Desperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014

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dc.contributor.advisorEvans, Marthaen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorChuma, Wallaceen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorJones, Bernadineen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2018-04-24T13:59:12Z
dc.date.available2018-04-24T13:59:12Z
dc.date.issued2018en_ZA
dc.description.abstractEric Louw, Jesper Stömbäck, and W. Lance Bennett call the trend in late-20th century political journalism "mediatisation", where the televisualisation of Western elections favours episodic, dramatic, fragmented, and event-driven reporting. This "hype-ocracy" results in narrow and shallow frames that entertain rather than enlighten. This thesis, titled "Desperately Seeking Depth", examines this trend in both international and local news about South African elections. While scholarship of Western elections on TV news is blossoming, analyses of news coverage of South African elections is sparse. There is particularly little analysis of the visual dimensions of TV news coverage, which remains a methodological challenge for media and communication scholars. This thesis draws together a comprehensive analysis of South Africa's general elections on international and local television news over two decades. It develops an innovative, multimodal analysis method dedicated to television news and adds meaningful data to the overall study of South African media and politics, and international communication. It combines analysis of previous studies of each election with the original analysis of over 150 news broadcasts to uncover the news narratives about the South African general elections between 1994 and 2014. This thesis demonstrates the difference between global and local journalism about South African elections. Restricted by mediatised news values that favour episodic reporting, Western journalists present entangled, contradictory narratives over the years. The fixation on 1994's violent-turned-miracle election narrative ignored the complexities of the new democracy, while an increasingly detached approach in covering the 2009 and 2014 ANC victories left journalists perplexed and unable to explore deeper narratives. Meanwhile, South African channels become progressively more hesitant to investigate controversial topics or criticise the ruling party. Avoidance of important issues such as the 1994 election violence, the AIDS crisis in 2004, and Zuma's Nkandla fiasco in 2014 results in narrow reporting that limits the substantive information available during the election periods. All channels to some extent seek narratives that attempt to explain and explore South Africa's complex democracy, but these narratives are often contradictory. The decline in journalists' engagement with political leaders and citizens means that the full picture of the elections is reduced to a few easily digestible frames that confirm neoliberal news values. This thesis offers a new model for the analysis of TV news coverage of elections that can provide the basis for future studies. "Desperately Seeking Depth" ultimately uncovers a picture of news industry that, both locally and globally, works as an echo chamber of sound bites that focused on elite voices.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationJones, B. (2018). <i>Desperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27846en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationJones, Bernadine. <i>"Desperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27846en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationJones, B. 2018. Desperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Jones, Bernadine AB - Eric Louw, Jesper Stömbäck, and W. Lance Bennett call the trend in late-20th century political journalism "mediatisation", where the televisualisation of Western elections favours episodic, dramatic, fragmented, and event-driven reporting. This "hype-ocracy" results in narrow and shallow frames that entertain rather than enlighten. This thesis, titled "Desperately Seeking Depth", examines this trend in both international and local news about South African elections. While scholarship of Western elections on TV news is blossoming, analyses of news coverage of South African elections is sparse. There is particularly little analysis of the visual dimensions of TV news coverage, which remains a methodological challenge for media and communication scholars. This thesis draws together a comprehensive analysis of South Africa's general elections on international and local television news over two decades. It develops an innovative, multimodal analysis method dedicated to television news and adds meaningful data to the overall study of South African media and politics, and international communication. It combines analysis of previous studies of each election with the original analysis of over 150 news broadcasts to uncover the news narratives about the South African general elections between 1994 and 2014. This thesis demonstrates the difference between global and local journalism about South African elections. Restricted by mediatised news values that favour episodic reporting, Western journalists present entangled, contradictory narratives over the years. The fixation on 1994's violent-turned-miracle election narrative ignored the complexities of the new democracy, while an increasingly detached approach in covering the 2009 and 2014 ANC victories left journalists perplexed and unable to explore deeper narratives. Meanwhile, South African channels become progressively more hesitant to investigate controversial topics or criticise the ruling party. Avoidance of important issues such as the 1994 election violence, the AIDS crisis in 2004, and Zuma's Nkandla fiasco in 2014 results in narrow reporting that limits the substantive information available during the election periods. All channels to some extent seek narratives that attempt to explain and explore South Africa's complex democracy, but these narratives are often contradictory. The decline in journalists' engagement with political leaders and citizens means that the full picture of the elections is reduced to a few easily digestible frames that confirm neoliberal news values. This thesis offers a new model for the analysis of TV news coverage of elections that can provide the basis for future studies. "Desperately Seeking Depth" ultimately uncovers a picture of news industry that, both locally and globally, works as an echo chamber of sound bites that focused on elite voices. DA - 2018 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2018 T1 - Desperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014 TI - Desperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27846 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/27846
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationJones B. Desperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2018 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27846en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Film and Media Studiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherMedia Studiesen_ZA
dc.subject.othertelevision newsen_ZA
dc.subject.otherSouth African democracyen_ZA
dc.subject.othermediatisationen_ZA
dc.subject.otherpolitical journalismen_ZA
dc.subject.othermultimodal methodologyen_ZA
dc.subject.othersocial semioticsen_ZA
dc.subject.othermedia and democracyen_ZA
dc.titleDesperately seeking depth: global and local narratives of the South African general elections on television news, 1994 - 2014en_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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