Tabloid Journalism in South Africa: True Story!

3. Black and White and Read All Over: Tabloids and the Glocalization of Popular Media

3. Black and White and Read All Over: Tabloids and the Glocalization of Popular Media It is hard to miss the tabloid newspapers at newsstands, in corner shops, and on street corners in South Africa. Their mastheads are brightly colored, and the headlines, printed in big capital letters and often underlined, italicized, or with an exclamation mark adding emphasis, scream out a sensational bit of news across the whole of the front page: Murder for Money!; The Girls Who Pee Spoons!; Body in Attic!; Gru-Vonds (Horror find); Tragedy!; Gevang! (Caught!).1 Around the main story box, there are usually several teasers inviting the reader to turn to a gripping story, feature, or contest on an inside page. The visually striking cover also uses large photos. A copy of The Sun in Britain looks much the same at first glance. The red-top masthead on The Sun or the Daily Star in the United Kingdom is almost identical to that of the Daily Sun and the Son in South Africa. The headlines are laid out in much the same way, with even the fonts showing a high degree of similarity . The similarity continues in the teaser boxes on the UK Sun’s front page, which promises exclusive photos, giveaways, or competitions; the notorious “page-three girl” in Son; and the middle-page celebrity spread. The Irish-owned Independent Group’s South African tabloid, the Daily Voice, has the most distinctive layout and color scheme, although its approach to stories is arguably more sensationalist and closer to the UK and Irish tabloids. In terms of layout, presentation, and general approach to stories, similarities can also be found between South African and U.S. tabloids (which were, at the outset, modeled on British tabloids) like the Star (News America Publishing), the Murdoch-owned New York Post and its competitor the New York Daily News (owned by Mortimer Zuckerman), and perhaps to a lesser extent with the supermarket tabloids like National Enquirer and National Examiner (see Bird 1992 for a discussion of these). It is, however, clear from even a cursory glance at the South African tabloids , as well as from discussions with their editors, that the UK tabloids are the key source of inspiration. There are also important differences, especially in the tabloids’ subject matter and their socio-political role, which we will later explore in greater depth. But a certain kinship with the tradition of the UK tabloids cannot be denied. For many critics of the South African tabloids, finding a foreign-looking publication at their front door was not a welcome discovery. Some responses to the new tabloids were 44 Tabloid Journalism in South Africa tantamount to a nationalistic rejection of what were seen as degrading foreign influences on South African journalism. Consider the reaction by Manson (2005): We all accept that tabloids will continue to launch and grow in this country. But instead of copying and pasting from the sick British model, why aren’t local tabloid owners brave enough to embrace the spirit of our democracy? Why not accept that you can publish a tabloid without sacrificing your sense of social responsibility or the humanity of those you report on, and dare I suggest that of your writers and editors? Guy Berger (2005a, 19), one of the tabloids’ fiercest critics, also deplored the “imitation” of British tabloid style (yet he also criticizes the narrow “nationalistic focus” in South African media): Too much of our reporting is dull, dry and predictable—and of interest only to a bunch of middle-aged elites. Much else is trivial entertainment for dumbed-down masses, without any illuminating information. There are many—too many— mistakes and inaccuracies. Worst is the recent advent of imitating Fleet Street’s tabloid-style fictionalising and sensationalism. That mix of clichéd sexuality and soccer scandal does not make for a valued model of South African journalism. Finally, the narrow, nationalistic focus in much media is an injustice to the richness of all who live in our society. For these critics, the foreign model of tabloid journalism is a problem because the realities of South Africa demand a different model of journalism. It raises the question of whether the South African tabloids are merely British red-tops in disguise, a genre that has parachuted into a context for which their style of journalism is ill-suited, with the aim of exploiting local audiences in the service of big capital (both foreign and locally owned). This question in itself...