Abstract
The basis of this study is to establish whether news on HIV/AIDS treatment issues is
dominated by non-expert and activist sources as opposed to state or government and
expert sources. It also seeks to determine if there is a growing use of the alternative or
non-official sources in the reporting of this issue in the selected South African Press
(The Star and The Sowetan). In reference to the concept of ‘primary definition’ by
Hall (1978) and his colleagues, official sources have automatically been assumed to
be the dominant sources as regards usage by journalists or reporters and have as a
result been expected to be the definers of news agendas. However, this concept has
been criticised by Schlesinger (1990), who argues that non-official/activist sources
may have more power to define media topics than has been implied in the past. This
study therefore has examined whether such a trend may be shifting to pave way for
the increased use of alternative sources as well.
The findings of this report have proved that while official sources continue to be used
in dominance as sources, there is undoubtedly a large use of non-official sources as
key sources as well. This is a challenge to Hall’s (1978) concept that in its rigid nature
fails to accommodate such a notion. It is however in concurrence with Schlesinger’s
(1990) views that recognise the fact that non-official/alternative sources cannot be
underestimated in terms of their power to define news agendas. Further, in an attempt
to explain why and how these non-official sources have succeeded in achieving media
attention, the study has also examined some media strategies that have been put in
place by various source organisations. It has also proposes a more nuance model of
the ‘theory of dominance’ that gives a provision for the ability of sources to be
dynamic because of various factors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/4555 |
| Date | 06 March 2008 |
| Creators | Muchendu, Carole |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 432837 bytes, 68090 bytes, 14416 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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