PSB Radio and the Public Sphere in South Africa: #SAfmSunrise, Radio, and Citizenship

Abstract

This article explores public service broadcasting (PSB) radio in South Africa, focusing on SAfm. Using a mixed methods approach comprising a broadcast content analysis and social media textual analysis, the article uses theories of the public sphere and democratic listening to analyse the role of SAfm in the context of PSB broadcasting. The article focuses on the flagship breakfast show, analysing station content alongside tweets containing the hashtag #SAfmSunrise. Breakfast shows can be considered significant as they typically attract the largest proportion of audience share over the course of a broadcast day. Moving beyond the normative Habermasian notion of the public sphere, this article draws on the work of Ekeh, who highlights the bifurcated nature of publics in Africa. While SAfm does not strictly conform to normative notions of a deliberative public sphere, to some extent, it fulfils Ekeh's conditions of a public characterised as a bourgeois privileged class. Moreover, I argue for SAfm as a space of conflict and contestation, and thus constitutive of a public, despite its shortcomings in relation to the mandate of PSB broadcasting. SAfm, I argue, creates a form of political subjectivity, with interest and participation in mainstream party politics highlighted as the main conditions for citizenship.