Television and Black Twitter in South Africa
Our Perfect Wedding
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7500599 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexia Smit (0000-0001-6524-2842, University of Cape Town, corresponding author), Tanja Bosch (0000-0002-8093-1969, University of Cape Town) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 7-8 |
| Pages | 1512-1527 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Media Culture & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0163443720926040 |
| OpenAlex | W3029949682 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 14 |
This article examines Twitter use by audiences of the popular South African television show, Our Perfect Wedding. We argue that the show’s Twitter feed provides an extension of South Africa’s ‘Black Twitter’ facilitating a space for recognition and group identity for Black South African television viewers. Such a space is significant since Black audiences have been neglected in the short history of South African television broadcasting. On Our Perfect Wedding, broadcast on a satellite television service DStv to paying subscribers, questions of class and race are salient for an audience group prized as an emerging market of Black middle-class viewers. Through qualitative analysis of a sample of tweets featuring the hashtag, #OPWMzansi ( Our Perfect Wedding South Africa), we demonstrate how Twitter is used for the performance and negotiation of class and race for the audience. The comedy of the show’s Twitter commentary is largely dependent upon judgements around class, taste and language. While the Twitter feed features creative user contributions, the #OPWMzansi network reveals that much of the communication is prompted and networked back to the official programme Twitter site, demonstrating the centrality of the traditional television broadcaster to Twitter interactions with the text
Advertising · Broadcasting (networking · Class (philosophy · Media studies · Negotiation · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics
Tweets and Reactions
Aspirational Anxiety
Exploring the Virtual Culture of Reality Television Communities
Decolonizing Digital Methods
W(h)ither Media Events? Building a Typology for Theorizing Exceptional Events that Break with the Norm in a Complex Media Landscape
Networked masculinities in South Africa
Afropolitan Influence
Sociology of Twitter/X
Exploring #Diasporawars on Black Twitter
Broadcasting the End of Apartheid
Social Television
The tweet smell of celebrity success
Critique by stealth
Media Broadcasters as Agents of Participatory Communication through Audience Involvement
Broadcasting the Rainbow Nation
The Language of Multiculturalism in South African Soaps and Sitcoms
Tweeting television
The New Black Middle Class in South Africa
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |