Whose Wakanda is it anyway? A reception analysis of Black Panther among young black urban Africans
- Authors: Muzenda, Makomborero
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Motion picture audiences , Youth, Black -- Africa -- Attitudes , Popular culture – Africa , Motion pictures -- Social aspects , Youth, Black -- Race identity -- Africa , Identity politics in motion pictures , Identity (Psychology) and mass media , Mass media and youth -- Africa , Mass media and culture -- Africa , Mass media -- Social aspects -- Africa , Postcolonialism and the arts , Representation (Philosophy) , Black Panther (Motion picture : 2018) -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144311 , vital:38330
- Description: As a writer and as an academic, I have long been interested in young black Africans. As a demographic group, we are heralded as the future of Africa and a vital resource, but not much is known about us, what we think, and how we make sense of things. As an African youth myself, I know that we are a diverse group with different backgrounds, perspectives and beliefs. I am interested in exploring our identities, how we express ourselves and how we make sense of ourselves, each other, the continent and the world. I want to learn more about how we see the world, and what we think of how media narratives and messages represent us. This research project is an extension of this personal curiosity. It focuses on Black Panther, a film that received particularly strong responses from young black Africans. I want to explore why this film in particular prompted such a strong reaction, and what the imagining of an uncolonised, technologically advanced African nation that Black Panther offers means for the young black Africans born after the official end of apartheid and colonisation.
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- Date Issued: 2020
The representation of materialist consumerism in film
- Authors: Fourie, Elizabeth
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Identity (Psychology) in motion pictures , Depersonalization , Group identity , Motion pictures -- Social aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8396 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/954 , Identity (Psychology) in motion pictures , Depersonalization , Group identity , Motion pictures -- Social aspects
- Description: People are constantly bombarded with the latest technology, the latest fashion, the latest ‘must have’ item. We are encouraged to buy things that promise to change our lives and give us satisfaction or even create happiness. Interestingly we often succumb to the temptation of these material things, which is not always a negative reaction; however it does become negative when our lives are controlled by material possessions and we give up certain aspects of who we are to enable us to obtain these possessions. Further more it becomes problematic when we start to rely on material possessions to define us in terms of our identity or to help us fit into particular groups within society. With the media playing such a large role in societies at present it is almost inevitable that the phenomenon of materialist consumerism will make its way into the media. The media however holds control, to an extent, over whether or not materialist consumerism is viewed in a negative or affirmative light. An analysis of the representation of materialist consumerism in selected instances of mainstream cinema will be the aim of my proposed study. The study will look at the representation of materialist consumerism in so far as it offers viewers a place to ‘fit’ into a particular group within society. The group I am referring to can be categorised as the upper-middle class of contemporary western society. I have thus selected films that represent this group specifically. For the purpose of the treatise ‘materialist consumerism’ is understood as a way of life, or alternatively, an ideology, which assumes that the accumulation of material wealth through consumption imparts meaning to human lives. The treatise will analyse both sides of the coin, or in other words films that support or promote materialist consumerism and those that either revolt against or criticise this form of consumerism. The study will explore different aspects of consumerism in so far as these are represented in the films, with an identifiable axiological bias.
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- Date Issued: 2009