Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Abbreviati Ons and Acronyms
- 1 Introduction: The ANC and the media post-apartheid
- 2 The relationship between the media and democracy
- 3 The media's challenges: legislation and commercial imperatives
- 4 Race and the media
- 5 Freedom of expression: the case of Zapiro
- 6 Social fantasy: the ANC's gaze and the media appeals tribunal
- 7 The Sunday Times versus the health minister
- 8 What is developmental journalism?
- 9 Concluding reflections: where is democracy headed?
- Eplogue
- Appendices 1
- Appendix 2
- Appendix 3
- References
- Index
8 - What is developmental journalism?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Abbreviati Ons and Acronyms
- 1 Introduction: The ANC and the media post-apartheid
- 2 The relationship between the media and democracy
- 3 The media's challenges: legislation and commercial imperatives
- 4 Race and the media
- 5 Freedom of expression: the case of Zapiro
- 6 Social fantasy: the ANC's gaze and the media appeals tribunal
- 7 The Sunday Times versus the health minister
- 8 What is developmental journalism?
- 9 Concluding reflections: where is democracy headed?
- Eplogue
- Appendices 1
- Appendix 2
- Appendix 3
- References
- Index
Summary
[The media] has no respect for our people … It has no time to tell people what really is going on. It ignores government programmes and focuses on scandals and issues that are private. This media, this media, this media … The media in this country want to insult us. They publish only points of view that they agree with, points of view that paint the ANC in a bad light. I'm angry. Angry because people who sacrificed their lives for this country are being treated with contempt. And I'm not the only angry one. The comrades are angry… [I want to] lead the charge to restrict the media in this country. The media needs to be controlled.
This chapter focusses on how attempts were made by the ANC to hegemonise society through the construct of ‘developmental journalism’ in post-apartheid South Africa. The argument is that if you stitch the floating signifier ‘development’ to the transformation project as the ANC understood it, then developmental journalism takes on a fixed signification. This is a populist intervention, an unprogressive kind of hegemony, as in the quotation by the ANC member ‘Mthunzi’ who was ‘angry’ because the ANC was painted ‘in a bad light’ by the media, whereas it was ANC members who had sacrificed themselves for the country. In other words, because the ANC had led the liberation struggle, the media should support it in government. The dangerous implication is that the media must step out of its professional role. However, with this kind of ‘logic’ – and it is not an isolated view – the lines between party, state and the role of the media become blurred.
The four sections of this chapter deploy the concepts of hegemony, point de capiton, excess, and surplus enjoyment. I first discuss how ‘developmental journalism’ is a floating signifier but how attempts at foreclosures are made. It must be emphasised, however, that the ANC does not hold a single unified view of the media or the idea that it must be controlled. There are more nuanced positions such as that of ANC NEC and SACP member, Jeremy Cronin, from 2009 the deputy minister of transport, and also a writer and poet and an anti-apartheid activist for many years.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fight for DemocracyThe ANC and the Media in South Africa, pp. 182 - 203Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2013