1. BACKGROUND AND ORIENTATION TO THE STUDY 1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 TRACING SOUTH AFRICAN TABLOID NEWSPAPERS
2.2.1 Alternative tabloid newspapers towards democracy
The early 1990’s saw radical changes on the South African political landscape as the government was moving towards granting political, social and economic rights to the majority of the black population towards the 1994 democratic elections. Institutions of society, including the media, were expected to undergo transformation to reflect the new landscape and to be representative of the general population of the country.
Beside mainstream newspapers, a group of newspapers constituted the alternative press (Sparks, 2003:26).
Firstly, these newspapers were termed alternative because they were not owned by the ‘mainstream’ newspaper owners. Secondly, their content and their target audience were different from that of the ‘mainstream’ newspapers. The alternative press was the outcome of proposals by those who sympathised with the liberation movements and found it necessary to establish the media system that would reveal the pain and distress of the black people under apartheid and tell their aspirations and stories to the world. In the broader sense, transition in South Africa implied rebuilding (transforming) the society from a racist past to a non-racial ‘rainbow’
society based on multi-party democracy, where all South Africans of all races would have access to political, economic and social rights (Sparks, 2003).
• Post-apartheid tabloids and economic shifts
According to Wasserman (2008), the arrival of formal democracy in the country in 1994, saw the public sphere broadened in major ways and freedom of speech was guaranteed in the Constitution. Race was no longer a formal preclusion to participation in public debate and political processes, the media were revitalised as apartheid era restrictions were lifted and replaced by self-regulation, and the media achieved wider legitimacy as the demography of newsrooms changed to better represent the country’s ethnic and racial profile (ibid). In addition, tabloids were seen as stepping into the gap left by the demise of alternative media (although referring to the South African tabloids as alternative media in and of themselves would certainly be stretching this definition too far). The dominance of commercial media in the post- apartheid era meant that the logic of selling lucrative audiences to advertisers held sway over newspapers, and the working class and unemployed majority in the country did not count among these readerships (Wasserman, 2008:2).
32
Post-apartheid tabloid reporting saw major newspapers catering for a black readership, such as the Sowetan and the Mail and Guardian, which had their places of interest focused on the middle class and elites. A number of free “knock- and- drop” newspapers had been circulating in black townships, but these were small operations, mostly vehicles for local advertising. These small publications did not influence the mainstream news agenda, nor did they have a significant impact on debates about the media industry or journalism in the country in the way that the tabloids started doing. This climate made it possible for the tabloids to become a false community or alternative press (Wasserman, 2008:3).
Unlike the state censored press of the apartheid era, the post-apartheid South African society has had to adapt to a new, dramatic and unsanctioned form of press which has largely contributed to an irrevocable revolution in the local media industry.
This “newspaper revolution” has had an impact on the structure, products and audiences of the media business (Hadland, 2010; Knox, 2014). Since their introduction in South Africa, tabloids have ruffed and irked the entire media fraternity including the political establishment and civic society due to their unique “undercut”
approach to issues. As the largest category of the print media in South Africa, they have prompted criticism and complaints from many quarters of civil society through their invasion of privacy and sensationalised reporting.
• Post- apartheid tabloids and political pressures
Referring to research done by (Horwitz, 2001:36), if the mediated public sphere contracted as a result of economic forces, it has also been subject to political pressures. As with many other aspects of the media in contemporary South Africa, the political dimension of tabloid newspapers are best understood against a particular historical background. Under apartheid, the white press was a “pivotal institution in the racially and ethnically based struggles for economic and political power” (Wasserman, 2008).
In addition, Howzit (2001) postulates that the mainstream commercial print media were broadly divided along ideological lines that corresponded with ethnic and linguistic differences in the white community. They made only limited attempts to cater for black or “coloured” (mixed-race) audiences (for example, in separate,
“extra” editions). The apartheid regime put an extensive set of legal measures in
33
place to control the media and limit criticism of itself. For instance, it was forbidden to quote or publish photographs of certain leaders in the freedom struggle (like Nelson Mandela) or to publish information that could be perceived as threatening the security of the state. Critical journalists and editors from the anti-apartheid press were censored, banished, harassed, and imprisoned (Wasserman & De Beer, 2008).
• Post-apartheid tabloids and race, ethnicity and class
The roles of race, ethnicity, and class in shaping the post- apartheid media sphere are a noble consideration in studying the significance of tabloids. The relationship between race, ethnicity, class, and media markets has not yet been adequately studied in the South African context (Wasserman, 2010).The emergence of tabloids has made it clear that South African media audiences remain marked by race, ethnicity, and class, and that this segmentation continues to shape debates about what the post-apartheid mediated public sphere should look like. But although tabloids have succeeded in creating a new, largely racially defined market that had previously not been catered to by the mainstream print media, they are worth studying for more than merely market reasons, but on their primary role of disseminating newsworthy events such as the consumption of illicit drugs, crime and politics (Wasserman, 2010:7).
Subsequently, the rise of mass-circulating tabloids such as the Daily Sun and the Sowetan, and their popularity with the poor and working class, black majority, for most of whom broadsheets are irrelevant, elusive and oppressive, is indicative of a post-apartheid South Africa. This is typical of a country determined to renegotiate skewed professional assumptions and practices in the interest of an ethic of effective inclusion and common humanity in journalism (Wasserman, 2010). Hence, the study is based on the premise of examining the coverage of news reports on the consumption of nyaope in the Daily Sun and Sowetan tabloids.
• Popular vs “trash” journalism
Wasserman (2010:18) holds the view that newspapers form part of people’s everyday routines and habits, providing entertainment and diversion at the same time as they contribute to the way readers view the world, forge their relationships with others, and fill their places as citizens in society. While a critical perspective on
34
tabloid media should certainly include the very important larger structural factors of markets, political shifts, and professional/industry norms, a full picture of tabloid newspapers as a social phenomenon can only emerge when the relationship between the tabloids and their readers is understood (ibid).
In much of the debate around tabloid newspapers, critics have however condemned them after judging only what they saw on the page in front of them assuming that meaning is either intrinsic in the textual representation or over-determined by journalists and editors located in big exploitative conglomerates, with readers as passive recipients or even victims of tabloid messages. A critical reading of tabloid content and genre is no doubt important, as is an interrogation of the political economy within which these papers are located. But the cultural dimension of tabloid journalism, the “web of meanings, rituals, conventions and symbol systems” is often lost from sight in these analyses (Zelizer, 2008:88).
Instead of disregarding tabloids as ‘trash’ Jone, Vanderhaeghen & Viney (2008:56) argue that they should be regarded as an “immensely popular form of media which carries alternative world views” that broadsheets often fail to address. Arguably, this accounts for their popularity and influence as demonstrated by the tangible evidence in terms of their circular figures. Therefore, they are seen as a cultural articulation of the often contradictory and shifting processes of transition and serve as platforms of popular culture, mediated politics and citizenship in the country (ibid).
Furthermore, their perceived deviancy from the journalistic orthodoxy has served as a podium to demonstrate their functionality “in the light of the plurality of worldviews that constitute the fabric of South Africa” (Jone, Vanderhaeghen & Viney 2008:58).
Hence, through their simplistic form and content characterised by numerous pictures, boxes and bold ink, and visual appeals, they draw more on social skills signifying that tabloids do not speak to the people or for the people, but from the people (Steenveld, 2010:167). If there’s one thing that can be concluded from the various debates on tabloids is that while their ethics have been brought into question, tabloids cannot be labelled as ‘trash journalism’ as they can contribute positively to the journalism profession by rejuvenating the relationship with the audiences. It is however, this lay ‘narrowcast’ approach to news coverage that arguably lends tabloids to the sensationalist paradigm.
35
• Transformation of tabloids in South Africa
Research done by Jone, Vanderhaeghen & Viney (2008:59) points out that due to complexity of South Africa’s contemporary political, socio-economic and legal environment, the media industry operates in a profoundly negative public sphere, with tabloids not being an exception. The transformational ability of tabloid journalism is associated with the manner in which they offer a platform for the South African public to comment on topical issues through letters to the editor, opinionated columns and community based stories. Previous studies done on the role of tabloids on the coverage of politics, drugs, crime and other societal issues have presented valuable arguments on the constructive and reflective roles of tabloids when compared to their mainstream counterparts (Wasserman, 2010).
Rooney (2000) argues that these non-serious newspapers have ‘abandoned the public sphere’. As a popular style of journalism, the tabloids departed from an emphasis on political coverage and a predominant engagement with broadly public issues of the day a long time ago (Rooney, 2000:101). The tabloids are very selective in their inclusion of political or wider public information and include it only when it fits in with the wider patterns of their coverage or when it concerns major issues which can be covered in sensational fashion. Politically, they might describe the contours of a journalistic lowest common denominator. However, the campaigns which they do pursue serve to maintain a relationship with a particular readership articulated within the accepted public idiom of the tabloids. People might then see the rest of their coverage as a social conversation which at best borders reality in the country. Therefore, tabloids and their extensive coverage of drug use and abuse somewhat influence the readers. This implies that tabloids also contribute towards other spheres of life such as socio-economic issues (ibid).
In addition, Rooney has proposed an explanation for this retreat which shifts responsibility from the newspapers themselves to the political institutions. He also postulates that tabloids readers probably do not have any interest in the workings of the establishment or establishment organisations and do not wish to monitor them.
This is probably because they feel that they have no way of enforcing change in the organisations (Rooney, 2000:107). Although targeted at a mass audience, the
36
tabloids nevertheless in their expression have a consistent appeal couched within a close textual display of intimacy with idealised individual readers.