Raconteur, Jester, Listener, Survivor: Khaba Mkhize's strategies for conflict-reducing journalism in KwaZulu, South Africa
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2003
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Trickster's Way
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
Conflicts polarise people's worlds. In seeking to perpetuate the illusion of
objectivity, news journalists narrate conflicts by reducing them to binaries and
encouraging polemical debates between them. Yet such a strategy actively foments
the fissioning of the world. While media scholarship has learned to be cautious of
attributing excessive power to the media at the expense of audiences' agencies, the
news media retains tremendous power. This is particularly so in situations where
violence at the local level becomes shocking and difficult to explain. In contexts
where there is urgent need for defensiveness if not retaliation, the power of journalist
to make narrative connections that rouse people to greater levels of anger becomes
very great. Texts describing today's sentiments easily become scripts for tomorrow's
battle scenes.
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Reference:
Green, L. F. (2003). Raconteur, Jester, Listener, Survivor. Trickster's Way, 2(2), 5.