COM3706 Portfolio Examamination.

COM3706 Portfolio Examamination.In South Africa woman die in the hands of their partners, the issue of femicide is a serious matter. In this research we investigate how woman are killed by their partners and how the media represent them. This will be done by using the ten femicide articles selected from one publication (dailysun). The task will also involve defining framing theory and how is relevant to the research. 1 MAIN ISSUE A cross-sectional, qualitative and quantitative research study that aims to conduct a thematic analysis through the use of content analysis of the ten femicide articles to describe the content of the articles, and explore the messages contained in the articles found in the newspapers from the same South African publication (Dailysun) within the two year period. 2 RESEARCH CRITERIA Print media is of great enthusiasm to the researcher as a communication science student. The main research problem is a mass media issue and it is researchable because it very well may be settled by the combination proof. This study investigates the messages contained in the articles. The research is feasible as the newspaper articles identifying with the issue area of the research are in nearness to the researcher. 2.1 Relevance Femicide is pertinent to communication because femicide and gender base violence has increased increasingly social and media attention. Communication is the vital source of spreading information and creating awareness therefore the research is relevant by means of study. The goal of this study is basic research and it is based on media. (Du Plooy 2009:53-54) 2.2 Researchability The issue can be methodologically researched by means of collecting, exploring and describing the messages contained in the articles in Dailysun publication where the 10 articles were analysed. (Du Plooy 2009:53-54). 2.3 Feasibility The research was feasible as collection of the resources was effortless and affordable, purchasing of data to collect the articles from an online version of the publication (Dailysun).The articles are written in English and the conducted research is cross-sectional. 2.4 Ethical acceptability The research dealt with ten different articles from the same publication and the research was ethical as no person or respondents are involved, therefore the study does not infringe or violate anybody’s rights or privacy nor cause any harm. According to Du Plooy (2009:53), ethical 5 acceptability deals with either the control of the people or the manipulation of data gathering. Ethical acceptability of data was ensured through validity and reliability tests (Du Plooy 2009:131). 3 EXTENT OF THE RESEARCH ISSUE The research was conducted in Benoni. The publication chosen was Dailysun. The research will be conducted from the 2nd of March to the 29th of March, from the 2nd to the 9th the researcher will go through different newspaper articles from different publications. Between the 9th and the 12th, the researcher will choose one publication to use and concentrate on. On the 13th, the researcher selected 10 newspaper articles that will be used for the research. From the 14th, the researcher went through the article and started analyzing them until the 19th.On the 20th the researcher started writing the assignment until the 29th.The time dimension of the research is cross-sectional because it is a once off study with same publication to be used. 4 POPULATION 4.1 Target population Du Plooy (2009: 109) defines the target population as the actual population required to generalize research results. The target population for this research refers to all the articles about femicide from the Dailysun available in South Africa. According to Du Plooy (2009: 109) accessible population refers to the unit of analysis in the target population to which the researcher has an access. Researchers use accessible population to apply their conclusions and recommendations about research that is being done. In this study the accessible population is the ten selected articles that specifically focus on intimate femicide from dailysun within the two year period. 4.1.1 Population characteristics The population characteristics refer to the population parameters, the researcher in this assignment will consider the characteristics as, Articles specifically published by dailysun in the last two years, articles specifically about femicide, 10 articles that are specifically about woman falling victims of intimate femicide and that the articles reported cases of married couples. 4.2 Units of analysis Du Plooy (2016:56) refers to the unit of analysis as the smallest elements investigated. For example, individual (subjects, respondents, or participants) or artefacts (such as media, news and advertisements) the units of analysis for this research will be the 10 articles about femicide themselves found in the publication (Dailysun). 5. ASSUMPTIONS AND SUB-ISSUES Assumption 1: The articles frame women as too tolerant Sub-issue 1: Do the articles frame women as too tolerant? 6 Assumption 2: All articles contain the images of the weapon used to kill the victim Sub-issue 2: Do all articles contain the images of the weapon used to kill the victim? Assumption 3: The article label women as cheaters Sub-issue 3: Do the articles label women as cheaters? Assumption 4: All articles have an element of fear Sub-issue 4: Does all articles have an element of fear? 6 GOAL AND OBJECTIVES 6.1 Goal The goal of this research is basic communication research that is aimed at describing, exploring and analysing the messages contained in the selected articles found in dailysun newspapers and it also involves the important issue of framing of these articles to explain communication process using theories (Du Plooy 2009:50). 6.2 Objectives The objective of this research is descriptive and exploratory to clarify and asses the representation and framing of the selected articles. The exploratory objective is to confirm the assumptions made in the articles and prove them. For example theme death is found in all selected articles. The descriptive objective can be applied in both qualitative and quantitative research study. In this research study qualitative research will be to outline the description of the number of times a variable occurs, such as how many times a themes occurs in all articles (Du Plooy 2009:50-51). The research describes how these themes are used and in which article do they appear. The research is descriptive with the aid of a tally describing the findings. The time dimension of the cross sectional research occurs in 3 months. 7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS How does the articles frame woman? How does the articles depict the victims?  What kind of the images does the article use? What state are perpetrators in that articles portray? 8 THEORITICAL APPROACH The primary research function is to first outline the structure of the framework for the research to be established in order for the research processes to unfold and the secondary function thereto is to explain and describe the findings of the research processes and how they are applicable to the research. 7 8.1 Content analysis According to Du Plooy (2009:285) Content analysis is a method that is used to describe, explore, and deduce the characteristics of messages. It is used in different types of communication research in order to analyse mass-media content. There are two approaches to content analysis; quantitative content analysis and qualitative content analysis. Qualitative content analysis involves a subjective interpretation of meaning from the content; quantitative content analysis involves counting variables that are coded. Content analysis in this research study is a tool that focuses on the content in order to determine the meaning from pictures, themes and texts in the selected articles, and these findings are then quantified. 8.1. Framing theory Framing theory is one of the ways used by media to draw the public’s eye to specific topics. 8.3 Operationalise the theoretical framework of the research 9 RESEARCH DESIGN The research design is qualitative with a quantitative component. It is a plan on how the research is carried out, indicating who or what is involved, and where and when the study will take place (Du Plooy 2009:85). This research study is qualitative because the articles analysed in depth and quantitative because it will measure, organize and calculate the quantities of the articles that will be used. 9.1 Methods of reasoning 9.1.1 Inductive reasoning Method of reasoning is inductive because the themes that appear in all the chosen articles chosen will be analysed in general. This confirms the theoretical assumption in order to draw the general conclusions. 9.1.2 Deductive reasoning This method of reasoning was also used because operational definitions are formulated and researched with regard to the study of the themes used in all selected femicide articles used. A tally sheet will be used to count the amount of times each of the words appears in all the chosen articles for this research analysis. 9.2 Objectives 8 The objective of the research is to explore and describe the characteristic elements of the themes found in the femicide articles obtained from the same publication (Dailysun). Exploratory objectives explore an unknown area of research that can be used on any one or more of the following: to obtain new sights as part of pre-test or pilot test (Du ploy 2009:50- 51). Descriptive objectives seek to describe the characteristics of the phenomena or relations between variables as accurately as possible. To describe can be the objective in both quantitative and qualitative study. 9.3 Nature of research design The qualitative design is constantly changing and it is based on the method that seeks to understand (explore and describe) the meaning that the researcher attach to a particular communication-related issue in this research the themes from 10 selected femicide articles from the same publication, in which the researcher will need to understand in order to describe and explore the problem. The inductive approach is used here which involve words, themes and tendencies in data leads to insight and understanding. The quantitative research is used to measure and control hypothesis about particular communication-related issue. This approach use a deductive reasoning which means preconceived assumptions and theories are measured by quantitative data (tally). 9.4 The nature of questions According to Babbie (1991) cited by Bornman (2009: 459) in Fourie (2009), states that, openended questions gives the respondents an opportunity to write their own answers to a question provided on the questionnaire, and further states that close-end questions, provides the respondent with answers to the questions being asked on the survey and are required to select the answer that they feels it is appropriate to them. According to Bornman (2009:459-460), the open-ended questions permits creativity and promote self-expression from the respondent. Open-ended questions give the respondent a freedom to elicit underlying ideas, feelings, sentiments and suggestions from their point of view, and a closed-ended question the respondent only has the option to choose a predetermined response from a list of options 9.5 The nature of articles/publication 9.6 Method used to analyse data 9 The research design is qualitative and has a quantitative element, both methods of data collection and analysis will be used to describe and explore by means of content analysis. The themes applied in the 10 selected femicide articles from the same publication within the two year period. Described and presented to confirm the theoretical assumptions made. The findings are presented in a narrative format thus ensuring qualitative research being done. The qualitative elements are in the form of a tally sheet where the themes are counted and measured to show the frequency in which they appear in the selected articles. 9.5 Flexibility This research design is flexible because the researcher has the opportunity to change the units of analysis if she/he deems them as inappropriate at any time during the research process (Du Plooy 2009:57). In this study, the articles as well as the publication can be changed and the researcher can even choose the different articles, meaning possibilities indicate the flexibility of the research. If the original assumptions do not resolve the given problem, the changes will be made to them. This research was also flexible because no harm was done since no people were involved (Du Plooy: 2009:53). 10 DATA COLLECTION AND TECHNIQUES 10.1 Research method The research method used is content analysis as it is seen as the qualitative and/ or quantitative analysis and the data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. According to Du Plooy (2009:213) content analysis is a method that is applied to explore, describe and deduce characteristics of the messages. It enables the researcher to record the frequency and themes found in the messages. The research is a content analysis of the 10 femicide articles found in the same publication. This research focused on the themes and their characteristics that were identified in the articles and described in the findings. The content analysis is qualitative in nature due to the description of the articles. The quantitative element is depicted in the tally sheet, which was used to count the number of themes and the frequency with which appear. The task involved studying the 10 femicide article in order to establish an understanding of the messages in the selected articles. The accessible population is the 10 selected articles that specifically focus on intimate femicide within the two year period. All ten articles are obtained from the same publication (Dailysun). The articles were examined based on the need to identify either frequency or themes per article. The 10 articles were then analysed in order to discover which themes were found in each article thus ensuring content analysis. The themes which were violence, fear, cheating and pictures. This research included taking each article, analysing it and then matching one or more themes to it. For example. An article titled “A man kills girlfriend stabs wife and commit suicide” was extracted from Dailysun, published in August 2018 examined critically before deducing that the themes, gender, cheating, marriage and fear all apply to it. The same approach was applied to the remaining nine articles. 10 10.2 Level of measurement Du Plooy (2009: 129) stated four levels of measurement namely, Nominal level of measurement, ordinal level of measurement, interval level of measurement and ratio level of measurement. There are different methods that can be used to assess the reliability and validity of measurements. Ordinal level of measurement Du Plooy (2009:129) articulated that in ordinal level of measurement, the attributes can be ranked-ordered to determine differences between variables. Ordinal level differs from nominal level of measurement because the numerical used to label categories should follow the correspondence rules. Ordinal level of measurement was not applicable in the study because none of the articles was ranked-ordered. Interval level of measurement This measurement is more or less the same with the ordinal scaling, when variables are subdivided into categories in an interval level of measurement, these categories are rankeordered in a sequence from low to high or high to low (Du Plooy 2009:129) Ratio level of measurement Du Plooy (2009:131) mentioned that ratio level of measurement is similar to interval level of measurement, except that it includes what is called absolute zero. Meaning that when one allocated a numerical of zero, it indicates that the variable that is measured is absent. In this study, one does not have an absolute zero because the articles have those themes and the themes were the sampling method that come from data-collection, quantitative tally sheet and findings. In laymen’s explanation, variables cannot be absolute zero. Variables that appear in a research hypothesis or research question are transformed into concrete indicators once a measuring instrument is designed. (Du Plooy 2009:126). The nominal level of measurement is used in this research. Nominal level measurement involves allocating symbols or numerals to the variables in order to identify, name or label them (Du Plooy 2009:127). It is mostly used in content analysis. The nominal level of measurement basically tells you whether you are something or not. For example, you are either a male or female. The themes that appeared in the content of the message of the selected 10 femicide articles were gender, marriage, fear, anger, death. In this research, each article was analysed to determine whether any of these themes are presented or not. If one of the themes were present then a symbol for example ‘*’ was inserted in the tally sheet. If a theme was not present, then a symbol ‘#’ was used. The theme was either present or not present. 10.3 Sampling method 11 10.3.1 Probability sampling In this study, probability sampling method was not applicable because in probability sampling method all sample selected has an equal opportunity of being chosen. Probability sampling is good when the target population is vast as well as accessible. However, the study had sampling frame but the researcher is being limited by a number of target population (Du Plooy:115). 10.3.2 Non probability sampling The researcher used the non-probability sample namely: Convenience sampling, in nonprobability sampling means that every unit in the target group does not have an equal and probable chance of being selected as part of the sample, meaning that the same sample may not necessarily have the same parameters (characteristics) as the target population. The example of non-probability of this sampling method is when conducting exploratory research and when the target population is small (Du Plooy 2009).It is evident that the study consist of only small target population( one publication that contributed 10 articles). The sample did not represent the target population and therefore had no external validity (Du Plooy 2009:122-123). This sampling method was chosen due to the units of analysis that were conveniently available hence selecting convenience. Convenience sampling applied to all selected 10 femicide articles. Dailysun is easily accessible in Benoni thus the articles were also easily accessible. The first step was to study the 10 selected femicide articles in order to gain an understanding of the content of the message, Secondly the target population was sourced and resulted in the accessible population being chosen, that is 10 articles that specifically focus on intimate femicide within the two year period, thirdly 10 femicide articles based on the characteristics of the themes were chosen from the same publication and fourthly the content analyses of the 10 femicide articles were performed. 10.4 Sample context/Sample size Du Plooy (2009:110) states that a homogeneous target population, For example, one that shares several similar characteristics, will require a smaller sample size as compared to a heterogeneous population. The sample sizes were 10 femicide articles for this research study. 10 articles were selected from the same publication. The newspapers are published daily and only 10 of the daily publications within the two year period were selected for this research. The accessible population consist of articles that specifically focus on intimate femicide within the two year period. Dailysun is a daily newspaper and out of the 365 newspapers, 10 newspapers were chosen for this research study. 10.5 DATA COLLECTION METHODS AND TECHNIQUES 12 The following are important aspects when collecting data-The units of analysis; the target versus accessible population; population parameters; the type of sample drawn; the geographic area and the time dimension (Du Plooy2009:86). Data collection is concerned with who, what, how, when and where the data was collected (Du Plooy 2009:395). For the purpose of this research study, data was purchased to collect data from an online version of the publication. This articles were chosen because they reported on intimate femicide and gender based violence within the two year period and they are also written in English medium. In order to collect data, an understanding of the English language was vital in order to describe the content of the articles and interpreted the messages contained in the articles. Ten femicide articles were selected and analysed. The data was qualitatively and quantitatively analysed by conducting a content analysis on the articles and this was done by exploring and describing the content of the articles. The population characteristics of the selected articles enabled the identification of the themes in all articles. The 10 selected femicide articles were selected based on the text and their images. These unique characteristics helped to illustrate themes. Ten articles were selected from one publication. The convenience sample was not representative of any target or accessible population. Once the articles were chosen, the content analysis of the articles were perfomed. The themes and its characteristics were identified and described. A tally sheet depicted the different categories and they were linked to the assumptions, sub-issues and the research questions that were formulated and wished to accept or reject. This content analysis formed the framework that was used in the tables and the frequency in which the themes were found in the articles were analysed and accounted for in the tally sheet. This cross-sectional study was done in Benoni. 11 DATA ANALYSIS 11.1 Qualitative and quantitative data analysis The data analysis in quantitative research study includes the use of statistical technique that usually involves two categories: statistics for descriptive purposes and statistics for inferential purposes (Du Plooy 2009:234). Descriptive statistics make it possible to provide a summary of certain characteristics of the units of analysis and for this research study, the descriptive 13 purpose was used and made this possible to provide the themes’ summary that were applied in each article by using a tally sheet. The data analysis in qualitative research study involves processes and procedures that allow one to understand the data that has been collected. The data that was collected and the messages were analysed using content analysis. This facilitated the recording of the frequency with which the themes appear in the articles. The emphasis and focus remain on analysing the content of the messages as units of analysis and not the effectiveness of the messages. Once the themes were identified, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data analyses was performed in order to summarise the message characteristics in texts in the chosen articles. The content analyses was reported as narrative descriptions of the messages. The quantitative content analysis was quantified by numerical values and percentage frequencies. The percentages were interpreted in context in which the research problem originated. The themes were counted in each article and its frequency was calculated as percentage on the tally sheet. The tally sheet is the quantitative element in this research. 11.2 Replication The research cannot be replicated because the sample used is too small and it is just based on one publication found in Benoni -Dailysun and only 10 femicide articles were used in this study. It is not representative of any target and accessible population. Due to the absence of random sampling where every article in the population has an equal opportunity to appear in the sample, the research cannot be generalized to all of articles in the 10 articles. Non-probability sample means that every unit in the target population does not have an equal opportunity of being selected and for that reason it is obvious that this research cannot be replicated because the target population was small and considering drawing a non-random sample will include a large proportional of the population( Du Plooy 2009:122) KEY DS Dailysun 1. MUM, SAYS BOYFRIEND KILLED HER DAUGHTER! 2. MUM AND DAUGHTER KILLED! 3. MAN STABS WIFE TO DEATH! 14 4. STRIPPED AND MURDERED! 5. KILLED FOR 'CHEATING' 6. MAN SHOOTS HIS WIFE-THEN HIMSELF 7. DIVORCE PAPERS LEAD TO DEATH 8. MAN KILLS GIRLFRIEND, STABS WIFE AND COMMITS SUICIDE! 9. Woman (23) killed after alleged knife fight with boyfriend 10. WOMAN STONED TO DEATH! 11. MAN BUST AFTER LOVER'S DEATH! * theme applied # theme absent THEMES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 TOTAL APPLIE D TOTAL ABSEN T TOTAL% FOR APPLIED TOTAL% FOR ABSENT FEAR * * # * * * # * * * 8 2 80 20 IMAGE # * # * * * * # # # 5 5 50 50 VIOLENCE * * * * * * * * * * 9 1 90 10 CHEATING # # # * # * * # # * 4 6 40 60 Table 1.1 The tally sheet compromise of a table the 10 articles and the total percentages. The tally used as real time at the location as the data was qualitative. The “*” symbol indicate that the theme is applied and the “#” symbol indicate s that the theme is absent. 12 FINDINGS Through the data analysis of the selected ten articles from Dailysun publication within the two year period, the researcher explored and described the content found in these articles by 15 means of content analysis. It was found that themes were applied in all the selected advertisements. It was found that the theme of violence was found in most of the articles through text. Violence was used in nine of the articles. In some articles it is not clear why the perpetrators killed the victims. Victims are framed as too tolerant because even though they experience violence in their marriages and relationships they still stay and when they finally decide to leave the perpetrators become possessive because they think they own the victims and that the victims cannot be with anybody else but the perpetrators. Woman are too generous, they give man more than they deserve or capable of appreciating. A man will ask for sex and the woman in her misplaced generosity will give the man sex and a baby. For example, in the article titled Mum says boyfriend killed her daughter, the daughter once shared with the mom and mentioned to the mother that the boyfriend is beating her. The researcher found that the theme of fear was used in eight of the selected ten articles, through the use of English medium through the text. The theme fear was used because the perpetrators end up handing themselves to the police or end up throwing the body of the victim on the streets or taking them to hospitals after they realize the damage that was done to the victims. The theme of cheating was used in four articles where the perpetrators suspected that the victims might me cheating on them. While in some incidences that was not the case, the victims end up losing their lives for something that is not true. For example, in the article titled Man shot his wife then he, Modiri (2017) reported that the man suspecting that his wife might be going to “makwapheni” and this was not the case but he shoot her anyway. Theme of images, images of the weapons used to kill woman was used in 5 articles. Although some of the articles did not show the image of the weapon, there was an image of police motor vehicles and those images were used to show that something has happened, it might mean the perpetrator has been arrested or the police are still investigating and searching for the perpetrator. 12.1 Assumptions Articles frame woman as too tolerant Accepted: All articles have theme that appeared in the study. These has been proven in the qualitative findings on the tally sheet as there are no columns with zero (o) percentages. All the selected themes were identified. Assumption 1 16 Articles frame women as too tolerant Accepted: Woman stay tolerate the perpetrators behavior for too long hoping that they will change and when they finally decide to leave, they lose their lives. Assumption 2 All Articles use images of the weapon used to kill the victim Rejected: not all articles use the picture of the weapon used to kill the perpetrator, some articles used the picture where there is a police motor vehicle, just to show that something has been done to report the perpetrator. Assumption 3 Articles label woman as cheaters Rejected: no articles do not label woman as cheaters, the perpetrators are trying to find hiding corners for killing the victims. Assumption 4 There is an element of fear in the articles Accepted: The perpetrators end up handing themselves to the police or taking their own lives. 13 CONCLUSION 13.1 Answer questions Research question 1 How does the article frame woman? Woman are framed as too tolerant because they take time to make decisions even when they experience violence in the relationships or marriages. Research question 2: How does the article depict victims? Where the family members are asked for comments. Woman are depicted as loving people. Research question 3 What kind of images does the article use? The articles use the images of the weapons used to kill the victim and the images of the police motor vehicles or victims being arrested. Research question 4 17 What state are the perpetrators in that the articles portray? They have fear, they end up handing themselves to the police or taking their own lives. 13.2 CONCLUSION As the research has been concluded, the conclusion drawn that different themes were identified in the articles. Others had certain themes and other did not. 18 SELF-ASSESSMENTANDSELF-REFLECTION 1. I have gained knowledge on how to conduct research using both qualitative and quantitative methods of study. 2. This assignment required lots of reading, understanding, researching and digesting which equipped me to understand previously vague concepts. 3. My analytical strengths were enhanced by doing this assignment and I will put this to good use in coming portfolio examination and both my future life and work 4. The shortcomings I have experienced are attention to detail, better planning and managing my time. 5. The learning outcomes from this assignment are: The learning outcomes:  The steps followed to conduct communication research  The importance of time management  Understanding of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies  Knowledge of basic principles in research  Message content; Message structure; Message effectiveness 19 SOURCES CONSULTED Dlungwa, M. 2018. Mom says boyfriend killed her daughter. Dailysun, 12 September. [O]. Available: http: Accessed 2019/02/22 Hlungwani, H. 2018. Man kills girlfriend, stabs wife and commits suicide. Dailysun, 15 August. [O]. Available: