The politics of reporting poverty statistics in South Africa: anatomy of a media debate Guy Berger, IAMCR July 2008

Introduction 1.Summary of the issue 2.Lining up the theory 3.Description of research data 4.Analysis and conclusion

Summary of the issue Politicisation of poverty

Thabo Mbeki

Pro-poor platform

Rival: Jacob Zuma

Populist

SAIRR: – 1996: 1.9 million < $1 a day – 2005: 4.2 million

Uniqueness of debate Most poverty coverage: – Disconnects manifestations of poverty (eg. poverty, homelessness, hunger) – Disconnects concept and policy of “poverty” from manifestations Here, these all had to be connected to contest the point.

Bombshell 3

Appropriating Western theory CDA: Repertoire, genre, style, networks of practice. Norman Fairclough

Building theoretical bridges Salience, media-frames, cultural frames, cause-morality-cure, headlines. Keywords, phrases, stereotypes. William Gamson Robert Entman

Research data 25 articles – 3 news – 11 opinion pieces (9 non-journalists) – 8 letters 13 in Business Day & Weekender 7 from SAIRR, 3 from government 0 from poor, NGOs, unions

Frames 1.Inadequacies of journalism: – Lack of scrutiny and value-add; – “Press had field day” (press-bashing). 2.Personalisation of the issues: – “Mbeki attacks Institute of Race Relations” – “President in war with race body over poverty”.

Frames 1.Politicisation:

Frames

1.Politicisation also works by: – ‘ideology’ accusations both sides – Frame expansion: labour laws as problem.

More frames 4.Conceptualisation of poverty: money-metric vs social wage – Relevance to winning the debate.

More frames 5.Statistics: – Comparing apples & oranges & diff PDLs – Proportions vs absolute figures 6.Empiricism vs scepticism vs “hunch”-ism – “shoddy”, “inadequacy of stats”, “it would be surprising if…”

Yet more frames 7.International legitimation around $1 a day – Problem of exchange rate issues (govt); – You use the measure yourself (SAIRR). 8.Dominant consensus vs dissident SAIRR – “Not one of SA’s poverty experts would argue…” – Miriam Altman – “We doubt such consensus exists” - SAIRR

Final frames 9.Agenda-switching: – “stop nitpicking” – “surely our top economists would be better occupied…” 10. Responsibility pointing: – Blame govt, population growth, economy, liberals.

Conclusion Analysis shows themes from frames are rhetorical, more than media frames. Debate never resolved: media played role of elite forum only.

Taking stock textually: SAIRR won the debate – in terms of volume & reason

Research qtn: media centrism BUT: political frame may be the most important – beware of CDA and Frame assumption that texts “talk”, and have influence… Because: “White” SAIRR vs black govt. In the end, the absent players (at least some) had their say: Mbeki lost his ANC post to Zuma a month later!

On the other hand…