Lyton Ncube
Biographic Data
| ID | 4052196 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lyton Ncube |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lyton |
| FAMILY NAME | Ncube |
| SIGNATURE | NCUBE L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Johannesburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8754-3080 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 19 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Shifting the Gaze? Photojournalism Practices in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Mind the gap
Coaching African National teams
This article examines how nativist nationalism manifests in expressions of digital fandom spaces during mega transnational football. Germane to this study is how the appointment of white expatriate coaches to manage African teams at mega tournaments such as the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and FIFA World Cup shores up identitarian othering. Drawing insights from theorisations of nativism, we perform a critical discourse analysis of purposively s…
Football, Colonialism, and Nationalist Resistance in Anglophone Africa
Victory for Africa or the Arab world? Moroccan nationalism, Arab exceptionalism, pan-African solidarity and digital fandom during the 2022 Fifa World Cup
Football serves as a fetish for war, replaying past conflicts and sometimes setting off new ones. Deploying social identities theory and dramaturgy theory, we follow up on this assertion to explore how the historic 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final qualification by Morocco's senior men football team exposed historical and contemporary conflicts framing Morocco today. Celebrating greatness, Moroccan winger Sofiane Boufal dedicated the victory to Moro…
Social Media and Sports Journalism in Zimbabwe
Social media has opened up alternative spaces for the production, distribution, and consumption of sports news across the world. Previously, legacy media were the main spaces through which sports news and commentaries were mediated. Despite these transformations, few empirical studies have unpacked the disruptive impacts of these digital technologies in the global South. Utilising insights from Pfaffenberger’s concept of “technological dramas”, w…
“Fake News” and Multiple Regimes of “Truth” During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe
Debates around the sociocultural phenomenon known as “fake news” have gathered storm since the 2016 US Presidential elections. Our study problematises the notion of “truth” in a politically polarised and trust-deficit Zimbabwean society, where audiences are balkanised and pigeonholed into predefined filter bubbles. In order to make sense of this phenomenon during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we fuse three analytical frameworks—Foucauldian…
The Reproduction of Power and Jargon in Covid-19 Coverage in Zambian Media
During health pandemics such as the globally menacing COVID-19, the news media act as primary sources of information for the majority of the population. However, due to the novelty of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a dearth of studies in Zambia and Africa that explore the coverage of the pandemic in local media. This article employs Foucauldian discourse as theoretical lens to analyse the representation of the COVID-19 pandemic in two selected m…
‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’
Media, Big men and Power Struggles in Football Bodies
Power struggles, factionalism and chaos in football management bodies are a common phenomenon in Zimbabwe. Journalists and the media play a crucial role in these power struggles. However, growing literature on communication and sport in Zimbabwe has under-theorised the subject. Deploying framing theory lens, this research explores the media’s reportage of the “fights” between the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) leadership and their biggest a…
Digital Media, Fake News and Pro-Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance Cyber-Propaganda during the 2018 Zimbabwe Election
Fake news and cyber-propaganda were ubiquitous in the mainstream and social media during the 30 July 2018 Zimbabwe election. Both the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party under Emmerson Mnangagwa and their nemesis the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance under Nelson Chamisa resorted to “fake news” and cyber-propaganda warfare. However, there is a dearth of studies systematically engaging the subject. Th…
Watch my back and I watch yours’
Debates on communication media and democracy including in Africa are largely anchored in the western Habermasian public sphere concept. Studies employing indigenous African communication platforms and symbols are scarce, prompting Zimbabwean philosopher Tafataona Mahoso to argue that while Africans have a philosophy, we have become ‘illiterate’ such that we cannot read our constructions and symbols. Thus, this article broadens discussions on part…
What Is in a Song? Constructions of Hegemonic Masculinity by Zimbabwean Football Fans
Raewyn Connell defines hegemonic masculinity as the most “honoured” way of being a man, and as such all men in patriarchal societies are expected to try to meet the standards of hegemonic masculinity (Connell and Messerschmitt 2005). It can be encountered in a variety of everyday contexts, one of which is sporting events. This article explores the authors’ ethnographic encounters with hegemonic masculinities amongst football fans in Zimbabwe, par…
Kalamazoo Remembered
Can Highlanders FC break the jinx? Contesting press discourses on Highlanders FC’s nine-year failure in the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’
This study shows contesting media discourses in the coverage of Zimbabwe’s most enduring football rivalry. Like other countries across the globe, Zimbabwe has unique football rivalries and derbies from the local level to the national stage. Popularly known as the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’, the Dynamos FC and Highlanders FC rivalry is complex and far-reaching in impact as it is encoded with the discourse of the everyday. However, studies analysing this…
Visualising diverse religious performances
This article deploys Mircea Eliade’s concept of the sacred and the profane (The Sacred and the Profane. London: Harvest, 1959) to demonstrate the symbolic architecture of diverse religious performances, myths, and rituals in Zimbabwean football. Football is a critical space for viewing the religious, political, and cultural dimensions of most societies across the globe. However, cultural studies of sport in Africa have under-theorised the interfa…
Bhora Mugedhi versus Bhora musango
Football is the most popular sport in Zimbabwe and across the globe. It has been asserted elsewhere that the game is not limited to scoring goals on the pitch but that this also occurs in politics and power struggles. This study explores the interface between football discourse and politics during elections in Zimbabwe in July 2013. The study is based on the premise of a neo-Gramscian perspective which views popular culture (including football) a…
African football, identity politics and global media narratives
Additional informationNotes on contributorsBIOGRAPHICAL NOTEZLYTON NCUBE, PhD, lectures Critical Media Theory in the Department of Media and Society Studies at Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe. His research interests include the media, cultural studies and sociology of sport, particularly the nexus of football, nationalism and identities
The interface between football and ethnic identity discourses in Zimbabwe
This research is based on Fletcher's [2012. "These Whites Never Come to Our Game, What do They Know about our Soccer? Soccer Fandom, Race and the Rainbow Nation in South Africa." Doctoral diss., University of Edinburgh. United Kingdom] argument that researching sport is not, and should not be restricted to sport but should be seen as opening up wider avenues of enquiry into everyday life. Theoretically, this study combines a Foucauldian discourse…
Bhora Mugedhi versus Bhora musango
Football is the most popular sport in Zimbabwe and across the globe. It has been asserted elsewhere that the game is not limited to scoring goals on the pitch but that this also occurs in politics and power struggles. This study explores the interface between football discourse and politics during elections in Zimbabwe in July 2013. The study is based on the premise of a neo-Gramscian perspective which views popular culture (including football) a…
The interface between football and ethnic identity discourses in Zimbabwe
This research is based on Fletcher's [2012. "These Whites Never Come to Our Game, What do They Know about our Soccer? Soccer Fandom, Race and the Rainbow Nation in South Africa." Doctoral diss., University of Edinburgh. United Kingdom] argument that researching sport is not, and should not be restricted to sport but should be seen as opening up wider avenues of enquiry into everyday life. Theoretically, this study combines a Foucauldian discourse…
Victory for Africa or the Arab world? Moroccan nationalism, Arab exceptionalism, pan-African solidarity and digital fandom during the 2022 Fifa World Cup
Football serves as a fetish for war, replaying past conflicts and sometimes setting off new ones. Deploying social identities theory and dramaturgy theory, we follow up on this assertion to explore how the historic 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final qualification by Morocco's senior men football team exposed historical and contemporary conflicts framing Morocco today. Celebrating greatness, Moroccan winger Sofiane Boufal dedicated the victory to Moro…
Shifting the Gaze? Photojournalism Practices in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Mind the gap
Coaching African National teams
This article examines how nativist nationalism manifests in expressions of digital fandom spaces during mega transnational football. Germane to this study is how the appointment of white expatriate coaches to manage African teams at mega tournaments such as the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and FIFA World Cup shores up identitarian othering. Drawing insights from theorisations of nativism, we perform a critical discourse analysis of purposively s…
Social Media and Sports Journalism in Zimbabwe
Social media has opened up alternative spaces for the production, distribution, and consumption of sports news across the world. Previously, legacy media were the main spaces through which sports news and commentaries were mediated. Despite these transformations, few empirical studies have unpacked the disruptive impacts of these digital technologies in the global South. Utilising insights from Pfaffenberger’s concept of “technological dramas”, w…
Visualising diverse religious performances
This article deploys Mircea Eliade’s concept of the sacred and the profane (The Sacred and the Profane. London: Harvest, 1959) to demonstrate the symbolic architecture of diverse religious performances, myths, and rituals in Zimbabwean football. Football is a critical space for viewing the religious, political, and cultural dimensions of most societies across the globe. However, cultural studies of sport in Africa have under-theorised the interfa…
The interface between football and ethnic identity discourses in Zimbabwe
This research is based on Fletcher's [2012. "These Whites Never Come to Our Game, What do They Know about our Soccer? Soccer Fandom, Race and the Rainbow Nation in South Africa." Doctoral diss., University of Edinburgh. United Kingdom] argument that researching sport is not, and should not be restricted to sport but should be seen as opening up wider avenues of enquiry into everyday life. Theoretically, this study combines a Foucauldian discourse…
African football, identity politics and global media narratives
Additional informationNotes on contributorsBIOGRAPHICAL NOTEZLYTON NCUBE, PhD, lectures Critical Media Theory in the Department of Media and Society Studies at Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe. His research interests include the media, cultural studies and sociology of sport, particularly the nexus of football, nationalism and identities
Bhora Mugedhi versus Bhora musango
Football is the most popular sport in Zimbabwe and across the globe. It has been asserted elsewhere that the game is not limited to scoring goals on the pitch but that this also occurs in politics and power struggles. This study explores the interface between football discourse and politics during elections in Zimbabwe in July 2013. The study is based on the premise of a neo-Gramscian perspective which views popular culture (including football) a…
Can Highlanders FC break the jinx? Contesting press discourses on Highlanders FC’s nine-year failure in the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’
This study shows contesting media discourses in the coverage of Zimbabwe’s most enduring football rivalry. Like other countries across the globe, Zimbabwe has unique football rivalries and derbies from the local level to the national stage. Popularly known as the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’, the Dynamos FC and Highlanders FC rivalry is complex and far-reaching in impact as it is encoded with the discourse of the everyday. However, studies analysing this…
Visualising diverse religious performances
This article deploys Mircea Eliade’s concept of the sacred and the profane (The Sacred and the Profane. London: Harvest, 1959) to demonstrate the symbolic architecture of diverse religious performances, myths, and rituals in Zimbabwean football. Football is a critical space for viewing the religious, political, and cultural dimensions of most societies across the globe. However, cultural studies of sport in Africa have under-theorised the interfa…
What Is in a Song? Constructions of Hegemonic Masculinity by Zimbabwean Football Fans
Raewyn Connell defines hegemonic masculinity as the most “honoured” way of being a man, and as such all men in patriarchal societies are expected to try to meet the standards of hegemonic masculinity (Connell and Messerschmitt 2005). It can be encountered in a variety of everyday contexts, one of which is sporting events. This article explores the authors’ ethnographic encounters with hegemonic masculinities amongst football fans in Zimbabwe, par…
Kalamazoo Remembered
Digital Media, Fake News and Pro-Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance Cyber-Propaganda during the 2018 Zimbabwe Election
Fake news and cyber-propaganda were ubiquitous in the mainstream and social media during the 30 July 2018 Zimbabwe election. Both the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party under Emmerson Mnangagwa and their nemesis the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance under Nelson Chamisa resorted to “fake news” and cyber-propaganda warfare. However, there is a dearth of studies systematically engaging the subject. Th…
Watch my back and I watch yours’
Debates on communication media and democracy including in Africa are largely anchored in the western Habermasian public sphere concept. Studies employing indigenous African communication platforms and symbols are scarce, prompting Zimbabwean philosopher Tafataona Mahoso to argue that while Africans have a philosophy, we have become ‘illiterate’ such that we cannot read our constructions and symbols. Thus, this article broadens discussions on part…
‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’
Media, Big men and Power Struggles in Football Bodies
Power struggles, factionalism and chaos in football management bodies are a common phenomenon in Zimbabwe. Journalists and the media play a crucial role in these power struggles. However, growing literature on communication and sport in Zimbabwe has under-theorised the subject. Deploying framing theory lens, this research explores the media’s reportage of the “fights” between the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) leadership and their biggest a…
“Fake News” and Multiple Regimes of “Truth” During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe
Debates around the sociocultural phenomenon known as “fake news” have gathered storm since the 2016 US Presidential elections. Our study problematises the notion of “truth” in a politically polarised and trust-deficit Zimbabwean society, where audiences are balkanised and pigeonholed into predefined filter bubbles. In order to make sense of this phenomenon during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we fuse three analytical frameworks—Foucauldian…
The Reproduction of Power and Jargon in Covid-19 Coverage in Zambian Media
During health pandemics such as the globally menacing COVID-19, the news media act as primary sources of information for the majority of the population. However, due to the novelty of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a dearth of studies in Zambia and Africa that explore the coverage of the pandemic in local media. This article employs Foucauldian discourse as theoretical lens to analyse the representation of the COVID-19 pandemic in two selected m…
Social Media and Sports Journalism in Zimbabwe
Social media has opened up alternative spaces for the production, distribution, and consumption of sports news across the world. Previously, legacy media were the main spaces through which sports news and commentaries were mediated. Despite these transformations, few empirical studies have unpacked the disruptive impacts of these digital technologies in the global South. Utilising insights from Pfaffenberger’s concept of “technological dramas”, w…
Football, Colonialism, and Nationalist Resistance in Anglophone Africa
Victory for Africa or the Arab world? Moroccan nationalism, Arab exceptionalism, pan-African solidarity and digital fandom during the 2022 Fifa World Cup
Football serves as a fetish for war, replaying past conflicts and sometimes setting off new ones. Deploying social identities theory and dramaturgy theory, we follow up on this assertion to explore how the historic 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final qualification by Morocco's senior men football team exposed historical and contemporary conflicts framing Morocco today. Celebrating greatness, Moroccan winger Sofiane Boufal dedicated the victory to Moro…
Shifting the Gaze? Photojournalism Practices in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Mind the gap
Coaching African National teams
This article examines how nativist nationalism manifests in expressions of digital fandom spaces during mega transnational football. Germane to this study is how the appointment of white expatriate coaches to manage African teams at mega tournaments such as the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and FIFA World Cup shores up identitarian othering. Drawing insights from theorisations of nativism, we perform a critical discourse analysis of purposively s…
Media studies (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Political science (18 works) · Law (13 works) · Football (10 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Media Studies and Communication (9 works) · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts (9 works) · Sports, Gender, and Society (9 works)