Telling Stories
Th is book began by posing the question: why a book on the South African tabloids?
If the runaway commercial success of tabloids were the prime motivation for de- voting scholarly attention to them, a one- dimensional study aimed at explaining—
with an eye on replicating— their successful recipe would have been suffi cient. But the tabloids are a challenging subject at least partly because their commercial suc- cess seems at fi rst glance to be counter- intuitive. Th ey emerged at a time when newspapers everywhere around the world are threatened with extinction. In a de- veloping country with a high illiteracy rate, a print medium would seem an un- likely vehicle to capture the trust and aspirations of a mass audience. In a country where the discourse of post- colonial modernity underpins the development of the most sophisticated new media technology on the continent, the notion that news- papers might be part of the future of journalism might have seemed absurd. In a period following years of authoritarian control over the media, the idea that press freedom should be used for sensationalism might seem sacrilegious. Th e consen- sus was that the responsibility of the press in post- apartheid South Africa would be to vigorously scrutinize government. But instead of sharing the mainstream’s pre- occupation with the tumultuous post- liberation politics on the big stage, the tab- loids turned their attention to sensational events concerning everyday people in small towns, informal settlements, and townships. In a journalistic context marked by an increased professionalization, the tabloids seem to follow their own instincts, impervious to the ostracization by the mainstream fraternity. Where mainstream journalism embraces globalized ethical norms within a consensual self- regulatory system, the tabloids seem to either fl aunt those codes or negotiate them on their own terms. While claiming their dedication to poor and marginalized communi- ties of readers through slogans such as Th e People’s Paper, these papers are located in big conglomerates with a ruthless hunt for profi ts.
It is exactly the ostensibly unlikely success of the tabloids that invites closer scrutiny and demands that they be viewed not in isolation, or as outside infl uences on society, but as events occurring within a transitional society itself. While the public discourse around South African tabloids thus far has been mostly couched in normative terms, this book has sought to position tabloids within the social context of post- apartheid South Africa in an attempt to understand them as com- plex cultural articulations of the oft en contradictory and shift ing pro cesses of transition taking place on various levels in the country. Such an attempt to obtain a “thicker” understanding of pop u lar journalism should not be understood as a normative position, but rather as a way to more fully contextualize the
socio- political relations within which these media operate. It is only against the background of such a fuller contextualization that one can start to revisit norma- tive positions, allowing such norms to amount to more than mere moral indigna- tion or markers of taste.
Th is book has approached tabloids as social phenomena, approaching them from the perspective of their readers, their producers, their colleagues, and their critics in the mainstream against the background of the po liti cal, economic, social, and cultural landscape. Th e picture that has emerged is fraught with ironies and contradictions, both in terms of the role that tabloids play in the lived experience of both their readers and the journalists that produce them, but also in terms of their po liti cal role and infl uence. In all these aspects, it was found that the meaning and signifi cance of tabloids result only from a pro cess of negotiation and compromise—
between the demands of the market and the interests of the community; between the discourse of global infotainment and the stories from rural towns; between the lure of modernity and the hold of tradition; between editorial control vested in edi- tors and publishers and the individual freedom and creativity of journalists.
Th e South African tabloids are clearly linked to a very specifi c set of circum- stances and events. But while they are specifi c, are they also unique? Th is book has attempted to understand South African tabloids not only as journalistic forms linked to a par tic u lar society, but as examples of a genre with exponents in diff er- ent parts of the world. Th rough all the various aspects of the South African tab- loids that have been examined, it is evident that although the South African t abloids bear distinctive characteristics, they also show some similarities with tab- loids elsewhere. But seeing South African tabloids merely as a localized manifesta- tion of a globalized genre would miss the fact that the relationship between the lo- cal and the global is a dynamic one, a pro cess of ongoing negotiation. Th is dynamic and constantly shift ing relationship between the local and the global is further- more not limited to how much South African tabloids incorporate, appropriate, or adapt global genre characteristics or stylistic elements. Th e tabloids should rather be understood as articulations of a larger contestation between cultural discourses, as expressions of the push- and- pull of glocalization underway in South Africa. Th e tabloids show us how the media can serve as both a platform for and as a product of the complicated articulations of pop u lar culture, mediated politics, and citizen- ship in a young democracy.
Aft er conducting this multi- leveled study of South African tabloids, we can briefl y and provisionally make the following conclusions:
• South African tabloids cannot be dismissed as “trash journalism.”
No journalistic product is perfect, and the intention of this book was not to celebrate tabloids uncritically. Th eir insistence on ethical standards notwithstanding, the tabloids oft en engage in dubious reporting. Th ey invade people’s privacy unjustifi ably, get facts wrong, peddle ste reo types, and off end social mores. For these transgressions they deserve criticism, as would other newspapers that do the same. However, much of the criticism these tabloids have received seems to result from a blurred distinction
between ethical standards and markers of taste. Th e off ense caused by tabloids oft en seems to function as a means of classifying the off ended party as belonging to a higher social class or to an elite profession, rather than as an impetus to investigate the same ethical transgressions with the same amount of vigor not just in the tabloids, but in mainstream press as well. But even if ethical considerations are left aside, the fact that pop u lar journalism might not conform to the professional standards determined by mainstream practitioners or taught by the institutions where journal- ists are trained is not reason enough to view them as unworthy of serious scholarly investigation. Such an investigation should be based on the assumption that all forms of journalism and all media products are part of societal pro cesses and located within cultural, economic, and po liti cal power networks.
When viewed in this way, South African tabloids can be seen as closely linked to the transitions that South Africa has been undergoing since demo cratization. Th is does not mean that tabloids are necessarily the most suitable or even a completely adequate journalistic response to these changes. What it does mean, however, is that a simplistic dismissal of tabloids as “trash” and of their readers as gullible victims, uneducated and simple and in danger of being unduly infl uenced, would lose sight of the signifi cant body of media- studies literature which questions a direct link between media content and its “eff ects” on audiences. Th e realization that the South African tabloids should be understood in relation to a complex, changing society means that an investigation into their signifi cance should take place on various levels and from diff erent perspectives. Th is book has attempted to accomplish these things by looking at the production, con- sumption, and circulation of tabloids within the country’s po liti cal, eco- nomic, and social circuits.
• South African tabloids should be viewed as part of a local- regional- global dynamic.
Understanding South African tabloids as part of a complex pattern of social and po liti cal shift s in the country does not mean that they should be viewed in isolation of trends and developments regionally and globally.
Th e point of this book has not been to make a direct comparison between South African tabloids and their counterparts in other parts of the world, but to arrive at a deeper understanding of the South African situation.
Th e references throughout to tabloid journalism in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and other parts of Africa should, however, be taken as an indication that developments in the local press are not exceptional. While the South African tabloids are the result of local shift s in the social, po liti cal, and cultural landscape aft er apartheid, their emergence, as well as their infl uence on the mainstream press, can be viewed as part of the spread of global “infotainment” which has also made its mark on other countries in Africa and elsewhere in the Global South.
Th is does not mean that the South African tabloids are merely mirroring
their counterparts elsewhere or that they have only been on the receiving end of a global pro cess of “dumbing down.” On many levels, be they the aesthetics of style and layout, the news values determining story selection and approach, or the journalists’ opinions of their professional roles and responsibilities, South African tabloids are involved in an ongoing pro cess of negotiation between global infl uences, local appropriations, and regional developments. Th ey are located within a complex network of symbolic and material power relations, having entered into a context marked by the co- existence of the discourses of late modernity and post- apartheid African nationalism; where politics have become increas- ingly mediated and technocratic as liberation gave way to governance (Pillay 2008, 9); and a transitory local space (see Hasty 2005, 5 for a summary of a similar confl uence of forces in contemporary Ghana) where social identities are increasingly infl ected through patterns of
consumption.
Th e context within which the South African press operates is not wholly unlike the role of the press in other postcolonial African settings, yet it bears its own set of characteristic ironies and contradictions. Th ese characteristics can only be properly understood when the South African tabloids are examined as social phenomena demanding a multi- leveled approach such as the one in this book.
• Tabloids can be read po liti cally.
Contrary to the type of criticism they— like tabloids around the world—
have been subjected to, the South African tabloids cannot be dismissed as merely diversion or entertainment without any po liti cal or public signifi - cance. While it would be diffi cult to assess their infl uence on po liti cal behavior, evidence from reader interviews suggests that it would be a mistake to conclude that these tabloids serve to de- politicize their readers.
Tabloid readers contextualize the events and topics reported on in the tabloids, however localized or community oriented, in terms that have a bearing on public life. Whether their reading of these events as related to the current po liti cal dispensation will eventually inform voting behavior, inspire social activism, or instead only defuse the frustration and disillu- sionment of the poor without leading to meaningful po liti cal action remains to be established in a more focused and longitudinal study. As papers owned by big conglomerates set on maximizing profi t, it is unlikely that these tabloids will ever question the logic of capitalism or encourage readers to join social movements. What did become clear in the current study is that the po liti cal relevance of the tabloids lies in what has been referred to as the “politics of the everyday.” Th e comments by tabloid readers sourced for this book seems to indicate an active interaction with tabloid content, a pro cess in which tabloid readers contextualize po liti cally relevant tabloid news against the background of their own lived experience, social networks, cultural horizons, and material circumstances. Such a view of audience interaction with media content is supported by literature in the
cultural studies tradition which sees media infl uence as an oft en minimal part of larger social and cultural pro cesses. Attention to the way readers interpret the po liti cal dimension of tabloid news would provide a picture of how news events are actually being interpreted, rather than taking tabloids’
claims to be the “voice of the people” at face value. Although tabloids make a big display of speaking on behalf of the community, they also interpellate their readers in highly circumscribed terms as individual consumers within a neoliberal discourse of social mobility. However problematic these tabloids might be as po liti cal vehicles, the emergence of South African tabloids is closely linked to a par tic u lar set of social conditions marking the ongoing social transition in South Africa and therefore invites a po liti cal reading.
• Tabloid journalists take their work seriously.
Although the professional environment has become more accommo- dating in recent years, South African tabloid journalists initially met with much derision from their counterparts in the professional fraternity and at one point were almost ostracized from the South African National Editors’
Forum (SANEF), the country’s professional body for journalists. Although the common perception might be that tabloid journalists’ attitude toward news is one of fun, gossip, and irreverence— as has indeed been reported in the literature about tabloid journalists in other parts of the world— South African tabloid journalists for the most part display a very serious attitude toward their work. Th e professional identities they exhibit seem much closer to what one would associate with community journalists than the playful approach to news one might expect from journalists working for a medium oft en seen as having entertainment as its primary objective.
Although South African tabloid journalists do remark on the freedom they experience at tabloids as opposed to working in the mainstream, they display a remarkably strong commitment to the communities they report on. Th ey report high levels of interaction between the papers and their readers, and they experience a signifi cant amount of trust being invested in them by readers and communities. Th e attachment these journalists have to communities, while going against the grain of conventional notions of journalistic impartiality or detachment, seems to be recipro- cated by readers, who provide them with exclusive information that enables them to scoop their rivals in the mainstream. Th rough these exclusives, also attained through editorial policies emphasizing investiga- tive work and time spent “in the fi eld,” tabloid journalists are reportedly slowly gaining the respect of their peers in the mainstream. Th is attach- ment and serious attitude also comes with a price, and tabloid journalists report on the emotional exhaustion they experience as a result of being constantly confronted by poverty, crime, and disasters.
South African tabloid journalists are very much aware of the low esteem they are held in by the mainstream, and are keen to emphasize the ethical standards they uphold and the skills their job requires in an
attempt to improve their low status. Th ese attempts to prove their respect- ability entail a constant negotiation between the imperatives of reporting in a colloquial, tabloid style for their local communities and adhering to the globalized professional norms of the mainstream.
Together, these factors contribute to a professional identity of tabloid journalists in South Africa that diff ers in signifi cant ways from that of their counterparts in other parts of the world. How these identity con- structions translate into content— in other words, how the attitudes they report shape their reporting— would have to be established by further content analysis. What one can conclude on the basis of these interviews is that the professional identities South African tabloid journalists have constructed for themselves seem to be much closer to the ideal type of serious, investigative reporting than mainstream journalists might be willing to accept.
Finally, this book has attempted to show that a study of tabloid journalism in South Africa needs a rounded, nuanced approach that take into account the positive as well as the negative aspects of this genre. It should be accepted from the outset that South African tabloid journalism displays many contradictions and complexities that require a balanced and varied approach. Aft er all, these papers have arisen from a country which itself harbors many contradictions and complexities. Perhaps the best way to start understanding some of these com- plexities is to do as the tabloids are doing, however incompletely and fallibly: by listening to people telling their stories.