The role of mainstraem commercial newspapers in deepening democracy in South Africa's local sphere of government.
Kaunda, Teresa Lucky Lakela
Kaunda, Teresa Lucky Lakela
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Abstract
The White Paper on Local Government (SA, 1998) describes local government as the sphere of government with the closest interaction with communities. The sphere has the responsibility to create an environment for efficient and effective delivery of services, such as electricity, access to potable water, proper sanitation and waste removal (Madumo, 2015), which are services that most directly affect people’s day-today lives (Sikander, 2015). Local government was selected for this study given its importance as the sphere closest to the people, with a critical role to play in service delivery. The sphere also bears scrutiny on account of the shortcomings in governance, administration and financial management which hinder the delivery of services in many municipalities, as outlined in the annual municipal financial audit reports of the Auditor-General of South Africa. For example, the 2020/21 Municipal Audit Report described the local government sphere as characterised by accountability and service delivery failures, poor governance, weak institutional capacity and instability (AGSA, 2023) The study was multidisciplinary. It was located in the field of public affairs with a strong focus on local government, politics and media studies. Public affairs is defined as a multidisciplinary field that covers a variety of topics related to public interest such as social science, economics, psychology, political science, sociology and research that has public policy implications (Zuo, 2019). The study explored the status accorded to the local government sphere in mainstream commercial newspapers and the model utilised to report on local government. In particular, the study probed the extent to which the newspapers prioritised local government coverage through assigning fulltime reporters to local government. The developmental state framework as well as the libertarian press theory and development communication paradigm formed the backdrop of the study. The National Development Plan (NDP, 2012) outlines South Africa’s vision to build a developmental state which promotes accountability and the participation of the citizens in governance and matters affecting their lives. The libertarian press theory calls for a free, privately owned, profit-driven press which is independent of government and acts as watchdog that keeps those in authority in check (Siebert, Peterson & Schramm, 1956). The developmental communication framework links communication with development and emphasises the need to provide information to the poor and marginalised to improve their lives (Quebral, 2011). The qualitative research method was used and the techniques employed were semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, as well as in-depth perusal of existing data in the media and local government fields. The primary research question that the study sought to answer was the role played by mainstream commercial newspapers in South Africa in deepening democracy through the coverage of local government and the model best suited for the press to play this role. The study also probed the extent to which national government supported local government communication efforts. A purposive sample selected for the study was 29 participants – 23 from the print media and six from government. In total, 19 out of 29 participated in the study, from both government and the media, making it a 65% response rate. The media sample comprised editors as well as representatives of media institutions. Twenty editors were selected from mainstream daily and Sunday commercial newspapers owned by the country’s Big Four media groups – Independent News and Media, Arena Holdings, Media24 and Caxton CTP. The media sample also included media organisations, namely the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF), whose membership consists of editors, senior journalists and media trainers, as well as Print and Digital Media SA (PMDSA) whose members are the owners and publishers of newspapers and magazines. The government sample comprised representatives of two government departments and one statutory body. These were the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). The
departments were selected given their responsibility for local government policy, operations or coordination. The municipalities selected were Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality and Umngeni Local Municipality – two metropolitan municipalities in media centres and one small local municipality. Manual open coding was done and the data were read and processed line by line. The thematic analysis technique was utilised to identify themes following the coding of the data. The study found that the press contributed meaningfully to deepening democracy through performing a watchdog role. It exposed corruption, maladministration, weaknesses in service delivery and any form of wrongdoing in municipalities. However, it was also established that local government was not prioritised as a special subject or beat like other focus areas such as politics, business or sports. The majority of newspapers did not have reporters that covered local government exclusively. Only two out of the 10 newspapers that participated in the study had journalists reporting exclusively on local government. Other newspapers assigned general or political reporters to do local government stories, as an additional task. The study found that there was a strained relationship between municipal communicators and journalists covering local government. The study proposed a new model for the coverage of local government, the Media Watchdog and Development Model. The model elevates local government to a specialised subject area in commercial newspapers. Fulltime specialist reporters should be appointed and located in the political news department dedicated to the fulltime reporting of the sphere given its importance. The model also proposes a new conceptual framework, an expansion of the dominant libertarian press watchdog model to include development communication aspects. This entails the retention of the media watchdog role but with a concerted effort to also cover developmental stories that affect the lives of the poor in townships, informal settlements and villages, without looking at profits. It is recommended that local government communication be elevated to a strategic level within government and that there should be regular engagement between government and the media to improve relations and promote mutual understanding.
Description
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Public Affairs in the Department of Public Management, Faculty of Humanities at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Date
2023-07-27
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
Democracy, Developmental state, Development communication, Editorial policies, Public participation, Newspapers, Local government, Communication, Public accountability, Journalists, Reporters, Municipality, Beat reporting.