Problematising race for journalists: critical reflections on the South African Human Rights Commission Inquiry into media racism
- Authors: Berger, Guy
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147913 , vital:38684 , DOI: 10.1080/02560240185310081
- Description: How journalists report race and racism was at the centre of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Inquiry into racism in the media. A critical analysis of the conceptual assumptions in the Inquiry's Final Report, however, reveals serious limitations to the enterprise. In particular the flawed conceptualisations, plus the generalised character of the findings are of little help in assisting the momentum of eradicating racism in South African media, and for linking race transformation to issues of class, gender, sexual orientation and xenophobia. This article identifies the problems as race essentialism and a relativism about what constitutes racism. It argues instead that journalists need the concept of racialisation in order to change their reporting. The argument upholds the desired role of the South African media as one that contributes to a non-racial, as opposed to a multi-racial, society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Berger, Guy
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147913 , vital:38684 , DOI: 10.1080/02560240185310081
- Description: How journalists report race and racism was at the centre of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Inquiry into racism in the media. A critical analysis of the conceptual assumptions in the Inquiry's Final Report, however, reveals serious limitations to the enterprise. In particular the flawed conceptualisations, plus the generalised character of the findings are of little help in assisting the momentum of eradicating racism in South African media, and for linking race transformation to issues of class, gender, sexual orientation and xenophobia. This article identifies the problems as race essentialism and a relativism about what constitutes racism. It argues instead that journalists need the concept of racialisation in order to change their reporting. The argument upholds the desired role of the South African media as one that contributes to a non-racial, as opposed to a multi-racial, society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Configuring convergence : southern African websites looking at American experience
- Authors: Berger, Guy
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: vital:535 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008553 , ISBN 0-86810-379-9
- Description: I want the Web to win. Africa’s news sites on the Internet need to succeed and survive. They’re a small guarantee against global marginalisation, and a critical intersection across our continent’s domestic divides. But the outlook is not good. At a conference I went to in Berkeley in April 2001, a venture capitalist had this to say: "If I were to make a speech on when there’ll be investment in new media again, it would be a rather short topic." The alarming closures and retrenchments at news websites in the USA are sending scary signals to our fledgling efforts back here. Starting and growing media enterprises of any sort in African conditions has never been easy. Long starved of investment, our cyberpublishing now faces even greater pressures as old media – newspapers, radio and TV – try to make ends meet under mounting threats. Advertising is shrinking, local costs are rising and currency falls are fuelling the price of imported production factors. Consumers have less cash to spend. Governments are giving even greater problems in some cases. Will we still be here in the morning, and in what condition? This booklet suggests the way forward is for new media to converge with selected partners, old media and new.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
- Authors: Berger, Guy
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: vital:535 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008553 , ISBN 0-86810-379-9
- Description: I want the Web to win. Africa’s news sites on the Internet need to succeed and survive. They’re a small guarantee against global marginalisation, and a critical intersection across our continent’s domestic divides. But the outlook is not good. At a conference I went to in Berkeley in April 2001, a venture capitalist had this to say: "If I were to make a speech on when there’ll be investment in new media again, it would be a rather short topic." The alarming closures and retrenchments at news websites in the USA are sending scary signals to our fledgling efforts back here. Starting and growing media enterprises of any sort in African conditions has never been easy. Long starved of investment, our cyberpublishing now faces even greater pressures as old media – newspapers, radio and TV – try to make ends meet under mounting threats. Advertising is shrinking, local costs are rising and currency falls are fuelling the price of imported production factors. Consumers have less cash to spend. Governments are giving even greater problems in some cases. Will we still be here in the morning, and in what condition? This booklet suggests the way forward is for new media to converge with selected partners, old media and new.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
The trouble with ‘race’: how it constricts our view of the world
- Authors: Berger, Guy
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159067 , vital:40264 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC144703
- Description: Racism must go, few would dispute that. Better still: journalists should consign not just racism, but also the concept of 'race', to the proverbial spike, writes Guy Berger.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
- Authors: Berger, Guy
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159067 , vital:40264 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC144703
- Description: Racism must go, few would dispute that. Better still: journalists should consign not just racism, but also the concept of 'race', to the proverbial spike, writes Guy Berger.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
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