Ylva Rodny-Gumede

An Assessment of the Public Interest and Ideas of the Public in South Africa and the Adoption of Ubuntu Journalism

Media theory and in particular normative conceptualizations of the role of the news media have been decidedly underpinned by Western epistemologies and thought. Scholars argue that this makes them ill-suited to meet the demands of young democracies and transitional societies, particularly in postcolonial societies in the global South. In South Africa, the current ANC government has accused the South African news media of not catering to the vast majority of the population and for being averse to the policy agenda of government. This has triggered a debate about whether or not the media should report in what is perceived as the national interest as opposed to the public interest. In the light of increasing polarization between government and sectors of the news media and amid calls for an Africanization of journalism, I ask a select group of South African journalists whether entrenching a public service ethos through ubuntu as a framework for journalism could open up the news media to a broader audience as well as a wider set of interests and concerns.

Re-conceptualizing the analysis of media development and trajectories hereof in post-colonial societies

Using South Africa as a case study, this article presents a new argument for an adaptation of the Comparative Media Systems Model by Hallin and Mancini. The article proposes that factors of race, class and gender and intersections hereof as well as nation-building be added to the model to better suit the analysis of media development in post-colonial societies. The article looks at media development in societies that have undergone social and political transitions since the late 1980s and early 1990s and highlights differences between transitional societies and young democracies in Eastern Europe and East Asia vis-a-vis transitions in post-colonial societies in the global South.

Coverage of Marikana: war and conflict and the case for Peace Journalism

Different narratives around the Marikana massacre of August 16, 2012 have emerged in the South African news media with regard to what actually happened, what the underlying causes of the strikes were, and who is to blame. Criticism has been levelled against the mainstream news media with regard to embedded journalism, sensationalised coverage and polarisation of views and stakeholders. For this article, an analysis of news articles on Marikana published in the mainstream South African news media has been conducted. This analysis confirms many of the findings of earlier research and I argue that the form of reporting evident in these findings conforms to what has been labelled “war journalism.” I argue that the coverage of Marikana could have been improved by adopting “Peace Journalism” as a model for reporting.

The local in the global: Challenges of teaching global journalism

Abstract This article addresses some of the challenges encountered while developing and working to ensure the relevance of curricula, and subsequently teaching global journalism to students at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. The article outlines responses to course content from students taking the global journalism course at the University of Johannesburg from 2009–2012. The article also outlines responses to the course contents from a select group of newspaper editors. The author argues that what we define as global journalism, and even more so how we teach it, should be framed from within a local and national context of media systems and journalism, in order to be relevant for aspiring journalists and should emphasise a comparative perspective on global media and journalism.

Smash-and-grab, truth and dare …

In this article, we daringly advance a ‘smash-and-grab’ approach as a radical epistemic grounding for communication studies. We draw inspiration from African scholarship, legitimating the ‘smashing and grabbing’ of usable and valuable insights from anywhere while viably calling for the construction and elaboration of conceptual schema that are locally relevant. In this way, we seek to reclaim the common humanity of scholars and to counter the current insularity by which communication scholarship remains steeped in archaic, patriarchal, and decidedly racialised ideas of the West and the rest.

The truth and nothing but the truth: a re-affirmation and re-evaluation of undercover journalism practices

ABSTRACT The role of journalism in contemporary society is highly debated and highly contested all over the world, even more so in the context of young democracies. We note that in societies where journalism faces constant threats of tighter government control and where even the most innocuous piece of reporting might be criticised, undercover journalism treads a particularly thin but necessary line between the institutionally censored and the ethical-legal. Where journalists are subjected to rebukes, harassment, and worse, by government and public officials, we argue that we need not only re-affirm the role of journalism but even more so investigative journalism, and undercover journalism in particular. As such, we make a call for, as well as investigate the possibility for a reaffirmation of undercover journalism as a practice that describes an essential role that journalism can and should play in society. Taking South Africa as a case study, we investigate the view that at least some journalists, in various ways, do acknowledge that deception and ‘trickery’ are often crucial to uncovering hidden truths as well as new meanings that advance the cause of deepening democracy.

Introduction: considering the aftermath of Marikana

The tragic incidents at the Lonmin platinum mine between August 11 and 16, 2012 in which 44 miners were killed, more than 70 injured and approximately 250 people arrested, remains a scar in the tissue of post-democratic South Africa. The massacre, described as the worst since the Sharpeville massacre of March 21, 1960, was indicative of underlying crises in government and the fabric of society. In terms of the brutality of the shootings, the Marikana massacre was indeed no different from apartheid-era state-sponsored violence. It was also a turning point in South African history. The fact that the police appointed by the liberation party were opening fire on the people they vowed to protect and liberate sent shock waves throughout the world. Fundamentally, the massacre represented a break between the old and the new in terms of the nature of labour relations in South Africa and the nature of the relationship between the government and the governed. Starker even, it exposed the depth of the division between those in power and the powerless, those with means and the poorest. It represented a moment when the much-celebrated achievements of South Africa’s transition to democracy gave way to expose the cancer slowly eating at the body and soul of South Africa. It placed the spotlight on the lingering lack of social justice. Some believe that Marikana also represents a transition from old to new politics in that it created an opportunity for a new left, a new socialist politics to emerge to challenge the ruling ANC. The economic impact of Marikana and the subsequent mining unrest has largely caused the South African Rand to lose 30% of its value in the past two years. The Marikana massacre has been the subject of intense study and debate in South Africa and abroad. The massacre triggered a substantial number of academic conferences and events across a variety of disciplines. The current volume is the result of the seminar hosted on the first year anniversary of the massacre on August 16, 2013 hosted by the Department of Journalism, Film and Television in cooperation with the Department of Public Law at the University of Johannesburg. In recognition that the Marikana massacre was a symptom of larger issues facing South Africa, this seminar has now been instituted as a yearly seminar at the University of

A teaching philosophy of journalism education in the global South: A South African case study

This article sets out a teaching philosophy of journalism education in South Africa based on four assertions: re-affirmation of the role of journalism in democratic processes, the need for comparative studies and research-led teaching, journalism as active citizenship and journalism as a reflexive practice. These assertions are considered within the context of the role of the news media in a young democracy, with a particular focus on South Africa and post-colonial societies in the global South. As such, I hope to contribute to a debate around journalism education grounded in local realities rather than imported Western normative conceptualizations of the role and function of the news media and what the study of the news media in this particular context can offer not only the context that it serves but also the discipline itself.

Ubuntu journalism and nation-building magic

Abstract This article explores ideas around nation building, as constructed through the ethos as well as practice of ubuntu journalism. We make the argument that by invoking ubuntu as an underlying ethos for a reporting ethic and practice, the news media contribute to a magical idea of nationhood and nation building in South Africa. While not denying that ubuntu is instrumental to nation building, the study contributes new understandings of both the general artifice, and the nation-building productivity, of what we label ‘magical ubuntu’. The intent here is to describe the postcolonial magic in which ubuntu is implicated, with special regard for the magical functions that relate to the construction of nationhood in contemporary South Africa.

Male and female journalists' perceptions of their power to influence news agendas and public discourses

ABSTRACT Research shows that there is a perception that gender equity in the South African news media has reached maturation and that the power female journalists hold in the newsroom equals that of their male counterparts. these perceptions might be attributed to the fact that South african news media have reached near gender parity in terms of the workforce. However, the question is whether this translates into women having equal power to influence news agendas and to extend the broader public discourse. Through interviews with journalists from a cross-section of the South african english- and afrikaans-language media, the study shows that despite improved gender equity in the workforce, female journalists do not think they have the same power to alter news agendas as their male counterparts. Furthermore, the study shows that despite women and men often covering similar beats and stories, they emphasise different story angles and also articulate their role in society differently.