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The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town (Un)papering the cracks in South Africa The role of ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ media in nation-negotiation around Julius Malema on the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ By Erika Rodrigues RDRERI002 A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of the degree of Master of Social Sciences in Social Anthropology Faculty of the Humanities University of Cape Town 2011 Declaration University of Cape Town This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature________________________________________________ Date __________09.09.2011___________ ABSTRACT In April 2010, amidst the nation-unifying discourses prevalent during the preparation for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup™ to be hosted in South Africa, a series of events gave rise to the revitalization of other discourses in the national media: those of racial polarization and the possibility of a race war. The public singing of the “Shoot the Boer” struggle song by ANCYL leader Julius Malema and the subsequent murder of AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, two events which were being attributed a causal link in national media, was one of the main reasons for the revitalization of these discourses. In this study I have explored some of the ways in which, in the month of April, on the eve of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup™, Julius Malema’s statements and actions, widely disseminated on national media and framed as controversial, incited South Africans to voice, discuss and negotiate issues of the ‘new’ ‘post-Apartheid’ South Africa in 2010. In order to explore the nature of such opinions and discussions I drew on data from three main sources: news reports and opinion articles from the South African daily newspaper, the Cape Times; interviews with South African students from the University of Cape Town; and, from discussions taking place among South Africans online on Facebook, indiscussion groups created to discuss the then current Malema topic. By using the approach of crossing between online and offline fields and interaction, alongside a triangulation approach between the three sources, I aimed to devise a methodology that did not dichotomize online and offline social interaction, nor completely separated ‘traditional’ media – printed press, radio, and television - from ‘new’ media – mobile phones and the Internet in particular.University of Cape Town Drawing on both James Halloran’s theory of effectiveness (1964) to explain popular understandings around media as being able to immediately, directly, and effectively influence people, and Stanley Cohen’s concepts of moral panics and folk devils (1972),to explain the revitalization of such understandings of effectiveness in times of crisis, provided this studya useful framework with which to analyse the context lived in April 2010 in South Africa. ii Some of the themes I identified in such opinions, discussions, and interviews, selected based on their recurrence, demonstrated the resilient tendency to attribute to Julius Malema, through the media, the ability to immediately, directly, and effectively galvanize South Africans: into a Race War; into turning South Africa into another Zimbabwe or Zimbabwe II; and, into leaving the country. However, simultaneously, opinions and discussions showed a complex interaction of perceptions of effectiveness with a negotiation around other “mediating factors and influences” in South African society in the year 2010. These included an awareness of the media’s drive to sell news, of the ineffectual nature of country’s leadership, of the disenchantment with the possibility of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ in face of the country’s stark socio-economic and political inequality, an inequality still visible along racial lines. These themes led me to conclude that in April 2010, incited to a large extent by the media’s spotlight on Julius Malema, an item of high news value at the time, South Africans were negotiating the cracks of South African society lived in the year 2010. This process included a papering over the cracks with discourses of effectiveness and, simultaneously, an ‘unpapering’ or revealing of those cracks by exploring the other mediating factors and influences at work in the context. In addition, since I have found part of the data for this study online, I argue that the Internet, although an unconventional field-site for Social Anthropology, given its non- physical and trans-local nature, holds possibilities for complementing and enriching certain studies in Social Anthropology, in what is an increasingly interconnected and fast-paced 21st century. In turn, the Internet is a research area that could benefit significantly fromanthropological insights in the process of understanding the complex and nuanced effects of the introduction,University adoption, and immersion of Cape of this emerging Town media technology in the everyday lives of people in different contexts and in a rapidly changing world. These insights could shed light on studies in, on and using the Internet even in developing countries such as South Africa, and in the rest of Africa, where Internet access although still low and unequal, is quickly rising. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................................................. ii ACRONYMS ................................................................................................................................................................................................. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 An imminent “Race War” on the eve of a nation-unifying sports mega-event............................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 ‘New’ media technologies: a history of recurring hypes ..................................................................................................... 10 The effectiveness of ‘new’ media technologies .............................................................................................. 10 The Internet: a ‘democratic’ ‘public space’?................................................................................................... 15 Or the “illusion of participation”? ...................................................................................................................... 22 The 2011 “Hash-tag Revolutions” ...................................................................................................................... 24 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 2 .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 27 Social Anthropology and the Internet ......................................................................................................................................... 27 Conventional Social Anthropology in the 21st century ............................................................................ 27 Online social research in Africa .......................................................................................................................... 33 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER 3 .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 38 An ‘On’ and ‘Off’ Research Process ............................................................................................................................................... 38 Bricoleuring Fields and Methods ........................................................................................................................ 38 Why Facebook? .......................................................................................................................................................... 40 Ethical Reflections: consent, privacy and interpretation ......................................................................... 43 Summary

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