REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN “TRIBAL” CULTURE IN SOAP OPERAS: A CONTENT AND AUDIENCE ANALYSIS OF THE SERIES GENERATIONS: THE LEGACY OLUWAYEMISI MARY ONYENANKEYA AUGUST 2018 Representation of South African “tribal” culture in soap operas: A content and audience analysis of the series Generations: The Legacy By OLUWAYEMISI MARY ONYENANKEYA STUDENT NUMBER: 200602737 Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Department of Communication Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa SUPERVISOR: Prof. O.O. Osunkunle JULY 2018 DECLARATION I, Oluwayemisi Mary Onyenankeya, student number 200602737 hereby declare that that this thesis is the result of my own original work and has not previously been submitted to another university for the purpose of a degree. I declare that I am fully aware of the University of Fort Hare’s policy on plagiarism and I have taken every precaution to comply with the regulations. Where use has been made of the work of others, such work has been duly acknowledged in this text. Errors and omission are the responsibility of the Author and no other person is liable for the misadventures. Signed ………………………… Date: 2018-08-28 I, Oluwayemisi Mary Onyenankeya, student number 200602737, hereby declare that I am fully aware of the University of Fort Hare’s policy on research ethics and I have taken every precaution to comply with the regulations. I have obtained an ethical clearance certificate from the University of Fort Hare’s Research Ethics Committee and my Ethical Clearance Number is: OSU281SONY01 Signed …………………………………… Date: 2018-08-28 i DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to acknowledge God’s divine grace in my life and I remain extremely thankful to God Almighty for giving me the wisdom, strength and courage to overcome the obstacles encountered during the study. I dedicate this thesis to my husband, Dr Kevin Onyenankeya, my pillar of support and inspiration. This project would not have been possible without your input, time and support; I deeply appreciate you Nkem. And to my son, Chidiebere Onyenankeya, who was part of this journey until the cold hands of death cut short your beautiful soul, I will forever love you. To you my beautiful daughters, Chisom, Chigozie and Chika, I say thank you for cheering me up. I would like to thank the following people and institutions for their contributions to this study: My mentor and supervisor Prof Oluyinka Osunkunle for his unwavering mentorship, support, motivation and prayers. The National Research Foundation for the grant which made this study possible. I would also like to express my gratitude to the following people: My mother, Florence Fatukasi, for her tender love and care; my twin brothers Kehinde and Taiwo Oladapo and their lovely wives for their unwavering support. I sincerely appreciate your prayers and assistance. My special appreciation to two great men with wonderful hearts, Mr Ibukun Ojo and Rtd. Captain Samson Oginni. Thank you for your never-ending encouragement and support. To the wonderful Onyenankeya family, Da Felly and her husband, Uncle Isiama; Uncle Inno and his wife, Bona; Okechi and his wife, Zainab; Ifeanyi and Chuks, I say thank you for your encouragement. For everyone who contributed towards the success of this thesis especially my brothers and sisters in Christ who space cannot permit me to mention their names here, I pray that God will bless and reward you all. THANK YOU ALL ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................ ii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER ONE ......................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background of the study ................................................................................... 1 1.2. Problem Statement .......................................................................................... 8 1.3. Research Aim ................................................................................................ 10 1.4. Research Questions ...................................................................................... 10 1.5. Research Objectives ...................................................................................... 11 1.7. Theoretical Foundation .................................................................................. 11 1.8 Research design ............................................................................................. 14 1.9 Significance/value of study ............................................................................. 16 1.10 Delineation and Limitation of study ............................................................... 16 1.11 Ethical Considerations .................................................................................. 17 1.12. Structure of the dissertation ..................................................................... 17 CHAPTER TWO ....................................................................................................... 20 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 20 2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 20 2.2 Conceptual framework .................................................................................... 20 2.3. The concept of Representation ...................................................................... 23 2.4 Media Representations ................................................................................... 25 2.4.1. Media as reflecting reality .................................................................................................. 26 2.4.2. Intentional representation .................................................................................................. 27 2.4.3. Media representation as constructing reality..................................................................... 27 2.4.4. Media representation as generating or normalising dominant ideologies. ....................... 29 2.4.5. What is being represented: reality or fiction? .................................................................... 31 2.4.6. How is it being represented: Stereotyping versus essentializing. ...................................... 34 iii 2.4.7. Who is responsible for the representation? ....................................................................... 37 2.5. Cultural representation .................................................................................. 39 2.6. Soap opera. ................................................................................................... 42 2.6.1 Soap opera as narrative ....................................................................................................... 42 2.6.2 Soap opera: A historical overview ....................................................................................... 44 2.6.3. Form and Structure of Soap Opera ..................................................................................... 46 2.6.4. Narrative Structure ............................................................................................................. 46 2.6.5. Themes, plots and character types ..................................................................................... 47 2.6. Soap opera in South Africa ............................................................................ 49 2.8. Critique of soap operas .................................................................................. 51 2.9. Situating the Audience Perception Theory ..................................................... 53 2.10. Audience as perceivers ............................................................................... 54 2.11. The dialectics over passive and active audience ......................................... 55 2.12. The homogeneity and heterogeneity of audience perceptions: the nexus of demographics and socio-cultural factors .............................................................. 58 2.13. Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model .......................................................... 58 i. Dominant or Hegemonic Encoding ............................................................................................ 59 ii. Professional Coding ................................................................................................................... 59 iii. Negotiated Encoding ................................................................................................................ 60 iv. Oppositional Encoding ............................................................................................................. 60 2.14. Critique of audience perception theory ........................................................ 61 2.15. Theory of media hegemony dominant ideology ........................................... 61 2.16. Representation of tribal South African culture in Soap operas .................... 63 2.17. Generation: The Legacy an overview .......................................................... 64 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................