Political myth-making in media policy: The case of the African National Congress versus the Press Council of South Africa

Abstract

Abstract This article introduces semiotic myth theory as a methodology for the analysis of both political narratives and media policy discourse. In particular, this is applied to the country of South Africa and traces the historical rhetorical mechanisms employed by the majority African National Congress (ANC) party from 2007 to 2016 in its criticisms against the country’s press regulatory system, the Press Council of South Africa (PCSA). This is done as a demonstration, by application, of how political myth-making works in action or conversely, fails to work and loses relevancy. While semiotic myth theory has not been routinely applied to either political speech, and less so to media policy debates, and while the theoretical approach of applying semiotic myth theory to political discourse or rhetoric adopted here is applied to a very particular context and issue, it could serve well in application to a variety of political narratives, discourses and debates globally.