Trends in international
journalism
1 March 2007
The Public Service Broadcasting Model as a case
Examples from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia meet examples from UK,
Denmark and Norway
kristin.orgeret@media.uio.no
• Many models of journalism.
• Theories developed in the West may
face problems in the meeting with other
realities.
• Other empirical experiences may
broaden and add to the original theory.
Ex. Multi-ethnic societies.
• Labelling:
The West, the North, The first world, the
developed countries
The South, the third world, the
underdeveloped/ developing countries
The majority world
versus
The minority world
Public Service Broadcasting
• BBC, John Reith Director General 192238
• To give the public ”what we think they
need and not what they want”
”few know what they want, and very few
what they need”.
Public Service Broadcasting
• The international expansion of the BBC
model:
• Europe 1920s and 1939s
• Increasingly Africa
• The model was exported to countries
that were structurally very different from
the relatively homogenous nation the
BBC was born into.
Public Service Broadcasting
• Citizens versus Consumers (Habermas)
not always a fruitful division:
– the roles are increasingly intertwined
– more hybrid institutions
– ’public service for citizens’ can suppress
some forms of expressions whereas
‘commercial broadcasting for
consumers’ can be empowering
Public Service Broadcasting
• The traditional public sphere approach
assumed that people had more in
common than what separated them.
Multi-ethnic societites
• Different ethnic groups under a common social
identity ex. South Africa
• SABC 1936
• The system’s close links to the state misused as a
tool for the apartheid regime
• The classic public service approach presupposes a
nation and a public to address.
1994 South Africa
End of apartheid.
Main challenge: bring
all different groups
together.
The public
broadcaster SABC
central in this process.
Post-apartheid South Africa
• 1994 The SABC had to change its
perceptions of its public dramatically
and adjust to a multi-ethnic reality.
• The Rainbow nation
Post-apartheid South Africa
• Democratisation – not a uni-directional
process.
• 2004: More political control by the ANC
• Political individuals appointed to
strategic SABC positions
• Increasing self-censorship in the news
• Stronger interference in the news
• BUT: Nothing like pre-1994!
Head of SABC News (interview 2004):
The question of the appointment of ANC profiles to control the
institution, I think it is very difficult. I don’t think it is necessary. The
people I admire in this country mostly are aligned with the ANC, I
share their views and the views of 70 percent of the population. And
this is what intrigues me, if the ANC has support from more than
seventy percent of the population, why do they need this control. I
don’t understand those policies. I don’t understand why it is
necessary to control everything. I think there are many people, many
politicians in this country who want to control. It is the legacy of the
apartheid we came from. And the idea that everything we will do we
can do because 70 percent of the population support us. (…)
My heart belongs to the ANC, but that has nothing to do with me as a
newsmaker .
• Universal theories of media systems
and journalism do not consider a
country’s particular historical context.
• Ex. Zimbabwe
• Many of the laws used to suppress free
journalism in Zimbabwe today are the
same as used during the colonial
period.
• Developent of media and democracy
a two-way road:
– towards increased openess and
democracy (South Africa)
– reverseal toward authoritarianism (Zim)
– at a crossroad/ a mixture (Ethiopia)
Ethiopia
• What should be general universal
journalistisc or democratic values?
• What should stem form the local culture,
history and conditions?
• Without a multivocal, diversified media
landscape the seeds of democratic
government will wither.
Africa: 1st and 2nd wave of
democratisation
• 1st wave: Started with
Ghana 6 March 1957
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (ukomprimert) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• 2nd wave: The end of the Cold War
(South Africa, Namibia...)
• Media’s role in the second wave of democracy very
central.
Interactions media and democratisation
Domain
Principal
Issues
Political
Freedom and
watchdog role
Technological
Reorganization
of space and
power
Economic
Concentration
of ownership
Cultural
Dependency
and resistance
Lessons learnt - public service
broadcasting
• Can be misused by a cultural or political
elite
• The need to open up for a broader
range of experiences and groups within
a public broadcaster
UK 2000
• Five television channels
• The worst performer (BBC 2): 97 % of
characters in speaking roles white, 2 %
black and 1 % Asian.
• The only stallite channel Sky One came
out on top.
UK 2010
• 40 percent of all under 25’s in key urban
areas will be from an ethnic minority.
• Challenge: this audience is not
connecting with public service
broadcasting
Norway
• In the ’new’ multi-ethnic reality of
Norway integration is often held as the
solution. Expressed in NRK’s legal
framework.
• NRK (2004): Migrapolis a proof of their
dedication to the minorities.
Lessons learnt?
• Except for Migrapolis the NRK does not cater for the
different ethnic minorities in Norway to any great
extent.
• What happens to the right to public representation?
• And the claim that the public broadcaster shall reflect
Norway as a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society?
• What happens to the need to provide programmes
that address wide and narrow groups?
Lessons to be learnt
• The need for representation is crucial to
multi-ethnic societies.
• Not necessarily numeric representations or
that journalists should cover the group they
belong to.
• Easier to cover a society with new and
diverse perspectives when the voices and
faces on radio and tv reflect the pluralism and
diversity of the nation being addressed
through the media.
Lessons to be learnt
A member of an excluded ethnic group may have formal
citizen rights, but media as a cultural mechanism may
operate to hinder the genuine development as a full
member of the society.
‘Cultural citizenship’ may be as important as ‘political
citizenship’.
Ex: Denmark: Big Brother.
Lessons to be learnt
• We need to open up the theoretical frameworks for
inputs from other parts of the world and from other
groups within our own society than the ones that
usually get to talk.
• We need theories and models that can lead us to
different realities, different truths and more interesting
stories.