3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Mass media--Moral and ethical aspects

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    Token transformation? A critical political economy of the media analysis of ownership and content diversity in South Africa's print media
    (2019) Govenden, Prinola
    Print media transformation in South Africa has been an ongoing area of debate and contention in the first twenty years of democracy. Especially given the country’s history of colonialism and apartheid, where racism was institutionalised and impacted the character and functioning of the print media. The attainment of true transformation in the press is critical to reverse the injustices of the past and to ensure today’s print media is reflective of South African society and its many axes of diversity. This study critically analyses the extent of print media transformation in the first twenty years of democracy to decipher whether it amounts to true transformation or token transformation. The study understands true transformation of the media as holistic and deep transformation, where the ownership, content and staffing of the media reflects the diversity of South African society in terms of race, socio-economic status (class), gender, religion, sexual orientation, region, and language (Boloka and Krabill 2000). In the South African context, ownership diversity and content diversity are the key measures of transformation. This research contributes a holistic and empirical study to the transformation debate by analysing transformation across a long time period of the first twenty years of democracy, and focusing on both ownership and content diversity, as well as exploring the relationship between the two. Previously, the print media transformation debate and scholarship has focused narrowly on the ownership aspect. In this regard, the study conducts a systemic critique of the broad transformation agenda from the vantage points of ownership, control and power. The study also explores the extent of print media diversity by analysing the coverage of three issues that have framed post-apartheid South Africa. Namely: socio-economics issues, labour issues and protests, government vs. big business. The study adopts four theoretical frameworks – the revised role of the media in a liberal democracy; the public interest role of the media; critical political economy of the media; and theories of power. The research design of the study consisted of a triangulation of research methods with qualitative and quantitative paradigms. The research methods used are document analysis, expert opinions of a Media Transformation seminar panel and content analysis of a large sample of articles spanning in the first twenty years of democracy. The historically English print media companies are the focus of analysis: Tiso Blackstar Group (formerly Times Media), Independent Media, as well as M&G Media. The major findings of this thesis demonstrate that press transformation in the first twenty years of democracy to a great extent resembles token transformation. Tokenism in the regard that black people have replaced white people in some ownership and staffing aspects, but not in a meaningful way that disrupts elite class continuities, “inferential racism” of negative stereotypes of the black race, and white racial power at the top of the hierarchy of press institutions. Print media transformation is also significantly tainted by the overly neo-liberal nature of the press in a number of areas found by the study. The study also finds that transformation is a point of politization of the press. The content findings of the study demonstrate that ownership matters to some extent. Apart from ownership, the following components also matter to print media transformation and need to be addressed: the media system as a whole; the neo-liberal architecture; journalism training; and a print media specific transformation policy. Thus, the broad agenda of press transformation requires a normative re-think. The study recommends that the press consider adopting the principles of developmental journalism that is based on the redeeming nature of the concept, to substantially address the content diversity and transformation shortcomings uncovered by the study. This requires a paradigm shift that would take a long time period to realize, in addition a review needs to be conducted to consider the feasibility of such a change. A feasible short term solution to solve the fundamental issue of media diversity in both ownership and content, is the return of alternative media to the post-apartheid media terrain to play a developmental role.
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    Morality and journalists: objectivity versus duty of care
    (2018) Leshilo, Thabo Maphike
    In this research report I address the question: Do journalists have a moral duty towards those they report on beyond the objectivity requirement of their job? I use the famous example of freelance photojournalist Kevin Carter and his iconic photograph of a starving Sudanese child, seemingly on death’s door and being stalked by a vulture. He was roundly condemned for shooting the image but doing nothing to save the child’s life. I examine this classic example of the observance of the journalistic standard of objectivity and non-intervention, against the Kantian imperative to respect human life. I contrast this with two examples in which, in my view, journalists acted correctly in terms of Kantian ethics by putting human life above their own, narrow professional roles and interests.
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    Nudity in the name of social change: Twitter reactions to the Marie Claire South Africa 2015 Naked Campaign
    (2016) Sibanda, Moagisi Refilwe
    Since 2007, Marie Claire South Africa (SA) — which is a glossy women’s magazine covering fashion and beauty trends, sex, relationships, body image, and celebrity news — has been running a special issue of the print magazine called the “Naked issue”. Each year celebrities pose naked in the special issue to raise awareness for a cause, and in doing so funds in aid of a particular organisation linked to the cause are raised. Marie Claire SA calls this awareness-raising initiative the “Naked Campaign”. For the 2015 Naked Campaign, the magazine had 35 celebrities pose in the nude to raise awareness about sexual violence, in aid of Blow the Whistle (BTW), an anti-rape initiative which supports women and children who are victims of abuse and rape. This research is a case study of Marie Claire SA’s March 2015 Naked Campaign edition, and focuses on the Twitter reactions to this edition. It asks: to what extent did the Twitter reactions to Marie Claire SA’s 2015 Naked Campaign show engagement on the issue of sexual violence and can the use of nudity to attract attention to a social issue result in the kind of engagement that can be said to drive the cause forward? Using content analysis, it examines the tweets generated by the hashtag #MCNaked in the first week of the naked issue going on sale. It categorises the tweets according to gender, comments on nudity, celebrities and sexual violence, as well as the tone of the tweets and the understanding therein of the campaign and cause. The research found that the majority (close to 70%) of the Twitter reactions were supportive of the campaign and the cause. Although over half of the comments focused on the celebrities, over 50% of tweets commented or focused on the issue of sexual violence, a positive outcome for the campaign. Despite the magazine catering mostly for female readers, there was an almost equal number of tweets by males and females, which meant men were also drawn to the discussion started by a media product followed mostly by women, another positive finding for the campaign. However, only a few of the tweets displayed more substantial engagement with the issue of sexual violence, through either sharing statistics or further information, or including anti-sexual violence statements in their tweets. The research suggests that, taken as a whole, the campaign can be considered as an example of social marketing, while also fulfilling the news values in terms of elements of surprise, personalities, power and marketability.
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    Moral panic and porn in South Africa: a critical discourse analysis of top TV's application to broadcast adult-content channels
    (2016-07-28) Edwards, Megan
    On the 14th March 2013 the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) held a hearing to consider an application by Top TV and their parent company ODM to broadcast three adult-content channels. This application and hearing have again brought the debate surrounding pornography to the fore in South Africa. While research in the field of pornography studies has historically been centred around whether pornography is harmful to women specifically and society in general, the current research aims to move away from this framework and examine issues of subjectivity, discourse, and power within the debate. This will be achieved through the use of moral panic theory, and Foucauldian critical discourse analysis (FCDA) to analyse the transcript of the hearing held at ICASA as well as newspaper reports regarding the hearing and its outcome
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