Four-four masihlalisane - newspaper representation of the South African minibus taxi industry in relation to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system
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Date
2014-06-13
Authors
Selekane, Nkosinathi Leonard
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Abstract
This study examined the newspaper representation of the South African minibus taxi
industry in relation to the roll out of the Bus Rapid Transit/ Integrated Rapid Transit
system in 2009. Articles from major newspapers in 2009 were examined in order to
understand how the minibus taxi industry was represented. The aim of the study was to
add to the body of knowledge on the media’s representation of the black working class
in post-apartheid South Africa. The study was undertaken against a backdrop of existing
debates on whether the media in South Africa is transforming. The research is
theoretically based on Cultural Studies and the Critical Political Economy of the media.
The study investigated the way in which twenty newspaper articles represented the
minibus taxi industry during the introduction of the Bus Rapid Transit System. Norman
Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyse the content of the
newspaper articles. The study only focused on English newspapers and did not
investigate news from other media, such as the radio and television. A further limitation
was the sample size, which was small in comparison to the number of articles that were
published on the Bus Rapid Transit System in 2009. The findings revealed that the
media continues to perpetuate negative stereotypes of the minibus taxi industry. Future
research should include the analysis of images through semiotics and expand the
research topic to include the taxi recapitalisation project and road safety. A larger
sample should also be used to study the representation of the minibus taxi industry in
South African media.