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Maritha Pritchard

Prof Maritha Pritchard

Associate Professor
Name: Maritha Pritchard
Location: B Ring 617A Auckland Park Kingsway Campus
Department of Strategic Communication Staff, Faculty of Humanities  Staff Members

Contact Details:
Tel: 011 559 3613

Email: mpritchard@uj.ac.za

About Prof Maritha Pritchard

Qualifications:

  • National Diploma in Journalism, TUT, 1990
  • BTech in Public Relations Management, TUT, 2005
  • MTech in Journalism (cum laude), TUT, 2011
  • DTech in Strategic Communication, TUT, 2017

 

Overview/bio:

Prof Maritha Pritchard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Strategic Communication.  Her published research interest is teaching and learning pedagogies, and digital media. She has presented on these topics at several local and international conferences. Maritha has over 20 years’ industry experience and supervises several post-graduate students.

 

Research Interests: Social media marketing, digital media, teaching and learning pedagogies.

 

Achievements:

  • 2011: Humanities Teaching Excellence Award for first year lecturing.
  • 2014: Nominated for the Humanities Teaching Excellence Award.
  • 2016: Shortlisted for the Humanities Teaching Excellence Award.
  • 2017: Winner of the Humanities Teaching Excellence Award in the category, Students’ Choice
  • 2018: Prism Awards, Gold, for Student campaign of the year: Door of Hope diaper drive
  • 2018: Prism Awards, Special Mention, for Student campaign of the year: Childreach Boots Thru Boost
  • 2019: Prism Awards, Silver, for Student campaign of the year:  active lifestyle habits for senior citizens
  • 2021: Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Award: Teacher Excellence
  • 2023: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
  • 2023: Fellow of the Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU)

 

Journal publications

  1. Nhedzi, A., Pritchard, M., & Fabian, A. (2023). Examining the Brand Storytelling Key Considerations and Practises in B2B SMEs on Facebook. Communitas, DOI: 10.1080/02500167.2023.2200961
  2. Banda, A., Pritchard, M., & Nhedzi, A. (2020). Brand Innovation and Value-Creating Practices of the City of Johannesburg’s Twitter Community. Communicatio, 1-26.
  3. Pritchard, M., Van der Waldt, D. L. R., & Conradie, P. (2017). Response strategies to maintain emotional resonant brand reputations when targeted by user-generated brand parodies. Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa, 36(1), 1-26.
  4. Pritchard, M., & Du Plessis, C. (2010). An exploratory analysis of citizen journalists as editorial gatewatchers: a case study of Gautrain blog posts vis-à-vis completion for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa, 29(2), 48-68.

 

Books and chapters in books

  1. Pritchard, M. (2021). Adopting playful constructivist teaching personas to make learning fun and engaging. In: Menon, K.; Naidoo, Kibbie, & Castrillon, G. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century: Showcasing UJ Teaching and Learning in 2021.
  2. Pritchard, M. (2021). Chapter 15: Fake news and the automation of disinformation. In: Benecke, D.R., Verwey, S., and Phumo, T. (eds.). Strategic Communication: South African Perspectives. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
  3. Pritchard, M. (2021). Chapter 15: Chapter 17: Brand risk in online spaces. In: Benecke, D.R., Verwey, S., and Phumo, T. (eds.). Strategic Communication: South African Perspectives. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
  4. Clear, A.; Pritchard, M., & Koonin, M. (Eds.). (2021). Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism. A Practical Guide and New Perspectives for Media Studies. 5th Edition. Cape Town: Juta.
  5. Pritchard, M. (2021). Chapter 8: Social Media Engagement. In: Clear, A.; Pritchard, M., & Koonin, M. (Eds.). Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism. A Practical Guide and New Perspectives for Media Studies. 5th Edition. Cape Town: Juta.
  6. Pritchard, M. (2021). Chapter 4: Media regulation and professional ethics in public relations and journalism. In: Clear, A.; Pritchard, M., & Koonin, M. (Eds.). Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism. A Practical Guide and New Perspectives for Media Studies. 5th Edition. Cape Town: Juta.
  7. Pritchard, M. (2021). Chapter 12: Design and layout. In: Clear, A.; Pritchard, M., & Koonin, M. (Eds.). Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism. A Practical Guide and New Perspectives for Media Studies. 5th Edition. Cape Town: Juta.
  8. Roodt, J.P., & Pritchard, M. (2021). Chapter 13: Measuring and evaluating PR effectiveness. In: Clear, A.; Pritchard, M., & Koonin, M. (Eds.) (2021). Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism. A Practical Guide and New Perspectives for Media Studies. 5th Edition. Cape Town: Juta.
  9. Pritchard, M., & Sitto, M. (Eds.) (2018). Connect: Writing for online audiences. Lansdowne: Juta.
  10. Pritchard, M., & Sitto, M. (2018). Chapter 7: Digital public relations. In: Connect: Writing for online audiences. Lansdowne: Juta, p 130 – 153.
  11. Pritchard, M., Verwey, S., & Quesada, L. (2018). Chapter 11: Digital dynamics and relational complexities: responding to challenges in the online interaction context. In: Connect: Writing for online audiences. Lansdowne: Juta, p 231 – 260.
  12. Rossouw, S., Rautenbach, E., Pritchard, M., & Sitto, M. (2018). Chapter 13: Essential digital business tools for organisations. In: Connect: Writing for online audiences. Lansdowne: Juta, p 291 – 306.
  13. Pritchard, M. (2015). Chapter 11: Digital or new media. In: Clear, A. (Ed.). (2015). Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism. A Practical Guide for Media Studies. 4th Edition. Cape Town: Juta, p 133 – 148.

 

Conference proceedings

  1. Pritchard, M. (2013). How social recruitment requires students to manage a responsible digital footprint. WACE 18th World Conference on Cooperative and Work Integrated Education: “WIL-Power: Fuelling the Future Workforce,” Durban, June 24-27. Conference proceedings, 11 pages. ISSN.
  2. Pritchard, M., Benecke, R., & Van Vuuren, L. (2012). The WIL student as social media practitioner: ethical challenges. WACE 9th International Conference on Cooperative & Work-Integrated Education, “Where East meets West and Theory meets practice”. Hosted by Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey. June 20 – 22, 2012. Conference proceedings. 25 pages. ISSN.

 

Conference participation

  1. Pritchard, M., & Meintjes, C. (2023). Pedagogies and technologies to make hybrid learning equally engaging and fun regardless of students’ attendance preferences. In Proceedings of the 7th Teaching and Learning Conference. 18-20 October, Premier Hotel, Richards Bay, South Africa.
  2. Lewis, J., Pritchard, M., Blose, M., Mistri, G., De Villiers, F., & Joubert, V. (2024). Learning Technologies for Today and Tomorrow: A Digital Collection of Insights and Tips for Academics. Virtual Presentation presented at the 16th Asian Conference on Education, November 26-29, 2024, Tokyo, Japan.
  3. Pritchard, M., Banda, A., & Nhedzi, A. 2020. When Twitter does not really like you: how the City of Johannesburg’s brand community innovates the dreary messages of local government. IAMCR 2020 Online Conference.
  4. The WIL student as social media practitioner: ethical challenges. WACE 9th International Conference on Cooperative & Work-Integrated Education, “Where East meets West and Theory meets practice”. Hosted by Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey. June 20 – 22, 2012. Conference proceedings. 25 pages. ISSN.
  5. Convergence: Integrated media planning. Peer reviewed paper presented at the 56th PRISA national conference, PRofiting from a Convergent World, 10 & 11 June 2013 in Centurion. Publication of an article titled: Word-of-mouse storytelling in the converged media landscape in Communika, a non-academic industry journal for the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa.
  6. How social recruitment requires students to manage a responsible digital footprint. WACE 18th World Conference on Cooperative and Work Integrated Education: “WIL-Power: Fuelling the Future Workforce,” Durban, June 24-27, 2013. Conference proceedings, 11 pages. ISSN.
  7. Introducing Twitter to the MXit generation. Peer reviewed research paper presented at the international Social Media in Higher Education Conference with Mzanzi Conferences and Training in collaboration with UJ’s CAT, 8 and 9 May 2014, Fourways.
  8. Keynote speaker at the second Social Media in Higher Education Summit, 12 and 13 May 2015 in Johannesburg. Topic: Social media overload: higher education hacks for the real world for Amabhubesi Conferencing and Training.
  9. Co-creating reputation in the age of parody: key considerations for strategic reputation management confronted by user-generated parody accounts on social networks. Presented a peer-reviewed paper on preliminary results of my Doctorate studies at the GBATA (Global Business and Technology Association) 17th Annual International Conference in Peniche/Lisbon, Portugal in July 2015.
  10. The role of digital communication platforms for NPO’s to change perceptions about migration in South Africa. Peer-reviewed paper presented by my honours student at SACOMM, 3-5 October 2016, Bloemfontein. Co-authors: Dayle Raaff and Seriane Morapeli.
  11. Maintaining emotionally resonant brand reputations in the post-truth age of parody and fake content. Peer-reviewed research paper to be presented at SACOMM in Grahamstown, 31 August to 1 September 2017.
  12. Response strategies to maintain emotionally resonant brand reputations when targeted by social media parody accounts. Peer reviewed research paper presented at the annual national conference of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa, Leading through Innovative Communication, 4-5 May 2017, Johannesburg.