The voiceless generation: – (non-) representations of young citizens in the coverage of education stories by South African newspapers
– (non-) representations of young citizens in the coverage of education stories by South African newspapers
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
- Articles
- Submited: October 15, 2022
-
Published: October 17, 2022
Abstract
Nyamnjoh (2005:1) argues that “… the media … can, in principle, facilitate popular empowerment as a societal project”. The problem is that the news media do not seem to be doing this for young people in South Africa. This paper provides an analysis of selected news media and their representation of young people through coverage of the education sector in South Africa. The aim is to examine whether the media are fulfilling two key functions in their role as facilitators of popular empowerment in the public sphere: Do they provide citizens with the information they require to engage in issues that affect them (such as education), and secondly, do the media
provide a space for citizens to voice their concerns and debates about those issues? A content analysis of print and online media provides an overview of the kind of coverage young people are exposed in reports on education. On the strength of the evidence thus acquired, this paper argues that the news media are failing to enable young people to be active citizens because they do not
provide information that engages the youth in respect of education coverage and, when they do cover education, the reports do not feature the voices of young people.
Article Metrics Graph
References
- Abdi, A.A. (1999). Identity formations and deformations in South Africa: a historical and contemporary overview. Journal of Black Studies, 30(2):147-163.https://doi.org/10.1177/002193479903000201
- Berelson, B. (1952). Content analysis in communication research. Glencoe, Illinois: ThebFree Press.
- Boyce, G. (2010). Youth voices in South Africa: echoes in the age of hope. In B. Roberts, M.W. Kivilu & T.D. Davids (Eds). South African social attitudes: The 2nd Report (pp. 87-104). Pretoria: HSRC Press.
- Christie, P. & Collins, C. (1982). Bantu Education: apartheid ideology or labour reproduction?https://doi.org/10.1080/0305006820180107
- Comparative Education, 18(1):59-75.
- Coleman, S. & Blumler, J. (2009). The Internet and democratic citizenship. Theory, practice and policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818271
- Comaroff, J. & Comaroff, J. (2006). Reflections on youth, from the past to the postcolony. In M.Fischer & G. Downey (Eds). Frontiers of capital. Ethnographic reflections on the new economy (pp. 267-281). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388234-013
- Couldry, N. (2009). Rethinking the politics of voice. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 23(4):579-582.
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10304310903026594
- -. (2010). Why voice matters: Culture and politics after neoliberalism. London: Sage Publications. Curran, J. (1991). Rethinking the media as a public sphere. In P. Dahlgren & C. Sparks (Eds).
- Communication and Citizenship: Journalism and the Public Sphere (pp. 27-56). London:
- Routledge.Dahlgren, P. (2006). Doing citizenship: the cultural origins of civic agency in the public sphere. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549406066073
- European Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(3):267-286.
- Daily Dispatch. (2012a). About us. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from http://www.dispatch.co.za/aboutus.
- -. (2012b, 4 January). G'town private school pupils shine in exam, p. 6.
- -. (2012c, 15 February). Mazibuko tells Zuma to tackle crime, fix education, p. 4.
- -. (2012d, 27 February). Fix education - it's the only weapon to fight poverty, p. 9.
- -. (2012e, 5 March). A vote for the children, p. 8.
- Duncan, J. & Reid, J. (2013). Toward a measurement tool for the monitoring of media diversity and pluralism in South Africa: a public-centred approach. Communicatio, 39(4):483-500. https://doi.org/10.1080/02500167.2013.864448
- Everatt, D. (2000). From urban warrior to market segment? Youth in South Africa 1990-2000.
- Development Update, 3(2):1−39.
- Grocott's Mail. n.d. Advertise. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from http://www.grocotts.co.za/content/advertise
- −. (2012, 3 February). Welcome to students and parents, p.11.
- Hartley, J. (1996). Popular reality: journalism, modernity, popular culture. London: Arnold.
- Hermes, J. (2006). Hidden debates: rethinking the relationship between popular culture and thepublic sphere. Javnost - The Public, 13(4):27-44.
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2006.11008923
- Kamwangamalu, N. (2002). The social history of English in South Africa. World Englishes,21(1):1-8.
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971X.00227
- Karppinen, K. (2009). Making a difference to media pluralism: a critique of the pluralistic consensus in European media policy. In B. Cammaerts & N. Carpentier (Eds), Reclaiming the media. Communication rights and democratic media roles (pp. 9-30). Bristol: Intellect Books.
- Khanyile, B. (2013). Born in the promised land: scrutinising the prospects of the new South African generation born in a democracy. The Thinker, 56:52-54.
- Levine, P. (2008). A public voice for youth: the audience problem in digital media and civic education. In W. Lance Bennet (Ed.), Civic life online: learning how digital media can engage youth (pp. 119-138). (The John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital
- Media and Learning). Cambridge: The MIT Press. Mail & Guardian. (2012, 20 January). Barbarians at UJ's gate are just victims, p. 30.
- Malila, V., Duncan, J.; Costera Meijer, I.; Drok, N.; Garman, A.; Strelitz, L.; Steenveld, L.; Bosch,
- T.; Ndlovu, M. & Media Tenor, (2013). A baseline study of youth identity, the media and the public sphere in South Africa. Grahamstown: Rhodes University. Retrieved March 10, 2013,
- from http://www.academia.edu/4157311/A_baseline_study_of_youth_identity_the_media_and_the_public_sphere_in_South_Africa
- Mattes, R. (2011). The born frees: prospects for generational change in post-apartheid SouthAfrica. CSSR Working Paper No. 292: Centre for Social Science Research.
- News24. (2007). About us. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from http://www.news24.com/SiteElements/Footer/About-Us-20090703-4
- Norris, P. (2000). A virtuous circle: political communications in post-industrial societies. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511609343
- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Nyamnjoh, F.B. (2005). Africa's media. Democracy and the politics of belonging. Pretoria:Unisa Press.
- Rheingold, H. (2008). Using participatory media and public voice to encourage civic engagement.
- In W. Lance Bennett (Ed.), Civic life online: learning how digital media can engage youth.
- The John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning (pp. 97-118). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
- Seekings, J. (1996). The 'lost generation': South Africa's 'youth problem' in the early-1990s.Transformation, 29:103-125.
- Soep, E. (2006). Beyond literacy and voice in youth media production. McGill Journal of Education, 41(3):197-214.
- South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF). (2011). Average issue readership of newspapers and magazines. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from http://www.saarf.co.za/ampsreadership/2011/Magazine%20&%20Newspaper%20Readership%20Jun11.pdf.
- Spacestation. 2014. News24. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from http://www.thespacestation.co.za/channel/news24/
- Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2006). Mediated citizenship(s): an introduction. Social Semiotics,16(2):197-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330600664763
- Wasserman, H. & De Beer, A. (2005). Which public? Whose interest? The South African media and its role during the first ten years of democracy. Critical Arts, 19(1 & 2):36-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560040585310041
- Wasserman, H. (2013). Journalism in a new democracy: the ethics of listening. Communicatio, 39(1):67-84.
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02500167.2013.772217