Media On The Margins in South Africa

Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Community media in South Africa play a crucial role in providing platforms to foster community engagement and address relevant issues. Post-apartheid media reforms established enabling conditions for the sector so marginalised groups could take up a greater role as citizens.  Through empirical, analytical and theoretical inquiry, the book examines the state of local and community media in print, broadcast and on online platforms. Leading scholars in the field use a range of methods to address seldom-asked questions about the role of the state, local power dynamics, business strategies, content, and human factors. A picture emerges of a sector that has grown significantly, but which continues to be marked and constrained by wider socio-economic inequality.