Stylisation of identities in online discourses related to The Spear on Sowetan LIVE Lorato

164 Pages·2015·11.16 MB·English

Stylisation of identities in online discourses related to The Spear

on Sowetan LIVE

Lorato Mokwena
2860456

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Magister
Artium in the Department of Linguistics, University of Western Cape.

2014

Supervisor: Professor Felix Banda
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Keywords
Sowetan LIVE

South Africa

Youth  

Identities
Style
The Spear
Jacob Zuma
Computer Mediated Communication
Resemiotisation
Semiotic Remediation

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ABSTRACT
STYLISATION OF IDENTITIES IN ONLINE DISCOURSES RELATED TO THE

SPEAR ON SOWETAN LIVE

L. Mokwena

MA Thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Cape

This study focuses on a story featured on Sowetan LIVE, one of South Africa’s online
newspapers. The flexibility of the mode in which the newspaper is produced, enables users to
comment on its articles as they are published. The online newspaper was preferred due to its
socio-political history and the huge South African audience it seems to attract. This study
looks at one particular story which appeared on Sowetan LIVE and generated much interest
in South Africa. The story is about a painting depicting President Jacob Zuma with his
genitals exposed, termed The Spear by Brett Murray. This painting triggered a high volume
of comments and engagement among South Africans on the Sowetan LIVE website, making
it a valuable resource of online discourse. Therefore, this study explored comments in
response to the two articles published on the Sowetan LIVE namely, “ANC takes battle of
The Spear to court” and “Will Zuma’s spear stay up?” which when combined, ‘generated’
1358 comments. This study particularly investigates the identities that emerged from the
discourses found in the data and analyses the type of linguistic practices evident in the
comments. In this regard, the main objective of the study is not only to determine how users
style their social identities, but also their ‘linguistic’ ones during online interactions.
In terms of social identities, the findings illustrate a distinction between traditional and
modern identities ‘represented’ by Jacob Zuma and Brett Murray, respectively. However,
although a distinction is evident, contradictions exist among the respective identities which
feed back into the notion of identity as performative and fluid. In this way, the study reveals
that the identities emanating from these discourses provide a glance at South Africa’s
intricate identity ‘battle’, a ‘battle’ which is no longer solely based on race or collective
identity, but more on the creation of new identities and perceptions based on traditional ones
or a complete divorce of traditional identities.
With regards to linguistic identity, the findings indicate that hybrid linguistic practices are a
norm among the participants. This is because all participants employ netspeak features such
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as phonetic spellings, letter / number homophones and creative use of punctuation /
capitalisation for emphasis or stress. Interestingly, although netspeak is evident from the
findings common in online linguistic practices, this study has found that the use of such

features is not random. This is so because participants tend to strategically fuse these features

into the linguistic practices as a means to avoid censorship. This fusion and, ultimately,

censorship avoidance strategies, rely on the re-purposing of semiotic resources. In this vein,
the most used censorship avoidance strategies in the study are discussed and analysed in
terms of context and the discourses that inform them. Furthermore, upon analysing the
usernames and avatars selected by participants as part of identity construction, the findings
demonstrate that these are used as an extension of the participants’ identities.
From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the South African youth’s identity
and their perception of identity itself is in flux – ‘norms’ are constantly being re-invented. In
essence, this study adds to an understanding of how historical material is re-purposed through
an exploration of an online interactive feature that is posting of comments on an article of
interest. It also contributes to an understanding of the hybrid nature of online linguistic
practices.

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DECLARATION
I declare that Stylisation of identities in online discourses related to The Spear on Sowetan

LIVE is my own work, that it has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in
any other university, and that all the sources I h ave used or quoted have been indicated and
acknowledged as complete references.

Lorato Mokwena

November 2014
Signed: …………………………………..

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Dedication
This thesis is dedicated to my late little sister, Oratile Leandri Mokwena. Thank you for being

my hero!

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Acknowledgements
To my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, I never would have made it without You. At times

when I had lost all hope and with no one left to run to, You remained my pillar of strength. I
can truly testify that Your strength is perfect. Th ank You for Your mercy, grace and endless
blessings.

To my family: I am sincerely grateful for all the sacrifices – I know it is not easy having your
daughter and sister so far away but you continue to be my number 1 supporters! Thank you
for the love and support. Thank you for your endless prayers and teaching me faith, courage,
the importance of education, respect and the need to stay humble. Ek is baie lief vir julle.

To my supervisor, Prof Banda: what a journey - from my MMUF mentor and ultimately my
supervisor! Prof, thank you so much for your guidance, patience and support. Most
importantly, thank you for encouraging me to challenge the status quo. You pushed me to
work harder because you knew my potential and never gave up. Thank you Prof, may God
bless you.

To Ms Nathalie Nattingh: Thank you for editing and proofreading the thesis. I truly
appreciate your assistance.

To all my friends who truly supported me throughout this journey: Sitem and Dineo, thank
you for always having my back! Meshay, for all the support, kind words and advice, thank
you skat! Dr Kelvin Mambwe, thank you for your assistance with the thesis and your
friendship.

To Jacob Cloete: thank you Cloete for all the brainstorming and study sessions we had,
providing me with critical feedback, the encouragement, laughing at and with me but most
importantly, believing in my work. Words will never be able to express my gratitude. Dankie
ma se kind!

To Nelisa Pase, Collette Schroeder and Anthea Roberts – you were right there from the very
start! Baie dankie vir alles. I truly appreciate it!

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To my colleagues: thank you for all the well wishes.

To the UWC Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) family: thank you for

igniting my love for research and the academia.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1

1.1.1 The History of Soweto ........................................................................................................... 1

1.1.2 South African Print, Online Newspapers and Sowetan LIVE ............................................... 4
1.1.3 A brief background of the Sowetan Tabloid .......................................................................... 4
1.1.4 Jacob Zuma and The Spear .................................................................................................... 5
1.2 Statement of the problem .................................................................................................................. 6
1.3 Rationale ........................................................................................................................................... 7
1.4 Aim of the study ............................................................................................................................... 8
1.5 Specific Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 8
1.6 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................... 9
1.7 Chapter Outline ................................................................................................................................. 9
CHAPTER TWO ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Literature Review .................................................................................................................................. 11
2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 11
2.2 Hail to the Thief .............................................................................................................................. 11
2.2.1 The Spear ................................................................................................................................. 12
2.2.1.1 The Spear and the African National Congress .................................................................. 12
2.2.1.2 The Spear and Umkhonto we Sizwe ................................................................................. 12
2.3 Language and Identity in (South) Africa ........................................................................................ 13
2.3.1 Language and Ethnicity ........................................................................................................... 13
2.3.2 Identity Construction and Power .............................................................................................. 14
2.3.3 Style ......................................................................................................................................... 16
2.3.4 Tradition and Modernity .......................................................................................................... 17
2.4 Masculinity ..................................................................................................................................... 19
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2.4.1. Definition of masculinity ....................................................................................................... 19
2.4.2 Masculinity in South Africa ..................................................................................................... 20
2.4.2 Masculinity and sex ................................... .......................................................................... 22
2.4.3 Black bodies and ‘science’ ......................... .......................................................................... 24
2.5 Racism .................................................................. .......................................................................... 26
2.5.1 The New Racism ............................................ .......................................................................... 26
2.6 South African Governance System ................................................................................................. 27
2.6.1 Service Delivery ....................................................................................................................... 29
2.6.2 Good Governance, Service Delivery and Corruption .............................................................. 31
2.7 Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER THREE .............................................................................................................................. 33
Theoretical and Analytic Framework ................................................................................................... 33
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 33
3.2 Globalisation ............................................................................................................................... 33
3.3 Glocalisation and Hybridity ........................................................................................................ 34
3.4 Transidiomatic practices ............................................................................................................. 35
3.5 Polylingual Languaging .............................................................................................................. 36
3.6 Metrolingualism .......................................................................................................................... 36
3.7 Resemiotisation ........................................................................................................................... 37
3.8 Semiotic Remediation Practices .................................................................................................. 38
3.9 Language as a local and social practice ...................................................................................... 39
3.10 Online Media and Communication ........................................................................................... 40
3.10.1 Online Newspapers ............................................................................................................ 41
3.10.2 Interactivity ........................................................................................................................ 41
3.11 Computer Mediated Communication ............................................................................................ 42
3.11.1 Communication ...................................................................................................................... 42
3.11.2 Mediated ................................................................................................................................ 43
3.11.3 Computer ................................................................................................................................ 43
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