Independent Media Commission: Report on Audience Research – Election 1994

SUMMARY

In the era of postcolonialism the idea of an ‘African mind’ is tempting. However, constructing a notion such as the decolonised mind is theoretically problematic, as ‘African’ thought is located within the Western discourses of modernity. In order to theorise ‘African’ thought in its positivity, it is necessary to move beyond the binary oppositions of coloniser: colonised and West:Africa, and thus outside the Western teleological discourses of modernity that provided the conditions for colonial expansion in the first place. This article argues that an approach which takes local culture seriously is possible in a theory of articulation. It is necessary to realise that ‘Africa’ itself is a political, economic and cultural construct, and that this construction is the effect of complex articulations of political, economic, cultural and other discourses and practices. This entails that the very enabling conditions of postcoloniality, and the application of the term, have to be examined. A cultural studies using a theory of articulation would look at the way in which ‘Africa’ and ‘African thought’ are mobilised within the conditions of global capitalism.     

Political communication and meaning in a climate of cultural contestation: A critical analysis of Zapiro's cartoon of the rape of Justicia

Abstract

Political communication and its relationship to meaning has become a prominent subarea within the subfield of politics and culture. A further development is that in political communication, academic interest has shifted from the production of meaning to the reception of meaning. This emphasis shift requires that future investigations will have to place more emphasis on the receiver of political communication, specifically as regards the reaction to and the interpretation of meaning. Max Weber's conceptual model is used to structure this article and to theoretically define the different cultural environments. The contested Zapiro cartoon of Jacob Zuma is then analysed in relation to political communication within the two contrasting cultural environments. The aim is to demonstrate how different cultural environments in South Africa react differently to the same political communication and its meaning.     

Battleground: candidate selection and violence in Africa’s dominant political parties

ABSTRACT

This article develops a theory – rooted in the experience of the African National Congress in South Africa – to explain how, and why, a dominant political party is less likely to conduct orderly elections to select its political leadership. First, I demonstrate that canny party leaders – operating in the space between a divided society and a weak state – make an ideological turn to a “congress-like” political party, which is clever (in the short term) because it provides party leaders with an in-built electoral majority. It is, however, also a dangerous manoeuvre because it essentially endogenizes social competition for state resources inside the dominant party. This displacement of social competition away from the public sphere towards the partisan organization increases the likelihood of disorderly competition for party candidacies. Second, I demonstrate how this competition need not necessarily become the basis of violent competition inside the dominant party. The party leadership can use intra-party elections to stabilize competition, but only if the party invests in an organization that applies impartially the rules that govern the election.     

The historical and contemporary representation of Africa in global media flows: Can the continent speak back for itself on its own terms?

Abstract

For decades (perhaps, centuries) global media outlets have framed and represented Africa in a negative light. These media representations have tended to overlook the diverse political, economic, social and cultural experiences of individual African countries – a situation that has led to the uncritical lumping together of African nations under the appellation of ‘Africa’. When this happens, the specific and unique conditions of her 55 nations are squeezed into a one-size-fits-all media frame. Historical and ideological forces, both from within and outside the continent, have conspired to impose this fate on Africa. The philosophies of negritude and the Organisation of African Unity were among the complicit internal forces helping to sustain such views. To evaluate this phenomenon, this essay examines the underpinnings of the framing and representation of ‘Africa’ in global media through a review of the literature, and seeks to answer the question of whether the continent can speak for itself, using four country-specific examples. Current media practices within the African continent, enabled by local media policies and infrastructure, have tended to rhetorically position countries primarily in accordance with their national identities, while attributing the African appellation as a secondary frame of representation.     

Eyes left! Some comments on Christo van Staden's ‘Claiming the African Mind’

SUMMARY

This commentary piece charts the ways in which cultural studies, both in relation to Communication Studies and other disciplines, has emerged over some 20 years in South Africa. This development is considered in contrast with Christo van Staden's commentary piece ‘Claiming the African mind’ in Communicatio (vol 22 no 2, pp 71–76). After tracing social, political and intellectual origins of one strand of cultural studies in South Africa, that which has evolved at the Centre for Cultural and Media Studies (CCMS) at the University of Natal, the article recounts some of the considerations which have emerged for the practice of interdisciplinary cultural studies since 1990. The article concludes by outlining some of the efforts under way in CCMS to confront these challenges in the spirit of the Centre's previous approaches and attitudes.     

Debunking Brazilian Exceptionalism in its Africa Relations: Evidence from Angola and Tanzania

ABSTRACT

From 2003, President Lula heralded a new dawn in Brazil’s expanding African relations. Brazil was claimed to be unlike other exploitative powers because of its cultural, geographic and historic connections; Africa’s true brother. Despite the passing of two decades and a number of scandals, this narrative of exceptionalism remains. Studies on Brazil–Africa relations tend to focus on the Brazilian state as the key, essentially benign agent. Our analysis uses the case studies of Angola and Tanzania to debunk the idea of Brazilian exceptionalism. We demonstrate the significant, overlooked agency of corporations in shaping and implementing Lula’s Africa Policy, and determining its developmentally dubious outcomes. Additionally, the paper shows how political elites in Africa directed Brazilian government and companies into their political and business norms. Thus, Brazil–Africa relations replicated much of the typical economic patterns of the continent’s trade, with oft-controversial and corrupt investment in commodity extraction and infrastructure.     

The political origins of South Korea's economic crisis: Is democratization to blame?

Different explanations have been presented regarding the recent economic crisis in South Korea. After critically evaluating these explanations, the article modifies and refines the dominant model, the mea culpa paradigm, to develop a political, interactive and integrative explanation of the crisis. The economic breakdown during the Kim Young Sam regime in Korea (1993–98) was mainly due to the Kim government's failure to carry out its well‐intended economic reforms, particularly chaebol reforms. The reasons for the failure of the economic reforms, in turn, consist of a set of political factors, including President Kim's distinctive leadership style encapsulated by ‘decretistic populism’, the chaebôl's effective cultural strategies of agenda denial and an anti‐reform campaign by conservative social forces. In this respect, the economic crisis in Korea is also a political crisis. The article refutes a popular interpretation within Korea that blames democracy for the economic crisis, demonstrating that there is at best a very tenuous relationship between the democratization in the country since 1987 and the economic crisis. To overcome the crisis, the current Kim Dae Jung government in Korea should avoid decretistic populism, forge and maintain a constructive alliance with civil society groups and develop a solid coalition for economic reform.     

印度人口红利与经济增长

人口的发展趋势深刻地影响到经济增长。近年来,印度的人口红利成为热点话题。本文探讨了人口红利及其经济含义,分析了印度的人口红利状况及其收获人口红利促进经济增长所面临的主要制约。     

The international news about governability: A comparison of the New York Times and six news wires

This paper examines the international news coverage of governability offered by several news sources. Governability is defined as actual or potential challenges to the domestic political order or stability of a nation, manifested by oppositional violence, leadership crises or institutional change. The New York Times, AP, UPI, Reuters, Northern Reuters, Kyodo and Xinshua are examined for one week. We evaluate how well these sources cover governability issues with respect to four criteria: relative emphasis on the topic, volume of coverage, depth of coverage and extensiveness of country coverage (on both a global and a regional basis). Our results indicate that the global coverage of governability concentrates on certain regions and countries of the world, and that large gaps appear for Africa and for much of the Third World. The New York Times offers the most in‐depth coverage of governability issues, but UPI, AP, Reuters and Northern Reuters offer much wider country coverage. We also found that two non‐Western news wires (Kyodo and Xinshua) concentrate more on governability issues but offer less extensive country coverage than Western sources.     

Narrative and elucidating the concept of democracy: the case of Myanmar’s activists and democratic leaders

Narrative analysis has been widely employed in the social sciences. Yet there has been no systematic application of narrative theory to the study of how the word “democracy” is given meaning by political actors. Using the empirical example of the Burmese democracy movement in the lead up to the historic 2015 election victory of the National League for Democracy, this article argues that narrative analysis can contribute in unique ways to the interpretive task of “elucidating” the concept of democracy. Tracing plot and character construction within activist and aid worker stories about democracy in Myanmar, this study reveals three prominent and diverging narratives of democracy within and around the movement; a liberal narrative, centring on liberal democratic institutions and values, a benevolence narrative, focussing on the value of moral leadership and selflessness, and an equality narrative, highlighting the importance of cultural reform towards greater relational equality. Attention to these narratives has implications for donor “democracy promotion” strategies raising new questions about the role of formal institutions of democracy, the perceived source of “solutions”, and the impact on internal struggles within democracy movements.     

Traumata on Screen: Cinematic Views from Southern Africa

ABSTRACT

This special themed issue of Communicatio explores the profound transformation of the political, cultural and intellectual contours of Africa from the vantage point of African film and grounded within the theoretical and epistemological discourses of trauma studies, memory studies, postcolonial studies, and decolonial studies. The contributors are particularly interested in exploring the relational flows between African cinematic works and the social and imaginary circumstances of their production, engagement and representation. Through an explication of the screen and viewing cultures from Africa, this themed issue wishes to make three contributions. The first is to the already established but on-going scholarly work of trauma studies, but specifically from an African, cinematic vantage point. The second contribution is to the theoretical body of work on African cinema (and in this context, “cinematic” includes both film/television). And the last contribution is to the emerging view that culture is a “two-way street,” to put it colloquially: a reversal of the dominant “Western” direction of culture, with an emphasis on different tones of social values and contexts, that have been marginalised in mainstream popular culture discourses.     

The In-securitisation of Youth in the South and East Mediterranean

The securitisation of youth as a social category has been well-documented. For the South and East Mediterranean (SEM) countries, moral panics over demographic youth bulges, Islamist radicalisation and protracted conflicts have placed youth centre-stage as a threat to the security of states and societies. Rejecting such assertions as themselves being what Foucault might have termed ‘technologies of power’ in a neoliberal order, and instead taking a critical approach to security, the spotlight is turned towards youth themselves as the referent object of study. This reveals the multidimensional hyper-precarity and insecuritisation of young peoples’ lives which derive from that same neoliberal economic order and the political structures that sustain it in the SEM countries. The finding resonates with other studies of new, insecure, formats for adulthood in Africa and suggests that we should look at the insecurity of young people today to understand global neoliberal futures in countries beyond the post-industrial ‘core’.     

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.     

Towards a common-sense typology and democratic philosophy for South Africa's ‘community media’

SUMMARY

This article focusses on the ways in which political cartoons, especially in South Africa, are used for political communication. To start with an indication is given of what is meant by political communication and how it forms part of the political socialisation process. Thereafter the focus shifts to the role of cartoons in this process. Emphasis is placed on the procedure of determining a theme or central idea for a cartoon. Three general functions of cartoons are also identified which concentrate on the condensation and simplification of a confusing perceived reality as well as acting as a medium for the mobilisation of political support. Besides, three specific functions are isolated which are determined by the cartoonist's appreciation of the status quo. In conclusion, a few methods available to the cartoonist for designing cartoons to perform these functions are mentioned.     

‘Papa don't preach’: Fatherhood in a South African Christian men's magazine

Abstract

The first international men's lifestyle magazine to enter South Africa was Men's Health in 1997, followed by FHM and GQ. Not unlike their international counterparts, these magazines have been extolled in the publishing sector for their commercial success and disparaged in academia for their potentially negative influence on the sensitive gender politics of the new South Africa. In 2001, a new breed of men's lifestyle magazine emerged in South Africa: one that catered to a particular cultural or racial niche market that presumably was not satisfied by the generalising tone of the mainstream men's lifestyle magazines. The Afrikaans Christian magazine MaksiMan is the subject of this analysis, as much for what it signifies in terms of the presence of vernacular masculinities in post-apartheid South Africa as for the texture that it brings to the genre of men's lifestyle magazines. Mainstream men's magazines typically refuse to include reference to the role of father that certain of their readers might occupy. MaksiMan breaks this trend through articles and features centred on fatherhood. This article comprises an analysis of the representation of fatherhood within this niche men's lifestyle magazine.     

Terrorism and subversion of the state: Italian legal responses

Political assassinations constitute a specific form of violence intended to take someone else's life against that person's wish. The act of killing (the ‘event') is distinguished from the cultural interpretation given to that act (the ‘rhetorical device'). The essay examines the rhetorical device as a cultural artifact to construct and interpret the deliberate serious attempt(s) to kill a specific actor for political reasons having something to do with the political position (or role) of the victim, and with the symbolic‐moral universe out of which the assassin/s act(s). This universe generates the legitimacy and justifications required for the act, which are usually presented in quasi‐legal terms although the acts are typically not the result of a fair legal procedure.     

Book reviews

Fragile Peace: State Failure, Violence and Development in Crisis Regions Tobias Debiel and Axel Klein, Eds Zed Books, London, 2002, pp. 256. ISBN 184277171X Nobly, Fragile Peace: State Failure, Violence and Development in Crisis Regions seeks to address how 'deep-rooted structures of violence' can be transformed to enable development, which will 'facilitate socio-economic welfare and political participation, as well as... the realization of cultural identity'. (p. 3.) With a focus on 'concrete policy recommendations geared towards practical politics', Fragile Peace is a discussion of post-conflict reconstruction and peace building with case studies drawn from the Caucusus, Central America and the Horn of Africa. The contributors for this edited volume originally were participants in a series of five international workshops, entitled the Development and Peace Foundation's Policy Forum on Regional Conflict Management, conducted between November 1999 and 2000. Reflecting the diverse nature of the workshops' participants, the authors hail overwhelmingly from think tanks and academia in Germany and the UK, but also include contributors from South America, the United States and Georgia.     

Death is in the eye of the beholder: a study of casualty count framing in the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict

The 2014 Israel–Gaza war was the third of a string of conflicts to erupt between the State of Israel and Hamas in neighbouring Gaza and quickly became the deadliest for both sides. Even with the extensive media attention this crisis received, calls for more objective reporting were widespread, as locating sources that were not clearly influenced or reflective of political biases seemed near impossible. This paper seeks to explore the role “cultural proximity” plays in informing casualty count reporting in times of conflict. Qualitative content analysis is conducted on news coverage of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict in the American daily newspaper, The New York Times, and the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, to assess whether significant differences exist in the way casualty figures are addressed across varying degrees of political and cultural involvement. This research reveals that variations in casualty count reporting do indeed exist across cultural and national contexts, and deems this subject worthy of further research.     

Role models in politicians will disappoint you: Cautionary notes on Aids leadership in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

In the face of HIV/Aids the call for political leadership is often made. Invariably, one form that this call takes involves leaders being called upon to act as role models. But time after time scandalous revelations arise. These scandals appear to have the potential to damage efforts to address HIV/Aids. This article assumes that it is not appropriate to attempt to limit public expression concerning the sex-related behaviours of politicians. The author further notices, with reference to post-apartheid leadership in South Africa, that the actions, behaviours and motivations of political leaders cannot be readily assumed to result in desired behaviours in relation to HIV/ Aids. It is proposed that rather than cynically saying we are waiting for ideal leaders to arise, we can embrace the challenge of our time by first allowing ourselves to question the status quo. The aim is to recover questions of the possible roles of politicians as questions of how human relations can be achieved. In other words, the aim is to argue for an approach that humanises both politicians and those who would (be given to) follow them.     

Steve Biko as existentialist communicator

Abstract

Despite ongoing interest and reflection on the work and ideas of Stephen Bantu Biko (1946–1977) in South Africa, no scholarly contribution from a communicological perspective has been published yet. While Biko regarded himself first and foremost as a freedom fighter who aimed to topple the apartheid regime, many regard him more as a philosopher – perhaps an ‘organising philosopher ’ or a sort of ‘social and political philosopher ’ as Sono (1993, 90ff.) puts it. More (2008, 64) goes further and argues that Biko, in his writings, displays a definite philosophical outlook, ‘an Africana existentialist preoccupation with “being-black-in-an-antiblack-world” and [a preoccupation with] questions of “black authenticity ” and “black liberation”’. The main aim of the article is to consider whether Biko as communicator makes human communication as a mode of existence come alive. Biko never addressed the problematic nature of human communication directly. The article concludes that Biko may be regarded as a foremost existentialist communicator during apartheid South Africa, and that his thoughts on meaningful and authentic existence remain relevant for confronting the vexing challenges facing contemporary South African communities.