Conferences
2024
Digital identity, algorithmic erasure, and rights advocacy: Young people’s rhetoric and digital cultures
Sarwatay, D, Nkoala, S & Premika, A. 2024. Digital Identity, Algorithmic Erasure, and Rights Advocacy: Young People’s Rhetoric and Digital Cultures. 74th Annual ICA Conference. Gold Coast, Australia. 17 – 26 June 2024.
UNESCO World Press Freedom Day Academic Conference 2024
Nkoala, S. 2024. Rhetorical strategies for press freedom in the global south. UNESCO World Press Freedom Day Academic Conference. Santiago, Chile. 4 May 2024.
2023
An In-Depth Exploration of Public Complaints to the Press Council South Africa Trends and Insights from 2018 to 2022
Nkoala, S & Mukhudwana, R. 2023. An In-Depth Exploration of Public Complaints to the Press Council South Africa Trends and Insights from 2018 to 2022. South African Communication Association conference. Johannesburg, South Africa. 27 – 29 September 2023.
Twittering Science: Social media as a new frontier for science journalism in the global south
Nkoala, S. 2023. Twittering Science: Social media as a new frontier for science journalism in the global south. International Association of Media and Communication Research conference. Lyon, France. 9 – 14 July 2023.
Ezababhaleli bethu: Letters to the editor in the Early South African Black Press - Deliberative journalistic discourse as a consensus building mechanism for marginalised communities
Nkoala, S. 2023. Ezababhaleli bethu: Letters to the editor in the Early South African Black Press - Deliberative journalistic discourse as a consensus building mechanism for marginalised communities. Rethinking print culture, media, digital and oral history as archive, evidence, and method: from africa to the world. Baltimore, United States of America. 27 – 28 April 2023.
Twitter as a site for deliberation on gender-based violence: A case study of three South African Universities
Nkoala, S. 2023. Twitter as a site for deliberation on gender-based violence: A case study of three South African Universities. Research indaba on gender-based violence in higher education. Cape Town, South Africa. 8 – 9 March 2023
PhDing while parenting: Towards reimagining supervisor roles that support doctoral students who are simultaneously parents and employed professional
Nkoala, S. 2023. PhDing while parenting: Towards reimagining supervisor roles that support doctoral students who are simultaneously parents and employed professional. CHE Higher Education Conference. Pretoria, South Africa 1 – 3 March 2023
On-air and online synergies between radio programmes and podcasts in African languages: A case study of Epokothweni as a hybrid public sphere. International conference
Nkoala, S. 2023. On-air and online synergies between radio programmes and podcasts in African languages: A case study of Epokothweni as a hybrid public sphere. International conference on “Radio Journalism & Podcast News in the Global South”. College of Communication at the University of Sharjah, United Arab Emarites. 17 January 2023
2022
African Journalism Educators' Network: Decoloniality and language policy
Sisanda Nkoala, Modestus Fosu and Christina Chan Metoo share thoughts on how journalism educators can honour Africa's linguistic landscape during the continuing dominance of colonial languages.
Language as symbolic action_digital mob censorship against selected South African female journalists
Academic Conference on the Safety of Journalists at World Press Freedom Day 2022 in Uruguay
Censorious Assaults on Education and Collateral Impacts on Student Press Freedom
This panel discussed the increasing pressures on student journalists as they combat surveillance in different forms around the world, drawing lessons from student journalist leaders and press freedom activists themselves. This session analysed how student journalists can experience surveillance at numerous levels that are not always technologically driven. With school authorities abusing prior review and administrative oversight to censor student journalists, the chilling of student press freedoms have become frighteningly commonplace as radicalized groups and school administrators unabashedly continue their assault on international human rights standards under the ICCPR for free expression.
Appropriating Mandelaism amid a global pandemi: Ramaphosa's rhetoric on the COVID-19 pandemic
This paper undertakes a rhetorical analysis of selected speeches by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the citizens of his country about developments around the coronavirus pandemic in his country in 2020. Drawing on the notion of “Mandelaism”, the study argues that in his addresses, Ramaphosa employed very similar techniques used by Former President Nelson Mandela to appeal to patriotic sentiments, often invoking notions of magical powers in an endeavour to reconcile South Africans and advance nation-building, in light of a pandemic that exposed the nations deeply entrenched economic and social divisions.
Teaching of visual arts subjects and use of visual methodology for teaching in other disciplines during the covid-19 pandemic: opportunities and challenges
2021
Since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in 2020, universities worldwide have undergone unanticipated changes in how they operate and deliver the academic programme. Chief among these changes has been a wide-scale adoption of emergency remote teaching (ERT). This study aims to analyse the experiences of South African academics of how the adoption of ERT influenced their use of multilingual pedagogies. This phenomenological study seeks to answer the question: what were the experiences of South African lecturers with multilingual teaching amid ERT? This study was presented at the 2021 Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa virtual (un)Conference.
This presentation was delivered at an Africa Asia Communication Forum seminar held in 2021 where I was an invited speaker on journalism ethics and science communication. I spoke about how the ethics of these two fields are sometimes in conflict with each other, and gave some recommendations to the audience of science communicators on pitfalls to look out for when using news media as a vehicle to communicate science. THIS WAS AN INVITED KEYNOTE ADDRESS
This presentation looks at the intersection between morality, ethics and law in relation to journalism in South Africa. It is a multilingual presentation that was delivered at a radio training day for the Khayelitsha-based radio station, Zibonele, in Xhosa and English. I also highlight the role of the regulatory bodies in the sector, and discuss laws around defamation and copyright and how the digital landscape has complicated these somewhat for media houses. THIS WAS AN INVITED KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Language-as-resource in assessments in journalism education at the Medcom 2020+1, 6th World Conference, Virtual
Journalism education in South Africa during the coronavirus pandemic: reflections on a student-centred approach to the teaching and learning post-covid-19 at the Highway Africa conference, Virtual
Crimes against children at the CPUT Centre for Communication Studies, Virtual
COVID-19 and learner-centred teaching: How the adoption of emergency blended learning pedagogies accelerated a change in teaching practice in journalism education. International Association for Media and Communication Research Virtual Conference
Crimes against children: Evaluative Language and News Reports on Sentences. International Association for Media and Communication Research Virtual Conference
A comparative discourse analysis of African newspaper reports on global epidemics: A case study of Ebola and Coronavirus. CPUT Research, Innovation, Teaching and Learning in the Age of COVID-19 Virtual symposium
2020
Student perceptions of how multilingualism helps or hinders epistemological access in journalism education at the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA), Virtual
COVID-19 and the structural challenges at a South African higher education institution at the Advances in Multidisciplinary Conference, Virtual
Persuasion and the televisation of culture: A rhetorical analysis of television news broadcasts on the law at the 106th National Communication Association Convention,Virtual
Multilingual and multimodal assessments in journalism education presented at the CPUT Language Indaba, Virtual
2019
LITASA 2019
This presentation, delivered at the 2019 Literary Association of South Africa (LITASA) Conference, is based on my ongoing research on multilingualism and South journalism in South Africa. The findings are due to be published as a journal article. 
SACOMM 2019
I delivered this presentation at the 2019 South African Communication Association (SACOMM) Conference. It is based on my study on the rhetoric of South African television news reports. The study is being considered as a book chapter on South Afrcan television due out in 2020Other conference presentations
Understanding decolonialty at the University of Cape Town Teaching and Learning Conference, Cape Town, South Africa
Towards a Multi-lingual education in journalism at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research Humanities on the African continent in the era of machine learning workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa
Implications of the 4th industrial revolution on the 4th estate: Re-imagining journalism education at the CPUT Teaching and Learning with Technology Day, Cape Town, South Africa
Multi-lingual education in journalism studies presented at the CPUT Language Indaba
2018
SACOMM 2018
This presentation is based on a section in my Mphil Thesis entitled "A Show-piece or a Crime with Culpability? A Rhetorical Analysis of the SABC’s Coverage of Vehicle Crashes"
AAR 2018
This presentation was delivered at the 2018 African Association of Rhetoric (AAR). It theorised on why it is important to use the tools of classical rhetoric to understand how television news reports persuade.Other conference presentations
Teaching practical subjects using technology while on maternity leave at the CPUT Teaching and Learning with Technology Day, Cape Town, South Africa
A Rhetorical Analysis of SABC 3’s Flagship Bulletin: In what ways does the SABC’s coverage of its internal affairs fair in persuading viewers that its version of the news is credible? at the South African Communication Association, Johannesburg, South Africa
Learning through experience: Reflections on student feedback on field trips at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Teaching and Learning Symposium, Cape Town, South Africa