Media diaries

Digest Media With Me

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"Media Digest Diaries" Semester Reflection

This semester has been an eye-opening journey, has helped me see how complex the world of media really is. I’ve learned important tools to better understand and think about the media we see every day. By studying things like signs and symbols (semiotics), different beliefs about media, and how algorithms affect what we see online, I’ve gained a better understanding of how media influences the way we think, what we believe, and how we act.

One of the most powerful concepts I learned was semiotics the study of signs and symbols in media. Understanding how meanings are constructed through signs, codes, and conventions has made me realize that media messages are never neutral. Every image, word, or sound carries a layered meaning that can influence how we interpret the world.

Another major theme was the role of ideologies in media, we looked at was how media can reflect or challenge the beliefs and power structures in society. We learned that media often supports certain ideas while ignoring or pushing aside others. By looking at media this way, I’ve started to notice which stories are given more attention and which ones are left out. This has changed how I see things like news, ads, and social media posts.

We also explored the idea of algorithms and the Feed how platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube curate our experience based on data and engagement. It was shocking to realize how personalized and manipulative media is or can be, shaping not just what we see, but how we think and feel.

From now on, I will look at media more carefully and thoughtfully. I’ll ask questions about why certain content was made and think more about the values and ideas it might be trying to share or support.

As a content creator and YouTuber, I’ll try to be more thoughtful and responsible with the media I make. Whether I’m posting on social media, creating videos, or joining online conversations, I now understand how important it is to be aware of the messages I’m sharing both the obvious ones and the hidden ones.

I’ll also be more aware of the algorithmic traps that can influence my online behaviour, I also plan to get my information from different sources and try to hear other (POV) points of view. This will help me avoid only seeing one side of a story or staying in a bubble.

This course has been more than just academic it has changed the way I see things. I used to scroll through media without really thinking about deeply about what is really going on social media and never ask any why? but now I understand that media is powerful and should be looked at carefully and sometimes even questioned. Media Studies has shown me that being aware gives you power, and with that comes the responsibility to think more carefully about the media we take in every day.

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5 posts!

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Semiotic analysis

SPAR CAMPAIGN OFFERS SOUTH AFRICA’S LEANERS A “START LIKE NO OTHER”

SPAR campaign offers South Africa’s learners a ‘Start Like No Other’

Every day, millions of children in South Africa walk to school barefoot. For many, the journey is tough – sharp stones, hot tar, and long di

This essay gives semiotic examination of the Spar and Bata 2025 advertisement titled “give them a start like no other with Spar”, on how semiotic elements work to convey it intended meaning, through images, colors used, and typography. We will also briefly explain theories of somatic that will be used to examine the advisement which are, signifier and the signified and several types of signs.

According to Saussure et al.et. (2020) semiotic is the study of signs and their meaning in society. Saussure (2020) argued that “sign is composed of two parts the signifier and the signified, where signifier is a form of the sign such as image, signified is the concept the sign represents”. According to the Oxford dictionary, “connotation is an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning and denotation is the literal meaning”.

Peirce (1943: 36) defined a sign as “something which stands to somebody for something”. According to Peirce (1943: 36) “signs are categorized to three main types: (1) an icon, which resembles its referent (such as a road sign for falling rocks) (2) an index, which is associated with its referent (as smoke is a sign of fire) (3) a symbol, which is related to its referent only by convention (as with words or traffic signals) also demonstrated that a sign can never have a definite meaning, for the meaning must be continuously qualified”.

Morris (Morris) argued that there are 3 branches of semiotics firstly the semantics suggesting the relationship between signifier and signified, secondly the syntactics which is how signs relate to each other in a system, lastly the pragmatics which is the relationship between the sign and its interpretation. "Give them the start like no other with Spar" campaign aims to easy financial burden from parents and give hope to South African learners by offering school shoes at a discounted price, how? for every R350 spent with a Spar reward card, customer can purchase a pair of shoes for just R70 (denotation). This implies that every child deserves to start school year with pride and confidence (connotation).

This campaign’s intended meaning is to put Spar in a position where it is a company that does not sell only goods but also invests in community upliftment. Taking a deeper look at it, the product being sold is not just shoes, but the idea of worthy, dignified start for children, especially for those from underprivilege communities who walk barefoot to school because they cannot afford school shoes.

The adverts works effectively and deeply with this minimal design, there are no interruptions of other products, focuses on a single pair of black school shoes, a brand color and a clear phrase to signify a bigger idea, of helping learners giving them a 3 chance to learn with confidence. Black school shoes function as an iconic sign, they visually resemble real shoes and communicate the education theme. Shoes’ presence suggests that a child is prepared and confident to go to school, participate with confidence and do well at school, which is an indexical sign.

Green background is a symbolic sign of SPAR’s brand identity, green represents freshness, which is SPAR’s top priority, this can be linked to the tagline “start like no other” which the green color represents, new, fresh start. This helps build trust among South African parents who believe in the quality of the school shoes advertised because of the strong and reliable image of SPAR brand. “Give them a start LIKE NO OTHER with SPAR” slogan, is also symbolic, uppercase text are used to show a sense of urgency to purchase shoes to give your child a different, beautiful start like no other. In a semiotic way, this phrase also connects the act of giving which is the signified in this case connecting it with emotional and social upliftment which is a signified.

In a syntactic perspective, looking at the ad shoes are placed in the center with the tagline, SPAR brand logo right closely next to them. This shows that the shoes and the brand message are closely connected. The bright white text against the green background makes the message stand out on the ad this creates a clear path for the viewer to first notice the image then read the words. This layout helps guide how people understand the ad.

Pragmatically, the advert is created to be emotional, ad is for Jan – Feb which is a financially demanding season, with children going back to school, an advertisement showing affordable school shoes during this season brings a sense of relief and hope for South African Families. SPAR is shown as a supermarket that cares about social issues particularly for privileged audiences, the shoes become more than just footwear, but a symbol of good grades, progress, fairness and most importantly a sign to a chance to get an education. So how people understand the ad depends not only on what they see, however also on when, and how they see it.

In conclusion, SPAR’s “a Start Like No Other” advertisement is a strong example of how sematic strategies can create deep meanings in what seem like a simple ad. The advert uses iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs as well as the relation between meaning structure, layout, and context. It does more than just promote a product, it tells a story about social responsibility, hope, dignity and opportunity, by appealing not just to the eyes but to the heart and conscience also. References

Dictionary, O.E., 1989. Oxford English dictionary. Simpson, Ja & Weiner, Esc, 3

(PDF) Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938)

PDF | “Foundations of the theory of signs,” published by Charles W. Morris in 1938, deals with the relations between semiotics and science,

Morris, C.W., 1938. Foundations of the Theory of Signs. In International encyclopaedia of unified science (pp. 1-59). Chicago University Press. Source: (Accessed 08 September 2025)

Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

With the present volume, the presentation of Peirce's philosophical thought reaches its metaphysical culmination. It embodies the effort of

Peirce, C.S., 1934. Collected papers of Charles sanders Peirce (Vol.5). Harvard University Press. https://dspace.unical.it/handle/10955/3977. (Accessed 03 September 2025).

Saussure, F.D., Bally, C., Sechehaye, A.,Riedlinger, A. and Harris, R., 2020. Course in general linguistics. (Accessed 08 September 2025). SPAR International. (2025).

SPAR South Africa launches campaign benefitting school children. Available at: https://spar-international.com/news/spar-south-africa-launchescampaign-benefitting-school-children/ (Accessed 03 September 2025).

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My Algorithmic Identity

Exploring my own data from Meta and Google was an eye-opening experience. At first, I felt overwhelmed by how much information was collected like the posts I liked at 8 am and the strange guesses about my interests and lifestyle. It was clear that my online activities had been tracked, labeled, and used to make money. Some of it felt too personal, some was way off, and some was uncomfortably accurate.

What stood out to me was how platforms track even the smallest interactions. On Meta, I found a list of comments, stories on Instagram I had liked from different creators which some of them I don’t even recognize, following suggestions I have removed and unfollowed, including posts I had forgotten about completely, from months ago. What surprised me most was the long list of “ad I have clicked” These are labels that Meta uses to describe me,  even though I never told them directly that I have back acne that needs treatment but pastry ad was shown to me since it the most effective skincare brand that cater for body acne. It showed me how much they assume about me just from my online activity. Also, a search I made on Google about free psychiatric hospitals and what low serotonin levels mean, now according to google I have mental health concerns, low mood, or certain life challenges telling from the ads that has been flooding after that.

Strange to realize that these platforms build a picture of me without my full knowledge, just from what I search, click, or look at online. Even more unsettling were Google’s ad categories, which included mental health, job seeking, starting a business at low cost, financial planning. These, while accurate based on my searches and recent life transitions beginning of this year, all felt invasive uncomfortably, like I have no privacy. It was a reminder that while I may feel in control of my online activity, the platforms are always observing, connecting dots I didn’t even know I was drawing.

There are also clear gaps in my downloaded data. For instance, my most cherished offline hobbies like filming for my YouTube, Sunday resets, and spending time with family were not in the data, as well as my values, beliefs, my Fridays & Sundays at church were nowhere to be found. This makes sense, these aspects of myself are not easily dectated by algorithm unless I do post about them. This shows limited the platforms "know" us they don’t capture the full person, only the parts that can be turned into profit. they often get things wrong, Google tagged me as a “patient”, this is likely based on a few searches I did while helping while I had heartburn from something I eat, this led to an ads for gaviscon, of which was not relevant to me anymore. These mistakes reflect the flawed logic of algorithms, correlation is often mistaken for identity.

Zuboff’s idea of surveillance capitalism where our actions online are turned into data so companies can make money, is evidence here, My data wasn’t just sitting somewhere it was being used to change what I see online, push certain ads, and guide my choices. There's also a problem with bias, algorithms guessed things about me like how much I earn, what I like, or where I am in life, If they guess wrong like thinking I’m rich I might miss out on job ads or bursary opportunities. This kind of hidden unfairness is hard to notice but very powerful. Now that I know how closely I’m being watched, I will change how I act online, avoid searching or posting certain things because I don’t want them to be saved as part of my digital record.

In conclusion, looking into how algorithms see me showed that this version of me is broken into pieces, focused on what can be sold, and only partly true. It's not based on who I really am, but on how companies use my data to make money. This made me realize that being online always comes with a cost, guess things, and try to influence me. Now I will ask why I’m seeing certain content, and I try to protect my privacy, even if I can’t fully. We cannot control how online data is used, but understanding it is the first step toward reclaiming some of our little power left.

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Ideologies in the Feed: Bonang Matheba on Instagram: 5.2 follower

Bonang Matheba is an award- winning media personality and businesswoman. She collaborates with international brands in fashion and beauty. With over 5.2 million followers on Instagram showing her glamorous lifestyle, fashion, and brand partnerships. She launched her sparkling wine brand, House of BNG, which has gained a lot of attention. Has a Foundation, for woman empowerment called Bonang Matheba foundation. She has built a strong online presence, presenting herself as a confident and successful woman who’s worked hard to get to the top,

below is the link to her Instagram feed.. scroll through to taste luxury lifesyle.

https://www.instagram.com/bonang_m?igsh=djVqaDJzMDk2cHA3

FIGURE 1: Matheba (2025) screencapure taken from Bonang IG, showing her featured in ForbesWoman which is a section of Forbes magazine that focuses on women in business, leadership, and entrepreneurship. highlighting powerful, influential, and successful women from around the world.

Behind luxury life style, perfect photos and luxury brand deals, what message are we getting as followers ?...

Let’s unpack ..

On the surface, Bonang’s Instagram literally gives luxury, perfection! you cannot convince me otherwise. Her posts often feature high brands like Gucci, beautiful travel destinations, and fancy events. So, what this does it sends the message that success equals living in style, and to us followers this create the idea that wealth and fame are signs of personal victory over everything. Her content's intended audience are young woman and girl, fans of celebrity lifestyle and pop culture, the aspiring influencers, content creators, entrepreneurs, as well as local and international big brands,

FIGURE 2: Matheba (2025) screencapure taken from Bonang IG,showing her working with GUCCI on a paid partnership. Captioned “ life’s GUCCI’’

Caption alone shows she lives in style with GUCCI, she often promotes luxury products, designer brands, and exclusive experiences, showing an underlying message of consumerism. this may suggest that material wealth is the key to success. For us followers, this can create the belief that the more expensive your lifestyle, the more successful and valuable you are. Buying expensive things wanting designer clothes , bags, has becomes the main goal. This kind of influence hides what really matters for true happiness, we feel pressure to copy this lifestyle and spend too much money, which can cause problems our finances as many of us, her followers who can not afford the lifestyle. The hidden message again is that your value depends on how much money and stuff you have.

Theme?.....Taking a closer look, there’s more to her feed than just material things. A strong theme in her posts is empowerment. She shares messages encouraging women through her vidoes, captions, and especially for Black women, to be confident, ambitious, and be successful as extreme as they can. We see her challenges “traditional” gender roles and becoming a role model for women striving for independence in places that are believed to be for man or man leading in those places, industries also.  her sparkling wine brand House of BNG, is the absolute proof, and it shows the idea that women can and should create their own success. SEE BELOW THE ..."the taste of luxury".

Matheba (2025) Bonang's IG page, showing a successful business woman with their own "house of BNG" wine and brand.

Luxury, glamour, beauty and success is out everyday life on Bonang’s feed.

Her Instagram account presents several values and lifestyles as normal, desirable, and even "common sense" for us as her followers, this includes consumerism, luxury, beauty, beauty, going to fancy places, big brands’ events, and designer bags, clothes all are shown as the normal way to have a good and successful life.

Bonang encourages women, especially Black women, to embrace their power, be unapologetic, and take control of their futures. Her feminism is centred on visibility and success, suggesting that to be empowered women must be seen, heard, and wealthy. Her feminism can be inspiring, but it is still linked to money and luxury. She shows success as being rich, stylish, and well-known things many women, can not afford.

Her posts promote the idea that being a boss or an entrepreneur is the ideal, showing that one can be empowered, successful, and confidence by owning and building their own brand

FIGURE 3: Matheba (2025) Bonang as the standard of beauty.

When we see Bonang, we all see her beauty standard because she shares flawless pictures, wearing flawless make up, skin, and a slim, toned body. These aesthetic choices create the idea that physical appearance is central to one's value and success as pleasant and beautiful as they are.

By constantly promoting perfection flawless skin, designer outfits, and endless luxury she creates some sort of pressure for followers to match this kind of life. This can lead to feelings of not being enough if as a follower you not having the very same aesthetic, especially for those whose real lives don't reflect the polished images Bonang shares.

FIGURE 4: Matheba (2025) Screencapture from Bonang' IG Feed; showing the number of comments she is likely to get on a single post, just comments not to mention likes... incredible!

Instagram itself plays a key role in shaping the ideology behind Bonang’s posts. The platform’s algorithm rewards content that generates similar content, prioritising aesthetically pleasing posts. This put in front the culture of perfection and luxury while pushing more complex or critical content into the background.

Her posts be reaching millions of followers, his creates a feedback loop where Instagram shows more posts about money, beauty, perfection, flawless skin and luxury, people may think success means having expensive things and brands' deals. Instagram’s algorithm makes this worse by showing more posts that match popular ideas of success fancy, perfect-looking content that shows a rich lifestyle.

Deeper Issues not shown

Bonang’s Instagram gives us a polished version of success, but it hides deeper, more complex issues. The focus on luxury, beauty standards, and perfection often overshadows the mental health struggles, pressure to perform, and financial stress that come with maintaining such a lifestyle. The "perfect" life we see on Instagram doesn’t reflect the emotional struggle it can take to keep up with that vibe and image and it fails to show the reality that many people can’t afford this lifestyle. Her posts does not touch issues like poverty or unfair we live in, politics. Her fancy lifestyle might inspire people, but it doesn’t show that many don’t have the same money to match luxury lifestyle. She focuses on personal success but ignores the struggles others face.

What’s Shown vs. What’s Left Out

What we see are perfectly styled photos, and glimpses into her "best" moments with clean perfection aesthetic, failures, or everyday challenges, NO WHERE TO BE FOUND . Bonang hides the tougher parts of her life, leaving her followers with this desirable idea of success.

Overal this shows how social media is used to build a personal brand. The curated posts, filled with luxury lifestyle, present the idea that social media presence reflects your success and self-worth. It encourages followers to carefully curate their online presence to appear successful, happy, and aspirational, especially now in 2025 everyone looks the same speak the same, posting the same posts shown as these successful, perfect, happy influencers, no one ever comes on their feed and be like” hey guys I’m having diarrhoea today and I’m so broke’’ never! Lots and lots of true selves & identities are lost on those feeds

For again young women especially, Bonang represents a model of success combining being an entrepreneur with a glamorous lifestyle. However, it’s important to ask whether aspiring to luxury and perfection is really truly empowering, or it just keeps the idea that being rich is what makes someone valuable.

At the end of the day, Bonang’s feed encourages us to "live our best life," but it’s worth remembering that the best life isn’t always defined by luxury. It’s about finding authenticity, balance, and emotional well-being things that can’t be captured in perfectly curated Instagram photos.

Reference;

B.Matheba 2025. On Instagram Ideologies in the Feed: Bonang Matheba on Instagram: 5.2 follower.  Available: https://www.instagram.com/bonang_m?igsh=djVqaDJzMDk2cHA3 Access (22 August 2025)

Figure 1: Matheba (2025) screencapure taken from Bonang IG, showing her featured in ForbesWoman which is a section of Forbes magazine that focuses on women in business, leadership, and entrepreneurship

Figure 2: Matheba (2025) screencapure taken from Bonang IG,showing her working with GUCCI on a paid partnership. Captioned “life’s GUCCI’’

VIDEO; Matheba (2025) Bonang's IG page, showing a successful businesswoman with their own "house of BNG" wine and brand.

Figure 3: Matheba (2025) Bonang as the standard of beauty.

Figure 4: Matheba (2025) Screencapture from Bonang' IG Feed; showing the number of comments she is likely to get on a single post, just comments not to mention likes... incredible!

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Why I decided to create on Tumblr ?

I chose to use Tumblr simple because, first of all it free, getting free, but still good quality and a great experience.. always a win for me, I saw that it such a friendly platform to use, easy to move around it, allows me to have writing, pictures, videos and links in 1 post.

This is so cool, these are the features I first look for as a creator when I navigate a certain platform. The layout has exciting features as well where I’m able to change colors of my blog to what I like and make it aesthetically pleasing. They have a “for you” page where I can explore more other blogs. I am looking forward to continue find other cool tumblr features as I give out more content.

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Get To Know Me Tag

I am from Highflats the southern part of KZN, born in a small family of 4, where we live a slow paced life, no social media, no influence and trends, nothing going virial, we just enjoy peace going around and embracing the art of slowing down.

My favourite tv show is iNimba, this is very recent because I was never a tv person in my childhood, I did not care for instead I would read books in my home language a lot as a child.

“Visualise your highest self and show up as her everyday”

This must be my favourite catch phrase of all times, I’m currently in my villain era, yes! I said that and I will say it with my chest again if I must. Just to let you in a bit, my highest self:  She is high-standard woman, full of confidence, a lady that put herself first in a selfish but not heartless way, she does not let anyone disrespect her. Treats herself with so much gentleness and taking good care of herself.  A strong, beautiful lady who is not afraid to speak up or walk away from anything that does not serve her.

This phrase encourages me to try and act like that version of myself every day, it always makes me feel like I’m literally “that girl” I’m not there yet trust me, but I choose, make a choice every day to act like “her”, and I know and believe this will help me become me over time. You can say some of my daily affirmation if you also can relate to ‘my highest self’

I am beautiful,

I am kind,

I am good person,

I deserve all the good coming my way

I am learning and growing better every single day.

I get most of my news from social media, especially TikTok and Instagram, because it is fast and always trending, can be access anywhere. But I also I do check important stories on google news if something important like covid is happening honestly.

The trend where everyone on social media starts to look the same is just an annoying pop culture phenomenon for me. It really does feels there is only one “beauty” standard now, everyone’s outfits look the same, everyone’s houses’ decoration is the same, same skincare routines, they all are buying that same Smeg kettle, same expensive brand clothing, it bad. It's like we as content creator are afraid to look different or real. It is a sad reality because social media was supposed to be about expression, but now it's full of copies instead of confidence.

In terms of music, I have been listening to whatever feels good hey, however I would love to hear the song “I PRAY” by Victor Thompson. It really is a nice worship that bring joy & hope.

Been loving me some cutthroat advices by @lummaziz

I've been mostly hooked on YouTube lately, ohh YouTube is my peace, my escape. I currently have the Uni Diaries series on my channel Where I document my university journey as I’m a student at Durban University of Technology, and I share weekly vlogs about my student life, what I like, what I get up to, my study sessions, natural hair, the calm slow living in a fast paced world and everything in between.

For me YouTube has been such a healthy place mentally, I never get any negative comments about anything on my channel everyone is just encouraging, so happy for my content and the fact that I have this channel I share my little life on with them. What a beautiful concept this is!! Please do Subscribe to join my beautiful family over there on the RED APP! I currently have 470 subbies.

💬 Let’s connect:

🎥 YouTube: @zulunonkonzo: Uni diaries, 👀 click on the link below to enjoy the channel & consider subscribing<3

Zulunonkonzo

Hey🤍🎀 Welcome to my YouTube Channel my name is Nonkonzo Zulu (Ndabezitha). I’d like to give you a very warm welcome to my channel, I hope

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