Victoria MacRitchie and Mohamed Seedat (2008) from the University of South Africa in the Institute for Social and Health Sciences explored ways in which traffic accidents on South African roads are constructed by the media. The researchers made use of 52 South African newspaper articles that related to traffic accidents during the Easter weekend of 2005, for a discourse analysis. Using the data from the World Health Organisation (2004), MacRitchie and Seedat (2008) state that about 50 million people are injured and 1.2 million people are killed worldwide due to motor vehicle accidents annually. South Africa alone on the other hand is estimated at 500 000 traffic accidents that result in fatalities and severe injuries (Road Traffic Management Corporation, 2005). A number of reasons (e.g. aggression and poor judgement, high speeds, alcohol intoxication etc.) are credited to this high number of traffic related injuries and deaths. As a service to the public, the media emerge as a source of information, opinion making and knowledge about traffic accidents (MacRitchie & Seedat, 2008).
Though there are a number of communication technologies such as radio, television, print journalism and the internet to disseminate information about the roads in South Africa, there appears to be, according to MacRitchie and Seedat (2008), a lack of South Africa studies in this
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regard. There is a lack of studies in the branches of psychology and other disciplines that examine media presentations and discourses that relate to traffic safety and incidents on South African roads (MacRitchie &Seedat, 2008). The main focus of many social science disciplines has been on the construction of health issues and violence, the focus still remains on the construction of health issues and violence (Connelly & McLeod, 2003; Meintjes & Bray, 2005;
Seedat, 1999). Even within the topic of violence, the focus still remains on the construction and not the representation, thus focus of the current research is on representation in response to this.
MacRitchie and Seedat’s (2008) study used traffic accidents as a topic and discourse analysis as a method and interpretive framework to examine the dominant and non-dominant ways in which traffic accidents are portrayed in print media reports. They noted that the relationship between the writer and the reader cannot be ignored therefore they sought to explore the insinuations and implications brought forth by newspaper headlines and texts on traffic accidents. This bears great similarity to the current research.
MacRitchie and Seedat (2008) considered the underlying messages in headlines and articles as they claimed that newspapers make use of different ideological perspectives and emotive technologies to influence the reader to respond in particular ways. Newspapers are seen as a form of public discourse (MacRitchie & Seedat, 2008). Discourses are understood to be a set of regulated statements which construct an object under investigation (e.g. violent crime).
Discourses emerge in text; are about objects and subjects; are coherent system of meanings;
refer to other discourses; reflect their own way of speaking; are historically located; support institutions; reproduce power relations; and have ideological effects (Parker, 1992). Burr (1995) states that “discourses as a set of meanings, metaphors, representations, images, stories and statements produce particular versions of events. With these definitions in mind, it can be suggested that discourses give truth claims, ways to interpret the world, versions of reality, and opinions to adopt. Discourses also allow for the enabling of constructions of topics in certain ways.
Cohen (1963: 13) as already quoted saying: ‘The media may not be successful in telling readers what to think, but its [sic] stunningly successful in telling readers what to think about’. Journalists use certain spokespersons for institutions as sources for locating and reporting events (MacRitchie & Seedat, 2008). ‘These types of sources, employed as marketing communications by their institutions may engage in spin doctoring and image building’ (MacRitchie &Seedat,
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2008). Symbols and specific forms of language are used to promote a sense of common vision and public consensus around specific issues and events (Lyn & Savage-Rumbaugh, 2012;
Pattee, 2012).
MacRitchie and Seedat (2008) state that headlines paint the Easter and festive season’s road activities as death zones. The headlines are said to be of a dramatic tone, bold and eye catching (e.g. ‘Easter marred by road carriage’; ‘Deadly start to holidays: Dozens killed on road at weekend’). Alarming and calamitous terms such as ‘hell run’, ‘horror’ and ‘carnage’ are used.
MacRitchie and Seedat (2008) also report that the headlines they investigated made use of spoken voice and the language and tone of tragedy (e.g. ‘I saw my parents die: Woman watches in horror as mom and dad perish in bus crash’). Such texts evoke feelings of profound sadness, loss and helplessness and possibly leaving the reader to insinuate that danger is a very present thing everywhere (MacRitchie &Seedat, 2008). The researchers continue to state that sense of horror and loss is further amplified by articles that place the focus on lives lost, costs to the economy, and emotional trauma.
Science is also used to confer legitimacy. MacRitchie and Seedat (2008) claim that headlines make use of words which may give the impression that data that was empirically produced by research and higher education institutions, was consulted (e.g. ‘Road death tolls cost SA billions’; ‘Transport is the main cause of non-natural death in the city’). Such headlines and articles seem to represent a ‘true’ reflection of reality when in fact they only give a narrow range of discourse concerning the truth on road accidents.
Print media, according to MacRitchie and Seedat (2008) make use of ‘well crafted’ headlines to maintain being ahead of the competition.
Headlines are the newspapers’ tools to attract prospective buyers and imprint their individuality on what is otherwise a mass-produced product. Newspapers make use of certain linguistic features such as puns and emotive vocabulary within headlines in an attempt to imprint certain key messages and perspectives on the readers’ mind.
Headlines, which provide an indication of how an article may portray an accident, are used to convey the first and sometimes the most significant message to the news reading public. [MacRitchie and Seedat, 2008:3]
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