African Journals Online
Ecquid Novi

Volume 21, Issue 2, 2000
Abstracts

Faulting Faultlines : racism in the South African media 
Tomaselli, K.

Abstract: This paper is a critique of the final report of the South African Human Rights Commission, Faultlines, on its inquiry into racism in the media. The critique builds on earlier comments by the author which fundamentally question the assumptions made by the SAHRC's independent researchers regarding discourse analysis, content analysis, as well as cultural and media studies. The paper also offers some educational strategies to deal with the real problems still facing the media in the post-apartheid era. It calls for a participatory research agenda between academics and the media industry in resolving pressing issues of social concern. 



Mapping the gap : finding a raison d'être in South Africa's TRC's media hearings 
Skjerdal, T.

Abstract: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings on the media in 1997 were probably unique from a world perspective. In contrast to attempts made elsewhere world to investigate the role of the media in relation to political procedures, the TRC specifically called for the media to participate in the truth telling and reconciliation process. The process regarding the TRC media hearings, with emphasis on the press, is explained and assessed. The conclusions are twofold: the TRC media hearings misleadingly served to strengthen the perception that the South African press is best understood in terms of the differences between the English liberal, the Afrikaans and the alternative presses; thereby reinforcing politico-cultural differences. Secondly, that there are, broadly speaking, two main approaches to an academic understanding of the South African press. These are the functional and the critical approaches. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but they are not, as some tend to argue, mutually exclusive. 



In search of truth : the TRC and the South African press - a case study
De Beer, A.S.Fouché, J.

Abstract: The demise of apartheid and the first free democratic elections in 1994 ushered in a new epoch making era in South African history. This article deals with one element of these changes in the form of a case study: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's media hearings, and more specifically, the issue of the Afrikaans press and its activities during the apartheid years (1948-1993). 



Truth and reconciliation - Beyond the TRC process and findings 
Williams, J.J.

Abstract: This article argues that the truth about colonial-cum-apartheid South Africa should inform the planning and development of a new social order, a society that is caring and sharing and where universal human rights are acknowledged, protected and being validated in the everyday life-experiences of ordinary people. It suggests that the socio-economic practices of the past, however partly disclosed by the TRC, should be transcended, to eliminate the conditions that gave rise to human rights abuses. Based on a content analysis of a random selection of newspaper reports, this appears to be a daunting task. Discursively, the period before the constitution of the TRC is as important as the period after the release of TRC findings as it constitutes the dialectical nexus with the historical antecedents informing, and quite often, determining the form, substance and dimensions of 'truth and reconciliation' in South Africa. Hence the need to go beyond the TRC to its antecedents to understand the uneven relations of power that shaped its operational concepts, determined its empirical investigations and influenced its discursive framework. 


The articulation of multiculturalism in journalism : a Dutch case study 
Deuze, M.

Abstract: One of the many challenges facing contemporary journalisms particularly in Western democracies is the notion and necessity of multiculturalism. This article aims to explore this challenge in terms of a study on how multiculturalism is articulated in (Dutch) journalism. The article uses a case study approach based on data from a survey study among 1 010 journalists from all media in The Netherlands. Methodological, conceptual and practical issues are identified which should guide an articulated perspective on an empirical study regarding multiculturalism in contemporary Western journalism with a particular European perspective. 



The death of Parks Mankahlana and the question of universal news values 
Louw, R.

Abstract: Should the South African press have inquired about and reported on the cause of death of presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana? Sections of the South African press implied that he died as a result of his having contracted HIV/Aids. As spokesman for President Thabo Mbeki, Mankahlana had to field difficult media questions in the latter part of 2000 on the president's apparent and controversial stand that there was no causal link between the HIV virus and Aids. The issue of whether the press should intrude on privacy in the pursuit of news values is discussed against the backdrop of the broader question: whether there are universal news values which would have made it imperative for the media to have inquired into the reasons for the death of Mankahlana. The author avers that in this particular instance the press had the duty to do so in terms of universally accepted norms for news values. 



Asking the right questions about media and racism - let alone having the right answers 
Baker, V.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue. 

The race to conceptualise racism
Jansen van Rensburg, N.S.(Fanie)

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue. 

The need for conceptual clarification
Marais, H.C.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue.


Racist : a most provocative insult levelled at the Mail & Guardian 
Van Niekerk, P.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue.

Racism under scrutiny 
Friedman, S.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue. 

Confronting the meaning of racism
Ellis, G.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue. 

Media are racist ... if you say so
Barrell, H.Wa ka Ngobeni, E.Kindra, J.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue. 

Time to say we're sorry
Berger, M.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue. 

There is a better way to do it
Esack, F.

Abstract: In this part of the 'Forum section' of this special edition of 'Ecquid Novi' on the media and racism, a number of original short articles, as well as statements and excerpts from publications and Internet authors are published to stimulate further debate on the issue.