A rhetorical analysis of SABC3's flagship Bulletin : In what ways does the SABC succeed and/or fail in persuading viewers that its version of the news is credible?

This dissertation sets out to add to the existing body of research on the SABC by performing a rhetorical analysis of SABC 3's flagship English news bulletin, broadcast between 18:30 and 19:30, weekdays, and 19:00 and 19:30 on weekends. The purpose of this analysis is to determine the manner in which the SABC attempts to position itself as a credible news source through its use of the rhetorical tools of persuasion. As texts presented to an audience with the intention of persuading them of certain ideas, it is possible to study and analyse television news reports by employing the same rhetorical analysis techniques that one would use when analysing a political speech or any other rhetorical text. This dissertation is broken up into two major sections. Part one will discuss the theories and research around the notion of television news as rhetorical texts, setting the stage for part two of the dissertation, which will actually perform a rhetorical analysis on selected news stories aired on SABC 3 over a period of 30 days. The key conclusions from this research are that the SABC frequently employs the pathos proof in its reports, primarily through the reporters using emotive language in their scripts, even though this is not always accompanied by corresponding footage. Instead of relying primarily on reporters to state and interpret the emotional aspects of the story, the broadcaster should be using its visuals to do this, drawing on the television journalism principle of 'show, don't tell', where visuals are the primary means through which a story is told, not the words. What the broadcaster should instead be doing is using the logos proof more, to make sound arguments for some of the claims that are made in its reports. The second key conclusion is that the broadcaster relies on the epideictic genre of rhetoric in most of its reports, when the deliberative and judicial genres would be more fitting. The SABC has lost a significant number of viewers from the days when it was the sole television news broadcaster in South Africa, and there were no other alternatives. This dissertation shows that one of the main reasons for this is that the public broadcaster is failing to produce its news reports in a manner that correctly employs the tools of rhetoric to persuade viewers that its version of the news is credible

Persuasion and the "mediatisation" of culture: a rhetorical criticism of South African television news reports on crime and the criminal justice system

This study undertakes a rhetorical analysis of South African television news reports on the criminal justice system. The aim is to build on the existing rhetoric culture theory by considering the persuasive communicative work performed through the mediatisation of a cultural system. The overarching issues that the study sets out to explore are the persuasive communicative work being performed by South African television news reports on crime and justice and how these reports frame or represent crime, justice, and the criminal justice system in this persuasive communication work. It also analyses the rhetorical strategies and devices employed in these reports. This qualitative study was undertaken using elements of grounded theory methodology and elements of the case study method. The analysis was undertaken on 90 days of prime time news bulletins from SABC and eTV, aired in 2019 and 2020. The Burkean notion of language as symbolic action is the framework that informs this study. The study also draws on Metz's notions on film semiotics and Walton's concept of persuasive argumentation scheme. In critiquing how South African television news reports re-present crime, justice, and the criminal justice system in doing persuasive communicative work and the rhetorical strategies and devices they employ, the study discusses contextual framing as the key strategy employed, and amplification as the most notable rhetorical device. It also highlights that the criminal justice system is virtually ignored in these reports. Instead, the focus is on elements of the system, such as the people, the procedures, and the places. In considering these elements, what emerges is a system whose focus changes from year to year depending on what is topical; a system where women are the primary and secondary victims of crime, and men are active agents both in terms of how they are depicted as criminals and how they are featured as the ones with the solutions to the crime problem; a system that operates in urban areas; and a system whose most important player is the police minister. The study finds that South African television news reports' mediatisation of the criminal justice system employs framing to ensure that the viewer is inclined to interpret the developments being reported on from the journalist's perspective. It also relies on amplification as a rhetorical device that makes salient those aspects that the reporter deems significant to make them stand out to the audience. In the present age where most people's exposure to the justice system is through the mediated experience of watching something about, through the analysis undertaken, the study has theorised that to understand a televised cultural system, we must consider how television frames that system and the aspects of the system that it amplifies as a medium

Ebola and Coronavirus newspaper reports

   This dataset on newspaper coverge of ebola and coronavirus consists of quotes from two publications – The Sowetan, a daily broadsheet from South Africa and the Daily Trust, a Nigerian daily broadsheet. These newspapers are among the most widely read and distributed in their respective countries (Hassan and Azmi 2018; Cowling 2014). The newspaper articles were published over two 31-day periods: 1 August 2014 – 31 August 2014 for Ebola and 23 March 2020 – 23 April 2020 for coronavirus. These periods were chosen because they marked a significant development in the Ebola and Coronavirus outbreak, respectively, and thus marked growing media coverage in the countries being considered. The first period in 2014 was chosen because it came a week after Nigeria reported its first Ebola-related death, marking the beginning of the Ebola outbreak in that country (World Health  Organisation 2014). The second 31-day period, which was in 2020, was chosen because on 23 March 2020, South Africa announced it would be going into a national lockdown to try and mitigate the spread of coronavirus. </p