Dreams and Realities for South Africa: Use of Official Languages Act, 2012

Language policies are the cornerstone that establish and maintain communication amongst people. Proper communication, particularly amongst speakers of many languages in a country such as South Africa hinges heavily on perceptions regarding the status of the languages used in that specific country. According to the Republic of South African Constitution (Act 108 of 1996), South Africa has eleven official languages. Nine of these official languages (the indigenous African languages), are regarded as historically disadvantaged, while the remaining two, viz. English and Afrikaans enjoyed official recognition under the then ‘apartheid’ era that lasted until 1994. The previously disadvantaged African languages still lag in terms of development, when compared to English and to a lesser extent, Afrikaans. To address this challenge and reverse the status quo, several measures have been undertaken by government, including the passing of an Act called, Use of Official Languages Act, 2012. This Act aims at managing the use of the official languages optimally, with special emphasis on the previously marginalised languages. South Africa is known for developing good language policies but often criticised for producing such good policies for one good purpose only - to display them in office shelves. Following this state of affairs, this article therefore examines the implementation challenges regarding this Act and suggest what could be done to successfully implement it in South Africa. Second, the article also seeks to alleviate the perceived apathy in implementing language policies, particularly in South Africa, and with implications for Africa as a whole.

Reviewer Acknowledgements

Studies in Media and Communication (SMC) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Many authors, regardless of whether SMC publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for this issue.Reviewers for Volume 9, Number 2Andreas Veglis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GreeceAyşe Aslı Sezgin, Çukurova University, TurkeyBernard Naledzani Rasila, University of Venda, South AfricaCamelia Cmeciu, Danubius University of Galati, RomaniaCarmen Pérez-Sabater, Universitat Politècnica de València, SpainImed Ben Labidi, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, USAJavier Serrano Puche, University of Navarra, SpainJianbo Hou, Xi'an International Studies University, ChinaMaría José Serrano, Universidad de La Laguna, SpainNina Gunnarsson, Jönköping university, SwedenPhilemon Bantimaroudis, University of Cyprus, CyprusRefat Aljumily, Newcastle University, UKYi Luo, Montclair State University, USAYoung Joon Lim, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA Patricia JohnsonEditorial AssistantOn behalf of,The Editorial Board of Studies in Media and CommunicationRedfame Publishing9450 SW Gemini Dr. #99416Beaverton, OR 97008, USAURL: http://smc.redfame.com

Diseases in the Tabloids: Mapping Newspaper Narratives on Lassa Fever Epidemic in Nigeria

Lassa fever is a recurrent endemic disease in Nigeria with increasing seroprevalence in many parts of the country. In the absence of effective preventive vaccines, the mass media are being deployed as independent and complementary interventions to sensitise the public on appropriate measures for mitigating the spread of the disease. This study evaluates the different coverage patterns and frames that dominate newspaper narratives on Lassa fever epidemic in Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 420 editions of six leading Nigerian newspapers published between January 2015 and December 2019. Findings showed that although the epidemic was frequently mentioned in newspaper articles, its coverage was mainly episodic with little media prominence, and its framing was too inadequate to compel the desired public health response. Hence, the study recommends that journalists and newspaper editors must dutifully engage in the publication of Lassa fever outbreak preparedness articles to significantly curb the spread of the disease in Nigeria.

‘We Will Never Forget’: Thematic Analysis of Digital Media Contents during the 2021 #EndSARSMemorial protests in Nigeria

The thrust of the study was to appraise the influence of social media in contentious politics and solidarity building by interrogating themes from tweets and posts of digital activists during the 2021 #EndSARSMemorial protests in Nigeria. The content analysis of digital media posts and tweets (N=24,688) show that social media platforms were used as a vehicle for provoking solidarity contagion that ignited a memorial for fallen activists in Nigeria. Findings further demonstrate that protesters used social media platforms to reveal how vexed, and anguished they were as well as imprecating the authorities. Data reveal that there is a substantial relationship between celebrity posts and tweets and positive hedonic experiential valence about the 2021 #EndSARSMemorial protests. Finally, this study explicates and contributes to the theorisation of the affective theory.

How Does Social Media Influence College Students to Recognize Entrepreneurial Opportunities? - Evidence from China

The rapid development of information technology is having a profound impact on college students' entrepreneurial behavior,and accurately recognize entrepreneurial opportunities will affect the success or failure of individual entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to explore if and how social media influences college students to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities. A systematic review of relevant research results including social media in the field of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship of college students, etc., this paper puts forward five dimensions and six hypotheses, including entrepreneurial alertness, priori knowledge, social capital, entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, and social media. A total of 508 valid questionnaires were obtained by designing questionnaires, organizing surveys, and screening data for college students. Through the reliability and validity test, correlation analysis, and hypothesis test analysis of the returned questionnaire data, all six hypotheses were verified. The empirical analysis shows that social media can significantly affect the recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities for college entrepreneurs. priori knowledge and entrepreneurial alertness play a mediating role and a moderating role respectively in this process. Meanwhile, priori knowledge plays a significant positive role in promoting entrepreneurial vigilance. Social capital has a direct and positive impact on college students' entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, and plays a moderating role in the impact of social media on college students' entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.

Script Structures in Modern Audio-Visual Art

Every last detail in a work of art of any scale depends on the correctness of its construction. This study reveals the essence of audio-visual text as an artistic area that develops and operates in the modern media landscape. The problem of determining the structure of the audio-visual script at the present stage of development was one of the most significant issues addressed in this study. The purpose of the study is to explore the main stages of creating a script for an audio-visual work as an intricate complex object that is the result of creative and production activities. The primary research method was the method of analysis, which managed to achieve the goal of discussing the current stages of creating and structuring the script of an audio-visual work. The task of compositional construction of the script for an audio-visual work is to unite its elements into one, giving the future work logic, harmony, and integrity. It was established which modern methods of writing a script are the most effective in practice. It was concluded that the use of modern methods of structuring the script in creating an audio-visual product contributes to its improvement as a work of art. The practical significance of the study is that the methodological basis of creating the script presented in this study can be used to construct any audio-visual product.

Development of Communicative Competencies During Integrated Analysis and Synthesis of a Text

Text is the main tool for designing and managing the learning and education processes. The communicative competencies of the individual are an important component of students' activities including working with documents, the ability to conduct interpersonal and social dialogue, and speak publicly. There is a theory that it is possible to develop a student's personal competence effectively through the integration of academic disciplines which in turn necessitates methods selected by the authors. The purpose of this study is to develop a project-based pedagogical technology that involves complex analytical and synthetic work with the text (CASWT) and contributes to the development of students' communicative competencies. In the course of this study methods of empirical and qualitative observation, analysis and synthesis were used. The practice of combining independent work with text and self-control using subject-specific thematic tests in the Moodle learning environment has been empirically researched. The content of the gained knowledge, faculties, skills, and activities of students after completing project tasks for working with text and communications, which ensure general and special (professional, subject) competencies of applicants for various specialties in compliance with the standards of higher education of Ukraine, is studied. The results of the study are developed graph-diagram which describes logical connections between the main text subjects, observation, analysis and evaluation of the results of work during several years, which allow increasing the quality of performance of the students and their psychological confidence, persuasiveness during studying other disciplines in next years of study.

Transformation of Political Communication Functions in the Regional Political Process (Evidence from the Tyumen Oblast)

The relevance of the policy areas reflected in this scientific article stems from the essential and peculiar fact that the entire international community increases interest in political communication because of its functionality and flexibility. The transformation of communication functions of a political nature considered within the constituent entities of the Russian Federation is vital for each of the spheres of State administration. It is the multifaceted nature of the topic that determines its importance in both academic and policy circles. A literate and intensive study of the development of political communication makes it possible to conclude the multifaceted influence of the historical era on the political structure of both the country as a whole and the subjects in particular. This aspect shows the diversity of communication functions in the State's political life and the likelihood of their lasting transformation. This article aims to give qualitative consideration to the various functions of political communication, using the example of the Tyumen region as an essential subject of the Russian Federation. The primary method of investigation of this problem was the analysis of scientific works of leading political scientists, philosophers and sociologists. Thanks to these works, the authors were able to trace the relationship between an era, type of the State, its social orientation and the development of political communication functions in terms of regional forms. The functions of political communication in the regional process of the Tyumen Oblast are directly dependent on institutional and functional groups and lobby associations, which are common in all regions. Knowing the dependency of functions on the well-defined aspects of political organization in an article helps to predict, or at least track, the likelihood of new functional diversity in political communication and steer it in the right direction.

The Effect of the Internal Audit Roles and Auditor Professionalism on Fraud Prevention

This research aimed to find the internal audit roles (X1) and the auditor professionalism (X2) at Fraud Prevention in NJC Bank in Kuningan Regency. Samples of this research were the NJC Bank employees. The data collection used in this research is the questionnaire method and the data processing used the SPSS program. The analysis results show that the role of the internal auditor has a significant effect on fraud prevention (H1), the auditor professionalism significantly affects fraud prevention (H2), and the test results simultaneously show that the two independent variables have a significant effect on fraud prevention. Supported the results of the implication of this analysis is to improve the roles of the internal auditors and the professionalism of auditor internal could increase fraud prevention.

Intermedia Agenda Setting and Grassroots Collectives: Assessing Global Media’s Influence on Greek News Outlets

This study focuses on a variety of grassroots collectives that emerged during the Greek economic crisis and aims to record activists’ own perceptions regarding the way that domestic media reacted after these collectives featured on the front pages of global news outlets. Drawing on 10 in depth interviews with activists participating in five grassroots collectives, this study brings together social movement and communications theoretical frameworks. Interviewees were asked about their perceptions regarding the role that global elite media coverage may have played in the salience of their endeavors in domestic media. Subsequently, we tested their personal testimonies by implementing a time series analysis on three Greek newspapers for a period of seven days before and after a front page publication in global elite media. Findings suggest that there is a big discrepancy between the perceived and the actual impact of global elite media on the agenda of domestic newspapers. To this end, further research should be undertaken to specify the exact characteristics that influence which grassroots collective will gain prominence in the public realm.