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The state of records management and the provision of government services in many African countries are poor and have devastating consequences. The consequences of poor records management have far-reaching implications for service delivery, which affects citizens of a country, including infringements of basic human rights such as identity, property ownership, health, and social grants, to mention just a few. Despite these consequences, in South Africa, many governmental bodies do not manage their records properly, resulting in poor service delivery, which leads to community protests, corruption, loss of credibility or loss of heritage, among other factors. This study aimed to investigate the nature and patterns of newspaper coverage regarding poor records management and its impact on the provision of government services in South Africa. The paper used the qualitative content analysis approach to analyse the newspaper (clippings) reports extracted from the South African Media Database, hosted by the South African Bibliographic and Information Network (SABINET). The study established that the paper-based system is unable to manage records effectively and efficiently. The study also found that a lack of skills and knowledge about records management as a profession impacts negatively on the management of records. Based on these findings, the implementation of an electronic records management system is recommended. The study also recommends government-wide training to conscientise government officials about the significance of records management as an enabler of service delivery and for sound decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Māori-language newspaper,Te Pipiwharauroa, vigorously supported the British side during the South African War (1899–1902). With a British policy that the conflict was to be a ‘white man's war’, Māori were officially omitted from serving as soldiers in the New Zealand contingents to South Africa. For Māori who sought to engage with the mainstream Pākehā (European) society in a meaningful way, the exclusion demonstrated that full citizenship had not yet been attained, but supporting the war allowed some degree of participation and acknowledgement. However, a number of other elements also contributed to the paper's pro-war stance. Two of the leading commentators were Rēweti Kōhere, who edited the paper on behalf of the Anglican Church, and Āpirana Ngata, the leader of an activist group that sought to reform and advance Māori society. This essay examinesTe Pipiwharauroa's reporting of the war, and explores how their schooling, tribal loyalties to church and state, notions of race, and their reformist agenda all influenced their interpretation of the war, an imperial event of international interest, to a local Māori audience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While newspapers in the global North seem to be involved in a struggle for survival, the inverse seems to be happening in South Africa. Since their introduction almost a decade after South Africa became a democracy, a range of new tabloid papers have taken the country by storm. The Daily Sun is now the biggest selling daily newspaper in the country, showing a constant increase since its launch five years ago. The publisher claims that there is even a second-hand market for copies; such is the demand for the paper among those that can barely afford it. Similar success stories are told about the spate of tabloids following in the Daily Sun's wake—Kaapse Son, Cape Sun and Daily Voice. These tabloids speak to a section of the South African public that remain largely out of focus in the mainstream commercial media outlets which, despite far-reaching changes in ownership structures and editorial changes to bring about racial transformation in the media industry after apartheid, are still beholden to those sections of the public conventionally thought to be favoured by advertisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the idiosyncratic evolution of `The Citizen' newspaper and the factors that allowed it to survive and flourish in the wake of the Info Scandal. Paper's functioning since the transition; Possible scenario for the paper's future in the new South Africa.

The first four years of P. W. Botha's premiership in apartheid South Africa were plagued by intra-party politicking, renewed anti-apartheid resistance, economic instability, and Satan. Between 1978 and 1982, the heavy political rhetoric of 'total onslaught' inflected perceived 'moral onslaught' in a virulent moral panic over Satanism in white, and particularly Afrikaner, South Africa. With attention to its discursive and socio-political context, this paper seeks to explore the emergence of this distinct satanic moral panic in white South African history, arguing that it reflects the intense political and moral ambiguity of white society as the edifices of apartheid began to fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines cholera-related coverage in two Eastern Cape daily newspapers, the Daily Dispatch and the Eastern Province Herald, to demonstrate how changes in the coverage of two cholera outbreaks between 1980 and 2003 exemplify the political transition in South Africa, reflect the changing political ideologies at work in and on the media. Coverage of the 1980–1983 eastern South African epidemic was compared to coverage of the 2000–2003 Eastern Cape outbreak. The aim was to determine who was most quoted in the coverage and what implications this had for the image of each epidemic as constructed by the newspapers. The analysis revealed that during the 1980s, both newspapers portrayed government-employed medical professionals as the dominant authorities on the epidemic, mostly excluding alternative viewpoints. Coverage was uncritical of the National Party-led government. Conversely, in post-apartheid coverage, a range of voices – governmental and civilian – were integrated into articles. Coverage was critical of the ANC-led government, as well as commenting negatively on the post-1994 public healthcare system. The shift from the newspapers' adherence to the official government-derived version of events to their incorporation of a range of viewpoints mirrors the ideological shift from apartheid-era authoritarianism to the more democratic climate post-apartheid. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines news framing of rape on the website of South Africa's most popular newspaper during 2008-9, following the passage of major legislation reforming the treatment of sexual assault. A qualitative analysis of 145 Sowetan Online news stories revealed three major, often overlapping frames: (1) ubiquity of rape, (2) enforcing male dominance, and (3) justice denied. Drawing on literatures addressing anti-rape activism and media in South Africa, I argue that the dominant framing mobilizes the discourse of anti-rape advocates, although with notable caveats attributable to the adherence to news values of drama, conflict and celebrity, which serve the website's interest competing with rivals in an increasingly tabloid-oriented marketplace. The dominant framing pattern is attributed, in part, to editorial decisions consistent with ubuntuism philosophy, which privileges educating the public, facilitating dialogue, and eradicating social hierarchy. The findings suggest that, when gender hierarchy is fore-grounded as problematic, ubuntuism-influenced news frames can challenge cultural discourses that resist progressive reforms. Additionally, the case suggests that media philosophy and media organization reputation can be important influences on news framing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely agreed empowering women to take control of their lives and sexual health is a key strategy for tackling gender inequalities and HIV/AIDS, but to date this has been exceedingly difficult to achieve. This paper explores how a sample of South African media represent the relationship between gender and HIV/AIDS in the interests of understanding the symbolic context in which HIV/AIDS programmers conduct their work. The starting assumption is that representations of gender and HIV in the symbolic sphere provide the context within which people charged with designing and implementing women's empowerment interventions – government officials and NGO programme managers – construct understandings of this relationship and how best to tackle it. Content analysis was conducted on four South African newspapers between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2008. Newspapers selected are widely read by “opinion leaders”; government officials and NGO programme managers. It is accepted that women's empowerment needs to involve top-down and bottom-up approaches. Dominant media representations portray women's empowerment as almost entirely a top-down process in which powerful actors are responsible for identifying and implementing women-focused interventions. Newspapers pay little attention to the need for the mobilisation of women via bottom-up programmes. Furthermore, while the media focuses on structural- and individual-level interventions, there is limited discussion of the importance of community-development interventions. Community-development interventions emphasise the need to build and support community-led responses to HIV. For women's empowerment to be successful interventions need to be at all levels. Currently, much emphasis is placed on the need for “socially responsible” media reporting in South Africa that supports positive social development and social justice. Against this background, we conclude media representations of appropriate ways to tackle gender and HIV/AIDS are limiting in ways that undermine awareness of the need for community-led interventions to empower women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]