Governing Sounds: Hate, Race, and Responsibility in Post-Apartheid Broadcasting

Abstract

The bounds of permissible hate in post-apartheid broadcasting in South Africa have been shaped by the state's withdrawal from certain regulatory processes, as well as the emerging regulation by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA). The BCCSA—established, financed, and operated by South Africa's broadcasting industry—filled the regulatory void not just by governing post-apartheid hate; the BCCSA has sought to govern the racial constructs upon which hate depends. With the state's withdrawal, BCCSA officials have configured hate and race in neoliberal ways, shifting responsibility for post-apartheid hate away from apartheid's beneficiaries and toward those apartheid was intended to subjugate.

Keywords:

• Hate
• Race
• South Africa
• Broadcast Regulation
• Michel Foucault
• Neoliberalism

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Katherine Beckett, Steven Herbert, Michael McCann, Linda Steiner, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments.