The economic specification of media ownership in South Africa

Abstract

The concentration of ownership in the media industry has been extensively researched in South Africa. It has been considered, for example, in relation to marketing (Hunter 2006); the flow of information (Band 1992); democracy (Botma 2011; Tomaselli 2003); the demographics of media employment, management and ownership (Leshin 2010); government relations and control (Wasserman 2005) as well as freedom of expression (Bussiek 2006). The economic specification of media concentration has, however, received little attention. This study directly addresses the issue of economic specification, reviewing the application of the Noam Index, an economic measure of concentration, to a spectrum of media sectors over the historically significant 24-year period between 1984 and 2008. The period spans the decade before South Africa's first democratic elections and slightly more than a decade thereafter. A number of media sectors are included in the study, and the four-yearly measured assessment of each sector begins in the year for which usable data for that sector are available. It describes conditions that have led to South Africa's patterns of ownership, assesses trends in ownership and outlines directions for future research.

Keywords:

• economic specification
• media concentration
• media sectors
• Noam Index
• ownership trends