"Becoming a somebody": fraternal lodges and the Coloured middle class in Johannesburg 1918 -1938

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Structure and Experience in the Making of Apartheid, 6-10 February, 1990

‘Diamond ladies and a dream of hell': Fah-fee and the Coloured working class of Johannesburg 1918-1936

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 12 March, 1990. Not to be quoted without the Author's permission

Mobile monitors: protecting the will of the people

The use of mobile phone technology in recent African elections has empowered citizens, allowing them to put in place the checks and balances needed to make elections freer and fairer in Africa - and elsewhere in the world, writes Harry Dugmore

"Communal News Work" as Sustainable Business Model: Recent Print-Centric News Start-Ups in Regional Queensland

The Covid-19 emergency in Australia precipitated the closure of dozens of print newspapers across Australia but, conversely, the heightened state of anxiety of the early Covid-19 period amplified the need for local information and communality. This was the impetus for a wave of print-centric newspaper start-ups. We previously examined 22 Covid-19 era start-ups in Queensland (see Barnes et al., 2022, p. 21-34) and found that their editors/publishers universally "reassert(ed) and claim(ed) more vigorously the normative values associated with community journalism as 'social glue.'" These proprietors deployed an "affective rationale" as the foundation of their journalism and their "lean start-up" business models. We called this a "community cohesion model." Returning to these start-ups 18 months after the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted in Queensland, we find that about 60% of these newspapers have continued operating, still drawing on deep wells of community support. They are transitioning to more conventional "newsonomics," seeking - like the news organisations they replaced - to expand their advertising and raise other revenue, keep costs low, and expand their digital channels while remaining focussed on their core print offering. Drawing on in-depth interviews and editorial statements by editors/owners of these start-ups, as well as a close examination of advertising in the surviving newspapers, this study argues that adopting affective "hybrid" business models can be a basis for news organisations' longer-term viability

"Knowing all the names": The Ebenezer Congregational Church and the creation of community among the coloured population of Johannesburg 1894-1939

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August, 1991This paper examines the establishment, growth and influence of the Ebenezer Congregational Church in Johannesburg, over a period of almost Fifty years. Although not the largest Coloured congregation in Johannesburg, Ebenezer played a particular and significant role in lives of the Reef's early Coloured population. A later denominational history recalled proudly that Ebenezer became "the largest [single] Church in the Union, and probably the largest single organisation of its kind in South Africa, and, maybe, in the world". From an initial membership of 26 in 1894, the church grew, by the 1930s, to 5O0O confirmed members, and many more "adherents" and Sunday school scholars. Lacking the resources of the large European denominations, Ebenezer nonetheless came to be regarded, in the words of a latter-day devotee: "the church of the Coloured people". "Everybody knows", the member continued, "that what the Ebenezer church did for Coloured people on the Reef no other church has ever done." An analysis of the Ebenezer Congregational Church reveals a good deal about how "community" came to be constituted among Johannesburg's Coloured population before the Second World War. This in turn helps to contextualise the particular political responses of the Coloured community on the Reef in this period, which is a major concern of the broader study of which this paper is a part

Media framing of recent LGBT rights debates: the contrasting cases of South Africa, Uganda and the USA

This paper compares key moments in the debates about LGBT rights, and the media coverage related to these key moments, in South Africa, Uganda and the USA. No country permitted same-sex marriage by the turn of millennium in 2000. Today, 15 countries do, as do two-thirds of states in the USA. By contrast, in some African countries, legislative regimes and social attitudes are shifting retrogressively, with the introduction of punitive laws against both ‘homosexual acts’ and the ‘promotion’ of same-sex relationships. While the drivers of progressive shifts in liberal democracies - such as LGBT activism, the impact of AIDS, and changes in the stances of professional health organisations - have also been at least partially present in many African countries, it is puzzling why these factors have not prevented an increase in repression in many African countries. As this paper outlines, the new laws have had immediate and dire impacts on the health of LGBT communities in the affected countries

Meeting democracy’s challenge developments:

In a context of declining public participation, can mobile phone technology and 'new media' be used to involve more people in local decision-making, asks Harry Dug more in this exploration of the implications of mobile communication on journalism in the developing world

An ethics of care for health journalists (and their editors): doing journalism.

Health journalists are not immune from pressures to break great stories before the opposition does and, in the digital age, all stories have to be entertaining and enticing to be read. So how do we think about the eth-ics of health journalism in the 21st century? Does health journalism, because it is about health, a special case, require different ethics to that of other subjects covered by journalists

“MISINFODEMICS”— UNPACKING THE CORE NARRATIVES OF MULTINATIONAL DRINK COMPANIES’ ONLINE MARKETING CAMPAIGNS AIMED AT YOUNG PEOPLE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Multinational food and drink companies have increased their social media marketing budget and efforts and some have been rewarded with increased youth consumption of highly refined snack foods and Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) even as overall consumption of SSBs, in many more developed countries, is falling. (Brand-Miller & Barclay, 2017; Chaloupka, Powell, & Warner, 2019). This strategy seems to be working particularly well in Africa. But at the same time, multinational companies are also waging more existential battles against a growing public awareness of the role their products play in epidemics of overweight and obesity (Du, Tugendhaft, Erzse, & Hofman, 2018; Nestle, 2018). This paper explores how ‘Big Food’ multinationals has tried to frame these debates around issues of ‘energy balance’ and highlight SSB companies’ role in promoting the exercise side of their ‘energy balance’ frame. (Ruskin, Stuckler, Serôdio, Barlow, & McKee, 2018, Nestle, 2018). This messaging, this paper argues, propagates misinformation, and is implicated in the current epidemic of poor nutrition in both developing (and developed) countries. Using both thematic content analysis, augmented with audience reception study through focus groups sessions, this paper explores how these companies’ social media marketing combines with their more traditional marketing channels to simultaneously sell product *and* defend their products right to be sold untaxed and unrestricted. The paper explores how these messages resonate with young adults in Nigeria and South Africa, and finds that the SSB companies' overall campaigns and particularly the social media components, are effective in countering public health messaging

Media framing of recent LGBT rights debates: the contrasting cases of South Africa, Uganda and the USA

This paper compares key moments in the debates about LGBT rights, and the media coverage related to these key moments, in South Africa, Uganda and the USA. No country permitted same-sex marriage by the turn of millennium in 2000. Today, 15 countries do, as do two-thirds of states in the USA. By contrast, in some African countries, legislative regimes and social attitudes are shifting retrogressively, with the introduction of punitive laws against both ‘homosexual acts’ and the ‘promotion’ of same-sex relationships. While the drivers of progressive shifts in liberal democracies - such as LGBT activism, the impact of AIDS, and changes in the stances of professional health organisations - have also been at least partially present in many African countries, it is puzzling why these factors have not prevented an increase in repression in many African countries. As this paper outlines, the new laws have had immediate and dire impacts on the health of LGBT communities in the affected countries