A Review of: “The U.S. Catholic Press on Central America: From Cold War Anticommunism to Social Justice,by Edward T. Brett”

In a few short years, the World Wide Web has become a standard part of candidates' campaign tool kits. Virtually all candidates have their own sites, and voters, journalists, and activists visit the sites with increasing frequency. In this article, we study what candidates do on these sites—in terms of the information they present—by exploring one of the most enduring and widely debated campaign strategies: “going negative.” Comparing data from over 700 congressional candidate Web sites, over three election cycles (2002, 2004, and 2006), with television advertising data, we show that candidates go negative with similar likelihoods across these media. We also find that while similar dynamics drive negativity on the Web and in television advertising, there are some notable differences. These differences likely stem, in part, from the truncated sample available with television data (i.e., many candidates do not produce ads). Our results have implications for understanding negative campaigning and for the ways in which scholars can study campaign dynamics.     

State narratives of ‘foreignness’ and ‘criminality’ in South Africa

This article brings the notion of transfiguration to bear on the study of the ‘unspeakable’ identity of African migrants living in South Africa, in the context of state language games on violence perpetrated against these migrants. The significance of these discourses is explored, in particular how official and not-so-unofficial discourses on violence in South African media combine to make migrants simultaneously visible and invisible. Speaking about violence involving black non-South Africans, state functionaries tend to downplay the ‘xenophobic’ element while overplaying the link with motiveless crime. Nevertheless, the sense that the migrant, labelled ‘foreigner’, is to blame for all the problems is never far from the surface of these language games. The migrant is therefore enlisted into a discourse where s/he is transformed and subsequently forced to recognise him/herself as subject. As a victim of violence, the migrants find themselves inhabiting zones of discursive indistinction, where they are both victim and victimiser, criminal and crime victim.     

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?     

What should journalism do in a new democracy?

The particular circumstances of new democracies invite reconsideration of normative ideas of the role of journalism. The model of communication developed by Habermas posits that various rules are built into the nature of communication, including norms of inclusivity, openness and non-coercion. Based on this approach, the role of journalism can be defined in relation to notions of civic discourse in the public sphere. This article describes the role in the following three dimensions: (1) as curator of information and views; (2) as direct participant, in its own voice; and, underpinning these, (3) as custodian of public discussion, whose quality is measured against the norms of fair discourse. This Habermasian approach lays the basis for critique, and the three dimensions identified are here applied to the particular circumstances of South Africa’s new democracy. It considers characteristics of South Africa as a new democracy and highly unequal society which impinge on the quality of civic discussion. Normatively, journalism’s role is to respond to those particular characteristics in building and protecting a vibrant public sphere where inclusive, fair civic discourse can take place. This includes a focus on areas where media practices and institutions themselves stand in the way of the ideal.     

Examining Commuters’ Cognitive Responses to Minibus Taxi Advertising

Abstract

Limited scholarly studies have been conducted on transit advertising in general, but even more so in South Africa. The purpose of the current study was to examine commuters’ cognitive responses to minibus taxi advertising by measuring their: (1) noting of minibus taxi advertising; and (2) recall of elements in minibus taxi advertisements. A survey was administered by trained fieldworkers to a quota-based sample of 398 regular minibus taxi commuters at a major taxi rank in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, South Africa. The results revealed that minibus taxi advertising has the potential to attract commuters’ attention, since the vast majority of the respondents regularly note advertisements on passing minibus taxis. The findings also revealed that some sub-groups in the sample demonstrated different cognitive responses. It was furthermore found that the commuting respondents typically recalled visual cues, colours and branding elements of minibus taxi advertising. The unique contribution of the study is that it is one of the first to examine the effectiveness of minibus taxi advertising media on a cognitive level. Thus, from an industry perspective, the study can guide marketers, advertisers and managers in grasping minibus taxi advertising in order to make more effective use of this unique out-of-home (OOH) advertising media platform for their advertising purposes.     

Boko Haram and the discourse of mimicry: a critical discourse analysis of media explanations for Boko Haram’s improved video propaganda quality

The Nigeria-based violent non-state actor Boko Haram is increasingly reported on in the news media in relation to the Islamic State, another, more prominent, violent non-state actor. In particular, these comparisons have been drawn within the context of reports on Boko Haram’s recent improvement in video propaganda quality. While the associations with the Islamic State are often warranted, there are broader social consequences when colonial power relations are brought into play. Borrowing an approach from critical discourse analysis, 16 online English-language news articles were read through a postcolonial lens in order to analyse the structural relations of dominance that arise when discussing African non-state actors. The analysis revealed that among the corpus of articles, nine developed a discourse of mimicry, which serves to deny Boko Haram full agency, relegate them to a silenced subaltern status, and ultimately to diminish the sense of threat posed to the dominant geopolitical security paradigm.     

Citizenship,nation-building and diversity: What is the role of the media in all this?

Abstract

This article explores concepts and discourses regarding citizenship, nation-building and civic solidarity in particular with regard to diverse societies. Attention is given to diverging viewpoints on nation-building and different models on how civic solidarity could be achieved in heterogeneous societies. A distinction is made between Jacobinistic and syncretistic approaches to nation-building and citizenship, as well as between constitutional patriotism, liberal nationalism and deep diversity as models for achieving feelings of belonging, patriotism and social cohesion in heterogeneous societies. Nation-building in Africa and South Africa – and the implications thereof for sub-national groups – are furthermore considered. The role of the media in nation-building, on the one hand, and the accommodation of diversity, on the other, are also considered. The article ends with conclusions and recommendations on the role of the media in promoting discourses on diversity.     

Through the looking-glass: Exploring the wonderland of ‘other’ female portrayals in advertising

Abstract

Research on gender portrayals in advertising are prolific and mostly focus on stereotypical roles. However, there is no previous research report analysing portrayals that fall into the ‘other’ category of female roles. This article aims to provide an outline of female role portrayals in advertising and, importantly, to examine the ‘other’ role category for new portrayals. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on samples of South African magazine and television advertisements. The findings indicate that the stereotypical decorative role was prevalent in magazine advertisements, while in television advertisements the product user was the person most often featured. A detailed analysis of the ‘other’ category in both media revealed four new role portrayals. These roles represent a different view of the modern woman and may be used to differentiate effectively those brands in the media that are cluttered with advertising messages. The research provides directions for future content-analytic studies on the topic of female portrayals in advertising.     

British Muslims and the discourses of dysfunction: community cohesion and counterterrorism in the West Midlands

This article analyses how British discursive representations of Muslims during the last decade were utilised in a local context during the planning stages of a proposed mosque in the West Midlands town of Dudley. Locating the central narratives in dominant national discourses of community cohesion and counterterrorism, this article analyses how correspondents to a local newspaper re-articulated national representations of Muslims as culturally dysfunctional in a local context and used these representations to argue against construction. By critically analysing the local expression of dominant national discourses of threat and blame, in terms of both inherent contradictions and ideological effects, this article highlights the ways in which these discourses worked to exclude Muslims while simultaneously reprimanding them for failing to integrate into a national and local culture that regarded them as inherently ‘other’.     

The Press Freedom Commission in South Africa and the regulation of journalists online: Lessons from Britain and Australia

Abstract

The last few years have seen several attempts to strengthen press regulation in various parts of the world, while the difficulty of controlling online publication is arguably only increasing. In this article the focus is on recent suggestions for a new system of co-regulation of the press in South Africa, in order to see how online journalism is viewed and treated by regulators. In comparison, the article refers to suggestions in this regard by the Leveson Inquiry in Britain and two Australian press and media reviews. Reference is made to Flew and Swift (2013), who apply six main theories in three overlapping categories in debates on the role of journalism and its relationship to the state: fourth estate/market liberal; social responsibility/critical pluralist and dominant interest/radical. A literature review and a qualitative approach were used to identify and compare key debates in various reports from Australia, Britain and South Africa. While suggestions in Britain and Australia favoured an inclusive approach to the regulation of print and online journalism, the South African Press Freedom Commission rejected the idea, due to principle and practical objections. It also became clear that the key problem in the three countries lay in the inability to establish consensus between divergent perspectives on dominant interest and social responsibility, and the entrenched values of the fourth estate/market liberalism.