No abstract

This paper explores the emergency remote learning experiences of journalism students. It discusses how disparities in access to digital tools and participation in online learning, caused by the digital divide, influenced how some benefitted from the student-centred learning approaches adopted while others could not. The study seeks to answer this question: To what extent did the digital divide influence the experiences of journalism students with emergency remote student-centred learning adopted due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic? The study uses Van Dijk’s theory of the usage gap to argue that the unequal access to digital technologies experienced by some students brought about unequal participation in learning. This is despite the use of more student-centred approaches, which, according to existing literature, are supposed to foster greater engagement and participation. The data consisted of 113 vlogs created by second and third-year students from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, South Africa, between June 1, 2020, and June 30, 2020.

No abstract

No abstract

This study explores how South African television news reports communicate on sentence proceedings criminal cases involving violent acts against children. These kinds of crimes tend to attract public interest, and the outcomes can be a litmus test on the community's views concerning the justice system. By using cluster criticism to consider the discursive and non-discursive components of selected news reports, the study considers how television news broadcasts use factual and evaluative language and visuals when communicating court outcomes. The paper argues that these broadcasters tend to use evaluative language and visuals, as opposed to factual terms. This tendency can prevent news media from playing the educative role envisaged in the principle of open justice because instead of emphasising the factual aspects of sentencing proceeding, these reports focus on the outcome and the emotive aspects of the cases that entertain rather than educate.