Re-conceptualizing the analysis of media development and trajectories hereof in post-colonial societies

Abstract

Using South Africa as a case study, this article presents a new argument for an adaptation of the Comparative Media Systems Model by Hallin and Mancini. The article proposes that factors of race, class and gender and intersections hereof as well as nation-building be added to the model to better suit the analysis of media development in post-colonial societies. The article looks at media development in societies that have undergone social and political transitions since the late 1980s and early 1990s and highlights differences between transitional societies and young democracies in Eastern Europe and East Asia vis-a-vis transitions in post-colonial societies in the global South.