Articles in Die Matie during 2007

Stellenbosch University's Die Matie stands in contrast to UCT's Monday Paper in that the

subject matter of the articles tend to lean more towards the reportage of very local matters.

This is why during 2007 Die Matie only produced a total of twelve articles which have any

mention of Africa or African students, where nine of the twelve gave positive opinions of

Africa/African students.

One of the most pertinent articles regarding the perceptions of Africa is titled BYM poog om

persepsies oor Afrika te verander ("BYM attempt to change perceptions of Africa") (Die

Matie 21/02/07). This article describes a campaign launched by the student group, Brightest

Young Minds, which aims firstly to make people aware of the current world perceptions of

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Africa and secondly to change this negative perception for the better. The slogan on the

posters of this campaign which was visible all around the campus read as follows;

"According to the rest of the world, you are a criminal with AIDS. Change the way people

see Africa." This slogan is ironic, because South Africa, our beloved advanced country, out

of all other countries in Africa, still has the highest crime rate in the world. It is hypocritical

in the sense that South Africa sees the rest of Africa in almost exactly the same way as the

poster for BYM says the rest of the world sees Africa.

The year 2007 also saw the appointment of the University's first non-white rector, Prof

Russel Botman who stated clearly in one of his first addresses to the press that he aims to

make Stellenbosch University a multicultural home for all students and staff. A clear

resemblance can be seen between Russel Botman's vision of multiculturalism and UCT's

rector, appointed in 2008, Max Price's idea of an 'Afropolitan' university. We will discuss the

term "Afropolitan" and what it means to African students in the next section.

The Brightest Young Minds continued to make headlines in Die Matie during 2007, this time

for their eighth BYM conference held in Johannesburg. They entered the conference carrying

the same theme, i.e. "Change the way people see Africa", and 100 top students from around

South Africa were invited to attend. The author of these specific articles on the BYM makes

it clear by using formal structures (e.g. word play in the headline) that he is clearly in favour

of the outcomes which BYM look to establish. The word play used in the headline, Groot

idees kom BYMekaar ("Big ideas come together") (Die Matie 01/08/2012) conveys the

impression that the author agrees with the aims of the organisation. In the article the author

reports that Stellenbosch residents have grown accustomed to their homogenous surroundings

and this is something which has to change.

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On the 29th of August an article appeared in Die Matie reporting on the difficulties of the

University of the Free State in integrating different cultures in their hostels. The author uses

the word "culture" instead of "race" to soften the impact of the truth which has plagued

universities in South Africa since the end of apartheid, segregation based on race. The use of

a euphemism "culture" in the headline suggests that the author is afraid of bringing up the

sensitive topic of race, which is why he uses the term "culture" instead. The article focuses on

the forced integration policy which will be implemented in 2008 and how students rise up in

protest to this. This article is pertinent for African students, because, even though there is no

mention of foreign students and Africans in the article, they are a group which will be

marginalised while the debates continue. The fact that they were not mentioned in the article

already illustrates the problem of exclusivity.

Compared to UCT's Monday Paper, Die Matie has far fewer articles involving Africa or

African students in South Africa and what is more is that the majority of the articles in Die

Matie pertaining to the subject reflect positive ideologies instead of negative. As I mentioned

earlier, this is in part due to the fact that the two different campus newspapers focus on

different areas of student life, specifically Die Matie has a much greater focus on local

student affairs and student organisations, whereas Monday Paper has a far greater

preoccupation with the political and prestigious elements which go on at the University of

Cape Town. It is important to note these differences in agendas before trying to critically

analyse the differences and similarities between the two campus newspapers which,

geographically, are separated by a mere thirty kilometres.

From the perspective of van Dijk's ideological framework it can be seen that the majority of

Die Matie's articles in 2007 contributes to a positive ideology regarding Africa and African

foreigners. A mere three articles throughout 2007 mention Africa/African foreigners in a

negative light. Articles involving the BYM contributed most of the positive opinions on

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Africa, largely because their campaign deals with the issue of multiculturalism and African

stereotypes head on.

Fairclough's multi-level model for discourse analysis illustrates how the social practice of

breaking down cultural/race boundaries flows into the text element of the analysis. Most of

the articles analysed in Die Matie during 2007 reflect positively on Africa/African foreigners

which in turn reveals the nature of currently held ideologies and social practices. However,

the fact that Die Matie published far fewer articles discussing the nature of Africa/African

foreigners than UCT's Monday Paper during 2007 is testament to the fact that the

Stellenbosch student community lives in a bubble where they choose to look at more local

and positive news than that of UCT. We will explore this hypothesis as the analysis goes on.