The objective of this study was to investigate whether community print media is fulfilling its developmental mandate in society using a comparative study of Alex News and Greater Alex Today community newspapers. This study is as the result of an outcry from various stakeholders claiming that community print media is no longer playing its developmental role in society due to the impact of structure and agency. They also claim that community media is no longer representing the interests and needs of the communities that it serves and lacks community participation. There are also concerns that community print media is no longer serving historically disadvantaged communities and is failing in its role to disseminate information in the community. They claimed that the control and ownership of community media is not in the hands of the community that it is supposed to serve, but in the hands of outsiders who are after business opportunities and profit-making.
The qualitative research method was used for this study and the findings correlated with the literature reviewed. It concluded that the constraints of structure and agency is shaping the role of community media in society. Based on these findings the research recommends that government should assist the community newspapers by providing a subsidised printing machine that can be placed in a central place for easy access by the community newspapers. It also recommends that the community newspaper should transform from the traditional newspaper print to digital media to cut the printing costs and that the government should allocate more funds to MDDA. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/27857 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Moyo, Charity Ntokozo |
| Contributors | Ngwenya, Blessed, 1980- |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (x, 103 leaves), application/pdf |
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