Cultural capital and change: Afrikaans arts journalism and the democratic transformation of South Africa

Abstract

This article examines the discursive role and positioning of arts journalism at Die Burger during a period of radical transformation in South African society (1990–1999). This study investigates if and how the nature of cultural capital at Die Burger was affected by power shifts when competing elites jostled for dominance in a post-apartheid dispensation. A contextualised critical discourse analysis approach was used to identify strategies of distinction and classification used by arts journalists, and how the selection and presentation of arts journalism on news and arts pages were influenced by various factors, including the personal background and experiences of the journalists. The study found that arts journalists were at the intersection of different and often diverging and contradictory power points in post-apartheid discourses at the newspaper, with some defending the arts against political and economic ‘interference’ while others expressed skepticism about the so-called Africanisation of society and resultant attacks on Eurocentrism in the arts.