frameworks or models that guide communication integration. Metropolitan also needs to learn how to implement it. The study also revealed that there are attempts to align internal messages for consistency; however, external messages are not consistent with internal messages.
Lastly, it was found that the organisational strategic alignment of messages is aligned; however, the practical implementation thereof is not possible as these are not broken down into achievable objectives that employees can implement.
The study, therefore, recommends that policies, models, and frameworks that guide the implementation of CI be developed at Metropolitan. The study recommends that Metropolitan syncs internal messages and external, procedural and product messages with internal messages so that CI is achieved. Again, the study recommends that Metropolitan breaks down its strategies, mission, and vision into achievable objectives so what it says externally is implantable internally. Furthermore, a measuring instrument should be developed to evaluate the extent of integrated communication as proposed by VanRiel’s model of organising and coordinating the communication process.
2023-04-01T00:00:00ZInvestigating Covid-19 twitter sentiments during the 2021 vaccine roll-out in South AfricaJimoh, Sinenhlanhlahttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/308182024-02-15T10:48:32Z2022-01-01T00:00:00ZInvestigating Covid-19 twitter sentiments during the 2021 vaccine roll-out in South Africa
Jimoh, Sinenhlanhla
Vaccination is a vital component in the control of a pandemic like COVID-19. However, to a certain extent, COVID-19 vaccines have been met with public fear and scepticism, thereby making it difficult for communication practitioners, health authorities and health experts to communicate science-based information on the vaccines. Social media have been proven to play a significant role in the low acceptability of vaccines. The fundamental objective of this research was to investigate the sentiment of tweets and themes within those tweets on COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa, from January to May 2021.
Twitter is one of the most effective platforms for monitoring vaccine sentiments with the view of informing communication campaigns of the proactive use of social media during disease outbreaks and identifying, responding to and avoiding vaccine misinformation. The results of the study hold potential interest for organisations responsible for the uptake of vaccines, such as the Department of Health, regional health organisations, like the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, global health organisations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and social science researchers.
The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, while Meltwater Media Intelligence was utilised to collect data. The Meltwater Media Intelligence tool was programmed to track and identify tweets concerning COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa, from January to May 2021. To acquire relevant tweets, the program browsed and indexed tweets by using machine-learning algorithms and an online Boolean searches. Tweets were extracted by using prominent hashtags, which resulted in the creation of a research string. After the data had been cleaned, the remaining tweet collection – which consisted of 20 841 original tweets and individual users’ quoted tweets – was analysed.
The sentiment analysis of tweets on COVID-19 vaccines resulted in demonstrating that the majority (85%) of tweets from January 2021 to May 2021 expressed neutral emotions around COVID-19 vaccinations.
Furthermore, tweets with neutral sentiments were the most prevalent during the entire period, whereas tweets with positive sentiments were the least prevalent during this period. Between February and May 2021, negative and positive attitudes were balanced. Furthermore, the thematic analysis of 150 tweets (which have been equally sampled from negative, neutral and positive tweets), between January 2021 to May 2021, on COVID-19 vaccines, revealed a total of 25 topics, which were grouped into seven overarching themes. In descending order, based on the number of tweets, the vaccine delivery and roll-out theme has 37 tweets, which accounts for 24.7%. The next theme, vaccine acceptance, included 30 tweets, which accounted for 20%. The third theme, government trust, had 29 Tweets which accounted for 19.33%. Knowledge of vaccines and vaccination information theme comprised of 19 Tweets accounting for 12.67%. Vaccine hesitancy was the fifth theme with 15 tweets accounting for 10% of the overall sample. The sixth theme, vaccine efficacy and safety, totalled 12 tweets, which accounted for 8.00%. Finally, the theme economic impact gathered the least number of tweets, accounting for eight tweets to make 5.33%.
This study contributes to the emerging picture of COVID-19 related sentiments on Twitter in South Africa. The study shows that Twitter sentiment and thematic analyses can be leveraged by studying the varying sentiments during the roll-out of critical health interventions such as the COVID-19 vaccine.
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZAn analysis of the extent of cyberbullying awareness among the stakeholders in the selected public school in Gauteng, South AfricaNoguba, Nwabisahttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/307942024-02-06T08:49:13Z2023-08-07T00:00:00ZAn analysis of the extent of cyberbullying awareness among the stakeholders in the selected public school in Gauteng, South Africa
Noguba, Nwabisa
Lack of technological infrastructure and poor adoption of digital literacy in South African schools have been cited as some of the factors that impede the success of cyberbullying awareness implementation and monitoring initiatives in schools. The purpose of this study was to analyse the extent of cyberbullying awareness among the stakeholders in a selected public school in Gauteng, South Africa. To achieve this, a literature review on the latest international and local debates on cyberbullying and communication campaigns and strategies was undertaken. Self-awareness theory was used as the guiding theory for the study because of its ability to assess a person’s reaction to and behaviour after exposure to information.
Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and a focus group interview with selected stakeholders (learners, teachers and parents). Through the use of discourse analysis to analyse the interviews, this study found that there was no cyberbullying awareness among the stakeholders within the school system. This lack of awareness was exacerbated by the technological knowledge gap, the non-implementation of a cyberbullying policy and the inability of schools to handle cyberbullying cases.
It is recommended that the Department of Basic Education should conduct ongoing training sessions on the 2012 School Safety Framework, specifically on cyberbullying, and also infuse it into the performance management of school principals. This study will equip the school system to respond to cyberbullying and engage in proactive measures to prevent it. Academically, this study adds to the ongoing discourse on the scourge of gender-based violence in general and cyberbullying in particular as the school system gradually moves into online platforms
2023-08-07T00:00:00ZA textual analysis of three, South African, online newspapers (2021-2022) on the representation of the Economic Freedom FightersLegodi, Nancy Mapulehttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/307612024-01-30T13:47:12Z2023-07-01T00:00:00ZA textual analysis of three, South African, online newspapers (2021-2022) on the representation of the Economic Freedom Fighters
Legodi, Nancy Mapule
This study, entitled “A textual analysis of three, South African, online newspapers (2021-2022) on the representation of the Economic Freedom Fighters”, is a cross-sectional, mixed methods textual analysis investigating how three South African online newspapers, namely the Daily Maverick, City Press, and the Mail & Guardian represented the political party, Economic Freedom Fighters. The analysis focuses on texts produced and disseminated between January 2021 and June 2022, with the target population being the written texts and images from the above-mentioned online newspapers; specifically, all the stories reporting on the Economic Freedom Fighters (henceforth referred to as the ‘EFF’). Articles from these publications that ran with the EFF (or its member/s) in their headlines, were used as primary data; whereas other articles that related to the EFF or to this study, were approached as secondary data. Relying on purposive sampling, the researcher visited the websites of these newspapers to access stories written about the EFF; the method was deemed suitable to maximise understanding of the research problem.
Through the use of her personal laptop and data bundles, the researcher was able to access the Internet, identify and sample the required online articles, and finally analyse the articles in terms of the textual and visual elements thereof. The articles were analysed to determine whether the newspapers represented the EFF positively, negatively, or neutrally during the given time period. From a political communication perspective, the study contributes to how newspapers, or the media in general, gather and report political content, and it is hoped that the findings will promote objective and unbiased reporting.
2023-07-01T00:00:00Z