Broadcasting the end of apartheid : live television and the birth of the new South Africa

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Title:

Author:

Evans, Martha, author.

ISBN:

9781780768625

Personal Author:

Evans, Martha, author.

Physical Description:

xix, 319 pages : illustrations, portraits, 22 cm

Series:

International library of African studies ; v. 44

International library of African studies ; v. 44.

Contents:

Media events and South African national identity -- Events envy : South Africa's exclusion from the media events of the '60s, '70s and '80s -- The Shamanizing Ayatollah : Mandela and the dismantling of apartheid -- Disrupting the centre : 'liveness' and the negotiation of disaster during the transition -- The televised birth of the rainbow nation : the election and Mandela's inauguration -- Consolidation : South Africa's return to the global fold and the making of Madiba.

Personal Subject:

Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013.

Subject Term:

Television and politics -- South Africa -- History -- 20th century.

Apartheid in mass media.

Geographic Term:

South Africa -- History -- Chronology.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025752177	302.23450 E92B 2014	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

South Africa came late to television; when it finally arrived in the late 1970s the rest of the world had already begun to boycott the country because of apartheid. While the ruling National Party feared the integrative effects of television, they did not foresee how exclusion from globally unifying broadcasts would gradually erode their power. South Africa was barred from participating in some of television's greatest global attractions (including sporting events such as the Olympics and contests such as Miss World). With the release of Nelson Mandela from prison came a proliferation of large-scale live broadcasts as the country was permitted to return to international competition, and its re-admittance was played out on television screens across the world. These events were pivotal in shaping and consolidating the country's emerging post-apartheid national identity. Broadcasting the End of Apartheid assesses the socio-political effects of live broadcasting on South Africa's transition to democracy.
Martha Evans argues that just as print media had a powerful influence on the development of Afrikaner nationalism, so the 'liveness' of television helped to consolidate the post-apartheid South African national identity.