“Pretty as a peach”
South Africa’s media are often touted as lacking ethics in favour of sensationalism (Cronin, 2010). Wasserman (2007) argues that this could be a consequence of the increased circulation of daily tabloids in the country, which has been a result of an emerging new public that was marginalised by the...
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| Language: | English |
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University of Johannesburg
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Communicare |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1566 |
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| author | Nicola Jones Sandra Pitcher |
| author_facet | Nicola Jones Sandra Pitcher |
| author_sort | Nicola Jones |
| collection | DOAJ |
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South Africa’s media are often touted as lacking ethics in favour of sensationalism (Cronin, 2010).
Wasserman (2007) argues that this could be a consequence of the increased circulation of daily
tabloids in the country, which has been a result of an emerging new public that was marginalised
by the mainstream press of the apartheid era. However, by taking this argument forward, one
becomes entrenched in the wrongful assumption that tabloids are a journalistic evil, and are the
epitome of “bad journalism” (Ornekring & Jonssen, 2004). This paper uses the example of the
Sunday Times and City Press newspapers’ coverage of Oscar Pistorius’ arrest and bail application
in February 2013 to demonstrate how two of South Africa’s most widely read traditional Sunday
newspapers represented Pistorius in the same manner as You magazine, South Africa’s most
widely read English tabloid style magazine. The paper acknowledges that tabloid-style reporting
is not necessarily as “bad” as its critics maintain, but argues that ethically, reporting could (and
should) have been handled differently. The paper analyses the stereotyped representation of
Steenkamp and Pistorius in all three publications, and following the work of Clifford Christians
(2009), uses these examples to highlight problems with the traditional utilitarian frameworks that
govern modern news reporting.
|
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7f635af623784e39a05bcceff7c216dd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0259-0069 2957-7950 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | University of Johannesburg |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communicare |
| spelling | doaj-art-7f635af623784e39a05bcceff7c216dd2025-01-20T08:56:23ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502022-10-0136210.36615/jcsa.v36i2.1566“Pretty as a peach”Nicola Jones0Sandra Pitcher1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2745-9319University of KwaZulu-NatalUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa’s media are often touted as lacking ethics in favour of sensationalism (Cronin, 2010). Wasserman (2007) argues that this could be a consequence of the increased circulation of daily tabloids in the country, which has been a result of an emerging new public that was marginalised by the mainstream press of the apartheid era. However, by taking this argument forward, one becomes entrenched in the wrongful assumption that tabloids are a journalistic evil, and are the epitome of “bad journalism” (Ornekring & Jonssen, 2004). This paper uses the example of the Sunday Times and City Press newspapers’ coverage of Oscar Pistorius’ arrest and bail application in February 2013 to demonstrate how two of South Africa’s most widely read traditional Sunday newspapers represented Pistorius in the same manner as You magazine, South Africa’s most widely read English tabloid style magazine. The paper acknowledges that tabloid-style reporting is not necessarily as “bad” as its critics maintain, but argues that ethically, reporting could (and should) have been handled differently. The paper analyses the stereotyped representation of Steenkamp and Pistorius in all three publications, and following the work of Clifford Christians (2009), uses these examples to highlight problems with the traditional utilitarian frameworks that govern modern news reporting. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1566Reeva Steenkamp’s murdergendered representationsSouth African publicationsOscar PistoriusSunday TimesCity Press |
| spellingShingle | Nicola Jones Sandra Pitcher “Pretty as a peach” Communicare Reeva Steenkamp’s murder gendered representations South African publications Oscar Pistorius Sunday Times City Press |
| title | “Pretty as a peach” |
| title_full | “Pretty as a peach” |
| title_fullStr | “Pretty as a peach” |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Pretty as a peach” |
| title_short | “Pretty as a peach” |
| title_sort | pretty as a peach |
| topic | Reeva Steenkamp’s murder gendered representations South African publications Oscar Pistorius Sunday Times City Press |
| url | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1566 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nicolajones prettyasapeach AT sandrapitcher prettyasapeach |