The aim of the study is to explore the role of community newspapers against the backdrop of a profit-driven media environment. Page Table 4.1 Which community newspapers are read by the respondents………59 Table 4.2 Reasons for reading the local community newspaper……….61 Table 4.3 what is special about the newspapers that the respondents read……….63 Table 4.4 If the newspaper you read read, it ceases to exist which other newspaper you would read..….64 Table 4.5 Reasons for choosing this particular newspaper ……….66 Table 4.6 In what way does the municipal newspaper influence the reader…….
Introduction
That is, apart from providing local news to the community, community newspapers also play a significant role in serving the interests of the corporate advertisers and readers as consumers and citizens. With the increasing and evident impact of the corporate world, as characterized by large media houses, together with political economy of the media, community newspapers find themselves in a rather compromising situation.
Newspapers in Pietermaritzburg Region
According to the paper's editor, the paper's target market is the entire Pietermaritzburg community. The editor indicated that as part of The Witness “we have a close relationship with them.
Research problems and objectives
To evaluate the role of community newspapers in providing its readers with information related to development issues. To assess the role of community newspapers in reporting sensational stories such as murder.
Research questions
Rationale of the study
Preliminary literature study
For example, the ethics of one of the community newspapers under study was questionable during Jacob Zuma's court appearance in Pietermaritzburg in 2008. That is, news and other information reported in the newspaper become matters that the community talks about, thereby creating a sense of ownership of the newspaper.
Conclusion
Introduction
What is community?
This study focuses on the definition of community as a social product or structure, the community being understood in terms of existing structures or institutions that serve the community. The community newspaper becomes an important tool in the process of both community integration and communication.
Community development and Development Journalism
The municipality wanted the stadium demolished to make way for the construction of a shopping center in the area. They could also embark on fundraising initiatives to help the needy who were identified after reading in community newspapers about the precarious conditions of some members of the community.
The Notion of Community Newspapers
That is, community newspapers fit into these two categories as both community-owned (non-profit) and small commercial media entities. According to Hollander, community newspapers are a means of “disseminating information about activities in the community's backyard, which can create a sense of community and collective.
Advertisements and Community Newspapers
Linked to the media ownership of community newspapers in South Africa, according to the AIP report, media companies that own community newspapers are mainly geographically based. This suggests that community newspapers have become effective means for advertisers to reach their intended target markets who read the community newspapers.
Agenda Setting and Media Hegemony
This shows that media plays a crucial role in shaping people's minds and perceptions. Media hegemony explains how the ideas and values of the ruling class in society become the ruling ideas.
Community Newspapers in South Africa
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), "circulation of community newspapers has increased by 34.9% in the last six years," (Swanepoel and Steyn. In addition to information and education, community newspapers also contribute significantly to the process of community solidarity. .
Community newspapers enhancing public sphere
This means that access to information on various issues can help develop a deep understanding of people's cultures, including the religious background of people in a particular community. This recognizes that the daily affairs of the community are of great importance to readers.
Links between the community and the community newspapers
These features and characteristics of community newspapers show that the newspaper and the community are closely connected, which can be reflected in the excitement of readers every time they get their newspaper. As community newspapers depend primarily on advertising revenue for their survival, the role of community newspapers in putting community interests first may be compromised in one way or another.
Media regulations
- Globalization and Political Economy
- Analysis of four community newspapers from the main approaches used
This is evidenced by the number of advertisements these community newspapers publish weekly. This confirms the current business model of most community newspapers in South Africa.
Introduction
The media not only plays a crucial role in people's lives as sources of information and news, but also influences the people or readers in various ways in their daily routines. That is, “by using other types and sources of data, observers also gain a deeper and clearer understanding of the setting and people being studied” (Taylor and Bogdan 1984: 68).
Data Capture: Brief content analysis
The study will adopt a combination of in-depth interviews and discussions conducted with some editors, members of the community and regular readers of community newspapers. This is to provide broader information from different respondents as well as to deepen an understanding of why, for example, the editors, the corporate advertisers and the readers behave and react as they do.
Data collection: interview schedules
In terms of definition, “content analysis is a research method for objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication” (1952:18). The in-depth interviews were based on two standardized interview schedules, one for the news editors of the four community newspapers and one for the readers of these publications, respectively.
Sampling
The main goal of collecting data with readers was to find out what the readers think is the role of municipal newspapers and how they perceive them as reliable providers of information. In addition to readers, four editors of four community newspapers in the Pietermaritzburg region were interviewed.
Data Analysis
The main objective of the data collection from the editors was to investigate the role and influence that advertisers play in the editorial content of the community press and how the newspaper itself sees its role and objective.
Conclusion
Introduction
Content analysis
The graph above presents the analysis of the public eye for the type of news and the number of advertisements in the newspaper. The pie chart summarizes The Mirror's analysis of the type of news covered in the paper and the advertising ratio.
Presentation of data from the readers
- Which community newspapers respondents read
- Reasons for reading the local paper
- What is special about the newspaper respondents read
- If the newspaper you read ceased to exist which other paper would you read
- The reason for choosing this particular paper
- In what way does the community paper influence the reader
- The main interest of the readers in the community papers
- Readers' contribution of articles to the local papers
- Readers' reasons for contributing articles to the local papers
- Readers attention to advertisements
- The influence of advertisers on consumers
- Readers' expectation of the local newspapers
- Readers' newspapers other than the local papers
- Readers' opinions on whether community papers are more commercial tools than
This suggests that the majority of respondents indicated that they read local newspapers for local news, indicating that access to information and communication are critical to. The table and chart below provide a summary of the top interests of readers in community newspapers.
Data from Editors
It is relevant for this study to indicate some of the major (retailer) advertisers in the four community newspapers. Residents and shop owners approved the mall's eight years of existence in the area as a resounding success.
Community Newspapers: Means of information and community building tools
This could mean that the ever-increasing focus on ad profit is sacrificing local content for readily available national content from other sources such as Bua News and SAPA. Such content is mostly irrelevant to the community, as it does not affect it, but was used in the newspaper to fill space.
Touching community lives through local content and involvement
This also suggests that these editors feel that they are fully involved in helping to solve issues that concern the community. The editor of the Public Eye and Edendale Eyethu responded: "We are constantly resisting the temptation to publish streams of national content, which will dilute our focus on providing local content", while the editor of The Mirror newspaper "in contrast, we publish more human interest stories . to crime stories." These responses show that newspaper content that focuses on and reflects developments in community issues touches the lives of the very people the newspapers serve.
Community Newspapers and community links
According to the response from the editor of The Mirror, "community newspapers are more intimate, have a closer relationship with residents than large dailies." Jeffres et al. Community links to the newspapers are also part of community engagement, as the editor of the Public Eye and Edendale Eyethu pointed out "we encourage readers to use the newspapers as a platform for social expression via the submission of letters to the editor".
Community newspapers and competition for advertisements
This therefore suggests that the higher the circulation of the newspaper, the higher the advertising costs. However, the editor of Public Eye and Edendale Eyethu have not provided the advertising costs for his publication, but this could relate to elements of agenda setting (for commercial or political reasons) in terms of negotiating advertising rates depending on who the advertisers are. .
Community newspapers and convergence
This political connection could lead to the suppression of critical ideas against the ruling party, and the newspaper's editorial staff will always be careful to avoid spotlighting the ruling group, hence the media's agenda setting. This suggests that media hegemony and media agenda setting will always seek to secure the interests of the elite (media owners, government and advertisers) and ensure that the interests of the ruling class remain unchallenged, to the detriment of the community.
Focus Group
- Data from Focus Group Discussions
- Means of information and community building
- Sensational reporting
- Cultural diversity and community integration
- Community newspapers: promoters of consumerism
Most of the issues that the participants raised during the focus group discussions indicate that they have different perceptions of community newspapers. When asked about the role of community newspapers, participants described community newspapers as a means of providing information and social awareness about various events in the community.
Distribution Factors
As some respondents pointed out, they do not find the news they are looking for when they read the community newspapers. However, such development cannot be done outside of politics and therefore some community newspapers are affiliated or have close ties with political parties (see fig 2, page 10).
Conclusion
In view of this dilemma, to effectively serve both the community and commercial interests, there must be at least a balance between information and advertising, but also regulatory bodies such as the SA Press Council and MDDA could implement monitoring measures and control over community newspapers enter. when it comes to the substantive balance. Although intervention in a free market system is not desirable, it is sometimes necessary in a developing democracy.
- Introduction
- Critical question one
- Critical question two
- Critical question three
- Critical question four
- Critical question five
- Public sphere and community newspapers
- Readdressing the hegemonic role of the media
- Agenda setting plagues freedom of expression
- Community newspapers and Ethical matters
- Potential and Limitations of Community Newspapers
- Recommendations
- Conclusion
From the results presented in section 4.2.2, it is evident that most readers, 60%, read community newspapers for local news. The second question of this section asked community newspaper readers to indicate their reasons for reading the local newspaper.
- Introduction
- Limitations of this study
- Area for further Research
- Summary of the study
Investigating and exploring the role of community newspapers against the backdrop of a profit-driven media environment: a Pietermaritzburg-based study.”. Investigating and exploring the role of community newspapers against the backdrop of a profit-driven media environment: a Pietermaritzburg-based study.”.
