A comprehensive approach to providing services to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Democratic Republic of Congo: addressing more than physical trauma

ABSTRACT

The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is impacted by a prolonged conflict and humanitarian crisis. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) affects an estimated 39.7% of women and 23.6% of men in the region, and is associated with serious medical, psychological, and socio-economic outcomes for survivors and communities. IMA World Health, a faith-based non-profit organisation, implements a USAID-funded project, Ushindi, which is a collaborative effort with three national NGOs and one technical partner in response to SGBV in eastern DRC. The consortium provides a comprehensive package of services to SGBV survivors, focusing on medical, emotional, psychological, legal, and socio-economic needs.     

Brand Innovation and Value-Creating Practices of the City of Johannesburg’s Twitter Community

Abstract

Brands facilitating and sustaining healthy brand communities on social networks such as Twitter benefit from collaborative engagements where members are inspired to suggest innovative ideas, solve problems and enjoy a sense of commitment to their social membership co-creative space. We explored how brand innovation practices contribute to the collective value-creating practices within the social media-based brand community hosted by the official City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Twitter account. This purposive sample include 1,232 tweets during Youth Day, followed by one in-depth, semi-structured interview with the social media manager of the CoJ Twitter account to confirm and contextualise findings. Thematic analysis in a qualitative design found five of six brand innovation practices, namely animation, openness, linking, structuring and theorisation. The CoJ social media-based brand community was co-created innovatively owing to high levels of engagement, room for fun and effective communication on service delivery issues so that the brand community continuously increases its membership and commitment. Findings confirmed eight of twelve value-creating practices, namely welcoming, empathising, governing, evangelising, justifying, grooming, customising and commoditising. The healthier a brand community, the more extensive the variety of innovation practices for a brand.     

Towards a policy model for community radio broadcasting in Zambia

Abstract

This article, which is based on a focused synthesis of a range of historical, political, policy, regulatory and other factors, proposes a normative policy model for community radio broadcasting in Zambia. It starts with a historical analysis of the factors that have influenced the development of community radio broadcasting in the country, particularly in the period before and after 1991. It is argued that community radio broadcasting in Zambia is largely reflective of the state-centric policy-making regime. This policy-making regime is itself a legacy of British colonialism. The policy proposal put forward in this article is informed by the assumptions of the group and organised anarchy models of policy-making and seeks to promote community radio broadcasting in terms of its vision, regulatory structures, funding, training, technology, production of local content and research.     

Observatory's linguistic landscape: semiotic appropriation and the reinvention of space

Using a longitudinal ethnographic study of the linguistic landscape (LL) in Observatory's business corridor of Lower Main Road, the paper explores changes brought about by the influx of immigrant Africans, their artefacts and language practices. The paper uses the changes in the LL over time and the development of an “African Corner” within Lower Main Road, to illustrate the appropriation of space and the unpredictability, which comes along with highly mobile, technological and multicultural citizens. It is argued that changes in the LL are part of the act of claiming and appropriating space wherein space becomes summarily recontexualized and hence reinvented and “owned” by new actors. It is also argued that space ownership can be concealed through what we have called “brand anonymity” strategies in which the identity of the owner is deliberately concealed behind global brands. We conclude that space is pliable and mobile, and that, it is the people within space who carve out new social practices in their appropriated space.     

Negative Advertising and the Dynamics of Candidate Support

Scholars have spent a great deal of effort examining the effects of negative advertising on citizens’ perceptions of candidates. Much of this work has used experimental designs and has produced mixed findings supporting one of two competing theories. First, negative ads may harm candidates who sponsor them because citizens tend to dislike negativity. Second, negativity may drive down citizens’ support for the targeted candidate because the attacks give people reasons to reject the target. We argue that the mixed findings produced by prior research may be driven by a disregard for campaign dynamics. We present a critical test of these two theories using data drawn from 80 statewide elections—37 gubernatorial and 43 U.S. Senate contests—from three election years and public opinion polling collected during the last 12 weeks of each campaign. We find that a candidate’s support declines as her advertising strategy includes a higher proportion of negative ads relative to her opponent and that this process unfolds slowly over the course of the campaign.     

Issue Ownership,Issue Positions,and Candidate Assessment

I argue that citizens alter their views of candidates’ ideological and issue positions in response to two kinds of information cues: issue ownership and issue position cues. Issue ownership cues associate a candidate with the party that owns the issue discussed by a candidate. Issue position cues associate a candidate with the party that is linked to the position that the candidate discusses. These cues can either lead citizens to view the candidate as more or less extreme—both in terms of ideological and issue position assessments—than that candidate’s party. When both types of cues are present, citizens should ignore the issue ownership cues in favor of the easier-to-process issue position cues. Evidence from a survey experiment embedded in the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study provides strong support for this theory and suggests that issue ownership can convey positional information.