The Rise of Peripheral Actors in Media Regulation in South Africa: An Entry of Social Media Mob(s)

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the nature of social media mobs as an informal regulation of journalism by exploring selected cases. To a limited degree, social media mobs are already in practice without standardisation and compliance. It is therefore essential to study and theorise about the informal regulation of journalism by social media mobs than to dismiss them as useless trolls. This paper is theoretically grounded by media accountability systems and the fifth estate. The paper discusses the practical applications of the fifth estate in the informal regulation of journalism by describing mobbing cultures towards journalists such as trolling, digital vigilantism, cybermob censorship and social media mobs as the fifth estate and media accountability systems in practice. Astroturfing is presented as a challenge to these initiatives. The article zones in on social media mobs and presents four South African case studies. It was found that social media mobs are not always a unitary mass; they are as divided as the public interests that mobilise them. Four journalistic transgression categories that social media mobs respond to are (a) the quality of journalism, ethics and professional convention; (b) media independence and bias; (c) universal moralisation: hate speech, racism and classism; and (d) disinformation and fake news. These parameters are context- and time-bound.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media mobs
• regulation
• journalism
• public interests
• trolling
• South Africa
• digital vigilantism
• cybermob censorship
• astroturfing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.journalismtrustinitiative.org/.

2 Julius Malema is the Leader of the Economic Fighters Political Party in South Africa.

3 July 2019. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-07-03-revolutionary-trash-sometimes-requires-trash-journalism-literally/.

4 The Economic Freedom Fighters are an oppositional political party in South Africa https://www.effonline.org/.

5 SONA—The State of the Nation Address.

6 Eusebius McKaiser is a radio host, at the time working for Radio702.

7 https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/exclusive-gauteng-woman-gives-birth-to-10-children-breaks-guinness-world-record-5ba8c9e2-5cc6-49b3-8cc9-1e179fd535cd.

8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN4srEIEXW0.

9 GCIS—The Government Communication and Information System (gcis.gov.za).

10 https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2019-07-14-busisiwe-mkhwebanes-sars-rogue-unit-source-a-rastafarian-who-knows-nothing-about-unit/.

11 https://accountablejournalism.org/ethics-codes/International-Principles.