mass media policy dissertation
1 . 1 Paradigms of communications insurance plan
Fourie T P (2008: 18) defines paradigms of communications insurance plan as consensus among insurance plan makers as far as the basics are involved on which they will base their particular developing of a policy. There are three many popular paradigms of marketing and sales communications policy which usually originated from advanced societies of North America and Western Europe. These paradigms can be adopted to explain the advent and development of sales and marketing communications policy in countries such as South Africa.
1 . 1 . one particular Emerging marketing communications industry policy
Communications coverage during this time (pre 1940s) was focused by telecommunications policy with emphasis on interaction technologies that were new at that time in advanced societies in the Western world.
This kind of technologies included telegraphy, cell phone and cellular broadcasting. In South Africa, appearing communications industries such as these were considered as public utilities that could not always be left inside the hands of personal communication players.
This perspective, therefore guided the formula and rendering of most interaction policies resulting in state monopoly in telecommunication industries.
However there may be an argument that in South Africa such monopoly was seen as a tool of colonisation because policy formula was well guided by reducing the masses and entrenching the colonisers’ ideology. The Postal Act(1958) and The Transmitting Act will be perfect types of emerging communications industry policy in S. africa.
1 . 1 ) 2 Open public service multimedia policy
After the Second World War in 1945, most government authorities changed their particular communications insurance plan focus via a nationalistic and economical perspective to
a socio-political emphasis. Independence, democracy and diversity had been introduced as communications plan determinants. However this was not the situation in most Africa countries which are still under the control of their particular colonisers. S. africa was no distinct. More so might be Apartheid. Media policy in South Africa during this time period, was formed by the political and not by simply social issues of the time. The is that of the growth of the SABC in the 1960s and 1970s if a lot of r / c broadcasting in different languages were established.
However , public mass media policy which will determined content policy of public press during this time, was seen as turning the same public media into your mouth piece of the Nationalist Party (NP). Therefore , one can believe the public multimedia policy in South Africa during the period of apartheid was not about interpersonal or democratic development but was about enriching the ideas of the NP government. Erasmus F (2004) sums up this view by expressing, ” an additional development inside the second half of the 1970s was your introduction of television in South Africa after the government got prevented this kind of for a number of years. This medium was also thought to be controlled simply by government, therefore promoting the NP’s personal ideology.
1 ) 1 . a few New media policy
With this paradigm, the latest of the 3, there is a speedy move from your old emphasis on political and social points of views being the determinants of media coverage. The third element of economic competition is now a significant factor in press policy ingredients in the 21st century. Privatisation, innovation and demand have changed the views on public media coverage. InSouth The african continent, new multimedia policy is largely responsible for the changes that have occurred in the telecoms and transmitting industries since the country achieved independence.
Telkom’s monopoly was ended by the changes in polices that allowed new fixed line providers like Neotel to enter the marketplace. The same features happened for the SABC. The monopoly that the national broadcaster enjoyed for years ended once policy changes opened up space for new tv producers like M-net and E-TV. New press policy is definitely driven mainly by demand and economic development rather than by source and monopolies.
1 . a couple of Freedom with the media
Democracy, the freedom of expression plus the functions of media in society are three connected elements that can hardly end up being separated. These elements have to co-exist in unison if society is always to develop along with live in peacefulness and balance. Freedom of speech is known as a right that is found in a lot of countries’constitutions, South Africa becoming one such country. However , freedom of expression is not just a given. It is a controversial subject matter that always triggers friction among governments as well as the media. There are countless threats to freedom of expression in South Africa plus the debates within the need or maybe the lack of it normally joint on the liberty of the press. Questions are raised whether or not such hazards are validated or unprovoked.
1 . installment payments on your 1 The need for freedom of expression
Liberty of phrase is a proper that is enshrined in the metabolic rate of South Africa. This freedom goes hand in hand with the freedom as well as the position of press in culture. These elements can not be separated. In democratic societies like South Africa, the need for freedom of manifestation cannot be over-emphasised. The mass media acts as the custodian of society and plays a great oversight role when it comes to keeping government officials to accounts. Freedom of expression is known as a pre-requisite in any democratic culture in order to make sure that public officials do not get away with problem, maladministration and lack of services delivery through silencing or denying space to those that keep pace with speak away about these sociable ills. Denying society independence of manifestation leads to anxiety that can boil over into damage and interpersonal unrest.
1 . 2 . 2 Risks to this
As much as freedom of expression is considered a constitutional proper in many democratic countries, which includes South Africa, this right is often under regular threat from a number of sections of society. Difficulties threat to freedom of expression hails from the government, having its policies that control the flow of information and rules that prevent the cost-free access to and publication of information. Patriotic media that is within the control and influence of government is also one more threat to freedom of expression. In South Africa, the SABC as a national broadcaster, is supposed to be nonpartisan and unprejudiced. However due to the broadcaster being under the power over the government, there are a lot of questions asked with regards to it is impartiality.
Independence of manifestation has been supressed in the way where the SABC completes its content policy. Landscapes that are regarded to be in comparison with the current government’s ideology have been prevented from being broadcast in SABC TELEVISION and the airwaves platforms. Press have at times been forced to tore a particular line of ideology and have been eliminated from undertaking their jobs in an objective and impartial manner. An example is that of a reporter on Local area FM, Sakina Kamwendo, who had been forced to end a discussion for the ANC’s Mangaung Conference onto her show by her employers at the SABC as they claimed the show lacked balance and fairness.
Julie Reid sums up this point in her content in the Daily Maverick by simply saying, “Last year the SABC suspended the Big Controversy talk show, an excellent current affairs system that attained a standing for possessing government officialsto account about thorny concerns like corruption or nondelivery of services¦¦. Hlaudi Motsoeneng, infamous to get his insistence on the creation of 70% good news is still at his post, carrying on the aide of the Hlaudification of news
1 . 2 . 3 If, how and why these kinds of threats can or may not be motivated A defieicency of the freedom of expression, particularly in the media, and threats to its execution within democratic societies can be described as contentious 1. The discussion about it, is usually dynamic and not ending. Several sections of culture especially those in power, who are normally the ones who seek to screen and regulate the media, believe that it is crucial not to allow the media to acquire free reign where the character and circulation of information is going on with no regulation by the government. On the other hand, the multimedia itself, especially private press, is resistant to the idea of strict policies becoming introduced to control the circulation of information as this is seen as a immediate attack on the freedom, not merely of the multimedia but that of expression as well.
However , the media since an industry and platform where freedom of speech is manifested, truly does understand and appreciate that some form of rules has to occur in order to protect the validity of the multimedia being the “fourth estate and prevent national security threats as well as intrusion of level of privacy. It is in this light the fact that issues of external and internal control come into perform.
In dealing with disputes that make clear why the threats to media flexibility cannot be encouraged, one has to do so within the framework of independence of appearance being a constitutional right. Democraticy as a product is mostly reliant on how contemporary society thrives socially, politically and economically. For this to happen, freedom of speech has to be takenas an elementary element that should be considered in coverage formulation. Stifling freedom of expression through draconian and authoritarian policies and rules is a menu that culminates in a failed democracy. To get democracy to work, freedom of expression plus more so , flexibility of the mass media has to exist. Roelofse (1996: 51-53) in Fourie (2008: 34) clarifies how flexibility of phrase enhances improvements such as the rise in democracy, faith based freedom and economic emancipation through the press that assumes a role of mass channel.
It is really worth noting that out of the 3 theories found in studying the role from the media in society, the libertarian theory insists upon viewing people as realistic beings competent of unique between truth and falsehood and among good and evil (Fourie 2008: 34). Therefore , a defieicency of strict policies to regulate the media and stifle independence of expression are unnecessary and may not be justified and motivated. As McQuail (1987: 89) in Fourie (2008: 34) records in the simple assumptions in the libertarian theory, the press should be free from any external censorship and there should be no force or perhaps intimidation to write anything.
The behaviour from the SABC companies in the Local area FM story can for that reason not always be justified if this theory is applied because intervening and gagging the speak show was tantamount to denying the population their directly to air or perhaps listen to several views on the Mangaung seminar. In dealing with this kind of contentious matter of media freedom and regulation, it must be observed that the freedom of expression that is integrated into the independence of the multimedia, cannot be viwed as a large right. You will discover responsibilities that go with this. It is as of this juncture which the regulation of the media may be motivated and justified. This kind of regulation can easily emanate by outside media organisations for that reason being named external or it can be inner which means the regulation comes from within the multimedia institutions themselves.
Fourie(2008: 73) explains that in S. africa, media regulation has little by little moved away from being more externally regulated and indicates a more emphasis towards inner regulation. Interior regulation occurs in different ways. It can be throughout the involvement of gatekeepers, government bodies, directorates and boards of media organisations or institutionalised internal regulation by non-governmental as well as professional bodies. Gateway keepers and regulators will be people or groups of people who decide on the information of particular media and determine which content is pertinent and how it will be released or transmission. Fourie (2008: 78) identifies internal legislation by gatekeepers and government bodies as “implicit internal regulation.
This control occurs through the medium itself. Implicit inner regulation happens when different sections within or perhaps sectors affiliated with the medium influence the publication or perhaps broadcasting info. Such sections include boards of administrators of mass media institutions, editors, advertisers, buyers, journalists, etcetera. These regulators cannot be ignored as they have the power to influence content greatly. A good example is that of acting SABC operations chief and radio group professional who got a decision never to allow a live speak show managed by Sakina Kamwendo in Metro FM to go in advance.
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