Introducing the Research Study: The Developmental Policy Discourse in Post-apartheid South African Corporate Media
1.9 Structural overview of the thesis
In order to achieve its objectives, this thesis is divided into three broad sections. The first section titled “Introduction and background: setting the scene for the representation of the developmental policy discourse by South Africa’s corporate media” is made up of Chapters 1 and 2. This current chapter functions as an introduction to the research study, and presents the research problem and questions. To provide further context, this chapter presents a brief background on the nationalisation discourse in the South Africa media, the limitations and gaps of the current media studies in South Africa, and the significance of the research study.
Furthermore, the chapter presents the research rationale and design, aimed at contextualising the problem and outlining the method of the research study. Chapter 2 contextualises the research study by discussing the history and background of nationalisation, presenting the discourse in South Africa, unpacking the ANC Youth League discussion document, examining nationalisation as a developmental policymaking discourse in a neo-liberal context, and introducing the corporate media landscape in South Africa and its posture towards the discourse.
The second section titled “Theories and methods underpinning the research study” includes Chapters 3, 4 and 5. Chapter 3 looks at a wide range of media literatures in an endeavour to investigate the nature of the representation of the nationalisation discourse. The idea is to map
out the scholarly fields that have a bearing on the research questions. The chapter also highlights some of the gaps that exist and the contributions that the research study seeks to make to existing scholarly conversations. Fundamentally, the chapter examines the representation of the South African corporate media in the context of a changing landscape, the location of the South African media in the market economy, structural factors of the media, the contested terrain of corporate media and the policymaking process, and the role of market-oriented corporate media in influencing both state policies and broader societal discourses.
The major theoretical framework that underpins this research study – the Marxist critical political economy of communication, culture and consciousness – is discussed in detail in Chapter 4. The chapter draws on a number of scholars who have significantly contributed to the field of critical political economy in order to unravel the exercise of power in society and the media. Unpacked in the chapter is the Marxist analysis and accompanying concepts such as the
“dialectical method of theorising” (Nixon, 2012), extensively utilised in this thesis to unpack the representation of the discourse. Essentially, the Marxist theories are employed to analyse the representation from a class perspective, thus illuminating social issues such as the rising income gap between the rich and the poor (Fuchs and Mosco, 2012). The chapter also unpacks the theories of social production of news, particularly elements such as the workforce and the structures of newspapers, sources of news, the role of journalists, and the impact of organisational structures in news production (Schudson, 1989). Finally, the chapter also discusses theoretical frames that underpin decolonial approaches utilised extensively in this research study. Concepts such as coloniality of power (Quijano, 2007) as a global hegemonic model of power that articulates the benefit of the white European (Escobar, 2007) are used in the context of analysing the corporate media.
Chapter 5 presents the triangulated methodologies employed in the research study. These methodologies include quantitative and qualitative content analysis as well as the thematic and framing methods which form part of qualitative approaches. Combined, these approaches enable the research study to fully comprehend the representation of this discourse by the corporate media.
The third section of this research study is titled “Data analysis, conclusion and the way forward” and is made up of Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Chapter 6 presents quantitative research findings on the coverage of the nationalisation discourse by painting a picture of the manner in
which this discourse is represented and portrayed. It focuses primarily on content analysis of news articles, looking at various aspects such as the structure of news as well as the headlines, sources and general representation of the discourse. The chapter uses the social production of news theories to unpack the essence of news as a product of social, economic and political institutions and practices (Schudson, 1989).
Chapter 7 deals with the qualitative content analysis of this research study by discussing findings presented and analysed in Chapter 6. To this end, theories of the critical political economy of the media and other related theories such as the social production of news and Marxist media analysis are utilised. Framing methods are also employed in analysing data gathered with the view to examine linkages between people and the manner in which they think and talk about issues in the news (Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000). The chapter also pays special attention to thematic representation in relation to the nationalisation discourse.
In an endeavour to comprehensively analyse the representation of the nationalisation discourse by the corporate media, Chapter 8 scrutinises economic factors in line with the assumption of the study that structural factors influence the representation of the discourse. In this regard, the chapter uses the foundations of Marxist theories to unpack this representation. Fundamentally, the chapter argues that to unpack media systems located in a capitalist environment such as South Africa, the Marxist critical political economy of the media is useful. Indeed, Marxism remains the most pertinent theoretical framework to unravel ideological laden discourses of our time.
Chapter 9 makes a decisive theoretical intervention by using Marxist theories as a tool of analysis in conjunction with decolonial theories. While the chapter concedes that there is theoretical tension between these theoretical paradigms, nevertheless, it is believed that this research study contributes greatly to unravelling the often ignored and misunderstood intricate question of race and transformation in South Africa’s corporate media. Lastly, Chapter 10 presents a conclusion to the thesis by revisiting the assumptions of the research study in the context of the findings as well as the research question and implication for potential future studies, particularly on the decomodified alternative public media in South Africa.