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120
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English
Ebook
2020
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Publié par
Date de parution
01 mai 2020
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781776145799
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
2 Mo
The dominant news media is often accused of reflecting an ‘elite bias’, privileging and foregrounding the interests of a small segment of society while ignoring the narratives of the majority. The authors of Tell Our Story investigate this problem and offer a hands-on demonstration of listening journalism and research in practice. In the process they dismiss the idea that some groups are voiceless, arguing that what is often described in such terms is mostly a matter of those groups being deliberately ignored.
Focusing their attention on three South African communities they delve into the life and struggle narratives of each, exposing the divide between the stories told by the people who actually live in the communities and the way in which those stories have told by the media. The three communities are those living in the Glebelands hostel complex in Durban where over 100 residents have been killed in politically motivated violence; the Xolobeni community on the Wild Coast, which has been resisting the building of a toll road and a dune mining venture; and Thembelihle, a settlement south-west of Johannesburg that has been resisting removal for many years.
The book concludes with a set of practical guidelines for journalists on the practice of listening journalism.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Chapter 1 The Importance of Voice and the Myth of the ‘Voiceless’ – Julie Reid
Part 1 From the Inside: Voice(s) from the Ground
Chapter 2 Community Perspective, Experience and Voice – Julie Reid and Dale T McKinley
Chapter 3 Glebelands Hostel, Durban – Dale T McKinley
Chapter 4 Xolobeni, Eastern Cape – Dale T McKinley
Chapter 5 Thembelihle Community, Johannesburg – Dale T McKinley
Part 2 From the Outside: Dominant Voice
Chapter 6 Dominant Media Telling and Elite Communication – Dale T McKinley
Chapter 7 The Political Economy of Dominant Power and Storytelling – Dale T McKinley
Part 3 New Trajectories for Journalism and Voice(s)
Chapter 8 Media Diversity and Voice(s) – Julie Reid
Chapter 9 Rethinking Media Freedom, Revamping Media Ethics – Julie Reid
Chapter 10 Planting the Seeds of Change – Julie Reid
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Publié par
Date de parution
01 mai 2020
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781776145799
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
2 Mo
TELL OUR STORY
TELL OUR STORY
MULTIPLYING VOICES IN THE NEWS MEDIA
JULIE REID AND DALE T. MCKINLEY
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg 2001
www.witspress.co.za
Copyright © Julie Reid and Dale T. McKinley 2020
Published edition © Wits University Press 2020
First published 2020
http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/22020055775
978-1-77614-577-5 (Paperback)
978-1-77614-581-2 (Hardback)
978-1-77614-578-2 (Web PDF)
978-1-77614-579-9 (EPUB)
978-1-77614-580-5 (Mobi)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
Project manager: Catherine Damerell
Copyeditor: Sally Hines
Proofreader: Alison Lockhart
Indexer: Tessa Botha
Cover design: Hybrid Creative
Typeset in 10 point Minion Pro
CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CHAPTER 1 The Importance of Voice and the Myth of the ‘Voiceless’ Julie Reid PART 1 FROM THE INSIDE: VOICE(S) FROM THE GROUND CHAPTER 2 Community Perspective, Experience and Voice Julie Reid and Dale T. McKinley CHAPTER 3 Glebelands Hostel, Durban Dale T. McKinley CHAPTER 4 Xolobeni, Eastern Cape Dale T. McKinley CHAPTER 5 Thembelihle Community, Johannesburg Dale T. McKinley PART 2 FROM THE OUTSIDE: DOMINANT VOICE CHAPTER 6 Dominant Media Telling and Elite Communication Dale T. McKinley CHAPTER 7 The Political Economy of Dominant Power and Storytelling Dale T. McKinley PART 3 NEW TRAJECTORIES FOR JOURNALISM AND VOICE(S) CHAPTER 8 Media Diversity and Voice(s) Julie Reid CHAPTER 9 Rethinking Media Freedom, Revamping Media Ethics Julie Reid CHAPTER 10 Planting the Seeds of Change Julie Reid
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
LIST OF FIGURES
CHAPTER 2 Figure 2.1 Map of South Africa showing the three communities that provide the case studies: Xolobeni/Amadiba, Glebelands, and Thembelihle
CHAPTER 6 Figure 6.1 Xolobeni/Amadiba: total percentages of sources in news reports Figure 6.2 Xolobeni/Amadiba: community sources versus officials and authorities Figure 6.3 Glebelands: total percentages of sources in news reports Figure 6.4 Glebelands: community sources versus officials and authorities Figure 6.5 Thembelihle: total percentages of sources in news reports Figure 6.6 Thembelihle: community sources versus officials and authorities
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
W e are grateful to the Open Society Foundation of South Africa, and the Women in Research Fund, awarded by the University of South Africa (UNISA), for providing the funding that made the research for this book possible.
This research was conducted under the auspices of the Media Policy and Democracy Project (MPDP). We are additionally grateful for the guidance and advice provided by fellow MPDP researchers, in particular the project leaders, Professor Jane Duncan (University of Johannesburg) and Professor Viola Milton (UNISA), who were extremely helpful in fundraising for this project.
Our thanks extend to Taryn Isaacs De Vega (Rhodes University) for assisting us with the media content analysis, which is reported on in this book, and to Dr Vanessa Malila (Rhodes University) who transcribed the in-depth interviews.
But most especially, our sincere thanks is extended to the courageous and determined activists and residents of Glebelands, Thembelihle and Xolobeni/Amadiba, 1 who warmly welcomed us into their communities, fully supported and actively participated in this project, and without whom this book would not have been possible.
This book is dedicated to them.
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ACC Amadiba Crisis Committee ANC African National Congress ANN7 African News Network 7 BCCSA Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa COPE Congress of the People CSO civil society organisation EWN Eyewitness News GHCVV Glebelands Hostel Community Violence Victims IFP Inkatha Freedom Party MPDP Media Policy and Democracy Project MRC Mineral Resource Commodities PCSA Press Council of South Africa SABC South African Broadcasting Corporation SANRAL South African National Roads Agency Limited SAPS South African Police Service TCC Thembelihle Crisis Committee UK United Kingdom UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNISA XOLCO University of South Africa Xolobeni Empowerment Company
CHAPTER
1
The Importance of Voice and the Myth of the ‘Voiceless’
Julie Reid
Voice as a process – giving account of oneself and what affects one’s life – is an irreducible part of what it means to be human; effective voice (the effective opportunity to have one’s voice heard and taken into account) is a human good.
— Nick Couldry, Why Voice Matters
A s social animals, all human beings instinctively and naturally yearn to give an account of themselves and to tell their own stories. But, to operate as if certain peoples lack this desire or ability is to behave towards them as if they are not human (Couldry 2010). In recent years, philosophers and social scientists have pondered the notion of ‘voice’ as a type of catch-all phrase that infers more than the literal meaning of the word, that is, the sounds and words one makes when speaking. Jim Macnamara (2012) conceptualises ‘voice’ as more than the verbal act of speaking since it includes human communication of all types, such as voting, protesting, online participation and artistic production. More broadly, voice, or rather the ability to practise voice, relies on inclu sion and participation in political, economic and social expression and processes, and involves affording people the space to actively contribute to decisions that affect their lives. Jo Tacchi (2008: 1) calls the denial of the right of peoples to participate in such activity, ‘voice poverty’.
Voice today is theoretically understood to encompass a broad spectrum of communicative activity, which includes: iterating one’s view, story and position in the world; having that story or position listened to by others; having one’s story recognised as something that matters; and, further, having it mediated or carried via a means of communication (such as the news media) to the broader collective or society. Admittedly, that is putting things rather simply because there are complex and multilayered problems and conditions relevant to each one of these steps. A number of writers examine the intricacies of this process, the notion of ‘voice’, its definition, its theorisation, its associated processes and, crucially, the characteristic challenges prevalent in the disablement of the effective practice of voice. Particularly notable among these is work done by Susan Bickford (1996), the research collective called the Listening Project (O’Donnell, Lloyd and Dreher 2009) and Nick Couldry (2009, 2010). Bickford (1996) offers a landmark and detailed examination of voice and associated listening in her book, The Dissonance of Democracy: Listening, Conflict, and Citizenship , in which she explores ‘pathbuilding’ communicative practices. Here, citizens engage with one another’s perspectives through an ongoing process of speaking and listening, though not necessarily with the goal of social coherence. Instead, the discord, which naturally arises during these interactions, encourages participants to re-evaluate their own speaking practices (Bickford 1996).
Charles Husband (1996, 2008) amplifies the ethical importance of listening by advocating the ‘right to be understood’ as a fundamental communication right. Lisbeth Lipari (2010) proposes a paradigm shift that places listening at the centre of communication rather than speaking, and she defines a perspective on listening, which she calls ‘listening being’. While the largest body of literature emphasises the notion of listening as central to communication, Couldry (2009, 2010) focuses the critical lens on voice. We take particular direction from his explication of the various characteristics of ‘voice’. However, while he identifies a number of different levels of voice, we will mention only those that are relevant here in relation to how voice is either carried out or ignored by the dominant news media, and what the implications are for journalism.
While the body of scholarly literature on communicative voice and listening, and the associated ethics involved, is steadily growing, we do not offer a detailed literature review of such writings here because this has already been presented at length elsewhere (see, for example, Dreher 2009, 2017; Macnamara 2012; O’Donnell 2009; O’Donnell, Lloyd and Dreher 2009). Rather, what we offer in this book is a demonstration of such theory in practice: we intend this as an example of active listening, with the purpose of surfacing and amplifying voice as a means to illustrate how this could be translated into journalistic practice for application in the news media.
In this book, we have kept the theoretical side of things unapologetically simple. This is because, with respect to our scholarly peers, we do not want the journalists, future journalists-in-training, newsmakers and editors who read this book to become discouraged by complexities and near-unfathomable musings so characteristic of academic writing (Heleta 2016). Rather, we adopt the principled position of offering a text that is easy to read, easy to understand and more broadly accessible, knowing that this approach offers greater potential to catalyse the type of change that we advocate in this book. We aim to provide research that is accessible to working journalists, as a practical demonstration for how to enable voice through listening and, in doing so, do good journalism. We also want this project to speak to ordinary citizens who may aspire to talk and be heard, and whom much of this book is about, as a testament that they have eve
