Re-conceptualizing the analysis of media development and trajectories hereof in post-colonial societies

Abstract

Using South Africa as a case study, this article presents a new argument for an adaptation of the Comparative Media Systems Model by Hallin and Mancini. The article proposes that factors of race, class and gender and intersections hereof as well as nation-building be added to the model to better suit the analysis of media development in post-colonial societies. The article looks at media development in societies that have undergone social and political transitions since the late 1980s and early 1990s and highlights differences between transitional societies and young democracies in Eastern Europe and East Asia vis-a-vis transitions in post-colonial societies in the global South.

A teaching philosophy of journalism education in the global South: A South African case study

“…For South African students and educators, this entails recognizing variables often not included in discourses around the media in the global North, particularly with regard to race, ethnicity and nation building (Rodny-Gumede, 2015b. In this regard, students also need an understanding of themselves, not only as journalists but also as citizens in a society that bears very little resemblance to societies and media systems in the global North that is often held up as the norm.…”

“…Sreberny (2000: 116), however, argues that the global and the local should not be seen as binaries, and while scholarship in the global South, as well as the global North in recent years, have started to pay more attention to the polarization of North and South, less attention has been paid to a 'Southernization' (Rodny-Gumede, 2013, 2015b of the media and communications discipline and a theory from the South that can contribute to both the global South and the global North (Chasi and RodnyGumede, in press;Comaroff and Comaroff, 2012;Connell, 2007) and, more importantly, be put at the heart of a truly global research agenda and curriculum.…”

Expanding comparative media systems analysis from transitional to postcolonial societies

“…Chasi and Rodny-Gumede, 2016: 696). Equally, normative classifications of media systems, along a sliding scale from free of political interference and highly developed professionally to politically co-opted and unprofessional, does not provide enough nuanced data to capture the nuances and unique characteristics of media systems shaped by histories of colonialism, and later aberrations and political systems based on racial suppression and exclusion (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a: 132). Neither does classifications of ‘African media’ systems modelled on legacies of former colonial masters and/or post-independence liberation government agendas.…”

“…With this in mind, comparative models such as the Hallin and Mancini (2004, 2012) framework and the typologies it encompasses as well as later adaptations of the same gives us, not so much a model, as a set of variables to consider in the analysis of media systems (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a: 132). As Humphreys (2012: 168) argues rather than creating typologies for comparison, we should develop a comprehensive range of variables that can be used to explore the relationship between media and politics.…”

“…As Humphreys (2012: 168) argues rather than creating typologies for comparison, we should develop a comprehensive range of variables that can be used to explore the relationship between media and politics. This as the risk is otherwise that we end up over-emphasizing the model over individual case studies and the contextual factors that shape media development (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a: 132). Comparative research studies often struggle with problems of universality of concepts, and as researchers we need to guard ourselves against comparing the incomparable and neglecting context at the behest of forced universality as well as underlying assumptions of the autonomy of units analysed, ignoring complex interplays and mutual influences among the units (Azarian, 2011:120–121).…”