MASTERS RESEARCH PROPOSAL
A Summary
South Africa as “Africa’s Gateway”? A Critical Examination of China’s English-Language Media Coverage of the Zuma Presidency’s Rhetoric of Continental Leadership
Statement of the Problem: South Africa commits itself to the ideas of human rights in one of the well-respected Constitutions in the world, which extols media freedom. At the same time the government seeks to advance a favourable relationship with China, a country with vastly different political, social and economic structures. By examining how South Africa’s rhetoric of “continental leadership” is received in China, this thesis seeks to assess the implications for South Africa on China’s state-owned media projection of South Africa within China.
Sample: All articles in the Chinese People’s Daily Online from July 2009 to July 2011 (first two years of the Zuma presidency)
Variables within the study: China, Online, English-speaking, Political culture (communism), Diplomatic relations, “gateway to Africa”/”continental leadership”
Research Thesis: This MA thesis seeks to look at the rhetoric of continental leadership during the first two years of the Zuma Presidency, assessing how it was received by the People’s Daily Online in China. As such the thesis seeks an understanding of the role of political power over coverage of another state’s political rhetoric within media. This proposed dissertation deals only with the perception of South Africa in the Chinese English – language media.
Significance of topic for political communication: In media, through political communication, how is the relationship between the two countries influenced to advance political and economic objectives? (see Perelman, C. and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1991 on rhetoric & Buchannan [1976] for an assessment of political economy in elite behaviour)?
The researcher proposes to connect the work of James Chesbro, who looks at five critical approaches to contemporary political communications, including the Machiavellian nature, iconic elements, ritual, the confirmation of political aspects viewed as those we endorse as well as politics as “dramatistic” (symbolically constructed, according to K. Burke), with media theories.
Gadi Wosfeld’s Political Contestation Model will be drawn on as a theoretical framework for understanding coverage of South Africa, understanding the role of political communication in coverage of South Africa’s rhetoric objectives.
