Blogging: Investigating The Role Played By Blogs In Contemporary South African Journalism And The Public Sphere

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 author’s own original work.

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.

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.