Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The relationship between the media and the law is an important one, especially in an adolescent democracy like South Africa. On the one hand the law has the power to control the fundamental right to freedom of expression – the very core of the media’s existence. On the other hand, however, the media are vital mechanisms through which the law can ensure that citizens know that justice is being done. The media are therefore also powerful; having the ability to influence people’s perceptions of and respect for the law. The relationship between the media and the law is characterised internationally by frequent tensions and misunderstandings – a trend that has not escaped South Africa. Whereas some of these strains may be explained with reference to both the media and the law’s respective duties in a democracy; many problems are also caused as result of misunderstandings and inaccurate expectations of both parties’ responsibilities in a democracy. This study was thus launched from the premise that there is room and need for improvement in the relationship between the media and the law. The way in which citizens perceive the law (or legal consciousness) was investigated; as were the sources of such perceptions. Making use of a questionnaire distributed to a sample of students at two Western Cape universities, it was established that students’ opinions of lawyers and judicial officers are generally positive, but that they do not have much confidence in the efficacy of the South African legal system. The feedback also indicates that news and popular media are the most important sources of such opinions of the law – a context-specific finding that echoes similar results obtained internationally. Popular media as an important source of perceptions give rise to several concerns. Not only do citizens struggle to distinguish between fact and fiction in popular media; but most of the popular (legally-themed) media available in South Africa are furthermore imported from the USA. This tendency, defined in this study as the Hollywoodization of South African law, lead to concerns that citizens may not only be basing their opinions of the law on fiction; but also that such media are premised on a very different (American) legal system from our own. The importance of news media as a source was investigated more specifically by making use of a case study (the Inge Lotz/ Fred van der Vyver story). The way in which pre-trial publicity and court reporting may lead to the sacrifice of a defendant’s right to a fair trial was investigated by looking at the influences of news media coverage on the parties involved; the presiding officers, assessors and witnesses; and the perceptions lay audiences may have of the specific case and (consequently) the law in general. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Verhouding tussen die media en die reg is ’n belangrike een, veral in ’n jong demokrasie soos Suid-Afrika. Aan die een kant het die reg die mag om die hart van die media se bestaansreg – die grondwetlike reg op vryheid van spraak – te beheer. Aan die ander kant is die media ook ’n noodsaaklike meganisme wat aan landsburgers oordra wanneer geregtigheid geskied, en wanneer nie. Die media kan dus die doeltreffendheid van die reg in ’n demokrasie ernstig beïnvloed. Die verhouding tussen die media en die reg word wêreldwyd met misverstande en probleme gekenmerk – ’n tendens waarvan Suid-Afrika nie afgesonder is nie. Hoewel van dié stremminge veroorsaak word deur die partye se onderskeie natuurlike pligte in ’n demokrasie, word sommige probleme ook veroorsaak deur misverstande en onregverdige verwagtinge van wat beide partye se verantwoordelikhede behels. Die studie is gevolglik onderneem met die uitgangspunt dat daar moontlikheid vir verbetering in die verhouding tussen die media en die reg is. Die wyse waarop burgers die reg beskou of ervaar (waarna in die studie verwys word as legal consciousness of regbewussyn) word ondersoek; en só ook die bronne van burgers se regsbewussyn. Deur gebruik te maak van ’n vraelys wat aan ’n groep studente by twee Wes-Kaapse Universiteite uitgedeel is, word daar vasgestel dat studente oor die algemeen baie respek het vir die regslui, maar min vertroue in die Suid- Afrikaanse regstelsel het. Die terugvoering bepaal ook dat nuus- en populêre/ gewilde media die belangrikste bronne van regsbewussyn is. Dié bevinding, wat konteksspesifiek tot Suid-Afrika is, bevestig soortgelyke gevolgtrekkings wat internasionaal ook aanvaar is. Die feit dat populêre media ’n belangrike bron van regsbewussyn is, lei tot talle bekommernisse. Behalwe dat daar reeds bevind is dat gebruikers van dié media nie kan onderskei tussen wat feite en wat fiksie is nie, word daar in Suid-Afrika hoofsaaklik Amerikaanse populêre media met regstemas versprei. Die gevaar is dus dat Suid- Afrikaanse burgers dalk besig is om hul indrukke van die reg te baseer op beide fiksie én ’n Amerikaanse voorstelling van die regstelsel (die sg. Hollywoodization van die Suid- Afrikaanse reg). Die studie beskou verder die belangrikheid van die nuusmedia as ’n bron deur ’n gevallestudie van ’n bekende Suid-Afrikaanse moordondersoek en regssaak (die Inge Lotz/ Fred van der Vyver-saak). Die aard van beide voorverhoor-publisiteit en hofverslaggewing en die moontlikheid dat dit skade aan die regverdigheid van ’n verhoor kan verrig, word veral van nader beskou. Spesifieke aandag word ook geskenk aan die moontlike invloede van dié tipe mediadekking op die betrokke partye; die onafhanklikheid van voortsittende beamptes, assessore en getuies; en die indrukke wat by gewone burgers oor ’n spesifieke saak – en dus die reg in geheel – geskep kan word.

This thesis argues that there is a clear imbalance in the representation of crime in the newspaper, Grocott’s Mail, in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The thesis concludes that the system of marginalisation and segregation which was established during the apartheid era is the foundation for the continued segregation and marginalisation of certain groups of people in Grahamstown as depicted in crime journalism. Previous research shows that not only people, but spaces are marginalised through media representations of crime. As people are represented as dangerous, so too the spaces they occupy become dangerous spaces. Importantly, the research shows that discourses of marginalisation are present in newspaper reports reproducing the discourses prominent in society, and in turn, the newspaper itself perpetuates these marginalising discourses. This extends into the coverage that different crimes receive in newspapers. For instance, the reports show that a middle-class audience will be more concerned with property crime in middle-class neighbourhoods, than other crimes in lower-class neighbourhoods. I argue that not only the type of crime, but the severity, the effect, and the necessity for justice represented by the newspaper, are all largely determined by the region of the crime. Further, I show that the criminal is not only demonised and represented as individually deviant in the reports in the newspaper, but that these representations are made by this newspaper because they are deeply imbedded as a discourse in society. This is partly because this newspaper has taken on a monitorial role, requiring neutral reporting from journalists, and a dedication to surveying the processes of state institutions, like the police and courts. As a result, the ways in which crime is reported on in the newspaper is fairly well fixed, making it difficult for journalists to conceive of different ways of reporting crime. The representations of the criminal justice system that the monitorial media, this newspaper included present, are a careful balance between the interest of the public, and the need to preserve relationships with sources. The monitorial media in general, and this newspaper in particular, represent the criminal justice system. The relationship between the police and the newspaper, and the courts and the media, therefore strongly influences the way in which crime news is reported. In particular, crime news is represented from the perspective of the criminal justice system. This research was carried out using Critical Discourse Analysis, qualitative interviews, and focus group interviews.

In this minithesis I conduct a critical discourse analysis to take on a double-pronged task. On the one hand I explore the social phenomenon of the contestation between supporters of then-ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma and supporters of his rape accuser. The trial, which took place in the Johannesburg High Court between mid-February and early May 2006, stirred intense public interest, both locally and internationally. The performance of thousands of Zuma’s supporters and a far smaller number of gender rights lobby groups, both of whom kept a presence outside the court building throughout the trial, received similar attention. Second, I examine how the Sowetan, a national daily tabloid with a black, middle-class readership, mediated the trial through pictures of the theatre outside the court and letters to the editor. The study is informed by post-Marxist and cultural studies perspectives, both approaches that are concerned with issues of power, ideology and the circulation of meaning within specific sociocultural contexts. A rudimentary thematic content analysis draws out some of the main themes from the material, while the critical discourse analysis is located within a theoretical framework based on concepts from Laclau & Mouffe’s theory of meaning, which assumes a power struggle between contesting positions seeking to invalidate one another and to either challenge or support existing hegemonies. This is further informed by, first, Laclau’s theorisation of populism, which assumes that diverse groupings can unite under a demagogue’s banner in shared antagonism towards existing power, and second, by concepts from Mamdani’s theorisation of power and resistance in colonial and post-colonial Africa, which explicates three overarching ideological discourses of human rights, social justice and traditional ethnic practices. The study, then, explores how these three discourses were operationalised by the localised contestations over the trial.