Browsing by Author "Erfort, Chantel"

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    The state of arts and entertainment reporting in Cape Town's community newspapers
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Erfort, Chantel; Botma, Gabriel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study analyses the state of arts reporting in Cape Town’s community newspapers. Arts reporting is an under-researched field in journalism, also in South Africa. One of the noticeable exceptions was a report by Media Monitoring Project (now Media Monitoring Africa) in 2006 about the state of South African arts journalism. Unfortunately MMP (2006) omitted community newspapers, which have an extensive reach, from their research focus. Millions of copies of these papers are printed and distributed free of charge to niche markets in rural and urban areas. Community newspapers thus are an important, and under-researched, part of the South African media landscape in general, and specifically in relation to arts reporting. This study contributes to new knowledge by focusing on a sample of community newspapers in Cape Town in order to analyse the state of their arts reporting, and compare it to the findings of the MMP’s (2006) research report, where applicable. This study is informed by theories of normative functionalism, which view the ideal role of the media as contributing to, among others, an informed, educated, entertained and harmonious society. In order to analyse the research sample, both quantitative and qualitative research methods are employed. Newspaper content is analysed and interviews conducted with editors, journalists and other stakeholders in the arts and entertainment industry. The findings from the various methods are compared to achieve triangulation. This study found that despite there being agreement on the importance of reporting on the arts, newsrooms were under-resourced and editors generally relied on news reporters with an interest in the arts – rather than specialist arts writers – to provide arts and entertainment content for their papers. There was also an overreliance on press releases supplied by public relations practitioners.