Browsing by Author "Mokwena, Lorato"

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    Birds and bees, the �r� word and zuma�s p*nis: censorship avoidance strategies in a south african online newspaper�s comments section
    (Springerlink, 2019) Mokwena, Lorato
    Although linguistic practices in online platforms continue to receive fair scholarly attention, limited research has been conducted on online censorship avoidance strategies in South Africa about online newspapers. We use notions of semiotic remediation on comments on two articles on a nude painting of former South African President Jacob Zuma in a popular South African online publication, SowetanLive, to show how the commentators creatively avoid censorship and to operationalise their right of freedom of expression. Particularly, we show the various ways commentators transform and recontexatualise existing semiotic affordances of punctuation marks, letters, digits, South African English, indigenous South African languages and cultural knowledge to achieve new and extended meanings while simultaneously avoiding censorship
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    Place-making in the linguistic landscape of Europe, Eyadini and Marikana
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Ndude, Asisithi; Mokwena, Lorato
    Informal settlements are undeniably a part of the South African semiotic landscape and can be established instantly. As most informal settlements are ‘initiated’ by citizens, residents of informal settlements assume the responsibility of naming their place of residence and crafting a system for navigation purposes. Studies in Linguistic Landscapes have greatly concentrated on established and well-developed urban spaces and little attention has been devoted to less developed areas such as informal settlements in South Africa. Therefore, using qualitative research methods to collect the data, this study explores the place-making strategies of three informal settlements in Cape Town, Eyadini, Marikana and Europe. The study makes use of pictorial data as well as interviews conducted with purposively selected participants in the area. The study investigates spatial navigation, linguistic choices and practices, written and non-scripted signage and place-making strategies including ideological meanings. It draws on the Multimodal Discourse Analysis as a theoretical framework to interpret the assemblage of semiotic resources residents of informal settlements draw upon and attach meaning to their physical environments during spatial navigation.
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    Stylisation of identities in online discourses related to The Spear on Sowetan LIVE
    (University of the Western Cape, 2014) Mokwena, Lorato; Banda, Felix
    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 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.