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Tackles and sidesteps: normative maintenance and paradigm repair in mainstream reactions to South African tabloid journalism

normative maintenance and paradigm repair in mainstream reactions to South African tabloid journalism

Herman Wasserman
University of Cape Town
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Tackles and sidesteps: normative maintenance and paradigm repair in mainstream reactions to South African tabloid journalism. (2022). Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa, 25(1), 59-80. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcsa.v25i1.1729
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  • Submited: October 18, 2022
  • Published: October 20, 2022

Abstract

Since the introduction of the first tabloid to the South African market in 2001, and seemingly
increasing with each subsequent entrant into this burgeoning market, debates about their role,
the reasons for their success, their potential, and their ethics (or the lack thereof) have been raging
in the popular press. This debate seems to suggest, among other things, that the questions raised
by the introduction of tabloids are of primary concern to producers and consumers of the media
itself – in other words, that tabloids need to be dealt with within the domain of the popular press
itself. In this paper I argue that while these debates are seemingly set on evaluating the tabloid
media, they also reveal – and perhaps even more so – the dominant normative assumptions and
professional ideologies in the mainstream media. In debating and rejecting the journalistic excesses
of the tabloids, these debates served as a form of paradigm repair to restore the image of an
occupation in trouble. The question to be investigated by looking at these debates is whether the
widespread criticism of tabloids should be seen as part of journalistic ritual, namely the routine
application of ethical guidelines and the performance of professional standards, or whether these
debates went deeper to provide a structural critique of the South African media.

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How to Cite
Tackles and sidesteps: normative maintenance and paradigm repair in mainstream reactions to South African tabloid journalism. (2022). Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa, 25(1), 59-80. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcsa.v25i1.1729

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