A Study of Selected Reality Television Franchises in South Africa And
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GLOCALISATION WITHIN THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE: A Study of Selected Reality Television Franchises in South Africa and Transnational Broadcaster MultiChoice BY Rhoda Titilopemi Inioluwa ABIOLU Student number 214580202 Ethical clearance number HSS/1760/015M A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Sciences in the Centre for Communication, Media and Society (CCMS), College of Humanities, School of Applied Human Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Supervised by: Professor Ruth Teer-Tomaselli UNESCO Chair of Communications FEBRUARY, 2017. DECLARATION I, Rhoda Titilopemi Inioluwa ABIOLU (214580202) declare that this research is my original work and has not been previously submitted in part or whole for any degree or examination at any other university. Citations, references and writings from other sources used in the course of this work have been acknowledged. Student’s signature………………………………… Date…………………………………. Supervisor’s signature……………………………… Date………………………………… ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my Father, my Saviour, my Friend and my God, Jesus Christ; the Source of all good things, the Author and Finisher of my faith who helped me and gave me the courage and strength to do this work, ESEUN OLUWAAMI. I thank my supervisor Professor Ruth Teer-Tomaselli, who stirred up the interest in this field through the MGW module. I thank you for all your guidance through this work and for all you did. How you always make time for me is deeply cherished. You are a source of encouragement. Thank you Prof. The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF. To my wonderful parents and best friends Mr. and Dr (Mrs) Abiolu, thank you for your love, prayers, constant support and encouragement. The long nights we spent have yielded bountiful harvests. I thank the members of my family; Oluwabamigbe, Olamide, Enioluwa and Philip, my wonderful nephews and niece Oluwajimi, Oluwatamilore and Obaloluwa. I also thank Oluwadamilare. Thank you all for your support and love. God bless you all for me. To my dear uncle and aunty Dr and Mrs Akindahunsi and the entire family, God bless you abundantly for everything. I thank my friends-turned-family Rosa, Uncle Sam, Sis Jane, Bro Emma, TFash, and my boys Roro, Joe, Noble and Iyanu. God bless you guys. I thank the Glenwood Presbyterian Church especially the prayer unit, God bless you all. I thank everybody who has contributed to this work in a way or the other. iii ABSTRACT Several debates have arisen on the concept of globalisation within diverse cultural backgrounds and its consequences on various aspects of culture and social life. These propelled the need for this study. Out of the desire to examine the integrations of these perspectives, glocalisation as a subset of globalisation became the main focus of the study. Glocalisation – a hybrid of global and local ‘consequences’ – serves to bring to view how important elements of a global entity and a local entity can converge to form something inherently unique to each local context as a result of varying practices and norms of different cultures. The implication of this is that those in charge of ‘global entities’ attempt to find ways they can modify ‘global practices’ into diverse ‘local contexts’ while at the same time seek to maintain semblance with the global entity. Therefore, this study conceptualised these entities, practices and consequences within South Africa as a local context, in order to trace how the global entities (transnational corporations as Endemol Shine Africa, Fremantle Media, 19 Entertainment and transnational broadcaster MultiChoice) have adjusted global practices (global reality television franchises as Big Brother, Idols and Survivor) and their consequences (homogenisation/similarities and heterogenisation/uniqueness) within local contexts (the South African media landscape) and how these are guided by certain rules (media regulations on local programmes within South Africa). This was achieved through a desk research of media reports, social media channels, the Internet and literature from scholars on transnational media exchanges. The focus of this study was to identify those factors that made such glocal adaptations different from global formats. These were guided by the theoretical approaches of cultural proximity, the circuit of culture and the political economy of communication in the media. The study ascertained that indeed there are considerations of various local contexts through the identification of glocalised features of the shows. It highlighted the manner MultiChoice has balanced global and local needs and the regulations that guide South African media contents. However, these glocal franchises are still vehicles of the global ideologies of global formats rather than promotion of more cultural and local features. Keywords: globalisation, glocalisation, transnational corporations, reality television franchises, homogenisation and heterogenisation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Declaration………………………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgements………..…………………………………………………….……………….iii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...iv Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………………. v List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………….....ix List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………..x Acronyms and Abbreviations ………………………………………………................................xi CHAPTER ONE……………………..…………………………………………………………..1 Introduction……………………..………………………………………………………………....1 Background to the study…………………………………………………………………………..2 The South African Media Landscape……………………………………………………………..2 Transnational Corporations (TNCs)………………………………………………………………5 Reality Television Franchises……………………………………………………………………..6 Problem statement…………………….…………………………………………………...............9 Theoretical framework in brief…………………………………………………………………..12 Objectives………………………………………………………………………………………..15 Research questions……………………………………………………………………………….15 v Research methodology and approach to study….………………………………………………..16 Structure of the study…………………………………………………………………………….17 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE……………………………………………19 Introduction……………………..………………………………………………………………..19 ‘Place’ and ‘Space’ in media studies…………………………………………………...………..19 Glocalisation: An infusion of globalisation and localisation…………………………………….21 Dimensions of landscapes………………………………………………………………………..28 Transnational corporations (TNCs): media control and ownership...........………………………30 Media franchises…………………………………………………………………………………32 Reality television: surveillance of real life and real people?.........................................................35 CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ………………………..………….40 Introduction……………………..……………………………………………………..…………40 The theory of cultural proximity…………………………………………………………………41 The circuit of culture……………………………………………………………….…………….44 Political economy of communication in the media…..……………….…………….……………49 New media and communication technology..................................................................................56 CHAPTER FOUR: METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION………..…................64 Introduction……………………..…………………………………………………..……………64 Positivist and Interpretivist Paradigms…….........................…………………………………….64 Qualitative Approach................................................................………………..………........…...66 vi Methods of qualitative research………………………………………………………………….69 Research Designs………………………………………………………………………………...73 Case study: a relevant research design…………………………………………………………...74 Analytical methods of viewed episodes and snippets of case studies (Idols South Africa, Big Brother Mzansi and Survivor South Africa)………………………………………….…………..76 Descriptive and purposive research techniques within case studies…………………………......77 Sampling and Sampling Technique...............................................................................................78 Limitation to the study…………………………………………………………………………...79 CHAPTER FIVE: DATA FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS….……………81 Introduction……………………..……………………………………………………..…………81 Regulations within the South African media landscape………………………………………....81 The political economy of MultiChoice as a transnational broadcaster…………………………..88 Fremantle media, 19 Entertainment and the Idols franchise……………………………..………93 The political economy of Fremantle Media………………………………………………...……93 The political economy of 19 Entertainment…………………………………………………...…96 Glocalised features of Idols South Africa……………………………………………………......97 Viewership and ratings of Idols: South Africa and America……………………….…………...102 Endemol Shine Africa and the Big Brother/Survivor franchises…………………….…………104 The political economy of Endemol Shine Africa………………………………………………104 Glocalised features of Big Brother Mzansi……………………………………………………..104 vii Viewership and ratings of Big Brother: Mzansi (South Africa) and other contexts……………109 Big Brother franchise within the South African context……………………………………….110 Glocalised features of Survivor South Africa…………………………………………….……..112 Ratings and viewership of Survivor: South Africa and America……………………………….115 Synopsis of the discussed case studies……………………………………………………….…116 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...117 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….121 SOURCES OF SECONDARY DATA……………………………………………………….128 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………...…136 APPENDIX 1…………………………………………………………………………………..157