Representation of Africa online: sourcing practice and frames of reference

The dominant perspective on the representation of Africa in the western media claims that western media coverage is bias and crisis orientated and the liberal perspective claims that the coverage of Africa is not as negative as is often assumed. However, there is a paucity of literature on the representation of Africa online. This research enquiry is relevant because literature claims that the Internet has the potential to resolve the journalistic predicament of representing other culture through political participation and deliberation. But this requires a re-orientation of the sourcing practice of news organization to embrace sensitivity to and knowledge of African cultures. Moreover, the journalistic predicament can be resolved or not depending on the news gathering approach adopted by the news organization. Literature has identified two approaches, that is, ‘gatekeeping’ used mainly by dominant traditional media and ‘gatewatching’ used by alternative media in their quest to counter mainstream ideology. This study examines the impacts of the ‘gatewatching’ approach adopted by Africa Have Your Say (AHYS) website on its representation and frames of reference of Africa. It uses on-site observation, in-depth interviews and textual analysis to gather data. The study found that although the sourcing practice at the AHYS is elaborate and complex, the ‘gatewatching’ approach makes its susceptible to second level agenda setting. Hence, its frame repeats the attributes and tone used by the mainstream traditional media. However, a minority of users did not use repeat this frame in their comments

Arabic validation of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The popularity of using the Internet and related applications has grown in Arabic countries in recent years. Despite numerous advantages in terms of optimizing communications among individuals and social systems, the use of the Internet may in certain cases become problematic and engender negative consequences in daily life. As no instrument in the Arabic language is available, however, to measure excessive Internet use, the goal of the current study was to validate an Arabic version of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Arabic version of the CIUS was administered to a sample of 185 Internet users and exploratory and confirmatory analyses performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>As found previously for the original version, a one-factor model of the CIUS had good psychometric properties and fit the data well. The total score on the CIUS was positively associated with time spent online.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Arabic version of the CIUS seems to be a valid self-report to measure problematic Internet use.</p

The effect of web advertising visual design on online purchase intention: An examination across gender

With web advertising growing to be a huge industry, it is important to understand the effectiveness of web advertisement. In this study we investigate the effects of web advertising visual design (WAVD) purchasing intention within the framework of an integrated model. Nine hypotheses were developed and tested on a dataset of 316 observations collected via a questionnaire survey. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) indicate that while web advertising visual cues influence consumers' purchasing intention through advertising attitudes and brand attitudes, they do not have direct effects on purchasing intention. Further results on the moderating role of gender suggest that web advertising visual cues have direct effect on consumers' purchasing intention for male groups but not for female groups. This study contributes to the understanding the role of visual dimensions in forming online purchase intentions

Children coping with COVID-19: Intersectional understandings of film and media access in a crisis

As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns across the world, digital access has become paramount, as most aspects of education have moved online. Drawing together five case studies located in South Africa, Argentina, the Netherlands, India and Ethiopia, this article assesses the role of film education during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on the impacts of digital access. We examine multimodal forms of film education, and how these were used to inform, entertain and educate children during the crisis by the varying work undertaken by the organizations. Applying theories of intersectionality, we address the need for context-specific approaches to film education, focusing upon the impact that the societal and individual contexts had on the dissemination of film education in each country