Abstract
The media influence society’s understanding of gender and other social phenomena including how we view fatherhood. Fatherhood is rarely presented positively in both visual and print media. Through an analysis of newspaper articles from The Sowetan, City Press, The Daily Sun and The Pretoria News, this article shows how shaming is used to represent fatherhood and child support in the South African print media. These representations, the article argues are limiting and provide fewer positives for fathers and fail to account for socio-economic challenges experienced in relation to fatherhood. In conclusion, the article illustrates that the media could play an important role in presenting a balanced sense of fatherhood, where affirmation of positive fatherhood is used as a more effective way of representing fatherhood in the media.
Highlights
Father absence is a serious challenge in South Africa
These themes were shaming of celebrity fathers that are embroiled in child support affairs; Criminalisation as Shaming of failure to pay child support
Through content analysis of 6 South African newspaper articles on fatherhood and the maintenance system, this article spoke to the role the media plays in influencing conceptions of fatherhood that are in line with hegemonic ideas of masculinity
Summary
Father absence is a serious challenge in South Africa. According to the SAIRR [1] in 2009 there were approximately 52% of African children with absent fathers as compared to 41% amongst Coloured people, 12% amongst Indians and 15% amongst Whites. The number of absent fathers is high for African children, beyond the statistics and headlines there are unheard tales of presence and positive fatherhood in South Africa [2]. One of the reasons for such high rates of father absence among the African population is linked to apartheid engineering and the migrant labour system [3, 4]. Studies on early African cultures show that dominant conceptualisations of fatherhood that focused on involved father responsibilities like; protection, moral authority, family responsibilities, provision and the function of being a role model especially for young men was signified [5, 6]. As a result of colonialism, apartheid and the migrant labour system these conceptions and notions of a healthy functioning African family have been negatively affected. It is important to acknowledge that fatherhood is a complex social practice that is context specific [8, 9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
