| Summary: | A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of
Journalism and Media Studies.
January 2017 === This paper evaluates the ways in which online magazines, Africa is a Country and
Vanguard, are representative of alternative media in democratic South Africa. It frames
its arguments within the prevailing discursive democratic theory of the counterpublic
sphere and examines how these publications’ choice of content production, editorial
contributors, target audiences and participatory norms characterise them as such a
space. The study argues that as platforms of critical deliberation on issues based on the
ideological beliefs, interests and lived experiences of their participants, these media can
be regarded as counterpublics existing on the margins of conventional media. As a
consequence of their exclusion from the consciousness of 'dominant publics', their
publishing activities tend to counter or be of contestatory editorial positioning as a
challenge to mainstream media. This study advances that their production of critical
content, representation of (and as) marginalised voices and their contribution to public
deliberation contribute to our understanding of the role of alternative media in
democratic South Africa. To further understand the critical nature of their coverage, this
thesis also interrogates Africa is a Country and Vanguard’s socio-political content, by
analysing their reports of the Rhodes Must Fall1 discourse which saw student uprisings
around the issue of transformation in South Africa’s institutions of higher learning; as
well as the xenophobic attacks that put the country in the global spotlight in 2015. === E.R. 2019
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