South Africa’s Editorial Bias

International Journal of Public Opinion Research,
Vol. 13, No. 4, Winter 2001, Oxford

Two years ago, the South African Human Rights Commission subpoenaed 30 newspaper editors to testify about racism in their newsrooms, implying that journalistic criticism of the black-led government stemmed from ongoing racial prejudice among the media elite. The South African National Editors’ Forum called this move a "flagrant violation of South Africa’s newly won democratic right of a free press," and one journalist called it a "witch hunt."

In the seven and a half years since a black-led government was first elected, the government and the press frequently have been at odds over the role that media should play in the newly democratic South Africa. The uproar over the commission’s tactics highlights a central question for media owners and practitioners in South Africa: Should journalists investigate and report government missteps and abuses, or should they play a supportive role to enhance the chances of democratic success?

In the quarterly International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Trinity College (Cambridge) professor Andrew Kuper and opinion poll researcher Jocelyn Kuper address these prickly questions in the article, "Serving a New Democracy: Must the Media ‘Speak Softly’? Learning From South Africa." They assert that neither "sunshine journalism" nor "antagonistic journalism" is the answer but rather journalism that recognizes "people’s intense and expressed need for… a sense of control over their lives." They stress that focusing exclusively on either the positive or negative could falsify reality in a way that would lead different population groups to feel disaffected.

Kuper and Kuper argue instead for a press that recognizes each outlet has different constituencies with specific needs. Examining surveys that studied different population groups, the authors assess South Africa’s media needs. They break down the populace into three segments: the African Renaissance Mindset (people who think "past ills should be redressed through political transformation" and are generally hopeful about the future), the Historically Disadvantaged Mindset (the poor, undereducated masses who feel a sense of entitlement), and the Old South Africa Mindset (mostly upper income and older whites who are concerned about preserving their rights and status). Each group, the authors conclude, desires something different from the press: The first wants critical analysis, the second prefers support for development and empowerment efforts, and the third expects the media to play the role of government watchdog.

The authors present a sound analysis of the media needs and expectations of different South African population groups. What they propose for journalists in transitional societies has long been basic to the definition of good journalism in developed societies — that journalism is best when it does not seek to serve any particular political agenda but rather when it strives to present balanced information and analysis that serves the larger community. Yet it often takes a long time in emerging societies for media, which have either dispensed propaganda or focused on opposition, to understand and accept this role.

Does Kuper and Kuper’s analysis apply outside of South Africa? Certainly, many transitional societies have an elite class, a class of the poor masses, and a class of social and political activists who forced change and now expect its rewards. But the media in South Africa does not compare with any other, at least on the African continent, with the possible exception of Nigeria, which also has a class of highly educated writer-activists who worked for a handful of wealthy and independent media outlets. Because of the uniqueness of apartheid, South Africa had a fully modern society and economy alongside a poor and oppressed one; the media class was a staunch member of the former. South Africa’s strong, wealthy, and independent press has taken on the task of transforming itself to meet a new political reality. But in most emerging democracies in Africa, where government has owned and controlled the press, the challenge is to build a new media sector altogether, one that will play a critical role in the continent’s new democracies.