Where use has been made of the work of others, this has been duly acknowledged. Appendix A - THE FIRST WEBSITE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DURBAN-WESTVILLE 84 Appendix B - THE SECOND WEBSITE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DURBAN-WESTVILLE 85.
Abstract
Keywords
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
- Introduction
- Statement Of Purpose
- Aims Of The Study
- Critical questions
- Thesis outline
The study deconstructs the content and messages conveyed by websites to assess the extent to which they subscribe to certain ideologies. J To what extent do web producers (designers or owners) adapt to users from different backgrounds when designing websites? . [J. What agendas do educational websites convey?.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Diversity In South African Higher Education .1 The legacy of apartheid
- Higher education in the post-apartheid South Africa
- Commodification of tertiary institutions
In October 2000, legislation was passed by the National Assembly to amend the Higher Education Act (Act 101 of 1997). 3 Press statement of the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, MP, on the Transformation and Reconstruction of the Higher Education System.
The Web
- Cyberspace: a new public sphere?
- Credibility of the Web content
- Overview of the Internet in South Africa
In the wake of the new Internet technology, studies have noted an increase in the politics of inequality on the Internet. According to The Broadcasting White Paper, June 1998, the Internet situation in South Africa is such that universities and technikons are major users of the Internet.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
- Culture, Ideology and Values .1 Culture
- Semiotics
- Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
34;It is hoped that they can find ways to extend services to members of the community. Here the sign calls for metaphorical interpretation of the idea represented or what is considered common sense. Victor's study noted that school websites usually reflect the demographics of the school population as well as the learning environment in the respective school.
Victor adds that the mood of the people in the photos and the surrounding environment is important.
Summary of the review
Marcus and Gould (ibid) argue that LTO societies have a status above practice and research—for example, things said by professors are given more credibility than those said by ordinary people, no matter how much research or practice there is. the latter did about what they say. LTO's web content focuses on practice and practical value, and relationships (links and links - navigation - to other known sites) form the basis of credibility. In contrast, websites with a short-term time orientation (STO) focus their content on the truth and certainty of beliefs, and adherence to rules is considered a source of credibility.
The argument further claims that such meanings may have some cultural and/or ideological connotations in them and these may indicate the nature of learning, demographics as well as the nature of the university.
Introduction
Sampling
- Sampling of the websites
- Sampling of participants
The news feed and photos change, and as a result, study participants responded to and rated different news stories and photos. To ensure there were participants from both universities, people interested in participating in the study were contacted to recruit others. After choosing which type of participation they wanted in the study, they were interviewed or sent questionnaires over the three months from April 2003.
What the researcher did, in order to get such information, was to re-assure the confidentiality of their answers as well as to probe more in the interviews.
Data collection tools
- Interviews
- Questionnaires
The open-ended approach of the data collection tools helped bring out some unexpected themes/ideas. In total, 14 interviews were conducted, including interviews with . respective producers of the two university countries in the sample. On the web producers side, there were no Africans and only one female.
Appendix E presents similar questions specific to website producers and Appendix F presents the general questions asked of both the website producers and the consumers about their perceptions of the university websites and their views on values conveyed by the websites.
Data Analysis
Demographics of participants
This happened by chance, as the participants were not selected based on their racial group, but more of the volunteers were white. Participants were also asked about their Internet surfing experience to compare the responses of experienced and novice surfers (see Table 3.4 below). Most of the participants accessed the Internet from school and work, and used it mainly for communication, information search and entertainment.
The largest percentage of participants had used the Internet for between 1-5 years and spent 2-5 hours a day online.
Summary
FINDINGS
Introduction
This chapter provides a qualitative analysis and interpretation of the data that was collected for the analysis of possible open/hidden cultural and ideological values conveyed by the selected university websites. The chapter begins with a brief overview of websites, including how each website was produced and the intended ethos as described by each website producer. This included their perceptions of the websites, mentioned favorable features, features they did or did not expect from the websites, what the participants perceived as the target audience of the website, as well as the reported values they perceived in the websites.
Other responses covered in the following sections come from producers of non-university sites as well as consumers.
Overview of the websites
- The University of Durban-Westville (UDW) website
- The University of Natal (NU) website
To the right of the photograph is the University Shield in the university's colors - red, white and blue. These are white, red and gold - also notable on the University crest located on the left side of the banner. The main pane shows the current date as well as all the university's contact information.
The co-creator noted that the site's primary target audience is prospective students, staff, and local and international donors.
Accommodation of various users
During the development of the website, users were consulted in workshops on user analysis, planning, design and implementation. Moreover, they agreed that it is essential that users are involved in the production of the websites so that they address their needs. According to the respective designers, the development of the NU website involved users at every stage of the design and development process.
It is worth noting that it appeared that most people drew conclusions about a site including its trustworthiness, morality, and values after visiting only the main site (and possibly a few other sites) rather than after visiting all of the site's parts. great site.
Messages conveyed by the websites
- Messages conveyed by design features
- Messages conveyed by content
Consumer Participant I apparently prefer information laid out in chunks as it guides me to important parts of the site. What mattered to them was that the layout fit the site's mission and that the content was consistent with other sites in the same category. Meanwhile, consumers commented strongly negatively on the layout of the first website for UDW (Appendix A).
They wanted to see more content on the website, such as the university's mission or what is going on there.
How websites transmit ideology
- Perceived target group
- Perceptions of education of the targeted group
- Perceptions of religion of the targeted group
- Achievements
Consumer Participant I like the picture of the four women on the homepage as it breaks away from the conventional perception that only men are winners. From the data, more than half of the participants (88% of men, 56% of women) commented on how gender was portrayed on websites. Most of the women were positive about including women in the photo as they felt that.
Examples in the areas to which participants referred in relation to whose achievements should be highlighted are given in Table 4.5 above.
Website credibility and its impact on values
- Website credibility
- How websites impact on values
More than half of those people whose preconceived beliefs were challenged after viewing the site still thought they were part of the target group. They felt that the 'amateur' layout of the site meant that the institution produced lower quality degrees. Those who felt the site provided little information then thought they would not study there for fear of coming.
Similarly, some participants who had a positive view of the websites still felt that they did not want to study at the institution, as they believed that the website had manipulated the "real image" of what goes on there, as one of them said.
Summary of findings
In relation to power distance, the findings indicated that some societies believe that inequalities between people should be minimized or that they are expected or desired. Most participants felt that the power distance between school authorities (staff) and students should be minimized. Collectivism in that participants confirmed that the university's success should be measured by the achievements of both staff and students.
Most participants emphasized that student achievement should be highlighted as much as staff.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- Introduction
- Values in the websites
- Features that convey the ethos of a site
- How producers accommodate users from diverse backgrounds in their design of websites
- What agendas are conveyed by university websites?
- How websites transmit ideology
- The extent to which people accommodate possible contradiction between the values they hold and those they perceive to be conveyed by
- Web design Suggestions
- Limitations of this study
- Recommendations for further studies
- Concluding remarks
The main theme of the study was to investigate the different ways in which ideology is conveyed by university websites. Regarding layout, participants confirmed that information aggregation and consistency across the site increases the user's page learning time. The study found that consumers respond more readily to the content than to the design of a website in their assessment of the site's ethics.
The findings show that consumers felt that the focus of the selected sites was mainly on students and staff.
Bibliog raphy
34;The Media and the Public Sphere." I Habermas and the Public Sphere, redigeret af Craig Calhoun. 34;Stereotypes, Public Opinion and the Press." I Philosophical Issues in Journalism, redigeret af Elliot Cohen. 34;Seing Beyond Belief: Cultural Studies as an Approach to Analyzing the Visual." I Handbook of Visual Analysis, redigeret af 1.
34; The Commodification of Tertiary Institutions: A Study of the University of Natal's Corporate Advertising Campaign.” Unpublished MA thesis, University of Natal, Durban.
APPENDICES
Appendix B - The second homepage of the University of Durban- Westville
Appendix C - The University of Natal homepage
Seat'ch t.t F6vofites
Questions for Consumers
Appendix E - Questions for Producers of Non-university Sites
Race: OAfrican OWhite
Appendix F - Questions for both consumers and producers (of non- university sites)
Values transmitted by the websites
Given that the South African policy on higher education is that access to tertiary education institutions should be open to all and not exclude anyone, what can be done to ensure that higher education institutions' websites accommodate everyone. Would you consider these tertiary institutions' websites to be a thoughtful (just informative) or aggressive (overly persuasive) marketing strategy to attract students. With the upcoming merger between these two institutions, what would you suggest so that the new website captures the identity of the merged institution without losing old identities of both.
Appendix G - Outline of interview questions for producers of the sam pie sites
