Influence of the Media on Political Violence: A South African Case Study

• NCJ Number: 151042
• Author(s): G N Claassen
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 16 pages
• Corporate Author: University of Stellenbosch
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at the International Conference on Violence in the Media, New York, NY, October 3 and 4, 1994

Annotation

This paper examines the relationship between the mass media and political violence during the past four decades in South Africa.

Abstract

Political violence during these decades has always been linked to the efforts to eliminate apartheid; the media became increasingly involved in these efforts after the African National Congress was banned in 1960. In the 1980's, the minority government placed major restrictions on the functioning of the media in areas affected by riots. The new South African government established in May 1994 experienced the first real test of its attitudes toward freedom of the press when a fictional depiction of violence in South Africa was banned after only one episode. In recent years, the media have also had a central role in the censorship of political news, either through adhering to government regulations and self-imposed ethical policies or through a form of informal agenda-setting of news as a result of terrorist activities. These activities have included terror by black interest groups against specifically black newspapers and by right-wing white groups against traditionally white Afrikaans newspapers. The new role of the South African Broadcasting Corporation and M-Net, South Africa's only pay channel, in addressing the issue of violence on television, is also of interest, as exemplified by the case of The Line, a fictional television series depicting the violence in black towns in South Africa. 60 references (Author abstract modified)