Document analysis

In order to uncover all the policy implications, document analysis was employed. According to Altheide (1996:2), document analysis is a “research methodology for locating, identifying, retrieving and analysing documents for their relevance, significance and meaning”. Document can be described as a form of material aspect such as books, pieces of paper or electronic communications (Bertrand and Hughes, 2005:132). In addition, Bertrand and Hughes (2005:132) indicate that it is important to use documents written from outside institution in order to determine the policy making approach. Therefore, the study analyses policy documents, submissions, workshop discussions, and also parliamentary briefings. In doing so, the study revealed which parties are actively involved in the policy making process and also their influence. The relationship between interest parties such as broadcasters, government, consumers, and manufactures was also revealed in the study. In addition, policy analysis also helped in identifying funding models of digital migration project and to locate debates about the new channels allocation.

Policies

As indicated in the introduction of this study, the researcher analysed official policy documents such as the DoC Broadcast Digital Migration (BDM) policy of 2008 as amended in 2012 and the ICASA Digital Broadcast Migration regulation of 2012 in order to establish the policy dynamics. According to Van Cuilenberg and McQuail (2003:182), policy refers to “conscious projects for achieving some goal, together with the proposed means and time for achieving them”. Similarly, Hall and McGinty (2004) define policy as a “set of explanations and intentions, to the realisation of intentions” (in Papathanassopoulos and Negrine 2010: 4).

Media policies are very important because they “set out the state’s role in bringing its preferred media-scape into being” and media regulation is “the instrument through which the state supervises, controls, or curtails the activities of the non-state actors in accordance with policy” (Abramson, 2001: 301-302). Media policies are given

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special attention by governments because the policies have power to determine what information is to be disseminated and also determines who accesses this information (Ó Siochrú and Girard, 2002).

Policies submission from different stakeholders

The study also analysed written submissions which were submitted to ICASA and parliament in order to determine the political economy of digital migration policy. Written submissions and parliament presentations from different stakeholders such as DoC, e.tv, SABC, M-Net, ICASA, Sentech, USAASA and other stakeholders were also analysed.

The researcher was interested in finding out from DoC as to who are the main stakeholders involved in policy making and their interest at hand. The BDM policy and the transcripts from the parliamentary briefings held by the DoC were analysed as the department plays a crucial role in policy making. It is government responsibility to ensure that policies fulfil the goals of universal access of television. For that reason, the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) was established as stipulated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to promote universal service and access to communications technologies for all South Africans. The parliament briefings from USAASA were also analysed to see their role with regards to digital migration policies.

ICASA is also an important player in digital migration policy because its role is to

regulate communications, broadcasting and postal services sector in the public interest. ICASA’s key responsibility is to create regulations such as Digital Migration Regulations to regulate the broadcasters and the frequency allocation. Therefore, it was a privilege to analyse the Digital Migration Regulations, range of submissions from key stakeholders, and their briefing to parliaments in order to find out who are the main actors in policy making and the implication of ICASA policy to universal access.

It was very important to consider submissions from broadcasters in order to reveal whether digital migration policies addressed their concerns or not. These

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submissions and parliamentary briefings also investigated the role that broadcasters have played in shaping the digital migration policies. By analysing written submissions and parliamentary briefings, the researcher was able to locate as to who are the powerful actors in policy making. In addition, the researcher also investigated the involvement of members of public in policy making by attending policy hearings to observe whether or not the forums were inclusive to public members or which players have more weight in policy making (see 4.3.2. Participant observation).

Analysis of press report

The study also analysed a range of press reports which were extracted from range of sources including Techcentral Online, MyBroadband, IT Web, Business Day, Mail

and Guardian and The Independent Online (see appendix). Since there is a plethora

of articles related to the research problem, purposive sampling was used to select articles that are most relevant. According to Babbie (1992) sampling affords the social scientist the capability of describing a larger portion based on only a selected portion. In this case, sampling has advantages of cost savings, speed, and more in- depth information, less total error, reliability, efficiency and greater security. (Wrenn et al, 2007:176). However, the result for the sample that is representative, regardless of its size, cannot always be generalized (Wimmer & Dominick, 1991). Purposive sampling means that the researcher can select the articles on the basis that they contain relevant information (Bornman, 2009:447). As a result, the articles were selected on the basis that they hold considerable knowledge in the context of this subject.

The articles selected from the sources mentioned above were analysed using critical discourse analysis. These articles were very useful in interpreting and understanding the major issues concerning the digital migration project in South Africa. The list of all articles that were analysed will be attached in Appendix A - K.