/ 6 October 2000

Is the media democratic?

Transformation of the media in the new South Africa has become a controversial topic Sean Jacobs Under apartheid, white South Africans enjoyed a racialised “public sphere” that excluded black people. Political media and news were geared to whites and media content largely reflected the skewed balance of power relations in society at that time. The advertising industry and the workings of South African capital underpinned this state of affairs. Some South African media scholars, like Keyan Tomaselli at the University of Natal’s centre for cultural and media studies, have even gone as far as to argue that the white-owned English and Afrikaans press monopolies and the state broadcaster supported the apartheid hegemonic bloc in different ways, emphasising different factions within it. The legal scrapping of the apartheid political system as well as the advent of democracy in 1994 aimed to involve all citizens in the polity. Everyone now has a right to vote and in the Constitution the right to freedom of expression and information is enshrined. However, it soon became clear that there should be a reciprocal relationship between democracy on the one hand and media on the other. Various groups, for different class, political or economic reasons, argued that the relationship as it stood was untenable and had to change. For a variety of reasons – political as well as economic – ownership patterns started to change dramatically after 1994.

At a political level a number of forces close to or allied to the African National Congress clamoured for change in the media set-up. This includes the ANC itself in its media policy, black editors and journalists, as well as promoters of “black empowerment”. For the ANC it was a mixture of a genuine concern over the monopolistic nature of South African media on the one hand, and on the other a suspicion over how the media was reporting the political and economic transition. In addition black media practitioners, frustrated at the slow pace of change in the industry, also see this period as an opportunity to press for changes in the newsrooms, editorials and management structures.

At an economic level it made increasing business sense for media owners to diversify their interests as the new government was preparing an anti-monopoly competition policy. In addition, it also made increasing business sense to expand beyond the “white market” to the “emerging black market”, as University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Professor Njabulo Ndebele pointed out recently.

These changes were driven by a particular logic that treated print media differently from broadcasting. In broadcast media legislation and regulation was seen as central to broadening press ownership and breaking the monopoly of the state-controlled SABC.

In the print media a different approach was followed. Here the market was trusted to manage regulation. Historically, given the origins of print as opposed to broadcast media in South Africa, state regulation has been favoured for broadcasting and market regulation for print. A number of major changes in ownership and control patterns in both print and broadcast media followed which have profound consequences for how communications work in the South African democracy post-1994. In broadcasting we saw the restructuring of the largest media outlet in South Africa as the national broadcaster, the SABC, was transformed from a state propaganda machine to a public broadcaster; the licensing of more than 80 community radio stations; and the introduction of a free-to-air television station, e.tv, in 1999. The transformation of radio is a good example of the consequences of the momentous changes of the early 1990s. Before 1993 (when the Act that facilitated the licensing of more radio stations was enacted) there were 30 radio stations in South Africa (22 run by the SABC; three stations run by “homeland” broadcaster Bop Broadcasting; three stations in “TBVC states”; and two private stations. Today South Africa has an estimated 111 radio stations – the SABC has 16 stations, having sold off six of its commercially viable stations; there are seven private stations and 80 community stations.

In print we witnessed the unbundling of the five-corporation monopoly through extending ownership to black owners and foreign corporations. A number of publications also experimented, with varying degrees of success or sincerity, to extend their coverage to the black majority, away from the traditional white media audience. These changes have been accompanied by increased importance of the media in South African political life. The latest available circulation figures show that circulation of all newspapers in South Africa increased by 3% over four years (1991 to 1995); this, as PriceWaterhouse-Coopers recently pointed out, against a background of a global decline in the circulation of newspapers. Radio listenership had grown by 23%, while TV viewership has grown by 37% over the same period. By 1996 more than 25-million South Africans (out of a potential adult population of 30-million) have access to media. Some of the projected changes to the South African media include the launch of regional television, the increase in viewership of satellite television; and the growth of the Internet. Research indicates that more than 60% of South Africans get their news from TV and 90% get their news from radio. Next week the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, the British Council and the Mail & Guardian will be hosting two seminars and a panel discussion under the banner Information, Power and Democracy that will attempt to tackle some of these questions. The seminars will tackle the major questions for democracy and media in South Africa. Have the changes in the media contributed to democracy? Have ownership changes meant changes in control? Have the media been able to reach a larger audience? Do citizens now have access to more media outlets? Are access and choice still limited to race and class positions? In existing and expanded media, do citizens have access to different viewpoints? Is the transition being adequately reported? Has the media changed as much as the political system? Is the quality of content better? Where the actions of media bosses or regulators have resulted in changes in ownership and control patterns or have suggested policy alternatives, has it been enough or do we need to move beyond it? Sean Jacobs is project manager of Democracy 2000, an Idasa project in partnership with the British Council. For more information on the seminar and the programme, please contact Shahieda Hendricks at Idasa at shahieda@idasact.org.za or (021) 461E2559