Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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to become commercially viable. O<strong>the</strong>r obstacles along <strong>the</strong> way included technical and organisational scaling issues, as well as a constant fight to keep <strong>the</strong> rapidly expanding system’s core technology stable. The platform’s meteoric rise also inevitably came with increased public scrutiny. A spate of bad publicity implied indirectly that MXit enabled access to pornography and served as a hunting ground for sex offenders. This saw <strong>the</strong> company fighting for its integrity and reputation during 2006 and 2007. The result was that corporate responsibility and <strong>the</strong> protection of minors remains a top company priority to this day. According to Heunis, who is MXit’s CEO, <strong>the</strong> company’s strategy for retaining its leading position is to expand its offering, ra<strong>the</strong>r than competing with emerging instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp and BlackBerry on a titfor-tat, and features-driven basis. In addition to a suite of communication tools, <strong>the</strong> platform now also offers educational content, free counseling, rich mobile media, multi-player gaming, mobile classifieds listings, and an open Gaming API as well as targeted mobile advertising opportunities. News content forms an important aspect of <strong>the</strong> offering, with <strong>the</strong> likes of 24.com, Sowetan and KickOff disseminating both free news and paid-for premium articles via MXit portal sites. Fur<strong>the</strong>r, MXit’s virtual on-platform currency, Moola, is presently being expanded into a multi-currency wallet, with its launch anticipated during mid- 2011. Today MXit is used in over 120 countries worldwide, with over 50 000 new registrations recorded per day. MXit “Version 6” was launched during <strong>the</strong> first quarter of 2011, with over 27 000 BlackBerry client downloads recorded on launch day alone. Today, <strong>the</strong> mobile instant messenger and social networking platform can be accessed by over 3 000 handset types, including Java, Android, Windows Mobile and iPhone handsets, effectively catering for millions of older, more “...<strong>the</strong> platform now also offers educational content, free counseling, rich mobile media...” basic handsets. Striving to empower users through a range of free communication and educational tools, MXit in 2011 is gearing up for rapid expansion in African markets. Utilising regional partnerships and strategic equity investments, <strong>the</strong> company intends to continue building on its stellar trajectory. For more information on <strong>the</strong> company’s history visit www.mxit.com. Section 2: Pluralism Media in Africa - 2011 | 119
Tabloid journalism and media pluralism By Herman Wasserman Herman Wasserman is Professor and Deputy Head of <strong>the</strong> School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, South Africa. He is also editor of Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies. 120 | Media in Africa - 2011 If journalism were a fairy tale, tabloids would be <strong>the</strong> ugly stepsisters. These newspapers are usually looked down upon as an inferior genre that peddles gossip, untruths, salacious titbits and sensational fare, ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> “real” journalism of facts and investigations. This criticism is not completely invalid. Tabloids often do transgress <strong>the</strong> boundaries of mainstream journalism, and in so doing brashly and uncompromisingly challenge <strong>the</strong> conventions of <strong>the</strong>ir broadsheet or ‘quality’ counterparts. But this does not mean that <strong>the</strong>y should not be taken seriously. When considering print journalism in Africa, or thinking about media pluralism, we cannot ignore tabloids. The genre boasts several prominent titles in African countries, such as <strong>the</strong> (in)famous Red Pepper in Uganda and <strong>the</strong> Daily Sun in South Africa (where tabloids have had a profound impact on <strong>the</strong> postapar<strong>the</strong>id media landscape). So what are <strong>the</strong>se ‘tabloids’? The term is used to refer to different products and processes. ‘Tabloid’ can refer to <strong>the</strong> format or physical size of a newspaper, or to a genre. As far as size is concerned, ‘tabloid’ refers to a smaller sized paper than a broadsheet (<strong>the</strong> term originates from a medicinal tablet in <strong>the</strong> 1800s). Format however does not always tell us much about content, as ‘serious’ newspapers can also be printed in tabloid format (e.g. <strong>the</strong> South African Mail & Guardian) or <strong>the</strong> ‘compact’ size of several UK newspaper titles (e.g. The Times). Because newspaper formats are not synonymous with <strong>the</strong>ir content, and because <strong>the</strong> process of ‘tabloidisation’ has spread to o<strong>the</strong>r platforms like television (think of <strong>the</strong> Jerry Springer Show), ‘tabloid’ usually refers to a particular journalistic approach or style — and <strong>the</strong> term is most often used in a pejorative way, to suggest a downward slide in standards and skills. Despite recent concerns about “If journalism were a fairy tale, tabloids would be <strong>the</strong> ugly stepsisters.” tabloid-isation of news globally, tabloids have a long history. Their roots lie in <strong>the</strong> simple, direct style and human-interest focus of <strong>the</strong> US ‘Penny Press’ in <strong>the</strong> 1830s, later evolving into <strong>the</strong> ‘Yellow Journalism’ movement with its campaigns against corruption and scandal. This distinctive journalistic tradition, perhaps best epitomized by <strong>the</strong> ‘red tops’ in <strong>the</strong> UK (with The Sun a famous example), has its own conventions and characteristics (e.g. melodramatic headlines, striking
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MEDIA IN AFRICA Twenty</str
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This work is licensed under <strong
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A small publisher gets technology t
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Foreword By Janis Karklins Janis Ka
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This is MISA By Kaitira Kandjii Kai
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overview overvie Overview
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What then have bee
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and the results we
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critical to journalism as well as t
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matters. Some people could, for ins
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two publications for six months on
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4.2.2 Criminal defamation A major o
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as they made point
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Journalists at work, interviewing S
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5.4 Tabloid success One area where
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Journalists is that its strength re
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proposed codes not only for African
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Studies; African Communication Rese
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Overview Correlating this picture i
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that nourish journalism are not end
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watchdogs. A profile of Ugandan jou
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FREEDOM Freedom
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independent Namibia, set th
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Sierra Leone 39. Mr. Paul Kamara, E
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media that was independent of gover
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The February working session includ
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Media making for socio-political de
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timate the importa
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in corruption. The international co
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African journalists need protection
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Tribute to a committed photojournal
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Section 1: Freedom Anton Hammerl, a
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African media should inspire unders
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information and the</strong
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Page 82 and 83: PLURALIS
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Page 100 and 101: How we started The Observer By Jame
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assumption that the</strong
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does not cost extra to broadcast in
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the flow of inform
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200 radio stations, 23 TV channels,
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This was how stories such as <stron
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individual countries and former col
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the obstacles our
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Journalism to give Africans health
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How African media, and journalism s
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windho Windhoek <s
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establishment of news media outlets
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Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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