Methodology
Content Analysis as a method
This research examines the ways in which kwaito was portrayed in South Africa and to answer this question, I employed qualitative content analysis as a method as it is useful for collating and gauging the manifest content of large amounts of media output over a given time period. It can be used to study themes, trends, stereotypes, patterns and shifts over time. Content analysis allows for ‘the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns’. Content analysis works through the gathering and analyzing of texts, which can be music lyrics, books, speeches, newspapers etc. (see Neuman 1994). It is also…show more content… • • 7% Criminal: news articles about criminal cases involving kwaito artists. They vary from rape accusations to shootings and stabbings. Unlike the conflict stories that were relatively minor, the criminal stories involved police departments and the courts of law.
• • 6% Conflict: news articles about conflict between kwaito artists or other parties; this includes physical assault or violent threats.
• • 5% Deaths: news articles on the death/s of kwaito artists
• • 5% Car crashes: a news article on car crashes involving kwaito artists.
• • 5% Fashion: news articles about kwaito artists receiving fashion awards or sponsorship from fashion labels.
• • 3.5%Relationships and sex: news articles about the sex lives, romantic hook ups or break ups of kwaito stars.
• • 3.5% Political: news articles detailing the use of kwaito music or artists in political events including election campaigns and voting
The table below shows the themes, as well as how many news articles there were per year from 1994 to 2001. 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Industry news 0 2 10 12 26