Deconstructing political myths in television advertisements of major South African political parties during elections campaign : a critical discourse analysis study
type: CreativeWork
description: This study argues that political television advertisements possess underlying political myths. These political myths are narratives that use different discursive practices such as verbal and visual texts to construct political narratives that either legitimise and/or delegitimise a particular political discourse. This, therefore, makes political myths ideological rather than a mere narrative. Moreover, this study argues that political myths are not mere fictional and/or imaginative narratives. Underlying political myths are presented in political television advertisements of the three main South African political parties, namely: the ANC, DA and the EFF. The political television advertisements under scrutiny were used in 2014, 2016 and 2019 national, provincial and local government elections campaigns. The main contribution of this particular study is that it is the first study of its kind to explore underlying political myths in political television advertisements of South Africa's main political parties. To interrogate underlying political myths found in the political television advertisements, this study employed different research methods of the critical discourse analysis, namely: a three-dimensional model of discourse, PDA, DMA, CMA, DHC, SSA and MCDA. The above-mentioned research methods are inherently qualitative, critical and reveal underlying discursive practices used mainly to construct underlying political myths that legitimise and/or delegitimise a particular political discourse. Among study findings identified include that the ANC political television advertisements use different discursive practices of visual and verbal texts essentially to construct underlying political myths to ideologically legitimise the significance of the party as a liberator or the "saviour" of black people from the oppressive colonial and apartheid South Africa. Underlying the saviour myth, South Africans particularly blacks live in poverty and underdevelopment regardless of t…
abstract: This study argues that political television advertisements possess underlying political myths. These political myths are narratives that use different discursive practices such as verbal and visual texts to construct political narratives that either legitimise and/or delegitimise a particular political discourse. This, therefore, makes political myths ideological rather than a mere narrative. Moreover, this study argues that political myths are not mere fictional and/or imaginative narratives. Underlying political myths are presented in political television advertisements of the three main South African political parties, namely: the ANC, DA and the EFF. The political television advertisements under scrutiny were used in 2014, 2016 and 2019 national, provincial and local government elections campaigns. The main contribution of this particular study is that it is the first study of its kind to explore underlying political myths in political television advertisements of South Africa's main political parties. To interrogate underlying political myths found in the political television advertisements, this study employed different research methods of the critical discourse analysis, namely: a three-dimensional model of discourse, PDA, DMA, CMA, DHC, SSA and MCDA. The above-mentioned research methods are inherently qualitative, critical and reveal underlying discursive practices used mainly to construct underlying political myths that legitimise and/or delegitimise a particular political discourse. Among study findings identified include that the ANC political television advertisements use different discursive practices of visual and verbal texts essentially to construct underlying political myths to ideologically legitimise the significance of the party as a liberator or the "saviour" of black people from the oppressive colonial and apartheid South Africa. Underlying the saviour myth, South Africans particularly blacks live in poverty and underdevelopment regardless of t…
author: Thatelo, Mopailo Thomas
language: en
keywords: Critical discourse analysis theory, Critical discourse research method, Elections campaigns, Political myth, South African political parties, Political television advertisements, Verbal text, Visual text
date published: 2022
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:33:40Z
provider: North-West University (South Africa)
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: North-West University (South Africa)

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10394/39256