"Indigenous Language for Social Change Communication in the Global South brings together voices from the margins to engage in dialogue about common social change issues in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This book argues that resistance and social movements, expressed in music and songs and exchang
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ed via radio, remain fundamental to ensure that the linguistic and cultural diversity of the world progresses despite colonizing pressures. Contributors present cases that explore how indigenous communities use mediums such as the radio to help support their language, identity, and expand their own social change. Highlighting the centrality of music in the development of political discussions and language as a central part of collective identity, contributors analyze how these mediums function as both a vessel and a link for information and cultural cohesion of those engaging in social change." (Publisher description)
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"This edited collection brings together voices from the margins in underrepresented regions of the Global South, within the context of scholarship focusing on indigenous languages and development communication. Contributors bring together research from often-overlooked parts of the world to engage i
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n dialogue towards an understanding of the similarities and differences between issues of language and development in the Global South, presenting cases as a starting point for further research and discussions about indigenous language and development communication in Latin America, Africa, and Asia." (Publisher description)
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"This study focuses on the impact of social media towards conserving African languages, particularly Sepedi, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. Social media are given attention to explore their impact in conserving African languages amongst youth. Youth is a suitable group to focus on as they are the future an
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d are thus expected to carry their African languages and pass them on to succeeding generations. This exercise should be done to ensure that African languages should not face extinction in the future. Generally, youth are constant users of social media platforms, hence it is cardinal to investigate their language-usage patterns on social media platforms. The majority of the African youth in South Africa use either one or more of the nine (9) indigenous African languages that are official, namely, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga. Therefore, one would expect speakers of these indigenous African languages to effectively use them on social media, particularly, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. African language heritage is undoubtedly a valuable resource, however, it needs state resources to develop it further and establish it as a core economic driver on various media platforms. The study employs exploratory and descriptive designs. These designs are appropriate for this study because it permits data to be collected through observations, focus group interviews and questionnaires. Focus group interviews, observations, and questionnaires were used to collect data. Focus group is a data-collection tool for understanding people’s behaviour and attitudes. The researcher moderated three focus groups. One hundred (100) questionnaires were distributed to the participants in this study. These tools are apt for the data-collection process in this study because they assist to discover factors that influence opinions, attitudes, and behaviours. Social media have great potential to conserve the African languages but the speakers of these languages should play a cardinal role in this process. Majority of the youth do not prefer to use the African languages on social media. Conversations on both Facebook and Twitter are dominated by English as youth prefer it ahead of Sepedi, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga. In contrast, youth prefer to use the African languages on WhatsApp because they know their contacts. However, code-switching is used a lot by youth on social media. Despite the fact that Sepedi, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga are not mostly used on Facebook and Twitter they remain relevant and useful amongst their speakers on a daily basis. Nevertheless, there is a need to develop the African languages based social media sites to stimulate their usage on these platforms. Additionally, these languages should be developed to fit the needs of social media." (Abstract)
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"There is a conspicuous importance of having newspapers that publish in the indigenous African languages for the indigenous population in a democratic dispensation. The indigenous African languages are key components of their respective cultures. The survival of the language is, in some way, depende
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nt on the print media (newspapers) (Salawu, 2004:8). In addition, the indigenous language newspapers have cardinal roles of promoting previously marginalised languages, preserving indigenous cultures and upholding democracy. Nevertheless, these newspapers are struggling to sustain themselves in the print media industry. It is, therefore, critically important to examine the factors that adversely affect the sustainability of these newspapers." (Abstract)
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