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Blogging: Investigating the role played by blogs in
contemporary
South African Journalism and the Public Sphere.
Michelle Ishioma Atagana
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of
Masters of Art in
the School of Literary, Media Studies and Creative Arts, in the
University of
KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
Unless otherwise specified in the text, this dissertation is the
authors own
original work.
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Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to my family and friends for all their
support throughout this
research, I am not the easiest person to deal with while under
stress but they saw
me through. A special thank you to my father who continually
encourages me to
pursue my academic dreams, to my mother who always asked how my
day was and
to my little sister Chinxy for being my slave when I needed one.
To my brother Hilary
for always being there, to Helga and Vivian for remembering to
press play.
A special thank you to Nic Haralambous, Laurian Clemence,
Vincent Maher,
Matthew Buckland, Mike Stopforth and the folks from Thought
Leader for letting me
invade their blogs and lives for two years. Also a special thank
you to the
contributors of the blogs and the readers for their willingness
to take time out of their
day to answer my questions. To Rafiq Phillps for pointing me in
the right direction.
Lastly my supervisor, Dr Nicola Jones, who encouraged me to
achieve greatness
even when I changed my mind for the twentieth time. Also to my
co-supervisor Dr
Lincoln Michell who stepped in for a second pair of eyes. I am
forever grateful to you
both.
I dedicate this thesis to my mother who passed away before the
final corrections
were completed.
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Abstract
This thesis seeks to investigate the role that blogs play in
contemporary South
African journalism through examining six blogs in the South
African blogosphere and
their content choices. This thesis draws on four key theoretical
frameworks around
which the research questions have been formulated: New Media and
Journalism,
Journalistic Blogging, Audiences and the Public Sphere. There
are three key
research questions:
1. What is the role played by blogging in contemporary South
African
journalism?
2. To what extent has the blogosphere become a Public
Sphere?
3. How have blogs influenced/changed/impacted on the style and
content of
South African journalism?
The qualitative data collected through blog observation,
interviews with blog owner/
editors and concluded focus group discussions with blog readers,
is designed to help
reveal the role blogs and bloggers play in contemporary South
African journalism,
and through discussions with the audience and monitoring
conversations online, help
explore the possibilities of a public sphere.
The conclusion of this thesis is that blogs do play a role in
contemporary South
African journalism and can serve as an effective public sphere.
Defining what it
means to be a journalist and recognising the differences between
blogger and
journalist is an issue that needs to be effectively understood
before a conclusive
agreement is to be reached in the blogger/journalist debate.
However, for now the
relationship between South African news agents and South African
bloggers is
promising.
