An Ordinary Country

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-690
Author(s):  
Dilip Menon

South Africans see themselves as a nation that loves sport, but with the World Cup in football imminent, there appears to be a sense of exhaustion both in the media and among the population. One important reason is that football does not dominate the public imagination of sport, as cricket and rugby do. The game is played and loved in the black townships, the fortunes of African football-playing nations are followed devotedly, and players such as Didier Drogba have a larger-than-life standing in the country. But football has not become a metaphor for the nation, as rugby and cricket have become. Whether this reflects a racial affiliation alone is hard to get at, because the local team, Bafana (which could be genially translated as “the boys”), are eighty-eighth in the FIFA rankings, without a ghost of a chance of winning the Cup, while at rugby and cricket, South Africa are world beaters.

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Luisa Mazinter ◽  
Michael M. Goldman ◽  
Jennifer Lindsey-Renton

Subject area Marketing, Sports marketing and Social media marketing. Study level/applicability Graduate level. Case overview This case, based on field research and multiple secondary sources, documents the 12-month period since early 2014 during which Cricket South Africa (CSA) developed the Protea Fire brand for their national men’s cricket team, known as the Proteas. In mid-2014, Marc Jury, the Commercial and Marketing manager of CSA set up a project team to take the previously in-house Protea Fire brand public. With the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand less than a year away, Jury worked with a diverse project team of Proteas players, cricket brand managers and external consultants to build a public brand identity for the national team, to nurture greater fan affinity and to mobilize South Africans behind their team for the World Cup. The project team developed a range of Protea Fire multimedia content as the core of the campaign. These included video diaries, scripts which were written by the Proteas players themselves, player profile videos, motivational team-talk videos and good luck video messages featuring ordinary and famous South Africans. Having invested in creating this content, the project team faced the difficult task of allocating a limited media budget to broadcast and amplify the content. Another significant challenge was to ensure that the Proteas team values were authentically communicated across all content, including via the social media strategy using Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. As the World Cup tournament kicked off on February 14th 2015, South Africa was well placed to overcome their previous inability to reach a final, although Jury wondered whether another exit in the knockout round would weaken the strong and positive emotions the Protea Fire campaign had ignited. With the last two balls remaining in South Africa’s semi-final game against New Zealand on March 24th 2015, and the home team requiring just five runs to win, Jury joined 60 million South Africans hoping that Protea Fire was strong enough. The case concludes with South Africa losing the semi-final game and Jury turning his attention to how the #ProteaFire campaign should respond. Expected learning outcomes This study aimed to analyse the development of a sport team brand and a megaevent campaign; to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a marketing campaign; and to consider appropriate brand responses to the team’s failure to deliver on expectations. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Dwyer ◽  
Olivier Arifon

Based on literature review and interviews with journalists, we argue that the BRICS countries are constructing a collective vision, guided by logics of recognition and of transformation. The production of discourse reaches its high point during the BRICS leaders’ summits. To go beyond analysis of the discourse revealed in the media, this article examines projects, thereby aiming to qualify and label the justificatory discourses, in order to develop an understanding of intentions. The BRICS countries have become a reference point as the press increasingly makes comparisons between these countries. The notion of recognition, present in the political elites, also appears as a part of the public imagination and in the press. The leaders too seek transformation. The first official multilateral institution founded by the BRICS countries was the New Development Bank. Current efforts indicate the development of common scientific and technological research initiatives and official support for the establishment of an innovative BRICS Network University. Initiatives will appear as these countries try to consolidate their position.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Carroll

Who counts as a gay father? The answer to this question reaches beyond demographics, encompassing histories of family inequality, LGBTQ identity, and social movements. Presentations of gay fathers in the media and scholarship are often skewed toward white, middle-class, coupled men who became parents via adoption or surrogacy. Yet the demographic majority of gay parents continue to have children in heterosexual unions. My dissertation research uses ethnographic and interview data to argue that contemporary narratives of gay fatherhood have prematurely dismissed gay parents who have children in heterosexual unions. The choice to exclude gay fathers via heterosexual unions can be attributed to emerging narratives of LGBTQ identity and political strategies of the marriage equality movement. The consequences of gay fathers’ disproportionate visibility have led to a stratified system of access to gay parenting resources. By identifying the mechanisms that undermine gay fathers’ diversity in the public imagination and in gay parenting community settings, my dissertation amplifies the voices of marginalized gay fathers and offers an intersectional approach to the study of LGBTQ families through a social movements framework.


Author(s):  
Alison Amanda James

The televising and/or any other form of broadcasting of judicial hearings and of criminal trials in particular is a controversial topic that has not only provoked debate and been argued about by academics, the media and the public for years, but continues to be argued about with few signs of abatement. Until recently South Africa had largely escaped becoming embroiled in this provocative topic, as the live broadcasting of criminal trials from South African courtrooms did not occur. The situation has changed, though, following the recent live televising of a full criminal trial – namely, the trial of South African Para-Olympic champion Oscar Pistorius. Given that this trial signalled South Africa's debut into the world of the live televising of criminal trial proceedings, the question is asked why exactly South Africa ventured into this contentious legal territory.It must be emphasised that the intention of this contribution is solely to explore the court's consideration of the constitutional mandates and rights that were contained in both the application and the opposing arguments pertaining to the live broadcast the trial of Oscar Pistorius. This note will not attempt to examine or even approach the far greater question of whether criminal trials should be televised or not, a topic better left to future research.      


2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Pınar Batur

While I was editing this interview with Orhan Pamuk in the Spring 2007, the media exploded with him: “Pamuk Wins the Nobel Prize!” It was not surprising, because for sometime now Orhan Pamuk has been known the world over as the “super hero” of Turkish literature. In Turkey, once again, the media turned its gaze away from Iraq, EU, unemployment, and questions of accountability in government, to contemplate why, how and what Pamuk had won, and the question of who is Orhan Pamuk? As the intensity of the debate increased, I began to wonder if Orhan Pamuk himself would be following it as if it was about somebody else. It certainly did not sound like the dissonance could be about one person, as the public contemplated him, unfolding multiple layers of his political convictions, his nationalism, his character, family, marriage, and private life. As the attention to his work disappeared, he was processed and reproduced by the media, with an effort that surpassed the media frenzy regarding his trial for his statements on genocide. Pamuk the author was replaced by Pamuk the image on the pages of tabloids. A year ago, when I asked if she had read Orhan Pamuk, a young woman in Istanbul had inquired, “Is he somebody?” Oh! Yes!, he is somebody, actually he has become more than that.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Silva Quaye ◽  
Yvonne Saini

Learning outcomes Amongst other things, at the end of this case discussion, the student should be able to: diagnose situational factors that contribute to a brand’s positioning; explore important issues in implementing brand positioning strategies; use relevant models for understanding a firm’s internal and external environments to inform strategic decisions about customers and competition; demonstrate an understanding of target audience; identify the unique attributes of the competition to inform a firm’s positioning and competitive strategy. Case overview/synopsis Kaya FM derives its name from the isiZulu word “ikhaya”, which means “home”. The name reflects the mission of the radio station to provide a home for black South Africans who were denied many opportunities during the apartheid era in South Africa. Kaya FM has been broadcasting since 1997, following the deregulation of the media landscape in South Africa. However, by 2018, the radio landscape has become very challenging. Mainstream advertisers still do not consider Kaya FM as a preferred channel to reach their target audience. Overall, radio listenership is dwindling and advertising sales growth is not encouraging. Greg Maloka, Kaya FM’s station manager is considering how to preserve the station’s unique positioning as it competes with both more dominant stations and new entrants so that Kaya FM can truly be a home for Afropolitans for many years to come. Complexity academic level Honour’s and master’s level, as well as executive education delegates. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (324) ◽  
pp. 183-200
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Giereło-Klimaszewska

The contemporary functioning of the media is inextricably linked with what is happening in the world ofpolitics. The case of the Mafra corporation and the behaviour of its owner Andrej Babiš shows how throughthe interrelations of these two spheres the media can influence the shaping of political decisions, opinionsor preferences in the elections. The penetration of business and political interests, related informal layoutsand dependencies as well as high media instrumentation allow us to claim that today the process ofoligarchisation of the Czech media is highly advanced. This is connected with the increasing concentrationof ownership of media companies and intervention of the owners into the published content, but also withchanges in journalism itself. The media cease to be a “watch dog” controlling the authorities and caringabout the quality of public debate. Instead, they are creating reality, more and more openly, attemptingto manipulate the public, which results in less and less trust on their part and poses a serious threat todemocracy.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Ayish

Communication has proven to be an integral component of the terrorism phenomenon. To unravel the opportunities and challenges embedded in employing the media during terrorism, this chapter draws on research findings and practical experiences around the world to identify prime actors associated with this issue and to describe their objectives, tactics, and channels of communication. It is argued here that media constitute a vital resource in the war on terror with both terrorist organizations and states harnessing communication to advance their causes in the public sphere. In this context, four categories of media users have been identified: media institutions, terrorist organizations, governments, and citizen groups. The chapter discusses enduring issues associated with each actor's use of media and calls for evolving new conceptual frameworks for understanding media use during terrorism. It concludes by arguing that while we seem to have a huge pool of research findings and practical experiences related to using the media during terrorism, we seem to have a critical shortage in how we conceptually account for the different variables that define the use of media in terrorism situations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan A. Boesak

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, 50 years ago on 04 April 1968, has been recalled in the United States with memorial services, conferences, public discussions and books. In contrast, the commemoration in 2017 of the death of Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, 50 years ago on December 1967, passed almost unremarked. That is to our detriment. Yet, these two Christian fighters for freedom, in different contexts, did not only have much in common, but they also left remarkably similar and equally inspiring legacies for South Africa, the United States and the world in the ways they lived their lives in complete faith commitment to ideals and ways of struggle that may guide us in the ongoing struggles to make the world a more just, peacable and humane place. For South African reflections on our ethical stance in the fierce, continuing struggles for justice, dignity and the authenticity of our democracy, I propose that these two leaders should be considered in tandem. We should learn from both. This article engages Martin Luther King Jr’s belief in the ‘inescapable network of mutuality’, applies it to the struggle for freedom in South Africa and explores the ways in which South Africans can embrace these ethical ideals in facing the challenges of post-liberation.


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