Television, race and national identity : a study of South Africa's lifestyle programme Top billing

• Main Author: Jeon, Jin
• Other Authors: Bosch, Tanja E
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2015
• Subjects: Media Theory and Practice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11637

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-93). === This thesis is an in-depth investigation into the weekly lifestyle/magazine programme Top Billing, aired on SABC3 (South African Broadcasting Corporation) – primarily in South Africa and in other surrounding African nations – to a total of over 6 million viewers. In its eighteenth year on South African television, Top Billing has entered the domestic lives of its viewers weekly, and has markedly become one of the country’s longest-running lifestyle and entertainment programmes. This study investigates the various meanings and pleasures that loyal viewers of Top Billing make of the programme, and how these "meanings" relate to their identities as middle class South Africans. Categorised as the "lifestyle" programme, it arguably has significant effects on the lifestyle and lives of its viewers. Studies on the "lifestyle" programme genre, especially in context to contemporary television studies, has not been widely written about. Further, as there is growing interest and a need for ethnographic and audience studies on the impact of television, particularly in Africa, this study thoroughly examines Top Billing in situ - in a media-saturated, post-modern, post-apartheid society in South Africa, while simultaneously locating the study in a larger, cross-disciplinary landscape. Since "meanings" are a cultural and social formation, the study examines the concept of "ideology" as a site of struggle; a place for the negotiation of race, gender, and other identities. The study brings to the fore the hegemonic ideology projected and "re-presented" by Top Billing, by taking an in-depth look at the makeup of the programme – both externally and internally, its relationship with its broadcaster and other social markers of society, and its audience. Through the use of content analysis, in-depth interviews and ethnography, this thesis examines issues of imbalanced representation of race and class, and the effects of commercialisation which take toll on the media landscape today. By further investigating the signifying role of the media and the ways in which Top Billing is constructed, the study determines ways in which identity is informed by Top Billing.