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".     

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.     

Media,citizenship and the politics of belonging in contemporary South Africa

Abstract

Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and empirical studies, the articles in this special issue examine issues of citizenship and belonging in South Africa. Questions of belonging and citizenship are neither novel, nor particular to South Africa – they have been high on the intellectual (and popular) agenda internationally since at least the early 1990s. Yet South Africa's history of artificially separating and defining its citizens in the racial regimes of colonialism and apartheid still reverberates today, as is reflected in the continued inequalities marring South African society. Post-apartheid governance of redress still requires the use of apartheid categories of ‘race’, but the terms under which we understand what it means to be South African are much wider, and require continued critical reflection. Using South Africa (and not the global North, as is so often the case) as the focal point for rethinking notions of citizenship and belonging, may urge us to rethink these notions and their meanings within fledgling democracies and societies in transition.     

Speak ill of me … but speak,or How to be Afrikaans on the SABC

Abstract

The elections of 1994 marked the beginning of a full-scale restructuring of the broadcasting sector in South Africa. Apart from changes related to ownership, editorial content, the media's position within society at large and its relationship to the government of the day, South African media have also undergone massive changes in terms of their languages of communication and the faces that are seen and heard. These changes were steered, in part, by debates on language equity and identity in South Africa. The politics of language equity in broadcasting reform has been shaped by conflicts over the legitimacy of who is represented, by what means, by whom and for what purposes. Afrikaans especially came under fire because of its privileged position before 1994. While the transition of South Africa to an inclusive democracy in 1994 freed Afrikaans from its apartheid shackles, it also made it one of only 11 official languages (Giliomee 2004: 25). The resultant debates about the position and status of Afrikaans – including that of speakers of Afrikaans – have intensified during the almost two decades post-apartheid. This article explores these discourses to establish the position of Afrikaans and its speakers as far as the South African Broadcasting Corporation is concerned.     

Multiculturalism in South African soap operas

Abstract

This article explores the multicultural dimensions within the texts of three South African soap operas (soaps). It uses text analysis and interviews as a methodology to expose the intricate web of influences that are all part of the fabric of a South African soap.

The text and discursive analysis are based on Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory of Halliday. The analysis of the texts proceeds from a pre-interpretation stage, through an analysis stage and into a revisit or re-interpretative stage. The creators of the texts as well as commercial bias are seen as politico-economic and cultural influences which may have direct bearing on the texts and are therefore interrogated. The findings confirm no multicultural model for South African soaps and show correlation between commercial interests and homogenised South African stereotypes.     

The new Independent Communications Authority of South Africa: its challenges and implications for telecommunications liberalisation in the country

ABSTRACT

Communication and information, thus telecommunications, are vital tools in today's economy. These tools are also the backbone of tomorrow's economy hence they need to be regulated properly by an independent regulator. This is true and necessary not only in South Africa, but globally as well. Liberalisation of the telecommunications industry is a policy direction of most countries worldwide. However, the process of changing from a highly regulated, or unregulated, to a liberalised one is not proving to be easy. This paper examines how the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) will impact on the regulation of South Africa's telecommunications industries in the era of liberalisation and convergence.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act No 13 of 2000, merges the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA), and is intended to regulate the multibillion-rand communications industry. The Proclamation by the South African President Thabo Mbeki of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act came into effect on May 11, 2000. A brief history of telecommunications liberalisation in South Africa is explored, and the paper also evaluates how ICASA should regulate for the promotion of growth and competition in the industry. The paper concludes that many challenges face ICASA, most importantly the fact that councillors of this new authority need to provide a balanced and stable communications regulatory environment for the South African broadcasting and telecommunications industries, in the wake of the recent problems that beset both the IBA and SATRA.     

Stemming the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa: Are our HIV/AIDS campaigns failing us?

Abstract

Media-based campaigns are critical tools in changing the behaviours that are fuelling the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. However, given the absence of an effective behaviour-change response in the face of the epidemic, many have come to doubt the efficacy of these campaigns. Campaign designers who profess to using best-practice principles in designing HIV/AIDS campaigns also report that although some of these campaigns book changes in beliefs and attitudes, they seldom have a significant effect on the behaviours that are fuelling the epidemic.

This situation raises a number of general questions with regard to South African HIV/AIDS campaigns: How effective are media-based campaigns in general in changing health-related behaviours? Are South African HIV/AIDS campaigns successful or not? If not, why not, what could be done to optimise their efficacy? What aspects of South African HIV/AIDS campaigns contribute to their efficacy and could be up-scaled in future campaigns?

This article provides a critical analysis of the processes followed in the design of the Living Positively Campaign and of the design features of the messaging of the booklet Living positively with HIV and AIDS. This analysis clearly indicates that despite claims by campaign designers of adherence to best-practice heuristics, very few of them are implemented in the design of HIV/AIDS campaigns.     

Executive overstretch: South African broadcasting independence and accountability under Thabo Mbeki

Abstract

In this article I examine the extent of the South African broadcasting sector's independence and accountability since Thabo Mbeki became president in 1999. I trace how the independence of two institutions – the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) – has been eroded over this period. While initially the government justified this erosion as being necessary to attain developmental objectives in the context of a globalising economy, more lately there have been attempts to justify greater state control of content. Icasa has been subjected to greater direct executive control, and there are attempts to intensify this control, while the executive exercises indirect control over the SABC. Greater accountability to the state has been accompanied by a decline in public accountability. I conclude by arguing that the experiences with Icasa and the SABC give credence to the argument made by several international NGOs that media freedom in South Africa is declining, in spite of official protestations to the contrary. I also argue that this control has damaged the integrity of these institutions, and that this integrity must be restored now that Mbeki's presidency is coming to an end.     

THE ODDS ON CASINO PAINTINGS

ABSTRACT

This article considers the role of decorative paintings in two South African casinos, namely Carnival City and Caesars Gauteng. It suggests that entertainment landscapes such as casinos are subject to subtle and elaborate mechanisms whereby the creation of seductive milieus reinforces the myth of leisure and paradigms of hedonistic consumption. The use of strategies such as themeing is examined in order to propose that entertainment is increasingly predicated on the imperative of creating exotic, fantastic, escapist or extraordinary experiences – but at a price. The contentious issue of the need for a more authentic so-called African identity in casino developments is also broached. The authors point out that within the postmodern cultural hypermarket of unlimited choices, eclecticism and pastiche, cultures and histories have the potential to be reduced to themes and stereotypes, and can be endlessly re-duplicated in simulacral fantasy landscapes. This production of escapist consumer spaces is important, because the social role of casinos in South Africa has undergone radical changes during the last few years – far from being places of adult entertainment, they now embrace diverse forms of leisure activities for families.     

A computational text analysis of the South African banking sector's representation of its core values: A corpus-driven approach

Abstract

This article uses corpus linguistics (CL) to computationally quantify and qualitatively explain how meaning is represented vis-à-vis core values in the text of the 2009 annual reports of the South African banking sector. Core values prescribe the behaviour, attitude and character of an organisation and may be indicative of an organisation's ideologies. This article draws on the work of Fox (2006a and b), who advances the new development of merging linguistics and corporate communication, and in so doing adopting a transdisciplinary perspective on language. Written text is an ideal method with which to capture an organisation's ideologies through corporate public discourse (CPD) such as annual reports, because the organisation can control the content and distribution. However, as corporate messages are generally written by the ‘entity’ and not by the individual, writers essentially accept the banks’ practicing power through consent. The results illustrate how the repeated use of content words may skilfully position the reader of the text positively towards the South African banking sector's core values represented in the text. Researching language in organisations not only facilitates strategic competence in comprehending communication processes, but can also be beneficial in terms of more credible CPD.     

The future of public service broadcasting in South Africa: the need to return to basic principles

Abstract

In this article it is argued that should the South African public service broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), be expected to play a development and nation-building role in the South African society, as it is mandated to do, then policy makers should return to the basic principles underlying the philosophy of public service broadcasting. This needs to be done in a changed media environment characterised by privatisation, internationalisation and digitisation, all leading to increased competition and commercialisation. The argument is developed against the background of a discussion on (1) the reasons for the decline of public service broadcasting, (2) the ways in which public service broadcasters are responding, (3) an overview of the state of public service broadcasting in South Africa at the time of writing (April 2003), (4) a motivation for why South Africa needs a strong public service broadcaster and (5) what can be done to secure the future of public service broadcasting in South Africa. A return to the basic principles of public service broadcasting as the only way out, is suggested. This would require a complete revision of South African broadcasting policy.     

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.     

Racial appropriation in white expatriate South African discourses: Reading race on social club websites

Abstract

In South Africa the African moral philosophy ubuntuism is periodically raised as a framework for African normative media theory. At this stage, the ubuntu discourse cannot be described as a focused effort to develop a comprehensive theory on the basis of which media performance could be measured from ‘an African perspective’. It should rather be seen as an intellectual quest to rediscover and re-establish idealised values of traditional African culture(s) and traditional African communities. Yet, given South Africa's history of apartheid in which Christian nationalism was misused as a moral philosophy to mobilise a patriotic media in the service of volk (nationhood) and vaderland (fatherland), it is not too early to ask critical questions about ubuntuism as a possible framework for normative media theory. Such questioning is the purpose of this article. Against the background of postmodern and postcolonial perspectives on normative theory, questions related to the following are raised: the expediency of ubuntuism in the context of changed African cultural values, the distinctiveness of ubuntuism as an African moral philosophy, the vulnerability of moral philosophy to political misuse, ubuntuism in the context of the future of normative theory in a globalised world and changed media environment, and the implications of ubuntuism for journalism practice. It is concluded that ubuntuism may pose a threat to freedom of expression. Given the nature of contemporary South African society and its media system, the postmodern emphasis on diversity and pluralism as the cornerstone of future normative theory, is supported.     

The rise of film production and the politics of the star system in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The rise of film production and the ubiquitous presence of the ‘new wave’ of South African films on the international scene in recent years have raised expectations amongst local film stars hoping to get their biggest break by taking leading roles in major South African productions. However, most of these films – particularly co-productions – have continuously used foreign stars in leading roles. As a result, local stars have constantly voiced concerns about the proliferation of foreign artists in leading roles in South African productions. Many explanations have been offered in trying to understand why filmmakers tend to cast a foreign star when a local one could probably do a better job (in, for example, portraying a local icon like Nelson Mandela) and still command a lesser fee. However, this article puts forward that most of these arguments are based on intuition rather than on the real dynamics and externalities governing this practice. The article attempts to make sense of this issue by arguing that the rationale for this practice stems from a film being a high-risk investment that it is driven by the broader financial imperatives of film production. The article offers empirical evidence to suggest that stars do not add economic value to the film, but to themselves (see Elberse 2005), since the bulk of the money goes towards their appearance fees. It is concluded that the traditional model guiding film finance and the logic behind it need to be looked at afresh, given the fact that several films have failed at the box office, both locally and internationally, despite featuring major foreign stars, compared to the massive success of some local films (e.g., Jerusalema, Tsotsi and Yesterday) with local stars in the leading roles.     

Using the personal influence model to guide theory building for participatory communication in Africa

Abstract

This article argues that the personal influence model (PIM) be used strategically to resolve conflicts and social crises in Africa. It presents PIM as a complementary, analytic discourse to participatory communication, a development paradigm commonly used globally in a variety of social programs. That discourse, as a framework for theory building, is grounded in Africa's emerging and enduring realities: (a) the growing interest of the international community to assist Africa to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, whose focus is to reduce extreme poverty by 2015; (b) the ephemeral nature of Africa's political and social stability that necessitates reducing fear, improving community security, nurturing public trust, and building inter-group relationships, all as preconditions for attaining social development, and for using a community-agency- contracts-partnerships approach to deliver development services; and (c) the palpable congruence of PIM with Africa's extensive social networks, which are typically used as communication tools for social development. Those realities guide four propositions that serve as a heuristic template for testing and refining the participatory approach, thereby guiding theory building in participatory communication in African communities. That template identifies an expansive three-concept research agenda – culture, community governance and rule of law, and economic freedom – that raises questions, defines concepts, measures key variables, and assesses outcomes.     

The persuasive effect of Tsotsitaal in HIV/AIDS material

ABSTRACT

According to Statistics South Africa (2002) HIV infections were the leading cause of death for females between 15 and 39 years of age for the period 1997 to 2001. The South African Department of Health (2003) estimates that 3.1 million women (15–49 years) in South Africa are HIV-infected. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) (2002) claimed that in the 15- to 24-year age group, 12 per cent of the women and 6.1 per cent of the males are HIV-infected. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS has resulted in a number of campaigns that seek to promote safe sex. According to the results that have been published, young people are seen as a high-risk group. However, of the campaigns that seek to address the issue of HIV/AIDS, the loveLife project is the only campaign aimed exclusively at young people. loveLife makes extensive use of the printed media in their campaigns. They claim to speak in a language with which young people will identify. Very little research into the effectiveness of the language use in these campaigns has been undertaken. Saal (2003) examined the effect of teenager slang as used by loveLife among learners in the Western Cape. This research is an extension of the research conducted by Saal (2003), looking in particular at the effect of Tsotsitaal among learners in the Eersterust area. Tsotsitaal is widely used in Eersterust, Gauteng Province, and its persuasive effect in HIV/AIDS material will be examined. Two brochures (written in Standard Afrikaans and Tsotsitaal) were tested in terms of their effect on source–receiver–similarity, source attraction and credibility (source expertise and trustworthiness) as well as persuasiveness. The findings of the study suggested, somewhat surprisingly, that speakers of Standard Afrikaans are rated more favourably than Tsotsitaal speakers in terms of source–receiver–similarity and credibility. The participants also viewed the brochure in Standard Afrikaans as significantly more persuasive than the Tsotsitaal brochure.     

Toward a measurement tool for the monitoring of media diversity and pluralism in South Africa: A public-centred approach

Abstract

This article responds to recent debates within South African media politics regarding the diversity and transformation of the print sector in the country, by suggesting a necessary refocus of previously used methods of measuring media diversity and proposing a more audience-centred approach. This audience-centred method is discussed with regard to meeting the demands of the normative understanding of media diversity, where the media are viewed as central to an individual's formulation of opinions and ideas, thus rendering the media – and particularly the news media – vital in fostering an enabled and informed citizenry. The argument proposes a bottom-up instead of a top-down methodology for measuring media diversity, by placing the primary focus on the public as the starting point, rather than the end point of the analysis, and validating this position through the normative view of the media's role in assisting citizens to formulate personal views. The article concludes by listing four key areas in which current debates on media diversity in South Africa should be realigned and refocused, including at a parliamentary level.     

The case for ‘face-time’ in a computer-mediated global economy

Abstract

The structuring of marketing and communication management within key organisations in South Africa is changing. These changes are affecting the relationship between marketing and communication practitioners, as well as the key tasks they are responsible for within the organisation. Globally, companies are downsizing, restructuring and eliminating hierarchy. This article investigates how key South African companies have responded to these changes, by looking at how the marketing and communication functions are structured within the organisation. Marketing and communication managers from top South African companies were interviewed telephonically. Findings from the study indicate that the two functions are progressively moving towards an integrated approach. However, a commonly agreed organisational structure is still not pervasive. Each organisation structured the marketing and communication functions differently, and various perspectives existed on the key tasks of both marketing and communication managers. From these findings, it is evident that the relationship between marketing and communication, as well as the role and tasks of marketing and communication managers, is still very diverse in the South African context.     

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.