Understanding university student media preferences through the discourses of ‘realism’ and ‘quality’

Abstract

This article examines two of the explanatory discourses most often used by the youth in explaining their preferences for local or global media – those of ‘realism’ and ‘quality’. The article explores the ‘empiricist’ understanding of realism which seeks a correspondence, at a denotative level, between the ‘realities’ internal and external to the text, and argues that a desire for this correspondence, explains the youth's preference for local productions. However, the article also argues that ironically, in many instances, it is global, rather than local productions which most adequately reflect local lived conditions. The article also explores how many students' preference for global media is premised on the perceived superior ‘quality’ (understood in terms of production techniques) and that the discourse of ‘quality’ is one often used by South African media producers to explain the relatively poor state of the local film and television industries. Finally, the article highlights that an attraction to the ‘quality’ of American productions often coexists with a profound anti-Americanism.     

Gender and Race in the South African Film Industry: A Comparative Analysis of the Representation in South African Film Festivals

The role and representation of female filmmakers globally have been topics of discussion but have not been researched in depth to help garner significant change, especially in the South African film industry. The role of film festivals like the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) and Encounters help female filmmakers by giving them the platform to showcase their work as well as gain more recognition. However, the number of female filmmakers, and black female filmmakers in particular, are not recognised substantially at these festivals. South African box office reports also indicate that the film industry is dominated by white male directors and that not enough films are produced locally to meet up with the amount of international films that are screened at local cinemas, which is further indication that a gender and race discrepancy is prevalent. There is also the issue of female filmmakers being limited in the fiction film genre and as a result the film industry in South Africa and globally have more female filmmakers making non-fiction films than fiction films. This article will explore the issue of gender and race in the South African film industry, by focusing on the two biggest film festivals: DIFF and Encounters.     

Suid-Afrikaanse "alternatiewe" rolprente en die Suid-Afrikaanse sosio-politieke werklikheid. 'n Historiese,teoretiese en analitiese verkenning (Deel 1)

SUMMARY

The "alternative" film originated in South Africa because people or groups outside the apartheid establishment were unable to communicate through existing mass media structures, and their own communication channel had to be established.

The key question addressed in this article is whether the "alternative" South African film actually succeeds in making a contribution, on an intercultural level of communication, to the socio-political reality of South African society, and to what extent the film as communication medium succeeds in establishing positive intercultural communication? A study of four films is undertaken, according to Pieter J. Fourie's theoretical model (1983), whereby the content and shaping aspects of film images are examined from a contextual as well as an analytical point of view.

The value of the "alternative" film lies in the fact that the South African reality is seen from the perspective of the "black" or "coloured" person. For many years "whites", on account of their ethnocentric attitude and the absolutization of their values and norms, were never really aware of other race groups' values and norms, and were not interested in how these people experienced reality. In this regard the "alternative" film has a dual function significant to intercultural communication: on the one hand it offers self-expression – an important principle and starting point for intercultural communication – to people outside the apartheid establishment, and on the other hand, it gives whites within this establishment the opportunity to become acquainted with the worlds of other cultural and ideological groups.

If the South African film wants to present a model for reality, it will have to take into account the complexity of multicultural diversity without absolutizing certain people's cultural values and ideological perspectives. Communication should rather take the form of "dialogue".     

Local specificities,global resonances: contesting representations of violence in African films

This article is framed by Adichie's (2010, 2) warning of ‘the dangers of the single story’. It investigates the local specificities and global resonances of the representation of violence projected in two African films. The documentary by Ross Kemp on gangs in Pollsmoor Prison in South Africa (2003) captures and generates distinct cinematic biographies that extend our perceptions of production, exhibition and distribution. In contrast, the fictional film, Dakan, by Guinean producer Mohamed Camara (2001), cinematises the enigma of homosexuality as taboo and an aberration, including the attendant socially constructed homophobia. Both films markedly underemphasise the political and pedagogical imperative of African film producers and audiences, and in this they contest ‘established’ representations of violence that have characterised documentaries about Africa and ‘Third Cinema’ (Solanas and Getino 1996). More critically, this article questions the palpable occlusion of systemic violence that characterises the multiple and complex views of Africa in these two films, to unpack the novel documentation and reformulation of violence, as disseminated by Kemp and Camara.     

Representations of crime,power and social decay in the South African post-colony in the film Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema (2008)

The film Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema, released on August 29, 2008, decries the proliferation of crime, violence and social decay in the South African post-colony. The aim of this article is to interrogate the banality in the use of violence and power in the South African post-colony. The filmic narratives of Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema reveal that behind the ‘rainbow’ façade presented by South Africa, one encounters festering poverty in ‘non-white’ communities, racial acrimony, broken promises, social and class struggles, and tales of betrayal of the majority of black people by the elite black leadership which now sit comfortably in the seats vacated by their former colonisers. An analysis of the narratives of the film Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema permits one to locate apartheid-based economic disparities as still haunting mainly ‘non- white’ local communities, although some whites have not been spared by the vicious new normal of poverty and the effects of corruption. This interpretation is further questioned in the film which shows that, after apartheid, the nationalist leadership encouraged a negative culture of entitlement. The irony in the film is that the masses are also tainted in so far as they commit crimes against other ordinary people and refuse to take responsibility or, rather in an escapist way, blame all the woes of the post-colony on apartheid. Thus, the narratives of Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema beg the question: What is going wrong with the dream of democracy for all, irrespective of race, that was the founding principle of the new nation?     

Yesterday,AIDS and structural violence in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article is based on a reading of the South African film Yesterday, which deals with the topic of ? AIDS. In the discourse analysis of the film text, the role of signs – verbal, visual and aural – in constructing meaning is examined, as well as the effect of different filming techniques. The film is then related to the broader South African socio-political context. The writer considers how representative Yesterday is of the AIDS situation in South Africa, a question which necessitates going beyond the film text and considering actual events in South Africa, past and present, as well as referring to other relevant examples of AIDS-related discourse.     

The remythologisation of white collective identities in post-apartheid South African film by myth and counter myth

Abstract

Since 1994 a collection of films, referred to here as post-apartheid South African history film, has thematically represented South Africa's apartheid history, and in so doing has engaged with the representation of the white figure in ways which suggest a reformulation of collective South African white identity construction. Part of this process is the phenomenon of the remythologisation, or the counter myth construction, of whiteness as an identity on film. Such mythic representations frequently describe the white figure as connected to aspects of guilt (whether individual or collective), remorse and forgiveness. Often the mythic construction of whiteness on film is delivered in a seemingly oversimplified binary fashion, reducing the representation of white identity in the post-apartheid South African situation to one that is robbed of complexities and nuances.     

The Filmmaker's Triage: The Doctor Figure and Images of Trauma

ABSTRACT

While writing a fictionalised feature film screenplay set around the character of a South African doctor during his year of compulsory community service in a rural hospital, I began researching how this figure has been represented in other narrative films, particularly those stories told in an African setting. A number of films and television dramas, some made by African filmmakers and others by filmmakers from outside of Africa, have been produced around the medical encounter. My interest lies not in assessing the health messaging found in these films and programs, which is better left to the health educationalists and medical sociologists, but in examining the fictional doctor figure as the main protagonist in these films. While the sociocultural and political dimensions of medicine, health and illness are relevant, I refer to them only in passing while exploring the fictional imagery of the doctor figure within the imagined filmed-Africa as it appears in the films The Last Face, Beyond Borders and Le grand blanc de Lambaréné.     

Reactions to globalisation by the television industry in post-apartheid South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the different ways in which the South African television industry has reacted to globalisation forces during the post-apartheid era that started in the early 1990s. Of particular interest is how the local television industry initially planned political and economic reforms aimed at bringing the industry more in line with global trends, but then later reacted mainly to protect the local television production industry against foreign competition and to protect local viewers against perceived cultural imperialism impacts of foreign programs. These protective actions were however not as successful as was intended with regard to promoting local television content production. The paper discusses the underlying dynamics of the globalisation and the various localisation processes that occurred (varying chronologically from primary, to secondary, to tertiary localisation), as well as the ways in which television industries in other parts of the world have reacted to similar global forces. It is contended that the local South African television production industry stands to benefit most in future if broadcasting policy makers respond more pro-actively to opportunities offered by global technological forces operating upon the industry. This is in agreement with the thrust of the latest broadcasting policy process of the Department of Communication. It is concluded that a recent joint initiative by the country's two major broadcasters in which an increased number of both locally produced and other “African” programs are being broadcast via satellite to prospective geo-cultural markets in the rest of Africa, holds promise for the future viability of the South African television industry.     

The Truths/Fictions/Traumas of Marikana: Exploring Violence and Trauma in Three Films,The Marikana Massacre: Through The Lens (2013), Miners Shot Down (2014), and Night is Coming: A Threnody for the Victims of Marikana (2014)

ABSTRACT

By exploring three films that centre on the Marikana strikes and killings of 2012, I seek to examine both the representations of violence as trauma, and the trauma of representing violence, within the context of visual, cinematic texts. I position Marikana, and the trauma of Marikana, as both a highly significant moment, and also as representative of deeper social and political traumas and injustices. I ask whether and how these films create a narrative context for this pivotal moment in South African history. I also question the effects of cinematic style and genre in the depictions of trauma and violence. The institutional context in which each film originated and developed is important, and I argue that the audience's expectations of the genre of documentary film also play a significant role in the way in which the films process trauma. I situate my paper in conversation with previous articles by Lucy Graham and Helene Strauss among others, that deal with cinematic portrayals of Marikana. By examining the selected films alongside each other, and through the lens of Decolonial Trauma Studies, I hope to elucidate the ways in which these South African films deal with and work through trauma.     

The making and political life of Miners Shot Down: an interview with Rehad Desai and Anita Khanna

The interview that follows was conducted in Kensington, Johannesburg, in may 2015. I had not originally planned to publish it: I interviewed rehad desai and anita Khanna in preparation for a presentation on their documentary, Miners Shot Down (2014), I was going to give at a conference, to be repeated at the annual colloquium we organise with the school of Communication at the university of Johannesburg to mark the anniversary of the marikana massacre. I had been monitoring the marikana support Campaign quite closely, so I was interested in hearing not only about the documentary – the way it frames and narrates the story of the massacre – but also about its role in this multimedia campaign. I wanted the director and producer to share their thoughts on the impact the film had made, on the response at the local and international screenings they had attended, on what the miners of marikana and their communities thought of it, and on the campaign to have the film screened on South African national television. in the interview, they also describe the involvement of the miners and their communities in the political life of the film and their own experience of filming, producing and promoting the documentary. When Miners Shot Down won the international emmy award for best documentary in november 2015, I reread the interview and thought others might be interested in it – especially scholars working in media, film and communication studies. So here it is. Thanks go to rehad desai and anita Khanna for their time and generosity and to amy maphagela for transcribing the interview.     

South African soap opera as the other: The deconstruction of hegemonic gender identities in four South African soap operas

Abstract

This article examines the potential role of soap opera narratives in the construction (or deconstruction) of identities within the South African context. The narratives of four South African soap operas (Egoli – place of gold, Isidingo – the need, Generations and 7de Laan) are analysed. Although identities of race and class are also relevant in soap opera narrative, this article focuses on gender identities. It is argued that soap opera may be constituted as other, and that it might therefore be a possible site for the deconstruction of hegemonic identities. Brief reference is made to Edward Said and the origin of the term ‘Orientalism’. This is linked firstly to the concept of the other, and more precisely the concept of ‘women as other’ as theorised initially by Simone de Beauvoir, but more specific to this article, Luce Irigaray. The second section argues that soap opera may be gendered as feminine and female and consequently marked as other for various reasons. The final section accepts the hypothesis of soap opera as feminine and female, and thus other, and attempts to analyse the relevant soap operas in terms of the negotiating or deconstructing of gender identities and the consequent social relevance of these texts.     

(Re)inventing African oral traditions and national heritage(s) through film images: The case of Keita! The Heritage of the Griot [1995] and Kare Kare Zvako: Mother's Day [2004]

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to explore how African films such as Keita! The Heritage of the Griot and Kare Kare Zvako: Mother's Day reinvent oral traditions on-screen, so that the traditions are revitalised and given new life in a contemporary world where visual and literary narratives have tended to dominate the collection and dissemination of information. The ontological and cosmological dimensions of African oral traditions provide the cultural humus that continues to feed the narrative structures of most African films. It is argued that the films' conscious refusal to be totally submerged in European modernism or their capacity to merge some traditional aspects with modern values is what constructs the multiple subjectivities that most African filmmakers strive to bring out. By using oral narrative structures embedded in songs, storytelling, myths, legends, poems, riddles, anecdotes and proverbs, the selected African films recreate traditions and heritage; they help to preserve African values that face a Western onslaught, promoted through European languages. Oral narratives carry a freight of cultural meanings infused in different modes of expression, while articulating the philosophies and beliefs of African people. It is important to recognise and [re]discover the critical role played by oral narratives in order to understand the epistemologies and ontologies that inform the construction of African films. A study of this nature is critical in that it builds on the existing indigenous knowledge systems embedded in orature (oral literature) that remain threatened by European cultural imperialism, which is promoted through the Hollywood film paradigm.     

Inxeba (The Wound): Sexual,Gender, Cultural and Religious Traumata on the African Screen

Abstract

This article is divided into two distinct parts. The first part contextualises John Trengove’s internationally renowned, award-winning, feature-length isiXhosa film, Inxeba. The second part of the article is an interview with Batana Vundla, conducted by Mark Kirby-Hirst (Film Theory and Visual Discourse Subject Manager at The Open Window), held in mid-2018, shortly after the High Court’s decision was made public regarding the final classification of Inxeba. The interview ranges from Batana Vundla’s history in the South African film and television industries, to the production processes behind the scenes of the film and concludes with a focus on the nuanced manner through which the film often broaches a wide variety of physical and psychic traumata.     

Towards linking normative theory,communication policy and audiences in South African communication research

Abstract

In this article the need to revisit South African normative media theory and communication policy against the background of fundamental audience research is emphasised. This is done in view of the postmodemist argument that ‘classic’ normative media theory is no longer suitable as a yardstick for the measurement of media performance, quality and ethics in postmodern societies, in a changing media landscape. Bearing in mind that South Africa cannot be fully characterised as a postmodernist and advanced capitalist society, but based on the nature of its First World media system functioning in a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic society, the tendency to see ubuntuism as a point of departure for such revision is questioned. This is done in favour of an approach in which difference and diversity are acknowledged, including the different roles the media can play and the different forms in which it can (and do) contribute to social responsibility. As far as policy research is concerned, it is emphasised that such research should be based on normative theory about the role of the media in South African society. If not, South African communication policy will continue to be fragmented and responsive to mainly technological developments and opportunities, instead of being based on communicative goals and needs. This article concludes by emphasising that both normative theory and policy should be based on fundamental audience research, which is argued to be neglected in South African communication research.     

“Journalism ideology” and its influence on the producers of Radio Sonder Grense radio current affairs

In the same way that people can have a political or a personal ideology, their professional identities and how they practise a craft or an occupation may be influenced by what can be labelled as a “professional ideology”. Through conducting interviews with the producers of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Afrikaans radio programmes Monitor, Spektrum and Naweek-Aktueel, this article reports on research which showed that there is indeed such a thing as a “journalism ideology”. The interviews focused on how “internal influences” – such as a journalist's background and training, newsroom routines – and “external influences” – such as the audience – influenced the decisions they made in choosing news stories and producing content. This “journalism ideology” influences the producers and in turn the news content of these current affairs programmes that are listened to daily by almost two million listeners. The conclusion drawn from the study is that, although the participants’ “journalism ideology” largely determines the news stories for their programmes, structural forces, newsroom routines and organisational constraints often dictate their actions. Finally, although all the participants saw themselves as “watchdogs of democracy”, internal pressures within the SABC could endanger that role.     

‘Ryk,ryker, Rykie’: A first exploration of the journalistic contribution of a journalist extraordinaire

Abstract

This article will, as a first exploration, attempt to put some aspects of the Afrikaans journalist Rykie van Reenen into perspective with the aim of understanding her contribution to South African journalism and the extent of her oeuvre. Van Reenen was referred to as 'undoubtedly the most outstanding Afrikaans journalist of the [twentieth] century' (Giliomee 2003, 564). In the Afrikaans rewritten version of this book, it is qualified with the word 'waarskynlik' – (probably) (Giliomee 2004, 470). Although her journalism, according to sources, contributed in a significant way to the eventual political change from an Afrikaner Nationalist-governed country to a democracy, very little is known about the journalist. This initial recording of van Reenen's oeuvre is part of a more extensive study of this journalist who has set a standard in South African Afrikaans journalism in terms of subject matter and writing style. This article can thus also be regarded as a contribution in a small way to a more complete South African media historiography, which, in general, lacks significant scholarly attention.     

Setting the tabloid agenda: What two Afrikaans-language tabloids offer their readers

Abstract

South African tabloids generally thrive while mainstream newspapers struggle to compete with the current front-runners, Afrikaans-language tabloid Son and the English-language Daily Sun. However, not all South African tabloids are success stories: the Afrikaans-language tabloid Sondag has struggled since its inception, in particular prior to Ingo Capraro's takeover in 2009. This article consequently aims to establish why Kaapse Son and Sondag, two Afrikaans-language tabloids from the same media stable, have been received so differently. Why has Son hit the mark so impressively and why has Sondag been unable to succeed in terms of circulation and readership? In an attempt to answer these questions, this article explores the content and presentation of these two tabloids in the period just before Capraro took over the editorship in an attempt to save the newspaper from its dwindling circulation, i.e. the period in which Willem Pretorius was editor of Sondag. This comparative content analysis of the newspapers is conducted against a background of the nature of tabloid newspapers in South Africa, and within the framework of the agenda-setting theory. The background is explored by means of a literature review and conversations with editors from both newspapers. The analysis shows that Son has a strong community focus and provides its audience with relevant and up-to-date information they can apply to their everyday lives. In comparison, Sondag (under Pretorius’ editorship) resembled a supermarket tabloid, with a focus on celebrities. It is suggested that, in order to survive, an Afrikaans-language tabloid should provide local, community-focused stories that pertain to the everyday lives of its readers.     

Painful Pleasure: The Politics and Aesthetics of Psychosocial Trauma in Impunity

Abstract

Continuous trauma syndrome (CTS) is the foundation for the characters in the film Impunity. The aesthetic choices in the narrative structure are an exploration of the discursive nature of violence and trauma in contemporary South African society. The theorising of continuous stress trauma provides the necessary challenge to the more conventional understanding of post-traumatic stress syndrome and informs the underlying analysis of the film. This analysis is offered in an interlocutory manner with psychology theorist Garth Stevens who provides a hermeneutic reading of Impunity that draws directly from his own research and others in the field of psychology. The paper is offered as an examination of an artistic research, film practice. The practice itself constitutes a theoretical expression which connects the aesthetic and structural choices of the film with the disciplinary observations made by Stevens. It suggests two theoretical approaches from different disciplines brought in conversation with each other to inform the reading of Impunity as artistic expression. The paper puts at its centre the discursive approach to the study of violence and trauma to suggest how the film’s structure and its aesthetics may be connected to research in the field of psychology.