Visuele propaganda in TV-verkiesingsrubrieke

• Main Author: Grabe, Maria Elizabeth
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Propaganda; Communication in politics; Television and politics; Elections - South Africa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/12521

M.A. (Communication Studies) === SABC television coverage of general and municipal elections is regularly subjected to close scrutiny. The analyses made in these instances often concentrate on quantitative research of the time allocated to political parties, or analyses of the content of news reports, and items which are either ignored or used by the SABC. The controversy surrounding approaches such as this (and hence the motivation for this dissertation) is emphasised in Adams et al (1986: 155): "The irony of television news research in the social sciences is, that instead of producing studies of the audiovisual content of newscasts, it has largely resulted in research on verbal content alone." It is readily apparent, as attested by Adams that a lack of visual media research is a general phenomenon throughout the world. Quantitative research is practised with the use of stop watches and verbal analysis of content, but an important element of bias, viz. visual manipulation, is largely neglected. This study endeavours to create a broad framework for the analysis of visual bias. The handling of the 1987 and 1989 election campaigns on television by the SABC serves as material. Initially, the concept "propaganda" is discussed. It is noted that universally, "propaganda" has a negative. connotation in both research and practice. Due to the negative connotation of "propaganda", it is altogether underrated in the field of communication: it describes a phenomenon that occurs in totalitarian regimes and very seldom, it is assumed, in liberal democracies. The methods, applications, history and definitions of the term "propaganda" are discussed. Semiology and the possibilities of visual manipulation are subjects of discussion. It is noted that the viewer's experience of visual signs is naturally subjective. Andre (1984: 21) suggests that television can communicate truth or it can serve to present an aesthetic code, but it never engages the viewer directly with reality: "the camera never lies"; but the humans who manipulate it may do so...