Browsing by Author "Meloyer, Jaimy-Lee"

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    Entertainment and pandemic: a semiotic remediation discourse analysis on selected pop culture and consumption in South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2024) Meloyer, Jaimy-Lee
    The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the crucial role of mass media in disseminating information about potential dangers, often through sensationalised framing. The tremendous additions and growth of communication channels are apparent in our society, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in South Africa. Mass media plays a key role in the dissemination (communication) of potential danger, framing it in a sensationalised way (Joffe, 2003), which has been observed globally during the pandemic. The development and growth of media have brought about so many contributions and positivity to society in a multifarious way. The existence of traditional and modern communication media has made it possible to create platforms that produce, disseminate, and circulate information about any pandemic like COVID-19. A review of media studies literature shows that the media is a platform through which communication messages are created and shared with different audiences. While this literature is applicable, there have been several changes in the media during the national pandemic. With the advent and development of modern communication media, media's role in society has been redefined, reshaped, and reinvigorated due to the multiple capabilities attached to modern media, unlike traditional media. There have been several developments in the media during the pandemic. New media has been immersed in disseminating and circulating pandemic-related information during this period and has significantly influenced societal dynamics. It has influenced the rise of alternative media in which netizens become both producers and consumers. However, there is a literature gap in the fields of language and communication and media on the pandemic-related discourses and their circulation in media and consumption as both parts of COVID-19-related information and pop culture semiotics. This study, therefore, investigates how South African citizens repurposed governmental speeches into pop culture semiotics during the COVID-19 lockdown by analysing selected texts from government officials' discourses; this research uncovers the remediation processes through a unique theoretical framework, Critical Semiotic Remediation Discourse Analysis (CSRDA). This study employs a qualitative research methodology to collect data from new media platforms using purposeful sampling and document analysis. The study demonstrates how South African pop culture and social media transformed these texts into various social and entertainment genres, highlighting the implications of this interaction in promoting media text production and consumption in a multicultural and diverse society and making a significant contribution to the ongoing study of alternative media.