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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Ethics, politics and agency in South African tabloids
| Panel |
51. Agency and the constitution of publics in Southern Africa
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| Paper ID | 31 |
| Author(s) |
Wasserman, Herman
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| Paper |
View paper (PDF)
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| Abstract | What influence do tabloids will have on formal politics? Since the first postapartheid tabloids (styled on the British model) have appeared in South Africa since 1999, their no-holds-barred approach present a challenge to the existing views on journalistic professionalism and taunt the dominant interpretation of media ethical principles in South Africa. Their popularity also raises questions about the reconfiguration of the mediated public sphere in post-apartheid South Africa. Both the style and format as well as its enormous commercial success of tabloids, are without precedent in the South African media sphere. Most importantly, the popularity of the tabloids suggest that these publications have managed to tap into audiences -- from the black majority -- that have hitherto been neglected by the mainstream commercial media. Tabloid editors publicly steer well clear of formal political coverage, instead focusing on community-based news with entertainment value.
In this paper we analyse political coverage of the 2006 municipal elections in the five most prominent tabloid titles (Daily Sun, Sunday Sun, Son, The Daily Voice and Isolezwe) in an attempt to answer some of the questions posed above.
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