'Not news worthy?': A critical analysis of print media's response to the South African government's development communication messages.

Abstract

This study examines print media response to the South African government’s development communication messages, taking as a case study the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH). Comparing media reports on the public health sector with media releases from the GDoH in 2012, the study finds media reports privilege negative issues such as hospital negligence rather than government healthcare news. In this context print media reporting of government healthcare initiatives, characterised by news values with socially and morally negative connotations, is attributed to the libertarian-inclined watchdog role the media assumes in South Africa. The watchdog role assumed by the media is shown to be an operative factor conditioning content of news reports. As a result news values evident in the media releases are contradicted by contrary news value emphasis in the media. The study finds that by negatively framing content offering contradictory evidence, the media denies the newsworthiness of government development reports. Ultimately, an evaluation of the literature regarding normative media theories and media sociology leads the researcher to suggest that a libertarian-inclined media that reveals corruption is not incompatible with a socially responsible media that objectively reports developmental achievements. However, in practice this does not occur.