I am a visual analyst, specialising in social semiotics, multimodal discourse methodology, and television news. I am Lecturer in Journalism at the 我要吃瓜, and my scholarship spans four degrees on two continents, intersecting media, politics, and representation. I co-founded the Visual Rhetoric / Media Semiotics research group that spans across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
My Masters thesis (2010-2012, UCT) annotated the (local and global) television news coverage of the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa, focusing on visual and social semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and post-colonial theory. Continuing with the research of television news, my PhD (2018, UCT) investigated the broadcast coverage of the first five South African democratic elections (1994 - 2014). African narratives, political communication, post-colonial theory, the role of media in political discourse, and journalism ethics amongst others form the theoretical basis.
My first monograph transformed my PhD thesis into a chronology of six South African elections on television news, providing a deep analysis of media and democracy in the country.
I am currently involved in two pieces of research: analysing the UK and Scottish Government Covid-19 responses through visual social media posts, and assisting the SABC TV News archives in developing an enhanced transcription and organisation system.
My research areas cover the intersection between media and politics, particularly South African and non-Western news. I am a news social semiotician, and analyse visual rhetoric through multimodal discourse analyses. My specific research interest is television, or convergence, news.
Article
Jones B (2024) The shitposting scattergun approach: A multimodal analysis of the first wave COVID-19 social media messaging from UKGov. Journal of Visual Political Communication, 11 (1), pp. 27-57, Art. No.: 2. https://doi.org/10.1386/jvpc_00037_1
Article
South African Media and Politics: Is the Three Models Approach Still Valid After Two Decades?
Jones B & Hadland A (2024) South African Media and Politics: Is the Three Models Approach Still Valid After Two Decades?. Media and Communication, 12 (Special Issue: Communication Policies and Media Systems: Revisiting Hallin and Mancini’s Model), Art. No.: 7723. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.7723
Book Chapter
Jones B (2023) The "Lack of Listening" During South African Election News Coverage: Ramifications for Peace and Democracy. In: Omanga D, Mare A & Mainye PC (eds.) Digital Technologies, Elections and Campaigns in Africa. 1 ed. African Governance. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Technologies-Elections-and-Campaigns-in-Africa/Omanga-Mare-Mainye/p/book/9781032551166
Book Chapter
Look into my lies: the strategic use of photography in UK Gov’s 2021 coronavirus campaign
Macdonald E & Jones B (2023) Look into my lies: the strategic use of photography in UK Gov’s 2021 coronavirus campaign. In: Lilleker D & Veneti A (eds.) Research Handbook on Visual Politics. Political Science and Public Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 370-380. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800376939.00038
Book Chapter
The “Lack of Listening” during South African Election News Coverage
Jones B (2023) The “Lack of Listening” during South African Election News Coverage. In: Routledge, pp. 172-187. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003429081-13
Authored Book
Elections and TV News in South Africa: Desperately Seeking Depth
Jones B (2021) Elections and TV News in South Africa: Desperately Seeking Depth. London: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71792-6
Article
The lack of listening: News sources in South Africa’s five general elections, 1994–2014
Jones B (2019) The lack of listening: News sources in South Africa’s five general elections, 1994–2014. Journalism, 20 (8), pp. 1014-1034. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884919845455
Article
Jones B (2016) Television news and the digital environment: A triadic multimodal approach for analysing moving image media. African Journalism Studies, 37 (2), pp. 116-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2016.1173568
Book Chapter
Of Sunsets, Savagery and Soccer: Framing Africa during the Final Days of the 2010 World Cup
Jones B (2014) Of Sunsets, Savagery and Soccer: Framing Africa during the Final Days of the 2010 World Cup. In: Chari T & Mhipiri NA (eds.) African Football, Identity Politics and Global Media Narratives. 1 ed. Global Culture and Sport. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 262-284. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137392237_14
I currently teach on the following undergraduate modules: Introduction to Journalism, Magazine Journalism, Journalism and Society, Analysing the Language of News, Ethical Issues in Journalism, Researching the Media and Culture.
I teach on the postgraduate modules: Advanced Topics in Communication, Public Relations and Public Communication Theories.
I am also undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD supervisor on topics throughout media, journalism, and culture. I currently supervise one PhD student on African social / digital media.