The past, present and future of South African journalism research, or: In search of a metatheory for South African journalism research

Abstract

In view of the Brazil–South Africa Journalism Research Initiative, the purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to some of the main themes and topics in South African (SA) journalism research, and to contribute to the further theoretical conceptualisation of the initiative against the background of the opinion raised in this article about the nature of SA journalism research. The article is structured around four arguments: how the legacy of apartheid has guided, if not dictated, SA journalism research and continues to do so; how the dichotomy of SA society, being both a Third and a First World, affects SA journalism research; how being primarily quantitative, empirical research has produced a mainly self-reflexive and self-indulgent body of journalism research and has obstructed the way for a more phenomenological approach to SA journalism, as being first and foremost a communication phenomenon and a part of cultural production and the production of the SA semiosphere of mediated meaning; and how representation could form a metatheory for future research and contribute to the ontological and epistemological points of departure of the comparative research between South Africa and Brazil.