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The Rise of Political Advertising on Television in South Africa and Its Implications for Democracy

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The Rise of Political Advertising on Television in South Africa and Its Implications for Democracy 1 The rise of political advertising on television in South Africa and its implications for democracy Sibongile Sindane 0418978h 2 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies Johannesburg 2010 3 Abstract The general debate around political advertising on television has been that the political advertisements on television concentrate more on the images rather than the political issues and thus, create an electorate who is entertained by the catchy slogans and this hinders a well informed decision. The study investigates the rise of political advertising on television in South Africa and its implications for democracy. It is focused on the 2009 pre-elections and specifically on the political advertisements which appeared on national television during the pre-election period beginning from 30th March 2009 up until 20th April 2009. The study also examines the extent to which political advertisements on television commodify politics. Furthermore, it explores the themes covered in the political advertisements on television and the extent to which these political advertisements focus on the images than the themes. In addition, the study also looks into the underlying issues and complexities, such as regulation and funding and financing issues which are hidden from the public glare, accompanying the images and messages seen on television around election time. Qualitative methods are used and the study is both descriptive and explorative and as means of interpreting the data, thematic content analysis is used. The critical political economy of the media theory is employed as well as the democratic theories of the media, with a key focus on liberal democracy and deliberative democracy. Thus the findings showed that the political advertisements on television in South Africa were informative as they concentrated more on the themes than the images and, in many instances where the images were used it was mainly to support the message. However, the political advertisements had some emotional appeals which communicated emotions of sadness and despair as well as emotions of happiness and success. Character appeals were used at minimum and it was only three political parties which made use of their leaders with only one political party, out of the three, using their leader throughout the advertisement. The issue of commodity in politics was very prominent in the political advertisements on television thus it can be concluded that political advertising on television commodify politics to a large extent in the production and distribution process but to a minimum extent in the content. The implications of the rise of political advertising on television for democracy are twofold because they are both positive and negative. It is recommended that the regulations on political advertising on television be re-visited and reviewed. Thus, a prospective model for the regulation of political advertising on television is also illustrated in the study. KEY WORDS Political advertising on television, image, themes, 2009 pre-elections, political parties, electorate, commodity, democracy. 4 Declaration I declare that this research report is my own work. It is submitted for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any other degree or examination in any form. _________________________________ Sibongile Sindane 28 April _______________ Day of ________________ 2010 5 Contents List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 1: Background ............................................................................................................ 13 1.1 Problem statement ..................................................................................................... 15 1.2 Aims and objectives .................................................................................................. 18 1.3 Underlying Assumptions ........................................................................................... 19 1.4 Research questions .................................................................................................... 19 1.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2: Literature review .................................................................................................... 21 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 21 2.2 A brief overview of the literature .............................................................................. 21 2.3 Defining political advertising .................................................................................... 23 2.4 The “Americanisation” of political advertising ........................................................ 24 2.5 The role of political advertising ................................................................................ 27 2.6 The cost of campaigning ........................................................................................... 31 2.6.1 Defining commodity .......................................................................................... 31 2.6.2 Commodification ............................................................................................... 32 2.6.3 Funding and financing ....................................................................................... 33 2.6.4 Media production and producers ....................................................................... 35 2.7 Image versus political reality .................................................................................... 36 2.7.1 Content ............................................................................................................... 36 2.7.2 Stages or kinds of advertisement in political advertisements ............................ 38 6 2.8 Audience and audience access .................................................................................. 39 2.9 Media (political advertising) communication policy and regulation ........................ 39 2.10 The question of democracy ....................................................................................... 41 2. 11 A reflection of critical political economy of the media ............................................ 42 2. 12 Political advertising, television and propaganda ....................................................... 43 2.13 Political advertising in the South African context .................................................... 44 2.14 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 48 Chapter 3: Theoretical framework ....................................................................................... 50 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 50 3.2 Introducing the theorectical perspectives .................................................................. 50 3.3 Critical political economy of the media .................................................................... 51 3.4 Defining democracy .................................................................................................. 53 3.5 Democratic theories ................................................................................................... 55 3.5.1 Democracy and the media .................................................................................. 57 3.5.1.1. The role of the public service broadcaster…………………………….60 3.5.2 A brief account of freedom of expression .......................................................... 61 3.5.3 Liberal democracy ............................................................................................. 62 3.5.4 Deliberative democracy ..................................................................................... 64 3.5.5 Deliberation, the public sphere and political advertising on television............. 68 3.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 69 Chapter 4: Methodology ...................................................................................................... 71 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 71 4.2 Research design ......................................................................................................... 71 7 4.2.1 Research method ....................................................................................................... 75 4.2.2 Qualitative research ................................................................................................... 76 4.3 Methods of data collection ........................................................................................ 77 4.3.1 Document analysis ............................................................................................. 77 4.3.2 Questionnaire ..................................................................................................... 78 4.3.3 Sampling ...........................................................................................................
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