The role of the media is key in influencing social, historical and political perceptions. It is for these reasons that the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) carefully examines and critiques the South African media’s representation of the events of the world.
During the eleven years of democracy, the South African media has undergone substantial change and transformation, especially in the areas of ownership and the number of broadcasters. South Africa now boasts a free-to-air, commercial broadcaster (E-TV) and over 100 community radio stations, where there were none in existence before 1994.
However, despite innumerable changes, juniorisation of newsrooms and a lack of skilled staff and adequate resources have resulted in an increase in the number of incidents of poor reporting in South African media. Coverage of key social issues such as the representation of race, racial stereotyping, xenophobia and racism, is often of limited value, as it often fails to explore pertinent aspects in any depth. Media tend to lead with dramatic headlines that may sell more publications, but often trivialise the issues at stake and promote stereotypes and discrimination, which reinforces the alienation of specific groups of people.
The media holds enormous power to shape opinions and influence how people perceive race and racism, xenophobia and ethnicity. The media also play a key role in communicating, informing and educating the public at large. In this regard, and especially in the context of a democratic, human rights-orientated framework, the media has a responsibility to ensure that the information it communicates about race and racial identities is transparent, accurate, and ethical.
There can be no question as to the substantial progress made in South Africa in the last eleven years, but key social challenges pose serious threats to democracy. Poverty, gender-based violence and gender inequality, child abuse, crime, HIV and underdevelopment are just a few of the challenges that South Africa faces. The media has the daunting task of reporting on all of these complex issues, their respective contexts, developments, challenges and setbacks, while simultaneously ensuring that this reporting is done so in a clearly understandable, balanced, fair and accurate manner.
To make the media’s task even more difficult, most of the key social challenges that South Africa faces are interconnected. The result is, for example, that a story on poverty needs to be contextualised alongside issues of race and gender. When all of these different and highly complicated issues have to be taken into account, it is clear that there is considerable potential for limited representations and stereotypes within the media.
The legacy of classifying people by race, which was initiated by the apartheid regime, continues in the new democratic dispensation. People were divided according to their skin colour and the texture of their hair
into four different racial groups. These groups became popular in representing the South African society, classifying all people into Black, White, Indian, and Coloured communities. During the liberation struggle, the non-White groups fought together for equality and thus were branded Black. The division of people into ethnic groups and the homeland system brought issues of segregation along ethnic lines. Although different mechanisms have been put in place by both the current democratic government and civil society to find common grounds in this divided society, policies such as affirmative action and black economic empowerment aimed at redressing past injustices continue to divide the country along racial lines and disadvantaged groups such as women and people living with disabilities.
These policies have drawn on the racial classification as used by the apartheid government to classify people. The MMP has therefore decided to monitor how the media reports and represents issues of race, racism, xenophobia and ethnicity after the country has celebrated a decade of democracy; and how the media deals with the complexities of race and racial identities.
This paper is divided into three sections. Firstly, the MMP look into policies and ethical principles developed to guide journalists and editors on reporting on these issues in a manner that respects and promote people’s right to dignity and equality. This discussion will be followed by a section on previous monitoring undertaken by MMP on different topical issues but also had race, xenophobia, or ethnicity as a component. The third aspect of the paper looks into the representation of race, racism, xenophobia, and ethnicity in the media. This study will be compared to previous studies undertaken by the MMP on various issues that had race and racism as a component. The comparison will highlight whether there has been any significant changes in the manner in which the media represent issues of race and racial identities.
The need to include issues of xenophobia and Africa in this form of monitoring research is due to the fact that xenophobic behaviour is always targeted at Black people coming from other African countries. This brings to the fore issues of race and media representation of Africa to South Africans.
During the eleven years of democracy, the South African media has undergone substantial change and transformation, especially in the areas of ownership and the number of broadcasters. South Africa now boasts a free-to-air, commercial broadcaster (E-TV) and over 100 community radio stations, where there were none in existence before 1994.
However, despite innumerable changes, juniorisation of newsrooms and a lack of skilled staff and adequate resources have resulted in an increase in the number of incidents of poor reporting in South African media. Coverage of key social issues such as the representation of race, racial stereotyping, xenophobia and racism, is often of limited value, as it often fails to explore pertinent aspects in any depth. Media tend to lead with dramatic headlines that may sell more publications, but often trivialise the issues at stake and promote stereotypes and discrimination, which reinforces the alienation of specific groups of people.
The media holds enormous power to shape opinions and influence how people perceive race and racism, xenophobia and ethnicity. The media also play a key role in communicating, informing and educating the public at large. In this regard, and especially in the context of a democratic, human rights-orientated framework, the media has a responsibility to ensure that the information it communicates about race and racial identities is transparent, accurate, and ethical.
There can be no question as to the substantial progress made in South Africa in the last eleven years, but key social challenges pose serious threats to democracy. Poverty, gender-based violence and gender inequality, child abuse, crime, HIV and underdevelopment are just a few of the challenges that South Africa faces. The media has the daunting task of reporting on all of these complex issues, their respective contexts, developments, challenges and setbacks, while simultaneously ensuring that this reporting is done so in a clearly understandable, balanced, fair and accurate manner.
To make the media’s task even more difficult, most of the key social challenges that South Africa faces are interconnected. The result is, for example, that a story on poverty needs to be contextualised alongside issues of race and gender. When all of these different and highly complicated issues have to be taken into account, it is clear that there is considerable potential for limited representations and stereotypes within the media.
The legacy of classifying people by race, which was initiated by the apartheid regime, continues in the new democratic dispensation. People were divided according to their skin colour and the texture of their hair
into four different racial groups. These groups became popular in representing the South African society, classifying all people into Black, White, Indian, and Coloured communities. During the liberation struggle, the non-White groups fought together for equality and thus were branded Black. The division of people into ethnic groups and the homeland system brought issues of segregation along ethnic lines. Although different mechanisms have been put in place by both the current democratic government and civil society to find common grounds in this divided society, policies such as affirmative action and black economic empowerment aimed at redressing past injustices continue to divide the country along racial lines and disadvantaged groups such as women and people living with disabilities.
These policies have drawn on the racial classification as used by the apartheid government to classify people. The MMP has therefore decided to monitor how the media reports and represents issues of race, racism, xenophobia and ethnicity after the country has celebrated a decade of democracy; and how the media deals with the complexities of race and racial identities.
This paper is divided into three sections. Firstly, the MMP look into policies and ethical principles developed to guide journalists and editors on reporting on these issues in a manner that respects and promote people’s right to dignity and equality. This discussion will be followed by a section on previous monitoring undertaken by MMP on different topical issues but also had race, xenophobia, or ethnicity as a component. The third aspect of the paper looks into the representation of race, racism, xenophobia, and ethnicity in the media. This study will be compared to previous studies undertaken by the MMP on various issues that had race and racism as a component. The comparison will highlight whether there has been any significant changes in the manner in which the media represent issues of race and racial identities.
The need to include issues of xenophobia and Africa in this form of monitoring research is due to the fact that xenophobic behaviour is always targeted at Black people coming from other African countries. This brings to the fore issues of race and media representation of Africa to South Africans.
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