[Commlist] Call for book chapters: 75 Years of SABC: News Language, Politics and News Media Transformation in South Africa

cfp

Book Title: 75 Years of SABC News: Language, Politics and News Media 
Transformation in South Africa

Editors: Prof Fulufhelo Makananise (UNISA) and Dr Maud Blose (UJ)

Targeted Publisher: Routledge publishers-or Lexington Books

NB: We do not require articles publishing charge(APC)

Preamble
Over the decades, news media production and dissemination in the African 
context have been shaped by historical
legacies, sociopolitical contexts, and the evolution of technology. 
Influenced by colonial encounters that
introduced Western journalistic models, African media intermediate 
between global flows of information and
local sociocultural realities and lived experiences. This has been a 
political process that involves the struggle over
representation, identity, language and power, often contested among the 
state, private capital, and civil society
(Greenstein, 2003; Sparks, 2009). The understanding of this process 
requires concise attention to the intersections
of history, technology, language, politics, and culture, which influence 
who produces news and whose stories gain
visibility in the South African context. Furthermore, over the past 
seven and a half decades, the South African
Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has remained one of the most 
authoritative symbols of the country’s turbulent
political history and evolving media landscape. Established as a 
state-owned broadcaster, the entity has undergone
multiple transformations in its role, identity, and mandate, reflecting 
the broader shifts in South Africa’s political,
cultural and social order (Wasserman, 2020). During the apartheid era, 
the SABC functioned primarily as an
ideological apparatus of the National Party government (Lekgoathi, Moloi 
& Saide, 2020). Whereas Fortein
(2023) once asserted that the broadcaster perpetuated exclusionary 
policies through tightly controlled narratives,
censorship, marginalisation of black voices, and limited access to 
counter-discourses. The politics of
representation, language use, and state propaganda were deeply embedded 
in the broadcaster’s structures, making
it a central instrument of apartheid ideology (Lekgoathi, Moloi & Saide, 
2020). With the dawn of democracy, the
institution was reimagined as a public broadcaster committed to 
plurality, accountability, diversity, and nation-
building (Kula & Blose, 2025). In this new dispensation, the broadcaster 
became an epistemic site of news
production and distribution that sought to distribute inclusive South 
African-centred and political news stories
(Makananise, 2025). Yet, despite this reimagining, the broadcaster’s 
transformation has been uneven as scholars
have highlighted persistent challenges, including political 
interference, financial instability, and concerns around
editorial independence (Fourie, 2013; Nyembezi et al., 2019). More 
recently, critics have pointed to the SABC’s
intermittent content production and the need to centre 
African-originated epistemologies in public broadcasting
(Makananise, 2022; Makananise & Malatji, 2021; Makananise & Madima, 
2021). These concerns underscore the
postcolonial paradoxes of media representation, where the lived 
realities and experiences of rural and previously
disadvantaged audiences often remain underrepresented.
Despite an enormous body of scholarship on South African media, there 
remains a significant gap to interrogate
how SABC news discourses continue to shape South Africa’s political 
transitions, geo-political conflicts and most
local aspirations in the digital age. As the broadcaster marks 75 years 
of news broadcasting this year, this book
seeks to invite conceptual, theoretical, methodological, critical, 
historically grounded, and case study
contributions that interrogate the politics of news production, language 
diversity, editorial independence, audience
dynamics, and ideological shifts within SABC News over its trajectory. 
In addition, the chapters should question
how news production was (and still is) entangled with state power, 
censorship and propaganda; they should ask
whether the institution shifted from state control to true independence, 
or whether new forms of political
interference emerged under democracy to continue neocolonialism and 
recolonisation of this public broadcaster.
The chapters should question how much of SABC’s evolution has been 
shaped by the Global North journalistic
norms versus uniquely South African socio-political and cultural 
dynamics; they should further address whether
decolonial media practices have emerged, or whether Western models still 
dominate newsroom culture and
challenge assumptions that public ownership guarantees public 
accountability, asking instead how ownership,
funding, and political interference shape editorial independence and 
explore new challenges and opportunities for
SABC News in the digital, multilingual, and participatory media 
ecosystem of post-2025 South Africa.
Proposed Themes
The entanglement of SABC news with state power across apartheid and 
democracy.
Censorship, propaganda, and editorial control as tools of governance.
Political interference, ownership struggles, and the limits of independence.
The persistence (or transformation) of neocolonial and recolonising 
practices in news production.
Historical dominance of English and Afrikaans versus the marginalisation 
of African languages.
Efforts (and failures) of including endangered languages in news 
broadcasting.
News discourse as a site of identity construction and national belonging.
Language politics as a reflection of broader struggles over cultural power.
The SABC’s shifting role from apartheid to democracy: propaganda tool, 
nation-builder, or public service
broadcaster?
Tensions between Western/Global North journalistic models and African or 
decolonial approaches.
Structural continuities and discontinuities in news practices post-1994.
Theoretical debates on decolonising news media institutions and narratives.
Changing audience dynamics in the digital and social media era.
SABC News’ ability (or inability) to engage multilingual, diverse publics.
The rise of participatory media, online feedback, and alternative platforms.
How audiences negotiate trust, credibility, and accountability in a 
hybrid news ecosystem.
Ethics of news production and reporting in the age of generative 
artificial intelligence
Algorithms, editorial control, and the public mandate in digital news 
broadcasting
Digital disruption, linguistic innovation, and news production
Challenges of funding, sustainability, and independence in the post-2025 
environment.
The SABC’s role in South Africa’s geopolitical positioning (e.g., BRICS, 
Pan-Africanism, Global South
solidarities).
New opportunities for multilingual, digital-first, and inclusive public 
service news.
Smart Newsrooms and the Integration of AI in Newsrooms
AI in fact-checking and verification
Critical reflections on Artificial Intelligence in Newsroom practices
Reimagining the SABC as a democratic and decolonial institution of the 
future.
Submission Guidelines
• Abstract deadline: 30 November 2025
• Abstract length: 300–350 words
• Include: Title, full name(s), institutional affiliation(s), and a 
short biography (max 100 words)
• Notification of acceptance: 31 December 2025
• Full chapters due: 31 March 2026 (6,000–7,500 words, APA 7 style)
Contact and Submissions
Please send all proposals and queries to: (omakananise5 /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(omakananise5 /at/ gmail.com)> and cc: (maudb /at/ uj.ac.za) 
<mailto:(maudb /at/ uj.ac.za)>
References
Fortein, E.A. 2023. The battle of the airwaves: The role of radio in 
mission and colonialism/apartheid. Studia
Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 49(2), 1-15.
Fourie, P.J. 2013. The rise and fall of public service broadcasting in 
South Africa: A motivation for a new
broadcasting model (Television), Communitas, 18: 1-20.
Kula, M. and Blose, M. 2025. Re-imagining Broadcasting in the Public 
Interest. SABC TV Broadcasting in a
Commercialised Competitive Media System. (2025). Communicare: Journal 
for Communication Studies in
Africa, 44(2), 20-35.
Lekgoathi, S.P., Moloi, T. and Saíde, A.R.S. 2020. Radios of the 
Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa.
In Guerrilla Radios in Southern Africa Broadcasters, Technology, 
Propaganda Wars, and the Armed
Struggle, edited by S. P. Lekgoathi, T. Moloi, and A. R. S. Saíde. 
London: Rowman and Littlefield, 1-18.
Makananise, F.O and Madima, S.E. 2021. Exploring the impact of 
demographic information on news media
consumption preferences among the youth at a rural-based university, 
South Africa. Journal of African Films &
Diaspora Studies, 04(1), 77-101.
Makananise, F.O. 2022. Youth experiences with news media consumption: 
The pursuit of newsworthy
information in the digital age. Journal of African Films & Diaspora 
Studies, 5(2):29-50.
Makananise, F.O. 2025. News Media Coverage of The South African BRICS 
Summit Through Indigenous
Languages: A Framing Analysis of SABC Mafhungo X Account. Journal of 
Intercultural Communication. Journal
of Intercultural Communication, 25(1), 35-48.
Makananise, F.O. and Malatji, E.J. 2021. The use of Twitter by South 
African television news channels to engage
the rural-based youth about the coronavirus Pandemic. Journal of African 
Films & Diaspora Studies, 4(3), 85-
105.
Nyembezi, V., Rootman, C., and Tait, M. 2019. The South African public 
broadcaster's financial sustainability:
Internal stakeholders' perceptions. Acta Commercii, 19(1), 1-12.
Sparks, C. 2009. South African media in transition. Journal of African 
Media Studies, 1(2), 195–220
Wasserman, H. 2020. The state of South African media: a space to contest 
democracy. Publizistik 65, 451–465.

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