When birthing makes the news : the depiction of women as a newsworthy item in Die Burger (Oos-Kaap)

Preller, Cindy

Title: When birthing makes the news : the depiction of women as a newsworthy item in Die Burger (Oos-Kaap)
Creator: Preller, Cindy
Subject: Mass media and women -- South Africa Childbirth -- South Africa Women -- South Africa Die Burger (Port Elizabeth, South Africa) Journalism -- South Africa -- 21st century Mass media -- Moral and ethical aspects -- South Africa
Date Issued: 2010
Date: 2010
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MA
Identifier: vital:3480
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002935
Description: The thesis “When birthing makes the news: the depiction of women as a newsworthy item in Die Burger (Oos-Kaap)” analyses a common, yet complex news topic in the South African print media due to the sensitive, often sensationalised, nature of the topic. The private experience of birthing is featured more and more in the public domain of newspapers because of widespread service delivery problems within the South African health department. Focussing on the Eastern Cape, I examine the representation of birthing in Die Burger (Oos-Kaap) in texts printed between 2005 and 2007, and scrutinise the media’s monitorial role of a self-appointed public hero acting on behalf of the women, to expose the poor conditions at government hospitals, specifically in the Nelson Mandela Bay region. How the women and their bodies are reported on, creates a discursive tension between the negative portrayals of the birthing women and the monitorial role of the media. The news values of sensationalism and profit are achieved with visceral representations of the reproductive functions of the birthing women. A poststructuralist feminist theoretical framework reveals discourses that perpetuate race, class and gender inequalities in the apparently socially-concerned sample of texts. A Critical discourse analysis (CDA) provides an approach and method to inform a close textual analysis of both the lexical and visual elements of the texts. The discourses in the sample differed from text to text. Despite these differences, the monitorial role of the media is still achieved. My research argues that acting in the public interest with sensationalist copy is still acting in the public interest. I conclude that it is not easy for newspapers to separate sensationalism from accountability. Media practitioners should be aware of their role in constructing women’s identities and be particularly thoughtful when reporting on birthing. In doing so, this research aims to improve the manner in which women and their bodies are reported on within the news industry.
Format: 140 leaves
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies
Language: English
Rights: Preller, Cindy

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