South Africa‟s liberal democratic constitution allows for political competition for office, enhanced by the media‟s involvement or role, as both stakeholder and facilitator for debate between the public and political parties. The role of the media becomes a sensitive one as it entails perspectives on the political process and, as a consequence, certain perceptions of the political class, structures and electoral process will emerge. In previous elections the media has been cited for abdicating its objective stance in the narrative on political competition in view of candidate lists, party coalitions and allocation of value through cadre deployment, a term used for political appointments within party structures to positions of leadership in public office. Accordingly, it provokes intense debates in which the rationality of liberal-objective-observer to democratic process is criticized by thinking which argues that such rationality remains trapped by a devotion to „liberalist rituals‟, rituals detached from embedded meanings specific to South Africa‟s socio-political dynamics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:28781 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Mpapela, Vuyo |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | 63 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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