Fight for Democracy. Glenda Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ to Protect Journalists, said in the opening quotation, the activities of the independent press would be criminalised while the government of the day would be shielded from scrutiny if this had to be enacted.

      The chapter proceeds to an overview of the South African media, to provide details of how it has grown from a small and narrow set of players three decades ago to the more diverse, amorphous and fluid media landscape in the new dispensation – although it also shows the shifts from concentration of media ownership to fragmentation and then back again. The chapter then describes the legal conditions under which journalists have to operate and how, in some instances, the laws have changed to accommodate the free flow of information while, in others, the legislation is deliberately obstreperous: The Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000, for example, stands in stark contrast to the Protection of State Information Bill, which went before Parliament in July 2010 and again in September 2010, then again in November 2010, and was then passed by the National Assembly in 2011 before amendments were made in May 2012, which included a public interest defence. But then these were withdrawn in June 2012.

      The chapter then looks at commercial imperatives and new media and the impact this has had, and continues to have, on the world of traditional journalism. It also shows how the meaning of the term ‘media’ has changed – from the traditional sphere of television, radio and newspapers providing the public with information and a public sphere for debate and analysis, to a broader view that encompasses citizen journalism, blogging, online publishing, and social networking sites, as well as cellphone technology used to pass on news to fellow citizens and to the traditional media.

      Nick Davies is a journalist at The Guardian newspaper in London. His 2009 book, Flat Earth News, which subjects the profession to critical scrutiny, argues that journalism has been short-changed throughout the world. Owing to subjection by commercial imperatives, newsrooms have been slashed to half their original size in some cases, and desk journalism (where reporters sit at their desks ‘dialing a quote’ rather than venturing out to the site of the scene or to interview someone personally) is all-pervasive. Journalists write more stories in less time, with no time to check the facts, and they often regurgitate press releases from public relations companies. It amounts to what Davies calls ‘churnalism’ (2009: 70), stories churned out mindlessly from press releases, with the deadline rather than the accuracy of the facts in mind. While Davies’s research is based primarily in the United Kingdom there are interesting overlaps with (and differences from) the situation in South Africa, as this chapter will show. Indeed, Anton Harber observes in the introduction to the book Troublemakers: The Best of South Africa’s Investigative Journalism (2010), edited jointly with Margaret Renn, that there has indeed been a juniorisation of newsrooms, with age and experience levels having dropped in the post-apartheid era. He argues, however, that this romanticises journalism under apartheid, suggesting that some unspecified universal high standard of journalism was set, while it is debatable that coverage was then more accurate or substantial. The chapter then turns to the South African media landscape, with a particular emphasis on newspapers, and examines concentration of ownership, state interventions, and commercial imperatives, arguing that these are all different kinds of pressures which, it can be argued, are subjections.

       The South African media landscape: an unprogressive concentration of media therefore a lack of diversity?

      The claim that there is too much concentration of media ownership necessarily means a lack of diversity and, in turn, a need for state intervention to curb media excesses is a spurious one. My argument expresses the contrary: that the media is amorphous and fluid, lacking in unity and cohesion, with as many opinions as there are journalists in a newsroom. There is no one ideological agenda in ‘the media’, and journalists, by and large, exercise agency and act within the codes and ethics of their profession.

      The media grew significantly in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and again from 2000 to 2007. What the figures below highlight is the growth from a small, narrow field of operators to a broader more diverse terrain. The media in 2007 consisted of seventy-one television stations, whereas in 2000 there were fifty-six, and in 1975 there were none. Similar growth trends can be seen in the number of radio stations. In 2007, there were 124 radio stations, in 2000 there were 105, and in 1975 there were seven. In March 2010, the Media Club South Africa website estimated that about 14.5 million South Africans buy the urban dailies, while community newspapers have a circulation of 5.5 million. There were twenty-two daily and twenty-five weekly urban newspapers in South Africa in 2010. In 2011, the state of newspapers showed these trends, according to The Media magazine of March 2012: newspaper distribution was double what it was in 1997, but there was a decline in the rate of growth over the last few years. Free community newspapers, however, have shown enormous growth: in 1997 there were 83 titles and in 2011 there were 195. While dailies’ numbers are up since 1997, they show a downward trend over the last four years, as Tony Banahan wrote in an article, ‘The figures don’t lie’ (The Media: March 2012). The following is a list of newspapers with sales and circulation figures from 2011.

      • Beeld is an Afrikaans language daily, owned by Media 24, with copy sales of 36 754 and a total circulation of 76 321.

      • Die Burger is an Afrikaans language daily paper, owned by Media 24, with copy sales of 35 680 with a total circulation of 78 901.

      • Business Day is an English language daily owned by Business Day/Financial Mail in association with Avusa and the London-based Pearson, with copy sales of 8 532 and a total circulation of 36 103.

      • Cape Argus is an English daily circulated in the Western Cape and is owned by the Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 22 363 and a total circulation of 45 128.

      • Cape Times is an English language daily, owned by the Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 21 636 and a total circulation of 43 274.

      • The Citizen is an English newspaper published six days a week, distributed in Gauteng and owned by Avusa/Caxton, with copy sales of 51 487 and a total circulation of 69 649.

      • Daily Dispatch is an English newspaper in the Eastern Cape and is owned by Avusa, with copy sales of 22 634 and a total circulation of 22 394.

      • Daily News is an English language daily based in KwaZulu-Natal and is owned by Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 12 246 and a total circulation of 33 214.

      • Daily Sun, the most-read newspaper in South Africa, distributed nationwide, is a tabloid owned by Media 24, with copy sales of 374 341 and total circulation of 374 400.

      • Diamond Fields Advertiser is based in Kimberley in the Northern Cape and is owned by Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 6 768 and a total circulation of 9 495.

      • The Herald based in the Eastern Cape is one of the country’s oldest newspapers, launched in 1845, and is owned by Avusa, with copy sales of 15 178 and a total circulation of 22 139.

      • Isolezwe is an isiZulu newspaper published Monday to Friday, based in KwaZulu-Natal, owned by Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 105 713 and a total circulation of 106 734.

      • Ilanga, owned by Independent Newspapers and distributed in KwaZulu-Natal, has copy sales of 135 359 and a total circulation of 135 706.

      • Sondag is an Afrikaans newspaper owned by Media 24, with copy sales of 46 304 and a total circulation of 47 286.

      • The Mercury is an English language Durban morning paper, owned by Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 14 462 and a total circulation of 31 474.

      • Pretoria News, an English daily based in Pretoria but also СКАЧАТЬ