Tabloid Journalism in South Africa

Less than a decade after the advent of democracy in South Africa, tabloid newspapers have taken the country by storm. One of these papers -- the Daily Sun -- is now the largest in the country, but it has generated controversy for its perceived lack of respect for privacy, brazen sexual content, and unrestrained truth stretching. Herman Wasserman takes a close look at the success of tabloid journalism in South Africa at a time when global print media are in decline. He considers the social significance of the tabloids in South Africa and how they play a role in integrating readers and their daily struggles with the political and social sphere of the new democracy. Wasserman shows how these papers have found an important niche in popular and civic culture that has been largely ignored by the mainstream media and formal political channels.

Herman Wasserman is Senior Lecturer in Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield and Visiting Associate Professor Extraordinary at the University of Stellenbosch. He is co-editor of At the End of the Rainbow: Power, Politics, and Identity in the Post-Apartheid South African Media and editor of Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies.