Faculty of Arts

Undergraduate - Unit


print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL


FacultyFaculty of Arts
Organisational UnitSchool of Social Science, South Africa
OfferedNot offered in 2013
Coordinator(s)Dr Rose-Marie Bezuidenhout


The current youth culture is more dynamic than ever before and an understanding of youth is crucial from both a consumer culture perspective and a media perspective. The unit addresses the cultural pursuits such as the consumption of cultural phenomena and specifically youth media in the richly diverse South African and African environment.
The unit examines the construction of the youth audience/consumer; the development of new media narratives, the associated reading and consumption practices of youth and the adoption of youth culture in South Africa and Africa. Youth narratives are examined as sites of pleasure and contestation for an emerging citizenry in an increasingly converging and globalised environment with specific reference to how it applies to South African youth. Areas of study include virtual reality, Internet sites, music video, animation, soap opera, sitcom, hybrid current affairs and magazines.


At the completion of the unit students are expected to:

  1. Understand the importance to recognise that youth exists as a culturally constructed rather than a biological or psychological phenomenon;
  2. Understand the necessity to research how and why young people interact with media, and an awareness of some of the methods allowing us to do so;
  3. Analyse representations of youth from a variety of sources with specific reference to South African youth and youth from the African continent;
  4. Appreciate contemporary debates concerning youth, the media and the development of citizenship;
  5. Understand the interactions between economy, governance, society and cultural practice in producing embodied experiences of youth with specific reference to South African case studies;
  6. Understand the influence of globalisation on youth cultures and youth media in South Africa;
  7. Explore the relationship between South African and African music and youth cultures and youth media representations.


Written assignment 1 (1350 words): 30%
Written assignment 2 (1350 words): 30%
2 Hours exam (1800 words): 40%

Chief examiner(s)

Contact hours


This unit applies to the following area(s) of study