Conclusion: The present and future of South Africa media

As this South African media blog comes to an end, I'd like to talk a little bit about the current and future presence of its media and all its forms, both old and new, and more importantly, emerging journalistic mediums that will lay the ground work for the future.

Right now, traditional newspapers are pretty much static, but there has been an enormous growth in tabloid journalism. There has also been a huge growth in magazines published by four major media houses and by specialist independent published. Many of these magazines are distributed internationally, like Heat, FHM, Elle, GQ, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, and made available under agreement with their international owners.

Just like in any fast-paced first world nation, online media is accessed via cellphones, through RSS feeds and through national and international news websites and chat rooms.

*Regulation*

Broadcasting and telecommunications are regulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, which also issues broadcasting licenses.

Public broadcasting is provided by the state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) through an annual payment of a TV license fee. Free-to-air is provided by commercial broadcaster E.TV and subscription television services (MNet and DStv) are provided by Multichoice.

*Radio*

Radio has a big audience, with community stations catering to specific target audiences and national stations drawing in people across the country.

By March 2009 there were 21 daily newspapers, 27 major weeklies, 660 consumer magazines, 735 trade magazine publications, 470 community newspapers and magazines, 92 television stations, 137 radio stations and over 65 DStv audio channels

*Digital Media*

In 2010, digital media had 10.9 internet users per 100 people, 8.5 personal computers per 100 peolpe and 72.4 cellphone subscribers per 100 people. Web pages indexed by Google were estimated at more than 10 billion.

Media Consumers*

According to a 2009 All Media Products Study by the South African Advertising Research Foundation, 48.6 percent of South African's adult population (over the age of 16) read newspapers, 31.4 read daily papers and 35.4 read weekly papers.

Mainstream newspapers circulation is fairly flat, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation of South Africa (ABC). But this statistic is balanced by massive growth in the new tabloid-style papers aimed at the mass market.

*Media Owners*

South Africa's media is dominated by a handful of Large corporations, with their interests going as far from newspapers to magazines and the internet. Radio is mostly the domain of the state broadcaster, the SABC, although there is a growing number of community stations.

There are seven major players in television: The SABC, which has three channels, e.tv and Multichoice, which has sewn up the pay channel market. Its bouquet is large and it regularly adds new channels.

There are plenty of small, independent media houses, which publish magazines as well as in-house and business-to-business journals. But the major media owners are Media24, Independent News and Media, Avusa, and the Caxton and CTP Group. These four own almost all the major newspapers and community newspaper, most of the consumer magazine titles and a slew of specialist magazines, and also have a finger in internet and broadcast pies.

Media24 owns the Daily Sun, a new mass-market tabloid. Media24 Magazines publishes more than 60 titles-some jointly with other companies or under licensing agreements with international titles-selling more than 5.9-million magazines a month that are read by more than 8.7-million people.

Independent News and Media owns 14 national and regional newspapers, publishing newspapers in most of the major cities (Johannesburg, Durban). The company also has some presence in the community newspapers and magazine markets.

Multichoice, the subscription television channel, was founded in 1986. Today it has a range of general entertainment and niche channels and broadcasts to over 2 million subscribers in 41 countries across Africa.

Its operations include subscriber management services and digital satellite television platforms broadcasting 24 hours a day on its DStv platform.

THE FUTURE...

The future of journalism in South Africa is leaning towards local newspapers for local readers, in a tabloid style.

Contents is changing too and becoming more focused on human interest and focused on local community, local investigations and often uses local languages.

The stories are big on superstition, violet crime and local interest, with little or no sense of the bigger picture and no analysis.

Overall readership figures are up, according to the latest AMPS report. Although the older and more traditional titles may be in some trouble, as they are in the US, sales figures are increasing. there was a 43.18% increase in newspaper circulation between 2002 and 2006 and an increase in the number of tabloid publications. A further increase to 48.6 between 2007 and 2008 has taken place and tabloid publications are still well ahead.

The reason for this boom have been linked to increasing literacy, less political repression, the privatization of the media, better infrastructure and higher domestic incomes.

Citizen journalism has some way to go still. The Times are trying it and Avusa launched Repoter.co.za, a news website that's written entirely by its readers. To date it has over 3,800 registered reporters who file content on a daily basis.

Press freedom is slipping a little bit in the press freedom index, from 31 in 2005 to 44 in 2006. The print media is not as regulated as broadcast media and there is no clear legislation oh how it should behave. The only recourse is the Press Ombudson of South Africa and the Electric Communications Act.