Feminist approaches and the South African news media

Abstract

Despite apparent feminist advancements within contemporary South Africa, gender transformation in the media industry has been both limited and irregular. Based on interviews with journalists and editors from three weekly newspapers – the Sunday Times, the Sunday Sun and the Mail & Guardian – this article explores how journalists articulate their understandings of gender and gender transformation within the media, and reflects on how these articulations draw on wider feminist discourses in South Africa. While journalists express an engagement with feminist thought and advocacy around the media, this is largely limited to liberal feminist discourses with an emphasis on women's inclusion in the media. The limitations of this discourse have implications for the kinds of gender transformation occurring within the news media, and it is argued that the advancement of a ‘progressive’ feminist lens can contribute towards more comprehensive gender transformation within the industry.